Etherno

by Aaron DeMott

  Tannin and Cerina stepped out of the portal behind him, and finally Saija. She dropped to her knees and sucked in air. Onin grabbed one of her arms. Kasai got the other, and they led her over to sit on the steps of the stone house.

  “Are you alright?” Kasai asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” Saija took another breath. “Just used up a lot of power holding that portal open. Never felt anything like that before.”

  Onin dug around in his backpack and handed Saija an energy bar.

  “Thanks.” She bit off a large hunk and gulped it down.

  “Easy there.” Kasai patted Saija’s back. “You don’t want to choke.”

  “Mmm.” Saija nodded while she chewed. “It’s been a very long time since I’ve been this hungry.”

  “That’s kinda got me worried. How are we going to get out?” Kasai said.

  “Worry about that later. If this is the Matari dimension, or whatever, they might be able to help with that, seeing as we might have been here before,” Onin said.

  “Wow. Floating concrete.” Tannin craned his head around as he looked up at the sidewalk. “Remind me not to eat the cafeteria’s mushroom lasagna ever again.”

  “Shut-up.” Cerina smacked Tannin’s arm. “That’s not funny.”

  “No. ‘Surreal’ would be a better word.” Tannin scrunched up his nose and blinked at the floating sidewalk.

  Cerina took a step towards Tannin. “Oh, look who can use big-boy words now.”

  “The question is—” Onin stepped between them. “Where do we go from here?”

  “Up.” Kasai pointed.

  Tannin shrugged, Saija nodded. Cerina glanced at the curving sidewalk and shivered. Kasai slipped her hand into Onin’s and they started up.

  The world turned around them. At least, that’s what it looked like. Onin kept his eyes on the stone house as they walked along the sidewalk. It felt like they were walking in a flat, straight line, yet, the house was now at a ninety-degree angle to the part of the sidewalk they stood on.

  “This is weird.” Onin stared at the sideways house. Either he or the house should be falling over.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” Cerina hugged her stomach and kept her gaze on the sidewalk at her feet.

  “I’m totally serious about those mushrooms,” Tannin swept his arm in the direction of the sideways house. “What else could explain this? I bet I’m going to wake up in a few hours in our dorm room with a killer headache, or whatever kind of hangover or whatever you get from ‘shrooms.”

  Saija raised an eyebrow. “It’s not the mushrooms.”

  “How do you know?”

  “For one—” Saija held up a finger. “The cafeteria’s looked and tasted just like ordinary mushrooms. Two—” She held up another finger. “I had the same lasagna, so—”

  “Ha!” Tannin pointed at her. “I knew it! We’re having the same hallucination!”

  Saija’s eyes narrowed, and she jabbed Tannin in the forehead with her index finger.

  “Again, knock it off, you two. We have to see if we can find the Matari,” Onin said.

  The scenery didn’t change much over the next mile. Floating trees suspended in nothing, Two more stone houses set back from and on opposite sides of the path—and on different rotational planes from each other. Something flew past Onin.

  “Did you see that?” he said.

  “See what?” Kasai whipped her head around. “Wait… is that a fish?”

  It was a fish. Swimming through the air several yards off the ground.

  “I think—” Cerina slowly drew the words out as she stared at the fish. “—that we might owe Tannin an apology about his mushroom theory.”

  Onin shook his head and kept walking.

  Finally they came to an area where everything looked normal. Or at least everything was on the same axis, and nothing was flying that shouldn’t be.

  “Thank goodness!” Cerina dropped to her knees and laid down on her back to stare up at the sky. “I thought I was gonna spin off into the air any second there.”

  Kasai took a deep breath. “It is nice to be back to something that looks as it should.”

  “I wonder—” Onin looked around at the flat grassland. “—in here, are the normal parts normal, or weird?”

  “Don’t care. As long as ‘up’ is the same direction for everything,” Cerina said

  “So, what do we do now, boss?” Tannin looked over at him and raised his eyebrows.

