Vol 2: Chapter 14: Dimensional Pocket

Aunt Sheila met them back at the entrance of The Black Market with nothing n her possession.

Or that was what Ram had thought at first.

Because, Ram and Em had to make many pockets on their clothes to put many items they purchased.

But Aunt Sheila looked like she did earlier. There was no sign of her having brought anything.

Just a space suit on her.

"You didn't buy anything?" Ram asked.

Em also wondered the same and looked expectantly at Aunt Sheila.

Aunt Sheila chuckled. "Sorry. I forgot that you are not native of Soul World. I brought so many things that you could not imagine even in your dreams," she said.

"Then where are they? I don't find sign of it," Ram said, pointing towards his and Em's bulging pockets.

Aunt Sheila chuckled. "They are stored inside Dimensional Pocket that I own. Think of it as owning your own little world inside of you. Kind of like Mind World. But entirely different," she said.

Ram frowned.

Aunt Sheila shook her head. "Let me make this even more simple for you. In your Mind World, you can store your consciousness and also A.I. just like Em was earlier. Similarly, if you are powerful enough, you can store other objects that you possess. If you are even stronger, you can even let other people live inside of your Mind World. Just like Ultimate Soul did with The Soul World," she said.

Ram gasped. Em was staring at Aunt Sheila as if even she didn't know anything about this.

Em was the first one to recover. "Are you saying we are living inside the Mind World of a living being?" she asked.

Aunt Sheila nodded. "But it requires so much power that you can only imagine. He did this to protect innocent souls that were getting destroyed as the war continued between the good and bad. Evil and angel. Whatever you can call it," she said.

Ram finally snapped out of it. "If he was so powerful, then why did he not take down the Forces of Dark by himself?" he asked.

"If only it were that simple. I don't think we can win even if thousands of Ultimate Souls were put together. You don't have to waste your time thinking about them," she said.

Ram agreed to it, while Em did it reluctantly.

Aunt Sheila ruffled her hair and Em stiffened. But she relaxed later. "Don't worry, you will become a complete living being after we reach living quarters that will be assigned to us by Chitra. Until then, you have to tolerate it. I will send the datapad that contained all this information later. You can help Ram when the time was right. Until then, you have to wait," she said.

Ram frowned. But since Em was more powerful than him, he relented.

"Can you continue with explaining about Mind World and Dimensional Pocket?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila nodded. "Mind World was something that one cannot built easily. There were some exceptions like you and I think someone from the Soul World built this into you along with the help of The Crazy Twins when they kidnapped you. But Dimensional Pockets were created by powerful user who assigns a portion of his Mind World to others. Once assigned, the owner can use it to store anything he wanted, provided it was not a living being. And since I don't have Mind World, I have to use Dimensional Pockets," she said.

Ram perked up. "Are you saying that I can put all we have brought inside of my Mind World?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila nodded.

"How?" he asked.

Her eyes glazed over as she summoned a holographic screen. She tapped something that was masked in it and a door was displayed on the screen.

Aunt Sheila then pushed the door open, searched for the required datapad and added it into checkout box.

Once she clicked proceed, the door and holographic screen disappeared and a datapad hovered in front of them. Aunt Sheila's eyes returned to normal and she asked him to pour his Soulfire into it.

Ram did the same and tasked Em to process the data.

Once done, she instructed him on how to do the same.

It just took a couple of minutes. All Ram had to do was create a separate storage room inside his Mind World and wrap the object that he wanted to store with a layer of Soulfire and put it inside the Storage Room.

They put everything that they had inside the Storage Room of his Mind World, labelling them properly just like one would do in a library, within an hour.

He tested retrieving one datapad, by providing the proper label and it worked like charm.

He was grinning, showing the datapad to Aunt Sheila and Em.

Em rolled her eyes meanwhile Aunt El grinned at him, ruffling his hair.

"But the more objects you put, the more cluttered and complex they would be. You have to organize them using a system," she said.

Em nodded at Ram. "And that is where I come in. Leave that to me," she said.

Ram nodded at her.

They started walking towards their destination, which Ram still didn't know. "Where are we meeting The Nonliving agent?" he asked.

Em grinned at him. "Hotel Pleasure and Privacy," she said.

Ram thought about the open passionate display of many souls and he groaned. "Please tell me it will not be the same one we saw at The Nonliving Soul World," he said.

Em shook her head, as if she missed them.

