A Journey Begins

Darkness. Terrifying, unending nothingness. Fear. Loneliness. Nightmares. Pain and healing and more pain. A never ending cycle.

Then…

Hanna's eyes snapped open. Something had changed. The chamber no longer had a hold on her. The Fate's consciousness had returned from the horrors to which it had been exiled.

She shoved on the lid, and it easily gave way. Had a rogue Fate decided to rescue her? Or had Justum finally come to his senses and released her?

Hanna would find out soon enough. Or so she thought…

No one was outside in the pristine white room. Whoever had helped her was nowhere to be seen.

The sun was still overhead. Or was it overhead again? How much time had passed?

In the chamber there was no concept of time. The place was meant for healing, not coherent thought.

So all the memories crowded Hanna's mind at once.

'The library…The abominable…The dots on the map!'

"The enemy is gathering by the Great Lake! I have to warn the Empress!" Hanna quickened her pace, determined to escape the Mystic Spires.

Her spirit was unsettled in her. More than just her nerves. Something was very wrong.

Hanna contemplated portaling towards the ground, but the first thought of doing so brought a sharp pain to her brain before she could even begin to follow through with the action.

There was only one thing to do. Run!

Hanna headed through the halls on foot. They were empty of visible beings as usual, but Hanna could not even sense the presence of her kin at all. They must have been meeting together for the spires to be so void of life.

But that was good for Hanna. She couldn't make her body invisible just now, so she would have to settle for stealth of movement.

Coming to the bottom of the Fate's dwelling, The whole building shook violently. Hanna spotted Asha clinging to one of the walls.

The fairy assistant looked frantically at the Fate. "What's happening?!"

"I don't know, but I need to get to the ground," Hanna leapt on the the palace white—the gate which raised from and lowered to the storehouse below.

"I'm not supposed to operate the gate until further notice without Justum's permission!" Asha felt another rumble and her wings grew from her back, ready to take flight at a moment's notice.

Hanna took the moment of distraction and quietly activated the door. The floor below her struggled before disengaging from the rest of the spires.

Hanna fell to her knees, dust from the stone surrounding her like a blanket.

The palace white lurched and then settled into its downward glide. In a whirl of wind, the deep green of the land below the spires spread out before her view. The green looked wrong--far too yellow and unhealthy. Hanna gasped she quickly saw why.

The mist that formed the impenetrable white 'mountain' which encased the area was swirling like a top. It appeared like an upside down hurricane, pulling the grass closest to it up by the roots. Within the windy torrent, the mist seemed to be bubbling, spilling out from its usual boundaries as if gasping for air.

The platform lurched again. 'That's not good...' Although the original jolt to get the large piece of stone moving was sometimes unsettling, the ride itself was very smooth. There was no reason for it to buck about when magic was guiding it.

Hanna held her breath as the platform teetered. If it tipped completely, she was not sure that she had the strength to stop her fall. The Fate was as drained of energy as the world was of color.

The shuttering grew worse and worse until the platform finally dropped the last half-arrow shot with jarring crash. The gate itself remained in tact, but spidery cracks formed along the outside of the storehouse where the palace white had landed.

Hanna scrambled off the top of the building as the world around her continued to fall into disarray.

What had happened to make nature become so angry? The wind picked up faster and faster whipping the great waterfall into a frenzy even at its highest point.

And then it happened.

The mist burst forth in every direction, raking across the ground as hungry as a fire. It enveloped Hanna before she could even react.

The water droplets were cold, but not like the ice that usually pervaded the veil. If the crystals had come at her with such force, her blue skin would have been ripped to shreds in an instant.

Instead, after touching her skin, the water sizzled and dissipated, as if melting into her body. Soon there was nothing left of the strange nebulous mountain.

The Mystic Spires loomed overhead with nothing for support at all.

Hanna clutched her chest. The world spun around her for a moment. When her vision cleared. A greater horror awaited her than just the absence of the mist.

The waterfall from the sky which fell interminably--had stopped. In thousands of years, nothing like this had ever happened. How could this be?

"Hanna!" a voice came from above.

The Fate peered up into the hole from where she had exited. Someone was up there with Asha. Hanna squinted before realizing it was Justum.

"Hanna," he called again. "Send back up the platform. Something is wrong."

Dismissing the idea that it might be trick to get her back in the spires, the Fate looked at the palace white. Instead of humming with energy, it seemed like a mundane stone. She stepped on it, but it did not light up.

"It will not move," she told the other Fate. "Why do you need the platform?"

"I was able to appear here," Justum's face was pinched, "but I could go no further."

Hanna thought her inability to portal when she awoke was due to her still needing to heal. It seemed the problem was more widespread.

"The mighty waterfall has stopped. Unblock it and surely your connection to the ground will be restored!" Hanna glanced up to where the water should be exiting. there was not even a drop coming from above.

She waited as a half hour passed. Now exposed to the sun, the brilliant green grass was beginning to shift to resemble the more muted colors of the world around it.

Finally Justum returned. "It's no use," he called down. "The waterfall is not blocked. The pool at the top of the spire is empty. Something has disturbed it."

"You mean one of the Fates tampered with our connection to the Maker?!" Hanna could not believe it. She did not think any of her kin would betray them in such a way.

"I do not think it was one of us..." Justum answered, sounding slightly hesitant.

Thinking back to the way the mist had reacted, Hanna had to agree. The problem seemed to start at the base of the mountain and move upwards, not the other way around. Which meant the issue started from outside the Mystic Spires...out in the world.

The world they were supposed to be protecting and failed.

"Is there anything you can do?" Hanna asked at last. "Surely there is a way to get the water to flow again."

"I only know of one way, but I cannot do it from here." Justum was trying to judge the distance.

Asha had wings and could lower herself to the ground. But if she didn't use her magic, her ability to help the Justum to the ground would likely end up being little more than a controlled fall. That did not seem like a viable option.

"Without the water, the land will slowly lose its magic. We must restart it. Go get help." Justum rubbed his forehead.

"From who? Magic wielders cannot make that journey unprotected." Hanna could feel her own body was weak in comparison to what it should be.

She still had magic stored in herself, but she sensed that it would not be replenished once used.

"Go to the humans, then, but hurry. Please get the seed!" The usually stoic Fate was now pleading. With the magic interrupted, he felt a growing sense of dread.

If things continued as they were, he would be...mortal! Such a thing could never be.

Hanna had been planning to head to the elves in search of the humans, So this was already in line with her plans to help them. Yet now she was going to be the one seeking help. Things had changed quickly.

"I'll be back with the seed. Don't worry. Be careful until I return." Hanna waved as comfortingly as she could.

Her mind raced to try and think of something, anything that might be able to get the Fates to the solid earth. What if the Mystic Spires crashed to the ground? Nothing seemed to be supporting them at all.

But the alabaster towers had been there since the beginning of time, even before the Fates inhabited them.

It seemed they were immune to the loss of magic, at least for now.

Which just meant Hanna needed to hurry.

The Fate did the only thing she could. She put one foot in front of the other....

...and walked.