Fragment

It didn’t take long for Alice to descend the rest of the tree, repeatedly planting the pick into the wood while using the previous indentations as handholds, a process that took her far longer than before, when she still had access to the pitons.

On top of that, the new routine was much less forgiving on her body, forcing her to hang from a single hand while swinging the weapon with enough force to pierce the wooden flesh of the wisteria, her muscles trembling under the exertion but holding despite all odds.

Over time, the rough bark of the plant had also managed to scour the surface of her palms with bruises and bloody spots which, coupled with the sustained pressure of her whole weight against the splintered and uneven wood, had caused numerous blisters to appear on her fingers, most of them opening up whenever she moved her hands from one handhold to the other, making the rugged crevices slicker with her blood and forcing her to expend a small but constant amount of energy to knit back her skin, tears of pain filling her eyes whenever she gripped on the wood with her flayed fingertips, unable to dull the agony in fear of making her control of the hands weaken.

Despite that, Alice had continued moving, gritting her teeth and letting the tears stream down her cheeks but still holding onto the plant until, after what felt like ages, she finally reached the first twisted beam that protruded from the broken glass dome, the wisteria passing through the warped pieces of oxidized metal that had once held wide and slightly curved glass panels, some of them still in their place after all this time but most laying in fragments on the ground below, half-covered in leaves, sticks, moss and algae, only a few clean enough to barely reflect the few rays of sunlight that were shining through the cupola.

Keeping herself attached to the tree, Alice only just managed to swing her feet so that she could use the crooked and rusted metal beam as support, cringing when she heard the metal groan and tremble under her greatly-increased weight but forcing herself to ignore it as she stood there, letting her arms rest and her flesh slowly heal while her eyes scanned what was visible of the internal structure of the building, searching for signs of predators or any other danger aside from those inherently posed by the slow decay of the structure itself.

From her position, Alice could see the expansive, plants-covered and ring-shaped terrace that ran around the twenty-five meter wide shaft which, even if mostly occupied by the massive wisteria, still allowed the light of the sun to shine down on a good portion of the root-covered ground below.

There, partially enveloped in the wooden tendrils of the plant, lay the thing she had managed to spot a few hours before, its flickering form somehow difficult to perceive despite her sight enhancements and the much closer distance.

What the hell is that thing? Why was it different before. She asked herself, a dubious frown deeply set on her face as the minutes passed and her mind churned to find a reason for the strange event.

Forcing herself to avert her eyes, she observed the rest of the place, immediately noticing the large aerial roots which, from the trunk of the wisteria, had anchored themselves to the stone of the many floors that had been built around the light well, their circular pattern further enhanced by a wide, spiraling staircase that, from the floor, reached the terrace above, a tall and surprisingly-intact railing preventing one to fall from the edge.

“I wonder what this place was used for,” she whispered to herself, slightly adjusting her position and shivering when she felt the beam groan with her shifting.

When she finally managed to recuperate a bit of strength, Alice continued moving down the tree, able to better observe the insides of the structure as she gradually entered from above, her eyes scanning the sea of large, heart-shaped leaves with large fenestrations that covered the entire floor of the terrace, their luscious, dark-green color a perfect complement to the numerous, pearl white flowers that grew between them, resembling large lilies with their funnel shape and their elongated, pollen-covered stamens.

Seeing that the railing of the platform was only a handful of meters away from her, she took a deep breath and pushed with her legs against the bark, kicking away from the tree and landing just over the metal balustrade and on the plant-covered floor, her knees bending painlessly after the impact.

Gripping her pick, she didn’t waste time and immediately hid under the tall plants, carefully listening for any sound and ready to react for the sudden appearance of an attacker.

She was focused on the task to such a degree that, when the forgotten snake around her neck suddenly brushed her ear with its forked tongue, she immediately reacted, her coiled muscles releasing their power and allowing her to make a full 180° spin with her weapon extended and ready to plunge in the body of the nonexistent ambusher, her attack instead ripping away a good amount of leaves and disturbing a few fuzzy, bee-like insects that were busy pollinating the flowers around her, indignantly buzzing their three pairs of wings as they quickly moved away from the disturbance.

The snake moved again, apparently moving away from the wild beating of her heart in her neck and starting to slither along her arm, soon coiling around her wrist once again as she panted and looked around, only calming after a few minutes of deep and controlled breaths.

Maybe there really is nothing, but just in case… That thought in mind, she quickly controlled the glimmers under her dress and extended them in a small, brightly-glowing blob, letting it move on the ground a couple of meters away from her while she sneaked behind, hoping that any would be predator would focus on the light instead of her.

