Chapter 7 - World in Mist

A photo of a woman in her twenties wearing a cream-colored wedding gown. That's all it was. Nevertheless, Luka couldn't deny the suffocating panic rising within her. There was no reason to doubt the authenticity of the picture, and so, there was no escape from the maddening theories that were beginning to form inside her brain.

Gakupo took a step forward, with an incongruously blissful expression in his face. He grabbed the picture frame on the right and studied the image of the elderly couple. He smiled, eyes glistening. "Look at them, so old..." He laughed and a tear rolled down his left cheek.

Luka eyed him with confusion, her brain still mostly occupied with the picture of the newlyweds. Gakupo laughed again, then sniffled. "It's my parents, Luka! My parents!" He rubbed his eyes. "Well, I guess they are his parents, really." He paused for a moment, as if considering something, and asked in a hopeful tone, "Do you think they live nearby? If this is his house, then maybe we can find-"

"I hope not." Luka cut him off. "And if this is his home, we need to dry off and find a hiding spot before he gets back."

Gakupo's face fell.

"I'm sorry." Luka placed the wedding dress on the bed, then grabbed one of Gakupo's hands. It was clammy like hers. "But you said it yourself. Whatever they are, they are not your parents. We have to be careful."

After a moment, Gakupo nodded. "You're right." He looked past Luka at the two other photographs, then his gaze returned to the girl. "Does your head hurt?"

"Huh?"

"That's how it goes whenever he's close, so if she's around-"

"Ah, no." Luka turned to glance at the woman in the wedding dress and quickly looked away. "No, I feel fine." Aside from the uncomfortable sensation of the wet clothes against her skin, that is. She grabbed one of the towels from the floor and wrapped it around Gakupo's shoulders. "I'll feel even better once we stop courting hypothermia and get changed."

A bit of humour returned to Gakupo's expression. "Sounds good to me."

Luka grabbed a couple things from the chest and another towel from the floor. "I'll use the bathroom, ok?" There was the small problem of the lack of electricity, but now that Luka wasn't looking at perplexing photographs she noticed several unlit several candles resting on the shelves as part as the decor of the bedroom. She grabbed one and Gakupo wordlessly lit it with a match.

If the bathroom had been properly illuminated, Luka would've found it barely worth commenting upon. Antiquated yet mundane like everything else in the home; merely a windowless room with a toilet, a sink, a clawfoot tub and a corner shelf in the same muted palette as the walls. Luka quickly decided against looking at the mirror over the sink: the way her reflection seemed to be drowning in petroleum, with anything barely visible around her, was unnerving in a way she couldn't easily articulate. She turned around and undressed as quickly as humanly possible. In the process, she realized her phone was still in her pocket, as drenched as everything else. The screen was completely blank and unresponsive. She placed it aside with a groan and dried herself. Next, it was time to try on the clothes from the chest. Her chosen dress was loose and shapeless, but nicely thick and soft. Together with the long cape, she felt perfectly insulated from the offending cold, at least from the neck down. That was enough to lift her spirits, despite the weirdness of the situation they were in.

Gakupo's voice came from the other side of the door. "Are you done?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Are you?"

"Yep."

Luka exited the bathroom and found Gakupo rubbing his head with the towel. He was wearing the other cape and a work suit, light grey like her wool dress. "I feel Dickensian wearing this stuff." He then gave the pile of discarded clothing at his feet a little kick. "I guess we need to hang these somewhere."

"Even if we hang them by the fire, it's going to take a while," Luka said eyeing the misshapen bundle comprised by her own clothes. Perhaps it was better to pack the wet uniforms and just leave right away. On the other hand, their surroundings were a complete enigma. They had no guarantee that there was a safer location nearby, or even that they were alone in the house. What if the man was in one of the front rooms, doing who know what? Or that woman in the wedding dress. In fact, the mere idea of seeing her own face with the same unhinged look the man sported gave her nausea. That unappealing train of thought inspired Luka to cross the room and slowly open the door that lead to the inner courtyard. She had to know if the house was truly vacant.

Night. The grey world outside had been completely replaced by an almost perfect darkness. The light of the fire could only illuminate the tiled floor and insinuate the watery surface beyond it. There was no light pollution, no hint of other dwellings nearby. For a moment, Luka felt like she was underwater once more, helplessly sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss.

She closed and locked the door. Only when she found herself staring at its wood grain did she realize that the night was incredibly silent as well. There was no wind, no tires screeching in the distance, no hint of animal life whatsoever.

