“Feels… strange,” Veylan said, as he crouched on the ground,
running his fingers along the surface.
“Soft… and warm.”
“What is this place?” Kael asked as he hoisted his gear and gazed across the
sweeping horizon.
Sira emerged last, pausing after climbing the slope.
“Well, it’s Zevara, of course,” she said, panting for breath.
“I know the name of the planet, Sira. I mean—what is this place?”
“Habitable air, perfect gravity, mild temperature, and then… nothing.”
“Well, it better be habitable. It’s been two weeks since we removed our suits.
Last thing I want is to contract some kind of space virus,” said Sira, finally
catching her breath.
“That’s what puzzles me,” said Kael. “Everything here is perfectly suited for
our survival. The fucking ground is edible. There are pockets of freshwater
almost everywhere we look.”
“I wonder who the genius was who suggested we eat the ground,” Sira smirked.
“Shut up, Sira. This is not a joke. And since we came here, not a single one of
us has gotten sick—not even a cough.”
Sira coughs.
Kael glared at her.
Kael removed a flag marker from his gear and held it in his
hand.
“It’s just another barren planet… what are you afraid of?” Sira asked, getting
mildly annoyed.
Kael shrugged and set down the flag marker. The thin metal rod sank into the
ground.
“Just another planet? Okay—see this.”
They stepped back. Five minutes passed. Ten…
With every minute, the ground around the rod began to swell until the marker
was pushed upward and toppled over.
“Okay, that’s not supposed to happen,” Sira muttered.
Veylan stared, his eyes gleaming.
“A self-repairing surface? That’s fascinating.”
“It’s creepy,” said Kael.
“Guys, it’s almost sunset,” Sira pointed.
As the sun dipped, casting elongated shadows, they set up a
makeshift camp.
The horizon shimmered with hues of violet and deep amber, the air thick with an
unfamiliar floral scent.
The campfire crackled weakly. The twin moons of Zevara loomed large, blending with the violet haze of the sky.
Veylan remained alert, scanning the ground thoroughly.
“Oh my god, can you please stop staring at the ground? It’s very unsettling.”
“There it is…” Veylan yelled as he dashed toward a faint glow. He crouched over and immediately pulled out his notebook, scribbling frantically.
Kael got up and walked toward him.
“This is the third time I’ve seen these appear,” he muttered, half to himself.
“There’s got to be a pattern. Some meaning.”
“You’re obsessed, Veylan. You see a weird rock—you scribble. You see a floating light—you scribble. Now you’re scribbling the dirt.”
“That’s incorrect. There is no dirt here, if you haven’t noticed…” Veylan replied without looking up from the glowing symbols.
“This place is perfect. It’s built for us,” he said as he noted the final symbol.
The symbols slowly began to fade.
“This place is just perfect,” he repeated, eyes gleaming.
“They disappear exactly after I note them down. Every single time.”
“You’re a weirdo, you know that, right?” Kael said, taking a swig from his flask as he walked back to the fire.
“Careful,” Veylan called. “The ground gets bumpy sometimes. Try not to trip.”
A few feet away, Sira had tuned them out.
Her gaze was drawn to something just beyond the fire’s glow.
She walked toward it and noticed a cluster of fungi-like things gently swaying.
Her stomach grumbled. She hadn’t eaten much all day, and curiosity got the better of her.
Without hesitation, she plucked one and popped it into her mouth.
It tasted cold—unlike anything she had ever tasted. She slowly felt her throat glow. The sensation spread down to her chest, then radiated outward to her fingertips.
Then she noticed: the camp had faded out of existence.
The sky above cracked like glass, peeling away to reveal a swirling vortex of stars.
The moons bled into radiant orbs of shifting color—pink, green, gold. The ground beneath her pulsed, alive, its texture shifting from solid to liquid to something else entirely.
Sira gasped, but the sound came out distorted—like she was underwater.
She wasn’t underwater. She was floating in the air.
“Wohooo, I can swim in the air…”
She drifted through an ocean of air, suspended and weightless.
Strange creatures—translucent and glowing—swam past her, their elongated bodies bending and twisting in impossible ways.
Her fingers tingled. She looked down.
Her hands… weren’t hands anymore. They stretched, fractured into light.
A voice, deep and echoing, resonated in her mind:
“Welcome home.”
The night melted away.
She found herself standing at the edge of a city. Her breath caught in her throat.
Gleaming white marble buildings stretched before her.
It was broad daylight. No longer night.
Towering columns lined the streets. Arched bridges connected buildings like delicate threads.
Ornate fountains stood at every intersection, frozen mid-flow, as if someone had hit pause on time.
But there were no people. No movement. No sound—except her own echoing footsteps.
“Where is everyone?” she whispered.
But her voice was swallowed by the vast emptiness.
She was drawn to a great palace. She pushed hard against its doors, but they wouldn’t budge.
She noticed a tiny circular hole between the giant doors.
She tried to kick it—
Her leg got stuck.
She was sucked into the hole.
Her whole body squeezed through the small opening.
Inside: darkness.
A deity carved into the wall.
Hooded figures held fire, chanting in a language she had never heard.
She fell in with a thud and stood up.
The figures began to turn toward her. Faces still in shadow—only their gleaming white teeth visible.
Terrified, she began pounding on the door.
This time, it opened easily.
She stumbled out and shut it behind her.
Silence.
She was no longer in the city.
Just a room. A wall.
She noticed symbols—similar to the ones in Veylan’s notes.
They began to rearrange themselves.
An image took shape.
The whispers began.
“Stay.”
They echoed from all sides.
“Stay with us.”
A cold hand—no, a shadow—grasped her wrist.
She tried to scream. Her mouth wouldn’t open.
“STAY.”
She thrashed—
And suddenly—
“Sira!”
The voice snapped her back.
Her eyes flew open.
She was back at camp, lying on her back, the fire crackling beside her.
Kael was kneeling over her, shaking her shoulders, his face tense.
Veylan stood behind him, notebook in hand, concern flickering in his eyes.
Sira sat up abruptly, breathing hard.
The taste of the mushroom lingered—electric and bitter.
Her hands shook. She grabbed Kael’s arm tightly.
“It’s a map.”
Kael blinked. “What?”
“I saw something. The symbols—” She turned to Veylan, heart pounding. “They form a map.”
Veylan’s eyes widened. “You saw the same symbols?”
“Yes.”
Kael groaned. “Oh, fantastic. Now you’re both seeing shit.”
Veylan looked thrilled. “There’s something out there, waiting. We need to find it.”
Sira ignored him. She turned her gaze beyond the campfire, toward the dark expanse of Zevara’s uncharted wilderness.
She could still hear the whisper—faint, carried on the wind:
“Come.”
“We should definitely try whatever Sira ate. I think it can give us more clues,” said Veylan.
“Are you mad?” Kael shouted. “Didn’t you see what it did to her? It looked like she was dying.”
“It’s too late, Veylan,” Sira said, pointing to the place where she found the fungi.
Only a small patch remained.
The fungi were gone.
All that remained was a faint, discolored mark on the ground.