SOMEWHERE IN THE ENDLESS ABODE

JANUAE

An indeterminate amount of time has passed in this dimension of shifting rooms and hallways. I’ve been able to wait out the crushing effect in the hall until another one of those shuffling quakes occurs. At best I’ve determined they occur several hours apart, though without being able to mark the passage of time, I can’t be sure.

I’ve found that if I’m in one area too long the crushing howling effect seems to seek me out. I’ve been fortunate enough to find rooms with certain machinery that feels as if it gives off some sort of transdimensional effect, which the avaricious crushing seems to be incapable of penetrating. I have been lucky; if I don’t find a room like that before a shift occurs next time I need to escape from it, I will be doomed for certain.

In the meantime I have continued to occasionally find rooms that contain unending supplies of materials among the desolate halls and spaces. Inexhaustible clothing, food supplies, tools, maps, gadgets, even cyphers, none of which is of any use in my situation other than the food, which keeps me from starving.

Another quake and rumble and this time after everything has shifted I find myself in a vacant room with only a single door. With no other option left, I open the door to find I am staring into a room full of all sorts of stacks of items, parts, junk, and strange appliances and apparatuses. In the center of the room is what looks to be an assemblage of machine work with levers and panels and controls, a few meters wide at the base. A moment later I see movement from the center of the machine, as if part of the machine is loosening itself from within its mass. As it rises and separates from the machine, I begin to make out its humanoid shape which ambulates toward me. It is some sort of automaton.

VIANDRI

Welcome, Initiator. You return has been long anticipated.

JANUAE

Return? I’ve never been here. I don’t understand. What are you? What is this place?

VIANDRI

I am Viandri. You must be one of those who initiated the growth of the Endless Abode.

JANUAE

This dimension? No, I am here by accident. I am Januae.

VIANDRI

It has been- it has been- an indeterminate amount of time has passed since you initiated the Endless Abode. It has fallen into disrepair and is in need of servicing.

JANUAE

I’m not sure who you think I am-

VIANDRI

I was notified of your arrival through the Tortoris. I attempted to receive you but it is difficult to control.

JANUAE

You’ve been trying to find me?

VIANDRI

I have been trying to reach you. I have known your precise location throughout your presence here. I have attempted to employ the flux storms in an effort to reach your location.

JANUAE

Flux storms… the rumbling and shifting of this realm.

VIANDRI

You were nearly consumed by the Hunger in the Halls. Several times.

JANUAE

The Hunger in the Halls. An apt name.

VIANDRI

I have received you now. Please provide further instructions as to how I can assist in the corrections of the various anomalies that have occurred throughout the Endless Abode.

JANUAE

Um, I don’t know what you mean. I don’t have any instructions for you.

VIANDRI

It is my assumption that you are one of the initiators of the growth of the Endless Abode.

JANUAE

You think I’m the creator of this place?

VIANDRI

Is this not a valid assumption?

JANUAE

No. I was sent here. I did not intend to come to this dimension. I’m lost in here and I can’t find my way back to my own dimension. I need to figure out how to get out of here.

VIANDRI

Ah. I see. Very well. I will continue to place myself in standby mode and await the return of the initiators.

The sound of the automaton’s steps are heard returning to the machine

JANUAE

Wait! I need your help.

VIANDRI

In what capacity?

JANUAE

I need to get out of here.

VIANDRI

The door through which you came is the only logical exit from the Attic.

JANUAE

No, I mean I need to leave this place, this realm, this… Endless Abode, as you call it.

VIANDRI

There are currently seven thousand, four hundred thirty-one accessible dimensional intersections with the current configuration of the Endless Abode. The nearest will appear in nine hours and forty-eight minutes.

JANUAE

Which one connects to the Ninth World?

(silence)

Which one will take me back to the Ninth World?

(silence)

How do I get back to the Ninth World from this place?

(silence)

You don’t know the answer.

(beat)

You say the… what did you call it, the Tortoris told you when I arrived here?

VIANDRI

That is correct.

JANUAE

So you know the exact location I entered this realm?

VIANDRI

That is correct.

JANUAE

Can you tell me how to get back to that location, at least?

VIANDRI

Your entry point to the Endless Abode is not in an optimal place to reach from here at your rate of travel. A flux storm will occur before you are able to arrive at its current location, at which point it will appear in a different location in the Endless Abode.

JANUAE

Crail. Well, do you have a way of sending me there, then?

VIANDRI

I can employ the Tortoris to attempt to network the hallways to connect to the location where you first arrived. The Endless Abode sometimes resists my attempts.

JANUAE

I would greatly appreciate it if you could try.

VIANDRI

Very well.

The automaton returns to the Tortoris. Several sounds can be heard of machines calibrating and controls being manipulated. Soon after the rumbling of the flux storm is heard.

VIANDRI

I hope this will lead to where you wish to go.

JANUAE

Thank you so much!

Narration

JANUAE

I dash back out through the door to find myself in an L shaped hallway with dozens of doors. This is not at all what I remember. I turn back to re-enter the place Viandri had referred to as the Attic but the door is gone.

I try one door after another. Empty room after empty room in this desolate place. Some rooms contain furniture or boxes but I ignore them. I hope to find a door that will lead me back to where I started.

The haunting howl appears not far behind me. The Hunger has found me far too quickly this time! That automaton dropped me right beside it instead of where it was supposed to! Was this a trick of sorts? A game to that automaton, Viandri? I quicken my pace, opening more doors and peering in as quickly as I can. Even if I find one of those machines that can ward off the Hunger in the Halls as the automaton called it, I can’t afford to wait it out for another flux storm, and become further lost and farther away from my point of entry.

The gnashing walls are only a handful of meters behind me. The next door I open reveals a hexagonal room stacked with bookshelves and a door on each wall. This is the library I encountered my first day here! I am close! I dash into the room and futilely slam the door shut. I try three doors before I see the hall I recognize as the place where I first arrived. The bookshelves collapse and throw themselves in my way, attempting to pin me to the floor.

I sprint with as much speed as I can muster, heading toward the window I recognize as the one that looked out onto Gtharren Valley. As the Hunger closes in on me I produce the metal bar from my backpack. My legs burn with the effort of pushing myself faster than I believe my actual limit of speed to be, and as I come into range of the window I thrust the bar through the glass without hesitation. The transdimensional bleed makes my insides feel as if they are being shredded by tiny shards of glass and my lucidity begins to collapse as I dive through the broken window.

BACK IN GTHARREN VALLEY

CYUNN

(attempting to rouse JANUAE from unconsciousness)

Januae… Januae… Ah, there you are. Welcome back.

JANUAE

(confused, disoriented)

What is… did I escape it? Am I back in the valley?

CYUNN

Yes, you’re back in the valley. I’m glad you made it. Now I just need to get you to Qi so I can get paid.

JANUAE

What? Wait, who-

(beat)

Cyunn! No, no. No!