1. FIRST CONTACT
A story ought to start someplace beautiful, and not many places could compare in beauty to Lan'Tim College. While not quite as large as the royal palace, it was still the grandest structure in its server world of Arcacia, and it left newcomers wonderstruck.
It was mostly composed of polished diorite. The interior contained long halls with person-sized statues of Hoglins and Ender Dragons and other mobs carved from calcite, all sitting at regular intervals. The distance to the ceiling was vast, and instead of torches there was soul fire that shimmered down a ghostly cyan against the gleaming white blocks in the relative dim. The footsteps of scholars and students echoed cavernously in these spaces, aiding the narcissistic thought that everyone here was much bigger, that it was the weight of their knowledge from learning at one of the finest schools in the realms. When one walked these halls alone, it was always ominous to hear the noise of their passage magnified and nothing else….
The exterior made the college truly remarkable. Smooth and chiselled quartz added to the diorite with small touches of granite, andesite and prismarine. For opulence the higher points of towers were bejewelled thus making a glimmering resplendence at sunrise and sunset, projecting an image of majesty across the lands. These were amethyst, emeralds, redstone, glowstone and of course, diamonds. Copper bands ringed the pillars higher up and arched over the huge windows. Perhaps the most impressive detail were the elephants carved from bone blocks, standing atop the pointed roofs with tusks raised and trunks arching, their bodies partially gilded. It was - anyone would have to admit - breathtaking.
Violet Merridew had lived at Lan'Tim College her whole life and the sight of its exterior still evoked some kind of emotion from her each and every time she saw it. Currently she was walking the halls alone, thinking about the college's outsides, on her way to see a mentor and old friend. She passed an intersection and turned her head both ways but of course if anyone had been near she'd have heard them. She was still alone. Due to stained glass the light in the bisecting corridor shimmered purple. Violet continued on by, returning her thoughts to Lan'Tim's evident glory and the ego it inspired in all who lived there. She was proud to be a resident there and proud of her scholarly status as a researcher. She was glad her mother, esteemed Selador Merridew, had already been a valued associate before Violet's birth, allowing her a place there. An entire wing was named after her. Her mother, who still contributed much as a researcher in a very different field but crossed paths with her only child once in a blue moon if that. Violet felt just a distant stiffness over that fact. She supposed Lan'Tim was rather large after all….
Violet heard echoed voices and soon turned a corner to see a group of young undergrads wearing the same black cloaks as her, with the distinguished caps marking them as intellectuals. She smiled and they stopped talking to smile back and make room for her. She entered a classroom and at the end stood a stooping old man with wiry grey hair poking out either side of his cap. He was talking with a few other students but after seeing her he shooed them away.
"Hello, Professor," Violet smiled warmly despite the formality.
"Ah, Violet," Castellan was delighted and moved to meet her. Both hands cupped her face before resting on her shoulders. He regarded her like a loving uncle and she stood between his hands, quietly beaming. "You've been back only one week and now you're leaving us again!"
"Actually Professor, I've been here two weeks. My research notes were finalised and submitted. Now I'm ready for my fourth placement."
"Such an avid researcher you are." He released her and flicked open his pocket watch, it was silver on a delicate chain and it ruled his life. "I believe I can spare a few minutes, so let me walk you to your next meeting." The undergrads in the room, younger than Violet by a few years, had been waiting patiently by the walls with their heads down. On hearing they would be receiving none of the professor's time they started emptying the room amicably.
Violet bit her lip, "I have nowhere to be now?"
"Augustus has been trying to reach you. The building crew have finished."
"Oh!" Violet dug into her deep pockets for her crystal ball. It was an effective communication device, functionally-sized to fit in the palm of her hand. She swiped across its smoothness, small clouds of faint colours indicated school announcements, research notes, and the message Augustus had sent her. She'd forgotten she'd put the thing on silent while finishing the notes of her last placement. "So he has."
Castellan smiled, "Come," and guided her back outside.
