"...They wanted me...to come here," Alga said, surprising even herself. "They...needed to talk to their master. I don't know who that is, but..."
The man glanced up from his work. "I have to ask which domain," he growled, slowly. "If I know their domain, then I know of whom they seek."
He brow was furrowed, though he seemed a less... mixed emotion now. He seemed focused now, as if he too had been gathering his thoughts.
He breathed deep then went on. "The world has forgotten. This was a place for the Order. Of learning and safety. A place for mortals. The Temple of Reality was for the Words. These laws have not been breached for centuries."
"I ask again," he said through clenched teeth, "do you know the domain of this Word? If not we can find out. Not by way of speaking to them--I shant allow that in this sacred place--but before that I'd prefer the simplest path. That is my query: of which domain is this Word?"
He seemed to be in an endless state of quiet irritation it looked like, and while it didn't bode too well for her nerves, Alga managed to contain herself fairly well this go around. He wasn't throwing a fit like he had been a little earlier, at least.
She wetted her lips and tentatively shook her head after a moment, tentacles swaying with the motion. "I...I really don't know... They just came when I was reading, I think."
But in the back of her mind, curiosity began to burn. Order, she sort of understood that. Words, especially knowing now that there were multiples of them, were more confusing, even given the Word's explanation awhile back. And the temple...
Maybe she would ask about it, if the man ever seemed to be in a better mood.
"Then that is how it is," he sighed. "Come then."
He moved to lead them outside. The two moved back to the picturesque garden, the flowers swaying in a wind that neither of them could feel.
As before, the man muttered something that Alga didn't understand. Then, with a theatrical--if boorish--upward gesture of his forearm, another island appeared ahead of them in the empty sky.
Between the two, a cobble bridge sluggishly pulled itself between the greenery of the islands. When it was done, it was as if it had always been there, arching catlike, connecting the floating lands.
They crossed.
On the other side, was a small atrium. Alga could swear she heard birds chirping, but could spy none of them as she walked between the columns. Her feet on the crisp, aromatic grass was the only other sound as they approached the heart of the much smaller building near the center.
In the shining sunlight of this floating land were four stones, similar gems and minerals to the pillars, in the temple yet inert.
They sat upon four carved, marble pedestals, gleaming austerely.
"Take one and hold it before you," the man snarled, perhaps as gently as his unusual language would allow.
She was quiet as they traversed out of the temple, partially as was her habit and partly out of sheer awe for the happenings around them. She might have lingered to gather in the sight, but unlike before, she was in company this time and so she kept moving. It didn't stop her from turning her head every which way, however.
When they reached their destination and Alga was given her orders, she hesitated momentarily before stepping forward. It didn't matter which one she picked first, did it...?
Alga stepped forward to one of the stones closest her and, gently, took the green one into her hands.
The emerald was cold to the touch. She wasn't sure what the man was looking for, but she held it out nonetheless.
After a moment, the man shook his head and motioned to set the stone down and to pick up another.
She nodded wordlessly and set it back down before moving to pick up the amber stone that sat next to her, stroking the polished mineral in her grip. She wondered what Domains were…
Alga tried again with the amber. Unlike the emerald, which had been cold and smooth, the amber seemed warm and... sticky to the touch. Like something alive.
She didn't want to hold it longer than she had to and luckily, the man grimaced and had her set it down. All the better.
Ew.
Alga couldn't resist the urge to rub her hand down on the leg of her pants and took the moment to glance towards the other stones. Two left.
Shuffling over, she glanced between the ruby and obsidian stones before reaching over to take the red gem into her hands, glancing over at the man inquisitively.
Almost instantly, this one felt different. Though it was the least artfully carved and when she picked it up, nothing visibly happened, she could sense some sort of power clasping her.
Then, it was as if a large weight she hadn't noticed was lifted. She shuddered. The man nodded.
"Reality, then," he muttered. "That Word shall be confined to that gem for the nonce. Come."
He turned to leave.
