Lunae could barely comprehend what had just happened or even how it made her feel. The rush of stepping into the puddle was still captivating her whole body. She didn’t even realize she was having a hard time breathing. She actually spat out some water. The Master saw this.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I should have told you to hold your breath. Apparently, you did the first time…or both times we did this…Wait, this is your third time traveling through water, yes, both times then,” The Master continued to ramble on to himself, not even caring that Lunae was still there, hunched over, coughing, trying to feel normal again. As she looked up, she realized she was in the stone room again; this time, she was going to get answers.
“Where are we?” Lunae asked while taking a deeper look at her surroundings. The pillars had carvings within them. Creatures and humans alike. The candlelight above them seemed to be just floating. The altars in between the pillars all had carvings of creatures offering sacrifices to the water. Lunae was gazing around until she met Fulch’s eyes.
“We are in the hall of water. Not sure where exactly we are; there is no door. We may not be on the same world!” Fulch said. Lunae was confused.
“What did that even mean?” She said. Fulch just smiled and beckoned her to follow him. He led her through several hallways, all seemingly having stories etched in the walls.
“These are the stories of masters past. This place is the only place of records of what goes on here.” Fulch said. They kept walking, and Lunae remembered they had just left the Master. As she looked back, she could hear Fulch laugh.
“Don’t worry about him. Once he grasps reality again, he’ll come find us and answer your questions. Come, let me show you your room.” At this point, Lunae finally looked at Fulch. He had a blue and green tint to his body, and his ears were pointed, his teeth were sharpened, and his hair and eyes were silver. Lunae must have had a look on her face because Fulch started to laugh again.
“Kalindors are funny things to me. Yes, I am not a Kalindor. I guess best thing for you to understand what I am is like a fish nixie...We are called the Piskal. Confused yet?” Fulch said. Lunae nodded.
“Good that’s how I like it. Here is your room. The Master will call upon you when he regains his senses.” He said. Lunae walked into her room, Fulch smiled as he closed the door. She looked around to find a nice auburn colored room. The furnishing seemed old but well maintained. There was a wardrobe there, and she looked inside to find that there was a bunch of clothes already inside it. There was a vanity with a mirror that had carvings of old creatures. She could have sworn they were from myths. She jumped onto the bed to find it was quite comfortable. Lunae had to jump off of it because if she wasn’t careful, she would have fallen asleep. She didn’t realize until now just how tired she was.
“Today has been exhausting,” she said out loud. She turned to the vanity table and saw a desk. It was quite a cozy room, she knew she liked it. She waited there patiently for a while, for how long she didn’t know. She just sat at the vanity staring into the mirror, wondering what in the world she had just gotten herself into. Lunae started to drift when she felt like she was floating in water, and she felt warm and comforted. She finally felt as if she was at rest. Just then, a knock on the door disturbed her peace.
“Lunae change your clothes. We will be having dinner in thirty minutes. The Master wants you to look nice.” Fulch said through the door.
“You could add a please to that demand!” Lunae yelled in reply, and her only response was Fulch laughing as he walked away. Lunae was smiling at that. She wondered why she was so comfortable here. It was all strange, and it should be scary at the same time. She knew she should be feeling these things, but couldn’t get herself to feel them. Lunae went to the wardrobe and tried to pick out the nicest thing she could find. What was peculiar to Lunae was that these clothes looked different from the ones she first seen. She decided to ignore it for now and continue to get dressed. After Lunae put on a dress, she must have been feeling vain because she went to the vanity and put on some makeup. Once she was ready, she walked out the door to find Fulch was already waiting for her.
“Well, don’t you look beautiful,” Fulch said as he kicked himself off the wall. Lunae just smiled at him and gave him a little curtsy.
“For a Kalindor at least, come on, the dining room is this way,” Lunae giggled to herself while she followed him. She felt Fulch and herself were going to become great friends. As they were walking, Fulch looked nervous. He stopped her right before they entered the room.
