Chapter 25: A Whole New World

Breathing... he had breathing back. That was good. He took a deep breath and released it, simply enjoyed the sensation of air coursing through his lungs. Feeling? Was that the ground beneath him? He tried moving something... no? Too soon. He went back to breathing. "...b..re..a..k.. th...e.. h...e...ar...t..." the words still echoed in the... darkness? Where was this?

*Inhale*

How long had he been out? Where was he now? What was that noise? These were all likely very important questions. But all he knew was that breathing was nice... It was almost as if the entire world had been held together by that heart. Hitting it brought him here... wherever here was... he could hear dark whispering at the corner of his consciousness... but it was muted, as if coming from a great distance, or passing through a buffer...

*Exhale*

He tried opening his eyes... nope. Even though he could feel the warmth of the Sun on his face, it was still too early for that. He continued to breathe... The whispers, they were gone... Who? He was alone, but something... else... was nearby. He could feel it, but it was just out of reach. Maybe if he stretched towards it...

*Inhale*

He tried to focus. He was having a hard time... thinking... It was all around him. It was immense. It was alive. He could feel it's pulse... through the Heart! He could feel the heart... but what was he supposed to do with it? Why was he so certain he should...

*Exhale*

Something ran across his chest... wait, he had a chest! He tried to open his eyes again... and the light was incredible... he closed his eyes. That could wait... It, the big It has something to do with the heart... but he could feel it pulling away... no it was being pushed... he reached out to stop it from leaving...

*Inhale*

If he had a chest, he should have arms... hands... he pulled himself to a hunched sitting position, his face in his hands. Progress... He could almost hear the whispering again, but the heart... he could reach out with the heart... no through the heart... he held it up, offered it up... It responded.

*Exhale*

He risked opening his eyes once more, and though the light was still intense, he could handle it... or at least the reflected light glaring up from the dew dampened grass. His thoughts were slowly catching up with him... He could feel himself pulled into It... pulled from the claws of something that faded as soon as it lost its grip on him. It had him now, and he was... not safe... but... Alive.

*Inhale*

He stood up, and squinted around. As he rose, the haze fell off of him like a half forgotten dream, and between one breath and the next, he felt as good as if he'd just awoken from a quiet nap following an uneventful day. He could feel it now, it wasn't just around him anymore. It was a part of him... and this was good.

*Exhale*

He looked around at where he had awoken. Somehow he'd gone from the cave, back above ground... but where? He realized that the dampness of the grass was actually due to the standing water all around him, and not morning dew like he'd assumed. He thankfully had not been laid in the water, but the ground all around him was damp, and though his haze had faded, his head was beginning to ache.

Guile probably brought me out here... he thought to himself. Either Guile or that voice... whoever it was. Still, he wasn't sure where here was. He was standing on a small outcropping of a rather steep hill that extended higher above him than any of the hills near his little home, and below him the water made an almost marshy soup of the grass below... So perhaps he was on the other side of the broken earth.

Deciding that he'd have a better view atop the hill than he had from where he currently was, he began finding his way up the face of the hill. As he made his way up, he was particularly distracted with the terrain around him. Even facing the hill, he felt like he could still feel the sparsely treed area below him with the watery earth, and with every movement, he could feel more of the area above him, in so much that he knew before topping the hill that there was a wooden structure on the crest.

Frowning at the structure he was accosted by two confusing sensations. The first, that he 'knew' this structure in fact, he had built it, contrasted the terrain where he found it. This 'looked' like the small structure he'd first built... but this wasn't where he'd built it... The second sensation was an awareness of what was inside the structure. Not just in a remembered way, but as if he could sense the inside of the structure the same way he could sense the terrain around him... and all these conflicting sensations were rapidly overwhelming him...

"Gah!" he fell to his knees and closing his eyes with hands pressed to his eyes, tried to STOP sensing everything around him. For a brief moment it was significantly worse, it was as if he were even More aware, followed by a moment of... he didn't know how to properly articulate it even to himself, but for a moment he felt as if sitting there with his eyes closed, he could see the terrain around him as if from... above? And then blissfully it stopped, and unless he reached out in the way he'd learned to do below ground, he didn't see everything around him until he was actually looking at it.

