Chapter 105: You’re back

Noir stood for a few seconds at the edge of the well, gazing into the darkness that stretched out below him. The golden sphere floated a short distance away, emitting a light much brighter than before. Tiny golden particles swirled slowly around it and disappeared after a few seconds.

Noir tilted her head slightly.

"Do you know this place?"

The sphere didn’t answer. As usual, it simply produced a tiny golden particle that spun around it before disappearing.

Noir sighed.

"Sure. As always, very talkative."

The sphere began to descend slowly.

Noir looked one last time toward the square. The streets surrounding it were empty, and the strange white figures continued to move in the distance. None of them seemed to be approaching, as if the square and the well were something even they preferred to avoid.

The young dragon looked down again; the darkness remained absolute.

"Well... I guess I’ve made it this far."

He spread his wings and leaped.

His body began to descend the inside of the well while the golden sphere moved a few meters below him. Noir kept his wings spread to control his descent and observed the stone walls.

At first, his night vision worked perfectly. He could make out the cracks in the rock, the small irregularities on the surface, and various markings carved directly into the walls. Some looked like ancient symbols, while others had shapes he didn’t recognize.

Noir approached one of them as he descended and ran a claw over the surface.

The stone was cold.

The sphere continued to descend.

Noir followed it.

For several minutes, nothing happened. The opening above his head grew smaller and smaller until it became a distant circle of light. The sounds of the city also gradually faded away.

All that remained was the sound of her own wings.

Noir looked down.

The sphere kept descending.

That was when something changed.

The wall in front of her began to lose definition. Noir blinked and looked again, but the stones were no longer as clear as they had been a few seconds earlier.

He frowned and activated his Draconic Senses again.

Nothing.

He tried using his night vision.

That didn’t work either.

Noir stared into the darkness, confused. His night vision had let him move through completely pitch-black caves without difficulty, but this was different. It didn’t seem like a lack of light; it was as if this darkness prevented his eyes from seeing through it.

"I don’t like this."

The sphere continued to descend.

Noir hesitated for a few seconds before following it. Finally, his paws touched a solid surface. He had reached the bottom.

He looked around, though he could barely make out a few meters thanks to the sphere’s light. The platform appeared to be circular and was surrounded by stone walls. There was no water, no living creatures, and no visible objects—just a narrow opening in one of the walls.

The sphere headed toward it.

Noir followed behind.

The passageway was quite narrow. He had to keep his wings pressed against his body to avoid bumping them against the walls as he moved forward slowly. The same symbols he had seen during the descent appeared more frequently here, some even overlapping one another.

Noir tried to recognize them.

He couldn’t.

After several meters, the passage widened until it opened into a circular room. Several entrances lined the room, but the golden sphere headed straight for one.

Noir followed it without saying a word.

When he passed through the opening, he expected to find another underground room.

Instead, he emerged onto a street.

Noir stopped immediately.

Veyra stretched out before him.

The city was brightly lit and bustling with people. Vendors shouted from their stalls, children ran through the streets, and people strolled along the sidewalks.

Noir looked back.

The entrance he had just come out of was gone.

There was only a wall.

"What...?"

The golden sphere continued moving forward.

Noir stepped out onto the street and began to follow it, though he kept glancing around. Something wasn’t right. This wasn’t the Veyra at night that he had left just a few minutes earlier.

There were too many people and too much activity.

Noir walked for a while until he reached a small plaza.

Then he saw the fountain.

The water rose slowly from the base and vanished into the air.

Noir stood motionless; he had seen it before, but not tonight. He had seen it during the day, when the older man had led them there.

The buildings were the same.

The square was the same.

Even the fountain seemed to be in the same spot.

"I’ve seen this before."

The sphere continued moving forward.

Noir followed it.

They passed a crooked house that he recognized immediately. Further ahead was the store with its entrance on the second floor, followed by the enormous tree growing inside a building.

Noir began to walk more slowly.

These weren’t just similar places.

They were the same.

