Rogue Ragtime

by K Alexis

  Telia reached up and touched his cheek. "Maybe you should have kissed me all those years ago, and we could have run away together like stupid teenagers."

  Agra swallowed. "Life's complicated," he said.

  "I know. But it's my family. What would you give to see your parents one last time?" She peered at the ground, feeling guilty for bringing up his weak spot. They had passed before he had moved to Deroi.

  "What would I …" Agra balanced a knife on his fingertips. "Everything. Anything. I can still hear my dad's laugh sometimes. He'd come home, sit in his chair, tell a joke and roar with laughter. It would fill the room." The knife toppled from Agra's digit and clanged on the hard ground. He ran a thumb and index finger over his eyes. "If you're going to die, I'd like to be with you when it happens."

  Telia smacked his shoulder. "I won't. I'm the best fucking archer for, at least, a dozen miles."

  He chuckled. "Whoa, let's not get too cocky. I'd say six—tops."

  "We're going to make it," Telia said, turning serious. "Ristie won't even know we were there. And we'll be free."

  "You'll be free."

  "We will." Telia stood on her tippy toes and hovered a fraction in front of Agra's cheek. His body heat made her heart glow, so she took a risk and followed through on her impulse. She pecked him on the cheek. It felt as good as their kiss had all those years ago. "Call me 'Tath' for this mission," she said. "If we do make it out, I don't want one of our hired hands to leak my real name to a vengeful sorceress."

  Mea closed the book and held it near to her chest. She knew the rest of the story, and she did not want to read what Telia—Tath—had really thought of her.

  The parallels between herself and Tath's father were too close. They had both wanted Tath to make them happy. They had demanded she use all the skills and abilities she had learned so they could achieve their goals and live their lives to the fullest, but their plans had come at the expense of Tath's hopes and dreams. Mea wiped away the unwanted stream of tears flowing down her face. Tath, her friend, deserved more than what she had gotten, but Mea did not know how to grant a dead woman's wish.

  "Vesper?" Mea called out. "Vesper?"

  "Yeah," her caregiver said, opening the door. "What's it now, my hard-core word-consumer?"

  "Is there any way to save her?"

  Vesper came in and shut the door. She was carrying a clipboard with several glowing papers on top of it. "Dudette, like, that's everyone's query. Y'know? But she's gone on the eventide. The universe's wrapped up and done. Most of the jumpers made it out, but she wasn't one of them."

  Vesper sat next to Mea. "What's critical is that you start using that noggin' to think about your euphoria. What would've Tath wanted for you? She wouldn't want you sitting around in this drab room and bawling about the past. She'd want you to carry her legacy out there into the 'verse." Vesper pointed to the door "No-one's really dead till everyone forgets them, right?"

  "I guess," Mea replied.

  "No guessing about it. Now, what I've been thinking is you need a little relax season to get your head aligned with your tide animal. How about the Hemi ngèr 'verse? You've been hanging out for that for a long while, right?" Vesper slid the clipboard in front of Mea.

  "Yes, that does sound good," Mea agreed. She was unsure how the librarian knew what her hopes had been on Earth, but if she could go on a short vacation, maybe she could sort out a way to bring Tath back. The universes were full of unknown mysteries and the Navigator archive had so much information …

  "Wait." Mea pushed the pen away. "Why can't I go home? Wouldn't that be better?"

  "Vag, vaggie, vag-pal, don't be asking for things you don't want someone to be denying aloud," Vesper said.

  "Are there some rules stopping me from going home?"

  "Vag-girl, my vaggie in distress, I can send you anywhere except there," Vesper answered. "Anywhere. You name the place and I can make it happen."

  "The Hemi ngèr universe doesn't exist," Mea countered. "Mine does. How would you send me there? Navigators are the only ones who can create new universes."

  Vesper gritted her teeth. "I'm trying to do you a favor, my love-struck peach. I'm willing to build an entire eco-system of life so you can be with your fantasies. Poking around in a friend's gift never goes well. Sign the paperwork."

  Mea wiped the tears from her eyes. "You said 'anywhere.' Does that mean Earth as well?"

