by Gabi Moore
"You don't have to do this thing..." he said. "Not that I don't believe you, or that I think this was all instrumental."
"Well, I try to speak my mind when I feel moved to do so."
I couldn't apologize for being honest; that was one of the things that was not in my nature.
"All I mean to say is that, I'm not sure this has to be the end. Let's go through, and see what's on the other side. Maybe we can figure out a few more pieces of the puzzle together, and nobody has to kill themselves on behalf of an experiment that we're not sure is even going to work."
A cloud grew over my disposition.
The sacrifice.
I bit my lip and closed my eyes. If Thane were here, I knew what he would do. He wouldn't have thought twice about it. Blood needed to be shed. Sacrifices needed to be made in order to serve the greater good. The only other solution would be to let the portal close once more, and accept whatever minor ripples came out from the experience.
We have become the conquerors, I realized, within the safety of my own mind.
"Don't worry about it. I think you and I can figure something out together. Let's see if this opening made any kind of impact on your world. You are from the Astral Plane, right?
"Not exactly. I'm from the Fae Realm, though we can't be certain that is where the portal is going to take us."
"The Fae Realm is less dense than the Material Plane?"
I nodded, that much was accurate, and didn't require a lecture on metaphysics.
He shrugged in response.
"Shouldn't it be easier to detect changes in your world, easier than say the impact this portal will have on the material plane?"
I paced away from the portal, and opened up my lungs. When my head was clear, I thought about what he was asking, and nodded an affirmative.
"The primary reason for opening the rift is to absorb some of the vitality of the material plane into our damaged ecosystem. Theoretically, I should be able to go through, visit the Capitol, and get a reading by the time the portal closes."
"Then that's what we'll do."
"Excuse me?"
"You didn't think I was just going to stay here? For Christ's sake, we fucked, and I gave my blood and sperm to open up the damned thing. I'm not staying here."
"What about your dogs?"
Both of the dogs looked at their master with concern in their eyes.
"They can stay by the truck and keep Binksy company."
Rosemary barked straight in his ear, and pounced him with her paws. Amethyst on the other hand didn't seem to think it was such a bad idea.
"The rat?"
"Sure. Binksy the Rat. They will find their way back."
Amethyst seemed to agree with the sentiment, but Rosemary was more than a bit worried. I myself was not entirely sold. All Erol did was scratch Rosemary's chin encouragingly, and shrug.
"You're going to have to kill me if you want to stop me, which might end up helping both of us out anyways. But, if you're not interested in doing that."
"I don't think I would have enjoyed myself as much if I knew that I would have to kill you afterward."
He thought this was funny, but I was being serious.
"Buzzkill huh?"
"Yep."
I let out a long sigh, and realized that something fundamental had changed between the two of us. He wasn't going to take no for an answer. What's more is I got the sense that he was totally committed.
"All right, let's go. No sense in waiting around to lose time. If we're going to get to the Fae Realm and get a solid reading then we're going to have to move."
He nodded, and gave each of his dogs a hug. Then he leaned in toward them and whispered something into their ear. The dogs both cocked their head to the side, and without any mistake indicated that they understood their master's request, and would follow directions.
"Unbelievable. You and the Wilder Fae. I don't have that kind of touch with animals."
"You just have to believe that they understand you and be sincere about it; they can sense those sorts of things."
I watched as the two dogs bounded down the trail, away from the two of us. Amethyst stopped for a moment before heading down, but a short bark from Rosemary, and they were both on their way. Erol, on the other hand was showing no trace of sentimentality. He was balancing on one foot, working on pulling his pants up over his bare ass when I turned my attention in his direction once more.
"So, how does this work?"
My attention had been focused on his body, and it took me a moment to respond appropriately.
"Um, similar to the spell. Most magic works under a few common principles."
"Intention?"
I nodded.
"Yep. Intention, and recall. For instance, it would be nearly impossible for you to get over to the Capitol having never been there. You'd probably end up in the Wild somewhere, or worse."
A frown came across my face as I recalled the possibilities in the latter category.
"Worse," he shuddered. "Don't tell me about them, I don't want it in my mind. I'll just focus on going the same place you are going, and leave the navigation up to you. We can go to the Capitol, take the readings, and make a decision before we come back here at midnight."
"Decision?"
He ignored my question as though it were not even relevant.
"How's the time difference?"
I blinked, still caught on the depth taking place behind the scenes in Erol's mind.
"Time is a pretty flippant thing when dealing between dimensions. One to the other, I've never made much of a study. All of the work I've done has only been time sensitive within the context of one plane."
"Okay, we'll have to assume the worse then. Are you ready?"
I looked him over from head to toe, and then I looked at myself.
We were stained with cum, sweat and blood. Our clothes were dirty, and our bodies were scratched and scarred. All we had was a knife and a desperate hope to pin our actions on. There was no special equipment, and no real, verifiable information.
