One year in this infernal world lasts 540 days, plus one extra day that does not belong to the ending or the beginning year. We celebrate it as the Day of Slumber, where all creation rests.

An excerpt from the diary of Pia...

         ANDREW

Ten days since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

This serenity had not been disturbed for a long time. Not by humans, nor by other beings. Andrew watched as Robert and Lenna gave up on a civil conversation. He had no desire to join in on this debate. It was out of this world.

"There is no such thing! It has to be a machine!" Robert gestured passionately.

"Well, where is the damned control-room then?" Lenna shouted in response.

Robert said nothing and pointed towards the ground.

"Oh, for crying out loud, when will you give up? When will you face what is in front of you?"

"No. No, no, no. Do not start again! We are standing on a hill, a big hill. A perfectly round hill. There is plenty of space under here to hide all the important machinery. This hill is man-made. Pillars do not sprout out of the ground like grass. There is a village down there, there were people here." Robert was gesturing and pacing around the place.

Lenna sighed aloud. "We have tried digging. It's dirt and boulders." She sat down on a pile of dirt and buried her face in her hands.

"We've dug holes barely taller than him." Robert pointed towards Andrew, who crossed his arms and shifted uncomfortably. "And we haven't been able to dig up the area between the pillars."

"And we won't do it either. Those stone tiles are unbreakable, and they run deep. We will only waste time and energy." Sten had come up the stairs. The argument exploded once again as Andrew turned away and walked towards the east end of the hill.

They were on an odd hill with nine pillars standing on top. The ground between them covered with black tiles and slabs. An endless maze of lines and patterns covered the pillars and the flagstones. The rest was grass and cobble.

Towards the west end of the hill, there was a stairway leading down to a ruined town. It had been a while since anyone had lived there. Trees and grass occupied everything, vines covered the remnants of houses, and roots had turned stone into rubble. An ancient, dead settlement. The surrounding forest reclaiming what once had been its land to begin with.

All of this hid in the foothills of a large mountain range spanning the entire northern and eastern skyline. Downhill east, a river passed by the town. And somewhere up north you could hear a faint waterfall hidden in the hills.

Andrew turned his gaze back to the pillars. The evening he had woken up on the summit of this hill, segments of those pillars had been levitating, circling around the tiled plot with incredible speed.

It was an odd thing to describe, but they did not look built. Those pillars were large, both tall and wide. They stood as smooth and majestic as if they had come into existence only yesterday. Yet, the longer you looked at them, the more it convinced you they must have witnessed an eternity. One could tell without fail that someone had built the stairway on the opposite side of the hill long after. Its surfaces weathered and covered with moss.

Now, clouds of dust were falling from the tops of the pillars. On the other side of the hill, the argument between Lenna and Robert was still going on. Sten did the best he could to calm both of them down.

Another day wasted. Eleven days in total now, and each day was getting colder and colder. The leaves were still on the trees, but a lot of them were a shade of yellow.

Andrew faced the group of people and yelled over the commotion. "Does it even matter if it's a machine or some sort of arcane construct?" He wobbled his fingers for effect. "It's not working anymore. That redhead brat was the last one to come through. After her, it stopped working. It has been five days since. There's no point in trying to use something out of our reach."

They all stared at him with blank expressions.

"Let's go down to the house. The others are eating already." Sten sighed. The stocky man turned towards the stairs and Andrew walked after him, past Lenna and Robert.

There were eleven of them and they all shared a similar memory before waking up on this hill surrounded by those nine pillars. Busy with day-to-day chores or work, they had frozen on the spot, unable to move. This might have lasted for hours or days even. It was hard to remember.

But soon enough, something blocked their vision. Andrew recalled how tendrils of darkness crept closer and closer to him until he saw nothing at all. And before the darkness completely took him, he could feel the ground shake and hear it roar around them. Some, including Andrew, swore they saw glimpses of the world shattering into pieces.

Up to that point, everyone had shared the same experience, except Andrew. While the others recalled only a short darkness, he had been conscious for a longer time. After that harrowing experience, Andrew still could not move one muscle, and it felt as if someone had tied him down in the middle of a rapidly flowing river. He could feel the current passing around and through his body. Nothing to see, nothing to hear, only a flow remained. Was he moving, or was everything moving around him? How long did it last? Lifetimes or only a few moments?

Suddenly that flow washed him ashore. The sensation had been like jolting awake when you are close to sleep. As if falling back into your own body. Everything had been dark, yet he could see. A sphere of black cubes hung in the void. Around it were countless ribbons and strings.

Andrew had told no one about his experiences. It was frightening, and his memories of the experience were disjointed. Something else had happened in that dream, but thinking of it gave him small headaches and he could remember no longer.

The wind was picking up tonight. Thankfully, the group had found the remains of a house that provided enough shelter to keep a fire going. Everything else in this village was a pile of rotten wood and rubble by now. This was one of the few buildings of stone.

Most of the outer walls were there, and a tree next to a wall acted as a replacement for the missing roof. Even a heavily rusted metal door had survived and was somewhat usable. They had closed up the empty window frames with what they could, loose planks, branches, moss and even dirt. Inside, only a central fire pit was obvious. All inner walls had long disappeared and everyone slept side-to-side.

Other than Andrew, only two others did not have a friend here. An unconscious girl with red hair, the last among the eleven to arrive. And a woman named Mai, a teacher from the Far East, who had travelled abroad for some escapism. Her deep black hair and thin eyes gave her a strict appearance. So far, her attitude had been no different.

Two other groups of people had come through the gateway. There were Eric, Sten, Sarah, Jess and Kauri. All living Down Under on the east coast in a large metropolis. They all knew each other from university, the exception here being Sten, who was an acquaintance from Eric's workplace.

Finally, there were Lenna, Robert and Anna. Three acquaintances from a small country in Scandinavia. Andrew called them the hay pile in his mind because of their ashen blonde hair.

He had thought them to be relatives because of their near-indistinguishable looks. Anna had laughed at the question, while Lenna and Robert exchanged displeased looks. There seemed to be an awkward history between those two.

"We got chicken stew. It's delicious, so hurry or you're not getting any." Eric, a tanned, tall man with short brown hair and brown eyes called from the back of the room.

"More like water with bird meat in it. I still don't think it's a chicken. The things have teeth. It almost bit my finger off." Robert's attempts at humour were usually not well received, and Andrew did not have to wait long until Lenna opened her mouth.

"Do you ever not complain, Robert?" She barked. "At this point the alternative is rotten fruit. Or grass. It's the only edible thing left."

Every evening the same repertoire. Andrew was forced to listen to everyone argue. He was tired, and each day here seemed to last forever. Across the room, he saw Sten staring at him. He met the man's gaze and raised his eyebrows for a moment, but quickly looked away and tried to focus on his food.

However, he could still feel Sten's gaze on him. The man could be frightening. He was well built and fit, while Andrew was somewhat thin. It made him feel smaller than Sten, even though the man was shorter than Andrew.

"Right." With a jolt, Andrew met Sten's gaze. "Five days since it stopped working. How can you tell?"