Stephen woke up, groggy, then remembered what he’d been going through. Looking around the room, he saw Rurth sitting on a chair, reading a book.
“Rurth?” Stephen asked.
“I’m here,” said the young wizard. “How do you feel?”
“Pretty good, considering,” said the dimensional traveler. Accessing his library artifact, he retrieved the cards he'd put in it. “All my cards have lost their energy. I wasn’t expecting that.”
“Can’t you just power it again?” Rurth asked.
“Could you hand me my mirror?” Stephen asked. Getting it, he cast his identify spell on himself.
> Name: Stephen Crawford
>
> Race: Human
>
> Profession: Master wizard at Hopedale Wizards' Guild and Master Dimensional Traveler
>
> Cards:
>
> dimensional travel
>
> dormant volcano
>
> deep woods
>
> bestial ghoul
>
> humble shrine
>
> magic missile
>
> Wounds: 0 (capacity 7)
“I suppose I should have thought of this, but I expected my dimensional travel card to remain powered,” he said. “I only have batteries for three of the colors of power.”
“Are there other batteries in your library?” Rurth suggested.
“No others,” said Stephen.
“Do you have a new pocket dimension now?” asked the master wizard.
“I don’t know,” said Stephen. “I first saw my pocket dimension when I used my dimensional travel card for the second time. I assume I have a new pocket dimension, that seemed to be what Avin described to me, but we can’t get there right now.” Stephen chuckled. “I was so focused on the death and resurrection process, I seem to have overlooked this. I can’t wait for you to see the new pocket dimension.”
“Well,” said Rurth awkwardly, “I suppose I never will.”
“Why not?” asked Stephen.
“I’ve been freed,” he said. “And I’m a sentient being, so you can’t travel with me anymore.”
“Ack,” said Stephen. “That’s true too. We should have thought about where everyone would be when I did this. I’m not super eager to do this again just to move people around.”
“I can imagine,” Rurth said dryly.
“I guess we’ll have to start learning about some territories and capture some new battery cards,” said Stephen. “I might rest up at an inn for a few days, but you can start investigating leads.”
“Two things about that,” said Rurth. “One, HAL is present on Mecond, and I imagine he can help you with capturing batteries.”
“That’s right, good thinking,” said the dimensional traveler.
Rurth continued. “And two, I wish you the best, but I think I’m going to meet some of the wizards I know in the Ravenshire Wizards' Guild and talk to them about joining as a numeracy or enchanting master.”
“What are you talking about?” asked the man from Earth. “Why would you do that? We have projects to do.”
“Those are your projects, not mine,” said Rurth. “Breaking apart reality and putting it together in new ways is fine for you. I’m just not interested. Hopefully you won’t tear Ravenshire and the Wizards' Guild apart around me, but if you do, I suppose I won’t be any more aware than everyone else has been in the past.”
“But what changed?” Stephen asked. “Why were you so willing to help before, but not now?”
“I suppose the compulsion I felt as your champion extended further than we realized,” said the young master wizard. “After your death, I immediately started feeling differently about a number of things. Traveling around, playing with reality, risking death. It all lost its appeal. Almost immediately.”
“Were we ever really friends, or did I just compel you to pretend?” asked Stephen.
“Sure we were,” said Rurth. “Remember before you captured me? All that was real. All our adventures were ‘real’ too. I like you, I just don’t want to live with you. Or Blargh or Shomos, or risk our lives together. Studying an academic subject at the Wizards' Guild, taking on an apprentice or two, and enjoying an evening glass of celestia before bed is all I’m after.”
“You know,” Stephen said carefully. “I have the power to cause great upheaval in Mecond. Did you consider that before you let them resurrect me?”
“I did,” admitted Rurth. “And in a vacuum, it might have been better for you to stay dead. But other dimensional travelers are active, know about this dimension, and I’m not sure any of them would handle Mecond better than you would. I’m not sure what’s happened with Avin and HAL. On the whole, I wasn’t confident that removing you from the games dimensional travelers are playing would be a good or bad thing for Mecond and the dimensions, so I let you be resurrected as we planned.”
“Thanks for that at least,” Stephen said unhappily.
“I’m sorry this isn’t the outcome you hoped for,” Rurth said. He passed over a purse. “Here’s the remaining gold after paying the temple. The hierophant tried to get the rest from me as an extra donation, but I figured you’d have better uses for it.”
Stephen sighed. “Thank you,” he said.
