The Paramount Dimension

by Joseph Calev

  The class went quiet while he moved to the center of the room.

  “We debated the timing of this, but given that your discussions at home will revolve around it, we felt it best that you learn of this here.”

  Algard reached into his pockets and fidgeted a few moments before saying anything. He was sweating. Before his mouth opened again, Raynee gasped.

  “Mordriss has returned,” he shouted solemnly.

  Tears and screams broke out. Even Raynee couldn’t avoid crying.

  “The town of Heskera is no more. Mordriss has murdered every single inhabitant.”

  Where had I heard that name so recently? In some ways I felt cold to the news. Everything I’d heard about Mordriss had been just stories. It wasn’t entirely sinking in how this would affect anything. I struggled to recollect while Algard resumed.

  “Our thoughts and prayers go to the nearly three thousand casualties of this heinous act. We are weighing our options at this very moment. We will discuss the future of Oreca Gifted with all of you in a few minutes. Please discuss this among yourselves. I unfortunately have an important matter to attend to, and will return in a few minutes to hear your thoughts.”

  He had murdered three thousand people? How did someone even manage that? Before I could even speak to Raynee, Algard was between us.

  “Jason, we need to discuss something.” His eyes glared down at me. He turned to Raynee. “You should be there, too.”

  We awkwardly left with him while everyone else was hugging and consoling each other. I noticed streams even from Revis, who, I later learned, had grandparents in Heskera. Algard escorted us to his voluminous and extremely well-organized office, where sat a shaking Farlan. His hair was frazzled, and he was covered in blotches of blood. He held a cube in his trembling hands, which he now held out to us.

  “I’m afraid there’s something you need to see,” Algard said. “It will not be easy for you.”

  “What happened to him?” Raynee asked, pointing to Farlan.

  “As you know, Farlan has a proclivity toward teleportation. Due to its rather severe side effects, it’s a science that not many of us appreciate. But for this occasion, it proved useful.”

  He removed the cube from Farlan’s hand and resonated it into the air.

  “We sent him to Heskera with a video device to show us what happened.”

  “So, what does that have to do with us?” Raynee replied. Something inside of me didn’t want the answer.

  Algard snapped his fingers and instantly we were in the remains of Heskera. I’d never visited an actual town in this world. Maybe at one point with its bright signs and quaint multicolor buildings this city had been beautiful, but now it was adorned with human heads, severed limbs, and a sea of blood.

  Raynee moved to throw up and I held her against my chest. It took every bit of my strength to not join her.

  “Follow me,” Algard said.

  Although we were only in a video, Algard was still careful to not step onto the bodies. Instead, he led us carefully over and around. We went through wide arches, walked through walls, and followed streets cluttered with the dead. I wondered what the point of all this was. Then it hit me. The corpses were arranged in a line.

  Most were without heads, with the few remaining, returning a vacant stare and each of their arms was aimed forward, as if in an ultimate salute. Every arm grasped the foot before it.

  Raynee and I said nothing while we followed this obscene line of death. Mordriss wanted us to go somewhere, and I dreaded whatever that meant. Then at the very end, we saw it. There was nothing but a plain wall. Beneath it were several crushed corpses. Mordriss had written the message in blood.

  “I KNOW WHO YOU ARE JASON BEZNA.”

  22

  “So, I assume I’m the only Jason Bezna?” I asked the line of professors and Raynee who were eyeing me curiously from the other side of the room.

  This had become ridiculous.

  “You’re the only one with a last name,” Algard replied. “And you’re also the only ex-turnip.”

  At that moment, I wished desperately to be nothing more than a turnip again. This maniac had just murdered three thousand people, then thrust me into the middle of it. What did any of this have to do with me? Why couldn’t they have just left me alone in complete ignorance, with robotic parents, on a planet where no one cared?

  “So, who are you?” Farlan asked to break the silence.

  “I came here a few days ago to ask you the same question.” I backed away subtly, then briefly considered running away, but that would only look worse.

