The new realm seemed no different from the last. The stringy trees and cone-like mountains were everywhere, along with the faint presence of emotions somewhere in the distance. Creatures were part of the challenge, as was size.

Taking a deep breath, Dallion did his usual line attack with spark. Unlike before, it was quite a while since the thread of destruction managed to cause a tear in the realm; miles by the looks of it. That finding the right portal could no longer be achieved through the method they had used before.

“It’s safe,” Dallion said to the portal behind him.

None of the others moved.

Seriously? He wanted to cross his arms, but letting go of the sword wasn’t a wise choice right now.

“How much do you want me to stay here before you come along?”

“Ten hours.” Phoil laughed out.

Dallion almost expected Raven to add a few thoughts of his own, but the boy didn't. Instead, the noble cast a levitating spell, then directed himself through the portal. One by one, the rest followed. Cheska was the one who cast the levitation spells, getting Phoil through first, then herself. Iksa was last—apparently the creator of the portal was the one manipulating the spell, so when she passed through the opening to the initial real, closed off, vanishing away.

“Where are we?” Phoil asked.

“It’s not the banished realm,” Dallion said. “It’s inhabited, but I haven’t seen by what.” From experience, he knew that it wouldn’t be friendly. “My guess is that we must find the next realm connection point and move on.”

The Earth side of him grumbled that there wasn’t a formula that would help reduce all the trial and error. There were formulas regarding thread extraction from materials, after all, and basic rules when it came to spell composition. When it came to realms, though, formulas were strangely lacking. It was almost as Dallion was experiencing two different types of magic.

“It won’t be that simple.” Raven’s spell ended, causing him to land on the ground. The height was nothing to be sneezed at, but as an awakened, even a child could do it without issue. “All we have is theories. It’s not even certain how many realms we need to go through. I was counting that we’d take a shortcut through the banished realm.”

That sounded like a really dumb idea, but Dallion didn’t want to insult Raven and—more importantly—the puppets’ originals.

“Let’s assume it’s seven. The Moons like that. So, we’re into two, which leaves five more to go.”

The thought was overly optimistic, but no one argued. After some more discussions, it was decided that the best course of action was to explore the new realm and see what it had to offer in terms of clues. Out of precaution, Dalliona sked Iksa whether she could mark the way to their previous realm. As it turned out, she already had—Raven had always considered the possibility they’d get lost, so he’d tasked Iksa to learn how to mark realms in addition to opening portals.

Unfortunately, her current level didn’t allow her to mark a large number of realms, or she would have done so.

Despite Dallion’s objections, Phoil tore a few more cards in an attempt to find the next path. The guardian threads flew in different directions, making it obvious that the banished realm was nowhere near.

Nil, is it true that all realms are connected? Dallion asked as they continued walking. Several square miles was quite a lot of distance, especially for children when they were crossing it on foot.

That’s one of the great paradoxes, the old echo replied. On the one hand, most of them are through the real world. Items that are in contact with one another have their realms close by. That’s the reason you can summon weapons that you are holding in the real world, providing they contain some special materials or are otherwise enchanted. It’s one of the reasons the seven metals and similar materials are so valued. The metals especially, since they are the easiest to form and shape.

I see. Everything is in the real world, so it’s connected to it in this fashion.

Again, that’s not strictly true. There’s no direct contact with the banished realm, or the other worlds. At least not directly. Only the Moons can form a bridge between those. Naturally, there are scholars that claim that a link does exist somewhere in this world, possibly beyond the west ocean. That’s nonsense, of course. Not that it has stopped the Order from establishing monasteries in all sorts of forgotten places.

Right…

On the other hand, when it comes to magic, it could be said that all realms are connected, yet only for those with the trait, Nil went on. From that perspective, all realms are connected, even if not directly.

Magic threads, Dallion thought.

Similar principle. Straight lines in magic realms are different from straight lines in non-magic realms. That’s how mages can summon objects that are thousands of miles away. However, while all realms are connected to each other, not all could be reached directly, unless you’re a Moon. The echo let out a chuckle.

There was no denying that. The only things that seemed to restrict the Moons were their own restrictions.

Then, in order to reach the realm we’re supposed to, we must go through the correct realms? Dallion asked.

Possibly. I’ve never taken part in such a challenge. There’s no guarantee that the realms you’re going through are independent realms. For all we know, they might be a cluster of sub-realms that are part of the Moon’s realm. Things are very complicated on such a high level. When you become an apprentice, I’ll tell you which books to look into if you’re still interested in that field. It’s rather fascinating, though not for everyone. Most tend to go for more practical things… such as vortex location and advanced spelling, Nil added in disgust.

“Stop!” Phoil said all of a sudden. “What’s that?”

Dallion looked in the direction the boy was pointing. Hidden among the trees was something that resembled a large rock. For the most part, the object was covered up by the local excuse of flora, even so the anomaly was clearly visible: part of the rock had a straight edge, which wasn’t supposed to exist in nature.

“Good find,” Dallion said, despite being angered that he hadn’t been the one to spot it. With his level of perception, it should have been him to notice.

“How come you didn’t see it?” Phoil smirked. “Aren’t you the big hunter and all that?”

Gritting his teeth, Dallion glared at the larger boy.

“Shut up,” he hissed and split into instances.

