The sand beneath our feet had begun to shift sideways, and we stumbled.
I looked around, and the entire place was shifting to its side.
"What the fuck!" I said again, yelling. I couldn't get a grip, mentally and physically speaking.
On top of everything else, an enormous hand had grabbed what seemed to be the top of the hourglass we were in and was turning it over.
"Hold on to something!" Code yelled as everything had finally fallen over.
The situation intensified when we saw a huge tower falling in our direction.
There was a piece of a wall detached nearby that we all managed to get onto as the whole place continued to shift. The tower falling closer still, Code snapped his fingers and switched us with a random grain of sand somewhere else away from the crash. But it wasn't over.
The dunes got steeper and dreadfully steeper. We hung on the piece of wall we were on, using it as a board, and surfed on the sand, using our combined body weight to maneuver through the fall through shards of buildings and concrete.
Code used his magic to switch with objects that we could not dodge from moment to moment. Ophelia used her magic to keep Havoc afloat and hung on to a metal bar sticking out of the piece of wall we were on. She was also still very nauseous, so she could not do much but hang back at this time.
The sand got to the point where we could no longer keep ourselves upright. We fell fast into the gaping hole as the sand dunes we had once been standing on were replaced with a glass sky.
And that was the last thing I remembered before I blacked out.
***
When I finally woke up, I was buried in sand once again, and so was my crew, for all I knew. The sand dunes were the same as they were when we first entered, except this time, we were on the opposite end of this giant hourglass now it seemed.
I trudged myself out and found Code just barely getting out himself somewhat nearby.
"Ophelia and Havoc… where are they?" I asked him, winded.
"I don't know," he said hoarsely, coughing out sand from his mouth.
We looked around for a moment and started walking. About ten minutes later, Ophelia and Havoc permeated from the sand with her magic. Havoc was still passed out.
"Looking for us?" she said cheerily. Bad time to lighten the mood, but it was Ophelia, what else did I expect. "That was one hell of a ride. I couldn't even focus on using my magic properly with all that going on. Plus, I was still a bit nauseous coming in here. You can say I took care of that as we were falling, hehe,"—gesturing her finger into her mouth—"Glad you boys are alright, though!"
Code and I merely side-eyed her as she spoke.
Ophelia went on, this time gesturing to Havoc, "This guy's been passed out since that thing got him. You think it's a spell?"
We hadn't gotten the chance to discuss anything or assess what was going on since we got here.
"Not sure. Havoc is usually immune to most things, even some magic abilities, because of his own. So, for something to have an effect on him like this is concerning," I replied to her, and I checked his breathing, "He seems stable for now, let's just keep him close until we can figure out a way to get back."
Things were quiet now, but I guessed it was a good thing. We could finally come up with a plan to get out of here—though we'd have to figure out where we were first. We got the hourglass part, but what had this place been?
Code thought to himself during the moment of peace we had, so we decided to migrate to a more secluded spot in this Keeperforsaken place.
The sky began to change past the glass walls we were confined in. We hung around inside a destroyed tower, still partially outside due to the wreckage.
Code and I leaned up against a wall, Havoc and Ophelia on the opposite end with Havoc's gilet covering him like a blanket.
We sat there and began brainstorming.
"So we figured out we're in an hourglass, but this place is huge. Where in the Keepers' name is this place? I didn't even know a place like this existed in our world. I hate to consider Havoc's idea... but were we actually teleported?" I said, stirring up ideas.
"Or it could be like Domain type magic? Like Codey's Space Manipulation—Alternate... Spatial... um... what's it called?" she put a finger to her mouth to think and went on without an answer, "Anyway, Domain magic would be crazy, 'cause this is one hell of a place!"
"Damn, that would be kind of cool... well, not for us right now, but whoever has that ability has to be crazy strong to pull that off," I replied, going along with her banter.
Code still pondered as Ophelia and I spouted ideas in the background. He looked up again and found the gaping hole above us, observing it more intently.
"We shrank," he said finally.
Ophelia and I stopped out conversation and faced him now.
"Shrank?" I repeated, almost disappointedly.
"Ugh, that's so lame. I like my idea better," Ophelia joked.
"I second that." I added.
Code gave us a bland stare and went on, "This must be Compression type magic. Did you not see the 'giant' hand earlier? Well, it's actually just a normal hand and the same one that flipped us."
I, too, realized it before we were turned over. It was the only logical explanation... unfortunately.
"So what? This is Compression magic, then? Who has that type of magecraft, and who would kidnap us?" I asked.
"Someone that wants to keep us quiet… Or better yet, out of the picture for something they're planning. As for who did it…" Code deduced. "Remember when Syemore summoned that half Zion Orb out of seemingly nowhere?"
I did. Could this have been Captain Syemore's magic?
"It's the only thing that makes sense. He uses Compression magic. It's an extremely rare ability. I don't think I know another mage in this lifetime who has it aside from him. And it seems he used it on us. Question is how? He was still in the Guild meeting when we left," Code went on.
"And what about that puppet-mech-thing from earlier?" Ophelia questioned.
"Well, it was exactly that—a puppet." Code said. "Do you know the two Vice Captains of the Blue Phoenix Knights?"
"Aside from their names, and that one guy's creepy face—nothing."
"Well, that 'creepy guy' is a Puppet magic user. Terek, if I remember correctly." Code deduced.
"You think he used his magic to cast Syemore's magic somehow? How did they manage that? Combination magic?"
"Possibly. Or maybe another unorthodox method. To any case, I do believe we now have a case. This might be the Blue Phoenix's doing. Now, we just need proof."
As Code ended the topic, and we now had an idea of where we were, our next plan of action was to figure out a way out of here.
"Ophelia—"
"Nope. Tried it," she interrupted Code casually, not even letting him ask the question.
"Do you even know what I was about to ask?"
"Yes, actually. You were gonna ask if I could pass us through and out of here."
Code said nothing, intrigued that she beat him to it.
"But why were you not able to pass through?" he finally added.
Ophelia walked over to him and reached into his inner jacket pocket, pulling out a pack of smokes and his lighter. She took a cigarette and lit it, blowing smoke in the air above her.
"I think there's a nullifying magic barrier just inside of this hourglass. 'Cause when I tried to escape with Havoc while we were falling from up there, I couldn't go any farther," she said calmly.
I sat there thinking. My boneheaded ideas swirling.
"I might have an idea," I said like a drag.
Code's eyebrows raised, and Ophelia feinted a smirk.
"I have no clue if this is gonna work, but it's worth a shot…"
"Keeper… Another boneheaded idea based on unrealistic expectations," Code stated as he gestured to Ophelia to give him a cigarette as well. "But..."—lighting it quickly and clicking the lighter shut—"You know me... I'm willing to see if it works."
"Well, it beats sitting here on our asses waiting to get flipped over again." Ophelia encouraged, "Let's hear it, Cap!"
I looked at them and gave them a half smile. For some reason, I knew it would.