Despite his affinity, Robert wasn't a creature of the void. When Amanda hugged him, he froze like the proverbial doe in headlights. But when he felt her warm soft lips pressing against his, he also threw all caution to the wind and reciprocated. He'd been without any contact with a woman for more than a decade of subjective time. And he'd be lying if he said he had no feelings for her. It was hard to spend all this time near a beautiful, young, and so well-behaved woman without his instincts kicking in. Amanda's ascension to two stars increased her score by at least two points. The physical transformations increased her allure by a lot.
His hands reached around her jacket and he pulled her closer. Amanda leaned in and sought more of him. She had that innocent and awkward lack of experience with physical contact that made every interaction a novelty. He took the lead and tried several things, gauging her reactions.
After the two got most of the tension out of their systems, they parted. Amanda was panting and he could see her flushed face, even under the heavy makeup. She was shaking a bit and stared at him with wide eyes who were on the verge of tears. But the corners of her eyes and mouth told another story. He noticed she had a hand over his heart and he still had one on her side.
"I'm sorry," she whispered.
"Don't be," Robert replied softly.
"Let me speak," she pleaded. "I crossed a boundary I shouldn't have. You deserve better than this. It was unprofessional of me. We can't. It was a one-time thing and it's already gone. Why was I so dumb? I feel awful for doing this to you."
He pulled his hand back. Robert knew that he had a better chance at ascending to three stars than convincing her she was wrong but he still felt that impulse to tell it to her.
"It's fine," Robert said.
Amanda stared at him. Her face showed disgust, and disappointment, but not sadness. "I have to go."
He nodded and looked at the tent's entrance until he heard the zipper close.
Freddy appeared. "I thought you were going to mate," he barked. "She was in heat."
Robert was shocked. "You can tell?"
"Her smell changes. Can't you sense?" Freddy barked.
Robert could if he used his spells but why would he waste essence that way? "Not normally."
"It would be nice if you had puppies. I bet they would be strong puppies."
"Sorry, buddy. No puppies. And humans only have one, sometimes two puppies at a time."
The Taulusian didn't form families in the way humans did. When a female got in heat, the males would present their case and she would pick one to mate. The couple was only responsible for caring for the puppies for the first year or so, and then the whole community took after their care. Differently from human babies, the Taulusian pups learned how to walk in two weeks and became proficient in their barking language in three to four months.
Freddy climbed on the chair Amanda vacated and pawed Robert's leg in an attempt to cheer him. "Better luck next time, then!"
"There won't be next time," Robert admitted ruefully.
As one of his friends back in school said, it was easy to refuse lasagna if you didn't know how lasagna tasted. But once you tasted and liked it once, then boy... you were in trouble.
"Will she mate—"
"Nobody is mating, Freddy," Robert interrupted his friend.
"Sad," Freddy whimpered as he laid his head on the table.
Robert scratched Freddy's Neck. "Yes, it's sad. If we were free, maybe things would go differently but she is from another world."
"I'm from another world too," Freddy yipped.
"Sorry, the translation was wrong. What I meant is that she is from a different... caste. Does the word make sense?"
"Like the warriors and the pacifists?" Freddy asked.
"Yes, but regarding money rather than philosophy."
"The warriors who visited me were nice," Freddy stated.
Robert still had nightmares from that encounter. "Amanda is nice too."
"Yes. We all get along. But you are sad. I don't like it."
Taulusian didn't have a word (or bark) for melancholy.
"I don't like it either. I bet she doesn't like it too."
"If nobody likes it, then why is everyone doing it?"
"Do you remember when you were afraid of the power ball (Prime Vestige)?" Robert asked. Freddy whimpered. "You didn't want to be afraid, right? Did you like it?" Freddy shook his head. "But you had to experience your fear to process the emotions you were feeling. It's the same here.
"Complicated." Freddy woofed.
"Life is complicated. I bet it's true even for pets. Would you want to go back to that life?"
"No," Freddy growled.
*
*
The next few days were awkward. Amanda barely left her room, Robert kept his nose glued to the books until the ink stains were permanent. Noah didn't comment on the tension.
Finally, their twenty days of voluntary incarceration ended and the party was out in the tunnels again. Robert vowed to never bring people into the liminal void for more than a single day. Even if he had to go first to bleed the excess time and then take the people in.
"I'm raising the ramp now," Amanda said. "Do you want a permanent ramp or a temporary one?"
"Make it permanent if possible, please," Noah replied. "I know it costs more but we need to think of the people who might come through later. They might not have an Earth-affinity Arch.
Amanda sat down and focused. A pillar of rock flowed from the ground and reached for the passage. Material kept flowing upward around the pillar, thickening it and forming a platform around the passage, with railings. The pillar side facing the front of the passage flattened and grooves appeared, forming a ladder.
