Dead in the Water
Chapter 1:

I:

He found what he was looking for pretty much at the moment he gave up his frantic search. It was not exactly that moment, but a mere day later. After a night of restless sleep and guilt-ridden dreams, Jordan was sitting in a cafeteria with a mug of coffee, quietly mulling over how he would have to report his failure, when he happened to look out of the window and saw his objective lean casually against a bus stop outside on the street, outlined by dusty golden sunlight.

At first he thought it might be a figment of his imagination, spawned by his need to find her for so long. He'd searched for the better part of a year, he'd dreamed of her. Of course he'd see her standing there. For months his heart had started beating faster if he saw a girl that was her size, with her yellow-blond hair. But every time when the adrenaline started coursing through his system, he had always seen that she was not his objective. Sometimes she didn't even remotely look the part, but it was just his /wish/ for her to be there at that very moment. She never was.

Eventually, Jordan had just given up. He had been hopeful and positive for a very long time now, but time was running out and it was time to return home and enjoy the preciously little time he had left. It had been a fool's errand anyway, he had told himself. He had wondered if they'd just sent him out so he would be out of their hair, knowing that he'd grab this opportunity to /do/ something. He was a Traveller, he hated uselessness. He was accustomed to /doing/ things, not sitting around helpless and unable.

But here she was, and here /he/ was, and she was waiting for the bus to come with the ease of someone who is going through her days and who has absolutely no idea what is about to happen to her. She had her face turned to the late summer sunlight and she was wearing army jeans and boots and a black t-shirt. In fact, it was a bit strange to see her standing there so much like a normal person while she so obviously wasn't. Her straw-coloured hair was tied back in a messy bun and she was wearing a long necklace with large black and green beads that he had wrapped around her neck several times. Just your average young woman, waiting for the bus to come on an ordinary afternoon in early September. Only /he/ knew better.

Jordan tossed some change on the table and left his coffee untouched as he rushed out. From the corner of his eye, he saw a bus approaching and he'd rather throw himself in front of the vehicle than he'd let her get on it and leave. He had to talk to her, he had to convince her to come with him.

“Hey!” he shouted, waving frantically with his arms to catch her attention from the other side of the street. “Heeeey!”

She didn't respond. It wasn't until then that he noticed that she had tiny headphones tucked in her ears. The white cord went to the pockets of her jeans and he could a hint of her mp3player stick out there. She couldn't hear him. And the bus was stopping before her, opening its doors to invite her in.

Jordan nearly killed himself in his mad dash over the busy street. If the driver of that small van had been only a fraction of a second slower, all his skill, all his searching, all his talent would be reduced to a smear on the road and that would have been the end of it. As it was, he danced out of the way just in time with an apologetic look while the driver shouted obscenities at him.

“Hey!” he shouted again, and grabbed the girl's arm just before she got on the bus.

She turned around with a slight frown. “What do you want?” she asked, her green eyes fixing on him. The world swam around Jordan. She was a bit different than she expected; a few of her features were sharper, and the freckles were different, but this... this was what he had come all the way for, this is what he had searched for. All these months of budding despair, of failure after failure... it was all culminating into this. She was the one, he could feel it in his bone marrow. Those eyes, that face... she was the one. He knew it. His fingers dug into the soft flash of her upper arm while he realized the importance of this moment and this event.

“Would you let /go/ of me?” the girl demanded, her pretty features contorting into an expression of severe irritation.

Thousands of thoughts on how to say this, thousands of times of conjuring up pretty stories he'd tell her, things that would capture her attention. They tumbled over one another in his mind in that fraction of a moment. He'd gone over it so many times, he'd had all his lines ready to sweep her off her feet and convince her instantly, but all he could do in the end was tell her breathlessly: “I need to talk to you.”

Her saw a glimmer of curiosity in her eyes, but she didn't seem too impressed with his pickup line. “Who the hell are you anyway?”

“My name is Jordan Lucenna. Please, can I have a moment of your time?”

The busdriver didn't seem very impressed, either. “Look people, I don't care what you guys need to discuss, but I have a bus schedule to keep up with. So get in or get out, I don't care but /do/ something.”

The girl glanced once at the busdriver, once at what Jordan hoped was his most begging look, and then shook her head in disgust. “Come on,” she said to Jordan and hopped off the bus again. “What's so important that you have to drag me off the bus? I was about to go shopping.”

So /ordinary/. Jordan had spent a long time around this place because he knew she had to be here somewhere, and she was just like any other young woman of her age, a life just as normal and ordinary. It was strange; he had expected her to be more /special/, more aware of who she was, maybe. But she didn't. She was just a girl on her way to go shopping. Figures. “If you come with me to the lunchroom, I'll buy you a cup of coffee and I'll explain you everything,” he said. “If you have some time?”

The girl gave him and odd look and shrugged. “Sure, whatever. But I have to say this is the weirdest pickup line I've ever heard.” She passed him another sideway glance and said with a hint of a grin: “But you're hot, and you seem harmless, so I'll let you buy me a drink.”

“Thank you,” Jordan replied politely and showed her the way to the lunchroom. He held the door for her open and ordered her a drink, and then they sat down together before the large windows that looked out over the street. They'd taken his coffee and his change, but Jordan didn't really mind. He'd gladly sacrifice a cup of coffee for the objective of his hard work.

“So, what do you want to talk to me about, Jordan?” the girl asked. Jordan started a bit to hear his name on her lips. It sounded both familiar and exotic. She smiled. “I have to admit that you've made me quite curious.”

Jordan looked up at her pretty face directly, capturing her green gaze so that there would be no room for distractions. “What I have to tell will undoubtedly sound odd or downright insane. Unfortunately there's nothing I can do about that. It might something you hear in movies or stories, only this is real, and this is happening right now. But first, may I ask for your name?”

“Nadine,” she said. There was an amused smile playing around her lips, as if she was humoring him. “Nadine Rivers.”

