Ennet stood in a lit room with white walls. She had been waiting for close to last half an hour since Anaphol left her bookstore.
Meanwhile, Naph progressed toward the only fountain he had found in Central Monite. 'Obviously there are more fountains here but I didn't encounter one till now.' His thought circled in his mind like he circled the fountain.
The design and artwork on it was distinct, speaking of the difference in culture among Sevenren, Rentilaco and Central Monite.
The white room had neither doors nor a window, yet Ennet could breathe for she knew how it worked. Others who would have ended up in this room would have died if they didn't know what's required to survive here. She waited remembering this.
And then the circles on the floor came alive.
Naph for at that time, settled on the railing of the fountain. He liked the silence that surrounded it while the crowd that came either stayed silent or watched the fountain from afar.
Whispers died against the backdrop of the gushing tone of water flowing out and down from the mouths eyes of a stone four headed bull.
"Bulls don't have four heads but I get the artistic vision." He nodded slightly. His grip ever tight on his ride's handle.
Naph couldn't risk Bulwark being taken away, he believed as such. 'Extea would not have brought her name in otherwise.'
The terror of storms that descended on Sevenren a few hours ago was still fresh in his mind. He couldn't keep that picture away or the shockwave he felt after escaping to the grasslands of Sevenren.
"What could have done that?" As he questioned this, he immediately turned his head to a pair of guys walking in the side away from his spot. He felt their gaze for a split second but he felt it as intense.
'Are they what I think they are?' The golden hue shone off the surface of water on his face, enlightening its colour to bright gold.
White room's circles began dipping in their brightness and Ennet now was surrounded by a plethora of people. Everyone walking, standing or somehow sitting in air inside a white room. None seemed to notice her.
Ennet walked among them searching for someone or something. She spotted a hazy figure sitting and grabbing on a cylindrical object in air.
Turning away from the hazy figure, she began searching frantically what she hopped to find.
Naph however, straightened where he was sitting. Waiting for the two to circle back to him. 'Circle back? Shouldn't I say square back? The fountain's a square not a circle.' He grumbled inside.
Rather than waiting more at the fountain, Anaphol stood up and dragged his ride away from the fountain to a different street than the one he originally came from to this crossroad.
Gold of the sky bled to deep blue and black in patches for the sun had begun to set fully.
'I need to rid of them and find a place to stay.' Naph hurried to close the distance between his chosen street and himself.
Abruptly, he looked ahead, stopping dead in his tracks. He felt two more intense gazes on him. Coming from across the building on the right from the same lane he was going to go to.
He took a step back and turned his ride. Its white tarp fluttered in the wind but not too much to reveal anything. He turned to a different street, opposite to his first choice.
Ennet had found a sleeping body in the plethora of people walking around or sitting. Huffing, she felt her breath being sucked away. 'No, no, no, I can't lose my hold on my emotions. Control it. Control it!' She breathed in her escaped breathes not letting it be sucked away into the white room's walls.
Finally after half a minute, she attempted grabbing on the sleeping person's shoulder. Her hand passed through.
"Tch, I forgot." She breathed in a long breath, the air refilled into the room feeling her emotions to be settled. Her hand began glowing with a dull black. With this hand, she re-attempted to grab on the sleeping person. Her hand grabbed on him. And she pulled him in.
Naph sped to the other opposite road. His need to escape became an urgency.
His hunting experience kicking in, he had only ever questioned a similar experience or feeling to arise in the one being hunted in his years being a bounty collector.
Before he even reached the street, he felt two more pairs of gazes falling on him. Intense, and short.
He stopped mid track.
Naph knew now, he was surrounded. There was no escape except possibly a different trap waiting to open on him.
'What should I do?!' Eyes scanning the crowd, people have come en masse to sit and enjoy a pleasant sunset at this crossroad.
"It's my fault!" He cursed in a whisper.
Taking another step back, he glanced in the four escapes he hadn't tried. This crossroad was different that being one made of four roads coming together and intersecting.
Here, over six roads came and intersected. Calling it a crossroad is what Naph understood.
His mind wasn't caught in a loop considering the nuances of what this place should be called. He only knew that there were two people by the fountain, two or more by one lane and two or more waiting in the opposite road.
Accepting his destiny coming this far was not what he felt within.
What he felt would have rattled, or will rattle the people.
Naph left both his hands from the handle of his ride. One went to his lips, the other grabbed atop the severed neck of Bulwark.
And Anaphol laughed.
His laugh escaped hysterically from behind his right palm. The air which felt lively and happy earlier, suddenly grabbed on the nuance of hysterics and murder.
A few first turned and looked at the boy in a neon jacket, laughing in the middle of the street.
Then some more turned and gazed at him.
Few even ran away that were about to enter the crossroad spotting the boy.