Agent of the Realm?

by Andur

“You!” Erez raises his hand, but I am faster. While he tries to go for an exaggerated strike, I simply knee him in the belly and catch his head between my hands. One moment later, a hollow ‘thud’ echoes down the hallway.

  Then Erez slowly sinks to his knees and lolls against the door to my room, unconscious. The wooden door has a little dent. That’s all the damage I caused by slamming his head into the door.

  I wonder why it sounded so hollow? Was it the door? Or is his head as empty as it seems to be?

  “Erez!” Mishra jumps forward and exchanges a short series of blows with me, releasing his aura. But it’s clearly not as strong as mine. Yet. I suppose that Mishra could get much stronger with a few more years under his belt.

  Releasing my own aura, I catch his hand and twist. For a moment he resists me. Then I overpower him and sneak an arm around his neck. He tries to pry my hands away, but I have a good headlock on him. We wriggle against each other as I try to choke him to unconsciousness.

  It's when his face turned a nice shade of blue, that someone taps onto my shoulder. I am so surprised that I turn around, forcing Mishra to follow the movement.

  Elona crosses her arms in front of her chest and raises an eyebrow. Her eyes wander from Mishra to Erez, who is still sunken against the door of my room, a small trail of blood marking the path which his forehead took. “I see that you are already getting acquainted with the rest of the family. I wondered what the ruckus was about, so I came to investigate.”

  I drop Mishra and straighten myself. “I am sorry, but...” How exactly do I explain this?

  Elona waves her hand smiles. “Don’t worry. They deserve to be reprimanded. I’ll never understand how the two of them ended up like this. I think it hurts their egos that their big sister is and always will be the stronger one.” She gestures with her hand to follow her, not sparing a second glance for her two sons.

  I look down at Mishra who is on his back and gasping for air. All of a sudden I feel sorry for the two of them. No wonder that they turned out like this. I suppose that Seria and Elona are shattering their self confidence on a daily basis. “Sorry,” I voice soundlessly at Mishra and for some reason he nods.

  Upon catching up to Elona, I try to redeem myself. “I am really sorry. I know that I shouldn’t have let it go out of hand like that, since I am obviously the stronger one.”

  She makes a dismissive gesture. “Don’t worry. Seria likes you, so you would have had to give them a beating sooner or later. The two of them are too much like gang-members in that aspect. Besides, I have something for you.” Elona holds out a hand with two items on it.

  A ring and an amulet. I furrow my forehead in confusion and take them from her.

  She smiles and urges me to put them on. “Go on. I am sure that you will like them. It’s something that all members of the family have.” She raises her hand and shows me her own ring and the amulet on her neck.

  Without a real reason to refuse, I follow the order. Seria gave me a very detailed report of what to look out for when dealing with her family. She didn’t mention anything about a ring or an amulet.

  Elona’s expression turns from friendly, to smug and satisfied when I put on the ring.

  “Aaaaah!”

  A scream from the end of the hallway draws my attention and I turn to find Seria standing there, pointing an accusing finger at her mother.

  39. ~Much to do.~

  “The mythology of spirit doubles can be traced back thousands of years and was present in many cultures of the past, holding a prominent place in ancient legends, stories, artworks, and in books by various authors. Perhaps the most well-known reference to spirit doubles or ‘alter egos’ is the doppelgänger, a word still used today to refer to a person that is physically or behaviourally similar to another person. Doppelgänger is a German word meaning “double goer”

  The Journey to the Afterlife

  Dedessia

  Seria

  I feel the soul-link snapping into place and for a moment the world tilts a little. Fighting the strange feeling by pure force of will, I stay on my feet and use the wall to steady myself. Then I stomp down the hallway, glaring at my mother, silently cursing her for her tricks and for meddling in my affairs. Who told her to interfere in my relationship with Marcus?

  Upon reaching my lover, I grab his hand and try to pull the ring from his finger. No luck. The little piece of metal is stuck there, just like my own.

