The Heart of a Necromancer

by Eddie Patin

  Looking down, Jason checked the data for the universe. It was within 99% compatibility of his Earth; probably more like a parallel world than a different, exotic place. Maybe there were people. Maybe not. There were a slew of genus and species names of the animals in the vicinity that he didn't recognize, and a few unknowns. One of the unknowns had a 90% Lore match with ... mermaids.

  "Interesting."

  There were also approximate Lore matches to sea wolves, selkies, and ... a Hydra?

  Wow, Jason thought. Maybe it wasn't the sort of place they'd want to go for a nice beach vacation, after all.

  He released the rift and the bold, blue oceanic landscape crumpled up into the collapsing portal until the entire mass of light folded into a single point, vanishing with a pop.

  Back in the fluorescent light of the garage again, Jason took another swig of beer and continued down the list. He tried a few more at random but the block must have kicked in. On those, when he tried to feel the connection—when he tried to flex—nothing happened. Nothing at all.

  At one point, Jason stopped to look over the coordinates of the bookmarks themselves. He saw that he could adjust them. He could change which dimensions were selected, and he could input totally new coordinates if he wanted to.

  "That's how I Dim Door," Jason muttered to himself.

  Back on Maze World, Riley had insisted Jason use the OCS to miraculously transport them to a distant ridge. Jason had no idea of how to even approach such an idea. It no doubt had something to do with estimating distance and elevation from his current position, making his best guess as to the approximate coordinates of the intended destination, then plugging in the coordinates and opening the rift. This was where he could do that. Jason realized that—once he figured out the exact coordinates of where he was in space—he could Dim Door to another spot if he could correctly estimate where to go.

  "Dimension Door" was a spell from DnD. That's what he'd be doing. Teleporting with the OCS into an estimated location within sight would be just like using Dim Door. Eventually, he'd be able to outright teleport, but estimating coordinates unseen had to be way more complicated.

  A chill ran up Jason's spine.

  Maybe what Riley had expected him to do wasn't so miraculous after all. He'd have to experiment with that some more...

  Jason started looking through the bookmarks again. He paused at the entry for universe 309—right before the Wilderlands at u312—when he saw another small note saved, presumably from Jason 113:

  Nova Cola.

  "Nova Cola?" Jason asked himself, looking at the data for the world. It looked like another parallel world but with 100% compatibility, just like Jason 1241's universe; basically an alternate Earth. The readout showed that the world was also called Earth, the universe's place on the temporal planes was the same—i.e. it was the same time over there as here; the same year—and history seemed to be nearly identical. There was a lot to read if Jason cared to dig into it, but from what he could quickly glean, it appeared that Earth of u271 was basically just like home but with a slightly different course of events.

  Jason opened the rift. It unfurled loudly with a brilliant flare of orange light and sputtering sparks that spun madly clockwise around the edge of the disc—spitting motes of light all over the walls and concrete—then settled into a scene a lot like his garage. Sitting taller, Jason peered through the roaring gateway and looked into the exact same space as what was behind his own rift. The back of the garage was identical to his: stainless steel game processing equipment lined the far wall; a deep sink, a long table, and a shallow shower with drainage under the whole shebang. When Jason looked the other way, getting as close to the portal's surface as he could without breaking the 'film' into the world, he saw the old wooden garage door. Apparently, Jason 309 hadn't had any issues with alpha minotaurs crashing through his house.

  When Jason sat back and looked at the rear of universe 309's garage again, he took another swig of beer, and something caught his eye on the stainless steel table.

  There was a six-pack of soda there with a pale-yellow sticky note taped on one can. Jason squinted, trying to read it through the slightly shimmering rift:

  Jason 113, it read.

  "What the heck?" Jason said, looking around his own garage. Was it the Nova Cola from Jason 113's notation? He scoffed. Of course it was. Did Jason 113 have some sort of arrangement with Jason 309 about a weird soda from another universe...?

  With his curiosity piqued, Jason decided that the risk must be worth the reward. He stood and walked through the portal, feeling the Glock 26 on his hip to make sure that it was still there. It was.

