Chapter 13: Preparing for the Journey

Liora pulls a small, black vial from inside her coat, uncorking it with practiced ease.

"What is that?" Aldia watcheds warily.

Liora tilts the vial, letting a few drops of liquid drip onto the parchment.

The ink reacts immediately.

The spiraling roads shift, reconfiguring, spreading into new routes that had not been there before. Symbols emerge between the roads, not written in any language Aldia recognizes.

Liora watches the transformation, her gaze sharp, unreadable. "Now we see what it's really hiding."

Aldia exhales. "I have a bad feeling about this."

Nyxie huffs. "Congratulations. You're finally learning." It says, deadpan. Aldia gives it a side stare.

As the ink settles into new shapes, Aldia feels something beneath her ribs, a shift, an unease.

Whatever this map leads to, it was never meant to be found.

Aldia stares. The map is no longer what it was. The roads have rearranged themselves, spiraling deeper, sinking into something hidden beneath.

Liora watches, her expression unreadable.

"Whatever, I still don't like this." She mutters.

Nyxie flicks its tail, perched atop a bookshelf, watching the scene with narrowed silver eyes. "You usually don't things." It comments dryly.

Liora smirks but doesn't look away from the parchment.

"These markings... they're not just instructions. They're warnings." She says softly, her fingers tracing a new symbol on the parchment.

Aldia feels something in her chest tighten.

Warnings. Of course.

"Warnings about what?" Her voice is low and tense.

Liora tilts her head, considering. "You don't put warnings on a map unless someone already tried to go where it leads."

And failed.

The air in the room shifts. A subtle pressure, like something unseen leaning too close.

The ink darkens, as if aware of being watched.

Aldia swallows down the unease curling inside her.

"You should stop." Nyxie gruntles low and wary. 

Aldia almost agrees. Almost.

But she can't.

She presses her fingers to the spiraling roads, expecting nothing.

Instead, the map pulses.

The glow is faint, a deep, sickly gold, spreading from beneath her fingertips like veins beneath the skin of something alive.

And then, the room darkens.

Aldia jerks back, but the change is already happening.

The walls blur, fading into shadow and smoke, replaced by something else.

For a moment, she is somewhere else. The map no longer shows ink, no longer shows symbols—it shows memory. A city. Not Noxport. Not anywhere she knows.

Its towers gleam, not stone, but something glasslike, catching an unseen light. The streets pulse with movement, figures flickering half-there, half-forgotten.

It looks ancient.

And then, the city shatters.

The vision warps, collapsing in on itself, buildings folding like broken wings, crumbling into golden dust.

A void opens in its center, dark and hungry. Aldia gasps, snapping back into reality.

The map lies silent beneath her hands. But she knows what she saw.

"That was Vyrhan." She whispers, her voice hoarse.

Liora's expression tightens.

"No. That was what it used to be." She mutters grimly.

Aldia pushes herself to her feet, forcing steady breaths.

She doesn't want to ask the next question. But she does. She has to. 

"Did the Primals do this?" With questioning eyes she looks at Liora.

Liora doesn't answer right away. And that is an answer all its own.

Nyxie lets out a slow, thoughtful hum. "The Primals want to rule the Veil. They don't want to destroy it. Someone else did that."

Liora exhales, rubbing her temple. "That city didn't just fall. It was erased."

Aldia feels the weight of the words settle against her ribs.

Vyrhan wasn't lost. It was taken.

"Then why does the map still exist?" Something inside her is unsettled.

Liora's lips curl into something that isn't quite a smirk, isn't quite anything at all.

"Maybe someone wanted us to find it." 

Aldia doesn't like that answer. Not at all.

The air still feels strange, as if the room itself is waiting for something.

Aldia folds the map carefully, tucking it into her coat.

"We go."

Liora raises a brow.

"To a city that shouldn't exist?"

Aldia exhales. "To find out who erased it."

Nyxie sighs.

"Of course you're doing this." It grumbles."I thought you didn't like it."

Aldia smirks.

"And I thought you liked a little trouble."

Nyxie flicks its tail. "I like trouble. I don't like dying."

Aldia turns to Liora. "Are you in?"

Liora's smirk is slow, edged with something unreadable. "You even have to ask?"

Aldia nods.

The path is clear now. Vyrhan calls. And they are going to answer.

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Aldia pulls the map close, pressing it against her chest for a breath too long.

She has traveled before, slipped through the cracks of dying cities, crossed the borders of places she should not have survived. But this is different.

This is new, something that has disappeared from the this world and yet it exists.

She exhales sharply, pushing the thought away.

"We don't have time to waste." She hurries, putting the map in one of her inside pockets of the long coat, that is still hanging in the armoir.

Liora lounges against the bookshelf, arms folded. "We rarely do." she answers lazily.

Nyxie watches from the table, flicking its tail, "And yet, somehow, we always end up in the worst possible situations."

Aldia doesn't bother responding to that. Nyxie isn't wrong.

"But we are not going anywhere while you are in this state." Liora points at her shirt that has been stained with blood and dirt.

"Ofcourse," Aldia agrees, looking down at her own dishivled and unclean clothes. She moves to take out another old dress from the armoir and proceeds to the hidden space behind it.

After washing up with the water she has collected and changing her dress, Aldia comes out. 

"Living in this dead city surely takes a lot of effort," Liora says after taking a look at the place where Aldia just changed her clothes. Aldia does not say anything. Instead, she moves, gathering supplies.

Aldia's home is well kept, but it was never meant for comfort. Everything here serves a purpose. She moves toward a large wooden chest near the fireplace, flipping the iron latch open. Inside, her weapons gleam in the low lantern light.

She takes her dagger. Familiar weight, worn handle, but sharp as ever. Throwing the other dagger in it.

A second blade, slightly curved, small enough to hide beneath her coat.

Riftstones. Small, black shards that hum faintly with trapped energy—useful, but volatile.

A flask of elixir. For healing, though she has never trusted it. She looks at her wound thinking of taking the elixir, but it was already healing, so she decides against it. Why waste if it is this much rare and special.

She hesitates over an old chain, its silver links woven with an unfamiliar symbol. A gift from someone she barely remembers.

She does not take it.

Liora, watching with casual interest, raises an eyebrow. "You always this prepared, or should I be worried?"

"I don't like surprises." Aldia answers.

"That's unfortunate. Because we always find them." Nyxie mutters in return.

Liora smirks. "Then we should get moving."

Aldia nods.

They are ready.

Or as ready as they will ever be.

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