Though the weight was lifted, the man's words gave her an all too familiar feeling in the pit of her stomach. She took a breath and swallowed. Not this time...
"I-" Alga paused. "...Th-They'll...return where they were when this is done, won't they? Err..." Maybe that wasn't right. Maybe they wanted this. "I-I mean- I just... Do you think they're okay with that..."
"I care not whether they're okay with it or not," the man snarled. "I shall not sit idly while our sacred traditions are broken. Intentionally or no."
He breathed deep, sucking in through his nose, then breathing out through clenched teeth. "I will return the Word to you afterwards if that is your wish, but not before you leave this place."
He let go of her mirror, which he'd been clenching this whole time. As if through some natural magnetism, it returned to Alga's hand, as if it had never left.
Perhaps it was a sign of good faith?
Alga stared silently down at the items in her grip, looking from the mirror to the stone in her hands. It wasn't the best answer, and something inside of her ached for the Word's plight, but...
"...Okay..."
He had promised to give them back at the end. She had that much at least. Maybe they could tolerate it until then…
The man nodded curtly, then they stomped across the bridge and back to the temple.
Once the man was sitting back where he'd begun, he explained, "You are looking for Order themselves. The maker of reality and the one that gave everything its place. Why?"
Alga glanced down and thumbed at the stone in her hands, the mirror having been placed back within her backpack. It was a good question, and one she didn't know the answer to.
"I...don't know, really... The Word had said it was, um...urgent...I think. The only thing they had me do was, uh..." Her brow furrowed. "...bring a jar of water."
Order... Religious entities did exist, then...?
He frowned, glancing for the first time at the jar. "I know not why they'd have you bring... a jar of water. Did anything prompt their action? Words of reality do not act without reason."
Alga pondered the question. They had been insistent on their mission from the get-go, almost ever since she had acquired them. She hadn't really stopped to think about it, figuring it had been something well out of her understanding.
"...I don't know. They just-"
A flash of memory came to her. A hanging void in a kitchen and the Word's nervous expression. She winced without thinking.
"Um..." Alga chewed her lip as she tried to find the words. "I... There was something that they didn't like... S-So I can see things, right? Ever since I...er...got from this world to the real one, I can see a lot of stuff. One of the things I saw was this...big black hole in the middle of the room? A-And when I told them they looked...not happy.
"I...don't know if that's what they're worried about. I-It could be anything else. There were a lot of other holes outside, smaller though, so maybe it's normal...?"
He blinked. "Naught comes before its time?"
"I...guess...?"
A flash of a demented grin came to her and her breath caught in her throat.
"...This might not be related, b-but... I was going somewhere, and I was in that-that mirror world. One of the reflections looked... Um. Bad. And there was...a lot of black goo on the floor. ...Do you know what was...? I-I haven't really told the Word, yet..."
It just looked so different from what she was familiar with. Out of place. Wrong, even. And things had moved too fast to say something, between passing out and having to go on this trip…
He muttered, as if not even thinking about the answer. "Could or could not be. Unreality that parallels reality reflects the state of how a thing seems to those who frequent it. Elsewise, they are cultured like this temple to be something else entirely."
"When did you observe these pockets of Void?" he asked, frowning.
She thought a moment, scooting back through her memories. "Just...yesterday, I think. Or, well, last night..."
He nodded gravely.
The man stood. The air began to tremor. Slowly, with strained effort, the man wrenched his arms abreast. He pushed against the air as if it were stone collapsing on him from both sides. The emerald, again, pulsed with power.
With another burst of effort, he heaved and pushed away with both left and right. His arms now taut, Alga's attention was turned to movement in the building. The walls, so solid around her, depicting the shifting world, fell away like the walls of a dollhouse.
In their place was the night sky, but now all around her. A sudden cold chilled the sanctuary. Alga's neck bristled then and she noticed the man glaring at her. He was a mere meter away, holding out a burly hand.
"Clasp," he commanded, as if talking to a pet. "At the same time, remember where you saw the hollows."