  “There are houses over that way,” Onin shrugged and pointed ahead of them. “Someone had to have made them.”

  He walked up to the closest house. It was mad of stone with a tile roof like the others they’d seen. Wood door, and clouded windows on the sides. At least this one wasn’t moving. Onin knocked on the door. No response.

  “So…” Saija peered in one of the windows. “These windows are glazed or frosted or something, I can’t see anything. Assuming people of some sort live here, where are they?”

  “My guess would be they’re hiding or they’ve fled the area,” Kasai said.

  “Scared of us, or something else?” Cerina said.

  “Good question.” Onin walked around to the back of the building. The others followed him. “I’d say it’s the Natas. That’d explain why the Matari cut funding to ABG, and why this place is deserted.”

  “Could be a little of both. If the Natas did attack here, any survivors would be terrified of any other strangers coming around,” Kasai said.

  They checked the surrounding houses without any results. All the doors were locked. Not a person or animal was in sight.

  “Well, time to keep moving, I guess. There’s nothing here.” Onin said.

  “But where?” Kasai looked around. “We could wander around here forever.”

  Just then a branching path on the sidewalk shimmered into existence.

  “How about that one?” Tannin gestured toward the new path.

  “Oh, yeah.” Cerina rolled her eyes. “‘Cause that couldn’t scream ‘trap’ any louder.”

  “It should lead us straight to whoever we’re looking for, then.” Onin raised his hand and generated a servitor, which zipped off down the new sidewalk. The servitor didn’t send back any energy, or telepathic echos. It traced the path for a while, and sent back a mental picture of a large wooden structure.

  “Did it find anything?” Kasai asked.

  “Not really.” Onin frowned. “The path spirals and turns and stuff, and there’s a building at the end that looks normal.”

  He shrugged. It might be a trap, but he had a gut feeling that it was more of an invitation. Onin tapped a finger against his leg. The information from the servitor didn’t provide any hints. He’d just have to trust his hunch and hope he made the right choice.

  Onin squared his shoulders and headed down the sidewalk. Everyone else trailed behind him. The trees started to get thicker. And… weirder. Before, they looked like normal trees. Well, normal in everything except the whole “growing in mid-air” thing. Now they looked like poorly rendered imitations of trees. Sharp, blocky green triangles where branches and individual needles should be. Onin peered at one of them. The trunk was square and flat brown.

  “Uh, anyone else getting creeped out by this?” Saija asked.

  “Come on.” Cerina jabbed a finger at Saija. “With your past, this can’t be the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen.”

  “That’s why I’m scared. No, this isn’t the grossest or most… off… thing I’ve seen, but it is the weirdest.”

  Kasai looked up at Onin, then over her shoulder at Saija. She let go of Onin’s hand, fell back a few paces and took Saija’s hand in hers. Saija flushed and looked at the ground. Onin stared at Kasai. He’d rather she hold his hand, but Saija obviously needed a friend more right at this moment. He smiled. Not many people could forgive a person who had tried to kill them not that long ago. Kasai was wonderful.

  “Hey, what’s that?” Tannin pointed at the ground a dozen or so yards
left of them.

  A shadow floated over the ground. Only, it wasn’t a shadow. More like the reverse of a shadow, like someone shining a spotlight on the ground. Onin shaded his eyes with his hand and looked up. A giant cloud of light drifted through the sky.

  “Just when you think this place can’t get any weirder—” Onin turned back forward and jumped. “What the—”

  They stood in front of a large stone and metal castle. It looked like a spaceship had artfully crashed into something out of the medieval era. It was roughly circular and had twisting stone and metal towers rising out of the wall at irregular intervals. They stood in front of a raised wooden drawbridge.

  Tannin frowned. “I swear this wasn’t here a minute ago.”

  “It wasn’t.” Saija had stepped behind Kasai, and she was visibly trembling. “This is sickeningly familiar.”

  “Oh?” Kasai said.

