Chapter Sixteen: There‘s a Room Where the Light Won‘t Find You

“Two thousand years?” Marc stammered as he tried to grasp what she had said. He had been shocked that her age in the status window had said she was over one hundred and seventy years old, but it also had the notation next to it. So that was her local age? As in time on this planet? Then she was much older than that? An amount of time he couldn’t even wrap his mind around. All of that time she was stuck in that white space? He was only there for a few minutes and it seemed like forever. Even a day, no, even an hour would be torture.

“I’m afraid so. Yes, I know you are thinking about it. It was beyond torture. If I could have killed myself I would have done it many thousands of times over. Nothing I did could affect my body, however. Apart from using Mana, I never got tired or sleepy, I never got hungry or even needed to relieve myself. It was as though I was trapped in a single moment. I was alone with that stone. The stone that I brought me there, and then refused to do anything else once I was banished to that place.”

Marc stared at her in awe. He couldn’t fathom the trauma that she had experienced, but looking at her now he could see an indomitable strength in her eyes as she spoke. A confidence beyond anything he had ever seen in a real person. She had been made to fight a demon and was not even allowed to lose or surrender. She was forced to face it over and over until she somehow conquered it. He had seen her as a strong individual before, but now understood it was beyond confidence. Her demons and tormentors had been allowed to control her until eventually, they became part of her, until the difference between herself and her tormentors no longer held any meaning.

“I hated that stone, but I needed it. Of course, I tried countless times to smash it. Just like my own body, nothing I could do would affect it. I’m not even sure there was a floor. I could stand, even lie down, but it didn’t feel like there was anything solid below me. I could throw the stone, but it never went more than a few arms distance from me, and running wouldn’t give me any distance from it if I left it behind. So I just continued to do the only thing I could do.

Over time, I recognized that there was a change that took place. My Mana capacity was indeed increasing. It was hard to tell at first, but it took slightly longer to deplete my Mana, and it also took longer to refill it. That’s one reason it was so hard to track down how long I was there.” She waved and the landscape reformed back into the tablet, though she didn’t bother putting the purple Mana lines back.

“Maybe it was years, or tens or even hundreds of years after I entered that I started trying to use Magic. I had of course studied other Magic before, but had nowhere near the Mana capacity to even use the easiest of known Space magic spells. Sure enough, over time I found I was able to use Space magic to do various things. None of which were the least bit helpful of course. The first interesting thing I learned was storage. I could put things into a storage space and retrieve them. Of course, I had nothing except the stone and my robes. Still, I did this thousands or hundreds of thousands of times. I progressed the skill until I could eventually make a personal dimensional pocket that I could even step into. At first, it was horrible. The only thing worse than a blank white space is a blank dark space. The personal space I created was in many ways identical to the white space of my banishment. Would you like to see it?”

The sudden question took Marc by surprise. He was immediately repulsed by the thought of going back to that empty space he had been in before getting pulled back into Mary’s HR office. Sensing his hesitation, Rynan offered some reassurance.

“Don’t worry, I’m much better with it now. It’s much more comfortable than it was back then. It’s quite nice.” She explained. With one hand she waved the floating stone away and it disappeared into mist. Then she placed both hands in front of her, palms out, and then as though she was opening some Japanese-style sliding doors a glowing purple, thin vertical line appeared in front of the door to the outside of the cabin. The line split into two and opened up into a rectangular-shaped door, roughly six feet high and two feet wide, floating in the air right in place of the actual door out of the cabin. He could see through the magic door, ringed in that glowing purple color, and on the other side saw what appeared to be the outside of the cabin.

“Come on, it’s completely safe.” She said, then walked through the floating door and stepped onto the grass outside.

Stolen story; please report.

Marc stepped over to the doorway. He peered through and indeed it looked just like the outside of the cabin. Was this some teleportation gate he wondered? What would be the point of making it just such a short distance? He took a cautious step inside, then walked through to the other side. Immediately he realized he was wrong. This was not a transportation gate and he was not outside the cabin. He felt some disorientation as his senses tried to calibrate to a new environment.

