Chapter 148: 148
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Neil said, "I know you have a flashlight, Santos."
The bruja said, "And I'm not going to use it. Here in a hot second you'll be able to see just fine... Believe me, you do not want to see what's in this room when the lights are on with no magic show."
On the contrary, Santos and the gem key in his hand were finding plenty of things they wanted to 'look' at. Orison felt like an egg yolk in a mixing bowl as the bruja swung the key trying to divine where goodies were on dead gifted and climber alike that had died here. Trapped in whatever strange state he was in, Orison mentally sighed as Santos picked up a pile of stuff and the key only absorbed a few things.
The young mage directed the key to take some things for him too and managed to stick a few things to itself like a magnet, not giving them up to Santos. After having tried to pry them off a couple of times, the bruja got the hint that the key didn't just find a better way to help him grave rob but wanted to 'have stuff too'. With little time before the 'magic show' and very little surface area to stick things to itself so Santos wouldn't take them, the key hadn't managed to save Orison much but they were guaranteed to be useful.
As Santos' hand passed through an object he was reaching for, the room suddenly felt much larger. In a familiar sense of 'fairy-gift', dream-like quality that gradually became stronger and more real feeling, they found themselves in a starry skied coliseum. It was a space much like the ones created with the 'wish' structure on Orison's original miasma. The largest difference being, no one had ever collected it and it had fed itself until it could no longer convert other essence into itself.
While Orison indulged in some nostalgia, Santos already started muttering. "That is not dead which can eternal-"
Distracted by a disturbance between a set of pillars, Orison stopped paying attention to Santos' words. A swirling portal came to life, occasionally throwing off a little tendril of plasma that arced to and drifted across a pillar.
Santos said, "We don't have time to waste, Neil. That's your ride back home... Get a black nanny goat to milk for that boy or you won't have a peaceful night for a long time, vato."
The detective nodded absentmindedly before walking through the portal, looking at his child with a lost expression.
The bruja looked at the sapphire with a key in it and said, "Last stretch, chulo. The crazy ain't over yet but the finish line's in sight. Just be who you find yourself being and you'll know when you make it to where you're supposed to go. After that, I guess you 'unfold' back into your true self? Zeke wasn't that clear."
Between two other pillars, a golden colored portal opened. Instead of arcs of plasma, it was licks of coronal solar flairs that caressed the pillars. With a small panic, Orison realized he'd been sat down on the floor. The further Santos got from him, the less details of the environment the young mage could sense from his environment, trapped in the key as he was.
In the state he found himself in, Orison was little more than an abandoned conduit with a consciousness. The alien energy that made up the coliseum reacted in a predictable manner, toothlessly gumming on the essence of the key, trying to absorb it into its own. The key reacted.
The key released the slightest wisp of its own essence, tricking the alien energy around it into taking it in with the mindless protean assumption that it had succeeded in claiming some of the key's essence. This, in turn, whipped the alien energy into a frenzy of meaningless gumming as the celestial event ended. Unwilling to give up its 'prize', the alien energy dragged the key with it down deep into its sub dimensional resting place.
Over the hundreds, possibly thousands of years since its inception, the coliseum 'miasma' had potentially reached dizzying heights of energy mass. It was theoretically possibly that it had stolen core essence from the world will itself. Conversely, it had also been potentially used quite a bit of times to provide a way to and from the reality it had parasitized, consuming who knows how much of its acquisition.
There wasn't much for Orison to do in his current state but think. His biggest curiosity over what this was all about was answered fairly early in. All the chaotically charged essence that reality fundamentally rejected was being injected into the alien essence around the key and once it had burned out its conversion potential completely, the key would slurp the pacified and greater reality accepted essence back in.
Considering how much chaotically charged essence the key had stored in itself and Orison, it was going to take some time to finish. Every last bit the conduit and its owner had would be transformed into something baptisms and the crossing into mid dimensions wouldn't strip away. And considering what little Orison knew about the mid dimensions, the crossover was ruthless.
From his viewing of Keita riding into the mid dimensions as the Danann Key, he had a rough idea of what happened. Loose and nonsensical things would be stripped away from an existence. The Dannan Key's nearly godlike ability to control and dictate all that was elven being reduced to a decent ability to interact with and influence elves or their creations was proof of that.
What was left, would be condensed many fold. On an observable level, a supreme mage capable of casting novice magic all day long might find that casting continuously for a few minutes might leave them feeling in need of a rest or meditation. In theory, a fully conceived universe in the lower dimensions might find itself condensed into little more than a young and vital galaxy within a previously existing mid dimensional reality once it crossed over.
The most brutal of all its aspects was the raising of the bar on what made a person 'special' and what it took to utilize whatever supernatural quality that special person had. Many master mages on Amoril had found themselves scrambling to briefly revisit novice spells and learning journeyman spells from scratch. The most powerful of their magic became a fever dream that may never be achieved again within their lifetime.
