“A Fringe can be anywhere and those who live inside usually destroy any kind of landmarks near its entrance to make it as inconspicuous as possible. Now please shut up and let me rest.” Nalrond said.
Morok Hushed the area around the Rezar and kept talking, instead.
“The guy has a point. You wouldn’t give this place a second look if not for the weird wind that chills your bones despite the desert’s heat.”
“The wind isn’t cold at all. It’s hot and dry. On top of that, it’s not just here, there’s wind as far as the eye can see.” Quylla pointed at the ever-shifting dunes around them.
“Agreed. We’d better keep ourselves hydrated or we’ll faint from the heat.” Friya used water magic to cool herself off and tried to conjure water, but the latter failed.
“Damn, I hope you guys brought enough water because all I have is alcohol and I don’t think that’s going to help us much, at least during the day. By the way, there’s something off here. I can’t feel the cold Morok is talking about but the space is weird. It feels like someone put a wool on the entire area.”
If Nalrond could hear anything, his respect for Friya would have grown again. The entrance to a Fringe had no distinguishing feature and since Mogar wanted to keep it hidden, only two kinds of people could find an access point.
Exceptionally talented dimensional mages could perceive the alterations in the space around them, but they would never manage to pry open a Fringe. Mogar’s backlash would make it the last mistake they ever made.
Those with a high affinity with three or more elements, instead, would feel an imbalance in the world energy only in the proximity of the entrance. They wouldn’t be capable of entering either, because the imbalance was just the consequence of the different density of world energy inside and outside the Fringe.
Nalrond inwardly thanked his companion for that sudden silence and started to use his meditation technique to recover his mana at a faster rate than any fake mage could. Despite the barrier dividing his life forces, the synergy between his two mana cores allowed them to hasten each other’s recovery.
“Let’s see if I can find our way in.” Friya had no idea of the danger that such an act implied and the Hush zone made Nalrond unable to hear or warn her.
“Since we are going to wait for the sleeping beauty there, I might as well give it a try as well.” Morok shapeshifted into his Tyrant form, using his four eyes to draw the elemental energy inside his body and study it.
‘Neat, now I’m the less talented one.’ Quylla thought, angry at herself because she didn’t feel anything but the sun’s heat and the wind drying her throat by the second.
She conjured an array that lowered the temperature and increased the humidity by drawing what little there was in their surroundings before taking out her Royal Forgemaster wand.
‘Based on what Faluel said, it’s a matter of being attuned with Mogar. Spirit Magic is the closest thing to world energy a living being can produce. Maybe if I manage to feel the Fringe, I can synch with its energy signature and gain access.’
Quylla’s plan was good, just like those of the others and those of all the people who preceded her. What every one of them never took into account was that Mogar had a will of its own.
To enter a Fringe, one had to knock at its door and politely ask for hospitality, not to pick the lock. After about an hour of failures, they gave up and conjured a few chairs to sit down comfortably.
“It’s better if we save our strength. Otherwise we’ll need to rest as well before entering the Fringe.” Friya had still most of her mana, but the mental fatigue from deciphering the dimensional barrier gave her a headache.
She could sense the space twirling around her finger at her every attempt, but there were no runes to manipulate, just a willpower so intense that Friya risked losing herself the moment they came in contact.
“I guess this is as far as I go.” Morok sighed. “It’s too bad. I would have loved to-”
His sudden disappearance flabbergasted the girls who jumped up to call Nalrond for help.
“Wow, it’s much better on the inside.” Morok reappeared, throwing them fruits that resembled Earth’s peaches.
They were sweet and juicy, quenching the girls’ thirst for water but not that for answers.
“Did you just enter the Fringe?” Quylla said between bites. Stress eating always relieved her wounded ego.
“No, it just let me in. I didn’t do anything.” He said.
“How did you do it?” Friya put the seed inside her dimensional amulet, hoping that the Ernas gardener might grow a tree from it.
“As I sucked elemental energy through my eyes, I started to hear voices.” Morok replied. “The more energy I took in, the stronger they become. For a moment, I thought I was going mad.”
“Then why didn’t you stop?” Quylla asked.
“Because they didn’t ask me to murder you guys or cut my throat. The voices just wanted to talk.” Morok said.
“What did they say?”
“They asked mostly dumb questions like who I am or what do I want. The rest was a long rambling about the meaning of life of which I didn’t understand much so I just listened.
“The voices disappeared a few minutes ago and I thought it was over, but when they heard me thinking I would have liked to follow you inside, they invited me in.” Morok gave Quylla a thumbs up as if she had helped him.
“Come on, it’s easy.” Morok disappeared again, without leaving any trace of his passage nor a gateway.
“How the heck are we supposed to get in?” Friya said, hoping that he could still hear them.
‘I still have a way to go before regaining my full strength, but I’m surprised they managed to be quiet for so long, especially that Moron.’ Nalrond took a few deep breaths before opening his eyes to prepare his nerves for the living nonsense that his unwanted guest was.
Much to his surprise, Morok seemed to have gone and the girls to have become mute. Nalrond could see them move their mouths but no sound came out.
“You idiots! What if someone attacked us? I would have been a sitting duck.” He said, but the hush zone blocked every single word, forcing him to repeat himself once he dispelled it.
“Please, stop being such a pessimist. Our line of sight is free for kilometers and there’s so much silence that we would hear a mouse trying to sneak up on us. More importantly, Morok entered the Fringe a while ago and has yet to return.” Friya said.
“That’s impossible.” Nalrond looked at her as if she had gone mad.
“You don’t get inside a Fringe just because you want to. Even those born inside of it like me need to be taught how to communicate with the dimensional barrier. Otherwise it’s impossible to get in or out. The process is so long that I’m not even going to teach you.”
“Believe it or not, that’s exactly what happened.” Quylla said.
