CHAPTER 99: GATEWAYS AND ANCHORS
After probing the figment of his imagination for who knows how long, Soren finally grasped the basics of how [The Faerie Court] operated.
To put it in simple terms, this place was outside the purview of normal space and time—outside of most universal laws that governed the natural world… And most importantly of all, it was outside the influence of the Rift. The countless roaming shadows and whispers of forgotten bygone truths were not able to reach here—much to his relief.
But it was the abilities the Realm of Realms granted that almost made his jaw drop.
Sitting off the edge of the floating space island, Soren basked in the glory of his creation. A mighty vessel fit to house thousands, with mysterious contraptions missing crucial pieces here and there… It floated aimlessly off the Faerie Court Island, like a mighty ark readying for a journey into the unknown.
Yes, what he was currently staring at was a Voidstar Voyager in the flesh. The same skyship Soren chronicled when the skies shattered some time ago. Although it was missing many of its components due to him not being able to chronicle everything to do with the ship’s schematic, it was still fairly operable even in its current prototype state.
One might ask, how did Soren, a magi apprentice without much formal training, happen to create such a marvel of engineering and magecraft? The answer was that he didn’t.
It was the Faerie Court that created it.
One of the first things the voice of The Records taught him was the ability to command his imagination into reality… This was not a fairly hard thing to do for Soren—he had already done it multiple times when using his mesmerism affinity to become different objects in order to disguise himself… But the magnitude and scale of this operation was much different.
Even so, it never even required any mental focus… Simply thinking about what he needed was enough—The Faerie Court would listen to his thoughts and immediately execute his vision. And the result was absolutely astounding.
“[Fictionalization],” said the figment of his imagination. “That’s what I have come to call it.”
Soren smiled, “A fitting name.” How could he disagree with it anyway? That would only mean he himself sucked at naming things. And for the most part, it was fairly accurate. What the Faerie Court was doing was essentially creating projections of his imagination. The possibilities for this were endless. He could use it to experiment and simulate different magecraft spellforms, all the way to creating prefabs of anything he could imagine creating in the future with his accumulated knowledge.
And that was essentially the limitation too—his knowledge. [Fictionalization] doesn’t work with anything but what he has [Record]ed. His pure imagination can also be projected, but the effect was limited—only the shape and form of whatever he was thinking of would be created, but the aspects and properties of that creation were none existent.
As for things brought to life from his Soul Weapon, the difference was night and day. Even with his limited understanding, the [Fictionalization] of the Voidstar Voyager was accurate to the real world representation. Every cannon, spellform, Mystery… All of it was being represented accurately.
The second limitation had to do with this space itself. [Fictionalization] doesn’t apply outside [The Faerie Court]. He cannot bring his creations back with him to Yarian for example.
What a shame… He wondered what Star Fate Guild’s reactions would be if they found him steering a Vynasian ship back to the library. Not that he was ever planning on revealing any of this to them…
Shaking his head, Soren stood up from the edge of the island and watched as the Voidstar Voyager disintegrated into a swarm of golden butterflies.
There was now arguably a more important thing to find out…
During his initial conversations with The Records, a certain subject popped up—one that had to do with his initial assumptions about the Faerie Court.
World travel.
Ever since he unlocked the skill, he had been wondering how the Realm of Realms was related to his ability to travel back to Earth. After all, that was what Mr. Unknown mentioned—[The Faerie Court] was supposedly a way for him to return to his old world…
How the figment of his imagination explained it was certainly odd…
Essentially, gateways exist here that lead to numerous other worlds. The prospect of that excited him until Soren found out how one was supposed to use them.
Anchors.
Soren would need to contract a person within a world and mark them with a certain, unique signature. This signature would then allow Soren to travel to that person from the Faerie Court using the gateways.
It sounded fairly interesting, until he realized the dilemma.
How would he contract a person into becoming an Anchor if he had not visited that world in the first place? He would need to travel to the world first to create the Anchor, but traveling to that world requires an Anchor…
Ugh, who the hell designed this place? I need to scold them! The thought of him questioning the One Above All seemed so ludicrous that it made him chuckle. But he also questioned something else—if his forgotten rune fragment came from the creator of this universe, does that essentially confirm that all forgotten runes had come from him also?
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Like for example, the Spirit Blossom Seed that stirred the war between the Elves and Spirit Wolves…
He shook the thoughts away and walked toward the marble stone canopy in the distance. Its presence illuminated the rest of the island, like a nexus or core of an entire world. [The Faerie Court] responded to his thoughts and the higher dimensional space shifted around him, revealing countless marble arches surrounding the stone canopy.
He recognized the marble arches as the gateways The Records spoke of.
“Incredible…” He said. A part of him didn’t want to believe in the story the voice spoke of. He had always assumed that other worlds existed besides Earth and Yariain, but seeing the gateways lined in a circle around the stone canopy confirmed it for him…
“The Universe is certainly a Mystery.” The voice stated. He glanced at the distant flickering flame within the stone canopy dubiously.