"There," Amanda had beads of sweat running down her face.
She tried to stand up and swayed. Robert instinctively went to support her. Amanda leaned against him, then startled and jumped away.
"I'm fine!" She protested.
Robert looked the other way. Freddy approached and rubbed his side against Robert's leg like a cat.
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"Sorry, you two. I must ask. Did something happen?" Noah said.
Robert sighed. "Yes, professor. Something happens but nothing too serious. I don't think you need to concern yourself with it. Once we are out of this place and away from all the chaos, things will get better. Don't you agree, Amanda?"
"Yes, sure!" She exclaimed with not much conviction.
"Okay. If both of you agree there's nothing that demands my attention, I'll respect your wishes," Noah said. "But I need to make sure you understand that you can come to me with anything you need help with."
"Understood," Robert said.
Amanda just nodded and went to climb the pillar. Noah moved faster and raised a hand to stop her.
"I'll go first. While the realm on the other side of this passage is rather peaceful, we can't be sure." She nodded. The teacher climbed the ladder and then crossed the passage. Moments later he returned. "The coast is clear. You can come up. Freddy, let Robert put the harness on you. I'm dropping some rope."
They hoisted Freddy up, then climbed the ladder.
"I'm sorry, Freddy. I should've made the ramp, I didn't think of you."
"That's fine," Freddy replied with a happy bark.
They crossed the passage.
*
*
The next realm was one almost completely pacified by humans. No direct passages led to it and only the slime caverns offered a two-step route to it. It had no valuable exports like exotic minerals or vegetation and the essence level was low.
What it had going for it was that the landscapes were gorgeous. This was a realm of floating islands and ever-flowing waterfalls. The islands ranged from small ten-acre ones to others the size of a continent. The whole realm was bathed by constant sunlight coming from the east, an eternal state of mid-morning. Clouds made out of the water coming from islands above floated in the sky, often hiding the islands above. A blue haze restricted visibility to a range of ten to twelve miles in all directions.
When they emerged on the other side, they were greeted with this idyllic vision. Flower fields of all colors, including some never seen in Earth's flora. Vibrant green trees, a shining sun, white clouds lazily drifting, a cerulean abode above them. To the sides, they could see other floating islands. The air was fresh and comfortable. The scene made them want to stay there forever.
"Welcome to the Puffbloom Islands," Noah said. "Please mind the edges of the island. You don't want to fall down. Not without these gliders!"
He conjured some packed bundles of canvas and aluminum tubes.
The puffbloom part of "Puffbloom islands" referred to the native animal species. The puffbloom were naturally-floating creatures, with more fur than flesh, who drifted among the clouds as they hopped from island to island. When they were up in the sky, it was impossible to discern them from clouds. If you could catch a puffbloom, the creature was buoyant enough that it could carry a person across islands.
Or you could use a glider to reach any island if you knew where to go. Because this realm was bottomless. If you fell off an island and hit nothing on the way down, eventually you would fall on the same island you left. Or skip over the edge, if the wind didn't carry you in any direction. Which was impossible unless you were immune to winds. The whole realm had a height of twenty-five miles. Once you feel that distance, you will find yourself at the height you left off, plus all the momentum from your fall. But if one had a glider, they could fly to any island in the realm.
It was still freaking huge horizontally, thousands of miles wide. To reach some of these faraway islands, the traveler would need to glide for hours, diving down the height of the realm several times.
The biggest dangers in this realm were twofold. One, crashing into an island at unsafe speeds. Like when falling. And two, getting lost. The looping height made any notion of height impossible. At least the relative height and distance between islands was fixed. They either didn't drift or all drifted with the same vectorial velocity. Many have measured these distances and found them unchanging to the first decimal place of the measurement. Even years after the discovery, the distances remained the same.
"There! I saw the first puffbloom!" Amanda shouted and squealed.
A puffbloom was floating in the distance, near the edge of the island, eating flowers. Travelers believed that the first person seeing a puffbloom after entering this realm would have great luck.
"Awesome, Amanda. I hope this realm can lift your spirits," Noah said. "Now, can I have your attention? look for the highest point on this island."
They scanned their surroundings. At the highest hill on the island, they saw a metal tower with a huge flag on top.
"Found it!" Amanda chimed. She seemed to be in a better mood after leaving the gloomy caves.
"That flag is this island's identification. Each island around us has been marked with a similar flag. If you see an island without a tower and flag, do not land. I must repeat. Do not land on an island without the flag. You are beyond the explored area and a step away from getting lost. If you see an island without a flag, turn around and come back. The sun will always be on the east side of the island. Use that to orient yourselves."
