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Grieon ~ grah-ee-uhn
Cathurva ~ kahr-thoor-vahr
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LYING on a stretcher, a young girl, no older than she was, twisted in torment. Her face contorted in pain and her clothes soiled in mud and blood. An unsightly maroon mixture.

Around the girl were the familiar faces of Gema, Jamie, Marcela, Zack, and Lady Minerva. Marcela stood beside the girl, her murmured spells barely audible over the sound of the girl's yowls of pain as her muscles spasmed in jerky motions.

Gema and Jamie stood some distance behind Marcela, while Lady Minerva was on the other side of the girl with a hand on her shoulder, cooing some words to get the girl relaxed. Zack was the farthest from the action, some steps beside her.

She rushed in further. "What happened? Who is she?"

Despite leaning on a crutch and having one arm in a sling, Marcela continued her recitation, her good arm gracefully swirling over the girl.

As Karyn approached, she could see that the girl's left arm was absent, leaving only a flat space where it should have been.

"She turned up like this," Gema started. "She says the portals are closing. Stars only know how she made it this far."

"We..." the girl croaked. "Wlerden is dying. We are all dying. We need the princess, the—"

"Sh. Don't speak, you'll be fine," Karyn urged as Marcela signaled to some men she didn't notice were in the room.

"Let's take her upstairs and get her wounds cleaned. The bleeding has stopped temporarily with some spells, but she would need more herbs," Marcela directed before following the men without sparing a glance at Karyn.

Jamie began pacing around as the men wheeled the girl out. "This is all we need, Lady Minerva. We need to leave now."

"Jamie is right," Gema agreed. "The girl came some moments ago in pain, saying she had just gone through a portal, but it was closing in on itself."

"Did the portal do that to her?" she asked, unable to keep the shock from her voice.

"Unstable portals are very dangerous. Everyone in and from Wlerden knows that."

"She must have been desperate to pass through one," Zack said.

"I'd say foolish," Jamie muttered, unrelenting from his pacing around.

"Not foolish, Jamyen. Desperate," Lady Minerva scolded.

"But why? What would make anyone go through an unstable portal knowing they could die?" Gema asked.

"She said Wlerden was dying," Karyn said.

Jamie finally stopped and stood still. "That's because we have kept the gems in us away from her for too long."

"You all leave tonight." The finality in Lady Minerva's tone couldn't be mistaken for anything else.

"No. Tonight's too far away. Unstable portals are like dominos. Once one becomes unstable, it spreads. She wouldn't have made it far with injuries like those, which means the nearby portals are in line with this instability. We have to leave soon," Jamie insisted.

"We prepared rucksacks with clothes and supplies as soon as you all got here. Salome will get them, and she'll leave with you."

"Sally wants to get back to Wlerden?"

"She's always wanted to. Our Silverein here has simply put away her worries."

♛ ♛ ♛

"WE'VE been walking for a while now, Jamie. Are you sure the map isn't upside down?" Gema called out from behind with a chuckle.

"I know what I'm doing," he said bitterly.

It all happened fast and in the next half an hour, they were all trudging through the forest of Louriville after they had recited a spell that would enable them to see any nearby portals.

Jamie and Zack walked ahead. She and Salome walked beside each other while Gema and Marcela were some distance behind them, due to Marcela's lingering injuries.

The only thing Karyn had added to the already packed bag was a pouch of Kara's dust and the framed handy painting of her parents.

The sun had settled behind the skies and a darker hue came over the forest.

"Grastras, I'm nowhere near such terrible energy. It's enough to worsen my wounds," Marcela said, and Gema responded with a laugh. [~Thank the stars.]

"I still don't know how you are calm when he's so... bitter?" Salome asked, with a fear-tinged gaze cast on Jamie's back.

"We've gotten used to him," Gema said.

"We used to avoid him when he was in his mood, but now we pester him even more. It's more fun that way."

Karyn was glad to see Marcela in a good mood and tried not to worry about the fact that the Emeraldine hadn't said a word to her since.

Gema smirked. "Marce has way too much fun with it."

"What can I say? I just can't pass up such a wonderful opportunity," Marcela joked, but no one responded as all eyes laid on the sight ahead.

A cloud of orange swirled a few meters ahead of them, but as Gema and Marcela caught up, the ground shook beneath them, sending streaks of brown shooting through the cloud before they overcame the orange hues.

Soon the air intensified around them, whipping up and sucking in fallen leaves and rocks, creating a cacophony of rustling and tumbling sounds. The harsh current forced them to rush to the nearest tree to prevent themselves from falling prey to it.

Karyn felt the rough bark of the tree she held on to pressing into her palms as she squinted through the chaos to see a gnarled tree branch pulled from the ground and straight into the decaying portal.

"Now what?" Salome yelled over the wind.

"If there's another, we have to get to it fast!" Jamie started.

"But Lady Minerva only marked two on this map, and the first was the one the girl had come through," Marcela stated.

Salome spoke, but Karyn couldn't hear the young girl. The world had dulled around her and the sounds muted as the sound of her breathing increased. She closed her eyes, reaching into the pull within her and when she opened her eyes, her lips tugged up in a small smile.

Some distance away was a silver rope suspended in mid-air. She remembered the first time she had seen one when they were looking for Elowen and Kara and turned to the others.

"I think I know where the next one is. Come on."

Without giving them a chance to respond, she broke into a run. The soft pounding of feet on leaves behind her was enough to tell her they followed. They kept at it till they reached a bright orange cloud, much brighter than the one that had decayed in front of them.

