The Abyss Stares Back

In the hours after Senadin’s arrival to the new world and his following non-intrusive co-interrogation, Vance Cour’DeLain had led Sen on a tour of the Magic Society campus; at least the parts that Sen was allowed to enter. They ate a very curious but delightful lunch in the campus’ cafeteria, and then Vance showed Sen to his dorm.

“I think it is best that you just sit in there for a while, Sen. I am hit with existential conundrums quite often in my line of work. I know that right now, it hasn’t quite hit you, and it may not for quite a long time, but at some time it will, and allowing yourself some time to… process, is the best thing for handling it. Also, you have a neighbor in the room next to yours. They arrived a few weeks ago, perhaps some comradery could help you acclimatize.” Vance told Sen as they stood in front of Sen’s door.

Vance shook Sen’s hand, which Sen noticed immediately as something their worlds shared. The handshake felt familiar, but its juxtaposition to everything magical around him made the world feel more alien at the same time.

The Magic Society’s dormitories were as comfortable as Sen could ask for. They provided a single room with a kitchen and bath, though the utilities were slightly different from what he was used to. For starters, nothing in the room was powered by electricity. He could see runes engraved on some of the appliances. The refrigerator was simply a wooden cabinet that was cool to the touch on the inside. The toilet itself wasn’t difficult to get to work, but it reminded him of going to a bathroom in a place he had never been before and couldn’t figure out the touchless controls on faucets and hand towel dispensers. Previously an army engineer and plumber, Sen was fascinated by the plumbing, which didn’t account for the laws of gravity and friction loss, but still maintained necessary flow rates.

After checking out his new digs and doing some mild experimentation with the appliances, Sen looked at himself in the mirror of the bathroom, pouring himself a glass of water from the sink. He looked the same as always, just much less hair, and even his eyebrows were gone. His eyes were slightly sunken and he had his usual dark circles around his eyes from lack of fulfilling sleep, something he had managed to endure for years now. His irises were also darker, nearly black, and he noticed as his face got closer to the mirror, there was a tinge of deep purple near the outside. The purple was barely noticeable, someone would have to get inside his personal space to notice. “That does not look bad, must be a magic thing.” He told himself, nodding approvingly. “Just need to get the hair back. Maybe I’ll try something new with the facial hair. New world, new me, I guess.”

After studying himself in the bathroom mirror, Sen pulled out a wooden chair from the kitchen table and set it in the middle of the room. He reversed it so that he could sit down to rest his chest on the back of it. His head and neck folded over the top of the chair as he stared at the floor. Thoughts of Earth coursed through his mind. He wasn’t sad to be gone, his previously exciting life in youth slowed into the same monotonous routine and Sen never really felt like he was going to be anything more than a cog in the machine of the broken American dream. Being transported to a completely new world had changed his existential perspective to its core. Even the floor on which he trained his gaze had curves in its patterns and lines in its structure that, back on Earth, would never be practical or even possible. The smooth stone floor seemed to have been turned into a liquid to form its tiles, and Sen had noticed it didn’t have a harsh coldness that most tile floor would have back home. He slipped off his shoes to feel the tile underfoot and while it wasn’t warm, it didn’t freeze his toes like he was expecting it to. “Even the floor is enchanted?” He asked aloud.

Sen closed his eyes. He thought about bringing himself into a meditative state like he had experimented and nearly perfected in his time in the void, but ideated that his thoughts needed to be more cognitive to process the slew of new concepts introduced to him. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Three years.” He said under his breath. “It didn’t feel like three years.”

Sen thought about his grueling time spent naked and alone in the void. He pondered that even if his understanding of time had skewed, one year would have been generously exaggerating the time he spent inside the void, but three years inside that place seemed out of the question completely. He wondered if maybe he had forgotten some of his time there. Thinking back to it now, he could only remember fragments, like trying to remember an old dream. Maybe just being in the magical coma-like stasis inside the capsule took years. Maybe travelling to this world from his own took years. He didn’t know, and after taking some time to cognitively process it, he allowed himself to meditate, clearing his mind of everything and becoming one with the moment.

