He arrives to an intense, overwhelming heat, as the sun's powerful rays strike him. There are sand dunes stretching on, reaching out in all directions. And then, a blinding glimmer of light from a skyscraper, visible as Feya turns around.

It's so hot. And bright. Why is it so hot and bright?

Is this a glamor? An illusion? He casts Negate again. It doesn't disappear. So the Open energy must have brought him somewhere else.

He casts Endure Elements. The desert heat still feels just as hot, but it loses its sting. He doesn't know a spell to negate the light.

He sees something glowing intensely with what appears like reflected sunlight, but he doesn't know of any place that has anything big enough to be visible from that far away, and rich enough to cover it in mirrors. Did he get teleported to the other continent? He supposes it's possible, if the amount of Open energy he was hit with was large enough. Really, he should be grateful he didn't get transported into the middle of the ocean. He doesn't know how to swim.

He will start walking towards the Very Bright Thing. How far away is it? Is it getting appreciably bigger as he walks towards it?

It's... very far away indeed, maybe a mile or so. It doesn't take long to realize that it's a very, very tall building, with beautiful blue windows all over it, one of many like it in a very shiny city. It seems bizarre for the city to be placed here, in such a desolate and barren place.

A mile isn't far away at all, to Feya. His caravan travels several miles daily – though fewer, if the road or weather is poor.

He does not interpret the very tall buildings to be residences, because he has never seen houses like that. In fact, he kind of has a bad feeling about it. Some of his friends at White Lake work as ruins excavators, and he has heard enough stories to know that one ought not approach such ruins blindly. The old, Cataclysm-weathered artifacts and wards can react badly to intrusion. And Negate has already failed him once – he is not going to tempt fate by relying on it again.

He's honestly kind of sad about that. He really thought his Negate was better than it was. Anyway, the ruins. He will stop about four-fifths of the way there. What does it look like, closer up?

Closer up, the sand turns into streets, with people occasionally walking around, always in the shade. The huge windows on the buildings extend all the way downwards, letting Feya get a view of some of the people inside. There are many storefronts along the streets, and the corner of some greenery barely visible in the distance.

Oh. It's not ruins. Or, the ruins has illusions or glamors put on it? No, it can't be that – his blessing would dispel them.

He is shocked at the amount of glass this place has! And how they manage to get glass that big and that flat, and without any inclusions or bubbles in them. His energy senses are thoroughly mediocre – Tranquil practitioner that he is – but he will try scanning for energy from a distance. He predicts the buildings are Fire artifice, or perhaps Tranquil artifice.

What do the people look like? What are they doing, what are they wearing? He is wearing a close-fitting white linen tunic and pants, also of linen, with both of them having vertical pinstripes. Despite his trek through the desert, no sand or dirt has stuck to them – they are still bright white.

People are similarly wearing white, mostly skirts with leggings, but men wear pants once in a while, and all colors are represented. Some women are just in leggings, with tight-fitting shirts, and Feya can rarely make out people wearing some kind of full-body suit with a helmet on their heads.

He does not recognize the fashion at all. Or the fabrics or materials in their clothes. He continues to stay far away from everyone, which entails mostly staying in the sun – he does not seem, and is indeed not, affected by this.

He tries looking for signs. Is there any writing anywhere? Can he read it? Advertisements, notices, storefronts, newspapers?

Yes, somehow. The signs are above shops of all kinds; there are more tailors than he'd expect from any normal settlement, and he can't see anywhere that's advertising food, whether prepared or food ingredients.

It would fit with how weird people's clothes are here. But having no food is so strange. Are the restaurants and grocers inside the buildings? He wants to enter one, but...it looks weird and scary so he will do Not That.

After a few minutes, he realizes that the glyphs do not correspond to any writing system he knows. That, in and of itself, is not alarming – True artificers can put enchantments on objects that put concepts directly into minds – but he cannot detect any True energy from the sign. Is it an Open effect? It seems like it would fit...though there isn't any of that either.

He casts Becalm on himself.

He wants to ask for help, but he doesn't want to accost the arbitrary people walking about. He will continue walking the streets and wait until he finds something that seems like a government office. He bears the mark of the Ancient and Charitable Society of Solace on himself and on his robe, and it is one of the oldest and most eminent of the Societies. If worst comes to worst, he can pay to send an Openetelegram and ask his Society to intercede on his behalf. 

Wait. If he's indeed on the other continent...this wouldn't work. But surely the other continent would still have a surviving lineage of the Society? The Way of Tranquility is the Way that endures, the Way that preserves, the Way that lasts, the Way that remains. Anyway, he can testify to the same under truth ritual. 

Walking around, it's impossible to find anything that looks like a government office! Everything is extremely tall, excluding the occassional wide swathes of green space constantly watered by sprinklers. There are kids and adults having fun, getting soaked and getting cooled off by playing in the streams of water.

The city looks really weird and the water things are New and Weird and Scary and he almost startles at the sight of them and the sound of the people playing, before he realizes it's some sort of fountain. In the desert. Okay.

He can feel himself getting overstimulated, so he casts Becalm again. It's relieving, but it's not sustainable. Already, he can feel himself getting more tired from it. Also he's super thirsty. He could cast Inedia, but it's super expensive to cast it. So he'd rather not.

Can he understand the people who are playing?

They're not talking much, mostly making exclamations about how much they love the water and how much they're enjoying themselves. But he can make out occasional words, mostly coming from the kids: about how excited they are to arrive here, and how much they like the new schools they're in, and how excited they are to start going on desert excursions.

And he still cannot detect any energy from them!!!!! He feels like he's going crazy.

He is going to approach the sprinklers and see if he is wetted. If he lets the water onto his tongue, does it taste like water? He will test for hallucination and treat dehydration with the same action. Such efficiency.

Water will not stick to his clothes – it will bead up and roll away – although it will stick to his skin.

The sprinkler does taste like water; it tastes a bit off, somehow, but it hydrates him perfectly! One of the women walk over to him worriedly. "Ahh, mister, that water isn't drinking-rated. It'll be fine, but it's a bit less clean than the water coming from proper drinking fountains, I think you should be using one of those."

People are talking to him and he can understand them!!!

"I don't know where those are," he says, after an uncomfortably long delay.

She points at a short, white building that's vaguely reminiscent of a bathtub. It has a kind of curved fence in front of it, with several white faucets placed following the curve of the fence. "If you use one of those, you get a fountain with water meant for drinking, mister!"

"Okay. Thank you," he says, after another uncomfortably long delay. Approaching the faucets, is it obvious how they are supposed to be operated?

There's an extremely visible button, a black ring surrounding a white circle, next to each faucet. It somehow manages to scream "I do something" at Feya.

Feya is Very Calm.

He will re-push the button after flinching away from it, and then drink of the water.

It tastes... healthy, and natural, and cool? It doesn't taste like it's not water, but it somehow tastes... far better, like the most refreshing and hydrating water Feya has ever had.

It is another Very Concerning and Weird and Scary thing but he is too thirsty to think about it.

He feels very frazzled. Can he find a place that is quiet, secluded, not in any building, and preferably shaded?

Yes, there are actually quite a few of those, in poorly trafficked streets beneath the shade of the gigantic buildings.

Thank the stars. He will get down and do sitting meditation. He will sit for half an hour unless there are any interruptions.