Chapter 72: Turning Point
Perspective: Astro/Fire
As we step out of the portal, I swear to myself I will do anything to stop him from killing Fire. My blade is drawn, and my senses are heightened, though I know I likely won't need this. As he did in my time, Kay has run himself ragged, not letting a single wound heal properly. The Book has been keeping him stable for months. Still, strength was hardly ever what made him dangerous.
I pray to Notch we have not arrived too late.
Shadow stands to my right, Urist on my left. Twenty soldiers follow after us, carefully filtering into ranks as we advance.
I see the smooth face of Graves Manor, with its many sheets of glass nestled within concrete. We stand in the driveway.
Between us, Shadow and I were able to narrow down the signal we were looking for and brute-force the portal to arrive here. Nearby the signal, in the right plane of reality. I try to shoot her a reassuring look, but her gaze is fixed straight ahead. She is already approaching the doors. I bark an order, and the rest of our party follow.
I catch up to Shadow just outside the door. A rune is glowing on her arm. The lock clicks. The entrance swings open. She immediately walks - practically glides! - forward into her home, her mismatched shadow walks alongside her. I feel guilty and rush forward to the front door.
"Allow me," I say.
I gesture to the lock to perform a simple spell and cast it open. I feel nothing. No flowing of energy. No subtle satisfaction as a thought exerts itself on physical reality. No magic. Nothing happens.
"Um…" I back away. "That's not good…"
Shadow walks forward still and opens the front door in a similar manner to the gate. She says: "This world normally has no magic. Though I'm starting to suspect that it's not a hard rule… I might be partially following the rules of the other plane. Still, casting feels like swimming through tar."
"Noted," I say.
I hold my sword like a life raft.
Another rune glows. The next set of doors opens. We enter into a large hall dominated by a vault door at one end, a staircase at the other, with glass cases filling the space between.
I try to ignore the strange feeling of being cut off from a loved one and begin to figure out a plan of action.
"Where's Fire's room?" I ask Shadow.
"Up the left stairs, down the corridor, second-to-last door."
I nod.
"Urist, take eight men, go up the right. Search every room. I'll take another six and go up to the left with Shadow. You four remain here."
Shadow immediately moves up the stairs and I try not to look disoriented. We pass portraits, cases, everything blurs together. But I remind myself of my purpose.
We arrive in the hallway.
"Stick together," I say. "If he's here, he's violent."
As Shadow walks/glides ahead, moving purposefully towards the end of the corridor, I pray silently that she doesn't find a corpse behind one of these doors. I gesture and my men begin to search the rooms in pairs. I make to follow the first pair in, but then catch a glimpse of the fourth door cracking open. I slide instinctively into a defensive pose.
"Wait," I instruct, and beckon for the nearest soldier to follow me, well aware that without my magic I'm only so much of a threat.
My mind races. Shadow said there was no staff. But what if she was wrong? Or what if someone they trusted had stumbled in on all this? I search for any answer that isn't a binary of Fire or Kay because I don't think my jittery heart could take either that much relief or that much fury.
We creep forward. I try to catch a glimpse of whoever's behind the door, but they've slipped out of sight.
I raise my sword, ready to take up a position on the far side of the door and announce myself. But then, the door opens. A man with some sort of pronged cudgel on his belt steps out. I fight the urge to attack. I've already tried to kill my boss once today. Besides, I don't want this guy panicking.
"Hello," I say as calmly as I can. "We're looking for the residents. Now, I know our presence probably looks a little ominous, and perhaps a little strange as I'm told you don't use swords around here, but I swear we're here to protect him."
I forced a smile and try to hold the sword in a less threatening manner.
"Who might you be?" I ask.
Shadow quietly says to me: "Astro, that's my brother."
"Oh," I smile, with only the slightest hint of embarrassment. "Good to see you again, Fire."
The man said: "Hello again. Kay's in the room behind me, I managed to talk him down… after a while."
I walk up and clap an arm on Fire's shoulder, though I worry I grip too tightly when he mentions Kay's name. I feel a rush of shame and anger at having let it come this close. But in there, a faint hope glows.
"So, when you say you talked him down, was this before or after he slammed you in the face?" I ask. "Sorry, that came out snarky. I guess I mean… Did he try to kill you?"
"Oh, he did. He smacked me before he knew it was me though, and yes, I had to restrain him. He's no longer restrained, and no longer armed, he broke his sword attacking me. Diamond and obsidian are very brittle here."