  “Well, not—” Saija waved her hand around. “—this. But… I don’t know… this feeling. I feel the way I did when the Natas that occupied me was communicating with its master.”

  “There might be a Natas nearby?” Onin generated a servitor and put it into sentry mode.

  “I don’t know. The Natas are spectral beings. The Matari might give off the same feeling if they are, too. Or it might just be this place, if it’s some kind of spectral dimension or something.”

  Another anti-shadow drifted overhead. Onin squinted up at it and watched as it came down and went through the door and inside the castle.

  “Just what are those things?” Cerina said.

  “I wonder…” Kasai let go of Saija’s hand and walked up to the drawbridge.

  “Hello?” Kasai paused an took another breath. “Matari? It’s Kasai and Onin!”

  No response. Did Kasai think that…

  “If you’re the Matari, we’re here to help,” Kasai said.

  Still no sign of a response from inside the castle.

  “Maybe no one’s home here, either,” Tannin said.

  “Wait,” Onin held up a hand. “Did you hear that?”

  There it was again. Faint, but definitely a squeak. Seconds later it squeaked again, and the drawbridge started to lower. Kasai took a step back and grabbed Onin’s hand. She stretched her other hand out behind her and grabbed one of Saija’s.

  The drawbridge settled onto the ground with a solid thunk. Onin crossed the bridge into the castle with the others in tow. The inside was nothing like what he expected. Which, given the nature of this place, didn’t surprise him. A yellow sidewalk ran from a clearing in a forest toward a group of stone houses.

  “Whoa,” Kasai said. “Déjà-vu.”

  “What? Sure, it looks a little like that first place with the houses where we were, but it’s not the same,” Tannin said.

  “No, that’s not it. This is where Kasai and I were when we went to the Matari Enclave,” Onin said.

  “Can’t be. That’s miles behind us,” Cerina said.

  “I think that they brought us here that night,” Kasai said.

  “Or reality isn’t a firm concept here.” Saija shrugged. “It could be that in this dimension, this place doesn’t have a fixed physical location.”

  “So, where do we go? There are, what?” Tannin leaned around Onin and looked at the sidewalks. “Three different paths here. Which one do we take?”

  “We took yellow last time,” Kasai said.

  “Just because you took it last time doesn’t mean anything. You were here for a completely different reason last time,” Cerina said.

  “I think we should stick to the yellow path,” Onin said.

  Saija nodded.

  “Don’t look at me.” Tannin shrugged. “I’m still voting this is all mushroom induced.”

  “Knock it off with the mushrooms, already!” Cerina smacked his arm. “We’ve already established—never mind. Why am I arguing with an idiot? Lead on, Onin.”

  Onin started down the yellow path. Everything looked exactly the same as it did the last time he and Kasai were here. The light started to dim the farther along the path as they went.

  “Why not?” Tannin muttered under his breath. “We’ve had sideways houses, trees growing in mid-air, and low-res trees. Why not varying light levels?”

  “It was just after dark when we were here last. I think they’re trying to recreate that visit almost the same as it was then,” Onin said.

  “But why? What’s the point?” Cerina said.

  “We’ll know soon enough,” Saija said.

  The path ended at the same wood and metal building as last time. Onin glanced at Kasai, raised an eyebrow, and jerked his chin toward the door. She stared back at him and nodded.

  Onin reached out and pushed the door open.

  Chapter 14

  Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

  A bright light filled the center of the wood-paneled room. Onin shaded his eyes and took a step inside. “Hello?”

  “Onin and Kasai. You have returned.” Ambassador Miton’s voice came from the light. She sounded puzzled. The ball of light condensed somewhat and floated closer. “What is your purpose for coming here?”

  “We heard you might be in trouble,” Onin shielded his eyes and looking at the ball of light. “You cut funding to ABG, and the Natas are multiplying and running around loose all over Rogim and Caradan. We came back to find out what’s going on and to see if we could help.”

