In the city that doesn't exist

To existence in nonexistence

So this is a new story of mine, based off of (at least) one of givethispromptatry's (from Tumblr) prompts. (You've already seen this part, but there will be more) This has some of the same characters from Method to the Madness, particularly Lee and Fern. Enjoy!

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A small peal of thunder rumbled through the house. "I'll get it!" I yelled. I had been expecting a friend when I opened the door, but this was not one of them. A massive black... beast was at the door. Some bizarre cross between a griffin and a dragon with green and gold eyes-- "Shit," I muttered under my breath.

"You are Fern Ashwood?"

I nodded.

"You're not in trouble, Fern, but you have been called to the Keep."

"Oh, thank Thyella, I thought this was about last week."

"It is, but you're not in trouble," the beast (Rhy? I think her name is Rhy) quickly repeated when she saw my face. "Do you need a ride, or can you Run?" Rhy shifted her wings so I could climb on if I needed to.

"No, I can Run. my parents say I've been Running since before I first walked." I jammed on my boots and stood up. "I'm kinda worried about my sister though, she's a Sea-er and can't Run-- it'll be hard for her to live up here if she can't."

"Well, when she gets old enough, if she keeps water with her, she can do something like Running. But we should probably get going, Lee's waiting."

"Right." I looked at Rhy. "Lead the way."

She nodded and leapt off the cloud, gliding down in a spiral. I followed, skidding down until Rhy leveled out and headed for the Keep. She flew slowly, making sure I could keep up. "I can Run faster than this," I said.

Rhy nodded and seemed to take it as a challenge, doubling her speed. I managed to keep up with her, but when she sped up further, I started to fall behind. She slowed down again.

When we got to the Keep, Lee brought us in and Rhy shrank herself, leaping onto Lee's shoulders. "I hope Rhy told you you're not in trouble," she said.

"Yeah, she told me. Also said it's about the vault incident anyway."

"It is," Lee said. "When you went with Silver into the vault, were you actually interested in what's inside, or did my little sister just convince you it was a good idea?"

"She told me something about it being another universe, so I was interested. I don't know much about it, though." Silver had just said it was one of Lee's projects, and that it was another universe. Not very specific.

"Well, if you're still interested, I can help you learn more about something like it. You can't help with my projects, (Silver can, you can't) but I can give you a project of your own."

"Really?"

Lee nodded.

"I am so in."

Lee grinned. "Great. Follow me." She turned to leave, and I followed.

I trailed after her down hallways and a lot of stairs. I vaguely recognized the distinctive doors to other vaults, but not the route we travelled, or the door we ended up at. Ten feet tall and made of a material I couldn't name-- a black substance, somehow metallic and crystalline at the same time, shimmering like oil-- the door was very imposing. Lee threw it open and strode through.

I had been expecting a room of some sort, not a hallway identical to the one we were in. Lee spoke, "the project I'm giving you is about interuniversal travel. I'm going to have you study an aspect of it, but that's all I'm telling you for now. I'll tell you more when we get to where we're going," she said as we wended our way back through an identical (but backward) route we'd taken to the door. She turned around and walked backward for a while when we got to the top of a staircase. "Notice anything yet?"