  As soon as he stepped through into universe 309, the strange garage was flooded with the brilliant orange light of the portal. The rift roared in Jason's ears, but he knew from experience that the destination portal would have appeared exactly at the moment that he broke the surface into this world. Up until that point, Jason was merely looking, and this garage was quiet—or, that's what he figured.

  Looking around, Jason immediately walked over to the table and picked up the six-pack.

  Nova Cola.

  It was a logo he'd never seen before and the cans' artwork was colored green, brown, and purple.

  "Weird."

  Looking at the door that would lead into the strange Jason's living room, he contemplated saying hello. If this Jason 309 had intentionally left this Nova Cola for Jason 113 to collect at his convenience, then the least Jason 934 could do was to introduce himself.

  He reached out to open the door but it was locked. Jason knocked three times, but immediately felt silly. If Jason 309 was home, he would have surely heard the nearly-deafening roar of the rift opening in his garage.

  Walking back to the table, Jason pulled the sticky note off of the six-pack. He pulled a pen out of his pocket—he always carried at least one pen—and wrote:

  Thanks! – Jason 934.

  After waiting a few more seconds for Jason 309 to open the inner garage door, Jason 934 put the sticky note back onto the stainless steel table, took the Nova Cola, and stepped through his portal back into his own garage. He placed the six-pack of Nova Cola on his own back table then returned to the steps, where he sat down again and took another sip of beer.

  He released the portal to u309 and it collapsed into nothingness with a pop.

  Jason continued through the list, skimming past the Wilderlands and Maze World. He tried more random universes, but couldn't open most of them because of the block. He paused at universe 679—a world named Luva—when he saw a note from Jason 113 claiming that the place was the homeworld of the Krulax. So that's Gliath's world, he thought. When Jason tried to open a rift to the leopardwere's universe, he was disappointed when nothing happened. Of course, he thought. Didn't Gliath come from a world where all animals were intelligent shapeshifters? That had to be outside of u934's 95% compatibility...

  There was another world—universe 772, called 'CloudWorld' according to Jason 113's notes. It also caught Jason's interest, but the block wouldn't let him go there either.

  Damn. There were so many incompatible worlds!

  Jason eventually came across another universe that had been 'flagged' by Jason 113—colored with a higher priority—but it didn't have any notes. It was universe 932—very numerically close to his own. Looking at the data, Jason saw that the compatibility was 98%, but there wasn't a single life sign at all anywhere near the saved coordinates.

  "Weird."

  The atmospheric conditions were the same. The place had breathable air, but the temperature was very low—ranging between negative ten degrees and thirty degrees Fahrenheit depending on the time or the season. Apparently, it was a cold place.

  Jason tried to read the flora, since there was no fauna at all, but couldn't make any sense of the plant stuff. Come to think of it, he didn't really know any plant scientific names at all. He'd picked up lots of animal ones over the years—especially dinosaurs—but never bothered with plant
names.

  Curious, he focused on the coordinates and tried to open a rift.

  With a violent flutter and a cracking snap, another bright orange portal appeared in the garage, unfurling to eventually reveal a white and blustery scene of a very icy landscape and a dim, grey sky. The world was coated with snow and blowing sideways with strong winds.

  Twenty yards or so away from the rift's destination point stood a small shack—the only thing of interest as far as Jason could see.

  The portal roared and sputtered in his ears as he peered at the lone structure, trying to make out more...

  "Oh hey!" Riley suddenly exclaimed behind him, making Jason just about jump off of the step. "You found the Fridge!"

  Barely hanging onto his beer—he almost threw it down at the concrete in surprise—Jason looked back at the soldier, who stood leaning against the doorway scratching his beard with a smirk.

  "What's the Fridge?" Jason shouted above the roar.

  "Didn't I tell you?" Riley replied. "Maybe not. It's a version of Earth where the sun is either smaller or farther away—I don't remember—and the planet is a desolate icy wasteland! We were using it to store all of the extra monster meat that didn't fit in Jason 113's fridge. I wish we knew the 'bookmark' to that place when we had all that extra minotaur meat, huh? We wouldn't have had to give it to the fruking dinosaurs."

