by P. S. Power
He blinked and then nodded at the other him. A version of what he very well might have been, without Tor and his new family. Even with Timon helping him, they were very different.
Dare passed things out to everyone, including the new him, and then cleaned a bit using a cloth provided by the food unit to clean up blood. Uni smiled at the other version of him, who probably seemed familiar, though the other fellow just bowed at her a bit.
“Taman Baker?”
“No. I’m her… Daughter? I’m made of magic. You don’t have that there? People like me? Or… Anything, like that. No space ships, or probably a lot of things. Not if Tor died. How did that happen?”
Other Dareg looked at her, and reached out to feel her pattern, actually having to touch her to make that happen, then blinked for a bit before responding.
“I only know the story. There was a big battle, at the Capital. We have fast craft, but no one knows how to make them. Well, there’s a rumor that Count Lairdgren can, but he won’t. It was him that found me. After my mother died. That’s why I got to have Timon as my tutor.”
Dareg had never met the man then, if it was the old count. It sounded like a whole lot of things were different in that other world.
“Well, Zack can get you back? Be careful. I…” He nearly told the other version of him that his mother was probably alive and living in Austra, but it might not be true and he didn’t want to give him false hope.
The smaller man, Zack, took almost no time at all, using the pod outside his door for the task of going between worlds. A thing that he’d just worked out himself. As soon as that was done, the man gestured for them to follow him into the thing, and then stopped.
“I… Don’t know where we’re going.”
Ben didn’t answer, standing far too close to Uni for Dare to like, he just held out his hand. Brushing her breast in a very unneeded fashion. She didn’t move back either, or act scandalized. Then, if she liked him, then the green haired version might not be that hard for her to accept either.
After touching the proffered arm, Zack closed his eyes and smiled.
“I have it. Here.” The wall was touched, a tapping motion like should have been used to activate it, but none of the names were connected with. Instead raw intent flared from the man, sending them to a very different place. A room, that had several people in it. No one tried to fight them or anything, which was nice.
Instead an older man, stood. He was next to a smaller, lighter colored version of Gerent Lairdgren, Debbie smalls, and a woman that was older looking, and seemed familiar to him, but wasn’t anyone that his mind linked to directly.
She had blonde hair that had silver in it, however. The place they were in was small, but tidy, and not horrible in any way. A window on the wall showed three dimensional images. No one spoke for a bit, as Ben raised a finger to his lips, then covered his mouth with a hand, getting nods from the rest of them.
Zack stepped away, and Ben waved for Brian and Dare to go to the door, holding up several fingers. Then they were put down, ending with the the door being kicked in forcefully.
“Intruders! Freeze!” Almost instantly, thunder started ringing through the space, and smoke rose from the three armored men that came in. One of them was actually a woman, he noticed, as he stepped in front of the others. These people all had implants, but hadn’t started to use them yet. Thankfully.
That meant he was able to put his armor on, after getting his little weapon from around his neck first. One of them, a tall man, dropped as Brian made his weapon strike him, hitting exactly at the seam on his neck. It made the man fall and go still at any rate.
While the others worked behind him, doing something, he targeted the other man, and then the woman, repeating what had worked and hitting the seam at the neck until their heads popped. It wasn’t as messy as it would have been if they weren’t in their bulky blue and black armor.
Then, far too calmly, Zack spoke.
“I’ll take you all, one at a time. Back toward me? I don’t know if anyone else is coming…”
Strangely, or perhaps not, the people that were there didn’t really seem to want to go with the new people that had appeared out of thin air. Not until Ben called out to them.
“Merry sent us. This way, before the reinforcements get here?”
“Merry? She’s alive? We were told, but… It’s been nearly twenty years.” It was the older lady that spoke, her voice scared, for some reason.
Dareg nodded, his armored face invisible.
“My mother. It’s a bit of a long story. Go. It will be all right.” At the very least it wasn’t a prison with armed guards. The door had been kicked in, but it was stout and seemed to be made of metal. That meant the beings that had died were more powerful than normal, if they could do that kind of thing.
Behind him, the others started to vanish, one by one, Zack appearing and vanishing, nearly flickering in and out of reality. Brian moved back, leaving Dareg there all alone, just as there was movement on the other side of the door. More people in heavy armor were there, but they didn’t try for him, going to their own people first.
It was nearly like they didn’t see him at first, as he stood there, waiting for a fight to start. Just as one of them gasped, Zack came and pulled him away, into space. Or really, into nothing at all.
It didn’t last forever, but they were there for a while, and it was peaceful, after a fashion.
Eventually they were back in the pod, or at least one of them, and the door was opened with a tap by Zack.
“Well! That was different. I don’t normally spend that kind of time in the void on simple transfers like this. That was… How do you feel? I wasn’t ready to take anyone in like that. We were gone for about ten years…”
“I’m fine? It did seem like a while. Well, no harm done. That was the void between worlds? I should go back there. I need to understand what it’s really like. Maybe alone?” Being all alone… It wasn’t a totally new thing to him, but it was at the heart of the issue at hand.
