The girls were not so accustomed to a hard push in the small of their back. Priya weaved them through the square, past secluded buildings. Leading them to their destination. Her fingers thrust in deep. “It’s like a knife!” Felicia squealed. But Priya didn’t budge. Her countenance beamed in harmony with the thought. The day had a special design. And so, she poked them mercilessly, ushering them forward. At a higher elevation, the clouds were delightful and plump.
A day meant for picnics. Their eyes tied in blindfolds; the girls witnessed none of it. They were busy dealing with Priya’s antics. Lonely, unsung university buildings lined their path. The windows were smeared gray from weathering. Within those walls stood empty rooms with forgotten pamphlets. But Priya redirected them from that effigy of academia. Along its width a creek caked with mud met a rather anticlimactic end on dry ground. Still, the humble clouds queued in the air. Boundless like spring cotton. From the night before the last raindrop descended onto the handsome earth. Priya had gathered them all regardless of fleeting time.
Nadine gasped as her hair and nails were an unmitigated disaster. Dominique stuck out her arms sideways, pretending to be an airplane until the scientist was forced to nudge her away from that misadventure. Still, she led them onward. Pieces of brick tumbled down an incline of a dilapidated building like kids riding down a slide. Another had windows in excess. Its neighbor was wider than usual and drafted in a circular architecture. This was it. Priya quickly untied the three of them. Dominique spun around to face her. “Are you kidding me?” she ridiculed. The auditorium rose above them like a monument to obscurity. It's dark portals begging for light.
“This place is old news … is this like, funny or something?” Dominique tossed up her hands, exaggerating her displeasure in graphic detail. Felicia looked Priya up and down, wondering if she actually was a robot and whether there was a glitch in the system. Yet all systems were operating smoothly and the aforementioned android booped Dominique in her nose with an outstretched finger to shut her loudmouth up. Priya had worn a new lab coat just for the occasion, and she wasn’t going to give this up. “It’s the perfect place for a game. I made it up.
It’s called the echo game” the lab girl revealed, profuse with inexplicable joy. Nadine pivoted on her heels, “You mean like your name?”, she gathered. “Exactly!”, Now Priya’s cheeks were
rounded and filled with wonderful things to share with all of them. But the game was afoot and so she ran inside and waited for their company. As the girls wandered in, they couldn’t help but notice the columns at great intervals, arrayed in vague garments of dust. Felicia paused with charming meekness at the scary stuff. Arms close to her chest. Nadine looked up. There was a second floor sporting a balcony. Up ahead was Priya, with a gallant expression on her face. In her presence, the surrounding darkness attained new life. Beautiful like the silence at dawn.
Nadine was simultaneously enraptured and at wits end trying to figure her out. “Alright friends, here’s the game. This whole auditorium is so big that its walls will let the sound reverberate off of them, making echo’s. That’s why it’s the perfect place for a game of tag” she began. “I think you mean hide and seek,” Felicia offered. Priya nodded her head in affirmation and hid the suspicious smile from her face. “It’s so funky in here that the game will last an hour” Nadine tended. “Oh, I’ve got something else up my sleeve,” their friend boasted. Sharp reflexes awoke, and the lab girl ran towards the wall, and bounced off of it onto the second floor. “Wow, that was amazing!” hollered Felicia, thinking that it was simply an athletic jump from the wall to the balcony. And with that the game was set in motion. Dominique spent much of the ensuing time daintily prancing over curling shadows and unkempt floorboards from the shipwreck of a floor after Felicia. “Ah!” she whimpered, unforgiving of the former friend who had bested her at tag.
In the distance, Nadine’s voice trailed behind as she weaved around the columns sowing fine reverberations like bait. It was irresistible. Despite exhaustion, Dominique fed her heart with courage. Her feet barely brushed the ground, except to pursue what had to be acquired. A swift deer, darting behind immemorial columns. The Latina snarled as she neared the heels of her prey. A wily plunge behind a tall column was not enough. Dominique tapped the shoulder.
