Chapter 1 - Down

"Have a nice death!"

- The air was rushing past him as he tried to somehow twist in mid fall to get his feet under him. It wouldn't make any difference. The sheer face of the cliff seemed to reel past his vision. He took a deep frantic breath and tried to brace himself.

The water hit him with the force of a sledgehammer the pain was imminent and unbearable, the impact squeezed the last bit of air out of his lunges. He was going to die. If not from drowning, the poisonous touch of the water alone would finish him off. And Zoey had his Enderpearl necklace. This was final. The currents were dragging him deeper, spinning him faster and faster into the dark. He lost all sense of direction, cracked his head on a passing rock. His lungs were screaming for air, still he couldn't even get his hands free, or grasp a single thought. Rythian was losing this fight and he knew it.

His last thoughts were of Zoey, hoping she would forgive him and find someone else, and the world went out.

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Cold. The pain... death was painful. Pure agony. And the sound of rushing water so close to... his... face...? Something was making a crackling noise. I can hear. And why the pain? I have a body, he thought. His thoughts were sluggish. Am I dying? Please make it stop. Make it stop. Sto... -

The next time his mind rose to consciousness he could smell smoke. He could still hear the water close by and Rythian was sure he wasn't alone. Every breath hurt, his entire body felt like as if he had been kicked through a cauldron. Backwards. Twice. His clothes were clinging to him, wet and cold, but burning on his skin like fire. There was not an ounce of magic left in him. He was in no state to show any kind of resistance whatsoever and came to the conclusion that it was best to just lay there and concentrate on not passing out with every shallow breath he took.

Time passed. He clearly heard someone move once, probably adding fuel to the fire the heat of which he was slowly starting to feel now, drying his clothes. On one side at least.

He thought he could even see the light through his eyelids when he suddenly inhaled sharply as tiny droplets of water splashed on his face.

Reflexively he opened his eyes and tried to pull his head away. Someone was leaning over him with a waterskin.

"Please, no..." he coaxed. "Don't..." he coughed fitfully, gulping air, "no more. Please?"

Rythian couldn't believe how pathetic he sounded even to his own ears.

To his relief the hand with the waterskin moved away. He tried to sit up and realised that his arms were tingling, he had pins and needles all the way up to his shoulders and he couldn't feel his hands at all. He fell back and saw stars for a moment as his head hit the ground with a thud.

"Let me help you."

Hands grabbed his arms and half dragged, half pushed his back against a cold stone wall leaving him in a slouching upright position. Rythian could now see his counterpart, or at least her eyes in a dark face framed by short dark hair against the small fire behind her.

Her eyes. A deep purple, seeming to glow slightly in the dim cave. He swallowed hard.

"If you are planning to kill me," he managed, "just get it over with. I am done with this world." His voice was raspy but not quite as weak as in his first attempt.

She inclined her head slightly, studying him with an intense look.

"Someone clearly tried just earlier. And I don't know if you deserved that attempt."

She paused, a searching look on her face. "I will just assume that there might be a chance you didn't deserve it." She sat back, putting a small piece of what looked like drift wood onto the fire and arranged the hot coals around a flat stone in the centre.

"So. Now that you are awake, tell me your name."

Rythian tried to collect his thoughts for a moment. He was still wet and in pain. Weak. Drained of all his magic powers and apart from his feet, still tied with the same bloody ropes Sjin had used... How could it have come to this? Ordinary ropes! And he had thought himself above such things. Too powerful to be caught by a non-mage. Now he was here, wherever here was. Without Zoey. or Teep.

They had jumped through a strange portal into what seemed the Twilight Forest. But something hadn't been right. There had been endermen. And lots of them. And quite a few other strange and dangerous creatures. After the initial wonder and excitement of finding this awesome place, and after fighting a terrifying hydra, the three friends had been hard pressed by minotaurs, huge aggressive wolves and goblins. It had been more of a flight for their lives than an orderly retreat in the end. Even Teep's sharp shooting skills hadn't been of much use once the arrows and ammo had run out. Zoey had been very reluctant to touch any weapons made to kill. And his magic had forsaken him. He had felt almost helpless as they ran back towards the portal. He had made sure both his friends got through before he gave up the fight and turned to follow. But the portal had gone. He had been stranded and surrounded by enemies. He fought. He cut down one monster after the other. Some threw curses at him. He remembered the world growing darker as if cloaked in shadows. His movements slowing, arms and legs suddenly as heavy as lead. And then one of them got through his defences. They had drawn first blood. It would have been only a matter of time. They were simply overrunning him.

There had been blood in his eyes, he didn't know if it was his own... and then he heard shots. Mobs around him fell left and right as if hit by lightning. He had thought himself saved. Teep had returned! But no. He had been wrong. Oh so very wrong.

As his memories started to flood back, he barely suppressed a scream of frustration. He covered it with a grunt and a cough before answering.

"Rythian. My name is Rythian. Or 'That Bastard'. Depends."

"Well, Rythian. Welcome to the 'Dead End'." She made a sweeping gesture. "Seems you are my first and only customer here. And probably the last as well. Dinner will be served shortly."

She bent to the left, picked up a small fish and started gutting it with a small dagger. She then laid it skin first onto the stone in the fire, before moving to the next. Rythian could see three more laying nearby. He realised how hungry he was. The smell of fish and drops of fat hissing in the flames soon had his stomach rumbling. He tried to make sense of his situation and surroundings.

