Now, let’s think about this. First, you fell asleep on a hospital bed, sick to the bones with disease. Now, you wake up in a Temple, with no sign of illness left in your system. Macey parted her lips a little, as if tasting the air would give her more answers. Does this mean that her prayer worked?
In fact, looking around now, this church looked not a lot like a normal church at all. It was woefully dark, bare without any idols, and it didn’t looked like anyone native to the city was here today – that is, except for the priest. Surely, this couldn’t be a house where God resides? Instinct told her to kneel at the altar, although at that point she had no idea what she was meant to be kneeling to - she decided against it, for now.
Macey had just finished securing the last of her weapons to her person after the priest’s strange introduction – it was unlikely that she’d need it so soon after waking up, but it was best to be prepared in any case. She listened to the sparse conversation of the others around her, avoiding direct eye contact – and it was clear that they had no clue how they got there either. Feeling impatient (and rather thankful that she was free to walk again after being bed bound for months), Macey headed straight for the door outside. She was surprised how easily she could walk, as if those long months spent bed bound and not moving a single muscle never happened at all.
She didn't expect to be hit by a deep midnight darkness, which gave the whole place a rather eerie feel. She almost shuddered to look at the cold cobbled streets, which seemed to disappear into the belly of the shadows. Well, maybe it would all look better in the morning. From her position in the town square, the “City” looked very small indeed. All it seemed to have as a boundary to the outside world was a high wooden wall and a gate – in fact, which town even still used wooden walls instead of brick or concrete? Had she gone back in time too?
Macey had lots of questions about this place, but she wasn’t sure which questions would give her the answers that she needed to survive here. She wanted to speak with the native people to find out what their way of life was like, but they hardly even seemed alive. With a dire thought Macey began to think of the possibility that she’d turn into one of those, but the thought was quite literally shaken out of her mind when a sudden piercing light flooded the town square like daylight. It took about half a second for the ground beneath her to tremble as well.
Managing to stay on her feet through the tremors due to pure luck, Macey looked up just in time to a building collapse in on itself on the far side of town. And that’s why we use bricks to build houses… she mused to herself. Still, if this wasn’t a clue, then she didn’t know what was. She raced to the wooden ruins, trying to ignore the shadowy streets with looming buildings and the way that the air kept dead still without a breeze, all the while hoping that nothing would jump out of the darkness to attack her. Even when she reached the collapsed house, Macey then wondered whether coming here alone was a smart idea after all.
She scuffed a piece of broken glass with her boots, wondering if it had any part to play in the incidence. Not too far away, a single gloved hand poked out from underneath a wooden beam. Macey got to work heaving the thing up, and almost dropped it again in surprise when she noticed a bird’s face staring back up at her.
Wait… not a bird. It’s a mask. She sighed at her own stupidity, then asked “Sir, are you… alright?”