18 Initial awakening 2

Anila placed Rais on the bed and sat there for days without moving. Sometimes she sat next to him all thirty major circulations of the day. Ten days had passed by as the fifth month of the year came to an end and the sixth month of Metal started. Rais showed no signs of waking up but his body mostly recovered from the curse.

A place very far away from Rantatelia a young man and woman set on a flowery yard. On top of the most prominent mountain, a temple held a large glowing stone lighting the surrounding. Outside the yard when looking down, the snow fell as far as the eye could see. Even though it was middle of the night, the reflected light on the snow made outside look like a cloudy day. The place looked very beautiful and tempting yet dangerous enough to make any ordinary mortal never attempt to traverse it.

A man with an armor walked into the yard and stood on the side waiting for permission to talk.

The young man turned his head towards him. "Speak."

"Young Lord Kihunsar, the Lord had informed me about the location of the child of Nazarc."

"Where?"

"They are still in Rantatelia."

"Where?"

"He said they couldn't pinpoint the location because the cursed fire vanished right away after burning a few trees?"

"What trees?"

"He said these trees reached into the clouds."

"Next time don't bring me useless information. Why is my father listening to these fools and going after a young child? Why not just let him grow a little?"

"He is dangerous my lord!"

"So was his father, when he first appeared out of nowhere. Is he not dead? I won't rather kill a child, but if need be, I will do it."

The men stood there without saying anything.

"Do I personally have to remove you from here? Can't you see I am enjoying my time with my future missus?"

The young women kept her down looking at a few scrolls, but she had a slight smile on her face.

"Young Lord, the trees might be the Wooden Shield of Ranatelia."

"Do you think your young lord is an idiot?"

"No my lord."

"The forest is not a small place like its previous name suggest. Now, leave."

"Lord said if you don't leave now to look for him the other families might already get to him."

"All those old cunts so eager to kill a little kid! Fine, tell father I will go with the group and bring his head."

The man walked out by lowering his head.

"So our family made a marriage alliance to kill a little kid!"

"Such an excellent story! Isn't it? But don't feel bad there is a lot to see, the forest is an endless beautiful marvel and Illipra has some beautiful moons we could visit."

"How does this kid look like?"

"I saw his father. He had crimson hair, and his eyes were like rubies."

"I heard he have other kids, so why kill this particular one?" said the young woman in confusion.

"I am not trusted enough to know."

They flew towards the tallest mountain.

Another half a month passed by but Rais still hadn't woken up. His friends often came to look for him but left disappointed. Dinna had come back from the port city. She held an old book and sat on the other side of the bed. She saw a greenish aura escaping his body, so she called Anila.

Rais felt a warmth on his back as he regained his consciousness. He opened his eyes from the long slumber. He felt a hard solid surface with his hand and back. He didn't recognize this enormous place. This place absent of any sounds, eerie silence of death and nothingness. Even though he opened his eyes after a very long time, the soft uniform light failed to affect his eyes. His vision was crystal clear without any haziness. He looked upward to see the massive cylindrical structure reaching unprecedented height. He baffled by the idea that he could see so far into the distance. He couldn't move his body at all, so he kept staring upward into the structure without blinking. Rais felt the place had a perfect temperature. He felt the place embracing him as a feeling of familiarity made him forget where he was.

Halfway through the structure, he saw two gigantic vortexes expanding trying to merge with each other. A fast-moving gray ring separated the dark and light vortex. A grayish spheroid shell enveloped everything together. He felt like he was standing right next to it but couldn't reach it. The aura released from them felt familiar, but he didn't know from where. He saw unknown runes, symbols and diagrams covering every part of the inner wall. The symbols keep repeating endlessly within the interior of the translucent wall. Each of the symbol and rune was different from one another. He failed to recognize anything and couldn't imagine them within his head.

Even though his body still laid at the bottom, he felt he was walking vertically on the wall. He looked at the other side to realize how wide the structure was. An entire town can fit within without any problem. When he went above the two vortexes, he felt like he swam through a warm liquid. The warmth felt like sun rays during a cool winter or a touch of someone very close to one's heart. His heart wanted to reach the top of the massive structure. Just this thought made him reach the top immediately. He arrived at a platform floating high above the massive cylindrical structure. He felt tiny and negligible when he saw boundless empty space. A stairway connected the floating platform with the structure.

The platform occupied a space of a small room. The place created from an unknown material. It looked like, it was intricately carved from a single stone without any patch and joints. The floor engraved with a motif of seven rings of a circular pattern. At the exact center of the floor and the ring pattern, the stone raised up to form a small circular table. The dome over the head filled with an array of simple geometric shapes producing various complex patterns. The dome held together by four columns and four pointed arches.

He observed his surrounding through the four window opening on the platform. He saw emptiness as far as his eyes could see in the four directions. He stared upward to massive dim white rings of lights stacked upward. He stared downward to see the massive structure, but he couldn't see the bottom of the structure. It felt like the tower went forever into the abysmal darkness. His surrounding was massive and hungry to devour anything.

Rais looked over the table and froze from shock. He could read the unknown letters carved on the top. It had few names written on it, but he forgot them the moment he looked away from them. He only remembered two names. He became bewildered as to why he couldn't remember the runes from inside and now these names. He only remembered Usron Fios Nazarc and Sraban Rais Rehalix. The second name confused him, as it had his name on it.

Rais climbed down to the top of the tower walking on the long-spiral stairs. The stairs weathered away as he walked down. He walked to the center of the roof to see an ovoid shaped crystal with an endless number of runes shining within. His mind became lost within it. He felt like there was a world within it, waiting to awaken from the long slumber. It circulated from left to right for the first time in a very long time. It slowly merged with the surrounding and hovered up from the roof of the gigantic tower. Various streams of light shot from the sky and merged with it. The sources of the light unknown and untraceable. It floated in front of Rais eyes and spun around him. Rais felt like it was observing him, and he felt like it knew him. He felt like it was a part of him. It eventually stopped moving as it hovered above the tower. It was eagerly waiting for something to happen.

"Where am I? There was so much empty space. I had never heard of anything like this."

"Am I dead? Did I die within the forest? Maybe that's why I am not feeling any pain right now."

He looked at his right shoulder to see there were no traces of the curse. His became lost his thought process by this bizarre place. He fell down through the roof. He looked at the rune crystal as he sank downward. He tried to reach for it. He felt like he was sinking within the deep ocean. He slowly narrowed his eyes and kept them close for a long time. When he opened them again, he woke up at the bottom of the structure once again, still unable to move from the floor.

Clang... clang...clang... Clang...clang...clang... Clang... clang... clang…

The sound gradually became harsher.

He heard a voice very familiar to him but this time it wasn't within his head. The sound came from behind his head.

"Welcome back! It's good that you are here."