Broken Lands

Chapter 409 – Visitors

Sophia sat with her eyes closed and her breath steady. She could see the emptiness with a network of feathers in the distance held at bay by the bright fire of Taika’s power. It wasn’t the image Venique recommended, but it was the image that worked for Sophia. “I’m ready.”

Taika’s fire dimmed to embers and the feathers shifted closer. Sophia already knew that simply pushing emptiness between herself and them didn’t work; the feathers could move through it. She couldn’t manage Taika’s fire, either. This time, she wanted to try wind; a sphere of wind that caught any feathers that approached and sent them back on their way ought to work as a defense against feathers, if she could figure out how to create the wind.

Imagining the wind into existence simply because it was there worked about as well as imagining a void. It didn’t pull things in like the void but it was just as exhausting to maintain as it was to continually clear the void. That was a sign that it was the wrong visualization.

Perhaps she needed wings to create their own wind? That might work.

It was even worse. The moment she got one part right, another warped out of existence. She was able to create puffs of wind but not the wind shell she wanted. The feathers approached even faster.

One in particular seemed to push even closer than the others. Sophia shifted her attention to that singular uncooperative feather. It didn’t glow in many colors like the others; instead, it was stubbornly brown, functional rather than showy. “You push away what you should welcome.”

Sophia opened her eyes in shock at the feather’s words, then realized that while they came from the feather, it wasn’t simply a figment of her imagination. An Archon sat calmly on the branch in front of her, wings spread as if he had just landed. They were a dappled brown like the feather that spoke, attacked to the back of a mottled black-and-tan badger with a striped black and white face.

“Who are you?” the winged badger Archon continued. “I’ve been feeling you for days. You feel like the space we cannot walk and the dark glue that binds the path between. You feel of the world and the sun that warms feathers in flight. I see you on the wind but you are no Archon, for all you carry feathers with you.”

Sophia opened her mouth, then closed it and blinked in confusion. What was she supposed to say to that?

Well, she could answer the question. “I’m Sophia Dalmoti Rothmer Et’Tart, and I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Et’Tart.” The badger hopped to the ground in front of Sophia, his wings extended to make it a smooth glide. “That explains it; I am Kestiben Et’Tart. You must be one of my aunts. Were you exploring the Tree until recently?”

Sophia blinked and tried to recalibrate her assumptions. She’d assumed that the badger knew something, but he sounded like he thought she was the elder and he was at fault for not knowing her. It was a lot like talking to a precocious child trying to sound older than he was. “Exploring the Tree? No, I came from another world. Recently, anyway. Through one of the Gateways.”

“Ohh!” The badger bobbed his head in understanding. “You were lost! What’s that like? Did you grow up with other Archons around in your own piece of the Lifeweb? Wait, you’re not an Archon; how does that work?”

“I’m Suras,” Sophia answered. She didn’t expect the child to know what that meant; Venique didn’t seem to. The Wanderer also didn’t on his short visit a few days earlier, but that was to be expected; the Wanderer was human. “I’m from another universe, one where the Asuryans fell to the ground and became Suras instead of flying as Archons.”

The badger wrinkled his snout, then shook his head. “No, that’s not right. That’s not what happened at all.”

“Oh?” Sophia wondered what Kestiben meant.

“We walked through a Gateway! Only it wasn’t a Gateway like the ones in the Tree, the one you came through. It was a tear in the world, the first Gateway, before the Tree found us! And many couldn’t come or didn’t choose to; only those who gave up their solid-ness could go through. I’m going to do that when I get older, I want to travel the places between and the best always give up their solid-ness.” Kestiben bobbed his head again.

“And what did I say about that?” An amused older voice scolded the young winged badger. “What’s got you so excited?”

Sophia turned towards the woman’s voice and saw another badger-like Archon. This one was fluffier, but the biggest difference was the wings. They were not the real wings Kestiban had; instead, they seemed to be made of white light, with streams of pastel green, yellow, and pink flowing through them as they moved. The same streamers of color moved along the flying badger’s fur as she settled down next to Kestiban.

“But Mom! You’re a Door-maker, I want to make Doors too!” Kestiben whined.

Sophia grinned. She completely remembered her younger brother making similar arguments, then moving on to wanting something different a few days later. Her grin faded as she realized she’d been gone for more than three years; little Leo wasn’t as little as she remembered. He’d be a teenager now, and while he did have the same shapeshifting as Jenna and Xavier, being a dragon didn’t mean they grew up all that much slower. When they spent the vast majority of their time in their human shapes.

“And maybe you will,” the mother Archon encouraged her son, “if you stay interested in Gate mechanics. That’s why we’re at the Tree, after all. Now, what pulled you away from the Gateway you were examining? It didn’t open, did it?”

Kestiben shook his head. “No! But I figured out where the between-things pull came from, the one I told you about. It’s her! And she’s Et’Tart, too!”