I sigh. I look down at my sword and feel that little bit more vulnerable. Then, another element of what Fire's just said to me registers.
"He's not restrained?!" I blurt out. Then, more calmly. "That is not wise, I assure you… Commander?"
Fire opens the door and motions us to go in. "I don't think we need another change of leadership at this point, with what I have planned 'Speaker of the Mencur-Besh' would probably be the better title."
I struggle to find a reason to challenge his reasoning. Fire might bring some nostalgia from early converts, but he'll also draw suspicion from those present at the Massacre of the Prophet's Hill. Tyron will do. I realise I've been thinking too long and nod.
I look around and it dawns on me for the first time just how strange the architecture is. Smooth, painted walls to the right, almost entirely glass to the left. Little of the wood and brick and exposed stone I'm used to. And the precision of the angles is comparable to that of the Landmasons of old. It all feels nauseatingly uncanny.
"You've a nice home," I lie.
Fire and Shadow are contentedly quiet. My soldiers stand around me, directionless and bored, and I feel their eyes weighing on me, judging me. I want to give either an excuse to leave, or some great, decisive command to shift some eyes off me and onto a task, or maybe just barge past Fire through the door and start wailing on Kay. Finally, something reasonable to say comes to me.
"Hold on," I say to Shadow. "You're here, aren't you?" I gesture to the house. "Or, are you?"
A grin that makes me regret asking spreads across Shadow's face. "You know, that's actually a good question."
I expect her to cast some grand spell, but nothing of the sort comes. Instead, I hear movement further down the corridor. The very last door opens slowly and out comes a dark-haired woman of very familiar stature. She rubs her eyes and yawns, before making her way over to us.
"Oh," I say, "I thought we were just going to check on your sleeping body, but this also works."
My eyes dart between the two and I try to reconcile them. It's not as though Shadow's human form is that different to the one I knew so well, it's more like two different painters had a go at exactly the same scene from exactly the same angle. At first glance, aside from the skin and hair being basically inversions of each other, the only difference is the eyes. Green and red, red and green. Complimentary colours rather than a binary… But then I notice the imperfections, the wrinkles of tiredness and laughter, a slight graze on the human's hand, the weight with which she moves, and suddenly the two bodies seem hilariously irreconcilable.
After what feels like a years-long drought, something like a joke comes to mind.
"Two of you at once? Don't show Kay, he'll positively shit himself in fear."
I laugh, then worry I came across bitter.
I quickly add: "Is it not hard to coordinate both of yourself at once?"
The Shadows look at each other, then the human one answers: "It's certainly an interesting experience. It's not like controlling a projection, I'm conscious in both bodies at once but both are still me, still the same mind. But the difference in perception is massive. This body feels so much less than the other one. Oh, but it definitely feels Wodahs' patented shadow hugs, this is the first time we are able to interact, come to think of it."
I burst out laughing, apologising profusely as I do so. It feels good to just laugh about the surrealism of something. I feel prepared for whatever I have to do next.
"So," I begin. "What's our next course of action? Do I head straight home, or do you want me to wait around? Should I leave the men and Urist? Take… the prisoner with me? Consult with Tyron? What am I doing?"
I try to recapture a sense of relief about Fire being back and Kay being contained, pushing back the knowledge that we're on the verge not only of the machine being activated any day now but of Freak trying to turn reality into his own personal nightmarish hellscape andalsowe'restillsooutnumberedpleasedearNotchhelpus. But, you know, Fire's back. Yay.
Fire speaks up: "So, now that everything here is under control, I suggest we start taking steps to achieve that in Nexus too. First, I'll need you all to take a trip to my other world. I want to show you what my emergency plan looks like. Then, we can return to Nexus and call in any off-world favours that we can, but from what I've seen that's already been started." He turns to his sister(s?). "Shadow, once you put your body back in your room, would you mind opening a portal for everyone? I'll be with you momentarily."
I want to be shocked by the immediacy with which Fire is acting, but I'm really just relieved he's addressing my concerns.
Shadow walks out to the corridor and without a gesture from either of us, my soldiers begin to trudge after her. I stop the nearest soldier and mutter to him to go find Urist. He jogs on, and I presume he obeys me. I stop the next nearest, catching him like an object dropped from a great height. I close my eyes and press shackles into his hands.
"For his Ashen Highness," I half-spit.
