“The news about Anja is disturbing,” Balthazar said. “Protect her well; your life may depend upon it.”
“I know,” Alexander said. “Bragador seemed willing to accept her daughter’s decision for now, but I doubt she would forgive me if Anja got hurt.”
“Your magic seems to be progressing rapidly,” Constantine said, “especially given your experience with Siduri.”
“I agree. My ability to see coming threats has proven to be reliable and it’s dramatically improved my abilities in a fight. My all around sight continues to gain in range, though I still can’t see as far as my eyes could. My illusion magic is becoming easier and more versatile, though I still have to be meditating to use it.
“My most important questions center around Siduri.”
“Understandably so,” Balthazar said. “Are you certain that you transitioned physically into the firmament?”
All of the sovereigns leaned in with interest.
“Yes, absolutely. I was on the ground choking to death and then I found myself in the firmament. When I returned, I was standing in the cage and the slave collar was lying on the floor. Later, the Babachenko revealed that he has magic capable of showing all that has transpired in a given space over previous hours or days. His spell showed me locked in my cage, lying on the floor one moment, then simply gone the next, only to reappear standing up several minutes later.”
“Remarkable,” Dominic said.
“Indeed,” Balthazar said. “While in the firmament, what was your sense of it? How was it different than your usual experience?”
“Usually, I feel like I’m floating on an ocean, at the surface. I can focus my attention on any point in the world or I can spread out across the entire surface and listen to the music of creation, but this time, it felt like I was drowning in the ocean, like my consciousness was scattered and I couldn’t get it back. I’ve been scattered before by Phane and by the wards around the fortress islands, but I was always able to reassemble my consciousness. This time, it felt like I was slipping away-dying. Then I thought of Siduri and I was there with him in a constructed world of his making.”
The sovereigns shared looks across the table.
“Lies,” Malachi said, sitting back with a scowl. “None of that’s possible.”
Alexander ignored him.
“There is great risk in what I’m about to suggest,” Balthazar said, “but I see no other way to pursue this capability.”
Alexander nodded.
“I suggest that you project your mind into the firmament and then deliberately cause it to be scattered, but don’t reassemble it immediately. Allow yourself to reach that place where you feel like you’re fading away, and then think of Siduri.
“If you can place your mind into the same state as it was in while you were physically within the firmament, then you may be able to reach out to the first adept at will.”
Alexander felt a little thrill of fear. He had always felt panic and desperation when he’d been scattered into the firmament. Every time, it had been a mad struggle to reassemble his consciousness. Letting himself go-letting himself cease to be-allowing his unique identity to melt into the firmament was a daunting prospect.
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“You may die,” Balthazar said.
“I see. Are there any other suggestions for how I can pursue this new capability?”
“You could always kill yourself,” Malachi said with a malicious smile. “After all, that’s what it took to make it happen the first time.”
Alexander glared at him.
“Perhaps that’s not an entirely meritless suggestion,” Darius said.
“Yes, my son may have inadvertently offered something of value,” Demetrius said.
“How do you mean?”
“Your life was being threatened very slowly when you transitioned into the firmament,” Demetrius said. “If you were able to re-create such an experience in a controlled environment, you may replicate the event, though I would be concerned about exiting the firmament given that you required Siduri’s assistance the first time.”
“That seems a bit extreme.”
Malachi snorted derisively. “That’s why you’ll lose.”
“I would recommend that you pursue the first avenue and seek out Siduri’s assistance in the matter,” Balthazar said. “He may be the only one who can help you learn to control this ability.”
“He seemed reluctant to help me.”
“Then you must be persuasive,” Balthazar said. “From your account, this Siduri has a conscience. He feels guilt and remorse for the damage that he’s caused the world. He wants his children to be redeemed. Use these desires to help him see his only true path to redemption.”
“He’s afraid, and I don’t blame him. I’m not sure that anything can overcome that.”
Balthazar shrugged helplessly.
“Perhaps this constructed world of his deserves some attention,” Darius said.
“How so?” Balthazar asked.
“I would be interested to know how real this construct actually is,” Darius said.
“It felt as real as the world of time and substance.”
“More to the point, how detailed is his re-creation? How faithfully has he rebuilt the world?”
“Ahh …” Balthazar said, realization lighting up his face. “A proxy world.”
“If it’s actually a creation rather than an illusion, the implications are staggering,” Darius said.
“I don’t understand,” Alexander said.
“Of course you don’t,” Malachi scoffed.
“It may be that Siduri has in fact created another world,” Darius said, “a world where he can do and be as he wills because it is entirely his creation.”
“That may explain how he was able to travel into the netherworld in the first place,” Balthazar said. “Theoretically, in a world that was his creation, he could simply step into the aether and then open a portal to the netherworld, provided the assumption is correct, that he has omnipotence within his creation.”
“Did you see any limitations to the environment while you were there?” Darius asked.
“Not that I recall,” Alexander said, “but I had other things on my mind at the time.”
