“Let’s go.”
The world of ruins faded. They moved quickly–the well-used path almost seemed to pull them along, as if it had a current. As Tyen expected, a view of water stretching from horizon to horizon began to emerge. The sky was a roiling mass of cloud, brightened by almost constant lightning. The water below heaved and sank in massive waves; one surged up to surround them in darkness, then dropped way. He readied himself to still the air around them, to resist both gravity and water.
He never had the chance. Cold air touched his face briefly before the sensation abruptly ended. Baluka wasn’t going to pause to breathe until he had to.
Blackness veined with liquid, glowing red, stretched below them next. Searing heat scorched them for a heartbeat, then they were safely into the white again.
A pale, brittle sky and flat, colourless ground greeted them. This time Baluka did stop. The air was so cold it burned Tyen’s lungs, so he quickly warmed what surrounded them. Benign but lifeless. Resca’s idea of benign did not bode well for the rest of the journey.
As he shifted his weight, Tyen’s shoes slipped over the surface beneath them and he caught his balance. Looking down, he realised he was standing on ice. It was like glass, impossibly thick and almost free of flaws. Tiny lines of bubbles, frozen in place, led down into depths his eyes could not perceive.
It was disconcerting, and he was relieved when Baluka nodded to indicate he was ready to move on.
“… the air of the fourth is poisonous,” Resca had warned. Tyen had imagined a dead place but the world they arrived in was a bubbling marsh carpeted with lowlying plants. He and Baluka had agreed that they should assume the air would be poisonous not just when breathed, but when it touched their skin. They both stilled the air completely from their skin outwards as they arrived, and Baluka transported them away straight after.
Now for the world of light. They’d discussed their strategy for surviving it many times. It was possible the brightness of it would not only hide the moment of their arrival but would also blind them. They could arrive with their eyes closed and assume that the path would not deposit them somewhere that put their bodies inside objects, but they needed to check if a larger group would also be able to arrive safely.
Baluka had decided he would keep his eyes open and Tyen have his closed. This made it far easier for Tyen to sense the moment of their arrival.
“You can open your eyes,” Baluka said. His voice did not echo. It was oddly muted. The air was warm, but not uncomfortably so. “It is a very strange place.”
Tyen did so, and was amazed to find that he could truly see nothing more than light. Even the ground beneath his feet was concealed. He bent to touch it and his fingers disturbed a thick layer of white dust so fine he could not feel it.
“I’ve pushed the air around us outwards and found no resistance. No holes to fall into, either,” Baluka murmured. “We have enough room I think.” His grip tightened on Tyen’s arm. “Last one: the dark world.”
“Treacherous ground,” Tyen reminded him.
He knew when they’d entered the place between because the brightness no longer hurt. The light continued to dim, giving the impression a lamp was slowly being shuttered. Even when all light was gone, somehow the blackness intensified further.
Then cool air touched his skin. Firm ground supported his feet and continued to do so, though he remained braced and ready to still whatever lay beneath them. He could hear his breathing, and Baluka’s close by, quick and shallow. He could even hear his heart racing.
There was no other sound.
“I’m almost too afraid to make a light,” Baluka admitted in a whisper.
“Do it,” Tyen said. “We have to know.”
A small spark appeared. It illuminated a black floor under their feet, smooth and dull. As the light brightened it revealed the surface was flat and circular, wide enough for four or five people to stand on, and it was recessed a hand span or so into the rest of the floor.
From there the surface was smooth in all directions. As Baluka’s light brightened it only revealed more of the dull black surface, stretching into infinity. The darkness above them did not yield to the light. There could have been a roof far overhead, or sky.
“Tyen.” Baluka’s voice was sharp with warning, and with a hint of hysteria that Tyen had never heard before. “We’re sinking.”
Tyen’s heart lurched. He looked down. Sure enough, the flat circle beneath their feet had receded further. The curved edge of the higher ground had become a bulge, bending and threatening to spill inwards.
“Liquid,” Baluka said. “It’s some kind of ocean, so thick that–we have to get out of here.” Though he was already grasping Tyen with one hand he now grabbed Tyen’s shoulder with the other.