"I'd say we are about as ready as we're going to get."
"All right then."
He approached my side, and we turned to together to face the portal. The light reflected eerily against the inky black ocean beyond. All of the beautiful colors that had once painted the sky were now absent. The only source of light was the chaotic uncertainty that waited before us.
I closed my eyes, and pictured a clear vision of the Capital in my mind. I envisioned the two of us in our current location. I thought about every inch of Erol's body, and rendered the two of us together in my mind.
As he held my hand, I could feel the sweat coming off from the palm of his hand. He had come off as self-assured, but there was something comforting about the fact that he was just as terrified as I was. We both knew that there was no way to go but forward.
Seizing our bravery, and holding onto one another by the hand, we made the jump.
Chapter 18
The colors swirled all around me, and I felt a tightening of Erol's fingers around my hand.
We floated through the chaos of the portal, and every single bit of my attention was focused on securing our arrival at the capital. I felt waves of panic rise up inside of me, and reality threatened to never quite pull itself together again, as it should. None of my fears became realized at that point. There was nothing to worry about after all.
The two of us arrived on our hands and knees in front of the great stone steps of the Capitol building.
The air was cool, and there was no light in the sky except for the bright blue fae fires which lined the stone pillars of the building like glowfish in some purple ocean.
My hands and knees were scratched, and I had to recover from a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, but the trip had gone smoothly into the Fae Realm.
Home...
I looked at my body and was honestly a bit sad to be back in my broken body once more.
One wing
stuck out uncomfortably through the back of my dress. The fabric had been ripped, and since my breasts were now significantly smaller, the dress sagged at the top. My skin was a different color once more, and I seemed to be a reflection of the evening around the two of us.
The strangest thing about our arrival was that there was no one else around. The Capitol was not usually this empty. Something was terribly wrong.
Erol on the other hand was not yet able to get out of his state of shock from the transfer.
This isn't my body...
I took a sharp inhale, and tried to clear my mind for a moment.
Focus.
My hands immediately went to my face, and I began to rub the bones around my eyelids.
"We are in another dimension. All souls inhabit new forms for each dimension they visit. I personally haven't ever met a human who has come to the Fae Realm before, but that really shouldn't be our focus right now. Can you pull yourself together or not?"
He gulped, and nodded.
"Good, then follow me. We need to get over to the University."
I let go of his hand, and took a few steps. The acclimation to the new body was a bit slower this time. I ended up stumbling a bit, and losing my inner sense of balance. The vertigo passed while I held my head with both hands. Pushing forward, I willed myself to continue.
"If you die, then that is the course of your life, but for sake of the gods you are going to push through this."
The promise was spoken to myself, through grit teeth, but it had an impact on Erol as well, as he ended up getting his shit together as well. The two of us ran toward a transport station located nearby the capitol, and hopped on a pair of hover discs. Aristocratic government types who were accustomed to sitting in their desks all day were usually the ones who used these sorts of things. They were a relic from Xan's era, which had been stripped of its privatization and made available for public use.
"Lean into it," I nodded. "Yea. Like that."
He could have flown.
Most fae preferred to fly, rather than taking the hover discs. However, there were a few who, like me were no longer physically capable of flight. Whether they were handicapped, or indulgent business types, I always thought hover discs looked too flashy to be taken seriously. However, with no one around, and a limited amount of time, I didn't mind dealing with a bit of pretension in order to achieve our goal.
The portal remained behind us, as Erol and I cruised through the vacant streets of the Fae Realm.
Where is everyone? I thought.
The empty streets of the Capitol brought an urgency to the situation that stretched beyond what was reasonable. I had grown worried, but I needed to push that into the back of my mind.
Focus on the present moment.
The way the disc moved through the air became my sole focus. I allowed the wind to caress my body, and took pleasure in the way that the disc pushed long grasses down to the ground in my wake. In the distance, the University came into view.
The buildings were more deteriorated than the Capitol. The University was untouched by the superficial protections that were offered to the Capitol. Every financial resource that had been directed toward the University since before the revolution had been directed exclusively into research.
We pulled up along the side of the great library, and jumped off.
"I don't understand why we can't just bring something like that back through to the human dimension. That technology alone would change lives."
"Fundamental difference in physics. Now, can we please focus on the task at hand?"
Once we reached the inside of the library, I started to feel a sense of relief wash over me. The outer landscape had been eerily absent of people, but the University library had the most subtle indications that people were around. The space was comfortable in a very physical, old-sweater kind of way.
Going downstairs, I saw that the fae fire lamps hi-lighting the stairs were in operation still. Down in the basement, where our research lab awaited, there were the sounds of Fae at work.
When I opened the door to the lab, Erol just about lost his cool.
"My God!"