Violet's crystal ball now showed a hazy labyrinth of Lan'Tim's indoors, as well as the spot of red indicating the location of Augustus's ball - past three bisecting corridors and a left through the colonnade. She pocketed hers.
"After my seventh or eighth placement that should be enough to start my master paper," Violet began.
"I await it with great eagerness. Still, you've not taken a break in over a year. Why are you working so hard?"
"I love what I do. And, I thirst for knowledge." That made him smile. "It's also my way of paying back the college for all it's done for me."
"Now Violet," he was quick to say, "your mother has done plenty for Lan'Tim. Nobody is expecting you to repay anything."
"But with that said, my whole life I've barely had anything to do with her."
They took the next few steps in silence.
"You certainly chose a different enough branch of study to her. Oh, what was the reason? You found the arcane too unpredictable, and dangerous?"
Violet nodded with her gaze forward, "I like structure, reliability."
"You're far more cerebral and rigid than your mother anyhow, quite different." He knew saying so would please her. Then he turned his face to her fully and raised a bushy grey brow, "But sociocultural psychology, with your first major paper on testificate villages no less?"
Violet turned her face to him as well. She was beaming again, all the more brightly.
"I swear by Jeb, I truly love what I do. There's nothing else I'd rather study."
"In that case, I'm very happy for you-" he was interrupted by a call to his crystal ball - they heard its low vibrating and saw the faint glow through his pocket.
It came as no surprise that just a few minutes out of a professor's busy schedule was too much to ask for. He had to leave her to continue alone. They waved to each other, promising to talk again when Violet returned from her next assignment after however many months. Violet was still smiling idly all the way to her next meeting, and inside Augustus was waiting for her. He was a big guy with black curls hanging past his chin.
"Post-grad in her mid-twenties, you'd think she'd be able to check her messages."
"I'm twenty-four," Violet returned his admonishing tone, though he was only taunting her like a big brother would. Violet had no proper siblings. "My birthday was a few weeks ago."
"We could've celebrated, were it not for the fact you only came back twice this year. Seriously, you spent less than a month here, total."
"Just wait for my master paper to be published, there's nothing like it," Violet approached and leant her forearms on the table. It was central to this room, the likes of which were used by students for group projects.
"I guess…"
She urged the talk back on track, "So the building crew are finished?"
"Yeah."
Augustus thumbed a button at the table's edge and a cerulean hologram stitched together, detailing a small house in a desert biome. It was quite far from the village but still in sight of the inhabitants - that was important. It was situated in an unobtrusive spot and made of the same sandstone as their buildings. In time Violet would build another residence herself and closer, once the villagers had accepted her. Then she could begin her cultural studies and compiling new notes.
At the very beginning of these placements, Violet relied on Augustus and his scouting crew to find small testificate - or paganum, as they were also called, depending on the region - villages in rural worlds. Places that weren't likely to be disturbed by anyone: far from players, or settlements, or political hotspots. After going through the potential candidates, one village was chosen and the surrounding landscape was mapped. Finally, a spot was chosen for Violet's first home and a small building crew was dispatched to make it. The funds, means and manpower to do this were covered by Lan'Tim but where possible Violet tried to be self-sufficient.
After these initial steps she'd move herself in and require no further help from the college. She was proud that the financial assistance she needed to fulfil her master paper was a pittance compared to other post-grads. They seemed to endlessly waste the college's resources without a mind to plan for greater efficiency first. The majority of funds should be saved for the truly important research, as well as for the welfare and upkeep of the school. However, unlike most other students Violet's tuition had been covered out of gratitude for her mother. Violet's ground-breaking new research was sure to repay the school anyway and provide valuable findings for other researchers too.
Augustus explained, "The house comes complete with an underground panic room in case you're worried zombies really will break down your door at night. The world physics is identical to ours, another plus."
Violet leaned over, peering more intently at the hologram for several seconds. She'd already memorised the village's layout but stared closely for a meaningful moment.
Augustus watched her, "The chests are full of summer clothing," he added and she smiled at him appreciatively.
