To The Exit

“You’re lying?” Koharu asked, clasping a hand over her breasts as he turned to her.

“I’m not lying,” he said.

“Then what was the snake for?” Kiyomi asked.

Ignacio sighed. Was there even a point in trying?

“What aren’t you telling us, Ignacio Torvado?”

Koharu sighed. “Such a cool name wasted on such a bad liar.”

Ignacio’s eyes drooped with his shoulders. “I’m not lying. But I guess what I'm not telling you is that I’m not fully convinced she’s the First Nexus myself.”

Koharu gasped from behind. “So you are lying!”

Oh my days, Ignacio thought, rubbing his face. There has to be a better way to convince them.

“No, no,” Kiyomi said, waving her hand as the book popped into a cloud of red smoke and sparks. “In fairness to him, the deception was quite small.”

“The deception?” Ignacio asked.

“The snake head you nearly soiled yourself over.”

“That was small?”

“Okay, guys,” Koharu said, stepping between them. “Is he lying or not?”

“He believes he’s lying to us, not himself,” Kiyomi said, sighing as she placed her hands on her hips, the silver gloves she wore reaching her elbows, red patterns crawling up them. “Honestly, humans are so annoying.”

“I like it that way,” Koharu said. “The human part, not the annoying part.”

Ignacio raised his eyebrows. “Can we get a move on, then? How do we help Celeste from here?”

“Who’s that?” Koharu asked, frowning.

“My sister.”

“Oh, right,” Koharu said. “Well, now that we know you’re not lying, I think…” she said, pressing a finger against her cheek as she narrowed her eyes at him. “We should probably take you to your exit trial.”

“Exit trial?” Ignacio asked.

“Yes,” Kiyomi said. “This is your first time in the Ethergeist, correct?”

“Well, yes, but-”

“Ah, I thought so,” Koharu said. “First-timers tend to show up in the middle of beach-side villages, for some reason.”

“You can’t just return to the real world, yet,” Kiyomi said, squeezing the side of his arm. “The chances of you developing Etherpsychosis or just dying are very high. Your mind integrates too literally with this world, so trying to disconnect with it before breaking your belief in it as a real place is dangerous.”

Koharu spun around, her robe and hair flaring wide. “Your exit trial is just over those hills,” she said, pointing to the distance.

Ignacio’s eyes widened. “So we’re going to walk all the way there?”

She glanced over her shoulder at him, giggling. “If you were alone, yes. Not with us.”

She straightened her arms along her body, hands flicking out to the side as she crossed her legs. She closed her eyes, and the star-shaped gem around her neck began to glow.

Tendrils of blue light flickered from her gloved hands, and she lifted into the air. Ignacio’s eyes widened, a smile forming on his face.

Her eyes fluttered open, and she smiled too. “See? No need for walking that far here.”

Kiyomi sighed from behind him, the grass rustling as she walked forward. “Show off.”

She raised a hand, a pillar of red and white light forming beneath it and materializing into…

“Is that a carpet?” Ignacio asked, frowning.

Kiyomi nodded, unfurling the thing on the sand and climbing onto it. It was pretty, with detailed gold patterns spiralling and branching across it, contrasting against the red material.

“You really like red, don’t you?” Ignacio asked.

“You don’t really get to choose your colour in here. Hop on.”

He placed a foot on it, and the fabric sagged beneath his weight. “It’s not going to fly, is it?”

“No, we’re just going to sit on it and have a nice beach-side picnic while Koharu flies around.”

Koharu gasped from above them. “We should do that some time.”

Ignacio sighed, walking onto the carpet and sitting down. “Okay, but I don’t-”

His body lurched backward as the carpet zipped into the air, a long yell escaping his lips as they swerved around the landbridge. He waved his arms frantically, grabbing onto Kiyomi’s dress and clinging to it for dear life.

“This is not what I was expecting!” he shouted, laughing between the words.

Kiyomi reached a hand back, grabbing his forearm and pulling him up. He flung his arms around her, hands latching to her shoulders.

“Keep your hands right there, Torvado,” Kiyomi said, glancing at him sideways.

“Sure,” he said, smirking.

He glanced over the side of the carpet, and his smile returned. Greenery stretched as far as the eye could see, forests covering the ground like a carpet. Further on, trees towered over the other forests, each one so tall he couldn’t see over them. Their bark was deep, brownish-red, their leaves like giant swords poking out around them. Rivers ran out of the gigantic tree line like veins, pooling in lakes and dams scattered around the scenery. Some of the rivers ran behind him, out of view, probably into the ocean behind them.

Turn around any further and you’re gonna fall, he thought, hands tightening on Kiyomi’s shoulders.

He took a deep breath, the wind flowing through his hair like water, the tip of his nose turning cold. The salty scent of the ocean air turned to the crisp air of… the sky? The forest? He’d never been in either, so it was hard to say.

“Torvado,” Koharu said, barrel-rolling over the carpet, those tendrils of blue light streaming from her hands. “How’d you know the Ferradax boy?”

“We grew up together. His dad and my dad went to the same school when they were kids, so we just followed in their friendship.”

“Ah, I see,” she said, flipping onto her back, her dark brown hair whipping around. “You know, you don’t seem like the type to go up against Cypher Corp.”

Ignacio snorted. “Do any of us seem like the type?”

She smiled, flipping around again, her hair streaming back.

“Koharu,” he said, “what is that gemstone on your necklace?”

She placed a hand to the stone around her neck. “It’s just glass in the real world. But here it seems to be part of the reason I’m a Blue-light Weaver.”

Ignacio frowned. “What?”

She chuckled, slowing until she flew directly beside him. “You’ll see, Ignacio. There’s more to you than you realize.”

I hope so, he thought.

He smiled. “You can call me Ace, by the way.”

Her cheeks flushed. “You and your cool names.”

“Oh, don’t get her started again,” Kiyomi grumbled.