A Prison of Worlds (The Chained Worlds Chronicles Book 1)

by Daniel Ruth

  “Can’t say I do, but I was frightfully cold before you did your thing,” he waved towards my circle. “What is it?”

  “Well, I was trying to see if I could regenerate you from this tiny bone fragment.”

  “Would that have worked? I can’t say I would mind being alive again,” he said hopefully.

  “Frankly, it was a long shot,” I responded hesitantly. “Chances are good it would be a mindless clone. That’s why brain regrowth is illegal in hospitals, or so Jeremy tells me.”

  “I can’t say that sounds good.”

  “Well, it wasn’t my first choice. But it might have worked and it may possibly have had your memories.” Not likely but possible. “There’s another more powerful circle that can grab your ‘soul’ from the firmament and incarnate it within that created body.”

  “Why not use that one, am I a soul?” he asked doubtfully.

  “That’s a question for a priest, however seeing you now I am inclined to think it would work. The drawback is that I can’t do it yet. I bet could in a few weeks.”

  “I feel better than I have in a while,” offered Mat’s ghost. “What’s the hurry?”

  “Well... there’s a good chance the world as you know it is ending in the next couple days. I figured ‘What the hell’? What do we have to lose?”

  “The world’s ending?” Mat asked in concern.

  “Turns out Jin has had a greater demon helping him out for the last ten years. There is an excellent chance he is going to create hell on earth anytime now.”

  “Wow, that sucks,” Mat said morosely.

  “You seem calmer than you used to,” I said as I sat down. I had paused in creating the circle. As ritual magic goes, it’s pretty forgiving of such delays.

  “Already dead. I would hate the see the world end though. Why did I come back? I never saw anyone like me when I was alive.”

  “Me either,” I said thoughtfully. “Demons, even the little pests that got you, have significant auras. In the numbers they had, it might have created a high enough threshold where you manifested from your impression on the firmament.” If that was all it took my world would have been crawling with spirits and ghosts. While they weren’t unheard of they were not common. There was something else involved. “Anyway, I am not sure you would be able to inhabit a clone of yourself, but we can try it. With you here it has a much better chance of success.”

  “I suppose if the world is going to end there no point in waiting,” Matt admitted.

  “So be it! Let me finish this, stand in the circle and think happy thoughts,” I said as I concentrated on finishing the circle. Almost an hour later, I was done. I nodded at the spirit and activated it.

  The bone fragment, glowed and sparked, then started to bubble. Within seconds, it had gained mass until it was recognizable as a thigh bone. Then tissue grew along its length as the next bone extended up and down on either end continuing to form a skeleton. It was not instantaneous. After ten minutes, some muscle had formed over the bones and organs were visible through a bubbling froth.

  “I’m not feeling a pull yet. Should I be worried?” a concerned Mat asked.

  “It probably won’t happen until the brain forms,” I advised keeping an eye on the process and making sure the energies fed into the circle was consistent. “Hopefully the nerves and skin are complete or it’s going to hurt.”

  “I suppose... it would be worth it,” he nervously shuffled on intangible feet as the reanimating body bubbled next to him.

  As the skull closed over and eyes and bits of skin concealed the faint form of Mat started to waver. “I think I feel it!”

  “Don’t resist, flow with it,” I suggested. I was guessing, it’s not like I ever resurrected anyone before.

  “Aargh!” The physical body cried out as the spirit’s outline waivers and flickered out. The screaming continued until lids formed over the staring, bulging eyes and the last bit of skin stretched over the exposed layer of fat and muscle. The body went limp and the circle stopped sucking in power.

  “You alive in there,” I asked the still body, gently nudging it with my foot.

  “I have never been in more pain in my entire existence,” slurred the naked form, his eyes fluttering open.

  “Life is pain,” I said unsympathetically as I handed him the extra clothes I had brought. “Welcome to life 2.0.”

