Chapter 23: Grim Tidings

Perspective: Kay


The Book and I were having one of our dreamscape chats. It was the same study as before. I'd rather come to like this setting. A desk laden with memoirs. Fancy shelves with models and tomes behind me. Throne-like armchair beneath. Book in another armchair across from me. I had hinted to the Book it might want a more presentable form, but it insisted on keeping the same vaguely humanoid mass of pages.

"So," I said. "That was two hundred more today. We've got near enough two thousand soldiers under our command. What do you make of them?"

"Some claimed to be Jackals," the Book responded flatly. "They are experienced. Equipped. This is good."

"True, but I can't help but wonder if the inclusion of bandits won't cause friction."

"You hypocrite," the Book scoffs. "Complaining about bandits."

I tensed, and the fireplace flared dark red at this mention of my chequered past.

"You know what I mean," I warned. "Some civilians may have been their victims recently. I'm wondering if we shouldn't grant them their own division."

"And, what? Use them as cannon fodder? Or better yet, leave the untrained divisions entirely to themselves. With no one seasoned to bolster them. That went so well last time, didn't it-"

"Guard your damned tongue!" I snarled.

I fixed my gaze on the book for a few seconds before casting my eyes aside. I rose and marched past the Book to the far end of the room, firelight passing over me until I slipped out of its view. I envisaged a dartboard on the back of the Book's chair and summoned darts to my hand. I began to throw them violently. They all hit the centre, not out of skill but on account of my will. Herobrine's teachings had made such invented spaces my own little world, over which I had total control. Only my own nightmares remained beyond my control.

I tried not to acknowledge the fact that the Book was the only thing keeping those nightmares at bay. I willed the board to be clear and spoke as I begin to throw anew.

"Fristad's death was not my fault," I said as the first dart landed. "He died heroically." The second landed, splitting open the first. "You chose a good vessel, and neither of us treated him nearly well enough."

The Book spun its chair around. I bent the dart's part midflight so that it swooped around and still struck the bullseye. I could only imagine it somewhat near to the centre. I got the impression the Book was glaring at me.

It had become increasingly confrontational since that coward, Glibby, killed Fristad. Doubt had been introduced when I lost the election, but we'd overcome that. Reconciled with Fire before the raid. But losing its old vessel had awoken a very unhelpful bitterness in my partner. Its interest in Fristad appeared to me to be a mixture of petulant longing for a lost toy and sentimental attachment. I was impressed and disappointed, considering how the Book usually presented itself as a grim survivalist. Perhaps it was a simple sunk-cost fallacy weighing on its mind.

But we would overcome this bump. Silver did not know the Entity's true designs, but he was full of intel otherwise. We had learnt much of the Tower's command structure, who was involved and where they were stationed within Nexus. The Book, Shadow and I had most recently forced him to explain how they travelled between worlds.

Naturally, there were scattered portals about the place, which relied on the overlapping of dimensional fault-lines, but the Tower had something more deliberate: facilities where new portals were constructed. Machines that decided where a portal went. Soon, we would squeeze the location of such a facility from him, and we would be able to harangue the Entity wherever its armies were in creation. We might even be able to get some help of our own.

As the Book continued its eyeless, mouthless glare, I smiled involuntarily at the idea of bringing my friends into the fold. Having Aaron, Secret, or even someone like Bokane would make this conflict much easier.

Driven forward by this hopeful notion, I was just about to attempt our reconciliation, but I felt a wave over me. The flames of the fire rippled. Even the Book felt it. Our gazes met and we both understood a truce needed to be called. Someone had arrived inside my mind.

I willed a door into being on the wall nearest and determined that whoever arrived needed to step through. I heard a large thud against it and couldn't help but imagine the door cracking, and so it did.

I exchanged a confused look with the Book and then called: "You may enter!"

The door practically flew off its hinges, in came a familiar radiant white woman, still halfway unmanifested.

She said with urgency: "Kay, I discovered something about the Entity's plans…"

"Take a seat," I answered, and with a thought we were all sitting around the desk. Myself on the one side, the Book and Lady of Dreams on the other.

