Orville Mouse and the Puzzle of the Capricious Shadows (Orville Wellington Mouse Book 3)

by Tom Hoffman

  “What was that? What just happened? Where was I?”

  Madam Molly rose to her feet, gazing at Orville. “You’re a shaper, and a powerful one, a Metaphysical Adventurer. I should have known it, the violet aura surrounding you gives it away. I’m glad your papa is home again. You’re lucky. You’re in for rough times. Rough times ahead. There’s an old castle. You’ll learn the true meaning of deep fear. Not a bad thing to learn, but it won’t be easy. Darkness, a vanishing darkness. Confusing. At the center is a tall and powerful entity, not what it seems to be. The end of all things unless you stop it. Sophia will be with you. Trust her always. You have been friends far longer than you know. Sophia is from Quintari, also a powerful shaper. No surprise. That explains a great deal. I will help you.”

  Orville’s jaw dropped. Madam Molly picked up Sophia’s shadow chart, studying it carefully. “The planet rotates once every twenty-one hours, four minutes and thirteen seconds. That’s what we need. Both of you, follow me.”

  Madam Molly stepped over to an ornate wooden bookcase on the far wall. She grasped one side of it and swung it open. The bookcase was a door, and behind the door was a long dark tunnel leading into the mountain.

  Orville gulped. Who was this mouse?

  Chapter 9

  The Book of Shadows

  Madam Molly grabbed a small white cube from the rocky ledge next to the door. She waved her paw and the cube glowed brightly, emitting a warm yellow light. She strode forward down the tunnel, motioning for the two adventurers to follow her.

  Orville looked at the cube curiously. “What’s that cube? How does it work?”

  “Not certain, but I think it draws energy from the surrounding environment. It’s Thaumatarian, very old.”

  Sophia gave a start. “You have an object made by the Thaumatarians?”

  Madam Molly grinned. “I’ve been known to collect a thing or two.” She walked briskly down the long tunnel, pointing to a narrow vein of dark metal in the rock. “This was an old mine, abandoned hundreds of years ago. I discovered it when I was hiking and decided it was just what I needed, out of the way and private. I can get a lot of work done here.”

  “Your eyes, the gold flecks, the way you knew Orville’s mind. Do you read thought clouds?”

  “Not the same. Where I come from all the mice do what I do. No one has any secrets there, not a bad thing.”

  Orville asked, “Where do you come from? I’ve never seen anyone do that before. Sophia and I have linked minds, but what you did is different.”

  “Not so different from that. I link to your mind but you don’t link to mine. It’s just how we evolved.”

  “We?”

  “The mice where I’m from.”

  “And you’re from…”

  Madam Molly smiled. “Here we are.” She stepped into a dark cavern. She clapped her paws and a hundred brilliant overhead lights flared on, illuminating the vast chamber.

  “Whoa, you have a lot of books and… other stuff.” Orville’s eyes were scanning the floor to ceiling racks holding thousands of books, and the rows of long wooden tables packed with gleaming mechanical devices. He recognized some as early telescopes. “You collect old telescopes?”

  “I collect any technology relating to astronomy and the deep mechanistics which lie beneath it.”

  “I don’t recognize a lot, just the telescopes.”

  “Many of these devices were made by Thaumatarians. They’re old, very old. The Thaumatarians left a lot of things behind when they moved on.”

  “Where did you find all this stuff?”

  Madam Molly weighed her answer, then shrugged. “I’ve been to Thaumatar. I traveled there with some friends of mine who located the planet a few years back. They took me through a spectral door and I spent almost a year there. Brought all these trinkets back with me.”

  Orville gazed across the tables. “Who took you there?”

  “You’re a curious one aren’t you? That’s a good trait. A couple of mice, treasure hunters of the best kind. Good friends of a pair of very adventuresome rabbits I know.”

  Sophia raised her paw. “About the shadow chart?”

  Madam Molly grinned. “Back to business. Follow me.” She stepped across the room to a towering rack of books along the wall. “Hmm… twenty-one hours, four minutes and thirteen seconds. That should be volume six, I think. I’ll need some help lifting this. Not as strong as I used to be.”