"It looks stable enough. We have to move before it changes," Jamie said.

"Jamie, go in first. Then Karyn, Salome, and Zack. I'll help Marcela through," Gema ordered.

When Karyn stepped through, she didn't know what to expect. A cold air wrapped around her at once, sweeping over and biting at her skin. Her feet rose, but she couldn't distinguish if she was standing, sitting, or flying. Just before she lost all sensation, she fell. She waited with eyes closed for the nausea she knew with teleportation, but it didn't come.

Then the ground shook. Her eyes shot open to see black leaves scattered beneath her palms. She blinked, realizing she was on her knees and hands before she took in the ferocious wind coming from behind her. She stumbled when she turned to find the cloud behind them turning brown.

"No! No! No!" Jamie exclaimed before they watched helplessly as the same scene happened again. In the next moment, the cloud was gone and the only remnants of the harsh wind were the leaves and rocks that drifted and fell back to the ground.

Jamie stood rooted to the spot before a crunch of dried leaves punctuated the tense silence. She twisted to see Zack roaming around and that was when her eyes took in the life—or lack of it—around them.

Tall-to-medium trees stood around them, but they were nothing like that of Emerfield or Louriville. These were black and dry, with multiple cracks running along the length of them.

Most of all, there were no leaves. The branches were all wilted, and shrunken, like a wood-eating disease had ravaged them. The leaves that should have been on the trees were black and laid still on the floor.

Everything looked as if something had sucked the life out of it. Did the portal do that, or was it like that before they got here?

"Where was the portal supposed to drop us again?" Zack asked as he stopped and bent to pick something she couldn't see, as he still had his back turned to them.

"Lady Minerva said the one the girl had walked through would have taken us to Myriando, while the one that fell when we got there should have taken us to Nertiva," Salome said and then turned to Karyn before she added, "And that is just beside my hometown, Grieon."

"Jamie, I know you're in shock, but you guys are gonna need to see this," Zack said before he turned to reveal the white leaf in his hand. It seemed to be the only one in a mass of black and even at that, its falling form didn't show it would remain so for long.

"Is that... a white leaf?"

Karyn didn't need to look at Salome to hear the shock and fear in her tone.

"A dying one," Zack replied.

Salome let out a gasp. "White leaves."

"Which only means—"

"Cathurva!" Jamie exclaimed and finally spun to them. "Let me see that," he said gruffly before he marched towards Zack and snatched the leaf.

"There's only one place white leaves grow in Wlerden and that's Cathurva," Salome explained. "Which is all the way north of Wlerden and with Portal Houses banned, it's months away from the capital by road. Adding all this talk of Red guards won't make it a smooth one either."

"How?" Jamie asked, his lips parted in a stupefied expression.

"I guess since Lady Minerva didn't know of this portal, she wouldn't have known this one led to Cathurva," Salome said.

Jamie groaned and ran a hand through his hair, which had grown out since she'd first seen him with a buzz cut. He tugged at the ends before he let the hand fall.

"Of course, the portal Karyn leads us to takes us the farthest from Whiscanter."

"Hey!" Karyn rose to her feet. "What's that supposed to mean? I don't even remember anything about this place. How am I to know what leads where?"

"Karyn's right. It couldn't have been deliberate like you're insinuating," Zack said.

"Deliberate or not, we are in Cathurva and we have to make our way to the White Castle which shouldn't be a problem, given that's one of the things you're here for," Jamie said giving Zack a pointed look.

"Don't worry, I know my way around Wlerden like I know the lines on my palms," Zack said confidently.

"That's a good thing, right?" Salome asked, her innocent, wide eyes fixed on Zack.

"Yes, Salome," he chuckled. "That's a good thing. Now we need to find somewhere that's not here to clear our heads and plan our way forward."

Karyn's eyes flashed to Jamie, taking in the distraught look on his face, and she felt a little bad for him. He didn't trust her or Zack—he made that clear—and he probably didn't know Salome so well. Now he was stuck with them.

"Fine," was all Jamie said before he looked at the dull sky above. He moved around with his eyes unyielding and she frowned at his actions until he stopped. "This way," he said and trudged on without saying where in particular, but all three followed, regardless.

Unknown to them, the spot Karyn stood on moments ago cracked, and a small stem sprawled. As the stem grew from the land, an area some distance away swelled and rumbled with a low growl.

It morphed and moved in an undulating motion until it gave rise to a creature. Its eyes blazed in a fiery red as they locked in on the small stem. Its taloned feet moved with a preciseness as it stalked toward the stem.

When it reached it, it sniffed, growled, and turned its ragged head in the direction they went.

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*A/N*

We're here! We're finally here! I'm currently working on a map of Wlerden. Of course, I have my hand-drawn map which is basically a bunch of shapes I put together before I got into Wlerden so I could have the journey set out. But back then, the excitement made me forget about seas and mountains, so I'm considering that as well now. I hope to get it out before the next chapter and if there's any delay you can blame it on the map.

We're gonna be hearing some new terms now but fret not! A Characters and Glossary chapter is being updated regularly, so if you stumble across any term you may have forgotten about, you can easily reference that chapter for easier understanding.

I hope you're loving the story so far and I would love to hear your thoughts and reactions in the comments. Don't be a silent reader, let's interact!

Also, we are halfway through the story, can you imagine!

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ITNC: On the lone streets of Louriville, barely illuminated by the moonlight, Gema and Marcela stumble upon a familiar figure who is far from home.

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~
The Sparkling Authoress,
Mis. A
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