Were it not for the rich heritage left behind by the Tribe of Danann that had been there, it could have been the death of magic for generations before someone figured out a way to use it outside of religiously bent gifted. That sounded like a recipe for disaster. As it was, there would be quite a bit of pressure from mundane authority to reach a greater equality with the academies, if not outright enforcing some compliance, kicking them while they were down. Then again, there was the 'magical monk world police'.
As the timeless moments bled on, Orison once again reached a level of growing panic and edginess. Answering the need, his key put him back to 'sleep'. The young mage's last thought before darkness was the realization of the 'double sided edge' of his reinvented conduit.
It was quick to answer need and indulged strong wants but when a want conflicted with what the key recognized in its protean intuitive way as a need, need came first. Not that it would disregard a direct order from its creator but Orison was in no condition to bark orders at it when he was clueless how this situation would resolve. His only choice was to either hold out til Zeke's scheme ran its course or find a situation he could understand well enough to reassert control.
***
A teenage boy muttered under his breath, "Not everyone's mother is a space alien or is rich enough to buy some creepy magic book. I don't know why the letter addressed to dad said to throw this rock through the standing stones over there but I bet its special."
The teenager put the sapphire with a key in it, into his pocket. Orison stirred from his 'sleeping' state. He immediately recognizes the couple in front of a glowing portal that had opened between two standing stones situated within a ring of other paired ones. They were older versions of Mr. Rothschild and Jen. They weren't the only recognizable sights, either.
They were at Stone Hinge, at least this world's version. The unconscious man slung over the handsome youth with features vaguely reminiscent of Orison's own were Neil and probably his son. The only person he couldn't immediately place was the teenage boy with a blend of Asian and White features.
"There's not enough energy to sustain the portal for long. If you can't find the keystone mentioned in your father's letter then you'll need to forget it. It's a shame not to return a favor but a favor has to be of use to have value. If we wait much longer, that's exactly what this chance to escape our dying world will become." Mr. Rothschild said with a stern face.
The teenage boy continued to pretend looking with his brother for a bit before Mr. Rothschild informed them that time was up. All five of them walked through the portal. Four of them succeeded. The teenage boy was separated from the rest because something repulsed his attempt to enter. Under the sad eyes of his older brother and Jen, the portal closed, trapping the teenager behind by himself.
Orison thought, "That's what being a little greedy turd will get you. Note to self: don't be a greedy turd again in the future and end up having to eat those words... What's the point. It'll probably happen anyway... I sympathize, fellow greedy turd."
He stopped his inner monologue when he realized the teenager was staring at 'him' strangely.
The boy said, "Did you just call me a greedy turd?"
Orison, ecstatic to be able to talk to someone after so long, tried to play it cool. "I called myself one too. Don't get bent out of shape about it."
"Can you help me get back to my dad and brother?" the boy asked hopefully.
The young mage tried to shake his head and realized he didn't have one. "I don't think so? I mean, you putting me in your pocket is why you couldn't go with them in the first place. Wherever they went, I'm apparently not invited."
The teenager sighed in depression. "It doesn't matter anyway. Big brother's half alien and Mr. Rothschild is some kind of wizard or something. Even dad's got a touch of something cause he hasn't hardly gotten older at all. My real father's just some Nipponese man my mom screwed around behind dad's back with.
"I'm just a normal nobody. The place where they went is some special place and I was already told that me and Jen would still just be regular people. The only reason I was going was because big brother knocked dad out with some drugs and kidnapped him. Mom was in the nut house for awhile before she... passed away last year... I guess I could try to find my real father. Mom said I would die if I tried but she was craz-"
Orison interrupted, "That's all well and good but what is today's date."
After he was told the young mage shouted at the spiritually sensitive kid, "Summer solstice of 1977?... Get me to the damn standing stones! I don't want to get stuck here too!"
Startled by the force of the mental communication, the teenager took him to the set of standing stones mentioned in Neil's letter from Zeke. Once they drew close, energy churned inside the key and a portal opened up. It was already starting to get wobbly from whatever celestial alignment that allowed it to work, moving past it's moment.
A suction force from the portal drew the keystone towards it but the teenager was holding on to it, refusing to let go. "Can I go too?"
Orison mentally screamed in frustrated panic as the portal started to break at the edges, "Don't ask...Do or don't but either way, let me the f*** go!"
The boy pushed as hard as he could, only sinking in little by little.
The young mage entreated his conduit to help. The boy was going to get himself sliced to shreds when the portal closed and that was only a breath away. There was no telling what would happen to Orison and the keystone. It probably wouldn't be much better because the boy was intent on either making it or taking Orison with him.
On one hand, the young mage was p*ssed. On the other, he had to admire that the boy had the 'stones' to blackmail an unknown magical existence. The only problem was, he didn't know if the keystone could even help with such a situation. If that was the case, the teenager was only dragging him along into a murder-suicide for no good reason.
The keystone turned from the temperature of the teen's hand to a tea kettle that had reached boiling in an instant. It and the hitchhiker made it through the portal before it closed but the boy dropped the keystone and clutched his hand to his chest in agony. A second later, water rushed in from all sides.
