Shadow's Advent

Chapter Three

Caraka glanced behind her and decided fighting may not be the best option. She quickly nodded her head. 

They ran through the mist, the shrieking and howling slowly fading behind them.  

It took awhile, but finally Caraka was able to see two figures in the mist. She began to rush past Kytheran. "Cipher!" 

"Caraka!" Cipher ran towards them and hugged Caraka tightly. She grabbed her shoulders, her face inches away from Caraka's. "What happened? Why did you wander off like that?" 

"I didn't wander off! The mist engulfed me and I lost you guys. I tried looking for you but I fell off the cliff and slammed into the ice..." Caraka trailed off. 

"And she ran into a gigantic snake creature," said Kytheran, finishing for her. 

She turned and glared at him. 

"A snake creature?" Aaralynn exclaimed. "What? Is it after us?" 

Caraka shook her head. "Kytheran injured it and we ran off and lost it." 

Cipher sighed, "Good, we don't need any more complications." 

"Oh, we still have complications," said Kytheran. He grabbed Caraka's shoulder. "You know that thing." 

"Oww!" Caraka snapped. She tried to pry his fingers off of her. "I don't know what you are talking about." 

"Yes you do," he snarled. "I heard you talking to it. 

"I think the mist is getting to your head." 

He pushed her away. "What was that thing, Caraka? I am not going to have a gigantic snake chasing after me." 

"He won't chase after you," she said stiffly.  

"How can you promise me that? He seemed pretty intent on dragging you away if I hadn't come and helped," he said. 

Cipher stepped in between them. "Stop it; I'm sure Caraka has a perfectly reasonable explanation." Cipher glanced at her. "Right?" 

Caraka bit her lip. "I-I...he's just a monster. Not all monsters are mindless and mute. He wanted to kidnap me. I don't know who he is." 

Cipher sighed, but Kytheran looked unconvinced. "Look, Kytheran, if it's not chasing after us..." Cipher began. 

He squared his shoulders then crossed his arms. "How far are we from the city?" 

"Not far," said the Fyria. 

He nodded his head forward. "Then lead the way. I'll take the rear in case that thing decides it wants to change its mind." 

Cipher nodded. "All right." She started walking, leading the way, with Aaralynn close behind. 

Caraka didn't move, merely standing there. Kytheran glared at her. "Come on, get moving. You aren't going behind me." 

"Y-You saw him," she said softly. 

He looked at her, perplexed. "Excuse me? Of course I saw him! That thing was hard to miss." 

She looked up at him, "You aren't supposed to see him." 

"Why not?" he asked, a low threatening tone to his voice.  

She shook her head and started off towards where Cipher walked off to, muttering, "You weren't supposed to see him." Caraka's heart sunk into her stomach. She couldn't believe he saw him. Does that mean he is cursed too? 

Kytheran watched her leave, completely confused. What did she mean he wasn't supposed to see him? It? Whatever it was.  

He shook his head. He was falling behind and he didn't want to get lost in the mist as well.

It took them over an hour of wandering through the mist before anything came into view. The smell of sea salt seemed heightened, yet the air was eerily silent. 

"Cipher, are you even sure where you are going?" asked Aaralynn. 

"Of course I am," she said. 

"How? I can barely see my hand in front of me, no less any landmarks," the elf pointed out. 

Cipher smirked. "I've had many gifts bestowed upon me by the great gods." 

"Like what? Can you see through the mist?" asked Kytheran. 

Cipher suddenly stopped, turning around. She tilted her head. "We are here." 

The group looked around. "All I see is mist," said Aaralynn. 

Cipher turned to her right, placed her fingers in her mouth and whistled. 

The sound rang through the still air. The ground rumbled slightly and far off in the distance, the mist began to thin. 

It revealed a massive city built into the cliff face. It stretched out for miles in either direction and filled the cliff from top to bottom in three levels.  

On the lowest level, right next to the iced ocean, it was filled with short, yet large buildings. Boats of all different sizes remained at the docks, forever frozen into the waters, several of them even being iced over themselves. There seemed to be ice figures on the docks and the streets in front and beside the buildings. People. 

On the middle level, the buildings were tall and thin and covered in hundreds of windows, taller than any building in the known tarhyn and elfin worlds. Some were perfectly rectangular, while others had oddly curving shapes. Connecting them all, though, were bridges; some shimmering like glass and others dark and solid.  

On the uppermost level, was most obvious; the residential level. The largest and most magnificent houses on the furthest reach of the city and they slowly got smaller and blander as they came closer to the center. Strangely though, in the dead center of the level was the largest and most grand of the houses; it stood in two separate yet symmetric pieces, long and rectangular, reaching from the back cliff face to the edge of the level, miniature bridges connecting the two buildings, the silver and blue colorings of the stone could see be seen through the ice. 

In the middle of it all was a grand waterfall. It flowed through each level and even in between the symmetrical buildings, before flowing back into the ocean. It too was completely frozen. 

"Great goddess, is this Trilibela?" asked Kytheran, completely shocked. 

"The one and only," said Cipher. 

"It's massive!" said Aaralynn. 

"And completely frozen over," Caraka said flatly. 

Cipher glanced at her. She walked over so she was in between them and the city. She raised her hands up and tilted her head forward. "Welcome to Trilibela; the capital of Atheran, the political center of the Driginis world and the first city to fall victim to the Solstice Abyss."