A look of wild bewilderment came over Pavel's face as I finished describing my trip across infinity to another version of me, an archmage named Zariya living in the USSRA.
"So, what you're saying is... an exact copy of your soul lives in the United Sorcerer States of Russia?" he asked, readjusting his leather jacket to shake off the drops the gray rain clouds rolling above us. He stood over me, hands in his pockets as I sat in the side car of my motorcycle.
"First of all, USSRA stands for Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Archmagi," I specified.
"Well excuse me, for trying to guess the acronym," he said.
"You've lost a letter there," I commented with a shake of my head and a soft smile.
I pulled out a piece of ham wrapped in tinfoil and started to nibble on it. "Their world diverged from ours in 1888 when Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky discovered magical radia and magitek crystallography."
"Alternative history, hrmmm?" Pavel grabbed his ham sandwich as well.
"Wildly alternative," I said. "In 1917 Lenin rode atop a small, mana-powered armored personnel carrier into Moscow to give his speech to the proletariat about seizing the means of production with magitek weapons."
"I was born there in 1910 as a girl named Zariya Proshkovna Grimmaldri," I added. "Zary lived through the Russian Civil War and the Second World War."
"The civil war went differently, I'm guessing?" Pavel inquired.
"The Bolsheviks demolished the White army because they were absolutely ruthless in their use of magical weapons," I nodded. "The Whites were deeply Orthodox and many of them saw magical tools and hexes as an offense against God. Here's the most curious difference from our world - Lenin had a phantasmagorical, unkillable ally on his side, the manifestation of belief, Wizard Revolution."
Pavel's rubbed his chin as I described the personification of the Revolution and how she helped Lenin seize power in USSRA.
"Wizard Revolution, huh? So what's she like?" He asked.
"She looks human from a distance," I said. "However, up close she's anything but. Revolution is more like a living sculpture, a idea imprinted onto the world. She looks like a person that's sketched into reality made from red, black and white ink. Fanny Kaplan tried to assassinate her and Lenin in 1918, but the bullets went right through her."
"So... their Vladimir Lenin was a mage too I'm guessing?" Pavel asked.
"A brilliant one," I said. "He used charisma hexagrams painted onto magitek machines that rolled into Moscow to influence the crowds. He and his Bolshevik associates including Wizard Mikhail Lavrentyev were the ones to summon Revolution from the void in 1917 using the theories of Dr. Dolivo-Dobrovolsky."
"Damn," Pavel whistled.
"Revolution fought at Lenin's side until his death from an enemy curse. They were married," I rubbed the back of my head. "Ridiculous, I know."
"So, what happened to her after Lenin died?" Pavel inquired.
"After Lenin's death Wizard Revolution was at Stalin's side. She helped him build magitek Moscow. In 1928 I met Vladislav Kerenski in Moscow and together we designed the first fractal resonance Star, the ultimate tool for control of human emotions, an absolute propaganda weapon," I said with a shudder. "In 1929 Slava and I activated the first charisma Star above the Kremlin. The broadcasting Stars helped us win the war against Nazi Germany. Smaller, mobile versions of the resonance Stars were installed onto tanks that rolled into Eastern Europe. The European archmagi fought well, but ultimately they could do little about the mobs of their own citizens that turned against them and joined the cause of our living Revolution."
Pavel gulped.
"That's not even the end of it. After the great war, the Soviet Magitek Empire controlled by the resonance Stars stretched from the Bering Strait to Lisbon," I leaned back having finished my ham. "Enemies of USSRA remained in control of the United Kingdom, Americas, Africa and Australia. Sometime around 1950s the Earth fully reached the Dead Zone and... unfolded itself."
"What?" Pavel blinked.
"Zary's Earth became integrated with other doomed worlds, became part of the omniverse mesh," I explained. "The Dead Zone is filled with System Errors that warp space and time itself. USSRA survived because Wizard Revolution protected it. Oceania and other magitek Empires and nations surrounding USSRA fell victim to the Dead Zone abominations. Countless people vanished, were consumed by the clouds of machine life. Many became changed, merged with impossible, twisted otherness seeping from the Dead Zone infected sectors."
