Fan Fiction ❯ Raven ❯ Ilyssa ( Chapter 3 )

 

I awoke in the doorless room. After a moment all that had happened hit me and I lost the meager contents of my stomach. I sat with my back against one of the shifting walls and forcibly made myself calm down. I could still feel it though; those suns and planets and everything else.

OK, I said to myself, so if that other world had different dimensions of reality, then mine could too. Now, assuming that, this place could be—

“Yes, this place is simply a different aspect of your world.” The voice had a harsh and rasping quality that could have been human in another lifetime. I leaped to my feet, my eyes rapidly traversing the room to locate the source of the voice. Finally they centered on a place on the wall, darker than the rest. And through that area of darkness stepped an old woman, her skin wrinkled with age. Her skin and clothing seemed to all be differing shades of gray. She wore a coarse shawl and a thin long skirt. It seemed to take her an eternity to reach the center of the room.

Finally she arrived and simply stood facing me. I walked across to her, my steps faltering and unsure. On impulse, as I reached her I tilted her head upwards toward me.

Her eyes were jet black, opal pools of liquid darkness receding into eternity. As I continued to stare into her eyes, a smile split her face and I noticed a layering of long sharp teeth in her mouth.

“Then who are you?” I asked, trying to ignore the thoughts of what those teeth could do to someone.

For a moment more she continued staring up at me, then slowly turned and hobbled a few feet away. After a time she turned back.

“My name is Ilyssa, and this place is my home. Welcome to Shadowworld.”

Her depthless eyes now held mine and when she looked away a table stood before me. It was made of the same dark matter as the rest of this world. Resting in the center of the table was a small, leather-bound book. It was the only thing I had seen in this world that had any kind of normal color. Almost unwillingly I began to reach for it, my curiosity piqued, before I stopped myself.

“Go ahead,” Ilyssa said, “read it. When you finish, say my name and I shall appear.”

“Wait!” I called as she started to turn. “Why are you helping me? Can you get me home?”

“Don't kid yourself; you never had a home on that world,” I stood there shocked and slightly hurt by her acidic words. “And I help you because you are destined to save the universe, and destroy your people.”

And as abruptly as she had appeared she disappeared into the darkness. After a moment I turned and walked to the table.

 

 

 

The book was small, about the size of a paperback. It had a brown-red cover, wrinkled but well made. As I opened it, the pages were stiff with age and a layer of dust floated upward. The text was hand-written in an ancient dialect that I could barely decipher.

I won't repeat exactly what was written there, there was too much and it was just too odd. At first it seemed like a book on some kind of theoretical science. It talked of energy, and I realized after a time that the entire book was on this topic. Energy, the transfer of it, the manifestations of it, its natural movements, etc. I had always found math and science to be fairly easy, and this was just a logical extension of many of those concepts.

I don't know how much time passed, but eventually I finished the book. I stood up and called Ilyssa's name into the darkness.

“You are done?” she stood inches behind me, having got there somehow without my knowledge. I nodded, and she pulled a new book, this one slightly larger, but with the same air of age, from under her shawl.

“What do these books have to do with saving the world or whatever?” I called before taking the book, forcing her to answer.

“You belittle yourself,” her voice held an edge that could have cut. “Think on this; how exactly does a person travel between worlds? And expanding on that, what other implications might this have for you specifically?”

I watched her back as she left, my mind already pondering her questions. It had to be energy. Just the transfer of ones energies from one aspect of the world to another. Buy why would I be one of the few who could do it? Maybe… well, I had been under extreme emotional stress when it had happened. Maybe that had something to do with it. But many people had stress like that. How did I differ from others such that I could access the ability to transfer my energies between realities? It had to be something to do with my psyche and mental processes. One of Ilyssa's comments came back to me, “Don't kid yourself. That place was never your home.” I understood now; with no emotional ties, with no home to return to, there had been nothing holding me to my own world. I knew that it couldn't be the whole reason, but maybe it was part of it.

So, logically, now that I had found a direct link to my power, I could use it to transport myself back. All it took was enough concentration and using the right parts of my mind. If I had the power and the will to get to a destination, all I needed to do was combine them. I sat down and concentrated. I focused on the classroom. Nothing happened.

So focus wasn't everything. I smiled to myself. Nothing was ever easy. I explored my mind, trying to find what had changed, trying to find that little difference which had allowed me to access my power and travel between dimensions before. And I felt it. It was almost like a part of me was now open, imperceptible in the minuteness of difference.

I focussed on the classroom, this time using my mind to delve into that power. And I could feel it, the power, slowly expanding through my body.

I felt myself being pulled back. A shadow broke from the wall and, as I began to fade out, I saw Ilyssa before me.

“It is too soon!” she cried, for the first time showing an expression of surprise and fear. Her outline blurred and the rest of the room faded. Her wrinkled hands grasped my wrist and urgently pressed something into my hands. I no longer heard any sound, and the room went fully black.