Journey West 13: Revelations and Confrontations

    The halls of Stratalia this day see an unusual sight. While its not unusual to see various students and even faculty dressed in a wide variety of costumes and uniforms, a small woman dressed in a black and white sexy maid uniform is a bit outside the norm. Her black hair is short and frames a delicate face. As though to offset her further, behind her an even shorter woman walks, this one however is dressed in a more typical tom-boyish adventurer outfit, nothing loose. Her hair and face however would seem to be those of a child with delicate features and pink hair and done up in hairbrush pigtails. These two walk straight to the dean’s office.

    “Taki,” says Jasma, who is sitting at the dean’s desk, to the woman in the maid uniform.

   Jasma rises and greets her old friend, “It has been a long time hasn’t it.”

   “Yes indeed,” says Taki, “too long, I hear you’re now the dean, I have to say I was surprised that Jinron would retire; I thought he’d stay the dean forever.”

   Jasma looks past her, “and I see you brought your daughter, Pima, along as well.”

   “Indeed,” says Taki, “I am teaching her some more subtle tricks aside from dashing too and fro in battle.”

    Pima feels a bit embarrassed, it’s been quite some time since she graduated from Stratalia and yet her mother still talks like she’s a beginner. Usually she’s more out going, the real talker of the group; even with her mother around; however before her is Jasma. The long blond haired high elf woman is both the mother of her long time friend Hollia and the head of the Merchant’s Guild. On top of that now she’s the dean of Stratalia.

   “Oh,” says Pima very quickly, “yes, yes, yes indeed it’s a pleasure to meet you, or meet you again, Hollia’s, er, I mean miss dean, head of the Merchant’s Guild, boss, client, I…”

   “Okay, okay,” says Jasma, “no need to be nervous Pima, we’ve met before. You and my daughter are friends after all.”

    Jasma looks between them and gets a bit more of a serious look on her face, “However what I am about to tell you two must not leave this room.”

   Taki looks at Pima who nods.

   “Something serious going on?” asks Taki.

   “Yes and no.” says Jasma, “do either of you remember a tutor my daughter had here before she left on her journey?”

   Pima steps up, “you mean Miss Rurona? That tall, really strong, really smart, woman who was teaching Hollia and was always there with her when she and Haki were going around doing jobs just before he graduated?”

  “Uh…yes,” says Jasma, “however, and I urge you both to keep quite about this, that woman’s name was not Rurona.”

   Jasma *shushes* them as she stands, her eyes glow and the room is filled with light. After it dissipates she continues, “good there is no one else here and no one spying on us with any tricky gadgets or magic items.  That woman’s real name is Rhulan.”

   “Jasma,” says Taki, “I…”

   “Taki,” says Jasma, “my daughter when she was little found a stature buried in the ruins near here, she dug it up.”

   “The statue in her private garden?” asks Pima.

   Jasma looks surprised, “why…yes, she showed it too you?”

   Pima realizes she’s on the spot, “I…well, she showed me, and Yumi, and Amia the statue once, she said she believed it was carved after some ancient hero, and like she saw it as her inspiration to be a better adventurer and…”

   “and it was alive and watching you,” says Jasma making Pima stop with a look of confusion.

   “that statue,” continues Jasma, “was the petrified body of the empress Rhulan, my daughter accidentally released her from stone via a Supreme Detoxification spell she used on the statue from what I hear. Before any of us knew it she became my daughter’s instructor, it wasn’t till after the attack on the carnival by…another force that we learned who she really is.”

    “and,” interrupts Taki, “you just let her go with your daughter on some quest far away?”

    Jasma gives her a serious look, “at the time we were given advice from an oracle to allow that, and we reasoned she had been imprisoned for a length of time longer than her empire even lasted. However, she was the empress, and it occurs to me had she been an emperor instead there is no way I would have permitted this journey; not with out appointing several guards to go with them. Even so I still should have done that. I suspect she may have put a spell on us.”

   “Um,” says Taki looking at her daughter and back at Jasma, “Okay, this is all a bit to take in, but are you saying you want me to go after them or something; because you said you had a thief job for me so I’m a bit confused here.”

   “Sorry about that,” says Jasma, “just nice to get all that off my chest, no I have my brother journeying with them now; and they’re too far away now to catch up with. But that’s the point, now that they are so far away, and given something else that happened recently that I won’t trouble you with involving some pirate ships we had docked in Bostonia vanishing what I’d like you to do is check out the room Rhulan was staying in while she was here.”

