The loosely affiliated group of dimensional strangers departed the carriage at the village, slightly larger than before.
"Any idea what we're doing here back at the village?" asked Warnado.
"Well, it only seemed like the logical place to go since there would be other carriages moving through here and villagers who could offer us valuable information," said Fire. "I already know about the geography in this region thanks to my 'information trade' with the Ender, but that knowledge can always be expanded upon. But aside from that, no, there's no reason for us to be at this village specifically."
"We might as well stay here for another night to rest," suggested Steve.
"Agreed."
The group weaved through the crowd and arrived back at the inn, and entered. The dining area was bustling with activity, evidently from the carriage passengers which arrived before them.
"It's pretty crowded in here," Kay noted. "Let's hope the rooms are still available."
"I can make it happen," Warnado assured him.
"Don't waste all your money in one night," Kay warned. "Steve and Jennifer can always just use their superhuman strength to dig a cellar."
"That's probably going to be in violation of multiple zoning laws," said Warnado, as he walked away into the dining hall crowd.
Kay frowned and walked over to Astro to confer with him. "That kid still confuses me sometimes. Any insight on that new girl, Shadow?"
"It's... more the lack of insight," said Astro. "The girl is completely devoid of any magic or life signs. Even a rock has something resembling energy. But this? It's the complete lack of energy. I can't explain it."
"Could it be that Shadow is masking her power somehow?"
"If that's true, she's not doing a good job of concealing that she's doing it."
"Good point," said Kay. "I'll go talk to her, see what she's hiding."
Kay walked over to Shadow. "So, Shadow, have any interesting backstory you want to share?"
"If it's about my lack of life signs, no I am not masking them, they are just not there. It is one of the effects of the ritual that made me an ascended mage."
"Ah, I see you overheard my conversation with my buddy Astro. It's all nonsense to me, but what sort of wizard are you? Clairvoyant, maybe? Airbender? Blew the words over to your ear? Open portals in the world to creepily stare at folks? I've seen my fair share of unusual powers, and if there's one thing I've learned it's that you never can tell what a wizard is capable of. So, which was it then?"
"Where I come from, what I did is called Ender magic. What I just used was a magical ear, nothing more. Reading minds undetected is usually harder. But I also do get that question a lot, so part of it was expectation. I'm not sure if you want to know about my full range of capabilities but they can be described briefly. Before my ascension I mostly did summoning and telekinesis, after it… anything became possible. Anything except for rewriting the laws of reality, that is reserved for gods or local equivalents."
"I see. I'm sure Astro would be fascinated to hear all about it." Kay did his best to conceal his mix of surprise and disappointment. "Sorry to be curt, but I'm just going to report."
Kay walked back toward Astro.
"It seems like Shadow isn't holding anything back," said Kay, "opened up to me about her ascension ritual and everything."
"Ascension ritual?" asked Astro for clarification.
"It's some ritual where she lost the outward appearance of life in return for some very strong magicking powers. Actually, now that I think about it, sounds like something with a lot of negative consequences; maybe I'll ask her about it. She can hear us, by the way…" Kay glanced briefly in Shadow's direction before continuing. "Anyways, she reminds me of Fire in a way. Powerful and knowledgeable. She could be a valuable contributor to our… what are we, exactly? Should our group have a name?"
"It's only been a few days, Kay. It's a bit early for those sorts of things."
"True, although it's never too early for a boost in group morale. Although staying at the inn one more day will probably do us all good, assuming the Entity's henchmen don't barge into our bedrooms in the middle of the night." Kay's eyes darted warily at the door with a look of suspicion that conveyed first-hand experience. Then he turned back to Astro. "Hey, look! Warnado's back!"
"I told you I'd make it happen," said Warnado smugly. "Although, to be fair, it wasn't that hard. I never gave him our old keys back."
Warnado tossed a key each to Kay, Astro, Shadow, and the others.
Kay stored the key away and glanced at the front door of the inn a bit restlessly, before procuring a harmless grin. "I'm going to see what there is to do in this little village. Maybe chat with the locals about current events, find a pub, that sort of thing. Anyone care to join me?"
"I think I'll stay behind and talk with Shadow for a while," Astro said. "There are some questions I want to ask her about her magic."
"Me too," Warnado responded eagerly.
Kay avoided glancing at Destiny and Steve as he worked out in his mind who next to recruit on his little day expedition. "Fire! Tyron! Care to join me on a little village reconnaissance?"
Fire said: "Sure. I did arrive a bit before you but most of the time I was busy brewing a potion or hopping between worlds. Never really explored the village."
"Sounds like a good idea," Tyron agreed.
"Excellent!" said Kay, starting to feel a bit more positive. "Fristad! What about you? Interested in checking out the village with us?"
"I… haven't decided yet," replied Fristad, his voice distant, as if distracted.
"Okay then. Feel free to look for us if you change your mind. We'll probably be in the nearest pub, so ask about that with the locals and you'll come across us," said Kay. He turned toward Fire and Tyron. "Shall we?"
Kay, Fire, and Tyron walked out the door and into the village streets, which were still crowded with people who had arrived from the hill of the prophet, although at least now there was enough room for the three of them to navigate without constantly having to bump into people.
Kay scouted the facades of the nearby buildings and pointed out a building he spotted as they walked around a street corner. The three of them headed toward it.
"So, Fire," summarized Kay, "you've been hopping between dimensions the past couple days, and brought that mage girl Shadow back with you - she's your sister, correct?"
"Right," said Fire.
"Your real sister?" Kay asked, with a gesture toward Tyron that inquired as to whether it was okay to tell him.
