Out of the Woods (The Coalescence Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  At the same time, appearing in her bedchamber might be enough to have him arrested for real cause in her world. In the end he picked a half measure, so that he was near the chamber she was inside of, but on the other side of a large metal door. The thing was designed to lift upward, into the ceiling, but when he pounded on it, that part was clearly being done by hand. There seemed to be cranking going on, with a clockwork mechanism acting to cause a fairly smooth rise.

  After about fifteen seconds, it was open, and a rather medium sized lady smiled at him from the other side. She looked to be about thirty, had a slightly long face and showed a lot of gum when she regarded him. Her eyes were a blue-green color, and her hair a soft blonde that was so white it fooled him about her age for a few moments. When she spoke, her words were in clean, barely accented English. Meaning she sounded a lot like Lauren from the IPB. A person he hardly knew at all.

  Then, it was clearly her. A slightly shorter version, with a homelier face, but even that remained nice enough really. Instead of screaming for guards, or even yelling about being disturbed she spoke in a nice, even tone.

  “Hello! Sorry to be a pain here, but I wasn’t expecting anyone. Actually, how did you get in, if it’s all right to ask? You wouldn’t have been able to get past the blast doors of the mountain without using rather serious tools for the job. I know I didn’t open that at least.”

  Willum bowed a bit, then smiled himself.

  “Hi! Delivery for Cohort Sendra? From… Actually, he didn’t give me his name. It was in a different reality. I run messages from place to place. It’s a bit of a hobby project for me, so not everyone has to pay full price all the time. I… He’s probably something like Will or Bill? He was me, but looked like how I used to. At least under the disguise he had on?”

  The woman just looked at him funny, until he held out the thumb drive. She took that, but seemed almost as if the thing could be a trap. After a bit she took a step back inside her chamber. It looked nice, from what he could see through the door.

  “Come in? I should look at this. No need for you to wait out there in a boring corridor.”

  The words were fine on the outside, but he could tell from what she was thinking that the instant he went inside, she was slamming the door down into place. Just in case the man was a spy or something. Which he actually was, making it a great plan on her part. Instead of doing that, he just shook his head.

  “No, thank you. I get your whole trick with the door there. That’s kind of impressive, by the way, using gears and pullies for that. It’s really complex. Anyway, my portal is out here and I have to hold it open. I was warned that you liked to take prisoners for no reason, which I assume was your agent making sure that I’d be able to trust him later? That’s a good plan, if not really needed. I work for payment, not for anyone’s side in anything. Trust me, everyone, in every world so far, has wanted me to join their version of the most important quest, or battle or religious order. So far at least.” Will tried to seem charming, deflecting from the idea that there might be actual danger in the current situation.

  Instead of going for a weapon, the lady grinned at him. It was a lively thing, that seemed a bit goofy, to be honest. In a likeable fashion.

  “That sounds about right, doesn’t it? Well, I certainly do have one of those kinds of things going on, myself. We should get together some time and talk about it? Now, you take messages around? To anywhere in reality?”

  “Pretty much. There are limits, but if you know of people or beings there, I can reach it. The greater portion of reality is mainly blocked off to us, of course. There are just places we can’t understand, for instance, so going there wouldn’t work. Most of it we couldn’t survive at all… But that still leaves a near infinite number of places.”

  That, interestingly, got a nod.

  “That works then. I don’t suppose we can get on your mailing list or…” She smoothed the front of her shirt, which was a button up thing in green. It looked very military, even with her large bust underneath it. Which she was drawing his attention to in order to distract him. That didn’t work, but she kept doing it on purpose, so that his thoughts wouldn’t be as clear in regards to her.

  For his part he just nodded.

  “Sure? I can come by here, say once a month or so? That… I have another job, in a different world. A combination of guardsman work and entertainment baking. For a television program? I don’t know if you have that here. After all, I’ve seen a hallway and a door so far.”

  That got a laugh and the woman touched his arm, looking up slightly into his eyes.

  “That would be good. I don’t have anything to go right now. How much does the service cost for each message?”

  He thought about that, then shrugged. He didn’t really owe other him anything, and now that embarrassment had worn off, he was willing to speak about that kind of thing. The only issue was that this place might hold that kind of thing to be illegal or immoral. Then, literally anything could be.

  So he leapt right in.

  “About two thousand gold coins? One ounce apiece, per item. Except that I don’t need it really, so tend to take things in trade. Work, information, even sex. That was how your agent paid me. He didn’t have much else, and I figured that would at least be a novel experience. I’m… Not into men, as a rule. Don’t tell though, since I don’t want that other me to feel bad. He seemed a bit more into it than I was, to be honest.”

  The lady in front of him went a bit wide eyed and then chuckled.

  “Oooohhh. That’s some good dirt. Okay, we can work something out then? It’s remarkably hard to get messages to people at times. Packages are even harder. Most of our people have implants, you know about those?”

  He didn’t so shook his head a bit.

  Sendra just went on, as if he hadn’t acknowledged her at all.

