"AHHHHHHHHH"
The primal scream of pain erupted from Cairo's soul, he could not feel anything exactly, but his soul was utterly tortured by whatever was happening to him. For what seemed like both eternity and an instant, Cairo felt unbearable pain and nothing simultaneously.
Just like how he was removed from space and time, he suddenly appeared within it once more. He didn't know what had happened, he almost assumed that he had died and gone to the afterlife, had he not felt his body and soul painfully reunite.
As he realized he could see once again, he looked down at himself. He was still wearing all his gear, and he still had his tool bag and amber canteen underneath the cover of his coat, with his amber spear in his hands with the pendant dangling from his right.
'Ah… my shield…'
Cairo was very attached to his creations, he was already sad that he would lose his carrying basket, but now he didn't even have his shield. His frown only lasted for a few moments, finally realizing that he had inexplicably survived his certain doom.
'I don't know if I should be happy or concerned. I've not once heard of anything like this happening before.'
Cairo hesitantly observed his surroundings, trying to understand just exactly where his path took him to. Remembering the sun pendant, he raised his right hand to take a glance at the string that had separated itself from his earlier.
The golden string of fate had not rejoined his own, instead it stayed perfectly parallel to his own.
'Parallel? What could that mean? Is this a parallel dimension to the one Lillia is in? Could they intersect?'
Some weird recluse mathematics scholars had some strange debates a few years back about the topic, Cairo on the other hand was an engineer and a craftsman, he didn't exactly care about geometrics that weren't applicable so he wasn't interested in studying mathematics with the advanced scholars.
'If I find a way to exit the path, can I go back to using the pendant to conjoin the paths once more? I would have to face the shadow likely, so it would only be possible after I was stronger…'
Cairo considered how much time had passed while he was ripped out of reality, the night sky had painted the sky above the forest he was in.
'No immediate dangers it would seem. Huh, my senses feel altered slightly. It's not nearly as significant as it was before the path warping, perhaps some of the wildlife souls leaked out when my soul wasn't joined with my body…'
His cognitive abilities had never peaked as high as they did the first time he was intoxicated on the power of life force, but he did feel that his mind and creativity could be easily enlightened. His sense of touch and pressure was far more precise, and his near-sighted vision increased significantly. His body felt peculiar, like his skin was permeable, capable of absorbing life from the air. He couldn't test it, because the air in this forest was rather empty in comparison to the grove he had spent last night in.
Then his senses were triggered, Cairo grew increasingly alert as he observed his surroundings with the unsettling sensation of being watched, like a predator evaluating how weak his prey was. He saw nothing in the bound of the forest, until he had a strange thought that enlightened him.
'The Forest is watching me? It's evaluating me… Where the hell am I?'
When he felt the Forest retrieve its gaze and turn elsewhere, Cairo only grew more confused.
'What the hell is going on?'
Cairo began to rummage through his possessions and evaluate his current situation. He still had a few days worth of water in his canteen and had a good amount of amber to make another pot to store more water. He had his crafting tools, and various other materials like resin, rope, scrap fabric and unwoven spools of thread. Unfortunately, Cairo did not have any extra petrified wood, as he used his remaining branches on the shield, so he couldn't make any strong and lightweight frames.
Packing up his scattered items, Cairo began to wander around in search of water, he had too much adrenaline pumping to go to sleep at the moment. He wandered about for another hour or two before finally hearing the trickling of water in the distance of the quiet night. He made his way through the relatively dense forest, carefully stepping in clear spots to not make unnecessary sounds. Arriving at the riverbank, Cairo took a satisfying seat on a stone a few meters away from the water.
Under the glow of subtle moonlight, Cairo cast his gaze to the other side of the river, he thought he could see a roughly paved horse trodden path.
"Is that-" He started to speak out loud to himself.
Suddenly, all his senses disappeared, his body tumbled off the rock he had been seated on. Collapsed and confused, Cairo consciousness was stolen from him, trapping his subconsciousness in absolute darkness.
***
"What is it?"
"Uh-I. What is-..." Cairo's recently returned mind was a swamp of different emotions. He did not understand how this new voice he heard was speaking the same tongue as him. The other voices he heard earlier sounded like gibberish to him. The Shadow from his previous scenario was speaking in the tongue that many of the ancient other worlds used, it was one of the first things that were taught by the teachers in his early studies. According to them, the ancient tongue was the root to the future languages. The fact that the Shadow spoke in ancient tongue had been a good hint for what other world he could be in, but that had seemed to be irrelevant to him after the path warped.