The pastel badger stared at Sophia for a long moment, then nodded slowly. “Kestiben is right. Who are you?”

“Sophia Dalmoti Rothmer Et’Tart,” Sophia repeated. “And before you ask, I’m not an Archon. I’m Suras, from another universe. No one seems to know what that means, but Archons and Suras are both Asuryan. Archons fly and Suras yearn for the sky. There are no Archons left back home, only a few with Archon heritage. I can only guess that that’s what your son is feeling, the fact that I come from another universe.”

The mother badger shook her head. “I don’t think so. I have met beings that crossed universes in the flesh, and they do not feel like you. The least damaged feel like the rodent in your lap, slightly warped from what they once were to something new.”

Sophia glanced down at Taika. He was not slightly warped from the human he once was; it was significant. 

Or maybe not. Sophia still remembered the Hungering Spark and the mind-controlling land jellyfish that Taika’s friends became. Compared to them, maybe his change was slight. 

“There are reasons people aren’t supposed to look into the Origin,” she muttered.

“You sound like you know something about it.” The pastel badger set herself on all four legs and folded her wings. “I am Ekkiba Et’Tart, junior Gatewarden for this cycle and trainee Gatekeeper. Is there anything you can tell me of them that will aid me in my task?”

Sophia shook her head. “I don’t think so. You’re guarding against the black goo monsters that come out of Gates, I assume?”

Ekkiba nodded. “They are properly called resonance echoes, but you’re not the first person I’ve heard call them black goo monsters.”

“We don’t have those back home. Portals … well, our portals don’t go through the Origin. Most of them don’t anyway; it’s much easier to make a portal through space than punch through into the primordial Origin. Even people who have a link to the Origin, like dragons, don’t usually travel through there. It’s just not convenient. I’ve even been to the Origin a few times, but I’ve never seen monsters like that.” Well, there was that one dungeon that made monsters out of oil and tar. They looked pretty similar. They definitely weren’t the same, though, despite their appearance.

“That’s why they’re called resonance echoes,” Ekkiba answered. “It’s not very accurate, but they were named before we really knew where they came from, back when the first Gatekeepers were figuring out how to make stable Gates at the edge of the Tree. They come from the decay of the stabilization matrix. Well, that’s where the ones that come out of our Gateways come from. The Guide’s Gateways, the ones in the World Tree, don’t seem to have the between space, but the resonance echoes still come out of it. We collect the monsters and cleanse them and … uh, do something to the material to turn it into new stabilization matrix. How it’s done is a secret of the Et’Zin, Et’Vo, and I’Lara Clans, all I know is how to collect it and use it.”

Sophia’s breath caught. “You know how to make Gateways?”

“Well, sort of. I’m training to make Gateways. I’ve never made one on my own, only helped,” Ekkiba admitted.

“You can still help me,” Sophia answered as hope won out over caution. “You can tell me who I need to talk to. I need a Gateway made, a Gateway that goes from here to my home. And another to Dav’s home. His first.”

“They’re expensive,” Ekkiba wanted Sophia.

Sophia didn’t care. “We’ll figure out how to pay for it.” 

Ekkiba shook her head slightly. “You don’t understand. You’re going to have to pay for the services of a full Gatekeeping team. That’s a fifth upgrade Gatekeeper, four to six fourth upgrade Gatekeepers, and probably twice as many third upgrade trainees like me. The materials aren’t that expensive but you need a lot of them for every Gateway and that’s not even the worst part. You also have to pay the Gateway fees for the entire team both ways. It’s better to hire the team to make a whole network for you than just one Gateway, and you’re only third upgrade. The only way you’d be able to afford that is if you have an entire Tower backing you.”

Sophia might be an Empress, but she didn’t have the wealth that implied. That sounded like a problem, but it wasn’t the worst problem in what Ekkiba said. She shook her head in denial. “That won’t work. We can’t get to the other side, that’s why we need the Gateway. We want to get home. Is there any other way to make a Gateway?”

“‘Course there is!” Kestiben piped up. “That’s what the first Archons did when they came here! They walked through a tear in the world from their dying home to Arcatiz without ever even seeing what was on the other side!”

“That’s a legend,” Ekkiba sounded embarrassed. “I don’t know if anyone can do that, but even if they can, it wouldn’t be safe to use and it wouldn’t last long. It wouldn’t be stabilized properly and the other-space would seep through. You’re not a Gatekeeper and you haven’t given up your body in favor of your manifestation. I wouldn’t dare step through one of those and I’ve taken the first few steps towards manifesting.”

“Manifestation?” Sophia paused. “Wait. All those Archons that look like they’re made of an element. That’s what you mean, isn’t it?”

The Archons Othala showed Sophia were both like that, which made sense since they were both Gatekeepers if Sophia understood what Ekkiba was saying correctly.