by Ben van Eijk
“How deep is it?” Seth asked her.
He noticed there were small silhouettes moving behind the surface of the surrounding ball of oxygen. Heidi stopped and turned around so Seth could catch up.
“It’s pretty deep. It won’t take long to get there, but we need to hurry up. Jacquelyn went through the door to one of the chaotic space dimensions, so we don’t have much time before she finds her way back here,” Heidi responded in a calmer repose than Seth was feeling.
As Heidi was talking Seth noticed much larger silhouettes were also moving in the water behind her. He needed to ask.
“What about those huge things, do we need to worry about them?”
Heidi smiled slightly and shook her head. She raised a hand and a yellow ball flew into the water, rippling the surface slightly and disappearing almost instantly. The water surrounding the entry point of the projectile turned a slight red colour.
Heidi lowered her arm after mercilessly killing the beast on the other side of the water barrier.
“Come on Seth,” she said, and started heading deeper in a slightly different direction. Seth really wanted this underwater journey to end soon. He was unnerved by her callous actions, but he needed to focus on finding the door and getting out of this water prison. Seth had never seen so much water, nor had he had ever been so deep underwater that there was no sign of the sun anymore. This entire experience was actually quite formidable to him. The idea that the bubble of oxygen might collapse and he would suddenly be overcome by billions of litres of water made him want to leave this world as soon as possible. Hopefully the next one would be a little more hospitable.
Heidi looked back over her shoulder as she spoke to him.
“I think the door may have moved with the currents.” Her eyes quickly glanced at something behind Seth and she continued to speak. Instinctively, Seth spun around to see what Heidi had spotted, expecting one of those massive creatures heading towards him, Instead, it was a light in the distance with a small silhouette behind it. Seth could just make out the outline of what looked like one of the sisters behind the approaching light source.
Oh no! Seth thought, and saw the surface of bubble in front of him lose cohesion as it fell towards him. Inside Seth was a level of fear he had never experienced before. It caused a tingling sensation that washed over him like a six ton wave.
“NOOOOO!” Seth screamed, and he frantically created a ball of air to push the water away from him where it could never get him.
Suddenly the ambient noise of water disappeared. Seth had had his eyes closed when he pushed the water away. He opened them to a very big surprise: the water that could have dragged him to an icy doom a few seconds ago was now kilometres away. In his frightened state, his power had increased to such a monumental level that the ball of oxygen surrounding him grew so big it broke through the surface of the ice, merging with the atmosphere of above the water world. The sun was now illuminating his surroundings and Seth looked around. Above him, what must have been Jacquelyn was just a small speck in the distance, and beneath him Heidi had surely been pushed deeper into the water. The light didn’t reach that far, and he could not see her. Another speck was visible about five hundred metres below him. It seemed rectangular from this distance, but Seth wasn’t sure. The sphere carved out by Seth’s sudden expansion of air began to lose its perfect shape. He realised that the water was no longer being held up by the air and that this four kilometre-wide orb would soon be filled with water again. That rectangular shape was most likely the door he needed, so Seth pushed himself in its direction with the surrounding air.
He had that tingling feeling again as he saw the water crashing towards him from every side. The wind was making his eyes water as he approached the door, but he could fly much faster than the water could fall so he was not panicking too much. Soon Seth had his hand on the door; he still had a little time before the water would reach him so he looked around to see if Jacquelyn was nearby. He didn’t want to lose track of the sister’s identities and polarities again.
Jacquelyn was actually only seconds from reaching Seth when he saw her.
“Go Seth!” she shouted.
The combination of the approaching torrent of water and Jacquelyn’s encouragement were more than enough motivation for Seth to stop thinking and just go through the door. He pulled it open and saw a dark landscape with glowing green shapes moving around. He jumped through.
Seth looked around: this world had an eerie, calm feeling to it. The landscape was mainly grass or dirt, although it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began since everything was so poorly lit. There were sources of light from different creatures moving around, but all very slowly. Every creature produced a fluorescent green light which did not travel very far, but cast an ambient light over their surroundings. The most common creature that Seth could see moving about was a huge kind of worm. It was made up of segments divided by thin sharp lines and moved along the ground like a legless caterpillar, arching its back and bringing its rear half forwards, then extending its body straight again to push its front half forwards. It seemed a very inefficient manner of travelling, but then again, without any limbs it was most likely the creature’s best option.
Seth felt a human-sized object slam into his back and his feet left the ground as the momentum pushed him forward. He landed roughly and skidded across the grass, pulling himself upwards with the surrounding air to avoid any serious injuries. He turned around to see which of the sisters had just collided with him before admitting how pointless it was. Since the one closest behind him in the previous world was good-Jacquelyn, this must mean that evil-Jacquelyn had just knocked Seth several metres through the air. She was now facing Seth and raising her arm, no doubt to project some kind of deadly energy at him. So far, Seth didn’t have any good method of stopping their attacks; his blast of sparks was possible, but watching the sisters fight showed Seth how much stronger than him they both were.