Nadine wept from the sting of injustice. The Latina giggled in her face, knowing she had become her teacher, if only for a second. By that time Priya had arrived on the scene. Dominique grit her teeth. Now there was one. Likewise, the game renewed, invigorated with the lifeblood of the chase. Priya was not so fast as Nadine, the girl thought. Her white lab coat flapped like a sail sprayed with saltwater, its craft advancing towards dancing waves. Then, through some fault of the dimness, she lost her. Behind, Nadine and Felicia huddled for warmth. Draped in black, the auditorium’s precedence gripped them. Hushed memories of academia and its endless appraisals swirled around. It's austerity. It's cruel discipline. Nadine looked hazily at the scene. In her dream-state, the bones of academics shook in the foundation of the auditorium, knowing they had studied to their heart's content. But then with furtive glance the Latina spied her. That pleasantly nerdy voice. Dominique leapt into action, seeking her across the breadth of the room.
The auditorium was inaugurated long ago, but its dust made shifting what was plain to the eye.
Like a plucky runaway Priya zigzagged through the place, escaping her pursuer. The game was going well. The lab-girl began to smile partially when a fit of laughter descended, slowing her down. “Newbie!” Dominique called. Priya ringed around a certain column, and her pursuer knew just what she would do. “Can you hear me!” rung out, multiplying, obscuring the source. “I’m too good for that to work” Dominique insisted under her breath. Greedily she crept forward, the prey within grasp. Undeterred, longing for the body. She ringed the column like the sun in its unearthly station and … NOTHING. Where was she? Another clone of the scientist’s words navigated her away, across the stretches of the room to another place. Yet it likewise ended empty handed. The process continued, sending her in vain around columns, dizzying her senses.
It would continue like that for an hour. The two others would join in, and they would do their best. They would split and reunite, searching the recesses. They would find only shadow. A smiling Priya alighted on the grass outside, her form materializing. “Not bad for a first round”
she surmised, rubbing her hands together in glee. She took a moment to stare at the other derelicts. Squirrels casually skipped along the tops of buildings, like knights of the realm guarding turrets. It was going to be a fun day.
CHAPTER 16 - PRIYA AND NADINE AT THE BANK
“What do you mean there’s nothing to be concerned about!” Nadine slapped the counter as the bank teller tried to lessen the tension. “There has to be a good explanation for this, mam.
Please stay calm” the teller promised half-heartedly. “Can you even see what’s going on! Those aren’t my withdrawals, and they’re happening every hour on the hour. I don’t make electronic withdrawals for those amounts” she gesticulated wildly as Priya looked at the ledger, seeing the palpable regularity of the debits. One hundred units every hour, to the second. “There’s a hacker taking all of my junk! Make it stop right now before I lose my shit!” Nadine ejaculated. The teller tried several things to no avail, and then retreated in terror as she witnessed the intervals shorten to every ten minutes. “Um, let me go grab the manager, be right back” the teller offered, skulking away. Sweat began to glisten on her forehead, and she pushed her hand to her temple as the account continued its descent, “…. Oh no, everything is spinning!” Nadine whimpered. Priya grabbed her by the shoulders and took her to the center of the room, where the desks were.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got your back” she said and raised a hand to snap her fingers, then led her friend back to the counter when they both had returned. The teller looked at the screen, squinting and moderately confused, “The last digit of the account number, which was a 1 changed to a 2, how could that have happened? It looks like a random glitch, but it’s closed out the hacker’s ability”. “We’ll take good care of this mam and file claims on your behalf” the manager assured her, and they both left the branch, cutting across the area where the ATM’s stood. About ten steps out, Nadine realized what had occurred, and stopped dead in her tracks, “Newbie … your magic!”. “You must be famished”, Priya said as she touched the ATM machine, and it turned into a food dispenser and opened up, providing a fish taco. “How is that even mathematically possible?” she gasped, then bit into the delicious tortilla. A digital smiley face played across the screen and winked as she took the first bite. “Shhhh” the scientist replied, pressing her finger to Nadine’s lips, “I’ll let you know on the ride home, and while we’re at it, I'll tell you a little bit about Euclidean Husbandry as well”.
CHAPTER 17 - TELENON’S ARRIVAL
Not far from the engineering hall in Remington-Welsh Park the lecturer sat on a bench and checked her watch. Eric finally waved from a distance and strode over, carrying a tote bag.
“What’s going on in there?” Priya asked, seeing him stretch his hand inside. “I thought you’d like this. Now … I’ve thought it over really well. You can take him on the weekends, and I can do the weekdays” he promised, pulling out a cuddly, orange and white hamster. “So, we’ll be like … parents?” Priya asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow, “Then I guess my experiment the other day was a success”. Eric sat down and offered the fluffball for her to pet, “Don’t get ahead of yourself, I just thought this guy was a rock-star”, then winked back at her. Priya leant in to kiss him, but as it happened the hamster squirmed out of his hands and jumped down onto the bench, then again to the ground, scurrying away into the bushes. “Flip! Where do you think he
could have gone?” Eric wondered as he parted a bush. Priya leant back on the bench, watching the spectacle with considerable girlfriend glee.
