Confused was, among many other words used to describe even worse emotions, an understatement. Staring at the figure before her, a great variety of feelings pounded at Sybil’s mind. To put it lightly, she was displeased, and grasping for answers that simply weren’t there. It just didn’t make any sense. Sybil was sure she’d done everything right, was sure the spell had gone off without a hitch. But now, slumped atop a wooden crate while holding an odd device, was not the woman of her dreams but, well, some man. And, that wasn’t to say there seemed to be anything inherently wrong with said man. He didn’t appear malicious or otherwise dangerous, in fact, if anything he looked about as bewildered and despondent as she felt, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that he was not her.
For years, Sybil had dreamt of her. And for years she’d thought the dreams were just that. And once she had realized their true significance, Sybil had worked tirelessly for months to build that connection, to locate where her lover was, to find the reagents. And it just made no sense. It wasn’t fair. She hated him. He was there and she wasn’t and Sybil wanted to just collapse into bed, cast a sleep spell on herself and never wake up. Perhaps she could pay someone to sustain her in a permanent coma and Sybil could dream the rest of her life away. What other choice did she have?
It felt as though the entire time Sybil had been wrong, blinded by hopefulness. What if they really were just dreams? How else could she explain what she saw before her? When she cast the spell the connection had been so strong, she’d felt it as the searching tendrils of her magic prodded their way through reality and grasped their target. The woman of her dreams had grown closer and clearer and stronger in Sybil’s mind. She was more certain than ever in the moment that she’d done it. And yet the fruits of her labor lay bare before her: failure. How could she have been so naive? What other delusions had she convinced herself of over the years? Did it even matter?
“Uh—Excuse me?” So immersed in her own thoughts was Sybil, that she’d nearly forgotten the embodiment of her disappointment was a real, breathing person, whose situation she was now responsible for. For a moment, she bristled at his interruption; how dare he? How dare he be here? How dare he not be the woman Sybil was in love with? Before her eyes, his expression melted into fear, and Sybil couldn’t help but hang her head in shame. Perhaps she’d ruined two lives today. She couldn’t hate him, not really.
“It wasn’t supposed to be you.” Something about saying it out loud broke Sybil a little; her body shook in time with her voice as she suddenly found herself incapable of looking anywhere but the floor.
“Well, I’m sorry it is me then?” The words tumbled awkwardly from his lips, each one sounding less certain than the last. “What?—Where? I don’t understand.” Sybil watched him from the corner of her eyes as he slumped forward, holding his head in his hands, trembling and panting audibly, his whole body seeming to shake as it rose and fell with his heavy breaths. Finally, he glanced up one more. “Am I dead? That semi, I didn’t get out of the way, did I?” His tone was odd. Still laced with confusion, pain, even fear, but a degree of acceptance. Like he’d latched on to that explanation in the hopes of finding some sense.
“Not dead, no. You’re just somewhere else, and that’s my fault. I’m sorry. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.” It took effort, but Sybil was able to raise her gaze to the man before her, though, he still seemed intent on hiding away in his hands.
After a few moments of quiet contemplation, all he managed to eke out was, “I see.”
“You sound almost disappointed.” Part of Sybil wanted to cross the room and offer some sort of comfort, but she was never good at that sort of thing. That was who she was in the dreams, who she was with her, but more and more Sybil was beginning to suspect none of it could truly be real.
“Not disappointed, but well, I dunno. If I were dead that would mean this was the afterlife and, well. This doesn’t seem like an awful place. I guess I thought maybe I wound up somewhere good. That I wouldn’t have to go back.” He grimaced, looking up at her, then around the room again. “You’re, well, you’re not going to hurt me though, are you?”
“I’m not.”
“Good. Maybe this isn’t so bad after all then. I, uh. I’m Isaac, by the way.” He seemed to relax a little, which, at the very least, was a relief to Sybil. If nothing else, Isaac didn’t seem in the midst of a breakdown anymore. Something about that made Sybil feel a little better too. She’d failed, yes, but maybe she could at least help someone in the process. She hadn’t done much of that, as of late.
“You said you don’t want to go back. Or rather, you at least implied it. You mean the place I summoned you from, right?” Sybil asked.
“I’m sorry, summoned? Like, with magic?” For a moment, his contemplative, troubled expression broke into one of wonder. And Sybil realized then, that she actually didn’t mind seeing that smile. It reminded her of someone, someone important, but she couldn’t say who. The feelings were distant, blurry. Perhaps someone from her childhood. Either way, Sybil felt an unexpected fondness for her mystery guest. It didn’t remedy her pain, but for a moment she was able to focus on other things. Not that his response didn’t perplex her.