  "What's with the shack?"

  "That's a place we built over there to keep some stuff. It's ours. Do you have a 'Home Depot' on your world?"

  "Yeah!"

  "Jason 113 bought a ready-to-build shed-thing from that place back on u113's Earth, and we all put it together in the ice there. Cool little shed. We stack meat and stuff in there. It's cold storage. Hey—we should go check it out! Wanna see?"

  Jason looked back at the windy, icy waste. It would be cold, but interesting.

  "Sure!"

  "Hey," Riley added with a smile, his brown eyes falling on the stainless steel table and the six-pack of cans there. "Where'd you get some Nova Cola?"

  Jason smiled back and shouted over the roar of the portal. "I saw some on the garage table in universe 309. There was a note saying 'for Jason 113' on it. What's up with that?"

  Riley smirked. "Oh—ha! That Jason's cool. He and 113 were friends. He's a nice guy. Always keeps a six-pack there for us. Jason 113 sure loved Nova Cola."

  Ten minutes later, Jason, Riley, and Gliath were standing in the garage. Jason bundled up in several layers of fleece and polypropylene layers and opened the rift again. He pulled the mask down off of his face and adjusted his fleece cap. It wasn't long ago when he was using that cap to filter the water from the creek in the Wilderlands for drinking.

  "Jason!" he called, sticking his head back through the door, looking for Jason 1241. While exploring the OCS, he'd almost forgotten about the guy. His second self was sitting on the couch, tapping and pulling on the video game controller. "You coming?"

  Jason 1241 glared at him for a moment then looked at the screen again.

  "No, man," he replied, shouting over the roar of the portal in the garage and Zombie Assault 3, which blared on the sound system. "I'm gonna stay here."

  Jason 934 joined the others, rolled his eyes, and led them through the rift.

  As soon as Jason stepped through, crossing the ninth dimension into the Fridge as Riley called it, he took a big, chilling breath of freezing air and pulled his arms tight around his body. The cold wind hit him full in the face and he pulled his facemask up as high as he could while still being able to see. Once the others were through, Jason released the portal. They were all thrust into a shadowy landscape of freezing ice and snow, surrounded by windswept white and silvery peaks that vaguely resembled the mountains around Ridgeview, Colorado. The only sound was the howling of the wind.

  Looking up into the blustery sky, Jason looked at what might have been the sun; large and more blue than gold. Its bright light—not nearly as bright as Earth's sun—didn't give him any warmth. Honestly, Jason wondered how it was that the planet was even warm enough for him to not freeze to death instantly. Many planets in his universe with stars inadequate for life were so cold—practically as cold as space—that it would have been impossible for a human to set foot on the surface. This place was cold, but it wasn't space-cold.

  "Come on!" Riley shouted against the wind, waving for Jason to follow them with one gloved hand. Jason wondered if the soldier had some sort of cybernetic augmentation that made him resistant to the cold. Riley did seem a bit uncomfortable.

  Jason followed Riley and Gliath across a short distance of crunchy, waist-deep snow. His boots broke through twice, but for most of the way, the surface was so frozen and hard that he was able to stay on top.

  When they reached the shed, Riley opened the unlocked door and they all stepped inside out of the wind.

  "Damn, it's cold!" Jason exclaimed, pulling his mask down.

  "Perfect for saving meat, huh?" Riley asked. The soldier rushed to the several metal shelves in the back of the simple structure, looking over many hunks of frosted body parts. "Shet yeah!" he exclaimed, looking back at Gliath with a grin. "We still have some of that old giant scorpion! Let's bring some of this home!"

  "Scorpion?!" Jason replied, automatically frowning. That did not seem appealing. "So, this is all meat you guys saved from monsters you killed with Jason 113?" Many shelves were empty, but there were easily thirty pounds of meat or more.

  "Yep," Riley replied, pulling several hocks of frozen meat from a shelf. "If we knew how to get here back when we processed those minotaurs and ran out of room in your freezer, we could have saved the rest. Not all monsters are good to eat, but some of them are fruking awesome." He hefted the chunks of scorpion meat as if to accentuate the point.

