Nate was panicking. He could tell that much, at least. He’d been catapulted away from the safe and the normal into what his host said was a world filled with mana. He didn’t yet know what that meant, but it was an unknown, and what you didn’t know could get you killed. His breaths were coming too fast. Taking a minute, he controlled his breathing like he had learned to do after his parents had died. A way to keep the anxiety under control.
Arikanvil chose that moment to stride purposefully back into the portal room. Nate noted that the God chose to ignore his panic attack. Sitting up and calming himself, he carefully pulled himself to his feet. Trying to focus on something other than the panic and fear, he tried to pay attention to his body and what it was telling him. His arms still hurt from the landing, and he felt wrung dry from the mana density overload or whatever the creature had called it. Through the pain, Nate could sense that his time here in this portal room of some purple god in another multiverse was ending. Even saying it in his mind sounded insane, but he’d gone through so much pain that he knew he wasn’t dreaming. Nate looked up at the purple giant as it came to stand in front of him. The creature waited a moment as if taking Nate’s measure, before it held out a hand, a silver ring sitting in its palm. It was clearly meant for a much larger creature’s fingers, and Nate thought he could probably fit three fingers into the hole in the ring.
“Everything is within this ring. You are from a Dead Realm, so I will explain. This is a spatial storage device. You will need to inject it with mana to access it. This will let your mind see what is inside. Focusing on what you want to withdraw is enough to extract it. The same goes for putting things inside this storage device. You must first inject mana, then touch what you wish to store. Do you understand?” Arikanvil asked, proffering the silver ring to Nate.
“Inject mana? How would I do that? I don’t have any mana,” Nate questioned, his tone unsure.
The booming laugh that was elicited from the purple giant made Nate quickly take a step back. It took a moment for the creature to calm down, and still chuckling, it responded, “You are no longer in a Dead Realm, mortal. Everything has mana here. Everything. You will already have some from your initial exposure to the mana density of my research facility. I am sure you will figure it out. Most mortals do, even if their mana reservoir is so small as to make it almost useless. It will still be enough for this.”
Holding up the ring in front of its face, Arikanvil watched Nate as three runes appeared around the silver band before it began to shrink to a size that would fit him. Nate decided then and there that if magic was real, he was definitely going to learn how to do it. Though the translation spell was clearly more impressive, just making something change size in front of his eyes left Nate in awe of what must be possible.
“Now, mortal. I want to be very clear on a few things. There is no food in that storage device. My fare would not be suitable for you, so you will have to handle it yourself. I did include a little gold, which should be acceptable in trade by most mortal civilizations. I also included a few mana gems. You can never have too much mana storage. That is a lesson, so take it to heart.
“Finally, as promised, I will make the translation spell I cast on you permanent. This will not only translate what you hear for you but also what you say. You will need to be careful if you do not wish to reveal this spell to others, as they can find it by swapping languages if you’re not paying attention. If you focus hard enough, you will hear the actual words being spoken, even if the spell still translates them for you. I encourage you not to rely on it. It will only work on the planetary body below and only for most of the sapient mortal races, as the understanding of the language is based on my own. Are we clear?” asked Arikanvil, staring at Nate as the God patiently waited for a response.
Nate nodded. It was the same on Earth. Not everyone was so extreme, but there were plenty of fanatics from any religion that would see a difference of opinion as a reason for violence or worse. Reaching out, he finally took hold of the ring and slipped it onto his finger. The band felt cold but light. He’d experiment with this mana business later. The first step to becoming a mage he reminded himself, because after seeing everything, he knew that is what he wanted to be. A wizard like in the stories his father had read to him as a child. A sad smile crossed his lips before he pushed the memory down, looking back up at Arikanvil.
“So, this is it then? Time for me to leave?” Nate couldn’t help the pleading in his voice. He knew he’d prefer to stay, even if it was impossible.
“I am afraid so, mortal. But time is long, and the multiverse vast. You never know. Perhaps we will meet again. Or not. We all have our fates.”
“Do you believe that? In fate?” he asked, avoiding looking at Arikanvil.
“Of course, mortal. Fate’s strings can be plucked. This I know. But you must think of it like this. Fate is a river coursing through a forest. It winds and wends back and forth towards its destination. And so long as you swim within its waters, you are just detritus being carried to your destination.” The gods’ lips bloomed into what Nate could only describe as a smirk, “But, imagine, if you will, what might happen if you climbed out onto the banks of the river and wandered into the forest. Oh, the sights you might see.”