Taking a breath to steady himself, Cairo responded: "Cairo. My name is Cairo, Son of Altan and Bram."
Valen scrambled in his mental library, ravenously searching for the most recent Heartlands Census, there should have been one completed six years ago. They originally published new censuses every five years, in order to keep an eye on who had been able to return from the paths. After a dozen generations of Pathfinders had passed, less and less ordinary people set off for the paths, now that they could establish a real life in the Heartlands. These days the census was only completed every ten years, with the last one being published and a copy stored in the Grand Citadel Library six years ago.
'Altan and Bram… The Builder's Guild? Cairo… he seems to be in the direct lineage. Considering his bold decision to venture the paths he must either be extremely talented or absolutely useless. Perhaps he wanted to be a mystical artificer?'
"Uh-Excuse me, but you speak the tongue of the Heartlands, are you… you know?" Cairo spoke hesitantly.
'He is prodding me? He is rather careful. Maybe not useless.'
"Possibly" Valen replied vaguely, he couldn't speak to the young man too much, his job was only to translate after all. Turning his head to where he last heard the Guard Captain, he spoke in the other world tongue: "He says he is Cairo, son of Altan and Bram."
The guard captain stroked his stubble with his leather gloves considering the response. Amused he asked, "Huh, he introduces himself strangely just like you do, do you know each other?"
'Strangely? Do they not state their names like this? How do they differentiate between those who do not have family names then?'
"Pardon?" Valen asked inquisitively, his arms placed gently behind his scrawny back, hands lightly clasped.
"Haha, did I hurt your feelings, Valen son of Agnes?" The Guard Captain chuckled in response. "The people here do not refer to their parents when they introduce themselves, that would be considered cowardly, like they are children hiding behind their mothers legs. Those who have not inherited a name would simply pick one that fits their station, occupation, or status. For example, you could take the name 'Valentine Booker', having been a librarian."
'Hm, that's a good idea. It's better not to attract any attention, choosing an occupational last name could be good cover.'
"Interesting. I think I would like 'Valen Booker' more though." Valen responded earnestly, waiting for his next question.
"Haha, it suits you!" The Guard Captain seemed pleased with the response. Taking a moment longer to think, he asked: "Ask him his occupation."
Valen nodded and proposed the question to Cairo in his tongue: "Cairo, you are currently being investigated by a Guard Captain. He wishes to know your occupation."
Cairo shifted his body, realizing the reason why he was wearing a tunic. All his reinforced leather clothing had been confiscated along with all his tools, weapons, and materials. He had initially been caught off guard by the sudden change when he woke up, at least he had an explanation now. "Ah, I'm a craftsman. I forge weapons, tools, and can design and build with most common construction materials."
The answer was within Valen's expectations, he had correctly assumed that the Builder's clan direct descendant was capable. The question was, why and how he had gotten here. Valen did not hesitate to relay Cairo's response, he had no desire to garner unwanted suspicion.
"A Mason, Smith, and Carpenter? Is the boy a damn prodigy?" The Guard Captain made no attempt to hold back his surprise. His astonishment was followed by the First Whispering Man calling for the one named Errin to fetch Cairo's belongings. Shortly after, the hurried footsteps approached, carrying an assortment of items. Valen's curiosity peaked, wishing he could remove his blindfold; he still had yet to determine how skilled the other pathfinder was.
"See Captain, this was the strange material I was telling you about. It looks like a primitive amber spear, but the amber is abnormally hard. The Amber Tools are in better shape than some of our iron tools." The First Whispering Man elaborated to the Guard Captain, the sounds of leather rustling filling Valen's ears.
"Indeed, the strange amber was even crafted into plate armor over the leather. Are there also plates in the coat lining?" The Guard captain responded enthusiastically as he inspected the other equipment. "Atlan, how much would this type of equipment cost?"
