Bridgeworlds: Deep Flux (13 page)

Kleis nodded, “I am glad you did not fall for his smooth talking.”

Omar shook his head, “No, Myles was better at smooth talking
than Thanatos was back there; I saw straight through everything he did.
I had to use him to get better, but I fear there will be repercussions
unless I take action now.”

The gears twisted and turned, and the doors came open leading
to Omar’s level at the top of the tower. He turned to Kleis and put a
hand on his arm. “Kleis, I want you to spend some time with Thanatos.
Use the light bending device that I gave you. It has my image captured
on it. Use it to look like me. You are the smartest creature on Soterion
and as far as the Magi go. You are my secret weapon. At the end of
whatever game you play with Thanatos, I need a few vials of his blood.
But most importantly, Thanatos must die.”

Kleis cocked his head, “You want me to kill him?”

Omar gave him a level look, “I want you to tell Queen Ariana.
Caelsis is her Kingdom and she should know that a powerful force has
maneuvered into it."

Kleis nodded, “And what of you?”

 

Omar shook his head, “I will leave the tower for a short time
and hope to return to find this dealt with.”

 

“I won't let you down, Omar,” Kleis said with pride and
confidence.

Then Omar did something unusual, he hugged Kleis. Kleis
stiffened initially but soon hugged him back. “If he is an arch-demon, I
bet you can outsmart even him. Farewell, Kleis. Be careful,”

Kleis bowed and closed the elevator doors. The gears rotated
and the elevator went down.

Omar turned to survey his quarters. The entire level of about
five thousand square feet was his. He had room after room to himself.
The walls, ceiling, and floor were made of white marble with dark green
veins. He passed his study and went to his bedroom where he had a
beautiful sky-top view of Caelsis. Omar poured himself some wine; a
bottle of 1997 Romane Conti that he had brought from earth and saved
for a special occasion. What was more special than to be alive? As he
relaxed, he turned on his solar-powered laptop for the first time this
decade, and played Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. Omar
swirled the glass of wine under his nose taking in the aroma of berries,
spices and leather before taking a sip. He walked out to his balcony to
look upon the magnificent city of Caelsis. It was evening – he wasn't
sure what time, but he could see the whole city through the glow of
Castle Enigma that radiated in iridescent colors.

As he was lost in the tinsel of the city, the wine glass slipped to
the floor. The shards of glass mixed with the spray of wine.

 

Blood.

Violent images jarred his mind. The beast from his dream… The dream
he had all but forgotten. They came and went in a flash.
The beast was
clawing at him and searing him with those hungry eyes.
Omar staggered
back away from the window. He looked down at himself, ripping the
shirt off his throbbing arm and chest.

Scars.

Every blemish on his body had vanished but those
. The
reminders of his greatest fear. It wasn’t a dream. It was real.
Panic fell
over him as he searched to either side of him and turned around. There
was no one… Nothing. Images of claws and teeth flashed in his mind
again. Omar cried out and dropped to huddle to the ground. The images
came and went relentlessly. For hours he lay on the ground next to his
lavish bed, tears streaming until exhaustion finally brought sleep.

5
At Sea

Myles woke with a nasty taste in his mouth. He could not tell if
it was the captain's whiskey or some other poison.
Never drink a pirate’s
booze.

He sat up from the captain’s bed and abruptly felt the sway of
the boat. That was enough. He ran out of the captain’s quarters to the
deck, gripped the side of the ship, and heaved out the nasty bile he had
drunk the night before.

“Ha ha! Tastes even better comin' up don't it,” sneered a voice
from above.

 

Myles waved him off with one hand as he wiped his mouth on
his coat sleeve.

The ship swayed again, and Myles had to stop himself from
going another round. Ignoring further jeers from the pirates, he set off
to find the captain. At the front of the ship the captain was looking
through a telescope with a short figure at his side. As Myles approached
he realized that the figure was some form of humanoid machine given
life.