"I think we should spend the night here," Luka said still staring at the varnished surface of the panel before her. Fortunately, her voice didn't shake too much. "We can barricade the exits if we need to." The last thing she wanted to do was to go outside into that cold, soundless void.

"Are you alright?"

Luka turned and gave Gakupo the tiniest of smiles. "As much as I can be. How about you?" She went to sit by his side in front of the fireplace.

"I don't know." Gakupo's eyes briefly focused on the picture frames on the opposite side of the bedroom. "I have so many questions."

Luka didn't reply right away. Finally, she softly asked, "Do they seem familiar in any way, those kids?"

Gakupo shook his head. "Never seen them before. I have a theory, though." He smiled self-consciously. "You'll say I'm crazy again."

"Actually, I'm feeling pretty open-minded at the moment." Luka hugged her knees. "Go on."

Gakupo scratched his cheek. "I think that fountain, or maybe the clinic as a whole, is a portal of sorts to a different place. It has more or less the same people, and things look very similar to our own reality. But in here, you and I, we're adults, and my parents never…They never crashed."

Luka recalled the sensation in her skin and mouth, how the rancid water had suddenly turned icy and pure. How the light overhead had vanished, like someone turning off the only light in a room without windows. Despite the proximity of the fire and the long cape around her, she felt a chill. Now, a new question began bouncing inside her head. "How do we go back?" Her words rushed out of her lips, cutting off whatever Gakupo was about to say next. "Do you think we should jump into the pool?" She almost got up and ran to the courtyard, but the uncanny darkness outside stopped her.

"I doubt it is that simple," Gakupo replied. "But we need to find Gumi and Miku first."

Luka could only stare. In her fear, she had completely forgotten about the girls they were attempting to save. She looked away in embarrassment after a few seconds.

Without saying anything, Gakupo rested a hand on her shoulder. Luka didn't acknowledge it at first; then, when he tried to drop it to his side, she pulled his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. He let out something between a grunt and a chuckle and drew her closer. She rested her head on him and closed her eyes. It felt very comfortable.

All of the sudden, a loud sound brought her back to reality. Luka shifted her position, as she disconcertedly found herself within the circle of Gakupo's arms.

"It's just a log cracking," Gakupo said soothingly. "Go back to sleep."

Luka rubbed one eye, looking around. Had she actually dozed off? It was hard to tell how much time had passed. But her hair was now completely dry, and she had somehow ended up sitting between Gakupo's legs. His cape was wrapped around the both of them like a protective cocoon.

"You should get some sleep too. I can keep watch for the rest of the night," Luka offered.

"I'm good."

"Are you sure? It won't do us any good if you feel exhausted come morning."

"If my eyelids start dropping, I'll wake you up. Sounds fair?"

"Alright." Luka closed her eyes once more. If they had been back home or at school, where there was a chance someone she knew walked in on them sitting like this, she would've felt embarrassed, no question about it. But here in the world of fog, nothing was more reassuring than the sensation of Gakupo's body pressed against hers. She was acutely aware of the weight of his limbs and the softness of the tuft of purple hair brushing her temple. No one had ever felt as tangible to her. By contrast, she now had the strange certainty that there was no one else around them, perhaps for many kilometers. She could almost see the empty, dry landscape extending in all directions around the house. It felt like a prophetic vision, telling her to hold on to the one ember left…

Luka had never really slept on the floor before, not without proper bedding or a sleeping bag. As soon as she opened her eyes the next morning, she marveled at the fact she had managed to get any rest at all. She felt somewhat stiff and in need of a bath, but that was all. Of course, she was leaning against Gakupo, who in turn was awkwardly resting against the two-seat chair. If anyone was going to have neck pain, it was going to be him.

So much for being careful, anyone could've sneaked up on us while we were snoring. Gakupo obviously had fell asleep without an actual attempt to rouse her. Luka considered getting angry at him, as she laid there without moving.

No. The experience of crossing into this strange place had been taxing for them both, she couldn't judge him too harshly. It was better to direct her energy towards something more productive, in any case.

Let's start by seeing if this place has hot water, then. She gently pushed away his arms and sat up. Gakupo groaned and opened his eyes for a moment, then closed them with a pained expression.

"Owww…" He rubbed one of this shoulders, then began to tilt his head forwards and backwards. "Why didn't we just use the bed? Ow ow ow."

"Even better, you could've woken me up like you said you'd do and then use the bed." Even if Luka didn't want to get angry at him, she couldn't help but tease him a little.

Gakupo opened his eyes wide.