“Yes, magic. Is that uncommon in your world? Clearly you know of it, but, well, I’ve never seen anyone react in such a way to the mere mention of it.” Sybil allowed herself a moment of curiosity; after all, what was magic if not the sciences stretched beyond their physical limits? Its purpose was, to many, a tool for discovery. And, while she had lately been zeroed in on her goal, new knowledge always proved useful in some way or another. It just so happened that what Isaac said next would prove very useful indeed.
“On Earth? No, no. We don’t have magic, at least, I don’t think we do. We tell stories about it, but we don’t actually have it, I think. If we do have it it’s a very well kept secret.” It may have been considered a little rude, but Sybil couldn’t help herself. She’d barely heard a thing Isaac said. Critically, she’d heard exactly one thing. One word, the only word that was important in the whole sentence to her. The word that hijacked her brain and sent it deep into spiraling thoughts. Earth. She’d heard it before, that word. At first, she wasn’t certain where, but it didn’t take long for hazy memories to reach out and grasp one another. Yes, she’d heard that word indeed. From someone very important to her. The most important person to her.
“That’s where she’s from!” Sybil shouted. For the first time since Isaac had appeared in the middle of her living room, Sybil felt good. She felt hope, like maybe, just maybe she actually wasn’t crazy. She hadn’t lied to herself. Her dreams had told her of someplace else, someplace real that she could otherwise never know. And suddenly, a deluge of other memories were released. Talk of exotic places her lover had been to, of the strange technologies and new knowledge. And Sybil had to know. Isaac was still several steps behind her, however.
“Who exactly is she?” Sybil could see the ink flowing in Isaac’s mind as he started to grasp the situation. “You said it wasn’t supposed to be me. That’s who she is, isn’t it? It was supposed to be her?” At the very least, Isaac seemed to have a good head on his shoulders.
“Yes.” The melancholy had returned to Sybil’s tone, but she was not longer without hope. “I wish I could tell you her name, but somehow, despite everything I know of her, that one detail eludes me. What I do know though, is that she’s the love of my life. I’ve seen her in visions. And, well, she’s from Earth. But there’s still so much I don’t know about her; I think that’s why I failed.” Her face fell as she finished.
“I see. Well, I don’t really know anything about magic, but I’m here in this world now; maybe we could help one another out? I mean, I’ll need a place to sleep and I’ll need food and in exchange maybe somehow I could use my knowledge of Ear—”
“Are cars real?” Sybil blurted out, suddenly there was excitement. She’d realized something, that maybe, just maybe, all hope of finding her wasn’t lost.
“What?”
“Cars. I think she said that word. Said it was kind of like a carriage, but it drove itself without magic. Also computers! That one she had a harder time with, but she said they were a place to store and access information.” Sybil could hardly contain herself, the more she thought of it, the more she realized this might actually be her in. Because she had felt the connection when she cast the summoning spell. It was real, more real than anything; that wasn’t a hallucination, she’d even found the right place. Sybil must have only been just barely off, whatever that actually meant. Some crucial bit was missing, but maybe Isaac could finally provide that last little bit of context about his home to do it right and find her.
“Uh—yeah? Those are all things. I can tell you more too. So do you actually want my help?” The hope in Isaac’s voice was infectious, and a little impossible to dismiss. Even if Sybil didn’t have a use for him, she probably couldn’t have said no. It was kind of her fault he was stuck in her world now, after all.
“I think we can work something out. You can stay here for now. Food won’t be a problem, and we’ll try to figure out what your future is going to look like, assuming you don’t change your mind about being sent back.” Sybil couldn't help but notice the relief and gratitude in Isaac’s eyes. As much as she still wanted to resent him for not being her, it was hard.
“I don’t think I will,” he interjected.
“Well, regardless, in return for staying here, you’re going to help me prep the summoning spell again. Which means letting me ask you about your homeworld so that I can be more accurate this time, as well as helping me get casting reagents. While we’re at it, we’ll grab the reagents to send you home just in case, or, if it comes to it, to send her home.” It hadn’t dawned on Sybil ‘til just then, but with the way her first attempt had gone, she realized it would be a real possibility that she might succeed, might summon the woman she loved, only for her to reject the life Sybil was offering. She didn’t know what she’d do if that time came, but Sybil would send her home; she wasn’t a monster. After that... Sybil didn’t want to think about after that. Those weren’t productive thoughts to dwell on.
“That actually sounds pretty nice. Better than my old job anyway. Or not having one at all. I mean, you’re not just gonna toss me out if I do poorly, right?” He grew a little meek at the end, and, as much as Sybil wanted to tell Isaac that she expected him to prove useful, she also couldn’t deny her own role in all this.