Before she could fire anything at Seth, a wall of stone encased Jacquelyn. The wall formed a thick dome, blocking any evidence Jacquelyn was there. Just as fast, the rock dome shattered, sending fragments of heavy stone flying in every direction. Seth flew higher to avoid the flying shrapnel — and to put some distance between himself and the sadistic woman. He looked back to see Heidi come flying through the door and smash into Jacquelyn, causing a small shockwave. Jacquelyn was now the good sister. Seth believed he now had some idea of which one was which. He wanted to help; another stone dome appeared, significantly thicker than the last one Seth had manifested. This time, it was to trap Heidi. He expected the dome to explode just as quickly as the last one, but instead a powerful torrent of water came bursting through the still-open door behind her, engulfing the dome and much of the landscape. Jacquelyn moved towards Seth, shouting “GO!”
Seth was not certain where he should go. Again she shouted it, and still Seth did not know where to go.
“Grow! Seth, you need to grow!” Jacquelyn yelled at him. She was now close enough that her words had become discernible above the thrashing of the water below.
So Seth grew again. It happened so quickly that his huge feet slammed into the ground, creating footprints several storeys deep. He stopped his growth at about two hundred and fifty metres tall. All of the gigantic worms now appeared regular in size, while the rest of the glowing green animals had been reduced down to indistinguishable specks of light.
He heard Jacquelyn’s voice in his ear.
“Not much further to go Seth. I’ve noticed the objects you materialise at this size are proportionally humongous, so when you see me fire a beam at her, try creating that ball of stone around her again. It will be a pink beam, just so you don’t encase the wrong sister.”
“OK.” Seth’s voice echoed, causing some of the creatures on the surface below him to briefly luminesce even brighter.
Seth stood still as he kept his eye out for a pink beam. He saw a white ball of energy appear in the distance and st
art growing rapidly, and sure enough a straight pink beam shot out from behind him towards the figure below the growing white plasma sphere. Seth created a globe of stone around Heidi and watched as it drifted towards the ground. The wall of this ball must have been about twenty metres thick; despite Heidi’s powerful nature, Seth did not expect her to break through it easily. It made a solid thud as it hit the ground, along with the crunching noise as some of the doors squashed beneath it.
“Do it again!” Seth heard Jacquelyn’s voice echoing in his gigantic ear canal.
He created another sphere around the sphere, adding twenty more metres of stone between him and Heidi.
“Again!” Jacquelyn shouted in urgency causing Seth to jerk his head away slightly from the sharp noise.
Another layer of stone appeared around the previous two. Before Jacquelyn could cause more hearing damage, Seth materialised another layer, this time of metal, then another stone layer and finally, another metal layer. There must have been about one hundred metres of solid stone and metal surrounding Heidi now; it wouldn’t hold her back forever but it would definitely buy some time. Seth shrank himself back down to his normal size. The stone dome he had just created towered above them menacingly, but they could speak to each other normally now. Jacquelyn was smiling.
“I am impressed Seth. You did not look like the kind of person that would even get through the second door, but you actually helped me subdue Heidi to go through the last door,” she said.
Hearing that there was only one door left made Seth feel a hundred times lighter. It hadn’t been a long journey time-wise to get to this final blue-green world, but it certainly felt like it. Seth had almost died several times and would be glad to be out of constant danger and confusion.
“Great,” he said. “I think I have had enough of your dual nature. No offence Jacquelyn, but dealing with you two is exhausting.”
Jacquelyn laughed before she responded.
“It’s perfectly alright Seth, I understand. It’s not supposed to be easy to get to the bridge of The Wandering Cross. This path was only supposed to be passable for Faust and Trikala, which makes it even more impressive that you made it this far. But we need to get away from here now; the door is in that direction,” and Jacquelyn pointed towards some hills. They seemed to host more giant glowing worms than the surrounding environment.
“But we are travelling on a different heading at first so Heidi can’t find us so easily when she escapes. Come on Seth, one more door to go!” Jacquelyn beckoned to Seth as she flew away. Seth followed her.
***
Jacquelyn led Seth a few kilometres away from the huge dome before she changed direction to head towards their destination, the next door.
“We’ve come far enough now Seth. She’ll be waiting at the aperture but at least she won’t stop us on the way to it,” Jacquelyn said as Seth floated after her.
He decided to take this opportunity to ask some of the questions that had been weighing on him.
“So, what kind of ship is The Wandering Cross? You said it’s not like others.”
Once again Jacquelyn’s laugh preceded her answer.
“It’s ironic Seth, that you are fighting so hard to reach the bridge, but you don’t even know what sort of power it has to offer. No one besides Faust or Trikala has made it this far before.”
“Well, I believe it holds knowledge — knowledge that will help me get back home. I have been trying but I am not powerful enough to find Swevender, nor reach it if I do,” Seth responded, a little defensively.
Jacquelyn stopped and turned around to face him
“Seth, this ship will bring you further than you can imagine. To use it to travel back home would be a huge waste of its potential…. when you are at the bridge you will understand.”
Seth was staring at Jacquelyn, trying to formulate a response, but she turned around and pressed forward before he had found the appropriate one.