"Thank Notch for that. I'll go grab my bag and you can send me there right away," Violet said and he acquiesced with a nod.
Lan'Tim College was beautiful, but it would not be the setting for the next stage of Violet's life. She felt a little sad that she'd not had the time to visit all her old haunts on campus. All the pergolas and private nooks that were actually quite nice for one to study or eat or just sit at. While her studies were her passion, she also took a liking to historic buildings. Lan'Tim had a lot of history, some of which Violet had lived through but been too young to remember.
The Lucrecian Kingdom had ruled the server for sixty years, and all mod powers belonged to King Regus III. Before their time many kingdoms had come into power, and Lan'Tim had likely witnessed most of them. What made these rulers different to the current governing power was that they all arose from territories in-world, from within Arcacia. Then came the Thestacrucian Empire from another world entirely, a wealthier one called Xaddon. They invaded four years before Violet was born. Violet was conceived in this chaos, likely by the spurning of a passionate tryst that felt just as chaotic as the battling. Her scholastic mother got involved with a soldier, that's all he was. Apparently he didn't even know that pregnancies were possible in worlds like these. Despite all her acclaim sometimes Violet wondered if her mother had thought the same.
Anyway, Violet's father died in battle when she was two years old. When she was three years old the war was won and Emperor Dantalion declared himself the new ruler and admin of Arcacia which made for a total of three worlds in his empire. Violet supposed they could always be invaded again by another off-world empire, but Arcacia had remained fairly stable since then.
By the time she was old enough that the war could traumatise her, it was over. So while Violet's earliest memories were of harried figures in a dim underground bunker, they were without any accompanying sense of panic. In all the fighting no harm had come to Lan'Tim. It wasn't just because of the defensive magic - nobody wanted the prized institution of this world damaged. Even when the longstanding chancellor of Lan'Tim, Father Superior Jebediah had been secretly working with the invaders two years before the war ended. And not even when the college and its mages were openly allied with the invaders one year before the war ended.
Violet imagined that the self-interest and lack of loyalty in Lan'Tim's history wasn't a point of pride, but it didn't get brought up much anyway.
When the war was over, Violet moved with her mother into the college itself. In wartime she'd been raised in equal measures by refugees, and then she was raised by staff and educators until she was a teenager and at that point she barely saw her mother at all.
Lan'Tim had history, but even though Violet had barely been present over the last two years, and even if she'd been too busy in that time working to wander about appreciating the architectural beauty, it was nothing new to her. She'd spent much of her life growing up here, and the college had not changed in a very long time. It was a fleeting sadness to say goodbye again so soon, quickly overcome by the excitement of Violet's upcoming work: studying another isolated culture of villagers. That was what truly enlivened her; she was drawn by heartstrings toward Augustus and the waiting portal.
Violet pulled a wheeled bag after her, it weighed lighter than a chest and obviously stored much less. She didn't keep many possessions. She'd already plaited her hair and put on a stiff, wide-brim hat. Life in the desert would be different to the plains, snow and savannah villages she'd stayed at before. Violet felt up for the challenge.
A mage was present in the square room with Augustus and some overseers and they all wished Violet luck. The room had symbols engraved on the deepslate brick walls and floor.
"Before you leave, I have to give you this," Augustus stepped into the middle of the room to hand her a bunch of papers that he pulled from his leather satchel, then he stepped back again. These were standard for expatriates.
Violet had saved the others she'd been given. She flicked through and noticed they'd changed little since her last departure. There was a mauve paper list of worlds and political groups that Arcacia was allied with through trade. There was an orange paper list of enemies too, and a caution for citizens to avoid those worlds. The blue paper at the end had depictions of criminals most wanted by the Thestacrucian Empire who had escaped off-world. Expats had to immediately send word back home on the rare happenstance of seeing one. The man at the top of the list had the highest bounty by far. Helghast, a wayward warlock and ruler of a criminal syndicate. Violet looked up to show she was ready.
"Take care," Augustus said with a manner of concern that was also big brotherly.