  "The Milky Way is on a swirl into nothingness."

  Mea held up an index finger and tried to piece all the information she had in her head together. "You have a … book about Earth. I remember you snapping a book closed. If you can build a world from the Hemi ngèr novels, you must be able to do the same from the history you have of Earth in the library. You can rebuild it exactly how it was before our fight with the golem. Tath could live again."

  "Aw, vag, don't do this," Vesper pleaded. "You're asking for a re-creation. That's like demanding the perfect wave and not simply a good one. There are forms, approval processes and I have to go upstairs and talk with—"

  "You promised I could go anywhere but my home universe." Mea glowered at the librarian and pushed the paperwork away. "I want to go back to Earth and make this right."

  Vesper gritted her teeth. "Well, Navigator, how can I stand in the way of your bonds of devotion? I'll get right on it, Your Majesty."

  Thirty-four: The Librarian

  THE NEXT TIME Vesper visited, she yanked Mea out of bed, dressed her and put her pack on her back. Mea almost crumpled under the bag's weight and stumbled as she attempted to follow her caregiver. "Do we have to do this now?" Mea asked.

  Vesper pushed the door open and peeked out. "Would I be rushing you if the tides were calm and smooth for the sail? You've been out for ten cy's."

  "'Ten cy's?'" Mea repeated.

  "Cycles. It's how we keep time in this grand old ever-after." Vesper beckoned for her to follow. "Your world's flotsam on the waves. The longer we leave it, the farther it drifts out to the Void. If you want Tath and not a broad-chested, nerdy writer with a lust for walnuts, it's best we do it now."

  Mea had to use the wall for support, but she made it through the door. With each push forward, she could feel her enchanted body respond to her exertion and begin to strengthen the muscles she required. Whatever damage the Starfire flames had done to her enhanced healing powers, it had been cured. All Mea needed now was more exercise to return to her former strength.

  As she looked beyond the dimness of her chamber, the bright light of the library made her blink. She wobbled over to what appeared to be railing and—as her eyes adjusted—she realized how far from Earth she was.

  They stood on the outer walkway of the library. Hundreds of floors lay above and below them, and each level's shelves ran beyond what her human eyesight could handle. Even her balcony disappeared into the horizon. The seemingly oval balconies encircled the main area of the library. Bookcases, study rooms and trolleys with tomes stashed hurriedly in them either hovered randomly in the open space or they sat on levitating tiles that formed bridges back to different levels.

  Searching the collection were creatures of all types: triangles that talked and glowed, creatures made from nothing but arms, moving translucent liquids who chortled with intergalactic species comprised solely of hair, and a seemingly infinite number of spirits Mea struggled to describe. She had known there were numerous other universes but not this many.

  They hurriedly made their way down a spiraling staircase. Three, four, six, ten levels they descended. When Mea paused for breath on the eleventh, Vesper pulled her along. Only once did Vesper stop their harrying journey into the bowels of the library, and it was when the floor below them had several other visitors sipping tea and talking about the declining quality of universe creations. Vesper cast a spell and turned both of them invisible. They did not rest again until they had travelled down thirty-four flights.

  "You keep those toe-holders right here and don't coast," Vesper commanded Mea. "Even if
you see a dinosaur riding a cyborg-kangaroo with a blue laser sword, don't be flagging them down for a turn."

  "I wouldn—"

  Vesper ignored Mea's response and strode across the walkway's shimmering carpet to a thick oak door. She banged on it twice with her fist.

  "Leloia," she hollered. "I got another dreamer." At first there was silence, and then the door creaked open.

  Mea thought Leloia's voice could have enchanted angels. It sounded like a crystal's echo, its tone seemingly the resonance of a diamond chalice that also curved back over itself to create a fuller harmony. "Mortal and Astral dance everlastingly in the Void's embrace," Leloia said.

  "Like, can we not do this right now?" Vesper asked. "We need your help. We want you to spin up the old creation engine and pump out a world."

  "Unfailingly, I heed any soul's call."