No longer in contact with a person, Orison's ability to sense surroundings dropped to zero again. Nearly a minute later, the keystone bumped into something and then sunk into it. Suddenly, the world turned back on. He could think and feel and almost wished he couldn't because he was cold, his ankle hurt terribly and he was drowning.
Forcing himself to calm down, Orison took a second to orient himself and began swimming up, ignoring the excruciating pain from a foot that was all kinds of broken. Whatever situation he had found himself in, he could barely feel his essence pool and he couldn't bring out the teaser suit. Luckily, he wasn't that far from the surface.
After taking in a gulp of air that he was completely convinced was the sweetest one he'd ever taken in his life, the young mage swam for the nearby shoreline. On his way, he saw a familiar letterman jacket. It was still on the teenager who had likely drown due to hissing out nearly all his breath before the water closed in on their portal air pocket. Why it had dumped them out underwater was something that would likely remain a mystery.
Swimming in one arm carry, it took another minute to reach a place where he could reliably perform CPR in the weak and nearing hypothermia condition he was in. The boy's will to live was strong and it hadn't been too long. After the fourth round, the teen spit out water and started coughing. It was just as well because without the teen's help, getting up the rocky shoreline would have been shy of impossible.
Once they were at the top, Orison tried to reach for anything that he could within himself only to get a wooden wand and a wooden ring. "All I can access is my practice focus set!? I hate this sh*t. I feel like Harry Potterpants waving this damn thing around... Wait. I get it. These are the only things I have that were made, carved and enchanted all on my own from beginning to end. My connection to them is strong enough to reach through all the cottony interference."
Drawing on the slow trickle of essence he could reach, Orison dried them off and warmed them up. Before he could turn to trying the more complicated task of healing his foot, two men came barreling down the hill.
"We've got survivors down here." The lead man said.
Things became complicated after that. They were confused with a large group of suicides who'd jumped from a cliff a little further up. Based on some story, on a certain time and date, the lake they were in connected to a mirror world, fairy kingdom or other such mythical locals.
Protests to the contrary were pointless despite being mostly dry. Slightly damp clothes and a broken foot were good enough. At minimum, they would have to be placed under psychiatric observation for three days. For cover story, Orison luckily had identification and gave his new teen friend a covert look explaining that he had found 'Leon' drowned and that made the teens memories a little fuzzy. They still asked the boy a lot of questions but taking from Orison's queue, he pretended a touch of amnesia, providing some hazy general information.
Once they were being carted away after having their stuff confiscated, Orison introduced himself. The boy did as well. His name was Rio, pretty close to the name he'd heard in passing once from illusion Neil.
"What will we do now?" Rio asked.
Orison shrugged. "We got to play it by ear. According to the little I know, we aren't actually at where we're supposed to be going. This is a pit stop. Out of all that fanciful crap we heard... mirror world might actually be the truth. Some legends do have a kernel of that but I don't know why a group though jumping off a cliff would be the magic password the lake needed.
Rio said, "If that's the real you, I'm kind of disappointed. I expected something... more from a thing inside a cool gemstone."
Orison chuckled. "It's a loaner. My real car's still in the shop."
Rio's eyes widened. "You possessed a dead guy!?"
The young mage shuddered. "I guess I did. No one else is home in here..."
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Neil said, "I know you have a flashlight, Santos."
The bruja said, "And I'm not going to use it. Here in a hot second you'll be able to see just fine... Believe me, you do not want to see what's in this room when the lights are on with no magic show."
On the contrary, Santos and the gem key in his hand were finding plenty of things they wanted to 'look' at. Orison felt like an egg yolk in a mixing bowl as the bruja swung the key trying to divine where goodies were on dead gifted and climber alike that had died here. Trapped in whatever strange state he was in, Orison mentally sighed as Santos picked up a pile of stuff and the key only absorbed a few things.
The young mage directed the key to take some things for him too and managed to stick a few things to itself like a magnet, not giving them up to Santos. After having tried to pry them off a couple of times, the bruja got the hint that the key didn't just find a better way to help him grave rob but wanted to 'have stuff too'. With little time before the 'magic show' and very little surface area to stick things to itself so Santos wouldn't take them, the key hadn't managed to save Orison much but they were guaranteed to be useful.
As Santos' hand passed through an object he was reaching for, the room suddenly felt much larger. In a familiar sense of 'fairy-gift', dream-like quality that gradually became stronger and more real feeling, they found themselves in a starry skied coliseum. It was a space much like the ones created with the 'wish' structure on Orison's original miasma. The largest difference being, no one had ever collected it and it had fed itself until it could no longer convert other essence into itself.
While Orison indulged in some nostalgia, Santos already started muttering. "That is not dead which can eternal-"
Distracted by a disturbance between a set of pillars, Orison stopped paying attention to Santos' words. A swirling portal came to life, occasionally throwing off a little tendril of plasma that arced to and drifted across a pillar.