  “Those let us pass very small amounts of data, very slowly. This little gem can hold ten thousand times more than that or more. It comes up that we might want that kind of thing. Anyway, so… Do I owe you my ass now?” She seemed pleasant enough about it, but it was kind of clear that if he tried to take her up on it, she was having him tossed in a jail cell for harassment.

  “Not at all. It was paid for on the sending end. Besides, that wasn’t what we did.” He didn't add anything more, but the woman seemed a little crestfallen. Which seemed to have to do with his not taking her bait, more than anything else.

  “All right, I suppose. Well, see you in about a month or so? Don’t forget us. We’ll make it worth your while.”

  “See you then. Nice meeting you!”

  It was all he could do to calmly move to the portal in order to leave. Not because the woman seemed evil, since she really didn’t, apart from trying to come up with a reason to have him arrested. It was just that the longer he was there, the more likely it would be that he made some kind of mistake that was going to cause problems. He smiled, politely, getting one in return, just before he stepped into the node that he’d been holding open.

  Not that it was really one of those, since he had to constantly keep part of his being focused on it so that it wouldn’t vanish on him. If it did, then he’d be off to search for a real weak spot, rift or node in order to get back home. Worse, being distracted, he nearly left his box of communications devices behind.

  That would be a waste, since it would work much better for them to set that up for the enemy on their own terms, later. So that their communications would be under the control of him. Or, more likely, his Tim Baker.

  According to his time piece he had about eight hours left, so he headed first to see May, who passed twenty-seven letters and packages to him. It took four hours, according to his little blue clock. After that he just went around to nearly everyone he knew that might have something for him, ending up at Count Lairdgren’s school office, only to find that the man wasn’t there at all. Instead, when he located the man, and walked out of the portal he was holding open, they were in a very fine room t
hat had rich red carpets and several fine chairs in it.

  Also, right there, was Prince Alphonse and another man who was, he realized, probably King Richard. He looked like the pictures, if a bit younger. That would be down to the immortality that Timon had come and given him, no doubt.

  Before he could apologize for just walking out of space like he had, several things happened. The first was that he was hit by not one, but three arrows. They were short, from the one he got a good look at, so probably came from a crossbow. He wasn’t really familiar with that kind of thing, since they weren’t used for hunting in Pine Creek. Bows were, however. When his shield kicked in, preventing him from dying, four people rushed into the room, and attempted to grapple him to the ground.

  It wasn’t hard to just keep moving out of their way, though they did work as a team very nicely, trying to gain a hold on him. They were in black and purple, which probably meant Royal Guards. After a moment he waved to Count Lairdgren.

  “Sorry about this! I was just trying to find you, to see if there were any messages that needed to go to other realities or worlds?”

  The men and women trying to carry him to the floor didn't stop in their task, managing to upset him then, cleverly toppling him to the ground by bending him backwards. He just went, even if it were clear that all he had to do was fly through a wall or two in order to shake them off. Given that they didn’t seem to have good shields on that might well kill them, so he tried to simply smile, even if no one could see him from the bottom of the heap. At the same time Will worked to notice how they were manipulating his shield as well as they were. He could have simply stood up, using his full strength and speed, but it was fascinating once he realized how skillful they were being at the moment. If he didn’t have powers that kind of thing wouldn’t have worked for him at all.

  Interestingly, Prince Alphonse spoke first.

  “Ah! Countier Lairdgren? Father, you remember, we were told that he was learning to travel between worlds, so that he could pass messages for us?”

  The king clapped his hands then, three times.

  “I do remember that, now that it’s being mentioned. I suppose that you might let him go, in that case? A bit abrupt, walking out of nowhere like that. Perhaps you could come to the front gate, next time? I’m sure it would make the guard feel happier about their duty?”

  Will made an effort to hold his smile. After all, he wasn’t even being scolded for his mistake at the moment.

  “I’ll try to do that, Sire. I was just focused on finding the Count here, so came directly to him. I… Would it be all right for me to stand up now? Or… I can just lay here. Whichever works for your friends.”

  The very, very tall man nodded then, which was visible from the floor as one of the Guard tried to lay over his face.

  “I think we can allow that. Gently however? No need to harm anyone, after all.”

  Willum just stood up then, using his shield flight ability to stabilize himself, so that he wasn’t knocked down again. Not that it wasn’t tried. In fact, one of the women in black and purple growled at him.

  “That’s hardly fair. There are four of us, so we should be winning, even if you have a shield on.”

  He nodded then.

  “You’re doing marvelously, to be honest. I’m using my shield’s flight ability to do this, but if I hadn’t thought of it, then I’d be down again.” His strength was enough that they probably couldn’t hold him down, but without an extra tool or two, they might just keep taking him to the floor.

  They were waved away before they figured out a way around his trick. He didn’t doubt that they were eventually going to find one. He could feel their brains already working. Will was a bit proud of the fact, but even while being attacked he hadn’t let go of the portal he was holding open. Not that he could afford to become complacent about things.

