Jace released the stone as he stumbled back. The stone fell, its empty shell shattering on the ground.
The dark liquid was gone without a trace, the vessel broken.
Edgis glanced at Jace, the one to cause all this chaos. His eyes fluttered yet remained shut as his dark hair fell over his face.
Edgis gazed at Jace, his face expressionless. For a moment he had been worried, worried that his carefully crafted plans were about to be destroyed.
Even though he had known that Jace's family had a powerful deity as a guardian, there was still a chance the guardian would ignore Jace.
If there was that chance, Edgis struggled to think of what would have happened. At the same time, Jace's eyelids flew open.
Looking around, he stated, weary and confused "Where am I?"
Edgis laid his hands on Jace's shoulder just as a thought crossed his mind. It was a rather interesting one and for a second a brief smile fluttered across his lips.
Seeing Jace wasn't fully focused on his surroundings he leaned closer to him and simply whispered "Trust your senses not your brain".
As he spoke, he noticed something. No one else could see it but him and that was fine. This was what he came for. He reached out into the air, grabbing the imaginary object as he smiled.
With that, he vanished. Disappearing as if he were a trick of light and leaving in the room Jace, still confused.
Jace stood unsteady, as he looked around. A second ago he had been sure that Edgis was by his side.
Jace stood, feeling over his body. The injury from the shards of the apartment glass back when he was flying across the city were gone, yet Jace could still feel the dull aching or rather knew his body was aching
Breathing out, Jace walked. One step, then the next. He paused as his mind raced. Something was wrong.
Yet, there was nothing which served to support that.
Walking up the stairs Jace noticed the doors welcoming him with open arms.
Walking in, he noticed Eric sitting exactly how he had been sitting a few minutes ago.
In his hands was the book he had been reading and as he lifted his head up, Jace was hit by a wave of deja vu.
Eric smiled as he approached Jace "Hey, you okay. You and Edgis have been in there for a while".
Jace forced himself to smile, the odd sensation grieving more prominent as time went by. He asked softly "Where did Edgis go and how long have I been down there?"
Eric paused for another second as he turned oddly silent. With his forehead scrunched together he thought deeply before stating "Damned if I know. He just .. disappeared. As for the time, well let's just say you didn't spend much time there"
Jace turned silent. For some reason Eric's answer bothered him more than it was supposed to.
Hesitantly, he suggested "Why don't we check out the banquet, see if it's still in full swing?"
Eric brightened up as he commented "Sure. That's perfect. Let's go"
As the pair walked out of the library, Jace took a deep breath and felt … nothing.
Was he supposed to feel something? Jace didn't understand why but something was definitely weird.
As they walked, Jace took a glance at the artificial sun floating in the sky. It was floating in the sky, slowly dimming but something was wrong.
Jace tried racking his brain as the odd sensation continued. It was an alien feeling, as if he was an imposter.
"So, what book were you reading?" Jace asked, trying to keep his mind away from the peculiar feeling rising up inside of him.
Eric scratched his hair as he replied "Not much. You probably won't like it. Plus, we're here"
Jace turned to see the magnificent looking hall. It was too early, they had only been walking for about two minutes and suddenly they were there. Something was wrong but Jace didn't know what. It was like an invisible force was slowing his brain down, hiding certain things from him.
As Jace was thinking, a memory popped into his head. It was the single line he had heard just before he woke up. "Trust your senses".
It was a simple line, maybe even cliché but a smile appeared on Jace's face. Striding into the hall the light seemed as bright as it previously was.
But there was no scent. In a hall which should be filled with the scent of various dishes, or the intermingled odor of a dozen humans, there was nothing.
One last test.
Jace walked over to a table and grabbed a knife. Behind him, he could hear Eric shout alongside the confused discussions of the people in the hall.
But he didn't care.
Running the knife's sharp edge across his palm, blood appeared. Spurting out from the thin slice on his palm, the dark red liquid slowly dropped to the floor.
But Jace didn't feel pain. Because there was none.
An illusion held no pain.
"How long are you going to keep watching?" Jace called out as the noise around him slowly faded.
A soft voice that sounded eerily close yet unfathomably far whispered back "I made sure I took the time to create this. So how did you know?"
