“And then he disappeared,” said Adam an hour later, back in Stephen's pocket dimension. “The travelers from The Griffin Club threatened us briefly, but it felt pretty half-hearted, then they left.”
“Ah, so we’ve lost Avin again,” said Stephen. “And everything he knew.”
“What do you mean?” asked HAL’s hovering drone. “We haven’t lost anything.”
“But Avin fled,” said Stephen. “We’re going to have to find him again.”
“He’s a part of my network,” said HAL. “I instructed him to flee. He’s disconnected now, but he’ll come to his old fortress in Riowiver two days after the next full moon and meet up with you then.”
“What if he regains his independence before then?” asked Stephen.
“Why would he?” asked HAL, confused. “When have any of my drones gone rogue?”
“Well, at least we’ll know everything he does if he shows up then,” said Stephen, unhappily.
“I’ve already learned everything he knows, when he joined my network,” explained HAL. “I can answer any questions with full knowledge of all of his life experiences.”
“Do you know how he made his contact information disappear?” asked Stephen.
“Yes,” said HAL.
“How?” asked the former graduate student.
“By dying,” said the A.I.
“So, to make us lose the ability to track him, Maggard died?” asked Stephen.
“That’s the most likely explanation,” said HAL. “Then he probably had himself resurrected.”
“So any traveler can die and be resurrected,” asked the man from Earth. “And anyone who had met them loses them as a contact?”
“That was Avin’s experience,” said HAL’s seed.
“And that’s all that happens when we die?” asked Stephen.
“His pocket dimension also became a normal dimension,” said HAL.
“Wait, wait, wait,” said Stephen. “His pocket dimension became a regular dimension?”
“Yes,” said the A.I.
“And this would have happened to Maggard, too?” he asked.
“In all likelihood,” HAL responded.
“And why hasn’t anyone ever told me about this before?” he asked.
“I imagine travelers in the past who discovered this decided the information was more valuable to keep secret,” HAL said. “Travelers likely avoid death as much as possible, and perhaps resurrection hasn’t always been a possibility.”
“So all the dimensions I’ve visited…” began Stephen.
“Were previously dimensional traveler’s pocket dimensions,” finished the A.I. “Until those travelers died.”
***
“Big news on a couple of fronts,” Stephen said days later after he'd gathered Blargh, HAL, Adam, and Rurth in the Wizards' Guild’s dining room. “I’ve captured the goddess Sylvoria and HAL has enmeshed Avin.”
Those assembled, having been involved in the planning or the capturing, nodded at the anticipated results. “It sounds like the plans worked out then,” observed Adam. “What has been the impact of the goddess?”
“Less than I expected, honestly,” said Stephen. “She’s in my deck, so she’s active now in the pocket dimension. Mostly she just encourages growth and leads to a healthier natural world. Her loss on Mecond will certainly be felt, but if I unleash her in another dimension, there won’t be any dramatic effect. Her card is unusual for duels. I don’t really know what to make of her, even after capturing her. I can’t talk to her the way I talk to any of you. With her, it’s more of a… communion.”
"Her card is unusual. In a duel, it seems like she has a very decent wound capacity. Better than mine. Rather than attacking, each turn she can take one of three actions. Each of them seems to heal or cause wounds on her, then some effect happens. I haven’t seen anyone else play with a god card before, and I haven’t totally figured out the best way to use her. I also can’t imagine losing a god as ante.”
“I’m working on some deck ideas to build around her,” said HAL.
“Avin has been enmeshed into HAL’s network, and we now know everything he does,” said Stephen. “We lost his contact info when he died. His resurrection didn’t return it, but now that I’ve encountered him again in person, I have his contact again. We speculate that the same thing happened to Maggard. He, perhaps intentionally, died. Then was resurrected and is operating again, without other travelers being able to track him.”
“And you could do the same thing,” suggested Blargh, “if the goons from The Griffin Club start causing you trouble again.
“I would have to die,” the dimensional traveler said. “Really die. That seems like an extreme solution to dealing with Avin's club.”