“So there will be two different peoples coming to this dinner. The Rhudon and the Porpura. They both are very prideful people. Best be on your guard.” Fulch said as he led her into a huge dining room. She was curious about these people; she didn’t know why Fulch was acting the way he was. This was all exciting for her.
She looked around to see that the table itself could seat twenty people. There were pillars of floating lights all around. Floating lights seem to be a theme in this place, Lunae thought. There was another altar at the end of the room, but Lunae’s view of it was blocked by the Master sitting at the end of the table. Food was already placed out in front of them, and it was an impressive spread. There were all types of food she didn’t recognize, and the smells made Lunae’s stomach growl. Fulch led her to her seat, which was right next to the Master. She thanked Fulch and just stared at the Master, waiting for answers. The Master did notice and smiled at Lunae.
“I’m sorry for this, but your questions and explanations must wait; this dinner is for some business I have to take care of. That’s why I asked you to dress nicely, and might I say you did a beautiful job,” Lunae couldn’t believe that his statement actually made her blush. She was fishing for compliments but realized she actually wasn’t comfortable with accepting them. She was curious about what business he was speaking of though, what kind of business does someone like him actually do exactly. Lunae wasn’t going to keep quiet about it either.
“What business exactly? I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around what you do?” She said. The sarcasm wasn’t lost on the Master, he gave a smile and a nod in acknowledgement of her meaning.
“You see, we do what the water needs us to do. I will explain later on that subject, but sometimes it’s very small and other times it’s very, very big, and those I can personally say are annoying,” the Master said. They both laughed at this, even though Lunae didn’t understand to the fullest capacity on why, just yet.
“So I am guessing this is a very big thing,” Lunae said as she took a sip of spirits that was already poured for her.
“Yes, and I hate to say this, but you must remain silent during this dinner, but if spoken to, directly speak humbly and short answers,” Lunae didn’t really like the sound of that, but since she had no idea what was going on, she agreed. With her nod, the Master motioned Fulch to let the guests in. Fulch opened the double doors, and two groups of peoples entered. Lunae realized that she had seen them before. It was the last puddle, the place that was at war. The two species walked in single file on opposite sides of the table.
She looked everyone over, but one in particular stood out. It was the one who made eye contact with her, and by the look on his face, he recognized her as well. He was third in line on his side. They stared at each other for a while; it almost felt like an eternity for Lunae. His eyes were red and piercing, and his skin looked like red leather. He was tall, and his muscles were bigger than she’d ever seen on any living thing. He had no hair, which made it look all the more ominous. The rest of them looked almost the same; they all looked menacing with their red eyes. They dressed as if they were warriors, some having trophy necklaces. Lunae turned her attention to the other group, the ones with purple skin, and the way they dressed reminded Lunae of priests. They held themselves upright and seemed more serious than the Rhudons. The Master cleared his throat as he stood up, bringing Lunae back to reality.
“Lunae, get up!” The Master said under his breath, Lunae did so, and she had a sudden fear rush down her spine. She was in way over her head. She hoped no one would speak to her, for she had no idea what might come out of her mouth. When both parties reached their seats, the Master said a few words in a language she couldn’t understand, and everyone sat down except for her. The Porpura man who was seated beside her smiled, but the Rhudon man looked at her with disgust. She quickly sat down, all the while feeling like a fool. Lunae caught a glimpse of Fulch in the back by the doors, and she could tell that he was fighting back a laugh. If Lunae continued to look at him, she would have noticed that Fulch quickly hid away and wouldn’t come back until the end of the dinner. His kind would not be tolerated at the dinner.
Everyone was talking within their own groups at first while putting food on their plates. Lunae couldn’t understand a word that was being spoken, but the man sitting next to her always offered food with a smile. He was older, Lunae could tell; his purple skin was starting to wrinkle, and his hair was blue. She wondered if that’s what it looked like for them to gray. Lunae tried to smile back at him as often as she could, but every time she would get a glare from the Rhudon man. Lunae found herself growing in fear of him.