The whole thing was unbelievable, and for a moment she couldn't stop staring at the scenery around her. She had been out during the night, sure, had even been in fields on occasion during the hour, but this felt... Too expansive. Almost empty.
It was unnerving.
Her reverie was broken by the man's command and hastily she turned to look at him. Questions bit in her throat, a curiosity burning inside her, but the expression he wore made her swallow them back.
Gently did Alga place the stone in a side pocket of her bag, and it was then she remembered her gun which had been neglected on the floor. Hastily scooting over to pick it up, she slid it as well as it would go into her bag and returned to the Inkling before her.
Remember this place...? She would try.
Alga's hand reached out, tentatively outstretched, and as she grasped the other her mind went back to the strange happenings of the night before. They weren't hard to draw up; the pockets of nothingness were almost too vivid in her mind…
The man closed his eyes and before them a screen hovered.
No.
Not a screen.
A mirror
It had appeared from nothing but there it was. No framing. Just the reflective surface. And soon, its image shifted to show the shapes Alga was envisioning.
The man opened his eyes. He studied the image. Then nodded gravely.
"Do you know anything of these?" he asked, solemnly.
Alga almost lost her train of thought she was so taken by the spectacle, and in the back of her mind she wondered just how much he seemed to know about her. He hadn't seemed surprised by her knowledge of being able to see things, come to think of it...
"...I don't." She thought hard on what the word had said. "Just... Wh-What had they said... It comes? ...N-Not its turn, but they were there anyway."
The man 'humph'd as if Alga had asked him why water flowed downward. The information seemed obvious to him.
His wrinkles worked to emphasize his frown as he said, "the next Turn comes when everything that can understand stops observing that which is. Needless to say, that hasn't happened yet. After all, you're still alive. And so am I--"
He looked back to the twisted reflection before continuing "...After a fashion."
Alga followed his gaze inquisitively, her own brow furrowing as she processed the words. None of this was making sense...
"Turn...? What..." She rubbed at her face. "I-I'm sorry. It's just...a lot. I don't get much of it..." She hadn't even known Gods really existed up until, what? Half an hour ago maybe? It was near overwhelming...
He ground his teeth, clearly impatient with such an obvious question. "It is the medium through which we're all here. Order's Turn." He shook his head. "How about, to make this clearer, I just say that our continued existence is coming to a sudden inexplicable halt should these events proceed."
His gnashing teeth grinding against each other framed his thick jaw underneath the thick tangle of beard. "And further, this is an event on a cosmic level and, while there is likely little we can do, we can inform Order of that which is occurring, though..."
He trailed off.
That's... Oh.
Alga really didn't know how to feel about that. She wasn't even sure if she believed it, somewhere in her mind. It felt almost like it wasn't even real...
She chewed her lip and gave him an uncertain look until he went quiet. Her thoughts drifted towards the stone settled in her backpack, the Word's mission, and she gave a tentative nod. There was. nothing else she could really do.
"How...?"
The man massaged his temple before continuing. "Go to the Temple of Reality--" on the mirror an image of the decrepit temple she'd seen coalesced, "find the deepest pool--" an image of dark placid waters replaced the temple's image, "and speak what you must."
He breathed out deeply. The walls of the temple returned in a flash, boxing them in again. He returned to his scrolls, scowling all the way.
She could see growing irritation setting in his frame, a fact that made a stiffness settle through her muscles. That was the information she needed, and by all accounts her mission was accomplished, but...
They were similar. Really similar, it felt like. And she didn't know if she mght ever find out more about it if she left here.
Alga left the man in silence for a long moment, both to maybe let him relax and organize her own thoughts. Eventually, when she spoke, her voice was nigh inaudible, but she tried to pay it no mind. He seemed to hear her no matter how she talked.
"D-Do you...know what I am? ...The Word c-called me a Seer, but...you seem similar... A-And I don't really get it much." Alga flushed and looked away. That was too many words. "Sorry..."
Without looking up the man said, "the Word Read you. The ironic joke in the cosmic naming conventions is that we call them Words, when in truth, we are open books to them.