"Yes, she is human and in fact my biological sister in my other world," Fire answered bluntly. Tyron looked confused. "I'll explain another time."
"I just wanted clarity. Thanks… And I told you about our somewhat chaotic escape attempt from the tower, and our journey through the forest using Steve and Jennifer's quick assembly underground bunkers?"
"You didn't tell me how it all got started," said Fire.
"I guess I didn't," said Kay. "After our negotiations with the Entity, Warnado and I decided to explore the tower. After passing through some large halls and odd rooms filled with junk, we found ourselves in the tower's prison. That's where we found Astro, Tyron, Destiny and David..." He trailed off. "They were a tad imprisoned."
"The Entity was not as kind to us at first as it was to Kay and the others," said Tyron. "One minute we're in our own respective worlds, the next we're being abducted, taken into the tower and detained in a cell. Later, this guy called Bul somehow knows all the major events of our lives and tries to recruit us into one of their nefarious schemes. When we refuse, they send us back to the room, we fight to escape, but end up beaten and detained in the prison."
Fire said: "Interesting. After I travelled to one of the first worlds beyond Nexus I noticed some deformations in the surroundings. That and what I learned from the Ender lead me to believe that Nexus is absorbing other worlds, or rather has absorbed worlds in the past. For some reason it stopped. Your worlds must have been very close to Nexus, which would explain your surprising transition."
Kay nodded. "We broke them out, of course. In fact, Warnado broke a goodly chunk of the prison to help cover our escape. That's when Warnado and I made ourselves enemies of the Entity, along with Steve, Fristad, and Jennifer, who joined us during the escape. We fought our way first through the usual armored guards, and when it was clear we weren't going to give up easily, the endlings got involved. We just made it out of there alive, thanks to Fristad and Warnado. With the exception of David, as you already know."
At this point, the three of them were standing at the counter at the back of a bustling tavern. Kay spotted a woman with two hands full of empty glasses marching behind the counter and waved to her to get her attention.
"Tyron, you want anything? Fire, any special requests?"
"Not this time, I'll just get whatever you're getting."
"Same," said Tyron.
Kay turned to the woman. "What kind of drinks do you… oh, never mind that! Just get us three of whatever those guys over there are having," Kay said, pointing over to a group of five people at a nearby table who he assumed knew a bit better what they were doing in this dimension.
The woman nodded and left, still holding the empty glasses.
"So, when you said you might still have 'unsavory characters' following you, you meant the Entity's endermen," Fire concluded.
"Unfortunately," Kay responded.
"I just remembered something," said Tyron. "There's one other thing that happened while we were at the tower. Fristad had experiments done on him by a group of wizards using some machines."
"Fristad…" Fire mused. "He wasn't in the Entity's records. Perhaps they did experiments on him to fill the gaps in their knowledge. Do you know what kind of experiments were done on him?"
"He didn't say," said Tyron.
"Notch only knows what it was. Invasive surgeries on house guests sounds like the sort of scheme the Entity would be involved in," Kay noted with disdain. "He and the Silhouette sound like perfect bedfellows. The more I learn about the two of them, the more I dislike them. But as far as I know, they're our best chance of getting back to our own worlds. Aside from Fire, maybe. And that Prophet guy, assuming your Shadow's right and he's not just spreading a bunch of standard mad-wannabe-messiah-preaching-on-a-hill nonsense. Speaking of which, Fire, do you have any new ideas on how we can get back to our worlds?"
"I'm afraid not. The only reason I was able to return to mine was because of the mental connection I have to other Mencur-Besh, I was able to use it as some sort of dimensional compass. Some of your worlds might be close enough to be mapped by the Entity's scouts but I wouldn't consider them safe since you already got taken to Nexus once."
"What do you mean by 'close'?" asked Tyron. "Do the people in your world have some sort of dimensional knowledge, like a map or something?"
"In my world we weren't even aware that other worlds even existed up until I was transported to Nexus, we just have some research on our laws of physics that could be applied to the fact that they do exist. And yes, worlds can be 'close', just with an added dimension. As I said, I have found distortions in the terrain directly next to Nexus, which has lead me to believe that Nexus may have been 'stealing' parts of other worlds at some point."
At this point, three glasses of an unknown, light-colored alcoholic beverage thudded onto the table in front of Kay, Fire, and Tyron. The bartender inquired for payment, and Fire presented a small bar of gold, which seemed to satisfy her.
Kay took a sip of a glass. "Well I certainly am not going to stand around and wait for nothing. The Prophet may be one of many local oddities - might be wise to ask around. Or perhaps there are others with valuable information about the Tower. Actually, the latter is quite promising. Warnado did break that whole prison. It's likely we're the first to arrive in this town, and others will follow."
"You have a point," agreed Fire. "Although, if enough prisoners arrive in this town, it is likely that the Entity's soldiers are not far behind. I won't have to hide because I helped them with one of their issues, all of you though..."
"Could be killed? Get thrown into a dungeon never to see the light of day? Get tortured painfully for a very long time before being fed alive to a pack of rabid dogs? See our loved ones abducted and used as leverage to force us to do horrible things?" replied Kay. "All within the realm of possibility. Honestly, It's more fun that way; to win knowing what could have happened if you didn't."
"That's rash and irresponsible," responded Tyron.
"You can leave this village any day you want, Tyron," Kay replied, smiling in playful defiance and taking another sip of his drink, which he was starting to enjoy. "Can't blame you. I, for one, would think twice about getting involved in one of my schemes. Speaking of which… I'm still working on one. Need more information, though. Nothing concrete, just a hunch. Even a pleasant little town like this is bound to have some dark secret somewhere or another. I just need to look in all the wrong places."