"I always do," Violet said back, grinning ear to ear.
"See you in four to eight months."
The mage finished focusing on his crystal necklace and threw both hands out. The symbols in the room lit up purple and an eerie wind circulated. Then a purple vortex split the space and through it Violet could see the desert and her new house ten paces away.
"Goodbye," Violet waved off the others too.
"Fair thee well, traveller."
"Best of luck with your research."
Violet nodded to them all, put one hand on her hat and turned into the portal.
She entered the new world mid-stride and at once felt the bright sun and heat on her exposed arms. The glare was baneful. She passed a fat green cactus that was many heads taller than her, then stepped down a slope of off-white sand with help from her new boots. She caught the bright glimmer off the water from the village's well before reaching her jungle door. The short walk was enough to leave her sweaty; she was fanning herself with the papers. She got in and closed the door behind her. It was marginally cooler inside. Violet took off her hat and wiped her brow. She dropped the handle of her bag so it fell flat and stretched an arm overhead, adjusting to the new temperature. Then she set about unpacking.
There was a small desk and she started to unload twelve blank volumes she would fill with scrupulous note-taking. One battered tome was already written in - her journal. She kept that in a locked drawer.
Next, Violet began to order her clothes and hang them in the cupboard or refold them into her new dresser. The room was a tiny two-by-three blocks of size, with furniture made of reddish jungle wood. In the corner sat her simple white bed. Violet checked the chest for what food and items had been left for her. She viewed the contents in an abstract mind space and found: a map, a clock, a collection of stone tools, five non-stacking mushroom stews (Augustus had definitely included them, knowing she liked them), bread loafs, cookies, and chainmail armour and an iron sword. The last two she had absolutely no intention of using. Violet was an awful fighter. Before her first placement she was made to undergo survival training. This included fighting, which she failed, but she at least knew how to - rather ineffectively - swing a sword if she absolutely needed to. She also knew how to brew a healing potion, so there was that.
Violet shook her head at the contents of the chest. It was more than she needed, and more than she'd asked for.
Even for someone who enjoyed being by themselves, having no intelligent conversation became tedious. As for the crafting of tools and gathering supplies, they were the kind of jobs she needed to break up her routine. Violet frowned at the cookies and wondered if she could gift them to the villager children, but then decided she might need their sugar for energy. She closed the chest and straightened up, turning around in the small space. In no time at all she was finished unpacking. Time for her to journey out.
Violet stepped outside and the sun scorched her once more. She made to walk away from the village and up the sand mountain. She was being very conscientious of her new neighbours; she wasn't going to walk in and announce herself just yet. Wandering traders with their camels did that, but they were expected. Someone like Violet - they wouldn't know what to think. Testificates, or paganum, were a species found in most worlds and known for possessing sub-human intelligence. This village was like countless others that formed in the wild unknowns: a mere dozen houses for a regular-sized population of twenty. Violet had learnt to take such precautions, it was her way of being gracious.
She was sweating again before she reached the incline. Then she started working her way up with the lightweight grip boots she'd acquired for this terrain. She fought her way to the top and turned, the sun glared angrily under her brim, and she raised her arm for a better view. She peered at the tops of the sandstone blocks and spied elevated crop rows around water and sheltered grass pens holding animals. As Violet stared she saw one villager making their way between houses. Violet turned away and continued the trudging that should take her on a five kilometre walk around and back. She was mentally comparing the real-life landscape to what she'd already seen as holographic topography. She was able to recognize the slopes easily enough. Walking the terrain in person still helped her feel like she had a better lay of the land.
Violet skidded awkwardly a few times down the sandy slopes, and when she needed to use her hand to steady herself the sand felt burning hot. Being well accustomed to hard work, she endured without complaint. Violet took frequent sips from the tankard that hung around her neck, but measured them so she wouldn't run out of water before returning.
