"Journey"
Vignette: "Journey," originally written October 23, 2014.

Image: "Journey" by ShortCircuit123
The apprentice priestess stood before the earthen doorway, weary of the travel she'd completed already. The mountain temple of her sect was a blessed sight even from this distance, and its proximity renewed her weary body despite the kilometres of sickened soil which waited between her and her destination. The Poisoned Lands cast their perpetual shadow as far as her eyes could roam and she knew that crossing the distance on foot was all but suicide — the malignancy left in the ground from the ancients' wars would slowly leech the life from her flesh, ageing her rapidly before she could return to her people for a prayer of intervention. She'd watched others die of the same sickness — mostly hunters who had strayed too far from the village and being inadequately prepared for encounters with the tainted earth — and she had no desire to suffer that same fate.
The doorway before her could expedite her trip, and activating it was one of her last tests before she reached the temple itself. The doorway seemed simple enough — three pieces of stone almost too cold to touch with her bare fingers — but she knew that appearances were deceptive in this case. The structure was actually a Frame, one of many scattered artefacts from those old wars that survived more or less intact. Most of the Frames were inert and useless, but this one had been used for generations as part of her sect's initiation rituals.
Dropping her staff and simple shield on the ground beside her, she unslung her worn knapsack from over her shoulder and rummaged around until her fingers brushed against the object she was looking for. The young apprentice produced the token and examined it carefully in the palm of her hand. Like the Frame, this item was another relic of lost technology: teardrop-shaped and made of a stainless silver metal, the tiny device was a sensor that could be used to activate the dormant teleporter. Eons ago, she'd been taught, humans had these embedded into their hands to function as everything from keys to methods of currency. The idea seemed strange to her comprehension now, but she hoped it would serve its purpose even generations after its original owner had passed to dust.
The sensor worked on blood, and whether or not it and the Frame accepted her was her final challenge before gaining admittance to the temple and full rights as a priestess. This would be the last impediment ahead of her before she had access to the temple's medicines and could take them back to her older sister. Unsheathing her small hunting knife from its place beside her thigh, she whispered a silent prayer to the sixteen gods that the device would work as it needed to. She slashed quickly across her palm, creating a shallow wound that bled quickly. She squeezed the silver teardrop and stepped forward to the centre of the Frame, holding her bloodied arm up as she'd been instructed.
The apprentice squeezed her eyes closed and whispered a mantra to herself: "I am holy, I am pious, the blessings of the sixteen protect me." If the Frame did not accept her, she'd have to return to her village in shame. There'd be no progression for her, but more importantly no hope at all for her ailing sister. She could not fail here, not after travelling so far already.
As if the mechanical intelligence within the Frame heard her need and was moved by it, she heard an almost imperceptible crack of energy and threw her eyes open in excitement. A beam of energy spread downward from the top of the structure until it hit the soil beneath her feet. This beam split outward until it had filled the confines of the Frame itself. It looked to her very much like a window of sunlight, beckoning her to come forward.
She grabbed her belongings in a rush, heart beating stronger than she could ever remember it doing before in her life, and took a deep breath before stepping into the light. There was a sensation of falling and disorientation, but before it got worrying she realised she was someplace else entirely. A hundred smiling women stood in two rows on either side of her, looking down on her with grace and comfort.
"Blessed welcome to our newest sister — Elana," cried out one of the figures, her words wrapping themselves around the apprentice's body like an embrace.
"You’re safe now."
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