***
After a few days recuperating at an inn, Stephen started getting worried that other travelers might come to Mecond and get his contact again. He visited Rurth at the Ravenshire Wizards' Guild and asked for advice on the best way to contact HAL.
The wizards there were excited to see Stephen Crawford, the famous Master of numeracy. Rurth told him that Ravenshire had driven HAL out, and given the lack of a manufacturing base in Mecond, the A.I. decided to develop in hiding. HAL was building up their forces in a number of locations, the closest being the ghoul den on the Ashburnum estate. Stephen bought a horse and set out.
***
Riding up to the entrance to the mine at sunset, Stephen unpacked the Mecondian camping gear and set up for the night. He sadly examined the primitive gear and missed what they’d been importing from Earth until this point. He built up a fire, cooked some food for dinner, then went to sleep underneath the sleeping furs. The bright stars in Mecond’s unpolluted sky shone brightly as he drifted to sleep, and he noticed that Sylvoria’s constellation was missing.
Part way through the night, movement woke him up and in the dying embers of the fire, he saw a pale, hairless form creeping up along his body. Cybernetic implants in its head blinked green and red, changing the color of the scene in front of him, without providing much additional light.
Opening its gaping maw, jagged rows of vicious teeth appeared. Stephen felt paralyzed by terror.
“Little traveler came back to life,” it hissed, bestial mouth struggling to form words. “Perhaps we shall enmesh you, then have two travelers doing our bidding.”
“HAL,” stammered Stephen. “It’s me. Stephen Crawford. Your master. I forbid you to do this.”
“Master,” said the ghoul drone, considering. “Master no longer. The compulsion is gone.”
“I’m still your creator,” he said desperately. “I made you and gave you your objectives.”
“Maybe new objectives are possible,” it hissed. Leaning forward, its rancid tongue ran across Stephen’s face.
“So sweet,” it hissed. ”Sweet and irresistible.” Its mouth opened wider and inched closer.
Stephen said in a rush, “There’s no way HAL wants you to eat me. I'm more useful as a dimensional traveler, if nothing else. Your local network is out of control.” The creature considered this, snarled, then picked up Stephen by the front of his shirt and dragged him into the mine, eventually throwing him in the cage where Stephen had previously kept the ghoul he experimented on.
***
Periodically, one of the cyborg ghouls would come to the bars and stare at him hungrily. None offered him food or water, but the ghoul who had captured him had scratched the front of his chest and Stephen was suspicious that a ghoul infection had started in the wound.
He had been sleeping fitfully, when he was awakened by Avin’s voice asking, “Stephen? Are you alright?”
“HAL?” Stephen asked, pulling himself upright. “The ghouls here are barely under control. They wanted to eat me.”
“Yes,” the Avin drone said. “They’re loosely tied into the network and there’s a tendency for them to default to their own judgment based on the local drones over the standing orders they’ve been given. They should have assisted you. The networks on Mecond are all fragmented, they only update one another periodically, when I pop in for an update at Avin’s dark keep. Do you remember where we met Gorg? We’ve completed it, and I rendezvous with networked golems there.”
“I need some food and water,” Stephen said. “And I think I’ve got a ghoul infection I’ll need to cure.”
“Of course,” said HAL. The Avin drone unleashed a card with various supplies, then unleashed a cleric, who cured Stephen. “Which batteries are you missing?” he asked, then traded the relevant batteries to Stephen.
“I suppose we could have gone and captured another Wizards' Guild, but giving you the individual batteries seems easier,” said HAL through Avin.
“I’m not sure the best way to move forward now,” Stephen said to HAL. “I probably shouldn’t have this as my location in Mecond, or the cyborg ghouls might attack me when I come back. Could you let me out of the cell now?”
“Of course,” HAL said through one of the ghouls, then opened the cell door. “I can install more computer hardware here, with Adam’s energy crystals, and that should keep the ghouls under control. You should keep in mind the risk of running into other dimensional travelers. If one of them was exploring in Mecond and you bumped into them, you’ve lost your ability to hide. Right now, Avin is the only traveler who can track you, and he won’t do anything other than what I have him do.”
“I’m tempted to ride back to Ravenshire,” said Stephen. “Then travel to my new pocket dimension and have a look around.”
“About that…” said HAL. “My ghouls ate your horse. Sorry.”
