William stared at the hexagonal tilts on the floor. Zho Ming, Artur Asgard, and Miris Ates had left him alone with his thoughts and a bucket of cold water. No matter how much he washed his face, his situation was still a reality.
He had just accepted to join them and was supposed to follow them into whatever life of training, scholarship, or whatever experimentation he had never imagined before.
Was that what he wanted? He was trapped and there were no alternatives. And that wicked magic Zho summoned; assuming his brain wasn't playing a trick on William, had the world gone truly mad?
The hexagonal door creaked and spread apart as a lean male figure wearing beige pants and shirt just like William entered the prismatic room.
"William?" asked Artur. "Feeling better? Zho says the best for you right now is to go out and get some fresh air. Miris says you need to rest and sleep, but heck if you need so when you've been on that bed two weeks straight. I bet your ass is as straight and flattened as your back."
"...hell if I know what I need."
"Don't overthink it. Just take it easy," Artur moved to the table with the teapot. "You know what? I'm gonna take you to Inanna for some dinner, it's the town at the bottom of the mountain. I'm sure you'll like some actual food and me too. We haven't got anything decent since Sunia, and that was before we were captured."
Inanna; William almost asked what that place was, but it wouldn't make any difference to his ignorant situation. All he knew was that he was now an abhorrent undead creature called a lich, thousands of miles away from home on foreign lands.
Artur; his words reminded him of the conflict in their homeland. Both fought for different sides, ordered to kill each other, and were now in the same strange place about to share dinner.
Maybe his grandfather was right; life could flip down when you imagined it the less. And magic, liches, and nightmares weren't the only odd things going on...
Artur approached and passed him another cup of hot tea. "C'mon, little swallow. Gulp another cup. No more than that because moonflower tea is hallucinogenic. I don't want to know what punishment Zho would put on me or for how long Miris would nag."
William drank the tea to the bottom, his head becoming dizzy but numb at the end, warm and then refreshing.
"Feels good, right? Miris drank so much of it back after being turned into a lich she almost vomited it all. You can trust her by the way. She's sweet when she's not nagging and like all Reniramians, she dislikes foreigners, though I'm sure she feels different for us. You might barely know us, but being liches kinda makes us like a family. Though you can see that in whatever way you want. You can trust Zho too. He's a good man."
"I guess so…" William rubbed his face before stretching both arms. It was nothing personal, but he still could not trust any of them.
That second teacup helped him feel better, though nothing would have been able to help his messy mind and tangled thoughts.
"So, if you're ready, let's go down to Inanna and have something to eat. It's late already. There's a pair of boots your size below the bed you can use, consider them your welcome gift from the order. Pssst... they go on my behalf."
William straightened up. Laying on that bed would not solve anything. If he knew something, that was that you could always learn just by observing. Maybe his doubts would sort out the more he played along.
He found both leather pieces and dragged them out of the bed. Their laces were magenta and crimson, which reminded him of Miris' scarf. They fit perfectly to his feet. Artur also issued him a long, beige coat that reached the level of his knees. It had a saggy hoody and asymmetrical magenta buttons from the left shoulder to the right side of the waist.
"Now these do look cool, right?" Artur put on a jacket identical to his. "These are the traditional Oksidi colors. Maybe people on Inanna won't give you and me as many bad looks if they see you with them on. Let's get outta here."
Artur helped William get up from the bed and stand still for a few seconds. Although weakened, his body felt oddly light and meek to movement, despite the dizziness making him feel as if he was about to trip over.
They left the room. The corridor outside was a mildly illuminated way made of the same yellowish stone as the room behind. Ordered rows of hexagonal doors at both sides reminded him of a prison or a subterranean bunker, though Artur explained it was the dorm area of the monastery; William's supposed new home.
His room was at the bottom, near a hexagonal door at the end that Artur guided him through. They crossed a narrow passage that led to stairs descending to a thick brass gate covered by pipes and steaming mechanisms that Artur took a few moments to open.
The door spread, fresh and cold air crossing through William's lungs as the grey sky cramped by thick clouds at every corner stared below. They were at the open, a flat area covered by yellow grass and snow patches that combined with the landscape.
Blackened rock cliffs and peaks of white tops surrounded the area at a dangerous distance of fewer than 20 meters; they were at the edge and heart of some dangerous mountain system, unable to see anything of what might have been behind the rocky coverage.
"Fresh air…" Artur breathed deep. "It's good, isn't it? Look at the sky. It's all covered by clouds. Just as I told you back on the ship."
"I heard the other prisoners saying the weather is bad here."
"It is, but this is not the result of the weather, William. It's been like this for two or three years, every spot on the skies covered by thick clouds," Artur made a short pause, his friendly tone sounding serious and melancholic. "Reniram is getting colder. I've heard some people saying they've forgotten what the stars look like. You can bet this is not just the result of some bad weather season. Something nasty must be going on…"
William stared at the dead and opaque dark blue above. He felt curious about it. With years of no direct sunlight, how would the people on the island survive? The sun was necessary for crops to flourish. Without it, hunger would eventually leave its mark. Maybe it had done so already.
"C'mon," Artur unlocked a trapdoor at the black dirt. "Don't worry about that for now, let's go to Inanna. You must be hungry, and I am too. There are lots of things you wouldn't believe that I want you to see down there. This place is truly magical, William. I'm sure you're not gonna miss Sunia. I don't myself."
He spread the trapdoor, a ladder going down through a narrow hole to some undivulged light. Artur went first, and then William followed. He only hoped no more nasty surprises expected them inside.