Robert raised a hand. "Wait, are we going to split?"
"Fate allowing, no," Noah said. "But we will fly on individual gliders. Accidents happen. Our best bet if we get separated is to glide down in circles until you fall long enough to return to the point you left. Now, follow me to the edge."
They walked to the edge of the island, where some markers that reminded Noah of sundials were erected. The platform was an oval, with the long part protruding from the island's edge. A runway was carved in the rock. The sundial part had three numbers etched on it. For this particular one, they were thirty-two, nineteen, and one hundred and thirty-two.
"These markers point the route to the nearby islands. If you look at the platform, you'll see three numbers. At first, we will concern ourselves with only the first two. One is the horizontal distance, in miles. The second is how far down the other island is. Keep the horizontal loop in mind. The numbers for the elevation always count down between one and twenty-five. If you see an island a mile above us, it will show twenty-four in that number. That's how many miles you need to descend to reach that island. And yes, there's no zero as you might have noticed. Even if two islands are at the same height, the drop will be twenty-five miles. Because gliders can't go up."
Noah paused to catch his breath.
"This marker points at one island. It is thirty-two miles away, and nineteen miles below this island. On the other island, there's another marker pointing back. Can anyone guess the numbers on that marker?"
Amanda raised her hand. "Thirty-two and six."
"And why can't we see the island? It should be around there," Noah pointed to a point above them. "Robert?"
"The blue haze makes it impossible to see further than ten to twelve miles away," Robert answered.
"Correct. Guys, ten miles may seem far but out in the air? It's nothing. If two travelers drift apart, they can vanish in the haze in mere minutes. The trick is to always use the markers, and to keep an eye on the shadows." He then opened one of the bundles and assembled a glider. The glider was twenty feet in width and fifteen feet in length and it took Noah half an hour to screw everything in place and affix the canvas. He double-checked everything and then tied his glider to hooks on the platform.
Robert noticed the platform had six sets of hooks, one for each glider.
Noah next showed them a device that was attached to the front, one piece above the glider, another below. "This contraption is called a shadow gauge. When you are flying, it will display the shadow's inclination according to the sun. If the number in this gauge changes, you are turning. That's what the third number in this marker is for.
"You will, at every jump we make, calibrate your shadow gauge according to the numbers in the marker. This one says one hundred and thirty-two. You will align the shadow gauge and turn this knob here until it shows the exact number. That's how you'll know you are going in the exact direction you should go and not get lost. Any questions?"
Nobody said anything. Noah gave each of them a bundle, then crouched next to Freddy. "Do you want to glide with me or with Robert?" Freddy barked and looked at Robert. "Okay. I have a gliding harness for you. You will train to get in and out of it."
He gave Freddy what looked like a tubular sleeping bag with carabiners on top.
"Your task for the next two hours is to assemble the glider and calibrate the shadow gauge. The glider bag has assembly instructions printed on the outside. You cannot assist each other. Once you are ready for inspection, call me. Go."
*
*
At first, Robert thought two hours was more than enough, given that Noah did it in half an hour. But he was proven wrong. The glider was complex and had many parts that, while looking similar, had a specific place to go. They had a code where you needed to insert part A5 into the A5 hole but even with that, it was a nightmare.
It made him wonder how many times Noah came to this realm. It looked like the perfect realm for a vacation. It was true that in this realm, it rained every single day but it was beautiful and relaxing. He already felt like the shockwave incident happened three weeks ago.
But this place was removed from Earth and also deceptively dangerous. You could stick to a single island but what was the fun in that?
He finished assembling his glider with twenty minutes to spare. Robert took it to the spot closer to the edge and attached it to the hooks. He then assembled the shadow gauge and calibrated it. When he cleared his task, he saw Amanda taking her glider into position. She finished with a few minutes left.
"Great. Now, let me check your gliders for any mistakes during assembly. A sloppily-assembled glider will kill a person."
In this realm, people didn't die to monsters or to a harsh environment, but to their lack of work ethics.
"Good. None of you committed any fatal rookie mistake, but you didn't twist some pipes all the way in, Robert. For short distances, less than a hundred miles, it would be okay but if you glide longer than that, you risk having one of the pipes coming loose. Here, take a look at it."
Noah showed him the issue. One of the pipes was rattling and loose. He could twist it and it would unscrew from one side and get stuck. The screw grooves on each side were inverted and the groove distance changed between pipes so you couldn't assemble the thing the wrong way.
"Amanda, your shadow gauge is off by five degrees. This deviation is enough to make you miss the next island by almost three miles."
The two were forced to fix their mistakes.
This realm was deceptively lethal, indeed.