LOCATION: INTERSTELLA SPACE

DATE: UNKNOWN

Amneris ran down a red-lit hallway on a large interstellar ship, alarms blaring, the small round Galaxy Diamond she'd stolen grasped firmly in one hand. Soldiers appeared in front of her. She skidded to a stop, dashing down the first hallway she could find. A dead end. Shit shit shit shit! She spun around. The soldiers had covered the entrance and were approaching. With nowhere to go, Amneris placed the Diamond in the locket around her neck. She raised her hands, looking for any possible escape.

"Having a good day?" she asked. Several guns were shoved into her face in response. "Rude. Do I need to wave a white flag or something?"

One of the soldiers keyed their radio. "We caught the intruder. Airlock 12."

"Speaking of intruders," Amneris said, pushing the barrel of a gun from her face, "there's something you should know about catching them." Her other hand slammed on a panel. "Never put them near the door when they don't need to breathe. Bye!" The airlock opened.

The soldiers dropped their guns to grab onto whatever possible as Amneris was sucked into open space. Spreading her wings, Amneris backflapped to bring herself to a stop. It wouldn't be long until the guards reported to the captain. Then there really would be a chase. As much as she enjoyed one, Amneris wasn't in the mood to race a giant spaceship. She would win obviously, but now was not the time to piss them off. Plus they had giant guns which would bring about a painful yet inconvenient temporary death. Or discorperation.

Turning away, she raised a hand. Light flew from her, forming a swirling vortex. It shimmered, flickered, then collapsed in on itself, vanishing. Amneris frowned and tried again. The process repeated itself. Amneris made to try once more. A burning sensation grazed her upper arm. She hissed, brushing a hand over the burn. It vanished. Amneris returned her attention to the ship. All of its weapons were trained on her.

She let out a nervous laugh. "Well, this is a bit of a dilemma."

Glancing up, Amneris saw who appeared to be the captain speaking into a microphone. His eyes were on her. Was he speaking to her? Yes, he was. The captain's voice came to her through the loudspeakers. It was a strange sensation. Were she anyone else, Amneris would have heard nothing. The captain, however, didn't appear to know this nor her true nature.

Amneris pointed to her ears. The captain's eyes narrowed and her repeated what was said, this time with a lot less pleasantness and a lot more swearing. Amneris pointed to her ears again, shrugging helplessly. Another person, a female worker from the look of her uniform, spoke to the captain. From his face, Amneris decided the worker had explained what happens to sound in space. She covered her mouth to supress a laugh. No point in antagonising him further.

Not wanting to wait and see what happened, Amneris flew into the depth of space. A snap of her fingers had her shifting into her regular form, the locket still secured around her neck. The ship would catch her at this speed. She needed to go faster. Amneris hummed in thought. Ah! A blueish glow covered her body. With a single flap of her wings, she took off at a speed faster than light. It should have been impossible, but it wasn't for her. Not much was.

Amneris counted to ten in her mind. She snapped her fingers again and slowed to her regular speed. The force itself was stronger than hitting a concrete floor after falling several thousand metres. She should have been crushed. Theoretically. It didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was there was no way the ship could catch her.

No sooner than the thought had passed, the ship appeared overhead.

"Oh, come on!" Amneris yelled. "That's just ridiculous."

She could have flown away in the time it took for the ship to stop and turn. Amneris felt it would be useless. It could probably chase her to another galaxy now portals were out of the picture. Short of finding a way to escape this universe without the use of her powers, which was about as difficult as dealing with certain members of the Council, the ship would catch her.

Amneris snapped her fingers. "All right," she said, voice coming through the speakers in the cockpit, "I'll bite. How'd you go that fast?"

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Seeing they could now communicate, the captain wasted no time to reply, not bothering to hide his immense smugness. "We have a source of power stronger than anything you have ever heard of, girl."

Amneris pursed her lips, deciding it was best to not mention the abilities and extent of energy gained from her own source of power. "Pretty sure that's impossible."

"How are we able to hear you?"

"Magic. Duh." Amneris tilted her head. "I said that last part out loud."

"That diamond you stole," the captain continued, ignoring her comment, "how are you planning to escape with it? We can follow you anywhere in the universe."