I pray for a moment that Fire might come back to handle this for me, seeing as he supposedly talked him down and all, but no, he's entering his room without a backward glance. Goodbye Peter. Hello again, Fire.
I press the door open.
He abruptly straightens himself up and rubs his eyes and I feel like decking him. Just a pure, clean punch right to his stupid nose. And then maybe umpteen others. Like he has the right to cry about this. I grunt to the soldier and brood against a wall.
"Sorry Astro, I didn't see you there," he sniffs. "It has been an eventful-" He looks up and sees the shackle-bearing soldier standing over him. "Oh…"
He shoots me a worried glance. I deflect it with a cock of my head in the direction of the restraints. His palms turn to face the sky, the shackles clamp down. I see him flinch as the restraints bite his skin.
"I deserve this," he said. "I understand."
"Do not speak."
I hope it sounds angry in an intimidating way, but it feels angry in a ludicrous way. Tantruming, limp, offered in service of an argument I lost before it even began. I had the evidence of all the bodies piled up around him, and I'm now mad because he made me look stupid. I suck.
"Just wait five bloody minutes before you try to worm your way into repentance this time," I elaborate with the bare minimum diplomacy.
He shuts up, and we go to join Shadow in the hall. Urist has joined us, and he is quietly confused as Kay walks down the stairs in shackles. He doesn't acknowledge Shadow, but he tries to nod at Urist. Their eyes lock for a moment, Kay distraught, Urist almost smug. I suppose he feels vindicated after Kay basically froze him out of the command structure.
"Hello Urist," Kay croaks. I expect him to say more, but for once he seems to have wised up.
The dwarf doesn't scoff. I admire that. I absolutely would have. And then some.
Shadow stands just before the vault, various runes glowing on her body as she tries to open the portal through to the famous Server. I'm almost excited. Almost.
"How are you feeling?" I ask Shadow.
I felt obligated to. Still, there was a little sincerity in there. It was time to mend fences.
"Good, overall. It's good to know that I won't cause the apocalypse if things work out. But that's only part of it, more important is that I have my brother back. But at the moment… this spell is taking a lot out of me. Reality is fighting me for every bit of magic." The glow of her runes intensifies. "We will find some time to talk later, Astro. We really need to, for both of our sakes."
I nod. Not having access to magic is making me feel like I'm made of glass. Not the best time.
The portal opens. It is different from the interdimensional portals, this one is all light and electricity. It looks a little painful to be honest. With an unnecessary gesture, I swallow my hesitancy and step through.
Fire stood in the middle of a desert, the same one where he had emerged from the world tunnel when he first returned to his own world. In fact, the tunnel was only a short distance away, he hadn't moved far after his hasty second return.
He focused inward, on his connection to the Mencur-Besh collective's network. Thousands of information fragments passed him by, most of them irrelevant to his current situation. The network was how the Mencur-Besh communicated over long distances. They did this by mentally linking up to one of many giant ender eyes that were hidden all over the server. Most of them were underground, save for two, one was at the center of Rockhaven, the de-facto capital of the server. The other eye was near Drandin, the main settlement of the Eye-and-Claws, the human allies of the Mencur-Besh.
Through this network Fire sent a concept, namely an explanation of the current situation, including everything about Nexus and the potential fate of the multiverse. Immediately the network lit up with activity, the new information was distributed to all Mencur-Besh, each forming their own judgement and relaying their results back into the network. This cycle of feedback continued for a good minute, then a large shift happened.
A concept flashed through the network, directed at Fire specifically. He was told to give direct instructions, it seemed that in this unprecedented situation the collective wanted to fall back on Fire's leadership, just like it had done in its early days. The core priority of the collective had changed, the Mencur-Besh had decided to assist in any way possible.
In this moment Fire felt a strange sense of pride, he felt honored that, even after having spent so long in independence, the collective still saw him as their leader. When he sent his first message, he'd hoped to be appointed to speak on the collective's behalf but not full leadership. Instead of pondering the change further, Fire did as asked, and sent instructions. He ordered all Mencur-Besh to teleport or be teleported to his location. This order would also extend to the highest-ranking Eye-and-Claws members as a voluntary invitation.
The first teleportations came only seconds later. The Mencur-Besh that arrived looked very similar to Fire: Tall, scaled, white-haired. What differed though were their eye colors. In Mencur-Besh eye color indicated elemental affinity.
