Wanderer Ch 39: Escape From The Prison Of Gravity

(Thalassa)

Gravity.

If you've never felt the full weight of gravity collapsing in on you from every direction, I envy you. It isn't pain exactly. Not the kind that screams across nerves and muscles. It's deeper than that. Cosmic. Like being buried in time itself.

I could barely move.

My limbs, my celestial frame—they were locked in place by invisible shackles that wrapped around me tighter with every second. Space itself bent and warped around my skin. Stars blinked out like dying embers as the red and black void swallowed everything, pressing inward, collapsing down.

I screamed. Not in fear. In defiance.

"I need to get out," I growled, writhing against the pull, my energy sparking uselessly against the walls of the singularity. "I need to get back. He's getting away. Jack."

"Stop it, Thalassa!" Eris snapped from nearby, her own form flickering with the strain. "You're only exhausting yourself."

I turned my head with effort. She was holding herself together better than I was, her golden eyes calm, too calm.

"This pocket is stable enough to keep us locked, but not stable enough to brute force our way out individually," she continued. "We need to combine our resonance."

"Combine," I panted, struggling to my knees. "Fine. Let's do it. I want out. Now."

Eclipsa hovered closer, a storm of dark light and shifting matter. She nodded silently. We reached out, hands trembling, and locked fingers. My power met theirs in the space between us, and something clicked.

Together, our energy surged.

Reality shivered.

The void rippled around us, deep cracks forming in the black-red fabric of space. Light leaked from those cracks—not starlight, something more ancient. Something raw. My jaw clenched as the pressure intensified.

"Keep going," Eris said through gritted teeth.

We screamed.

Three voices laced with the frequencies of forgotten galaxies. My essence burned as I forced more and more of myself into the bond. I could feel the core of me unraveling, stretching outward. For a heartbeat I feared we'd break apart entirely.

And then:

BOOM.

It was like a supernova inside a scream. The pocket-space exploded, a deafening silence that knocked all three of us back into the main thread of reality. I tumbled through drifting time-particles, my ears ringing with the ghost of ruptured dimensions.

My form flickered, rebuilt, stabilized. I stood.

The void was gone.

The universe's song had returned—chaotic, endless, beautiful. I breathed it in. But I didn't savor it.

I looked.

Scanned.

Searched.

Where was it? Where was his ship? That tiny, infuriating, important little ship.

Gone.

"No," I said aloud, rage curling up in my chest like fire in a vacuum. "No no no."

My fists clenched, sparks of blue lightning flaring along my arms.

"That damn little microbe," I hissed. "He escaped."

My voice rippled across the sector, bending stars, shattering forgotten satellites. I let it. I wanted the universe to feel my fury. Let it remember that Thalassa, Titan of Tides and Truth, had been cheated.

"I will find him," I growled, eyes flashing. "Even if he hides on the furthest, coldest dust speck in this cursed galaxy—I will track him. I will rip apart nebulae to do it."

Then—a hand.

On my shoulder.

Eris.

"Hold on, little sister," she said gently. "Not yet."

I turned slowly, face still twisted with frustration. Eclipsa hovered nearby, her expression unreadable.

"What? You want me to wait?"

"Yes. And not just wait," Eris replied, stepping beside me. "We need the others."

My brow furrowed. "The others? Are you serious?"

Eclipsa spoke next, her voice like waves against obsidian. "You saw what happened. That... thing Thanoros built. It trapped us. We've never been trapped before."

I opened my mouth to argue, but closed it.

They were right.

We hadn't just been slowed. We'd been contained. By a man. A mortal scientist who toyed with forces he didn't understand, and nearly won.

Eris stepped forward, folding her arms. "And then there's Jack."

Her gaze flicked to me. I shifted, uncomfortable.

"Jack," she repeated, thoughtful. "A fragile human in a scrapheap of a ship. Yet he drew your attention. You nearly tore half the sector apart for him."

"It's not about him," I said quickly. Too quickly. "It's what he might know. He reacted to my energy. He felt it. Like he recognized it. That doesn't happen by accident."

Eris nodded. "Exactly. Which is why the others need to hear about him. They have a right to know if this... Jack holds answers to our origin."

I didn't say anything.

I hated it. I hated every delay, every logical step. I wanted to rip through space and grab him by the collar and ask him myself.

But I knew she was right.

"Fine," I muttered, glaring at the stars where his ship had vanished. "Call them. Wake the others. But when they're done drinking cosmic tea or whatever it is they do, I'm going after him."

Eris smirked faintly. "I'd expect nothing less."

I turned away.

And silently, I marked every direction he could've fled.

He could run.

But he wouldn't hide.

Not from me.

Not for long.