A knock at his dormitory door forced Sen’s eyes open. He stood from his chair to walk to the door. After a brief pause as he held onto the intricate brass doorknob, he opened it.

In front of him was a humanoid shaped being, but their entire body was of a deep black shade, as if their skin sucked in all the light around it. They were wearing a set of blue cloth shorts and cropped shirt, very casual and athletic in nature, though this figure seemed like they didn’t need clothes as they had nothing to hide underneath, anyway. Their face was completely empty and had no hair, their head shaped quite human-like though they had no mouth, nose, or ears. Their whole humanoid body was silhouetted by a faint corona of white light, and at certain angles the light of the glowstones was reflecting a bluish sheen like they were built from an aqueous black marble. As Sen took a moment to focus, he could see two eyes hidden in the darkness of their face, resembling two dying stars. They were hidden unless searched for, much like the purple corona around his own irises.

They said a word that Sen did not understand, and the two stood staring at each other for a few moments, one in shock of the magical being in front of them, the other waiting for some kind of coherent response.

“Um… Hello?” Sen said in response to what they said.

“Yeah, Hi!” The black marble shadow-being said, now in a language Sen could understand, but with an accent he had never heard before. Their voice was high pitched, silvery, and sharp.

Sen remembered the same misunderstanding of words when he woke up on the exam table in the basement surveillance room. The two men over him were saying words he didn’t understand, but after a moment he could understand exactly what they were saying, as if their dialects were from Earth. This new, completely black humanoid entity started saying something to him while Sen was dissociated in thought.

“Do I have some kind of power to translate alien languages?” He thought.

“-if you’re hungry you can come with me.” They finished, in a voice that Sen could only define as feminine.

Sen paused for a moment, taking in the odd nature of the being in front of him, realizing this was most likely his neighbor, and only now realizing that he had been meditating for hours. “It’s dinnertime?” He asked.

A small chuckle came from the being. “Yes, do you want to go? You’re human right? You eat normal food?” They asked him.

“Uh, yeah…” Sen said. “We can go.” He said as he slipped his shoes back on. “I’m Sen.”

“Zulli.” They said in a chipper voice.

Sen turned to grab his shoes and slipped them on. He closed his door and held out a hand for them to shake. They shook his hand, and Sen was relieved that handshakes seemed to be a multiversal gesture of companionship.

The relief was soon overpowered by a rushing feeling he felt in his hand, as if his hand was being taken from him, even though it stayed clutched to Zulli’s.

“You’re not human.” Zulli said to him, their voice seeming intrigued by the revelation.

They let go of Sen’s hand and put their wrists on their hips. Their shoulders swayed back and forth as they contemplated the implications of the outworlder that stood in front of them.

“You’ve been touched by something in the Astral. Maybe. Maybe something deeper than that. You’re an outworlder too, then.” They said.

Sen’s eyes lowered at Zulli as they spoke. Sen could no longer count how many times he had heard things that made no sense to him. He decided in this moment that he would no longer ask for explanations to break the cadence of casual conversation. He was sure to understand more as his journey moved him forward, but he could only be the ignorant visitor while he was still ignorant and still a visitor. He predicted it may be useful to use that to his advantage in the coming days.

“I was kind of wondering if the humans here were the same as the humans back home.” He said. “I was a human, but I think coming here changed that. Zulli, do you have a gender?” He asked them, quickly changing the subject.

“I prefer to be considered a female, I suppose. I’ve related to them the most so far. Mostly because I like doing things the hard way, it tends to be a more rewarding experience.” She said to Sen, her posture changing to a bold stance. She didn’t have a mouth, but he could feel her smirking at him.

Sen’s head cocked to the side and his eyes narrowed as he assessed her. Though her body was black as the night sky and looked completely out of place, she seemed able to meld directly into normalcy. Though she had no facial expressions, something emanated from her that he could feel.

