“One step at a time.”
Chu had no response, but right before Jane winked them away from the outer reaches of the Grand Canyon, Tick saw something in the man’s eyes that he didn’t like. He didn’t like it at all.
Part 4
The Transformation
Chapter 60
Round Table
Paul had never seen such a captive audience.
Mothball, Sally, Sato, and Master George—Rutger was busy in the operations center—sat at the conference table, looking at Paul and Sofia with wide, though tired, eyes. The group had made their way back up from the canyon floor after the strange events had subsided, discussing what had happened in drained, weary voices. They looked awful—dirty and windblown and scratched and bruised. But thankfully, they were alive, and every last one of them—including those who’d been researching—were eager to talk about what needed to happen next.
“We know some things,” Paul said to start it off. “And we’ve made our best guesses about a lot of others. But time is short, so I’m going to let Sofia fill you in.”
Sofia looked more determined than Paul had ever seen her before. She cleared her throat and started talking.
“This all began when Tick and Mistress Jane had their battle outside the Factory. The Haunce had helped Tick heal the Realities from the disaster that was the Blade of Shattered Hope, but the boundaries and barriers and seams were still really weak. Sealed, yes. But weak. When Jane and Tick battled, using extreme amounts of Chi’karda to do so, they . . . broke things. Things we might not totally comprehend, but were certainly never meant to be broken.”
“We’re talking about the rips in Reality,” Paul added.
“Exactly,” Sofia continued. “We believe Tick and Jane created a situation in which conduits between Realities opened up. Not only that, but conduits between dimensions as well. And ultimately that’s what allowed the Void of the Fourth Dimension to begin bleeding through to the Realities themselves. Whatever Tick did to escape the Nonex was kind of the last straw.”
“You mean he stirred the dadgum pot once and for all is what yer sayin’,” Sally said.
Master George raised his hand like a kid in school. Sofia tried to hide a smile and pointed at him.
“Perhaps the situation would’ve been much more manageable had the Fourth Dimension not been so . . . agitated. There may very well be a bees’ nest outside your open window, but it’ll get much worse if you swat that nest with a big stick. I think that’s what happened here.”
“Something like that,” Sofia agreed. “Whatever the explanation, we are where we are. Which brings us to Karma.”
There wasn’t a sound to be heard in the room.
Sofia took a deep breath. “We need to gather all of our forces. All of them. Load up on weapons and ammunition. And then head back to the Thirteenth Reality. It’s what Karma wants us to do. Rutger has already started trying to contact all of our Realitants out in the field.”
Paul half expected shouts and complaints. He also wondered if Master George would feel as if his authority had been challenged, but if anything, the old man looked proud. He had, after all, given them the assignment to figure things out.
“I know we’re short on time,” their leader said. “And I trust you both implicitly. But give us an explanation as best you can.”
“Of course,” Sofia replied. “For starters, we believe that the blue anomalies seen by Sato in the Thirteenth and the one out in the canyon represent the Fourth Dimension itself. Conduits for the Void to reach into our dimension. And it’s a little scary that the blue river outside these walls decided to suck everything back into itself. It’s like the Void was reaching out to gain strength and ammunition and has now pulled it all back to its main force.”
Paul hated this new enemy. Shapeless, mysterious, seemingly without any kind of mind or conscience. No fear of death or consequences. “Which is why we have to go to the Thirteenth,” he said. “That’s where it all started, and it probably has something to do with the unique power of the place and its abnormal links to Chi’karda. We think the Void is gathering its forces there until it can unleash an attack we could never stop.”
“Which is where Karma comes in,” Sofia said. “It’s hard to describe it, but I can’t get the image of the Thirteenth—
the place where Jane’s castle used to be—out of my mind. Paul and Rutger feel it too. It’s more than just a thought or a daydream. It’s almost like something is putting it there . . . inspiring us. We’re getting better at understanding Karma’s power and how it communicates. But we know this: Karma escalated events, put pieces in place, so that we’d all head back to the source of the Void’s birth in our dimension.”
At that moment, Rutger stepped into the room, his face lit up with excitement.