Exploration (Welcome to the Multiverse Book 10), page 13
“I’m not really here. I don’t even understand how it is that you exist like this, but within the infinite, there is room for everything. So it has been decreed. But the Ways have a special connection to time, and spoke to me of this possibility. I still have some sway, after all.”
She stopped speaking, and I felt the cold around us retreat as she flexed her wings. As the temperature rose, I realized that what I was feeling was so much more complicated than something simple like temperature. She was a manifestation of winter, and winter meant so many things. Necessary things. That still didn’t mean I was able to respond to her.
“I don’t know if you’re trying to talk to this image, but know that I can’t hear anything you might be saying. Think of this as a recording. I was told you would understand. I am speaking to you as a representative of the Fey System. I am Freydis, the Winter Queen. I would offer you a treaty and a connection, System Mediator. But first, I need a chance to deliver my proposal to the Twin Prince. Can you make that happen?”
Before any more could be said, the vision faded and I felt an urgent call, almost like it was being forcibly blasted into my mind. It slammed into me, and the world shattered again.
I stood on a broken plain under a sky fractured into hard angles, as if reality had been cut and reassembled without care for symmetry. Lines of force crisscrossed the air, invisible but oppressive, and every breath tasted sharp. Wrong. The ground was scarred by impact craters and scorched symbols I didn’t recognize, each one humming with cold intent. This place wasn’t meant for life, but for order.
Ryan was there.
He stood at the center of a defensive ring, blood on his armored robes and fire in his eyes, fighting like a man who’d already decided that retreat wasn’t an option. Around him were cultivators—dozens of them—some on their knees, some barely standing, all pouring what they had left into barriers that flickered and failed. They were powerful, every one of them, but they were being ground down by something that didn’t tire or hesitate. I saw a few of his wives, but none of them blazed like Ryan did. In terms of power, he was the bonfire glowing at the center of a formation of embers.
The modrons advanced in perfect formation. I only knew what to call them from Ryan’s description of them. He’d called them law for the sake of law, not for any purpose which the law served. Like me, Ryan hated form over function.
They were equations given bodies, towering constructs of rotating cubes, interlocking rings, and razor-edged polyhedrons that shifted and reconfigured as they moved. Light bent around them in unnatural ways, angles folding inward, space snapping into alignment wherever they stepped. Psi pressure rolled off them in crushing waves, precise and merciless, tearing at minds as much as flesh.
I didn’t question how quickly I recognized the Psi power within these creatures. Nor did I understand the way that it echoed differently than the Psi within me. But there was a difference, of that much I was sure.
Ryan roared and surged forward, power flaring bright enough to scar the air. He smashed into the nearest construct, cracking geometric plates and sending shards spinning, but the modron reassembled even as it fell back. Others responded instantly, firing lances of condensed Psi that punched through shields and bodies alike. A cultivator beside Ryan screamed and vanished in a flash of ordered light, erased as cleanly as a mistake on a page.
The battlefield tilted toward collapse.
I could feel Ryan’s desperation now, raw and unfiltered, the bond between us vibrating like a struck chord. He fought harder, faster, burning himself to keep the line intact, but there were too many of them. Every modron that fell was replaced by two more stepping into the gap with mechanical inevitability.
Ryan staggered as a Psi blade carved across his side, and one knee hit the ground. He slammed his fist down, power exploding outward to buy space, but the constructs barely slowed. Their forms shifted, adapting, correcting, pressing closer with each perfect step. The cultivators’ formation buckled, fear finally bleeding through discipline.
Ryan threw his head back and shouted my name.
The sound tore through the Void, through layers of reality, through time itself, and slammed straight into me. I felt the plea in it, the refusal to die quietly, the absolute certainty that if anyone could reach him, it was me.
“Silas,” he yelled again, voice ragged but unbroken. “You’ve been gone too long.”
The vision locked on that moment, freezing it in brutal clarity. Ryan on one knee, enemies closing, allies falling, order bearing down like a guillotine. I felt fury rise up so fast it stole my breath, hot and violent and absolute. I knew that this vision was from the future. It was a more distant future than the two encounters with fey, but sooner than the vision with the assassins.
How I knew that was beyond me, but everything here was instinct, and all I could do was go with it. Maybe I was becoming more accustomed to the temporal distortions. Jay had been able to enter one of these moments where I was disconnected from the flow of time in the rest of the multiverse.
You have gained an idea for a new Psi ability. Find more sources of Psi and perhaps you, too, can be a god of time.
The notification meant nothing. All that mattered was the raw need in Ryan’s words. This man was my blood brother. I wouldn’t let him fall, certainly not if there was anything I could do. Suddenly, my vacation felt like it was going to be cut short.
The vision tore itself apart, collapsing inward as his call echoed on and on, and I knew with cold certainty that this wasn’t one of many possibilities in my future. It was a moment rushing toward me, fast and unforgiving, and when it arrived, hesitation would mean death.
Then, just as quickly as I’d been ripped out of time, I felt it come rushing back in. I was on my knees, puking up my guts while my hands rested against a wooden floor, which for some reason was swaying beneath me.
