As I stepped into the circle of mushrooms, I was surrounded by a bright light. I wanted to shield my eyes from the light, but I felt frozen in place, unable to move. I was suddenly floating adrift in midair, getting ready to land on some kind of invisible ground. Without warning, the jewel in my navel heated up, and I was violently jerked in the opposite direction, then thrown to a different place before the light faded.
I was standing in a strange room. It was large and bright… and the only thing within was a large blue crystal that sprouted out of the center of the room like an oversized oak tree out of the ground. I started to step closer, but was stopped by the sound of someone shouting. I turned to see a woman that looked like she was half-fox, angry looking as she started towards me.
"Who are you? How did you get here?" she asked as she drew closer. I was about to answer when we were both cut off by the sound of whispering voices coming from the large blue crystal. At first it was faint, but as we both turned to look, the whispering voice grew louder until it sounded more like a softly spoken chant.
"You hear those voices, too, right?" I said quietly, not wanting to interrupt the voices.
"Yeah… Wait, you can hear them?" She turned to me, speaking a little louder than I'd hoped she would. "How…? Can you understand what it's saying?"
"Sort of…" I listened for a moment. "She's talking about something that… has to do with angels? Something about Minoa?"
"That doesn't sound familiar at all…" the woman sounded surprised. Before either of could continue the conversation, though, a ghostly woman walked out of the crystal. She wasn't wearing any clothing, but she had a multitude of tiny wings riddling her body and a large white ribbon that floated about her, giving her a divine-like appearance.
"Lutarua…" the woman walked over to us, holding her hand out to me.
"'Lutarua?'" I repeated as I took her hand. "But I don't know …. Wait, is that my name? Do you know who I am? What I am?"
"I do, but I don't have the time to explain it. I am too weak to be outside for very long." The woman spoke softly, with an undertone of sorrow.
"Oracle? Why can't I understand you?" The other woman sounded stressed. "Who is this woman? What's going on?"
"Child, you must find a way to go home." The ghostly woman, who I assumed was called the "Oracle," took both of my hands in hers. "Tell your father that I am in danger. Bring the legions, bring Nuilux if you must. Just please, bring help…"
Before I could say anything, she started to disappear.
"Wait, what?" I started to freak out as I tried to process what she had told me. "What are you talking about, home? Who's Nuilux? You know my father?"
"Wait, you actually understood what the Oracle said?" the woman grabbed me by the shoulders. "What did she say?!"
"Miiko?" A masculine voice cut through the room as a tall man with white hair came into the room. "One of the guards has spotted the man that– who's this?"
"I don't know." The woman – Miiko, I suppose – crossed her arms after letting me go. "Take her somewhere while I go take care of the masked man."
"Where?" the man asked as Miiko walked past him.
"I don't know, Valkyon!" Miiko shouted, obviously angry about something. "Just somewhere other than here! Take her to the Forge for all I care!"
"Okay…" the man turned to me. Since he looked like he was strong enough to snap me in half, I decided to just walk towards him, knowing he'd want me to follow him somewhere, if he didn't decide to drag me there by my ear or something. He seemed surprised as he grabbed my arm just above my elbow and led me to wherever he planned on taking me.
He led me to what I assumed was the "forge" that Miiko had mentioned. Once we had reached the room, he let go of me and picked up a few tools.
"So…" I decided to try and ask him a question or two. "Where exactly am I?"
"The Tower of El." Valkyon said calmly.
"Okay… and where is that?" I said slowly, not wanting to annoy him too much. "Are we in one of those government-run cities that Brandon hates so much?"
"W-what?" Valkyon stopped and looked at me seemingly surprised. "No, we're… in Eldarya."
"Oh. I've never heard of Eldarya." I said. "Well, it's not like I've heard of many places before. I don't even know my own name. Don't remember anything past waking up in a strange world and being saved by a human."
"You're from the human world?" Valkyon's face seemed to show more and more shock with each word that came out of my mouth.
"I… I think I am, but…" Unsure of what else to say, I looked down – and saw that Valkyon had a golden colored gemstone in his navel… same as mine, just a different color. "What's… what's that in your navel?"
"Huh? Oh…" He looked down right as I moved my eyes closer to get a better look at it. "I don't know what it is… All I know is that it doesn't ever come out."
"Were you born with it? Does it ever feel warm at times?" I poked it, then stood up straight to look Valkyon in the eyes. "Are you able to make fire, too? Sprout wings?"