  "Yeah, rad to hear." Vesper beckoned for Mea to come over. When Mea arrived at the entrance, Leloia was gone. There was no light inside of her room, only impenetrable blackness.

  "She's my sis," Vesper said. "She went a little too deep into the birthing once and ain't been right since. Ain't no sparkly fingers that can fix her either."

  "And you asked her to rebuild Earth?" Mea queried.

  "You demanded I reskin old living juices into new forms. There's only one person out here who can do that. It's just too bad she's lost the 'now' part of that big brain of hers … if you catch the drift of the words I'm spitting."

  "So, she's always living in the future?" Mea asked. "Should I be worried?"

  "Nah, she's sweet as a peach on the sand if she likes you. Otherwise, she'll toss you in the goop, and it'll be a wild ride to the soul ripping." Vesper patted Mea on the back. "It's all on your paddles now. You can either take the plunge or sign my papers and hang with the gentle souls of your fantasies. I know which one I'd take."

  Mea pushed the door open a little farther so she had a touch more space to enter Leloia's chamber. "Thank you," she said to Vesper. She banged her legs with her fists to encourage them along and breathed out. "Tath, I'm coming," she said.

  After Mea stepped into the darkness, she heard the door click shut behind her. She spun and reached for the entrance, but she could not find it despite walking six paces in each direction.

  Suddenly, a pulsing light illuminated the area Mea was standing in. It shot forward in a zig-zag pattern before turning sharply to the left and dissipating. Its afterglow revealed a number of small, black squares laid out in a path and on either side of them was a bubbling vacuum. Leloia was nowhere to be found, and Mea felt the Chill Serpent crawl up her leg.

  She took slow steps along the route provided. As the width of the tiles barely covered her sole at its widest part, her lead foot needed to be firmly planted on the ground before she lifted the back one if she wished to keep her balance. To ensure she did not fall into oblivion, Mea kept her focus firmly fixed on her feet's position rather than what was ahead of her.

  Another beam of light streaked past her, tracing the same path as the previous one. Mea noted its direction and continued on at the same speed. Every tread led to her stomach feeling a little colder … and the Serpent inside her coiling a little tighter. Mea turned to the left as the guiding light had done—and snapped her eyes closed.

  She knew she had been lucky. Leloia had either found a compressed sun—or actually shrunk one—and stuck it in her living quarters. If Mea had not been observing her footsteps, she would have been blinded.

  "I guess Leloia doesn't like me," she mumbled. The white beam she had been trailing sizzled faintly as it slid through the air. The sound was not much as far as directions went, but it was enough for the purpose of navigating the space. Each time it zipped past, Mea took another step in the direction of the noise it made. The process was excruciatingly gradual and her legs hurt from the long periods of standing with such a heavy pack.

  Yet, her weary thighs and the limited directions were not the worst part of her journey. That prize went to the star's radiation. Its heat pressed down on Mea and made her recently healed skin tingle as if a faint flame was being run over it. And at random times, the star popped, and small solar flares tinged Mea's skin. When they made contact, they caused her to cry out in pain. She wanted to sprint out of the chamber and escape the torment, but she knew to do so was death. And so, she persisted.

  As instantaneously as the sun had appeared, it also vanished. The swelter of the celestial orb faded into a comfortable temperature. After Mea felt the change in the atmosphere, she risked opening her eyes. The all-consuming light was gone and had been replaced with hovering pink ovals that had faint-green rectangles sitting underneath them. The directional pulse had ceased moving in a single line and had transformed into a sphere. It bounced from one oval to another in a specific pattern. With each bounce, the ball increased its speed, and it became difficult to track in the final parts of the sequence.

  "Maybe Leloia hates me," Mea said. She observed the sphere's order several times before attempting the challenge. It went poorly. She guessed the fifteenth shape wrong, and when her foot touched the incorrect oval-rectangle combination, the platform disappeared. Mea fell into nothingness and felt her Chill Serpent convulse all throughout her body. The Void pressed onto her frame and slid up her nose; it felt as if she was being eaten alive while also being squished to death. Mea tried to scream, but her mouth was gone and had been replaced with long tendrils of blackness.

