Work Text:
The City of Anhala
Year:??
Lily Evans shivered as she woke up. She felt a cold, hard floor under her back. She rolled over on her stomach and cursed – her left arm was numb. Apparently she had slept on it. She sighed and looked around in her new environment.
She was in a dimly lit room. On the other side there was a dust covered pedestal and the wall behind it had a cloth with a very weird, unfamiliar symbol on it. Lily also noticed the room had benches everywhere – some were still standing while others where in pieces on the floor or they had just fallen over. The carpet on the floor smelt very bad and it had mold and dust on the surface as well as mushrooms growing on top of it.
Lily stood up while feeling disgusted due to the smell of the rotten carpet on the floor and decided to go outside before she began feeling sick.
As she got outside, she wasn’t sure what she had been expecting to see there but it certainly wasn’t what she did see. She was looking at an abandoned, destroyed city that was mostly covered in a shining white substance that Lily assumed to be snow. Some of the buildings were still standing while others were not. Some had collapsed years ago and others had no windows left. Lily also noticed, while she walking down a street in the middle of the ruins, that there were signs that something bad had happened in this unfamiliar city. She couldn’t help but wonder what it could have been.
It must’ve happened a long, long time ago, Lily thought as she walked past an overgrown tree and rusty road signs towards the river in the distance. She saw a railway bridge standing in the river, and parts of it had collapsed years ago. She also noticed that parts of the train also hang over what was left of the said bridge. The other end of the bridge was buried into a pile of the snow looking white substance in the distance.
”Earth is going to become like this eventually”, said a voice from behind Lily, who turned around to see Azalea and James standing there.
”What do you mean, Azalea?” Lily asked Azalea while she wondered why Harry looked so pale and tired.
”This town here is where I’m from”, Azalea calmly said.
”What the hell?” Lily asked, shocked. Azalea was from another world?!
Azalea nodded. ”It’s been about 700 years since the Source of Magic in this world was destroyed by our delusional high priestess Yüyi”, she began. ”I prayed every day for the salvation to come when the panic and inability to cope with the situation escalated into a full on civil war between nations who all accused each other of the apocalypse and this town was one of the many that was annihilated first. Eventually our goddess Floralys Cosmos appeared before me and marked me as a guardian of Earth’s Source of Magic. That’s how me and my brother Zack ended up in your world.”
”Why aren’t we aware of this goddess?” James asked quietly.
I wonder what’s wrong with him? Lily wondered as James sat down on a broken piece of a stone fence nearby.
”Floralys Cosmos doesn’t want all the worlds to know about her existence. My world was the exception as she built this world for us to live in. This goddess is the one who channels all magic in the universe through the Sources and some people will be chosen to carry this power as theirs if the goddess sees them worthy enough”, Azalea answered. ”However, if the Source is destroyed, people carrying the power will perish along with the crystal. This white substance everywhere is actually the crystallized souls of the people who has lost their magic and eventually also their lives because the loss of magic also blocks them from entering Valhalla”, she continued.
Lily shivered. The substance that she had assumed to be snow was actually human beings?! It was such a scary thought. What if everyone in her own world was turning into this substance right now? She was horrified at the thought of everyone she knew and cherished would be gone because of some weirdos took a stone away.
And why weren't we even aware of such a stone existing on Earth? We all just assumed that we're born with it! Lily thought – probably just trying to find a way to calm herself down somehow, even just a little bit, before the panic hit her.
”Everyone’s in trouble back home?” James whispered just as horrified as Lily felt.
”Pretty much yes”, Azalea confirmed. ”It will take some time but people furthest away from the Source will lose their magic first, and then their life and they turn into crystallized souls and so on. People living closest to the crystal will survive longer but their fate is the same.”
”We need to go back and fast”, Lily said. ”And bring that crystal with us, Azalea!”
”Earth’s Source was stolen so this world can be saved”, Azalea went on. ”It has taken decades, maybe even generations to collect enough magic power to open the portal to Earth’s Source…” she mumbled and began walking in circles, mumbling inaudibly in a language that Ginny couldn’t understand.
”Lily…” James said quietly.
”Are you alright, James?” Lily asked and sat next to him.
”When I came here, this world sucked all my magic away…” he answered and shivered.
”No…” Lily whispered, horrified. ”We gotta get you back home and quick!”
”I don’t know if we can be fast enough to succeed at that. I feel like I get weaker and weaker as time goes on. Azalea told me that I'm going to die eventually if we stay here too long.”
”I won’t let that happen, James, we will go home together”, Lily said and put her head against his shoulder.
James smiled to her and put his arm around Lily’s shoulders. She buried her face into his neck. She couldn’t believe there was a dark cloud over them just when they had just began to actually get really, really close again. Lily had always thought that he would never want someone like her because of his fame back home but he had proven her wrong. Before they got sucked into the portal along with Azalea, the Source and the unfamiliar thieves, Lily and James had had an argument over something pointless that shouldn’t have even been an issue and now there was a possibility that she could lose him forever? She was not going to live with that option.
I will do my best to save his life, Lily thought.
”Okay, lovebirds”, said Azalea. ”We’re going to my apartment so I can look at a map of this world.”
”What do you have in mind?” James asked.
”I’m going to find you two clothes to hide the fact that you’re from another world. And then we will go to the capital city, where I think the Source has been taken to.”
”What, you don’t remember where to go without a map?” teased James.
”No, I do not. It's just that I’ve been away for far too long to remember which direction we should take. Especially since this world is completely different now than before”, Azalea calmly said. "Get into the house, you two."
James and Lily didn't object. It was really cold outside after all.