Crystal Core

by P. S. Power

  “If nothing is going to work, why try to kill me? To end you? Also, why send the people on my side at me for it?”

  There was a sense then, of sadness, instead of evil glee. It moved off of the being in powerful, nearly overwhelming, waves.

  “It is as you were told, Willum. If you could die, then I would have never been. It was, always, a long shot. A thing that cannot exist, since if we never were in the first place, then we could not take the actions to make that happen. I knew that, but had hoped that, perhaps, some small portion of a chance would allow something of note to happen. That it might work, even if logic tells me differently. It is not to be.” There was a long pause then.

  Neither of them spoke. Not for what seemed like hours.

  Finally, Willum nodded.

  “I understand. So, is the war done then? The attacks from these other worlds? You influenced them into happening, didn’t you?” It made a certain amount of sense.

  “Not all of it. I can do some things to calm the fear of those who would harm you and yours. Others as well. The plan that your leaders have isn’t bad, to aid in the rest. A bit… What is the term? Heavy handed?” The paper, which was white, without lines on it, turned translucent then, and after a moment, shifted to a darker color. Fading into the being that stood there, attached to the floor.

  “Ah. I fear that is a sign. We don’t have much time. I do not think I can absorb you, but the air in this place will soon be made of my substance again. You should return to your place before that inside of you does that. It… Will not be pleasant, for a time. I have no hold on that. I do think that you will fight it off, as an invader to your body. Regardless, you will not perish of it. Would you ask anything else?”

  Nothing came to mind. That got him to grunt.

  “I have nothing. Which is going to be horrible later, when I get hit with a thousand things I should have asked you. Do you have anything I need to know?”

  “Much. We don’t have time for that. There are some things…” Then the strange being stopped. Not for long, but it was odd, if they had a deadline.

  Then the being started to shrink, the face fading.

  “You should begin to open your portal, young being. It is… good to see flesh again. I used to be much like you. Not as good looking, or as short. You are only… Say a tenth the size I was. That seems correct.” Then, from inside the blackness below them, there was a sudden glow.

  “Many things should be told. I am your enemy, but you are not mine. This battle of the war is over. We might meet again, but… It will not be soon. Suns will fade before I ask for your aid again, I fear. If you come up with a way to kill us, please do so? I will be watching. Hoping that you can do it.” There was a ripple from the remaining blob as it sunk away.

  Willum, not wanting to be eaten or left in an airless room, in particular, started to work on opening a rift. Hopefully there was enough time for that.

  The being kept speaking.

  “I will refrain from meddling in your life from this point forward and those of your people. The things I had you do… The new school project and getting Tiera Baker to give up her throne? Those are good ideas. The children need the help and Tiera is miserable in her current place. She simply doesn’t know how to leave it. Life, no matter how long, is too short to live it in misery.” Then the being, a different version of Willum, was silent.

  Until there was a hole in space that Will could climb through, directly next to him. He started to take a step only to hear a hissing and a few more words.

  “The healing amulet won’t help with this. You must simply endure now. Until we meet again.”

  Then there was nothing around him. It was, he had to admit, a lot different than the creature he’d been standing on. That and, if he had the idea right, breathing in. There were traces of it all through him. So finely interwoven that it was nearly impossible to get them all out. He stayed where he was, for a very long time, working on that. Finally, hoping it was enough, he went home.

  To the Black Tower.

  Stepping out of the red box, with its tile looking roof in charcoal gray, Willum promptly fell over. Retching and moaning after he hit the Earth.

  “Well, he did say…” The words were weak and rough sounding. Not able to stand, his body feeling like it was on fire, he started to crawl. Slowly. Toward the steps of the place he lived.

  It took a long while, since he kept having to stop and rest. Every two or three feet or so. Then after suffering in pain for longer than he liked, he managed to rally again. Hours passed as he made the slow journey up the steps of his house. Those looked like black stone, but felt hollow to him. Focusing helped fend off the pain, he thought, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

  When he got to the door, he just laid there for a while, looking up at the knob. All the way up there, feet above him. Standing took most of the night, and required him to lay back down several times, before he finally stood and turned the thing. No one was inside at all. On the good side, he was feeling a bit better. More like he was just deathly ill, rather than being sick and roasting from the inside out at the same time.

  Finally, he worked his way to a chair in his front sitting room. Then he just collapsed for a bit. He knew that he needed to eat, but really, the kitchen was too far away yet. That meant calling for aid. There were, he realized, a lot of people that he could have gotten in contact with. Really, even just getting in touch with a random person might have done the trick at the moment. At least if they were bold enough to help him out.

  Instead, going a bit clumsily, he tapped his hand held alive, then looked at the names there. The natural one to call on was right at the top, of course.

  Taman Baker.

  Tapping the thing, he waited. When her face came into being, replacing the sigils and words there instantly, she actually managed to look shocked.

  “Willum? You’re alive? It’s you?” She glanced around then, as if searching for clues from his environment.

  “Yes. I’m still pretty sick. I went to find the being that was leading the war against us. Oh, that’s over now.”