  "But ... scorpion? Giant scorpion?"

  "Just wait and see," Riley replied with a broad smile. His dark beard was frosted with snow. "There's not much stuff left here, but it's more than we had before. This place will be useful—you'll see."

  Jason looked around at the pieces of meat still on the shelves. They weren't labeled. Maybe Riley simply remembered what was what. He did have a computer in his head, after all. Looking back to the front of the shed, Jason noticed a frosted-over metal box hooked onto the wall. It looked like some sort of med-kit or similar storage.

  "Hey, what's that?"

  Riley looked, shrugged, and turned back to the meat, handing Gliath a hunk of something.

  "We'll cook this one tonight," he said to his friend.

  Jason walked over and pulled the box off of the wall. It was attached by two hooks. Bringing it to a shelf, he gave it a smack to loosen the ice, then opened the latch and the lid. Inside was a gallon-sized plastic bag with a 'Zippy Lock' logo. That's a little different, Jason thought. There was also a bundle of cotton cloth and a small air canister with a built-in breathing regulator on top. Jason picked up the canister.

  "Spare Air," he read from its label. Jason was actually familiar with the device. It was an emergency source of breathable air that SCUBA divers used. The canister was black with a black regulator on top, held in a yellow nylon sheath with molle attachment loops. "Huh." Jason had never owned a Spare Air before, but he was aware of them. He'd been SCUBA diving with his parents back during his teenage years several times in places like Cozumel, the Virgin Islands, and other diving hot spots of the Caribbean.

  Jason opened the plastic baggie and pulled out what he immediately recognized as three focus keys. One was an infinity crystal—probably to the Wilderlands, although it was possible that it led to another similar world. The other was a 'blank' a lot like the one around his neck. Those blank focus keys were freely available for sale at the Market—at least at Dave Baylor's shop, anyway. The half-blank from the baggie could lead anywhere. The third key looked like a small, thin chunk of white spongy material encased in a pendant of clear plastic acrylic. Through the top of the pendant was a loop of paracord.

  Did all Jason Leapers love paracord?


  Jason reached into the case and pulled out the cloth bundle. With slow, cold fingers, he unwrapped a decorative glass vial a lot like Riley's healing potions. The crystal vial was a little cloudy in the cold, but when Jason held it up to his eyes and tipped the bottle back and forth, he saw a slick purple liquid sliding around inside. The vial was topped with a cork.

  "Healing potion?" Jason asked himself. It looked just like Riley's, both of which were gone now after the minotaur job.

  "What have you got over there?" Riley asked, walking up. Gliath was carrying three hunks of meat and Riley had one more in his left hand.

  "Looks like maybe a hidden cache from Jason 113," Jason offered. "There's a Spare Air, what might be a healing potion, and three focus keys."

  Riley's dark eyes lit up when he saw the potion then he smirked and looked at the focus keys that Jason had laid out on the shelf. "Where to?"

  "I dunno. Maybe I can scan 'em with the OCS?"

  Riley nodded and scratched his frosty beard, eying the potion again.

  Pulling up his OCS, Jason unlocked the screen with his freezing fingers, went to the scanning function, and aimed the laser at the infinity crystal. The scanner took a reading and cross-checked the data against all of the catalogued universes.

  Universe 312, the Wilderlands.

  "Just as I thought," Jason said. He aimed the laser at the blank and scanned it.

  Universe 113, Earth.

  "Hey—that's from Jason 113's world," he said, looking back at Riley.

  "Oh really? Universe 113? Can I see it?"

  "Um ... sure."

  Jason picked up the blank and handed it to the soldier. Riley considered it for a moment, then tossed it onto a low metal shelf, drew his blaster from his holster faster than Jason could follow, and a bright red beam of super-heated light sizzled through the air with a snap. He hit the focus key to u113, resulting in a bright burst of sparks! Jason gasped, shielding his eyes with one hand. When the dazzling white light faded, he saw the focus key melted into slag and its remains melded into the shelf's surface.