Santos said, "We don't have time to waste, Neil. That's your ride back home... Get a black nanny goat to milk for that boy or you won't have a peaceful night for a long time, vato."
The detective nodded absentmindedly before walking through the portal, looking at his child with a lost expression.
The bruja looked at the sapphire with a key in it and said, "Last stretch, chulo. The crazy ain't over yet but the finish line's in sight. Just be who you find yourself being and you'll know when you make it to where you're supposed to go. After that, I guess you 'unfold' back into your true self? Zeke wasn't that clear."
Between two other pillars, a golden colored portal opened. Instead of arcs of plasma, it was licks of coronal solar flairs that caressed the pillars. With a small panic, Orison realized he'd been sat down on the floor. The further Santos got from him, the less details of the environment the young mage could sense from his environment, trapped in the key as he was.
In the state he found himself in, Orison was little more than an abandoned conduit with a consciousness. The alien energy that made up the coliseum reacted in a predictable manner, toothlessly gumming on the essence of the key, trying to absorb it into its own. The key reacted.
The key released the slightest wisp of its own essence, tricking the alien energy around it into taking it in with the mindless protean assumption that it had succeeded in claiming some of the key's essence. This, in turn, whipped the alien energy into a frenzy of meaningless gumming as the celestial event ended. Unwilling to give up its 'prize', the alien energy dragged the key with it down deep into its sub dimensional resting place.
Over the hundreds, possibly thousands of years since its inception, the coliseum 'miasma' had potentially reached dizzying heights of energy mass. It was theoretically possibly that it had stolen core essence from the world will itself. Conversely, it had also been potentially used quite a bit of times to provide a way to and from the reality it had parasitized, consuming who knows how much of its acquisition.
There wasn't much for Orison to do in his current state but think. His biggest curiosity over what this was all about was answered fairly early in. All the chaotically charged essence that reality fundamentally rejected was being injected into the alien essence around the key and once it had burned out its conversion potential completely, the key would slurp the pacified and greater reality accepted essence back in.
Considering how much chaotically charged essence the key had stored in itself and Orison, it was going to take some time to finish. Every last bit the conduit and its owner had would be transformed into something baptisms and the crossing into mid dimensions wouldn't strip away. And considering what little Orison knew about the mid dimensions, the crossover was ruthless.
From his viewing of Keita riding into the mid dimensions as the Danann Key, he had a rough idea of what happened. Loose and nonsensical things would be stripped away from an existence. The Dannan Key's nearly godlike ability to control and dictate all that was elven being reduced to a decent ability to interact with and influence elves or their creations was proof of that.
What was left, would be condensed many fold. On an observable level, a supreme mage capable of casting novice magic all day long might find that casting continuously for a few minutes might leave them feeling in need of a rest or meditation. In theory, a fully conceived universe in the lower dimensions might find itself condensed into little more than a young and vital galaxy within a previously existing mid dimensional reality once it crossed over.
The most brutal of all its aspects was the raising of the bar on what made a person 'special' and what it took to utilize whatever supernatural quality that special person had. Many master mages on Amoril had found themselves scrambling to briefly revisit novice spells and learning journeyman spells from scratch. The most powerful of their magic became a fever dream that may never be achieved again within their lifetime.
Were it not for the rich heritage left behind by the Tribe of Danann that had been there, it could have been the death of magic for generations before someone figured out a way to use it outside of religiously bent gifted. That sounded like a recipe for disaster. As it was, there would be quite a bit of pressure from mundane authority to reach a greater equality with the academies, if not outright enforcing some compliance, kicking them while they were down. Then again, there was the 'magical monk world police'.
As the timeless moments bled on, Orison once again reached a level of growing panic and edginess. Answering the need, his key put him back to 'sleep'. The young mage's last thought before darkness was the realization of the 'double sided edge' of his reinvented conduit.
It was quick to answer need and indulged strong wants but when a want conflicted with what the key recognized in its protean intuitive way as a need, need came first. Not that it would disregard a direct order from its creator but Orison was in no condition to bark orders at it when he was clueless how this situation would resolve. His only choice was to either hold out til Zeke's scheme ran its course or find a situation he could understand well enough to reassert control.
***
A teenage boy muttered under his breath, "Not everyone's mother is a space alien or is rich enough to buy some creepy magic book. I don't know why the letter addressed to dad said to throw this rock through the standing stones over there but I bet its special."
The teenager put the sapphire with a key in it, into his pocket. Orison stirred from his 'sleeping' state. He immediately recognizes the couple in front of a glowing portal that had opened between two standing stones situated within a ring of other paired ones. They were older versions of Mr. Rothschild and Jen. They weren't the only recognizable sights, either.
They were at Stone Hinge, at least this world's version. The unconscious man slung over the handsome youth with features vaguely reminiscent of Orison's own were Neil and probably his son. The only person he couldn't immediately place was the teenage boy with a blend of Asian and White features.