Those with red eyes like Fire had an affinity to the eponymous element, granting them superior strength and heat resistance. Yellow eyes meant an affinity for air, granting speed. Blue for water, they had senses sharp beyond what was normal for Mencur-Besh. Green-eyed Mencur-Besh were Earth-aligned, they were an additional meter tall and significantly bulkier. Life-aligned Mencur-Besh had pure white eyes and had access to telepathy outside of their network. Wither-aligned Mencur-Besh had grey eyes and possessed complete immunity to magic. And finally, Ender-aligned, purple-eyed Mencur-Besh had enormous pools of life force and were natural mages.
To Fire's surprise the first few waves already included several humans, all of them hailing from Drandin. While more and more Mencur-Besh appeared around Fire, two men approached him.
The first man had blue eyes and short, blond hair and beard. He wore a full set of firesteel armor, save for the helmet, which was attached to his side.
The other man had a much more unusual appearance, his skin was so densely covered in scars that they had almost entirely driven out his hair on parts of his head. He was also missing his left eye, a blue gem sat in its place, his healthy eye was unnaturally dark. Additionally, his right hand was missing too, replaced by a spiked hook.
The first man spoke to Fire in a soft voice: "So, looks like we have a real crisis on our hands. The multiverse part is news to me though."
Fire smiled and replied: "Brad, Andras. I'm glad you're along for the ride as well. It was quite a shock when I found out, believe me."
The second man, Andras, rumbled: "Whatever's out there can't be too different. And if it is, I'm always up for new experiences!"
By the second, more Mencur-Besh appeared around them, next to them also appeared large crates filled with supplies. Armor, weapons, food, potions, blocks, whatever strategic resources were available, they were being brought along.
Fire spent the next few minutes bringing the human arrivals up to speed on the situation, and just as he was done, a portal opened nearby. Out of it came Shadow, followed by a now re-restrained Kay who was being led by Astro. Urist and the soldiers followed immediately after.
Astro, gobsmacked, surveyed the scene and then yelled over to Fire:
"How many of you are there?"
Fire replied: "Hello again Astro! Roughly three thousand. I'm afraid we'll need every one of them, I've seen the troop reserves of the Tower."
Fire saw Kay's brow furrow as he began muttering to himself. After a few seconds he craned his head over to yell into Astro's ear. The wizard reluctantly listened.
"That brings us up to around fifteen thousand committed to fight," called Astro again. "How quickly do you think you can get them over?"
Fire had to admit, he had waited for that exact question. While talking he slowly began mobilizing his vast stores of life force.
He said: "Remember how I came back to the Shelter on flaming wings? The Entity gave Claw massive amounts of energy to make sure he didn't die, that's how he survived being cut down by Rose. That energy is now with me. It's temporary, gone once used, but I don't plan to waste it."
Astro began to grin uncharacteristically widely. Kay even managed to recapture a bit of his usual energy.
"Waste not, friend!" shouted Kay with a toss of his head.
Astro only glared at him briefly.
Fire mentally instructed several Mencur-Besh mages to assemble, he channeled his life force into them. They began casting their spell, focusing it on the entrance of the dormant dimensional tunnel. The tunnel rapidly expanded to form an opaque portal, easily fifty meters in diameter. Then the portal began to burrow through the worlds, along the ender eyes Fire had placed in the tunnels seemingly an eternity ago. Then the portal cleared up, showing the high plains in front of the Shelter's entrance.
With a satisfied grin, Fire gestured towards the portal. "This will remain open for a few hours, which should give us enough time to move everything of importance through."
Astro asked: "How much energy did that use? Do you have much left?"
Fire replied: "If this portal used up all my energy it would be very convenient for our enemies. But I think it's time for us to benefit from convenient circumstances after what we went through. I'm not even close to done with this."
He signaled everyone to get going. The Mencur-Besh moved as one, carrying supplies along with them. Fire had rarely felt so good in the moment, they were at a turning point, and they all knew it. Now they needed to make sure to keep pushing to make sure they made the best of their situation.
As the first Mencur-Besh stepped foot on the mossy ground, something came flying through the higher part of the portal. A pile of rock and green fur landed on the ground and immediately began to run between the Mencur-Besh, offering thanks and handshakes and hugs in a euphoric frenzy. Finally, he dropped and skidded through the sand on his knees as though he'd just scored the goal of the century.
"YEEEEESSSS!" cheered Tyron.
"Thanks, friend," chirped Kir more calmly in Fire's mind.
The smile on Fire's face widened. It really was good to be back.