"Those are oddly specific questions…" Valkyon continued to use a hammer to pound down on… some kind of sharp looking metal stick. "Why do you want to know?"
"Because I have one too." I hoisted myself up onto his work table and sat on the edge, letting my feet swing back and forth. "I don't know what it is, either… though sometimes it starts to glow and burn up. And it doesn't come out – I've tried so many times to force it out. But I am able to make a white fire… and sprout these beautiful angelic wings."
Valkyon had stopped moving, though his eyes were now focused solely on mine. His bright golden eyes seemed to bore into my soul, searching for an answer to some unasked question. He set his tools down and moved a little bit closer to where I was sitting.
"You… have a jewel in your navel?" Valkyon's voice trembled a little. Nodding, I lifted my shirt up just enough for him to be able to see the orange gem that stuck out of my belly. Just as he moved to get a closer look at it, I heard footsteps.
"Uh… What am I seeing here?" an elf with black hair and an eyepatch was standing by the doorway, his one eye filled with shock. Out of habit, I put my shirt back down before this newcomer could see my stone. Valkyon's face was a deep red, and I figured that mine was a similar color considering how warm it felt.
"Valk, Miiko wants to see –" another elf, this one with long blue hair, came down, but stopped mid step once he saw me. "…wants to see the girl that you're obviously doing something with… What exactly is going on in here?"
"N-nothing." Valkyon stood up straight and helped me off the table. "It's best not to keep Miiko waiting."
Without another word, the four of us made our way towards a room with a plethora of books. Miiko was waiting, along with two other men – one that looked like a warthog, and another with a horn on his forehead.
"Good. You're here. Now, let's start with this - what is your name?" Miiko asked the second I walked into the room.
"Uh…" I felt my eyebrows raise as I tried to think of whether or not I should tell her the name Brandon gave me or the name that the "Oracle" had said was my birthname. "Lutarua?"
"It sounds like you don't know what your name is." The man with the one horn and glasses frowned.
"Hey, I just learned what my birthname is." I myself frowned as I snapped at the man. "Up until that woman told me, I didn't even know who I was. First memory I have is waking up in the human world not being able to remember anything."
"Woman? You mean the Oracle?" Miiko asked.
"That's what you called her." I couldn't help but feel angry, though I wasn't completely sure why.
"What did she tell you?" Miiko asked once more.
"Wait, you didn't understand the oracle this time?" the blue haired elf looked shocked.
"She was speaking some other language." Miiko gestured to me. "A language that 'Lutarua' here apparently knew."
"I was speaking a different language?" My frown deepened.
"What did the oracle tell you?" Miiko obviously felt like I was trying to change the subject. I debated on whether or not I should tell her – she seemed a little too angry about all of this.
"That she needed help with something?" I said. "She was in danger or something like that. Something about someone named Nuilux."
"That's it?" Miiko sounded exasperated. "That's all she told you?
"Kinda. She told me my name, then said that I had to –" I started, but was interrupted.
"How did the Oracle know your name?" the man with the horn asked.
"I don't know. How'd she know about my father, or the fact that I somehow live in this world, or how I'm supposed to find out how to get 'home' so that I can tell said 'father' and 'Nuilux' that some strange ghost is in danger of something despite the fact that she is hidden in some gigantic tower overrun with weird people?" I felt the need to vent as I started to pace back and forth. "How'd she know all of this? How is some spirit whose soul resides in a huge stone tree –"
I stopped mid step as I thought about my choice of words. Spirit whose soul resides in a huge stone tree. Soul… stone. Soulstone.
"If she needs help, why not just come to us? The elf with the eyepatch laughed.
"How would I know?" I turned to face him, though I was still thinking about how the word soulstone sounded familiar.
"You know what?" Miiko held her hands up. "It doesn't matter. I want Lutarua to join the Guard of El. Kero, give her the questionnaire."
"Wait, what?" The man with the horn asked. "Why?"
"She can understand the Oracle." Miiko looked at me as she spoke to the man with the horn. "Plus, she seems like she'd be able to do something of use here."
The boys started to protest, saying that I was a complete stranger, that I could be dangerous, yada yada yada. The only one who stayed quiet was Valkyon.
"Enough! I've made my decision." Miiko walked out of the room, the warthog man in tow. After a second, the elves gave up, and left the room as well. Valkyon walked out, leaving me and the man with the horn alone in the library.