He found himself smiling back a little, although he didn't find anything particularly funny about the whole situation. Instead, he was scrambling for words in the back of his mind, trying to find words that would appeal to her, explanations that she would accept. “What I need to talk to you about... Nadine,” he started, tasting her name on his lips. So familiar. “...is that I've been searching for you for over a year. I am so glad that I found you.”

Nadine looked up from the package of Camel cigarettes that she'd just fished out of her jeans and shot him an incredulous look. “Oh really?” she drawled. She stuck a cigarette in her mouth and reached out to one of the candles on the table to light it. “What on earth would you need little old me for?”

He cracked a wry smile. “I'd say 'come with me if you want to live' but that's been done before, and it's also not quite correct.”

He saw her eyes widen in surprise as she laughed. It was a pretty sound: unguarded and full of genuine mirth. “So what would you tell me then?”

“The correct turn of phrase would be: 'come with me if you want /me/ to live.' But that doesn't sound quite as catchy, does it?”

She blinked. Once, twice. “No, it doesn't...” she responded slowly. “But I have to admit that you've piqued my interest. What the /hell/ are you talking about?”

The waiter stopped next to their table and put two cups of coffee at their table. Jordan made a vague gesture that he hoped would be interpreted as 'put it on the bill' and smiled wryly at the blond girl at the other side of the table. “This must be really weird for you. I've been hanging around this place for quite a while and picked up bits and pieces of your culture. I know what you and your people are like, and I know that this will probably be very strange to hear. You will probably also not believe me when I tell you.”

Nadine rolled her eyes and laughed. “You do know how to build up to a good revelation don't you?” she chuckled. She took another whiff of her cigarette.

“I'm just buying time really,” Jordan confessed. “I don't know how to tell you.”

“Humour me.”

“So... let me give you a hypothetical situation then. Okay?” When she nodded, he continued: “I come from a very different place. It is... oh, you should see it Nadine. It's beautiful. I was born in the city or Primeira; a city much like this one, like any other city out there. Many people, transport systems, tall towering buildings, a sea of light in the darkness and bright and fast during daytime.” He saw the expression of puzzlement in her eyes and shrugged. “I don't expect you to know Primeira. For all its millions of inhabitants you're bound not to know about it, even though you should. Humour me and believe me it's on this world.”

She laughed, but she bit it back when he shot her a dark look. “The problem with Primeira and all of my world is that it's falling into darkness. Bits of decay are creeping up while we are not looking and society as we know is crumbling. Soon all I have always known will be gone forever. And lately, the rotting has been accelerating.” She still didn't say anything. She took a long drag from her cigarette and watched him with unreadable eyes. He was thankful for that and continued: “We have this... talisman, you see. This talisman ensured us a bright future... or at least, a normal one, in the way lives and futures are. It protected us from the darkness. But a little over a year ago, our talisman was taken from us. In one day, all our protection was gone; the shield that protected Primeira was gone forever. One little part was remaining, but even that one is fading as we speak. And that is why I am here, to find this talisman, so we can protect our city, our land, from a certain doom.”

Nadine seemed to be thinking along for a moment. “And this talisman...”

“...that is you, Nadine.” He finished her sentence, and waited for her laughter to ring through the cafeteria. Sure enough, it did. She laughed and laughed until she had to wipe tears of laughter from her face. “Thanks for the laugh, hun,” she hiccuped after a minute or two. “So where's the candid camera?”

He had steeled himself, but it had not helped apparently. Her laughter cut through him like a knife, as if she were mocking him. Even though he was fully aware of how /unreal/ his story would sound to her, he still felt offended. As if she were mocking the end of his world, the pain and sadness he felt over the decay of light in his world. “There isn't any,” he said. He bit on the inside of his cheek to keep himself from becoming angry.

“Of course there isn't.” She smiled brilliantly and sweetly. “But since I don't have anything better to do, I might as well indulge you. You tell a good story, Jordan Lucenna. Could you please enlighten me on how the hell I could be a talisman, sweetness? I'm a nineteen year old girl that works at a helpdesk for computer problems, for crying out loud. I'm good for nothing but picking up a phone. So please, please tell me, how a girl can me can save your world by protecting me.” The drawl of sarcasm was heavy on her words.

“It's not who you are in this world,” he answered her sullenly. “It's what you can do in mine. You may have never heard of Primeira and its beauty, but you are related to the family that protects it.”

“Right, whatever,” Nadine suddenly said. She killed her cigarette in the ashtray and flashed a look at him. “I think I've heard enough of your wild stories and the prank you are playing on me and I do not like where this is going. I know better ways to spend my free Friday afternoon.”

“No, wait Nadine,” Jordan blurted out. He rose from his chair and took her wrist, careful not to hurt her. “I can show you.”

She rolled her eyes at him and shook her arm loose from his grip. “Right, so you want me to /go/ with you? Alone, while nobody else knows I am here but me? Sorry, but I'm not stupid you know.”

“I am very aware of your intelligence, Nadine,” Jordan told her. Urgency filled his thinking, speeding up his thought processes. He /had/ to convince her. “And I promise I will not take you anywhere secluded. I will show you, in public. In fact, we only have to go outside and around the corner to find a place where I can show you. Many people will see us, and I won't kidnap you or anything. This I swear on Diana's name.”

“That name isn't worth /shit/ to me.”

Jordan restrained the urge to slap her for her blasphemy, but then decided that she might have the right to say these things after all. “It will be, once I've shown you.”

She stood very still, obviously aware of the scene they were causing in the middle of the cafeteria. Many people were watching them as they both stood towering over their small table, cups of coffee nearly untouched, with voices that had risen far beyond normal levels. Agitation was electrifying the air around them, everyone could feel it. And Nadine noticed that they felt it. Her cheeks flushed slightly as she took in the situation and then she muttered: “I'm not going to get rid of you if I don't, right?”