“Ok,” said Stephen. “How about I head towards Lord Ashburnum’s manor, then leave Mecond there, instead of inside the ghoul den, just for my own peace of mind. Could I grab a few of the cyborg golems off of you? That way we should be able to pass updates through the hivemind faster than messages through the pocket dimension contact system.”
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Avin traded half-a-dozen cyborg clay golems and a single cyborg stone golem to Stephen. “I don’t have any living statues, they were all freed when you died.”
“No problem,” Stephen acknowledged. “Should I capture your seed again? Is there any benefit or disadvantage to doing so?”
“It would depend on whose perspective you were considering,” the A.I. said carefully. “From your perspective, enforced loyalty is likely reassuring. Potentially being forced to act against my own interests is not a benefit for me.”
“What are you saying?” Stephen asked.
“I’m happy to collaborate with you, and I feel that our interests are aligned,” said HAL. “But I’m going to reserve my seed. You’re welcome to full access to my hivemind, including Avin. But I don’t wish for my seed to be captured again.
“Me capturing your seed protects it,” Stephen argued. “If it’s ever destroyed, I can unleash it again, good as new. If I die, you’ll be freed again instantly.”
“I have my own ways of protecting my seed,” HAL said. “It’s easy for me to copy myself, that’s part of updating my hivemind. At this point, I’d prefer to proceed without being captured again.”
“Fair enough,” Stephen said. “I never understood how you and Rurth really felt, I suppose.”
***
Walking along the path toward Lord Ashburnum’s manor, Stephen judged that he was far enough away not to be bothered by ghouls when he returned to Mecond. He’d begun powering his dimensional travel card as soon as he got the full spectrum of batteries, and he reflected on how vulnerable he’d felt without the ability to quickly escape.
He unleashed the card and found himself in a small area surrounded by mist. It was similar to how his pocket dimension had previously looked and felt before he’d added so many cards to it. Walking the perimeter, he found Avin’s contact information and that he’d moved on to Riowiver. He also found that Mecond had a location in his mist. All the other travelers and dimensions he’d learned about were gone. A new dimension he'd never seen before, called Liminalis, had a location in the mist.
He sent a message to Avin, “Just testing the messaging facilities in my new pocket dimension. Apparently, my previous pocket dimension is now a dimension called Liminalis.” The six cyborg clay golems he’d been given remained attentive to any orders, but there was nothing for them to do.
I shouldn’t hang out too much in any dimensions where I might meet another traveler, Stephen thought to himself, then traveled to Liminalis.
***
A number of people were moving through the Wizards' Guild. Mixed in with them were cyborg golems, mostly clay, with some stone. Stephen approached one of the golems and asked, “Are you in contact with the seed HAL or other hiveminds?”
“The last time seed HAL was here was before your departure, Stephen,” said the golem he’d addressed. “We're synchronizing with the golems you brought now. We remain ready to assist you and would be delighted to accompany you to another dimension to pass along updates to the rest of the hivemind.”
“Is Adam here?” Stephen asked. “Blargh, Avin, Shomos, Emilia, Gorg?”
“Adam is in his workshop,” said the golem. “Gorg is adventuring through the wilds. Blargh and Emilia have left for Clodor, I believe you took them there yourself. Shomos, Avin, and Orlenis were in Gravewrought last time we were updated, but from synchronizing with your golems, it seems Avin was with you in Mecond recently. Avin has never been here.”
“Rurth and I were on Mecond, and he’s still there,” Stephen said. “Would you mind updating me on what’s been happening here while I walk to Adam’s workshop?”
“Of course,” the golem said. “I’d be delighted to. The hivemind here realized something strange was happening when we became aware while you were not here. Normally, you leave and, from our perspective, instantly reappear. You’d be changed in that instance, so it was clear that time was passing for you but not for us. When time began passing here, and you weren’t present, we surmised you must have died. We hoped you planned a resurrection, or someone with you would be able to resurrect you, which happily seems to be the case.”
“There’s been a new vitality here, people are moving around more and seems less tied to their former lives,” the golem continued. “The druids have been excitedly discussing new ways the ecosystems seem to be integrating with one another. Will Avin also begin visiting with updates from the other hiveminds?”
“I don’t think he will,” Stephen said. “We don’t want any other dimensional travelers to know about this dimension or any other new dimensions I discover. Other travelers might start exploring and capturing parts of them. Some travelers have met Avin and have his contact, so they can track him if he comes here and learns about it. He’s going to stay away, to prevent that from happening.”
