A New Reality

by Clare Solomon

  “I doubt that would be possible,” Abbrin said with his habitual frown. “If she somehow stopped that form of magic from being performed, it would almost certainly prevent us from travelling between dimensions too.”

  “If that is the price for keeping people safe, all our races may decide that it is necessary,” Dervyl said and looked at Amy.

  “I’m certainly willing to do anything I can to help,” she said at once.

  “Good,” Dervyl said with a smile, seemingly unaffected by Abbrin’s hostility and by the lack of knowledge and progress regarding the ghosts. “Thank you, everyone.”

  They left her office and, pausing in the hallway, Barve said, “These ghosts scare me. This could be the beginning of an attack on us.”

  “The world should never have been changed,” Abbrin said, overhearing this. No one responded to his words so he walked into one of the offices and closed the door behind him.

  “That wasn’t what I meant,” Barve said, several others hovering close by to talk further, although Farlden and Callie weren’t amongst them, having already headed away somewhere. “I don’t believe anyone is to blame for them being here.”

  “I know,” Elliot said. “They worry me too.” Tchaffi had warned him against assigning any paranormal qualities to them without evidence but all his instincts said that something was dangerously wrong when living people mixed with the dead.

  Chapter Thirteen

  FARLDEN WASN’T sure how he felt about continuing to use magic with Elliot. On the one hand, it made his magic seem far stronger than ever before, which felt wonderful. On the other, he was ambivalent about the feelings it produced in him for Elliot and the intense sense of connection it caused between them. He had been happy with Callie but, since Elliot’s arrival, their relationship had felt strained. Besides, Elliot was a complete stranger to him and Fal didn’t want to mess up something good for something he didn’t even understand. He shouldn’t let himself trust Elliot so much.

  Dervyl and Elliot were waiting for him to join them, though, and, if it could help stop the ghosts, he had to do all he could. He had done little with his magical ability so far, his time so far on Dervyl’s team having been spent reading up on Izient findings and doing mental exercises to try to open new parts of his mind.

  Perhaps, with Dervyl there, the magic with Elliot would seem less of a big deal this time. Callie was there to monitor what happened and pull them out of the magic if it got too dangerous and she looked tense. Farlden took her hand and squeezed it and she smiled, holding onto him for a moment.

  He reluctantly let go of her to sit on a cushion on the floor with Dervyl and Elliot.

  “Shall we start?” Dervyl asked and they agreed.

  Farlden closed his eyes and, while his and Dervyl’s magics bolstered each other and pulled them all back to see the right time period, Elliot found the right memory. Farlden had only tried to do magic with Al and Mosrra before and it had not been a good experience – an intimacy akin to being forced to kiss someone you didn’t like – so he had been wary of working with others again. The magic with Elliot yesterday had changed Farlden’s feelings about it, although his reactions had gone disturbingly far in the opposite direction, in the way of kissing someone you hadn’t realised you liked and really shouldn’t have kissed. With Dervyl, the experience was less personal but more powerful. Her presence was comforting in the link between the three of them and her magic was so strong that it made something complex feel effortless. She was also a buffer between him and Elliot, putting a slight distance between them so that Farlden could concentrate more on what the magic was showing them and less on what he was sharing with Elliot.

  Fal saw the meeting thousands of years ago between newly evolved Sapiens and Neans and, through Elliot’s magic, he could also see the thought Elliot had planted in their minds. Dervyl led their minds forward through Time to view the effect of this change, with all three human species creating civilisations together and learning from each other. They were looking for some problem with Time that would explain the ghosts, he reminded himself, but he could see nothing like this.

  Eventually, after following the path through Time to the present, they let the magic fade away and Fal opened his eyes. He had a headache and, when he looked over at Elliot, he saw that the man’s nose was oozing blood. Elliot put a hand to his nose and only succeeded in smearing the blood about.

  “Here, let me help,” Farlden said, pulling a tissue out of his jacket pocket and crawling closer to the Sapiens. He lifted the tissue to Elliot’s face and gently wiped away the blood, then did the same with his hand, holding Elliot’s wrist lightly as he brushed the stain from his fingers. He looked up and froze at the expression in Elliot’s eyes, overcome by the need in them.

  Abruptly he remembered that Dervyl and Callie – his girlfriend, Callie – were in the room too and he dropped his gaze and pulled away, getting to his feet, his heart beating too fast.

  “I could see no negative effect from the magic,” Dervyl said as she too stood up. She behaved as if she had thought nothing strange of the interaction with Elliot and Farlden.

  “Nor could I,” Elliot agreed, still sitting down, clearly affected more than them by doing the magic. “Does that mean the arrival of the ghosts didn’t have anything to do with us?”

  “Perhaps,” Dervyl said in a considering manner.

  Farlden risked a glance at Callie and found her watching him with a frown. She immediately looked away from him, making him wonder what his expression had revealed. He hated feeling as if he was doing something wrong and he couldn’t bear to damage his relationship with Callie, so he needed to put some distance between himself and Elliot, even if that too felt wrong.

