Chapter 26 - A New World
Lydia looked behind her. The gateway had gone. Ahead of her stood the Companions, looking at her expectantly.
"Bugger," she thought. "They expect me to know what to do next. I don't. I need to understand what Oddy knows. And that's going to take a while. I'd better give them all something to do."
She looked around. They stood on a slope, rising from a wooded valley to some hills with craggy outcrops. There were birds flying. She recognised the feel of them. They were birds she knew from her own world. The small animals she sensed rustling and burrowing in the woods seemed familiar. For another world, it felt like home. This might be her native Lancashire — but before the humans. There was no traffic noise, no aircraft, no electricity pylons. There was no evidence of farming, no signs of people other than her companions. This would be a perfect holiday destination. This was no holiday, she reminded herself.
Food shouldn't be a problem, they had provisions in their magical knapsacks. And they had shelter: their tents. They could conjure fire for warmth. She could reach out and find what was around them. She did not need the others to do anything right now. But she needed them not to get bored, or scared, nor to resent her for bringing them here.
"Right," she said. "I want to use magic as little as possible. We can't tell what attention it might attract.
"I'd like you all to pair up. Two pairs should go down into the woods and collect firewood. The other two should go up the hills ahead of us, see what's there, and see if you can find a good place for us to camp for the night. Oddy and I will stay and discuss what we understand from what Ambrose has told us.
"It looks like it's late spring or early summer here. Just get back before it gets dark. Have fun exploring!"
Dean and Jimmy teamed up and set off up the slope towards the hills. Christie consulted with Shona, and they set off for the woods. Sophie ordered Freddie to join her. Sophie started towards the hills, but Freddie tried to argue in favour of going down to the woods.
"Freddie, I'm not going to stand around while you pick flowers," Sophie said. "I want to find out what's over this hill. Move it!"
Freddie shrugged and followed her like a puppy. This left Corben and Dev to go foraging for firewood.
Lydia tested the grass. It was dry. The sun was warm, the light breeze mild, and the air as clean as a mountain stream. She, Oddy and Xander sat and watched two pairs of their friends dwindling away towards the trees.
"Good move," said Xander. "Give the troops something to do. Definite roles and purpose. A key to success in group survival situations."
"It just seemed like a good idea," Lydia admitted.
"Aye. That's because you're a natural," Xander said.
"I wanted rid of them for a while so that we could think," Lydia said.
"I didn't say a natural what," Xander joked.
Oddy chuckled. Lydia looked at him. He was a worrier, not a chuckler. She was glad he seemed in good spirits.
"So tell me, Oddy, what do I need to know?" she asked.
"Well, everything, of course," he replied. "I'll prioritise. Most of this we should tell the others, but this is an opportunity to decide what we should keep back. Some of it is quite worrying. Xander, please add anything you know we might not. I think what Ambrose has given us is a patchwork of information the three of us need to stitch together."
"Well, I'm a simple creature," Xander said. "Actually, I'm not. But compared to Ambrose, I am. Aren't we all? He has discussed a lot with me over the years. At least, he thinks he has. Mostly he has rambled out loud to himself while I have been present. He asks a lot of questions, answers them, then comes to his own conclusions. He rarely articulates his conclusions, as I have told Oddy before. Despite that, I have picked up some things I hope will be useful."
Oddy nodded his appreciation. "The first, and most worrying, thing — and this is one we should keep to ourselves for now."
"I'm not liking the sound of this," Lydia grumbled.
Oddy looked her in the eye. This was becoming a habit. Oddy was rising to the occasion, and Lydia liked it.
"I don't think any of this is designed for our liking," he said. "But it's valuable information. It's better than not knowing."
Lydia smiled at him. "I know you're trying to help Oddy. I really appreciate it."
She put her hand on his. She had never seen Oddy blush before.
"We are in the Anteworld," he continued. "It lies between our world and the Alterworld. We are at the end nearest the gateway, as you know. So we are close to our world.
"The Old Magic, which is your primary source of magical power, comes from our world. The High Magic, the source of power for the rest of the Companions, comes mostly from the Alterworld. Hence the problem between our worlds."
Lydia frowned. "I think I see where you're going with this."
The look Oddy gave her was admiring but burdened with sadness. "Exactly. The further we go towards the end of this quest, the closer we get to the Alterworld. This has consequences. Your Old Magic will be less powerful, but your High Magic will be stronger.
"For the rest of us, it makes little difference. You might still be the most powerful of us, though Dev will give you a run for your money, as they say."
"This is why Ambrose has given you the best wand he can," Xander added, "and why he has insisted you keep practising with it."
"I see that now. I wish I'd practised harder."