Jace looked up as he answered "First was the emotions or rather things like sense of taste, sense of touch or even the smell"
He paused, looking around before continuing "Then there was information. I asked Eric about his book yet he couldn't say anything about it because I didn't know anything about it. All the information you used to set this place up was gotten from me or rather my brain. That's why Eric couldn't answer where Edgis was or about the book he was reading"
Jace paused again as the soft melodious voice asked "And the last reason?"
"Time"
"Time?". The voice repeated as Jace nodded. "When I went into the library the sun was about to go down yet when I came out it was still at the same place. That and Eric's reaction to coming to the party. You see Eric hates parties, but you didn't know that"
There was silence and for a second Jace wondered if the voice had forgotten him.
Finally, the voice spoke again "So, I presume you have questions?"
"Only one. Who are you?" Jace asked.
The voice remained silent before it sighed "I or rather you people consider me to be Fate"
Jace frowned at the wording as he attempted to speak just as the voice interrupted him "No more questions. Learning more at this stage will kill you. I'll be watching you anyway."
Jace called out as he felt himself being dragged out of the mysterious space "Wait. I need to …"
Jace wasn't able to finish as the voice spoke again one last time "I hope the next time we see each other, your fate will be ever clearer"
"Wait" Jace yelled as he sprung up from the bed.
Disappearing from the mysterious space, he found himself in a room.
Jace stood uncertainly from the large bed which covered almost half of the room as he looked around. The room was empty without any chairs, windows or even doors, except you could call the metal wall at the side a door.
The smell of scented candles wafted around as the dark red layout gave a creepy design to the room.
Additionally, Jace couldn't help but feel that he was being watched. Jace walked towards the metallic wall-like door as he attempted sliding it only for it not to budge an inch.
[You have gained level 1 resistance to poison]
"Uhn?" Jace spoke, clearly confused as a screen danced in front of his eyes.
Jace closed both his eyes as he bit his lips before opening them back up to still see the mysterious window floating.
Jace attempted to tap it just as the message disappeared. Another one appeared almost instantly, larger and taking most of the space.
[Name: Jace Vicea]
[Age: 17]
[Abilities: None]
[Bloodline: Vicea (locked)]
[Titles: Invisible to Fate, Marked by Fate]
[Stats] [Skills] [Tasks] [Inventory]
Jace scanned through the message as he slowly felt a sense of bewilderment.
First, there was the fact that they had used Jace's mother's surname rather than his father's. Aside from that there was also the bloodline factor.
Jace knew enough about bloodlines, enough to know they were a fake.
In the past when abilities were still being developed, a theory had come out on how every human might not only be able to pass on the DNA which gave them their abilities but also their control over it.
After thorough experimentation, the theory was disproved with scientists stating that only abilities could be passed and not special characteristics developed by the individual themselves.
But that wasn't what caused Jace the most confusion. It was the line at the bottom.
"What the hell is invisible to fate?" Jace muttered as a new message popped up.
[Invisible to Fate: The Threads of fate regarding you have vanished leaving you without a clear origin or destination. Whether it has been stolen or is simply missing, only darkness awaits you]
Reading the ominous description, Jace frowned as another message popped up.
[Marked by Fate: The architect of fate has lain his eyes on you and is watching. Remember, he is always watching.]
Jace could feel a dozen different questions appearing in his mind but the most prevalent was the contradictory nature of the two messages.
One framed him as walking his own path away from fate while the other framed him as being connected to fate.
Aside from that there was the question, was being connected to fate bad or good. Jace remembered the voice in the illusion and its final statement.
'May your fate be ever clearer'.
That could mean a lot of things and could be either good or bad. Aside from that there was still the mysterious space he had been to and the fact that the stone of death seemed to not have had any impact.
Just as Jace pondered all those things, he heard the sound of the door opening.
Jace turned as walking in the room was a middle-aged man, his brown hair clean cut.
Jace noted the military attire on him, a black shirt with trousers and the logo on the chest.
He walked slowly, his shoes making a clipped sound with the floor as he shortened the distance between him and Jace to almost five meters.
Finally he spoke, his voice clear but full of authority betraying the dozens of years he had spent speaking with that same authority "Who exactly are you and give me one reason why I shouldn't run my hands through your heart?"