  Orville stepped over and helped Madam Molly carry the enormous volume to a reading table, setting the book gently down. “Whew, that’s heavy!”

  Sophia examined the well worn maroon cover of the dusty old tome. “How old is it? What kind of book is it?”

  Madam Molly ran her paw gently over the book. “It’s Thaumatarian. Not sure about the age, but it’s a lot older than I am.” Orville wasn’t sure if he was supposed to laugh or not.

  Sophia gingerly opened the book and pressed her paw against one of the pages. “It doesn’t feel like paper.”

  “It’s not, it’s something else. Not sure what. I found this entire set in an ancient library on Thaumatar.”

  “What do these symbols mean?” Sophia pointed to a group of golden hieroglyphs on the front cover.

  “Roughly translated from the Thaumatarian, it means, The Book of Shadows. You’re not the first one to think of using shadow charts and planetary rotational times as a way to identify stellar bodies. These volumes chart thousands of planets visited by the Thaumatarians. If we’re lucky, they’ll have the one you’re looking for.”

  Sophia unrolled the shadow chart and set it on the table.

  Madam Molly opened the enormous tome, running her paw down rows of incomprehensible hieroglyphs, slowly turning the pages. “Should be somewhere in this section.” Sophia studied the book. Each page was filled with the peculiar hieroglyphs, but also held several shadow charts resembling the one Sophia had made.

  Madam Molly gave a victorious squawk. “Got it! That was easy. The universe has smiled upon you, Sophia Mouse. This chart is identical in every way to yours. I had to make a few conversions, since your hat’s feather was a different height than the standard height they use, but more importantly the rotational period of Tectar matches your shadow chart exactly. The shadows you’re measuring are cast by sunlight shining down on a little planet called Tectar. See this symbol here? That means Tectar supports life. Not sure what this other symbol means, haven’t seen it before.”

  Orville was completely baffled. How could the sun from some other planet be shining on his adventurers hat? It made no sense, and yet Madam Molly seemed to have found irrefutable proof in The Book of Shadows, and Sophia did not seem at all surprised by this revelation.

  “This is wonderful, exactly what I was looking for.”

  “You’re not going to tell me how you obtained this shadow chart, are you?”

  “I can’t, not just yet. Orville and I have a few things to do first. I’ll tell you after we understand exactly what’s happening.”

  Madam Molly reached out with one paw, gently turning Sophia’s head toward her, gazing into her eyes. “You’re a Metaphysical Adventurer too. I should have guessed. I won’t go any deeper, but whatever you’re looking for, I wish you both the best of luck. I know a little about Metaphysical Adventurers. Please give my fondest regards to Master Marloh.” She turned away, giving Orville a wink.

  Sophia and Orville stayed for tea, chatting with Madam Molly about her adventures on Thaumatar, then bid their farewells and blinked back to the Symocan Institute.

  “I’m telling you, she winked at me when she said it. I think she was more than friends with Master Marloh. You didn’t see the wink. I saw the wink.”

  “Maybe she was winking at you. You are kind of cute, you know. Not all dreamy and handsome like Mortimer Mouse, but–”

  “You think he’s dreamy and handsome?”

  “Orville, I was teasing you. Didn’t you learn anything when Master Marloh formshifted us into beautiful mice? No
one cared what kind of mice we were, they only cared that we were beautiful. That’s wrong. Your physical form doesn’t matter, what matters is your character, the kind of mouse you are. That’s what I love about you, you are true and sincere. To be honest, Mortimer Mouse is friendly and outgoing, but he’s a bit on the shallow side. He doesn’t think about things the way you do. He would never have noticed the clockwork glowbirds or the capricious shadows from your hat.”

  “I used to worry a lot that you wouldn’t want to be friends anymore.”

  “I won’t tease you then. Do you really think Madam Molly and Master Marloh were more than friends?”

