And so Liana was suddenly standing in the green sunlight of a forest, still holding hands with Akhina. She let go of the hand and looked around into a strange room that was literally made out of living branches. The tree home was filled with furniture in different materials, some of which she couldn't identify at all. Even the space itself here was a bit eerie and magical, and it felt somehow that it was bigger in here than it would appear from the outside. To her it seemed like part of the dwelling extended into another dimension than the forest itself, perhaps to keep out the rain when needed. Or was the whole thing just folded into another dimension of the forest itself? She couldn’t say, but was clear that Nummerfa didn’t just have a different way of living, but also of being in matter itself than humans.
The gate through which she had come had disappeared when they had passed through it, but she didn't have much time to think, because she suddenly realised they weren’t alone here: a man was standing in this tree room. He was clearly human, not a Nummerfil, but he looked in nothing like someone of any human race or culture from her own world. The weird thing was that it was he who was looking at her as the alien, and who was clearly as amazed about her presence as Akhina had been. He said something unintelligible to Akhina, who promptly changed languages to introduce the two to each other in Dutch. "Liana, meet the venerable yam-healer Lun, of the Til people. He is a Nuanderran human from the City of Living Tree Homes. He is also an Oranderra expert, and probably the only one of your kind in this world who understands your language.” Liana nodded uncertainly as a sort of greeting. "Lun, this girl here is Liana of Oranderra, she comes from the stone cities of the world under the shadow, but she is a friend of Nuanderra. She knows councillor Inaya."
Liana swallowed for a moment. The man was rather intimidating, and he looked venerable indeed, like a sort of shaman, dark and serious and probably in possession of strange powers and deep ancient knowledge. He wore a finely woven robe decorated with all sorts of strange symbols and amulets. Nevertheless he bowed to her as if she were a very important person, and the nervosity she felt about him seemed mutual.. She had no idea how to react to him, so she just held up two fingers in a peace sign. "Yo, I know I should be doing all kinds of cultural greetings right now that are very important, but I don't know them, so hello Mr. Lun," Lun nodded, a little unsure of how to react now after dropping the protocol. He was still visibly surprised at her sudden arrival, and even if he was supposed to be an expert in her world, she was clearly a very exotic apparition here that no-one was really prepared for. Was she like a live dinosaur visiting a palaeontologist to these people?
The biggest surprise for Lun was yet to come when Akhina explained him how Liana had gotten there. "This young Hmanil-orr comes from the ruins in the in-between world. She says she got there using her own powers of dimension-folding, by accident. Councillor Inaya felt her presence there and she sent a message to me to pick her up, because she still had a second meeting herself. And indeed, I found her there, all alone. Has the councillor herself not arrived yet, by the way?" Lun stared incredulously from Liana the enigma to Akhina. "Not yet. You are the first to arrive, with your guest.” he murmured, a bit faltering in a language that he obviously didn't use much.
They were still speaking Dutch, with a strange accent, but it was understandable. Liana knew it was rather strange to hear her own Oranderran language here of all possible languages in the multiverse, but they probably only used it for her. For now she didn't ask any questions and she just tried to follow the conversation. “Did Inaya invite anyone else?” Akhina asked Lun. "Not now. Or else they didn't come. Fihlo has his work to do in the oak wood. Gorr is doing whatever Drotnira do far away under the mountains, and for others even further away it wasn’t the right time. And to be honest, with our little guest present here maybe that's better, and it’s a bonus that we can practice our Oranderran again. I don't have the ability to pick up languages through kah-yito like you Nummerfa do.”
The yam-healer finally turned to Liana to ask the same questions she had already been unable to answer. “What were you doing in the Baro-Tentuë ruins of the in-between world? How did you get there? from Oranderra? As a Hmanil-orr?” Liana felt insecure telling the same story again to someone so impressive, and looked away from his dark eyes.
“I wasn't trying to get into any baro-thingy at all. I just tried to run away from bullies at school. And then I just did what I’d seen Inaya do when she left me for her own world. I was desperate so I made an invisible door and stepped into it. But apparently I was doing it wrong. There are more worlds than I could have imagined and I ended up there in those dark empty rooms. Probably because I really wanted to and at the same time didn't want to get to Nuanderra.”
“You, one of my kind, from the old world under the shadow, you can do that? Without any training? To have this gift as a human is extremely rare, and it takes years of practice to cultivate it. And you just travel unguided to a world you've never been to by yourself, and that know nothing about on a whim?" He shook his head. “You are very lucky to be alive, Liana of Oranderra.” He looked stern. “But Akhina said that you have seen councillor Inaya in Oranderra. That's new to me. The plan for her was not to contact the humans, she was just looking for undercover information about the Onnobolda.”