They were in a small stony cave, the only exit towards the rushing river as far as he could tell and even that seemed to run underground. Unless it is night time out there, he thought.

No, I fell a long way and was carried quite some way through the water as well. We must be deep underground. Brilliant. The only escape was back through the river. Why does this always happen to me? He tried to study the woman without her noticing. She wore some patchy dark, possible black and green leather trousers with a dark brown-reddish belt and a grey shirt underneath a black and brown leather tunic. Apart from the dagger she had used for the fish, she didn't seem to have any weapons on her. Rythian studied her face again. Purple eyes. Almost the exact shade of his own. But something wasn't quite right. How had she gotten into this place? Unlikely she teleported...

"Are you going to tell me why someone tried to drown you then?" she flashed a quick look at him before returning to her cooking.

"No. Are you going to tell me your name then?" he retorted in the same tone, somewhat embarrassed at having been caught staring at her.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Fair is fair. I told you mine, so...?" Rythian shrugged.

For a long moment she just stared into the flames, not moving while the fish started to burn with little wisps of smoke coming of the edges.

"Amber." she said suddenly realising that their meal was about to turn into ash. A lie. Well that's a good start, Rythian thought.

Amber picked up a broad piece of wood and slid the rather sad looking pieces of fish onto it.

"Now. I guess you are hungry?" She didn't wait for him to nod and just shuffled around the fire to sit next to him with the cooked fish on the wooden plank on her lap. "But seen as I don't know if I can trust you, I will just have to feed you for now."

Rythian suddenly realised his mask had been off his face the whole time. Of course! Sjin had pulled it down days ago and he had never managed to put it back into place again. Not that it would matter anymore now, now that Sjin knew. Maybe everybody knew by now. Sjin and Amber, or whatever her real name was, had seen the mark. He shot her an annoyed look.

"Seriously? Come on. You are armed and I am half dead."

She shrugged. "As I said, I don't know you. If you really can't stand the thought, I won't force you. More fish for me."

He sighed and shook his head. "Go on then."

She broke off a piece and fed it to him before eating some herself. With her being so close, Rythian could sense her magical powers. Still something was off and he couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was.

"Well I am sure I have never eaten worse." Amber snorted, picking out fish bones and fins.

After they had finished the last fish she dropped the wood onto the dying fire and went to the water's edge, squatting down with her back to Rythian. Is she... she's washing her hands? In water? He could hear her splashing and even taking a drink out of her cupped hands. She came back with a full waterskin.

"Thirsty?"
"Are you fucking kidding?! Is this supposed to be funny? Because it isn't!" He glared at her.

Amber gave him a hurtful look of complete confusion. "What? I know you were close to drowning when I pulled you out, but I made you cough up most of the water." She took another drink out of the water skin. "Are you sure you don't want any?" she asked, waving it close to his face. Rythian tried to lean away from it, pulling a leg closer, tensing up, ready to kick at Ambers arm.

"I'm warning you, try this shit on me and you'll be in for a surprise."

"A simple 'no thank you' would have done the trick." She sighed, sat back cross legged and let her head drop onto her folded hands, elbows propped up on her knees.

"This is pointless. Look, I am obviously missing something here. You could say I am new in the area, so why don't you tell me something about you, or at least why you are so freaked out about a bit of water?"

Rythian shifted slightly. She is either an exceptionally good liar, or... or what?

"You really don't know? How can you not know? How," he shook his head in disbelief. "You shouldn't be able to touch water. None of us can! Not without a little protection. I don't understand." he trailed off, not sure what to make of the situation. His head was still hurting.

"Look. Enderborn can't touch natural water, okay? I don't know how you just did that. I don't really care. Just don't get any of it close to me, I really don't have any spare magic for this now..."

Why the hell did I tell her that last bit? Damn.

"What? You are basically allergic to water? That's ridiculous. But don't give me that worried look, I'll keep the water for myself. Feel free to crawl over to the river when you've come back to your senses. Must have hit your head a bit harder than is healthy, eh?"

"You do know that endermen die when they get in contact with water for too long, right? It's almost the same for me."

"Bit short for an enderman, aren't you?" She grinned. "And I noticed your skin isn't black, seems you can't teleport, or you would have done so already and all my conversations with endermen tend to start and end with them screaming and then either dying or hiding. So far you've out-talked them all."

"I'm no bloody enderman! I'm Enderborn. Same as you. Well maybe not quite."

"If you insist you can be an 'Enderborn' but leave me out of it. I think I have heard that word before somewhere, but I don't -"

Rythian interrupted her with a snort. "I can see your eyes quite clearly. And they are purple. Ever seen a human with purple eyes? You are Enderborn or I am a bloody creeper."

"Whatever. Well it was nice to have talked to someone, even if you seem to have lost your wits. But I am tired and I will try and get some sleep in this... this hole. Please don't try anything, I am a light sleeper and I would be rather annoyed if I accidentally stabbed you after going through all the effort of dragging you out of that river."

She patted her sheathed dagger at her belt. The smile had vanished from her face. Her unblinking purple eyes staring at him was unsettling Rythian more than he would ever admit to anyone. Do I look like that when I get angry? She definitely meant business.

"Oh don't worry about me. I swear I won't touch you. I have my standards. Oh yeah and this fucking rope cutting into my wrists. In case you forgot. I guess it's pointless to asked for some relieve there?"

She didn't even bother with an answer and just raised an eyebrow in his direction before lying down opposite him with the fire between them, one hand on her dagger.

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