“Um, sorry,” I said awkwardly, raising a hand before I knew what to do with it.
“Don’t be. You clearly had no idea you were intruding and it’s not like we left you signs to know not to disturb us. Why we’ve never needed them is a whole other discussion for later. Finally, there are in fact a handful of magic keys that let people access to one of the different worlds, so it's likely you just found one that I haven't cataloged yet. On Earth. Which is a total first, given the low level of magic on that world. And one that also leads to here- Avalon. Which is another total first. So congratulations on breaking two Expanse-wide records in one night. On a good day, I’d be upset. But this is the farthest possible from a good day, so I’m actually really, really glad you’re here. I’m checking one last time though, before I really get hopeful and excited. You’re from Earth, right?”
“Yes...” I said, suddenly feeling very creepy now that planets, plural, were officially part of the conversation. “Are... are we not on Earth right now? May I ask where you are from- I mean, where we are? Sorry, I thought I asked that earlier, but no one’s said anything about that yet.”
Stell grinned wider. I could tell she was trying not to laugh.
It was a good look on her, even though I was the reason for her humor. Whatever blurred her form from me was unable to hide the rich, healthy look her face had when she was happy. It was the final nudge that pushed the gray of her skin fully over from ‘different’ to ‘exotic.’
“Sorry,” she finally said when she saw I noticed her humor at my expense. “I just realized you're even more overwhelmed by everything than I am right now. I at least know what's going on, even if I wasn't expecting it to happen.” She took another breath, finally stepping around those weird stones she was hiding behind to talk to me properly. Even closer, her appearance was still hard to pin down. The blur remained on her, although it seemed to shimmer slightly around her, like a drape that tried to keep up with her movements and wasn’t always successful. I got the strange feeling that she was continuing to change before my very eyes, and faster than she was a moment ago. It was weird, but I couldn’t shake the belief that the next time I’d see her, she’d look completely different.
Not that I had any business guessing much about her. We were still at the ‘so, which planet are you from?’ stage of the conversation.
“So,” exhaling, Stell continued. “If you're from Earth, here's what's going on. You've traveled to a different world, exactly at the moment that people in every other nearby world needed you to. This is Avalon- yes, like the Avalon the last Challengers have described, though not exactly the same thing. This is where Challengers come when one of the other worlds need someone to help with a massive catastrophe. When the Challengers arrive we train them to be heroes.”
“Um, sorry to interrupt,” I said. “But what's the significance behind the word 'challenger' that you keep throwing around?”
“I'm getting to that,” Stell said with a smile. “I know it's a lot to take in, but just be patient with me for a second.”
“Avalon shares a gateway with the other worlds. It helps ground and stabilize them, safeguarding them from certain hazards in the universe. It's also possible to view other worlds from here, and see if special occurrences called Trials are happening. Trials are events that are distinctly different than a world's usual difficulties, caused by an outside force no one's ever understood. They affect anywhere from just a local region to a large part of the world at once. If they're handled early, the world and people improve greatly from the experience, in too many ways to go into right now. But if they're not overcome, then the Trial eventually progresses into something called a Tumult. Not every time, as sometimes Tumults can occur on their own but they always affect the world on a global scale. Failed Tumults, as the name suggests, are really really bad. They can result in most of the people of the world being conquered or wiped out, or when a supernatural catastrophe happens, or when an undiscovered monster arises and causes havoc.”
“Just so we're clear,” I interrupted. “You just said the word 'monster?' As in scary thing that goes bump in the dark?”
“More like ‘scary thing that hates sentient people groups and constantly seeks to kill, devour or enslave them.’ They grow stronger by inflicting suffering on sentients like you and me, and, for some reason our peoples become stronger by overcoming them. Facing a single one usually creates a Challenge, which is sort of a personal version of a Trial or Tumult. The weak ones are no problem for the world's inhabitants, but when their numbers or power increases then we're in the risk of having a severe Trial or even a Tumult. If a Tumult does occur, and enough time has passed, then I can call out for a person to come to Avalon. I usually use your planet because for some reason everyone’s still debating, Earthlings always wind up being the best candidates. When they answer the call and arrive at Avalon, they become what we call a Challenger. Challengers turn the tide during Tumults. They grow stronger faster than a normal person does from overcoming Challenges and Trials, and those that face obstacles with them grow faster as well. They also begin to manifest unique powers as well. As long as they’ve been given enough time, they’ve always been able to turn the tide in a Tumult. Well, almost always,” she looked away for a moment. “Their biggest advantage though, is that they can come back from the dead, over and over, as long their other body is still healthy and on their home planet.”
“Wait,” I said, interrupting again. “Other body?”
Stell smiled again. “Yes. The body you use here is a copy of the one you have on Earth, and as long as your primary body stays safe and sound you can keep resurrecting, arriving here at Avalon. It's actually something unique to the people of your world, as all of the other races in the Expanse have to travel across worlds using their original bodies. My own race used to be able to do it too, though.”