  Chapter Fourteen

  ELLIOT WAS feeling elated after doing magic with Farlden again and after the tender way Fal had looked after him when he got the nosebleed. That was why he did something incredibly stupid and wrecked whatever had been developing between them.

  Callie had left the room first and Dervyl followed, saying she would update the others on how the magic had gone.

  “Are you sure you’re recovered now?” Farlden asked him and his concern warmed Elliot.

  “I’m fine. I’ve been affected far worse than that. Do you have a headache at all?”

  “A bit of one. How did you know?”

  “Strong magic seems to affect us like that.”

  “I suppose there are bound to be side-effects from doing something so powerful.”

  “They lessen the more we practise,” Elliot said, reminding him of what he had already known in the other timeline. This should have been a reminder that this wasn’t his Fal but they were standing close together and all Elliot could think about was how much he had missed talking alone with Fal and holding him and...

  Unable to resist any longer, he curled a hand round the nape of Farlden’s neck and leaned in to kiss him. Their lips touched and everything was finally right again, like coming home. It was what he had been aching to rediscover: the spicy taste of Fal’s mouth, the feel of broad shoulders beneath Elliot’s arm and blond hair like silk against the back of his hand. He had needed this so badly and the perfection of it was so intense it was almost painful; he knew he could cope with anything as long as he had this, but then Farlden jerked away from him and took several steps backwards, out of reach, breathing heavily.

  “Elliot, don’t. I’m dating Callie.”

  “But I need you more,” Elliot said, silently begging him to remember. He could see the barrier of lost memories coming between them again and he knew he sounded pathetic but couldn’t let go when he had come so close to getting back everything he had lost. “You love me.”

  “No, I don’t,” Farlden told him without hesitation, a frown making his expression forbidding. It was the way Fal had looked at him when they first met and he didn’t want anything to do with Elliot. “I don’t know you. Whatever you think you know about me isn’t real in this world. I’m sorry that that
’s not what you want to hear but you have to accept it. I love Callie.”

  The words struck at Elliot like a blow and it was like waking up from a dream; a lovely dream but one that bore no resemblance to this harsh new reality. He and Fal weren’t even friends here and, as much as the idea tore him apart, Elliot had to stop expecting something between them that no longer existed. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  He walked out of the room, away from the man he loved who wanted nothing to do with him, and almost collided with a tall figure in a navy robe. Abbrin said with his usual slightly moody expression, “Dervyl needs us all in her office now.”

  “But I’ve just seen her,” Elliot said, wanting to get away on his own to yell or cry or just curl up on the floor and shut out the world for a few minutes.

  “Now,” Abbrin repeated and put his head round the door of the room Elliot had just left to repeat the message to Farlden.

  Not wanting to face Farlden again right now, Elliot turned round and entered Dervyl’s room, where most of the others were already waiting. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Abbrin and Farlden appear, completing the team, but he kept his gaze fixed on their leader.

  “I needed you to know right away what has happened,” Dervyl said in an unusually sombre tone and Elliot tried to push aside what had occurred and the rawness of his feelings, and pay attention to her. “One of the first people who saw a ghost – an Izient in the other earth dimension – has just died. The situation has become critical.”

  There were several exclamations over this news and quiet conversations were struck up over it. Elliot stood alone, taking in the fact that this was now his world and it was in danger, probably because of something he had helped do. He had a responsibility to fix the mistake. As impossible as the idea was, he had to find a way to get over Farlden and to stop the ghosts. No matter what the risks might be, it was up to him to put an end to the danger.

  Chapter Fifteen

  SEVERAL MORE days passed and no progress was made over the ghosts. Hundreds of the creatures had been seen now and the effects were always the same: if anyone tried to communicate with them or touch them, that person went crazy. The News services around the planet had been alerted to the findings and began warning people to stay away from the creatures.

  Elliot returned to the government building where they worked after having gone out with Nariss and Mosrra to jointly use magic to look into the mind of someone who had encountered a ghost. He got out of Nariss’s car and looked up at the now familiar modern building, which was designed in more of an Izient style than a Sapiens one, with a garden on the roof and broad ledges outside some of the windows where food and drinks could be put out for birds. Inside, there were boulders lying about and Nean-style bright artwork on the walls. Elliot was starting to get used to the fact that everywhere was like this now: a mixture of what resembled the past timeline, which had largely been based on Sapiens’ designs, and the new elements from Izient and Nean culture which had looked so strange to him when he first got here.

  The knowledge Tchaffi had shared with him was helping him adapt to his new life and he was doing his best to avoid Farlden, giving himself time to grieve for a relationship that no longer existed. He didn’t believe he would ever stop loving Fal but at least if he didn’t see him all the time Elliot wouldn’t keep having moments of gut-wrenching misery.

  He followed his colleagues towards the building but, from out of nowhere, someone stood in his way. No, not a person as he could see through its body to the street behind it: a ghost. The figure was pale, even its clothes, as if all the colour in them had faded to an overall greyness. It raised its head, its gaze meeting his, and he gasped in recognition.

  “Jim?” This wasn’t possible. There was no response from the ghost and no expression on its face, making it look eerily like a doll or robot.

