“Holy moly.”

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in a very... ominous place. The ground was blacker and deader than the ground in the Hero Hub. The sky here was just as depressing, being black and purple, the purple swirling and slithering through the sky like it was alive. In the distance, I could see shadowy blobs. Looking around, I counted five. They each had slightly different shades, but they were all equally ominous. I got a strange sense of foreboding and turned around to see a shadowy blob behind me as well.

“Hold on...”

I stared at the blob.

“This looks like my house.”

“It is.”

I was like a swivel chair with how quickly I turned. Behind me was—

“S-Svilran?”

There was a woman that looked very similar to Svilran. The biggest difference, however, was her black hair... Her maid outfit--its colors were inverted too and... maybe more modest? Her chest was more covered, and the outfit’s neck was more like a turtleneck. In exchange, though, her midriff was totally exposed. She wore a much longer white skirt than Svilran’s short skirt too.

Actually, on closer inspection, it couldn’t be Svilran. This one’s expression looked serene, as if she had never stressed a day in her life... It was also a bit more disconcerting, as I couldn’t read her well.

She looked past me and at the house. That is the Inverse’s double—a shadow of your home. She smoothly gestured to the other blobs in the distance.

“What does that suggest about those...” Her voice was melodic and measured. It felt like she could drift away to sleep at any moment.

“If this is a shadow of my house, then those other shadows are the doubles of the other buildings.”

“That’s right. For the Buildings, what is solid is fleeting in the Inverse.” She took my hand with her right and patted it with her left. “You’re so smart, Fainn...”

I raised a brow at her but didn’t remove my hand. “Who are you, and why do you look like Svilran?”

She released my hand and bowed before me. “I am the Inverse’s facilitator...” She stood up straight and looked at me. “I am also Svilran and not. I am her Inverse self—I am her subconscious … her internal turned inside out and made external. You may call me Narlivs, for ease, of course.”

“What.”

She waved her hand as she gestured toward this space. “This is the underside of the Hero Hub, the part that exists below the surface, its subtle half, its subconscious--the place dubbed The Inverse.”

I looked around, completely stunned.

“All has two sides, depending on how one looks at it,” she said, holding out her hand, her palm face-up, and with a projection of the Hero Hub and its underside floating above her hand. “The Hero Hub is no exception. It too has a critical underside hiding below the surface, just as Svilran does.” The projection flipped so that the dark underside was on the top and the Hero Hub proper was on the bottom. “There are many ways to perceive these two halves, and this model I show is a gross oversimplification. Conscious and Subconscious... Waking and Dream... Outer and Inner. Many metaphors fit this realm, though the individual labels I mentioned don’t accurately capture the entire nature of the realm.”

“Okay... And what does that say about me? Is this my Inverted self?”

She shook her head. “No. True Humans are a little different. You—your subconscious and conscious selves are more tightly interwoven and have the potential of becoming tighter... Have you not noticed, Fainn?”

“Noticed what?”

“You stand here before me, but you are simultaneously in your room.”

Huh. The moment she said that, I did notice something.

“I’ve just been in my room listening to this conversation,” I said, slack-jawed.

I closed my eyes and opened them again to find myself in my room. From here, I heard her reply.

“That’s right. You’ve begun to exist in two planes at once.”

I blinked and was back in the Inverse with Narlivs standing before me. Meanwhile, in the upside, I was walking to my bed, fully cognizant.

“Whoa,” I said, looking at my hands here, while in the upside, I was lying down. “So I can do this because I’m human? An Earth human?”

Narlivs stood beside me and hooked her arm in mind. She calmly nudged me, gesturing for me to walk with her.

“That’s right, and also because your mind is sufficiently developed... Do you know when you dream, Fainn?”

“I do. I can figure it out.”

“That skill is very valuable and what has allowed you to achieve what is called Continuity of Consciousness and Parallel Consciousness. I should clarify, though, that you still have a subconscious... It is more that the divide between you and it is much more reduced than for other people.”

“I... can understand that. And what about you? What’s the divide between you and Svilran like?”

“It is very pronounced. Her existence as an imperfect god also makes it very unlikely she will ever be able to cross the divide and commune with me.” Narlivs giggled. “So are the rules of long-gone divinity… Conversely, everything she knows, I will know, as everything she knows must pass by my eyes and every new thought she formulates trickles down to me. I, however, will only be able to nudge her.”

“Much like how a subconscious works.”

Narlivs hugged my arm tighter and rested her head against my arm. “Exactly.”

“So what’s the purpose of the Inverse and my purpose here?”

“Maintenance.”

“In what way?”

“The underside of the Hero Hub is more prone to attack than the topside is.”

Narlivs pointed ahead of us to a strange white figure. I narrowed my eyes at it, and it slowly came into focus, sort of like my eyes were becoming adjusted to it.

“What... is that?” I asked, unsure if I should be shocked.