Chapter 22: Chapter 7: The Eve Of The Odyssey Part 2

Zavier was suddenly on a rock formation sticking out in the middle of an ice sheet. Had he wandered outside? That amount of sleep walking would be a startling personal development but at this point nothing would really surprise him. He tried to move around but he couldn’t. In fact, he could not feel himself standing on the rock cropping at all. Looking around, he saw no evidence of his body anywhere. No arms, no legs, no anything. It was like he was floating, a disconnected consciousness in the icy wasteland. Zavier tried to look around. He couldn’t move his position but he had 360 degrees of rotational freedom. He used this to get a panoramic view of his surroundings. It was hard to make anything out. The snow was coming down relentlessly. It had to be a pretty nasty blizzard. Near the end of the rotation something finally caught his eye. About ten feet away from the rock formation something was sticking out of the ground.

At first Zavier thought it was a root, but upon closer inspection there was no doubt that it was a sword lodged into ice. How bizarre to just be left here. Suddenly, Zavier’s point of view was violently zoomed into the sword. He was now staring directly at it up close and personal. The blade itself was pretty standard but the hilt was thick with a bulge in the center of it. Ornate animal designs had been carved into it. Zavier couldn’t quite identify the species, but it was a carving of a bird, perhaps a hawk. Suddenly, in the same manner as before, Zavier’s view was forced up from looking down at the sword as if someone was lifting his chin. For a split second there was the same view as before, just miles and miles of empty ice and tundra. Then, like a jump scare in a horror movie, a man appeared out of the air in front of him. This man was tall and thin, but had broad shoulders. He had thick, healthy brown hair that fell to his back. His face was sharp with a large sloping nose as its most prominent feature. His eyes were small and high up on his face. They had a kind green color to them. Despite that, this man gave Zavier the most saddened look he had ever seen. Zavier kept looking into this face of genuine sorrow and wanted to say something but could not. He did not appear to have a mouth, much less a way to talk. The man and him just stood there in the blizzard and said nothing.

Bang! Bang! Zavier woke up suddenly to two hard knocks to his door. He was going to circle back to that dream sometime later. He rubbed his eyes and gave his shoulder a mild stretch. He did not have his full range of motion yet but he was stunningly close. He was very excited to check on his shoulder after another night of superhuman progress and the experience did not disappoint. Bang! Bang! Two more knocks, again rather loudly.

“I’m up, I’m up!” yelled Zavier, making sure the person on the other side of the door knew he had woken up. It was like he was in middle school again. Zavier had fallen asleep in the winter clothes he had been given and seeing no other ones around he rolled out of bed and walked to the door in those clothes. His hygiene was at an all time low anyways. Hopefully, Yafu’s world had a shower. Opening the door, he was not surprised to see Anenna as the source of rude awakening. He was going to have to find a way to make peace with her.

“Can’t you give me a little more time? Kids my age struggle with the early morning stuff.” Zavier said in a playful tone.

“We’re almost the same age and we need to go meet with Arigo now. It’s late enough already.” Anenna replied. Zavier shrugged. It was worth a try. Anenna turned and began to speed walk towards the stairs. Zavier fell behind initially, surprised at the rushed pace, but quickly caught up and matched her. They reached the stairs and they were brutal. Anenna, for whatever reason, did not do the wind breaking thing Arigo had done, so they trekked up the stairs in the freezing wind. It burned Zavier’s face and he would have said something if it hadn’t been a thirty second endeavor. There was not enough payoff in averted suffering to complain to her. Anenna did use the unlocking spell to move the large double doors open. Zavier doubted he would ever be taught that one. It would be above his pay grade here.