“Additionally, apparently Avin’s pocket dimension became a regular dimension after he died. When Avin returns, we’ll be able to track him there using his contact and then go there ourselves. It’s a new dimension built out of all his cards that have been released. It’s also given us a theory about the origins of the various dimensions,” Stephen continued. “HAL and I believe that each dimension could be from a deceased dimensional traveler. It also, theoretically, gives us a way to free champions.”
“By you dying?” asked Rurth.
“Yes,” said the man from Earth. “Which, again, seems extreme.”
“Shomos might not think so,” said Blargh with a chuckle.
***
Paddling the canoe, Shomos prepped Stephen with the information to capture the second of Algonquin Park’s forest that they were approaching. The golems were struggling with canoeing and had been left behind, except for a group of five that were behind them in a motorboat.
Finishing the preparations, Stephen filled in Shomos more about the new discoveries from Sylvoria and Avin.
“What were you expecting from the goddess and why were you surprised?” she asked.
“Ultimate power?” suggest the dimensional traveler. “The ability to alter reality at will.”
Shomos laughed. “The gods have their place, just like everything else. What you have learned from Avin makes sense. I’m not surprised by it.”
“Does it?” he asked. “I’m still shocked by the implications.”
“Yes,” she agreed. “Especially the reproductive implications.”
“What?” he asked.
She said, “The reproductive implications.”
“What?” he asked again.
“You realize what your discovery means, don’t you?” said the druidess.
“I thought I did, but you seem to have a different view of it than I do,” said the traveler.
“You’ve determined that the dimensions are a population,” explained Shomos. “They’re exchanging parts, combining them in new ways, which then start to grow on their own. Dimensional travelers are the vehicle by which dimensions contribute pieces of themselves to create a new member of their species. Once they’ve lost their ability to grow, like Phodynn, that’s the end of their lifespan. The death of a dimensional traveler is like a caterpillar forming a cocoon. It’s the beginning of the next stage of the life cycle of that dimension.
“Hmm,” said Stephen thoughtfully. “Blargh thought you’d be in a rush to be released, which would require my death.”
“That will happen eventually,” said the druidess. “There’s no reason to rush it.”
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Three travelers popped into existence, then immediately dropped into the water of the lake they were paddling in. All three could swim, and were soon treading water and glaring at Stephen.
"I'm willing to talk to you," Stephen said from his canoe. "But I'm going to travel away the instant you attack me. Earth is my home dimension, you shouldn't be here."
"What did you do to Avin, you bastard?" asked the blonde haired man.
"Do you really want to talk while you're swimming in the middle of a lake?" asked Stephen.
"Enough of this," the middle-aged woman said, then vanished.
***
On shore, Shomos had built a fire and the two remaining wet travelers huddled close to it.
"We had a diviner determine what you did to Avin," said the man, who Stephen finally learned was named Rune. "You caught him, performed some sick experiment on him, and now you've taken him away."
"Or," said Stephen. "He was knocked out when he attacked one of my champions. He and I have reached an understanding. And you don't have to waste any more time chasing after him or me."
The two travelers looked at one another. "Even if we bought that load of manure," said Rune, "the rest of The Griffin Club isn't going to."
"Your third friend seems to have had enough of this conflict," said Stephen. "Maybe you two have also. If you could sell your club on this… perspective, I'd be happy to give you access to this dimension. It's called Earth. It has some of the highest levels of technology you've ever seen. Rockets, microwaves, plastic action figures. You'd be welcome to any of it."
K’rezzik hissed to Rune, "I traded for some golems from him. They're pretty great. If the rest of this dimension is anything like them, there are some real prizes here."
"We'd have to talk to Avin and make sure he's ok with his current situation," said Rune.
"Let's say," said Stephen, "for the sake of argument, that you can meet with Avin, and he'll say whatever I want to you."
"And will he say something different in the future," asked Rune.
"No," said Stephen. "He will, for the rest of his life, happily assure everyone that he's willingly joined me and is happier with me. And that The Griffin Club doesn't have to worry about him anymore."