  “I feel a little numb and out of sync,” he said as he awkwardly struggled to his feet. I checked his aura, it was definitely not normal. Brighter, more energetic, yet not completely inside his body. Like a child that couldn’t color inside the lines.

  “Yeah, you’re not back to normal, but I see it getting a little better as we talk,” I offered. “It will take some time for your spirit to align with your body. Let’s head back to the house, the others will be happy to see you.”

  “Who?”

  “Mei and Jeremy,” I paused. “And Stella will whenever she gets back from walkabout. So where were you when you weren’t here?”

  “Seems like all over,” Mat began as we slowly started to walk back to the house. “There were all these intersecting lines and I went from one location to another along them. They were the only places I wasn’t cold. I spent most of my time in some woods...”

  “Minerva Park in all likelihood, it has the most ley lines and the largest node,” I interrupted him.

  “...and some large underground chamber. It reminded me of that place the Baron retreated to.”

  I stopped in my tracks and stared ahead. An underground chamber. If I had ten years to prepare why would I settle for any but the best node in the city? Nodes are not impeded by the ground, many ley lines and nodes are at least partially underground. With enough time and preparation, why not build an underground lair directly below the area we would be watching? The Baron had already shown us how effective they were.

  “I know where he is,” I shouted in triumph and took off at a run, noting in passing Mat was lumbering behind me, still clumsy in his body. Within a minute I had charged into the house chanting, “I know where he is!”

  “You know where Jin is?” Jeremy asked, the first to decipher my ramblings. He and Mei met me in the entranceway.

  “If you had ten years to plan your final triumph, why would you settle for second best?” I asked Jeremy with a smile.

  “But we went to the park! Heck, it’s watched more closely than a cat burglar in Fort Knox.”

  “True, but if you had ten years why not built under the park,” I victoriously pointed out, as Beth squeezed past her brother.

  “Tunnels?” Jeremy said thoughtfully. “Why not, they did it before. It also explains the lack of attempts to distract us with demons. They already succeeded in distracting us. Why risk more when we obviously didn’t have a clue? They were below us all the time...”

  “Eek,” screamed a frightened Beth. “There’s a body out on the lawn!”

  “Oh, that’s just Mat,” I reassured the girl with some pride, as I turned around to look at the resurrected police officer.

  “Okay, I give up. Why is Mat’s corpse on the lawn?” asked a baffled Mei as she looked past me. Staring out the door, I noted that sure enough Mat’s body was sprawled out on the front lawn. “Wasn’t he eaten?”

  “Er, give me a second. It will come to me,” I said as I put my hands to the side of my head and rubbed my temples.

  “Is it a zombie apocalypse?” asked Beth while inching backward. Jeremy looked at my way in disdain.

  “I told you not to let her watch ‘Night of the Living Dead XXI’,” he groused.

  “It’s just a harmless comedy. Come on its hilarious,” I defended myself absently. “Everyone knows real zombies eat hearts... and livers for some reason. Oh, I know what happened!”

  Running out to Mat’s body I poked his skin with a hastily formed tiny talon to get a drop of blood and then ran downstairs, creating a gouge in the ceiling where I leaped down a little too enthusiastically. I ran over to the ward and under
the undead sigil I put the drop of blood and etched the exclusion symbol. I repeated this under the spirit protection sigil.

  I heard another squeal of terror as I rushed back up. When I reached the hallway I was gratified to see Mat staggering towards the front door. Mei had taken a defensive stance and Jeremy was simply shaking his head.

  “You made a zombie clone of Mat?” a disturbed Jeremy asked.

  “I am not a zombie,” came the defensive statement from the newly risen officer.

  “Well, you sort of are,” I said apologetically. Turning to the others, I continued, “I found Mat’s spirit wandering outside and created a body for him.”

  “You what?” cried an outraged Mei.

  “I know, it’s pretty neat,” I replied. “When his spirit joined his new body I thought for sure it was a true resurrection. Considering that he was stopped by my wards I think it’s safer to say he is possessing his own body.”

  “I, what?” stuttered Mat.

