“Addie,” Nettal whispered, “Where do you want to go play today after lessons?”
Christena stood in the front of the room, with her back turned to the girls. She was sketching something out at the front of the room’s wall using her illusion magic. She traced her finger along the wall, and blue lines lit up to form a complex diagram.
Turning her head and leaning over to whisper back, Addie asked a question of her own, “Where do you want to go?”
As she traced the last bits of the diagram, Christena resumed her lecture, “I already explained the two disciplines of magical improvement to Addie before we came on our trip. Before your sparring lessons with my father tomorrow, I would like to explain the basics of soul manipulation...” Christena kept droning on about this and that, but with her back turned, she couldn’t tell that her two students weren’t exactly paying diligent attention to the lesson.
In fact, Nettal and Addie hadn’t been listening to her ever since she began drawing the diagram.
“I’ve explored most of the swamp already. Let’s do something different today.” Nettal suggested.
That made Addie pause to think. To her, it seemed like there wasn’t anywhere to explore but the swamp, “Where else could we go? There’s nothing but this swamp for kilometers all around.”
Both girls sat in silence for a beat, stumped, but then Addie leaned in again with an idea, “What if we go to Mr. Owlcharge’s Area and explore town?”
At the beginning of Addie’s thought, Nettal leaned in, also interested, but by the word ‘town’ she rolled her eyes and spoke up, “I’ve already been to town like a billion times.”
Well, that wouldn’t work, then, Addie supposed.
Nettal cupped her hand around her mouth to whisper again, “When you disappear and reappear, like when you hop into bed, where do you go?”
“Girls?” Christena turned around and nearly shouted, “Are you listening to me?”
Both girls nodded their heads frantically.
Christena crossed her arms, “Good. Then, Addie, you won’t have a problem giving a short recap of my explanation? What is the transcendent loop exercise and how does one perform it?” Christena gave Addie a prompting look.
Panic overcame Addie’s features, and she gulped. Then, just as she was about to admit defeat, Squishy perked up his ears and spoke up through their bond, causing Addie to move her eyes to where he sat on top of her desk, “The transcendent loop exercise is the most basic soul exercise, often taught to beginners. It requires one to enter a meditative state and then attempt to map out the ‘loop’ of one’s soul. Which really means it is a technique to learn how to feel the outer boundary of one’s soul.” Squishy finished. He must have been listening to Christena’s lecture.
Addie somehow managed to repeat what he told her without bungling it.
Christena’s face showed a surprised and impressed expression, ‘Well, I guess you were listening to me. Very well, where was I,” Christena once again turned her back towards the girls as she continued with her illusory diagrams, “Ah, yes, the next piece to remember about the transcendent loop is...”
“What did you ask me earlier?” Addie prompted Nettal with another whisper.
Nettal leaned back over her desk and cupped her hands around Addie’s ear, “Where do you go when you disappear, like when you poof out of existence and then reappear above your bed?”
That was a thought. Addie supposed they could go exploring in Realmspace, but for the most part, Realmspace was fantastically boring. It was dark so you couldn’t see, and even if Nettal somehow could see, the only thing in there was a flat stone ground for miles all around. Even when entering Realmspace from the swamp, it was the same boring monotony as always.
“Oh, that’s just Realmspace. It’s pretty boring in there. There’s no Binary so you can’t see anything, anyways.”
Despite Addie attempting to wave it off, a twinkle shined in Nettal’s eyes, “Total darkness, huh?” she murmured, almost to herself. Addie watched a shiver dance down Nettal’s spine. Nettal’s eyes were wide, but some of her fear looked more like a morbid fascination, “Well, that’s just another reason to go, isn’t it?” Nettal’s voice wavered, but her excitement and interest outweighed the fear. “We can bring a candle, or maybe, one of those oil lamps from my mom. Besides, didn’t you want to find out if Arlie came from there?”
In all the time Addie had gone to Realmspace, she never once thought to bring a light source along with her. She had always just relied on her spatial sense. Not that there even was much in there to navigate around, anyway.
Could Addie even bring a lamp with her into Realmspace? She supposed she always brought her clothes along with her just fine, and she had even pushed Christena in there a few times. Christena didn’t lose her clothes at those times, either.
It was also true that Addie wanted to explore Realmspace further. She had been shocked to find out that Mr. Owlcharge’s bonded might have come from the same place as Squishy. Addie was doubtful that they’d find anything in there, though.
“I think I could bring you into Realmspace with me, and bring a lantern along, too.” Addie scratched her head, “But we wouldn’t be able to stay too long. I’ll have to spend a few minutes building up my magic so I can bring you with me.”
“How come we wouldn’t be able to stay for long?” Nettal whispered back.
“I’m not sure how, but Realmspace always notices me, and it kicks me out after a little while. If I really spend some time building up my magic with Squishy, we could probably explore Realmspace for longer, but definitely not more than an hour.”
“Girls!” Christena snapped, “I know you two are talking back there!”
“No, we were listening! Right, Nettal?”
“Yeah, we were listening.” Nettal nodded her head in agreement.
Christena’s face became skeptical, “Really? Then, tell me the biggest point of failure for the transcendent loop exercise.”
Addie looked to Squishy desperately, he surely knew the answer.
“I’m sorry, my lady. I was also listening to your conversation with Nettal.” His eyes drooped.
“Um.” Addie flailed for a moment.
“That’s what I thought,” Christena sighed in annoyance and pinched her brow, “Very well, I suppose I’ll start back from the beginning. You two better pay attention this time!”