"Yes, that's the problem," she muttered, looking around.

Her eyes landed on something. It wasn't that far away. How had she not seen it before? The light made it obvious, at least to her. Any closer and they all would have been sucked in, along with everything else in the system slowly being devoured. A grin crossed her features. Now that was an idea.

"Just to check, you can follow me anywhere, right?"

"Correct."

Amneris pointed to the side. "How about into that?"

A moment of silence. Through the windscreen, Amneris watched people rushing around. No doubt instruments were being checked, results passed on, before checking them again. The ship's engines hummed to life. It backed away.

The captain's voice came over the speakers again, this time filled with concern. "Nothing can escape that, especially not you. Just turn yourself and the diamond in."

"So, you're saying you can't follow me?"

"Nothing can escape it," he repeated.

"Nothing, eh?" Amneris laughed. "You mortals. You really know nothing about the Divine. Well, allow me to give you a short lesion." She spread her large star-covered misty wings. "The laws of physics don't apply to us Gods." A small wave. "Ta-ta!"

A mighty flap. Amneris was caught in the current, being dragged forward with no control. She retracted her wings. They would be useless now. With the ship's crew and captain watching on in awe, Amneris plunged into the heart of a black hole.

She knew what those on the ship saw. They would have seen her slow before being violently stretched and torn. They would have seen her frozen in place and engulfed in intense heat until nothing, not a single ash, remained. Even her light, her constant glow of power, would have vanished into the intense gravitational pull before she did. But, as Amneris had told them, the laws of physics didn't apply to Gods.

Amneris spun out of control through a mess of stone, gas, light, and sound, crying out in absolute joy as she fell. Her form flickered back and forth between her Godly one and that of divine fire. She'd lost her physical form upon crossing the event horizon, but she didn't need it. Being corporeal was overrated anyway.

The drop appeared to go on forever. No end was in sight. There was only one way to go, though, and it did not matter which way Amneris turned. She was always falling down. Down and down and down. If there was a down. The laws of physics inside a black hole once the event horizon had been crossed applied about as much as they did to Divinity. That is, not at all.

Something appeared up ahead. Ahead was relative at this point. Wherever she looked, it was there. A long expanse of nothing stretching as far as she could see. The light pulled into the black hole vanished before hitting it, as did everything else. The remains of planets and stars vanished from existence. Amneris cringed. Perhaps this had been a bad idea. She had no idea where she would end up! No one in recorded history had jumped into a black hole. No one knew what happened once you reached the bottom. She was about to find out.

What appeared to be solid ground appeared. Amneris braced herself for impact, for whatever was supposed to come next –

Only to pass straight through the enteral nothing.

Amneris found herself still falling, only she was now falling away from the nothing. Light, broken stars and planets rushed alongside her. Some unseen force was pulling from ahead and pushing from behind. Amneris moved fasted with each passing moment, her form struggling to hold together as she spun with no control at a speed faster than anything she had done.

With one final excited cry, Amneris was slingshotted into deep space. Still spinning, she caught a glimpse of a black whole with light and gas and stone rocketing away from it. Not a black hole then, but its opposite. A white hole. A white hole in another universe. Amneris had passed the barrier between the worlds. She could sense it. Instinctively, she reached for the locket. It was still there. Good. Her power had protected it.

A blast of energy from her body stopped her out of control form. Amneris groaned, hovering in the light of the white hole, and grasped her still-spinning head. "Right," she said to no one. "That was awesome. Never doing it again."

Spreading her wings, Amneris turned to face the white hole, watching the light from another universe spill from it. This explained the purpose, and it did make sense in a way. Everything sucked up by a black hole had to go somewhere, right? Amneris had always assumed it was taken into Negative Space, the space between spaces. Not once had she considered the possibility of it entering another universe.

She crossed her arms. It could present a problem in the future if people – and by that she meant a certain race of mortals who constantly caused her trouble – figured out how to pass through without being torn to pieces. Oh well. That was an issue for another day. Besides, what were the chances of it happening?

Amneris shrugged, turning away and taking in her surroundings. These problems were a normal part of her job. She could figure it out later. Perhaps once she figured out a way home and had a decent meal. There was no rush. It wasn't like the Humans would figure out inter-universal travel overnight . . .