Page 49

“How are you going with that poultice, Lindiwe?” Karlann asked, peeking over her shoulder from across the aisle where she ground amethyst crystals in her mortar and pestle. If she leaned back any further on her heels, she was sure to fall.

Both Lindi and Karlann worked in a warm, spacious laboratory with two tables parallel to each other to create an aisle. Both their tables were tall enough to meet their midsections, made of Northern Elm, and had a perfectly polished red-brown colour to them.

Although they were neatly put away behind ornate wooden shelves, an array of tools and ingredients were available for any person to use at any time.

More could be accessed from either side of the table, as there was a walkway around each one.

Large bay windows on one side lit up the area, whereas decorative lamps, with scenes painted on their cloth shades, had been bolted to the walls and lit up the rest of the room.

Lindi placed her hands around the handles of the iron pot she’d been stirring, filled with a green, grainy, and seed-like concoction, and took it to a heating stove that ran perpendicular to their workstations.

It was large, spanning almost the entire wall, and made of iron.

Its magnificence had daunted Lindi at first, as she’d never seen such a large cooking hearth before, but she’d long come to appreciate the extra space and utility of it.

Incense seeped through every nook and cranny, and was a pleasant aroma that filled the entire temple, including this room.

“It’s going well,” she answered, wiping her dirty hands on her colourful, pleated apron skirt. “I just need to heat it now and add the final ingredients.”

Lindi then wiped the sweat from her forehead, the area a little too warm and humid, and peeked at her companion for the morning.

Her gaze immediately darted to her forehead before shying away, and she fumbled for the next ingredient.

She cleared her throat when she’d been caught, and the woman laughed.

“You don’t have to be so shy about it, Lindiwe. We really don’t mind if you stare.”

Lindi offered Karlann a wry smile.

Karlann’s short black hair reached to the base of her neck and was as straight as an arrow.

It framed a cute, round face with a smattering of freckles that dotted her light complexion.

Her nose was small, her lips as well, but her eyes were large and warm.

Her eyebrows were slightly crooked, her jaw prominent and strong.

She was as pretty as she was curvy and tall, though her loose-fitting changpao hid the majority of her plumper figure.

Although most of the people in this country wore colourful clothes made from bright silks if they were richer, and hemp and ramie if they were poorer, these people predominantly wore white. Well, except for their leader, who was the only one who wore black to signify her station.

In their temple, the only colour came from the polished wooden walls, the painted cloth tapestry art, and their aprons.

Even though she was in a foreign land, those here in this special place were even stranger. The people within this temple all had different-coloured hair, different complexions, and varying body types – as if they were gathered from across many lands and brought here to Sing Dynasty.

But they weren’t. They weren’t just foreign to the country or this continent, but to this very world.

Lindi met Karlann’s pink eyes, which seemed to shimmer, before she couldn’t help dart a peek at the third one sitting horizontally above the middle of her brow.

Once more, the dark-haired woman laughed. “You would think after a year, you would be used to it.”

“I can’t help it,” Lindi muttered, turning away to stir the now bubbling and revolting-smelling poultice. “I know all three can be looked upon, but it feels impolite.”

“It’s only because you deem it so. Do you take issue with me looking into your eyes?” Then Karlann grasped her shoulders from behind and leaned over one to peek at the side of Lindi’s pouting face. “They are rather watchful.”

Lindi shrugged her off and poured in crushed blood powder, and the poultice glowed bright yellow for a moment. “I must learn, and watching is the best way.”

Karlann rolled all three of her pink eyes before stepping away to resume her task. She ground the purple crystals further to ensure she created a fine pale dust. The granules were sharp, and Lindi hated doing Karlann’s task – she always found a way to rub some into her eyes.

Beyond their walls, someone played a musical instrument that was a mixture of a harp and a drum – nothing like anything she’d seen from this world. Lindi didn’t know how one could manage to strum a note and make pounding noises at the same time, but it required the assistance of magic to do so.

I still wish Weldir had warned me of the arrival of Anzúli.

Then again, the demi-god had his many secrets, all of which he claimed were, in fact, not secrets – just things he hadn’t yet told her.

So his time delay and bouts of rest often meant he had to play catch-up with her in their conversations.

Then again, I’m sure I just missed the notice of their arrival in Austrális.

These strange people had been on Earth since the creation of the other portals, but Lindi had withdrawn from most of humankind by that time. She’d been fixated on the occultists and her children.

She’d thought the Anzúli priests and priestesses were just another fanatic group rising from the ashes of destruction. How was she supposed to know they were legitimate sorcerers and alchemists?

Their titles were capitalised outside these walls, as those were their names to humans, and they offered nothing else to them; not their faces, not their names, or where they came from. They were meant to be a mystery, which was what safeguarded and protected them.

As did the magical wall that surrounded their beautiful yet ominous temple. Not even Lindi, with her keen eyesight, could see that barrier, but Weldir had allowed her to see past their facades.

She’d stumbled upon their newly built temple a little over a year ago.

In this part of the world, they liked to make thick walls of fast-growing bamboo to hold the Demons back.

Even the Anzúli had done so, although theirs was more for aesthetics, as they hadn’t roped them together to make it impossible to get through their tall and thin hollow shoots.

No, the Anzúli preferred them loose so they could hear the pleasant noises they made as they creaked, swayed, and rustled.

They also didn’t prune them, as they didn’t fear Demons climbing them.

Honestly, when she’d first spotted them from a distance, Lindi had been curious about the shoots, as she’d never seen anything like them before.

When she’d walked through their circling forest of bamboo and their barrier without issue, as though nothing was amiss, it had alarmed them all greatly. She’d walked right past the open gates, into their lush courtyard, and immediately halted in her tracks.

They hadn’t expected a visitor, so none had been adorned in their masks to hide that they were inhuman.

The base of the expressionless masks was white with white mesh covering the eyeholes, and each person embellished theirs with painted colours to identify themselves outside these walls.

Many had put up glamours to hide their shimmering eyes of pink, purple, green, and yellow, as well as their third eyes, but Lindi had seen through all of it.

After many months of silence, Weldir had finally offered his voice. He’d explained who and what these people were, and how they may be a little disgruntled to know she existed.

How her magic came to be was to remain a mystery. She couldn’t inform them of her attachment to him, which left her with many questions. Why not? Why was their relationship to be kept a secret, as if what they were doing was wrong?

The Anzúli’s ability to converse with each other across not only Earth, but their home world, and possibly even with the Elvish, meant everything was to remain well hidden.

Weldir gave her the ability to see through everything, while gifting his translation magic to allow her full transparency in their presence. After a few questions to her, and much interest in her abilities, they’d accepted her.

In the last few years, Lindi had learned enough of Mandarin to eventually forgo the translation spell. She’d always been a quick learner, especially when she did little else but study.

She studied the language of Sing Dynasty, she learned of its history, of its landscape, and the proper etiquette regarding society. Not that she intended to enter any place that remained untouched except for this temple.

The Demons had come through and caused ruin.

Not just here in this country, but everywhere.

From the day that Lindi stepped foot on this land, newly pregnant, it had been ablaze with violence. There were so many natural forests, so many mountain ranges, that freedom within the shadows was perfect for the biting, snarling vermin to flourish.

Lindi was unsure if Sing Dynasty was lucky in the sense that there was a great and vast man-made wall of stone separating them from one portal, but it did mean they were alone and trapped with another.

The Demons could still climb over the wall and leave, digging their claws into the edges of the bricks, but why should they when there was plenty to eat on this side?

The humans couldn’t flee to other lands easily, and the water had quickly become just as treacherous to sail.