Luka chuckled quietly and went into the bathroom. She tried the switch with no results. "Still nothing. Maybe the service is shut off." She certainly couldn't imagine the man in the grey suit doing something as mundane as paying his utilities… Which meant there might not even be running water at all.

"Where did you put the matches? Ah, nevermind, found them." Luka grabbed them and the candle from the mantlepiece and entered the bathroom. Her dishevelled reflection in the mirror above the sink gave her a bemused look, but once more, she elected not to linger on it. Her pale face surrounded by a barely illuminated background seemed almost like the visage of a stranger. Instead, she looked down and tried the right faucet handle. To her relief, water readily poured out. It tasted somewhat different from the tap water back home, closer to mineral water. Not bad. She turned the other handle, and there was some groaning of pipes. Water came out lazily, just as cold as before. Not completely unexpected, but it didn't make freshening up particularly fun.

"There's no hot water."

Gakupo stood in front of the framed pictures, rolling his shoulders. "Maybe we need to turn on a furnace somewhere. Who knows how if they even use gas here."

"True."

"Give me a moment and we can go explore the rest of the house."

"Go ahead."

While Gakupo used the bathroom, Luka unsuccessfully tried to turn on her phone. It would've been interesting to know if this place has any reception. Or wi-fi. Not very likely, given the look of everything else, but still...

"No luck?" Gakupo asked as he exited the bathroom combing his hair with his fingers.

"No." Luka set aside the useless device and approached the door to the courtyard. She opened it just enough to peek outside and saw the landscape was as deserted as before. "Let's go."

Gakupo stuffed a couple of candles in the pockets of his woolen jacket alongside the matches and followed her outside without a word.

Like the previous day, fog swirled outside the iron gates of the home like a witch's brew. Today, however, the day seemed particularly luminous, as if the cover of clouds was about to break at any second and let the sunlight through. It gave the surroundings a strangely hazy feeling, like something out of a hallucination.

"What time do you think it is?" Gakupo asked looking upwards.

"Around ten o'clock, maybe?" Luka replied. "Hard to say."

Gakupo acknowledged her response with a pensive hum. Without any proper transition, he then asked, "Left or right?"

"What?"

"Where do we start?" He pointed to the doors at both sides of the courtyard. There were two at each side, with no markings nor any indication of what was behind of them, and a couple of shuttered windows.

Luka picked the closest to them on the left at random and turned the doorknob, almost expecting it to be locked. Instead, it opened with a quiet creak, revealing a cluttered bedroom with chests and burlap sacks stacked on the bed and against the walls.

"The lab must be on the other side of that," Gakupo noted pointing to a door to their right, partly obstructed by boxes. "What is all this stuff, anyway?" He opened one of burlap sacks before them and found it was full of grain. "Huh." He tried another, and he found what appeared to be potatoes, although of a scarlet variety Luka had never seen before. Other containers seemed to be full of raw wool, untreated threads, roots, seeds, parchment, vials of unknown liquids and more.

"We're wasting time, let's keep going," Luka finally said impatiently and returned to the courtyard.

The other door on the left side of the courtyard was similarly unlocked. The first thing Luka saw as she entered was a dusty piano, next to a big window. An acoustic guitar waited on a stand nearby, next to a chair draped in a grey shawl. The stool in front of the piano was lying on its side, and sheet music was scattered all over the floor.

"Someone left in a hurry?"

"Looks like it." Luka knelt down and examined the nearest page. Here and there, symbols of unknown function peppered the page, although the musical notes seemed as recognizable as ever. Three words were scribbled on the top of the page: "For The Doorkeeper."

"That looks like my handwriting." Gakupo crouched by her side and looked at the sheets of paper strewn on the floor more closely. He hummed a few bars, testing the unfamiliar notes. It was a tender melody, well suited to his sedate, somewhat hoarse voice. Luka stared, forgetting everything around her for a few moments. All too soon, Gakupo's voice broke into mild laughter and he stood up. "Wasting time, right?"

A part of Luka felt like refuting his words, before her pragmatism asserted itself. "Right." She dropped the sheet music to the ground and resolutely walked back to the courtyard.

It was now time for the right side of the house. The door closest to the master bedroom led into a rectangular kitchen illuminated by a long glass block window on the opposite wall. Bundles of desiccated herbs hanged above a counter, a wood-burning stove and a large square oven. A small wooden table and two chairs waited in the corner, and shelves full of wicker baskets and things wrapped in cloth lined the walls. A mix of smells hit their nostrils, indicating that some of their contents weren't particularly edible by now. There were two white doors to their left and right.