He sat there cradling his head for a moment more and tried to rationalize what he was seeing... before laughing at himself. I can see things without looking at them, I have a pouch on my side that carries a seemingly limitless amount of material, I can build platforms of dirt that levitate in the air, without even needing to touch it... and I'm trying to rationalize how a building I almost literally threw together could possibly be somewhere other than where I'd originally built it? He couldn't help it, his laughter only deepened at the ridiculousness of his concern.

Standing back up, he shook his head as his laughter petered off and decided to check the structure out. Pulling a mushroom out, that did thankfully wash away the dull ache remaining to him, he went inside.

His first initial reaction to the room before him was surprise, followed by a brief throb in his skull. What happened to the oven? The room was as he left it, which given its location was strange, but even stranger was the shape of the oven before him. It still sat near to the center of the room, and it still projected a very noticeable heat... but it looked completely different. For a moment he felt like he could see the oven doubled, with the blocky furnace superimposed over a round oven... before his vision snapped back, and a gentle throbbing behind his eyes was all that remained of the momentary overlap.

It bothered him not just because it was different... but because a small part of him didn't feel like anything had changed. It was as if what he felt was directly opposed to what he could see... and that bothered him. This is stupid. He didn't want to stand around trying to figure this out. In fact, he didn't really want to stand around Guile's little building any longer than he had to. He'd been lucky enough not to run into his guide so far, and he had no interest in changing that luck. Walking back outside, he decided to take this opportunity to look around from this new vantage.

It had all changed. The terrain was similar... in some ways, but it was obviously not the same place he'd been before, and not just because the house was on top of a small plateau. A selection of plateaus where rolling hills had been before, sparse trees where the wood had been thicker, and the jagged terrain behind the building was replaced by a large simple ravine, with a tall tower of some kind in the distance. And it was more than just that... where before the earth had appeared rough, and almost haphazardly hewn... it now seemed as it if had been crafted by a more experienced hand.

Shaking the notion, he decided to try and find his little structure by heading out from Guile's in the same direction he would have gone before, hoping as he did that it hadn't moved in relation... if it was even here. He refused to let the fact that the entire world had just changed shape around him. For all he knew, this would happen every few days, and so he would need to get used to it. Not only that, but he'd been unharmed in the change, and in fact, felt better than he had since he'd first awoken. It was hard to put into words... but he just felt... better.

Heading back down the sheer face, he carefully picked his way through the muddy grass to the much flatter sparsely wooded area, taking care to avoid the slimes bouncing through. Heading in what he thought was the right direction, he continued on long enough that he was beginning to think he'd either gone the wrong way, or that his little structure wasn't here. Just as he was about to head back and try again, he saw a small flicker of 'something' off to the side. Looking closer he realized that it was a torch, set in the ground, right before a large dip in the earth. Walking over to it he was pleased to see a door, set into a wooden paneled wall, that seemed built into the face of the earth below him.

Smiling as he climbed down, he was pleased up until the moment he opened the door. He stood there unable to summon words for what he found within.

"Get Out!" he yelled at the interloper in a sputtering rage.

"Why it's so nice to see you again as well," Guile answered his anger with no more notice than ever, "though I must admit-"

"I said get out!" he yelled interrupting his guide, anger overriding his common sense and self-preservation for the moment.

This one space was his only respite from all the crazy he had to deal with in this place, and now, after having the very ground itself up and change around on him, he had come here looking to take advantage of that respite... only to discover it befouled by Guile. It was too much, and his frustration only fueled the rage he felt at this trespass.

Frowning at him, Guile asked, "And why should I do that?"

Dumbfounded by the ridiculous question, he hollered back, "You HAVE a place of your own! You TRICKED me into building it for you! Go there! Leave MY space alone!" he raged, ashamed at the hint of a whine audible even to his own ears, but too angry to truly care.