Finally, the Master stood up. His words echoed through the room; everyone was listening, even the red man, who stopped staring at Lunae. Once the Master finished, the Porpura man sitting next to Lunae got up, and the head of the Rhudons did too. He spoke first. Lunae thought he looked like a mighty warrior or once was in his youth. He had a hunch, and his body was filled with scars, and he looked frail. He didn’t seem to hold as much anger as the other man. Lunae thought that he could be reasoned with, and the other one not so much. Once he was done speaking, the Porpura put his hand on his chest and bowed his head. He then began to speak shortly after the Rhudon leader did the same. Once both parties spoke, everyone seemed happy for the exception of the red man, who looked as if he was going to explode. The Master then beckoned the two leaders to the altar. At this point, everyone started standing up, and this time Lunae was not going to look like a fool.
Both men stood at either side of the altar, placing both hands on it. The Master stood behind it; he lifted his hands above his head and spoke. Lunae dearly wished she could understand what everyone was saying; she was growing increasingly annoyed. A part of her wanted to yell out and have someone tell her what was going on, but she honestly was too afraid to.
“Be patient,” a voice said to Lunae. She looked around to find the culprit, but in her heart, she knew no one had. Maybe it was the fear that had been building up inside her, but Lunae started to find fear in everything that she had chosen.
“What am I doing?” Lunae said in a whisper. As Lunae was contemplating her decisions, the Master continued to speak, and Fulch appeared out of nowhere holding a pitcher of water. Lunae noticed that Fulch kept his head down and didn’t look anyone in the eye. He handed the pitcher to the Master and cowered into the corner. Lunae was surprisingly upset at this, and she didn’t know why. The lights in the room dimmed, and as Lunae looked around, the walls seemed to look like they were underwater. The lights in the room were beautiful. Many different color blues and greens. Lunae would have reveled in it longer if it weren’t for the red man staring at her. That at least brought her back to reality; she knew she needed to be cautious, and she reminded herself to keep her guard up. The Master was speaking as he poured the water onto the altar. Lunae found it peculiar that the water didn’t fall off; it just lay upon it motionless. Then the water did something she was not expecting. The water slithered its way up the arms of the two leaders and formed cuffs on their wrists. Lunae could have sworn that they were slowly becoming solid as if they were freezing. The Master was speaking faster and louder as this was happening.
“Is this magic?” Lunae said, not caring if anyone heard her. The lights began to flicker, and Lunae could hear waves, but she could not see where the noise was coming from. When the crashing was becoming too much to bear, as her body was feeling that of the waves crashing down on her, the ice around the leader’s wrists exploded, releasing everyone from the grip of the water. As the lights came back to normal, everyone was clapping. The two leaders shook hands with smiles on their faces. The Porpura leader let out a cry, and the whole room exploded in cheer, all but the red man. He was looking very sour. Lunae could tell it was time for celebration, and she truthfully didn’t want to stick around. She waited until she felt she was safe enough to approach the Master.
“Hey, this is cool and all and also confusing, but can I leave now?” The Master looked at her with annoyance and amusement.
“Right now would look like an insult. I will let you know when it is safe…” The Master said as he started to turn away, but had a change of thought.
“I know this is weird, just wait, you’ll have answers. You are doing just fine, just keep close to the Porpura people.” Lunae didn’t know how to respond, so she just nodded her head. Lunae tried to stick to herself; she tried to keep walking around so she wouldn’t bring much attention to herself. At that moment, she realized she wished Fulch was around to tell her what was going on. As Lunae was walking, she was distracted in thought and didn’t notice the red man. She bumped into him, and before she could say she was sorry, the Rhudon was already yelling. Tensions were already high in the room, and this did not help. Some of the other Rhudonians came to restrain him. What surprised Lunae was that the Porpura leader stood right in front of her. Lunae was glad for the help. Next thing Lunae knew, Fulch grabbed her and took her out of the room. The last Lunae saw was the Master trying to contain the situation.