The sun had inched over to the west by a noticeable degree when her curved path took her over another sand mountain to the other side of the village. After sliding unsteadily for several feet down the last slope she was now on relative flat. There were gentle rolls of sand with dead-looking stick-bushes and proud cacti. Violet walked around, a good two hundred metres from the village and could distinguish nothing in the distance. She returned to her house.
She could see three villager children nearby. They may have been about to inspect her house, or they already had but retreated when they saw Violet returning. She smiled at them and suddenly wished she had those cookies after all, it would've made a good first impression.
The children seemed nervous and shifty, which was understandable. They were squatting together in a dip in the sand. Young testificates were fast, so they needn't be too afraid of far-away strangers. Violet always had trouble telling the gender of the children apart. With the adults it was easier because of their body shape, but they all had bald egg-shaped heads with oversized noses. There were some bumps or warts on their tan-coloured skin, other defining features included slight facial differences, head shapes and statures. Apart from this ugliness, their vivid green eyes were striking. Violet couldn't be sure they noticed her smile, but she kept her posture as non-threatening as possible as she returned to the house. The children kept watching her from a short distance.
Violet closed the door behind her and noticed she'd carried sand inside. She swigged the last mouthful of water and got to cleaning immediately. As simple as her temporary abode was, she couldn't abide mess. After sweeping she wet a cloth and was down on her hands and knees, scrubbing every inch of the floor, and then all the surfaces too when they weren't to her liking. Keeping a clean home in this biome seemed like an impossible task, but Violet was notoriously stubborn. She chewed her tongue and worked harder, her sweat falling in splotches on the sandstone.
She was almost finished, and it had been little over an hour since she'd been in this new world, when she heard a knock on the door.
That had to be them. Violet felt some excitement as she tossed the cloth over the wooden pail, stood and straightened out her clothes. She worked her fingers through her plaits, loosening them out and freeing her hair into a simple ponytail instead. Violet told herself it was silly to be nervous, but orating was never a talent of hers. When she was made to talk at her graduation she'd somehow choked on her tongue and forced herself through it, blushing when she stuttered.
But these weren't fellow academics, these were testificates. They understood helpfulness and respect, she didn't need to be a master of words.
Violet put on a polite expression and opened the door to three testificate men. One stood close in simple brown robes, a few shades darker than his skin. The other two stood behind him.
"How do you do? I'm Violet," she said.
He responded to her manners well enough, "Good day, traveller. I am Herkel." Their hanging noses seemed like the reason for their nasal voices.
"Would either of you gentlemen like a snack?" Violet watched the three look between each other. There was flummoxed shrugging and nodding.
Violet left the door open as she went to her chest. Villagers didn't eat sweet food, it wasn't a part of their regular diet. Child villagers liked them well enough, but never ate more than two. Violet crouched and mentally pulled them from their slot in the chest. She wondered if she should've baked something extravagant, a cake or pumpkin pie, but the villagers didn't usually approach her at her house so soon. These ones were different.
Violet passed out three cookies and they were inspected and sniffed before being carefully bitten. The food was found tolerable, and they all finished. Violet smiled, demure.
"As I quoth, Traveller Violet, I am Herkel and the chief of the nearby village. Of what quantity of thou are there?"
"I'm alone."
The two men behind looked at each other.
Herkel accused, "We saw about five men building this house yesterday."
"Yes. I'm a researcher…" Violet hesitated at their head tilts. She tried to find words they'd understand; she'd not expected direct questioning. Violet grappled, "I observe villages like yours… to learn about your ways, and then pass on what I know to my village."
"Thou shall observe us?"
"I would hope to. It was people from my-" a hesitation, "village who built this for me. But only I will be here and you'll see no others."
"How long shall thou keep?"
Violet was mystified by the extent of his inquiries, "Four, or maybe eight moons. However long it takes for me to learn about your people."
They stared at her. Perhaps they'd only ever encountered wandering traders. But the fact they were paying so much attention to her already made her think they must have had contact with humans already. Violet almost opened her mouth to ask but stopped herself. Better keep this exchange simple for them.
So instead she said, "I won't be in your way. If you'll have me, I'd like to offer my help with daily tasks. I'm a good worker."