  “You’re still a spirit,” I acknowledged reluctantly. It wasn’t nearly as cool as being responsible for bringing him back to life. “The good news is that you can probably travel outside your body with a little practice and you’re almost impossible to kill. I can just make another body.”

  “What?” he said again. It was really feeling like Mat was back.

  “If you don’t like it, I can figure out the other circle in a few weeks and do a true resurrection,” I offered him. “Assuming we are all alive. We still have to beard a wizard, demon and minions in his lair.”

  “You are a crazy... man,” Mei spluttered before she stalked to the living room projector and brought up the park. “You explain this to Conrad.”

  The rest of us slowly migrated to the holo terminal. Jeremy spawned another terminal, working on another screen to bring up city records of sewers. Beth was staying as far away from Mat as possible and looked like she expected him to start moaning about brains any moment.

  “Got it,” Jeremy said, after a few minutes and sewers were overlaid on the park map. There were none directly under the node.

  “Given ten years they likely branched off the sewers,” he pointed to the display. “Probably around here. We likely need to call in Conrad’s group. They have sensors that can see underground, as long as it’s not on the node or ley line and we’ll need all the force we can muster to counter everything they have likely gathered.” Then he turned to us with a brilliant smile, “For the first time since this started I think we aren’t years behind the curve.”

  “So, do I need to eat?” Mat said from where he was still standing, looking a bit lost in the hallway.

  “You’re not a zombie in the classical sense,” I said as I made a list of priorities on a third screen. “Your body is living and breathing. It needs everything a normal person needs.”

  “What about that liver and hearts?” Beth called out from the far side the room.

  “I was just kidding. Zombies like what Baron Samedi created were magically animated and enhanced corpses. Not even really undead,” I clarified while tapping the interface. “Mat is a spirit directing a mindless clone. Beth could you start the paperwork for accidental declaration of death? Mat is going to need his life back.”

  “I don’t know how to do that,” Beth said hesitantly.

  “Go to the coroner’s site, Beth. There should be a link to start the process. It will need Mat’s biometrics as proof, but the terminal should be able to provide them, despite it being an antique.” Jeremy paused for a moment, “Wait a minute, you shouldn’t be involved in this. Shouldn’t you be doing your homework?”

  “I like helping, besides I did my homework for this month already. School is boring,” Beth whined. She whined a lot less when Jeremy wasn’t around. I hated to say it, but I think he is a bad influence on his sister.

  “Told you the writer should be put on probation for helping to perpetuate the idea that young women are stupid and helpless,” I said to Jeremy. “Beth, if you get Mat digitally resurrected by noon, I’ll show you how to develop psychometry and a few of the procog exercises.”

  “Since when can you even do that?” Jeremy asked. “And when did I say you could twist her little mind again?”

  “I always had a little bit of precog. I admit I suck at psychometry, but it’s the first step to psychically interfacing with machines. I think she’d have fun with it. She already had her potential awakened, it’s just some harmless exercises. As long as she stops to rest.”

  “Jeremy,” Beth called out in distress. “I’m not a little girl.” This earned me a glare from her brother.

  The doorbell rang. A minute later it rang again. Mat seeing that we were all busy shrugged and meandered to the door. A moment later I heard, “What in Urd’s name? Weren’t you eaten?”

  “Shall I smite him my lady?” a deeper voice replied from outside.

  I smiled to myself. The gang was all here.

  Chapter 21

  I may have been a little optimistic. Once we had explained zombie Mat and updated the new comers it got a little hectic. There may even have been yelling and shouting involved. It didn’t help that there were seven people crowded in a living room with almost every wall covered in a holo display. We finally got things calmed down enough to start out.

  “Okay, Beth, Mat, and Jeremy can stay here and continue to research an underground entrance,” I summarized as I started out the door. “The rest of us will meet Conrad in the park.”

  “I have updated Conrad. Despite his curses, I think he happy we may see the end of this,” Mei affirmed.

