Chapter 5

Rain had never been to Old Sangi before. The station was run-down, very different from those she was used to. The Magna door that led out was stiff and moved in jerking motions, the magnets inside it having failed as they had rusted. Saplings grew in cracks in the dilapidated floors and the walls were covered in a fine layer of scungy dust. There were no attendants in the booth, one surveillance camera was missing and the recording light of another was out. What was she doing getting off at a station with broken cameras when she knew she was on an alert list? Ah well, it was done now. There was no telling when the next ferry would arrive, but it would be a while and she didn't feel safe waiting around. She looked up her location on her Notepad, which had recovered a decent amount of charge, this island was long and thing, it would be about an hour's walk to cross it. She judged that safer than remaining here and she didn't think she needed medical attention any longer – other people had confirmed that what was happening was real. Shivering, she stepped out. Further from the shore, fig trees grew, their fat leaves providing shelter from the sun, and the undergrowth was thick with scrub. The usual mangrove forest grew near the water's edge, providing harbour for small fish and the young of larger predators. Rain paused on that note, wondering at the wisdom of disembarking in a region where dangerous salamanders lived. Everything about this told her it was a stupid idea. Well, they were quite rare, and she wanted to get away from the water.

The path out was cobbled stone with trees providing cover. It was clearly a waste of resources to build a proper path with shelter for such an infrequently used station. The sounds of small animals taunted her from within the brush. Away from the complexes and water lived small mammals, arboreal and ground-dwelling alike. Many species – both flora and fauna – were ubiquitous, but some islands had species entirely their own or shared over small regions. There were whole research institutes dedicated to cataloguing and preserving this diversity. Other institutes also hunted new species, though often for less noble reasons.

A few minutes into the journey, someone appeared on the path ahead, dressed in the pure black clothes of a Foldian. She hesitated, but decided to continue.

“Hello,” he said as she approached. She recognised this as the man who had hit her arm the previous day, except his arm was normal!

“You! Your arm's better!”

“This?” He asked with humour in his voice. The end of his arm shimmered and disappeared, then reappeared. “It isn't real.” He had a warm voice, and as he spoke, he grey visibly younger, his hair turning from grey to black, wrinkles fading.

“Come,” the mysterious man continued, “we need to talk. I won't harm you.” He paused, thinking for a moment, “If I wanted to, there's not much you could do anyway.”

A dot appeared, floating beside the man. It grew over a few seconds. Rain realised that the same thing that had happened to her in her bedroom was happening now, but without the pain. She looked at the stranger's face, which showed slight signs of discomfort. No, it wasn't her, its was this person. He was opening some sort of gateway. That meant it could be controlled!

“Who are you?” She asked.

“Call me Avan,” he replied.

Fine, she thought, if he won't tell me his name, I won't tell him mine. Avan was a name from children's tales. Sometimes a demon, sometimes the opposite. No two roles were alike. It was the name given to a character when a better name could not be thought of.

“That's my name too! It's nice to meet you.”

He chuckled, then gave her a flat stare, “Avan really is my name, Rain. Are you coming?”

With that he stepped through the now fully-open portal. It was jagged around the edge, which was difficult to focus on. Different sections of it seemed to waver in and out of existence . The place on the other side was a grey tunnel overlayed onto the backdrop of the trees and path she could see. If she stayed here, Avan would only return, and what he said was true; she was unlikely to be able to stop him doing whatever he wanted. Conversely, if she followed, she may learn something. Inside the portal, Avan vanished around a corner in the tunnel. Rain stepped through.

Once inside, the tunnels walls lost their translucence. Glancing back, she saw her window onto the greenery rapidly shrinking. Drawing a breathe, she forged ahead. Around the corner the tunnel continued, then ended in a similar doorway beyond which Avan waited.

This place was rather grim; a grey cliff above a muddy beach. A beach with no sea. Pale blue crabs scuttled over the mud, leaving their unique tracks as evidence of their passing. Stringy white clouds drifted overhead, giving off faint illumination.

“Welcome to Sorrow,” Avan intoned, “also called Neron Alarast. This is my other domain.”

Rain shivered. “Why Sorrow? Why is this your other realm?”

“The place you come from is Lor-Neron Alarast, the Living Realm. Lor here means shadow or shade of. Life exists in the shadow of sorrow. These realms are linked, and I am their custodian.”