When I heard her talk about resurrecting, I thought it sounded suspiciously like bind points in video games. Then I heard her mention her own race, and wondered how I could ask her what race she was delicately…
“That trait is why I look the way I do,” Stell continued awkwardly.
Nevermind, then.
“My people have a long, complicated name you can't really pronounce, but it translates into most languages as ‘Starsown’.” She started to look uncomfortable again, as if this were an uneasy subject for her. “Our bodies are... different from yours. I don't want to go into all the details, but my appearance, my color, my bone structure, and even my shape and height, change from year to year, or even from day to day. That's why I look like this,” she gestured to herself. “Usually I wait until my body completes transition before I greet a Challenger, but you caught me between phases, so that's why I look all half-finished.”
“Sorry,” I said, embarrassed as well. “As I said, I sorta didn't know I'd be coming.”
I wanted to add that her look wasn't bad, that it made her look full of potential instead of the awkward thing she clearly felt like, but I didn't know if she'd take that as a compliment or as me being creepy. Successfully complimenting girls is hard for me, even when I'm not experiencing the weirdest moment of my life.
“Not your fault,” Guineve called out from the mists and interrupting my train of thought. Stell shot her a dirty look.
“So...” I asked, trying to change the subject for the both of us. “Is Guineve your mother or something?”
The Lady of the Mists apparently heard that, because she gave a deep, rich chuckle.
“In addition to changing my primary body,” Stell continued, still glaring at Guineve's direction. “Parts of me will occasionally break off and form new bodies, called Satellites, to help interact with and stabilize the world I live in. It's really complicated to explain, but basically, Guineve is me, the part of me that specifically maintains Avalon.”
I scratched my head. I really hoped I looked less confused out than I felt.
“Are you aware of everything she experiences?” I ask
ed, struggling to make sense of one single thing tonight.
“Yes.” she affirmed. “It's not quite the same as hearing it directly, but I more or less share experiences with her.”
I hope she didn't catch me staring at her other body, I thought. Crap, I hope I'm still not staring at Stell.
After hearing the gray-skinned girl's explanation about herself, I kinda felt like I had walked in while she was changing, and was wondering if I was about to get my ass kicked for it.
“So when I was talking to Guineve, technically, I was also talking to you?” I asked, realizing I was going to lose the battle of having tonight make sense.
“Yes...” Stell answered carefully.
“And when she outed you hiding back here, you effectively outed yourself?”
“...Yes.” she said, her eyes narrowing. “Guineve has most of my confidence and poise right now.” She glared toward the other women. “As well most of my patience.” That last part was said loudly.
“And good sense!” the 'older' woman called out cheerfully.
“So she's the part of you that's okay with all of this right now?” I asked. She nodded uncomfortably.
“Why does she look so much older than you? No offense,” I added quickly.
On one hand, I really didn't like making this girl uncomfortable. This felt like the kind of thing that you don't talk about in polite company, in her culture. But on the other hand, I was trying hard not to scream what the hell is going on over and over. I think the only reason I wasn't further weirded out was because I still thought this was a dream, or a hallucination.
Or a stroke. Actually scratch that possibility because it didn't calm me down at all.
Fortunately, Stell just smirked at this question, and Guineve called out in a slightly dangerous voice:
“I don't look old. Let him know that, Stell. I don't look old at all.”
Stell smirked even wider.
“He's talking to me, Guineve. Remember? You passed him over to me.” She turned back to give me her full attention. “The reason Guineve looks so old is because I've been grounding and maintaining her body for a long time. Auxiliary bodies don't go through phases like mine, so I can keep them pretty stable. When I get too full of an idea or an emotion inside, I can pass that part of me onto her, and if it's compatible with the rest of what I've given her, she'll maintain her appearance. That’s why her appearance is an old withered maid, forever. So that she can help ground and maintain Avalon.”
Guineve snorted from the mists. Stell ignored her.
“So that's why she looks the way she does,” Stell finished smugly. “But enough about that. We've gotten far too sidetracked talking about me.”
“This isn't over,” The stately woman called darkly from the mist. Stell ignored her and I just sat there feeling uncomfortable.
“We haven't talked about me at all yet,” The high-pitched voice I had heard earlier.
“I'm trying Breena!” Stell shouted. “There's a lot to cover here!” The gray-skinned girl sighed, then shrugged, as if giving up on whatever she was preparing to say, and then motioned forward. “I'll go ahead and introduce you to Breena. She's another part of myself that travels with other Challengers, offers them advice whenever they encounter a new world or phenomenon. She's-”
“Hi!”
A little pink light zipped forward and began yammering at me.
