The Carnival at Moonbright

Across the table, with a mound of food in front of her, Lyla glanced up as Orin walked to the table. Tired, bruised, and beaten, she was excited to sleep soon but felt attentive still. The adrenaline hadn’t halted running through her system, but she knew the crash was coming soon, and she welcomed the feeling of sleeping like the bread roll she was about to devour.

“I’ll take the time while you’re all resting to look through these memories and tomorrow, I’ll spend some time writing a full report for the Queen. I appreciate your efforts, your determination, and abilities. Though it may not have been said today, we all saved many people from being hurt, and I’m glad we were luckily in the proper place at the right time.” Orin said, leaning over his chair.

“It definitely feels fishy, all these things happening at once.” Mr. Muffins stated.

“I agree with you,” Orin replied. “I’m unsure as to the connection between all the events that have happened over the past week or more, but I’m hoping to find it soon. I have quite a few theories, but I don’t have all the proof for them yet. Would you like to hear them?”

“Of course, sir,” Leaf answered, pulling out his book. Lyla watched as he started to take notes of the conversation.

How could someone write so much all the time? She asked her sister.

Some of us like writing. You’re more of an action person, but some of us like it.

True.

Orin ambled over to a small table with a tea kettle and a set of cups. Waving his hand, the steam rose quickly until it whistled slightly. Before the noise was too deafening, he picked it up, poured some for himself, and set it down again on the wooden table. He turned his back to the party and wandered near the fireplace, of which heat poured out of and into the room. Lyla, feeling stuffed, felt drowsy from the heat.

“I feel like whoever is doing this has been able to move back and forth between Moonbright, the Emporium, and a few other places without being noticed. While I would easily mark that off as the Darklings being able to move through shadows, I feel like something more powerful is in authority. I don’t see a motivation for some archaic court of Fae to start attacking the residents of one town. It feels more intimate than that. I have one primary suspect but no evidence.”

Lyla sat up when she heard Orin talk. While it was still speculation, the idea of having someone to blame was engaging. The party leaned forward in their seats and listened intently. Orin took a sip from his cup, then lowered it to the table near his resting chair. He clasped his hands behind his back and stood still for what seemed like minutes.

Time seemed to slow down because no one spoke, but minutes passed, one after the other before Lyla sensed something was wrong. Being lost in thought was one thing, but this felt off. She wasn’t the only one to feel it. Leaf stood up gradually from the table.

“Master Orin?” He uttered into the stillness.

Orin stood motionless, almost petrified at his placement on the rug before the fireplace. Leaf cautiously made his way over and stood beside his mentor.

“Master Orin, is everything okay?”

Before anyone could react, Orin turned around and waved his hands. Almost knocking into Leaf, who jumped back and fell into the chair. Lyla looked at Orin’s face and could see only white as if his eyes had rolled back into his head. The party moved forward, trying to understand what was happening, but Orin’s voice rang out as he spoke out a spell. With the last motion, Lyla felt something push its way inside her, like someone had taken their fist, punched under her rib cage, and pulled upward. Her feet came off the ground without force, and she struggled to breathe as light extinguished, and she felt suffocated in a small space.

Before she could comprehend her situation, she felt her feet slam into the ground, forcing her to fall onto her knees next to the party, which had all collapsed as well. She stood, ready for a fight, feeling the adrenaline rushing through herself again. What she saw, though, she didn’t expect.

She was on the roof of a tall building, which she assumed was the tower. Around her, for miles outward, she could see what looked like replicas of Moonbright’s facilities, all in purple, green, and yellow hues. They were not the actual buildings but a connection, almost like a bad painting, of the real place. The sky was starless until she realized that it wasn’t the sky. Looking in every direction above, she could see phantom lights in the distance, with large moving masses, though without reference, it was hard to tell if it was small masses or just far away…

She thought back on her years of training, of talks of different realms, and how to pull the elements forward from those realms into the material plane. This was not the material plane…

This was the Astral Sea.