by Mark Russo
I gave up on talking to the worm and paced toward that heavy block of who-knows-what material. A cold knob surprised my left hand, but I pulled it toward me anyhow.
Beyond the threshold, the darkest of rooms opened.
I heard footsteps moving, like something or someone was running toward me. I stepped backward and closed the door again.
From behind the door, that thing banged on the wooden surface with all its strength.
The worm got closer to me and chirped as loud as it could.
I needed to prioritize what to understand first.
I backpedaled from that frozen handle, but the gravel creature beside me screamed even louder. So I moved toward the door, and it seemed to calm it down a tad. The thumping from the other side of stone board didn’t stop. I lay my hand on the crude metal; the cold hit me again, sharp. Was it asking me to do that? The flow of thoughts froze in my brain. I pulled that lever, the hinges creaked, and I gave up on breathing.
From the darkness, a pair of human arms emerged and eyes hands reached for my neck.
I grabbed her and almost punched her, but I stopped in time.
She began crying, so I just held her.
I had found her; I had found Emma.
4
Maria
The next step would trigger it; I was more and more used to using that time walk skill. Then it happened—an infinite line of blue trees materialized on my left-hand side, so did the horizon and everything before it. It was like scrolling through a long series of pics, just I was inside the pictures themselves.
When my other foot landed on the ground, I heard Akko calling me. “Hey, Maria, great. You can finally walk within the series. It’s fun, isn’t it?”
The surroundings multiplication effect stopped, and we were again by the pond.
“It looks like you can keep your digested food inside you. I’d say that is progress,” he continued.
I glared down at him. “It was better when you did not understand humor at all.”
He smiled, revealing two holes in his head from below his thick eyebrows. “I’m a fast learner, see? We have a win-win situation here.”
I sat on the ground—this conversation had to be eye to eye—and smiled. “I’m happy we put our differences behind us, but I still have lots of questions and doubts.”
He pretended to poke me with his stick. “I expected nothing less than that, Maria. Are you curious? It’s good.”
“Okay, then let’s time walk together.”
He agreed without commenting.
I straightened my arms downward, placed one foot in front of the other and moved one step—a little cumbersome but effective. Once I had stepped forward, the temporal series appeared all around me.
“Okay, Maria. There’s no need to hasten your pace when triggering this skill. Let’s slow down.”
“Sure, let’s try that, boss.”
When we did, we stayed inside that kaleidoscope of evolving landscapes.
“Okay, we said already this is a temporal series.” His tone lingered toward the patronizing.
“Yes, sir.” I used a salute gesture, but he ignored it. “We are seeing the movement of time at a slower pace than others do.”
“Oh, you are finally learning something. What else comes to your mind?”
I was always lightheaded when time walking, but I wouldn’t show. “These are just several possibilities. All we see are probable scenarios, but none are actually real.”
He stopped walking. “I’m impressed, Maria. Finally, we are making some real progress.”
The series collapsed on itself, and the world looked normal again.
“I wanted to tell you something else. All the visual effects, the excitement, and Aeg are great. I like it here, but how do I use this to help Emma and James?”
His face brightened. “I have a present for you, Maria. It’s time you use our skills, for real.” He slipped his hand inside his coat and, after a few seconds of rummaging, removed a long and slim blue sword.
“You won’t hurt me, right?” The blade pointing at me was almost as tall as Akko.
“Here, take it. It’s yours.” He twisted the sword in the air, offering me to grab the hilt, and I did.
“This is so tiny and light. Am I supposed to take down monsters with this?” It really looked brittle and, well, smalltime.
“You will, and you better prepare, right now.” He stepped sideways, and a horrible creature, like a dog with too many legs and no face, appeared behind him.
The beast leapt toward me, and I backpedaled, almost tumbling to my feet. I thrusted my weapon, not aiming at a precise spot.
The deformed dog avoided it, rolling on its right side.
I again directed the point of the sword at it. Waiting didn’t seem to be an option worth trying. I pounced at my opponent.
It expected that move and hopped in my direction; it hit me, and I lost my balance.
From the ground, I saw it plummeting on me. I grabbed my new toy tighter, and I went for my attacker’s throat. The blue metal pierced its soft gray skin and skid inside, but it was not the end.
That Plane K horror landed on me; one of its claws grabbed my left wrist. Those strong nails scratched me, and some blood leaked out.
I swung the sword all the way to the left, and the faceless head of the monster dropped. I stood as fast as I could and exclaimed in the highest pitch my vocal cords could sustain, “What the fuck was that? Are you insane?”
He stammered a few words, but I interrupted him. “You want to put me to the test? Fine, at least let’s do it safely.” I stormed away from him.
“I’m sorry!” he yelled when I was already a few steps away.
I rushed back. “Oh, you are? Well, thanks! This thing could have killed me. For what? To prove a point?”
“You can’t really die in Plane K.”
I refrained from going berserk, for a second. “What do you mean?”
“If your body ever would, you will appear again at another location, the Creation Ponds.”