  The ball of light—which Onin thought was the Ambassador’s true form, or at least as close as a gesaran could perceive it—changed color to a soft blue. Tiny flashes sparkled all throughout it. Finally, the Ambassador spoke.

  “We never considered asking gesarans for help. Your gifts are for your own protection, not our fight. Yet since the Natas have possessed gesarans, they could be helpful in the current situation. Please come in, and we will discuss this.”

  The cloud of light floated farther inside and passed through the door on the far wall. Cerina leaned in close to Onin and Kasai.

  She lowered her eyes and looked contrite. “Sorry. I didn’t believe what you said about the Matari.”

  Kasai smiled faintly. “That’s okay. I wasn’t quite sure it wasn’t all a dream myself, for a while there.”

  Onin tugged at Kasai’s hand. “Let’s go. We don’t want to keep them waiting.”

  “Uh, what’s behind the door?” Saija said.

  “If it’s the same as last time, it should be a conference room. There was food last time.” Onin glanced over his shoulder at Tannin. “I’m not sure if there will be any or not now, so don’t get your hopes up.”

  Onin pushed the door open. The large table in the center of the room was now covered in charts, maps, and stacks of paper. Ambassador Miton, in her feline-ish form sat at the head of the table.

  “Please, come in,” she said.

  Onin and the others filed in and sat along the left side of the table.

  “The Natas captured one of us.” Ambassador Miton slid a map over to them. “This is the area she is being held in.”

  “Hey—” Tannin pulled the map over and tapped a finger on in. “—isn’t this the same spot where they— ah— ‘captured,’ Shanay?”

  Onin leaned over to get a better look. Narrow pass through the mountains, about an hour or so northwest of the beach.

  “Looks like the same spot to me. Or, at least, very close to it,” he said.

  “Shanay?” Ambassador Miton looked back and forth between Onin and Kasai. “Who is Shanay?”

  “A gesaran giftling captured by the Natas.” Onin looked down at his feet. “We didn’t get there in time to rescue her.”

  He and Kasai quickly filled the Ambassador in on their adventures in the mountains.

  “More Natas.” Ambassador Miton lowered her head and her ears drooped. “This is troubling. And dangerous. We can combat the Natas in their natural state with little difficulty. It is when they take a vessel in the physical world that they are truly dangerous. We can only fight them then with g
reat difficulty and much loss of life. That is how they defeated us on our homeworld.” She looked up. “But that is a story for another time. Now, we need to rescue the Matari that the Natas have captured.”

  “Excuse me, but how did they capture a Matari?” Kasai said.

  “In much the same manner as they captured your friend Shanay, only the reverse.”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t follow.” Tannin tilted his head to the site. “They un-possessed someone?”

  Ambassador Miton lowered one ear. “No. One of the gesarans that willingly follows the Natas volunteered to become a container. They then use the same ceremony that allows a Natas to enter a gesaran, only with a different relic to force a Matari into a willing gesaran host.”

  “Who in their right mind would volunteer for that?” Cerina shuddered and crossed her arms.

  “There is much about both the Natas and gesaran behavior that we do not understand,” the Ambassador said.

  “So—” Onin pulled the map away from Tannin. “We’re going to rescue the Matari that’s trapped inside a gesaran body, get them away from the Natas, and then what? Saija says they’re really hard to get out of a body.”

  “We will be able to free our kind from the physical prison. The Natas are only hard to remove because they do not want to leave,” the Ambassador said.

  “Can you remove the Natas from Shanay?” Kasai asked.

  Ambassador Miton looked away from the table. “It is possible. But much more difficult. The trapped Matari is your first priority.”

  Onin drummed his fingers on the table. He understood why the Matari would want to free their captive first, but he was concerned that they didn’t seem to care about Shanay. Was she a lost cause? In any case, he and the others needed to work with the Matari, or they wouldn’t be able to do anything. He glanced over at Kasai, then back to the Ambassador. “Prioritize the hostage that we have the highest chance of safely removing. Got it. Well, then—” Onin stood and pushed his chair back. “Let’s get going.”