That got him nodded at.
“Right. We’ll want a few hours though. For now, we should go and make certain the new people are fine and not too scared? That would be hard, having people just come into your living room and grab you like that. Even if it was a prison. I’d be scared anyway.”
Dareg didn’t think he would have been, but could see it happening and nodded.
“Let’s?”
It turned out that no one actually expected him to do that much for the new people, even if they were family of his. Not past the part where he got them a place to live, or really, places, since they’d been forced to be together for a long time. The places were along the main strip however, near where all the shops he’d put in were going to be. So prime locations as for living space.
Not that the people did more than take note of where they were supposed to stay. They all seemed scared, and remained subdued even when Merry came for them. There were hugs, but they were cold seeming, to be honest. Frightened.
It got worse when another Merry, and the two older people came. They hugged Debbie. On the good side, they all managed to figure out what it meant, them being there.
Merry and Debbie both still had their implants however, which was less than perfect. It meant that they were going to have to get back to their places, except that, with the hostages to their good behavior suddenly being gone, freed by the use of force, the activation signals for their implants were probably about to go off.
Spinning in place, he glanced at his mother, then Debbie.
“We… need a knife. Now. Something sharp. A healing amulet as well. Also, everyone? Run. Just in case I mess this up.”
Brian reached into his side pocket and pulled a very thin, totally black blade out, and handed it over, then, fairly quickly, moved toward the transport pod.
“I want that back, Dare. A friend of mine made it for me.”
Looking at the hard man, Dare smiled and nodded several times.
>
“Directly. Thanks for the loan.”
Then, as soon as everyone was as far away as possible, and he managed to close them all in his little apartment, he swallowed. Then pulled his healing amulet.
“I… Don’t have time to be gentle. This is going to hurt.”
Then he focused his mind as tightly as possible, and reached into three different spaces, wrapping the tiny thing with his own being. It was harder to do than it seemed like it should be. Most of the signal was being blocked. Not all of it.
The whole thing was also pulsing and surging under his thoughts. Making the little device almost impossible to hold on to. It slipped away, into several places, without ever moving at all.
His mother grimaced, seeming afraid, but Debbie bared her neck, and held it to the side. Her long black hair was being pushed back at the same time. A sense of bravery and commitment came off of her.
“Do it. I should have long ago, but lacked the will. Even if I die… Thank you. For getting my sister and parents? Tell the others?”
“Right. Don’t die though. We need your information too badly. Plus, I’m trying to hold this thing here silent. Not that I’m getting it totally. We need to make it work.”
Then, carefully, trying not to simply slaughter her, he trimmed a chunk from her neck that should have made her scream, no matter how strong she was, but didn’t. Then he started the healing amulet, and handed it to her, so she wouldn’t die. There was a whole lot of blood, after all.
“You’re next. Mother.”
Somehow, he said it without seeming evil.
At least he hoped he managed that. It didn’t really seem like it exactly. Not from the scared expression on Merry’s face.
Chapter thirteen
It wasn’t enough to simply removed the chunks of flesh from the women. No, that would have been peaceful seeming, even as Merry gasped in pain, and winced, making the whole thing harder for her to bear. Debbie was being stronger at the moment, her eyes pained, and face an ashen gray under that. There was no particular noise from either of them however, which was better than the screaming that might have happened.
Debbie, his Aunt, only, apparently not, stared at the coin sized bits of flesh that contained the slave collars that had ridden with both ladies for decades.
“Those can explode massively, if that wasn’t a lie.” She didn’t point, but her entire being was tight, and held a bit of fear, and awe, for the things in front of her.
Dareg picked them both up, and scrambled, trying to think of a place the transport system could take him, that wouldn’t be too harmed by being destroyed utterly. He drew a blank, even as Zack took a calm step toward the box.
“Dare and I will be gone for a while. A few hours, or possibly days. No one should worry about it. Dareg?” The man held out his hand, like he wanted to hold hands, which was funny seeming.
It was an understandable thing. If they went into the void, that empty place between realities, a space that didn’t actually exist, then the devices wouldn’t harm much. It was a place that the box in front of them could go that worked, more or less.
“Right. Let’s get this done?”
Everyone else probably figured that it was all about the wet, very red, flesh in his right hand, but that wasn’t the real issue now, Dare didn’t think. Not any longer. It wouldn’t be soon, anyway. At least if he hurried.
Running fast enough that he probably seemed like less than a blur to most of the people there, he dashed into the pod, looking down the vast stone hall as he did. In the distance there were people, staring at the scene. Hess stood with Neesa and little Erath, next to Eva, Samantha, and a version of Eva that clearly wasn’t made of pure magic at all. A real woman, who was actually a lot lighter in color than Eva was. She was even lighter than he was, nearly matching Zack, or Tor.