“Life is the shadow cast by sorrow? That's an awful thing to say. Shouldn't death be the shadow of life?”

“You are confusing things. That realm is living and exists because of this realm. That doesn't mean that all life is caused by sorrow, There is more, which you'll probably find out one day, but that is not particularly relevant to why you are here.”

Rain raised an eyebrow.

“I need you to do something for me. I made a mistake many years ago, and I can't fix it on my own.”

“Why would I help you?”

“Put simply, if you don't, we'll both die. What's in it for you? Well, I've already given you the ability to touch adjacent worlds, and I'll need to train you to use it.”

“Why didn't you ask before doing any of that? I've been terrified!”

“You'll have time to recover. If I had just told you, would you have believed me? I've learnt through experience what works and what doesn't.” Avan paused and grimaced, “I've also learnt that not everyone I conscript is appropriate.”

“Not everyone? What happened to the others?”

“Generally they just didn't want to help. Most of them are dead now. I've tended to select those who like excitement.”

“I don't like excitement!”

“Yes.”

“What if I don't want to help?”

“Then I'm in trouble, because I've run out of time. Someone capable of hazeshaping and likely to help me is unlikely to just appear! Your kind are rare, and I even had to give you a push.”

“Well, what do I need to do?”

“Nothing too difficult; you need to free Tera, who some call the Eternal Screamer.”

“The god worshipped by the Panens? They claim he cannot be freed and never dies.”

“Yes. He is held in chains, tied to both Lor-Neron Alarast and Vinidan Same. His 'worshippers' can't affect the chains because they are made of haze, but that's why you can.” Avan smiled.

“Why don't you just do it yourself? You claim to be so powerful, what makes me so special?”

Avan seemed caught off guard by this question. “I put him there, and I can't break them myself. Anyway, if you don't help me, you'll die, and not just the regular death, where you'll live on in Torren Maildun; you'll cease to exist.”

“I don't understand why failing to free this Tera fellow will kill me.”

“I'll tell you, but you have to promise to help.”

Suddenly Rain felt compelled, as if some hand had reached down out of the sky and taken control. Though every fibre of her being cried out for caution, she agreed. “Ok, I'll help.”

“Good. Tera formed a tunnel to this realm and tried to trap me. Can only assume he wanted to take my power, absorb me into himself, as that seemed to be what the trap was designed to do. However, he misunderstood a few key things about the way things work, and I trapped him instead, binding him to this realm. Now the laws of his plane of existence are leaking into yours.”

“Like what?”

“Electricity and light, for example, don't behave as it should. You may have noticed that they acts differently a long way away.”

“The star dip!”

“Yes. Those ancient, far-off stars will give you a good indication of how things are supposed to work.”

“But they are so far away!”

“I am very old, Rain.”

“And patronising.”

“Well...”

It made a twisted sort of sense, if she bought into the whole multiple-dimensions thing, or whatever it was. She didn't really trust him, but what could she do? She would play along. Carefully.

“What now?”

“There are a few things you need to know about what you can do. When you pull matter through, you can shape it into whatever you like. It is very painful, but as you become more powerful two things will happen; you'll learn to endure the pain better, and the resistance to your drawing will decrease, just as a well-oiled hinge will swing more readily than a rusted one.
“Doing this is called hazeshaping. I've sensed you doing it a couple of times, so you're probably familiar with what a join looks like, and I guess you can tell why we call it that.”

“We?”

“There are others, as I said before. Over time you'll be able to form more shapings. For now the most you'll be able to manage is the fashioning of small, inanimate objects. You'll eventually learn now to 'repeat' which in its most basic form allows you to teleport over small distances. As you grow you'll learn to create living beings, forge semi-permanent gateways, and even split the essence of your self into parts.”

Rain held her tongue about the insect creatures she assumed she had summoned, as Avan Nerovast continued.

“There are two extremes to hazeshaping. You can shape what you draw through immediately, which is costly and only lasts for as long as you maintain the connection, or you can draw gently, over time, fashioning your creation carefully. In this case it will last indefinitely; your creation will become as real as the earth we are standing on.
“There is no real trick to it. Push on reality and you'll tear it slightly. Pull on what leaks out, concentrate, and mould it into whatever you desire. You should practice. Start small, create things like whatever you've been creating instinctively over the past few days. If you try to draw too much you could harm yourself.” He paused. “You're very loud, by the way. Perhaps you should work on that. I could feel your actions from a world away.”

