Meet the main character - you ✨
One day your whole world crumbles around you. Literally. The sky splits, and everyone you know turns into dust. You escape to the thousands of glowing portals to any dimension imaginable. Only you are trapped, and hun...
"I don't think it's a good idea," you mutter and still follow Alice.
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"Stairs in Decay" by Niki Feijen
The corridor's dark. Broken column pieces and empty portrait frames are stacked in the corner, water taps somewhere nearby... You hug yourself and look at Alice's back. She strides on – does she even know the way? – and two ribbons snake on the floor a step in front of her.
You pass a hall. They've cleaned up the wreckage and fixed the ceiling and grand stairs. Took you days, weeks? to figure out the right parallel. Who'd imagine there're so many variations?
Thinking about the King of Wands and Swords, or the Queen, or Lars didn't help as the last time. You kept opening portals to random places, some were not even in the Wands realm. Perhaps, they were visiting other parallels? Alice groaned and complained every time. And you'd try and try again until you collapse or even pass out on the floor. She caught you a few times but not always.
The Black Emperor, Gleb – will you, actually, call him that? – snored through the first day. Then he was too busy with something in the library while you and Alice plotted to locate the Wands castle. The Black Emperor showed up for breakfast and dinner, and yet you've seen little of him.
Alice stops and looks over her shoulder. A sneer plays on her lips. "Then, why are you here?"
Ugh. You glare at where her eyes should be below those ribbons. You like the idea, that's the truth. If not to bring Lars back, then to check up on him. He left without a proper goodbye, he's cousin's not the best person, and... and.
Of course, you don't tell her any of that. "Lars looks up to his cousin, er, a lot," you say instead. "He adores him. If Lars's happy to be back, we should let him stay."
"If."
You hate it when she has a point.
Alice snickers, tosses a strand of hair over her shoulder and walks on. You enter a smaller hall with silver flowers and wands patterns on the walls and dark purple curtains. "Didn't you say they let Lars leave without a word? Why's that cousin suddenly overprotective?"
You look away. You did tell her that. Accidentally. Or maybe not, and, yes, she's right because you've been thinking about the very same thing!
"What's with the dump?"
"Which one?" You look up. "Ah."
Alice points into one of the corridors ahead. The ceiling's crashed and buried everything, it's now bent metal, cracked wooden planks and marble crumble.
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