  When I woke up this morning, I didn't realize that someone had been in my room while I slept. The slightly shifted curtains should have alerted me that someone sneaked into the room, but I simply wasn't paying attention.

  Maybe it was the wound, or the curse, though that doesn't matter any more. I slept the sleep of the dead, not waking up, even when my mother slipped the ring onto my finger.

  When I woke up, I staggered into the bathroom, still half asleep. When I stood in front of the mirror and brushed my teeth, I noticed the shining piece of metal for the first time.

  Of course I immediately recognized it and hurried to warn Marcus. Obviously I was too late.

  “Is something wrong, Seria? Your mother said that all members of the family are wearing something like this,” Marcus asks. There is doubt in his voice and he is definitely smelling that something is fishy about what just happened.

  I scowl. “Yes. Literally! That's definitely the case. Didn't I tell you to be extremely careful with my parents?”

  Elona clasps her hands in front of her chest and smiles at us, a single tear running down her cheek. “Finally! I never would have thought that I would be able to witness the moment when my daughter finally finds her significant other.”

  I glare at her. “How could you put something like this on me? Without even asking! Didn't you learn by experience how dangerous soul magic is when it comes to bonds like this!” I raise Marcus's hand and point at the simple, golden ring. Then I shove my own matching piece at her face.

  She puffs up her cheeks, but it's more an expression of annoyance than guilt. “The two of you are looking so good together. And you said yourself that you like him. That's enough for me. Years and years of watching you meddling with others, just because you have nobody to entertain you. Now that problem is solved, even if he dies.” She smiles.

  Marcus freezes. As do I. Together, we stare at my mother. At first I thought that this ring is just a regular wedding bond, just like the one my Mom and Dad have. But this seems to be much, much worse.

  “What have you done?” Marcus asks with a weary voice.

  Elona shrugs. “I asked Shade to forge a special item for the two of you. It's the first time in millennia that Seria brought home a guy and admitted that she loves him. I think that only happened one other time... back then you got cosy with the son of our enemy. But ever since then you never were really in love with anyone. Isn’t it lucky that you two ran into each other again? After such a long time?

  “I just thought that it would be awful if Seria would lose the only person who works with her type. So while Marcus and you wear that ring, he will slowly be forged into our soulbond. Just a little at a time. It won't be a traumatic experience like it happened with the three of us. Aren't you glad that you finally aren't the eternal third wheel any more? Happy marriage!”

  I feel my face reddening and anger bubbling up inside me. This meddlesome, self-righteous, egocentric-

  But Marcus doesn't give me a chance to lash out at my mother. Instead, he smiles as if this is the best present he ever got. He bends down, hugs me at my waist and lifts me into the air. “That means that we will be together! And to think that it was you all along!”

  Holding onto his shoulders, I try to steady myself. “What do you mean, it was me?” As soon as the words are out of my mouth I finally realize what my mother just said.

  “I haven't thought about her for an eternity! But the name! You are actually her, aren't you? We've already met in another life!” He whirls me around like on a carousel and I let myself melt into
his arms.

  The multiverse is really starting to annoy me. How can I be angry at my mother when it's actually fate that I should be cursing at. “You are Nathan?” Thinking back, I remember that one life when I actually pro-actively pursued a relationship! When I hit it off with a boy who turned out to be the son of my father's arch-enemy.

  “And you are Sariel! We weren't gods back then, but I still should have remembered! To find you again! That was the best lifetime I remember!” He crushes me against him as if I am some long lost pet.

  My mother wrinkles her nose in disbelief. “You mean that the two of you found out just now!? I thought you already know that you already met. It’s so obvious. How long did you dabble around each other without realizing?”

  “You knew!?” Both of us ask in unison.

