Crystal Core

by P. S. Power

  Instead the pale man just seemed happier.

  “It does look good that way. Good to know you’re in with us, Willum. I was afraid for a second that I was going to have to try and trick you into saving all those people.” He glanced at the others, his face wry. “Do you have any clue how hard it would be to trick someone as powerful as Willum? That never goes well, in the end, when it has to happen.”

  Avery took Will’s hand, which was probably meant to be reassuring, since that was what she was thinking. Troy got that as well, and took it that way. Eve, on the other hand, smirked and looked away slightly, thinking that the girl had some kind of design on him sexually. Except that his dragon friend wasn’t wired that way.

  She didn’t have a sex drive, which was a thing that Eve knew as well. Meaning…

  Really, it was too complex for him to bother with at the moment. The truth was that he was too tired, mentally, to bother with games and personal drama. He thought that was what it was called. That might just be in the IPB world. Still, the idea carried, even if the term didn’t.

  They moved a bit, walking to the back of the line, since working there didn’t seem to give them instant access to the front or anything like that. Which was probably right. People had been waiting for up to ten or even twenty minutes already. It would be cheating them to move to the front suddenly.

  He gave his friend’s hand a small squeeze and let go of her warm, dry palm. It occurred to him that he probably seemed off in some way, if she was doing things like that to give him comfort. As far as he knew, he should have seemed fairly normal. Strong even.

  Behind them, one of the men who had been listening to them talk about things, cleared his throat. It was obvious the gentleman, who looked to be about fifty or sixty, but who was dressed for the day in shorts and a t-shirt on, had followed them.

  “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear… There’s some kind of attack coming?”

  It was probably very rude of him to have been listening to them like that. Worse to admit it. Then again, Troy had proclaimed that was part of their goal that day. To speak in a way that others could overhear.

  Turning a bit, Willum nodded.

  “Not so much here. In other realities. That can still have impacts for us, but probably won’t. A group, or really, more like several thousand groups, have been trying to end all reality. They want to prevent everyone from existing to the end of time, living in the void of space, being unable to die. Going insane. They mean well, but… I have no clue if that’s real or not. I keep hearing slightly different things about what could happen, or what will.” He looked at the fellow directly, then forced a grin. “The truth is, I don’t think anyone has the final word on it. We have a plan in place, to keep everyone we can alive for now. Then we can look into the rest of it, over the next few billion years.”

  That got a nod. Then the man looked at Eve, for some reason.

  “Is this for a new television program? I noticed Avery Rome was standing here and you do all look like you could be actors. Plus…” There was a wave at Troy then. “I saw you on television, too. Um, fighting that guy in New York.”

  Eve didn’t seem upset that her word was being doubted. Willum didn’t feel that either, since he couldn’t actually be bothered to care at the moment.

  Still, the man was trying to find a way to fit the new information into his world, not do any harm. Willum tried to smile, a bit.

  Grinning, Eve winked at the man.

  “Nothing that fun. Still, the truth is that this won’t impact us here all that much. It isn’t a bad idea though. I should write something up and run it past Krista, don’t you think, Ave?” She put her hand out, fingers suddenly spreading. “Reality Wars! It can be all about how I saved everything, all by myself. With little to no help from the rest of you attention hogs. That sounds totally fair, don’t you think?”

  The way she said the words was adorable. That wasn’t how he normally thought of the woman, he had to admit. She was sometimes playful and even fun seeming, but her looks were too sharp and fine for that kind of simple cuteness. At least he’d figured that to be the case. Apparently, he’d been underselling his friend that way.

  Willum could see that now.

  “That could work? We can take people to different places for the work portion of things. To shoot scenes for the show? I bet we can get backing from some of my friends and family back home for that. Tiera for instance. She’s about to be done being Queen, so should have some time to be a background character in your show. She speaks English already, I think.”

  That got Eve to reach out and take his arm, holding it.

  “That’s brilliant. Why is she not going to be Queen? I haven’t been there for a week or two. To Mars, the other day, but no one mentioned anything. I haven’t been to Harmony though. Did something happen?”

  That part left him feeling slightly uneasy. Enough that he didn’t go into the whole thing where he’d walked up to her and demanded she stop breaking rules that he barely knew existed.

  “Nothing bad. She’s just supposed to be the Ancient of the Moon, not it’s Queen. It’s part of the rules. Immortals aren’t supposed to rule directly. Just help out behind the scenes. I need to work on Aunt Taman for that next, I think. Though I might give that one ten years or so. Soam is a different place than Harmony. The people have been through a lot, in recent years. Not much of it good.”

  He didn’t speak of the wars and attacks on people there. Or how the radiation was still a problem along the western coast of the place. Even with Taman using magic to help clean the land. It was too much for one person to do alone. Then, from what he’d heard about it, the rest of the Ancients were supposed to be helping with things like that.

  It wasn’t a thing that he’d seen happening so far. Then, he probably wouldn’t have, really. Willum had been focused on other things for a long time. Not the things around him directly, or his own life. He still wasn’t.

