The Magician 36

Time was relatively meaningless in the heart of the cradle. The moment Orison had stepped in and released his two hitchhikers, he got down to studying and consolidating as much law as possible. Unlike previous newborn void walkers who had come here before him, he didn't have the luxury of pauses to absorb so that he could fit more. Then again, he wasn't starting at the bottom either.

Reclaiming some of his old 'spaghetti monster' self, he was coming in with a structure to stress test, compact and gap fill rather than needing laws spoon fed for awhile first. He had almost reclaimed too much, in fact. Being drawn to the splay of existence that had closer affiliation with cosmic horrors was a sign of that.

Ironically, the Tower of Ruin and Gnarly are what saved him from merely becoming a weaker version of what his soul had came from. All the self destruction and restarts had tapped down a foundation beyond solid. More than that, his potential had risen far beyond what it should have naturally been as well.

A soul could hold only so many step rings. Taking in foreign spirit essence wasn't that helpful in raising potential either, due to the contamination to personal purity it brought with it. And the stronger the soul, the more difficult it was to remove.

Being brought to the brink of absolute oblivion multiple times was the only thing that saved him from the fate of stalling out before tier five. His soul had been contaminated in many ways. Duran's hat trick of pulling people out of him had eliminated some core problems but it was nearly being erased again that had really scrubbed him out.

It wasn't all sunshine, however. Too little potential would keep one from reaching greater heights but too much beyond the resources available meant slow progress and failure from exhausting lifespan or emotional fortitude. That equaled out to immense potential being nearly as bad as having little. And after truly becoming a void walker, not just the half baked reality travelers most confused for them, his potential WAS immense.

He could understand why some of the older void walkers had made such a place as the maze. It was just so hard to become one or succeed once one did, a little help at the start hardly qualified as coddling. And even though the maze actively sought out potential candidates, tripping across the search was its own minor form of miracle.

Except, Orison was fairly certain that this particular miracle wasn't very coincidental at all. It smacked of Keita. He highly doubted that he went anywhere near where Lily had intended him to go and was still unsure of how that happened.

He cleared all thoughts away aside from comprehending the different micro displays of laws sinking into him and his son's progress. Once Jimson neared his limit, he briefly released the knight and Klein to take what they could along with Cole. That hadn't lasted for as long as Orison thought it would before resources rapidly reached their end. A mere breath until his allotment would be used up, he recalled the knight and tried to savor the last 'fumes' of displays.

The satisfaction from his spiritual 'all you can eat buffet' was short lived. Instead of coming out back into the cradle room as he should have, the young mage found himself inside of cold darkness. The maze projected the understanding that another potential void walker had been discovered. Since he'd used up his allotment of resources anyway, the new discovery had been given priority.

When prompted for choice of companions, Orison attempted to choose his son only to be denied. That raised mixed emotions. He was hopeful that his son had awakened as a void walker too but that meant there was no hope of seeing him for hundreds of years. Pushing the personal sadness down, he tried to be happy for Jimson.

Turning back to the task of picking companions, he quickly found out that his choices were denied for reasons of safety. As much of a priority as the maze gave to its newborn void walkers, it wouldn't send other living beings that had a moderate chance of immediately dying. Depressed, Orison left it in the hands of the maze to display possibilities. If it was that hard to find a companion, he had a lot greater worries than not being able to easily find a running buddy.

At the top of the list was a dragon and two dragon blooded people. All three had declined. That included Arazmus, who had apparently forgotten about him. After that, the young mage automated it. He might have had complicated thoughts on traveling with a man who had feelings for him. But not having anyone he knew, 300 years into a future he had no knowledge or understanding of, it seemed worse.

"No friend who remembers me is strong enough to be considered? I-I'm okay with a guy like Arazmus, I guess. If that meant some expectations, I wouldn't be thrilled but I'd at least consider it. The memories I have of switching roles with Winter weren't awful either. S-some of them were actually pretty good.

"Gawd... I think it's time to reconsider passively avoiding women as companions. I'm tier four now and any other tier four, regardless of gender, isn't going to be some wilting flower.

"Damn, no wonder no one's saying yes. The maze isn't asking them to join me, it's asking them to SERVE me. I can't change it either!... Stop rambling. If you're alone then just make some new friends. It sucks but it is what it is."

Right when the maze was about to kick him out, he had a sudden thought. The First Family control room had been locked by the maze. As a recognized void walker, he wondered if the maze would allow him to use it. All the First Family stuff was on the outer edges anyway, any business he had with it wouldn't affect the maze in any meaningful way and he wanted to insure that potential future void walkers wouldn't fall prey to it.

It was at that moment that something bizarre happened, two different answers came from the maze as he was brought to the First Family's control room. Like a person waking from a lucid dream, it took him a moment to figure out what was going on but when he did, he screamed with primal rage. The black silk purse had taken him for a ride before and as Mimi, she had taken him for a ride again.

