“I know picturing what your future is supposed to look like isn’t easy, but what comes to mind when you think of the future?”
Shen is grasping at straws when it comes to anything concerning his future. It never truly was his, and he spent so much of his time just focusing on what others were expecting of him. Right now, only one person comes to mind.
“You? I don’t know. I’ve barely spent any time thinking about that…”
Nikolay turns beetred as he attempts to continue this conversation.
“You know what you’re doing. How come?” Shen asks.
“Observe, study, and learn. Not just about those demons and Dream Catchers, but also about ancient myths and legends and how some landscapes came to be!”
Nikolay was born with the spirit of a researcher, and he will never stray from the pursuit of knowledge.
“I guess… Going on an adventure could be fun,” Shen adds.
“We can discover so much more while on an adventure, right?”
“But where to? These nice miraculous places you hear about in legends don’t really exist…”
“Why not? Demons can live in these interesting, complex spaces seemingly made of magic. So, who says these spaces can’t just exist out there without demons? There could be a vast world out there waiting to be explored.”
As if a lightbulb had just gone off, Nikolay gasps. Something so obviously possible was never considered.
Both are bathed in a flurry of blood as they teleport to a world within Nikolay’s control. Right now, they’re in a world of desolation surrounded by howling winds ravaging this world. The two of them are trapped in a tower with a glass dome of mosaic beauty. A small podium with a lone book of wonders sits atop a lectern.
“What the fuck have you been hiding?? AND you never considered the possibility of these worlds not having a master???”
“Well… Any person should be able to do that, right? With enough whatever the secret component is…”
“Just show me whatever you want to show me.”
As soon as Nikolay comes in contact with the book, the entire tower lights up with star signs and more constellations. The tome itself opens, revealing the table of contents. None of the chapters or contents are decipherable to Shen, nor are they numbered. However, like a touchscreen, just interacting with a title sends you to the page you need. Light swallows the two of them, removing them from the isolated tower.
“If you ever want to kill a person with epilepsy, just take them with you,” Shen jeers.
“What?”
“Never mind.”
Once again, they’re located in a tower. However, this time, they’re deep underground, with only a few torches mounted to the walls of this ancient tower lighting the way. A spiral staircase leads to a hatch up into the wondrous world of Nikolay’s inner machinations.
“Why do we have to walk so much?” Shen asks, yet Nikolay simply shrugs his shoulders.
Finally, now that they’re outside, they have a clear view of the sea and its tide gently crashing into the top of the tower. It’s as infinite as it is out in the real world. The only strange thing about it is the lack of life on these shores and the pillar of light somewhere quite far from here. The night sky is mesmerizing, and the waters are perfectly clear. The numerous stars dotted onto the night sky barely reflect off the water’s surface, yet even mirrored in their faded brilliance, they’re the most beautiful thing Shen has laid his eyes on.
“Beautiful, isn’t it? Should have seen some of the spaces some demons inhabit. Almost as beautiful as you,” Nikolay says with a smirk half-sarcastically.
“But the true spectacle is behind us.”
Nikolay grabs Shen by his shoulders and turns him around. One lone steamboat is pointing towards the endless horizon, just waiting for its esteemed visitors. While waiting for the end of this ride, they converse about the future.
“So, you’re quitting uni and your job?”
“Yeah? I told you several times, right?”
“I make money by hunting demons. A guy hooks me up with all kinds of intel and I get paid for that while he keeps 30% as a finder’s fee. How would you hunt demons with no powers of your own?” Nikolay asks.
“I don’t mind if you live with me as a ‘freeloader,’ but eventually, we’re going to run into a dry period where there isn’t a lot to research, a lot to hunt, or a lot to do in general. I mean, you also want to quit your job, right?”
“I haven’t really thought about that, but I guess you’re right, huh…”
“You can take your time. I just don’t want you to be bored.”
After a while, they finally spot a large dome inviting them in. Just like his arrangement of files, Nikolay’s dome of relics, artifacts, and other kinds of objects of historical nature. Most of them are largely insignificant and don’t seem like things that should belong in any kind of exhibition, but few are peculiar and would likely have historians and archeologists foaming at their mouths.
“Not shabby but still disorderly.”
“Nuh-uh! There’s more!”
The displays submerge into the ground. The doors behind them close as Nikolay draws a deep breath. With his eyes closed, he visualizes a fossilized scorpion crawling along ancient land long lost to time. The columns and architecture showcase a glorious European empire that must have been around about 2000 years ago, yet its fossils are nowhere to be found.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
“This will be my magnum opus!”
“Some random kingdom?”
“A kingdom whose traces have been erased along with an entire continent!” Nikolay shouts at the top of his lungs.
“Toba! The Genesis Flood! Abbotsford-Vancouver Nuclear Disaster!”
“That last one happened just a few years ago, and it was a massive tragedy, but that doesn’t mean there’s some kind of conspiracy behind it,” Shen exhales, almost exhausted from having to listen to any kind of conspiracy.
“It’s just like Chernobyl. Things go wrong and just happen.”
“I’ve been to Chernobyl, and that was entirely different from what I heard about Vancouver Island.”
“Then what do you propose we get there? It’s entirely locked off from the outside world.”
“Have you ever wondered how demons get from A to B? They’re always in their little spaces, so how could they be in different locations?”
Nikolay has several plans in mind but believes them all to be too risky, yet he still entertains them.
“I thought they were stationary?” Shen asks.