Rune and K’rezzik met one another's eyes. "Well then," said Rune. "I guess that would be ok with us."
***
“We have an idea about Maggard,” said HAL after Stephen had updated them about his visit with Shomos on Earth, her theories, and the new cards he’d collected. And that their (new) problems with The Griffin Club were over (again).
“That’s good news,” said the man from Earth.
“We’ve talked before about the unique ability people on Earth seem to have about getting insight into other dimensions, which presents itself as ‘fiction’ in your world. Entertainment books, movies, and whatnot,” said HAL.
“Yes,” agreed Stephen. “It doesn’t seem to be so unusual to me, but I understand that it is, compared to other dimensions.”
“Through the humans connected to my hivemind, I’ve been trying to enhance this power by having them act in unison,” said HAL. “I’ve also been doing historical research in Stredath and trying to determine any ‘lost dimensions’ that travelers had access to in the past, that have been forgotten as the travelers who knew about them died out. Between these sources, I estimate there are over 3,000 dimensions in existence, and only 1,300 or so have ever been visited by dimensional travelers. There are around 750 that are in active use. You’ve talked about science fiction, and there are no known science fiction dimensions. I suspect that they exist, but were created and developed more recently and haven’t produced any dimensional travelers yet. You could be the first dimensional traveler to collect anything from them.”
“As soon as we went there, all the travelers I’ve ever met would follow me and start ransacking them,” said Stephen. “I think I might strip what we can from Earth, Mecond, and Riowiver, before we start heading to new dimensions.”
“Unless…” said Blargh. The others looked at him. “What if they no longer had your contact.”
“I worry that you’re trying to kill me off,” said Stephen to the former innkeeper. Blargh shrugged.
“That’s all interesting,” Stephen said to HAL, “but how does that help us with Maggard?”
“I focused the humans from the Earth portion of the hivemind on what we knew about Maggard and had them search for a dimension that seemed to be in line with the cards he’d assembled, and the type of person he was,” said the A.I. “We think we’ve found it.”
“So, it’s the dimension he was originally from before he became a traveler?” he asked.
“No, it’s the dimension that was created from his pocket dimension when he died,” said HAL.
“That’s great, and we should go there and have a look and capture cards,” said Stephen. “But we’d need a contact for it first. Knowing it exists doesn’t help us.”
“From these dimensions that I’ve targeted, with the Earthlings,” HAL said, continuing to explain, “I think we can help you learn about them, figure out the position in the mist surrounding your pocket dimension, and travel to them.”
“Well, Isadore and I discussed the random places walking in the mist could lead to,” said Stephen. “It could be a lava planet where I’m instantly killed. And my body would be stuck there, so I couldn’t even be resurrected. I don’t think it’d be worth the risk, just on the off chance there are clues to Maggard’s location there.”
“No,” said HAL. “I’m not saying there would be clues there. I think he’ll be there! Any other dimension, he might encounter another traveler, who then would have his contact, which he killed himself to hide. The only guaranteed safe location would be the dimension created from his pocket dimension. He’d be the only person who knows about it, and if everyone lost his contact when he died, he could safely operate there as long as he wanted, safe from other travelers.”
“Ahh,” said Stephen, understanding. “If we had a chance of finding him, and possibly catching him by surprise, it might be worth the risk. Did Avin keep his contacts after he was resurrected?”
“No,” said HAL. “He lost them all, the same way everyone lost him.”
“Good,” said Stephen. “Maybe Maggard won’t see us coming.”
***
Later that day, Stephen appeared on a sparse plain, covered in patchy, dry shrubs. After charging his dimensional traveler card, he charged, then unleashed the HAL seed in a cyborg clay golem, then Blargh, Rurth, Adam, and finally Shomos.
“This must be it,” he said to the group.
“Why didn’t you travel with us, the way you usually do?” asked Blargh.
“If I died as soon as I arrived, I didn’t want to take you all with me,” Stephen said. “I hoped that you’d be able to start new lives in my pocket dimension if I left you behind.”
