The world was of color and omnipresent shards of reality. There was no sound. There was no matter. There was only everdistant nothing that was represented as everything.

My head was burning again…

“That’s enough, squirt.” A gruff voice beside me shocked me out of my semi-lucid stupor.

My eyes blinked back the glossiness of coherence as my mind reeled from some phantasmal snap. Aches and tired pains wracked my body in waves, numbing the entire burning that was my brain. Frowning, I realized that I almost died, again.

However, the pains, aches and devastating brain trauma were gone in an instant, tiny pieces of flesh righting themselves from their misalignment. They were even less of a worry than a papercut. In fact, now that I had my Sphere, almost every physical injury wasn’t an issue. All I had to do was think myself in pain and want it gone. The damage would be gone as if flesh was being pushed into the place where the damage was.

Still, the amount of pain I was in was directly converted to healing speed; it wasn’t even close to the speed my dragon healed at. And that thought brought me back to my dragon; how much pain were we putting it through to get it to heal so fast.

I tried not to think about it too hard as my eyes trailed up to my helper. A mountain of a man, or creature, easily dwarfing Cole at his largest. Bulging muscles, corded like cable wire, were exposed through small sections of skin that were trapezoidal transparencies in between deep, purple flesh.

He was fitting every model for alien I had ever thought possible. Where Kali was at least human-looking, this guy was not. Four fingers gripped each hand, and he even had four whole arms that he could move in disturbing unison, his second pair taking their place on top of his shoulders. His lower body was that of a snake, purply rhombuses covering it it dazzling scale.

His face, and I sure hoped it was a he, was decidedly not human. A snout extended to form a terrifying mouth that split into four ‘petals’ that were lined with sharp, needle-point teeth of white. Orbs of onyx were his eyes, always moving inside their sockets and sloped brow.

I don’t want to say that I screamed the first time I saw him, but I did give a manly wail of terror.

“Well, what are ya looking at?” His split mouth growled in the approximate of words. “Ya nearly killed yerself again, Squirt. Why the hell’re you still tryna connect with the Kaleidoscope?”

“I, uh,” I was a little embarrassed. “Am I not supposed to, uh, sir?”

He looked at me, onyx eyes boring into my stupidity. “Not unless ya want to go insane and die. Also, call me by my name, not sir.”

“Right, uh, sorry… Rachel.” The man/woman/thing’s name was Rachel. I honestly had no idea what to think of that when Doldrum introduced me when I asked for training, but apparently it was a manly name from wherever Rachel was from. Though, as awkward as that interaction was, I had other matters on my mind: like learning how to manipulate the fabric of time and space to do my bidding.

“So,” I drew the word out, hoping to get my mind off of the origins of Rachel. “How am I supposed to use the Kaleidoscope to cross worlds? Is there like a manual that I can borrow or something?”

“No, there is no guidebook or whatever. I don’t see what’s wrong; this should be the easiest thing.” Rachel growled between enough teeth to scare a shark. “Yer own Reality should be protecting ya from the influence of the Kaleidoscope. It’s how we adapt to the different Realities we visit, and so long as we think that where we are is livable, our Reality should make it so.”

“Uh, so it’s like a passive boost to survivability?” I frowned, not really thinking it would be so easy. I had expected to do something along the lines of ‘absorb the universe to protect yourself from it’. Instead, as soon as I imagined a breathable atmosphere around me, I was having less trouble keeping away from looking too far into the Kaleidoscope.

The feminine-named monstrosity shifted its multiple sets of arms, onyx eyes blinking in vertical eyelids. “I guess… I know The Keeper had said ya were green, but how green are we talking?”

I pursed my lips remembering that The keeper was Doldrum’s nickname. For what reason, I forgot to ask, but I was more preoccupied at the moment. “I know about Sinners.”

“Anything else?” There was some exasperation in my trainer’s words.

My head shook from side to side in denial, eliciting a heavy sigh from my company. Though, it sounded more like a roar of a lion and the grating of bones.