Slowly, she moved towards the start of the staircase, observing what seemed to be half-buried planters scattered in a strange pattern around her, the dirt having gradually spilt from the large vases and allowed the plants to colonize the entire area.

She had just popped out of the undergrowth to better orient herself when, on a plant just a few steps away, she noticed a large, bulbous, pinkish fruit that seemed to weigh heavily on its somewhat thin stalk, its surface smooth and it’s shape reminding her of a mix between a mango and a banana.

Unable to stop herself, she approached and used her knife to cut it away, feeling the softness of its flesh against her fingers despite the thick peel covering it.

Carefully, keeping it away from her face, she used her knife to carve a thin line into its sturdy skin and then proceeded to peel it, revealing a pink and soft inside.

“Here goes nothing,” she muttered as she brought it to her mouth, biting down on the supple flesh and subsequently standing there, completely paralyzed as the copious and incredibly sweet juice dribbled down her neck, attracting a few insects that she quickly batted away with one hand.

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It was probably the sweetest thing she had ever tasted and that was counting sugar in the mix.

Saliva started pooling in her mouth as she barely chewed on the mouthful she had taken, slowly gulping it down and feeling the mush as it gently traveled down her esophagus and into her stomach, happily attacked by the acids contained within.

She kept taking bite after bite of the fruit until her teeth hit something hard in its middle, soon revealing a round, walnut-sized seed with a smooth surface and a bluish tinge.

Only when the entirety of the fruit had reached her stomach did she finally unfroze from her sweet-induced trance, staring at the seed in astonishment as she thought of the ramifications of what she had eaten.

This thing can’t be normal… It has no poison, real natural defenses and it’s incredibly appealing in taste to boot—even if it’s a bit too sugary in all honesty—, everything I’ve found so far is pretty much the opposite, even the tasty mushrooms were somewhat toxic. This thing was bred to be this way, I’d bet my butt on it.

I just wonder why nothing has been eating on them? Or it has and missed this one?

She stared around, spotting a handful of ripe fruits between the still-flowering plants and also noticing a few on the ground, their flesh split open and invaded by worms and butterflies busy feasting on the flesh.

At least the insects eat it so there shouldn’t be some kind of time-based trap on them.

“I guess I could get a few before moving down,” she told herself in a whisper, slowly moving towards the closest fruit-bearing plants, harvesting a couple of the heavy things, wrapping them in the largest leaves she could find and then carefully placing them in her sack after untying the knot closing it.

“I’ll find you a name later,” she whispered to the last fruit as it disappeared in the bag, “Now I just need to get to the ground… and possibly check the thing out. From a safe distance,”

More confident now that she had eaten and healed her wounds, Alice picked up her weapon once again and moved towards the stairway, her bare feet soon finding stone instead of dirt as she started carefully descending the hopefully final set of steps.

As she moved down, she observed the architecture of the place, noticing the way everything was rounded and seemed to spiral towards the sky, the structure ornate despite its simplicity.

Each of the floors had a gallery that would allow a visitor to walk past the numerous, tall doors dotting the walls while still watching the surface of the light well, where someone had carefully carved numerous symbols so that they could be read as one moved up and down the building, their meaning unknown to her but still eliciting a sense of melancholy in her mind as she thought of those long gone people and their dead city.

A few times, she actually stopped on her descent and entered through a door or two, finding destroyed rooms that were sometimes surrounded by small mounds of algae and sometimes full of plants, mosses and mushrooms that, over time, had enveloped the strange metal structures rotting in there, their shapes incredibly confusing and convoluted, with joints blocked by rust and detritus and flaking surfaces that were slowly being eroded by time itself.

At one point, she even noticed a small round sphere of crystal embedded in one of the joints of the machine and excitedly bounded forward, believing it to be a monster core she could use, instead finding it completely inert, no light or magical energy coming from inside.

She wasn’t sure whether it had faded after the centuries or if it just looked similar to the ones she had seen.

She didn’t know how much time she spent there, scouring the abandoned floors for signs of what had happened and for anything that could help her on her journey, finding only rotting fragments of a past not hers, but, in the end, she finally found herself at the bottom of the stairway, the feeling of wood against her soles enough to awaken her from the almost-trance that had taken to her, her eyes immediately gluing to the object that still flickered just a few meters away from her, her pupils widening as she was finally able to observe the entire scene.

