Sleight of Hand: The Final Card

Chapter 22

Their faces all slackened as they emerged from the other side of the portal. Everyone was silent as they surveyed the mass of land in front of them—the opposite of the small, cramped cave they'd been in moments before.

What they were looking at now was like a picture out of an old, silent movie. Everything was various shades of gray. Even the grass under their feet had no color. There was no movement—no life. Trebor stepped up beside Aivilo. She didn't have to look at him to know his eyes were wide and his mouth slightly gaped.

"It's... real..." he breathed, shaking his head slowly. As if he still couldn't believe that an alternate world that used to be the home of the Super-humans existed.

Aivilo had to admit, she found it hard to believe, too. They still had to be on Earth somewhere... right?

"It's so... dark," Trebor said faintly. Aivilo had to agree. This was supposed to be where the power source was located? If something so powerful was supposed to reside here, why did everything seem... dead?

Aivilo looked at the gray grass below, and an idea sparked in her mind. She crouched and reached her hand out, placing it flat against the grass.

"What are you doing, Aivilo?" Kurtis asked. She didn't answer. She closed her eyes and sum­moned her power, pushing it out of her hand.

She heard Trebor gasp above her. Her face scrunched as she pushed more power through her hand and into exist­ence.

Finally, she stopped and opened her eyes. She stood, and her own eyes grew wide. She had summoned the memory of this place like she had with the portal's symbol, the remnants of what it used to be from the deep, hibernating roots under the ground.

Now, instead of staring at a colorless expanse, the scene around them was full of vibrant colors and surging with life. The sky was a crystal blue, reflecting into the lakes that dotted bright green hills. Trees soared high into the sky, and all kinds of birds and creatures nested in their topmost branches. Off to one side in the dis­tance, the land rose into walls of rocks—the side of a sort of canyon. Cascading down the side was a massive waterfall that pooled into one of the larger lakes at the base of the canyon. On their other side, quaint buildings peeked up from above the hills.

Houses, Aivilo realized. Those must have been houses where Superhumans lived before they migrated to Earth to offer their gifts to help humans.

The thing that Aivilo marveled at the most, though, was the wildlife that meandered throughout the rolling hills. There weren't just normal, earthly animals, but also all sorts of mythical beasts that were only found in story­books, and extinct creatures that Earth hadn't seen since the beginning of time. Some things she couldn't even name because she had never seen them before. Some lounged among the grassy knolls, snoozing. Others were munching on whatever food they'd found. Some bathed in the warm sunlight. Some drank from the crys­tal lakes. It all took her breath away.

"This is what it looked like," she breathed. This is what their home had looked like generations ago when Superhumans had not yet trekked to Earth. No one replied. Everyone was too awestruck.

The apparition Aivilo had created of the place was ringed with a pink-and-gold border, like that of the por­tal, and it was slowly shrinking, leaving the cold and gray reality in its wake. After a few moments, that was all that was left, jarring Aivilo back into the present. It was like being rudely awakened from the best dream.

"What... happened here?" Trebor voiced, his brows creased deeply. He stared wistfully ahead, probably still picturing the beautiful apparition of the past. His green eyes were bright against the dullness around them. They were the same color those hills had been.