He was shaken by the sight of it as it had characteristics of both
machine and man. It was too human and too machine. Its face was
made of copper with bolts attaching it to the rest of the head which was
open from the back showing moving parts and gears. As it turned to
look at him, he noticed that its eyes glowed with a blue light.

“Hello, you must be Myles. I have heard much about you,” it
said without moving its mouth.

Myles only blinked in response. Before things got awkward the
captain spoke. “I told you that I had a dreamer on board. This is Rom, he
is the dreamer I spoke of.”

Myles tried to clear his mind of the shock and stuck out his
hand. He heard gears moving quickly as a metallic hand appeared from
under Rom’s cloak. Omar shook the hand and noticed a faint blue light
coming from under Rom’s cloak. “The pleasure is mine,” said Myles with
a forced smile.

“I’m an automaton. I have been one since the day I slipped into
a coma,” he said matter-of-factly.

 

“So, you know you are in a coma on earth? One would think
that would mean you could go back,” Myles observed.

Rom nodded his head which made a squeaking sound, “Yes, I
could. But I would return to a mindless sleeping state. Who wants that?
I would much rather have worlds to live in that I can shape and mold.”
The light of his eyes seemed to change in brightness and shading in tune
with the emotion in his voice.

Myles nodded, “I can’t say that I would disagree with that train
of thought. So you can actually not only change your environment but
also people if you so choose?

“Yes,” said Rom with a matter-of-fact tone.

 

“Ok, can you show me?” asked Myles.

Myles heard some gears turning and Rom shook his head, then
he held up a mirror to reveal to Myles that he had changed Myles’ eye
color to orange and he now had pointed ears. Myles felt his ears and a
chill went through his body. He never liked the idea of changing as Omar
had. “Ok, change it back before I freak out,” said Myles in a hurried
tone.

Rom let out an awkward clunking laugh as he kept his hand with
the mirror out for Myles to see and confirm, “You are back to normal.”

Myles tipped his hat to Rom, “Thank you for showing me that.”
Then he turned his attention to the captain. “What were you having a
look at?"

The captain handed Myles his telescope. “See fer yerself.”

Myles put the eyepiece to his face and focused it on the green
lush land ahead. He handed the telescope back to the captain. “That’s
my stop. I have a lot to do. I hope you don’t mind me skipping out.”

The captain gave Myles a hard slap on the back. “I know you will
miss waking up on a ship.” The captain laughed and the crew began to
jeer at Myles again.

“Oh no, it's the warmth and gentleness I'm treated with that I
will miss. …that and the shark vomit you call whiskey,” he jested as he
slapped that captain's back even harder.

There was a moment of silence but then the captain burst out
laughing. “Yer welcome on me ship any day. Come back and maybe we
can play a game of cards.”

Myles shrugged, “And rob you of all of your gold? Not likely to
happen on your ship, but thanks anyway. I may visit sometime, but for
now,” he pointed to the shore, “I'm headed that way.” He thought
about being on the shore and he was; faster and easier than he had
imagined. The dreamer really did make his powers work better.
If only I
had one of those to follow me around… Misaki is here somewhere and
she is a dreamer. I wonder if she knows it.

Myles checked through his pockets to make sure no one had
robbed him. There he found all of his things including several Gauntman
teleportation devices.
I need to get this to Omar.
Then he had a
profound thought. Now that he knew where the island was, he could
return to it at will.
Why not do it now?

Myles teleported to the Tower of the Magi in Caelsis. He went
straight to Omar’s penthouse, looked around, and thought the
decoration felt a bit stuffy for him. Myles made himself invisible and
crept to Omar’s study leaving two of the devices on his desk with a note
that read, “Omar, its Myles… These are teleportation devices. You might
be able to get your funding continued on earth if you take them back. I
miss you. I have a few things to take care of and will be back soon.
~Myles”

Hearing something in the other room, he poked his head out to see
what it was. Omar lay face down on the marble floor with wine spilled
around him.
Taken to drinking a bit much, huh Omar? Couldn’t even
make it to the bed…

Myles found the bottle and took a sniff. It smelled rotten to
him.
Bleh, I never had a nose for wine. In fact, after that nasty whisky I
may just stick to tea from now on.
Myles took one last look around
and then teleported back to the shore line
. Ok Misaki, where are you?