“I don’t want to respawn somewhere if I die. I want to know I’m safe. Are we done here?”
He pillaged his coat once more and dug out a glass phial filled with a syrupy green substance. “Use this. Rub it on the wound.”
I glared at him, suppressing all my vengeful thoughts, then reached for the exotic medication and opened it. It smelled like cinnamon cotton candy. “I just pour this here and magic happens?”
He nodded without making eye contact.
I did that. It stung a bit at first, then it became warm—uncomfortably warm. “Is this normal? It burns like fire.”
His nodded silently.
I looked at it and saw my skin had healed completely. “Sure, this is a nice trick. But still I don’t enjoy chopping off monster’s heads.”
“Okay, I made a mistake.” He bowed. “But let’s focus on what’s important. You know how to use that sword. Did you ever fence?”
I shook my head.
“You can handle that blade, because you are acquainted with the Path of Time.”
Well, he was way more direct than usual, and I appreciated it. “Am I to fight invisible people with this?” I fumbled around with the smooth piece of metal.
“That’s exactly what we are here for. Let me show you how it’s done.” We took the stance we had used so many times to trigger time walk. “There’s no need to do that. It is enough for you to want the skill to work, and it will.”
“Maybe that’s a tad beyond my level.”
“It’s not. Try it.”
I exhaled my expectations. Would it be good to focus on something? Would it rather be better not to? I just wished I could move through time. I looked down. The blades of the colorful grass multiplied in a familiar way. There were many Aeg now, lined one after the other, defying the concept of horizon.
“Very good. Remember that Aeg is very sensitive to the usage of skills from the Path of Time. It won’t be as easy in other areas of Plane K o
r in Plane R.” He changed his approach toward me completely.
“Okay, I’ll bear that in mind. Now show me some stuff.” My voice peaked high and turned shrill.
“I’ll show you one or two tricks these toys allow us to pull.”
I nodded in sheer excitement; my neck muscles stretched a bit too much.
“The first thing you have to understand,” he said while we moved through the hyper-deep scenery, “is the point your target will be when you activate a skill.”
My cheeks raised, and my eyebrows lowered. “How do you mean? We said none of this is real … for real.”
“Most is not. Some might be.”
He was again causing me a headache, despite that induced by the time walk itself. The line of blue trees on my right seemed just a line of trees. “I don’t see it. I know the first spruce back there was real. All the others are just copies of the first.”
“You have to look for a few things. Focus on the details; how might this situation evolve?” His stick hit the ground.
“Are we talking probability?”
“Yes, and there’s a way to leverage that. Do you see that rock over there?” he asked then disappeared. He—or better, an infinite number of Akkos—appeared next, one per each replica of the Aeg that laid before us. All the Akkos unsheathed blades similar to mine, then all dashed toward the rock he had mentioned. Thousands of blades pierced the stone and shattered it into pieces. The series collapsed, and Aeg was one again.
“That was awesome. I need to know how you did it. Now.”
He burst into laughter. “Like I’ve told you many times, we don’t want to rush. We should follow each step your training requires.”
I scoffed briefly, but he was right.
“Believe me, worse things could happen. Way worse than a little barfing. For example, if you bumped into another Path of Time person”—he disappeared again and popped up in front of me, his time blade aimed at my throat—“things might get hairy.”
I jumped from the uncontrollable urge. “I must learn this too. Teach me, please.”
“I’ll leave this to you. Sometimes it’s unnecessary to walk for too long in a temporal series.”
Riddles? No, no, no. “Wait! Give me more than a riddle, Akko.”
“Why don’t you just try to do what I just said?” He flashed me a grin.
“Sure. Do I just use the skill and deactivate it?”
“Exactly. Do not wield your blade while doing it. I don’t want to get hurt.”
How would that even happen? I tried as he said: trigger time walk and turn it off right after. I didn’t move from where I was standing, but I saw something, like an open road before me, for a split second before vanishing from sight.
“You are thinking of how to do it. Just do it, Maria.”
I looked in the washed-out yellow of the sky then moved that darn step ahead, and the world multiplied before me.
“Too slow, Maria. Take a short break. We did a lot of work today.”
“What for? We don’t even sleep here.”
He regarded me as if I was a kid throwing a tantrum. “Rest. Listen to me.”
Okay, maybe he was right.
*****
I sat on one of the purple rocks by the pond. It came to me; I hadn’t eaten in days, and my body was just fine. Akko had said it was Plane K; it changes human bodies somehow. I stood up and tried again. One step forward, just fast enough to time walk. I saw that path again, the one between the countless reproductions of the surroundings. So, I moved forward as fast as I could.
I found myself by a tree I had barely avoided a violent impact with. I tried again, on a trajectory clear from any obstacles. The temporal series materialized before me for a split second; I dashed forward for two or three meters. When I popped from the alternative reality, I stepped backward.
An ethereal image of Emma floated above the ground. “Leave Aeg, Maria. We need you.”
I stuttered before completing a full sentence. “Is that really you? Are you in danger?”