“Well, you’re definitely not human.” He said to her, returning a slight smirk of his own. “I don’t know if asking is rude or not, but what are you?”

“Novabound.” Zulli said as she began walking down the hallway. Sen walked with her toward the cafeteria.

They shared some small talk as Zulli told him about the different foods that were available as they cordially made their way through the line at the cafeteria hall. Sen noted many similarities to earthen cuisine, such as a couple popular meats, to include bacon and sausages, as well as fruits, tubers, and vegetables that grew from the ground. As he reached the end of the line, the revelation that baking delicious desserts transcended worlds threw him for a loop. It almost seemed absurd that a basic frosting-covered chocolate cake was available to him in his current situation. This small, seemingly insignificant pleasure was the type of thing he had taught himself to cherish back on Earth, and he planned on thoroughly enjoying it at the end of his meal.

“It’s just called Earth.” Sen told Zulli as they sat down at their table, sitting across from each other. “Like dirt, or ground. You could get fancy and call it Terra, but it still means the same thing.”

“Terra does sound better than Earth.” She said before nonchalantly sticking a fork of vegetables into the bottom of her empty face. The end of the fork, including the vegetables, completely disappeared as it entered where her mouth should be. Sen couldn’t help but bore into her with his eyes as the fork entered her face and left no trace of vegetable on it as she pulled it out. Her silver-star eyes met Sen’s as he unabashedly stared at her. Her fork slowly moved back down to the table as they awkwardly stared at each other in silence.

“I am sorry.” Sen said as he covered his face with both of his hands, realizing his rudeness but still unable to look away. “I live a completely unremarkable life, and this is all just so absurd to me. I don’t know what I was expecting.” Sen said, his voice muffled from talking into his hands.

“You just can’t see what I see, and I get that.” Zulli said to him, her voice light and chipper, seemingly unoffended. She shrugged. “I have a mouth. Your eyes just aren’t good enough to see.”

Sen sat with his face in his hands for a few moments before locking his eyes onto his tray of completely alien, yet familiar cafeteria food, afraid of being unable to stare at her as she ate. “What about… you?” he asked her, trying to move the conversation back into its previous free cadence. “Your world, I mean, what’s it called?”

She shook her head, seemingly all too experienced in people having no clue where she came from. “I don’t have one.” She said. “Novabound, we come from the extreme power released into the universe. It’s kind of like you but backwards.” Zulli said to him. “Our lives may be short or long, depending on the magnitude of the energy released.”

While she told him what she was with full understanding, Sen couldn’t really wrap his head around it. The idea of him but backwards was not something his forward-thinking mind could naturally understand. “Backwards, like you’re devolving into microbacteria?” Sen asked her.

Zulli's fork met her tray again as Sen could feel her eyes on him, seeming shocked that he even grasped the fundamental laws of the universe at that level. “Not quite.” She said before pausing to elaborate. “More on a conscious level. The energy released in this universe can be so massive that it reaches transcendence, and that transcendence inversely creates a physical form, thus Novabound.”

“Oh, Nova like an actual nova.” Sen said, realizing what she meant. “That explosion…”

“It’s not an explosion, it’s a release.” Zulli corrected, the matter being a personal one to her. Her fork pointed directly at Sen as she scolded him.

“That release,” Sen said, his eyes slowly moving up from his tray as the conversation emboldened him to look at her once more. “…Created you.”

“In the simplest terms, yes.” She told him.

“So backwards like, I came from stardust, you came from star energy?” He mused.

“That’s a better understanding than I’ve seen from anyone else around here.” She told him, nodding in approval.

They continued to eat, becoming slightly more comfortable in each other’s presence. Zulli increasingly became more human to Sen as he started to understand her better, though with her completely alien form, it was still hard to consider the interaction with her a normal encounter. Zulli seemed content sharing a meal with someone who had a basic understanding of her. Given that no one else had come to talk to her or eat with her, Sen assumed she hadn’t made many friends in this world yet, if any at all.

