Presently, Siel cleared his throat lightly.
'Then, shall we…?' he asked.
Arin didn't respond immediately. He was still thinking about how he, in order to leave this dream-dimension-thing, was going to have to die.
Again.
Second time in a little less than a fortnight.
Well, at least this time wouldn't be a true death.
…to be fair, the 'real world' he'd be returning to was still the same one where he'd ended up after his first 'death'.
…
Never mind. Too much thinking never helped anybody. Probably. He wouldn't actually know.
Anyway, good on Siel for bringing it up first.
Aftar a second's pause, Arin looked up to nod at the boy in response. He suddenly noticed that Siel didn't really look too worried at the prospect of their impending group suicide. He then turned his head to look at Elara and Lana.
The former had finally calmed herself down, and was back to being the perfect picture of an angelic, small-town personage.
The latter was relaxedly sipping from a teacup, wearing a serene expression on her delicate face. She looked calm, as one without a single care in the world.
…Yeah, the kids were fine.
'Do you have a plan?' he asked.
Elara raised an eyebrow at him.
'Do you have a tool? Tower magicians?' she shot back.
Siel clutched at his shoulder-bag. 'What madness leads you to believe I'd be in possession of something meant to – to kill?!' he asked indignantly, lowering his voice until he was only mouthing the last couple of words silently.
'Then, I'm afraid we must do this the hard way,' said Elara. 'Blade, then? Poison?' Her voice was light as she turned to face Lana, before continuing, 'Perhaps, height?'
Lana set down the cup she had just drained. 'Is it… is it alright to speak openly of…?' she asked in a hushed voice.
Elara stood up. 'It doesn't matter,' she said. 'Not as long as we hurry up. Come, Lana. I've decided upon height. It should be the quickest, and therefore, the most painless of the options we have available to us.'
Arin didn't interrupt her this time. He knew she wasn't exactly wrong. The more they pondered, the more they worried, the more it was likely that they'd keep delaying the inevitable. Since the answer they needed was already in their hands, it made no sense for them keep putting it off and risking facing another warp.
Some things really must be done without too much thinking involved.
'Let's go, Siel,' he said quietly.
'Lana, please,' said Elara, and the young maid stepped forward to open the door into the pitch-black corridor. She stepped through first, and Elara followed. Siel went next, and Arin himself was the lest to leave the room –
- and step out onto a pitch-black clifftop.
Bitingly cold wind buffeted his face, and he had to squint to protect his eyes from the sudden onslaught. They were already stinging with tears.
'-just on the outskirts of our village,' Elara was explaining somewhere to his right, her voice barely audible over the sound of the wind. 'People have, tragically, made use of this place before… to…' the dark shadow that was the girl seemed to shrug. She didn't complete her sentence. 'Well, thank you for bringing us here, Lana.'
The shadowy figure right next to her seemed to nod. Arin pursed his lips, looking at that figure for a little longer.
Looks like Lana's talent was spatial magic.
Teleportation.
'I must say, you're far better at it than my senior sister!' exclaimed Siel from somewhere to his left. 'Sister Varida keeps destroying her surroundings when she's pressed for time!'
'It's only because I've known this place all my life!' Lana's laughter sounded in the dark. 'As a tower magician, your senior sister will most certainly have a far wider and more versatile range than I!'
'Alright! Let's make haste!' snapped Elara. 'Lest we find ourselves back in our beds.'
Her figure took four to five steps in one direction, then stopped short.
'This is it…' she said. All of a sudden, she wasn't speaking as firmly as before. 'It is a way – a long way – to the bottom. There are only j-jagged rocks there. There is no – no room for error, so…'
And even with the wind loud in his ears, Arin could hear the slight tremble in her voice.
He swallowed, then, and with an almost laughable carefulness – considering what they were here to do – stepped over to stand by the girl's side. He looked down into the darkness, at where those jagged rocks probably were…
On second thought, he looked up and turned to face Elara instead.
'We're not here to actually – we're, we're here to save ourselves,' he said, trying to offer some comfort. Then, immediately realizing those words made him sound like some kind of psychotic cult-leader, he held his tongue.
'This is the only way. I know that for certain,' piped up Siel from his left. He and Lana had joined them by the edge of the cliff.
'But we must hurry!' added Lana worriedly.
Oh, great.
Now they all sounded like lunatic cultists.
Well, they weren't saying anything wrong… right?
There was no way they could all have made some terrible mistake, fallen for some terrible misunderstanding, and be standing there, about to send themselves to their actual demise… right?
Arin swallowed again, with some difficulty this time. His mouth and throat seemed to have gone bone-dry.
Elara had been so determined back at the estate, but here, her voice wavered like that of a frightened child. And, when Siel had spoken earlier, hadn't his voice sounded a little higher than it usually did? Lana had gone completely silent now, but Arin was sure he could hear the soft chattering of teeth from where she stood.
…this wasn't going to be easy on any of them.
'L-Lana,' said Elara after a moment. 'Would you – could you, possibly, shift us, until we are a – a few feet ahead of, well, here. All at once, so we needn't think – we needn't know -?'
'No,' whispered the other girl. 'No, no, I can't. I can't. I'm sorry. I can't'
Siel seemed to be rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet, taking deep breaths with each movement. It was like he was silently steeling himself to do what he needed to do.
Arin turned to face forward again. He looked down into the gaping darkness that extending from where the earth gave way – a mere few inches from where he stood – to a seemingly never-ending depth before him.
They had to do this to get back. The had to do this to wake up again, because…
…because…
…?
...
Oh no.
His mind was getting fuzzy again.
Next to him, he heard Elara gasp softly. Siel wasn't moving anymore.
No, no, no.
If they wanted to wake up again…
It had to be now!
If they wanted to live...!
Now!
Stretching out his arms as wide as he could, grasping Siel's and Lana's shoulders tightly at either end, and with Elara firmly tucked in between him and the other girl, Arin pushed forward with all the strength in his body.
'Now!'
And in the very next moment, the four of them were falling.
Falling.
Falling.