  “You killed them?”

  That got him to snort. It didn’t hurt to do that, for some reason. Living was a pain at the moment, but he wasn’t over sensitive.

  “What? Not at all. We just talked. It’s… his plan wasn’t working anyway, so he’s giving that up, for now. Though if we find a way to destroy everything, we probably need to share. I can tell you, all of you, more about that. I was kind of hoping that someone would come and feed me for a bit? I ended up breathing in, well, it was another version of me, but now I have to fight it out of my system.” He waved. “I’m doing better already. Still, some help and pampering? I mean, how often do I get sick, right?”

  That… Got a nod and then a soft sound. It was a sob, rather than a laugh.

  “I’ll be right there. You were gone so long that we kind of wondered if you’d died. Your friends told us of your plan. Let me… I’ll be there directly. We need the others.”

  That part, being gone so long, sounded ominous. Still his tower was there, and hadn’t faded yet. It seemed to be the same basic structure he’d left in place as well, and no one had moved in on him. The magic of it still felt nice and strong too. Like Aunt Taman.

  If it was the same magical tower, then he hadn’t been gone for thirty years or anything like that.

  Someone came in as he pondered the idea. Running. It was, strangely enough, his uncle. Torrance. Behind him, a moment later came Tim and Dareg. All scurrying in. It was kind of familiar, except that this time they didn’t have beetlelike armor on and no one seemed intent on killing him.

  Dareg stopped in place, then made a strange noise with his tongue.

  “This is different than I expected. You look like crap, but only that. From what Taman said, I figured you were melting into the floor by now.”

  Willum scooted up in the chair a bit, then closed one eye.

  “I don’t think that’s going to happe
n. The worst is already over. It was all just… Well, part of what was needed. I could use some food? Water as well? Normally I’d get them for myself, but I get to milk this being ill thing for at least another twelve hours.”

  The other boy, who wasn’t that at all really, waved at him then.

  “Got it. One bit here. The kitchen is in the same place?” He didn’t wait to be told if that was correct or not. It probably was though, unless someone had come in to move it.

  Then Will looked up at Timon. Not that he didn’t get that these three were the first to come and help him. That probably meant he needed to let Tor off the hook for thinking he was an enemy once. No real harm had been done, after all. Still, he was closer to Tim. It was just how things worked.

  “So, how long was I gone? Taman made it sound like a few decades.” He steeled himself then, because it might have been that or longer. Everyone looked the same, but that didn’t mean as much with his family as it did with other people.

  Timon shook his head, then sat in the chair across from Will. Tor moved to the sofa, a bit away.

  “Nothing that drastic. You were gone for two months. That and a few days. It isn’t even time for you to go and officiate the election on the Moon yet. Good timing though, for that. We’d be scrambling otherwise, trying to figure out which of the Ancients was responsible for that kind of thing. Thankfully you opened your mouth first, so that job goes to you.”

  “That sounds fair. I’ll go see about that, when I can walk again? I was told that the healing amulet wouldn’t help with this. Probably due to it killing me if I tried it. Only…” He looked at the others and shook his head. “I guess I can’t actually die. So, it was probably just about misery. Nice of that being to let me know that, if it’s the case. Oh, um, anyway, the main part of the war is over. We need to do what we have planned? That was what I was told. I didn’t get to ask a lot about it. Here, I can tell you the whole thing.”

  It was a horrible plan, doing that. Not because the men didn’t listen or even let him eat, when Dare came back in with a large platter of soft foods for him. Those were mainly cheeses and slices of well hammered meat, but also some bread and even a few sauces for flavor. Those were in little dipping dishes.

  No, it was that people came at irregular intervals, which meant he had to tell each new set the same tale. On his sixth iteration of the story, Timon and Tor seeming a bit bored with it, Patricia came in, with Cindy. Behind her were Avery, Troy, Barbara Fines and Chris, from human Zack’s world.

  Avery was the person who spoke for them, her face looking nearly stern, if cute. It was her hair being up, Willum had to think. It was on top of her head, but the curls drifted down like a waterfall over the sides of her face.

  “We’re here to pick up the first batch of things for delivery. We can’t do all of them.” She looked at Willum but only nodded.

  After all, he was feeling better, but wasn’t ready to go dancing yet. Then, he didn’t know how to do that, so it could really work out for the moment. He could walk though, so had gotten his last serving of food himself.

  “Right. That’s my job. I should be ready for that in… Call it six to eight hours? I’m still recovering from the last bit.” The others were all set to writing, on paper, which meant that he had to do that as well. The message was going to different places, but it was the same for each one. They just had to hit several thousand of them. That was all.

  Some of them were going to places that were well known, like Lesser Shia and the Ettarian lands. Those last people would then spread things using telepathy, which would hit a lot of the places they needed to reach. That was a bit broad for his taste, doing it that way, but the book had said that would work.

  The one that he’d found in the metal box and helped to decode.

  When Patricia mentioned that, seeming proud of him, he nodded.

