Chapter 14 – Stumble

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Ledgerdomain

Gwen floated ... somewhere. She felt the pull from all directions, the gentle tug asking her to let go and relax, letting her essence experience everything the domain was. It was not strong, but insistent, not letting her forget that the universe had expectations of her, and she was defying them.

She tried hard to keep herself together. In her anodite form that was harder than normal so she forced her physical body back to the surface. With a rush of feeling, her glowing appendages resolved into arms and legs and she felt her hair turn from a giant bound tentacle back into thousands of strands again. It was tiring, but necessary if she didn't want to lose herself.

Once she had eyes again, she looked around, but was even further confused. The view hadn't changed. Just magenta everywhere for as far as her eyes could see. Nothing broke the featureless void. Nothing told her if she was even moving relative to her original position. She just existed, with as much to see as if she'd had her eyes closed.

"Can you see it? Open your eyes, my darling."

The voice broke through the monotony and Gwen searched around for the source.

"I'm scared, Daddy."

The voice seemed to permeate the mana flows around her, coming from nowhere at all. Perhaps coming from her own mind. Were these her own thoughts? Was she going mad?

"There's nothing to be scared of, it's beautiful."

Gwen let herself relax just a bit to see if she could sense the source in the mana. Her shape blurred slightly as the boundaries of herself deteriorated and her essence surged out to find what she was looking for.

"Okay... I'll look."

With a snap, she retracted herself within the confines of her physical body and turned her head to look where she felt the source of the voice. She found two people standing in on a shimmering rocky platform, facing to the side, away from Gwen. It was a young girl with long gray hair and a older, taller man with long white hair and a matching goatee. The girl had her hands cupped before her and her eyes tightly wrenched shut, while the man had a gentle touch on her shoulder while he kneeled beside.

The girl slowly opened her eyes and as she did a single red rose bloomed between her palms, bursting open with a sprinkle of dew. The girl's fearful look turned into a wonderfully charming smile.

"Daddy!" she said in excitement. "It's..."

"A rose," said the older man. "Hold onto it tightly, keep it alive."

"I'll try," said the girl as her wide eyes concentrated on the red flower.

Gwen tried to take a step towards the two but found her feet didn't touch the ground. She tried to fly closer but couldn't close the distance. No matter what she tried, the gap between her and the two people stayed the same.

"Hello!" she called out, but got no response. "Excuse me? I need a little help!"

The two seemed oblivious to her presence.

"Very good, little one," said the older man as the flower grew taller and sprouted leaves and thorns on its stem.

"What does it mean?" asked the girl.

The man suddenly looked burdened and his smile faded. "It means you are special. So very special in this world of empty constructs. You can create true life." He slowly moved around to look into the girl's eyes. "It means you will be feared."

The awe on the girl's face grew soft and she trembled. "I'm afraid, daddy."

"Shhhh," he quietly hushed. He reached up and put his hand over the flower and gently pushed it down into the girl's still-cupped hands. "It is not hard to hide, if you are careful. That is what you must do, if there is to be any chance for our people to live on. Keep your secrets close, and trust only your family to protect you. Me, your uncle Hex, and your aunt Cabra."

"And Mommy?" asked the girl softly.

The older man looked into his daughter's eyes then slowly drew her into a tight embrace before the two of them turned to mist and vanished altogether.

Gwen waited for a moment to see if there would be something else before speaking. "Charmy?" she said.

"Yes."

The voice was deep and familiar, and immediately behind her. Gwen spun with her hands at the ready to let lose a mana beam but the man was simply floating there, his head hung, looking tired and old. He looked just like the old man in the vision she just saw, though infinitely more aged.

"You're Charmcaster's father," said Gwen. "Spellbinder."

Spellbinder nodded and looked up. His eyes were sunken and were dimly glowing. In fact his whole form was slightly intangible and shimmering, as if he were a projection on a passing cloud.

"I ... I thought you were dead," said Gwen.

"Adwaita destroyed me," said Spellbinder. "Broke my essence and dispersed me throughout this dimension. Scattered and left for dead, he underestimated me. He never believed I had the power and patience to collect myself once more—" he suddenly partially dissolved with a look of pain on his face. A moment later he reconstituted himself again and relaxed. "At least, for a final conversation."

