Her eyes fluttered awake.
Had she been dreaming?
No, no… she hadn't.
She could feel the surfaces of her skin… bruised skin… where was she?
She stared at the lightless sky hued a dark, faint blue. But, after staring at it for a moment longer, she came to the realization that it was not, in fact, a sky. As her eyes regained their focus, the rough texture of stone revealed itself from her once blurry gaze.
It was a roof. An infinitesimally tall, cavernous ceiling.
Then, she moved her hands. Soft, dark sapphire clumps of sand were caught in between her fingers, small grains clinging onto her damp skin. They embraced the back edges of her… ah, that's right, her light-armor.
Hold on… damp?
She glanced upwards once more, towards the ceiling. That damn monotonous ceiling of flat stone. It was like they were in a cave… but also not. Its height was far too unreachable—too distant for her mind to perceive themselves as confined beneath stone.
There were no walls, either. It extended onwards—perhaps infinitely, for all she knew.
'My memory is so… foggy.'
She tried to remember but she… She couldn't.
Her mind felt sluggish, her thoughts refused to move, as if there was something impeding the gears of her mind from spinning. Her recent memories felt impossible to recall, as if they were intangible phantoms. She closed her eyes, trying her absolute best to remember…
From what she recalled, she tried her very best…
They were on a ship, right? Yes, they were definitely on a ship. Their ship, a small sloop, was sailing across an unnaturally tranquil ocean, devoid of color—monotonous.
'Sailing through the fog… where were we-'
"Elis, come on, get up. You absolutely cannot sleep down here. Never."
A voice called from beside her, though it sounded rather distant. Mustering her will, she rose into a seated position—not quite ready to get up just yet. The sand shifted beneath the soles of her light-armor.
"Ah, right, that's what happened."
She remembered her situation immediately when she took in her surroundings.
They were in the depths. They had drowned…
'But I don't remember dying…'
How did she get here, then?
Had they taken a whirlpool? Or perhaps wandered too far into the voidsea—too far into the unknown chasm that splits the luminants and shrouds the world?
Her gaze swept across her surroundings.
A vast expanse of eldritch monotony surrounded her. Far, far away, tall, dark stones erupted from the ground in a myriad of places. There were plateaus, steep inclines, tall and jagged cliffs that bled the same sapphire sand she sat on. Between the plates of land, vast rifts split the stone beneath, opening into a foggy abyss of nothingness.
On the edges of the abyss, tall, glowing reeds sprouted from within the depthless sand. They did not sway, for there was no wind. Yet, despite the lack of it, Elis did not feel hot, nor did she feel cold… but her skin never seemed to settle into the perceived neutrality.
Clinging to the stone, giant specimens of coral-like plants sprouted from their surfaces. Gigantic tree-sized fungi shaped in the form of mushrooms broke the blandness of the landscape, scattered throughout the land in front of her.
"Elis."
"Yeah, give me a minute, I'm getting up."
She got up, placing a palm on the sand and standing. She dusted off her light-armor, now visibly worn from several battles. Her hands dove into cascading strands of hazel, ruffling the sand caught within it as she yawned, the thick tiredness dissipating from her face. Her faceless greaves pushed aside small peaks and dunes of sand as she began walking towards her cohort, leaving faint footprints in her wake.
She looked towards the green-haired Etrean, the one she had met all those years ago when she first joined the guild and, consequently, assigned to a cohort.
"What happened, Abel?"
That was his name. Abel. He responded to her from afar.
"We're going hunting."
His armor did not shine like it usually did, though.
There was no light to reflect here in the depths. Only a faint blue glow emanated from, seemingly, the air itself—lighting each and every surface with an unnatural evenness.
This place was going to make her insane… all of them would go insane.
The other member of her cohort stood beside Abel. His faint, blue-tinted skin blended in with the glum atmosphere of the depths. His golden markings stood out, though. He looked thinner than usual.
All of them did… food wasn't a commodity here, obviously.
They were going to go hunting, which was a dangerous task in and of itself. If they were lucky, they would encounter an unfortunate lone thresher—a reptilian-like lizard which dwelled in the depths and a few regions throughout Lumen. Its skin would be tough to pierce, not to mention its flesh when it would come time to butcher it.
It was their best option, though. Especially with the three… four of them, it wouldn't be such a difficult task.
Four?
'Why can't I remember…'
A cold, pale hand grazed her shoulder. Upon its touch, a sense of familiarity washed over her, calming her building thoughts.
Black hair spiked downwards from a pale face, resting atop sweeping shoulders. His eyes were of an empty, hollow black.
His dark, faceless mantle softly cascaded downwards. He did not wear armor, at least, visibly. Perhaps his mantle was his armor, considering the special properties of a few select materials.
She should probably catch up with the group. He…
'His name was…'
She should catch up with the group.
Now.
He had already caught up with the rest, and they were already a fair distance away—a stretch of lifeless, stagnant sand separating her from the group.
But, all in all, his presence reassured her.
There were four of them.
There had always been four.