“If you will let me show you, I promise I will not bother you again,” he said, cursing himself. He wondered whether his current course of action was the right one. There was so much at stake! What if this wouldn't work? What if she would still walk away, uncaring about the fate of Primeira and the world? What if he could rot away in darkness and blood for all she cared?

“Right, let's get this over with, then,” Nadine nodded. There was a dismissive expression on her face as she nodded and gestured in the general direction of the exit. “After you.”

He looked at the face that seemed so familiar and yet so alien to him and thought: /No, not you. You would care, I know you would. I know you, Nadine... even though you don't know it yet. You will not forsake a people in need. It's not in your nature./ He led the way outside, away from curious looks and murmured disapprovals over their behaviour, into the sunlight once again. The hour was growing later and with it, the sun was losing a bit of its brilliance, turning into a coppery hue that Jordan could not remember seeing in Primeira for over a year. “Please follow me,” he told Nadine shortly, turning around the corner into a street where cars were driving but not many people were about their business. He sensed it easily; after rigorous training and years of practice he knew this was the right place.

“This is it?” she asked. Her voice had started to take on that incredulous tone again.

As he turned to her, he saw that everything in her body language expressed defiance: from the expression on her face to the hands she had planted on her hips as if she was ready for everything he'd throw at her. “This is it,” he confirmed.

“So what's going to happen now?”

“Hold on, I have not even started yet...”

She folded her arms over her breasts and said: “I'm waiting.”

He could feel her green eyes on him as he concentrated. It was a simple trick; centering himself so he could find his way back to his true appearance and not what this world was seeing. For this world, he had not had to change much about his looks like in some other worlds he had visited. In this world, all he had to do was to conceal his sword by using folded light to wrap around his sheath, belt and hilt. Nobody would have been able to see his sword unless he wanted them to... and in this case, he wanted it.

He heard Nadine gasp for breath as he reached out and took his sword from the sheath on his back with one fluid and practiced movement. “I am a Traveller,” he murmured. “I chose this as my weapon, as my tool.” Some had called him old-fashioned for his choice of weapon, but Jordan had liked swords for as long as he could remember. He had grown up on stories about valiant knights with their swords, not soldiers with their plasma guns. For some reason it felt wrong to Travel the Veils with a modern weapon, dangerous as they might be. And Jordan was all for propriety if it came to these things.

His sword; a two-handed broadsword that he could only carry because he had worked out to carry it since he could remember, lay familiar and heavy in his hands. It was a decorative thing, a member from the Beloved Family itself had given it to him. The head of the Family was long since perished, but Jordan had always treasured his gift, even though it might be a little elaborate for his taste; it was all curls and silver and sparkling gems. It was more a weapon to hang on the wall and admire than it was to really fight with... but in the end Jordan really didn't fight all that much. He was familiar with the Veils; usually danger could be avoided easily enough. So in the end, all he did with it was using it as a focal point.

In the stillness of his mind, Nadine's presence was the only thing that vaguely registered. The sounds of the cars whizzing by, the bell of the trolley in the next street and the ever-present sound of human voices; it had all become irrelevant, non-existent to him. There was him, his companion... and the Veils.

He focused his mind and ripped away the illusion of Light that kept the people that walked this world from the flesh and blood underneath; the Veils that separated the myriad of realities and worlds that were out there. The world became shrouded in pink and red; layers of light blossomed up around them, like gauze curtains they seemed to move in a breeze that was not there. They sparkled brilliantly and serenely with their own light. The sunlight that was out there in the real world, did not illuminate them. This was a whole new world... a world between worlds.

Nadine let out a tiny yelp and took a step backwards; he felt it more than he saw it in his sense of heightened awareness. Jordan opened his eyes and smiled at her. “So, I thought I'd better show you what I mean than tell you. You seem like the kind of person that can't be told about different worlds and different realities. You have to see it for yourself.”

“What the /hell/ is this?” Her voice sounded somewhat shrill. She was hugging herself, frantically looking at the world around her. “And why aren't they responding? Did you put something in my coffee that I am seeing this?” she demanded. “What the hell is this weird pink-and-red light?”

He turned to his companion and smiled lazily. “This, Nadine, is the Veil of Reality. I'm going to show you Primeira, and then you can tell me whether you believe me or not. It's all the convincing you will ever need.”

II:

The Veils could be dangerous for people who were unaware of their perils so Jordan made sure he kept close to Nadine, who was mightily distracted by the stunt he'd just pulled on her. He held himself ready for anything that might be thrown at them. Between realities, anything could happen. Usually he made his passage without any problems; an experienced Traveler like himself could move around without much peril. The Veils were fluid and unreal in the way that dreams are; they adapt to the person who experiences them. Jordan hadn't had any nightmares ever since he'd started his training. He had an iron control over his subconsciousness, carefully molded and ruled by his waking mind. He knew perfectly well what he was afraid for and how to avoid it.

With Nadine here, however... the flip between Realities was bound to become a rough one like he had not experienced for a while anymore. It'd been ages since he had taken people along on his travels. He knew what to prepare for, however... some of those things he'd learned from painful experiences. Not too painful, though. He'd never lost a passenger with him and was not intending to do so, ever.

“What /is/ this place?” Nadine breathed. Her green eyes were glazed over with an exotic combination of wonder and fright. “What have you done to the world?”

Jordan stepped in front of her, making sure he caught her gaze as he spoke slowly and intensely: “Nadine, I need you to listen carefully. We are not in your world anymore and not yet in mine. This is the place between realities that we know as the Veils.”

She did not respond but just looked around in wonder at the shimmering red-and-pink glimmering world around her. He felt a flash of irritation that she was not paying attention to him, but then recalled how beautiful he had thought the Veils on his first visit. It truly /was/ a marvelous sight and probably doubly so if you hailed from a Reality that was so not used to these kinds of things as his was. He couldn't blame her, really. He shouldn't, at least. That was simply unfair to the young woman he'd met a few minutes previously. And how well did he know her, really?

