by P. S. Power
Gwen left from there, closing her eyes and focusing on her room at the mansion. It was a great place, really. It would be sad if she had to leave, but she was a grown up. The world might be strange, but she’d lived on her own for nearly two decades. She could do it again. Normal people did things like that all the time, after all. It wasn’t like the Vernors would be cutting her off, monetarily. So she could get a little place of her own without having to struggle. That would leave her time for her studies, along with the work that she needed to be seeing to for various things.
Walking, she went to the main telestator room, then thought better of doing that. After all, she was supposed to be dating Tomas now. That meant showing up unannounced for some sexy fun times was allowable. It might be a bit awkward if she walked in on him doing some other woman. Or man. Not that he’d hinted at that, or seemed like it was his way, but people in the Western Kingdom wouldn’t.
She tried to find where he was, rather than just going to his home. It was a good thing, since she ended up outside of a small tan building. It was almost a cube. About four stories tall and plain, except for the deeply recessed windows. Behind it, to the left, was a very large lake. Given where Tom lived, that was probably the Great Salt Lake. Or whatever it was called in the world she stood in. There was a city around her, but it wasn’t vast or anything.
None of them in the world were, as far as she knew. Not compared to home.
The door going in was made of wood, but seemed to be open. No one came when she knocked either. Tomas, for his part, was above her. She could feel that one. It was a portion of the reason she hadn’t moved directly to him. Just in case there was a sudden fall when she came in. If she were high enough above the ground it would be fine, since she could simply fly out of it.
Too close would have her hurt or dead. Interestingly enough, no one else seemed to be there. At least no one came when she called out.
“Hello? Anyone home?” She felt a bit like a sneak thief, breaking in like she was. The interior decor was rather plain, holding what seemed to be offices, along with desks. On the first floor, toward the back, there was a complex piece of machinery made all of metal. A printing press, she thought.
The stairs were also back that way. On the third floor she found her man, behind a brown door that said Tomas Moore on it. Not his real name, for some reason. Possibly to protect the Harrison family reputation from his odd hobbies. It could have also been about him being so cool.
She knocked, which had her boyfriend standing there, smiling, not too long later.
“That was quick.” Then, looking at her he blinked a few times. “Gwen! I thought you were the lunch order. Come in! Come in. I didn’t know that you even knew about the offices here. It’s the print location for the next books? I wanted to make certain I had some things done up ahead, in case I run out of time for it? Since I seem to have other plans coming up. Come in, please.” Rather than be shocked at her sudden unannounced arrival, the man genuinely seemed happy to have her there.
So she did that, going in, then looked around with a bit of curiosity. It was a bare place, meant to be worked in, not a secret cave filled with proof of Omegon’s vigilante ways. That was a good sign to her mind. It was one thing to have a rich fantasy life. Another to live it all the time. If nothing else he was keeping up with a good level of security for his special projects.
“Neat. How long before lunch comes?”
“About… Ten minutes? Why?”
She nodded then and hugged the man around the neck. Then she kissed him.
“We should hurry then? Otherwise we’ll get caught, which would be embarrassing.”
The door was shut with a soft bang. Being propelled by the back of her left heel like it was.
Chapter eleven
All they really got to do was kiss for a few minutes, cuddling while standing near the door. Then she had to help Tomas get the lipstick off his mouth and fix her own before the delivery man came with the food. That was a bit of a treat, since it wasn’t just some kid on a bicycle that showed up. No, the cart she saw out the window was pulled by a donkey, had two wheels and a blue umbrella over the whole thing. It wasn’t a hot dog cart either, Gwen didn’t think. Mainly because the food was delivered in ceramic carrying boxes. The ones from the day before being returned by Tom when the uniformed man delivered it all, in his basket.
The guy was older, very thin, and dressed in all white, with a red bandana tied around his neck. It was different than anything she’d ever noticed before. Then, this was the real world, if a high level of it. Middling high, at a guess. Tomas seemed a bit embarrassed by something, so it might not have been as posh as all that. No mets changed hands however, which meant it was something done on account, or prepaid. You couldn’t just put things on a credit card in the Western Kingdom, she didn’t think.
Not that anyone had mentioned to her at any rate.
It didn’t take too long for her to work out what the problem was though. After the man left, Tomas looked at the white boxes on his desk and then gave her a strained smile.
“I didn’t know that I’d have you here for the meal…”
Gwen got it then, so was able to smile herself.
“Ah! Okay, I can handle that one then. I knew that something was going on. I just didn’t understand what it was. Cool then. I’m a few hours ahead of you, so had lunch earlier and it isn’t dinner time for me yet. Anyway, I have some news on things? We’re both expected at the Peregrine tomorrow. Which is early, but will let us get locked on to what we need to do. I have to do my new telesar program first. It’s only an hour a week. I should be able to keep up with it, if I’m careful.” She had to go over the whole idea then, adding in the part about not knowing if she was allowed to mention him or not.
“After all, we just started going out. We’ve only been on one date. You might not want to be attached to me or anything. This way if you get bored in a few weeks, or decide I’m a pain in the rear, which I am, you can just skate. You know, stop taking my calls?” Not that it would help him much, since she could just show up at random. She probably would too if he didn’t get in touch often enough. Not that she wanted to be the clingy psycho girlfriend. It was just too easy to find him, now that she knew who he was.
