Regius was related to the short pyromaniac with no sense of humor. Just great.

  The brown-haired boy was given a guest room in Laios’s house- a small rectangular room with the same brown and red color scheme as the rest of the house, with an empty wardrobe, a small window and a clean but old bed. A lit torch sat by the doorway.

  Despite the comfortable room, Regius wanted to go home. Still, he didn't have a choice- he didn't even know how to go back up the crack.

  Sighing in defeat, he plopped down on the bed face down, not bothering to change as he flung his bag across the room.

  Why did he have to end up here?

  Not even eating dinner, Regius drifted off to sleep.

  In his dream, he was surrounded by fire. He could barely make out the surroundings- what seemed like an extra big offering altar. Considering what he had heard about the underground world, this made him uncomfortable.

  He squinted, looking around for an exit. The student’s eyes stopped on a figure in the distance.

  “Hey, you, do you know where I a-” Regius began asking, only for his voice to falter when he neared the figure.

  It was him.

  The person was almost identical to himself, with brown hair and eyes, but he was dressed in formal-looking white and brown robes with a fire symbol on his back.

  Back when Regius was younger, he too had amber flecks like Deina in his eyes. This 'him’ had the same flecks, but much brighter, less like embers and more like a roaring flame.

  “You know the truth, Regius,” the other him said coldly.

  Something about the other him felt different. The other Regius had an aura of power, and seemed unbothered by the smoke and embers that were starting to make the real Regius’s skin itch.

  “You know the truth.”

  Regius did not get any deep sleep that night. In the morning, he woke up exhausted and confused by his surroundings, until his memories of the previous day flooded back.

  Once he was properly awake, he smelled smoke.

  ‘My brain must still be stuck in that dream,’ the brown-haired student convinced himself. After all, the torches by the doorway were still controlled. There was no fire in sight.

  Then he looked down at his hand.

  About a millimeter of the tip of his right index finger was missing, leaving behind a smoking black stump. Although slow, Regius could notice his finger slowly burning further.

  ‘What the hell?’

  He was tempted to scream and throw a tantrum until he wakes up and realizes that this was all a dream. What did he ever do to deserve this?

  The boy shook his head, deciding to tell Laios and Deina what happened.

  You know the truth, Regius.

  What did the dream even mean? Was it just a dream? But Regius’s imagination has never been crazy enough to come up with something like that. Maybe something weird, like the one where his teachers turned into birds that began eating students’ hair, but nothing so... heavy.

  “You, are you awake?” Regius heard Deina’s voice from outside his door, followed by knocking. The brown-haired boy nodded, before remembering Deina was still outside. “Y-yeah, I’m awake.”

  The wooden door swung open, nearing one of the torches. The embers hit it, but it did not burn. Why was the fire in this underground world so different?

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Deina was dressed in the same brown robes as yesterday. Regius noted that the dream him’s robes seemed like a more fancy version of Deina and Laios’s.

  “It’s 9 already, upperworlder. You can have some food, we’re going to see Lady Logia in half an hour,” the black-haired girl informed him, before turning around and walking back down the hallway.

  Logia- the prophet. Laios had mentioned her the previous day, saying she would decide Regius’s fate.

  The student shivered- he didn't want his fate decided. He wanted to go home, and see his friends and relatives again.

  ‘Kade is probably freaking out right now, since we have to do our Humanities powerpoint in a week.’ Regius sighed at the thought, then giggled a bit. Maybe he was going insane.

  Finally, he dragged himself out of bed and, not bothering to change, stumbled like a zombie in daylight out into the main room. Laios and Deina were nowhere to be seen, but a bag of toast and some orange jam were lying out on the table.

  Regius’s brown eyes flew to a clock he hadn't noticed the day before. It read 9:08, meaning he had 22 more minutes to eat.

  He sighed again. Anyways, with luck, whoever Logia was would tell him to go back home, and then he’d be free from this town of religious pyromaniacs. What kind of name was Caleo, anyways?

  Still, his burning hand worried him.

  “I’ll ask Laios about it later,” he said to himself out loud, before taking a seat at the table and grabbing a piece of toast.

  The orange jam was good. Regius wondered where the people got oranges underground for a solid five minutes, before realizing he was almost out of eating time and hurriedly devoured two slices.

  Just as he downed the last bite, he heard the sound of footsteps and walking stick-steps down the hallway.

  “Good morning, Regius,” Laios greeted. This old man was definitely more polite than Deina. ‘Come to think of it, Deina isn’t really his granddaughter, right? Maybe he took her in after she was thrown down here?’

  “We’re going to consult Lady Logia, Regius,” Deina announced, making her way towards the door as Laios waited. Regius nodded, wiping the jam off his hands before getting up.

  “Alright then. I’ll be able to go back home afterwards, right?”

  “Hopefully,” was all Laios said. Was Regius imagining it or did he and Deina exchange a worried glance?

  A few minutes later, he was out on the road following Deina and Laios. Other underworlders strolled the roads, some shooting Regius confused glances.

  Thankfully, Logia wasn’t too far away- only a ten minute walk.

  Considering how both of the underworlders Regius had met held her in high regard, he expected some magic fortune-telling lady living in a cave.

  Instead, Laios stopped at a normal house. The old man knocked several times, before waiting patiently.

  The door opened, revealing a young woman, about twenty, give or take. She had neck-length red hair and emerald eyes, and wore a gray dress along with the cave world’s signature brown cloak.

  These people needed a better sense of fashion.

  “Hey, Laios,” the lady greeted lazily. The old man nodded in response. “Good morning, Lady Logia. I request that you read into the fate of Regius here- he fell into our cave by accident from the Upper World, and I am unsure whether he should be allowed to return.”

  Logia’s sharp green eyes landed on Regius. She was silent for a moment, observing the boy. Then she turned back to Laios and nodded, grabbing a torch from beside her house wall.

  “Okay, follow me.”

  She led the three of them to an empty cavern a minute away from the village. There were several braziers forming a hexagonal shape around a larger one in the center.

  “Stand there, kid,” she ordered Regius, pointing vaguely to somewhere in front of the center brazier. Regius decided Logia was his best chance of getting out of the cave world, so he obediently stood beside the unlit brazier.

  Logia held out her torch and shut her eyes, muttering prayers and spells under her breath before the wooden torch burst into flames. Regius couldn't help but be amazed. This must be how Deina was strolling around with a lit torch yesterday.

  Logia walked around the hexagon, setting alight each brazier. Then she made her way to the center, pointing her torch to the brazier right in front of Regius and setting it on fire.

  Regius tried not to inch away from the roaring fire. Logia placed down her torch and stood on the opposite side of the brazier, once again closing her eyes and muttering some incantations once more.

  The flame on the brazier grew larger in size, and turned bright red. Logia opened her eyes and stared into the flame, its eerie red glow turning her emerald green eyes dark brown.

  Finally, Logia gasped and all the flames went out.

  “What did you see, Lady Logia?” Laios asked worriedly, making his way over to her and Deina following behind. Regius took a step back from the prophet, worry seeping through him.

  “This boy...” Logia panted, pointing at Regius. Deina tilted her head curiously. “What about him? What did you see in his fate?”

  “He is... the vessel of Lord Caleo’s power.”

  Laios and Deina gasped, shock evident in their eyes. Regius took another step back, slowly understanding the situation.

  You know the truth, Regius.

  “He is... Lord Caleo’s chosen sacrifice. He must travel to the altar of sacrifice from centuries before and burn away his mortal form... to free our god.”