As they entered the main room, Zavier’s eyes went straight to the basement door. There was still something pulsating from there, he could definitely feel it even across the room. For his own sanity, he decided to just ignore it. He needed to take a ‘whatever gets me home’ approach from here on out. Anenna and him were the only people in the main room currently. Anenna had gone over and leaned on the rightward wall, so Zavier assumed that they were to wait here for Arigo. After about ten minutes or so, a sound of an opening door was heard from the upper right corner of the room, presumably the same room Zavier had been in yesterday. About five seconds later, Yafu came strolling down the stairs. He was still heavily bandaged around his face and limping slightly. Despite this, his recovery may have been more rapid than Zavier’s considering the extent of his injuries. Shadowing behind him was Arigo, who quickly locked eyes with Anenna and Zavier, confirming they were here.

Coming over with Yafu to where they were, Arigo pulled out a letter and handed it to Anenna. “It is critical that when you get to the Revival City, you find Ms. Regir and hand her this letter. She will get it to the people who help you with you to cross the Warm Planet to Radia. You remember how to find her, Anenna?”

Anenna took the letter and nodded. Zavier felt the need to speak up. “Why aren’t you transporting us directly to her?”

“That leads me to my next instruction for you.” Arigo responded. “It is critical that no one there ever hears anything about Earth. It is a fairy tale there and it is important that that never changes.”

“That’s why we're going to Revival, there’s so much traffic between worlds there that you won’t leave a trail someone could notice. Plus it is incredibly dangerous to use the transport ritual to anywhere else on the Warm Planet” Yafu interjected.

“Percisily.” Zavier was surprised Yafu got away with interrupting without an eye roll from Arigo. “The only person who is allowed to know anything personal about any of you is Radia. Trust no one else. This means Zavier and Anenna should only use their powers in emergencies or in private.”

“Why is that?” Zavier complained. He had just spent the prior afternoon having this man teach him some of these party tricks and now he was told to not use them.

“Because of your color.” Yafu said, clearly taking the earlier reaction as an invitation to step him when he had something to add. “My color yellow is by far the more common color of the two worlds, especially the world we’re going to spend our time in. The only other color people have seen is the rarer one Red, predominantly on the Cold Planet which we won’t be on at all. You and Anenna lighting it up with your blue would draw crowds almost anywhere.”

“This is going to be Yafu’s role. He has lived in these worlds so he will help you with the cultural adjustment enough to avoid unwanted attention.” As Arigo spoke, it dawned on Zavier that Yafu had been told about his role privately already making his interjections a little less bold than Zavier thought. He might have done it anyway, though. 

“In terms of miscellaneous items, do not veer off your course. Get to Radia as fast as you can while remaining discrete. Every second you are not in her care, there is tremendous risk. If groups like the Poison Fang discover you, they will mercilessly hunt you. Again, trust no one. Finally, even though there would be no reason for you to be anywhere near here at all if you are following your mission, the Interior Jungle of the Warm Planet and the End Mountain of the Cold Planet are places to stay away from. Those plus anything to do with the Church of the King should be avoided at almost any cost. Just use the help the letter will give you and get to Radia. Once you are with her, things will be fine.” Arigo did not seem like the type to repeat points needlessly. Zavier knew his own personal goal lied with convincing this man he was fit to return to his home and a smooth journey to Radia was the best way he could prove it.

Arigo gave each of them a stern staredown as he finished. It was not one to be taken lightly. Zavier felt his skin crawl as he got his staredown. Arigo accomplished his goal. Zavier had a renewed sense of fear of failing this man. After finishing with Anenna, Arigo turned toward the front center of the room by the double doors. His entire being erupted in a strong white glow. Zavier felt the sensation of a very strong wind blowing him backwards from Arigo, but his clothes and hair did not move as they would if the wind was an everyday gust. He would have thought the breeze was imaginary if he did not feel so strongly and see Yafu brace himself against it as well. A person sized, white energy ring formed almost instantaneously on the floor.

Yafu went first, walking over to the ring and dropping in. Anenna followed quickly behind. Zavier had a little trepidation as he walked up to this circular pool of white. It was the feeling of diving off the high diving board as a kid on steroids. His fear of making Arigo impatient outweighed this fear rather quickly. Taking a deep breath and holding it in, Zavier did a short hop and pencil dived in.

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