Pavel let out a nervous laugh as I described the alternate reality that was Zary's Earth.
"It sounds like some sort of Lovecraftian horror story," he said. "Does Zary's Earth still have a solar system then? Or is just planet Earth fused into other planets?"
"Yes and no," I said. "When Zary's Earth collided with the Dead Zone, it became twisted into a Möbius strip like structure, got tangled up in what Dr. Kerenski called 'the boundary mesh of everything that could exist or will ever exist'. The Solar System and normal-ish space remained visible only from USSRA. The other places got an extra number of irregular dimensions added, connected to them. For example, nobody visits Australia anymore because it no longer exists as a three-dimensional place. The Australian sky became a view of the Dead Zone of Eureka, an upside-down blight of all-consuming clouds, infinite skyscrapers and glaciers."
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"This just gets better and better," Pavel muttered.
"Slava and I researched the infinite boundary mesh, tried to make something positive out of it for USSRA. Under orders of General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev we built an infinite apartment complex in Moscow based on our understanding of this phenomenon. Things inside went... shall we say very poorly," I said.
"So, what went wrong inside this magical apartment complex?" Pavel asked. His look implied that he already knew the answer to his question.
"Well, the apartment complex became infinite," I frowned as my mind swam through Zary's memories. "The magitek engine at its heart became self-sustaining, perpetually adding new floors, stairwells, elevators, etc to the arising gigastructure. Time within it became warped and we lost all communication with two million Soviet citizens living within the apartment."
Pavel gulped.
"The gigastructure apartment project KHRUSH slowly became its own universe made entirely from interconnected 1960s Khrushchevka blocks. Only a single man named Maxim Korneyev was able to escape from the building. He was thoroughly interrogated by the NKVD. If he's to be believed the population of the gigastructure is in the billions."
"Hang on," my companion said. "Does this mean that these Soviet magi can create entire universes within universes?"
"Yes. The Soviet Ministry of Magic can make self-contained universes with their magitek tools. I wanted to meet the most magic-capable version of myself across the multiverse," I said. "I did. She's an absolute monster. Whatever morality Zary once held had been completely twisted by the charisma Stars."
"Zary's Earth sounds like pure madness. Is there any way to combat these charisma Stars?" Pavel asked with a concerned look.
I shook my head. "Zary bound herself and her nation in purpose and obedience. They're more machines than people. They're Wizards, but not the nice sort of whimsical Wizards. They're the kind of Wizards that do everything in pursuit of power and knowledge."
"So, they have no free will? No morality?"
"They have a bit of free will," I sighed. "Essentially, the only reason why the Dead Zone didn't consume them all was because they were already stabilized by the charisma Stars to be the absolute version of themselves, a living caricature of perfect, happy, obedient, dedicated Soviet citizens."
"What you're saying is that Zary lives in the most perfect, magical Soviet state imaginable," Pavel said. "Did you gain anything positive from your leap across Infinity then?"
"Mhm," I nodded. "They're playing gods, trying to understand the nature of infinity, trying to survive amidst the Dead Zone. I... I know omnicode Pavel!"
My eyes went wide at the revelation.
"So, Zary knows omnicode? She... you can program reality itself then?" Pavel asked.
"I can program reality," I nodded. "In a very limited fashion. Full understanding of omnicode makes one into a god that can design entire universes like project CH-U7-SH. Over the decades the Soviets have been pouring more power and intelligence into their magitek, machine god, Wizard Revolution. She's the one doing all of the world-building stuff. Zary for all of her brilliance and capability is still a human mage. Wizard Revolution can manifest concepts into existence with a mere sketch. Likewise, the Moscow Computational Institute of Arithmancy can write complex hexagrammic algorithms running on magitek machines that achieve similar effects."
"Say... Could you create life with omnicode?" Pavel asked.
"Yes," I said. "The man from CR-U7-SH, Maxim Korneyev, had a book with infinite pages on him, an artifact filed with sketches of things that the Khrushchevka gigastructure birthed into existence."