  “I’m still not convinced I should stay back,” Jeremy said doubtfully.

  “Unless you’ve got a pocket nuke hidden away, I’m not sure what you can really do,” I replied. “You know you have always saved the day with information. This is just more of the same. Mat is more likely to get shot by Conrad until we figure out a good way to tell him about his return.”

  “What about me,” Beth chirped.

  “I think there’s a height limit on saving the world,” I smiled at her. “Seriously, Jeremy is your guardian and regardless how stupid the laws are, what he says goes.” This got me a dirty look from everyone but Stella and Faramond. “Next time maybe your psionic abilities will be the tipping point. Keep on practicing. Okay then, I’ll call a cab!”

  “Cab? Why not use that tricycle thing we used last time?” interjected Stella hurriedly.

  I stared at her incredulously. “You want me to drive the rickshaw to the end of the world.”

  “It’s only the end of the world if we fail,” Mei said tiredly. She had an idea of where this going.

  “Thanks for the clarification.”

  “It seems the safest way to get there,” Stella said with a hint of panic in her eyes. “If we all crash as the car goes spinning out of control and sends us flying upside down, we’ll have to walk to the park anyway and have to fight while covered in green goop.”

  I paused a moment. That was oddly specific. “Right. How would we even fit in it? The back may fit three normal sized people, but Faramond would barely fit just by himself. You would both have to sit on his lap.”

  “What if he pedaled and we sat in the back,” added an impatient Mei. “You’re tall but lanky. It would be tight but at least we would actually get moving!”

  “But... but its my bike,” I protested weakly. “He’s too big, he’ll break the pedals off.”

  “Are you sure milady?” Faramond asked uneasily. He must have seen the rickshaw out front. He’d look like an adult riding a bike made for a toddler.

  “You said it was specially reinforced,” Stella added.

  “Well, yeah but even I can’t use my full strength and Faramond must be three times as strong. One moment of carelessness and we’re stranded while the apocalypse goes on without us.”

  “I have full confidence in my guardian,” Stella stated with dignity.

  Five minutes later we were piled in the rickshaw. I had a cranky w
oman squeezed on either side of me and every little shift in position of the vehicle cause our elbows to dig into each other’s ribs. Every sway had us all leaning in one direction or another as we struggled not to end up on one another’s laps.

  Faramond did indeed look like an adult riding a child’s bike. I would have laughed, but I had my hands full simply staying in one place without getting slapped. From back here, the scenery sucked. The fairy knight was so large I couldn’t see anything in front of us. I could see the buildings go past and caught glimpses of the occasional pedestrian leaping out the way with a scream of fright.

  Our knight on the bike made decent time. Like me, he was limited in his speed but he wasn’t any slower and he didn’t break the bike either. Mei was fiddling worriedly with her terminal. About a half hour into the trip she cursed under her breath. “Damn!”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” I winced. “What happened?”

  “Conrad mobilized his forces. The military was on standby. They took positions around the node,” she started before pausing.

  “That sounds good...”

  “Then Jin’s forces blow an opening to the topside and out swarmed super-powered shifters and all the apprentices that we couldn’t find in the last few days. I am getting live feeds from Conrad.”

  I looked at my own terminal. We were five minutes away. I saw a flash in the sky and blinked away the after image of a fiery line coming down from the sky. A moment later I heard a rumble and felt the earth tremble faintly.

  “Crap! The military jumped the gun and did an orbital energy strike. Most of the feeds went down. Let me switch them...” Mei continued fiddling with her terminal. Stella looked guilty.

  “Don’t worry Stella, they were mostly people we didn’t know,” I reassured her, getting a glare from her and Mei.

  “Got it! There’s a big hole in the ground. Looks like the minions were vaporized... along with half of the task force. Conrad’s alive, he was blown clear. Shit. He’s missing body parts according to his biometric feed. He’s out of it for the duration.” Damn, I knew that mobile tank he wore wouldn’t help. Then again maybe that’s why he was still alive.