    A moment later they are all walking through the halls to the special faculty wing, a mostly deserted wing this time of day as few faculty stay in this area of the school. As they head down this hall Pima recollects the woman she knew as Rurona, who Hollia looked up to and praised. The woman who Hollia practically idolized, to think she was also that statue. Pima had only seen the statue once so she guesses its not so shocking she didn’t recognize her.

    They stop before a normal looking door.

    “Rhu…her door.” says Taki who for some reason had been expecting something…more dramatic than just a normal looking door.

   Jasma tells her, “I haven’t sensed any magical barriers or guards or traps for that matter; but given who this is and the fact I’m not experienced in this things.”

   “Well,” says Taki with a happy tone, “you called the right girl and her apprentice for the job.”

   “So,” says Pima, “we are going to break into Miss Rurona’s room?”

   “Yes,” says Jasma, “it may not tell us much, but I’d like to get some idea of who we’re dealing with outside of what my daughter tells me and ancient bed time stories.”

   Taki examines the lock, takes a blade out of a hidden pocket on her skirt, “interesting, no Alarm Rune of any kind, no spells, I’d say it’s just the regular lock.”

   She picks it and opens the door. They all wince for a moment expecting something hidden to jump out at them. Nothing happens, they walk inside after Taki examines the door frame to be sure there aren’t any traps that could go off when they close it behind them. The room is typical, nothing in the bathroom, which is perfectly clean. There is nothing odd about the bed or under it; or the closet or dresser. Taki eyes the odd doll sitting on the dresser, an anthropomorphic white cat with two white shark like fins on the back of its head between the ears; and is wearing a purple dress.

   “weird,” says Taki who looks closely at it but doesn’t touch like she’s afraid to.

   “What is it?” asks Jasma.

   “A Sanu Sanu Sala doll,” says Taki, “for someone who has been stone for a thousand years she sure seems to like a character that was popular like twenty years ago.”

    “She could astral project.” says Jasma, “sorry, forgot to mention that.”

    A shiver goes down Taki’s spine, “so we had a ghost watching us while we were in school? Creepy….A ghost of the legendary dark empress….real creepy.”

    Taki shakes her head as she takes out another device resembling a tuning fork and waves it over the doll, “what’s creepier is that she has a spell on that doll, cursing anyone who might try to leave the room with it other than the spell caster who put the curse there.”

   “I”, says Jasma, “but I don’t sense anything.”

   “Hidden curse,” says Taki, “like you thought Jasma, but we can safely open the dresser drawers.”

   Inside they find each drawer filled with different things, panties all just thrown inside the drawer, bras just thrown inside the drawer, and another with folded up skirts.

   “Hold on,” says Taki as she walks back over to the closet and opens it, inside its filled with various dresses, black, green, dark red, purple. The dresser like wise has bras, panties, and skirts of the same sorts of colors.

   “Why,” continues Taki, “didn’t she take her clothes with her when she left?”

   “Clothes?” says Pima, “Oh right!, sorry, I just remembered Hollia said Miss Rurona wore shadow cloth, it’s a some kind of…”

    “shape shifting cloth,” says Jasma, “yes she shifted it between those robes and her traditional attire from what I could see.”

   Taki looks at the closet and the dresser, then at the doll with a raised eyebrow, “sooo, this is all dress up then?”

   Pima starts to giggle, “so, so, the empress in all those kid stories, and Hollia’s tutor the big scary, really powerful, and cool all the time lady likes to play dress up.”

   Taki puts her hands on her hips and ruffles her maid skirt, “got a problem with that young lady?”

   “No, no, no,” says Pima, “just took me by surprise mom.”

   Jasma looks around the room, shakes her head and sighs, “Just close everything up; this…this isn’t what I was expecting. Her secret girly cos-playing isn’t…lets just go.”

   As they leave the room and close it back up again and locked like they were never there Jasma turns and looks at the door while thinking, “Rhulan the Empress, clad in darkest black with a power that intimidates dragons. Behind closed doors we are all different people it seems, even you…unless you knew we’d come looking here. Your private clothes don’t tell us anything about you that is of any use to me.”

