Page 59 of A Soul to Steal

When he brought his eyes back down, he didn’t even need to crouch to examine an otherworldly flower. Spellbinding andglowingred petals surrounded an even brighter yellow centre. It looked like a hibiscus flower, just without a pollen stem. Black droplets clung to its petals and the dull-blue stem that held it perky.

The shrub came to his chest height, and a single bloom would have needed to be held in both hands to support it, had he been able to touch anything.

The flower’s colouring gave him the impression it was poisonous until a fuzzy insect buzzed closer. It collected its glowing yellow pollen before taking a sip of a black droplet. Fascinated, Gideon watched the creature, a green fuzzy moth with the head of some kind of animal – a cat perhaps – take off to flutter around another flower.

Most of the other plant life, like the leaves and grass, was teal.

They’d been warned by Weldir that he may not be able to take them directly to the Elven city, and they may come across Demons. Of course, they had nothing to fear, but it was remarkable that such a mystical world could exist.

He’d claimed it was even more overrun with Demons than Austrális, yet it appeared so peaceful.

Some type of bird chirped in the distance, and a different kind of insect buzzed its wings just beyond view. Everything swayed with a slow and lulling motion, the wind gentle as it rustled leaves and clacked branches together.

“I see the top of a magical barrier this way,” Aleron said, pointing in the distance.

Gideon couldn’t see shit, but he trusted Aleron’s instincts. He was a Duskwalker, who likely had superhuman sight, so why should he argue with him?

Like always, they subconsciously reached for each other’s hand.

Regardless of the fact that Weldir was using his magic to stop them from teleporting back to Tenebris, Gideon would still lose his memories if they didn’t continue to touch. He’d just fall into a trance where he stood in the middle of this world and have to wait for Aleron to complete his task before he was called back. Probably to that dreary and heartbreaking canyon of lost, sleeping souls.

I really don’t want to go there.He subconsciously squeezed Aleron a little tighter.I don’t want to leave him.

It didn’t take long to break past the tree line and step into an open field. Long, teal stalks dipped and waved, rippling with the wind, as if the earth had suddenly turned to water. They walked forward, and the grass merely passed through their intangible forms.

Oddly enough, none of this truly... surprised Gideon. A lot had happened to him already, and he’d learnt so much in such a short amount of time. Everything he did now seemed to be new. He’d become resilient in his ever-changing death.

Gideon took in the surprisingly beautiful scene before them. Before them lay a city that looked bleached by the three different-coloured suns that bore down on it. One blue, one green, and the smallest one a yellowish red.

A massive central tree, larger than any other within the realm from what he could tell, stood like a living beacon. Pink-and-purple leaves swayed as they cast dappled light over half the city. The white trunk appeared to be stained with melting grey,similar to how dust and grime did the same to the side of old buildings due to rain.

The architecture had been built within the very branches and roots of the tree. The roots themselves waved in and out of the ground like a network of veins, where buildings had been created as though from the very wood itself, burrowing into and around them.

The rest of the city, further out from the central tree, had been built from bark or a cream stone. The walls around it spanned hundreds of metres tall and detracted from the beguiling beauty of the Elven city.

It looked like a fortress, designed to never let anyone or anything in or out. A pretty cage of stone walls.

Thankfully, colour flirted everywhere. Although some houses had glass dome ceilings, those without had been painted in an array of different colours. From afar, it made the city look playful and festive. Many banners hung from bronze poles, flapping more colour like they wished to hide all the bleached white.

All throughout, as if melted into the side of every home and business, shone molten ore – silver, gold, and more bronze.

At first glance, the city appeared rich in taste, affluent, and even clean.

The central tree cast shade over the middle of the area, and the high walls also created a fair bit around the perimeter, depending on where the three suns were positioned in the green sky. The longer he stared, the more the sky slowly changed to purple, and the shadows moved.

Gideon then took in the sparkling water from some kind of sea or ocean, and the beach that connected to the city itself. At least the water had a normal dark-blue tinge to it, despite the sand itself sparkling as if with some kind of crystal shards.

It was hard to ignore the translucent, oil-slick bubble surrounding the entire circumference of the city. A barrier,which, despite its beauty, revealed their fear of the world beyond.

“To be honest, I half expected the world to look ghostly,” Gideon stated with a laugh. “Like we wouldn’t be able to perceive it properly.”

Aleron dipped his head to him, but said nothing. His orbs were a dark yellow, though. He must be just as deep in thought as they took in this new environment.

“I feel like we stepped onto another planet.” Maybe they did. “Everything is so tall – I’m wondering if maybe the Elves are giants.”

“Giant? Is that like a human that is the size of the trees here?” Aleron asked, and Gideon nodded. “No, they are not very big.”

Gideon hummed at that, a little relieved. He didn’t particularly want to be inspected as though he were a tiny mouse.

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