We slowly walk through the city streets, making our way to the edge of the city. As we get closer to our destination, the beauty of the city starts to fade. It’s not falling into disrepair, but it doesn’t have the same level of polish as the city center.

  “Prisha is actually the one who taught me magic.” Dardania continues with her story that she had begun during all walk. “I came to her after Avis—”

  Dardania pauses and turns her gaze back towards Avis who was lost in thought.

  “So, how does one get involved with the Minor Arcana?” I ask, choosing to not let any weirdness linger.

  “A while back, my mother burned down a church in Taygete. The Order classified her and her co conspirators as sinners and threw them into a slave camp. I was never a fan of… drastic measures but throwing her into a slave camp was the final line for me. She deserved justice for her crimes, but that wasn’t justice.” Prisha takes a deep breath and the group falls into a short silence.

  “Those people’s lives were ruined.” Avis says softly. No one said anything. At this point we had reached the edge of the city. What lie before us was a city in ruin. It stretched on for at least another quarter of a mile. It was substantially larger than I expected.

  “Those people’s lives were ruined!” Avis screams, his voice shaky. Everyone stops walking and turns towards him.

  “She burned down the church to do… what? Hurt the Order? All they did was hurt the people of that town. It destroyed everything. Their farmland. Their city. Their lives. So she gets sent to a camp, and she eventually dies, and what happens to the people? They continue to go on with their miserable lives, knowing it will never be the same. But do they abandon the Order? No, they continue to worship them even though they abandoned them. And me?” Avis’s voice cracks. He opens his mouth again but immediately snaps it shut. Tears slowly start to fall.

  “What about me? What did I do to deserve it? What did I do to deserve to be in the camp? All I wanted to do was love a man. Why did I deserve it? What did I do?” Avis’s voice trails off as he sobs uncontrollably. I reach out for him but it quickly pulls away. Dardania walks towards him, reaching out to comfort him but he pulls away from her as well.

  “What about me?” Avis raises his arm and wipes the snot and tears away from his face before he turns and runs away. I turn to go after him when Dardania grabs my arm to prevent me from doing so.

  “Let him go. He just needs to be alone. He will pull away and withdrawal if you try to comfort him.” Dardania stares down at the ground.

  “Avis spent three years in a camp. Our own parents turned him in to the Order when he was seventeen. I came to Enkidu looking for help to get him out of there, which is when I met Prisha and Devon. I stayed her for several years under her tutelage until I had mastered Word Magic, and then I broke Avis out of that camp. That is the reason we are wanted all over the country. It’s also the reason he’s a bit overprotective of me. He blames himself for me being wanted by the Order.”

  “I…” I began but I didn’t know what to say. What can you possibly say in the moment like this? No amount of life experience of homophobia could have prepared me for this.

  “There was a man in my world who was tied to a fence and beaten to death for being gay.” I said, unsure of why I just randomly brought up Matthew Shepard. I didn’t exist during a time of death camps so I can’t imagine what he could have gone through.

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  “James?” Madison says but doesn’t say anything else. I turn to her but she seems just as lost as me.

  “This is so far from anything I can comprehend.” Tears start to well up in my eyes. “I have faced my fair share of issues, dead parents and all, but this. Nothing I could think of could ever come close to this and I don’t know how to help.”

  “Just— Just be there. Avis hasn’t spent any time around anyone other than myself since he left that camp, until you. I’ve seen him smile more since meeting you than he has in years. So, just be there.” Dardania smiles meekly before turning and begins walking into the ruined portion of the city.

  Madison and I stand there in silence as Prisha and Dardania make their way further into the dilapidated ruins.

  “Why couldn’t this world be different?” I ask a loud, not expecting an answer. “When you fall into a fantasy world, you hope you get some isekai with a long winded title where everything is just whimsical, but this world is just as fucked up as ours. I don’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t this.”

  I follow behind Dardania and Prisha towards the altar.

  A lot of children dream of becoming some hero and going on an epic adventure, but the movies and stories don’t exactly paint it accurately. Sure, there are hurdles and conflicts in those stories, but not like this. This goes far beyond what I dreamed of as a kid.

  The hero gets chosen, learns to control their power, and then beats the villain. Nowhere in the story did you discover your crush was in a death camp for being gay. The stories didn’t prepare me for this.

  “It’s best we focus on this.” Dardania said motioning towards the altar in front of us. She catches my gaze and nods gently. I was so lost in thought that I didn’t realize we had arrived.

  The altar that stood before us was—

  “Weird.” Madison mutters, finishing my thought.

  “I have to second that.” Dardania says as she slowly walks towards it.

  “It popped up out of nowhere, and still no clue what it is.”

  The altar stands at the center of a perfectly clean circle. No dust or debris or rubble remained. My best guess would be that when it appeared, it pushed everything away from it. The altar itself appears to be pristine marble, and looking like nothing more than a simple obelisk standing three feet tall.

  Madison approaches it and slowly runs her fingers across the surface. As she did, glowing letters slowly began to appear after her fingers. It was almost like she painted them on with her touch.

  Dardania practically pushes Prisha out of the way to get a look at the letters appearing on the stone.

  “Welcome to the altar of two.

  Where we start our journey anew.

  From Magician and High Priestess is where we begin,

  relive our journey of friend and kin.

  Be a Fool no more.”

  “I— This is extraordinary. I have no idea what it means, but it’s amazing.” Dardania stares at altar completely awestruck. She had the look of a child on Christmas who was just given the present they had always wanted.

  As her excitement continues to grow, a beam of light shoots out of the altar towards the sky. A shockwave quickly follows behind, sending Dardania flying out of the circle. Prisha grabs a hold of her hand to prevent her from blowing away and helps her land gently.

  Slowly the beam of light starts to spread outwards until it covers the entire circle surrounding the altar.

  “That is not what I expected to happen.” Prisha slowly taps her temple with her right hand, lost in thought.

  “I don’t even know what I’m looking at. Am I supposed to know? Is this a thing that happens here?” I ask, genuinely lost. “But, it was cool.”

  “There was definitely an epic vibe to the whole thing. Especially with the shockwave blowing Dardania away, it had a whole vibe to it. I dig it.” Madison agrees with me, nodding as she speaks. Dardania just stares at her blankly.

  “I’m glad that my almost death could entertain you.” Dardania sarcastically responds.

  “Yes, thank you for that.” Madison says dryly before taking a step towards the light. I quickly grab a hold of her arm and pull her back.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “Going in there.” Madison motions towards the light. “There right there. I’m going back to the altar.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Sure, light beam is cool and all but we have no clue what this is.”

  “I agree with that guy, not a good idea. We don’t know what it is. Give us some time to work the problem and figure it out.” Dardania grabs a book out of her pouch and begins thumbing through it, searching for some kind of answer.

  “Yep, not waiting and you’re coming with me.” Madison grabs my hand and drags me into the beam of light.

  As we enter, the world fades away and the only thing left was a vast void of nothing. Nothing but white light.