Chapter 298: Science, bitch! (Patreon)

“If you haven’t closed your eyes yet, then close ’em now,” I instruct the crew I’ve gathered on Herman’s sandy shore. “Get a firm grip on your tether—your own tether, Whiskers!”

It takes a bit more wrangling to get the deep-blue jungle cat to let go of Sal’s fiery tether, but I eventually manage.

Finally, everyone is quiet, and hopefully focused on the collective Imagination we’re about to undertake.

“I’m going to count to three,” I say softly, my voice carried over the wind. “As I count, I want you all to Imagine the distant land on the other side of your tether. After three, I want you all to pull on your tether, and Imagine shortening that distance, just a little. With each tug, I want you to Imagine getting us a little bit closer, until finally, we’re there. Now, get ready... and one, two, three, heave!”

As one, we pull.

“And heave!” I yell a moment later over the animalistic growls and the creaking of strained tethers. We quickly fall into a rhythm.

The force being exerted on the fabric of the Herman’s Haven doesn’t really have anything to do with muscles, but the collection of beings pulling on their tethers on the beach still make for an impressive sight.

Whisker and Sal have got their tethers in their mouths, and are digging their claws deep into the sand as they tug. Spikes has his metallic chain twisted around some spikes, and Woolly’s lightning simply disappears into his cloud somewhere.

Meanwhile, Herman has got a surfboard cord tied around his wrist, right above the smaller of his two blue claws, and Trisha’s drones are lined up to pull on the same blue ribbon, as if they’re playing tug-o-war with something buried in the sand. Finally, Koko wildly flaps her wings as she pulls her strand of webbing by her tail, and Kirri’s sails billow in the wind as she attempts to raise her anchor.

Looking at us, you’d think we’d make some progress, but my tuned-in senses tell a different story.

The fabric isn’t budging in the slightest.

“All right, stop!” I shout after a few more tries, loosening my grip on my own conjured rope. I wait for my crew to quiet down a bit, then continue. “This doesn’t appear to be working, but it was only the first test. Everybody take five while I do some consulting, but keep hold of your tether and please stay in earshot.”

Letting out a sigh, I let one of the yellow-coloured shells down in the Yin-Yang Realm Fade.

No success yet.

Suri signals back by allowing one of the cyan buttons in my pocket to Fade.

That means all is well on her end, the dimensional pocket and anchors are holding, and she’s good to keep going.

Now I just need to figure out what to do differently.

Of course, it could be that we’re simply lacking the force necessary to do what we’re trying to do, but I kinda hope that’s not the case. Testing this hypothesis in secret is going to become a lot more difficult if we need to ask for more helpers.

We could always ask Goddess to help out, I suppose... but doing it with her help would kind of defeat the purpose. We have to be able to do it without her.

Of course, when it comes to reshaping the fabric, I gotta defer to my seniors. And there are probably few beings in existence with more experience with such matters than Herman.

“Any thoughts?” I ask as he comes sauntering over.

“Dude, I still can’t get over how gnarly this is,” he replies, his blue mandibles clicking happily around the straw leading into the coconut in his claw.

I refrain from rolling my eyes at the word Alec insisted on teaching him.

Trisha, one of whose clones has also come up, laughs. “Yes, it’s quite exciting, isn’t it? The idea of getting to see a material Realm... We don’t seem to making much progress yet, however.”

“No, we don’t,” I drawl. “Any thoughts about why that is? I feel like the amount of force we’re throwing at the problem should at least accomplish something.”

“Ah, yeah, I can tell she’s digging her heels in the sand,” Herman says, in between slurping on his straw. “She’s probably just a little nervous about what we’re doing, that’s all.”

I blink at him. “She? You mean... this place?”

“Who else? I guess I should’ve seen this coming, really... Oh man, you should’ve witnessed her last time I wanted to remodel her. Took me ages to coax her into letting me reshape her dunes.”

My eyes widen as the penny drops. “The fabric that makes up this pocket space needs to cooperate, shit, of course! Herman, do you think you could, ehm, convince ‘her’ to do that?”

Herman scratches his neck with a large claw. “I mean, I could try man, but it’ll be a little hard when I don’t really know what I’m convincing her of... I mean, I don’t even know what the Yin-Yang Realm is like. But I can help you connect to her, if you want?”

I nod slowly. “Yeah, I suppose... yeah, that’d be great, actually. Trisha could you...”

“Yes, I’ll babysit the rest, dear,” she replies warmly. “Go do what you need to.”

Reassured that Kaitlynn’s cuties are in good hands, I let Herman lead the way, stumbling only a little when I notice one of Trisha’s drones produce a ledger and jot something down.

Is she billing me for this?! Ugh...

I’m definitely starring in her next play, aren’t I?

Herman leads me to a small bay farther along the coast, an almost pristine stretch of sand sheltered by reefs, trees and rocks.