Ram glared at her. "I knew you were corrupted by them. How can you enjoy watching the souls during their passionate moments?" he asked.

"Just because you don't want to watch doesn't mean I should also be the same. Like I said earlier, I don't know how B—"

"No. Don't go over there. We have already discussed about this."

"Fine. You are a child and I don't have time to waste with you. I will get back into your Mind World where I have to educate myself in areas that you are not willing to. After all, if I don't advise you when you actually need them, who will help you?" she asked, disappearing into his Mind World.

Ram shook his head. "I think she will be slowly devouring R-rated content," he said.

Aunt Sheila chuckled. "It's good that you are so pure. But remember that you should know how to give pleasure to your Soulmate when you find one," she said.

Ram groaned. "Not you also. I don't think I deserve a Soulmate. And please don't try to convince me otherwise," he said.

"We will see," she said and didn't bring that topic again.

She then asked him update about Aunt El. How she was and what she had been doing with her life. Ram tried to give her everything that he can.

When he failed, he called out Em. Learned from how her to prepare datapads and filled it with everything he remembered about Aunt El.

Aunt Sheila was grateful at him for that and she was about to pour her essence into it.

"Wait! How are you going to process this data. You don't have soulfire right?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila shook her head. "Don't worry. The process that we taught Em was such that it will work with any essence that existed," she said.

Ram looked at her with attention as she poured her essence into the datapad. Which was thick blue fluid. Just a couple of drops and she her eyes glazed.

She took some time to process it, so Ram stopped walking and they walked away from others way.

Once she was done, Aunt sheila had tears in her eyes. "She is still so beautiful, stubborn and protective as she had been when I left her. But damn it's good to see her again," she said.

Ram was also emotional. "Em got to know couple of datapads that will show her how to conjure anything that we wanted. Once we have free time, I will conjure a miniature version of Aunt El and you can speak with her," he said.

Aunt Sheila chuckled. "It's good that you are thinking of how to use your abilities to some help others. But remember that it will not as easy as you were thinking it would be. It involves lots of work. We can do that in our leisure time. But for now, we can't. But I appreciate your thought," she said, then gave him a hug.

Ram hugged her back.

They disengaged and resumed their walking towards The Hotel Pleasure & Privacy.

"Do you know whom we are meeting up with?" he asked.

"I don't know. But anyone would be better than that damned bisexual horny soul. He will make Dheeraj seemed like a small kid in comparison," she said.

Ram frowned. "He was that worse?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila nodded. "Anyways, I have been meaning to ask you this. I thought you hated me being with Ella because you don't want ot share her love with me. But as you grew up, I thought you observed others and found same sex relationship to be something that was not normal. How come you are accepting of us like this?" she asked.

Ram shrugged. "Because I am so open minded?" he asked.

Em appeared out of his Mind World. "Because he is ignorant and simple minded," she said and before Ram could argue with her, she disappeared into his Mind World again.

Ram sighed.

Aunt Sheila still stared at him meaningfully.

"I don't know. I grew up watching both of you together. In fact, I barely remembered my parents and most of the time, the only couple I saw in relationship were both of you. So I didn't think relationship between opposite sex or even same sex matterred. But as I grew up, the more I observed others, the more accepted it. I have already learned that relationship between different species can exist. What's the difference same sex relationship can make?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila gave him a small smile. "I don't know whether I should be grateful for your open mindedness or not. But you should be careful. Even in our Water World, majority were against same sex relationships. That was one of the reasons why I escaped from there along with my father. I knew from back then that I was attracted to females. And when I found Ella, you know the rest of it. You just have to be careful. And I have one more thing on my mind. I don't know I could ask you or not," she said.

Ram frowned. "I treat you just like I treat Aunt El. Heck, I even love you like I love Aunt El. It might sound crazy, but for me, you both were parent figures during my childhood, even with my memories being locked away. Aunt El was overprotective parent that stuffed me with love, making sure that I was not harmed in any way, refusing to make me face difficulties. While you are more cautious one, always thinking of my future. So you can ask me anything," he said.

Aunt Sheila once again cried. Ram, as a dutiful child, hugged her and cried along with her just like he would do with Aunt El.

When she composed herself, she nodded gratefully at him. "Thank you, Ram. From today onwards, you are not only Aunt El's child, but also mine. No matter what you have, come to me. I will solve it for you," she said.