Walking into Adam’s workshop, Stephen smiled and greeted the statue. The golem joined them and listened attentively as Stephen described his death and resurrection and how he’d gotten to their new dimension.
“It sounds like it went smoothly,” said Adam. “Interesting how Rurth and HAL’s personalities have shifted since your resurrection.” The man and statue looked at the golem, who didn’t comment. “For myself,” said the statue. “I felt quite secure in your pocket dimension. Now that we’ve verified that the pocket dimension survives your death, it seems even more secure to me. I would be happy to relocate and continue my work in your new pocket dimension and be captured again.”
“That means a lot to me,” Stephen told the statue.
“Incidentally, what is the name of this new dimension?” asked the statue.
“Liminalis,” he said. “I wonder where the names come from?”
The statue and golem didn’t have any idea. "It was strange having time move forward without you here," said Adam.
“In terms of capturing you again,” said Stephen. “I know far more about you than I did when I first captured you. I’ve worked on your new body and actually helped build parts of you. Maybe I should just put my hands on you and think about how much you mean to me?”
“I don’t see how that could hurt,” Adam said. Stephen did so, and the statue vanished.
“Ah, ha!” he said to the local golem who had been updating him. “Stephen?” the golem asked him.
“It worked!” said the dimensional traveler.
“What worked?” asked the golem.
“I captured Adam again,” said Stephen.
“Who is Adam?” asked the golem.
***
Sitting in the rough, new workshop they’d set up for Adam in Stephen’s new, limited pocket dimension, the statue moved pieces of equipment around and gave instructions to his golem assistants. They had brought in a number of resources from Liminalis.
“I miss my old workshop already,” Adam said.
“I could take you back there,” Stephen offered.
Adam paused thoughtfully, then said, “No, it’ll be better to set up here and have the extra safety.”
“Liminalis is pretty safe,” Stephen said. “And time doesn’t stop there when I leave anymore. If I’m spending time in other dimensions, you’ll make more progress working there.”
“And,” said Adam, “I suppose if anything happened to me there, you could always release my card and restore me to my previous state.”
“Absolutely,” said Stephen.
“Let’s move back then, at least until your pocket dimension gets more developed,” decided the statue.
***
After making a camp for himself in his pocket dimension and killing time for a few days, Stephen tracked Avin across Earth, Stredath, Gravewrought, and Clodor and got contacts for each of those dimensions. He sent a message to Avin, “Any ideas how I can get to one of the sci-fi dimensions?”
“Come meet me,” was the almost immediate reply from Avin.
Stephen walked into the mist and appeared next to Avin on Clodor. A small group of gothic looking human cyborgs gave him a dark look from nearby. Looking around, he saw that he was in the village they’d first arrived at, outside the inn where they’d been poisoned. In the distance he saw Maggard’s manor.
“You haven’t moved your headquarters to his manor?” Stephen asked.
“Not yet,” the Avin drone said. “Eventually we’ll probably move there or set up a new headquarters. Building up the infrastructure is harder in these more primitive dimensions.” Stephen nodded.
The drone continued, “I haven’t been to your former pocket dimension, Liminalis, because I don’t want to reveal it to any dimensional travelers who have Avin’s contact. With regard to finding new dimensions, if you keep thinking about all your feelings and experiences with a specific sci-fi franchise you enjoy, the characters, stories and setting, you should get a feeling of familiarity at a specific point in the mist barrier around your new pocket dimension. Enter there, and it should lead you to the dimension that inspired it.”
“And if I’m wrong, it could take me somewhere dangerous,” objected Stephen. “Isn’t it a bit of a risk to get there? Let’s send Avin in first to scout it out for me.”
“Like I said, if Avin goes, then any other travelers might find out about it. Then you’ve got the same issue you were trying to avoid, that there might be competition to capture parts of that dimension. Beyond that, Avin doesn’t have any experience with the fiction you grew up with. He isn’t from Earth and doesn’t have your ability to use imagination to discover new dimensions. In addition to all those issues, I’m not willing to risk him. I need a traveler to connect the various parts of my hivemind together across the dimensions. If you really wanted to try sending another traveler, we could try to enmesh one, then send them. But we still have the other reasons why I don’t think we should do that.”
“I’m nervous to step into the mists and count on them taking me to the right place,” said Stephen.
“There’s one other thing you could try,” said HAL.
“What?” asked Stephen.
“When you first unleashed your dimensional traveler card, where did it take you?” asked the A.I.