"There's not enough energy to sustain the portal for long. If you can't find the keystone mentioned in your father's letter then you'll need to forget it. It's a shame not to return a favor but a favor has to be of use to have value. If we wait much longer, that's exactly what this chance to escape our dying world will become." Mr. Rothschild said with a stern face.
The teenage boy continued to pretend looking with his brother for a bit before Mr. Rothschild informed them that time was up. All five of them walked through the portal. Four of them succeeded. The teenage boy was separated from the rest because something repulsed his attempt to enter. Under the sad eyes of his older brother and Jen, the portal closed, trapping the teenager behind by himself.
Orison thought, "That's what being a little greedy turd will get you. Note to self: don't be a greedy turd again in the future and end up having to eat those words... What's the point. It'll probably happen anyway... I sympathize, fellow greedy turd."
He stopped his inner monologue when he realized the teenager was staring at 'him' strangely.
The boy said, "Did you just call me a greedy turd?"
Orison, ecstatic to be able to talk to someone after so long, tried to play it cool. "I called myself one too. Don't get bent out of shape about it."
"Can you help me get back to my dad and brother?" the boy asked hopefully.
The young mage tried to shake his head and realized he didn't have one. "I don't think so? I mean, you putting me in your pocket is why you couldn't go with them in the first place. Wherever they went, I'm apparently not invited."
The teenager sighed in depression. "It doesn't matter anyway. Big brother's half alien and Mr. Rothschild is some kind of wizard or something. Even dad's got a touch of something cause he hasn't hardly gotten older at all. My real father's just some Nipponese man my mom screwed around behind dad's back with.
"I'm just a normal nobody. The place where they went is some special place and I was already told that me and Jen would still just be regular people. The only reason I was going was because big brother knocked dad out with some drugs and kidnapped him. Mom was in the nut house for awhile before she... passed away last year... I guess I could try to find my real father. Mom said I would die if I tried but she was craz-"
Orison interrupted, "That's all well and good but what is today's date."
After he was told the young mage shouted at the spiritually sensitive kid, "Summer solstice of 1977?... Get me to the damn standing stones! I don't want to get stuck here too!"
Startled by the force of the mental communication, the teenager took him to the set of standing stones mentioned in Neil's letter from Zeke. Once they drew close, energy churned inside the key and a portal opened up. It was already starting to get wobbly from whatever celestial alignment that allowed it to work, moving past it's moment.
A suction force from the portal drew the keystone towards it but the teenager was holding on to it, refusing to let go. "Can I go too?"
Orison mentally screamed in frustrated panic as the portal started to break at the edges, "Don't ask...Do or don't but either way, let me the f*** go!"
The boy pushed as hard as he could, only sinking in little by little.
The young mage entreated his conduit to help. The boy was going to get himself sliced to shreds when the portal closed and that was only a breath away. There was no telling what would happen to Orison and the keystone. It probably wouldn't be much better because the boy was intent on either making it or taking Orison with him.
On one hand, the young mage was p*ssed. On the other, he had to admire that the boy had the 'stones' to blackmail an unknown magical existence. The only problem was, he didn't know if the keystone could even help with such a situation. If that was the case, the teenager was only dragging him along into a murder-suicide for no good reason.
The keystone turned from the temperature of the teen's hand to a tea kettle that had reached boiling in an instant. It and the hitchhiker made it through the portal before it closed but the boy dropped the keystone and clutched his hand to his chest in agony. A second later, water rushed in from all sides.
No longer in contact with a person, Orison's ability to sense surroundings dropped to zero again. Nearly a minute later, the keystone bumped into something and then sunk into it. Suddenly, the world turned back on. He could think and feel and almost wished he couldn't because he was cold, his ankle hurt terribly and he was drowning.
Forcing himself to calm down, Orison took a second to orient himself and began swimming up, ignoring the excruciating pain from a foot that was all kinds of broken. Whatever situation he had found himself in, he could barely feel his essence pool and he couldn't bring out the teaser suit. Luckily, he wasn't that far from the surface.
After taking in a gulp of air that he was completely convinced was the sweetest one he'd ever taken in his life, the young mage swam for the nearby shoreline. On his way, he saw a familiar letterman jacket. It was still on the teenager who had likely drown due to hissing out nearly all his breath before the water closed in on their portal air pocket. Why it had dumped them out underwater was something that would likely remain a mystery.
Swimming in one arm carry, it took another minute to reach a place where he could reliably perform CPR in the weak and nearing hypothermia condition he was in. The boy's will to live was strong and it hadn't been too long. After the fourth round, the teen spit out water and started coughing. It was just as well because without the teen's help, getting up the rocky shoreline would have been shy of impossible.
Once they were at the top, Orison tried to reach for anything that he could within himself only to get a wooden wand and a wooden ring. "All I can access is my practice focus set!? I hate this sh*t. I feel like Harry Potterpants waving this damn thing around... Wait. I get it. These are the only things I have that were made, carved and enchanted all on my own from beginning to end. My connection to them is strong enough to reach through all the cottony interference."
