Ranvir shook his hands out, shifted his feet, then checked his pocket-space again. Then he double and triple checked it, just to be sure. He had the translation stone, he had the guides, he had a purse of precious enough metals that he thought might pass for coinage.

Above him, he knew Frija was pacing, eagerly awaiting his return to bring her back with him. He shook his head, there was an outside chance the entire plane would just be water, or maybe completely desolate. He’d tried asking Latresekt about the odds, but the creature had been painfully vague while alluding to their previously scrapped deal.

Gritting his teeth, Ranvir started forging his pocket-space. He did so slowly and with great care. He’d done his best to work his ‘minor talent’ with a rough hand as to suggest the limitations of his power. Now, it favored him as he carefully used his attuned technique while creating as much disturbance as his previously inept attempts.

It took nearly five minutes, but by the time he’d finished, he had a pocket three meters on every side with reinforced walls that could handle the travel through the Liminal, hopefully.

He extended his tether-sense through his searcher ritual to get his bearing before stepping into the space and, as gently as possible, he left Korfyi behind. It’s not Vednar, it’s not Vednar… he told himself on repeat as his impromptu space vehicle slipped away from the plane’s influence.

Then, from one moment to another, he was butting up against another plane’s presence. This one felt noticeably different from Korfyi and from what he could recall from Vednar. He pushed forwards, sensing Latresekt tense as Ranvir broke into the new plane. Immediately, he was assaulted with a dozen new sensations.

Mana flowed here, which was a great start, but noticeably different from Korfyi. Ranvir hadn’t been as aware of Vednar’s ambient mana, but it was definitely more multitudinous. The plane was also definitely not as old as Korfyi. The signs Ranvir recognized put it closer to Vednar.

He’d retained his space’s cohesion while crashing through the limits of the new plane, so he wasn’t immediately thrust onto his environment, which was good as he’d probably have done something stupid if he’d been thrust onto one creature that stood before him as he parted the aperture.

The temperature struck him first, causing him to gasp in the sudden cold that invaded his small space. Then the noise, enormous birds chirping and shrieking, dogs barking, cats screaming, cattle and other animals crying out, all of it over the fat susurrus of language.

The people were humanoid, though many of them were crouched over and, just from his brief glance around, found multiple four-legged people as well. While very few of them shared any visible common traits, their one aligning feature was animalistic in nature.

All of them looked like a mixture of a human and a kortian. There were even a few who fit into the sekethi description, though of course he hadn’t seen the reclusive people in person before.

Furry forms, elongated jaws, scaled skin, claws, fangs, ears. Everyone had something about them that stood out from the rest. One woman crawled past him on all fours. Her hair was white as a moon and covered her entire form. Her form had clearly adapted to moving on four-legs, but some remnants of bipedal ancestry remained her neck and hands. When she turned her head to the side, Ranvir caught the faint whiff of mana coming off her body and the way her fur swayed in the breeze stank of wind.

Then a person walked by where Ranvir could see no greater change than the faint signs of ridges on their neck and fangs peeking past their lips. The man talked with someone as Ranvir stepped out of his pocket. As the man smiled, the ridges opened up, revealing pink flesh underneath that rippled oddly before settling.

Ranvir turned his gaze away to observe the others that surrounded him. He’d stepped out into a market square or something to that effect, though as he looked around, he realized it was quite dark for a market to be this busy. Looking up, he didn’t find the moon he’d been expecting, instead seven orbs hung in the sky and Ranvir could just barely make out the light from something passing around the perimeter of one sphere to reach him.

Is it nighttime, or is this a temporary event? He considered idly as he turned his attention to the globes that so filled the night sky. He realized quickly that they appeared to be vaguely arranged in a circle around whatever was in the center, but they weren’t suspended equally far from each other, so the closer orbs passed faster than the ones farther out.

He hesitated as one of the closer orbs reflected light oddly towards him. It took a moment before Ranvir realized it was reflecting off of water. For a moment, he wondered if he should seek cover from the enormous wave that must be falling towards them, but realized moments later that it was sticking to its orb.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Reaching out with his tether-sense, Ranvir tasted of the nature of the plane. His eyes startled open as he realized this wasn’t at all like Korfyi or Vednar, but the plane filled with these orbs. Instead of water falling down to land on the ground, it, along with everything else, stuck to a relative proximity of its sphere. Even now he was standing on one such globe.

He shook his head, dismissing the desire to examine it closer from his mind as he had more important items to deal with. Returning his attention to the surrounding people, Ranvir got a few odd stares, but to his surprise, it wasn’t directed at his eyes, but at his clothes.

