Chapter 22: A Brief Respite

Momentary shock swiftly turned into suspicion as we landed on our feet. And the flash of darkness we'd experienced had seemed more like the feeling one would get when walking into a room at night with the light still turned off.

As if reacting to our pattering footsteps, the room we'd entered suddenly sprung into life. A toy steam train was thundering along an expansive track above us, one that seemed to carry it throughout every part of the building. The place was huge, with no ceiling to speak of but the one that sat hundreds of feet in the air.

'Help!' Asher cried. He was hanging upside down and kicking out his legs in a vain attempt to roll himself backwards.

Being utterly distracted by Asher's plight, we hadn't even realised we were walking into the same trap, then we all floated up to join him. The funniest part, though, was seeing Avrae's reaction to being swept off his feet. The dragon's eyes bulged out of their sockets as he tried to extend his wings, but flapping around like a petrified bat, only made him shoot that much higher. The speed at which he seemed to catapult was almost comical; he'd been lucky to have slowed back down; otherwise, he might have crashed through the roof.

'It's easier if you stay calm.' Violet assured us.

She was forced to eat those words as soon as she spoke them. We were all struggling, wading sideways and bumping into each other with every stroke, but the more we practised, the easier it got to move around.

'What's happening?!' Avrae growled hysterically.

'It's like there's no gravity in here.'

Violet was correct; suddenly, the cylindrical chamber's design seemed to make so much more sense. Why bother climbing thousands of stairs when you could float up to each floor instead.

Asher was performing summersaults and laughing with every flip of his body. 'First, there were signs of mirage magic, and now there's this place. If this is Jasper's world, he's a master.'

Even Avrae had settled down now; he was hovering directly above us and already starting to doze off. Although, I couldn't seem to shake the thought that if the gravity were to kick back in, he'd end up squashing us all. I tore my eyes away from him with some difficulty. 'Why aren't all these objects drifting around with us?'

'Magic,' Violet replied bluntly. 'It's got to be, right?'

I nodded while propelling myself higher. Whoever lived here were worse hoarders than me. Over stacked bookshelves lined the walls of almost every floor; thousands of books, some of them being old and some new. They put my modest collection to shame. Loving books wasn't exactly enough to prove that this was Jasper's home, though.

The top floor was my favourite, with a large plastic sign fastened to the wall on one side which read "Museum Of Time". Each time-piece looked to be organised into groups, where design and age seemed to determine their designated exhibition spaces. Zooming around the perimeter of the room on runners was their prized artefact - the most oversized clock that I'd ever seen. It was incredible to watch; its striking face reminded me so much of the ancient 'Big Ben' tower from London. For all I knew, it could have been the very same one.

The museum reminded me of those I used to visit with my parents while growing up. The only difference here was with the number of visitors; we were probably the first people to have ever graced this establishment.

The trip down memory lane brought up heart-warming memories, which seemed to linger for a while until I remembered that we still hadn't found a way back home to Brockwing Vale.

One thing at a time. First, we need to find Jasper.

The other floors were just as impressive; one even seemed to be devoted solely to studying life, where rectangular glass cases looked to be filled with hundreds of tiny earth-born insects, plants and animals. This student seemed to care more about the world they'd left behind than this one.

'Why create a barren world when you're this obsessed with preserving life?' Asher asked, tapping his finger on the glass to attract the attention of a gnarly-looking spider. He nearly flew backwards when it jumped at the side of the case.

Violet looked at Asher with grudging respect. 'You wouldn't; there'd have been no point in sitting the exam if that's all you wanted to do.'

I was following their conversation intently; it was nice not listening to them bicker for a change. 'You don't think that thing outside has something to do with it, do you?'

Violet shrugged. 'Beats me.'

I couldn't escape the feeling that we were wasting precious time here, no matter how much fun the gravity-defying building was to explore. 'There's got to be something that-'

'Oh, this is Jasper's place, alright. I've just found his diary.'

Violet was waving it in the air as I glided towards her. 'Anything interesting?'

'Let me see that.' Asher snatched the leather-bound book out of her hands.

'Be my guest.' She spat, floating off to search the other floors.

I just glared at Asher, quickly becoming irritated with his childish antics. 'Well?'

'Jasper named this world Runazia.'

'Not bad; I've heard worse.'

Asher flipped through the pages. 'Let's see. There are a lot of recorded observations, most of them dating back weeks,' he confirmed. '"Elephant herd was spotted migrating south today... nearby soil samples have tested positive for traces of radioactivity, and all evidence points to portal magic being the cause."'

'Well, that explains what we saw of the ground out there at least.'

Violet poked her head out to where we could see her. 'Anything about the thin atmosphere or corrosive rain? Because I highly doubt that Jasper created it.'

'I'm getting there, dammit.'

I could hear Violet's sigh from up here, or at least I thought I did. It could have just been the loud buzz of Avrae's snoring, though. He was still fast asleep.

'Got something else! This entry is dated four days after the last. "Levels of toxicity continue to rise in the soil... Portal magic is still believed to be the initial cause, but the resulting explosion of energy somehow mutated my Nightmouth, and now it seems to be growing bigger every day."' Asher stopped to catch his breath.

'What the hell's a "Nightmouth"?' Violet asked as she charged towards us. 'Come on, don't keep us in suspense.'

Asher covered his ears dramatically as she landed right next to him. 'No need to shout; we're right here.'

'Hilarious, bastard.'

Noticing that Violet hadn't completely fallen for the bait as she usually would, Asher continued to scour through the pages. He must have seen something troubling because his expression soured as he let go of the book and watched as it slowly tumbled to the floor.

I was dying to see what had gotten him so spooked, so I grabbed it and skipped over the last several pages, noticing that the writing at the end was much sloppier than before. Jasper must have been in a hurry when he wrote this.

'"This will be my last entry... and confession. Professor Melia came and borrowed my Protectors; without them, I can no longer hope to hold my creation in check. Whoever is reading this, please know that I meant well. Nightmouth was supposed to help sustain this planet's environmental balance for eternity. I'd even hoped that it might heal the Earth one day, but that dream is lost. Alas, after the portals appeared, Nightmouth seemed to absorb all of that discharged energy as a sponge would soak up water..."'

I suddenly felt overwhelmed and had to take a break. My voice was starting to crack from having read the diary out loud, and as I looked up, I could see that Asher was staring at the ground, while Violet was so upset, her eyes were blazing. Licking my dry lips, I continued to speak.

'"...It's not just the soil now; the air is growing thin, and the sun is fading. Nightmouth is feeding off of its light, and soon, it will extinguish all life. My family set out days ago to search for a way out of here, and I haven't heard from them since. I told them that it was hopeless, that we were now stuck in this place, after all, that's what we got told before the exam, wasn't it? I hope I'm wrong. I'm leaving now, heading south. I think the elephants had the right idea."'

Violet puffed out her cheeks. 'Can this 'Nightmouth' travel through portals to reach other realms?'

I hadn't even thought that far ahead; This quest to save Jasper and his family had just become so much more.