Solaris opened his eyes, staring up at the ceiling. Taking a look to his right, he saw a wall made of brick, and on his left another; he was in a room of only walls, no doors, and therefore no way out.
"Damn."
He grumbled before, sighing.
Solaris sat up; his current predicament was not ideal in the slightest.
***
Ember opened his eyes and looked at a wall in front of him with a singular door made of pure steel, or perhaps something stronger. The room was massive and filled with a horrible scent that was not unlike propane; it was dizzying and dangerous.
Had it been anyone but Ember, this would have been instant death. Yet due to his strange biology, he was seemingly less affected; all that stopped him from melting the door and leaving was the threat of the room detonating into the core of a sun, that and the chains around him.
He had two chains holding his arms up and two holding his legs down. It was incredibly uncomfortable, and made sure he couldn't move.
The situation for him was even less ideal.
***
The two had no clue as to how long they had been in captivity; each was fed very rarely, and the potions had been very small. That was all they could assess as time passing; otherwise, they wouldn't have known if it had been passing at all.
They had been there at least a week, but were unsure of how much passed that.
Sitting in the cell, Solaris had begun to forget himself, and so he had begun to recall everything that had gotten him to this point, the city, the man he had been before this, Ember, and even Him.
The time that had passed felt like an eternity and was so agonizing, it was worse than if they had been just torturing him; his only source of entertainment had been his own memories.
***
As he stared at the megacity from high in the sky. His eyes gleamed with joy as the tears fell from his eyes. As it dawned upon him what this meant, he quickly descended towards Ember.
As he did, he wiped the tears from his eyes and put a strong face on.
"Ember! There's a city!"
Embers' head shot up at this declaration, and his back sprouted two wings. As soon as they reached their maximum length, he dashed forward. Solaris soon followed, leaving the food and water behind. He hoped that this city would be much more alive than the other one.
As they grew closer and closer to the city, a bright sun grew into the frame of their vision.
Solaris felt a bright smile as he grew closer to his salvation. Reaching the first section's limits, he spotted Ember and landed next to him. The two took a moment and began walking around, yet even though the buildings had been in perfect condition, no one seemed to be there.
The streets were quiet and lonely, yet it was as if only a moment ago someone had been there.
As the duo surveyed the land, they found food and water in abundance.
"Why can't this be the place we got dropped into! This is a paradise!
Solaris exclaimed with glee in his voice.
They walked around the lower sections of the city and even ventured into a few of the buildings, yet found little to no signs of life anywhere; it was as if it had been deserted recently.
All of the kitchens had food, and all the rooms had beds; some even had books.
Opening a book, Solaris glanced inside.
The language is completely different from ours.
It was so different from any language Solaris had ever seen; all of it was alien to him, it had lacked the simple human element of language, yet still contained a human element. Writing contained, it was almost impossible to perceive the difference between the two, yet Solaris understood immediately.
With a look of confusion, Solaris put the book back.
"Anything?"
"No, not really, except their books were weird, the language was off, and very unique."
Ember shook his head and looked down the street.
"Movement?"
Solaris pointed down the street back the way that they had come, with a confused look.
His shards had detected movement, yet it had been in an area they had already searched and very thoroughly, yet somehow something had escaped both their gazes and his shards.
Sensing movement, he ordered the shards to move in on the source.
As they did, the two of them began to follow, growing closer and closer. Solaris felt his stomach turn, as if something was deeply wrong with the situation.
Getting closer and closer, he felt this feeling growing, and before long, they were only around the corner from the source of the movement, sticking out his arm, a bone blade appeared within Ember's hand and was swiftly passed to Solaris. Within the same moment, Ember grabbed a large mace made of bone with a shiny black gloss covering it.
Swallowing hard, Solaris turned the corner and locked eyes with the creature.
His eyes shot open wider than ever before. He felt his pulse skyrocket at the being before him. It was something he had never expected to witness after relocating to this world.
It was something that put his body in a state of fear, panic, joy, sadness, and even mortal dread like no being ever had.
As he was still registering the sight before him, a bright light shot passed him.