Grant lounged around in the camp they had set up, a few hundred metres away from the cabin. They had been there for a few days now, studying the cabin and trying to determine the best way to proceed, while letting Fyodor and Grant fully recover from their respective ordeals.
Grant had trouble reconciling the story that Ki had told him about the mirror world and the shadow cat - it was very weird to think that, in a way, he had three days of missing memories and experience, even though Ki had spent a long time explaining that that was a flawed way of viewing the situation. Grant also still couldn’t help but feel robbed of a great achievement.
Why don’t I get to remember killing the huge shadow cat? That sounds fucking badass.
He scowled at the thought. Ah well. He just had to sleep soundly with the knowledge that he could kill a huge shadow cat with a laser, even if he didn’t remember doing so exactly.
He glanced up as Kyra approached.
“Any luck yet?” he asked her.
“No, nothing yet,” she sighed, dropping to the ground next to him. “He keeps swearing he’s close, but nothing concrete yet. If he doesn’t make a breakthrough yet, I think we’ll just pick a door at random. I don’t like spending too long laying around while everyone we know is scattered across the entire world - worlds, even - alone and unable to communicate.” She scowled at the ground, picking at the grass idly.
“I know,” Grant said gently. They had had a similar conversation several times over the past few days, and he couldn’t help but feel guilty every time, like she was rebuking him for not managing to group together all the Forsaken when Ed cast his teleportation spell. She knew that he couldn’t have done so, though, and tried to reassure him that she didn’t blame him for that. But that just made him feel even worse, because the truth was, he could have done that. He had the power to group everyone together, as he had done with the five of them, but he hadn’t. He wasn’t even sure why he hadn’t - yes, it would have been a big mistake if he had, given that that would have guaranteed that whoever Muirenn was impersonating would have travelled with them, but he hadn’t been thinking of that at the time, of course. He had just… acted. By instinct, he had wanted this particular group of four people with him. Yes, they were the people he was closest to in Sanctuary, but he felt that there was more to it than that. He had even discussed the issue with Ki yesterday, and it had just left him confused.
I suspect it is a mild level of prescience, Ki had said.
What do you mean? Grant asked, confused. You mean… telling the future?
Indeed, Ki confirmed. You recall that I had managed to develop the ability to see into the future, and that you had accessed that ability when you had the vision of Ed’s house burning?
Grant shivered. Yeah, I’m not gonna forget that any time soon.
Well, what I may not have explained fully, is that seeing the future does not just return a vision, or an image. It also comes with a certain level of… knowledge. Of guidance, one could say. It was this guidance that led me to Imhotep, so many years ago. Along with many other acts, of course. But this guidance is not a conscious effort. Knowledge of the future is so complex, so immense, that no mortal mind can hold it - not even one fortified by my presence. So, to limit the overload and prevent the ability from, quite literally, burning your brain to ashes, all the knowledge of the various paths of the future that such a foretelling imparts is, let us say, imprinted into your subconscious mind. Not even with your mental fortress or my assistance can you ever access this knowledge - not that you should ever want to. Brain burnt to ashes, remember. But, this knowledge occasionally bleeds through into conscious acts, and this teleportation modification was one such act. Somehow, these four people are the people that are required to provide you with the best chance to prevent that vision from coming to pass. How or why exactly, we will never know. But have faith that you are working towards that purpose.
Grant sighed, looking at Kyra as he remembered the conversation. It did comfort him, knowing that he might still prevent that vision from coming to pass, but it didn’t change the fact that, subconsciously or not, he had chosen to abandon more than thirty individuals to a lonely, dangerous fate, as they were teleported all over the Vault. He just had to hope that preventing that vision also encompassed saving as many lives as possible, not just having them die in a different way - which was a rabbit hole of an idea he had spiralled deeply down last night.
“Just have faith,” he finally said to Kyra. “It’s not like any of them are helpless. They’ll take care of themselves, and we’ll see them eventually. I know it.”
Kyra glanced at him. “You’re very optimistic given you were ripped away from your life just a week or two ago,” she muttered, still ripping blades of grass to pieces.
Grant shrugged. “What can I say? I think we’re on the right path.”
Kyra’s lips twitched briefly into a smile before she sighed again. “I hope so.” She stood, waving over her shoulder as she walked over to the area of grass she had cleared out to act as her bed. “I’m going to grab a quick nap. See you in a few hours.”
“Sleep well!” he called after her. She didn’t respond, and he returned to ruminating on the unfairness of the world, robbing him of the memory of killing a freakin’ shadow cat with a freakin’ laser beam. That memory would have helped distract him from all the heavy shit, after all.
