IN THE ENDLESS ABODE DIMENSION

JANUAE

I’m not sure how long I’ve been lost in this bizarre dimension. It could be a week, it could be several weeks. There’s no way for me to track time here. What has kept me perpetually lost in this place is that once a day, twice a day, perhaps… at least several hours apart there’s the quaking and rumbling that occurs, and the rooms and doors and halls change completely.

As I wander these corridors I will occasionally come upon a window, not unlike the one that looked out onto the Gtharren Valley. However,  I’ve learned to stay away from these windows. The first time I encountered another window I ran to it in hopes it was the window that looked out onto my home dimension, even though nothing else in that hall was familiar. When I came up to the window I peered out into… I’m not sure what. A gaseous-plasma realm of sorts. Just standing before the window caused my skin to start becoming translucent, so I moved away quickly before it could progress any further.

Something about this realm seems deliberate in its nature, constructed for a purpose, but has since gone awry. I came upon a room with crates that contained various hand tools. I searched the crates in hopes of finding a cypher or artifact that could prove helpful in this situation. The more I searched through the crates the more tools I would find. I could never seem to exhaust the crates of their contents. All I decided to take with me was a metal bar that might serve to pry open the window back to my realm should I find it again.

I do believe it is more likely I will die in this realm before finding my way back. Not due to starvation, though. Throughout the mostly empty and dilapidated spaces I have found a couple of rooms with stores of food, the supply seemingly inexhaustible as was the supply of tools in the crates from the other room. The temperature here is comfortable, as if the place is under some sort of climate control. What makes me fear for my demise here is the source of the haunting howls I keep hearing throughout the vacant corridors and rooms. As I wander this place the howls grow closer, as if I’m being stalked. Gradually, the howling will feel like it is just behind me, or around me, as if it is emanating from the walls. The dusty room I am in begins collapsing, the walls squeezing in, the plaster and studs cracking, jutting, and protruding inward, like some surreal maw. I dash from this room to have this horrifying effect pursue me, threatening to smash, crush, and pulverize me. I fear I can’t outrun it. I hurriedly open the next door and dive inside. I watch the crushing, undulating sides of the corridor beyond the doorway, but the room I have escaped into is still. The deadly effects manifesting in the halls seems to not penetrate this room. I will have to wait and see if this horrifying manifestation diminishes. With any luck, it will be gone with the next rumbling and shuffling of rooms and halls.

JARGOLAMIS, SHOUM’S ABODE

A knock is heard at SHOUM’s door. SHOUM answers it.

SHOUM

Yes?

CYUNN

Yes, hello little one. I’m looking for someone. Maybe you can help me?

SHOUM

Who are you looking for?

CYUNN

I’m looking for a man named Januae. Dark skinned, about this tall? Average build?

SHOUM

Mmm… I’m sorry. I can’t say I’m familiar-

CYUNN

Well I was told by others on this tier that he’s been seen frequenting this place. Are you certain he hasn’t been here?

SHOUM

Look, whoever you are. If I say I haven’t seen him then that means-

CYUNN

You have the voice of a child but the manner of speech of an adult. Might you be Reverent Shoum, the one they refer to as the “outseer”?

SHOUM

Yes, I’m Shoum, but as I told you-

CYUNN

May I come in?

CYUNN barges her way in, not waiting for an answer

SHOUM

Hey! I didn’t give you permission to-

CYUNN

I would say this is a nice place you got here, but it’s kind of a mess.

SHOUM

I don’t know who you are or what you want, but you need to leave. I told you the guy you’re looking for isn’t here.

CYUNN

He didn’t tell you I was looking for him? Or maybe he did and you’re protecting him. Listen, Shoum. I know he’s been working with you. You’ve been helping him teleport. He told that Aeon Priest in Charmonde all about how you fashioned some device that lets him jaunt a thousand kilometers in the blink of an eye.

(beat)

Well now, is this here the device he uses?

SHOUM

Get away from there.

CYUNN

Where did you send him with this thing?

SHOUM

I’m going to ask you one more time. You need to leave or-

CYUNN

Or what, little girl? Oh, that’s right. You’re trapped in a little girl’s body. No match for me now, are you?

CYUNN grabs and restrains SHOUM

SHOUM

Let me go!

(SHOUM makes sounds of struggling against CYUNN’s grasp)

CYUNN

Maybe I will once you tell me what I want to know.

SHOUM

Ow! You’re hurting me!

CYUNN

I know. It’s the best way to get the information I want from you. You giving it to me is the best way to make the hurting stop.

SHOUM

Ow! Aaahhh! Please!

CYUNN

Where did he go?

SHOUM

I don’t know! Please! I don’t-

CYUNN

Yes you do. You control the device, do you not?

SHOUM

No! I did at first, but he decides where to go now. He didn’t tell me, he just-

(SHOUM screams)

Stop! Stop! He didn’t tell me, I swear! He was trying to get away from you… he just left!

CYUNN

Ah, so he did tell you I was after him.

SHOUM

I tried to stop him but he was in a panic. He left in a hurry.

CYUNN

Was this right after he saw me in Charmonde?

SHOUM

(very shaken)

I… I think so.

CYUNN

So he’s been gone a couple of weeks now. Did he say how long he planned to be gone?

SHOUM

No.

CYUNN

Well, I suppose we’ll have to wait for him then, won’t we?

SHOUM

NO! No… I mean, he’s not coming back!

CYUNN

What’s this?

SHOUM

He.. he can’t come back. The vest.. the vest that brings him back, he didn’t charge it. He was in too much of a hurry. Now he has no way of getting back.

CYUNN

You’d better not be lying to me!

SHOUM

Ow! Ow! Oooowww!

(sobbing)

I swear! I swear! Please stop! It’s the truth! I tried to stop him! I tried! Please!

CYUNN

DAMN IT!

(sound of a table being kicked, then several beats)

Will that thing take me to wherever he went?

SHOUM continues to sob, but doesn’t answer

CYUNN

Hey! I asked you if that will take me to where Januae went?

SHOUM

It… yes. It’s set to automatically go to the last place he visits. We set that when he started going back and forth to Charmonde.

CYUNN

(sighs)

I’d hate to have to leave a perfectly good raster here, but it looks like I have no choice. Turn it on.

SHOUM

The… switch is… over there.

CYUNN

Then let’s go. Nice and easy. Now, turn it on so I can see what you’re doing. Just flip whatever switch you need to flip, no messing around with anything else. Good, that’s it. Now what do I do, just step onto the dais between those plates?

SHOUM

Yes… yes. Just step on that plunger to activate it.

CYUNN

Good. Thank you. Now before I go, I just want to ask: are you actually a middle-aged woman like I’ve been told?

SHOUM

Huh? Uh, yes I’m fifty-seven.

CYUNN

(sighs)

Well, that’s good to know. It will make doing this that much easier.

SHOUM

Wait, what are you going to-

CYUNN chokes SHOUM and SHOUM makes the sounds of being strangled. The sounds subside as the life leaves her body.

CYUNN

Alright, Januae. I’m right behind you. Hopefully you haven’t gotten too far by now. Here we go…

CYUNN steps onto the dias as the machine can be heard activating.