"No fridge," Gakupo pointed out. "We haven't seen anything truly modern so far, have we?"

Luka shrugged. As long as the place was deserted, she didn't care. She tried the door to the right and found it lead outside, to a small space delimited by a fence almost as tall as the walls of the home. To her right, Luka could barely see the top of a hedge behind the fence, presumably the one circling the terrace. To her left, there was a big brass artifact under a thatch roof. It was connected to several pipes that rose from the ground and entered the wall of the house. Next to it, there was a couple of barrels and a stack of wood. Three clotheslines hung from between the eaves of the home and the top of the fence.

"I'm guessing that's the water heater," Luka said pointing to the big-bellied device. Gakupo nodded with a look of interest. With its elaborate gears and zigzagging tubes, it looked more like a movie prop than anything one would find in a regular home. Luka gladly turned away from it and walked back into the kitchen.

In contrast, the door on the left side of the kitchen lead to a much more familiar sight. Onions, carrots, glass jars of brown stuff that looked completely unappealing, pieces of cured meat, alcohol and more. Most of the food in the pantry looked in good condition, to their surprise. "Not that I want to stay here long enough for that to be a problem, but at least there's enough food here," Luka commented. As a matter of fact, the ingredients made her acutely aware of her own hunger.

Gakupo poked a cut of salted meat with a finger, like a small boy playing with his dinner. "You know, I've read that if you eat fairy food, you can't go back home." He smiled. "I hope it doesn't apply with these, 'cause I really need some breakfast."

"Me too," Luka confessed. She grabbed a wheel of cheese and approached the counter. It was rather disgustingly dusty, but there was a towel hanging from a hook over the kitchen sink. Luka quickly made use of it, placed down the cheese and rummaged around for a knife.

All the while, Gakupo kept examining the various containers in the pantry. "If this stuff is still fine, it hasn't been that long since whatever happened to them happened. Or he's replacing the stock as it goes bad."

Luka began cutting the cheese into wedges. "No, he's not eating here. Look how dusty everything is."

"Does he even eat?" Gakupo asked, then raised his shoulders when Luka shot him an annoyed glance.

"My guess is that his house is abandoned, and has been so for a while now." That naturally lead to the question of who was responsible for the lit fireplace, and where had they gone. Luka's mind filed such questions for later, given the lack of clues at present.

Gakupo placed the cut of salted meat next to the cheese and grabbed one of the wedges. He sniffed it cautiously, then took a small bite. He gave Luka a cheerful thumbs-up.

After the improvised meal, the pair continued their exploration. Behind the other door on that side of the house, Gakupo and Luka discovered a living room bathed in cold daylight. There were bay windows in front of them and in the wall to their left, both with partially open shutters that allowed the chilly air to freely circulate. Gakupo said something unintelligible and crossed the room to take a better look at the veiled landscape, swerving past the dusty furniture like a sleepwalker.

"What is it?" Luka went to stand next to him and eyed the scene for a second —Rows of fruit trees planted next to the house in lines that disappeared into the everpresent fog—, then returned her attention to the boy.

"I think I've seen this place before," he said in a low tone. His eyes darted back and forth as he pondered. "Those trees look so familiar."

Luka was about to ask for more details when Gakupo's eyes went wide. His expression and sudden paleness made her heart jump inside her chest.

"She's out there, Luka! She, I think she's hurt!"

"Wha-"

"We need to find her!" With that, Gakupo took her hand and started dragging her back towards the courtyard.

But Luka planted her feet firmly on the ground and forced him to stop. "What are you talking about?!"

"It was so jumbled before, but now-" Gakupo rubbed his left eye furiously. "He showed me so many things that night, and then it went away. I couldn't even touch any of it, but now, now, it all came back, just like that!" His breathing became more and more shallow as he talked, making the words harder to decipher. "It's was you, you tied to one of those trees, begging me for help, but that wasn't you! It was the woman in the photo, and, and-!"

Luka wrenched away from his grasp and grabbed his head with both hands, forcing his erratic gaze to center on her. "Hey."

Gakupo stared at her with big, confused eyes, like someone abruptly waking up from a dream.

"I won't understand what you're saying unless you slow down."

"...Sorry." His lips curled up in an uncertain smile. "I think… I was freaking up pretty badly there for a second, wasn't I?"

"A little." Luka let her hands rest on his shoulders. "Now, walk me through this: Are you saying the man in the grey suit made you see this place somehow?"