  Raynee slowly left Algard’s side and approached. There was a look of caution and hesitation on her face I’d never seen. This had completely freaked her. She carefully reached her hand up to my forehead and I instinctively drew back.

  “Please,” she pleaded softly. “Don’t fight me. I have to do this.”

  I didn’t resist while she gently caressed my hair, then she pressed her palm onto my forehead and went stone quiet. We were back on Earth.

  We were on the mountain. Her focus was on New York City, while mine was on her. Then everything faded and we were in an ordinary classroom. Flemence was about to destroy me, until a sharp-tongued brunette interrupted the show.

  I was back on the school bus, my head sliding down the window while no one noticed me. Then I was alone at home. The woman who’d I’d grown up calling Mother was sitting on the couch, entranced by the television, while my so-called father was on his tablet. I sat by myself, and was just watching the heavens outside.

  Then I was a little child, jumping and sprinting around the room, while my parents’ locations were unchanged. “Mommy! Daddy! Play with me!” I screamed, but they didn’t budge. I ran outside at the voice of some children. They were playing soccer.

  “Go home, Bezna!” an orange-headed kid shouted. “We don’t want you here.”

  I was five years old and beginning my first day of kindergarten. My mother was driving me across the bridge, and I asked why my school was so far away.

  “You’re special,” she said. “You won’t understand this now, but you’re different from all of us. You’re better. This world is but a tiny part of all there is. One day, you’ll need to save it.”

  “How will I save it, Mommy?”

  She looked at me through the mirror. “Through things like avalance, essonance, orasance, resonance, and of course cenosance.”

  “What are those?”

  “Forces.”

  “Will I learn them in school?”

  “No. But one day someone will orasate this, and then you’ll understand.”

  Raynee attempted to go back farther, but the rest was just a white blur. She lifted her hand from my forehead, then lightly brushed away a tuft of hair.

  “He’s connected to this somehow,” she stated out loud. “But not in a bad way.”

  Algard stepped forward and looked between me and Raynee. His eyes seemed to penetrate me, like a cat watching a mouse that had come too close.

  “There’s something about you, Jason, that Mordriss finds frightening.”

  I just stood there in stunned silence. Sure, as an ex-turnip I stood out, but with the resonance powers of a five-year-old and the wimpiest avalance ever known in this school, I doubted Mordriss would consider me much of a threat. Yet Algard kept looking at me from different angles while I waited for an explanation.

  “He chose Heskera for a reason. It forms a triangle between Jason’s current residence and this school. They’re all two light years apart. So, if Mordriss wanted to kill you, Jason, he’s within range to do it.”

  Raynee eyes bulged, then clearly felt so winded she had to sit. Algard was at her side, but offered neither a hand nor a gesture of sympathy.

  “If he can get here,” she said in a hurried manner, “then he can reach home. Sareya. I have to protect her.” Raynee looked up at me, nearly in tears. “She’s my everything now.”

  I jostled around Algard and pl
aced my hands gently on her shoulders.

  Algard only put his hand to his chin while he thought. “You are correct that he could reach you. But that begs the same question. Why hasn’t he done so already? There’s something he wants from Jason. The cities nearest to Heskera will want to evacuate, but I think Mordriss’ goal for now was to send a message, and he succeeded in that. We may therefore have a few days before he strikes again. That, however, is not our worst predicament.”

  “Having entire cities wiped out isn’t the worst thing?” Raynee shoved my hands away.

  “The worst thing,”—Algard gave out a long breath—“is he obviously wants something from Jason. He called him out to affect a particular outcome, the nature of which is unknown to us. So, while your natural instinct will be to search for more information, you may wind up accidentally performing what he needs.”

  “That’s just bullshit,” Raynee said. “You’re just too scared to do anything, just like the last time that monster was here.”

  I moved my arms back to her shoulders in a quiet attempt to calm her, but she shoved them away with a glare, and said, “You’re the most powerful person we know, but you just let him go on killing.”