Chapter Fifteen: Popping in Unannounced
I had to be on a ship. I hadn’t been on many, but nothing else felt quite like this. My mind hadn’t even registered the teleportation. Rather than getting up, I focused on regaining my composure and reading the notification that was flashing in the corner of my eye. I could feel others around me—Samvek and Selena for sure, but there were more people on this ship. Some of them felt odd, but there was no sense of danger, so I allowed myself the moment. As for Clay, he had his blade out quickly enough, but he seemed more disoriented by the teleportation than I was.
My decision produced another notification.
The use of Precognition in a non-combat predictive capacity is highly useful.
Precognition 3 >> 4
I pushed that aside and focused on the previous one.
New Quest—Step Two: Meet the One Who Can Speak for the Fey System
Difficulty: Minimal
You have been teleported to the presence of an individual who can speak with the authority of two fey Courts. He will be able to awaken Clay.
Reward: Finalization of Clay’s awakening, further knowledge of the Fey System, a potential ally, and more quests in the chain.
There wasn’t much to it, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was one of the most important quests I’d ever received. I had recovered as much as I was going to, so without moving too quickly, I stood up and took in the scene around me.
The deck swayed beneath my boots in a way that settled something deep in my bones. The motion was subtle, a living rhythm carried up through thick planks and reinforced beams, and it confirmed what my instincts had already told me. This wasn’t a normal ship. It felt old and young at the same time, grown rather than built, and saturated with a quiet patience that reminded me of forests older than cities. I couldn’t wait to learn more about the vessel, but I needed a better grasp of the situation first.
We were in the harbor of Basetown. Stone docks rose nearby, crowded with cranes and warehouses. Sailors moved through the rigging overhead like spiders, silhouettes framed against the sky. They worked quickly and carefully, hands steady, voices low, and all of them kept a deliberate distance from the center of the deck. None looked directly at us for long. I got the feeling they knew better, without ever understanding why.
Selena stood to my left with her twin hooked swords out, posture relaxed but ready, lavender skin catching the light now that she wasn’t hiding herself. Samvek mirrored her on my right, spear grounded but angled forward, his attention split between the crew and the figures gathered ahead of us. Neither of them spoke. They didn’t need to. The air felt watchful, as if the ship were paying attention alongside everyone else.
A cluster of four forest elves stood in a loose semicircle before us. My breath caught in my throat as I recognized the race. Identify told me their names. Mirren appeared to be the oldest of them. She had a grandmotherly look and was something called a Sap Healer. The second woman was visibly younger, and had sharpened black claws where her fingers ended. Her class apparently had something to do with spiders. A man with a bow, Lewlen, stood beside her. The last one stood there stoically, more of a wall than a door. Dylus carried a large war hammer that felt as though it were a powerful magical item, and as with all the other fair-skinned elves, he was under level 100.
My initial reaction when I saw the elves was hostility. After all, Earth had been competing against a world full of elves back when I first became a Forerunner. They had tried to kill me more than once, and that isn’t the sort of thing someone gets over easily. I had to remind myself that these elves might not have any connection to the others I’d met. They were from an entirely different universe, after all.
A bit further back stood another elf with black skin and white hair. I’d read enough novels about one of my favorite swordsmen to know a dark elf when I saw one. But again, I had to remind myself that this woman might not be anything like the evil elves of that fantasy world.
A few steps behind them stood a young man who looked human at first glance. He was tall and slight, almost fragile in build, with an otherworldly quality that tugged at my perception no matter how I tried to look past it. Reality bent around him in small, quiet ways—not violently, but insistently, as though the world had learned to make room. The frustrating part was that the harder I tried to focus on him, the more I found my eyes wanting to drift away.
Beside him stood a broader man dressed like a ship’s captain, every inch the mortal professional, boots planted wide and hand never straying far from his belt. One of his feet wasn’t a real foot at all, but made of wood. Magic oozed through it, and with Spirit Sight blended into my perceptions, I could see that it was a piece of the ship, yet separate, growing on its own while still being connected. My mind raced as I considered the possibilities such a prosthetic presented. How many people who were otherwise crippled with old injuries that could no longer be regrown could be fixed with something like this? It also spoke about the level of magic at play here, and the priorities of those involved.
On the other side of the young man was a lizard woman with a dagger and short sword at her hips, eyes locked on us with practiced suspicion. She moved closer to him in reaction to my gaze, protective in a way that spoke of long habit rather than fear. Before I could take another step, a massive treant pushed her way forward, wooden limbs creaking softly as she placed herself squarely between us and the young man. The deck did not complain under her weight. If anything, it seemed to welcome her.
Once again, my senses told me that there was a spiritual connection between her and the ship. It was like she was a sprout grown from a larger tree. Just as with the elves, though, I had to bury my initial dislike. She reminded me of the Furlooni that had also wanted to end Earth. I still needed to check in on both Nargossa and Furloon, but I had found it difficult to care about what the system did to those two worlds.
