Chapter 66: Lucid Dream
At first, they saw nothing that suggested they had returned to the forest. There were no trees and no sign of flowering life. The sky, however, no longer carried clouds, appearing just as it had before they reached the ridges, which was the usual state.
Adela called on her Element’s aspect and realised the scene before them was nothing more than fog laid over reality.
To be honest, they had already returned to the forest. Tall trees were concealed from their sight, yet as they pressed further on, the shapes of trunks and branches revealed themselves.
Only then did the four understand that the island had shifted once more, moving its pieces as though they were caught upon a chessboard.
From the knowledge gathered during their earlier explorations, they had already concluded that the island was a sentinel in its own right, a living presence from which nothing that entered could ever depart.
It also called people from across the seas and distant shores, which accounted for the unnatural character of the surrounding waters.
Much remained a mystery, and much was strange. Before long, Adela realised that the line she had been following extended forward into terrain that matched this part of the forest. This meant the island had already shifted before they reached the region of the dark spires, and then shifted again when the floating orb altered course towards a safer path.
She called upon her Element’s aspect once more and saw no concealed trail through the dense trees, nor did any further illusion veil the way. What stretched before them was reality itself.
As Orion had suggested, perhaps they truly were within another enclosed world, one contained inside the Trial Zone and shaped as this island.
Kyle pressed his forehead against a tree with a heavy sigh, muttering inwardly:
’What is this? I’m losing my patience.’
The handsome youth cast a glance at him, then licked his lower lip, which had begun to dry. He slipped a hand into his pocket and walked over to Na-Ri’s side.
The stranger’s eyes were sharp and calculating as she studied the forest, her sword tracing invisible marks across certain points as though committing them to memory.
"So, Lee, what’s our next move? Do we keep wandering until we’re lost beyond repair, or do we take another approach?"
Na-Ri regarded him with a flat stare. She tilted her head to the side, and an unsettling grin curved across her lips, enough to make Orion and his shadow recoil.
At last, she said slowly:
"That’s exactly what we’re going to do. We keep moving until we find a way out. For all we know, we have already stepped into another quarter of the forest. Perhaps we are on the verge of meeting a mutated beast powerful enough to end us here and now, or..."
The handsome youth narrowed his eyes at her, and a grin spread across his lips. He turned his gaze sharply towards his shadow, and the being understood at once, slipping into the forest.
"Wait, wait, wait. Why can’t we just use your... strange... Death’s floating orb again to guide us?" Kyle asked, stepping in to break the tension.
Frustration flickered in his eyes; he was close to losing control, but at the same time he was trying to piece together a plan of his own.
For too long, he had relied on the group, and he thought it time to contribute something decisive. Even so, there was little to suggest beyond what Na-Ri had already said — keep moving forward.
Orion accepted this and sent his shadow to scout the surroundings for beasts. They could not afford to move recklessly, for the island might shift again and bring them face to face with maddened creatures.
Na-Ri, however, had her reasons for avoiding the orb. Every boon from the Manual came at a cost. Kyle’s Lantern was a clear example: it was useful for revealing creatures hidden in darkness, yet it failed to detect those close by.
After a pause, the stranger spoke with a blank expression:
"I can’t use it again. It can only be summoned five times in a week, and I have already exhausted its limit."
With that, she turned away from the three and continued to assess the surroundings.
Kyle shrugged. He had already given up. They were stranded on an island that could twist into any path of danger, so what sense was there in letting paranoia show?
Yet, Na-Ri’s plain suggestion to keep moving struck him as strangely sound.
His gaze wandered over the trees, then drifted back towards the place where the illusion of the central spire had once stood. It was gone, proof that the island’s shifting was deliberate rather than random.
Orion confirmed his suspicion when his shadow slipped back to him.
"I found the marks we left on the trees during our descent to the north. Three Madoranas are approaching from different directions."
Na-Ri glanced at him. Only then did Kyle realise he was on to something. They were in the northern area now, and there was a chance one or two of the three Madoranas would come across the area once the island shifted.
He now understood that the island was following a sequence of movement.
But what was the sequence?
Adela raised her eyes with a hint of suspicion.
"Do you mean the island has shifted our direction to the northern part now? If so, I think the island is moving in a sequence of north, west, east and south, confusing our sense of direction, and changing the way we are facing in each designated part every minute."
"You think? But why didn’t it change our path while we were going through the north? And when you went south, why didn’t you get lost? Look at the situation — I’m going crazy." Orion responded.
Na-Ri stabbed her blade into the ground and sat on a rock, beginning to calculate again.
Orion was right: something was entirely wrong and the whole island was complex.
Why had they not gotten lost when they split into pairs?
By all reason, they shouldn’t have found their way back to the centre.
Why had the island not shifted then and scrambled their path?
"You’re right..." Adela replied, crestfallen.
Was it not the island itself that was upsetting their sense of direction?
...Or was someone actually doing this to them?
Kyle grinned madly for a second, then a spark of enlightenment returned to his eyes, which had recently been filled with the same questions as the beautiful stranger.
He began to untie little threads: from the red flare Orion’s shadow had described to him and which Adela and Na-Ri had seen, to the temple, and to everything that followed.
"What if... we’re in an induced, lucid dream? And it all began from the red flare..."