    Inside the room a violet light appears between the floor boards, wisps of this energy flow up and around the room, paying close attention to the dresser and closet. Within the violet energy smoke tiny winged figures can be made out, swarms of little faerie like creatures that whisper in tinkling voices, “nothing taken, nothing moved enough to care, the master’s collection safe here still.”

  The wisps of smoke and energy vanish back beneath the floor boards into a panel with a sigil hidden there.

    ******

    In the realm of the Thing Named Jim, the Thing Named Jim bangs on a crystal ball on his white desk.

    “piece”
     *bang*
     “of”
      *bang*
     “junk”
     *bang*
     “why”
     *bang*
     “won’t”
     *bang*
    “you”
   *bang*
   “show”
   *bang*
   “me”
   *bang*
   “my”
   *bang*
   “Betty”
   *SMASH!*

   Jim wipes the broken crystal off the table, smoke literally fuming from his mouth.

   “If that sorceress bitch did something to my crystal ball, I swear…aahhhh!”

   He spins, his business casual outfit changing into a military uniform, “I am The Thing Named Jim! If some witch bitch from some RPG wannabe world wants to fight me, then she will no what is war!”

   *a woman’s laughter fills the air*

   Jim looks around, his head going back and forth and back and forth and then insanely fast back and forth.

   “Whose there?” he demands.

   A violet mist fills the air, a rift appearing with purple energy, odd black vines covered in thorns briefly appear around the edges as the portal closes behind a woman, a woman Jim recognizes as Corinth, the other sorceress he has spied on through the crystal ball being near Betty.

   “So you are the one they call The Thing Named Jim, seek to challenge Rhulan the Celestial Sorceress do you, on her own world. I wander if you are even a match for Corinth. Hmmm, perhaps I mean I wander if Corinth at the apex of her potential power is a match for you. Shall you battle the Apex Corinth little creature?”

    “Yeah,” says Jim, “Jim, will challenge Corinth because third person talking Corinth is no match for the almighty Thing Named Jim.”

    “Then let us begin,” says Corinth, “Ball Bats come forth!”

   A portal appears above her head as she circles her staff in the air. Tiny creatures, with black balls for bodies, tiny bat wings that shouldn’t be able to carry them through the air, with cartoon like faces appear in a massive swarm. Jim sucks in the air, his cheeks puff up, as does his body like a massive balloon; and with a might exhale he sends out a blast of air that sends the Ball Bats crashing against the wall, each popping like little balloons filled with blue flames.

  “Is that the best you got?” asks Jim, “cartoon bats against the king of cartoons?”

   “Hardly,” says Corinth, “but it is the nature of Corinth to test her opponents with weak monsters first, if you want something stronger than have at me…mortal.”

   “Mortal!” screams Jim, “Mortal! I am the Thing Named Jim! I am immortal, invincible, and…”

   *crack*

   Jim is send flying through the wall as Corinth with one arms swings her cane into the side of his head.

   “Bitch!” screams Jim, “Do you know who I am? I am The Thing Named Jim! I have blown up planets.”

   “You,” says Corinth nonchalantly, “are a reality warper, a powerful one granted, you can alter a planet to blow its self up…in a universe unstable enough to allow such a change that is…but you lack the power to directly destroy a world. You simply set a ripple in effect and it cascades through the reality to cause what you desire.”

    “what ever,” says Jim, “try it again, give me your best shot.”

    “hmmm, no.” says Corinth as she flips her cane and poises it like a golf club, “how about this instead.”

     A purple fiery energy ball appears before the cane. With a swing Corinth yells out, “four!” and strikes the ball.

    Jim instantly takes on the uniform of an umpire at a baseball game and attempts to catch the energy ball. Upon impact however he is sent flying through another wall.

    He *coughs* and *wheezes* as he comes back through, “how…how…can…you…wind…knocked out…*cough*…*wheeze*…I….”

   He takes a deep breath and spits on the floor.

   “Okay,” he says getting his breath back, “I don’t even breathe the air really so how could you knock the wind out of me?!”

   “You breathe,” says Corinth, “just not air, breathing is simply the act of acquiring energy, your lungs still exist and function by using Dimencerny as their power source.”

   “What?” asks Jim with a mugging face.