  She nods. “Of course. It took me a while to put everything together. The way you move and look at each other. I thought about it yesterday while we were on the staircase. All the way down to Shade's laboratory. And once we were there, I asked him via mind-link if he recognized your soul. Why do you two think that he agreed so readily to your relationship? Anyone else would have been at least taken apart and reassembled to find out if he poses any threat.”

  I sigh and touch my forehead to distract myself from the developing, throbbing pain. “I think I am getting a migraine. A big and ugly one!”

  Elona shakes her head. “You can't. We still have to visit Shade in his torture-chamber. He interrogated your prisoner all night long and this morning he was really excited about something. It must be big news because he didn't even eat the whole chocolate bar up until now. He is just nibbling at it, one lick at a time.”

  I frown, wondering myself what could be interesting enough to stop Dad from devouring all the chocolate in one, big bite. “Zhon didn't strike me as someone who is in on big secrets. Of course, he must know some interesting things since he was obviously plotting against Newerth. Though is that interesting enough to hold Dad's attention? Is he really that obsessed about finding Moonray?”

  Mother shakes her head and gestures for us to step closer. “There is no point in speculations if we can find out. Come closer. I'll teleport us right there.”

  Marcus puts me on the ground and we step closer. Elona's skirt starts moving as she transforms it back to her wings. Then she encloses all of us and one moment later the scenery changes, without so much as a hitch. Elona transforms her wings back into a seamless skirt.

  “That's a really neat teleportation spell. I didn't feel that spacetime was affected at all. Would you care to let us in on the secret?” Marcus asks with an impressed tone.

  Elona looks at him for a moment, as if judging on whether she should share the skill. Then she shrugs. “Whatever, it's not like the two of you could replicate it even if you know the technique. I used my wings to spin a thin bubble of mana around us. Then I applied the same process which I use to flash step in rapid succession to all three of us, moving us down the hallway, down the stairs, and so forth. Until we arrived here.” She gestures at the room.

  I feel my own eyes widening in surprise. I’ve never thought about chaining several flash steps together to overcome the limitations of the technique, much less taking two people with me while doing so. Oh, yes. I can carry someone and flash step with him. But that’s a rough endeavour.

  Marcus whistles. “I really have to learn this skill. Especially because Seria is always using it to run away. But I guess that we should first deal with our original goal.”

  40. ~Results.~

  “The mirror universe is a parallel universe where the patterns of events move in similar manners to that of the primary universe, but the intentions and characterizations are different, often showing "evil" characteristics in place of "good" and vice versa. The mirror universe shares a similar history to that of the primary universe and many of the same people exist in this reality, but they and the galaxy they live in are skewed versions of their "normal" counterparts.”

  The Journey to the Afterlife

  Dedessia

  Marcus

  Elona took us to a mostly white room. There is a chair in the centre, with Zhon chained to it. The former advisor doesn’t look as bad as I expected. There is just one, ugly wound on his forehead. Otherwise he looks to be in a better shape than before. Someone must have healed him to keep him alive. Shade is looming over the traitor, a scissor in his left hand and a voice recorder in the other. He even went through the trouble to put on a doctor's attire.

  The white robe is sprinkled with blood, which makes clear who exactly is responsible for the ugly wound on Zhon’s forehead. The entire setup is good reason to associate the king of Dedessia with a mad scientist who is just about to start a new experiment. A human one.

  “Oh, I thought you were already done?” Elona points at the prisoner who is strapped down so tightly that he can't even move his head. Shade used ducked tape to strap down Zhon's forehead and chest. The arms and legs are held by strong crystal handcuffs.

  Shade scratches the stubbles of his unshaven face with the scissors, regarding Zhon as if he is a very unusual specimen. “Yes, I didn't have much reason to hurt him. Sadly. He was very cooperative from the moment I woke him up by removing Seria's rune.” The king gestures at the bloody, fleshy mess which is left of Zhon's forehead. Just like Seria said, the king didn't have any qualms about partly skinning the guy. I can't help but wince. Such a wound must hurt like hell. The bone is visible where Shade cut a little deeper than necessary.

