Converging Destinies: Part 1

Chapter 190

       Something was wrong.

       This was apparent the moment everyone woke up. The sky was gray, the ground was dusty and gray as well. What happened to the boiling water? What happened to them?

       They gradually rose to consciousness atop a dune of gray dust. Soon, everyone had come to their senses. Nearby was their ship, broken and splintered. Many of them had suffered burns, which Ara' Sei and Zerai were able to heal.

       "Ummm, where are we?" Ella asked.

       "I have no idea." Brie replied. Eris cocked their head before pulling out the compass. The arrow upon the compass was spinning, and the compass itself was glowing.

       "We're in another plane." Eris said.

       "What?!" Brie asked. Eris nodded.

       "This compass detects presences from other planes. It spins if we're in another plane." Eris explained.

       "That's okay! I have a spell as well as the necessary material for it." Cedric said, pulling out his forked rod.

       "I can use this to transport us to Arboria. As far as I'm aware, it's one of the good planes, or at the very least it's much better than this." Cedric said.

       "What do we need to do?" Ara' Sei asked.

       "We just need to link hands, and then I need to cast the spell." Cedric said. Following his instructions, the group linked their hands atop the gray sand dune. Cedric told Eris, who was standing next to him, to put their hand on his shoulder as he held the rod before him.

       Then, Cedric began to mutter an incantation, the whole group glowed with emerald light. But then, it faded, and everyone was still there.

       "What? Wait, why didn't it work?" Cedric asked.

       "Let's try again. I have the same spell. If you gave me the component, I could give it another try." Zerai said. Cedric handed Zerai the necessary component for it.

       Zerai held his hand out before him and spoke a few words under his breath. A golden circle around the group on the ground showed itself, and everyone flashed with golden light. But, just as before, nothing happened.

       "What the..." Zerai cursed.

       "What does that mean?" Ella asked.

       "It means, we're in another plane, and as far as we're aware, we have no way out." Zeri replied.

       "So, what do we do?" Ara' Sei asked.

       "I'm sure there are other means of interplanar travel other than that spell. We should find one of said methods." Brie said.

       The group looked around at the endless gray dunes that surrounded them. The dune itself was made of gray dust that was far finer than sand. The ground and sky were the same color, and they blurred together. Unlike in the material plane, there was no clear sun, and there were no landmarks in sight to distinguish any particular direction.

       "Where should we go?" Eris asked. Ella shrugged her shoulders.

       "Usually I'd be good at finding where's North and South. But there's no sun, no trees, just gray, so I have no clue where we should go." Ella said.

       "Well, maybe we should try to figure out which plane we're in." Cedric said.

       "Does anyone know about anything that would resemble this?" Zerai asked, gesturing to the endless gray horizons. But, no one said a word.

       "Okay, in that case, we might as well pick a direction and start walking." Zerai said. Everyone simply nodded, not really paying attention.

       The group picked a direction, and then they began to walk out into the endless dunes. The smell of smoke hung in the endless gray surroundings. They were in a different plane with no means of escape, no knowledge of where they were, and no plan going forward.