A closer observation showed me that this woman, the treant, was different from the Furlooni. They were more like grass clippings, and she was a vibrant but young tree, growing stronger by the day. I could only smile at all the new things I was experiencing today. I was about to say hello, but someone beat me to the punch.
The captain’s voice cut through the tension, sharp and demanding. “That’s close enough,” he said, eyes flicking from Samvek’s spear to Selena’s blades, then to me. “You’re standing on my ship, and I don’t know who you are or how you got here.” His jaw tightened as he squared his shoulders. “So I’ll ask once. Who are you, and why are you on my ship? You had best hope that I like your answer because otherwise, you’ll find my ship doesn’t take very kindly to intruders.”
His words were soft, but his voice carried well, and the menace behind it would probably have been felt by anyone, at least anyone who wasn’t a new legendary tier. I was mindful of the relative power difference between me and the others, and the same would be true with Samvek or Selena. Yes, the odd way that mana acted here offset some of that, but I still felt confident. The only two entities I had difficulty tracking the power of were the ship, because of how suppressed it felt, and the one I took to be Tad Ocean.
I used Identify on him, but the results kept shifting.
Tad Ocean
Level: 178
Race: Human
An instant later, the variables changed.
Tad Ocean
Level: 262
Race: human, fey foundling
And again…
Tad
??? Ascendant
Race: Fey Prince-Summer, Void
He came across like chaos shoved into a body. But once again, unlike the chaos mana I’d felt from the creatures of the Hell System, his was clean, and made me think of growth more than anything else.
I stretched for a moment, mostly to show that I wasn’t worried by his question. The elves shifted in their position, but neither Tad nor those around him seemed impatient.
“I’m Silas Renner, and my friends here are the lovely Selena Turga and Samvek Rayden. The man behind me is Clay Turner, the guild master of the adventurers’ guild in Basetown, which I suppose is better than a blacksmith named Turner, eh?” The joke fell flat. Apparently Orlando Bloom fans were in short supply in this corner of the multiverse.
“As for why we’re here, the Endless Dungeon gave us a quest and teleported us here,”—I locked eyes with the boy at the center of their group—“which I presume makes you Tad.”
If anything, that made them more nervous. Tad held up his hand. “I get the feeling I need to talk to you, but I’ve had to learn some lessons the hard way. Can we all agree to sheathe our weapons on the count of three?”
I nodded. “Sure, but you know as well as I do the weapons aren’t the danger here.”
He smiled and started counting down from three. When he finished, the elves put their weapons away. In Lia’s case, her clawed hands turned back into the slender fingers of an elf. They didn’t seem to have spatial storage, as they had to stow their weapons, but the lizard woman’s blades disappeared with a flourish of her hands.
I realized what had struck me as odd about her. She had an illusion around her, but I was seeing through it. There was a moment where she appeared human, but then she flickered back to her true self. The same was happening with the treant.
There was a moment of tension before Tad stepped forward, despite the protests of the others. I matched him step for step and held out my hand. We grasped one another’s arms and shook. “I still don’t know who you are,” he said, “but the system is telling me that you’re not from around these parts, other than the guild master. I’m sure that’ll be quite the story. Why would you get a quest to find me, I wonder?”
“Lots of reasons, but wait a moment.” I glanced back at Selena. “Can you do something about your appearance before we pull into port? And Samvek’s?” Her eyes narrowed so I quickly added, “As beautiful as you are, I don’t think they have any Nalfeshi here. It might help to put everyone at ease.”
She grinned. “Nice recovery.” Samvek simply rolled his eyes, but as he did, I felt reality shift around them. I could still see their true selves, but everyone else on the deck gasped. Clay had seen their disguises before, so he didn’t say anything.
Tad, however, whispered, “That’s interesting. Not an illusion. I can feel how it tugs on everything. A part of me is screaming that this is unnatural and needs to be set straight, but I simply don’t know enough. For now, I can agree. Let’s talk.”
“Good, but first things first. We need you to awaken Clay. The quest we received promised you could do so.”
Tad’s eyes grew wide, but then they glazed over with that look that everyone who lived under the rule of a system recognized. I put my arm around Selena and pulled her close while we waited for him to finish reading. It might not have been tactically sound, but it was enjoyable, and I wasn’t sensing any danger. What was the point of having a fiancée if I couldn’t hold her close?
Chapter Sixteen: New Allies
Whatever notification he got seemed to confuse Tad. “I think it would be better if we waited until we’re docked to continue this discussion,” he said. “They’re going to want an inventory of everything, and this is the first time I’ve been back to Basetown in months.”
There was definitely a story behind his words, but I didn’t ask. “We could have been back here weeks ago,” Suther harrumphed. “You know that I’ve already been shipping stuff here. You’re going to be quite the celebrity with many people in Basetown when we make landfall.”
“And you know why I delayed. There is so much I still don’t understand…” His words trailed off as he looked at me and my team before apparently deciding whatever he was talking about with Suther wasn’t something he wanted to say in front of us.
