The Way Home
“Right.” That was definitely a mistake. Sighing, hands on your waist, you float and tumble through this strange space. For the second time you found yourself in emptiness after teleportation, but instead of the black void you had previously encountered, this one is crimson red, a starless, featureless expanse of nothing but red as far as the eye can see. You are unsure just how far it stretches on – there is nothing present to help you measure the distance. At least it happens to be more comfortable than the last void, though that is not saying much.
You wonder if it is safe to attempt teleportation here. For some reason, you get the feeling that this is not a space that you can describe in physical - or even magical - terms, though it feels very worryingly real all the same. Still, no reason to panic. You have been trapped in worse places. If you can get in, there is always a way out.
“Why don’t you ask me about this place, boy?” coughs Barbatos politely. “I might know a thing or two.”
“Really? I didn’t think you would. What do you know?” you reply, exuding complete boredom as you continue to float aimlessly.
“Lord Vaalgrahf spoke once of a place that looked just like this, a blood-red emptiness. He called it the In-Between.”
“Sounds like a pretty stupid name,” you say, slightly irritated. “I expected something with more panache from the almighty dark god.”
“He was a practical sort. A bit like you in that sense, boy, though you are far less scrupulous.”
“If I were less scrupulous I don’t think I would be here in the first place,” you complain.
“That may be so,” Barbatos agrees unconvincingly. “Regardless, about this In-Between… think of the fist with which you throw a punch. Within this fist is a smaller fist that-“
“Hold on,” you interrupt. “Before you explain further, is that how Vaalgrahf explained it to you?”
“No, but-“
“Is it possible to explain what is going on without using fist metaphors?”
“Yes,” admits Barbatos grudgingly. “If you want it that way, boy. The In-Between is just as its name describes. It is in between the world that we know. If I were to put it in the words of that mad-woman of yours, Zayan, it would probably use a lot of terms such as parallel and tangential and non-Euclidean right-angles to reality, which was what Lord Vaalgrahf said.”
“Euclidean… what?”
“There are many strange words that I do not understand, boy. It would be far simpler when you accept that you do not need to understand them too. The fist will suffice.”
“Right. Right.” You heave a deep breath, resisting the urge to try and tear the gauntlet out of your very being. You did not get this far in the study of magic without knowing when to dismiss strange words, after all. “More importantly, did Vaalgrahf say how to get out of here?”
“No.”
You grind your teeth. “Then-“
Before you can have a brief outburst at your own hand, a shadow looms over you. You look upwards – well, so far as up can have any meaning in this place – and see a strange cylinder, domed at the top, hovering above you. As you wonder how this thing can cast a shadow, and where exactly the light illuminating this void comes from, you begin to notice other shapes emerging fully formed from thin air. It takes only a blink of your eyes for them to appear. And as you blink again, some of them vanish. The shapes that don’t seem more solid… more real. Those that constantly appear and disappear invariably look like twisted strands of pale white dough wrung through a tornado.
It might just be your imagination, but some of those unstable, flickering shapes seem to be vaguely humanoid at times.
“Oh, I remember now,” Barbatos speaks up. “Lord Vaalgrahf also said that the arrival of a sentient will in the In-Between changes things. How, I do not know. But this could be the response he was speaking of.”
By now, the remaining shapes have solidified. There is the domed cylinder… or perhaps it is a tower? There is a flat piece of green that seems to look like a square of earth cut out from the land itself. Then there is a white sphere, still and silent in the distance.
You wonder if you should approach these objects, or chance a casting of Teleportation – you have no idea what the latter, or indeed, the former, would do, and at this point perhaps one choice is as good as another. There is, however, the matter of Prince Feyton, who is even now clinging to your left leg and has refused to let go ever since you arrived. His eyes have the blank stare of someone confronted with the shattering of his entire reality and sad to say, the only refuge of the royal bratling’s sanity is now your hallowed left leg. The entirety of Methuss would be in an uproar if they could see this.
For some reason, Aria had not been around when you came to your senses. Whether she had become lost on her own, or whether she did not arrive here in the first place, you do not know… but it is not a mystery you can solve by merely sitting around.
***
A. You head for the tower.
B. You head for the square of green.
C. You head for the white sphere.
D. You attempt to teleport out of this place.
***
As for Prince Feyton:
A. Where you’re going, you don’t need extra baggage. This is the best place to dispose of him without anyone else knowing. You kick the prince away and let him float into the void.
B. Perhaps he might still be of some use. As trading material for any cannibalistic tribes you might come across, if nothing else. You keep the prince with you.
C. You put him out of his misery, even though he's probably not worth the miniscule effort it would take to kill him. That is your mercy.