  “I’m sure of it. She had a funny smile on her face when she winked. We should mention her in front of Master Marloh and see how he reacts.”

  “That’s kind of devious, I like it. Let’s go, it’s time to head back to Muridaan Falls. I need to ask Master Marloh about the World Doors. I’ve heard there’s a set of them in a place called The Swamp of Lost Things, but it’s a long way from Muridaan Falls, in southern Lapinor.”

  “Wait, are you saying we have to visit the planet Madam Molly told us about? Tectar? I don’t understand what’s going on. How could the sun from Tectar be shining on my hat?”

  “I’ll tell you everything I know. Let’s sit under that shade tree.” Orville and Sophia plopped down on a long wooden bench.

  “Okay, remember how the Thirteenth Monk sent us home from Periculum through the Void?”

  “That’s the dark space that separates all the worlds.”

  “Right. It’s hard for most mice to imagine, but there are many worlds simultaneously occupying the same space. They’re called parallel worlds. Scientists on Quintari have known this for a thousand years. Parallel worlds would not be possible without the Void, the dimension between all the worlds, the dimension that keeps all these parallel worlds separate. I think something is shrinking the Void. If the dimension between parallel worlds vanishes, the worlds will overlap.” Sophia waited for Orville’s reaction.

  “Uhh… what does that mean exactly, the worlds overlap?”

  “It’s not good. In fact, it’s very, very, bad. Your adventurers hat is a tiny indicator that the process is underway. The hat is in Tectar and the Tectar sun is shining down on it, but that small portion of Tectar’s universe which contains your hat is overlapping with our world. Your hat isn’t really here, Orville, it’s on Tectar.”

  “That sounds a little crazy. Even if it’s true, who cares? As long as I can wear it, who cares where it really is?”

  Sophia gave a groan. “Orville, the Void is vanishing, the space between the parallel worlds is disappearing.”

  “Wait, Mendacium said the great darkness shall vanish, taking with it a thousand worlds. Do you think he was talking about the Void?”

  Sophia grabbed Orville’s arm. “You’re right! That has to be it, that has to be what he meant.”

  “Why would it be taking a thousand worlds with it?”

  “That’s what I’m trying to tell you, if the Void goes away, all the parallel worlds will be forced to exist in one universe. Thousands of separate parallel universes will be jammed together into one single universe. What do you think will happen?”

  “A lot of planets will bash into each other? Suns will collide?”

  “That’s just the beginning. What comes after that is unimaginable. Gravity would destroy everything. Right now our universe is expanding, space itself is expanding. Think of two black dots on a balloon. As you blow up the balloon, it expands, the space between the two dots increasing. The two black dots are not moving, but the space between them is growing larger. Space has been expanding since our universe began, the distance between stars growing. If all the parallel worlds were combined into one universe, the additional mass of all the new stars and planets would be so great that not only would this expansion stop, it would reverse. The gravity we feel on Earth is the result of the planet’s mass warping space around it. The mass of all the new stars and planets from the other universes would drastically warp space, pulling everything together until it was all compressed to a single tiny point called a singularity, a mysterious object even the scientists on Quintari don’t completely understand. Everything we know would be gone, thousands of universes gone, infinite lives on an infinite number of planets, all gone.”

  Orville’s jaw dropped. “Creekers. Are you sure about this?”

  “I’m sure. We have to find out why the Void is shrinking and we have to stop it. Your adventurers hat is just the beginning. Other objects and worlds will begin to appear as the overlapping increases. Things could get very bad, very quickly.”

  Chapter 10

  Haukesworth Mouse

  Master Marloh’s eyes were on Orville’s hat. “This news is most disturbing. I’ve heard rumors over the years that the Void was changing, but I dismissed them as the product of overactive imaginations. This hat and Sophia’s shadow chart have changed all that. The state of the Void is now a prime concern of the Metaphysical Adventurers, and it doesn’t sound like we have much time before things get very bad.”

  Orville looked up at Master Marloh. “What will you do? Who can stop something like that?”