The scientists that had been hard at work, turned an irritated eye toward the source of the outburst.
I had been on an acquaintance-based relationship with these people for some time, but there was no real love present. When I had last seen them, I had been busily attempting to remove myself from the majority of prominent Fae society over the last year. A hand full of people had offered me sympathies, while the vast majority couldn't understand or relate to my depression.
These trollish Fae, that permanently dwelled in the basement laboratories of the University Library were a part of the latter group.
"We need your data on the approaching environmental instability."
He paused and regarded me suspiciously, while all of the others in the lab stopped what they were doing and turned toward Erol and myself. All movement in the room stopped, and all that was left was the monitors which surrounded the workstations of the lab.
"Aria, why are you still here?"
"I noticed that the streets were pretty empty on my way over here."
His laughter in response to that statement was sick, like something braking inside of his soul. He coughed, and squinted at me from behind his wire-framed glasses. Pulling a cigarette out of his pocket, he lit up and walked over to open up one of the windows which lead upward to the surface level through a ventilation shaft.
"There was an evacuation. Most of the populace is with the Wilder Fae right now in the outer forests. Most of the members of the Capitol are in negotiations with the Tribe about using their lands as an extended shelter, though from the looks of it, I'm not sure how much good that is actually going to do."
"Can you show us what you are seeing? We need to know if there have been any changes in metaphysical currents in the last hour or so."
His eyes narrowed, as he looked at me, smoke rising through the air from his nostrils.
"What do you know?"
I shook my head, and pushed his inquisition off to the side.
"No time. I'm here because we need to get real time information on what's happening with cross dimensional currents, and this lab is the only place where I can get an accurate readout in the time frame needed."
He stubbed out his smoke on the wall, leaving a black, ashy stain followed by a flick towards the nearest trash can. The rest of the attendants in the lab were watching the entire situation unfold like it was the most interesting social phenomenon they had seen in their lives.
"Get back to work!"
He walked over to a station that was covered in papers and monitors, and waved the two of us over.
"They don't understand why you are here. That or they do, and your celebrity is giving them pause. You hear to save the world?"
I had to close my eyes and swallow.
"Readouts."
"Sure. Well, right over here you can see that blip you're talking about."
He was pointing to a veritable cliff in data.
"I'm sorry, but that doesn't look much like a 'blip' to me"
He laughed, which managed to make me uncomfortable again, though the laugh clearly transformed into a cough by the end of his fit.
Just a bit of a joke, but I can see you're in no mood for it."
He scrolled the panel outward, with a wave of both hands. The entire picture panned out, and I could see how my initial ‘cliff’ was part of a much larger picture.
The data on the screen looked like a long and protracted crash of some sort, followed by an unexpected and sharp rise in something. The cliff itself was nothing more than the other side of that sharp unexpected rise. Beyond the cliff, and into the present moment, there were no patterns, only chaos.
"As you can see, from the data there are a number of reasons why we might be more than a bit surprised at your visit."
Turning to the side, I saw that a young scientist with curiosity i
n his eyes that could not be dismissed was peaking over to see what was transpiring between myself and the lead technician.
Erol, on the other hand, was absolutely stricken dumb. He was giving his entire attention to the screens, instruments and papers.
The technician pointed at the monitor with his nicotine stained fingers, and began to explain.
'This huge fall you see here is the data which caused the evacuation. We are calling this the destabilization of our ecosystem, due to the approach of the void. The readings center geographically around the capitol itself, while the outer forests are relatively unaffected. Of course, over time, we suspect that those too will become inhabitable."
"Inhabitable?"
"Well yes. We don't have extended data to work with, but there is a very grave risk for all those who stay within the contaminated area."
Finally, Erol spoke up.
"You mean this area."
The scientist grinned, showing his yellow teeth to the two of us.
"Sometimes, my boy, you need to make a decision about your priorities. For us, this data was more important, and I'd say since your arrival, we may have not thrown our lives away after all."
"What do you mean by that?"
This time the reply came from me. The scientist's tone grew more serious, and he brought his arms together over his chest in a resting position.
"Well that answer is pretty easy to manage, though I think you two would have a better job of providing the details yourself."
He pointed at the screen once more.
"If the destabilization had maintained its course, we would have reached some level of critical threshold by now, if not within the next four or five hours. The problem is that since just before you showed up, that downward trajectory has been halted. Now, thing's aren't exactly getting better, but if you were to take an average of these peaks, I'd say that we have reached some level of stabilization."
He paused again, and leaned back against the table, then he opened his hand out to both sides, indicating both his team, and himself by his gesture.
"Now you've seen your data. You come in here anticipating a modification which has been proven, and I'm lead to believe that you had something to do with that. Now, I've seen your memorials in the Capitol. I know what you're capable of, and I know that you have a history of involvement in questionable activities."