It was soft. Holy shit, it was soft. Like, softer than anything he had ever felt before. An unintentional sigh of contentment escaped him as he sunk further into the cloud-like comfort. Aah, bliss.

He shot up as a gasp got stuck in his throat and forced him into a fit of coughing. He looked around.

He was sitting in an enormous bed. It was wide enough that he could lay two people of his own height in extension of each other and still not reach each of the bedsides, and the length was that plus another half. It looked more like a pool of duvets and pillows than anything else.

Where the hell was he? Trying to recall anything after escaping from the forest through the fracture brought mainly mental fog that made it difficult to focus on the memories. The cult had invaded, inside headquarters as well, but what had happen after that?

His rucksack of holding was hung across one of the bedposts and a quick check confirmed that nothing seemed to be missing.

The room as well was exquisite, equipped with an entire dining table with ten accompanying chairs in one corner. A wall-mounted aquarium lit brightly from above by a method Eik couldn't figure out sent multi-colored lights dancing across the walls and furniture. It was populated mainly by numerous creatures with bodies shaped like disks that seemed to propel themselves forward via protruding grooves that caught the water as they spun, but many other different creatures swam around as well

Underneath the aquarium a mattress was built into the floor so one could lie down and look up into the watery world filled with all sorts of alien plants, minerals, and animals.

Meters tall, double curtained windows flanked the bed on each side, letting in ample natural light.

He had to get the hell out of here…

But first he went back to the bedside. On a nightstand, whose entire wooden outer side was carved with ornamental patterns, stood a bowl of nuts. Or rather, they looked like nuts. He hoped they were nuts because they were being stuffed into his mouth by his hands. He was starving and they tasted heavenly. Sprinkled with some freakishly umami spice, the whole bowl went down quickly.

The double doors opened into a wide hallway on silent hinges, large potted plants placed on each side of each door. He stuck his head out to peek left and right before making his way into the hallway. It was silent, as if the house was abandoned.

Scratch that. This place was no damn house. Turning a corner led him down another wide corridor — this one so long that an F-ranker might not have been able to tell what was at the bottom. This was a bonafide castle if he wasn't mistaken.

About halfway down the corridor he came to an enormous staircase carved out of what looked like pristine, white marble. There was still no evidence of the place being lived in, with the exception of the total absence of dust.

Descending the massive stairs was daunting with no support structure to be seen. A peek over the banister revealed a drop of several floors, the same white marble made up the floor on what he assumed was the ground level. Two floors further down, he stopped and listened for anything to tell him where to go — or, perhaps, what areas of the building to avoid.

The ground floor was basically an agora-sized living room so big that people sitting in opposite corners would have to shout to have a conversation. There was so much open space in the center of the room that it reminded Eik of a ballroom from a movie.

Glancing to the far side of the room he saw a raised stage. It looked like a scene made for performances, and in the corner was a stand holding and intricate string instrument. He defiantly resisted the urge to walk up and plink out some amateurish, improvised melody.

A pair of heavy double doors that might well lead to a front entrance exuded an intimidating air that made him seek further in instead. Underneath the upper floors, where the ceilings weren't quite as high, he snuck through the palace. The corridors were well lit despite a general lack of windows.

Zig zagging through the labyrinth of hallways, encountering not a single person, he finally made it to a set of glass doors behind which an expansive garden — or park, rather — stretched so far that only a forest spanning the entirety of his view from the door seemed to the mark its border. The sunlight streaming in through the well-polished glass felt gentle and warm on his skin.

Only now did he notice that he was, in fact, not dressed in his own clothes, but instead donned a spotless, sky blue set of pyjamas that seemed to have had the creases ironed out to the point where it appeared to be made less of fabric and more of colored paper. That meant someone had stripped him while he was unconscious…

They could have at least invited him out for dinner first.

Outside the air was still, barely a wind to rustle his pyjamas. His bare feet sunk into the grassy lawn as he took his first steps off the warm stone terrace. Recent rain must have softened it. The soil was pressed up between his toes as he walked further away from the palace to a tree bearing strange fruit.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

From here it really did look like a palace. Two spires towered above the rest of the already needlessly tall building, the roof steeply slanted with vibrant, blue tiles that almost blended into the sky above. The entirety of it was decorated to an almost sickening degree. Maintenance of something like this most cost more than the combined wealth of Forest's population.

A handful of annexes flanked the palace, their designs slightly more down to earth and practical but lavish nonetheless by any reasonable standard. Staff housing, perhaps? They looked about right to fit the ridiculous number of employees a place like this surely required to stay afloat.

He plucked a fruit, its hard skin sticking to the trunk of the tree with something akin to thorns that dug deep, sap spilling into the grass. He tore it open to reveal yellow, juicy flesh from which an sour and sweet aroma like a mango hooked his nostrils. For most people, it would be a bad idea to try random, alien fruits without doing thorough research first, but…

Hurray for Resistance: Food Pois— ahem, Resistance: Toxin. He bit into the squishy thing with abandon, the nuts from the nightstand having not even remotely satisfied his hunger.