Gakupo nodded.

"And you saw his wife?"

Another nod, then Gakupo's eyes sparkled. "Maybe he was trying to get us to help her from the start!"

Luka frowned. "I'm afraid that's too much of a leap for me." Gakupo's optimistic expression faltered. "Let's go find something to protect ourselves in the kitchen, then we explore the orchard. Okay?"

That seemed to partly restore his good spirits. "Okay."

The visibility had only worsen by the time they stepped outside. The world was cotton and tulle curtains, the unfinished sketch of a vast and empty land beyond the rows of trees. Luka's imagination supplied her with a horrid, uncanny visual: Gakupo and her leaving the orchard behind, only to find there was nothing there at all, no even solid ground. Just an impossible void waiting for them to trip and fall inside its maws.

She shook her head, trying to dislodge the idea from her brain. It held on, stubborn as a leech. The only things stopping her from running back into the house to hide were the comforting weight of the butcher knife she was now carrying and the presence of Gakupo. He was walking slowly one step in front of her, tracing a long line on the ground with a branch. Just in case we get turned around. It hardly seemed necessary, but Luka appreciated the gesture anyway.

So far, there were no signs of the woman, which was perfectly acceptable as far as Luka was concerned. It wasn't easy to accept that Gakupo's hallucinations were more than meaningless visions conjured by a stressful situation; it was harder still to accept that they might be benign in nature, if induced by the strange man. No, all she wanted was to find the girls without running into any of the denizens of this strange place.

"Look!" Gakupo suddenly pointed to one of the trees on the row to their right. The fog swallowed his voice almost hungrily; it didn't even seem like they were in a open space. Luka immediately realized what made that particular tree stand out to him: its base was surrounded by coils of thick rope. Gakupo knelt and examined the rope, the ground around the tree, and a long scar on the bark of the tree, tracing its length with a finger.

Luka reluctantly stepped closer. "Was she here?"

"I think so. And then someone cut the ropes and took her away," Gakupo said almost in a whisper.

Luka looked around them warily, even though her instincts still assured her that they were alone. In all likelihood, if the woman had been attacked in the orchard, everything had concluded many days before their arrival.

Just then, the dancing fog parted somewhat, allowing her to see a hint of buildings in the distance: A church with a bell tower and a few houses built around what appeared to be a fountain square. There were numerous black shapes floating above the small village, a couple meters above the roofs of the homes; their numbers and jittery movements made Luka think of ants swarming food left unattended at a picnic.

"What the hell are those things?" Gakupo asked, reflecting her own thoughts. "Can't be birds." He was standing by her side, the rope now completely forgotten.

"No, not with that size."

"Maybe we should go back inside," Gakupo suggested after a pause. "If we can see them…" There was no need to finish the sentence. They quickly retraced their steps until they reached the limit of the orchard, then crouched next to the first tree of the line. The problem was now obvious: the front of the house was completely exposed. No planters, bushes or anything that might provide some cover. The trees between the house and the village were too far apart to completely hide them from view.

A minute passed by. The black shapes kept flapping in place, in a way Luka didn't think was possible for any winged creature. It almost looked like bits of blackened cork bobbing up and down in the water. Maybe it wasn't living creatures at all, she thought. Maybe it was grotesque decorations of some kind, balloons or kites, and she simply couldn't see the wires. Or something else that was tricking her perceptions.

"We should make a run for it." Gakupo's voice interrupted her thoughts. "The fog is clearing up, we'll be easier to spot later." Without waiting for an answer, he rose to his feet and made her stand up as well.

"Wait-!" Even as she spoke, she began to run by his side. The small trek around the house seemed eternal now, and the pause when Gakupo laboriously pushed the gate open was even worse. The groan of the hinges was so loud to her ears that Luka was sure the shapes would hear it despite the distance. Squeezing her body past the gap and then helping Gakupo close the gates was equally nerve-wrecking.

"In there!" Gakupo said pointing at the living room, just as Luka was about to make her way to the back of the house. They ran into the room and Gakupo crouched by the bay window on the front of the house.

Luka remained a couple steps behind, squeezing the handle of the knife nervously. "Are they coming?"

Gakupo waited a few seconds to shake his head. "No change." He leaned forward, as if trying to see more clearly. "So much for the laws of physics."

"What?"

The boy examined Luka's face, then looking down at her white fingers gripping the knife. "You've got a mundane explanation for that?"

Luka scowled. "Don't start with me right now."

