The Aspiring Archivist

"That's a dumb name. May I suggest Crazy Control? Perhaps Intrusive Institution for Insane Individuals? Look, if you actually have something to do while you're here, then go ahead. If not, get out of my realm. Although I suspect you'll have a hard time of that."

"Hello Jove. I am Mell. I did not ask your name, however. Who are you?" "I can see that you aren't involved with this man. You're fine."

Mell sighed, letting the girl up and lowering the pressure slightly on the boy's neck. "Okay, let's wind this back. Who are you?"

"Fine. So what are you going to do to fix it?" As they argued, TAAron was apparently dealing with some intense pain. He stumbled, nearing the deadly mass that was the void.

"Really? How so?" She did not let up on the knife, adding pressure to his neck.

"No, you are. Why won't you tell me?" TAAron jumped, gasping in pain as it agitated his wound. "Where did you come from?" In a flash, Mell had kicked the girl to the floor, pinning her there, and had brought the freshly sharpened knife to the boy's neck. "What are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I'm... sure you did." In Haly's mind, a voice spoke. What is going on with you? One second you're despondent, the next you're in dreamland! We can't really afford to have you falling apart right now.

"Well, Theodore just did that for us, and it didn't do much." "Byrd, are you okay? Did something happen to you?"

It took less than ten minutes for the party to reach the void. If you looked up, you could see the blue sky, going on as if everything was normal. But if you looked down... What looked to be an ocean of violent, inky blackness stretched out to infinity. It roiled, depthless yet somehow turbulent. Theodore kicked a rock into it. As the party watched, the rock disintegrated in a flash of violet light. It led TAAron to wonder why the void was not eating at the shoreline. "There you go," the man said. "Infinite, deadly void. I will go tell Edmund of your arrival. And your... departure." As Theodore turned and left, Mell hung back. "Are you sure you want to go?" she asked sincerely. "You may very well die trying to leave."

"Alright." Theodore began walking out. "This way." TAAron looked pensative. "@Nameless, do you actually know how to break through the barrier? Because I don't want any of us to get dematerialized."

Theodore sighed. "Well, if you insist, I can show you there." "I'll come as well," said Mell, who had stood up. "Alright then! C'mon, Byrd. We're going to the void, I guess!" TAAron looked oddly joyous. @The Halcyon Girl

"The space... between? My friend, I'm afraid that there have been records of people attempting to enter the void. In each case, they have screamed in agony before being entirely consumed, never to be seen again. The void will not allow you to pass to anywhere except heavens above. Even people who have managed to travel here have only ever appeared in the Forest, not from the void."

"At the edge of the realm. Our king Edmund has told us of planets, stars, and space in other dimensions, but our realm is more or less an island encircled by void and has no sun. We do have a sky that is apparently more or less typical, except we also have no form of precipitation. All of our water comes from the Lake."

"I wasn't kidding when I said inaccessible. They have been sealed off for three years now, and re-opening them could be catastrophic for everyone and everything in Terra de Lumine!" Theodore interjected. "Yikes. So that leaves... the void?" "I suppose, but if you attempted to cross into the void, you would be dematerialized."

"I don't know. That guy Theodore over there said that they has pretty much explored their whole realm, minus the now-inaccessible demon caves and the infinite void."

Wow. People were really piling on him at the end there too. Was there a specific reason than people voted him?

"But I thought you said you didn't know how."

"I don't know what my old symptoms were."

Tell him you used pewter. "Woah! What was that?" Don't worry about it. Tell him that you used pewter. "I used... pewter?"

"Wait. Did you know me? Should I know you both? I'm pretty sure Byrd said that it was normal to forget."

"Oh, you know about that? I just found out. I don't really notice it too much aside from a little bit of pain. Then again, the pain might come from whatever I needed this for." He indicated the bandages that covered the left side of his chest.