The object was a crystal, completely different in nature from the ones she had seen so far, no larger than her hand and with a multifaceted surface that was covered in cracks and chips, as if something bigger had been shattered and the fragment in front of her eyes was just one of the few that remained.

Whatever its origin, Alice couldn’t help but stare at the way it hovered in the air less than a meter above the ground, surrounded by a bunch of roots which, however, didn’t touch it, held just a few centimeters away by the same force she could feel blanketing the space around it and slowly dissipating the further it moved, like an invisible mist made of pure magical energy.

And that thing is not hovering… It’s embedded there. The realization was sudden and she didn’t know how she knew that, or what was the difference or even how that could happen but she could feel by the way the crystal stood immobile that it wasn’t something as simple as an absence of gravity.

It was there, nothing could change it.

And then there were the tears.

Alice had been wordlessly staring at the crystal for just a few seconds when its flickering suddenly intensified for a single instant and something appeared above it, a small, two-dimensional window of space that briefly revealed a completely dark area where only air should have been, disappearing as fast as it had appeared and leaving behind only a strange shimmering that assured her that it hadn’t been a trick of the eye.

The rifts… Maath had told me about them… they really are windows for somewhere else. Could they bring me home?

Entranced, and despite the brain screaming at her to get away, she pushed forward, moving closer to the fragment and feeling the way the magical energy rippled and pressed against her body, her own magic pushing back to prevent it from entering as she stared at the second, larger rift that she had only now noticed, this one completely immobile and laying just a few millimeters above the actual ground, surrounded by numerous roots that were plunging straight into its water filled surface, the level of the liquid just enough not to spill out of the gash in space.

Unable to stop herself, she dropped on her knees beside it and hastily extracted her knife from its sheathe, carefully plunging its tip into the water and watching the concentrical circles that were created on the surface of the liquid, waiting for something to happen when they stilled.

When nothing seemed to change, she tentatively placed a fingertip inside of the water and felt the cold fluid against her skin, finding no other difference, as if it was only a deep puddle she was staring at.

Taking a deep breath, she finally stuck her whole head in, opening her eyes and staring at the huge ramifications of the plant’s roots into an endless water expanse that, as far as she could see, didn’t have any limit or edge, a freshwater sea in another world or dimension.

She could barely believe what was happening as she backed away from the rift, ignoring the cold water dripping from her waterlogged hair and onto her body as she stared at the opening, feeling the power that was constantly swaying around it as it was fed by the partially destroyed crystal, the barely perceptible flow of magical energy between the two.

Alice tried to focus on that connection, slowing her breath and closing her eyes as she did everything in her power to feel the way the magic rippled around, one of her hands extended forward, feeling the way her own energy interacted with the power of the shard, moving towards the spots where the flow was thicker and avoiding those where it was weaker until, after sidestepping the tear in space, her hand finally plunged into a wild and halting flood of energy which, to her surprise, seemed to then be fed into the fragment itself, coming from somewhere else.

“What the…” she murmured as she stepped forward, away from the fragment and towards the point where the trunk of the tree was connected to the ground, the flow of the magic simply passing through a knot of roots and moving past it, down into the stone.

Opening her eyes, she stared at the spot, observing the way the roots fused into each other into a singular, large mass of gnarled wood, hiding what was beneath.

Her expression was focused as she gripped her pick and started slamming it against the roots, methodically breaking the wooden tendrils around the fused portion and gradually ripping away the displaced chunks until that part of the root system was finally disconnected.

Her heart hammering in her chest, she bent her knees and started lifting, the muscles of her thighs, arms and back bulging beneath her skin as she raised the massive slab of wood and dropped it to the side with a thud, a flickering beam of bright light searing through her retinas when she finally revealed where the magic was coming from.

She stared wordlessly at the head-sized, angled borehole in the stone floor, its edges warped and melted as if something had literally burnt its way through the ground from somewhere very deep and very far away from that place, the incredibly bright light coming from it painting a huge shadow of her body against the internal walls.

She could feel the wild magical energy radiating from beneath, moving around the new obstacle to move into the crystal shard that lay in the air a few meters away, its power as halting and intermittent as the one she had felt from the fragment itself.

For a split second, the light that was washing over her faltered and, for just an instant and through the tears filling her half-blinded eyes, she managed to look down the narrow tunnel and stare at a small portion of the walls of a large spherical room that lay at its end, many hundreds of meters away, the stone and metal they were made of peppered with similar holes on its surface, their edges equally melted and warped.

In its center, suspended in the air, Alice saw the source.

*****

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