“Wait. I'm loud? What does that mean?”

Avan laughed out loud. “It means whenever you work with haze, everyone knows! It's hard not to! Pay attention.” A black hole appeared in the air, out of which a shaggy beast stepped.
“Did you feel anything?”

“Not really. Maybe some sort of vibration?” She hazarded.

“Bah!” Clearly disappointed, Avan looked at the hole again. It wavered and disappeared, just as his arm had. “How about that time?”

“Yes!” Rain had sensed something. It was hard to know whether it was a smell or a flavour or even a sensation, but it was something.

“Good. Everyone's has a different flavour. So remember it!”

“Ok. How do I be quieter?”

“Draw power through at a slower rate. You didn't feel anything when I created the tunnel before, because I formed it slowly, but you noticed when I collapsed that hole just now, because it was abrupt.”

“Ah, ok, right. What should I do now?”

“Just practice for a while. Figure out what you can do without becoming too ill. Hazeshaping will always hurt, at least, for the first few thousand times you do it, but that's the price you pay.”

“In that case, I'm not sure I want to practice!”

“Try something very small. A grain of sand, a speck of dust. That sort of thing will hardly hurt at all.”

“Um, ok.”

“I'll send you back now. Once you've practised a little, I'll come find you again, and we can talk more. There is more for me to teach you and you are not very safe right now you should be cautious with what you do.”

“Ok, I'll do my best.” Rain had no intention of being cautious. This Avan Nerovast had clearly underestimated her. “What is that beast? I've never seen anything like it.”

Avan smiled again. “That is something I created to look after people doing important things when my attention is elsewhere. Outwardly it resembles what would be called a mule – the child of a horse and a donkey – but I guess you wouldn't know what they are either. They are pretty common here, so its fairly simple to arrange for my faux mules to enter the possession of the right people. Furgin here was, unfortunately, rejected by the people I placed in his charge. Or abandoned. Perhaps he just left. Hmm. Perhaps he was with them just now... I should send him back. Actually, I should send something with you to make sure you're safe! Just a minute.” Avan stood pondering for a second or two., then his face lit up. “I have it!”
Seconds later a lizard appeared, and padded over to her. Knee-high, it had a streamlined head, webbed feet, and a thin tail which formed a vertical fin. It had grey skin and pale eyes. It was about two feet long and one high, with pointed teeth in its too-large mouth. That mouth seemed to grin at her, and she noticed a certain expressiveness in its eyes.

“Hmm, perhaps I made it a little too intelligent,” Avan remarked, “well, let's see how it goes.”

Sudden darkness engulfed Rain, then she was back outside her complex, the lizard splashing in the creek nearby. Bobbing its head, it clambered out and up onto the boardwalk, carefully wiping sand from its feet as it went. Suddenly it stopped. It cocked its head and looked at her, grinning again.

“Come on Leptep,” Rain said. She didn't know why, but that seemed an appropriate name for him. She also realised she knew it was a male, without knowing why. Swiping her Notepad, she went into her complex, Leptep following, snapping at flies as he went.

Rain figured she would need to pass Leptep off as a pet, so she took a few photographs of him in her rooms, then ran a match on her Notepad. Apparently he was a Southern water dragon, legal to keep as pets (luckily), and fiercely loyal. Of course he would be a legal pet, Avan would have considered that!

She giggled as Leptep attempted to jump up into the kitchen sink. After clumsily scrabbling, looking ridiculous with the back half of his body hanging offer the edge, feet clutching for purchase, he pulled himself up and into it. The sight of him trying to fit into the sink was also comical as the sink needed to be at least twice the size. Still, he didn't seem to mind.

Somewhat at a loss for what to do, knowing she was not, in fact, sick, she decided that she would practice hazeshaping after all. She tried to recall what Avan had said. Something about focussing on tearing a hole, then sculpting what came out.

Taking a deep breath, she concentrated on touching the gap between worlds. She reached out, felt some resistance. Spongy yet strong. Sharp yet soft. She grasped it and wrenched. And passed out.