Nate laughed softly at the message in the story. Pave your own path. That is what Arikanvil was saying. Nate could do that, he supposed. Time to stop fighting the river or being detritus. Time to find a path. That was the first step, right? Finding a path. Until he did, he would just wander into the forest and see what there was to find. A wanderer. He knew he was being influenced. Arikanvil had called himself The Wanderer, after all. But it was as good a path as any, for now.
“Since you are about to leave, mortal, I must impart some final knowledge to you. This will not be in detail as if we were to discuss it in detail, you would be here for weeks or months.”
Nate looked up hopefully, but Arikanvil immediately dashed his obvious desires, shaking his head.
“I have experiments to manage, and my time is precious. You are just an unlucky mortal, and I cannot keep you here. The final knowledge I must give to you is regarding The System. I know you heard ‘a system,’ but I mean The System. It exists wherever mana exists, for it requires mana to do whatever it does.”
Questions bubbled up in Nate’s mind but were forestalled as Arikanvil held up one of his hands before continuing, “No, we will not get into the philosophy of what The System does. Or what its goals might be. Or who created it. I haven’t the time and you haven’t the experience or exposure. Come back and ask me in a thousand years, and maybe you’ll have dipped your toes into the pool that is The System. All you need to know is The System assists those that assist themselves and it will help guide your development.”
“How will I know this system when I see it? And when will I see it?” Nate asked the obvious questions on his tongue.
Another booming laugh echoed out of Arikanvil, but Nate had been ready for it this time and weathered the god’s amusement.
“You’d have seen it already, I suspect, if I was not preventing the mana here from interacting with you. It will happen shortly after you pass through the portal I will open to the planet below. As for how will you know? I think perhaps you do not realise how literal I am being when I say you will see it. With your eyes. Is that clearer?” Arikanvil asked, clearly displeased at being questioned.
Nate gulped and nodded his head. Perhaps continuing to bother Arikanvil was not in his best interests.
Arikanvil turned towards the centre of the portal room and held out all four of his arms. Instantly, the rainbow kaleidoscope of gems that made up the room lit up, as did some of the runes. Nate watched as, like the rune he had created, the one Arikanvil called an anchor, these runes did not light up evenly. Instead, parts of the runes grew as bright as a torch, while other parts only emitted a gloomy shimmer. It again gave the runes the appearance of three dimensions, and Nate wondered about that. What was the cause? After all, this was his last chance to glean any information before he was turfed out of Arikanvil’s research laboratory.
Staring at the geometric shapes, it slowly became obvious to Nate. Wherever the geometric lines were densest, it grew brighter. Nate filed that away for later. Maybe he’d have time to experiment with runes once he got to whatever city Arikanvil was sending him. That brought him back to the gold in the storage ring. He couldn’t help but wonder how far it would go. Was he still poor, like he had been back home? Or had Arikanvil given him enough that he could be well off? Maybe afford to indulge in his art and learn about magic. It was both exciting and terrifying. Nate hadn’t yet resigned himself to never being able to go home. But Arikanvil had made it clear that it was virtually impossible. All he could do was make the most of the hand he had been dealt. It could have been a lot worse. At least he had some supplies rather than being dumped out in some wasteland with nothing but the clothes on his back.
With that in mind, Nate gazed over Arikanvil’s portal room and tried to recognise as many of the runic symbols as possible. His eyes roved over the images, and he memorised them as best he could in the short time he had. Bridge, Enclosed, Tunnel, Folded. He grabbed what he could, but each one took him too long to memorise and he knew he was running out of time. Just as he was about to start on his fifth, a hole in space opened in the middle of the room. Unlike with his, where it clearly melted away half a train, this one hung in the middle of the room. It let him see something he hadn’t the first time.
Nate couldn’t help speaking his thoughts out loud, “The portal is a sphere. I thought it would be a circle?”
Arikanvil looked at him, and for the first time, the look made Nate feel stupid. “Of course, it is a sphere. We are punching a hole in space. Space exists in three dimensions. Why wouldn’t the hole in space also be three-dimensional?”
Nate coughed, “I suppose I never really thought about that kind of thing.”
“Well, depending on how you react to this next revelation, mortal, will inform whether or not you should begin to ponder such knowledge and its relevance to you. I was not entirely forthcoming with you before, as I did not want to get your hopes up. But while I collected those items for you, I realized that how you spend your life, what you seek, and your path forward is yours to choose. I should not deny you options, no matter how unlikely.”
