Welcome To The Void Heart

20250909

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

The rift opened, dragging me with it. For the first time I didn’t fight the pull.
I knew it was foolish. Everyone said the other side was a nightmarish place. Deadly. Far worse than anything here.
But…
‘Here’ was enough of a nightmare that I couldn’t bring myself to cling on anymore. At least the other side would be a new horror. An interesting end.
And this meant my body would be gone, unusable. They wouldn’t be able to harvest any of my power. That small, pathetic rebellion was all I had.
With how the rifts pull, with how easily it dragged me in, I expected to be ripped apart. But it was more like… falling in a dream. Tumbling sideways towards that distant point which had called to me since birth.
How long did the journey take? There’s no way to tell. The rift was featureless and ever-shifting, offering nothing by which to judge time or distance. I’d drifted into a peaceful trance long before a dot of light filled my vision, rapidly ballooning into another rift like the one I’d entered and before I’d grasped what was happening I was spat out into The Other Side.
I suppose it could be considered nightmarish, if your nightmares involve caverns of translucent, gently glowing crystals and large multicoloured puff-balls with compound eyes.
They were intrigued by my sudden entrance, and presumably my alien form. My initial trepidation as they swarmed ebbed as they gave friendly chirps, took turns depositing fluff on me (this is why they all end up with patches of different colours, they trade), and offered crystal fragments.
While I couldn’t eat the crystal, as my ‘hosts’ clearly expected, I inspected the shards with wonder. The power flowing through them… it was the same I’d called from the rifts.
Was this where it came from? These crystals?
When I tried shaping my thoughts the magic responded easier than ever before - and the crystals in my hands crumbled to dust. Thankfully the fluffs seemed to think this normal.
At a loss, I followed the herd as they meandered through the caverns. Whenever they stopped to sample crystals I did the same, though with magic rather than my mouth.
My wonder was slowly displaced by material concerns. With my flight being impulsive (and expected to be fatal), I hadn’t brought provisions. Could I conjure food or water? I’d never tried. Never even pondered the possibility. Back… there… (even having just left, I couldn’t bear to think of it as ‘home’) magic was scarce and victuals plentiful.
So when I heard a trickling sound echoing out of a crevice I turned from the fluffs. While a few paused to watch me go, they seemed unconcerned by my leaving.
The crevice was dimmer, stone with only occasional veins of crystals shedding light. But the aura of magic was still thick, far more than I was used to, making summoning a light child’s play. I tromped onwards, winding down and down, hunting that burbling fluid I hoped was water.
“You’re a new smell.”
I froze.
Perhaps my immediate fear was unreasonable. There was nothing unfriendly about the voice, and its wispy rasp didn’t sound large or threatening. But speech meant thought; and thought meant intention; and I assumed that any intention towards me would be unpleasant.
I wheeled towards the words, holding my light high, and my stomach lurched as I saw a person-shaped shadow peering out of a crack. My light drove it back, to my great relief - and it spluttered “Oi, watch where you’re pointing that!”
“S-sorry?” I lowered my hand. But did not banish the light; I was comforted to be holding a weapon.
“What are you carrying that around for - ohhh, you must be one of those ‘seeings’, aren’t you?”
“‘See’… I guess I am. I use the light to get around.”
“Tsk.” The sound was more pitying than annoyed. “Where are you from, then?”
“Um… Allian.”
“Where’s that on the Tapestry?”
“Tapestry?”
Part of the shadow being stretched towards me. I fought the urge to lift my light.
While the sounds it made were unlike any nostrils I can imagine, it was definitely sniffing me.
“Hm. I think you’re a new newcomer. Has anyone from this ‘Allian’ travelled through a rift before?”
“I don’t think so? I was taught I’d die…” I trailed off, hoping the figure wouldn’t ask why, that being the case, I was here. I quickly asked “B-But wait, if you’ve never heard of Allian, how are you speaking Alliaran?”
They laughed - except they didn’t. They made no sound at all, yet I heard laughter. “Oh, we’d never get anywhere if we bothered with languages. Such a tedious complication. Now. You being a new newcomer and all… welcome to the Void Heart, wanderer from Allian. Come, let me show you the Tapestry and introduce you to people who are better at explaining than I am.”
“…Alright.”
While I still felt great unease, and found the figure inscrutable, my wonder and curiosity had surged to the fore once more.
If I was grasping this correctly… if they weren’t simply messing with me… it seemed there had been many ‘wanderers’ before me. Many of whom weren’t human. And presumably from places very different to the world I knew.
So I dimmed my light, keeping it on my far side from the figure, and followed them deeper. But my questions couldn’t wait for these ‘better at explaining’ people. “The… ‘Void Heart’? Is that where we are?”
“Of course. It’s where magic comes from, and through the rifts it touches everywhere. Well,” the figure paused, “it touches everywhere we know about. But I suppose we wouldn’t know about where it doesn’t touch. Maybe there are worlds beyond the reach of rifts. I doubt it, though.”
“What are they like? These worlds?”
“All sorts. The Tapestry will explain.”
“I can’t wait.” And I meant it.
“Pff. Definitely a wanderer.”
I grinned into the darkness. I much preferred ‘wanderer’ to ‘source-drudge’.

Prompt was the first sentence.