  “I would never defy the great one, never! Believe me! I didn't know that they were working for the great one...” Zhon starts babbling nonsense, but shuts up when Shade puts a finger on his lips, silencing the man with a simple gesture.

  Then the king turns to face us. “I've taken my time, listening to Zhon's story. How he was trained in his realm as an agent, how he went to Newerth in order to prepare the realm for the taking. He spent years as an undercover agent to worm his way into the realm's government. The ones who he is working for are very patient people and plan their invasions over the course of generations.

  “First, they invade a realm with their spirits, using them to soften their enemies up. When the natives think that the spirits are nothing more than animals, or a force of nature, the agents are sent in. They undermine the government and ensure that all the military force of a realm is concentrated in one place. Then they go in with their main battle force and wipe out the army, together with assassination attacks to take down the government.”

  “Once that’s done, they use the power vacuum to establish a bridgehead and continue from there.” Shade tilts his head as if he is regarding a spot on the ceiling. “It's actually surprising that their strategy works so well. According to Zhon, the spirits have already taken several dimensions. Or at least established secured bridgeheads.”

  After a short silence, Shade shrugs. “Whatever. That's all besides the point. What's really interesting is that Zhon thinks that he knows me. And he is so sure of it that he even calls me master. Apparently this so called spirit realm isn't just another dimension of the multiverse, but a whole new multiverse which is running parallel to ours.”

  The king's expression brightens and he grins at all of us. “And apparently there is a copy of myself there, who is the leader and has taken over everything. He is ruling with an iron fist of terror by using the spirits as his personal army of mindless drones. His subjects have to call him the great one and since his multiverse seems to have links to ours, he is now trying to take over this multiverse too!”

  I wet my lips and try to wrap my mind around this outrageous story. “That somehow doesn't fit together with what I know about dimensional physics. Of course I know the concept of parallel universes, where the same person can exist in each of them, but makes different decisions. I thought the multiverse itself has proven that each person exists only once, since there is only one soul. Parallel universes are just a fiction.”

  Shade lifts a finger.
“Yes! That's all true according to everything we knew up until now. But we can't close our eyes in front of the facts! This multiverse is vastly different from the previous one. There were no mana storms, no endless, strange planes without planets. Those are all new and unexplained phenomena. Why should a new multiverse work so differently from the old one? Why did the old one end in the first place? It bugged me all along, but this is the explanation.

  “So far I've thought that the mana storms are caused by the convergence of two dimensions inside our own multiverse. But why should that be? It would mean that our own multiverse is unstable. If that's the case, then why does it exist in the first place?

  A second multiverse would explain everything! The mana storms are caused by another multiverse which is currently colliding with ours. And that also allows for our souls to exist twice. The two multiverses are currently trying to wipe each other out, which results in the storms. They are areas in which they are colliding. I was wrong when I thought that two dimensions of our own multiverse are intersecting. The math never added up when I tried to prove it mathematically. But a second multiverse would solve the problems quite nicely.” Shade spreads his hands in a grand gesture. “Of course we still have to prove it by comparing the same soul from each of the two multiverses.... hmm... that sounds wrong, but you know what I mean.”

  Elona points at Zhon. “But does that mean that he is from a mirror multiverse? One where we are evil!?”

  “Shouldn't you two be good persons in a mirror universe?” I mutter, realizing too late that I spoke out loud. Luckily the two of them don't pay attention to me. Seria cuffs me in my side nonetheless to shut me up.

  Shade shakes his head. “A mirror universe would mean that everything is reversed, but that's not the case here. In this case it's simply a universe in which our alter egos took slightly different decisions. Though I don't understand how the other me managed to utilize the spirits as weapons. And even less how Moonray got to work for him. There is still the point about that slaver. Or could he be another mirror person? No, that would be too much of a coincidence.”