Acropolis

To Temple

The passage was damp, cool yet suffocating. The light in her head faded. A great wind overtook Acacia's lungs as she struggled to stand; the journey and claustrophobia robbed her breath. The crushing weight of the wind sacked her lungs and papers and maps flew everywhere; any one of them could have been the deed!

However, that wasn't her biggest concern. I left behind my medication! Finally, this is death! Knowing how this feels takes the weight off my big curiosity but it sucks the mystery out of my lungs. All the more painful. It's unfair that my grandma, and now Conrad, knows of the Great Mystery. Ha-ha, I can't take it anymore, Life—you have given me too much, were her next to last thoughts.

The gust rose out of her lungs as quickly as it entered. The passageway gave back her life.

But my thoughts kept working. I was immobile, but I still had feeling. I lost every sense of direction, time, and place but I had myself as reference. I only saw constant and immersive white light. This had to be some rare allergic reaction listed on the bottle that my doctor warned me about and this must be the hospital! However, I had an eerie intuition that I was on the edge of a vast orchard on an event horizon of the wilderness where no one could hear my cries for an inhaler if I had any breath at all. The vision that happened, perhaps after taking my remaining medication at once beforehand, put me off balance. Everything became two then blurred and then it was like a gunshot went off through my brain and everything became black. Then it turned white again. I couldn't feel my limbs, but it wasn't paralysis—my whole being was floating on air! Have I really reached this temporary Nirvana?

Everything suddenly became clear. Blots and textures, light and glistening of waters became vivid and glimmered to life. If this is what going through the Wardrobe, the Tesseract, or through the Rabbit Hole was supposed to feel like, I guess I imagined it less painful, but I suppose the Pevensies weren't on meds and that Alice was on too many. Perhaps I was thankful for the pain telling me I wasn't dreaming.

The first place she saw after the blinding light of the passageway were stairs leading to a monastery. Acacia thought about Conrad even as she walked up the hill, up the new and eerily silent world, up the stone path and past the laurel trees. Surprisingly, there were people and the first of them she saw was Kazimir. It looked like one silent toga party!

Has this been where everyone thought I was sneaking off to?

Despite, the astounding scene—that looked rather unfamiliar after living your whole life in Domain yet too familiar—Acacia was mainly interested in Kazimir and finding Conrad.

She appeared in the place that truly trusted her secrets but was she still interested in her friends now that she arrived? She thought about making new friends in the Old World of her ancestors. The world looked like an enormous city mixed with woods and never-ending white roofs. It was quieter than a Domain Sunday except for song thrush and locusts. She gazed up a monastery that sat atop her landed path of twisting alabaster steps.

Maybe that's where everyone left me...maybe it's open.

When she reached the door, voices issued from within and she instantly tugged on the heavy oaken port. Hearing alien muffled voices was worse than hearing a warm and non-obtrusive party outside of the dorms of which you could never take part. However, when she was accepted into the scene the monks and nobles paid no heed to her and milled in joviality. The monastery was shaped into a rotunda and vines and Virginia Creepers crawled up to the ceiling dome. The monks or nobles ducked back and forth between two opposite halls leading to more rotundas and coiling staircases.

The entrance to Acropolis was no longer any secret but the world of the passage held many. Kazimir suddenly appeared inside the temple carrying herbs. High priests and priestesses silently milled about while notes from reed flutes floated to the ceiling intermingling with songbirds. Kazimir wore the lesser garbs of a priest. Acacia turned around, at first not registering him. He was calm but expectant.