Replying for all the world as if they were merely enjoying a pleasant conversation, Guile responded, "This is my housing."

He felt his eyes were in danger of ejecting themselves from his skull so wide was his gaze, and his brows had certainly found a new home amidst the ruins of his hair. For a moment, he could not articulate a response and he just stood there shuddering, exhaling incoherent noises in his rage.

Guile merely stood watching him, and eventually he was able to take hold of himself enough to attempt an audible response. Preparing with a slow shuddering breath, he tried, "No..." he had to take another breath to continue, "this is MY housing. Your housing is out there on a rise in the earth. So if you would just leave me alone..."

"That housing is already occupied," Guile interrupted him.

"I was just there! There's..." he stumbled over his angry retort as the words sunk in, Already Occupied? Could there be someone else here? " ...nobody... up there..." he managed to stammer out, his thoughts reeling Could it be the gentleman? What about that voice? Is there finally someone else here who knows what's going on?

"That does not change the fact that unless they fall, the structure belongs to them, and not I," Guile informed him.

He was too excited by the prospect of having someone else, someone that wasn't Guile to talk to, to really focus on what was being said. There's someone else here... someone that isn't... a thought hit him like a rock between the eyes, and his excitement waned. "How did they get here?" he asked suspiciously.

"The magic of the world brought them here," his guide answered him obliquely.

"No..." his gut soured, and he really didn't feel like playing one of Guile's games at the moment, "What I mean is... did I do this? I haven't collected..." he quickly checked the coins in his pouch, and while he had more than he had expected, he didn't have 50 Silver Coins... "enough coins to bring someone here," he finished, remembering as he did the voice's mocking answer to the same declaration before he blacked out.

"It is not within your power to bring someone to this world," his guide replied.

Speaking out through clenched teeth, he almost spit his response, "You know what I mean! Did I do something that triggered this person being pulled to this place against their will?"

"Perhaps," Guile answered him, that rage inducing smirk playing at the corner of his lips.

"Gah!" he shouted, swinging his arm to smash his fist into the door frame behind him. "Why do you have to make every conversation so difficult!" he yelled, anger overriding the souring of his gut.

"Why do you have to ask such unnecessary questions?" Guile asked him, that unfaltering smirk still present.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to respond in a calmer fashion, "Ignoring the fact that we have completely different views of what is unnecessary, how am I supposed to know what I should or shouldn't be asking Unless, I, Ask?" he spit out.

"You have a role. Ask the questions that are related to your role," his guide responded.

"That's not good enough!" he snapped back, "I don't even know what my role is! Besides that, I've tried, and STILL you make it difficult!" he ranted.

Guile just stood there as if waiting for him to finish yelling, and he felt his anger collapse. This was not only a waste of time, but he was spending time here with Guile that he could be spending- "Who is this other person?" he tried instead.

"Kathrynn the Nurse has arrived," he was told.

"Who the what?" he answered, a little confused. Kathrynn... why do I know... his gut dropped. The well dressed gentleman had shouted her name, right before disappearing into the night. That was several days ago. There was next to no possible chance he was still alive, and now...

"Kathrynn the Nurse. She has arrived," Guile repeated, speaking as if he were talking to someone too simple to understand what he was saying.

"I heard you the first time!" he barked back.

"And yet you insisted on asking again," he was answered, "and then complained when I answered again, yet I'm the one making things difficult," Guile answered, still wearing his ever present smirk.

He shuddered with the effort of swallowing an angry retort. This wasn't going anywhere... though one thing stood out to him. He'd been yelling at Guile, and so far... his guide had not wigged out like he was prone to doing when he yelled. He didn't know what to make of it, but he was thankful for the reprise. Not that he wanted to push it. Perhaps this change had affected Guile in some serious fashion... were he only so lucky.

"Where..." he was trying to ignore Guile's snark, "is she then?"

"She has arrived."

