Chapter 2 - The Wanderer

The purple giant strode purposefully back into the portal room, Nate sat up as he did so, before carefully pulling himself to his feet. His arms still hurt from the landing, and he still felt wrung dry from the mana density overload or whatever the creature had called it. Through the pain though, Nate could sense that his time here in this portal room of some purple god in another multiverse, was coming to an end. Even saying it in his mind sounded insane but he’d gone through so much pain that he knew he wasn’t dreaming. So, it was time to get himself together because he had no idea what came next and feeling sorry for himself or freaking out could, in a very real sense, get him killed.

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 the 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. 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 that which you wish to store. Do you understand?” the creature 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 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 have some already, 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 pathetic as to make it almost useless. It will still be enough for this.”

Holding up the ring in front of its face the purple giant watched Nate as three runes appeared around the silver band, before it began to shrink down 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 that yourself. I did include a little gold as that is what most mortal civilizations will use to trade. 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?” The purple giant stared at Nate, waiting for a response.

“Umm, yes, sir, we’re clear. I just realised; I never asked your name.”

The god, as Nate was starting to believe, smiled down at him, “I have many names. But in this universe, for the mortals below, most know me as Arikanvil the Wanderer. I would not mention me to other mortals, though. They can get particular about gods.”

Nate nodded in understanding. 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 a 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?” Nate didn’t look at Arikanvil as he asked.

“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 are swimming 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. It was trite but perhaps apt. 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, it behoves me to 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 his obvious desires were immediately dashed by Arikanvil 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 in regard to 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 his hand and continued, “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 this time Nate had been ready for it and weathered the storm of 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 almost certainly shortly after you pass through the portal that 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 appearance of three dimensions to the runes 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 is make the most of the hand he had been dealt, shit though it may be.

With that in mind, Nate gazed over Arikanvil’s portal room and started trying to recognise as many of the runic symbols as he could. 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, “It’s 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 it made me realise that how you spend your life, what you seek, 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 of itself does not activate a portal. You’re unluckier 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 in directions of the multiverse for their corresponding anchor. This allows them a quick way back here. 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 the worst luck of anyone he had ever heard of. That thought made him laugh and it crept out of his mouth before he could stop it. How would he even know if anyone else had ever gotten this unlucky? 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. I know, at the very least, 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. It will make no sense to you prior to that, I assure you.”

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 that was honestly 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 had a tendency 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, 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. 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’s 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 was power and freedom combined, and Arikanvil was certain there was a way to influence it. He just had to find it.