All he knew was her counterpart; logical and rational, the kind of woman who only believed things she could touch and feel and hear and see... but even that to a degree, because she knew all too well how easy it is to deceive the senses. And yet she was a warm young woman, full of brilliant compassion and bright intelligence.

“Nadine,” he insisted.

Her eyes fluttered and finally looked at him. “The... Veils?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered. “And I need you to pay attention now. There are dangers here, because reality here is not what it is like at home. Reality is flexible here, it responds to impulses. One of those impulses is your mind. So don't be afraid, remember where you are and try to control your thoughts and basic fears. I don't want to lead us through and find that we're drowning, or something like that.”

Drowning had been his own basic fear and he'd nearly lost his life twice until he'd learnt to overcome how the Veils responded to this, but he was not about to tell her that.

She nodded slowly, her green eyes alight with intelligence. “So you say that in here, I create reality. I'm like a God in here.”

“Everybody's a God in here,” he said.

“Could we die in here if I can't control my thoughts?”

Jordan nodded shortly. That was a possibility he'd rather not reflect upon, especially not after he'd spent so much time just looking for her. “I'm not about to let you die here, though. I know the Veils very well and I am an experienced Traveller. I still need to show you Primeira.”

Nadine laughed. “As outrageous as this seemed before I think I could believe you now... although I'm still wondering if you didn't just drug my coffee with mushroom extract or something like that.”

“I can assure you that I didn't.”

“Oh, I bet you didn't. But even if you did, but that wouldn't change the situation.” She shrugged and smiled wryly. “I'll just lean back and enjoy the ride. It's not as if I can get home on my own from here, wherever this place is. So I guess I should just trust you for now and see where we end up.” She grinned, a devil-may-care grin that seemed to challenge the whole world. “It's not as if I had anything better to do at the moment anyway.”

Jordan blinked, suddenly taken aback by her quick adaption to the new situation. How easy did she accept everything! Was this a sign of who she was? Was it just a fake attitude? Was it just a character-trait that was coming in handy at the moment? Either way, he did not have time to dwell on it. Around him, reality was shifting and the light was dimming. It was adapting to their presence already. The sparkles and the colours of the Veils were fading to a dull brown as if the vividness was bleeding out of it.

“Nadine, I'm grateful for your admission and the fact that you believe me. Now come on, we don't have much time.”

“You seem scared,” she noted.

“Alert would be a better word,” he corrected as he took in the environment around them. It only took moments before he centered his mind to figure out where they were supposed to be. Digging deeper into his own navigational center, he knew where to go. “Come on.”

He took them west while the illusion of Nadine's world was fading around them with every step they took. Landmarks faded out as the light was fading into twilight and then descended into a night-black darkness. In the last remaining light, Nadine's hand gripped his arm and she walked very close next to him. Her near presence would hinder his movements if they should be attacked, but somehow he thought that attacking monsters would not be their problem with this traveller on his arm. Nadine didn't seem the type to be phased by slimy and ugly monsters. She seemed more afraid of the dark. Next to him, he could almost her her heart thunder in her chest. Her breathing was rapid and shallow.

“How do you know where to go?” she asked him, her voice small and timid.

In the near-darkness, his eyes found hers. “I am paid to do this, this is my job. Don't worry, I'm very good at what I do.”

“I screw up at my job sometimes,” she confessed. She sounded so impossibly young all of a sudden. In his mind, alarmbells were ringing. It was obvious; he'd found Nadine's most inner fear. A very logical one, he thought.

“What kind of work do you do?” he asked her almost off-handedly, hoping that it would distract her from the darkness, from him doing his job.

“I told you, I work at a call center. People call me when their computer crashes and I talk them through the procedures to fix it up again.” She sounded more normal now, but her hand on his arm was clenching tighter and tighter until it felt like no blood would ever flow to his fingers again. “I talk to a lot of stupid people all day.” She tittered nervously. “I guess that I'm your stupid customer right now, though. Please talk me through this procedure?”

He smiled in the darkness, even though the light was fading. “The russet light we saw was the remainder of your world in the lack of reality, or perhaps the multitude of realities between worlds. It was our minds clinging onto the world that we've just left. Between the Veils, there's always light first and then there's darkness... because of the fact that there's simply kind of nothing between worlds. I conjure up the air that we breathe, the path under our feet... by simply wanting it to be there. I create the reality that we walk in, so it is possible for us to cross. It takes a lot of training to be able to do so. In the end it's just a trick that you learn, but few people have the patience and persistence... and also the talent, to learn this trick.” He was the youngest one to ever have done so, but he didn't feel like bragging about it. What did it matter that most of the Travellers were old geezers? They'd sent him, because they thought that Nadine would be more likely to hook up with a young man than an old man or woman. Never mind the fact that he'd begged them for the opportunity to help, to /do/ something, until they'd just sent him off to be rid of him.

“Why then, if you're so skilled, do I have to keep my thoughts in check?” Nadine asked. “If you're so good I won't be able to mess you up, right?”

Heavens, was /she/ on the ball! He'd met her only half an hour ago and already he found himself admiring her intelligence. “You shouldn't be, but I can't control your mind. And a feared mind is a random element of chaos. So yes, your fears should be able to throw us off... if I would be less good than I am. I'm very persistent about finding my way.”

“You're trying to reassure me.”

“Of course I am.”

In the darkness, their voices were hushed. Around them, the last light had died and left them in a complete and utter darkness. They could have closed their eyes and they would have seen just as much. He could feel Nadine's fear emanating from her and for a moment he contemplating creating a bit of light to reassure her, but all they would see is mist and nothingness around them, and he did not think that would make her feel much better.

“It's so dark,” she said. Her voice sounded breathy. “How can you find your way?”