The sphere turned a corner, and Noir once again found himself facing a street that ended at a wall. Several people walked toward it and disappeared as they passed through it, exactly as he had seen earlier that day.

Noir stood there staring for a few seconds.

The sphere continued moving forward.

Noir followed it until he recognized a house.

The older man’s house.

He stopped at the door.

For a few seconds, nothing happened.

Then the door opened.

The older man stepped out calmly.

Noir felt a chill run down his spine.

The older man walked toward him with the same serene expression he’d shown hours earlier.

"You’re back."

Noir remained silent.

The older man watched him for a few seconds and added:

"You took your time."

Noir narrowed his eyes; those were the same words he’d heard when he first arrived in the city, but now in a different situation. Even the way the man had opened the door seemed identical.

’This has already happened.’

The older man fell silent. After a few seconds, he opened his door.

"Come in."

Noir hesitated.

The golden sphere floated behind him.

Finally, he stepped inside.

The interior was the same as what he had seen before. The bookshelves were still filled with books, the antique objects were still on the table, and the enormous painting still took up a large portion of the wall.

Noir looked up.

The black dragon continued to hover over ancient Veyra; its red eyes seemed to be watching him from the painting.

Noir looked away.

The older man walked over to one of the bookshelves and pulled out a dusty book. He set it on the table and began turning the pages carefully.

Noir stood motionless as the older man turned the book to show him the maps.

"The people of Veyra know that the city is strange. They’ve learned to live with it."

Noir sensed that something wasn’t right. It was the same explanation he had heard before, and even the older man’s hand movements seemed to repeat themselves the same way. The man ran his finger over the same notes in the margins and pointed to the different maps as if this conversation were happening for the first time.

"Do these maps show the changes in the city?"

"All of them."

"How much time passed between them?"

"Some were drawn decades apart. Others, centuries."

Noir remained silent, studying the maps for a few more seconds. The older man finally closed the book and stood up.

"Come on. There’s something I want to show you."

Noir watched him closely. This time, he didn’t move right away. He had heard those words before and knew exactly what was coming next, but he still followed the older man toward the door.

"Outside?"

The older man nodded.

Noir stepped out behind him. The street was still crowded, and everything looked the same as before.

A woman was walking with a basket of fruit, and when she reached a corner, she stopped before crossing.

She looked both ways, waited a few seconds, and finally continued. Noir watched her closely, remembering that he had seen this very same scene before.

A little further on, some children were playing near a crooked house. One of them threw a ball toward a side street, but another immediately ran to stop it.

"Not like that."

"Why?"

"Because."

Noir felt his eyes widen slightly. It wasn’t just something similar to what he’d seen before. It was the same conversation, happening in the same spot, with the same movements. The older man, however, kept walking as if nothing strange were happening.

They returned to the small square. The fountain was still shooting water into the sky, defying any rational explanation, and the older man stopped in front of it.

"This fountain has been here for over two hundred years."

Noir didn’t answer right away. He looked around the square and felt that something was missing. Arlene wasn’t there. Neither was the princess. Uki had disappeared.

The scene was practically identical to the one he had witnessed earlier that day, but the people who had been standing beside him were now nowhere to be found.

Noir turned his gaze back to the older man.

"Where are my companions?"

The older man looked at him calmly, as if the question made no sense.

"Companions?"

"Arlene. The princess. Uki."

The older man didn’t answer. Noir looked around again. The square was crowded, but none of the faces she saw looked familiar. A sense of unease slowly grew as she tried to figure out what was happening.

"They were with me."

The older man kept that serene expression for a few seconds before answering.

"Maybe."

Noir narrowed his eyes.

"What does that mean?"

The older man started walking.

Noir followed him for a few meters, still trying to make sense of the situation, but eventually stopped. The golden sphere floated behind him and had come to a complete standstill. Noir looked back toward the street.

Everything continued as normal: people walked, shopkeepers tended their businesses, and residents went about their business in Veyra as if the city were perfectly normal.

However, Arlene, the princess, and Uki weren’t there.