Cyré: A World Beyond Maya

Chapters Eleven to Fifteen

Chapter Eleven

Confused and overwhelmed, Filinia unlocked the front door and went inside. Quiet and dark, with the exception of the light above the stove. So eerily quiet that she wondered for a hot second whether her mother or Guneeta were even home. There was a chance they were in their bedroom or their separate work areas in the house. There was some comfort in the silence. It had been such a long and overwhelming day that she didn't think she could handle them hounding her about why she was home so late. Then again, there was a part of her that wanted them to be waiting for her. She was feeling guilty about how she reacted the previous day and that she hadn't waited for them to explain themselves, despite her annoyance towards having kept all of this from her. As selfish as she wanted to remain, she knew they must have had their reasons and deserved an apology. Outside of Tuluc, the two women were the only family she had.
Upon entering the kitchen, a folded piece of paper and a belated birthday gift sat on the island. Filinia walked over, picked up the paper, and unfolded it.

Happy belated birthday, sweetie!
There is a wrapped plate of fettuccine alfredo in the oven in case you are hungry. When you're ready to talk, both Guneeta and I will be home tomorrow evening.
We love you very much!
Mom

Filinia didn't realize how hungry she was until now. Pulling the lukewarm plate out of the oven and into the microwave, she turned to grab the unicorn decorated present. Her hips leaned against the ledge of the marble countertop, the tips of her thumbs slipped underneath two of the folds in the wrapping paper. There was something more pressing than the guilt towards not allowing the two women who had raised her to explain why they had kept this huge part of her identity that plagued her to her core.
She was also frustrated at Tuluc's brushing aside of their moment. 'A moment of weakness'—'It will never happen again.' His words repeated in a loop within her mind to the point she wanted to crumple to the tiled floor and cry. How will I be able to face him tomorrow? How will I be able to face him without feeling so rejected and our friendship tarnished? What had I done wrong? And what did he mean about orders needing to be followed? His parents' honor? Why won't he just let me in...
There was an emptiness in her chest so painful that she needed to push all romantic notions about her friend to the back of her mind before she ended up waking up the whole block with screams. There were more important and pleasant things to think about. There just had to be. Ones that would make her feel less foolish, like perhaps whatever is underneath this childish wrapping paper.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Or more important things like the fettuccine alfredo. Straightening herself and turning slightly to put the gift back down on the countertop, Filinia took the kitchen towel to help pull out the steaming hot plate. Sitting down on the stool, she grabbed her iPhone and tapped on the Pandora app. Though Jet's La Di Da popped up first, she couldn't even muster a chuckle like she normally would have on how similar the song's melody was to the Beatles' Things We Said Today.
When Filinia was finished eating, she reached for the present and delved into the unicorn-wrapping papered box. She was not the type of person to carefully unwrap anything, so when she discovered a maroon leather bound book underneath the paper, there was a circle of confetti surrounding her. Her eyes and hands looked over the texture of the book. Aside from the large calligraphy 'S' on the front cover, there wasn't anything written on the outside of the book nor was there any way for her to open it due to the brass lock on the front cover. The keyhole was in the exact shape as the symbol that King Urilis bore on his chestplate. A royal symbol, though why it was embossed on the cover could only be left to infinite guesses. Through the shreds of paper on both the countertop and floor, Filinia frantically searched for the key. But to no avail.
There was a chance her mother and Guneeta had forgotten to wrap up the key with the book, or perhaps the key was lost. Either way, Filinia wasn't going to waste energy worrying about it. At least not tonight, anyway. And after washing her plate and utensils, she carried the book all the way to her room and tossed it on top of her dresser.
"I should really take a shower, but I am way too tired to do so," Filinia whispered out loud to herself.
Lazily slipping into some comfortable clothing, she plopped herself onto her bed, set the alarms on her phone, and fell asleep. But she had barely drifted away from the waking world when she was suddenly awakened by the sounds of war cries and heavy snorts mixed with malicious cackles, the whizzing of arrows, the clashing of metal, and bludgeoning weapons against skin, similar to how she had seen Guneeta do when she tenderized meat. Faintly in the darkest corners of her room, fairies taking pleasure in torturing witches like a hoard of horseflies or a colony of red ants.
Under the impression that she was merely half asleep and unsure where the cries were coming from, Filinia had curiously found herself in Tuluc's library. How? She did not know. The aroma of sage and mold in the room mysteriously had been replaced with bodily fluids and rotting meat. Filinia circled the entirety of the room in hopes of finding Tuluc so she could figure out what was going on, but he was nowhere to be found. She tried to open the doors that lead to the hallway of alcoves and then the doors on the second landing behind the fireplace, but both had been locked. Had she fallen asleep in the library and dreamed she had left to go home? If that was true, then what was the deal with this God awful stench, and why would her friend lock her in here?