“So-nice-to-meet-you-gosh-it's-been-so-long-I-can't-believe-we-finally-have-another-Challenger-we're-going-to-have-so-much-fun-and-go-on-so-many-adventures-and-stop-so-many-bad-guys-everyone-else-is-worried-about-these-Tumults-but-I-know-we're-gonna-kick-”
“Ow,” I interrupted, covering my ears and not quite able to handle the rapid-fire conversation of what appeared to be a talking, flying night-light. But when I stopped wincing, I thought I saw a tiny woman's body inside the blue glow.
The little fairy (she hasn't called herself that yet, but God help me if I can think of any other word for her) took a deep breath to continue speaking, but the t-shirt wearing girl interrupted.
“Sorry. We're usually a lot more organized with this. Breena, I think he's really overwhelmed by everything, and we're not doing a good job of preparing him. Maybe you could go prepare for when he works with you later?”
“Oh that's a good idea!” the little light agreed cheerfully. “I'll go do that. It-was-nice-talking-to-you-we're-gonna-have-so-much-fun!”
And without another word, the little light-fairy zipped off. I turned back to look at Stell, who continued speaking.
“Anyway, what usually happens goes like this: one of the worlds suffers a Tumult, I Call out for a Challenger, a Challenger comes -from your world- and you acclimate to Avalon until you're ready to save the day. Are you following with me?”
“Sort of,” I replied. “Having no trouble listening. Still having a lot of trouble believing this is real. How often do you people have these world-shaking events- or Tumults, or whatever you call them? That you need to summon a lovable nerd-slash-mighty warrior in a video game-esque plot?”
“Video game?” Stell blinked at me, then brightened. “Oh! Those! I love those! The last Challenger showed me all about those! But no, I'm pretty sure your people got the idea for video game ar-pee-gees (pretty sure she was trying to say 'rpgs') from us, not the other way around. But Tumults happen pretty rarely. In fact we haven't had one like this well... ever.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Well,” the gray-skinned woman hedged. “It's always just affected one, sometimes two worlds. Right now the signs are pointing to every one of our worlds experiencing a Tumult.”
“Wait, all of them?” I asked. “At the same time?”
She nodded
“How does that work?”
“It…doesn’t.” Stell finally said. “Without a Challenger, I scramble to find resources and raise up the native inhabitants any way I can, work with any other local powers, and maybe I can help a world or two get past its Tumult. But the people in the rest of the worlds are doomed, especially considering how every world is going to undergo more than one Tumult this time. But I can help a Challenger travel across worlds easily, and also help that Challenger raise armies, magic orders, or other organizations that can prevent each Tumult from destroying the world.”
She gave me a very level look, and her voice trembled a little as she finished speaking. I realized that she was going through an emotional whip-lash right now, seeing certain death for people she apparently cared a great deal about, and then suddenly seeing in me a life-line that came out of nowhere.
“So anyway,” she continued, her voice still trembling slightly. “I'm doing my best to be composed about this, but if you're not willing or able to be a Challenger, then all of these people are probably going to die. At best,” she finished.
I wasn't a firm believer on the whole 'worse fate than death' thing, but with my condition I could understand why others went with that idea.
“Uh,” I said once again. I know, genius of me. Absolutely genius of me.
“Please?” she said, and I thought I saw her eyes water through the blurring effect. “I can't make you do this, but if you don't I'm going to have to start begging very, very badly.”
“Don't do that. Just hold on a second,” I finally replied. “I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole thing- that's not a no! That's not a no!” she had started to bite her lip, and I really didn't want to make this girl beg.
“Just... let me think for a second,” I continued. “How exactly does this work? Do I only come here when I fall asleep in the real world?”
She nodded.
“According to the other Challengers, you will. As far as anyone will be able to tell, you'll just be having some interesting dreams. It shouldn't impact your real life in any negative way.”
“Not that worried about my real life,” I chuckled darkly before I could stop myself. “But thanks. And what happens to me when I die?”
“You exp
erience a great deal of pain, then you wake up in either Avalon or Earth,” she replied. “But that's it. None of the other Challengers have reported side effects from dying.”
“Have they reported any side effects at all?” I asked. Because that would a great way to tell whether I was going crazy or not.
On the other hand, going crazy might well be one of the side effects.
“That's part of the deal,” Stell replied with a nod. “You'll get to keep a little bit of the growth you gain here. Maybe not the magic, because magic doesn't really seem to work on Earth, but you'll keep everything else you learn, and some of the growth your body goes through.”
“What kind of growth?” I interrupted.
“Muscles, memory, coordination-”
“Really?” I interrupted again. “I'd get all of that?”
Stell nodded.
“I can't peer into your planet easily, but every Challenger has kept at least some of the power, gotten a little stronger, a little smarter, after stopping Tumults here.”
Downfall And Rise (Challenger's Call Book 1) Page 8