“Since I’m responsible for your being here, I won’t turn you loose into the world with nothing. But the more you’re willing to help me find her, the more I’ll provide in return. And when we succeed then, well, I guess I could grant you a wish. Assuming you prove useful, that is. I’m no miracle worker, but there are still a lot of things I can do.” If Sybil was being honest with herself, she hadn’t the faintest idea what someone from another world would actually want, but she figured that was incentive enough. She was right. Isaac seemed more than ecstatic.
“That’s more than I would have asked for. I’m in. So what are we doing first?” He stood from his spot, for the first time since he appeared in her home, and began to approach her. Sybil took a step back; despite everything Isaac had done to endear himself to Sybil, she still couldn’t help but hold his very existence against him, just a little. It was what he represented. Days, weeks, months, maybe even years more of loneliness. It wasn’t his fault, but she still couldn’t look at him and not see an embodiment of her own inadequacy. He seemed to notice her reproach, and halted.
“Our next step, Isaac is to go out into the wide world. We have a long list of reagents to find, and there’s no reason to simply sit around doing nothing while you tell me about your home world. I have every intention of getting this done as soon as possible, of finding her as soon as possible.” A certain coldness had crept its way back into Sybil’s voice; she had no intent of being unkind to him, but overcoming any and all resentment would be a long road. One she might not have time to traverse. “In the meantime, well. I expect you to carry your weight out there and, I mean no ill will, but you don’t look particularly suited to handle the dangers we might encounter on the way.”
“Dangers? I mean, I guess this is a fantasy world so there would be that sort of thing, wouldn’t there? But, well, I’m not much of a fighter.” Sybil had hardly heard Isaac, and barely registered the nervous fear in his tone. She was already working on a solution. Even if he wasn’t her, then at the very least Sybil would find each and every way to make Isaac a vehicle toward attaining her. Perhaps this was a necessary step. Taking long, purposeful strides across her home, Sybil reached an old display case full of baubles and trinkets. Thoughtfully, she reached in, and plucked one out: a mundane-looking necklace, affixed with a moth effigy, representing change.
Sybil turned to face Isaac, took a deep breath to quash her own unjustified negative feelings toward the man, and approached him. As though making a peace offering for some slight he wasn’t even aware of, Sybil thrust the necklace forward, dangling it from her thumb and forefinger. “Take it, this will help,” she said, almost gruffly. It was difficult standing this close to him. It was impossible for Sybil to look at Isaac and not be reminded of her. He was, after all, taking her place, at least for the time being. Not only that, but they were from the same world, and there was something about him which told Sybil that he was connected to her, somehow. She had plucked him from the fabric of reality instead of her, after all; there had to be a reason, especially considering how certain Sybil was that the spell had worked in the moment.
“What exactly is this?” he asked, gingerly taking it from her, and reflexively donning it with barely a second glance. He almost seemed excited to put it on. Which, to be fair, it was quite the impressive artifact, but Isaac had no way of knowing that.
“It will help you. Make you stronger; I’m unsure how, I’ve heard it can work in many ways. Either way, just think of activating it; it will show you.” Sybil was met only with a blank stare; part of her wanted to yell. Did he not understand just how much of an inconvenience he was? Did he not realize what incalculable effort Sybil had to go through to not just simply hate him for everything he stood for, for everything he wasn’t?
“I don’t know any magic, I don’t know how to activate it.” He gave a sheepish shrug, and an awkward grin.
“You just, well, you do it. This is meant to be used by non-magic users. Just activate it.” She was struggling to hold back the frustration now.
“But, how? I don’t—”
“Just think, okay? This isn’t hard. What in the void do I need to say to get you to just fucking do it?” she snapped. Isaac’s face fell. A long silence fell upon them both. “I’m sorry,” Sybil choked. “It’s been a rough few months and, well. I thought I finally had her. But I still failed.” The tears were back, but to her surprise, instead of leaving like everyone else had at the first sign of trouble, Isaac was just nodding in quiet understanding.
“I’ve had my own share of failures recently. And, well. I maybe could have been better to some of the people close to me in the midst of those failures.” He didn’t say anything more, but something in his voice suggested that was meant as forgiveness. Sybil smiled.
“Then maybe we can fail our way toward something akin to success.” After a few moments, Isaac nodded quietly, flashing a weak smile of his own. “Will you just try for me? I know it’s kind of vague, but just imagine it working.”
“Okay.” Isaac closed his eyes, and took a few long, slow breaths. And as he did so, a glow began to emit from the effigy, which built into a blinding flash. When her vision cleared, Sybil saw someone very different before her.
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IT WAS ME, DIO!
I don't even watch JoJo and that made me laugh
I'm very excited for more ?
Once again I have to just say how amazing this is. The vague recognition is there and it seems so perfect the dream way of thinking of things
Not perhaps the best first impressions, but they're working on it
It was impossible for Sybil to look and Isaac and not be reminded of her.
Is the first and supposed to be an “at”? Also thank you for the chapter.