Mirai

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I landed in a space that had walls of stone around it, though definitely manmade compared to the walls of stone surrounding Nox's valley, but that was open to the sky. The earth beneath my feet had dust coming out of it as I moved around to take the place in. There was a door, a small stair that led to a door, and a slightly longer stair that looked to lead up to an open space. I opted for the longer stairs.

Sure enough, after a few twists and turns, I came up in an open space. Behind me was a wall, not a very high one, and behind it, a bunch of apartment buildings. They looked rather rundown compared to what I was used to. But at the same time, they looked more inviting, like they had more character and personality.

Before me was an open space that was mainly sand, with a bit of grass growing here and there. On the other side of the space were more apartment buildings, but my eyes landed on what stood in the middle of it. A high pillar.

I made my way to it. It looked to be the type of thing that would attract lots of tourists, but thankfully, there weren't any people around. Even the apartments were silent. It wasn't exactly the season for tourists, so made sense there wasn't any. And it was well into the evening by now, so I guessed most people were in their apartments but slowing down after the day's activities.

The pillar stood high and mighty, and it was impressive how it had lasted for so long. I assumed it belonged to ancient Egypt. It had to have stood there for over two thousand years.

I circled it a couple of laps. Looked for things that could be a sign of some hidden passage or a spell that needed to be used. I was sure the sphinx of Alexandria, that Nox had told me to find, had to be there somewhere close, only hidden. But nothing.

I looked around the place some more and noticed two sphinx-status that stood some distance away. They were placed so that it looked like they guarded the pillar.

I walked to the one on the right, then the left. Circled them both a couple of times, like I had the pillar, but nothing.

Stopping the groan of frustration that wanted to leave me, I settled myself on the ground to meditate. Visions, instincts, and a bit of help had brought me there after all, so a vision had to be able to tell me what to do next.

It didn't.

I meditated like the Priestess had taught me. Emptied my mind to open it to seeing things that were beyond normal sight. But my mind remained empty. A couple of times, I stopped the meditation to open my eyes in the hopes of that I would open them to a vision. But nothing. Worse of all, I wasted so much time that the sun had started to set.

I got up again and moved to inspect the statues even more.

Nothing. No weird patterns or signs of anything that suggested spells or magic.

It could be the completely wrong place. I had teleported myself there by concentrating on the sphinx of Alexandria. It could have been far too vague. But I wasn't going to give up.

I placed myself behind one of the sphinx statues so I would be as hidden as possible from eyes that might look out from windows. I concentrated again and teleported.

I ended up where I had landed. That time, I didn't stop the frustrated groan. It really was infuriating. I was clutching at straws and I had no real idea if anything I did took me closer or further away from the woman.

Maybe it was time to give up. Get myself back to the coven and accept whatever help it was they planned on giving me. Though I was sure that help would be pointless.

Or I could return to Nox. Try to get more answers from him. Though that could risk only upsetting him, and though I felt like he held a bit of care for me for some reason, I didn't feel like pushing my luck.

Before I could come to a decision though, pain streaked on my back. It was so much and sudden that I fell forwards and onto my knees.

The pain came again, and I fought against the scream in my throat. But as the pain came a third time, the scream left me. It shook and was muffled, but in the otherwise empty evening, and entrapped by the stone walls, it echoed horribly around me.

A fourth time and I knew the pain was caused by a whip. It was something in the way it burned over my back, how it felt to be in a long line, that made me know that. I also knew the pain wasn't mine. No one was whipping me, but someone was whipping the woman. Someone was hurting her and it hurt so badly I emptied my stomach.

"Why won't you die!" someone shouted. The voice was vaguely familiar. Then the lashing stopped, the pain I felt diminished by a lot, but that made another type of pain take over more. Wherever the woman was, she still felt all the pain the whipping had caused her. That thought alone made the tears burn in my eyes, but coupled with that I had been on the verge of giving up just moments ago, my body burned from guilt.

I stayed on the ground for a bit. Made sure my breaths and heart had calmed before I stood up to look around again.

I had assumed going up into the open had been the right choice. But there was no reason for me to actually think so.

I looked at the other two options I had. The door or the short stair that ended in a door. I picked the short stair.

It led to corridors carved out in the stone. I walked through them without knowing where to really go. Picked which way to turn at random. Some of it was blocked from entering by small fences I could easily jump over, but I avoided them, until I didn't.

I couldn't say what it was about that specific corridor, but I had given up on finding logic and simply resorted to listen to the pull in my gut. I jumped over the small fence and walked down the corridor. The other corridors had been lit by the last rays of the sun, but not this one. There were no openings in the stone that allowed for any light, and it only got darker and darker as I went. To keep myself steady, and to give myself a false sense of security, I placed my hands against the walls as I walked.

I wondered briefly if I was about to reach the end when my hand on the wall sunk further in, together with the stone that was there. I removed my hand and turned to blindly stare at the spot. I couldn't see a thing, but I heard movement, stone grinding against stone.

Then a stream of light started to grow.