Inaya opened her hand for Liana as an invitation to take it, and turned her other hand to Lun. Liana involuntarily closed her eyes as she took the hand, opening her eyes a fraction of a second later to a completely different world. Everything was blurry now, except for the plants and the Drotnira in the distance. “This is the side dimension. All living things have an aura that you can see here. And invisible presences can also be seen if you have the eyes for them, but this world doesn’t have such things as far as I have noticed, apart from the landscapes themselves it’s an empty spiritual landscape too. Unlike the dead cities this valley has a very friendly spirit. By the way, Liana, in your world you should certainly be careful with that, because you are much more vulnerable to those things if you are in their domain. On the other hand you will also see them much more clearly, so they won’t surprise you so quickly. What you still have to watch out for here in Kavanderra is the matter itself, since you can't see it that well. Watch out for your feet! As as hmana you need to be careful, your body may be completely invisible, but it still remains vulnerable, and can bump into things or get hit. Things very close to your body might also be invisible. And remember that you are still by no means inaudible. And this world has virtually no sounds so everything is immediately noticed, whether its source is invisible or not!”
The latter wasn't quite true anymore, because in the distance there was now the murmur of all kinds of machines and other human activities that Liana hadn't noticed yet because it seemed to have come on gradually when they were in between the plants. Yet it was still dead quiet here compared to any place in both Nuanderra and Oranderra she’d ever been, be it a city or nature, for there is always something or someone making noise somewhere, and the only thing alive that could make noise around here except herself and her companions were these three Drotnira. Liana understood why Inaya hadn’t been comfortable about the plan: her hand began to sweat in Inaya's, and being invisible was a strange sensation that didn’t feel good. Liana thought of Frodo wearing the one ring, but luckily she didn't have that kind of burden to bear, and there were no scary monsters waiting for her in this invisible dimension. She felt a strange energy tingling through her body while they walked as quietly as possible in the direction of the guards, who seemed not at all that attentive.
She guessed that guarding an empty dead world isn't exactly a job you can keep your attention on for long. It didn’t really seem a fun job to her to be the guard here, and to be guarding a secret base against unknown and probably nonexistent enemies in a strange world with no-one around. Studying the export of South American countries was suddenly a lot more attractive in comparison. They left the plants behind and followed the main road back, still invisible and also as inaudible as humanly possible. All three of the guards were standing at a sort of waiting booth a the point where buildings started again on the same main road, which had been completely invisible in the overgrown scree valley but continued in exactly the same way on this side, apparently all the way to the huge step pyramid they were apparently heading for. They walked as quietly as possible, all the way across the broad road past the guards, hand in hand.
Liana's hands were sweating very clearly now, and she felt a drop of sweat forming on her forehead too. She looked as little as possible at the guards, because for some reason that seemed logical.. The three of them actually managed to move quite silently, until Liana suddenly bumped her foot against an unidentifiable piece of matter that had been very blurry for her in this invisible state. It had probably once been part of some piece of equipment once, but all it could do now was crack when you stepped on it, which it did very enthusiastically. In an empty world like this, even such a small sound was something everyone noticed, including the guards. All three of them aimed their different weapons at the invisible sound source, but that was all they did, for there was nothing to be seen.
One was holding some sort of axe, the other a completely alien rod with lights, and the third, oddly enough, something that reminded her most of a Kalashnikov, but Liana didn’t really examine them, she was focussing on being as quiet as possible now. Fortunately Drotnira guards were not really trigger-happy, for they didn’t do more than just aim at the sound source that was invisible to them, and then they got up and shouted something in their language. When they could see nothing in any direction, they sat down again. Liana and her friends paused until the guards relaxed their weapons again. It all seemed like an eternity.
Finally, the guards were back in their usual position, and they seemed to be getting more relaxed. Finally the three of them decided it was time to move on and they started to move again. A little further, they ducked into a side street that made a sharp angle from the main road, and the moment they were out of sight, Liana and Lun let go of Inaya's hand. All three were strangely exhausted, and it took some time for Liana to get used to normal vision again. "Wow, I hope we don't have to do that too many times." Lun whispered. "It won't work everywhere I’m afraid, only with Drotnira and possible Hmana, but Nummerfa will us that immediately." Inaya remarked.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
They followed the side street without seeing anything living, then picked up another, which turned at a 120° angle back toward the main building they were heading to, and thus the main road they had been following the entire time. They still didn't meet anyone. The first sentries had apparently been set up far from the base. Slowly and much more cautiously than the day before, they walked on, but this part of the city turned out to be empty again and devoid of any life, be it aphids or Nummerfa.