“Nadine, just trust me,” he said. Her fear was distracting him; he needed to focus on the weak spot between Realities so he could part the Veils and make the flip back to Primeira. It shouldn't be far. The city that Nadine come from was the direct counterpart of Primeira in her own world. She had lived in the suburbs though, and that is why they'd had to walk some distance. The Parting points did not match between these two worlds, that was what had taken so long to find her. There were /so/ many worlds. In so many she had died already, or she had gone, or lost all that made her what she was. In a disconcerting many worlds she was dead; killed in a random freak accident or robbed or murdered. That had /not/ been a good sign.

His sense of direction was clouding over. He found it hard to focus on his center of being, and he knew that it was Nadine's fear that was warping his sense of direction. She was shaping Reality around him and crippling his skills severely. /Not/ good! His mentor had warned him about this kind of passenger. Most people had some experience with Traveling and the basics of it at least and trusted their Traveler implicitly, simply because they'd been told and taught from an early age that a Traveler would always find his way. The possibility that he /wouldn't/ just didn't really occur to them. They knew about the perils of the Veils though, and thus their fears took on much more tangible outlets; monsters, fire, drowning, darkness, running out of oxygen (he'd gone through one of those once, that had been a close call), running into people that they really didn't want to see... those kinds of things. Fearing that they'd get /lost/ was one he'd never gone through. His mentor had told him about it, that this fear was the most dangerous of all, because it was so hard to get out of that fear for it would increase as the struggle for the Traveler to focus on his abilities continued.

/You have to be careful Jordan, it could cripple your sense forever if your passenger is scared enough,/ he could still hear his mentor's words ring through his head... and Nadine was so very, very scared. She was rigid with adrenaline, trembling with fear. Her breath was shallow and rapid.

For the first time, he felt tendrils of panic uncoiling in his stomach.

/No, no, I should not think like this. I should remember my training... her fear should not become my fear. I am trained to do this, I have the strongest navigational center that my teachers have seen in three centuries. A mere girl, even though I picked her up to save the world, is not going to cripple my skills. I can find my way home, that's what I DO./

It helped somewhat. His iron control over his imagination and his mind was showing itself; years of training were paying off. He found the calm center of his being once more and guided Nadine with him. He began to speak again, in hopes that his calm voice would subdue her somewhat. “I know it's hard to trust me. We met only today and already I'm dragging you into a situation you're not familiar with, by irritating and challenging you to the point of coming with me. I understand why you're panicking. It's very logical, even. I don't blame you. I'd do the same, if I were you. It's not necessary, though. I'll get us out of here, this is what I do. I've made the passage hundreds of times under terrifying circumstances. I never got lost once, this I swear to you. And I'm not about to start.”

She didn't answer him, though. All she did was tremble so hard that he could hear her teeth chatter.

“Nadine, talk to me. Talking is good.”

Her hands clenched even more around his arm before she burst out: “The worst thing is that we might as well be dead. I can't see, but I can't smell or hear anything beyond us, either. There's /nothing/ out there and it scares me. I'm afraid of the dark! I'm afraid of being lost! I'm afraid of you! I'm afraid of what's happening to me! I try to play it cool but I'm not, I'm not, I want to go home to bed and I don't want to walk in the dark with a guy who might be drugging me with fuck knows what!” And she burst into tears, throwing her arms around his neck and sobbing passionately. He could feel her movement before she touched him, and that was probably that kept them from falling over.

He held her in the darkness, murmuring soothing sounds in her ear. /Time to create some light around us. Crying in the dark is not a good thing./

A heartbeat later there was a bulb of butter-coloured light hovering above them. It was not a very large bulb, but it was enough to illuminate the two of them and a few yards around them. Nadine let out a scream but then seemed to realize that Jordan had created the light and relaxed in his arms. She would not stop crying, however. She wept and wept and he could feel her fear eating away at his confidence and his abilities. “Please Nadine, calm down,” he begged her. “Hysteria won't get us anywhere. And I made light for you, didn't I?”

No answer. She just clung tighter onto him until he felt her panic become his own. Would she cripple him if she went on like this? What if she would? Would they indeed be lost in here forever? Jordan knew the Veils like no other, in his search for Nadine he must have traveled them a hundred times – yet staying here, losing his way here... that would be ironic indeed. He did not think he could deal with that. But apart from his own horrid death; starving within the Veils – he would have failed his mission twice. He would have betrayed and killed Nadine, who he'd promised to take to Primeira... but in Primeira they were also waiting for him to return. His mission had been a last ditch effort, and he was /so/ close to succeeding...

/Don't let me down, Jordan.../

He could not fail now.
He could not let the fear of an off-world girl eat away at his navigational center.

He was who he was, the youngest certified Traveler ever on a mission to save the world, and he would not let anything get in the way of that.

He rose the butt of his sword and landed it sharply on the back of Nadine's head. The girl went limp in his arms immediately.

“There,” he murmured, searching her blond hair for possible bloodstains. He found none, just a lump that was swelling rapidly. “I'm sorry,” he told her, and hoisted her over his shoulder. It might be less comfortable, but he was finally able to find his center again and work from there.

It shouldn't be far now.

III:

She was dreaming, he could feel it. Nightmares were ravaging her unconscious mind, but her fears were fleeting now. They lacked the power to distress him and with Nadine's fears neutralized Jordan felt as if a blindfold had been lifted from his eyes. There was darkness, but still he could see. He knew where he was going now. His steps were as sure as his confidence as he made his way through the nothingness between Realities. He felt so sure of himself again that it seemed unreal to ever have felt lost and confused.