“Understandable,” Darius said. “I suspect that you would find a less than complete world if you did some exploring within his construct.”
Alexander nodded to himself, thinking about his magic. He’d reached a point where further advancement required him to take real risks, yet the potential gains could easily prove to be the decisive factor in the entire war. He had no choice but to make the attempt, even though the idea of becoming lost in the firmament was terrifying.
“Thank you,” he said as he stood up. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.”
“One other thing,” Balthazar said. “Luminessence may have the power to destroy the Nether Gate, though I believe it would destroy the staff in the process.”
Alexander sat back down.
“If the staff were thrust into the portal while it was open, I believe that both items would be destroyed. Light and dark cannot coexist in the same place at the same time … the rules of reality won’t allow it.”
“Huh … that is good news.”
He walked away from the table and opened his eyes to find Lita sitting nearby, waiting for him to return. She cast her healing spell on his leg again, putting him into a deep sleep for another six hours. When he woke, he felt good enough to get out of bed, provided he had his cane. He frowned when he realized how familiar it felt in his hand. He’d spent much of his time on the dragon isle leaning on his cane; now he needed it again, though he suspected his leg would be much better by the following morning. Lita’s healing magic wasn’t fast, but it did work.
He went to his magic circle and sat down with some effort, crossing his legs gingerly and grimacing at the pain.
Jack frowned questioningly. “I thought the door had to be
open for you to go anywhere.”
Alexander paused, weighing how much he wanted to tell his friends, knowing that they would object if they had any idea what he was considering, but deciding that they deserved to know.
“I had a new magical experience when I was a prisoner. The Babachenko poisoned me with a venom that caused extreme pain, so much pain that I began to lose my grip on reality and started involuntarily slipping into the firmament. But when I did, the collar would start choking me, bringing me back, only to slip away again, until I thought I was dying. Then something unexpected happened. I found myself in the firmament-physically.”
Jataan’s eyes went a little wide. Lita gasped. Chloe spun into existence, then disappeared again.
“The Babachenko confirmed it for me with one of his divination spells. I actually vanished from the world of time and substance for several minutes, leaving my slave collar behind, and then reappeared back in my cell.
“The sovereigns have suggested some exercises to help me better understand what happened and learn to control it … but they’re dangerous.”
“How so, Lord Reishi?” Jataan asked.
“The first involves me deliberately scattering my mind into the firmament.”
“You’ll die,” Lita said.
“That is my understanding as well, Lord Reishi,” Jataan said. “I urge you to reconsider.”
“Just out of curiosity,” Jack said, “what happened while you were in the firmament?”
Everyone looked at the bard.
He shrugged. “Alexander wouldn’t be considering this unless he had good reason, and I suspect that his experience in the firmament has something to do with that.”
Alexander nodded, quietly grateful to Jack for giving him an opportunity to introduce Siduri and explain his part in the history of the world without revealing the existence of the blood of the earth. He felt a nagging sense of guilt about misleading his friends and a squirming sort of frustration in his belly at having to remember the lies he’d told so far just so he could keep them straight. How deceivers went through life telling one lie after the next without their guts constantly being tied in a knot was a mystery to him.
“I met someone there.”
“In the firmament?” Jack asked.
“Yes,” Alexander said.
He spent nearly an hour explaining everything he could about Siduri, his history and the nature of his power, while carefully omitting any reference to the blood of the earth. His friends sat silently, listening with rapt attention to his account. Even Jack was at a loss for words when he finished.
“I need Siduri’s help to master this new talent and the only way I know to reach him is to get lost in the firmament.”
“What if you can’t get back?” Jack asked.
Alexander shrugged.
“You’ll die, that’s what,” Anja said. “And with us trapped in here.”
“You do have a point there,” Alexander said. “Honestly, I wouldn’t know how to scatter my mind into the firmament anyway. I think I’ll need the help of the fortress island wards to do that and I can’t get there with the door closed.”
“So what’s your plan then?” Jack asked.
“Actually, I’m not quite sure. My relationship with the firmament seems to be changing and I want to explore that a bit.”
He closed his eyes and quieted his mind. He could see the worry on his friends faces and in their colors before he slipped into the firmament. Rather than try to go anywhere or see anything, he chose to delve into the depths of the firmament itself. It was a struggle at first, his mind resisting, hints of panic dancing on the edge of his awareness, yet he pressed on, willing himself deeper into the ocean of creation, beneath the surface where reality happened.
The deeper he went, the quieter it got, the song of creation fading away and leaving only stillness and solitude. As he pushed further, he began to slough off many of his worldly concerns, his cares and worries becoming trivial and ephemeral in the face of such vast, untapped creative potential. Piece by piece, Alexander lost himself in the firmament, until there was nothing left but the witness, detached and unconcerned, aloof, yet fully aware.