"Forget it!" he snapped, he was done. Turning and slamming the door behind him he stomped off towards Guile's... or Kathrynn's... building. Guile can have that building.. I'll just build another one! I am done... DONE with him! he wasn't paying too much attention to where he was walking and wound up falling onto a slime on its way through.

He could feel it compress beneath his weight before it jumped, sending him stumbling backwards and knocking his head against the earth. Disoriented for a moment, he pulled his sword out and held it above him expecting a continued assault that did not occur. After a few moments, he could hear it making it's way wherever it had been going. Putting the sword back he closed his eyes and taking a deep breath, decided to lay there for a moment as he considered his next move.

Listening to the noises of the forest, he could hear the birds fighting each other in the branches, the squirrels chasing imaginary fiends across the grass, and the slimes bouncing through on their aimless pursuit of shiny things. Maybe... he knew he was treading dangerous waters... maybe I don't need to tell her about the gentleman...

"Who are you guys?" the kid asked, seemingly oblivious to the dangerous look he and Tam were giving him after they made sure Perinque was unhurt. Slightly confused by the seemingly innocent question from a kid that had just somehow thrown their friend several dozen feet simply by raising his hands, he introduced himself.

"Gill?" the kid asked with his eyes raised in either confusion, or maybe amusement.

"What? No..." he attempted to correct the child but-

"I like it," Tam kicked in, a small smile on his lips.

"Thanks, Tim," he retorted, not quite sure that this was an appropriate way to move this encounter forward, but not particularly surprised by his friends inappropriately timed humor.

"I can do Tim," Tam replied with a shrug.

"And you?" the kid asked Perinque, having moved on from his name before he could correct him.

She seemed to be mostly over the surprise, the child had disarmed her more than just physically, though that wasn't as surprising given her feeling towards all living things, "Perinque," she supplied with a small smile of her own.

"Pinky?" the kid asked, eyes raised, and wearing an obvious smile this time.

"Hah!" Tam laughed, shooting a quick glance at Perinque and bracing as if he were ready to move in a hurry.

She frowned, "Noo... you're missing half of it, I said-"

"I think Pinky fits," he interrupted, knowing as he did that it was probably a bad idea to antagonize her, but deciding to enjoy this diversion.

She shot him a dangerous look, but was prevented from whatever she was about to say by the kid exclaiming, "Pinky, Tim, and Gill. Got it. I'm the Servant, or maybe just kid, whichever you guys like better."

Frowning at the strange introduction, he noticed that the kid looked up and off to the side as if he was listening to...

"Okay, okay," the kid said with a frown into the brief silence.

"Okay what?" Tam asked him, "Was that from him," he added nodding over the child's head.

A look of surprise crossed the kid's face as he quickly looked up and over his shoulder, "You can See my master?" he asked sounding excited, "What do you look like?" he asked the air above him, before concentrating on the empty space for a moment as if he were trying to see something. He then jumped, a little wide eyed and added, "Fine, okay, I'll tell them already."

He was terribly confused. Master? Servant? What was going on here? Looking over at his friends he saw his confusion mirrored on Perinque's face, but Tam seemed particularly intent on the kid.

"My master says that our fates are sealed," the child informed them in a neutral tone that did not quite fit the weight of his proclamation, "and asks why you," the kid was pointing at him, "have brought the corruption here. He doesn't sound very happy about it," he added.

Shocked, he wasn't sure how to respond, and the look his friends were giving him did nothing to ease his nerves. Confusion, and... what? "I..." he tried to defend himself, "... don't know what you're talking about."

"May I?" Tam asked the air above the boy as he raised his hand with a low white glow.

"Master says to ask me," the kid answered his question, "and my answer is sure," he added.

Tam raised his hand towards the air above the boy, but nothing happened. Looking up confused at first, a look of understanding crossed his face and he pointed instead at the boy. A white beam of light, similar to the one from the night the eye had attacked, connected Tam with the child. The kid's face glazed over before an ancient and powerful voice that had never belonged to a child could be heard, "Be welcome Mage. Be welcome Defender. Be gone Corrupted Vessel."