"Ambrose was pleased with your progress, but we jumped into this quest a wee bit early," Xander noted. "One other thing, I'll add. Throughout the Anteworld are animals and plants from our world. There will be other animals as we move further along our quest."
"You mean animals from the Alterworld?" Lydia asked.
Oddy answered. "It's not clear. Ambrose thinks it likely they are beasts the Watcher has either invented or corrupted. They won't be friendly."
Xander jumped in. "You have a great affinity with our animals. More so even than Ambrose, I suspect. You will have little or no affinity with the Watcher's animals. You will easily sense the difference, I imagine. Never forget you are the Queen of the Thousand Forests."
Lydia scowled. "Why did Ambrose give me all this power, only to send me somewhere it doesn't work?"
Xander looked at Oddy.
"Well, it does work," Oddy said, "and it will for most of the quest. Plus, it's just a side effect of giving you the High Magic, which is still pretty useful."
"The thing you have to understand," Xander added, "is that Ambrose had a powerful insight about you. He chose you because he believed you would have the right qualities. He was right. I think he has come to love you more than anyone since he had his own children. Ambrose's life must be constant torment, yet he has allowed himself to love you, even though he knew he would have to send you on this wee errand."
"There is much more to you than your magical abilities, Lydia," Oddy said. He looked into her eyes again. "You're amazing."
"Aye, he's right," Xander confirmed.
"So, what about the quest?" Lydia asked. "What can you tell me?"
Oddy sighed. "As Ambrose said, the details vary each time. Generally, and nobody in our world knows why, there is a quest which involves a series of objects or actions based on the Fundamental Essences. You are aware of the classical four elements?"
"Earth, air, fire, and water, you mean?" Lydia asked
"Yes, though I prefer earth, water, air, and fire. That way, it corresponds to the states of matter, in ascending degrees of energy. Earth is solid, the least energetic state. Water represents liquid, the next state you get as you supply energy to a solid. Air is gas. Fire represents pure energy, which is a higher state of matter: E equals m c squared."
"So, there are four actions to perform or objects we have to look for?"
"No. The Essences continue this trend of moving to higher states. There are at least two more. If you organise complex systems of matter in certain ways, another property emerges."
"That's complexity science," Lydia said. "Emergent properties of complex systems. I've heard about that."
Oddy grinned. "Of course you have! Dev hadn't until I told him about it. Well, when certain self-catalysing chemical reactions happen in the 'primordial soup' for sufficient time, you get a property we call 'life'. That's the theory, anyway. However it comes about, we can look at life as a higher state of matter. It's doing more than it usually does."
"So life is another of these Fundamental Essences. What else is there?"
"The next one, I think," said Oddy, "is probably information or knowledge, or even wisdom. I'm not sure. Information seems too basic to be a higher form."
"From Ambrose's ramblings, I think he uses the term sentience," said Xander.
"Ah, of course," Oddy said. "That's a higher form emerging from life. Thank you, Xander. That has cleared it up in my mind. Those are the essences I know. I don't know how many more there might be."
"I think there are seven," Xander said. "Ambrose said something about each team or each hero having to work the seventh out for themselves."
"He talks about us as though we're characters in a story," Lydia remarked.
"He does," Xander agreed. "But maybe he's justified in doing so. I mean, he's been organising these quests every few centuries for six thousand years. Who's to say the events haven't passed down into legend? Maybe the quests came first and the stories came after?"
"There's always a mentor in the old sagas," Oddy said. "Usually an old man with a beard."
"There's also a young hero," said Xander. "Who wants adventure until it arrives, and is given some power or enchanted weapon."
"And often a wild man who gets the hero into trouble with terrible advice," said Oddy. "I hope I'm an apprentice mentor, and not the wild man."
Xander laughed. "I don't think you're cut out to be a wild man, Oddy. The wild man is impulsive and either sneaky or a wee bit mad."
"And I'm the hero, I suppose," Lydia groaned. "Strong and dumb and expendable. How often does the hero survive?"
"It varies," said Xander. "But I should let you know: I am the hero."
Lydia sighed. "You're a cat, Xander. You're bound to think that."
Lydia, Oddy, and Xander mulled over the quest and the information Ambrose had tried to pass on. The sun eased down the sky to their right as they looked down towards the valley. If this world was to be believed, that meant they were looking southwards and the hills were to the north.
As the sun lowered, the first pair to return from their foraging were Shona and Christie. They came up the slope, chatting and laughing.
"Did you find any firewood?" asked Xander as they arrived.
"Loads!" said Shona. "We didn't have to cut anything down. There must have been a storm recently, there was so much."
"It's a lovely wood, light and open," Christie added. "So most of what we found was quite dry."