"Well, it looks like it was made rather crudely. The lashings are of rather low quality, in comparison to leather lashings. The Amber was manipulated rather interestingly, it looks more like it was forged rather than chipped like normal stone tools. The wood is strange too, it almost looks crystallized." Atlan gave a detailed explanation, attempting to confirm his knowledge on the materials, despite it not being his area of expertise. "The methods are rather advanced considering the nature of the materials found. With more time and the right materials… The full set of equipment could fetch fifty solvane. This lot could go for 10 solvane if you considered the uniqueness of the materials. However, it would probably only be bought for museums and display cases due to its strange properties."
'Solvane sounds like a higher quality currency. This material must be a mystical ingredient.' Valen was listening to their descriptions and evaluations very intensely, so quiet you couldn't hear him breathe. 'Self-made? How did he find the materials that the natives don't recognize? That makes no sense…'
"Valen, ask the boy about how he found this equipment, and if he made it, ask where he got the materials." Greed could almost be felt escaping the words coming from the Guard Captain's mouth.
Valen turned his head back in the direction of Cairo, "They want to know where you found the equipment."
Cairo hesitated to respond immediately, unsure if the other pathfinder was hostile or not. His tone wasn't very amicable when he spoke to Cairo, instead he was abnormally cold. Considering the day Cairo was having, he wasn't in the mood to deal with a hostile pathfinder, so he eventually complied with the questioning. "I made the equipment."
"Where did you get the materials?" Valen didn't reveal any more information than necessary.
"I scavenged it from a special place far from here. I do not know how far it is, and I do not know how to find it."
Valen's eyes squinted underneath his blind fold. 'What does he mean? How is it that he knows it's far, but doesn't know how far in relation to where we are now?'
Valen masked all traces of confusion in his voice as he relayed Cairo's response to the Guard captain. Meanwhile, questions sprouted many into more questions in Valen's mind, he started to really need some answers. 'Amber… Crystallized Wood… Petrified wood?'
The gears were turning in Valen's mental library, books flying off shelves, flipping through their illusionary pages. Running through Indexes, Compendiums, and Glossaries, Valen was dedicated to identifying the other world materials for more answers as the Guard Captain and Atlan discussed their confusion.
'Eterian Sacred Grove? It's the only one of the 4 Petrified Wood containing forests with records in the Ancient language that has any mention of abnormal amber deposits.' Valen felt that he was getting closer to the truth, so he kept pressing forward, searching for all historical records regarding the grove. 'A Primordial Forest? Located in the center of the "Eterian Dimensional Plane". Interesting, it wasn't a planet world?'
'A sacred grove under the protection of a unified force of species that originated from Elves. The Plane was recorded to have been annihilated in the year 7834 of the Eterian Calendar. Hm, it doesn't seem that anyone escaped to the Heartlands at the time, or perhaps they were those who came before the First Generation.'
'The Sacred Grove was annihilated by a possessed Rain Elf in the year 7412? A Sacrificial Ritual? The Possessed Rain Elf later turned in a World Devourer?! How did this kid end up in such a pivotal location?' Valen was rather jealous of the other Pathfinder, one of his main hypotheses laid in the exploration of pivotal moments in Other Worlds' histories. The events that were pivotal in the downfall of the Other Worlds were topics of intense concern amongst the Path Researchers. Some speculated that those events were important for the expansion of the Heartland, some felt that they were more like hidden treasure troves containing immensely powerful boons, some felt they were anchors for our souls and that they were what guided the paths.
"Is he just trying to be difficult? Valen, ask him why he doesn't know, I don't care if he doesn't want to keep his stash a secret. He can apply for a mining permit later for all I care." The Guard Captain tried to sound less interested, remaining wary of the behavior of the suspicious craftsman prodigy.
"They want to know why you don't know. They also said they don't care about mining rights, so don't lie to them." Valen proposed the question bluntly, he was still compiling his thoughts and his discoveries.
"Tsk" Cairo clicked his tongue in annoyance. 'He knows I can't just tell them the truth, yet he insists I tell the truth? Is this guy really gonna be difficult? Why?'
"Ha… I obtained it from a different world. My path suddenly underwent a strange anomaly, and it ripped me from my original path and pulled me here." Cairo's words rang in Valen's ears like a hammer ringing against a bell.
Valen swallowed hard, when he heard the word path he instinctively reached for his golden string, and he felt the sensation of attraction once again. His Path was pulling at other barely visible golden strings around him. He solemnly counted them, before landing on the golden string he could sense just a meter away from him, where the boy named Cairo was sitting.
'Five… there are five others… Five people have been pulled onto my path…'