  They got to move a few feet forward, as a small group of young adults took their free burgers and fries away, eating as they moved. At least one tan colored girl nibbled at a potato strip. She looked to be about fifteen or so. Old enough to have to fight and die in a war, if things weren’t handled correctly. For now, he was willing to be happy that the unknown woman and her friends were able to just be happy and enjoy their festival.

  A thing that he needed to be doing, as well. If he could.

  It was Avery who spoke then, going back to the idea of a show for some reason. It was part of her job, he supposed. She was an actress, after all.

  “I can help with that? Moving people around for it. You should also see about getting Eva involved. I don’t know if she can act, but there are a lot of her.” There was slight duck of the head, which seemed almost shy. Even if it was a great idea.

  It got Willum to smile anyway.

  “You know, that actually does sound like a good idea! Tamu as well. They all look a lot like you, but also not. Maybe get my grandmother Baker in as well? She could pass for you in the right light, Eve. A bit shorter, but that works for this, no? I don’t know if any of them speak English though. Felicia, from the IPB… That would work as well. We should ask.”

  That, it seemed had come up for some of them before. Eve had met Queen Tiera, and they’d chatted in both English and Standard.

  Moving forward a few more steps, Avery shrugged. It was an unusual thing for her to do.

  “Both Eva and Samantha can speak English pretty well. Samantha is Eva’s sister. They’re both energy beings.” She looked at the others there, the listeners, since the explanation was for them, really. The rest of them seemed to have all of that down.

  Eve chortled a little.

  “Ah. Now all I have to do is learn how to write past a sixth-grade level and this could actually work.”

  The woman was too intelligent for that to be a real thing, if Willum understood what she was saying. It took work, but he figured that would be about the level of a person gradu
ating from first level education back home.

  Rather than call her a liar, he nodded.

  “That can be learned. It shouldn’t take you any more than a few days, really. If you get time you can come to my house and we can work on that? All of you, of course.”

  He meant even the people behind and in front of them, but none of them even pretended to themselves they were being included in the offer. They might be important, though. Troy had indicated something like that. Only, of course, he hadn’t specifically.

  Will shook his head a bit, feeling ridiculous again.

  Eve, however, just nodded at him.

  “Right. We get an eight to one time frame if we work there. Good idea. So, we just show up with note pads and a change of clothes?”

  “Sure. That works for me. Really, just show up and grab a room if you want? It’s an embassy anyway, and all of you count as dignitaries. I don’t know what I’m going to be doing anymore.” That was the truth, but sounded a bit dismal.

  As if he figured that something bad was going to happen. At least to his own ears. No one else responded to that. Instead, they finally just got to move up to the front of the line. There was a list of things, written in English that told him what he was allowed to have.

  Edom was the one taking the orders. There was a tray of food already sitting there however, fully loaded with things for them to eat. It was enough for six people, which really wasn’t enough for Avery and himself. Then, he could go on short rations for a while. The other people in line there needed to eat as well.

  The heavy paper tray was pushed toward him, specifically.

  “Here you go. We’ll free up some more for you, as soon as we can.”

  Avery moved in and took the tray.

  “Thanks, Edom. This smells wonderful.”

  It really did, having cooked onions on it, as well as sauces and ground meat on fluffy rolls. There were packages of potatoes as well. All of it was wrapped in white paper that seemed to crinkle a little as the tray was taken.

  “Yes, thank you, Ambassador Freeman.” He bowed a bit at the man, getting one back. “We should have you in soon, to Noram. Perhaps Lenore Hawthorn as well?” They’d met and Avery had mentioned the idea to him before.

  The man smiled, winningly.

  “That sounds like fun, actually.”

  There was no move to set up a time for that, which probably had to do with the idea that the man figured it was a token gesture.

  The others were moving away, so that everyone else could get their food in a timely fashion. That meant Willum had to speak quickly.

  “Arrange that with Eve? Call it… in a month?” That would give him time to put things together, being eight months in his own world’s time. Slightly more than that, to be honest.

  Then he had to get out of the way, since the people behind him were pressing in. Slowly, but the need for him to get out of their way was clear. Following the others, he noticed that Avery was taking them to sit under a large tree, about fifty feet away.

  Eve sighed and looked at the short, rather tidy, grass under the thing. Then she patted at her tan slacks.

  “I don’t suppose anyone has a blanket to sit on hidden in their pocket, do they?”

  Willum didn’t, of course. Stopping he pulled at the little bag that was over his shoulder. It looked like woven grass. No one had commented on it, even if it was pretty unique for the world they were in. Opening it, he looked inside, searching for an idea, more than anything else.

  “Let me… No blankets, of course… I think…” He pulled out a magical palace then, and stepped away. It took focus to have it come into being correctly though.

  When he activated the glowing purple sigil, it brought a small wooden sitting area into being. It was covered, and square. There were comfortable chairs inside of the twenty by twenty structure. Also, a small table, for eating at.

  There was a gasp, from about fifty people that weren’t too far away.

  Troy just moved into the thing.