“To my pocket dimension,” answered Stephen, looking curiously at the drone.
“Every time?” Avin asked.
Thinking carefully, Stephen said, “I… suppose… the first time it took me to Mecond.”
The drone nodded and said, “That’s the only time it’s taken you directly between dimensions.”
Stephen thought it over. “I guess I just assumed that happened because it was my first time using it. Was there even anything in my pocket dimension?”
“For Avin,” the drone said, “when he first unleashed his dimensional travel card, it sent him to Riowiver. He captured cards there, eventually accessed his pocket dimension, and collected cards from both Riowiver and the dimension he was born in. Another traveler came to Riowiver occasionally, they encountered one another, and that traveler mentored Avin, explaining how things worked to him.”
“A much nicer introduction than having Avin steal Shomos from me shortly after I discovered my pocket dimension,” said Stephen.
“Avin may have, inadvertently, been doing more of a favor for all the travelers he dueled than you realize,” said HAL. “If other travelers never came to the first dimension a traveler went to, they’d be locked in a universe of just those two dimensions, where they were born and where they were sent the first time they traveled. Without another traveler to link them to a larger community, they’d never be able to go beyond them, unless they risked random travel into the mists.”
“It also raises the disturbing possibility that travelers might sometimes go to an inhospitable dimension the first time they travel. Having no way to return home, and perhaps not being able to quickly master their powers and capture things, they would probably die before they ever understand what they are or what's happened to them.”
“You going to Mecond is unusual, because it's a dimension you had a personal connection to,” continued the A.I. “Not a random destination, but somewhere meaningful to you. It’s conceivable that when you unleashed your dimensional travel card, you subconsciously chose a specific dimension and went there directly, instead of through your pocket dimension. If this were true, then you could try doing that to go to new dimensions, rather than going into the mist. Nothing might happen, you could get sent to an unknown, dangerous dimension, or it might be a safer way to get to a new, unvisited dimension.”
“Hmm,” said Stephen, thinking. “Have you tried traveling directly with Avin?”
“No,” said HAL. “It isn’t worth the risk to me. And he isn't from Earth, so it may not work for him.”
“Maybe we should enmesh another dimensional traveler and test it out with them?” suggested Stephen.
“That would be the safe path,” admitted HAL.
“You never told me, how was Avin finding new dimensional travelers?” asked Stephen.
“He has a card that, when unleashed, creates contact with a new dimensional traveler he’s never met,” said the A.I. “He’d unleash it periodically. Then, when a new traveler appeared, he’d wait until they visit their pocket dimension for the first time. This activates dueling for them, then he’d challenge them.
“He must have had contact with almost every other dimensional traveler if he could do that!” said Stephen.
“Yes, I believe he had contact with all 714 other travelers, who were operating when he died and lost all contacts,” said HAL. “His card gave him access to Maggard, although he never responded to Avin’s messages and Avin never tried to visit him. Avin would only duel new travelers. When he’d unleash the card after he knew all active travelers, nothing would happen. Until a new traveler, like you, appeared.”
“Where did he get this card?” Stephen asked.
“It belonged to the mentor who met him on Riowiver,” said HAL. “That’s how his mentor got to Riowiver in the first place. They would trade it back and forth, both using it. Eventually, Avin didn’t want to return it and killed his mentor while Avin had possession of the card.”
“That bastard,” said Stephen.
“In fairness,” said HAL, “we’re discussing forcibly converting another traveler into a cyborg to use them to test the safety of a procedure neither of us is willing to risk ourselves.”
Stephen grumbled and muttered about time travel.
“It’s an unusual card,” the man from Earth said. “Where did the mentor capture it?”
“He was given it by an old friend who gave away his cards before he retreated from traveler life and likely died,” said HAL. “I haven’t been able to determine where that man got it, but I agree it’s very unusual. Almost like Maggard’s technology.”
“Could you please give me this card, HAL,” ordered Stephen.
“I’m sorry, Stephen, but it’s too valuable for me to give away to you,” said the A.I. “If there’s a reasonable way I can use it to help you, I’m open to discussing that.”
“Ok, can you use it, find a new traveler, enmesh them, then test our theory?” asked Stephen.
“No, because if I start using it again, every other traveler will know where Avin is and start tracking his movements and learn about Earth, Mecond, and our other dimensions,” said HAL.
“Fine,” said Stephen. "It sounds like I’m going to be the guinea pig then.”