Book of Fates ✔

An astral trip

...It was a beautiful day. The bright sun was shining in the turquoise sky, emerald shadows of the tree leaves leaping across the marble paths in the garden, flowers swaying lightly as breeze rocked them to sleep.

Anya looked around, perplexed. Everything was so...

Perfect? Too perfect to be real, yes.

Apparently, it was a dream. But where and when did Anya fall asleep? She chewed on her lower lip, striving to remember. The daitias, the journey to Cusco, Manco Capac and his insane legends... What those legends were about? Not a single word in Anya's memory.

Why am I here?

She scanned the garden once again, roamed about, and inspected each and every corner of it. She discovered a narrow trail beginning by a statue of a noble goddess and ending near a pond with a small fountain. A high wall with golden images of falcons and jaguars rose on the left.

What is this place? Another vision of Da'Ariya?

Only when Anya stopped by the water, did she realize what actually troubled her. The sound—its absence. Anya could hear no leaves murmuring above her head, no water splashing in the fountain, no tapping of her own sneakers against the ground. Nothing. A flawless silence choking the world with its dumb grip.

Panic rose to her throat, but then receded when Anya reminded herself she was just sleeping. She squatted before the pond, put her hand in the water, but felt nothing as if she was a ghost. Her fingers ran through the liquid, leaving no ripples on the surface.

That's not good.

At the very bottom of the pond, something sparkled. Peering into the glittering, Anya saw it was only a refracted light coming from somewhere under the wall that divided the pond in half.

An alluring thought rushed over Anya's mind. Nikk used to say the astral reality is subject to no laws of physics. Anya closed her eyes, took a deep breath and... She was on the other side of the wall in no time.

Blinding sunlight hit her eyes. Squinting for a long minute, Anya finally managed to make out three high arches leading in different directions from a large hall she was standing in now. But no sound so far.

Somebody touched her shoulder, "Anya?"

Momentously, noises flooded her world as though one pressed the on button. Birds were twittering outside, water gurgling in the fountain, and harp music coming from a distance.

Anya flinched and turned around. Nikk was staring at her expectantly.

"Nikk?! What are you doing here? What am I doing here? Is it another of your dreams? Or—" she trailed off, realizing she could continue the list of her questions forever.

"No, it's not my dream," Nikk shook his head slowly, his expression troubled. "Yours?"

"Are you mocking me? I don't know how to make astral projections." Anya's heart skipped a beat at the sight of massive columns supporting the ceiling. She could never build something that giant by her mere thoughts. "Whose dream it is then?"

Nikk didn't reply, for the words didn't reach him. He was at the other end of the hall already, cocking his head to look through one of the arches.

"Where are we?" Anya repeated, louder, and was horrified to hear no voice of hers. "Nikk!"

Nikk turned to her, his eyes puzzled. His lips moved, but not a syllable was audible.

"Don't you hear me!" Anya shouted at the top of her lungs. "Don't you—"