Galaxy of Hyperion: Mystic Heir

Chapter Ten: Stained Glass

That feeling of buzzing discomfort just beneath the surface of skin never quite left Jay behind. She, Arian, and Lana had been in Cloudpeak for a few hours, but they still hadn't made much of any progress, if any, in figuring out just what about the town sat so strangely with them. They had taken to sitting in a room they were sharing at the hotel within the town, and Jay couldn't stop thinking about what had happened when they first entered the building. The images played through her mind again and again, and she had long since stopped trying to halt them. 

The lobby of the hotel had been eerily empty, almost as if nobody wanted to acknowledge the fact that the building even existed. The space was dusty and thick, leaving the air feeling heavy and draining. The air particles seemed to cling fiercely to Jay's skin, and she somehow felt as if her motions were being stifled. She glanced over to Arian and Lana to see if they had the same sense of anxiety that she did, and Arian most certainly did. His eyes were clouded with nerves, and he was unable to stop fiddling around with the edge of his hair. Lana was hiding her anxiety far better, but she was still nervous about what was happening. The lack of certainty was leaving them all on edge, but there was no explanation for why they were so unsettled. Cloudpeak itself seemed to just bring this out of them. 

The hotel room wasn't much cleaner than the rest of the building, and Lana had swiftly cleaned it out as soon as they were settled inside. The space hadn't seen use in so long that it didn't even seem as if someone had passed through in the past two years. Jay was thankful Lana had Air magic, because Lana's cleansing of the space allowed them to breathe. She knew that inhaling would be a distant memory without Lana's influence, and it unsettled her more than she could hope to describe. There was a constant itch resting within her, but she couldn't find a way to claw it no matter how hard she tried. She pressed her lips together in an attempt to not think about it, but there was only so much she could do without thinking about it. 

"What do you think is going on with this town?"

Arian's words snapped Jay out of her trance. She was sitting next to Lana on the larger of the two beds within the hotel room, and Arian was on the other mattress. All three mages looked to each other out of something that looked like curiosity but resembled fear far more. Arian's question was left unanswered for a long time, and none of them knew how to properly respond to it. Jay eventually tore her gaze away, hating that she couldn't quite identify what was bothering her so much. It felt like it was on the tip of her tongue, but she still couldn't reach it. 

"I don't know, but it can't be good," Lana answered simply. "There's some interference hiding here, but I'm not sure what's causing it. I want to talk to Ronan again. There's clearly something happening, and he must know more than us about it. He lives here, so he has an inherent advantage when it comes to finding new information."

"Something about him bugs me," Jay admitted. "He seems so innocent and sweet, but the rest of the town is eerie and ominous. The whiplash is notable... It's not something that I can ignore given how small this place is. It's hiding in the sand dunes. Why would someone so sweet and sociable ignore the rest of the world to live here?"

"Most people probably don't even know this place exists, and that means they're able to get away with a lot," Arian commented. "There's got to be a secret hiding around here, but I don't know how to find it... We should go out searching tomorrow. We've done a lot today, and I know I could use some rest."

Jay didn't remember just how much they had done that day until after Arian commented on it, and she found herself cringing at the realization. They had fought against the Ice mage, or perhaps the Ice Lakinya, just earlier that day. The exhaustion that came with the chill of Nadia had been earlier in the day as well, and they had met Lana only a few hours prior. Somehow, everything seemed to blur together, as if it was being viewed through stained glass. There was an image of Cloudpeak layered over the top of everything else that Jay had experienced recently, making both halves damn near impossible to identify on their own. The confusion was so notable that it made Jay's mind spin.