I was not happy to see the Lady. She had entered my dreams and invaded my privacy. Supposedly, she was trying to help, and Fire and Shadow vouched for her, but I couldn't help but feel skeptical. On the one hand, I was now used to having the Book wandering around, on the other the Lady had previously tried to access my actual thoughts. And yet, if she had useful information, she had useful information. I was obliged to hear her out.

"Lady, this is the Book. Book, this is the Lady."

"Charmed," the Book scoffed.

"Pleasantries can wait. I was trying to get into a very resistant dream in the Tower for a while now, turns out it was the Ender's." She seemed uncomfortable talking about this. "She mentally let slip what the Entity told her about its plan."

"...And that plan is?" I offered with petty sarcasm.

"To collapse all worlds into Nexus with some kind of machine. It sounded like they were almost ready to activate it!"

I nodded placidly and stood up.

"Book, walk with me. A moment, if you would, Lady."

I willed another door into existence to the right of the desk and beckoned to the Book to follow me. It moved somewhat ethereally, not quite able to simulate physical movement.

We stepped through and found ourselves in a ruined great hall. Several shattered pillars. A crack ran along the roof, through which sunlight spilled. Herobrinian banners lined the walls. Dust everywhere.

"Great hall of castle Zine Craft just before Notch marched on it," I explained flatly. "Don't know why, just the first room I thought of."

I took several steps forward and surveyed the ruined chamber. The Book was behind me.

"Well," the Book responded. "Sounds like it's all coming to a head."

"Isn't that a bloody understatement?!" I screamed, turned around and running back to the Book. "Merging all the worlds? Under that thing's rulership? We only have two thousand soldiers at a push! Silver, on the other hand, mentions a new vassal, legion or sponsor of the Tower every five minutes. We are fucked!"

I stomped and several more pillars crumbled.

The Book slapped me. I allowed the blow to hurt me because part of me knew the Book was right. I was panicking. This lapse was unwise.

That didn't dull my fear, however. I couldn't feel my heart or my lungs or be distracted by any part of my body, so all I could experience was the pure emotion that crippled my very soul. I felt the zweihander piercing my breastplate over and over again. Remembered the ring of metal as I struck the Entity's forearm. But in this I found a purpose, a clarity.

"Right, quite right. You are quite right. Give me a second," I said, before calling out to the sky, "Kir? Are you there?"

I reached out with my mind, beyond the dreamscape I'd constructed.

"Always," a familiar voice chirped.

"Wake up Astro, I want a few others to witness this conversation. Tell him to telepathy his way in."

"Astro not asleep."

"Tell him to telepathy his way in, anyway. If you can get a hold of her, Shadow too. I want at least one other person to hear exactly what I hear. Then, step into my office yourself."

Kir acquiesced and stepped away. I waited a few seconds, and soon I felt other waves of entry, these ones weaker as I expected them. I took a moment, willed a few more chairs into existence back in the study. I turned to the Book.

"Any advice?"

The Book responded decisively in one long, coherent burst: "Ask what she knows about the machine. Mechanism, source, location if possible. Also, see if you can find out the Ender's opinion of the matter. Are they for, against, ambivalent? Anything we could use to divide their numbers."

"Excellent, let's step back in. We've kept our guests waiting long enough."

I marched up to the door, the Book in tow, and forced it open. The second it banged against the wall I immediately willed myself into my armchair. I summoned the Book's chair over beside me and beckoned to it to sit. It was a small concession, but a recognition of its residency.

Across from us sat four figures. On the far right was the Lady, who looked as radiantly distressed as when I left. Then, there was a cushioned stool in which Kir sat, a glowing blue silhouette in the shape of a person. I'll be honest, I'd expected them to appear as a sword, so I switched the stool out for a high-backed chair. After that there was Astro, who appeared the same as usual but slightly see-through. Last came a pitch-black orb with a glowing red centre, surrounded by a white-hot halo of light. I assumed this was Shadow.

"Sorry to have kept you all waiting," I conceded with a little nod and an outstretched hand. "I'm sure you're all a little surprised to be here, but welcome to our little clubhouse."

"Kay," Astro asked, brows furrowed, mouth parted with worry. "What's this about?"

"Lady, if you'd explain to them what you just told us."

I looked at the Book. Its face was blank and impassive as ever. I looked to the Lady, and I prayed my own face didn't betray the same terror.