Inhuman cries grew louder. As she descended down one of the curved stairwells to investigate, Filinia was puzzled to find the war-like noises were coming from the painting above the mantel. Before she could place her foot on the bottom step, the library then faded away, like ripples in water. Darkness fell so heavily, the light from the fireplace swirled like ink in water before it completely washed away. Filinia wanted to raise her hands to her face to see if she was dematerializing in a similar manner as the fire, but she was too immersed in the darkness to tell. She tried to scream for help only to be drowned out by the continued cries.
Then the darkness retreated and Cyré, as it had been depicted in the painting and lit by the cool light of the moon, dominantly focused into view in the library's place. She threw up her arms in frustration. A strong wind ripped through the forest that now appeared around her; its harsh debris slapping and cutting her as it made its way through the small open field she was standing in. Startled by the trees and tall grasses crashing against one another, the horrid, putrid smell Filinia had caught whiff of earlier was becoming so overwhelmingly strong that she threw up immediately. Wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, she became aware of a large branch, which was barely hanging onto some vines, as it swung towards her at such a rapid speed that she ducked out of the way.
Face down in the dirt, Filinia was unable to control the fearful shaking of her body and the racing of her heart. When she pushed herself up on her elbows and turned to see whether the branch was going to swing back, she became aware that her face was masked by a warm, sticky substance. However, with the limiting light source of the moon, she was unable to tell what it was. Blood perhaps? Given the nature of the situation she had found herself in, it was quite possible, but the thought both sickened and horrified her.
The uninviting presence of someone unexpectedly towering over her was suddenly more horrifying than the blood on her face. Slowly scanning upward, Filinia was startled by the sight of black talons stretching beyond the confines of its makeshift sandals, the belted hide that wrapped around the shins and calves, and lastly, the elongated muscular limbs that seemed very disproportionate to its torso. This presence, to the best of her ability in describing exactly what she was seeing, was a tall, faceless reptilian humanoid. Yet, the longer Filinia stared, puzzled how it was possible for a creature to be faceless, the more she became lost in the mysterious void within the dark shadow of its head. Regardless, she felt as though the wind was being knocked out of her over and over again. The fear consumed her.
As the trees swayed just enough for the moonlight to shine more vibrantly, Filinia quickly realized that this creature wasn't faceless, but headless—the shadow that she had presumed to be its head was nothing more than a mere illusion. The speed and randomness at which everything was commencing, she was determined to believe this was just a dream, regardless of how real it felt. But that didn't stop her mouth from dropping agape and her body from continuing to shake uncontrollably. Filinia unsteadily pushed herself away from the headless creature as fast as she could, but not before the dead creature started to fall forward, its shoulders inevitably falling on Filinia's shins. And as if waiting for the precise moment for their reptile buddy's corpse to fall on her legs, two minotaurs and goblins emerged out into the clearing. Filinia stopped her crawl away from the lifeless corpse, squinting in the limited moonlight in hopes to better gauge the intent of these four new creatures.
      Moonlight or not, it became very clear that they were displeased with her being there. But she wasn't sure why. She had never seen them before nor had she done anything, to the best of her knowledge, to offend them. Nonetheless, they growled and hissed at her from where they had emerged, unmoving as though they were waiting for a command to attack her from a leader she had yet to see. She desperately wanted to make a run for it, but not knowing her way around this world, she knew she wouldn't make it far without them quickly finding her. Plus, with how muscular the four were, even the extremely overweight goblin with a horn of a septum piercing seemed to have some stamina. Her purposely unathletic, lanky build would run out of air before the creatures did. So she continued to sit, frozen in the position she was in before they appeared in complete shock and terror. Praying to whatever god existed in this world for this not to be the way she died.
      As if the god or gods had heard her pleas, a demi-werewolf materialized next to her. Not that she would know what a full-fledged werewolf looks like, aside from what she had seen in movies, but this creature beside her seemed more man than wolf. Regardless of what he was or why he unexpectedly appeared, his body language displaying he was more friend than foe, there was still the matter of being surrounded.
A spear and shield were the next things to materialize out of nowhere, which puzzled Filinia. Mostly because of how real they felt in her hands—the weight of the spear's long handle, the grain of the wood between her fingers, the tightness of the two leather straps of the shield around her arm, and the bowed rectangle shape of the shield. None of this made any sense! Was this a dream or was she actually in Cyré? Her eyes widened when she noticed that one of the goblins took a few steps in her direction, drew his bow, and released an arrow directly at her.
This just has to be a dream. HAS TO BE! I can't really be in Cyré, can I? There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home! Crap! That's not going to keep me alive if this turns out not to be a dream, Filinia thought to herself.
She ducked just as the arrow whizzed over the top of her head and came to the realization that if she was going to get through this, dream or not, she needed to fight back. So, as she watched the goblin ready another arrow, she thrust the spear at her attacker. She hadn't had any training in controlling her newly-developed telekinesis nor was she much of an athlete, and the thought of hurting another creature was still making her a bit sick. Yet Filinia found herself muttering under her breath, "Please hit him. Please hit him..."