It was time to pick a direction. From what Myles had seen of
this continent coming in from Musterion, it was at the very least twice
the size of the continent of the Seven Kingdoms
. I guess I will pick two
directions
. Myles chose North and East. He walked for a whole day on
level terrain and decided not to walk any more.
Why walk? I can move
distances with a thought.

Myles focused on a point and then thought of being there and
he was. He smiled. Then another idea came to him. He looked up and
focused on a cloud in the sky and, as if zooming in with a camera, he
was at the cloud. He immediately began to fall. Myles loved the feel of
adrenaline pumping through his body. He imagined winds so strong that
they would move him and used them to stay aloft and propel him
forward.

He looked down at the terrain, watching it meander by. He
would have walked the plains he was traveling for at least another day,
but even though it was the end of the day, he was able to get past the
plains into a forested area. Myles decided to follow the tree line for
some time and then stopped for the night to camp. He found a small
creek where he caught some fish and started a camp fire before resting
for the night.

In the morning, Myles woke to a rustling in the woods. He
dashed ashes over his campfire and investigated. He took no chances;
he was not here to interact or be imprisoned again. He immediately
looked up to the tree line and was on the move again. As he flew, he
passed a flock of birds in v formation. Myles rode the wind for half of a
day until the forest dwindled to sporadic trees and bushes. As he looked
down he could see several small villages, but Myles passed them by not
allowing his curiosity to distract him.
I can explore this place in later,
he
determined.

Soon after, it began to rain making it hard to follow the terrain
from the air. He landed and continued on foot. That night was a wet
one, but he was greeted by the sun the next day.

As Myles went further north on this new continent, the air got
colder but he learned to ignore the climate. Was it real or a dream? He
couldn't really tell the difference any more. After days of traveling, he
began to notice that the further north he got the fewer hours of
daylight there were. Finally, he reached a place where there was only
one hour of daylight per day.

He woke one morning to hunt for his breakfast. He could see
the two suns in the distance but dark clouds hung overhead. There was
one spot in the clouds where the light broke through illuminating a large
part of the fields ahead. Myles set off towards it.

As Myles drew closer he could see a crowd of figures dressed in
black. He asked himself if they might be Kalat. Kalat liked to wear all
black. Myles quickly covered himself in the illusion of a Kalat. These are
the first natives I have come across that looked to be organized into any
kind of group; I have to get a closer look.

As he drew closer he could see a crowd of figures
around the shaft of light...
These are the first natives I have come across
that looked to be organized into any kind of group; I have to get a closer
look.

Myles pulled a small telescope from his coat. They looked like
male humans wearing all black clothing surrounding a man in crimson
red who wore a crown. The crowd was pushing him towards the light
and the man was fighting them with everything he had. A woman
appeared as if from no-where. Myles was caught off guard by how
strikingly beautiful she was. She was screaming and fighting to free the
kingly man but the others managed to restrain her and continued
dragging him towards the break of light in the fields.

Myles guessed, by the way they were all acting, that this would
somehow harm the man if not kill him, though he couldn't guess how.
And then Myles heard a voice in his head like a woman whispering.
They
are going to kill my father, someone please come... help!
Images of the
men in black robes ambushing the woman and the King they beat him
and putting a bag over his head, and then her getting away flashed and
reverberated in his mind and then the beautiful woman in the
telescope, though there was no way she could see him from that
distance, looked directly at him.

Alright, that was weird. Guess I will help.
Myles illusioned
himself into black robes with a black mask that covered his entire face.
His past dreamings had worked to protect him from physical forces on
Soterion so he hoped this would also protect him from the sunlight if it
were indeed dangerous.