He grinned at her, setting himself up to eat, since it was his meal time and everything. He still seemed a bit uneasy, however.
Like he was starving her or something like that.
“You know, I think we should announce it, if it comes up? Is that too soon for you? I know that I won’t be hurt by being linked to you that way in particular. As it stands I’ll be thought a pervert soon enough, if I don’t show at least some interest in a young lady. Not that I am one, but appearances must be kept up.” The man brushed at his dark brown hair and shook his head. “That sounds worse than I intended by far! I just meant that I don’t hold a secret that way. It would be annoying to have others think of me in that light, that’s all.”
She got that part, she thought. For one thing it would make it harder for him to pick up an extra woman on the side. Not that she wanted to encourage that kind of thing, but it would probably happen. She was kind of strange after all. Exotic, possibly, but also just weird, compared to people that had grown up in the same world that Tomas had. At least she assumed as much.
“Cool then? I can work it in if anyone asks? If not, then I won’t. It isn’t really their business.”
He started eating then. After a few bites he set down the small fork he was using for what seemed like a tiny portion of coleslaw. It was almost a paste, compared to what Gwen was used to that way.
“Gwen? I heard something rather troubling yesterday. About you?” He didn’t look up at her but did swallow as if it were something serious.
“Oh? Which thing? I have a few new ones to go on about. All of them are mainly taken care of for the time being, as far as I know. Hopefully it’s one of those? That would either be the one where I foolishly went into battle to get s
ome prisoners of war back or the tabloid… Um, The Scan? They managed to get photographs of us doing some things at the hotel the other day? Literally through the keyhole. You didn’t show up in those by the way. I did, pretty well. Enough so that it really did look like me doing it.”
Her boyfriend went a bit wide eyed at both of those and shook his head.
“No? I mean I’d heard about the first one in the news. Where you’d gotten prisoners back? Not the particulars, naturally. A secret operation of some sort. I figured that I’d be best served simply asking about that one, if I’m allowed to know? The pictures… What are we going to do? I suppose I could hire some men to make certain they never see the light of day. Dark work, but your reputation…”
She rolled her eyes then, but smiled.
“I already stole the pictures. The negatives, too. That part isn’t a problem at all now. Without those all they have are rumors that I was doing something in a hotel. Which I was… So, fair enough. If it wasn’t either of those, then what did you hear?”
For half a moment she was going to bet that it would be pretty bad. That Tomas was going to tell her about how everyone in the world hated her. That, or how she’d made some kind of massive mistake. A social error that would show just how alien she really was. Then, after half a second, it occurred to her that being from a different world was actually a pretty good excuse for a lot of things. Not all of them, but enough that she could just pretend that using the wrong fork, or overpaying, were just things that she’d grown up with.
Tomas looked over his shoulder, as if suspecting that someone would be spying on them as he spoke.
“It was that the Vernors are keeping you against your will, with the help of the King? That wasn’t what I noticed the other day, but if it is like that, I can help you escape.” There was an earnest expression on his face, as if he thought that it might actually be true.
Gwen laughed a bit, trying to make certain she wasn’t being a bitch about it all.
“Ah. You mean how they keep me in a mansion, let me do whatever I want, when I want and keep offering to give me all their money? Lucre? That diabolical prison they have me in? Well, I suppose, if you look at it that way. A prison of obligation? Except that they don’t try to make me do anything at all. Even Ferdinand doesn’t do that. Except getting in my way when I suggest doing things that might be too hard, or uncomfortable. Then I occasionally have to go behind their backs. Everyone here seems to think that I’m made of glass for some reason.” It was kind of a constant refrain, but Tomas at least seemed to get what she was saying.
Which was close to a first that way. Even the Westmorlands sometimes acted like she was a delicate flower. Then they’d turn around and help her into great heaping portions of pain, but no one had ever said they were exactly sane as a group.
Her boyfriend, a term that was still kind of wild to even be thinking about for her, just nodded a few times. Clearly working things through.
“I suppose I can see that now. Knowing that you can teletransport at the level you can kind of puts the quiet to that idea, doesn’t it? I… You might be able to go home, even. If you wish? I looked into it a bit, reading up after the other day. That kind of thing isn’t truly unknown. Part of you should identify with it. Resonate to that frame, so to speak. So if you merely try hard enough, it may well work.” He sounded a little sad about suggesting the idea.
That didn’t stop him from mentioning it though, she noticed.
“Um… don’t tell anyone… Or I guess it isn’t a big deal, really. I’ve been back. Time… This world runs more slowly, I guess? Differently at any rate. It’s hard to imagine really, but when I went it was nearly a hundred and ten years after I left there. Everything I knew was gone. It had changed massively too. I have a friend, Jake, who’s from the same time. He did it the hard way though, living through it all. You should meet him sometime, if we ever get a chance. Zack, Ben and Brian as well.” She spoke nearly without thinking about it. At least until he swallowed hugely again. It was nearly a gulp.