Within the control room and beyond her ability to influence, thanks to the maze desiring what Orison was trying to offer, he reviewed everything he had done from the moment he had willingly stepped into her illusion. He didn't have to guess the outcome because he could view it on a large holographic monitor. He began regretting that decision but he needed to know how bad things had gotten before he could even remotely begin to fix them.

Mimi's insidious machinations started before he had even woke up. So many had fallen prey to her in so many different ways that it became meaningless to catalog them all. Despite the deeply wounding things she had done to him, he couldn't even claim to be her worst victim. In a twisted way, she had helped him.

In trying to take him for all he was worth and cripple him besides, she had inadvertently prompted him to 'end' himself in a way that had turned him 'endless'. The maze used the opportunity to finish Orison's metamorphosis into a void walker and allowed him to finish his deep trance. During that time, his knight insured his survival, the reason no one was allowed to approach him.

Once he had awakened, he had become 'useful' to her again because he had established contact with the cradle. Exploitation taking a back seat to complete revenge, she had whole sale crafted out a way to take him for all he was worth while simultaneously negotiating the 'safe' use of her illusion world with him. Observing his interactions with Suniir, she 'voluntarily' extended it into dream state emotional 'healing' to keep Orison from catching wise to what she was interested in. All the while, she was creating a psychological profile on him and finished hatching her plan.

She had some fun with him, ate a piece of his soul and killed herself off so that she could pretend to be Jammers/Jimson to better formulate a way to drain him to oblivion. By that point, she couldn't move against him directly because of the maze. But, anything he volunteered was free game. She didn't even have to try to pull off scams to get things out of Orison, he would volunteer it himself for love of his 'son'.

With Klein's help through himself, she had destroyed everything she could, caused the death of many. And currently, she was protected by the maze as a potential void walker. It was a potential she had stolen from him.

Orison laughed coldly. "After everything you've done, my imagination can't even comprehend a retaliation grand enough to satisfy me... You made one huge mistake, however, 'my child'. The moment of your rebirth, you WILL be my progeny and you'll get to experience first-hand, the nature of my 'ruin'. In fact, you'll be the last and greatest victim of it because you'll be taking that from me too. I'll cram all of it down that greedy throat of yours til it bursts you like the swollen tick you are."

"You may be a master of turning reality into an illusion but I am your superior in turning illusion into reality. Since you wanted to turn me into a sacrificial lamb for your ambitions, then let's play game. Winner takes all."

He couldn't reach out to anyone. Effecting any kind of change would be pointless since she would have over 300 years worth of time to insure that the moment he stepped out of the maze, he was done. There was no doubt in his mind that anything she could do to steal a resource she'd do. And he was fairly certain that she would destroy and invalidate anything of his she could in the process, as long as it didn't cost her too much.

In a seemingly meaningless token effort, he contacted Osomo and informed the planet controlling AI of everything he had learned. With the help of the three sisters, released from their stasis on the ship and revived for emergency reasons despite Osomo's best attempts to weasel out of it, the maze reached a mutually beneficial arrangement with the three nicest First Family members possible. Orison only hoped that the agreement was something the maze would want to preserve for all future potential void walkers over the one it was preparing to nurture.

All he asked for his service in return was a single message to be preserved in the maze control room for all time. "Upon my true name, I, Orison Cantrip, recognize Jammers/Jimson as my son and heir. All my possessions, both spiritual and material are his upon my permanent demise or erasure. In the event that I am unable to execute decisions on my own behalf, I declare him executor of my estate."

Done with his last act of defiance against inevitable oblivion, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Reviewing the wreckage of his life from Al to present time, he realized just how little he'd accomplished. It wasn't for lack of trying but between Gnarly and Mimi it had been all undone. Any good he'd managed to do had or would be turned to tragedy save for Duran if either of his two opponents had anything to say on the matter.

"Pass or fail, I at least have one redeeming and enduring act. That's more than some, I guess... To be fair to myself, there may have been many that I forced myself to forget about. Maybe I even did some good here and forced myself to forget so that it would be hard for Mimi to notice.

"Is it weird that the thing I feel the most angry about right now is her appropriating the nickname Mrs. Daily gave my niece?... What, didn't think I noticed? I'm sure there's some things I've done that you haven't noticed, Mimi. I sincerely hope you don't lose sleep over that. I want you to be as surprised as possible when you get what's coming to you.

"I've heard 'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well, it hath no pettiness like an Orison p*ssed off either! You've eroded my conviction in kindness despite the consequences. I swear to you, that will become the greatest mistake in your miserable existence."