Gakupo's expression softened. "I just mean, something of that size-" He turned around to look at the village and suddenly stopped talking.

Luka followed his gaze and her legs almost gave out under her. She had looked away only for a couple seconds, and yet, there was no indication of anything hovering over the village. Although she hated the idea of coming even a step closer to the mystery, she approached the window to take a better look. But no matter how hard she strained her eyes looking left and right, it was fruitless. She could've been staring at a painting; nothing moved except for the tendrils of mist slowly revealing the landscape.

Luka's body swayed; all of the sudden, she felt intolerably lightheaded. She rested her forehead on the windowsill. Solid and prosaic, which was exactly what she needed at the moment.

"It's going to be okay, Luka. They're gone."

"That's the problem." She almost felt like adding "idiot" at the end. How was it okay? "We don't know where they are now, and when they'll be back!"

Gakupo grimaced.

Luka returned her gaze to the town, biting her lip. The worst thing was, of course, that sooner or later they'd have to investigate those buildings, if they wanted to find Miku and Gumi. It was only a matter of time before Gakupo proposed it, now that they knew the house to be empty and devoid of leads.

"Luka…"

Here it comes.

"You should try jumping into the pool, see if it takes you back."

"What." She turned towards him, now doubly furious.

"I know I said before it might not work, but you should try anyway."

"Shut up," Luka growled. "I swear I'll punch you if you bring it up again."

Gakupo stared at her, so surprised that he seemed unable to formulate any response to her sudden outburst. Luka was the first to break eye contact, after a long, uncomfortable stretch of silence. The landscape outside was still grim and devoid of warmth, but the fog was almost completely gone. She could see now a dull-brown ridge in the distance behind the small town, with only a few specks of green to remind her that the world was capable of more vibrant hues. What an ugly, desolate place.

"...I'm so scared I'm angry, if that makes any sense," Luka finally admitted.

Gakupo sat on the floor and sighed. He examined the wall opposite the window for a beat before asking, "Is that supposed to make me less inclined to offer you a way out?"

"I'm not going anywhere. And I'm not going to whine about it. It's not like you dragged me here kicking and screaming."

"Not literally," Gakupo said with a apologetic smile. "But, you are here because of me."

"Obviously," Luka said, blushing a bit. "But, it's not like I'm just following you around blindly."

"I'd never accuse you of all people of doing that." He reached out and pushed a stray lock away from her eyes.

Luka took his hand between hers. "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

He shook his head. "It's okay."

Luka eyed the empty landscape again. "So… What do we do now? We search that place?"

"I think so, but we should wait a bit first to make sure those things are gone. Although…" He trailed off. "We haven't seen what's behind the house yet, have we? Or at the other side. How about we tackle that first?" He stood up and offered Luka a hand, which she gladly accepted.

Plans and ideas are quick to surface in a mind, In the short time it took for the pair to walk to the door and step into the courtyard, Luka had already begun to formulate a mental list of everything they had seen inside the house that might be useful in an exploration of the land. It was better to start with short trips, of course, and return to the house well before sundown. But depending on the results, they might need to expand the search, which meant camping and-

Gakupo suddenly stopped, breaking Luka's train of thought. As soon as she followed his gaze, it became clear that he had a very good reason to stare.

"Yggdrasil..." Gakupo muttered breathlessly. And for once, Luka could see exactly why his fanciful mind had leaped into that association. With the fog gone, a structure like no other had revealed itself looming behind the house. Even the tallest skyscrapers Luka knew were but dollhouses in comparison to the massive building. More than a tower shaped by human hands, it felt primordial and essential to the world, an ideal that had become difuminated by time yet retained its basic shape. It was more than easy to picture it as a scorched tree holding up the blank skies, its ebony bark carved into a thousand minarets, each with a different height and style.

Luka's mind rebelled, trying to absorb every detail and at the same time rejecting the spectacle before her. Something began roaring at the back of her brain. Her vision mercifully blurred. Even her ears seemed to reject reality, muffling Gakupo's concerned voice. Was he calling her name? She wasn't sure. The ground was giving away under her, or perhaps it was merely her legs. She moved her arms spasmodically, trying to grab to something, anything that would keep her from falling into the dark pit that had suddenly opened under her. But her limbs were full of lead and the world was incredibly remote, and growing more distant by the second. Strange images sprouted inside her brain, ephemeral and unintelligible— bright fireworks celebrating her dizziness during the strangely elongated second it took for her body to drop messily into Gakupo's arms.

A moment later, everything went away, leaving nothing but darkness.