  “There are some things you don’t understand, young girl. I suggest you keep to your school work.”

  “And what school work is that? Getting murdered while you sit here, all smug?”

  The old man shook his head, then knelt next to Raynee and put his hand on her cheek. There were no tears, but his eyes were a tad sorrowful. “The first problem is that I can’t kill him. None of us can. The art of using our forces to end the life of another has been lost for millennia. Until he arrived, we believed it equally impossible as killing oneself using any of the forces. Mordriss is the only one who knows how. Therefore, the best we can do is delay him.”

  “You could’ve still helped.” She tried to withhold her tears.

  Algard stood and walked over to the silent Farlan. “You know I wouldn’t ask this if it weren’t the most desperate of circumstances, but would you be so kind to leave us now? I have a private matter I wish to discuss.”

  “Of course,” Farlan said. “Scary stuff, this Mordriss. I can’t imagine the poor guy who took that video.” He stood. “I bid you luck, Ralph and Gloria.”

  When Farlan had left, I wondered why Algard had bothered sending him away. It wasn’t like he’d remember the conversation.

  “Very well,” Algard said once he was sure we were alone. “While I doubt my skills will be of any use, perhaps my knowledge can be. I fear asking this of you, because I suspect it’s the very thing Mordriss wants. Our only hope therefore is for you to find an advantage in it before he does.”

  “What?” I replied. “We’ll do anything.”

  “I need you to find your father.”

  A combination of anger and anxiety hit me simultaneously. My father was alive and out there, but why had Algard hidden this fact? Why didn’t he tell me the moment we met?

  “And how are we supposed to do that?” Raynee sneered, echoing my thoughts.

  “I’m afraid I can’t help you there, or I would have done it myself. But anyone who can create the universes and decombulator that were prepared for Jason, has powers in the range of Mordriss. There’s a chance he may be able to help us. Of course, if that’s what Mordriss wants, then we may only exacerbate our situation.”

  “You’re not giving us much to go on,” Raynee said. “Do you really have no idea who he is?”

  “I do.” Algard sat and covered his head with his hands. “It’s a name that’s been forbidden for many years, and I will not utter it now. We’ve spent a great deal of effort removing every trace of his existence, but I knew him many years ago.”

  “So you know his name, and won’t even tell us that?” Raynee crossed her arms.

  “I only suspect someone. Besides, he’s the kind to never let go of a grudge. If he even suspects I sent you, there’s no chance he’ll help.”

  “Very well.” Raynee stepped in front of me. “We’ll head to Earth today, this instant.”

  Algard nodded. “But before you go, let’s see if you’ll have a school to return to.”

  The entire student body was assembled in the cenosance room. Darstan stood silently at the head, serving more as a ceremonial figurehead among the clatter and crying. Most had wet eyes, but from the cacophony of arguments there was little semblance of an agreement on what to do.

  The students went silent when Algard’s rigid figure appeared. Raynee and I took places at the back. With no words, he walked among the student body, placing an arm here and there for consolation. When he reached the room’s center, he took another moment to meet each student’s eyes.

  “What says Oreca Gifted?” he shouted.

  There was no answer.

  “When Mordriss arrived last time, it was by surprise. By the time we knew his capabilities, he was already gone. But now we’ve been warned. He can reach our school and, if he desires, destroy us.”

  Everyone’s head was down. They knew this was the truth.

  “Our school has lasted for millennia. But never before has it faced such a threat. You all have families, and I understand the desire to seek comfort with them instead of continuing your education.”

  “What about a third option?” Revis asked, interrupting. He didn’t have that broad smirk across his face. Instead, his countenance was serious and his fists were clenched. “Between all of us here, maybe we can do something. Maybe, if Mordriss dares pay us a visit, we can make him regret it.”

  There was doubt in Algard’s eyes, but he neither shook his head nor replied.