In one instance, he summoned his bladebow and used the kaleidervisto sights to check out the thing. The rock shined so bright that Dallion had the impression he was looking into the sun. Immediately, he jumped back to the rest of the group, letting all instances fade away.

“What’s the matter?” Cheska asked, seeing Dallion wince.

“I don’t know.” Dallion rubbed his eyes. Even if it was only one instance that had experienced that, his eyes hurt just as much. “It’s not normal. It’s bright. Give me a moment to check it out.”

“Cast some barriers,” Raven ordered.

“Don’t,” Dallion said. “Don’t cast any spells.”

Waiting a few more moments for his eyes to readjust, Dallion split again. This time, his instances dashed through the patch of trees. It didn’t take long for him to reach the rock. Of course, up close, the stone was no longer a rock, but the base of a structure—an obelisk of some sort, to be precise. Thanks to his scholarly skills, Dallion was able to imagine the missing parts. When constructed, the monument had to be fifteen feet. Time hadn’t dulled its edges, as if construction had just finished a few days ago. Before Dallion had a chance to look about for more remnants, his time was up. All instances vanished, leaving him back with the rest of his group.

“It’s some kind of monument,” he said. “Half of it’s destroyed, but the rest looks in good shape. Clearly made by someone.”

“There’s no one else here,” Iksa looked at Raven.

“There’s something,” the black-haired replied. “Right, Dal?”

“Yep.” Dallion nodded. “There are creatures in the realm, but they’re keeping their distance. Since we got here, they’ve made sure to be in the opposite part of the realm.”

“Do you think they destroyed it?” Cheska cackled her fingers.

“Are they cracklings?” Phoil leaned closer.

“Cracklings don’t exist in magic realms,” Dallion said with a smug expression. “Must be something else. It’s possible that they destroyed it, or maybe it was someone like us during the previous trial.”

“Is it safe to approach?” Raven asked.

Dallion shrugged. “As much as anything. There weren’t any obvious traps, and nothing attacked me. That’s no guarantee, though.” He summoned his harpsisword. “I say we check it out. It’s the only new thing here.”

Given the boredom everyone had been subjected to in the last few hours, Dallion expected that everyone would jump at the opportunity. To his surprise, no one budged, remaining quiet, as if they were facing a monster guardian.

“Okay, what’s wrong?”

“How come you didn’t notice it before?” Raven asked. “You have the best perception and experience.”

“I was thinking about something,” Dallion said defensively. “Phoil did.”

“Not on the first time, though. We’ve gone by this patch of trees before and no one saw anything.”

On the surface, Dallion had every right to get angry at a bunch of ten-year-olds pointing out his mistakes. It took some effort to look beyond the obvious and listen to what the hidden echoes were saying. This wasn’t meant as a criticism, but rather a warning. If the obelisk had been so obvious, it wouldn’t have taken Dallion, or anyone of the group, up to now to see it. That suggested the monument hadn’t simply hadn’t been there. Something must have triggered it into existence, or made it visible, respectively.

Thinking back, Dallion tried to remember everything he had done since arriving here. His high memory trait helped a lot in that, though not completely. There were minute details he had missed, not to mention he couldn’t give a hundred percent account of everyone else.

What do you think triggered it? He asked Nil.

Magic, I assume, the echo replied. And no, I don’t think it was your magic personally.

“What do you say?” Dallion turned to Raven. “Do we go there or we check out everything else first?”

“Everything else,” the black-haired replied. “If nothing happens, we’ll check the obelisk.”

The walking continued. Hours passed and yet the sun kept shining from the exact same spot it had before. The concept of day and night was absent in this realm, as was the weather, fortunately. Along the way, Dallion kept an eye for other ruins or stone pieces. The consistent lack of such only made him more sure that the obelisk was the riddle that would get them to the next realm. He voiced the idea several times, but all of them were ignored by Raven, who changed the topic.

Finally, when the entire realm was explored, and the environment started looping around itself, it was decided that there was no other choice. And yet, there was a huge sphere of fear in Raven’s chest—fear that had been consistently growing for the last hour.

“Don’t worry.” Dallion smiled. “I’ll take care of the creatures.”

“I’m not worried about the creatures.” Blobs of deceit appeared within Raven. After a few more seconds, Raven went off, making a sign for the rest to follow. Phoil was the first to do so, of course, followed shortly after by Cheska. Iksa, though, remained behind.

“There aren’t supposed to be obelisks,” she said in a hushed voice. “Not yet.”

“How do you know?”

“I’m the one who got the trial records from my grandfather’s library.”

The admission was surprising, but also further explained why the girl had been chosen for the group. It also raised new questions. If Raven wasn’t the one with the knowledge, what was his role? And still, why was Phoil here?

“According to half of the accounts of those that failed, it’s said that they reached the obelisks,” Iksa continued. “In all the cases that happened after a few realms. The plan was to use the cards to find a way to avoid the obelisk realms.”

Ominous, Dallion thought.

“It’ll be fine. Besides, we can always go back.”

“No,” she shook her head. “That option ended the moment you saw the obelisk. From here on, we must complete the trial the standard way.”

Now Raven’s mood shift became clear. Like most nobles he was hoping for a shortcut and how that it had slipped through his fingers he was scared, despite what the echoes were telling him.

“Why are you telling me all this?” Dallion asked.

“Because one of my echoes said I should.”