There was nothing to do about her in the moment however, so he moved quickly, the new woman being the only being that tracked his movements. Except for Zack, who smiled gently, as he closed the door behind them, and touched his arm.
“We don’t have time to prepare, but you can do this. You already proved that. Remember to concentrate, and try to do what I tell you to?”
He didn’t even get to nod before they were in a timeless, formless place again. A lot of people might have imagined it as dark, but that wasn’t actually the case. It was, when he examined it, nothing. Blackness would be something. This was different, and in a lot of ways, not that bad. There were no distractions, and recalling almost instantly, what Zack had commanded, or more to the point, suggested in passing, he cleared his thoughts, and used concepts to direct his mind, instead of words. Those were things too, and while not forbidden him there, he didn’t think, it was much easier to simply know what was needed, than anything else.
When he got a good sense of what was happening, his mind built a picture for him. One that, like everything around him, wasn’t really one. It was a sense of Zack being all around him. Protecting him from dissipating into the ether, or lack of that refined substance, depending on perspective.
The first thing he needed to do was destroy the bits of flesh in his hand. That, of course, required only that he let go of the things. They tried to detonate anyway, but as soon as Zack passed them out of his protection, even as they surged with the intent to destroy everything they could, the things just faded, blowing away into dust that wasn’t even that, on a wind that didn’t exist.
It was fascinating, watching that happen. Instructive as well.
The form around him was holding them both together, lines of intent moving inward constantly. It was clear that, if he was going to see what being alone really meant, he’d have to do that for himself. It took a while for him to truly master, but there was nothing else to do, and Dareg was used to not letting his mind roam too much anymore, at least while he worked. It wasn’t enough, naturally. A whole new level and set of skills had to be created inside of him, before the being around him gave off a pulsing sensation of it all being enough.
Then knowing what was going to happen the whole time, they separated, Dare moving formlessly away, into a space that was in the exact same location. That part didn’t matter, he knew. There was no space there, since it didn’t really exist, which was kind of the point.
For a long time, one that was in many ways without a sense of anything except for holding himself in place, until he mastered that, nothing at all happened. His mind was simply still, and he held himself in peace. Drawing inward constantly. Then, even though Zack was larger and more powerful than he was, Dareg moved himself over and around the man, since size, like everything else, didn’t truly exist. Nothing did.
It was time, he believed, for him to make a decision, and, if possible, to go back home.
He didn’t feel alone, or sad however, and being there, floating in the void, he kind of wished that he didn’t have to leave. There was peace, and a sense that he could stay, if he ever wanted.
The transport pod that they’d left from had a million analogs in different realities, a few of which confused him for a moment, being so similar to his own. Only one of them really fit however. Some of them weren’t even actually pods, Dareg noticed. Most weren’t created by him either. Many went to very different worlds, that on the fringes of where he was allowed to go, were warped and so confusing that looking into them hurt a bit. That was the boundary of his existence, of course.
Which was a good thing to notice. He wasn’t a god, after all. He was a defined and limited being, that had rules he needed to follow. Some of them suddenly made sense to him, as he flashed back into his own world, taking Zack by the hand, wrapping around him, and flowing into place, the same way that they’d left.
Things were too bright for a moment, but he reached out and touched the side of the wall, and made the door to his right open.
The plain and small looking version of Tor smiled at him, and shook his head a bit.
“Well. That was different. I’ve seen beings leave on their o
wn before, but this was the first time one took me with them on the first trip. Remember, if you go there with anyone else, you have to always cover them, like you did with me just now. Otherwise they’ll die. Most people can’t hold themselves together in place like that. They just dissolve, like those weapons did.” There was a meaningful look, as the man tousled his brown hair and seemed a bit dreamy and out of things.
“Got it. How long were we gone?” He glanced outside, and while no one was standing in front of the box now, they were down the way, talking to the light colored version of Eva that clearly wasn’t her. He pointed, since for normal people that trip would have at least taken a few minutes.
Zack glanced that way and smiled.
“Several thousand years. You did say you wanted to go and see what being alone was like. There are some other things we need to get to now, if you have the time? We can visit with Eve in a bit. She’s a Vampire. Not one from my world, but a good person. You’ll like her, I bet.” There was a disarming grin, that the man had to force his face into, and a glance in that direction. “Of course, she isn’t truly certain that she shouldn’t throw in with the enemy. Like you?”
Dareg smiled back and nodded.
“Because not everyone can do what we just did?”
“Right. Most can’t, in the end. For a few, it’s peaceful, and even relaxing, being in nothingness, alone like that. For most it’s frightening, and for about half, abject and constant terror is the rule. I don’t think that ends for them. The ones that feel like that? So, there is suffering for many in there. That has to be similar to what most will feel at the end of everything. When only they are left, and nothingness surrounds them, until the end of all time.”