Nearby, others were bantering pleasantly when from out of the azure, cloud speckled sky a building descended and landed on the green of Remington-Welsh Park. It stood there silently as a massive crowd from all across the university and the surrounding area converged on its landing site. A furor of flawless wonder jolted them. Pushing through, Priya and Eric came to the front, directly facing the gateway. Eventually Felicia, Nadine and Dominique chiseled their way as well through the crowd. Etched across the top, above white pillars was written its name,
“Temple of the Voices of Reason”. The front line of the crowd stepped back in fright as the gates creaked open ominously. Frenzied whispers circulated amongst the crowd until from within came a voice. Priya could hear her name being called. “Time flies,” she lamented, breaking from the crowd and pacing towards the gateway. Even the white noise had escalated, answering to the aesthetic of the unknown. Eric raced quickly to her and grabbed an arm, “Don’t go in there, it’s too weird!” he cajoled in alarm. Looking straight ahead, she yanked the white sleeve of her lab coat away from his grip, “It’s my job”, and continued past the threshold until the gates closed behind her. Delving through the rooms, Priya came to a long hallway embellished with tall pillars on either side. The carpet underneath was lush and seemed to crackle with static electricity. As she continued down the hallway the pillars transfigured gradually into tall kangaroos of marble. Drawing closer, she could hear a thumping like that of a war drum grow loud. A mahogany double doorway opened welcoming her into a wide circular chamber. Around its length at intervals, where there would be pillars … stood instead kangaroos at butter-churns, hard at work, making the drumming sound. Directly ahead, Telenon sat at his throne and lifted a hand for them to cease their activity. “Dear, what is with the manspreading?” Priya exclaimed, thinking out loud, shielding her sight with a hand. Telenon corrected his posture and coughed, signaling for her to lower it. Priya could see him scratching his five o’clock shadow, and he wore a bowling uniform and the ring finger on his right hand was missing. “Ah … a nerd. Excuse me if this comes out the wrong way, but what the fuck do you think you're doing with magic in my city?” Telenon inquired, leaning forward in his chair. “I didn’t have a choice. I had to help a friend, '' Priya justified. “Oh … and you think I wouldn’t notice that? They will witness magic when I show it to them. Just who do you think you are crashing my party?” he blustered like a spoiled teenager. “They deserve to have some of the power also, don’t you think? Life’s a little dry without it” she answered modestly. At that he jumped down onto the floor and waltzed towards her, taking the nerd in with a good, long look, “So this is who Dramatic sent to run his errand … pathetic. Aren’t you a lab scientist in real life?”. “You can give honor to the Maelstrom Allegiance but they will not succumb to it, eventually they will fight back” she shot defiantly. At that he raised his hands, and the kangaroos began to thump their churns, making a racket, and in the midst of it he leant his head back and laughed maniacally. A few moments later the noise stopped, and he snapped back towards her, “Why are you trying to make this universe boring and take away all the fun?”. “I’m just trying to understand it, '' she explained. “By taming the sea of imagination? That’s a dumb idea” he spurned, stamping a foot. “It’s more hospitable to life, not everyone can live on the extremes like us” Priya replied. The bowler drew closer to her and lowered his voice, “Priya, allow me to let you in on a little secret. A child doesn’t really care why the sky is blue. He only says that when he is astounded by what’s all around. Maybe you were once a child as well that cared why the sky is blue, but you have grown up now, and should have realized that it doesn’t matter”. “Dramatic was wise enough to see the truth. He wasn’t as blind as you are” she countered. “Really, and where is he now? That old fool won’t be back for a
thousand cycles. He just decided to fill your head with his personal justice before bowing out” he expressed rhetorically. The fact of the matter struck a nerve. “Alright then. I’m willing to negotiate if you can be sensible” Priya sighed. Telenon sat back on his throne for a moment and summoned a fax machine which printed off a memo containing the history of the realm, and he read it quickly before tossing it aside, “Okay … okay. Here’s what we’ll do. You will become one of my Voices of Reason and swear fealty to me and the Maelstrom Allegiance”. “I’m listening …”, Priya relented, “but only if you would agree to let them use magic in everyday life.