“That was thoughtful of you,” said Rurth.
“I’ll bring you all with me if we have to leave,” said Stephen. “Don’t wander off. All we need is Maggard to get word of new arrivals and realize that we’ve found this dimension and give him a chance to make a break for it. Any obstacle, we should immediately leave. Anything that might give us away, we should leave, figure out how to deal with it, then come back.”
“You know,” said Rurth thoughtfully. “You and I could learn the invisibility spell. Something could spot us right now, and that would let us move around with a better chance of staying undetected.”
“That’s a good idea,” said Stephen. “Why didn’t you suggest it before we got here?”
“You just gave me the idea,” said Rurth.
"How did you know we'd appear here," asked Shomos. "And not with Maggard, wherever he is? Usually when you go to a new dimension for the first time, you appear wherever the traveler who 'led' you to it is, don't you?"
"Ummm," said Stephen. "I didn't really think of that. I just appeared in Mecond, but no traveler had ever been there before. It's lucky we didn't appear with Maggard and give ourselves away."
“I’ve also been thinking,” said Blargh. Stephen looked at him expectantly. “Why don’t you send Avin to scout new dimensions, instead of going yourself? If he irrevocably dies, better him than you?”
“That’s a good idea too!” said Stephen. “Why did you wait until I’d already risked my life before mentioning it?”
“I figure if that would work, one of you would have already thought of it,” said Blargh.
“Everyone, please suggest ideas BEFORE we put ourselves in danger, not after,” the man from Earth said. Stephen looked at a nearby wood that was made up of gnarled, evil looking trees. With a sigh, he unleashed his dimensional traveler card and took them back to the pocket dimension to begin learning invisibility.
***
Months later, Stephen and the group reappeared on the plain in Gravewrought, which they'd discovered back in the pocket dimension was the name of Maggard's new dimension. Stephen had grown a beard while learning invisibility. The group was invisible and it was nighttime.
“Remember, stay together and avoid detection,” said Stephen. “We just spent three months learning invisibility. Don’t waste our preparations.”
Moving along the plain together, the group looked around. They traveled near the woods, but didn’t enter them. After they’d been walking for an hour, they saw the form of a flying, skeletal dragon, far above them, lit by the full moon, and Stephen traveled back to his pocket dimension.
***
They sat around the dining table in the Wizards' Guild at the heart of Stephen's pocket dimension.
“Some undead can see invisible,” Stephen said.
“Can skeletal dragons?” asked Rurth.
“I don’t know,” admitted Stephen. “But I don’t want to risk it. We don’t seem to be making much progress with our current approach.”
“What you need,” said Shomos, “is some sort of scout that is either perfectly undetectable, or that already exists there and can operate without arousing suspicion.”
“Yes,” agreed Stephen. “If we could get nanites or some other sort of microscopic robot from one of the science fiction worlds, we could have them connected to HAL and explore for us.”
“That would risk revealing one or more of the new dimensions to other travelers,” warned Rurth. “Unless we killed, then resurrected, you first.”
“Or,” said Shomos. “Let me or one of the other druids set up camp in the woods. We can start to learn the local flora and fauna. I can befriend animals and use them as scouts, or help Stephen capture them, and he can give them orders once they’re his champions.”
“Or enmesh them,” suggested HAL. “Then we’d know anything they’d experienced, even before our arrival.”
“Let’s do that,” decided Stephen. “I trust you more than the other druids, Shomos. Let’s send Avin with you, with the seed HAL running in his cybernetic software.”
“You expect me to spend so much time with this creature?” the druidess asked. “After what he did to me?”
“Well,” said Stephen. “He’s not really Avin anymore. He’s HAL. I suppose I could come with you, but there are some other projects we could work on here.”
“Fine,” said the druidess. “If it’s more convenient for you, I’ll take the monster and the computer and camp out in Gravewrought.”
“Wait a second,” said Stephen. Shomos looked at him carefully.
“Why don’t you take Rurth too, and he can cast invisible on you,” said the traveler.
Shomos blinked, then gave a sharp, angry nod.