Unable to help herself, wherever she was gloating in the maze, "There's not a single thing you've done that has escaped my notice. Not a single thing you've done cannot be undone... Your words are the empty whining of the defeated. I've heard them all before."

Orison chuckled. "Ah, the look that will be on your face when you see the real mastermind behind this tragedy, puppet... I'll be generous and give you a solid 'B'. No real creativity but what can you expect from a sleeping person?"

Having served what meaningful purpose to the maze he could and the current inhabitant wanting him gone, he was prompted to choose an ejection destination or select to appear in a pre-set location.

A sliver of another's memories played in the young mage's head. "You shee... Ahem. You see, Mellow, Kingdoms are nothing but large splays, one of many. This pool of coins, lets assume it's one over to the left. We can trade the magic we know for the alien and unknowable mysteries of another splay of land, another kingdom."

After Keita ran off several numbers and references about the coins and the pool, a second sliver of memory began after the first cut out. "Hhhhey, Hhhefty. I think I got the trick of thish down... Shwimming in coinsh ish hard and they can hhhurt. Be a ghost for two... five breaths and then turn into a purse. You want to to take some with you, right?... Nooo, don't shtay a purse too long. You have to have one... five breaths to be a ghost again or you won't make out the other shide!... Maybe there'sh a whole other world on the other shide, whith it'sh own kingdomsh."

Hefty chuckled. "You're the only ghost here, Spook. Why don't you loosen your drawstrings? Uncle Hefty has a whole sack of treasure he'd like to empty into your coin purse. I promise to fill it aaall the way up."

Mellow looked at Hefty and said, "That's too drunk to plunk, my friend. I'm all for leaving a smile on a girl's face but..."

Hefty slapped Mellow on the back. "I know... Just wanted to say something that'd make her ears burn tomorrow. Who knows, she might think about it and decide she wants some of Uncle Hefty's treasure."

As if he had an enlightenment, Mellow turned to Keita and said, "He might have more treasure but mine's higher quality."

Keita crossed her arms, wobbling unsteadily. "Go bury your treashures in each other'sh back yardz. I may not have sheen them but I know where theyvuh BEEN... If a little prayer sstarts shwimming for the other shide from the earliesht moment it can leave the cradle, it'll make it before you can even whip your faceless gods out.

"A lot can happen before they draw my little prayer back because we can break the law. The other side won't care. By the time your dweller in darkness can get at me, my grandson won't even get to be yours."

Hefty leered at her and said, "You trying to rile me up to be the father of your kid, Spook? I think my 'faceless god' is up to the challenge."

Mellow said, "She's coming out the other side, all right. Drank herself sober, crazy sober... Uh, Hefty. As flattering as her pet name might sound, there might actually be some god out there who calls themselves that."

Hefty shrugged as he said breezily, "They got a problem with it, maybe I'll be the father of THEIR grandson."

Mellow shivered and drew himself a little away from his drunk friend.

Keita said, "You will but it won't be with me."

Nearly hysterical, Mellow said, "That's it. I'm capping the booze... I love dirty talk and I can handle crazy but sacrilege is where I draw the line."

Looking sadder than they'd ever seen her, she added, "What's the point in that? They do what they want no matter what I say or do. People are only toys and only safe when they're forgotten about... Get as much as you can carry. This isn't fun anymore."

In theory, the earliest he could leave the maze was a second after he entered but Klein should have made it impossible due to the contamination of causality. After entering in the coordinates of his exit, he set the space time to 'earliest'. Surprisingly enough, he might not have been able to leave on his own ability a second before he entered but the maze could push him out at that point and did so.

The moment he appeared, somewhere in Benjamin and Zoe's splay of existence, he ghosted in instinct as a geyser of Maelstrom generated essence spewed into the splay's lower dimensions. Something touched him despite being in ghost state but before he could see what it was, the geyser of essence reversed, sucking a massive amount of inert essence and him into the rift in reality. It was a terrifying roller coaster ride where all he could do was allow the tidal pull to shove him wherever it wanted.

A few seconds in, it felt like something was eating him from the inside out. Despite steadily getting weaker, he timed his movements with the swirls and eddies using Keita's 2,5,1,5 sequence of ghost and devour mode once he figured out that's what it was. Ghost mode covered the violent collision of eddies and Devour covered the dense swirls of painfully pure essence that moved just slow enough for him to take in without being shredded.

Whatever was trying to devour HIM decided to stop but Orison pushed more through until there was a sudden give and the connection no longer existed. He was close to bursting himself by the time he could no longer hang on. A returning snap of force from whatever had been pulling at him. Propelled him onward even faster but it sapped the last fumes of endurance he had left.

His last thoughts weren't his own but belonged to one younger man and one older one. Both were pining themselves to death over a broken heart. The young man's thoughts instantly became brighter while the older one finished slipping away.