Confrontation/Chapter 16

We had been journeying for some time, walking in the darkness. All the while, true to his word, the Traveler spoke and what he told me was deeply disturbing, not only for what it revealed about him, but what it revealed about people and what it revealed about the plans of the Devourer.

“And that is why I have come to this world,” the Traveler finished. His tale ended as abruptly as it began and now that I knew as much about him as I wished to know, he was right; I was not certain I could trust him, let alone work with him. I should have listened to him in the first place.

“You say that the entire church of the Lord of Good was taken over by these impostors?” I asked him, trying to clarify the last niggling bit. “And lacking the guidance of their lord, as real priests would have, they are susceptible to influences. How could a whole church replace genuine clerics with charlatans and no one notice?”

“People noticed,” the Traveler said, “but few talked. People have a way of ignoring that which discomfits them. They have a way of avoiding the truth as quick and as much as they can. Mark me well, Galrick, for it is as true on your world as it was on mine.”

The Traveler continued walking down the dark hall that we had been traversing for some time.

“And this place is not real?” I asked, trying to understand. “It does not exist?”

“No. It exists. It is as real as Battleonia, but it has no substance.”

“How can something exist without substance? I see a stone hall. I feel the stones.”

“That is because your mind is making sense of the way between worlds. Some places, it is perceived as vast expanses of space and sojourners wander via ships. Others are perceived as glowing portals of light which serve as gateways between worlds. Here, it is a hallway and each doorway is a thin space in the wall and opens on a possibility. Where the walls are thick, there is no way to breach between those worlds. All of these different ways of seeing the chasm between worlds are real... and none of them have substance. All of them are shades of something bigger than our mind can handle, so it interprets it in manners we can. Do you follow?”

“Not really, but...” I began, but he interrupted me, stopping outside a large vaunting stone door....

“This door is different from the others.....” he noted.

“It is... Where does it lead?”

“During the process of creation, sometimes pieces of the force of creation, pockets of other dimensions, become trapped in the material realm, bending it locally. These pockets are older than the creation and exist outside of it, and thus can reshape it utterly. Caelestia has a very large such pocket, an uncontrolled realm known as the Planes of Instability that has a mind almost of its own. Were you entering Caelestia, you might see a door much as this one there... The door is changed by the power it contains....

“Lore has more than one such region, but each of them is segregate and none of them are obvious to the average adventurer because they do not have the same sentience and power. But a powerful enough force could still bend these pockets to their use. The Drakel realized this long ago and sought to isolate these pockets, trap them inside of deep underground places and inside of devices using magiscience so that creation itself could not be used to uncreate and cause destruction. This, of course, infuriates your lord. He would like nothing more than to use such things to his aims and, before the end of this, he undoubtedly will. We will not have the time to gather the artifact forms of these things. We cannot prevent them from being used to alter the course of reality when unified in the right fashion. This, however, is one of the largest pockets of uncontained energy I have been able to discover. It was large enough that the Drakel failed utterly to trap in their devices and instead covered it with their mountain. The magics that allowed this required the willing sacrifice of some 2 or 3 million Drakel magi over a 200 year span. This occurred sometime shortly after The’Galin last left. The magic so altered the movement of the continents and the mountains and seas that even today Lore is substantially more geologically active than most worlds five times its size.”

“Why are we here, then?” I asked.

“I have the means of drawing this pocket of creation out of the world of Lore entirely by grounding it elsewhere. I will create the portal that will draw it from your world into mine. The increase in mass of the Planes of Instability from such an effect will be hardly notable, but the effect on The’Galin’s plan even as we speak will be astronomical.”

“I do not follow.”

“The’Galin sends one of his messengers even now to take this place. Those who seek to stop him will not reach him in time...”

“So what can I do?”

“You, Galrick, will prove yourself to me here, one way or the other. You will enter the door and open yourself up as a living channel of the energy there. As you have become The’Galin’s communicant, you will have this capacity. You will then direct the energy through the doorway before his stolen communicant can do the same thing but direct the energy to the Uncreator. In short... you will use the power The’Galin has given you... to betray him.”