Don’t deprive them”. “Not going to happen, nerd” he repudiated, “but I will let you reign over your realm”. “They’re not an experiment. My people are real and I will bring them sooner or later regardless of what you do” she promised stubbornly. At this he hopped off of his chair once again and strode over to her, “Then forget about all of them. What do you think of me?”.
Reviewing his slovenly appearance, his short hair and casual attempt at a beard Priya couldn’t help but think to herself, “He’s kind of hot in a gross kind of way”, but then suppressed it immediately. “Oh … is this your strategy now? Sorry, I have a reputation to uphold” Priya said, declining his offer. “Here is an even better offer and try to follow me this time” he began and swooned onto the floor. Around him grew a coffin of glass, and he lay inside, stiff and pallid emulating the deceased. Then the coffin altered its shape until it was that of a butter dish. Priya blinked and the body had become a stick of butter. As if an invisible hand stretched above, the lid of the dish was removed, and the stick of butter lifted itself, becoming vertical, reforming into a sculptural resemblance of its occupant. Telenon restored himself, “Resurrection is a simple recipe. All we would have to do is go back to where he is. Let’s go together and dig him up.
Then, with your assent I would lay my hand on your stomach, and the realm inside you would progress into its final form … that of Honfot-Gid, a star-skinned organ … more than glamorous to behold and seductive with anatomical beauty. For you I will implant it into him, and he will come back as before, all it would take is that one concession”. “That is … I don’t know what to say” Priya dithered, feeling the gravity of his words. “If you want, I can melt you into mirror light and you and he can be reborn together, and all this confusion can be over. There doesn’t need to be sadness or disconnection. These were things of the past'' he petitioned. Waiting in suspense, they both parted until strength returned to her and she lifted her head from bottomless thoughts, “First of all, you should know not to play with a girl’s emotions. Secondly, I may have daddy issues … but no''. Telenon turned away from her, and let his voice grow deeper, “I don’t understand it, you're proficient enough to make reality whatever you want it to be, and you still let it dictate you. People like us are different. Eventually you will do the same as me. It’s unavoidable to do so … since often the truth is unpleasant”. “What are you trying to say?” she questioned. Telenon spun around to face her once again, “Priya, your father was a traitor, and you are the daughter of a traitor. He was so until I captured him and made him fight for us for the remainder. You should desire nothing more than to use your skill for its genuine purpose”. “The man did what he did for his family, and there can be no shame in that … but come on, Telenon.
Did you really think we needed to be separated? They were only visitors” she asked in an interrogatory tone. “How do you think you were able to dream like you did? Tell me how many years you spent in introspection carrying the burden of the past” he solicited. “So, anything that stands in the path of imagination is a threat? I don’t accept that argument. Just look out there and spy on any person on a regular day, and you will see it as an aspect of a greater whole” Priya prescribed. The kangaroos began their drumming once again until he raised a hand. “Priya, let me ask you a question. Do you get what imagination really is?” he dared coyly. She swerved physically from the generous offer to be precise in words and deed, “Imagination is a type of
thinking that lets you explore. It helps paint new things and solve problems. Most importantly, it’s for fun”. “Almost … after all this time you should know. That’s only the beginning, the part where you try to understand it. Let it be a place in and of itself … picture yourself walking in the park out there. Let it move you a great distance. Do you feel farther away? Are you lost? I would beg to differ. Keep going, and you’ll find the heart of the Maelstrom, where all the zest the universe is amassed. All the stars forged of fiction and dreams. For years we have only gotten traces of it. Priya, imagination is the focal element … which means … everything is fun!” he conveyed, freeing himself from the morality of life. The scientist went by instinct, razing the lies,
“No, it doesn’t work that way. Everyone can’t hide from the truth. It has to be controlled, or it is useless. You’ve turned it to randomness … incoherence”. “The truth is butter!” he ended. “You are crazy!” she cried. Telenon smirked with vile delight, “I’ve got a much better idea. How’s about I increase the turbulence of the focal element by a factor of ten … and when you are driven completely mad, I will come to your rescue”. “Dream on, douchebag” she spat. “I can and I will,” he called back. Priya crossed her arms and cocked her head so he knew what a jerk he was being, “Oh yeah … that sounds reasonable. After all, we’re standing right here, in the Temple of Reason, and why are you sitting alone in a room full of kangaroos? Do you not have any friends?”. The debate quickly grew more personal as they bantered back and forth. “I don’t need friends. I am the coolest guy there is” he declared, casting off her insult. Tired from all the illusion, the scientist stamped her foot down, “You just want to corner all the magic to yourself, and not share it, which is probably why you don’t have any friends”. He threw his arms wide, “I guess that makes two of us”, and waited for the coldness of his acknowledgement to sink in.