  “The universe has already given us the answer. You discovered the hat and its capricious shadows, you and Sophia dreamed about Mendacium, and uncovered the hat’s connection to Tectar. These events were not accidental. It is you and Sophia who must prevent the worlds from overlapping.”

  Orville glanced at Sophia, then back to Master Marloh. “Sophia and I are responsible for the fate of all those worlds?”

  “We’ll take Proto with us. That should even the odds.”

  Orville gave a weak smile. He knew even Proto could not protect them from a terrifying wizard wielding impossibly powerful dark magic.

  Sophia nudged Orville. “Master Marloh, I forgot to mention that Madam Molly said to give you her fondest regards. She seems like a lovely mouse.”

  Master Marloh’s face was unreadable. “Please give her my best regards also, when you see her again.”

  Orville snickered, slapping his paw over his mouth. Master Marloh furrowed his brow, about to make a reply when they were interrupted by a new voice.

  “Very nice, lovely work, quite accurate.”

  The three mice turned to see Amanda Mouse strolling past them, her eyes motioning toward Orville’s new hat.

  Sophia looked at Amanda curiously. “What do you mean, it’s quite accurate?”

  “The hat on the counter, it’s quite accurate.”

  “It’s accurate? I don’t understand.”

  Amanda looked befuddled. “The detail and workmanship of the hat. It’s all quite accurate for the time period. Well done, indeed.”

  “I’m so sorry, Amanda, I’m still uncertain what you mean about the hat being accurate. Have you seen this hat before?”

  Amanda’s eyes darted from Sophia to Orville and back to Sophia. She blinked several times, then spoke slowly, clearly enunciating her words. “The hat that is sitting on the front counter is a very accurate recreation of the hat worn by Haukesworth Mouse over three hundred years ago. It is a highly accurate replica of Haukesworth Mouse’s hat. A copy of his hat. An accurate copy. Of his hat. Well done.”

  The three mice stared blankly at Amanda as she stepped over to the main desk and picked up the adventurers hat, her paw brushing the long purple feather.

  “Lovely feather. I recognized it immediately from a photograph I saw three years ago in Pileus Mouse’s controversial treatise, A Thousand Years of Hats, Volume IV, page 612, I believe. This is a rather stunning replica of the adventuring hat worn by Haukesworth Mouse, the Metaphysical Adventurer who disappeared on his third visit to Tectar, one of the twelve worlds accessible through the Thaumatarian World Doors. The workmanship is exquisite, even the stitching is…” Amanda’s voice trailed off as she flipped the hat over, examining it closely. She pulled a large magnifying glass from her coat pocket and studied the stitching. �
��Oh, my heavens, this is astonishing. Remarkable.”

  “What? What do you see? Did you find something?”

  Surprise was etched across Amanda’s face. “I’m afraid I misspoke myself, this is not a replica of Haukesworth Mouse’s hat after all.”

  “Whose hat is it?”

  “Oh, it is most certainly Haukesworth Mouse’s hat, but it’s not a replica, this is Haukesworth Mouse’s hat. It’s clearly the original hat worn by Haukesworth Mouse. Look at the style of stitching and the manner in which the snake medallion was molded from brass, attached to the hat with three square copper rivets. Look at the natural wear patterns on the sweatband. This hat is hundreds of years old, of this I have no doubt.”

  Orville said, “Do you know anything about that coiled snake medallion? Is it scary?”

  “Scary? Why would it be scary?”

  “It’s a snake, snakes are scary.”

  “It’s not scary at all. Such an odd question. Every historian knows before we had a united Shapers Guild, there were a multitude of isolated local guilds, each with its own secret symbol. Members wore the symbol on a pin or a brooch as a way of identifying themselves to other guild members. Haukesworth Mouse belonged to a guild whose chosen symbol was a coiled snake. The coiled snake historically represented great power, power which could be unleashed in an instant, like the sudden deadly strike of a serpent.”

  Sophia’s mind was spinning. “You said Haukesworth Mouse disappeared on Tectar? Is that what I heard you say?”