Graced

by Sophia Sharp

  “If does, yes, if you stumble upon them in the human world. But that will be impossible to do. You have nothing to go by, no way of finding them here. You must take the fight to them in the dream, as previously acknowledged. It is there, as you well know, that reality becomes mutable. So great distances in the human world mean nothing when one knows where to meet others. The elders congregate in the dream – they meet there. I would not be foolish enough to believe that they have seen one another in the human world for the last few centuries, at least.”

  “How often do they meet?” Laura asked. “How often do they see one another in the dream?”

  Rafael chuckled. “Not as often as you may think. The Vassiz are all a suspicious breed, and that fact does not change even when considering the elders. My belief is that they trust one another much less than they let on. They present a unified front to all of us, but behind the façade lies a web of betrayal and distrust. They all hold equal rein of power, but think! If one of them were to inexplicably suffer some sort of… malady… would the others come to their aid? I think not. For if their numbers grow smaller, well, that just means more power for the surviving ones. Which means they have to watch their backs from each other as much as any other threat.”

  “But you didn’t answer my question,” Laura pressed. “How often do they meet?”

  “I did answer your question, girl, if you had the wits to listen.” Beside her, Laura felt Logan tense, and she put a hand on his leg to calm him down. “The answer, in simpler terms, laid out especially for you, is that I don’t know. But I have given you what knowledge I can.”

  “Well, thank you,” Laura said, starting to feel frustrated. It seemed that for every bit of information Rafael revealed, there were a dozen more mysteries hiding behind it.

  “There’s one more thing,” Rafael said, “that might aid you on your quest.”

  “Yes?” Laura asked. “We’re listening.”

  “In this sanctuary, I have come across… ancient artifacts. Magical remnants of an older time. I believe them to be made by the angels, before even the first Vassiz were created. These artifacts… they were taken from the dream world and brought here. I’d imagine that occurred within the vault you found – at the only place the dream and human worlds intersect.”

  “Artifacts?” Laura asked. “What type of artifacts? What are they for?”

  “They do different things,” Rafael answered cryptically, “but I am certain if you find more, they will help you in your fight against the elders. There are only a few here, but there should be more, spread throughout the world.”

  “What are you talking about, Rafael?” Alexander asked. “I have not heard of this before.”

  “Not many have,” Rafael sneered. “This is one thing perhaps even the elders are not aware of. Come with me – I’ll show you.”

  Chapter Eleven

  ~Artifacts~

  Rafael pushed himself up quickly, and set off towards the entrance leading deeper into the sanctuary. Laura looked to Logan briefly, who shrugged, and got up to go after him. Laura did the same thing.

  “As I told you,” Rafael said while leading them down a twisting path Laura did not remember from last time, “I discovered these artifacts only within the sanctuary. I have heard passing mention of them in books, long ago, but it was only when I saw them with my own eyes did I believe in their existence.”

  “Do you know what he’s talking about?” Laura whispered to Madison, who shook her head in reply.

  “There are many different types of these artifacts, and all do different things. I anticipate the use of many of them will be entirely unclear. However. The ones that are in here, I have learned to make use of.”

  “Like what?” Alexander asked.

  Rafael looked back at him. “Think! How else do you think I knew when you just into the caves?” He looked back to Logan, and then to Laura. “And how do you think I knew your progression through the caves the first time, knew exactly where to greet you?”

  “Wait a minute,” Laura said, thinking. “Are you saying that these… artifacts… are like, cameras or something?”

  “Hah!” Rafael barked a laugh. “Just follow me and you’ll see.”

  They kept after him as he took them down a side tunnel that broke off from the main one. It was much more cramped, and Laura was sure she had not been here before. Now that she could see past the darkness, the sheer immensity of the sanctuary began to dawn on her. Twisting and hiding pathways stood out everywhere, and caverns and entrances dotted the side walls indiscreetly. The entire place seemed to twist and curve upon itself innumerable times, so much so that Laura imagined it would be impossible to discover everything in here unless you had, well, generations.

  She followed with the others as Rafael continued to lead them down the narrower tunnel. Eventually, up ahead, the path split up, and they took the one leading right. They kept on for some time, until Rafael stopped abruptly, nearly causing Laura to walk right into him. He held one hand up, and turned to face the side wall. His hands moved in a blur, so fast that Laura had no idea what he did, but when he was done, she realized that the outline of a doorway had appeared in front of him.

  “How did you…?” she began, astounded, but was cut off by another sneer.

  “I have been in here for a very long time,” he said. “And I’ve gotten to know the secrets of this place.” He pushed against the inside of the doorway to reveal a small room. He ushered everyone in before him.

  When Laura stepped across the threshold, she felt an… unseemly… wave of shivers pass over her. It felt as if she had come into a different plane, a little nook of reality that had been tucked away and kept secret. She looked around her, and could guess that everybody else had similar reactions. Everybody looked a little bit unsettled. Everybody, that is, except Rafael.