“Yeah, alright,” he muttered to himself as he followed her.
Jacquelyn began talking over her shoulder to Seth once he had caught up with her again.
“So Seth, how is it that you are able to ‘manipulate matter’?” She emphasised the words, showing how unaccustomed she was with the term. “I’ve never heard of anyone who wasn’t a manifestation of Faust or Trikala that could do it.”
Seth increased his speed a little to bring himself alongside Jacquelyn before he responded.
“I had never heard of Faust or Trikala when I was taught ‘water wielding’ at school. Where I’m from, everybody learns the basics as they grow up. It is a big part of our society. It is basically matter manipulation, but only using water. We were raised believing that using any other kind of matter ran the risk of destroying the world.”
Jacquelyn once again laughed at a private joke to which Seth was not privy.
“It has a greater danger than that: you could end up destroying the universe. Well, turning it inside out, really, but you wouldn’t feel that effect since you would also have turned inside out. Actually, using water is an even bigger risk.”
Seth knew Jacquelyn wanted him to ask why, but he would rather finish his story than give her the satisfaction of hearing her own voice again. He continued, a bit louder than necessary:
“So we thought we would destroy the world if we tried any other matter than water.”
“Ha! And now it is destroyed! Probably by Faust and Trikala too!” Jacquelyn interrupted. Seth’s irritation was clear on his face as he attempted to tell his story for a third time.
“And, well yes, the world was destroyed, along with my home,” Seth said. “I landed on the surface of the world and somehow was pulled into the Restyard, where Jacobus and Iselle sent their familiars when they were finished with them.”
Jacquelyn opened her mouth to interrupt and Seth became extremely annoyed. She hesitated
“What?!” Seth shouted.
“I just think Jacobus and Iselle were actually Faust and Trikala, that’s all,” said Jacquelyn almost giggling at Seth’s frustration.
“OK,” Seth replied, hoping that she was done for now. “Well, one of the familiars hadn’t fallen into his eternal sleep yet, so he used our time in the Restyard to teach me the principles of element binding.”
“Yes, that’s what it’s called,” Jacquelyn said automatically. Then her eyes popped open wider and she looked at Seth. “Sorry, I did not mean to interrupt you again.”
“It’s OK, I’ve finished anyway. The familiar Red taught me a lot.” Seth said in a monotone voice, realising that this was going to be a very one-sided conversation.
Jacquelyn smiled broadly.
“Well, it’s interesting that Jacobus and Iselle taught you to only use water...”
Seth spoke again, relishing the opportunity to interrupt Jacquelyn.
“They weren’t the ones who taught us; it was three water wielders, Io, Kern and Marsa.”
“Still probably Faust and Trikala, although I don’t know who the third one is. Water is made up of stuff from another universe though,” Jacquelyn said. “Strange of them to teach an entire world that using water is safer than other matter, when the opposite is true.”
“What do you mean exactly?” asked Seth.
Jacquelyn took a deep breath, indicating she was about to begin a lengthy recitation.
“Well, as you should know, the world is made up of smaller particles —”
“Atoms,” Seth said, skilfully hiding just how proud he was of knowing this.
Jacquelyn continued.
“Correct, and inside each atom is another universe — in fact the same universe, but inverted. This means every atom inside an inverted universe carries an energy charge inversely proportional to the mirror atom in this universe.”
Seth looked suitably astonished. He thought what the Inquirer had told him in Chos Garren was overwhelming, but Seth had the idea this conversation would be even more astonishing.
“OK, there are universes insid
e each atom. This I knew already...”
Jacquelyn sighed.
“Yes, but there are even more universes than that,” she said dismissively, “and when you drain an atom of its energy you increase the tension on its connection to this universe. Atoms are all connected to the edge of the universe by a hollow pathway. Whenever you take energy from an atom — for example, when performing ‘matter manipulation’ — you put strain on its connection to the edge of the universe. This string connecting the atom to the universe’s edge hasn’t yet been observed, but this is part of an idea called ‘string theory’. It explains the reason for gravity and the hidden connection between many objects throughout the universe.
There is a point when an atom’s ‘string’ cannot be stretched anymore, and the atom’s shape is unfolded. It becomes part of the wall of our universe, and the entire universe turns inside out around the atom. The point where the atom’s wall is indistinguishable from the wall of its universe is called the ‘reflection point’; everything inside the atom becomes our universe and is inverted as it passes that point. It becomes what it was reflecting: our universe.” Seth’s head was spinning. Maybe it wasn’t the temple that contained knowledge, but the sisters guarding it...
Jacquelyn continued with her disconcerting explanation.
“The atom itself does not get inverted but instead physically changes place with its counterpart in the inverse universe, so it gains back all of the energy it once had. Remember, in the inverse universe its energy was increasing while in ours it was decreasing. This could be happening right now Seth; your body is made from atoms too, and you would not even notice it happening. But, to bring you back to my point: water contains one atom from another universe, and two from this universe. Using this matter for manipulation means you are pulling on two different universes at the same time. I don’t think even Trikala or Faust knows what this kind of interaction this could cause... This might explain why they created your world.”