“Okay, so very green.” Rachel groaned, slithering closer to me. “I guess I should talk about the three types of categories we all have. First, I am proficient in Creation like you.” I watched with rapt attention as Rachel brought three hands together, and the space between them began to fill up. It was rather different from Kali’s with how her’s produced a more distinct warping effect. Rachel’s Reality looked like particles being creating from thin air, and layering on top of each other to form a small, metallic dodecahedron.

Snapper, who had been idle next to me, jumped up and began demanding the offering. Rachel looked a little spooked by my pet, and hurriedly threw the shape away. My little metallic monstrosity skittered in pursuit.

Rachel stared at Snapper for a couple of seconds before turning to me. “Anyways, there are three types of things that us Being-R’s can use our Realities for: Creation, Manipulation and a Domain. We all can use all of them, but only one with any real use. For example, I inherently use Creation, but if I try to use Manipulation, all I can do is make a particularly threatening breeze.”

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I nodded, happily getting some clarification on what exactly I could do. Then a thought came to me, “What about if I practiced doing Manipulation and whatever a Domain is? Would I be able to use all three?”

“No,” Rachel laughed. “Of course not, I only know four who can, and ya can barely be called close to their toenail.”

“Four? What are you- oh, oh, The Four.” I frowned at the grandiose title to these beings. Still, it meant that there was a chance that I could eventually reach that, right?

“Yes, oh, ya little Squirt. Without them holding up the peace, ya would barely be a stain on the wall. Show them the respect that they deserve.” Rachel enunciated, leaving no rebuttal to be made. “Now, get back to the task that I was told to do: we’ll be focusing on Creation. Based on that creepy thing that yer carrying around, I say that ya got a talent for Breathing.”

My face scrunched up at the word. “Thanks?”

“Ya have no idea what I’m talking about…” Rachel observed astutely, and made another terrifying sigh. My teacher brought up two hands. “I’ll explain it like this. There is a subsection for each type of Reality; for Creation there is two: Breathing and Crafting. Crafting deals with inorganic creation as well as inert creations with no capacity for life.” Above Rachel’s right hand formed a weird looking saber that I was hard pressed to call metallic. It looked like it was made of glass shards that had been welded together and called a weapon, and then those glass shards were coated in some type of damascus that glowed with something that reminded me of radiation.

I wasn’t able to study the weapon in my head further as Rachel continued, something wriggled into being above his other palm. While expecting a creature similar to Snapper, I was disappointed as all I saw was a small, scaleless lizard scuttling around the palm. To my horror, Rachel crushed it easily after a couple seconds of its life, speaking easily as if he didn’t even notice the blood on his hands. “Breathing, on the other hand, deals more with organic creations that must adhere to the limitations of the user’s Reality.” Rachel was frowning with his multi-part mouth. “However, yer… creation doesn’t seem to fit in any biological niche I had seen. Ya created that creature, right?”

“Huh, yeah.” I blinked at the random question. “Is there something wrong with Snapper?”

“No,” Rachel responded quickly. “No, err, Snapper is fine, but I just wondered a bit on its creation. Maybe yer Reality is less restricted in what it chooses to breathe life into? It would explain yer healing.”

Rachel’s words were setting off all sorts of alarms in my head. “I’m sorry, but what do you mean by that?”

“Yer healing, ya mean?” I nodded my head to his question before he continued. “Just that it’s one of the faster ones I have seen. Quite a bit of us who are proficient in Creation and Breathing can achieve the same results, but ya seem to be instinctive.”

“Isn’t that good? I mean, shouldn’t it be great to heal fast?” I asked hurriedly, feeling that something was coming.

“For ya, yes, it’s really good.” Rachel answered. “But ya probably have pretty shit range, and it will have to take quite a bit of concentration to invoke yer Reality. More than usual, at least.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad it wasn’t something worse. “I can fix that, right?”

One of Rachel’s eye ridges rose. “What do you think yer here for? I’m not letting ya leave till ya can form a stable Creation away from ya.”

Nodding, I got to work on just that. With the Kaleidoscope no longer encroaching on my mind, I was able to focus clearly on what I needed to do. I sat down back on the bridge in the middle of nothing, and raised my palms in front of me, hoping to cause some special magic.