Drawing on the slow trickle of essence he could reach, Orison dried them off and warmed them up. Before he could turn to trying the more complicated task of healing his foot, two men came barreling down the hill.
"We've got survivors down here." The lead man said.
Things became complicated after that. They were confused with a large group of suicides who'd jumped from a cliff a little further up. Based on some story, on a certain time and date, the lake they were in connected to a mirror world, fairy kingdom or other such mythical locals.
Protests to the contrary were pointless despite being mostly dry. Slightly damp clothes and a broken foot were good enough. At minimum, they would have to be placed under psychiatric observation for three days. For cover story, Orison luckily had identification and gave his new teen friend a covert look explaining that he had found 'Leon' drowned and that made the teens memories a little fuzzy. They still asked the boy a lot of questions but taking from Orison's queue, he pretended a touch of amnesia, providing some hazy general information.
Once they were being carted away after having their stuff confiscated, Orison introduced himself. The boy did as well. His name was Rio, pretty close to the name he'd heard in passing once from illusion Neil.
"What will we do now?" Rio asked.
Orison shrugged. "We got to play it by ear. According to the little I know, we aren't actually at where we're supposed to be going. This is a pit stop. Out of all that fanciful crap we heard... mirror world might actually be the truth. Some legends do have a kernel of that but I don't know why a group though jumping off a cliff would be the magic password the lake needed.
Rio said, "If that's the real you, I'm kind of disappointed. I expected something... more from a thing inside a cool gemstone."
Orison chuckled. "It's a loaner. My real car's still in the shop."
Rio's eyes widened. "You possessed a dead guy!?"
The young mage shuddered. "I guess I did. No one else is home in here..."
Neil said, "I know you have a flashlight, Santos." The bruja said, "And I'm not going to use it. Here in a hot second you'll be able to see just fine... Believe me, you do not want to see what's in this room when the lights are on with no magic show." On the contrary, Santos and the gem key in his hand were finding plenty of things they wanted to 'look' at. Orison felt like an egg yolk in a mixing bowl as the bruja swung the key trying to divine where goodies were on dead gifted and climber alike that had died here. Trapped in whatever strange state he was in, Orison mentally sighed as Santos picked up a pile of stuff and the key only absorbed a few things. The young mage directed the key to take some things for him too and managed to stick a few things to itself like a magnet, not giving them up to Santos. After having tried to pry them off a couple of times, the bruja got the hint that the key didn't just find a better way to help him grave rob but wanted to 'have stuff too'. With little time before the 'magic show' and very little surface area to stick things to itself so Santos wouldn't take them, the key hadn't managed to save Orison much but they were guaranteed to be useful. As Santos' hand passed through an object he was reaching for, the room suddenly felt much larger. In a familiar sense of 'fairy-gift', dream-like quality that gradually became stronger and more real feeling, they found themselves in a starry skied coliseum. It was a space much like the ones created with the 'wish' structure on Orison's original miasma. The largest difference being, no one had ever collected it and it had fed itself until it could no longer convert other essence into itself. While Orison indulged in some nostalgia, Santos already started muttering. "That is not dead which can eternal-" Distracted by a disturbance between a set of pillars, Orison stopped paying attention to Santos' words. A swirling portal came to life, occasionally throwing off a little tendril of plasma that arced to and drifted across a pillar. Santos said, "We don't have time to waste, Neil. That's your ride back home... Get a black nanny goat to milk for that boy or you won't have a peaceful night for a long time, vato." The detective nodded absentmindedly before walking through the portal, looking at his child with a lost expression. The bruja looked at the sapphire with a key in it and said, "Last stretch, chulo. The crazy ain't over yet but the finish line's in sight. Just be who you find yourself being and you'll know when you make it to where you're supposed to go. After that, I guess you 'unfold' back into your true self? Zeke wasn't that clear." Between two other pillars, a golden colored portal opened. Instead of arcs of plasma, it was licks of coronal solar flairs that caressed the pillars. With a small panic, Orison realized he'd been sat down on the floor. The further Santos got from him, the less details of the environment the young mage could sense from his environment, trapped in the key as he was. In the state he found himself in, Orison was little more than an abandoned conduit with a consciousness. The alien energy that made up the coliseum reacted in a predictable manner, toothlessly gumming on the essence of the key, trying to absorb it into its own. The key reacted. The key released the slightest wisp of its own essence, tricking the alien energy around it into taking it in with the mindless protean assumption that it had succeeded in claiming some of the key's essence. This, in turn, whipped the alien energy into a frenzy of meaningless gumming as the celestial event ended. Unwilling to give up its 'prize', the alien energy dragged the key with it down deep into its sub dimensional resting place. Over the hundreds, possibly thousands of years since its inception, the coliseum 'miasma' had potentially reached dizzying heights of energy mass. It was theoretically possibly that it had stolen core essence from the world will itself. Conversely, it had also been potentially used quite a bit of times to provide a way to and from the reality it had parasitized, consuming who knows how much of its acquisition. There wasn't much for Orison to do in his current