Four elephants, a turtle, an Alex, and a Cal

[between_worlds]

Alex hits the ground with a thump and groans.
He is somewhere, he has no idea where.
A thin, wide-eyed man wearing a tall, pointy hat is leaning over him.
The man says, "Umm, Archchancellor, I think we got the wrong one."
A deep voice off somewhere to Alex's left says, "Well, get on with it then Stibbons. Do it again."
Alex blinks several times and realizes the thin man is tugging on his arm, "Sorry, sorry, you need to get out of the circle."
Alex stumbles to feet and to the side of the circle, still dazed.
"What-" he starts to ask, but the man wearing the very strange hat is already chanting.
There is a flash of bright, almost-purple, almost-green light and the taste of smoke fills Alex's mouth.

Comments

[between_worlds]

"We see what kind of place we're in, try to find an area with less ambient magic, then use this to get out of here." Alex lifts up a green polished stone hanging from a chord around his neck.

[hearing_shadows]

"Magic," Cal repeats. Magic doesn't exist, he thinks, but here he is anyway. "What does that do? Take us to another world?"

[between_worlds]

"Any world you know the location of, but we should be able to find yours without too much trouble."

[hearing_shadows]

"Hmm." Cal scratches his back, and surreptitiously checks that his knife is still there. They go down yet another corridor, and he asks, "You sure you know the way out of here?"

[between_worlds]

"I'm assuming we'll eventually find a window or a door or someone not wearing a pointy hat."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal considers the stone walls and the fact that all the corridors they've gone down so far have been identical. "That's a big assumption."

Now that he's had some time to calm down, the shadows have retreated back into the rift in his mind. He's glad for once--he doesn't want to kill Alex before he can bring him back home.

[between_worlds]

They turn a corner, a window lies open letting a warm, slightly rank breeze into the corridor.
Alex flashes Cal an I told you so grin.

[hearing_shadows]

Cal peers out the window. The sky, he notices, is blue.

He considers the ramifications of this phenomenon briefly. Then, he looks down. "I don't think we're getting out this way."

[between_worlds]

Alex sticks his head out the window and looks around.
"I think we're four stories up and I guess you would be unmodified. So probably not this way. But we have a better idea of where to look."

[hearing_shadows]

Cal narrows his eyes at Alex's words. "How are you modified?"

He thinks of metal flashing, of people writhing and dying in alleyways. Alex doesn't look like he's one of them. Then again, appearances can be deceiving.

[between_worlds]

"I'm much harder to kill than the average person, though the fall would probably hurt."

[hearing_shadows]

More surprises. Cal wonders if Alex would be able to kill him. The thought is simultaneously intriguing and offensive. He doesn't ask, though. No need to give the man ideas.

Instead, he nods at Alex. "Lead on."

[between_worlds]

They find a few stairwells and a few more windows.
"So, where are you from?"

[hearing_shadows]

The first response that jumps to Cal's tongue is why do you want to know?, and then he remembers that Alex is supposed to be taking him home.

He contemplates his response. "A city," he finally says. "It doesn't have a name." He thinks of smoke and fog and endlessly gray years. "It's surrounded by walls, to keep people away from the rifts."

He glances out the next window. The blue is overwhelming. "What do you need to know?"

[between_worlds]

"There are a lot of cities. What are the rifts?"

[hearing_shadows]

Where to start with the rifts? Cal can't fathom a world without them. "They're cracks, in the ground," he says. "Or used to be. They're chasms now. Unbridgeable." He pauses. "I thought of building a bridge, once. But I didn't want to go mad."

[between_worlds]

"Why would you go mad? Is there something at the bottom?"

[hearing_shadows]

Cal shrugs. "No one knows." He's heard stories of people who tried to explore the rifts and never came back. "If you get too close, you go mad. That's all."

[between_worlds]

"Did they just appear?"

[hearing_shadows]

"If they did, they did a long time ago." Cal runs a hand through his hair, thinking. "The rifts were impassable even when I was a child."

[between_worlds]

"Is there anything else unusual in your world? Other things that cause madness? People with strange abilities? Non-human creatures that can think?"

[hearing_shadows]

Cal shakes his head. "Everyone is human," he says. "And all the creatures other than the animals we raise for food have died off." His mother had told him stories of creatures that could fly, cross the rifts they were all trapped behind.

He doesn't know if they were once alive, or if they were just that: stories. Legends.

[between_worlds]

"Ah." Alex walks in silence for a few moments, "Are you sure you want to go back?"

[hearing_shadows]

No, Cal wants to say, but that would be a lie. "The city is my city," he says. He doesn't expect Alex to understand. Cal isn't sure if he even understands. "There's no place for me here."

The act of remembering has roused the shadows in his mind. They whisper in agreement.

[between_worlds]

"I understand," Alex says, he should have left the organization long ago, left them to their greed, and indifference, and corruption. But he didn't, he won't, no matter how useless his efforts often seem.