Gwen felt enormously burdened by this knowledge. "Then you should be talking to Charmcaster, not me. She's the one who needs to hear your voice again."

Spellbinder smiled warmly. "There is no time. I can appear but once and I need my message to be heard."

Gwen frowned sadly. "Why me?" she asked.

"Because of all the interlopers who have arrived today, you among them care most for my daughter," said Spellbinder. "And you alone will hear what I have to say."

Gwen felt flushed. "S-surely Charmy herself—"

"Won't hear me," interrupted Spellbinder, then he broke apart again, spending several seconds reforming. "How many daughters truly hear what their fathers are saying? I love her, and she loves me. But that can be blinding, sometimes."

Gwen refused to think too long on that message, as she had enough troubles for one afternoon. "What's do you need to say?" she asked instead.

Spellbinder turned slightly and waved his hand. The mana behind him changed to show a dusty image of a band of cloaked people following a woman holding a glowing symbol above her head. "Since the days of the Formative Era our people have walked between dimensions, following the call of the Alpha Rune. We have left ruin in our wake. From our first home in the Transactive Zone, to the Null Void, to here, the source of all mana, Yawatacsip. It is not intentional, but we are accountable. Here, at the core, however, we risk the integrity of all worlds."

The image behind Spellbinder shifted to show a city looking much like Karakas did when Gwen was last here. Half of the image showed the city splintered and broken while the other was covered in even more buildings and grafted skyscrapers.

"We take and copy, merge with what exists, and harvest more," said Spellbinder. He began to slowly deteriorate at his extremities and this time he did not reform. "Eventually it collapses, and we must flee. There is another way, however: unity."

The image changed again showing Charmcaster standing before a fractured magenta plane. Several cracks in the plane were glowing leading towards Charmcaster's outstretched hands in which held a purple rose.

The lower half of Spellbinders body was now completely dissolved. "She has the power to breathe life into this world and our people again," he said. "New, native life that will combine with us and the mana into something new. With the Alpha Rune and her ability, she'll have the power and structure to give our people a future again, free of oppression, free of destruction. She is the one we labored so long to protect and have waited generations to arrive."

The image faded away as Spellbinder was left with only his bust. He looked at Gwen with a bright smile. "When Adwaita is gone, you must make her take the rune and use it, only then can our new era begin." His neck and hair dissolved away leaving a floating face that looked slightly melancholy. "I knew she was the one, even when she was born. I never showed her my dreams. I should have. But I laid the groundwork. I gave her her true name." He dissolved completely, leaving only a single word that echoed in the mana of his wake.

"Hope."

-(X)-

Charmcaster closed her fingers and Phil, Kai, and Sunny appeared on the floating rock she was standing on. A feeling of exhaustion settled over her and she fell to her knees to catch her breath.

"Are you alright?" asked Phil as soon as he noticed Charmcaster on the ground.

"Peachy," spat Charmcaster.

Sunny was glowing radiantly with the mana around her, even though she had assumed her physical form, light was leaking from all over her body. Her eyes weren't even visible beyond the glow and motes of ruby light were simply floating off of her as she moved.

"Wow... this is," Sunny started, then just gave up. "Wow."

"What happened?" asked Kai. "I felt like I was trapped in some limbo."

Phil helped Charmcaster back to her feet and she looked at Kai. "Nearly," she said breathily. "Adwaita apparently destroyed the walkway from the Door. Without grounding, anyone inexperienced with Ledgerdomain might find themselves lost in the mana flows. I had to pull you all to me to get you to sync to my time."

"What about Brozz?" asked Gwen.

"What about him?" asked Charmcaster.

"He followed you in," said Kai. "He was after you. That's why he attacked."

"Me?" said Charmcaster. "Why me?"

"He needed someone to open the Door to Anywhere," said Kai. "But not to Ledgerdomain. To somewhere else. Where else does it go?"

"Uh, Anywhere," said Charmcaster. "Hence the name."

"Really?" asked Sunny, skeptical.

"Well, within reason," admitted Charmcaster. "You have to have a good idea of where in the dimension you're going to land, otherwise it will just drop you off at the easiest place."