state but think. His biggest curiosity over what this was all about was answered fairly early in. All the chaotically charged essence that reality fundamentally rejected was being injected into the alien essence around the key and once it had burned out its conversion potential completely, the key would slurp the pacified and greater reality accepted essence back in. Considering how much chaotically charged essence the key had stored in itself and Orison, it was going to take some time to finish. Every last bit the conduit and its owner had would be transformed into something baptisms and the crossing into mid dimensions wouldn't strip away. And considering what little Orison knew about the mid dimensions, the crossover was ruthless. From his viewing of Keita riding into the mid dimensions as the Danann Key, he had a rough idea of what happened. Loose and nonsensical things would be stripped away from an existence. The Dannan Key's nearly godlike ability to control and dictate all that was elven being reduced to a decent ability to interact with and influence elves or their creations was proof of that. What was left, would be condensed many fold. On an observable level, a supreme mage capable of casting novice magic all day long might find that casting continuously for a few minutes might leave them feeling in need of a rest or meditation. In theory, a fully conceived universe in the lower dimensions might find itself condensed into little more than a young and vital galaxy within a previously existing mid dimensional reality once it crossed over. The most brutal of all its aspects was the raising of the bar on what made a person 'special' and what it took to utilize whatever supernatural quality that special person had. Many master mages on Amoril had found themselves scrambling to briefly revisit novice spells and learning journeyman spells from scratch. The most powerful of their magic became a fever dream that may never be achieved again within their lifetime. Were it not for the rich heritage left behind by the Tribe of Danann that had been there, it could have been the death of magic for generations before someone figured out a way to use it outside of religiously bent gifted. That sounded like a recipe for disaster. As it was, there would be quite a bit of pressure from mundane authority to reach a greater equality with the academies, if not outright enforcing some compliance, kicking them while they were down. Then again, there was the 'magical monk world police'. As the timeless moments bled on, Orison once again reached a level of growing panic and edginess. Answering the need, his key put him back to 'sleep'. The young mage's last thought before darkness was the realization of the 'double sided edge' of his reinvented conduit. It was quick to answer need and indulged strong wants but when a want conflicted with what the key recognized in its protean intuitive way as a need, need came first. Not that it would disregard a direct order from its creator but Orison was in no condition to bark orders at it when he was clueless how this situation would resolve. His only choice was to either hold out til Zeke's scheme ran its course or find a situation he could understand well enough to reassert control.*** A teenage boy muttered under his breath, "Not everyone's mother is a space alien or is rich enough to buy some creepy magic book. I don't know why the letter addressed to dad said to throw this rock through the standing stones over there but I bet its special." The teenager put the sapphire with a key in it, into his pocket. Orison stirred from his 'sleeping' state. He immediately recognizes the couple in front of a glowing portal that had opened between two standing stones situated within a ring of other paired ones. They were older versions of Mr. Rothschild and Jen. They weren't the only recognizable sights, either. They were at Stone Hinge, at least this world's version. The unconscious man slung over the handsome youth with features vaguely reminiscent of Orison's own were Neil and probably his son. The only person he couldn't immediately place was the teenage boy with a blend of Asian and White features. "There's not enough energy to sustain the portal for long. If you can't find the keystone mentioned in your father's letter then you'll need to forget it. It's a shame not to return a favor but a favor has to be of use to have value. If we wait much longer, that's exactly what this chance to escape our dying world will become." Mr. Rothschild said with a stern face. The teenage boy continued to pretend looking with his brother for a bit before Mr. Rothschild informed them that time was up. All five of them walked through the portal. Four of them succeeded. The teenage boy was separated from the rest because something repulsed his attempt to enter. Under the sad eyes of his older brother and Jen, the portal closed, trapping the teenager behind by himself. Orison thought, "That's what being a little greedy turd will get you. Note to self: don't be a greedy turd again in the future and end up having to eat those words... What's the point. It'll probably happen anyway... I sympathize, fellow greedy turd." He stopped his inner monologue when he realized the teenager was staring at 'him' strangely. The boy said, "Did you just call me a greedy turd?" Orison, ecstatic to be able to talk to someone after so long, tried to play it cool. "I called myself one too. Don't get bent out of shape about it." "Can you help me get back to my dad and brother?" the boy asked hopefully. The young mage tried to shake his head and realized he didn't have one. "I don't think so? I mean, you putting me in your pocket is why you couldn't go with them in the first place. Wherever they went, I'm apparently not invited." The teenager sighed in depression. "It doesn't matter anyway. Big brother's half alien and Mr. Rothschild is some kind of wizard or something. Even dad's got a touch of something cause he hasn't hardly gotten older at all. My real father's just some Nipponese man my mom screwed around behind dad's back with. "I'm just a normal nobody. The place where they went is some special place and I was already told that me and Jen would still