Adelfried
During the last twenty-four hours, Adelfried had: been given hope and lost it, witnessed a murder and a massacre, been shot at, crash landed, received a concussion, been knocked unconscious, run, hidden, babysat an insane person, found himself on the other side of the planet and discovered he was from the past not some other world. All of which was probably better than having a moment with his own thoughts because that meant he had to face the fact that he was not closer to finding Sahir or more importantly, getting home. If that was even possible now. But if it was, Sahir was still his best option. Would she even be able to help him? He had to try. If you can’t go back, you go forward.
He sat on the fine leather couch in the living area watching the insane Federico whimper. He felt his pain, not for the same reasons, but he knew that pain all too well. “I’m sorry your Chad is gone. It wasn’t my fault, but I am sorry for your loss,” he said, hoping that maybe somehow this would get through to him.
Adelfried stood up to stretch his legs and take in the view of endless sand punctuated by pyramids. It comforted him in a weird way seeing something older than him. “I had hoped to meet this Sahir and try to reason with her and even to help you too if I could. I thought with the Root, surely, we could work something out, but now…” Adelfried wiped at emotions trying to leak from his eyes. “You know, I’d give it all up. The Root, this cursed magic, all of it, just for one more embrace with my Leyna…” He reached into his pocket and pulled out Minna’s doll and held it close to his nose. He inhaled deeply. The faint smell of lavender was still there “…or to just be able to smell Minna’s hair one more time… Did you know her hair always smelled like lavender?” Adelfried looked back at his captive audience. He was now sobbing. He felt sorry for the poor wretch. But who had it worse? At least Adelfried had his faculties about him and could do something. But what? What could he do?
He noticed the tablet Ying had requested on the table. All he had to do was to make sense of what little bit he had learned from Chad. Perhaps with the powers Evan had bestowed upon him, he too could harness the almighty internet to solve his problem. Except in all the death, desperation, and destruction, none of them could recall the exact name of the place Chad had mentioned. He knew it was something like the Donkey or Damn Key or Dork Eel depression. After starting his investigation with the all-knowing search engine, he concluded that there are no depressions with donkeys in them. He thought the Damn Key would make a good wizard hideout but couldn’t find anything with that name. And finally, he discovered that a dork was another word for a whale penis and an eel was a slithery creature, but a whale penis and eel depression didn’t make sense, and he was sorry he had searched for those key words. Perhaps the internet was too powerful for him to control because he could never unsee what he saw during his search.
“What do you think, Federico?” Adelfried said, thinking out loud. “You could probably figure this out, right? You probably had it all figured out, didn’t you?”
If only he could ask him a question.
“Wait, you did figure this out. You do know where Sahir is. You have, somewhere in there, a connection to Sahir, don’t you?” He started to feel nervous and excited all over again. He tried to imagine what was going on inside Federico’s head. He obviously could function as a person to some extent since he had been able to follow them around when prompted without actively engaging them, but this didn’t provide a clue to what his true mental state was. There must be some of Federico still in there.
He sat down next to him while he was in a basic crying phase. He waited until Federico changed to whimpers, hoping this was the mode that offered the most potential clarity. He reached out and gently grabbed his hand. Just like at the club, he experienced the same sudden shockwave of sorrow. And for the briefest moment there was a familiar presence that faded away, like a dream awoken from.
What was that? What could it be? He had to know more.
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Hoping to strengthen the connection he grabbed his other hand which seemed to renew the presence for an instant before fading away yet again. Interesting. More contact must make the connection stronger, he figured. Right? He instantly grabbed Federico in a giant hug but instead of a more intense connection the opposite happened. The connection disappeared completely.
This didn’t make sense. Unless the connection relied on skin-to-skin contact. That must be it. Right?
Time to test. He grabbed Federico by both wrists which immediately established a deep link. Suddenly Adelfried was aware of the war being waged inside Federico’s mind. A sad presence fought with an angry presence while a weaker presence watched. It didn’t seem as if any one of them was in control though. The sides fought for dominance and then it abruptly ended. Federico had pulled his hands away in defiance and looked Adelfried directly in the eye. “No! It’s not safe!” Just uttering that sentence sent Federico crumbling down to the ground, bawling.
So, there was an aware Federico in there after all.
Adelfried contemplated his options as Federico eventually evolved back into a more generally sad phase. He had no idea what the struggle inside Federico was about, but he had to find out, he needed more answers because this was his only hope now. All he had to do was to establish a stronger connection. He wasn’t comfortable with the idea of giving a strange crying man a bare-chested hug, but it seemed like he had to if he was ever going to find Sahir and a way home.
As he took Federico’s shirt off, he realized this man probably hadn’t cleaned himself in a considerable amount of time. That didn’t sit well with Adelfried, but a necessary step he reminded himself. Besides, he didn’t hold to this world’s notion of always having to bathe all the time, they were way too focused on germs for his liking. He could hug a bare-chested man even if he was a little sweaty and maybe a little slimy. At least that is what he kept telling himself.
Taking Federico’s shirt off had the unfortunate side effect of revealing a thick black mat of hair that canopied his entire torso except for two nipples that poked through.
Adelfried started to get a little nervous. He helped Federico stand up in hopes of making the upcoming hug less awkward, which jiggled the hair mat on Federico’s plump frame. Adelfried shivered. He paused, not sure if he could face the furry wall that stared menacingly at him. It was too much like a furry face with two pink nipple eyes staring back at him. But he had to, it was—
“Is everything alright?” Jim said, now observing the awkward situation. He was only wearing a pair of swim trunks.
“I have to know,” Adelfried responded, still building up his nerve.
“Uh? Know what?”
“How to find Sahir.”
“Okay…so what’s with the shirts off?” Jim edged closer with concern on his face.
“I just established a connection with Federico like at the club, and when I did, I thought I could sense Sahir.” Adelfried lifted his head, confidence replacing doubt. “I think I can find her which means I think this is my way home.”
“Uh excuse me, but what about the crazy madness thing Chad warned us about?”
“Yes, yes, that was there.” Adelfried swallowed. “But it is worth the risk.”
“Oh, so there is madness, and you’re doing it anyway? Are you insane? What if your head gets fried? You’re not the only one who is affected now.”
Adelfried heard the words, but didn’t want to. How could Jim not understand? “But Jim, this is the only way now, and nothing in there appeared too overwhelming.” Adelfried tried to believe what he just said.
“Hold on!” Jim stepped between Adelfried and Federico. “What about Evan and Kae? What about getting home? And the crazy organization of magicians trying to kill us? What if you go mad? Have you thought about any of that? You’re putting us all at risk now.”
Ying walked into the room with the three men standing inches from each other. Jim and Adelfried still stood toe to toe. “Well, this is about to get interesting.” Ying cracked. “Three bare chested men might have been exciting in college, but now it just seems like a lot of work.” They gave Ying a quick glance before continuing the stare down. “Sooo, are we still going swimming?”
What was Adelfried thinking? There were no guarantees with this, and it was risky. He took a few unsure steps back. “You’re right Jim, it is too big of a risk.” Then he noticed Minna’s doll had fallen out of his pocket and was laying on the ground. He picked it up and gently caressed it as if it were Minna. The day he arrived in this strange world flashed before him. Harold’s betrayal, Leyna screaming, and the terror on Minna’s face overwhelmed him with sadness. What had become of them? He had to know. “But I have to try!” He flicked Jim out of the way with a tiny pulse of telekinetic energy and gave the half-naked squishy chested man a hug.
A searing jolt of pain shot through his left eye and straight into his brain.