Ram chuckled. "You are slowly turning into an overprotective one just like Aunt El. Don't make me take back the praise I had given to you. Please remain as the cautious parent. I need to come out of my ignorance," he said.

Aunt Sheila nodded.

"What is it that you wanted to ask me?" he asked.

"The reason you are so against the idea of you having a Soulmate or being in love with Sandhya or even Bhumi was because you were in love with males?" she asked.

Ram shook his head. "No. I prefer females. You should have seen me the way I felt towards Sandhya and also towards Bhumi. And I don't have any interest whatsoever in males. So if you had any reservations, you can stop worrying about it," he said.

Aunt Sheila shook her head. "No. I am not worried about your sexual orientation. I just wanted to make sure I know everything to plan for our futures. We need to find a world where they were welcoming to us and we have a lot to consider. Like I said earlier, some worlds exists where they will allow relationship between same sex. Some allow opposite sex. Some were gender specific and some didn't even have genders. They can change their gender as they wanted. So I wanted to know just to be prepared," she said.

Ram stared at her wide eyed. "A world that contains people that can change genders?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila nodded. "Crazy right?" she asked.

Ram nodded. "Anyways, I am interested in opposite gender. So, you don't have to worry about me turning into another Dheeraj or another soul that you hated. What was his name?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila frowned. "He is Vama. He is the twin brother of Veera. But you don't have to worry about him coming at us for revenge. He was completely different form Veera. While Veera was ambitious, Vama was not. Veera craved attention. Vama wanted to to not to be noticed by others. Excpet when he tried to get the attention of his partners. What's worse was that he didn't care if the being was male or female. He changes partners even more than Dheeraj. At least, Dheeraj was pure in pursuing me. Before he gets into a fling, he informed them of his intention and made sure their hearts are not broken at the end. He even maintained many friends because of his nature. But Vama, he hurt more beings emotionally. In that way, both the brothers are the same," she said.

Ram shudderred. "Now that you explained, I think it's better if we stay away from him in the future. I don't want him to influence Em," he said.

Em appeared out of his Mind World, glaring at him. She had her sword arms out. "What do you meant by it?" she asked.

Ram shook his head. "Em, did you remember what Chitra told to you about you being attracted to dark side? I am worried Vama would influence you," he said.

"I am different from others. And I am not attracted to dark side."

"But you enjoy watching those embarrassing activities."

Em growled, she placed the sword just few inches away from his Adams apple. "It's different form what being attracted to dark meant. If you want to have peaceful days in the future, take back the your words about me," she said.

Ram swallowed, which moved his Adams apple even closer to the sword arms of Em. "Relax, you are my best friend. I don't do anything to sabotage it. I am sorry and I take back everything bad I said about you," he said.

Em relaxed, retreated her sword arms into real ones arms and she hugged him.

"What is this? World's hugging day?" he asked, but hugged her the same.

Em patted his back before disappearing into his Mind World.

Ram shook his head and looked at Aunt Sheila. "Can you believe it?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila didn't find it as amusing as him. "Ram, Em is growing just like you. Because of you, she got introduced to complicated emotions. And when you asked her to integrate Bead of The Institute with her and your merger followed by it, she became a living being. Not just as an A.I. But a living Being that can process and think like an A.I. as well as a human being. All these complex nature of being a living being fell on top of her at once. Even though she had watched all these emotions, watching is different from experiencing it. So, be careful," she said.

Ram nodded. "I didn't thought how it would be for her. I will be careful from now onwards," he said.

"Em, sorry."

He heard a grunt from his Mind World and he chuckled.

They stayed silent for the rest of the ride.

When they reached The Living Soul division of Hotel Pleasure & Privacy, Ram was surprised to see that it was a huge hotel with many floors filled with customers to the brim. It was made out of Soulfire that was so brilliant that Ram could see it from miles apart.

It was completely different form Nonliving division, which was dark and gloomy and something that was right out of his nightmare. It had no structure.

But The Living Soul division of Hotel Pleasure & Privacy was different. It had a structure to it.

A waiter guided them towards a private room. She was a starfish made out of Orange Soulfire. She behaved as if she knew about them. She must be working for Chitra.

Once they settled inside, she asked what they wanted. Ram was about to order, but Aunt Sheila shook her head.

Ram reluctantly told her that he did not want anything.

Once the waiter left, Ram looked at Aunt Sheila. "Why?" he asked.