"Easiest?" asked Phil.

"Highest mana concentration," said Charmcaster. "If the door hadn't been grounded on this side you'd drop right on top of Nis Virda, or wherever the Alpha Rune currently is." She shook her head and then shrugged off Gwen's help, standing on her own. "If he knows how the Door works – which my Uncle probably told him - he could go anywhere he knows about. And that's bad."

"Why?" asked Phil. "We got him here, we just need to cast the spell."

"Because anyone with aptitude on this side can open the Door, not just my family," said Charmcaster. "If he finds someone willing to help him before we find him, he could leave before we even start casting."

"Find him?" asked Sunny. "I never heard anything about trying to find Brozz. I thought it was going to be obvious."

Charmcaster rolled her eyes. "It was supposed to be obvious, but Adwaita destroyed the walkway! That means getting around is harder than ever and I can't very follow Brozz through the stepway to Nis Virda." She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. "I can't feel any battle. Wherever Brozz ended up, Adwaita hasn't found him yet."

"Can't you just pull him here like you did us?" asked Kai.

"I tried to get everyone who wasn't grounded," said Charmcaster. "You three were the only ones who weren't. Which means everyone else landed somewhere. But without the walkway, I can't tell where."

"So, to recap, we're lost and under a deadline," said Sunny. "Fabulous."

Charmcaster grumbled. "We need to get to Nis Virda, that's where Adwaita probably is and where we'll have to draw Brozz too if he isn't already there."

"What about everyone else?" asked Phil.

"There's nothing I can do for them right now," said Charmcaster. "I hope they find their way, otherwise it'll just be Sunny here sustaining the Diaspora spell."

"Oh, fun," said Sunny.

-(X)-

Julie felt like she'd been punched in the neck by a rocket and groaned as she opened her eyes and tried to roll onto her side.

"Easy," came a quiet voice and a hand was placed on her shoulder, keeping her on the ground. "I don't know if anything's broken."

Julie slightly turned her head to see Kevin Levin kneeling beside her, looking off into the distance. They were both in some purple land with chunks of dark grey rock floating idly by. She felt the hard stone beneath her and tried not to move too much as she looked to see what Kevin was looking at.

Her breath caught in her throat as she saw a wall of jagged stone beyond which stood a tall gleaming city and a giant turtle-like monster walking around on its hind legs throwing bolts of magenta energy at the ground. It was all too distant to see exactly what the monster was shooting at, presumably the people living in the city it was traipsing around in, but enough to help Julie recognize the imminent danger of being so close.

An anodite flew into her field of vision and landed nearby. She looked like all the other anodites that Julie had seen so she wasn't sure if it was Gwen, her cousin Sunny, or their grandmother Verdona.

"What did you see?" asked Kevin.

"There's a path," said the anodite, whose voice identified it as Verdona. "Goes into the heart of the city, but it's a war zone in there. I think those Archamada cultists are actively fighting him and he's destroying everything in his way in retaliation." She shook her head. "Those people are being slaughtered."

"We need to get closer," said Kevin. "Slow him down a bit."

"I'm not sure that's wise," said Verdona. "His power is immense, we would be like flies."

"Not you," said Kevin. "You could fight him, right?"

Verdona looked away and narrowed her eyes. "Maybe I might be more distracting than the people he's killing, but even with the power available here, I doubt I could stand against that Alpha Rune he has. He might even be able to control me if I got too close to that thing."

Kevin punched the ground nearby. "We can't just do nothing."

"We need to find out what happened to everyone else and Brozz," said Verdona. "And give Charmcaster's plan a chance to work. She has that ... signal rune to start the Diaspora spell, we can't do anything without her."

Kevin grumbled something inaudible. "Fine." He pulled out his Plumber's Badge and pressed on the faceplace. "Anyone out there? This is Kevin."

The badge flashed a few times and then turned red. Kevin shook his head in response. "So much for the easy path." He looked down at Julie. "How are you doing?"

Julie wigged her fingers and toes and nodded slowly. The pain was most sharp in her neck but it was still moveable. Everything seemed intact. "I think I'll be alright." She began to sit up. "What happened to Ship?"