  A hand grabbed his arm and he flinched, forcibly distracted from the ghost. “Don’t talk to it or you’ll go crazy like the others,” Mosrra told him and he saw how careful she was to avoid even looking at the ghost.

  He had so many questions, the main one being whether this meant Jim Barnes was dead in this reality, but he didn’t want to lose his mind. It felt cruel to walk away from the spectre of his friend without trying to find out what had happened to him, but Elliot followed Mosrra, keeping his eyes only on her until they got into the government building. Only then did he glance back and see that Jim was gone. The discovery hurt and he found himself remembering all the times he had shared with Jim, from their meeting to the poisoned sandwich, to Jim helping him and Fal escape capture. After the abuse Jim had been put through by his father and the boy’s attempt to get away and start a new life, the idea that he might be dead was cruel.

  He felt Mosrra’s hand on his arm again but this time the human contact was welcome, grounding him to the living world. “We need to tell Dervyl about this,” she said.

  With Mosrra and Nariss on either side of him, he walked to the elevator, out into the corridor and along it to Dervyl’s office. This version of Dervyl didn’t even know who Jim was and that felt wrong: Elliot wanted everyone to remember the teenager. Jim was one of the people who had risked his own life for Elliot and Fal. How could he suddenly be dead?

  “We saw a ghost,” Mosrra was telling Dervyl.

  “I knew him,” Elliot said, drawing the attention of the three women. “His name was Jim Barnes and we were friends in the past timeline. He should be alive.”

  “I’m sorry,” Dervyl told him. “That must have been difficult for you. You did not speak to him?”

  “No. I wanted to understand how he could be a ghost but Mosrra reminded me what would happen if I did. She saved me.” He only realised the truth of the words as he said them and he looked over at Mosrra in gratitude.

  “I am just glad none of us were harmed,” Mosrra said.

  “So am I,” Dervyl agreed. “I wonder if there was a reason why it appeared to you of all people.”

  Elliot shrugged. “I doubt there was. I mean, if the ghosts were drawn to me in particular because of the magic then surely I would’ve been the first person they came to or only people with magic would have been targeted.”

  “The ghosts were initially seen by Izients, who would have all possessed some degree of magic,” Dervyl said. “They may have manifested to others since then but it is possible that the magic is attracting them, that the massive surge of magical energy caused by changing reality first drew them to our worlds.”

  “Then perhaps magic could get rid of them too,” Nariss suggested.

  “It might,” Dervyl agreed. “I will need to leave and have a discussion about this with the Izients in my dimension who have the most powerful magic. Mosrra, would you update our team and keep everyone looking for a solution?”

  “Of course.”

  It seemed as if they were starting to make progress on the problem but Elliot couldn’t be happy about it, unable to shake the idea of Jim being dead in this timeline and, worse, that his former best friends didn’t even remember who Jim was. It was as if Jim had never existed at all.

  * * *

  Dervyl walked through the shimmering doorway to the other earth dimension and, once she was standing on the grass of that other world, she closed the door behind her, letting the magic she had used to create the portal disperse. This was supposed to be the Izient dimension, home to her people, but she had not been born here and she had spent more of her life on the other races’ earth than here. She enjoyed visiting it but felt no strong sense of connection to the world.

  She thought of Abbrin’s un-Izient-like anger and resentment and wondered if she too seemed more Sapiens or Nean than Izient to the people here. She had learnt about magic from Tchaffi and a few others in this realm, though, and had spent a dozen years on this world learning, inside her own mind, how the universe worked. Her magic was powerful and, unlike Abbrin, she had taken on responsibility for teaching the other races, believing everyone’s knowledge would b
e more powerful and meaningful if they grew together.

  Tchaffi came out of a nearby building and caught sight of Dervyl, her wrinkled features turning upwards in a warm smile of greeting, which Dervyl returned as she walked over to her.

  “Elliot saw a ghost,” she said.

  Tchaffi’s smile faded away. “Was his mind affected?”

  “Thankfully, no.” Dervyl told the other woman what had happened as they sat down on a bench overlooking a nearby river.

  “How are the rest of your team coping with all this trouble?”

  “Much as I would expect. They are all eager to help, particularly Elliot who, I believe, irrationally feels some sense of responsibility for the ghosts’ arrival. Nariss has an idea of using her magic to find out why the ghosts are here – forcing the knowledge from them – but, until we can find a way to protect people’s minds, such an action would simply drive her insane and she would be able to tell us nothing of what she had learnt.”

  “And Abbrin?”

  Dervyl looked sharply at Tchaffi, wondering what she had heard. “He is trying to convince anyone who will listen that the appearance of the ghosts is all my fault because I was involved in the magic that changed reality.”

  “I had heard as much already, although neither I nor anyone else here would listen to such irrational arguments. I was, after all, involved in that magic too and – by his reasoning – just as responsible, yet he makes no accusation against me. I see now why you asked to not have him on your team when it was being created ten months ago.”

  “Abbrin’s magic is strong but he lacks dispassion. I fear he sees me as his personal enemy, which helps neither him nor me.”

  “I had thought once that his friendship with Mosrra might calm him down and that learning about the other human races would teach him to respect them. Perhaps he needs to return to this dimension for a few years.”