"What happened to him?" Pavel shot another question at me.
"Zary interviewed Maxim herself," I sighed. "She gave Maxim a USSRA commissar Star pin to wear. Basically, the poor fellow escaped from CH-U7-SH only to become bound by a charisma Star, to join USSRA on a permanent basis as a Wizard."
"Dang," Pavel shook his head.
"To make CR-U7-SH self sustaining Slava and I... designed a fractal engine based on Eurekan tech, a machine that produces... an Autogenesis pulse."
"An auto-what now?" my companion tilted his head.
"The Autogenesis pulse is an omnicode pulse, the opposite of Endy, a standing wave that manifests new life into being," I explained. "It was supposed to make all mundane Soviet citizens into Wizards. Instead it... ugh... made human nightmares into reality."
"What sort of nightmares?" Pavel continued his interrogation, bringing more and more terrifying confessions out of the 1/12th part of me that was Zariya Grimmaldri.
"The Astral Ocean is an imprint of all life that existed or will ever exist," I said getting out of the sidecar to pace around the motorbike. "It can apparently also imprint human thoughts. Basically if I think about a purple elephant at a particular location, the thought is imprinted, saved in the Astral. An Autogenesis pulse is able to pull that thought out of the Astral and make a purple elephant manifest into being. However, if you take too long, because of decay of the imprinted memory the elephant will also have pink spots, seventeen legs and a craving for human flesh!"
"So, Zary and Slava created a machine that could make life from the physical embodiment of people's thoughts," my friend commented.
"Stabalists!" I conferred as another memory revealed itself to me. "The Soviet Wizards specializing in Autogenic magic are called Stabalists. They can manifest their own thoughts into existence with an Autogenesis spell by stabilizing it with magic."
"Could these Soviet wizards create nuclear weapons at will?" Pavel smirked.
"They can create anything," I nodded. "Lenin created his perfect companion, Wizard Revolution with the very first Autogenesis spell! The dangers of Autogenesis isn't in simply creating weapons, it lies in losing control of your own creation."
"Ah, so Autogenesis-spell-formed manifestations can go rogue?"
"Destruction is easy," I nodded. "Creation, now that's hard. Wizard Revolution couldn't even save Lenin's life after his enemies put a soul-devouring curse on him. When he died, she moved on. USSRA is her home, but from what I understand she can use her magitek warship to go anywhere across the multiverse. Revolution is the one who coordinates experiments like the CR-U7-SH megastructure project and... other self-contained prison-worlds."
"Are you going to practice creating life?" Pavel crossed his arms, staring at me with concern. "How much of you is Zary now?"
"Not a whole lot. Her... memories don't really change who I am. I'm not going to practice creating highly questionable life here Pavel," I shook my head. "I don't want to accidentally screw up my Earth with an Autogenesis pulse. I think... I think I'm going to find a world that I can practice on. Perhaps, a place where things are so screwed up that it won't matter what I do..."
"You think such a place exists?" My friend asked with a sigh.
"I have twenty two Infinite Mirrors to burn and no undead dragons trying to bite my soul in half," I shrugged.
----------------------------------------
Wizard Revolution stepped into my office.
"Sit," she ordered, her voice perfect like a rushing, crystal brook.
I complied, staring at her body made from shimmering droplets of ink. They say that the blood of the founders, the blood of Lenin still lives in the red color that comprises her ink.
The living painting stared down at me.
"I received a report from one of my little pyramid eyes that you've been skewered, comrade Zary," she purred.
"I'm better now," I shook my head.
"Are you really?" Revolution bent down closer to my face, close enough that I could see the spaces between the spherical, reflective dots of ink hovering in the air that comprised her unnatural body.
I gulped.
"In silent shallows I see your ghosts," Revolution sang, her triangular irises forged from drops of blood staring into mine.
Her gloved fingers woven from black ink poked my nose and I shuddered.
"I'm going to follow your ghostly thread," she sang. "I'm going to find out who sent you and why you're peering at my domain."