Crystal Folly

Xeno's Ruination

"What...happened here?"

This was the question everyone asked themselves and each other upon seeing the huge divot of where there once used to be people living, which only was even noticeable by the recently cleared road leading somewhere from the right and the little debris left from buildings and tanks sticking out in the snow. The surrounding area seemed completely devoid of life, as nothing could be heard except for their own breathing and the crunch of the snow beneath them as they walked around the crater.

"This can't be anything other than Xeno. There's no way any government can eradicate an entire town like this without it being super radioactive," Ender whispered, shaking. Liliona had begun to stir as they kept going, and when she finally came to, she scratched his right tail end lightly in an attempt to get him to release the coil. "Hey, you're awake. I'm not letting go right now, Liliona, so stop messing with my right tail," he told her in response.

"What do you mean 'right tail'?" she asked, confused. In response, Ender tapped her on the shoulder with his left tail, which freaked her out more than he was expecting. "How did you even do this? Very few wizards and witches even know how to duplicate objects. You can't be one of them, right?" She then reconsidered asking that question before asking a new one. "Actually, forget I asked. Are you an animal spirit?"

Johann stepped in before his brother got a word out, intentionally dodging the question. "We haven't gotten much schooling about magic, either, so we're pretty far out of the loop," he told her. "For the most part, we have learned a few things on our own. Mostly cloaking and some other things, though." Shortly after he said it, the ground shook heavily, like an earthquake had begun. Trees began to be uprooted and large chunks of dirt and stone began falling from the edge of the divot, forcing them to find a safer area. Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped, and the sounds of crystal meeting stone and metal rang through the silence.

"What are we up against?" Liliona asked, prepared to help the people who were, under an hour ago, trying to seriously hurt her. "Is it something people made?" These are the people from Fari Varis! They have to be! They can't be that upset over not having an actual break, right? Or is this thing bringing back memories? They remained silent, their faces dark, as they got closer to the noise, hoping no stray projectiles would hit them.

"We should've destroyed that fragment of him back in the cave. We shouldn't have left."

"What does he gain from being here?"

"What goes well for him in Finland?"

If they're talking about this thing like this, like it's their fault, then it can't be something they could've stopped at first. "Guys," Liliona began, "it isn't your fault. I'm sorry to say this, but even if the fragment was broken, he'd still be able to enact his plan at full strength, maybe even sooner than he did this time." When she finished, she noticed that Ender has loosened his tail and was waiting for her to get off of his back. Having never gotten off of a giant cat before, she resorted to using levitation magic.

"She's right," Milo followed up. He began looking for repairable buildings for them to rest in when he added, "Most of us can't cast purple flames, the only thing that could've done something to him. Stella froze him and he kept talking like nothing had happened. It's best to assume that we've been pulled into a trap that couldn't be avoided to begin with." He stopped at a small shack no bigger than the average unattached garage or tool shed. The lock on it was rusted, and appeared to have been there for at least a century, although they knew that a lock of its kind wouldn't exist before the 1980s at the earliest. He started to pick off the rust around the top of the lock before attempting to break it. A faint sound came from inside the shack moments after he had done so.

"I hear something in there," Arthur warned. The group prepared themselves as best they could in case the noise was coming from someone prepared to attack as the door opened. Milo had finally broken the lock and opened the door when a blinding flash of light came from inside of the shed, subsiding moments later. When they opened their eyes, the only thing out of the ordinary abandoned shack norm that they could see was a stone tablet engraved with everyone's first and last names, except Liliona. Sadie walked over to it, but was stopped by Johann before she could touch it.

"Since when has our bow master ever just assumed something unusual isn't enchanted with some sort of curse?" he asked. "We're all curious as to why our names are on there, but let's not get too close to it." Upon inspecting it again, he saw that it wasn't a normal-sized stone tablet, but a piece of a whole. A prophecy piece, maybe? It looks like a fifth of the whole thing, seeing how there's a few letters on there from the other parts, but we'll never know. As he was thinking this, Stella froze it with a thin layer of ice before grabbing it and Ender and sitting him down.

"Going to the Plane again?" Milo asked when he saw Ender being forced to sit. "I think it's a good idea for it to be there. Maybe the other us's will try to piece things together." Milo heard Ender begin to laugh, so he yelled, "That was not a pun, dude!" Johann stifled a giggle as well, enjoying the accidental joke, before he decided that it was a good time to visit the Plane himself. Everyone else began moving things around to make room for where they would be sleeping, making sure to keep some room open for when Ender, Johann, and Stella returned.

In the Plane, which was currently inhabited by snow foxes, arctic rabbits, and other animals active during the winter, Johann felt the presence of many others being there, including himself, Ender, and Stella. He saw them moving some of the snow around before setting the tablet where the snow used to be, then they completely disappeared. They must've went back, he thought. I should too. Staying here isn't the best idea if I want my actual body to rest. Before he left, he looked around to make sure there wasn't anything out of the ordinary going on in the Alpha section of the Plane. He blinked three times in rapid succession and saw that everyone else was already asleep, leaving him little room to move to a space not covered with old tools or rotten tarps. When he finally found an open spot, which happened to be by a hole where a window used to be, he looked up at the stars and watched as a dragon flew high above them going north. After about a minute, he made a makeshift pillow and blanket with some of the nearby tarps that were still usable shortly before drifting off to sleep.