7 Firuz - Pillar in the Sky

Firuz stared at the ceiling, eyes trained on puckered cement slathered unevenly on the roof. Searching for countless patterns on the cement, imagining the bulges and the curvature of the cement as waves of water, rippling to a gentle rhythm. His eyelids drooped with the passage of time, rising and falling like waves on the cement. He slowly drifted off to sleep.

Darkness embraced him like a lover. He floated inside a formless sea, rippling into eternity. Trapped inside a shapeless body, he struggled for control. He distinctly remembered the helplessness when he first entered this place, but now he had gotten used to it. He surrendered to the strange ritual that happened every night.

He got used to the darkness, made peace with restrictions, but the weightlessness still unnerved him. It felt as if he had no limbs, no mass, just a floating consciousness guiding by an invisible hand.

He heard the cries, shrill and desolate, calling out to him. Vague images of men flashed in his mind: standing frozen in time while tears of misery slipped down their crystallized faces.

Something inside him responded to the calls of misery. His formless body shifted out of the dark sea, floating on top of his bed. Riding an invisible current he drifted towards his destination. Green mist, made up of tiny sentiment particles, roiled around him.

He floated towards the wall on his left, passing through it as if it didn't exist. It was dark outside, but it bothered him little, he could see through the darkness. See the reality of the things, everything around him was made up of intricate little particles. The wind, the earth, and the houses. Each arranged in a unique and ever-shifting pattern.

He liked studying the patterns they held a unique allure to him. He could watch the shifting particles in the walls for hours, but his journey hadn't ended yet, and like every night he started on his journey. Firuz tried to resist, reluctant to leave to the patterns, but his actions were futile. The strange force relentless in its urgings guided him towards his destination. He made a beeline towards his destination, passing through countless houses.

He saw Darya sleeping on his bed. Saw Arman frowning at the polished stone in front of him. The strange journey continued as he passed through countless empty houses. He saw a woman sprawled on the floor, her skin pale, eyes unfocused. A little girl hid in the corner, wearing tattered clothes, grime stuck to her face like a second skin. Her skin stretched over her bones as she stared at the woman with lifeless eyes.

His stay was short at the house soon he reached the outskirts of Hara. Staring into the raging storm in front of him. He passed through dust devils, saw the land bellowing in rage. Havoc wrecked all around him, but nothing could harm him. He was like a specter passing through.

He glided through the plains at a startling speed. Soon the winds stalled to a gentle rhythm, and rolling pastures appeared into the distance. Long stalks of pampas grass came into view: stems made of soft fibrous wood, leaves shaper then knives, plumes riddled with small beads of mana stones. A glowing sea of sapphire rippled before his eyes.

Firuz stood in awe of its beauty. He shifted through the sea of light, guided by an invisible hand. Whenever his body touched the mana stones on the plumes, sharp pain assaulted his consciousness. It felt as if someone had drained him of his energy.

The sea soon parted and gave way to a purple grassland. The land before him dappled with enormous slate colored gibbous masses, crusted with green moss.

As he wafted past them, noticing small grooves on the bulging mounds. Suddenly one of the mounds shook with a mighty roar, revealing deep-set eyes of emerald gold, languidly staring towards him. His heart throttled as the thought of being found out by the giant, but soon the strange create hobbled past him.

He sailed through the purple grassland, admiring the scenery around him. He had never been here before. All other dreams ended at the sea of sapphire, and he would wake up with stinging pain in his head. But today it seemed as if the journey would never end.

"What is that?" He could see a huge pillar of sapphire, shooting towards the sky. It nearly covered a quarter of the horizon, shining with the same blue hue of the mana stone, but at the same time, it was different. Mana stones were supposed to be small jagged deposits, sprouting from the ground, waiting to be mined. They weren't giant pillars, rising towards the sky. He could see the rivers of the sky stretching from the great pillar like branches of a great tree.

He felt a strange call from the distant pillar, and the weakness once again came over him. It was going to hurt a lot. He could feel it, feel the pain coming and suddenly the scene shifted and he jolted awake. He rose with a deathly pallor on his face. He heaved for breath: felt the weight of his body, moved his fingers. These little acts of control brought him little relief, but soon the horror gripped his heart as the pain came rushing…