There he found a kind of duality. A sense of immense isolation permeated his being, offering sensations of peace and belonging so fulfilling that he couldn’t imagine ever letting them go, while at the same time he felt a profound connection to all life everywhere, a kinship like nothing he’d ever felt before, a oneness that subtly shifted his understanding of reality.
In that place of deep quiet, Alexander was content to rest, floating serenely. Time and substance were no longer his concern. They’d become abstract concepts in the face of the void, the quiet emptiness from which all things of substance were born and to which all things of substance would return. In that place, seeing reality as a whole, his worldly concerns seemed like distant dreams, fleeting and illusory.
He had found peace.
But then the peace was interrupted by a faint cry for help. Distant, yet insistent, a voice that should have been familiar called out for his help. Like remembrance of a dream, the source of the voice came to him: it was Chloe. As if a scrap of his personality snapped into place, he remembered who she was and what she meant to him.
He heard her again, farther away, an edge of panic and despair in her tiny voice. She was in trouble. Another fragment of his psyche returned to him. She needed his help.
With an act of will, he reassembled his essential being, transforming from the detached witness back into himself in an instant, willing himself toward the surface of the firmament, casting his awareness across the whole of creation and finding Chloe in a construct of her own making, oblivious to the plight of the world, lost in a fantasy that looked exactly like the Valley of the Fairy Queen.
“Short people aren’t supposed to be here,” she said chidingly, when Alexander appeared before her.
“Chloe, it’s me, Alexander.”
“That’s a good name, but you’re still not supposed to be here. The way out is that way.” She spun into a ball of light and vanished, giggling.
Realization of what was happening slammed into him and he snapped back to his own body, severing his connection with the firmament immediately, and by extension, cutting Chloe off from it as well.
He opened his eyes and found himself slumped over in his circle, pillows propping him up so he wouldn’t fall off the low table that the circle was set into. Jack and Anja were pacing, Lita was sitting nearby, and Jataan stood against the wall with his hands clasped behind his back, worry etched into his swarthy face. Chloe lay unconscious just inside the circle on a little pillow.
Alexander was suddenly overwhelmed with a sensation of thirst followed by hunger. When he stirred, everyone in the room came rushing to his side. Chloe woke a moment later, buzzing into the air, spinning into a ball of light, buzzing higher and higher with each spin until she was at the ceiling.
“He’s back!” she shouted.
Alexander tried to speak, but his throat was so dry he started coughing, a rough, dry, sharp cough that felt like he’d swallowed broken glass. Lita gently brought a cup of water to his lips. He seized it, gulping it down as quickly as he could, spitting most of it right back up in a spasm of coughing and wheezing.
Jack handed Lita another cup of water.
“Slowly,” she said, holding it up to him.
Alexander had to make an effort to sip the water. Every part of his body cried out for it like he was dying of thirst, but he took just enough to wet his mouth and throat, swallowing with effort, before taking another sip, then another, until he was able to drink freely. Then he drank until his belly felt full, but still he wanted more.
“That’s enough for now,” Lita said. “Any more and you’ll get sick. Let’s get you back to bed.”
He tried to walk but his legs wouldn’t do as he wished, so Jack and Jataan nearly carried him, easing him down carefully. His muscles were cramped and stiff, sore and disobedient.
Once in bed, he relaxed a bit, but the pain mixed with his dehydration and hunger made the thought of sleep seem impossible until Lita started casting her healing spell. A few moments later he was out.
He woke hungry and thirsty. Fortunately, Lita and Jack were ready, offering him a cup of water and a meal as soon as he opened his eyes.
“How long was I gone?” he asked between a drink and a mouthful.
“Almost three days,” Jack said.
Alexander felt a little thrill of fear race up his spine. He’d become lost in the firmament.
Chloe buzzed into existence, floating over his plate in front of him. “We thought we’d lost you, My Love. I was so worried.”
“I’m sorry, Little One. Thank you for coming to get me.”
“I didn’t even know if I could do that, but we didn’t have any other choice. No matter what we did, you wouldn’t wake up.” She started to cry.
“Hush, it’s all right, you saved me, Little One.”
She floated down and landed on his knee, struggling to stifle her tears.
“How did you find me?” he asked.
“I didn’t … you found me,” Chloe said. “When we couldn’t wake you, I sent my mind into yours and immediately found myself in the firmament. I vaguely remember the first few seconds being disorienting and confusing. I called out for help, but then I was back in the Valley of the Fairy Queen with my family, living as we have for thousands of years. It felt so natural, so real, that I didn’t even realize it wasn’t. I would have stayed there if you hadn’t broken your link with the firmament and forced me to return.”
“What happened, Alexander?” Jack asked.
“I got lost in the firmament,” Alexander said. “It’s hard to explain. I was in a place of such profound peace that I didn’t want to leave. Time had no meaning … I was simply content to be. Even now, I feel a longing to go back there, like I’m being called home.”
“Well, don’t,” Anja said. “You almost died, just like I said you would.”
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