Her weight on his shoulders and back was murderous, though. She was not a big girl, but still he felt like he had been walking like this for hours and while she had seemed to be a lightweight at first, she was becoming heavier and heavier. Time had no meaning in here, but by the responses of his body he knew he had been walking around with her for quite a while. It made sense of course that the last trek home between the Veils turned out to be the longest. In his search for Nadine he had checked the Realities closest to his own first. When they did not turn up anything useful – and his searches had been so thorough, he'd always gotten his answers – his search had spread to other Realities, more and more alien to his own. He'd been in Realities he'd never heard of previously; and even Nadine's reality was one he'd never thought he'd find her. She had all the characteristics, far removed from what he initially went out to search for but interestingly enough she still fit the bill. He was so grateful for it; he'd been disappointed so many times in the past year.

His back and shoulders were getting atrophied to the point where he thought he could never stand up straight again. He was also starting to worry about Nadine's ongoing unconsciousness, but her dreams at the back of his mind told him that she was fine, just sleeping. That happened sometimes, he knew; sometimes people who hit something with their head fell asleep at once. She was not a threat while she was asleep, so he had just kept the status quo.

Thankfully he recognized it here; he was so close to his own reality now. Time to wake up his passenger. He shifted her weight so he was holding her in his arms and gave her a nudge. “Nadine,” he said gently. He made a light again and found to his pleasure faint fore-images of his Reality tingle in the air around him. Fields, trees, roads, a few houses, the skyline of Primeira in the distance. Just glittery outlines, inspired by his expectations and memories of his own world, but still it did him good to see a bit of his own world again. It had been so long since he'd been home. “Nadine, wake up. We've arrived.”

She opened her eyes and gave such a violent start that he nearly dropped her. “Wwwhat?” she asked, climbing out of his hold in a most ungraceful way. She stood next to him on knees had had to be trembling like straws, chewing on her knuckles and with large fearful green eyes. Still, she was standing.

“It's okay,” he told her. “We've arrived. I'm sorry if I startled you.”

Fear passed and made way for indignation. “You /hit/ me!” she said. “You knocked me out cold, you bastard!”

“I'm sorry.”

Nadine did not seem impressed by his apology. “No, you aren't.”

“You were messing me up,” he tried to explain. “Because of your fear, I could not find my way anymore. I had to neutralize your fear... I'm sorry if I had to hurt you.”

She touched the back of her head and regarded him with narrowed eyes. “Fine. I understand why you did it. Next time, however... since you're apparently going to drag me off where I don't understand the rules, let's make a few. Fair?”

He nodded. That sounded fair enough.

“First rule: don't do any shit upon me without notifying me first. Hurting me, your magic stuff, poisoning me, kissing me, fucking me, I don't care. Tell me before you do shit. I /hate/ people touching me without my permission.”

He nodded again. “Okay.” Heavens, this girl had a few rough edges that he did not know from her counterpart.

“Second rule: tell me what the hell you're up to. /Where/ are we going, and /what/ do you need me for. Before I know this, you're not taking me anywhere.” She looked around and grinned that devil-may-care grin at her surroundings. “It's not as dark here anymore. There are pretty shimmery things here again, I don't mind hanging out here for a bit. I have all the time in the world.”

He didn't, but he figured that it was fair enough to offer her an explanation. He /had/ yanked her out of her own world without so much of an explanation; not the most honest way to go, he was well aware of that- and far from the most courteous way to go. Primeira and the dire situation it was in was /his/ problem, not hers, and here he would immerse her in his problems without even so much as explaining it to her. She was totally in her right to pull on the brakes before they would step into his world.

A few more minutes or hours could hardly make a difference now. He had been away from home for such a long time now. “Okay,” he said. He sat down under the vague outlines of an oak tree, indicating that she could sit down next to him. “At least you believe the thing about different realities now; so I don't have to start there. I'm sure you've heard of the whole theory of parallel universes existing next to each other at the same moment, all branching off from the same initial path. Well, I'm not quite sure whether that theory is completely right, but let's just assume that it is indeed the case. I come from a different reality than yours, as you've found. We are now in the space between realities.”

“Let's assume I believe every word you say. How many Realities are there?” Nadine asked.

Jordan shrugged. “Who can say? I've visited fourty-six of them, and I know about at least eighty others, but I'm still young and I have a long way to go. One'd assume that with every heartbeat and every choice that is made, a new world branches off.”

“Why can you travel between realities, then?”

“I was born with the gift, I guess... and I was trained to do so. I would assume that there are people who can do the same in your world, but the point is that nobody ever tried. You're all aware of the multiple realities theory but you guys never worked out how to pass between worlds. At least... I don't think you did. I never met a Traveler from your world.”

“Perhaps for the better,” Nadine agreed. “Why do you travel different worlds?”

“Some of the realities are allied with ours, other fight out feuds and wars. There's trade, friendship, the way kingdoms and countries in your world communicate. Traveling Realities is just another way of communication, but it's a bit more rare because not many people can pull off the trip.”

“You must be quite the hotshot in your world then, to be able to travel. It makes you an ambassador as well, apart from somebody who can do a fancy trick.”

Jordan shrugged. “I'm usually not much of an ambassador, I usually travel with passengers because they don't trust me because of my age. I'm too young to inspire much trust and wisdom.”

Nadine smiled. “How old are you?”

“In your world, you work with your sunyears, right? 365 days?” When she nodded, he made quick calculations. “That'd make me twenty-seven, then. You're nineteen, aren't you?”

“Almost twenty,” she said. “So tell me Jordan of this different Reality, what do you need me for? Why did you travel exotic worlds to find me? And why would and should I save your life?”

“Not just my life,” he confessed, “but also a great many others.” At her incredulous look he continued, while around them the unreality responded to his thoughts and memories. Nadine's eyes only sometimes flicked away from his face as images of his world came glimmering to life, but mostly she stayed focused on Jordan and his story. “I understand that much of what I am about to tell you must sound like a fairytale to you. Your reality is very sense-driven, and what you call magic does not really exist as such in your world. You are very technically and scientifically advanced, but you hardly use paramagic as a source of energy. I've stayed in your world for quite some time because I just couldn't grasp how you could live this way... but apparently it works for you. My world, my Reality, is different. What you call magic is commonplace. But we're normal people as much as you are... just with a touch of magic here and there. My 'magic' as you might call it, is to travel Realities. Other people can bend reality to their will, even if they're not in the Veils. Some are more adept in it than others. I'm good with it to some agree because of the iron control I've learnt to travel the Veils. I can create things from nothing, others manipulate what's already there. But you'll see this when you get there,” he added quickly when he saw her eyes glaze over a bit. “The point is that some use their 'magic' for good, and some for evil, in the way that man does. And some of them get corrupted by their own mortal mistakes, and their own insanity. An insane mind with the power to bend reality to his will can be a fearful thing. Are you with me so far?”