  A moment before the Void could reach her brain, she discovered herself back at the start of the chamber. One of her sleeves was missing, and the following quote was branded on her forearm: "Ignorance exists but once."

  "I think I hate her too," Mea commented while waiting for the pulse. It came and she mapped its course in her mind. She visualized it a dozen times and re-checked her plan twenty more before hopping onto the first platform. Despite a moment in the middle of the sequence where she misgauged the jump and only survived because she lassoed the next oval in the sequence with a summoned void rope, her second run at the gauntlet was successful.

  As Mea hopped onto the last platform, the puzzle faded into nothingness, and she landed in a cramped room packed with piled books and scattered pages covering almost every part of the floor. In the middle of the enclosure was a round, stone well. It had no bucket or pulley system to extract water from its bowels, despite its well-maintained appearance. Leloia sat at the only other point of interest in the room, a poorly carved table. An otherworldly luminesce pressed outwards from the librarian's body and brightened the study so everything inside the chamber could be seen.

  Two ancient and seemingly alive Chinese characters stood vertically on the woman's desk and were observing what Leloia was writing. They squeaked when Mea waved at them and dashed into one of the many tomes that appeared to have been thrown across the room in a fit of rage.

  "At the edge of an abyss, the widow gathers worlds of shabby splendor for her parted beloved," Leloia muttered. "Cry not, my listener! For her tribulations are drawn from her own flesh as she wrestles with the amour aflame in her bosom. Yet, through these ebbs of aches and agonies, she may once more stumble upon her indubitable self."

  "Excuse me," Mea said, stepping forward. "Vesper mentioned you could bring Telia Morehouse back. She said that you could re-create Earth."

  Leloia wrote faster. "Even at this moment, before the ignition of the gleam, the widow pleas with those whom she believes will bend their ear." Leloia stood up and glided across the study. Her hands delicately flitted from one book to another as if she was tracing a path. She wore a slender, orange, halter-neck dress that complemented her hazelnut skin. Under her waist, the dress' accordion folds appeared to dance in sync with each of Leloia's movements. They littered the air with a trail of brightly colored hexagons.

  Mea waved her hands at the librarian to get her attention, until she noticed the woman's eyes were solid white. Leloia was blind.

  Thirty-five: The Well

  "PSST," A VOICE f
rom the well said. It sounded like a mix between monster's death rattle and a half-extended bass note on a punk song.

  Mea ignored it and waited for Leloia to respond. The librarian did not. She started to sing to herself in a tongue Mea had never heard.

  "Psst," the voice went again. "Come over here."

  Mea moved toward the well and looked down. A thick black ooze that had an endlessly swirling crimson line was inside. "What's your name, sweetie?" it asked.

  "Mea."

  A piece of slime shot out of the well and hit Mea on the cheek. "Your real one, you little Navie minx."

  "Meagh Tristan."

  "Universes aflame, you're stubborn. That's two middle names short for a Navigator, but I like that you're cautious. You should be too. These people are all nutters." The ooze dropped a foot in the well. "This is the nut house," it whispered before rising. "Name's Hamellé. Like the Mike in your old universe, but cooler."

  "Should I know who that is?" Mea asked.

  Hamellé blew at her, making her hair flutter. His breath smelled of sulfur and ocean tides. "Damn straight you should," he said. "He was the best J-man on the silver and big screen. Kids these days."

  "Why is Leloia ignoring me?" Mea asked, not interested in arguing over ancient pop culture.

  "Obviously cause she ain't here," Hamellé answered. "She went whoopity and loopity in the head an eon ago. No-one knows how to fix her because she's one of those perceivers and sometimes it happens. You look into time and space long enough and you get lost. Sometimes they drift for a thousand years and sometimes two. So, I'm running this joint now. I'm her pool of whoosh and cosmos explosion."

  "Vesper said—"

  Hamellé interrupted Mea, "What's she want now? Are you here to replace Leloia? I'll fight you if that's true."

  "No," Mea replied. "Vesper told me that Leloia could save my girlfriend, Tath. She died when my old universe exploded."