“Yes. Leave this place and find us in the Wastes. We are very close to defeating the Communion.”
“Oh, that’s great. How do I find you?”
“Follow the slipstream.” The ghost vanished but left an intangible trace in the air.
No time for second guessing. I had nothing to pack, so I was ready to bust out of there. Akko was probably in his chamber. I had never entered his private room, and I wouldn’t now. He would stop me; he would tell me I'm not ready.
I hastened down those stone steps, avoiding making unnecessary noise. My heart drummed at full pace. Around my neck lay a silver pendant with a shiny and elongated key.
He had told me, “You are home here. It is your right to have a key and protect it.”
I doubted he would be cool with me leaving.
There it was, that old and rusty latch, hanging midair. My hand shook when I inserted the key. The air ripped apart and revealed a tunnel, the way out from Aeg. I had never seen it beforehand; Akko never talked about it. I took a deep breath and plunged in the almost complete darkness of the passage.
5
Emma
“Let me get this straight, you were here,” he repeated for the tenth time.
“Yes, James. I was standing here, but you couldn’t hear or see me. I tried to touch you, but nothing.”
“How?”
“James, is this the weirdest thing that happened to us? I don’t know if you noticed, but a giant beast is right by our side.”
The animal—I couldn’t find another term to address it—stared at us, probably waiting for us to do something.
“I see your point. We’d better get going.”
“Do you know where we are going?”
I noticed that green powder covering his clothes, the one that meant Plan K to me. “Not exactly. He does.”
He pointed at the stone mastodon; they had made friends, apparently.
“Okay, how do we do it? Does he talk?”
I stayed behind him while we drew near the Plan K creature.
Despite its spooky proportions, the monster was not growling or roaring, as you would expect; it rather squeaked like a squirrel.
“He’s not dangerous. Can you talk to him?”
I grabbed his elbow and walked behind him. “You mean like connecting to him with my mind, right?”
He nodded.
Well, I could just try that. It would not be the first time. I focused and tried to reach out to the giant monster’s mind. Not a second later, I had established a stable connection. “This creature is not from Plane K.”
James gave me a dubious squint. “Can you elaborate on that? He does not look a lot like a human.”
We shared a quick laugh.
“I mean it. This gigantic serpent is here because of you.”
His eyebrows took the shape of a question mark. “I did not bring it here. It chased me. I thought he wanted to hurt me at first.”
“This stone worm, as you called it, is the new skill you gained. It belongs to you.”
My friend brought his left hand to his chin and chuckled. “I had no clue we might influence the Paths this much.”
“Do you have control over it? Can you give orders to him? Like, sit!”
James faced his pet and attempted something I could not see. He pushed his left arm forward, then the other. “It looks like I do not know how to do that, Emma.”
I got by his side and patted his shoulder. “You’ll get there. Now let’s find out how to kick these monsters’ asses.”
*****
James let me hang up his stone board. We were speeding, and I had to keep my balance constantly. I had never been good at sports.
“You won’t fall, don’t worry. This board, you know, is magic.”
“It’s not like I don’t trust your board. I don’t trust me.”
Two humans and a giant stone worm were crossing Plan K’s desert, and all I could think was not to fall from that damn sk
ateboard.
“Any clue where he is leading us?” I shouted at James over all the noise we were making.
“Not the slightest. I don’t seem to get him.” He pointed at the stone worm beast, harrowing forward just before us.
“What is that? Have you seen it before?”
“I’m as surprised as you, Emma.”
Roughly two hundred meters ahead of us, a wide and flat construction appeared.
“I swear to God this was not here before,” James said while the black building grew bigger.
“I will not venture into details, but I’ve seen weird stuff in Plane K too.”
We slowed while drawing nearer to the alien construction. It had a shape that loosely resembled a circle, and its swarthy external walls were at least ten meters tall.
“This looks like a huge communist-era building. Like barracks, I’d say.”
Well, he was creative.
“To me, this is a concrete block. Are there even any doors somewhere?”
We both studied the construction while our surfboard scattered rocks here and there.
I had the impression something moved on top of the barracks, as James called them. “Did you see that?” I asked, not moving my head to face him.
He gave a distracted squint at me. “I did not see that, but someone has been following us for some time now.”
Well, I didn’t notice that either. “Whatever is following us, it sure is fast and cautions.”
He acknowledged that.
We stopped in the building's vicinity. James’s surfboard crashed into pieces as soon as we got off it, and he looked around. “From this point, we have to walk.”
“Wait, let me send a double ahead. Something’s not right with this place.”
He recoiled from his position, granting me a full perspective of the first building I ever saw in Plane K.
From a closer distance, what I could see was a massive block of dark stone, like someone had carved it off an even larger mountain and dragged it there.
My double executed my order without saying a word—her eyes became mine. She proceeded toward what appeared to be the entrance—an ever-darker hole on the front side of the construction. The images I received from the clone’s eyes were your typical Plane K picture—everything gleaming in green. The closer she got to the threshold, the more my senses sharpened.