"Who are you? Where are you?"

She sent her message to the stranger without using any specific language explicitly. She'd made a lot of progress in this strange form of communication since communicating with the Nummerfil, and apparently it came quite naturally now. The answer was vague and without clear words, but certainly understandable.

“I’m here, on the other side of this place.”

Did that mean that she had mastered the more advanced form of languageless direct thought communication? Certainly the person - whoever it was - was apparently quite adept at it themselves, which was probably why they’d locked up in this kind of cell, Liana thought. The STC clearly didn’t like creatures that had strong powers they couldn't control. Or maybe they were their enemy too?

“What do you mean, the other side?”

“I'm behind the middle screen, little Orranderran. Everything shuts down communication here in this cell, except for the partitions apparently. A production error I think. They copied everything but they didn't think about that when they made a bigger version in which more people could be put in separate cells.”

So the prisoner was indeed not of her world and also knew about the other cell in Kavanderra, but it certainly wasn't one of her friends, though they seemed to know her.

"You know me?" she asked.

The other reacted with a strong burst of energy.

"Yes of course I know who you are. You are the surprise again in the whole story. The council clearly has more nawa skills in choosing allies in Oranderra with you than we had. And now we are locked up by the same enemy.”

Liana went silent again, her brain spinning at lightning speed in another part of her mind closed to telepathy. She knew who was locked up with her now. The other, meanwhile, continued to communicate.

“But now all is lost here anyway. The STC has taken over the weapons that we wanted to use on their world, and put them into mass-production, I suspect, to take over their world for themselves? I don’t really know what happened after our last meeting.”

Liana paused before answering.

“Yes, Andira. Your so-called allies were traitors, just like you were yourself. You would have killed them as well, so don't be outraged about them doing something like that. But indeed, when they moved out they used a powerful Oranderran explosive weapon and destroyed everything and killed everyone who was left in the ziggurat of Kavanderra. All your nawa who were still in that world are dead now, all your structures destroyed, and you handed weapons like that to a dangerous organisation on Oranderra, weapons that none of my kind should have. My world and my kind are in danger because of your genocidal tinkering, and possibly all other life on my world too.”

Andira paused, thinking somewhere out of Liana's reach too. The news of the explosion was probably hard to handle.

“But you're still alive, little Oranderran. You survived the explosion? That's another surprise. So Councilor Inaya saved you then? She is more powerful than me, always has been.”

Even without sound, there was an air of regret in the words. Liana was silent, wondering if she should clear up the misunderstandings or not.

“No, my friend Inaya was already shot down herself with one of the weapons you gave the STC at that point. I did the dimension folding myself, and so saved her and Lun. And Marah and Frest with them.” she finally answered.

Sometimes it’s better to throw all your cards on the table!

Incredulous silence was the only response she got, so she eventually moved the conversation on herself.

“Council Member Inaya is still alive, and she’s OK now if you were wondering, she’ll only need some time to heal. But your base has completely melted away. The entire ziggurat has been blown away and they told me that only a gigantic crater remains where it once stood. Everyone is dead, but the STC had already left with all their stuff. Everyone thought you had been left in that explosion too, by the way. But apparently John's men took you with them before the explosion, when they moved all their gear and weapons into my world.”

A wordless affirmation came, but Andira didn't say much beyond that.

“Do you even know where you are?” Liana asked her enemy.

“Oranderra, I suspect. I don't know your geography well. The Americas as the continent is named, somewhere, that's where their base is. I never knew more, I’ve always hated the place when I visited it. I only know that I woke up here in this cell, completely cut off from everything, and that I’ve been sitting here for so long now that I don't feel time anymore. Occasionally, food and water comes through a hole in the wall for me. At first I thought I was still on Kavanderra, but eventually I felt I wasn't. And then finally they threw you in. And now you've confirmed things that were worse than my worst suspicions."

“It's worse than you think indeed. There's a whole base here, full of Americans but also with the rest of your Onnobolda, who still don't even know what happened on Kavanderra with their colleagues who were left in the explosion. I don’t even know what lies they have been told.They do not know that their fellow Nuanderrans have been wiped out by their supposed allies, and their leader has been paralyzed and still locked up here.”

That must have been hard to hear, Liana guessed, but she just kept going.

“They're probably still thinking the same things you said, that they just need to bite through the sour apple, and team up with the Gorchbolds for a while before they are able to take over. And that you can then just kill off the STC and maybe the rest of my kind in my world too. Well, I’m still not a fan of that plan, you know.”

Andira remained silent even in unheard language. Liana continued. She felt no pity, but knew that the things she had to say must be heavy. She was still really mad at Andira, actually, for the genocidal, or rather speciecidal plans that she clearly still had no remorse for.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Was it worth it, Andira? Has evil diminished in the multiverse? Have you defended the good with it?” Andira remained silent, only unconsciously sending out a slight embarrassment. “And yes, you managed to find very bad people in my world to work with. The devil knows how you even did that. But that doesn't mean we are all demons who are completely evil. But one thing is true in your legends, and that is that it affected you too. You yourselves have become the demons who are now in danger of destroying your own world, and every world you touch from within. But that happened inside of you already, and it’s not our fault.” Liana involuntarily clenched her fists and continued. “And if your plans had worked, it wouldn't have gotten any better for anyone. Disastrous for my kind, but equally for yours and the Drotnira, who have really only been used by you and your gang!”