“I would say your existence is more of a Mystery to me at the moment.”
The voice didn’t answer, so Soren simply walked to the nearest marble gateway. If he had to be honest, nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary—it simply looked like a normal marble archway, similar in design to ones you would see in ancient Greek architecture. None of them were active either, which made sense—he had no Anchors to speak of at the moment.
With a sigh, he walked in a circle, inspecting each of the arches. There were thirty six of them in total, with an outer ring holding twenty four while the inner ring held twelve. The only difference he noticed between each one was the strange symbol at the top—the script seemed to be the same one he had seen when the mysterious fountain pen wrote the things he [Record]ed into his Soul Weapon… Even with [Eyes of the Fairy], he was still nowhere close to deciphering their meanings.
At the end of his lap around the court, Soren finally reached the gateway that led to Yarian. Unlike the others, there was a mirror-like surface covering this one that rippled from time to time in mysterious patterns. The gateway was active, unlike the rest.
With a slight frown, he approached it hesitantly and placed his palm on the liquid surface of the gateway. It shifted and rippled against his touch.
“What do you see?” The voice said mockingly.
Soren’s frown deepened. The gateway, for whatever reason, was shifting between showing him two different images.
No, it wasn’t two, but one. An image that shifted from place to place. And even more surprising was what the image was showing…
Large skyscrapers, yellow taxi cabs, hotdog stands and the usual advertisement billboards…
“New… York?!” This was not what he was expecting at all. His eyes narrowed, “I thought this was the gateway to Yariain?”
“It is the gateway to Yariain,” the voice answered. “But it is also the gateway to Earth.”
How does that even make sense?...
Sensing his thoughts, the figment of his imagination replied. “You have no Anchor within Yarian but yourself.”
Hearing this, his eyes widened—Soren understood what it was trying to say… During his previous conversation, he wondered how exactly he would return back to Yarian if he had no Anchor present there—Soren hadn't contracted anyone to become one, after all.
But The Record’s words cleared his doubts.
Essentially, his body in Yarian was the Anchor. Or to be more specific, his fictional Soul Chain.
Since his actual Soul Chain was currently inside the Faerie Court, housing the corruption coming from the figment of his imagination, then the one he had seen with the help of mistress Sienna was created using [Fictionalization].
Which would mean… his body in Yarian was itself fictional…
He glanced at the flickering flame angrily. “You did this, didn’t you?”
The reason for his anger was fairly simple. If his fictional body in Yarian had died, what would have happened to his real body that he was currently inhabiting in [The Faerie Court]? Soren had a sneaking suspicion that The Records would have taken over and become him instantly.
“I know exactly what you are thinking,” the voice replied. “But no. I did not plan this at all. From the very beginning, [Fictionalization] can only work within the Realm of Realms, so I too don’t know how exactly this was all enacted.”
What the voice was saying was most likely true… So then how did he end up with a fictional body and soul chain in Yarian? What exactly happened during the time after he enacted the ritual and was transported to Yarian? And did his progress in Yarian translate to his actual progress here?
So many damn questions… He rubbed his temples.
Still, this did not really answer his main question: why was the gateway for Yarian showing scenes from Earth? From the beginning, he did find it a bit off that even after observing all the other gateways, none of them hinted at a connection to his old world. But still, he simply dismissed it due to not having an active Anchor in that world…
“Is Yarian somehow connected to Earth?” The theory was plausible. After all, his arrival there was planned before even acquiring [The Faerie Court]. Mr. Unknown was clearly surprised by him somehow merging with the fragment of a forgotten rune. So it had to mean that Scribe-of-Worlds was able to facilitate the traversal between the two realms due to another connection that had nothing to do with the Realm of Realms.
A connection that somehow linked the two worlds to each other…
“But… How? What is that connection?” Soren had no way to answer that question.
He glanced at the glassy screen showing pictures of his old world… A faint smile crept up his face. It was hard not to say he missed it a bit, despite how hypocritical that may have sounded.
“Are you regretting your decisions now?”
Soren shook his head. “No. The opposite actually.” He glanced back at the flickering flame. “I have the ability to go back any time I want, and for any reason. Whether it is to burn it all down to the ground or simply to catch up on some of my favorite new releases.”
But still, it did get him to wonder how exactly he could go back… Since it was currently active, that would have to mean that an Anchor already existed there—who was it? The command was heard by Realm of Realms, and the image shifted in response.
What he saw almost made him drop to the floor in shock.
A woman in her early twenties with short raven black hair and crystal-clear emerald eyes was busy running away from a terrifying monstrosity. The decor of the hallway looked gorgeous and surreal, as if she was inside a holy church or castle. Statues of gargoyles and golden ornaments hung from the marble walls, drenching the corridor in ancient ambience—completely opposite to panicked woman’s professional office clothing. The whole scenario looked ludicrous and comical, but also horrifying.
Soren recognized the person instantly.
“Julie?..”