Rift

Chapter 26: The free city

"The others are being taken around and shown the place" she said, standing in the doorway.

"I see, and how come you came here?" I asked while sitting up.

"I wanted to talk... but maybe it's not the best time." She crossed her arms and leaned against the doorframe, making an expression mixed between concern and disappointment.

"No, I think it is" I answered, stretching my arms to try and reach for a pair of crutches placed against the wall not too far from me. I too wanted to speak with her and satisfy my curiosity by hopefully getting some answers to the questions that I had been carrying in my mind for the past few days. "I really need to go outside and take a breath of fresh air." Most of the things I wanted to ask were delicate matters, so I wanted a little more privacy, but I wasn't lying about the air. There was surely something here that let it circulate in and out of the tunnel, and the place was kept tidy and clean, but it still felt a little stuffy in here.

"Wait, the doctor said you shouldn't exert yourself so soon" she said walking up to me, either to help me or to stop me.

Since she was taking her time, I managed to stand up before she could do any of those things, even though I wasn't only on my feet. I was already feeling a lot better compared to this morning; I don't know if the doctor did something in particular, but I've always been pretty quick to bounce back. "Did you meet him?" I asked a little surprised, wondering again how long I slept, and what the others did in the meantime.

She nodded. "It was him who pointed us to you."

We got out of the room and went back into the tunnel, and since I couldn't really walk too fast, Celara led the way. She went in the opposite direction to the one I came from, which was without a doubt the one she took to get here, meaning that there were multiple entries. The tunnel covered even more distance on this side, and I got the chance to see more rooms, more people, and even some points in which the tunnel bifurcated and continued in other directions. Some of the people were just there, resting or waiting for something, others looked busier and kept popping out of a door to disappear beyond another, often carrying something with them. Some of the passersby watched us curiously, one or two of them looked even somewhat puzzled, as if trying to remember if we had already met, most of them just nodded at our passage. I shifted my attention back in front of me, to Celara, who promptly reciprocated every greeting sign.

I couldn't help but already feel excited at the idea of learning something from her. Sure, her personality may be a little convoluted at times, but rightly so, she is still someone coming from another world, after all; it's unbelievable to think that we have so much in common that we managed to understand each other and get this far together. Being able to understand the language wasn't the hardest part to believe, because I took it for granted that there was magic involved in that. The part that impressed me the most and made me wonder about her world was that we were able to understand each other's way of thinking, to some extent. The way she behaves isn't completely inconceivable to us, and the same goes in reverse, probably.

I suppressed this side of me until now because my nature wouldn't let me stop being constantly on the lookout for potential dangers, but since we finally got where we wanted, it was resurfacing, making me quiver in anticipation.

Shortly after we made our way out, we saw the doctor approaching us. "Where are you two going? Miss, I thought I made myself clear... Well, it doesn't matter. There's someone who wants to meet you, boy. I told him that you were in no condition to do that, but clearly I was wrong."

Why did he even bother leaving the crutches next to me if he didn't want me to get up? "Someone looking for me? Who is it?" I asked. Why would someone want to see me, of all people? I'm sure I did nothing strange since I got here; I was in bed the whole time, after all.