Eala bowed deeply in her ceremonial elven fashion, touching her eyebrows with both index fingers: “We must move to open place, as I need to prepare the tools. Then we can go.”
I remembered what she had told about the problems with time synchronization: “And time flow? What are the chances that everything will blow up into our faces?”
“I don’t know. I can only assure you that I do my best, Lord.” – Eala looked straight into my eyes, looking resolute and calm.
I smiled, approving of her bravery: “I agree, we need to get out of here before this world collapses and we have no luxury to wait for someone to come by.”, I picked up the bag and went past Eala towards the stairs that led down: “Let’s go.”
—
What I did not expect, was the fact that creating a portal for amateurs needs A LOT of space. So for a while I was dragging around angrily buzzing spiked security wheels, kicking clattering pieces of dismembered but still active undead torsos and pushing dislodged multi-ton stone blocks out of the way.
Soon, we secured a relatively flat expanse of tiled ground in front of the city defense control building. Using the rubble to block off the access from outside, I ensured that Eala could concentrate on her task.
As she began her work, what drew my attention was her method of creating the portal. Drawing pentagrams? Erecting pillars? Fiddling with gemstones? No, Eala uncoiled a spool of thin metal wire, which she then stretched out between thick bronze awls that she had asked me to stick into the ground.
When the number of awls reached a dozen, the stretched wire began to hum. While the structure looked like a messy cat’s cradle, I could see that its three-dimensional structure began to creep into the fifth dimension, which could be felt but not touched. While the formation grew more and more complicated, the resonance between the wire and the space became increasingly clear. Several strands of wire disappeared from sight, and the space above the formation blurred into an indistinguishable mess of colours and shapes.
It was the first time that I could see the interaction between dimensions and space as a spectator. And while I looked, the twisting borders of reality spun and attempted to draw in my mind. Luckily, I had my mind and body melded together, so instead I only felt a nasty jab in my mindcore.
As I shook my head trying to get rid of the nasty feeling, Eala interrupted her work to look at me. “You can see what is happening?!” – she asked incredulously: “even our Guides rely on instincts and inborn feelings to shape the space. I am not sure if even the kin of Nimed could do that safely!”
That prompted a logical question from me in response: “Wait, how can you use it then?”
“I am following patterns, as accurately designed angles, lines and turns can affect the space itself by forming the pathways for the free energy to follow. Like water prefers a groove to follow, which it then erodes to make a channel.” – Eala’s reply was unexpected. So I could only let her continue her work, while I looked at the arcane cat’s cradle growing.
Soon the distortions above the formation became more prominent, and a well-defined border took shape between the chaotic center and calm surroundings. Occasionally, with a whipcrack claps, barely distinguishable dark lines appeared in the air before instantly disappearing. Were these cracks in the space I had read about in fantasy and sci-fi? I had a feeling, that it would be a dumb idea to touch them, so I paid careful attention to Eala. By then, she had woven a circular pattern of over four meters in diameter and her head and back were just a hand’s length away from seething space above her.
At last, the humming of the wires reached some sort of balance and all sound in the vicinity disappeared. Instead, the formation began pulsing with soft shockwaves, as if the air was being rapidly displaced from its original space. As the pulses became more frequent, they soon melded together, and only pressure remained. Then, the violently churning air trembled, and a dark, restlessly twisting space appeared before us. The portal appeared in its full size, as if it had been there before, simply made visible by Eala’s manipulations.
—
Eala stood up and shook the dust off her knees and hands.
I pointed at the portal: “Do all your elven portals look like that? Looks dangerous, if you ask me.”
“Not actually. Guides simply open them through their own power, so it is more precise and calm then, Lord.” – admitted Eala.
“I meant, does it have to hang so high up in the air?”
“No, but should be within the range of permitted mistakes, my teacher would say.”
“Does your teacher carry a ladder around?”
“Well, we learn that skill in case something really bad happens to all our Guides at once, I don’t think anyone ever used it for himself ever since Great Travels.”
“And it still works? Where should it take us then? I thought it would be a little less…chaotic”
“We learn only one pattern, to Home.” – Eala had a nostalgic look as she said that, and she continued: “The place where we trade with other children of Nemed, Tuatha Dé Danann. They call it Emain Ablach, but we just call it Home as it is safe place for young ones to grow and learn. Oh, and there are good fruits there, our fold makes amazing wine from them.”
With a noncommittal grunt, I looked at the portal, which did not seem to reduce its ominousness in the slightest. Leaving a limb outside while passing through would definitely lead to inconveniences.
“Any problems if we jump in? No messed up body parts or eyeballs on the buttocks?”
“Should be safe. But, I can’t be sure about the exit. I could not match the Time flows, so I could only do without it. Please make sure you are prepared to step out anywhere, Lord.” – Eala stressed the latter part of her explanation.
“Together or one after another?”
“Together, the Way will collapse in few moments after first person enters it.”
“Heave-ho!” – I picked up Eala, and adjusted the form of my weapon, which was in the shape of a staff, to make a wide bracelet around my arm.
I looked around for the last time, only seeing some rubble, ruins, jungle and a gigantic pyramid in the distance. Then, I jumped.
I could feel how Eala exhaled under the rapid acceleration of my jump, just before we crossed the boundary of the portal.
—
…and we did not exit as I had expected.
Instead, I was in the void. I looked down at my body, but I could only see a bright red glow, with a vague outline of hands and legs. In place of Eala, a light blue, almost white ball of light remained close me. And around us was something that resembled endless expanse of soap bubbles.
Somehow, regardless of the bubbles blocking the direct view around us, I could perceive their position in their entirety. Even the astronomical distances and sizes of my surroundings did not affect my clear awareness.
We were at the outer fringes of the bubble mass, which looked more like colourful luminous glass spheres. Shapes and colours brought into mind a work of a mentally unstable glass-blower.
In the very center was a small, but recognizably solid sphere, while sometimes gigantic, sometimes minuscule spheres were budding off it, and from those in turn, the other spheres kept branching out. Occasionally, some bubbles would compress, and then shatter. Or drift away from their original place only to reattach to the different sphere. Rarely, they even fused, creating a spectacular mix of phantasmagoric colours.
As I observed, I could feel some pattern taking place, although I could not grasp their exact meaning. I looked down at the sphere I stood on, and recognized it as the world we had just left. It had a weak, dull shine and its size was minuscule compared to other nearby spheres.
But what caused me the feeling of distress, were the deep cracks that covered the surface. And over the cracks was something that I could only see as emptiness that had taken solid form. In some way, I could relate the scene to the image of somebody squeezing a peeled orange, with overflowing juices being sucked away as they were slowly dripping out under the pressure.
I hastily observed other spheres, and immediately found several other dull small spheres in similar conditions. While I looked, one sphere finally reached its limit and broke into shards, which silently remained glittering in the void.
Now I could see, that all bubbles were slowly being herded together, sticking to each other. I discerned the slowly increasing rate of the bubbles fusing as they approached the central sphere. And the spheres being bound by emptiness were getting larger and brighter as the time went on.
Somehow I could guess the future developments – the last, thick central sphere, bloated because of the spheres fusing under the pressure, surrounded by an endless circle of broken shards of the shattered worlds. And around this last sphere, thick strands of nothing reaching out to bind and squeeze it dry.
Circle of Shards 