Looking down at them, he thought they weren’t so bad. Sure, they were well-used, but he’d put on clean pants and a shirt. Turning his attention back to the crowd, Ranvir soon realized why he stuck out so.

Making clothes for these people would be markedly difficult. The rough-cut allow-for-adjustment outfits Ranvir bought from a tailor in Legea wouldn’t do for these people. Instead, they all appeared to be wearing wraps or loose robes that could easily accommodate their distinct appearances.

A man passed Ranvir wearing a wrap that left his back open so his wings could move freely. Ranvir couldn’t quite tell if they were vestigial or not. They were clearly too small to lift a man of his size into the air, but he sensed some weird mana of movement in them that might make up the difference. Another woman clicked her teeth together in a strange rhythm as she compulsively rubbed her hair with arms that split in two past the elbow.

Ranvir took in a deep breath as someone let out a low moan behind him. He jumped away, turning to find a woman more cow than human standing behind.

“Sorry,” she muttered, lumbering past, bent over at the waist. Cow ears, tail, and horns were a little weird to look at, but seeing the clear bulge of udders on her stomach, though covered in wraps, was enough to startle Ranvir out of his daze.

He nodded to her and started moving through the crowd. It was so thick, he immediately felt lost in it, drowning as he tried to find someway free. People big and small rubbed against him, pushing past or through as he tried to get around.

As another enormously tall figure barreled past Ranvir, almost throwing him over, the young father took the moment to realize he was going about this poorly. Taking a deep breath, he searched for the nearest open space with his senses. He soon moved into a gap created almost like a slip wind in the lee of a market stall. With some space to finally breathe and center himself, Ranvir put more effort into his search.

He soon found that he wasn’t far from what appeared to be the edge of the market, when he was interrupted by a kindly older voice. “My, you look a little overwhe—“ the voice broke off as the speaker heard them self translated into another language. “How curious.”

Ranvir cleared his throat and turned to find an elderly… person. He was unable to determine the gender, as all he had to go off was a weirdly proportioned body of the bird humanoid before him. Ranvir saw enough of the faded colors of the feathers and wear of the beak, combined with the voice to put them at a grandparently age.

“It’s uh…” Ranvir muttered, pulling out the softly glowing gray bead. “This. It helps translate for me while I’m here.”

“So you’re not local, eh?” the man asked, cocking his head. “Which of the planets are you from then?”

Ranvir cocked his head. Planets? He thought not recognizing the word, though he inferred the meaning. Licking his lips, “I don’t know if it’ll translate properly, but we call it Vednar,” as he spoke he vaguely pointed in the sky.

The old bird glanced after his finger for a moment, before shrugging. “Well, do you need help with anything?”

Ranvir shrugged, “Mostly just looking… around,” he faltered slightly in his speech as the bird person shifted a few of its wares with its food. They moved with such balance and flexibility Ranvir would’ve said it belied their age, but he was also struck because they didn’t have any hands. “I’m actually wanting to take a stroll in the park, really.”

“Oh? Maybe there’s a dog in Vednar? That where you got those eyes from?”

Ranvir shrugged, feeling uncomfortable. “Something like that.”

“Well, then you should visit sparkwood park,” the old bird pointed to the east with one wing. “It’s a great spot with big open plains and lots of smaller glades you might enjoy. Just try not to piss off any of the gray birdlings.”

Ranvir nodded his thanks and waved to the old salesperson before slipping into the mess of people again. This time, he had a goal to galvanize himself against their massing forms. Soon enough, he broke free of the crowd and was able to stop another passerby for direction to sparkwood park.

He arrived within a quarter flare. Dog people in their teens were racing each other down a long pathway lined with trees on either side. Ranvir saw a few birdlings with gray feathers. They were more humanoid than the seller with arms and legs, though they still had tail feathers and what looked like wing plumage sticking from their forearms and elbows, though clearly not enough to actually fly by.

Ranvir found a quiet spot to gaze the lines. It took a while, much longer than it usually took him before the signs became available to him, even then they only did so reluctantly. He had to grit his teeth to focus on the lines before getting any information. It took half a flare before he was finally satisfied. There were a few powerful people here, but only one of any real note within a day’s travel from here.

“Why was that so difficult?” Ranvir wondered to himself as he opened his storage-space and retrieved one of his beacons.

“If only you had someone with the answers.” Latresekt said smugly.

Igniting the ritual, Ranvir hid it in a bush. It was only made of hardwood, but it didn’t need to last long. Beacons were just a slight twist on the fabric of space, which should be susceptible to the flows of energy. Overtime the beacon should start to merge with this patch of space, in theory. If this plane’s mana acted the same as Korfyi’s did.

Then he turned his attention to the guides he’d left back home.