  Clearly, everything he did, including finding a person he knew, might have some dangers attached to it. In the last hours it had happened twice, after all. If he counted ending up in his Aunt’s bedchamber while she was sleeping as a danger. It hadn’t been, not in any realistic kind of fashion, but he could see that one having gone very differently if it had been someone else. Sneaking up like that on Ms. Turner would have had him solidly attacked, he didn’t doubt.

  His shield was powerful, but he wasn’t certain it could take the kind of force that the woman would be able to bring to bear that way. Not for long. True, he had some physical abilities that would let him possibly survive that kind of thing, but he knew, deep down that going through that over something as trivial as him having poor timing or not understanding the location wasn’t the most brilliant thing ever.

  As he considered all of this, Prince Alphonse stood, his face peaceful, even as he was getting ready for Will to explode at them over the attack. Even if it had been his own fault. Instead, as soon as the men and women backed away a bit, he simply bowed, going low and holding it.

  “I apologize for my poor entry. It was a mistake, not meant to make your lives more difficult. I thank you for the instruction and shall truly endeavor not to make such an error again.” No one said anything, meaning that, by all the noble rules that he’d been taught as a school boy, he was supposed to begin listing his faults that might have led to the current situation. That was, once he started, actually decently long.

  “The truth is that I don’t know my task well enough, just being a beginner. Also, I was over ambitious, seeking to use my new skills to find the Count, instead of leaving a message at his office. Worse, I should have worked out roughly where he was and come in from a distance, to prevent this kind of thing from happening. At the point of my… Correction, I should have announced more firmly that I meant no harm. It was my own vanity that caused me to treat you all so casually, which was a poor plan. I truly hope that you do not take insult from it.”

  He wept then, meaning it. That surprised him, but large, fat tears flooded his cheeks, as he stood there, bent over, as everyone just stared at him for a while. Finally, one of the women sniffed at him, even though she was hiding a smile. She did it though, managing to sound haughty, instead of like he was being hilarious to her somehow.

  “Well, as long as you have a plan, we can forgive you. This time.” Then, carefully, she moved in to aid him in standing. It was what you did when you forgave someone. The other Royal Guards there just nodded, then, slowly and as a group, moved back into the walls. They didn’t leave or anything, in case Will was a real threat. Interestingly, Alphonse nodded several times at him, a sense of relief flooding every part of his being.

  “That was well done. Most would have stood on their obvious power in a case like this, instead of apologizing for making others do their job. That would be a mistake, but few nobles would have realized it in time.” There was a very small, seated bow for him then. “Now, I heard that you were away for a time? Living in a different world? What is that like?”

  He was just honest about the whole thing.

  “Confusing, as often as not. The people there are good hearted, but very different than we are as a group. Many of them are as powerful, or even more, than the strongest of our fighters and wizards, but those with power live most often in the service of others. It isn’t an easy time for them, from what I can tell.” Then he went over the people, using their names, as well as the customs there which were different.

  Alphonse smiled when he was finished.

  “Amazing. You say that you plan to bring one of them back with you soon? Olga, was it? She sounds fascinating. Perhaps we could have her in for a small meal here? You could bring a few others, if you wish?”

  Willum hadn’t thought about that kind of thing, but nodded after a moment.

  “That would be wonderful, actually. Especially if you can speak English? I can also try to teach them Standard, but that might not go over that well. They don’t have it there, for instance.”

  The Prince nodded then, his face lighting up.

  “That will work
. When should we expect them?”

  “Oh, not for some weeks. Possibly longer. Time just runs faster here. So if I’m gone for a day there, it’s eight here. About that. There are things, duties, happening there at the moment. Really, I need to get back there as soon as possible, if there are no messages to go out from here first?” He glanced at the king, who shook his head, but then the others, as well, finally turning toward the wall and looking at it, in case the people inside needed anything.

  That got a chuckle, from Prince Alphonse.

  No one had anything, however. The raw truth of the whole matter was that most of them didn’t actually have a lot of friends in other realities waiting to chat with them. Nothing against those far away people, but by definition, they were far away. Standing, the box following him still, looking a bit like a pine case that was just bobbing along as he moved. This time he bowed to everyone before leaving, getting one back from everyone, including the king.

  According to his fancy pocket clock, the one that Mr. Yi had lent him, Will had several hours left before he was late. Which meant that, as he should have suspected, everyone was running around, with it being nine in the morning, even though he’d left at before eight the night before.

  He jogged anyway, to find Ms. Turner in front of the command building, standing outside, talking to Sendra and Sara. Except that, thankfully, Will knew that one, having seen the woman with the girl before. They stopped talking as he walked up, the girl smiling at him at least.

  They were all dressed up in tan IPB uniforms. Which meant he needed to do that as well, instead of dressing in fancy black silk like he was. When his clothing shifted Sara clapped for him.

  “That’s neat. Can I do that?” She made a face then, her eyes going half closed as she thought about things. A bit of a tickle came over him as she read him, trying to figure out how he’d done the trick.