  “It’s not just Algard,” Revis added. “There are the other professors, and then there’s us. Mordriss has always taken his victims one-by-one. What would he do if attacked by a hundred at once?”

  “But what about Heskera?” a girl asked. “Don’t you think those three thousand people fought back?”

  “I don’t think so. They were scared. Heck, we’re all scared. But maybe, if we stick this out together, we have a chance.”

  Raynee gave me a quizzical look when I stepped forward.

  “And the longer we stay here,” I added. “The more we learn. We’ll have a better chance improving here, than just waiting for him at home.”

  Revis gave me a nearly imperceptible nod, then turned back to the crowd. “So, what do you say?” he shouted. “We’re not closing thousands of years of learning just because of one loser, no matter how powerful he is.”

  There were slow murmurs of agreement, but still a few vociferous opponents.

  “And what do I say to my family when I return home and they’re dead?” Henry yelled.

  “You come back here and tell us where he is,” Raynee said out loud.

  The student body made a path for her as she walked forward. She then grabbed my hand and we joined Revis.

  “I’m sick of being scared,” she shouted. “It’s time we fight back. Why are we waiting for him? When we know where he is, we attack—every one of us. In the meantime, let’s keep learning.”

  There was widespread applause at that remark, and Raynee bowed slightly to Revis, then left him alone on the stage.

  “What says Oreca Gifted?” he yelled.

  “We fight!” every student responded.

  “Aren’t we getting them a bit too riled up?” I whispered to her. “Attack or not, he has resonance powers none of us know. Algard said so.”

  “Yeah, but they’re going to tear their hair out at home. It’s better here. Studying will take their mind away from it.”

  “And if he comes out in the open? You just ordered an attack.”

  “Then we need to find your father before that happens.”

  Her eyes, though, confirmed my own worries. How did he have anything to do with Mordriss, and what could he possibly do to help?

  “Come on, let’s get out of here,” she said.

  When we were outside the school, I headed toward
my ship, until Raynee pulled me away.

  “We travel together for now. Can’t take any chances.”

  “Even at night?” I grinned, and instantly regretted it.

  My head slammed against the side of her ship, then my arms and legs bound together like a sardine.

  “I don’t want to hear any of that crap. We have a goal here. Don’t forget. If you start thinking like that,” she paused to look down, “I swear I’ll resonate it in half.”

  She let me go, and I hesitantly held my hand out to follow her through the wormhole. She sighed, then we were through.

  *

  Sareya was standing in front of us.

  “They cancelled school today. Because of Heskera.”

  Raynee rushed toward Sareya and hugged her tight. She was bawling, while Sareya was a bit confused.

  “Do you have a hiding place?” Raynee asked while wiping away her tears.

  “Yes, it’s—”

  “Don’t tell me where it is. If there’s a single scream, go there. Don’t worry if it’s a false alarm. Go there until you know for sure it’s safe. That sick monster is out there. We both know what he does.”

  Raynee hugged her for another minute, then walked away and motioned me to follow. I waved back at Sareya, then followed Raynee into the woods. It felt strange knowing that I was about to return to Earth. That time seemed so long ago now. How little I knew then.

  We didn’t talk at all while Raynee made her way mechanically through the forest. While the portal for the turnip patch wasn’t far, every tree here still looked the same. It seemed a miracle that she had found it once, and spectacular that she’d managed to find it again.

  At last, we reached a thicket, where Raynee promptly essonated a portal and threw me inside. The green meadow and dark sky were familiar. We were back in my turnip patch. Raynee moved toward creating the portal to Earth, but I just stood there.

  “Where did I used to . . .? Where was I?”

  She paused, then softened her stance and searched among a mostly empty patch. “You were somewhere here.” She pointed to a handful of holes.

  Many of the turnips were now rotten, while dozens of others were completely gone. Empty depressions replaced the carcasses. I perused each one, wondering where I’d stayed all those years, and how I’d never noticed.