Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Six: Frozen in Time

Lie. 

Jay wasn't able to trust Arian with such sensitive information quite yet. She was going to have to get to know him a hell of a lot better before she even considered speaking to him about everything on her mind in that moment. Even then, who could say if she would ever find him to be a good person to reveal the truth to? For all she knew, she was going to be keeping this damn secret for the rest of her life, and Arian's gentle yet probing questions would never receive truthful answers. 

"Yeah," was all Jay could force herself to say, but it was more than enough. Was it just her, or had the air gotten colder? She could have sworn that it was trying to sting at her body actively, penetrating her clothing and fogging up her breath slightly. Her body was wracked with small shudders before she could say what was happening, and when she exhaled, her entire torso felt like it was about to collapse in on itself. What was with the sudden chill? Was it all in her mind, or was it actually real? Why couldn't she tell the difference? 

Jay and Arian finally stopped walking when they arrived at the border of what was once Nadia. Jay had to bite down on her lip firmly to keep from being sick at the sight of the city's remains, and she shivered once again. This time, Arian followed suit, and his hands gently wrapped around his upper arms. She hadn't been imagining the cold, it seemed. Somehow, that was almost more worrying to her than the idea that it had been fabricated by her exhausted mind as a way of distracting herself from how much she hated this stupid place. 

"Why is it so cold?" Arian asked under his breath, and when she stole a glance at him, Jay noticed that his teeth were chattering. Her stomach grew tense, and she feared as if she was on the verge of losing every piece of food that she had spent so much time forcing herself to eat. Her hand was on her sword in the blink of an eye, and she drew it with the familiar click of steel. The sound pierced her head, ringing in her ears mercilessly as she pleaded with the universe to have some damn mercy. There was only so much of this exhausting crap that she could take. 

Both of the teens looked around they area, attempting to find any signs of what was going on around them. Unfortunately, their wishes to grasp the truth fell flat, and nothing was revealed as the seconds crawled on. Jay's headache only grew worse, and she had to actively resist the urge to send one hand up to her temple as a way of nursing her aggravating migraine. She could feel a thousand questions forming on her tongue, but she was unable to allow any of them to manifest. 

Arian was glancing at the remains of the city from her side, and he suddenly threw out his arm to tap on Jay's left shoulder. He was wise enough to choose the arm that wasn't containing the sword, and it kept him from receiving an instinctive slash as her shoulders grew tense between fear and anxiety. Arian pointed off to the far right of the two, and a single figure could be seen standing in the area. 

Jay didn't realize how foggy the area was until she was given the chance to look in the distance, and she felt as if the air was starting to pull at every part of her body all of a sudden. When she exhaled, a puff of breath surrounded her lips, and she stared at it in silent bewilderment despite knowing that there was nothing she could do to stop it. Something about the situation was making her feel sick all over again.

The person in the distance only made Jay feel worse, and she hated that she didn't have an explanation as to why they were in Nadia. Nobody would come to what was left of the city of their own free will. It was a graveyard, a snapshot of history from the very moment that its people were killed in an explosive invasion. There was nothing to be proud of in the remains of Nadia, and nobody would want to go there. Jay suspected that she and Arian were some of the few people to actually travel past the crumbling city gates in the past few months. The idea that someone else would get the same idea at the same time made her mind scream that something was wrong. She had figure out who in the world that other person was.