A black and green form jumped out from behind Kevin but stayed a few paces away from Julie. "Ship?" it said sadly.

"You okay, little guy?" she asked as she rubbed her neck with her hand.

"Ship," said Ship. He jumped slightly closer then looked at her legs and then her head. "Ship? Ship, ship."

"It's okay, it's not your fault," said Julie. "I'm just glad you kept me alive."

"Ship!"

Julie started to get to her feet but felt a knife of pain down her back and she stumbled. She breathed deeply. "I might need your help though," she said.

Ship jumped up and merged with Julie again, this time becoming a thin layer across her body almost like a wetsuit with glowing green circuitry. When Julie went to stand again she could feel Ship taking some of the burden off her own joints and muscles and found it much easier to straighten her back.

Julie breathed out evenly. "Okay, let's get moving."

-(X)-

Ben grabbed Gwen as soon as she landed and dove to the side, leaving an opening just wide enough for Max to fire between the buildings at Brozz. They rolled away to safety while Max continued laying out a barrage of plasma blasts towards the Chamatronian. Individually, the shots were less than pin pricks to the beast, but it seemed the onslaught was at least enough to distract him from slaughtering the native Ledgerdomain inhabitants as they fled from his presence.

Gwen perked her head up and looked around in a panic. "What happened?" she asked.

Ben waved Grandpa towards them as he pulled Gwen into a narrow alleyway. "I don't know," said Ben. "Grandpa and I showed up right next to Brozz and everyone else is missing. Where did you come from?"

Grandpa ran to the side and dove over to the cover next to Ben and Gwen.

"I'm not sure," said Gwen. "I was floating somewhere and then I just appeared here."

"Do you think the others will appear too?" asked Max.

Ben spun the dial on his watch and stopped on Jetray. He slapped the Ultimatrix and changed into the red flying alien. Then he slapped the symbol on his chest again. He grew bigger and more muscular, and his golden brow turned black and curved like a ram's horns. His skin took on a darker, bluish tone, a large fin grew out of his spine, then his hands and feet grew long, sharp claws. Finally his wings separated from his arms and his eyes started glowing green.

"ULTIMATE JETRAY!" he yelled with a deeper, modulated voice.

"I don't know," continued Gwen as Ben's spectacle finished. "That didn't happen last time."

"We can't hang around to find out," said Ultimate Jetray. "Do you know where Adwaita might be? We need to drive Brozz to him."

Gwen looked contemplative. "Abara talked about the Alpha Rune being at Nis Virda and Charmcaster later said that Adwaita was in possession of the Alpha Rune. I would guess he's there."

"Great," said Ultimate Jetray. "How do we get there?"

Gwen shrugged. "I dunno, I just followed Hex and Charmcaster."

Max peeked around the corner of the alleyway and then quickly pulled his head back in. "Look out!" he yelled as he began pushing Gwen and Jetray down the alley. A moment later the corner of the building he was sitting against exploded.

"All right, what about a guide?" said Ultimate Jetray.

Gwen looked around. "This looks like Karakas," she said. "I know how to get to the temple-like building we talked with Abara and Cabra at. Maybe they're still there? They could take us to Nis Virda."

"Fine," said Jetray. "Which way?"

Gwen pointed over the buildings to the left. Jetray nodded then grabbed Gwen and Max by their shirts and leaped up into the air. His wings extended and they soared up.

"Woah," said Jetray as the crested the top of the building and wobbled a bit. "This is more like flying in space than in the air."

"Charmcaster said large objects had inertia," said Gwen. "If you aren't grounded by one, you end up floating around. So that makes some sense... as much as anything makes sense here."

"I guess that's what happened to everyone else," said Max.

"There was a bridge when we exited the Door last time," said Gwen. "I don't know what happened to it."

"Should we look for it?" asked Max.

Gwen looked thoughtful. "No, let's focus on getting Brozz to Adwaita, it's what we're here for."

Jetray looked down. "Speaking of, I don't see him anywhere," he said. "Did we lose him?"

Gwen leaned to the side to look down. "We shouldn't have been trying to, we need to lead—"

She didn't get to finish before Brozz came flying up from between two buildings and punched Jetray into the ground, sending Gwen and Max flying.