Knowing what's through the door (2)
A thick and caustic oil churned in the machine below me. The loud drumming and pumping drowning out the other sounds. But even still, the rig was as cacophonous as ever. "I'm surprised Captain. What reason could you have for visiting little old me?" The witch walked across the scaffold towards me. "Sycorax I know that you're-" She shot me a look that literally froze the metal around me. "-That's Major Sycorax to you. I'm not in a good mood right now." "I know miss. I didn't come to interrupt your vacation on business." "Oh? What then? A request." "More like a potential leisure activity." She lets out a laugh. "I'd be impressed if you found an entertainment source that I haven't already. What is it? A circus of true professionals? A night club that never reaches day?" "Better. A story that's already been culled." "WHAT!" Her eyes flooded with attention. "You actually found an unimpeded jukric that we could meddle in without any punishment?!" I grin and nod. "Show me!" Her façade slipped a little, letting me see her nature as a witch reveal itself. The viscera and gore in her eyes, the terror she inflicted and received hung over her briefly.
"If Sycorax is going then I should probably warn you both about something." We looked down into the vat to see a small little goblin sitting on a beach chair which in turn was on top of a small inflatable raft floating aimlessly inside the whirling oil. I'm sure that she wasn't there before. "Little girl," The major called down, "what are you doing in the murk vat? If you're here, then you should know how dangerous that is." The little goblin conjured up a glass of some orange liquid and stared at us. She began to slurp from a straw. "You said you wanted to warn us of something?" I asked. She simply nodded and beckoned us down, all whilst still sucking on the straw. The Major and I looked at each other nervously. If someone appeared so close to us without us noticing it often wasn't cause for alarm, the work clothes here are made of materials that even she and I struggled to procure, which contained mysterious properties. But that wasn't it, what made us uneasy was the oil that the goblin girl was floating above.
The most dangerous thing I had ever seen was one of these vats spilling. They contained murk. Murk is the primordial soup of primordial soup. If water is a universal solvent, if light is the fastest possible third dimensional thing. Then murk is the inspiration, behind the hand, that holds the pen, that writes those rules. To touch murk unprotected is to surrender yourself back into the cycle of reincarnation. Murk is truly a beautiful thing though; a grayish liquid with wisps of dense gray warping through it, an incomprehensible number of small lights bubbling within, enough to make a galaxy envious. You could take a small portion of murk and quite literally see everything within it. Stars, souls, minds, gods, everything.
"Come on down!" The girl called up. "It's great down here, like a sauna!" She had finished her glass of whatever over the time we were contemplating. "Oh, is it the spinning?" she said mockingly. She didn't do anything that I could see, but nonetheless, as soon as she said that the vat stopped. No, the vat didn't stop its work, I could still see the rotating paddles at the bottom of the murk. She had instead halted the movement of the murk itself. Like she calcified the surface of it. Lights still flowed beneath, but the waves had paused.
Major Sycorax quickly jumped down onto the raft. "I apologize for not recognizing our client!" She kowtowed before the little goblin, but I knew why. The Noctambulists are a private military that has the power to destroy multiverses in moments. But we need payment for our jobs. Only one being has ever been able to pay: The Raconteur. I quickly teleported next to my superior and kneeled. "No need for such formalities. You're on vacation, aren't you?" Though those words were disarming, they held a tone of warning. Something deep within me said that if we hadn't recognized this entity sooner, there wouldn't be a memory of us left.
The Raconteur summoned stools for us to sit on and began to explain. "The jukric that you've found isn't culled. In fact, it isn't even a jukric." "How could that b-" I quickly put a hand over my mouth. Our client simply stared at me without emotion. "As I was saying; It is a fruit that my daughter has been cultivating." 'Daughter?! The most omnipotent existence that I could ever fathom, has a daughter?!' "She has spent quite a long time making sure that every part of it, from the potency of the souls to the aether coiling within it, has been delicately perfected. So, my warning is simple, if you see her, let her do whatever it is she wants. Otherwise, you're good to frolic as you please. I should mention, you don't have to follow her rules if she makes some, though it would be best to treat them as guidelines. Otherwise. Into the jincan's maw you go!" With that we were suddenly thrust into a hole in space behind us.