  “It’s good I actually managed to be slightly useful.” The main portion of the things still had to be taken in by him. Each being sent to the leader of one of the sub-groups. Those had names, some of them being very specific. Hundreds of them had, again, been in the book of secrets. That was mainly what the thing had been about, as far as anyone was willing to share with him.

  There was clearly something being held back. Which, from the sense coming off of Patricia, was plain enough. Many things probably would be, he didn’t doubt. He understood parts of it, but the idea still, in the end, bugged him to no end.

  “Right. So, most of these things are going to versions of people we know, only in different realities? That makes sense. We always were a bunch of troublemakers.” He glanced around, pretending to frown. “Especially that Avery girl… Always working and doing the right thing… That has to be a sign of mischief, don’t you think, Troy?”

  The man actually kept writing, but nodded.

  “I find that one of her best qualities, but yes. I do have to agree. Only a few hundred more of these left to fill out. You know, if we did this in my world we could have used a computer to print all this out. Just saying.”

  Which was both right and probably a message for Willum. He was going to need to get ready and soon. After eating a bit more. No one stopped him, when he made his single strap bag larger and started to load it up. The others were all taking more modest bundles of things. Most of them seemed fine with it, but Avery actually looked troubled, getting the disparity in work load.

  That got Cin to wave at her. Reading her face, instead of her mind like she did everyone else. The dragon was, for some reason, almost immune to that kind of thing. Will could pick up what she was thinking as well as he did anyone, but the better telepaths had trouble with it. Probably because they used magic to read people and he simply didn’t.

  Cindy had it right this time, regardless.

  “This is Will’s part in this. It’s what he trained for. Part of it. When are you heading out?”

  Only about half of the messages were in the bag so far, so he kept working. Making the grass looking bag bigger, twice. It wasn’t that many messages really. He simply didn’t want to risk bending things, since that might make it look like he did shoddy work.

  “Now. I’ll be back in… Call it a week? Wish me luck, everyone.”

  They did. All of them.

  No one tried to follow him to the little red node house out front. That was just as well, since the rest of what he was doing would be, hopefully, pretty boring that day.

  Which, for the most part, it was. No one tried to kill him when he showed up, or anything. Most of them didn’t even read the letters in front of him, though he knew what they said. He’d helped fill enough of them out to get the basic idea.

  When he got to Cohort Sendra, a rather long faced, but very busty woman, who was wearing green military style clothing, she tore the thing open, right off.

  “Are you finally inviting me on a date?” The woman frowned when she spoke, since in her world, saying that he was would be grounds to have him arrested. Willum was in her front hallway, which, if he had it right, was built inside a mountain.

  He’d never been anywhere else in that world, that he knew of.

  Still, he smiled lightly.

  “This is about the war that was going on? It’s over now.” That was basically what the letters said, which got the woman to scowl at him after she finished.

  “What’s this now? To whom it may concern: the plan has ended and failed. No further attacks will be needed or allowed. If you have any ideas, for new engagements, please contact the directorate. I haven’t heard anything about this.” She seemed suspicious, but that was mainly focused on Willum.

  “I have. It’s real. Which means we all go back to our own lives for now. So, yay? We could dance around and hug, but I don’t really feel like being locked up. You… You do know that you go a little over the top with all that, don’t you? Not that it’s my business.”

  She sneered then, but looked at the letter and sighed.

  “You’re right. It isn’t any of your business
. Anyway, do I owe you anything for this?” She didn’t add her favorite line, about her behind being on offer. It wasn’t really. She just wanted to see if she could trap him into being abused by her and her people’s system of laws.

  It was kind of annoying.

  “No. I’m thinking about giving the business up. I was just doing it for fun, but it takes a lot of time. With no war going on, I bet a lot of the business will dry up anyway, don’t you think?”

  That got a nod, then a funny look.

  “If most of it dries up, then you won’t really be too busy anymore, will you?”

  It was a point, so he nodded, agreeing with it.

  “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks. Anyway, I need to leave. I have hundreds more of these left. I have to admit, I’m kind of glad. Too many have suffered, with nothing to show for it.”

  The rest of the job was about the same as that, with about half the people acting as if he wanted to steal the silver and the others happy enough to hear it was finally done, for the time being. The hard part was that, with each letter, he had to follow the chain of worlds as they split, taking the second set to those who disagreed with it. Those letters were different, but meant to gain agreement. Following along the newly split off worlds. One after another.

  It made for a long bit of work. Still, eventually, he was finished. At least his bag was empty and that meant he was able to go home. This time, even if he were alone again in the huge tower, he ate first, stuffing his face as if food were going out of style.

  Then, after washing up, he realized that there was still more to do. That part seemed never ending. On the good side, it was going to be more personal and relaxing this time. He hoped.

  First, he got in touch with Taman, since she was his mentor. That sort of made her the boss, more or less.

  Her first words to him were sharp, though a smile came right after them.

  “You need to get to Harmony. It’s voting day, tomorrow. Tiera threatened to pull her hair out if she didn’t get some help this time. She’d look silly, bald.”