Nadine nodded. “Seems like a good fantasy story so far,” she smiled, but there was no sting to her words. She seemed genuinely interested in what he had to say. All things considered, she was still taking the whole thing admirably well.

“Some families have acquired a hero status in the past by using their magic for good things, for constructive things, to further society and mankind. These people are awarded with a 'Beloved' status; usually they are the most talented and bright spirits of the generation. Some of them are talented in magic, some of them in science, some of them in both. It just so happens to be that it is a sort of nobility, and there's a lot of intermarriage going on. I suppose that happens after some generations. The most important family is the Riveira family.” He saw her eyes light up with recognition. “Yes, and I see that you're starting to see the similarity. I wasn't surprised at all when you introduced yourself as Nadine Rivers.” He nodded at her and continued: “The Riveira family is what we owe the existence of the world as we know it to. When a twisted mind used magic against us to taint the world, the Riveira family created a sort of talisman against it to preserve the illuminated society as we know it. They suffered heavy losses but they swore to guard the talisman until the end of time. What happened exactly lays forgotten in the annals of time, but it turned out that the talisman as an artefact was impossible to guard. What they did then was a move fuelled by desperation and great wisdom; they used their talisman on Primeira and their family foremost. It is said to be a last ditch effort to end a guerilla war that had been raging for centuries at that point. What happened was the following; the power of the talisman was encapsuled by the members of the Riveira family. And the saying came into existence, /As long as there's a Riveira in Primeira, the City of Light will persevere/.”

Nadine suddenly looked away from him and chewed her lip. “Let me guess. The Riveira's all died all of a sudden.”

“Yes, they did. Can you tell me why you guessed that?”

She looked up again, her green eyes naked pools of pain. In that moment, she stirred memories that were for him almost too painful to bear. It took his breath away. (/Don't let me down, Jordan.../)“Because my whole family was killed a year and a half ago. My parents, grandparents, cousins, uncles, aunts, everything. The only ones who are left is the girl that married my cousin and me.”

“I'm so sorry,” he said. He meant it. His heart was bleeding for her in the knowledge that parallel realities were sometimes still too entwined for comfort. “What happened?”

“An accident during a family reunion. Tessa and I had left the party for a bit to smoke a cigarette. We were outside when the gas explosion occurred.” Recalling the memory left shadows on her face. “We turned around and were thrown to the floor by the heat and we were nearly killed on the spot by flying shrapnel. Tess will have to bear the scars forever, I got away without a scratch. They say I'm lucky but-...” She curled into a ball and was biting her knuckles again to keep from crying. “I can still remember the heat, and the smell, and screaming their names...”

He did not respond to that but shared in her memory; around them the world shimmered again to accommodate the fierceness of Nadine's memories. Images sprung up around them; two girls, one blond and one dark, on a street corner having a smoke, laughing; and then the explosion throwing them to the ground, Tessa covering Nadine's body from the worst of the blow. Both bleeding, one worse than the other, and Nadine screaming and trying to run into the burning remains of a building that were hosting her family, bystanders holding her back, and Tessa, bleeding and bleeding... ambulances, headlines in the paper, /such a tragedy.../, the whole thing as it came tumbling down the back of Nadine's memory where she'd pushed it away with ferocious denial.

She wiped the back of her hand over her eyes and looked up at Jordan again after a few minutes of painful silence and aching memories. “What happened to the Riveira family?”she asked.

Jordan smiled wryly. “An explosion during a family reunion. Exactly the same. Isn't it striking?”

“I don't get it,” Nadine murmured. “From your story I understand that you seem to think I'm one of your Riveira people. But if I survived, what do you need me for? The Nadine in your world would be alive too, wouldn't she?”

“Not quite,” Jordan said. “Tessa saved your life, didn't she? I saw it in the images you created.”

Apprehension was dawning in her eyes, he could see it. “She threw herself on me, shielded me from the blow. Tess and I... we're good friends. She said that it was instinct, that jump. I'd done the same for her, if the roles had been reversed.”

“I'm sure you would have,” Jordan said. He didn't doubt it.”The point is, Nadine, that there was no Tessa in our world. Diane Riveira took the blow
all alone. She's dying.”

IV:

“You need me to take her place, then?” Nadine asked. There was no disbelief anymore, just understanding. She believed all of a sudden, he could see it radiate from her as if she had an aura.

Jordan thought about that for a moment. “Diane is crippled, half-dead. Her talisman is as damaged as she is. From what I understand they sent me to find you so your energy, your residue of Riveira-ness if I can call it that, can make up for the rest of her. Your presence alone should keep the darkness at bay. Even though you're from another Reality, you're still Beloved, still blessed. At least, they hope they are. And in the way I recognized you, I think the experts are right about that. I searched for a very long time, Nadine. In many worlds you had died.”

“So what happens when /she/ dies?”

“It opens the gate to twisted darkness, the world of Light and reason as we know it, will end.”

