Beyond?

“Our culture was at its pinnacle. We had solved the mysteries of science and magic. We controlled the weather and travelled over continents within an instant. But nature taught us that some things are out of our grasp. Our sun darkened and couldn't warm our planet any more.

So the cold came.

And we died.”

-unknown.

***Beyond, Somewhere***

***Azir***

I step out of the red portal with a cloud of dust following me. Cold air bites into my skin and I watch the portal flicker for a moment, then it vanishes. I flick my tongue in displeasure, but now I am freed from the burden of keeping the ceiling from coming down on me.

Kneeling down, I cast an environmental protection spell on Stella and me. Afterwards I start healing her. Then I look up to survey our surroundings.

We are in an icy tundra without signs of life. There are some hills to our east though. The sun in the sky gives off just a dim light. Enough to see, but by no means a source of warmth.

I count twenty three students and eleven of Ryland's subordinates. Agate is currently busy with healing one of them.

The others are in various conditions. Some are unharmed, others are wounded. Hopefully Agate can patch them up, she is an Eddin after all. Karsen and Talia are searching the horizon for signs of life.

“This isn't how I imagined the place from where those creatures come from.” Quarma mumbles.

“Where are we?” Ryland sheaths his sword. “And how do we get back?”

Quarma turns and looks at me, squinting her eyes. “Indeed.”

I try to smile, but it doesn't work out that well. “Let's start moving first. If we run out of mana we will freeze within minutes.”

Quarma waves at the horizon. “Pick a direction.”

I shoulder Stella and orient myself. There is something like a depression in the snow further ahead. Probably a road or an old riverbed. Following either of the two should lead us to a town or city. My old world had a high population while it was still alive. “Follow me. Keep an eye out and stay together. Don't let anyone fall behind.”

I start walking. Ryland and Quarma follow me while whispering with each other.

Valeria catches up to me and grabs my clothes. “Is this your old world?” She whispers. My parents were of the opinion that it would be best to tell her everything about me when she entered university.

I sigh and nod. “Looks like it.”

Her expression turns frightened. “Can we make it back?”

Probably. But I can't promise it. It depends on our luck and finding out where we are. “There is a chance. We were lucky that the portal was summoned in this godforsaken place.”

Valeria raises an eyebrow. “Why.”

“Imagine an army of those white creatures pouring through it. The summoner probably opened his portals in random locations all over the planet.”

I arrive at the depression and sigh in relief. It's really an old riverbed. So I keep following it. After an hour of walking Stella finally starts moving on my shoulders. It takes a while to explain everything that happened to her, but I managed to do it while we walk.

It seems like it's morning in this world, but I still feel the lack of sleep. It was night-time back at home, so I am starting to get tired. We need shelter and better clothes.

Then I notice some piles of snow in the distance in front of us and stop. They are blocking the path through the riverbed.

“Is something wrong?” Stella asks while following my line of sight.

I shake my head. “No. Just a small hindrance. And food.” I take off into the air and hover over the snow-piles. Then I raise my hand and start nailing them with arcane missiles.

Animalistic screams escape from them and nine monsters burst out of their hiding places. They are huge and muscular, vaguely humanoid and with huge fangs in their faces. All of them are covered with white, long fur.

One of them throws a huge ice spear at me, but I am out of reach. I pay it no heed and continue nailing them to the ground. Seconds later all of them are dead. I float down to them and create a dagger out of mana in my hand.

The others reach me as I start skinning one of the beasts. They are three times as big as us.

Talia looks at me with a wondering expression. “What are you doing?”

I smile and raise a part of the hide of one of the creature. “Clothing. Skin it fast before they freeze. And gather some of the blood.”

***Beyond, Somewhere***

***Stella***

It has been three days since we started our march through this no man's land. Azir is leading us somewhere. He isn't willing to talk about it, but I can see in his face that he isn't happy to be here.

We lost three people on our trip. Two students simply disappeared, we don't know what happened to them. And one of Ryland's subordinates died during a particular cold night a day ago. We found him in the morning, frozen.

We were giving our best to build shelters for the nights, but the cold was still creeping inside.

Azir got moodier with each day. Today he didn't talk at all. I follow him up a steep hill when he suddenly stops and a mad laughter escapes him. “HahahahaHAHA!”

I stop, baffled, and look up to him at the top of the hill. “What's wrong?”

He turns around and points at our group. “Look at yourself! Three days in ice and snow and you guys look like a bunch of cavemen!” He points at us and I turn around.

The people who were following us with tired faces look up. Their faces are bloody and dirty from the fat of some creatures. We covered ourselves with it to protect us from the cold. All of them look hungry and starved, especially Quarma.

Azir is avoiding her as much as possible, which strikes me as strange. Isn't she his grandmother?

“But fear not! There is hope behind that hill!” He turns around and jumps. Gone! I stagger forward, falling, then I crawl the last five metres up the hill.

What I find behind it is a town like none I've ever seen before. Even though it's frozen and dead like everything else on this world, it's magnificent to behold. The buildings are huge and dwarf everything I know from Nict. Maybe the palace in the capital can compare to one of them. But there are hundreds. Some of them so high that I can imagine them scraping the clouds.

They seem to be made from solid blocks of obsidian. My attention turns towards Azir, who slid down the hill and is on the move towards one of the first buildings. He stops at a big shield at the side of a road and hits it to free it from the snow, revealing strange symbols.

Then he continues onwards.

I slide down the hill myself. It's a fast ride, but there is a big free area at the foot of the hill. The soft snow stops me at the end and I stand up to follow him between the buildings. The rest of the group is close behind me.

We find him inside something that can only be called a shop. The display window is broken and he is rummaging around between books and papers. Quarma steps forward and picks up one of the books.

It is written in a strange language. The symbols are completely unknown to me.

Azir is on the ground, kneeling above a big unfolded map and muttering something while he is studying it.

The rest of the people file slowly into the shop with wondering expressions. Valeria steps towards Azir with a hopeful expression. “Do you know where we are?”

He nods and points at a spot on a big landmass. “We are here.” Then he points onto another landmass with a big ocean between them. “And we need to be there. From there we can open a portal back home.”

Quarma drops to her knees beside me and sits on the ground. “Then we are lost.”

Azir raises an eyebrow and looks at her like an idiot. “No. That's good. Now I can teleport us!”

Ryland gasps. “You can't teleport to another continent!”

Azir makes a dismissive gesture. “You mean you can't. But we should sleep and rest first. I can't take us there all the way and it'll be a hard trip to get to our final destination.” He stands up with the map in his hands. “Everyone. Clear the ground. I need a few metres of space.”

Some of the battered people follow his order while others barricade the window against the cold air outside. Others break some of the shelves to make a fire. Three days were enough to fuse our group into a community where everyone has his fixed tasks.

Azir grabs a frozen block of blood. He was carrying it around for a while. Then the blood melts between his hands and floats towards the cleared area, forming a huge magical circle. It takes no time at all and the blood is frozen again.

He takes a deep breath and walks towards a wall and sits down, leaning against it. Since everyone else is just tired and exhausted, they all lie down and try to sleep. All of them are hugging each other, trying to get a little warmer.

I made Azir into my very own pillow. His sister fought for him in the first night, but she gave up and slept with her grandmother instead. Walking up to him, I sit down and hug him from the side, not caring about the others inside the room.

He places a hand around me and smiles. It is getting dark outside and the people settle down to sleep.

When everything calmed down I decide to ask him the dreaded question. “Azir? Why do you know so much about this world?”

.