It looked similar to the environment outside, there were similar trees and rocks, A large mountain in the distance, hills, and even a cabin off the side, exactly like the one he had been in. Appearance-wise it would look as though he had been teleported a few dozen feet away from the cabin he was just in, but his senses told him a different story entirely. The feeling he felt was the same as the white space. There was no sense of a ground beneath him, even though he could see dirt below his feet. There was light, but no sun. The trees moved in a breeze that he could not feel. There was no smell at all. Marc had heard that they were developing virtual reality video games where you could wear goggles with video screens and suits to track your movements so you could get fully immersed in the game world. Perhaps this is what it would feel like. Everything looked right but felt somehow wrong.

“I know, it’s a bit disorienting at first. I can’t quite make it perfect, but compared to what it was like when I first made it, this is heaven.” She snapped her fingers and he almost screamed when everything disappeared and he was back in the white space. Marc felt nauseous. Then Rynan waved her hand and a table and chairs appeared. Marc quickly moved over and sat down, obviously disturbed. He realized this was the same table as the one in the cabin. Then slowly the cabin began to form around them. Soon it was almost as though they had gone back into the cabin. Marc knew it was not the cabin however, the feeling of being in a void, floating in nothing continued even though he could see, and feel the table and chair. He coughed and started retching. His stomach rebelled against the lie his eyes were more than willing to accept.

“Sorry, perhaps it’s a bit much. Let’s go back.” Rynan said apologetically as she pointed back to the floating door. Marc bolted from the chair and fell through the doorway landing on all fours coughing and retching onto the ground. Rynan came in behind him and with a motion the door slid closed and disappeared, leaving the rear door to the cabin in its place.

“I’m so sorry Marc, are you alright? I didn’t expect such a strong reaction.” She knelt and hugged him to her chest. Then she helped him get up and walked him over to the table and sat him down, refilling his cup of tea again.

“Here, drink. It’s fine. I shouldn’t have gone so fast.” then she looked at him and asked hesitantly, “Have you been in a space like that before?”

Marc gulped down the tea, indeed it helped settle his stomach and his nerves. While staring into the cup, he nodded slightly, then shuddered as he tried to force that feeling away.

“It’s fine.” He said. “I was just surprised. It was similar…” he paused, but then continued. “Similar to when I came here. But I was only there for a minute. Not like you. I don’t know how you could…” he didn’t know how to finish the thought. Luckily Rynan picked it up from there.

“I see. That is interesting.” She brought her hand up to her chin and tapped her lips as she thought about what Marc had said. “For me, the space became my salvation. I learned how to manipulate things within my personal space. Things I couldn’t do in the white place I could compensate somewhat using my Space magic. Some of it is illusion, conjured objects, and even things I have stored over time. But back then the best I could do was a conjured chair and a false horizon. Still, if you have nothing at all, even a teacup can become the Universe.” She reminisced with a smile.

“My progress was slow, but I had nothing else to do, and I was highly motivated. Over the many, many years I brought my Space Magic level up gradually. I could not learn many skills as I had no reference to use, but I kept at what I could do and slowly my proficiency and Mana capacity rose to unthinkable levels. Perhaps if there was a Space Magic user who lived for five hundred years, they would greatly surpass my current abilities. But to my knowledge, no such Master exists or has ever existed. At first, I used magic mostly to pass the time and give me something to occupy my mind. Eventually, the scholar in me returned and I came up with a new goal. A possible way to escape my prison.”

Marc was feeling better. One thing was distracting him from Rynan’s story, however. New pop-ups had appeared in his vision.

【SKILL ACQUIRED: PERSONAL SPACE】

CREATE, ACCESS AND CONTROL A SUBDIMENSIONAL POCKET SPACE.

! YOUR MASTERY OF SPACE MAGIC IS CURRENTLY TOO LOW TO USE THIS SKILL. LEVEL UP YOUR SPACE MAGIC TO ACCESS YOUR PERSONAL SPACE.

* A SKILL COMPATIBLE WITH YOUR INTERFACE HAS BEEN ACQUIRED. WOULD YOU LIKE TO INCORPORATE IT INTO YOUR INTERFACE? YES/NO