Short Little Stories

Tailos felt them shift into the space between worlds, the limitless realm of broken realities and unborn possibilities. They stood within a crystalline hemisphere formed from the god’s mind, and it hurtled through the in-between towards their destination. Memories of events that never were swirled past them, and dreams born without dreamers drifted through the aether, gravitating towards thems like a moth towards a flame.

Something was very wrong.

He didn’t realize he had spoken out loud until Aubrick snarled, staring at the god in their midst, “Something’s wrong? Like maybe the fact that your so-called savior just sold away Rowen’s soul without a second’s remorse?”

Rowen – or the being that wore Rowen’s form – returned Aubrick’s stare. “Your friend offered herself to me, fully and completely. That was her choice to make, Aubrick Talorn, not yours.”

Tailos shook his head, stepping between them. “That doesn’t matter now, either of you – look around! Something is not right!”

And it was true – passage from one strand of existence to another was never a simple task, but it should have been a smooth one. They did not have an artifact of power to refine their travel, as they had when they passed through the Well of Endless Souls… but they had the will of a god to guide the way. It should have been seamless, silent and swift.

There should not have been colors and shapes and sounds building around them, pressing in on their crystalline transport. Threatening to engulf them – threatening to sweep them away like a leaf, fallen into an unstoppable tide.

The nameless god spoke, and even Aubrick could hear the hesitation – and fear- in their voice, “What… how is this happening? What is happening?”

“Realities are being created. The tide of unborn possibilities all around us… are being born.” Tailos turned his gaze on Stanley Miller… who stood behind Rowen’s form, unmoving, his eyes focused outside the hemisphere on something only he could see.

“His power is to define that which he encounters, even that which cannot be defined. And we are unfortunately surrounded by an endless expanse of the ineffable!”

A cacophony was now wailing around the dome, and the god’s face had grown pale from the pressure of keeping it intact – and even so, a fine spiderweb of cracks had begun to spread across it’s surface. Tailos’s mind raced, trying to think of some way to wake Stanley from the trance, stop his mind from continuing its inexorable calculations…

Aubrick stepped forward with three sure strides, and his fist slammed into Stanley’s temple. The chaos around them grew still as Stanley collapsed to the floor.

The rest of the journey passed in silence.