The two girls, plus Squishy, nodded their heads.
With a quick sweep of their gathered supplies, Addie reviewed everything and felt content. There was one thing, though.
“Don’t you think we should at least tell Auntie where we’re going?” Addie asked.
Nettal rolled her eyes, annoyed that Addie kept asking that, “We don’t have to tell my mom every little detail about what we’re up to.”
“I still think it’s a good idea to at least let them know where we’re going. Christena always wanted me to tell her where I was going before leaving the manor so she could find me, ‘just in case’.”
“Oh please, I run wherever I want and my mom never seems to care. Let’s go already!”
“Okay.” Addie hesitantly agreed.
With Squishy on her shoulder, and her small canvas bag of supplies, Addie and Squishy began to build up their magic.
“This might take a while,” Addie said.
The familiar pulse between their souls started up, the magic cycling between the two, growing in strength each cycle. Within a few minutes, the magic built up until it was nearly overflowing, and Addie grabbed a hold of Nettal’s hand. One second, the trio were in Reality, the next, they were in Realmspace.
At the sudden darkness, Nettal clenched Addie’s hand, “It’s so dark,” she whispered aloud.
To Addie, the darkness hardly mattered. She could see just fine with her spatial sense. To make it easier on Nettal, Addie pulled the hand lamp out of her canvas bag and turned the crank. A spark ignited the oil, causing it to illuminate their surroundings in a slight orange afterglow.
“Wow,” Addie didn’t know what else to say. She had never seen the floor before with her eyes. With the light provided by the lamp, the cold stone of the ground revealed to be less monotonous than Addie first thought. The floor was pitch black and almost didn’t look like a real substance at all. Addie imagined she was standing on the top of a giant black lake, where she could fall in at any moment. The part that interested her the most was the way the floor seemed to have shining stars, almost exactly like Squishy’s eyes. Tiny dots of white appeared and then snuffed out, only to be replaced a moment later by a new white speck in a different spot.
Addie turned the lamp back off and looked at the floor again. Without the light, she couldn’t see the white specks at all.
“Why’d you turn it off!” Nettal rushed out the words with some urgency, “You know I don’t like the dark!”
“Just, look at the floor.”
When Addie turned the lamp back on, the strange white flecks became visible again. Even though they looked luminous with the lamp on, they must have been purely reflective since Addie couldn’t see them without the lamp.
“It looks like the stars at night.” Nettal said, “But only if, like, the stars were vanishing and coming back over and over again.”
The pair just stood there silently for a moment and looked at the otherworldly strangeness of it all for a while.
Nettal nudged Addie’s shoulder, “You said Realmspace will kick us out after a while, right?”
“Yeah,” Addie replied.
“Then let’s go,” Nettal tugged on Addie’s sleeve, pulling them into some random direction.
Squishy jumped off Addie’s shoulder, “I’ll guard from the front.” He told Addie through their bond.
“Where’s Squishy going?” Nettal asked.
“He’ll watch from the front, he said.”
Nettal nodded her head.
Ultimately, the place wasn’t too interesting. Beyond the floor that Addie only now realized was more than just boring stone, Realmspace didn’t really have anything interesting to look at. The excursion nearly shaped up to be one of the most boring hikes of Addie’s life. Once Addie was able to ignore the feeling that she might fall through the floor, at least.
Just as Addie adjusted to the monotony, Nettal spoke up.
“What’s that?”
“What’s what?” Addie asked.
“Look! Over there.” Nettal pointed in the far distance with her finger.
Except for the area right near Addie (and her lamp) all of Realmspace was empty. She couldn’t see anything more than a few feet around. The same was true for what Nettal was pointing at. It looked like a whole lot of black nothing.
“I don’t see anything.”
Instead of responding, Nettal grabbed onto Addie’s hand and started pulling her in that direction. Squishy noticed the two changing course and followed after them.
“Seriously Nettal, how can you see anything? It’s pitch black in here!” Though Addie complained, she didn’t struggle against Nettal. Instead, she let her cousin pull her along. No harm in it, Realmspace always seemed so barren as to be completely safe.
There was only one small problem.
“Nettal,” Addie tried to get her attention.
“Do you see it?”
“I don’t see anything. But Nettal, I think my magic is about to run out.” Addie could feel Realmspace’s attention start to shift onto her. It wouldn’t be long now before it forced them back out into reality. Maybe next time, Addie could build up her magic for even longer before releasing it. This hardly felt like her magic even lasted ten minutes.
“What is that?”
“What is what?” Addie still couldn’t see anything. Her eyes and her spatial sense were in agreement. The area was just as vacuous as ever.
Nettal dropped Addie’s hand, then she crouched and screamed so loud it hurt Addie’s ears. After Addie was done flinching, she noticed Nettal was hiding behind her.
Addie turned her head around to look at Nettal with confusion, “That hurt my ears!” she accused.
Then, Addie felt something’s breath on the back of her neck. She turned her head around slowly and came face to face with some kind of creature she had never seen before. This time, it was Addie’s turn to scream.
That was when the magic ran out.
AN: You may have noticed that you already read this chapter. That's because I accidentally uploaded this chapter out of order and skipped over Chapter 30. Go back and read chapter 30 as it is now, the one named 'market day' you all haven't seen that one yet. This one, Chapter 31, is the one where Addie goes out into Realmspace.
You can also find me on RoyalRoad and on my discord.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/82948/whispers-from-realmspace