“So, this is the oldest part of my haven,” Herman says, sitting down in the sand. “Where it all started... I don’t usually invite people here, it’s kinda like my inner sanctum.”

“Well, I appreciate you bringing me here,” I reply as I carefully sit down next to him, feeling almost guilty about disturbing the serenity, the perfectly flat expanse of sand. “Actually, I appreciate all of this. Letting us use your home as a hideaway, and now to actively take part in the war... I imagine it must be a lot.”

He nods. “On the one claw it is... on the other, I’d be willing to endure a heck of a lot more if it meant we could stop Mara, you feel me?”

“Definitely,” I agree, before clearing my throat. “Now, how do we do this? I mean, I can feel the fabric around me by tuning in—and even communicate with it—but I don’t think I can cover your whole home, let alone do so if we expand it later, so... I guess I can focus only on the connection to the rest of the Realm, or—”

“Woah, slow down, dude,” he chuckles. “You can’t force it, man; you gotta let her come to you.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “You know, you keep saying ‘her’ and ‘she,’ but by that, do you mean the fabric of the Realm as a whole? Because I don’t think—”

He holds up a claw. “Just relax, and wait. She knows we’re here, she’s just shy. You’ll get it when you she shows herself.”

I open my mouth then sigh and shut it again.

If it’s to save Earth, I’ll do pretty much anything. Even be friggin’ patient.

It might feel like forever, but truth be told it only takes a couple of minutes before the breeze rolling in from the water... changes.

“Here she comes, dude,” Herman mumbles happily, confirming my suspicion.

Next, a ripple passes through the water, and a sense of presence washes over me.

“Oh wow...” I breathe out, as I feel the fabric shift and dance.

Emotions come filtering through. Wariness. Mild embarrassment. Curiosity.

It’s like a Realmspirit, but also not.

The presence is clearly less big, for lack of a better word. It—or she, I guess—seems younger, smaller, and therefore also more agile.

Did this pocket space somehow give birth to its own consciousness? A kind of fledgling Realmspirit?

Could it one day split off and form its own Realm entirely?

“How have I not felt her before?” I ask in wonder, watching the water in front of us dance, the sand around us swirl up and down with the wind in a way that’s just a bit too local and regular to be random.

“I told you; Elysia’s shy, dude,” Herman replies happily.

With that name, a meaning filters through. Elysia... ‘little slice of heaven,’ huh? Pretty. And I guess it applies both to this place as well as its spirit.

I quirk an eyebrow at him. “Did you pick that name for her?”

I’d never seen a crab look embarrassed before, and I have to say, I’ve been missing out.

“Ah, yeah,” he says, his mandibles clicking awkwardly. “It’s what I call her in private. Usually not in front of others... it’s a little personal.”

I suppress a smile. “Well, I think it’s very fitting.”

With that, I turn away form him, taking a deep breath and closing my eyes. They’re not close to as useful as my tuned-in senses with regards to taking in Elysia. A moment later, I invert the use of my tuned-in senses to send out waves of Espir. <Hello Elysia.>

A joyful greeting washes over me in return, much faster than I’m used to from fully-fledged Realmspirits.

<Yes, it’s nice to meet you too!> I send with a chuckle which is echoed by Herman, before I turn serious. <The matter I came here about is perhaps a little less nice, however. You see, I really need your help...>

It takes some effort to explain the concepts of what’s going on to Elysia, but by the end she seems to at least grasp that we need her to stretch down to a distant place, and that we later need her help to capture a powerful being.

Truthfully, the thing that seems to scare her the most about all this is the scrutiny her actions will be under from all her visitors, but under Herman’s gentle encouragement, she finally agrees to assist.

And so, I’m back on the beach, this time with a certain presence hanging near the very edge of the range of my senses.

“One, two, three, heave!” I yell once more, while at the same time sending encouragement to Elysia.

This time, there’s noticeably more effect.

Whereas last time, the fabric had at best grown a little strained, this time, a shudder passes through it, and then, bit by bit, the thin tube connecting Herman’s Haven to the rest of the Realm of Imagination, begins to stretch.

“It’s working!” I shout over the noise, and my proclamation is met with cheers. “Steady now!” I quickly follow up. “Not too fast, let’s keep this gentle!”

The last thing I want is to spook—or Goddess forbid hurt—Elysia, after all.

The excitement of my crew is palpable, however, as we pull ourselves closer and closer to our anchors in the Yin-Yang Realm.

Rope spools before me in the sand as I reel in more and more of my tether, and still we keep going, moving down smooth and easy.

However, eventually, our speed starts to decrease, and reeling in my rope becomes harder and harder. It takes me a moment to realise what’s going on, but then I feel them.

The Laws of the Yin-Yang Realm.

The Realms are making contact!

Author's note:

Thanks for reading! ^^