The idea of it was far from appealing. “They've kept her in stasis, though. It's a sort of Veil that they conjured up, wrapped around her. Time has little meaning around her... she's in pain, but she asked for this. She asked me personally....to try and find you. The experts all thought it was impossible, that it would take too long, that I wouldn't find you, but they indulged her. How can you refuse Diane Riveira, wrapped in eternal stasis of pain? So I went.” He remembered so well. It haunted his dreams sometimes. Diane, dying and aching so much, looking nothing like the girl she had once been; all naked and ravaged flesh and blistered bits of skin, her green eyes clear pools of pain - /Promise me you'll go, Jordan. I trust you. Don't let me down... please, I don't know how much longer I can take this.../

And his own tears, his own sadness. /I promise, I promise.../

“And you found me,” Nadine mused. She fell silent for a moment, twirling a lock of blond hair around her finger as she thought, but then burst into laughter. It sounded unguarded and genuinely happy in the shimmering twilight of the Veils. “I can't believe I'm having this conversation. I'm supposed to save your world by simply existing?”

“There is some talk of making sure she reproduces, so we secure the Riveira family, while you hold her place for a while,” Jordan said, wondering who the /she/ was who he referred to. There had been some talk of taking some of Diane's essence and creating life out of that... but what if they thought that Nadine would be more suited for that purpose? He shook his head and shook the thought. All speculation, there was no way he would know what the experts would say or decide. He was just there to Travel and find Nadine, that was what he had promised. He should keep to that.“At least, that was the talk of the town when I left. I have no idea how things are going there right now. I haven't been home in a while.”

“How long have you been gone?” Nadine asked.

“Nine months. After my first ten visits to other Realities I came back a few times to check upon the world but they all demanded reports from me and that took so bloody long that I decided to stay away and keep on searching. I didn't want to waste any more time.”

“I suppose we should go, then,” Nadine decided. She got up from her sitting position and held out her hand to him, smiling a genuinely friendly smile. “Let's go and see Primeira,” she said. “You promised to show me, after all.”

He smiled back up at her and took her hand. “That's right. Let's do something about that.”

She pulled him up. “Describe Primeira for me, hun. Give me something to imagine before we go there.”

“I have something better,” he said, and his memories fueled the sudden influx of light and brilliance around them. The twilight flashed up with a glittering promise of what awaited them: high spiraling towers, bright sunlights, vehicles that both flew and drove, people, parks, boulevards with smiling, brightly coloured people, the beach nearby, the harbor with its gorgeous tallships, trees – all of it was infused with his great love for the Great City. The beating heart of civilization, Primeira. Capital of the world.

“It's beautiful,” Nadine breathed.

“Yes,” he admitted. His heart was swelling with pride. Jordan was a son of Primeira, indeed; even though he had been born in one of the suburbs far removed from the center, he had gone to the University in the heart of the City when his Traveling talent had been discovered, and he had never gone back. The heart of the city was where /his/ heart lay, and the students of Primeira had been his friends. Diane Riveira had been one of his fellow students and he had known her well, for she had been studying Traveling and comparable Realities at his University and she'd approached him for information on her thesis. Only eighteen years old and such a spirited, bright young thing; he had been older but he had always hoped, fantasized... together with half of Primeira, surely. She'd been pretty, before the accident. Her features were softer than Nadine's, her movements more graceful. She'd been a true Princess of the Riveira family; the youngest daughter, high society and just coming into her own.

“She looks like me,” Nadine noted, looking at the image of Diane that he had conjured up with his memories without consciously wanting it to. “But prettier, more of a princess.”

“Just different.”

“I'd like to meet her,” said Nadine, reaching out a tentative hand to the image of her twin. The image dissipated before her fingertips, turning into sparkles that swirled out of her reach.

“Let's do it, then.” Jordan said. “Stand next to me,” he instructed, and she did as he said without any further inquiry. He could smell her light scent, sweet and fleeting, here in this place where there was no smell and all that existed was imagination and willpower and nothingness, waiting to be tapped and molded into existence. He drew his sword and centered himself.

For one moment, he allowed himself to remember Primeira as he left it; glaring silver sunlight at the beginning of spring, citizens enjoying the sunlight on their way wherever it was where they were going. They had not seen him pass into the Veils because he had taken care to leave in secrecy, as his mission had been executed in silence and secrecy. No use giving the people hope where there was none yet. Nobody but Diane and himself had believed in his mission, so he had went alone. They'd provided him the means to travel, but there had been no one to see him off, no one to cheer him as he took the first steps on his mission to save the world.

He had not minded. All he had to think of was Diane and her predicament. /Don't let me down, Jordan... please.../ In his mind, he had vowed to help her with all his heart and he would not let her down if he could help it. He remembered having coffee with her on the plaza of the university, and how she had laughed at his jokes, sunlight catching her blond hair and her eyes. Such a beautiful, bright spirit. She didn't deserve the timeless stasis of pain. He'd do /anything/ for her.

And now he would help her, he had not let her down. He would give her an end to her suffering; it was all he could do where medicine had failed, where the experts had failed. She could not die and yet she could not live this way... he would give her what she wanted. An end to this. Poor sweet Diane. “I'm here, Diane,” he whispered, and slashed through the flesh and blood of reality.

And stepped into darkness.

Nadine followed him and stood next to him, taking in the surroundings as he did. “Um...” she murmured. “Are you sure we have the right world?”

He thought it was just night at first.

But that did not explain the sick amber colour of the sky, the too-sweet smell of decay, the dusty fields and the copper-coloured mists that were playing around their feet. Most of all, it didn't explain the broken skyline in the distance, the jagged bits that were still standing like broken glass -or teeth, clawing at the sky- that had once been Primeira's proud and tall towers. He nodded slowly at Nadine. It had to be the right reality. It /was/ the right reality.

“So... when was the last time you visited here again?” Nadine asked. Her voice was low and respectful, despite the horrible stench of decay, despite the sickness that they could both feel in their bones.

“Nine months,” he said, as if he was in a dream. He could not believe it.

“So what changed?”

The world around him was spinning. Jordan sank to his knees and covered his face in her hands.

“She is dead, and I was too far away to feel her passing. Oh Diane, I'm so sorry...”

“What?!”

“We're too late...”