“No. I’ve had a handful of demons escape after they realized they stood no chance. Prima Facie agreed to a stalemate, yet I haven’t found her since. How come?”
“Their space moved?”
“That’s certainly possible,” Nikolay says. “However, we have no way to prove that. If we were to return to the real world, we’d be on my couch. I’ve never been able to move it before. But I may be the exception. I’ve cashed in a few favors, so I’m not too sure if he’ll allow me to cash in much more.”
“A few?”
“Like those cubes… In them is tech that would allow you to connect to a network full of people just like Evergreen. She even finetuned it to adjust to the two of us.”
“And who’s that guy owing you favors?” Shen asks.
“Can you even trust him?”
“He did a lot to keep me secret. I had just woken up and assumed the identity of this Mustermann guy. He got me a few odd jobs here and there and made sure I was up to date on anything I need to know.”
“Up to date?” Shen asks.
“I likely must have been asleep for a while… Maybe even more than twenty years…”
“And you’re telling me all this now?”
“Yeah.”
Nikolay snaps his fingers, and the entire space pops like a balloon filled with blood. The blood evaporates into a mist, blinding the both of them for just a few seconds. The mist quickly vanishes as they are back in the real world. Two paper-thin gelatinous rectangles are laid out on a tray for the two of them to admire.
“X-Vambrance… Apparently, there are even more restrictive versions wherein you don’t start with as many advantages, but they have so much information on them that would further our goals… It’s absolutely ridiculous how much WE missed out on!”
“And you’re sure putting them on is a good idea?”
“Nope. But my friend says it’s safe and that we should consider ourselves lucky.”
“Oh! And put it on your dominant hand.”
Nikolay puts the gelatinous mass around his left wrist as Shen puts it around his right. Surprisingly, Nikolay is left-handed, yet for some reason, after putting it on, he is trying to remove it and put it on his right arm.
“You’re a leftie?”
“Yeah, but I often got in trouble so I can write with both,” Nikolay claims. “But you can see how messy my notes are, sooo…”
“In trouble?” Shen asks.
“Well… They wouldn’t really do anything, but they’d just tell me to stop doing that.”
“Then…”
“Drop it,” he sighs.
“You know… It’s pretty obvious. You’ve had years to figure it out and tons of clues to go off of. I’m not going to force you to remember anything unpleasant,” Shen adds. Likewise, there are many things he wants to leave behind and never mention again.
“For now, let’s just explore anything other than your past.”
Their X-Vambrances light up, turning into futuristic wristbands that display all kinds of information. Shen glances at Nikolay, unable to see the Vambrance around his friend’s wrist and vice versa. Out of curiosity, they bump them into each other as they link up and become visible to the two of them.
“So they have to link? Sounds fun! We can even use them out in public without any Dream Catchers ever finding out!” Nikolay says, excited about the endless possibilities.
“But how do we remove them?”
“We don’t. They’re stuck for life.”
Shen is unimpressed by Nikolay’s lack of foresight. He should have seen that coming.
“‘That’s just what they claim. But if you’re brave enough, you can figure out how to crack the code,’ should be something you’re about to say, right?”
“Exactly! And you’ll have to help me with that.”
Shen takes half a minute to adjust to that idea. Evergreen, someone who seems entirely unbeatable, crafted magical cubes that could contain these bracelets. There are more restrictive versions they have yet to obtain and study. Nikolay’s benefactor seems to know so much more that he, very likely, deliberately isn’t telling Nikolay.
“You said you had cashed in a few favors, right? The guy who’s doing you these favors is another Dream Catcher, right?”
“I think so…”
“Even if he isn’t, we can cash in a few more favors, right?”
Nikolay looks a little distressed, uncertain as to whether or not they should call upon his benefactor. He has a feeling that he can only ask for help so many times before Smoker decides that he’s had enough of him.
“I dunno…”
“You should. He’s not really benefitting from having you around. Keeping you a secret and allowing you to do as you please doesn’t seem like something he’d benefit from,” Shen claims.
“We have to ask. We’re likely not getting any further as long as it’s just the two of us in this apartment researching alone.”
“We can ask someone else… He told me there’s someone ‘taking in strays’ in Bavaria. Someone by the name of Railgun could help us.”
Railgun supposedly lives in a city in Bavaria, the largest state of Germany. Out of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, she holds control over Swabia yet isn’t held in high regard due to history unknown to Nikolay. She’s often referred to as “Cursed Child” by Smoker. Since Shen has just quit his job and feels obligated to uphold his 4-week notice, the earliest they can leave is the 15th, right before Shen’s birthday. With Christmas coming up, there’s little to no room to talk to Railgun in favorable times.
“We can probably send a message to Railgun via bracelet and see if she can make some time for us,” Shen proposes.
“Since there is some form of hierarchy among Dream Catchers, we can expect her, as some kind of overseer, to be quite busy.”
“So, nothing before next year?” asks Nikolay.
Shen nods.
Since there’s likely nothing else to do for another six weeks, they plan out fun activities they could do till their meeting with Railgun. Other than asking Nikolay’s benefactor for aid, they can only find more demons and study as many as they can.
The very next day, in the early morning hours, Shen is awoken by a phone call and dragged out of bed on his one day off. Nikolay is waiting for him outside so they can handle a nearby demon roaming around while terrorizing children. It has grown incredibly powerful over just a few days and, therefore, must be dealt with quickly. If they manage to finish it off with the aid of a handful of rookie Dream Catchers, they’re owed more answers. Though how would they approach a coordinated team effort with strangers they’ve never met before?