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Liana nodded. “She thought she was invisible, but she wasn't to me. And I saw her talking to the birds.” Lun shook his head worriedly. “Hmm, she should have been more careful then. Non-human things could have noticed her too then. But what happened has happened. And now we have a powerful ally in Oranderra if war breaks out.” He looked pleased, but Liana felt alarmed again. He too? What did these people see in her? This was going to be exhausting.
Akhina suddenly raised her hand "Inaya! She is coming." and indeed, suddenly Inaya stood in the middle of the room. Without any other warning or announcement she appeared out of nowhere on a spot where a blue stone with strange markings lay on the floor that Liana hadn’t noticed before. Staring had become a bit of a habit for her, but it wasn't all that abnormal she found, with everything that was happening. The young Nummerfil looked completely different than before, much more beautiful and impressive. Her eyes sparkled in a sort of liquid purple, her nearly white hair shone like a living quartz, while her skin, too, had a pearly teint. She just wore a simple long white dress again, with a single gold jewel on her chest inscribed with strange letters, the same script she had seen in the in-between world. Her head was adorned with some kind of band made of living plants.
What a difference with the rather inconspicuous girl she’d met in the industrial area! For a moment Liana felt the urge to kneel, but when she looked again the radiant light had almost faded, and before her stood a slightly more human-looking Inaya, not an imposing being of light that could be mistaken for some sort of angel or noble high elf. Like Akhina and Lun before her, she stared at Liana. As amazing as Liana found this world and the other world she’d been in earlier, she herself was clearly the biggest surprise here today.
“So I had sensed it correctly, the unknown intruder in the baro-tentue ruins was you?” "Long story...", muttered Liana, who averted her eyes but suddenly had an idea. “Read my memory, it goes faster.” And she let her memories play back from the moment the geography lesson was over until the moment she arrived at this 'house', while Inaya looked deep into her eyes, and into her soul. Surprised, Inaya stopped for a moment to process everything when the memory was over. "That is impossible." she muttered, followed by a more concerned "Are you OK?", while touching Liana's shoulder briefly. " Akhina here already said that it's impossible, but it’s what happened. I was just imitating you. And I'm OK, just a little tired" she muttered. That seemed to be hard to believe. "Just a little tired? After that dimensional travel? It was dangerous and irresponsible of you, and you're very lucky to still be here. A mild fatigue is only a minor side effect for what you've done, it could have been a lot worse." She gave Liana an unexpected hug, which she didn’t refuse. For a while they said nothing.
When Inaya let go of her she looked her in the eyes. "You can do a lot more than just seeing invisible things, Liana of Oranderra. Obviously this wasn't the first time you came to another world! You’re a natural at it." The images from her childhood came back, images she had always thought had been dreams, until recently. A very young Liana on a huge brontotherium, a slightly older Liana visiting some kind of fairy-like creatures, a still slightly bigger Liana, still a child, hand in hand with an ugly orc-like monster... All those memories that she had repressed. She let Inaya -and apparently Akhina and Lun too- read along with her. She couldn't explain anything, but she could show it like she had experienced it.
Both Numberfa still stared at her, but Lun was the first to speak. The yam-healer might not be capable of learning languages through kah-yito, he certainly could use it as a means of communication. "Those were no ordinary dreams, girl of Oranderra. There are many worlds, not only physical worlds like this one, but also worlds of the mind, and sometimes the veil between them is thin. And then you can travel there and back, if you only know how. And you seem to have a rare talent for that, if you have done all of this unknowingly. The best of the people of the forest women would have a hard time to achieve what you did, and also among the yam-healers and priestesses of the other nations you would be renowned with those talents, especially especially as a human! And you’re still completely untrained.”
Liana struggled to let this statement sink in. So those things had been real? They couldn't be! She was a little dizzy now, and she didn't have the energy to contemplate all the consequences of Inaya's words. "Time-out, this conversation is starting to wear me out!” She said, exhausted again. She looked questioningly at Inaya, and then fell into her other-world friend's arms, and was glad that she did indeed get a hug in return. In a way Nummerfa felt safer than humans sometimes. Well, the two of them that she’d met that was, it seemed most of them would treat her as a dangerous monster.
Meanwhile, Akhina had brought out her flower drink again. She poured it and all three drank from luminescent crystal glasses. "So this young old world Hmana girl is not only capable at kah-yito, but she can travel through dimensions and worlds, even if she never actually consciously developed her gifts." Akhina summarised. Inaya nodded. "And that's dangerous for her. But luckily I have an eye on all beings in Nuanderra with whom I am connected, and those connections are still there in the empty in-between world. I felt your arrival, and otherwise you might have been stuck there for a long time, or with your gifts, tried to get out and moved on to an even more dangerous place.” She took a sip of the wizal-bedstraw spring drink. “But it's good that you're here; there just was a meeting of the Nummerfa council, and then a higher one of the council of councils of Nuanderra. And now we have to have a smaller meeting of the friends of Oranderra, where all three of you are now welcome to discuss the conclusions of both councils. Very important things have been said!”