  In the middle of the room stood a single rock. It wouldn’t have warranted comment, usually, but something about the way the angles of the room were carved drew your eye to it immediately. It was only a little higher than Laura’s waist, and – on second inspection – Laura found that the entire top of it had been cleaved off. It was a pristinely clean cut, with not a single ragged edge or imperfection visible on the top.

  Rafael took a step towards it, and as he came closer, Laura had to gasp. The top of the rock started to glow in the same greenish-blue luminescence of the vault door, the same eerily familiar color which lighted the writing on the smooth wall that once stood below the entrance to the sanctuary. Laura looked around her, and saw that the others – although maybe not quite as shocked as she was – were nonetheless impressed. Madison stood there with her lips pursed, while Alexander stared openly at the strange rock. Even Logan had his eyebrows raised.

  “What is it?” Laura heard Alexander ask.

  “A torrial,” Rafael replied.

  “And what does it do?” This time, it was Laura who posed the question.

  “Well, it is what I said. A relic of an ancient time. An example of the artifacts I spoke of. This one in particular lets the user see the entirety of the caves.” He motioned his arms around him. “You can see if there is anyone here, and – in particular – you can see exactly where they are.”

  “How does it work?” Madison asked.

  “There are two components to it. One is the rock you see in front of you. But that is not the most important. The controls for it are. Come around.” He stepped around the side of the rock, and motioned for the others to follow. When they did, Laura saw that hidden behind the glowing rock was a complex grid carved onto a smooth glass-like surface. The surface was similar in texture and color to the crystals that grew in the entrance cavern. And on the grid itself stood two figurines – more like levers, actually – that looked like they could be moved into a hundred different directions.

  “This is the controlling mechanism,” Rafael explained. “The two handles can be positioned in thousands of different combinations, and each one allows a glimpse into somethin
g different. You adjust the two controls, and the torrial adjusts to what you want to see.”

  “But how does it do that?” Madison asked. “How does it let you see that?”

  “I believe it to be a phenomenon of the dream realm,” Rafael began slowly. “The torrial – and not just this one, but all of them – taps into the difference between the essences of the dream realm and the human world. The one before you is but one example.”

  “Is it how some dream walkers are able to sense your location in the human world?” Laura asked.

  Rafael raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Not many know that, but yes.” Laura looked to Madison, who winked at her.

  “So what happens,” Rafael continued, “is that the dream world exists on a type of parallel plane to our world. The spot where you met the angels – while fascinating in and of itself – is one place where the two planes overlap. They intersect. And I believe they do so because the two planes, while nearly perfectly parallel to each other in most places, undergo a slight tilt there.” He put his two hands out in front of him, holding both of them flat and one a few inches above the other. “Imagine my lower hand is the human world, and the upper hand is the dream realm. Usually, there is no overlap. To travel from one place to the other, you need to cross this chasm.” He looked at the space between his hands, and widened it for effect. “That is, of course, why everyone experiences that peculiar ripping sensation when they leave the dream. To jump between planes like that exhausts the very fabric of reality, and what you experience is the world mending itself back together.”

  “Wait a minute,” Laura interrupted, “are you saying that by crossing over to the dream, and back again, we’re essentially destroying pieces of… reality?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Rafael confirmed. “Now, both of these realms – both of the planes – are flexible, of course, but also very strong. They couldn’t support the sheer size and immensity of themselves if they were not. So, in most cases, they are able to repair themselves quite well when someone jumps between planes.”

  “But not always?” Laura asked.

  “Right. I think that is what caused the overlap that you found behind that vault door in the mines. Based on what you told me, I have a much clearer picture of things, now. I believe that when the first angel stepped out of the dream, the disruption that resulted, it sent shockwaves throughout the entirety of the dream realm. And because of that the angle of the plane was changed. Like seismic activity underneath the continents, the entire plane tilted.” He moved his upper hand so that it sloped harshly towards the lower one. Now, the tips of his fingers were touching the top of his bottom hand. “Of course, the tilt has been corrected since then, ever so slowly…” he positioned his upper hand into a more gently slope, “…but the intersect still remains. It is there where you found the silver pool, and there where you found the dark shadow. That is the crossing point between the two realms, and it allows one to bypass the chasm to enter either realm directly. But. Neither plane was ever designed for such travel, and neither were our bodies. Which is why, perhaps, the sensation of crossing over was so much stronger, so much more visceral, when it occurred there.”

  “Ok, I understand that,” Laura said, “as I think everyone else does.” She looked around quickly, and her inquiry was met with brief nods. “But what does that have to do with this artifact? With this… torrial?”

  “More than you might suspect. For the torrial takes advantage of the distance between the planes to allow its user to do things that would never be possible otherwise. Some may take advantage of the very nature of the differences between the two realms. But in essence, these artifacts, the torrial, they forge a connection between the user and the dream realm, each in their own way, to accomplish different things.”

  “And what does this particular one do?”