“I suppose I can’t begrudge you having… Friends. Are you close to all of them?”
Gwen, having grown up watching sit-coms was fairly well prepared for the set up in front of her. She’d mentioned a bunch of guys, so her new boyfriend, not knowing better, would see them all as threats to his claim on her. That was because, apparently, when men were friends with a woman, they actually wanted to bang her. At least that was what television had taught her. It was probably even true. Not that it had ever happened to her in particular. Except that now, in Kat’s body, it might.
“I know, you’d think that, right? The thing there is that we are remarkably close, just not in a way that would make any sense at all. Jake is just from the same town that I was. Westwood. So is Billy. Um… Okay, that one needs to be explained! He’s my brother? As in Gwen’s flesh and blood brother, from the same world? He goes by Darren Westmorland here. But he’s really Billy Cavendish. Darren, the real one, switched places with him by accident, learning to teletransport, when Billy was sixteen.” She paused, waiting for the man to have a problem with that part, but he simply nodded, as if letting her know that he understood that high strangeness easily enough.
She grinned. After all, that was rare to see happening.
“Sooo. Jake is from the same town. We’d actually met, I guess, though I don’t really remember him from back then. Anyway, he became this big religious leader there and lived for a long time. He looks pretty young still though. Zack and Brian… They’re both me, from different realities? Before you get too squicked out, half of you in other worlds is a girl, too. It’s just the way things really work. So, in a way they’re kind of like brothers, I guess.”
Tomas lit up a bit then.
“Ah? So that’s promising. I was worried you had a bevy of attractive men already lined up to be my competition. That sounds much better. You mentioned a Ben?”
She nodded at that name.
“He’s insane. I mean… Gone in the head. Really powerful telepathy? Now Dareg… He’s Ben, but from a different world? He seems to be all right that way. A wizard? Really powerful as well. I think he might like me. Then, he’s getting married soon, so that probably isn’t that big of a deal. I should get them something. If I get invited I can take you with me to the wedding? It will be in a different reality, of course.”
Rather than suggest she was insane, her boyfriend just started to eat again. After a few bites he tilted his head.
“That sounds amazing. We should turn it into a graphic novel, or possibly books. Even if they’re real, it’s not like anyone would believe it.”
The words got her to laugh a bit again.
“No doubt, right? They are though. I should make an effort to get in touch with some of them soon. Otherwise Zack will probably come and look for me. There’s this massive war going on… You know the thing about Debussey, right? Her and her friends trying to bring the Elder Gods back to gain power?”
Instead of saying that of course he knew, or nodding, the man went totally quiet and still for almost half a minute. Then he took a single large breath.
“I was in college when that happened. We were all lining up to go to war after the rifting of Worthington. No one knew what to do at all. Erin Debussey… I’d seen her, many times. She always wore man suits and seemed rather self-important. I wasn’t in any of her classes, thank goodness. I did have religions with Baron Mathews however. He vanished. I never did find out what happened to him.” The tone was musing, instead of probing or anything like that.
Gwen locked eyes with Tomas then, deciding how she wanted to play things with him for real. After all, she had a few dark secrets in her life, but that was really one of the biggest ones.
“He and the others were the ones that got Katherine to bring me here. In my world… Erin Debussey was my mother. Don’t worry, I didn’t know her there or anything. Billy says that I didn’t miss anything except crazy though, so I’m not that worried about it. That�
�s why I was brought in though, so that Erin could sacrifice her daughter to open the hole in space. It nearly worked. She had to kill my younger sister from this world instead. It’s convoluted, but the original idea had been to kill me in order to save the little girl. We didn’t manage to save her.”
It was a thing that still kind of haunted Gwen. It would have even if the girl wasn’t in some strained and weird way her sister.
“She’s Heather’s sister here. Heather Westmorland? You should meet her, too. A friend of mine. Also me. Probably pretty close to what I should have looked like and everything? I think she’s hot.”
Tomas didn’t even bother to look troubled over that admission. It hadn’t even seemed like it might be a thing to Gwen. Not until she realized that to a lot of people, even after everything, being a Westmorland was basically the same as being a nuclear bomb. Not everyone wanted them in for dinner. Not even after the whole program had been more or less disclosed to the public. By her.
The man just kept eating.
“Really? That’s interesting then, isn’t it? Is that why you worked so hard to free them? Because one of them is you?”
It was a great point, but not the issue at all. It hadn’t even occurred to her before, to be fair.
“Nope. It’s just wrong, so had to be fought against. Not that they’re free now. Most of the adults probably never will be. They’re being given a chance to have more of a life, but they were still tortured for decades in some cases. Forced to do things that… You know, I won’t bother telling you all of it. It’s as bad as you might think. Probably worse.”
Tom didn’t ask anything else on that topic, she noticed, even though she’d only meant that her goal was to prevent him from learning about rifting. Not more than was needed to live a good and healthy life. It wasn’t the kind of thing that anyone could really do on accident and most of the governments probably knew how to do it, at least in theory. Gwen just didn’t want some suicide cult to get the information someday. That was all. Normal people could handle having that kind of thing, since it was nearly impossible to train into people without being a monster.