Nothing happened for a little bit, but I continued to focus on palms. A couple more awkward minutes passed. Then I felt Rachel place a hand on my shoulder.

“What are ya doing, Squirt?”

“Uh, how do you use your Reality?” I whispered, slightly embarrassed.

My monstrous company only paused for a second before pointing over to Snapper. “And how did ya make that?”

“Oh…” I found the answer quick, falling silent as he waved me to continue.

My thoughts revolved around to how I created Snapper for the first time. I had thought about when Kali mentioned something about a cube, and I tried to form my own cubic metal. Then when a cube didn’t seem to click, I instinctively used something else.

My mind fell to my Sphere. Something was then floating above my palms, tearing its way into existence as a way to bend Reality to my thoughts. I opened my eyes, and found nothing out of sort with the air above them.

However, I still felt that there was something above them. I knew that there was something perfectly invisible and spherical floating above my palms. Other than being very, very small, it was clearly mine. It pulsed with a desire to create.

First, I tried to keep it simple. Making a smaller version of Snapper came to mind, and I tried to imagine the metallic chitin of my pet. Its veins were filled with liquid mercury and organs as softer metals. Things were ticking off in my head as I ran through my metaphorical blueprints, but then when I tried to enact my Sphere to actually create, all my efforts were jarred to an abrupt halt.

My Sphere seemed to refuse to create another Snapper no matter how I hard I pushed against it. The feeling was rather vague as it resisted my blueprints, and I was left with the idea that my Sphere didn’t want to simply create copies. It wanted to genuinely create those that were unique.

I frowned as the feeling intensified. “Hey, Rachel, is it weird for a Reality to refuse to create?”

“Sometimes.” Rachel stated, flipping a couple hands back and forth. “I have heard of a couple of us having restrictions, but those can be overcome with training. Normally, its tied with how the person wants their Reality to work. I am guessing ya have one such thing.”

“Yeah.” I confirmed, as if tasting something sour. “I don’t think I can create anything more than once.”

My teacher slithered slowly to and fro with my words, expression tight. “That makes things much harder…” With a tired sigh, Rachel turned back to me. “Well, just create something for now. Ya can work on getting yer Reality under yer control in time; after all, we all live so long as our Reality remains.”

I blinked at the fact that I was essentially immortal, and it was admitted so nonchalantly as well! It was something less to worry about, but, at the same time, I don't think the prospects of immortality hit me at the time. Or the detriments, too.

Shaking my head to rid my distracting thoughts, my attention turned back to the small Sphere above my palms. It was desiring me to make something, and I already had decided that I would go through with my decision to protect my friends and family from the horrors that I had been exposed to. The first step was learning how to do this.

A blueprint of life filed into my mind, and I felt my Sphere pulse in acceptance. Witnessing the process now was much more entrancing than when I had suddenly found Snapper sitting in my lap.

Cells began to form from thin air, shaping and stretching in ways that biology shouldn’t. Millions of tiny organics connected to form the innards, a small balloon that served to keep the creature afloat in the air. Tracks of nerves raced along the outside of the balloon of tissue, and veins of crimson weaved through the structures that were being built.

Gelatinous, ivory sclera formed around the sphere of nerves and ballooned tissue. A iris of iridescent green blurred into being along the white, eye jelly. The floating eye that had appeared was then covered in a thick chitin of dark brown interlocking plates, and thin, translucent wings folded out from holes that formed along the chitin’s cracks. They buzzed rapidly to keep it hovering in place above my hands.

In random places of the outer carapace there were holes large enough for the pupil and its roving green iris to peer through. It appeared as if the eye was suspending inside the shell of brown as it was rapidly switching between the different viewpoints fast enough to make it look like a green blur with interspersed white.

My creation was roughly the size of a fist, and happily flited around my head as soon as I completed the finishing touches on it.

I turned to the disturbingly silent Rachel, who was watching on. “Did I do well?” I asked with a smile.

My teacher just switched his gaze between both my creation and me with something between respect and terror. When the four-armed snake man finally decided to speak his voice was shaky, “I think yer good for today.”

I was back in my boring, small apartment the next second.