  “It allows the user to transcend limitations of time and space that are so characteristic of the human world. The dream realm, as you know, has a much more… flexible… set of rules that apply to it. Not so here. Yet this torrial in particular makes use of that very difference. It works by checking for… irregularities… between the dream and waking world. For things that exist here in the present time that are not mirrored there. Living beings, for example – like us – create another sort of ripple in the surface of the human plane. Like the barest hint of a feather gliding smoothly across a pool of water. No matter how smooth its passage is, there is always a disturbance of the water. And if something is tuned in carefully, properly, it might be able to… pick up on the disturbances and relay them to you. That is how this torrial works. Precisely because the two realms are so similar and yet so distinctive – sharing identical geography but not identical life – can the torrial transform that information of the disturbances and into something useable for us.”

  “Fascinating,” Madison breathed.

  “For example,” Rafael said, adjusting the two levers attached to the glass surface by the side of the rock, “if we want to see how our friends in the maze are doing, all we have to do is tune into that location…”

  Laura watched, spellbound, as Rafael continued manipulating the two levers, shifting them to different position like two pieces on a chessboard. While he was doing that, however, his attention was fully turned to the cleaved surface on top of the rock. His hands moved with the expert confidence of someone who’s done this many times before.

  Laura continued keeping watch, wondering what might happen. Rafael’s gaze was directly only to the rock. The surface shone in that same luminance as before, when suddenly, a bright flash of light, overpowering in its intensity, momentarily blinded Laura’s eyes. She brought her arm up against it, but as quickly as it appeared, it was gone. She blinked a few times, regaining her vision, and when she could see again, her jaw dropped.

  The surface of the rock that had been so perfectly smooth before had now morphed into a hundred jagged edges. There was no order to them, no type of arrangement that Laura could see. She glanced back at Rafael, who’s attention was still only on the rock. She looked back, and saw that the edges had started to… shift. Ever so slightly, at first, and originating from the middle. It looked like ripples were moving across the jagged surface. She blinked, and saw that they were in fact ripples. Many of them, coming in massive waves, transforming the entire surface into something both liquid and solid at the same time. It was like watching some sort of living thing move and pulse to life.

  “Have you ever seen such a thing?” Laura heard Logan whisper to Alexander, who shook his head.

  Just as suddenly as the ripples began, they stopped. And in their wake stood clearly definable walls – or rather, a miniature representation of walls – curling and twisting against each other in a dizzying arrangement. But there was something familiar about their shape, about their structure… and then it hit her. They were the walls of the maze below, deep underground, where she and Logan had sought escape from the Vassiz chasing them. But why was Rafael showing them this…?

  Then her eyes picked up movement. Inside the walls that made up hollow pathways, small dots of movement became visible. The dots grew larger until they became spherical… blobs. There was no other way she could think of them. They were amorphous, and all varying somewhat in size while seeming to waver in and out of existence. And she knew exactly what they were.

  They were representations of the Vassiz still in the maze. This rock – this torrial – was showing her, and everyone around her, a type of birds-eye view of the maze. But it was only a part of the maze, Laura thought – the entire thing would have needed a much larger rock surface to be displayed on. But what was more fascinating was that it was also showed her the movement of the living beings inside the maze – exactly where they were going, exactly what they were doing, and exactly how many there were.

  “Now you see, eh?” Rafael laughed jarringly. “This torrial allows me to monitor the entire sanctuary against intruders, visitors, enemies, friends… anyon
e I want. Now… watch this.”

  Rafael’s hands moved, shifting the levers ever so slightly, and the representation on top of the rock shifted in the same direction. The walls and pathways of the maze flew by, until everything settled in another location, far to the right of the original. There, another group of those amorphous blobs was moving about. Rafael moved one of the levers, and the view of everything came much closer. The walls became larger, reducing the overall scope of visibility, but as it got closer, the amorphous blobs became more defined. Laura could see vague representations of limbs, and an overall body shape. The torrial was like a camera, panning and zooming wherever Rafael directed it.

  “It’s a marvel,” Madison said under her breath.

  “It’s how I can keep track of the ones in the maze,” Rafael said. “To make sure they don’t trouble anyone for quite some time.” He barked another laugh. “And if you think that is impressive, take a look at this.”

  He moved the levers again, in entirely new positions, and the entire scene on top of the rock wavered and disappeared. In their place stood the same ragged edges as before. And again, the ripples originating from the center of the rock started up. They came and came, growing stronger each time, until Laura thought their speed and size would overwhelm the entire torrial. But just as they teetered on the brink of overpowering the device, they stopped completely. And before her lay an all-too-familiar scene.

  It was them. It was them, in the cramped room. Right in the middle of rock lay a smaller representation of it, and huddled around it were the shapes of Laura and everyone else. But their representations were much more accurate than the Vassiz had been in the maze. Laura stared at her own. It was so lifelike. There was her hair, and her limbs, and her entire body. Slowly, she lifted her left arm up, and – in real time – the representation of herself lifted its arm up as well. It was so real, Laura felt a need to just reach out and touch it…