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It was supposed to be a day of relaxation and planning for future events. But no. Captain Midas just had to show up, and with Major Sycorax at that. I had just finished expanding Roc's Rest when they launched through a hole above me and land on top of me. "Thank you for the cushion private." The major mocked me as I said a muffled "You're welcome." into the snow.
She hopped off me and began to examine my work. "This is pretty good private. How complex is this ecosystem you've made?" I brushed off the snow from my uniform and checked my notes. "Right now, it's mostly on the community scale. But I intend to bring it up to a niche sustained level." "Daring, are we?" Captain Midas retorted.
With my expansion of Roc's Rest, I had brought along four new biomes and a plethora of new species. I had extended the space so that it was a complete planet, one ocean dividing three continents and five archipelagos. Depending on where any of the troupe open their doors, they'll enter a different domain of Roc's Rest. The old industrial district leads to a frozen field, the farmers' market leads to a tropical archipelago, and so on.
"So, this is a pocket dimension within the world in question?" Sycorax lifted a hand and flicked forward into the air. At the height of the flick, at the end of her finger, the space between logic and matter shattered. Each splinter reflected a different member of the troupe. Julien and Thalia walking around town, Erica making some bagels in the kitchen, and the others dawdling around. "I don't think spying on them is a very kind thing to do Major." I request. "Oh, put a lid on it Private. I'm in a good mood right now so don't try to change that. And besides, I'm not spying, just peeking at their current whereabouts." I shake my head and summon some chairs and a table out of the ice. We took our seats and started to chat.
"So why are you here Major? I could understand Captain Midas checking up on me, but the Major herself coming down to handle my punishment?" "Punishment?" She looked puzzled. "What part of finding an un-impeding jukric is a punishment?" Midas then whispered into her ear. After a moment she began to laugh. "Hahaha... NO WAY! You. You really- really fucked up!" 'Ya ya, laugh it up. But at least my unlucky greed gets you a fun new playground.' Out of the corner of my eye I could see Midas smirking. "That's what you get kid. You should've just waited for your sabbatical." "Well in my defense I... Uh, shit."
Sycorax surveyed the troupe through the splinters. "I wonder..." She muttered aloud. "Is that mana emanating from them you're doing?" She glared at me. My blood went cold. "It wasn't anything unrequited!" I quickly responded. "I played off my arrival as an accident and granted them gifts as 'reimbursement'." The Major sighed and pulled back her gaze. Lances of darkness that I hadn't even noticed dissipated from the air around me.
Midas was gripping the edge of the table, not wanting to be questioned next. "Okay then. If that's all. Then I'll be taking a respite in this little pocket dimension of yours for the duration of my stay." Sycorax stood up from her seat and traced her finger along the seams of the splinters floating in space. As her finger went, the shattered air began to reform. Next, she took a few steps forward, facing away from us and kicked the ground. It wasn't a flamboyant motion at all but what happened next sure was. The area of ground directly Infront of her rumbled and stirred. Then with barely any warning, it launched into space, leaving behind a massive perfectly hemispherical crater in the tundra stretching about thirty thousand kilometers in diameter. The launched piece of land exited the atmosphere and halted just at the edge of my dictated space. "Yay... A new moon..." I mumbled, not wanting to have to rework the tide systems of Roc's Rest. "Will you be using that moon as your residence?" Midas inquired. She gave a nod and, in a flash, disappeared.
As soon as she was gone Midas snapped his neck around so fast that his spine cracked. I knew I was in for it. "You have no idea the amount of paperwork I had to go through to get a meeting with her. If she gets deterred by ANYTHING that you do, I will drown you in a vat of murk and disable the conduits so that every tethering connection to that puppet you're currently inhabiting gets strung along with you, and as I listen to your gossamer emulsify and burn, I'll walk away, knowing that I'm better off without! Now scram!" Without any further coercion I conjure up a door back to the bookstore and leave with all haste.