It was magical. The acidity complimented perfectly by an underlying sweetness that made it impossible to stop eating. Seedless pods exploded between his teeth, bathing his tongue in nectar that would go great in a glass with ice.

Quick hands snatched six more fruits, the wood splintering as the thorns came free. As he tore out the last one, there was a metallic crash as well. Weird.

Putting his ear to the tree he ripped out a seventh, listening attentively. Nothing but the wood this time.

Then three quick clangs. It was coming from the side of the palace. The noises of swords colliding. Had the cultists made it to this idyllic sanctuary that looked so pristine that even a swatted mosquito would have tainted it?

How long had he been asleep for that matter? Days? Weeks? Shit. He needed to find the others quickly. What if they were trapped somewhere?

He bolted for the sounds, heart beating away at a hundred kilometers per hour. Coming to a sliding stop in the grass, he turned the corner of the palace. A massive, tiled arena took up most of the space in the immediate vicinity of the wall, once more underlining just how wealthy the owners of this place were.

Weapon racks with countless deadly varieties lined the side of the platform among benches and cots. Two women were duking it out in the center, their movements as fluid and ferocious as a coursing river. Blades met at impossible angles as they spun and jumped. Although it was clearly a sparring match, it looked more like a practiced choreography. It was beautiful in its simplicity and he was reminded of Sonja, as he often was when watching sword players do their thing.

During a natural break in the flow one of them noticed him and straightened up. She wore her hair cropped short and offered a deep bow in his direction. "You're awake, my lord," she said and, going a step further, went to one knee, her sword tucked into the pit of her arm as she lowered her head. "Twice you saved the lady I serve. The gratitude I feel can not possibly be expressed sufficiently with words alone."

"I— Sorry? I'm not quite sure I underst—" he began, holding up his hands as if to try and stop the imminent wave of awkwardness heading his way, but he understood the moment the second woman turned around.

She had clearly had time for a shower and a comb since he last saw her lying unconscious on the ground, bleeding from numerous wounds. Her hair shone in the light like strands of pure gold. Michael couldn't be allowed to lay eyes on her or his little boy heart might just skip enough beats to put him into cardiac arrest.

She snorted and spat on the tiles, instantly shattering his image of her. Stomping toward him with the blade still held in one hand, Eik suddenly became painfully aware of the missing wakizashi which, along with the rest of the armor he had been wearing, had been nowhere to be found in the luxurious bedroom.

Eager toxin slid down his arm inside the long sleeves of the pyjamas shirt when she stopped. "Who the hell told you to do anything for me back then, you dirty, unwashed monkey!" she snarled, face warped in the kind of unreasonable anger only a spoiled, baby powder-snorting brat could express. "I had it all under control! Two more seconds — two more! — and I would have had them right where I wanted them!"

Slack jawed, Eik could do nothing but stare in stunned silence. The grateful one in the back massaged her brow in what looked like unfiltered embarrassment. This definitely did not appear to be the first time she had had to deal with such an outburst. Now that he looked closer, she too was an elf.

Feeling none of his usual urge to clap back at the disrespectful treatment for some reason, he relaxed his stance. "You know what, I'm sorry. Won't happen again. I really just want to know where my friends are. Have you seen them? And little Bin too. Did you happen to find her parents? And now that we're on the subject, where the hell are we? Who are you? And how long was I asleep for? Did we win? How in the world did Moon Shall Swallow manage to get ins—"

"I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability," the short-haired one offered with a hand on the rotten princess' shoulder. It seemed to soothe her immediately. "Why don't we take a seat?" She gestured to the nearest bench.

"No, that's fine. Just tell me quickly, please," he said, restlessness dominating his body.

"You shi—"

"I understand," the nice one said, cutting off the rude one. "To get it out of the way, we have not located your friends yet. I apologize. And as for the little girl named Bin. Her parents are still missing as well. A maid is taking care of her right now. She's quite inconsolable."

"She must be, poor thing" Eik nodded. "I'd like to see her if possible."

The nice one nodded. "Certainly, I'll send for her. She's been asking for you."

"I'm going to find my friends as well," he stated.

"Of course."

Relieved but a little surprised that there was no resistance to his wishes, Eik let out a quiet sigh. "How long was I out?"

"Four and a half hours, I believe."

"Four and a— That's it? But I'm all better! And so are you!" he exclaimed with a finger in the rude one's face. "And you looked so awful too!"

She looked like she wanted to bite off the digit. "My mom's good. This was nothing for her."

"Damn," he muttered. "So what the hell happened back there?"

"We don't know anything for sure yet," the nice one said. "There is only speculation for now."

"And what do those speculations say?"

"We're facing a war, and this was just the beginning."

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