just be regular people. The only reason I was going was because big brother knocked dad out with some drugs and kidnapped him. Mom was in the nut house for awhile before she... passed away last year... I guess I could try to find my real father. Mom said I would die if I tried but she was craz-" Orison interrupted, "That's all well and good but what is today's date." After he was told the young mage shouted at the spiritually sensitive kid, "Summer solstice of 1977?... Get me to the damn standing stones! I don't want to get stuck here too!" Startled by the force of the mental communication, the teenager took him to the set of standing stones mentioned in Neil's letter from Zeke. Once they drew close, energy churned inside the key and a portal opened up. It was already starting to get wobbly from whatever celestial alignment that allowed it to work, moving past it's moment. A suction force from the portal drew the keystone towards it but the teenager was holding on to it, refusing to let go. "Can I go too?" Orison mentally screamed in frustrated panic as the portal started to break at the edges, "Don't ask...Do or don't but either way, let me the f*** go!" The boy pushed as hard as he could, only sinking in little by little. The young mage entreated his conduit to help. The boy was going to get himself sliced to shreds when the portal closed and that was only a breath away. There was no telling what would happen to Orison and the keystone. It probably wouldn't be much better because the boy was intent on either making it or taking Orison with him. On one hand, the young mage was p*ssed. On the other, he had to admire that the boy had the 'stones' to blackmail an unknown magical existence. The only problem was, he didn't know if the keystone could even help with such a situation. If that was the case, the teenager was only dragging him along into a murder-suicide for no good reason. The keystone turned from the temperature of the teen's hand to a tea kettle that had reached boiling in an instant. It and the hitchhiker made it through the portal before it closed but the boy dropped the keystone and clutched his hand to his chest in agony. A second later, water rushed in from all sides. No longer in contact with a person, Orison's ability to sense surroundings dropped to zero again. Nearly a minute later, the keystone bumped into something and then sunk into it. Suddenly, the world turned back on. He could think and feel and almost wished he couldn't because he was cold, his ankle hurt terribly and he was drowning. Forcing himself to calm down, Orison took a second to orient himself and began swimming up, ignoring the excruciating pain from a foot that was all kinds of broken. Whatever situation he had found himself in, he could barely feel his essence pool and he couldn't bring out the teaser suit. Luckily, he wasn't that far from the surface. After taking in a gulp of air that he was completely convinced was the sweetest one he'd ever taken in his life, the young mage swam for the nearby shoreline. On his way, he saw a familiar letterman jacket. It was still on the teenager who had likely drown due to hissing out nearly all his breath before the water closed in on their portal air pocket. Why it had dumped them out underwater was something that would likely remain a mystery. Swimming in one arm carry, it took another minute to reach a place where he could reliably perform CPR in the weak and nearing hypothermia condition he was in. The boy's will to live was strong and it hadn't been too long. After the fourth round, the teen spit out water and started coughing. It was just as well because without the teen's help, getting up the rocky shoreline would have been shy of impossible. Once they were at the top, Orison tried to reach for anything that he could within himself only to get a wooden wand and a wooden ring. "All I can access is my practice focus set!? I hate this sh*t. I feel like Harry Potterpants waving this damn thing around... Wait. I get it. These are the only things I have that were made, carved and enchanted all on my own from beginning to end. My connection to them is strong enough to reach through all the cottony interference." Drawing on the slow trickle of essence he could reach, Orison dried them off and warmed them up. Before he could turn to trying the more complicated task of healing his foot, two men came barreling down the hill. "We've got survivors down here." The lead man said. Things became complicated after that. They were confused with a large group of suicides who'd jumped from a cliff a little further up. Based on some story, on a certain time and date, the lake they were in connected to a mirror world, fairy kingdom or other such mythical locals. Protests to the contrary were pointless despite being mostly dry. Slightly damp clothes and a broken foot were good enough. At minimum, they would have to be placed under psychiatric observation for three days. For cover story, Orison luckily had identification and gave his new teen friend a covert look explaining that he had found 'Leon' drowned and that made the teens memories a little fuzzy. They still asked the boy a lot of questions but taking from Orison's queue, he pretended a touch of amnesia, providing some hazy general information. Once they were being carted away after having their stuff confiscated, Orison introduced himself. The boy did as well. His name was Rio, pretty close to the name he'd heard in passing once from illusion Neil. "What will we do now?" Rio asked. Orison shrugged. "We got to play it by ear. According to the little I know, we aren't actually at where we're supposed to be going. This is a pit stop. Out of all that fanciful crap we heard... mirror world might actually be the truth. Some legends do have a kernel of that but I don't know why a group though jumping off a cliff would be the magic password the lake needed. Rio said, "If that's the real you, I'm kind of disappointed. I expected something... more from a thing inside a cool gemstone." Orison chuckled. "It's a loaner. My real car's still in the shop." Rio's eyes widened. "You possessed a dead guy!?" The young mage shuddered. "I guess I did. No one else is home in here..."