"She was an Agent of Nonliving Soul. I believe every one will know about us being traitors. So, we have to be careful around them if we wanted to be alive," she said.

Ram was once again proved that being ignorant is the thing that lead him into trouble. If Aunt Sheila were not here, then he would've probably ordered something. And the chances of them getting killed were more.

"Aunt El, is there any way I can become intelligent? Like not being as ignorant as I was now?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila sighed. "I have been worried about this since I got together with Ella. But she wouldn't listen to me no matter how many times I told her. But I can't blame her anyways. I accepted you as my son just few moments ago and a I already started to be protective of you. And I hated you in the past to begin with. I can't promise to you that I would be just like Ella in the future," she said.

Ram groaned. He will actively make sure that he will change that fact about himself and convince others to not treat him as if he were a delicate and ignorant child. So he didn't voice his thoughts to her.

Finally, Vama, the agent they have waiting for had entered.

His eyes seemed to possess a confidence that he can convince anyone. He seemed to be slightly older than them, but at the same time, he had an air about him that projected that he was more experienced when it came to matters of the world.

He winked at the waitress as she left him. He checked out Ram openly. And when he saw Sheila, he shook his head as if he was disappointed by her.

He turned his gaze at Ram. "What's your name, handsome?" he asked.

Aunt Sheila groaned. "No. Stop with this nonsense. He is my son and if you have any impure thoughts, you can drop them," she said. "Ram, this is Vama that I warned you about. You stay away from him."

Vama stared at them wide eyed. "Since when did you have a son?" he asked.

"Since long back. He is the son of my Soulmate," she said.

Vama was shocked. "You said you broke up with her. That you even hated relationships. Since when did you changed your mind?" he asked.

"Since couple of hours ago. And your opinion doesn't matter. I believe you know that I am officially traitor as far as Chitra is concerned. And also the purpose of this visit," she said.

Vama nodded. "Yes. But it didn't matter. I really regret booking this room for an hour. If I knew you would be dropping this big of a news, of you having a handsome son at that, I would have ordered it for whole day," he said.

"You are talking as if us being traitors was not important. But you are more interested in me being her son?" Ram asked.

Vama looked at him as if he were ignorant. "Yes. Chitra was an overlord of Nonliving Souls. Before her, her father. And after her, who knows. My point is that they will change. But ever since I knew about Sheila, she hated relationships. She hated small kids or boys even more. And that extended to men also. Except very few. Now she was in front of me, having a son of her own. Even though you were her foster son, it's still a big news. And even more shocking news was that she seemed to be interested in her Soulmate again. Don't you see this is very important and urgent?" he asked.

Ram shook his head. Vama seemed to be a gossipy house wife type. But a player at that. "There is no hope for you. I should definitely keep you away from Em," he said.

Vama perked up. "Is she your Merged Soul? Can I see her? Talk with her? Date her?" he asked.

Before Ram could reply, Em appeared out of thin her.

In her human form.

She glared at him. "You are not my type. Besides, my life is dedicated to protect him," she said, pointing towards Ram.

Vama looked at them in confusion.

"It's a long story, whcih we don't have time for," Ram said.

Vama shrugged. "Well, it didn't matter. I will have an important meeting to attend to. Here are the details you required for your first mission," he said, sending them a datapad.

Aunt Sheila grabbed it and nodded to him. They shook hands.

Before departing, Vama glanced at Shiela, then back at Ram and Em. "Remember, you should stay away from Chitra. She is the dangerous type. The dominating and crazy one. She will absolutely destroy you. I heard she has solution that would generate love synthetically. You make sure that you will not stand out ot her in any fashion. Don't impress her. Don't get her attention. Then you would be good to go. You will not become her second task," he said.

Ram was scared. He already stood out ot Chitra.

They were stable merged souls. Chitra knew he could turn into anything he wanted. But he didn't showed it to her. He was grateful at Em stopping him from doing the same.

She seemed to be interested in him and was reluctant to disagree when Aunt Sheila asked her whether he could be her Soulmate or not.

Ram had to get this Soul bead, be the most boring soul he can be in front of her agents as well as in their future meetings with her.

In case she tried to feed him with that solution of hers, he had to ask Aunt Sheila to prepare antidote for it.

Heck, if possible, they have to plan to get out of this mess, and also save Dr. Shukla.

That's a lot of events to plan to, with also stronger opponents and their tricks he had to face against.

But he had time and two brilliant minds with him.

He decided to depend on them for everything he can.