"When one finds a proper host, they can Read your ever-changing story like you're an open book. Your thoughts, worries and fears. Even things you wouldn't or couldn't know yourself. All except your future choices.
"If I were to guess on what that means, the Word intends to imply that your Awakening grants you great vision in some way. I'm amazed you've come here without understanding that much. As such, the title likely only has meaning to the Word and you."
"...What about you...?"
Alga winced just the moment she spoke the words. She'd slipped up and her curiosity had gotten the best of her; the man probably wouldn't appreciate that in particular…
He looked up, a serious look on his face. But... he wasn't angry. He just looked contemplative.
"My Awakening was only a brush against the Bellerophon; I wasn't a suitable host for any I encountered and didn't think it worth my time to find one," he said, though there was a bit of regret in his tone.
"That said, I survived the encounter, and I've learned myself through trial and error." He spoke with the pride of a master and the eagerness of a child now, with his serious tone only lending him an air of professionalism about what he had clearly dedicated his life to. "Within the Domains of Unreality, I have unparalleled control over its manifestations, unrestricted by the limitations of Thoughtspace. I cannot, however, manipulate any symbolic paraphernalia which are so common in the Thoughtspaces of Unreality
"But all of this that you see here?" he motioned around, "this is my work. Together, with the raw Subconscious of Order themselves, I was able to maintain alone the last of our Brotherhood."
He absolutely glowed with pride, standing tall. He had seemed massive before, but now, he seemed to stand a whole head taller.
She watched him with an air of idle wonderment, even as the meaning of half of what he'd said flew right over her head. It was like stepping into another world where Gods and Words and fantasy existed and everything she was used to simply didn't. In a sense, it was stepping into another world. It was overwhelming, perhaps unnerving, and somewhat fascinating all at once.
"...It looks...really nice. I like it... W-Would the Brotherhood be people sort of like...us?"
"That would be one way to categorize us," he huffed, "though more accurately, we're dedicated to the Gods which Reality is shaped by.
"The gift of Awakening is a simple byproduct of deeper understanding of one's place in the world as a being blessed with sentience."
"I...see."
It made sense, she guessed, for the Brotherhood to be people like her. Still, it was...surprising. She'd thought herself an anomaly, and in a sense she still was. Words gave people power, and her Word had given her...maybe too much of it, if she was being honest.
And speaking of Words...
Alga turned her head to look at the stone sitting in her backpack, and after a moment reached over to settle it in her hands. He'd spoken of Words finding suitable hosts, and Words reading their hosts even when those hosts couldn't understand themselves. It wasn't a nicely phrased explanation, and she didn't like the idea of being read so openly, but...
Well. She wasn't as bothered about the whole thing as she thought she would have been.
Stroking the ruby with her thumb, Alga looked at the man in front of her. She'd gotten what she had come here for; now she just needed to put the Word back where they belonged.
"...How do you...put the Word back...?" It would be nice to maybe stay here longer, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to keep her friend in there longer than was necessary. "Sh-Should I leave, or-?"
He huffed. "Take the gem when you leave; it should deteriorate after a few seconds of leaving this realm. Without my power to sustain it, its lifespan will be limited."
"...Right."
All she had to do was just...leave, then. Simple enough.
...Shame, though. This place was nice, and learning about gods was a better pastime than whatever boring stuff the real world had for her. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to come back one day... Maybe.
Alga looked back towards the entrance, skirting her gaze past the four pillars and glancing over the crack-riddled carvings. After a moment, her gaze moved back towards the man, her expression riddled with indecision. She spoke quickly.
"E-Er... Thank you, um..." She paused, thought a minute, and flushed. "...I-I didn't get your name, sorry..."
"And you don't need it," the man shot back. "My title will suffice: I am the Greater Student. Now go. We both have work to do."
Alga flinched. Okay, maybe she would think about a return trip. Think about it hard.
"...O-Okay." And with that, she turned to leave. No need to outstay her welcome...
