Helix

Death King

24 AD

A strange stillness hung over the town. People, of a sort, moved around just like they would on any normal street, but the sounds here were different, muffled one moment and echoing the next. The smells too were strange. Helix's sharp nose could scent the dis-congruent mixture sulfur, ash, and frost. The very air itself felt wrong. He would say that temperature was mild, but it was more like there simply was no temperature. No wind, not even the whisper of air as someone passed him on the street.

Nona strode ahead, aiming for a blackened street end, Cinix beside her. To his left Eslein walked, tension in every part of her body. She had insisted on accompanying Helix to the edge of the black Spectral void. It was past that point mortals like her could not go. It was past that point that Helix might very well die.

Both the seer and Cinix had merely shrugged when he'd asked why they thought he would be able to make the trip to through the blackness. He couldn't help but feel like maybe Eslein was right, and he was committing suicide.

Ever the attentive one, the witch guessed at his thoughts, "If you start to feel like you are floating, or that you can't remember your life up to now, try to make it back to a rift as soon as you can."

"How would you know that?"

Eslein's mouth turned up slightly, "I tried to enter the Specter once. I'll tell you all about it when you get back."

The unspoken if hung between them. Still, Helix nodded, "I look forward to it."

Within a few more steps they stood before the shadowy wall, inky and black, like a cloud made from ash. Nona stepped through without pause, Cinix right behind her. Taking a deep breath Helix looked at Eslein one last time, "Till later," then he stepped through.

Nothing could have prepared him for the other side. Helix had been under the assumption that it would be dark or at least gloomy. Instead, he was greeted with a kaleidoscope of color and sensation. There were a billion stars set into a midnight sky. Each point of light flickered between red and gold, illuminating silver grass, stretching out for miles around, gently waving in a breeze smelling of sweet flower scents accented with sulfur. About a hundred yards to the left stood a dark wood or something like trees. Except, these trees had a dark soft feathery substance in place of leaves, and what looked to be interwoven roots for branches. To the right more silver grass. Straight ahead, so far into the distance that Helix could barely make them out, were large shapes that he took to be mountains or maybe large mushrooms. Best he could tell they were bulbous on the top and narrow below.

Cinix let out a snort, "He's going to be fine."

"So it seems," Nona said casually. "Shall we continue or would you rather stand here all day?"

Helix closed his gaping mouth and swallowed. "Let's go."

Falling into step beside him, Cinix flashed a grin. "Welcome to immortality."

Refusing to acknowledge him, or the ramifications of what the creature said Helix asked instead, "How did you and Eslein meet?"

"Why? Jealous?"

"Should I be?"

Cinix grinned. "Maybe she should be."