"I'll try again," said Xander. "Did you bring any firewood?"
"Yes, it's… oh my stars! You can talk! Xander, you can talk!" Shona squealed.
"Aye," Xander acknowledged. "I've noticed how that keeps happening."
Christie sat down next to Xander. "Cats are cool anyway. You must be the coolest cat ever."
"I've never doubted it," Xander said. "We can have a little fun seeing how long it takes for the others to realise."
"The wood is in our bags," Shona said. "Are we going to wait and see if the others have found a better campsite before we unload?"
"That would be the best idea," Lydia said. "I think we should unpack it by hand. The less we use wand magic, the less likely it is we'll draw unwanted attention."
"Yeah, we loaded it by hand 'cos you'd said," Christie told them. "Did anyone bring a hatchet or something?"
"Don't look at me," Oddy warned. "Maybe one of the others will have one."
"I've brought a machete and a few swords," Lydia admitted. "Forgot to bring an axe, though."
"Oh, Lydz," said Shona. "We should've known."
"What kind of girl doesn't carry a machete in her shoulder bag?" said Xander.
"Have you brought anything useful, Xander?" Oddy asked.
Xander stood up. His tail made a swirling flourish. "Here I am."
They laughed. A call came from up the slope behind them. Jimmy and Dean were on their way down to join them.
"We found a cave!" Jimmy announced as they arrived.
Dean elaborated. "We found more than a cave. There's a cave — well, more like a tunnel, really — that leads to a huge chamber. Some of the floor of the tunnel has fallen into this cavern. We couldn't see much with our torches, and we didn't want to risk using magic, but it's big."
"It sounded enormous when we dropped a stone down into it," Jimmy added. "There were bones on the rocks below the hole."
The gathered students gave each other ominous looks.
"I think they were bears and other animals. Probably wandered in and fell in the darkness."
"Does it seem like a nice place to set up camp?" Shona asked.
"Niceness is optional," Lydia said. "This feels like somewhere we need to investigate. Where are the others? We should make a move."
Looking around, they could see Dev and Corben tramping up the slope from the valley, their packs over their shoulders. The two boys waved to them.
Shona looked anxious as they stood at the mouth of the cave.
"Is it all right to use the tents, Oddy?" she asked.
Lydia frowned. "Why wouldn't it be?"
Shona looked down and shuffled her feet.
"I meant, is it all right because they're magical and we shouldn't use magic."
"Sorry, Shones," Lydia murmured. "I didn't mean to sound snappy. You're right to ask… and Oddy is our adviser."
"I don't think there is a problem with items which are imbued with magic," Oddy said. "Or if there is, there's nothing we can do about it. We each have a magical rucksack… and a wand, too."
"We've got loads of magical items between us," Dean said. "Bags full of them, literally."
Oddy looked puzzled. "I thought yours was mostly pies and sausage rolls, Dean."
Dean grinned. "Exactly. Bloody magic!"
"We'll put three tents up on the level ground, here," Lydia said. "Headquarters, boys' bunkhouse, and girls' royal residence. Then we can get a fire going and have a meal together."
Part of the inherent magic of their tents was that they assembled themselves. Another part was that, of course, they were much larger on the inside than the outside. However, there was no magic to help with lighting a fire. They unpacked some of the firewood from their rucksacks, then stood around staring at it.
"Seriously?" Lydia laughed. "Not even you, Shona? You're muggle-born. I can see I'm going to have to teach you all some basics."
Oddy and Sophie sat beside Lydia as she taught the others how to build a fire, and where to place the kindling and tinder. She showed them how to use a sharp knife to make a finely sliced feather-stick which would light easily. Then she explained the use of friction to create the heat needed to start a fire. She handed out pairs of sticks for them to rub together. Oddy nodded sagely at everything Lydia said. Sophie sat and smiled.
All the others had stopped and were sitting red-faced and breathless, but Jimmy kept trying, convinced that his sticks were about to burst into flames.
"Of course, friction isn't the only way to start a fire," Lydia said.
With a flourish, she produced a lighter from her pocket and pressed the button to light it.
"You each have a gas lighter, like this, in your rucksacks," she said with a grin. "The whole idea of building a fire is the same. You just need to light something to put in the middle and get it going."
She held up her feather-stick, lit it, and pushed it into the base of the fire pile. She had to blow on it a few times, but the kindling soon caught and, with surprisingly little smoke, the fire grew.
"I suspect Ambrose may have included something in our rucksacks to dry out the firewood," Oddy remarked.
They settled in a circle around the fire as the sun set. The wind was light, and the fire gave out only a little smoke. They shuffled around to avoid what fumes there were until they realised it was futile. They had an impromptu meal from their bags and shared stories about their lives.