Arikanvil stared at Nate a moment, and he felt hope welling in his heart before the purple god continued, “A portal anchor in and of itself does not activate a portal. Your presence here is more of an outlier than you know. I have many servants, but chief among them are my Heralds. Whenever my Heralds venture forth, I always make sure they have a way to create a quick exit. A safety mechanism, you understand? They always inform me of where they intend to venture next, assuming I have not sent them forth myself and already know their destination. As such, I can tune my portal room to scan the directions of the multiverse for their corresponding anchor. This provides them with a quick method for returning. It’s also how your anchor opened a portal. That is the only reason you are here. You understand?”
Nate nodded sadly. Fate, as Arikanvil had put it, had conspired to bless him with what was either the greatest or worst luck of anyone he had ever heard of. Creating the right anchor in the right area of the multiverse, what a joke! That thought made him laugh, and it crept out of his mouth before he could stop it. But wait a minute! Nate stopped laughing, and his eyes flicked back to Arikanvil, words already on his lips, which died seeing Arikanvil already smiling.
“Maybe there is hope for you yet, mortal. Yes, what you suspect is true. At the very least, I know what region of the multiverse your Dead Realm resides in. It turns an almost impossible task into merely a highly improbable one. As I said, it is your path to walk, and you must choose what you will do with this information. My last gift to you is inside the ring. A tome with a map of the multiverse as I understand it, with the region that your Dead Realm resides in identified. Don’t bother looking at it unless you manage to become a Portal or Spatial Mage of some renown. I assure you it will make no sense to you prior to that.”
Nate had tears in his eyes as he looked up at Arikanvil, “Thank you. I….I don’t know what I am going to do. But thank you for giving me the option.”
“Yes, yes, mortal. Enough of that. Are you all truly this emotional? It has been so long since I interacted with any of you. I had honestly forgotten.” Arikanvil waved Nate off, pointing to the portal. “This is where we part ways. Perhaps never to meet again. I wish you luck down there, mortal. May you find your path and walk it as far as you are able. System bless you.”
Nate opened his mouth to respond and found himself unceremoniously lifted off the floor by what he could only assume was magic before being tossed through a second portal in the last hour. As he hurtled through the portal, he mentally hit himself. He hadn’t even asked the name of the planet.
Arikanvil closed the portal with a thought, his hand lowering as the runes in the room faded and his mana gems began restoring themselves from the ambient mana-gathering runes he had installed throughout his research facility. He could have sent the mortal directly to a human town or city, but it would be more interesting to see how the mortal from a Dead Realm reacted to danger.
Arikanvil could’ve watched Nate directly, but honestly, that was a waste of his time. The spell he had implanted in the storage device he gave to the mortal would let him know if the human died. And if it did? That was valuable data, too. Not as valuable as the mortal’s device, though. Arikanvil held up the phone, still shielding it from the ambient mana of his facility. That had been the real reason he had initially shielded the mortal from the mana. Materials from a dead realm tended to decay when exposed to mana. That was a lesson he knew well.
Dead Realm research was an area of interest for him, though a challenging one to pursue. The problem was not so much finding Dead Realms. That wasn’t terribly difficult. The problem was that to enter a Dead Realm, you needed a pre-arranged way back. No mana meant no way to open a portal from within the Dead Realm. Any portals had to come from and be powered from outside of the Dead Realm. That was the first hurdle. The second was finding life in a Dead Realm. A universe was vast, and without mana to assist, tracking down life was like finding gold in a stream, possible but time-consuming and laborious.
Arikanvil himself had only ever found a few such creatures. Sentient only, however. Capable of experiencing sensations or emotions but not capable of higher thought. Dumb animals from his perspective. They had not handled his experiments well and, lacking the natural enhancements afforded by mana had succumbed quickly. Ultimately useless to him. But this mortal was clearly sapient. Capable of deductive reasoning and conversation. That meant the mortal species of humans were capable of development, though he knew that already. The evidence was this device the mortal had brought with him, and Arikanvil was going to unlock the secrets of this technology and see if it could advance his own research.
Placing the phone carefully on a pedestal, he activated the mana containment runes to keep out both the mana and The System. Arikanvil then checked the spell he had on the mortal’s ring. Yes, still alive. Perhaps if he continued to survive, he might make a useful Herald in the future. Arikanvil didn’t toss away potential tools, but the mortal had yet to prove he would be a useful tool, and until then, he was just detritus to leave floating in the river of fate. It was time to get back to his research and continue his search for answers. The System combined power and freedom, while placing hidden shackles on everyone it touched, and Arikanvil was certain there was a way to influence it. He just had to find it.