Liana still felt like they had absolutely no idea what they were doing here, and feared that neither of her companions really knew what war was, or what having enemies really meant in practice, or even how violence worked. Those were, of course, the unsuspected drawbacks of living in a world where evil barely existed since time immemorial… Not that she was such an expert in the art of warfare herself, but she'd spent a lifetime watching TV and reading books where sort of things happened in it, and even heard stories a few times from people who had once actually experienced war. The kind-hearted Inaya on the other hand, who was super powerful had more superpowers than an entire team of X-Men, was frighteningly naive, and the impressive shaman Lun really too. Their adversaries, on the other hand, seemed capable of terrible things, if she had understood the tales of the Onnobolda and whatever had happened at the Baro-tentue correctly, and they clearly didn't give a damn about the life of her kind.
Liana winced. The three of them were still heading for the enemy without knowing what they were doing. Still, she felt very safe somehow, protected by Inaya's superpowers and some strange kind of luck that she believed she had on her side somehow. Although at the same time she was also very sure that it was going to be difficult and she knew both were not mutually exclusive.
The main road here was again filled with large structures that Liana suspected were ancient vehicle wrecks. The strange thing about it was that she could never recognize wheels or an engine. Though there were many of these things here, there was always a comfortable path between them, always keeping a certain width within which the road was completely empty. It was almost as if something or someone had recently cleared the way for something wider and taller than a human to pass through. What else in this world used these roads that they didn't know about?
But her thoughts were interrupted by an everyday noise when suddenly an alarm went off in her backpack. She opened it on autopilot and checked her smartphone, but of course that didn't make much sense. Although it turned out to be a very weak Wi-Fi network, it was secured with a password, and it disappeared again, so she put her phone away again and continued walking, turning her attention back to the strange remains of vehicles.
A large metal egg without wheels but with a ripped cockpit that was ripped open to reveal strange equipment lay upside down beside the road. How had these things even worked? Was the strange position that some of these things were in due to the fact that death had suddenly fallen across this world, so suddenly that vehicles drove on for a little while and then crashed? She had been so deep in thought about the Kavanderrans that it took her a moment to suddenly realise something wasn't right. But how could there suddenly be a Wi-Fi network here, in the middle of a mostly-dead alien world?
"There's Wi-Fi here," she told her companions, but they barely responded to the announcement. They obviously didn't know what she was talking about. "What is that?" asked Lun, who knew her language better than he knew about the details of modern electronics in her world. "A communication technology from Oranderra." She held up her smartphone. "Our phones are connected to some network of radiation and can therefore communicate with each other and with the whole world, if there is a network. But there should be no network here. We are not at Oranderra now. And yet I just briefly picked up a Wi-Fi network!" Inja looked at her questioningly for more from her memory. Liana answered and allowed Inaya into her head.
"A network via electromagnetic radiation, of human technology from Oranderra? And that's present here?" "Yes, my phone just caught such a network. I even forgot that it was still on and that I had it with me. Usually I just use it as a clock, but that makes no sense here either. I don't suppose it is connected to something in my world, so that means someone here is using wifi." "That is impossible indeed. None of the devices of the old Kavanderrans could still emit radiation. And the chances that it would be on the same frequency as the one your phone picks up is zero. And the Onnobolda are not going to introduce Gorchbold technology. to here either. They just want to destroy the works of the evil hell devils like you." Liana stared at some tiny bars on her screen that had reappeared. "And yet there's a wifi network out here somewhere. Either your Onnobolda bought or stole a wireless system from our world, or there are more terrible hell devils here than just my humble person, and there’s something completely wrong about the whole story. Besides, those drotnira guys earlier had guns too, now that I think about it. Those Kalashnikovs can also only come from Oranderra as far as I know."