There’s just no justice in the world.
It was noon the next day before Fyodor finally had his breakthrough.
Grant, Kyra and Lei were sitting around their camp playing a game that they had introduced him to a few days ago. It was a mix of a game, juggling and magic practice, really. They had each summoned a small ball of fire, and took turns trying to throw their ball as hard as possible at the other’s hands, while that person tried their best to catch it, while manipulating their own ball, in the most stylish way possible. Kyra had just managed to catch Grant’s lob by performing a double backflip while spinning her own ball around her at such high velocity that it looked like a solid ring of fire, which intercepted Grant’s ball perfectly at a 90 degree angle, as though she had two hula-hoops of fire surrounding her. Lei and Grant were congratulating her, and Tamiko was lounging nearby after being eliminated last round for losing control of Lei’s throw and being struck solidly in the chest by the ball of red-hot fire. She was fine, of course, just annoyed that she had been the first eliminated.
At Fyodor’s pronouncement, she leapt to her feet and pumped her fist and exclaimed, “Yes! I believe that means that, since the game was cancelled early, there are no winners, and thus no losers. So screw you guys!”
“What?” Kyra yelled, outraged. “That is utter goat shit! I think you’ll find that what it actually means is that we all won, and you are the sole loser, and therefore suck.”
“Nah, no way,” Tamiko said cheerfully, hurrying over to where Fyodor was gesturing for them to join. “That’s definitely not how it works. We’re all equals. Better luck next time.”
The bickering continued as they walked over to Fyodor. He waited for a few moments while the argument continued, before his patience broke.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“Enough!” he bellowed, scowling at them all. “Who cares about your stupid game! I have determined which door is the correct one.”
“Yeah, but that’s less impressive than the rather spectacular way that Tamiko lost the game we were playing,” Kyra teased.
“Enough!” Fyodor said again, lips twitching slightly, betraying his serious expression. “We do not have time to worry about how badly Tamiko lost. Let us discuss the door, instead.”
“But-” Tamiko protested, before wilting slightly at Fyodor’s look. “Fine,” she muttered. “What did you figure out?”
Fyodor beamed at the question, and ran around the building clockwise one face. “This one,” he said proudly, pointing at the door.
The rest of them stared at Fyodor, then glanced at the door, then at each other.
“Okay, cool,” said Kyra, walking over to join Fyodor. “So shall we go through?”
“Yeah, let’s move,” Lei said, joining them. “Well done, Fyodor. Who’s going first?”
Fyodor’s face fell slightly. “Do you not want to know how I know this?” he asked, slightly pleadingly.
“No, I don’t think there’s any need,” Kyra said blandly, moving closer to the door in question and placing her hand on the handle. “We all trust you, right guys?”
Grant and the others nodded their agreement, and Fyodor’s face fell almost comically.
“Heartless monsters, the lot of you,” he grumbled, before stepping up to join Kyra.
The rest of them followed suit, clustering around the door as much as possible before exchanging glances.
“Alright,” Kyra said, taking a deep breath. She hesitated, looking back at Fyodor. “Okay, no joking though - you’re sure it’s this one?”
Fyodor nodded with certainty.
“Alright then. Let’s go,” she said, opening the door and stepping through.
Fyodor followed her, then Lei, then Tamiko, and finally Grant. He walked through, being sure to close the door behind him, as he had been instructed so many days ago.
Turning to face the new world, he was stunned.
It was flat.
Not the area they stood upon. Not the immediate surroundings. The world.
It was a flat Earth.
Fucking hell, there’s actually a flat Earth? Even if it’s in a magical dimension… I don’t like it.
Grant stepped forward to join the rest of the group, and examined the world more closely.
It was, indeed, completely flat. The door they had emerged from was near the edge of the new world. The literal edge.
Not more than a few kilometres away, Grant and the others watched in silence as a river flowed off the edge of the world and just… dropped. Dropped into the void of space, evaporating almost immediately as it hit some kind of barrier a few hundred metres down - the edge of the atmosphere, Grant realised. I remember hearing that water boils instantly in space. I guess it’s true.
Kyra cleared her throat. “Well,” she said slowly, “I guess, if weirder worlds and doors are a sign we’re getting closer to the Final Door… this is a fucking great sign, right?”
“Yes, I suppose so,” Fyodor said just as slowly, still clearly gobsmacked by the sight before them.
“Man, I’m glad people back home can’t see this,” Grant muttered. “The amount of flat Earth bull that has sprung up recently… they’d be insufferable.”