As Sen was nearing the end of his meal, he delighted in finally being able to eat the cake that was waiting for him, when suddenly a heavy weight pressed down directly on his soul. It seemed to push down his own psyche, tearing apart his ego and his pride and stripping him bare. The power made him shudder in fear, despite its very nature having a warm identity. It took him a few seconds to get his bearing as his eyes darted around the cafeteria, searching for the origin of the power.

Shortly after feeling the power weighing down on his soul, Sen instinctively felt something magical rise within him, as if it was begging him to be let out. He succumbed to the instinctive magic, allowing it to emanate from his body and the area around him, including the area around Zulli, creating a still and silent calm. This effect lasted mere moments before the power weighing down on him increased enough to stifle the magic Sen had used to counteract it. Whoever or whatever was pushing down on him was at a much higher power level than he was. He looked to Zulli, who’s posture was stiff, as if the power was affecting her as well.

“Mister Senadin.” A droning, monotone voice called to him as a group of men walked over to his table.

They were all wearing the same style of robes as Vance, save for one, who was wearing what Sen assumed was a full set of combat gear. His entire outfit had matched as if he had killed the same monster over and over to collect all the pieces for his armor set. He wore heavy brown leather armor that had traces of a smooth green chitin-like plate that was embedded and subdued into the large parts of the armor, including the mask and helmet covering his face. As Sen looked up at the group of men, his eyes met the man in the leather-chitin armor, and Sen could feel the heavy power weighing him down emanating directly from that man. Sen looked at the rest of the men to see Vance looking sheepish off to the side.

“Sen, I told them to give you some time, but they were insistent.” Vance said apologetically.

“Miss Senadin, Miss Zulli, I am sorry for the intrusion, but you are both to come with us, right now, for questioning and testing.” The droning voice told them, coming from the man with a sharp face and long ears, wearing the same robes as Vance, but with a stole around his shoulders indicating a higher ranking official. He stood directly next to the man in the chitin-embedded leather armor.

“My name is Varnus Ezebal. I am the deputy director of the Magic Society’s investigation branch here in Vitesse. You both may have particularly dangerous powers that we made need to…” His monotone voice droned off a bit. “…Quarantine for the safety of the people of the magic society and Vitesse, and for your own safety as well.”

The immense power that froze the two outworlders in their seats lifted, and Sen and Zulli shared gasping breaths as their bodies relaxed.

Sen looked down at the delicious chocolate, frosted cake on his tray. He thought not of the quarantine he was about to be put in, but whether it would be worth it to just have a bite of the cake. “So it begins.” Sen said under his breath, realizing from the intimidating group of men that this was going to be his first real, potentially dangerous encounter in this strange new world.

“Sen?” Zulli asked him as she stood from her chair. She wondered what could be going through his mind as he stared ponderously at his tray. She hoped he wouldn’t do anything foolish.

“Given that power you were pushing onto us, I guess I don’t have a choice?” Sen asked. The man in the leather armor fixated his stare on Sen once more, his eyes looking through the thin slit between his mask and helmet.

“How dangerous could he be if he doesn’t even know what an aura is?” The leather-clad adventurer asked Varnus, while keeping his eyes locked on Sen.

“You felt the spike, both when he met the novabound and when you just released your aura onto him.” Varnus responded. “His ignorance may be his most dangerous aspect.”

“We’re right here.” Zulli told them. “You can talk to us like normal people.”

The group of men looked at her, their eyes surveying her dark form. A couple men put on patronizing smiles directed at Zulli. Vance stayed quiet, embarrassed by the entire situation. Only his face could be seen behind the shoulders of the other Magic Society researchers, and his reluctance to take the two away into quarantine was showing through his own aura, though Sen and Zulli were unable to read it.

Varnus opened his mouth to retort to Zulli, but was interrupted by Sen. “Let’s go then, gentlemen. I was hoping to try and get some good sleep tonight, so let’s see if we can get this over with and come to an agreement about me living in this world.”