  “Niiice. We can even have our own bathroom, using this. We can see the fireworks from here as well. I should call Zack and have him join us here. I think he’s around here, someplace. He put in a half day, at the bookstore. We haven’t been doing much else but working for a while, thanks to the new bridges. Things have really picked up that way.”

  There was an uneasy look then, for some reason.

  Willum didn’t get it, until Avery moved up onto the raised floor of the sitting area, and set the tray of food on the table.

  “We should have others in as well. Krista and Judy… Maybe some of the other people who used to be demons?” Her voice was nearly silent, for some reason.

  Eve grunted. It wasn’t totally happy sounding. There was a wave of information from her then. It spoke of those who had given up being evil as having a bit of a hard time of late. Most people didn’t trust it and the other Greater Demons weren’t happy about being abandoned. It was pretty much the destruction of their society, after all.

  “I’ll just call them up and ask them over. We’ll need more food.” She smirked, and eyed the hamburger stand as if they weren’t going to have enough for them all.

  “I have a food unit with me. It’s not a Tiera model, but we should be able to do enough that way. Noram style food…” That probably wouldn’t go over that well. It was all different than what people from there would be used to.

  He got that out and set up the small pink unit, on the floor of the covered pavilion space. Then he slowly made the thing grow, taking up a bit more space. No one was sitting right in that area, but those closest to them stared. Hard. As if seeing a growing building was odd to them.

  Which, at a guess, it was.

  There didn’t seem to be any magic being openly used. Just some small bits of it being sold at a stand, not too far away.

  While he worked, Eve pulled out a cell phone. It was small and had a case on it that was cute. It was a shining pink, with tiny blue stylized stars on it. Those had five points, which was different than Will was used to seeing.

  After a moment, the woman held the thing up to her right ear.

  “Hey! This is Eve. The party is down by the river, near the Vampires’ Hamburger Stand. We have the covered building that wasn’t there before. You and the others are being invited.” She pointed at the phone with her other hand, and mouthed a name. Keeley.

  She listened for a bit, the voice too muffled for him to hear what the words were.

  “Sounds good! See you in a bit. Bring food. We have some here, but variety is the spice of life. Oh, and drinks? Not enough people around here are drunk, yet. Clearly an oversight on someone’s part.”

  In the time it took for her to hang up, or get most of the way there, Avery’s device rang as well. She answered it instantly.

  “Bente? Hi! Are you coming to the party? I think that Keeley is coming…” That started ten minutes of people calling the others. Even Troy got several.

  No one called for Willum, but he didn’t have a device that would allow for that in the reality he was in. Rather than worry about that, he collected some working material, collecting rocks from a different location. Troy helped with that, setting up a hole in space that took him directly to a desert, so that he wouldn’t have to dig a hole in the nice lawn there.

  The man did that while talking on the phone to someone or other.

  Then, when they had hundreds of pounds of stones, mainly large ones that would have to be broken up to fit in the hopper of his small food device, other people started to show up.

  The first was his Aunt Taman. Only not at all. She was a bit taller, and actually looked a few years older. About twenty-five. She had long dark hair and brown eyes. The woman was carrying a different woman with her. In her arms, like she was a baby. That one had red hair and very light skin. Freckles as well. The skin color was off, but it was clear that this woman was his friend Bridget. Only not.

  Standing up, since he’d been squatting next to the f
ood unit, setting it up, he bowed. After all, they’d walked through a rip in space. That kind of marked them as being his people.

  “Hello! I’m Will Baker. Nice to meet you.”

  The brunette settled the other woman on the floor of the covered area, and waved.

  “Hey! Keeley Thomson. This is Hally, my girlfriend. We have stuff.” Hally did at least. It was a strange plastic basket, but when taken to the table and opened, it contained several bottles of colorful liquid that he presumed were for drinking. They didn’t have labels on them, however.

  That got him to dig through his things again.

  “Plates, cups and silver… Here we go.” Those were laid out on the table, which got the dark haired one, clearly one of the former Greater Demons, to wave at it as they appeared.

  “I like that trick! Does this little thing over here make food?” It was a guess, it seemed, but a good one.

  “It does. Let me…” He started making things. Not that it was hard. After a moment, the woman moved over to help with it. At first, they were doing steak sandwiches, but those changed as the new lady worked with the device. After about three minutes, she was producing things that looked a lot like hamburgers, but that had steak in the middle. The device wasn’t designed to do that kind of thing, which meant she was being kind of impressive. If in a quiet fashion.

  She made a lot of them. Then did side dishes as others started to show up. It was more people than he would have expected, from the number of calls that had been made and received.

  At least five of them had a strange energy, with everything seeming to rush inward toward them constantly. Most of those he didn’t know, except for Zack. Troy introduced them to him, as they came for the free food.

  “This gentleman is Kind. He works at the bookstore with Zack and I. Line walker. Um, this lovely lady is Bente. She’s a high end fashion designer. Very famous for it. I think this is…” He froze for a bit, as the younger looking man who stood there bowed. Willum did it back as the rather normal looking dark-haired fellow, who was in shorts and a t-shirt, if in a strange arrangement, since the half trousers looked like they’d been made of blue jeans with the legs amputated, grinned.