“Wait, what?” Tamiko said, turning and staring at Grant. “People… people actually think the Earth is flat? Are you joking?”
“Nope,” he replied, shaking his head. “Well, personally I think a lot of people are just doing it to get internet-famous and don’t actually believe in the shit they say, but yeah. There’s been a big uprising of flat earthers in the last few years.”
Tamiko stared at him more. “Wow,” she said finally, turning back to face the edge of the world. “I know I am looking at the edge of the world right now, so this might sound hypocritical… but that is deeply disappointing.”
“I know, right?” Grant agreed.
Fyodor managed to shake himself free of his shock first, and turned to observe the rest of the world. “Well, as Kyra said, if the rumours and legends are to be believed, this is indeed a… good… sign…” he trailed off.
“What is it?” Lei asked, turning to look at Fyodor, before his face went pale. “Well, shit. I hope we chose correctly.”
Grant and the others turned around as well, and had identical reactions.
The door they had come through was gone.
Everyone looked at Grant, who raised his hands defensively.
“Hey, don’t look at me! I just closed the damn thing, how am I meant to know it would disappear on us?” he asked indignantly.
Fyodor sighed. “Yes, of course. But it is… unfortunate, nonetheless.”
“Not that unfortunate, right?” Kyra said encouragingly. “I mean, you said you were certain you made the right choice, right?”
“Yes, I am certain I made the right choice, given the information I had at the time,” Fyodor said ruefully. “But if I knew for sure it was the only choice I would get, I might have spent a few more days pondering the problem.”
“Well, too bad,” Kyra said, clapping him on the shoulder. “We made the choice, and frankly, given the… uniqueness of this new world, I think it was the right one. We’ll be fine.”
Everyone murmured their agreement, and Fyodor gazed at the empty space for another second before gathering himself.
“Well then,” he said, stepping forward. “A flat world. Unexpected, but it does have its advantages, especially from a position such as this.”
They had emerged onto a large, rocky mountain. The slope of the mountain behind them just ended abruptly at the edge of the world below, flanked on either side by large rivers that trailed off into space. Towards the centre of the world, their high elevation provided them with a nearly unimpeded view across the land before some other mountains directly across from them cut off their view. In fact, as Grant looked closer, he saw that the mountain range they stood upon actually stretched across the entire rim of the world, and the mountains they could see in the distance were a part of that range. The centre of the disc was one massive, flat expanse of grass, with a few lakes and small forests dotted here and there. Near the centre there was a village - no, hang on. Grant frowned, studying the world more closely, trying to judge the distances. If he assumed that the world was small enough that the mountains opposite them were in fact the far side of the planet, then that village in fact looked like it lay exactly in the centre of the disc. That can’t be a coincidence, he thought.
“Does anyone else think that this world seems… handmade, almost?” Lei asked hesitantly.
“That’s exactly what I was about to say!” Kyra exclaimed before Grant could agree. “This entire planet is like the size of a small country - and I think that village is dead centre.”
“To be fair,” Grant interjected, “that itself doesn’t actually mean much - I mean if I was on a flat planet this size, I’d build my home in the centre. Just cause I could.”
Kyra giggled. “Okay, that’s a fair point,” she acknowledged. “But still… this is a weird place.”
“It is indeed,” Fyodor said. “Luckily, though, our goal seems rather obvious, no? If there is a village, there are intelligent beings, and where there are intelligent beings, there is information to be had. Let us go talk to our new friends.”
“Hang on a second,” Grant said hastily. “Mind giving me a quick rundown of what to expect? I mean, I know Kyra mentioned centaurs and some other random races a while ago, but I don’t actually really know how to act. Do I just act normal? Are they literally just like people but with different bodies, or do they act differently too?”
Fyodor stroked his chin. “Well, it depends on the race,” he explained. “Centaurs, for example, I would treat as normal, yes. They have a different social structure, and different beliefs, but underneath it all, they are no different to you or I. Some races, however, are as different as oil and water. Merpeople have never been responsive to our entreaties, and from what little we have gathered of their society, they are radically, fundamentally different. The lens through which they view the world is so antithetical to our society that we could never coexist. There are exceptions, of course - no statement can apply to every member of a race, but in general, they are best left alone. As to how to act with these beings, I do not know. No two worlds that we have discovered share a race, and so we have likely never encountered these beings before. So just follow my lead, and try to talk as little as possible until we are all in a more comfortable position, yes?”
Grant nodded, his heart pounding with excitement. I can’t wait to talk to a completely different, magical race. That’s gonna be awesome.
You know I am a completely different, magical race? Ki asked dryly.
Yeah but… that’s different.