Andira finally lost her temper, which she expressed by sending a severe mental shock wave. Any human other than Liana would probably have been bulldozed by it, but Liana was able to block it out and she just let Andira rage on. Finally, the senseless anger gave way to words.

“Shut up, you little maggot. Are you going to criticise me? You, who descended from the destroyers of worlds? You who have the dirty blood in her veins that has displaced our species from Oranderra, the world where we all were born. You, who are hardly a nawa?”

Liana remained calm. She somehow knew Andira couldn't hurt her, no matter how strong she was at mind games. Physically there also was a panel between them that was strong enough, so there was no danger whatsoever. Besides, Andira had nothing to blame her personally, only sad speciesist accusations, and coming from someone who wanted to kill her whole species herself, that was a bit cynical.

“Listen, I can't help who my ancestors are. I am indeed part of a civilization that has been destroying my own world since time immemorial, and I'd rather not be part of that myself. But at least I recognize those things are bad. You on the other side come from a world without violence and yet do terrible abominations and think they are good. You even planned nawacide. I, on the other hand, try to do the right thing for every thread in Al-Elyehdinn's web as much as I can! I might not be perfect, but I do my best”

Andira exploded again when she heard that name, then sent a whole host of untranslatable curses that would be unpublishable in any language, which Liana just let flow over her. She was clearly back in her 'during the apocalypse I'll find my calm' mode. When her opponent had finally calmed down a bit, she tried one last time to get through to her, falling back on a variation of the words spoken in one of her favourite books to the worst of villains of the story just before they went down:

“Andira, please be a nawa, be a woman! Show some remorse. It's not too late. You can still come to reason.”

The response she got back was furious again. "How dare you?" and then Liana found herself completely locked out. She didn't mind anymore, she needed rest anyway and she had said what she had needed to say. This way of communicating was still quite exhausting for a simple human like her no matter what gifts she had, and blocking mental attacks required a lot of energy that she was slowly running out of.

From the moment Andira left her alone, she fell back into a state of consciousness somewhere between sleep and wakefulness. But her thoughts about reality were back. What was it like outside? Her prison was perfectly sealed, not releasing any information about what was happening out there. No signal, be it electronic or telepathic could get in here. What about Marah? Had she been captured or had she succeeded in setting the Onnobolda and the Tech Corp against each other already? Would the Nuanderrans indeed revolt if they realised what the STC had done to their comrades in Kavanderra? If such a thing had happened to herself would probably have raged against the people who would have done such an atrocity, so she suspected that if Marah would have succeeded in reaching the right people, an insurrection would have been started by now. But if she hadn't, they'd be in serious trouble. She had no doubt that John the CEO would throw anyone under the bus when needed. On the other hand, Andira herself was still alive, and Liana hoped that none of the people at the STC suspected she could travel between the worlds as a dimensional expander herself. So there could still be a chance if they got her out of this cell. And then there was still the question of how long she would be here. Andira had been sitting here since the battle for Kavanderra and had been given enough food and drink to survive, but she fervently hoped it wouldn't last so long for her.

So many important questions, but in the end she just really fell asleep.

In her dream she saw again the things that she so regularly encountered in her dreams. The worlds that Inaya had said might have been more than just dreams. The very non-human friends that she had made as a tiny kid. The brontotheriums in the tropical forest that had protected her from strange greyish giant hyenas came first, but her dream changed fast to a village of strange monstrous creatures, most of whom resembled cliché fantasy orcs. They were greyish or even olive green in colour, hardly clothed except for a loincloth, and some of them even had strange tusks. On top of that they spoke a language that almost sounded somewhere between grunts and Rammstein's German, that she couldn't understand at all. All the orcs of the village were now standing around her in a fairly threatening mob. She had had this dream before, and knew what was coming. Suddenly one of the orcs came forward, protecting her from the others. She knew for some reason that his name was something that sounded like 'Flurck', idiotic as that was.

As always Flurk defended her with a speech, a form of rhetoric somewhere in between Cicero and Koko the gorilla, and eventually everyone backed off. She hadn't understood a word of it, but gave her monstrous friend a hug and suddenly he was gone, and she was in a completely different world, where she stood with a girl named Ikiki, who had purplish hair. She'd never noticed it before, but Ikiki's world was very similar to Kavanderra, except that it was filled with life instead of death. But today apparently there was a fight. She had never understood the language the villagers spoke before, but now she recognized Nummersil words here and there, in very a strange accent. They argued under an orange sun as Ikiki and her fiancée Poyo were cornered by the people of both their villages in something that looked like a Romeo and Juliet feud.

Suddenly everyone saw her, and apparently it was normal that everyone thought of her as an angel. They asked for her counsel and divine wisdom, and Ikiki translated what Liana said and eventually both sides calmed down and came to an agreement, even if Liana didn’t even understand what it was. Ikiki and her fiancée hugged Liana first and then each other, as Liana watched this world dissolve, she suddenly saw Ellen and Derek stare at her, while Izabel's voice told her to come back, but she didn't see her anywhere.

Suddenly she actually awoke to bright daylight. "Here she is." Someone said in Dutch. Liana recognized the voice, but couldn’t remember from where. Blinking, she saw a fierce female figure in the doorway. She was about the size of herself, dressed in the dark combat garb of the Onnobolda, but she seemed human. Her dark hair was braided like Marah's, and she looked vaguely familiar somehow. Liana blinked again, took a closer look at her rescuer, and only then saw who it was.

It was Izabel who was standing at the door.