"I see," Herkel said.
"Welcome traveller named Violet, I am Ansel," the villager to the left spoke up. He wore black, maybe a leather worker or a stone mason.
"And I am Berthar," the other wore a white woolly vest and cap, he was certainly an animal caretaker.
"It's very nice to meet you both," Violet clasped her hands over her lap and nodded.
"When thou desires to, visit the village for trades," Herkel said and nodded in dismissal, leaving with the others following after.
Violet watched them go and then lunged to her desk and started writing down their interaction before she forgot.
Afterwards she finished cleaning and then used her crystal ball to message Augustus, letting him know of the curiously fast progression. First contact, already. She could no longer message anyone from Lan'Tim, but her crystal had been set up so she could message Augustus's team. To think: communication across dimensions. Violet wondered what heinous rituals had once been performed to give these orbs power. None were new, they were all passed on, so were likely as old as the college. While impressive, their usage by Violet on assignments decreased after the beginning: she tended to let Augustus know how the early stages were going, then afterwards she typically became too bogged down with work to keep up contact. She was always building or farming or joining the expeditions, there was never an idle day. After the aforementioned exchange with Augustus she hopped off her bed and set the crystal on its stand on her desk.
Violet then left for another walk now that the sun was oranging on its descent to the horizon. She ventured a different way, appreciating how much cooler it was, the heat suctioned up into the air without flora to cling to.
On her way back she saw a villager in her house.
Strange, again.
Violet had closed her door so they'd know she wasn't in. Villagers walked into each other's spaces all the time. Still, Violet couldn't have been accepted by them already. The desire to keep an open door to convey transparency had warred with her urges to keep out the hot air and the sand it blew in. She walked into her own house non-threateningly, ignoring the man in green and sat on her bed to remove her boots. Violet went to offer the man a drink but she looked up to see him walk out without a word. Hmph. Violet set her wide hat beside her and tilted her head back, emptying her tankard into her mouth.
The sun would set in a few minutes. It was time to shut her door before the monsters began spawning. This had been day one of her new expatriation, and her first contact with the indigenous villagers.
Before the darkness settled in, Violet swept again. The sand was maddening, but she'd known it would be. Then she shut her door and fetched one of the mushroom stews. She set it on a small table by a window, found a wooden spoon, then filled a wooden cup with apple juice from her bag. Violet sat and started on her meal and waited for the monsters.
It took a while - peaceful chewing and slurping noises - and then silhouettes started appearing on the horizon. There were zombie groups that shuffled away from each other, and there were skeletons who clacked as they moved, armed with bows. The spiders were easiest to spot with their terrible red-glowing eyes, turning with their fanged heads on their crouching bodies. Their fast scurrying was unnerving to watch.
Violet feared monsters, but she'd also had a lot of time to grow accustomed to them. They were simple-minded, much more so than the testificates - they needed to wander close before noticing her house. The zombies would then approach and start bashing at her door. It would hold well enough, but it made sleeping impossible and even a good door wasn't enough to convince her she was safe.
Violet finished eating and just sat there for a moment, wondering if she should risk getting woken up by bashing in the night or just sleep in the panic room. The temperature would cool rapidly now it was night, another aspect of the desert biome that Violet had made sure to research ahead of time. She heard the sound of distant growls and whacking - an iron golem was fighting off zombies in the village. She couldn't see but she was sure of it.
Violet made up her mind. She got up and cleaned the dishes and wiped the table. She walked to her bed and started dragging it out, the wooden legs grinding against the sandstone floor. She heaved a few times, it was tiring work, and then crawled over and crouched to lift the trapdoor. She climbed down a few feet of laddering to a tiny bunker. Even if the zombies did get in they wouldn't be able to find her there. She crawled into the spare bed and tried for sleep.
。。。
【AN: This chapter is already much longer than I planned, but I still want to shout out the Convergence Shattered Dimensions series, as well as authors kmandy and SuperFire131 for the inspiration to step into this fandom.】