Frustrated and embittered, mostly by being called a nerd at the outset, the scientist tried to make a correction, “Wrong again. Don’t assume you know me, we just met”. “Really?” Telenon replied and raised an eyebrow sarcastically. From his pocket he took out a tape recorder and pushed a button. “He’s kind of hot in a gross kind of way”, it rang, seconding her personal thoughts. Not wanting to endure any more of the awkwardness, Priya turned around towards the entrance and walked out. As she reached the door and walked past the threshold, kangaroos held them open in courtesy. “A man has a right to spread in his own house!” he shouted, and the mahogany doors closed behind her.
“Babe! you’re alive,” Dominique shouted, jumping into her arms, “now are you going to tell us what’s going on in there?”. The crowd was eager to hear her story until the temple itself separated into architectural segments that floated up into the air where it reassembled. Telenon was left standing on the green and walked over to them. They grew jubilant and a couple at the front called out to him saying, “Telenon! We are so grateful for your help during the war. You are always welcome here” and sent their son to hand him a flower that they had picked. The bowler took it and held it high, “A toast! To all of you! Thank you for defending our world with your unwavering strength”. The crowd cheered vociferously as Priya rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Another local stepped forward, “Have you come back to tell us about the other dimension, or is there another danger on the horizon?”. “Yes, there is, and I have come to warn you all about it,” he began, and pointed straight over to Priya, “this woman has betrayed me, and in doing so has worsened things for all of you”. “What do you mean?” the locals asked as a pall swept across the crowd. Telenon continued, “During wartime I granted a loan. Maybe you thought that it was regular power, for a lack of ability to describe it, but in truth it was much more. It was my magic that I offered, and this thief is the one that wants to steal it away. It is by my foresight and wisdom that I have sanctioned its use amongst yourselves”. Priya turned to the crowd and raised her voice, “Ha! He just wants to hog all the magic for himself, but I say … and
who is with me … that we should all have the right to use magic!”. At this they went silly in uproarious agreement to her suggestion. Telenon could see the crowd grow feral, and stray from his grasp. Their desire for magic was innate and unrelenting. “Trust my judgment. I am your champion!” he urged, but they would not listen. “Don’t believe him!” Priya exhorted. Random cries of “Let us have the magic!” erupted from the crowd. Dominique was loudest of all. She belted out at the top of her lungs, “You holding out on us!” and the mob jeered. Annoyed, he took the flower, and taking a deep breath sent the pollen scattering into the air. “Since you all are so adamant, I'll let you have some” he grinned. The crowd gasped as the pollen continued to grow in magnitude until giant grains of various colors disseminated, and crashed into the buildings of the city, like wrecking balls. Even the university was not spared. “What is going on?” Felicia gasped, seeing the spheres smash through towers. Panic struck the crowd as a massive grain hurtled towards them, threatening to smush anyone it landed on. “Not so fast!”
Priya cried and casted out a bolt of mirror lightning, detonating the ball and pulverizing it into dust. When things had cleared, she could see Telenon was standing at a park vending machine, and put a quarter in. “Hey, he stole that quarter from me!” the little boy that gave him the flower earlier complained, pointing. Telenon opened a bag of potato chips and munched on them one by one as he drew closer. Reaching his hand in, he took out a chip and held it up in front, “Priya, there are so many who honestly deserve revenge on you. They can no longer be heard, as they are drowned in the light of the echo seal. Let this be the beginning of what is to come” and tossed it towards her. Perception heightened. Priya felt time abate and watched in slow motion as the potato chip spun towards her, and when it was near it phased to become immaterial like a ghost and entered her head. Gripping her temples with both hands like a vice, she could feel the agonizing pain as salt multiplied and spread throughout her mind, permeating it all, layering onto the ridges and furrows of the cerebrum. She could feel the sharp edges of the crystals embed themselves. With a seizure from the shock Priya fell to the ground and blacked out. Pleased with himself, Telenon retreated back into the temple that drifted above, and moments later it vanished through the clouds.