   “Its what many educated civilizations call what Dimension is composed of, rather than making feeble attempts to compare it directly to energy or material compositions. I simply utilized a form of force capable of drawing that out of you. The same sort of power my dear Rhulan uses in fact, the power of the Astral Plane, I believe you know it, a dimension you can’t enter because you can’t breathe there.”

   Jim looks around, “How the…who…there is no way you know that, and there is no way you’re as strong as this. I’ve watched that Corinth chick and…you’re not acting like her either…”

    Jim thinks a moment, “oooohh I get it, you’re like some demon possessing her and boosting her powers right? Yeah I’m right.”

   “Close,” says Corinth, “but not even close. True as she is Corinth is no match for you, but this form is Corinth at her Physical Apex, yes, in only a few thousand years Corinth will be this strong, able to match you in physical strength and summon energies that can harm you…perhaps not kill you, but definitely harm you.”

    “Ha!” yells Jim, “then die bug!”

   He holds out his had, and two white walls materialize from thin air on either side of Corinth, moving in on her.

   Corinth lets go of her staff, which vanishes as she releases it. With a smile she *snaps* her fingers. The walls vanish with out a trace.

   “Corinth’s power is like that of a Celestial, at this level mere tricks wont do. If nothing else as is in this form you and Corinth would be at a stale mate, your power unable to directly affect her and she unable to actually kill you.”

    “Shut up!” yells Jim, “Stop talking like that! If your not possessing her then your not her, then that’s not her power, but yours you flippin demon!”

    “That was an awfully clear thought you had little Jimmy.” says Corinth, “Perhaps my presence is having more of a positive effect than I thought despite appearing as Corinth.”

    She pauses for a moment and smiles, “Truth be told you are fighting Corinth, If I was the soul of Corinth. I like to create avatar bodies of my children and possess those avatars to display just how powerful they can become…with out ascending. I have many children across the infinite.”

    “Promiscuous much?” mocks Jim.

   “In a sense,” says the being imitating Corinth, “it’s a bit more complicated than just being giving birth…or fathering in some cases…I am not one constrained by biological or even physical means. In a way in fact little Jimmy you are one of my sons, the crazy, crazy, James Porter.”

    “AAuuGH!” screams Jim grabbing the side of his head and tumbling to the floor, “What?!, what did you say?!, why?!, why does it hurt!? What spell was that you….Bitch!?”

    “Such foul language,” says this being in a tone mocking surprise.

   She floats about and smiles for a moment before continuing, “You are insane, lived longer than your mind despite your powers could ever cope with…perhaps because of your powers it was made worse. Such a long life and limited memory, do you ever wonder in your day to day life where you came from…what happened two million years ago in your temporal line.”

    She waves her hand, and unseen to Jim a violet aura appears around his head for a brief moment. Images appear in his head as she continues to talk.

   “Poor, poor little James Porter, lab assistant to some of the most brilliant minds on all of planet Earth, well one of many Earths, but you didn’t know that, nor does it matter. Its vaguely in your mind isn’t it, the high tech research facility hidden beneath Central Park in New York City.”

   “Please…stop.” Whines Jim as his head throbs.

  “hmmm, no,” says this woman, “research into using power, an energy as it might be mistaken from between realities, to mutate life forms into monstrous, powerful beings. You remember them don’t you, the four scientists you worked for, Riff and Lilly, along with the married couple Ray and Kathryn. By this time the domes of power seeping from the wormhole that had been opened in the Bermuda Triangle and Dragon’s Triangle covered massive areas of sea and land mutating all those beneath them into monstrous forms with bestial minds. They estimated when the domes connected and whole atmosphere was covered that the worms hole would flare from the surface and threatened to drag the very crust of the Earth into space…in pieces, killing everyone and everything in the process.”

   Jim is in agony as the ancient memories flow up from the depths of his being.

   The being in Corinth’s form continues, “Oh, but your superiors had a plan, they secretly built an escape vessel around the deepest part of the lab, a dimension drive able to surf the wormholes and escape to an alternate Earth. Oh, but that wasn’t all, they developed chambers, originally commissioned by the military to create people who could turn into these…demon like mutation at will and control themselves in those forms. Oh, but they had done even better, they secretly found a way to create immortal bodies stronger than even the largest of the Kaiju born from this…science.”

    She floats down to Jim holding his head on the floor, “you remember what happened next don’t you?”

    “Yesss,” hisses Jim, “I…I…was operating the LITMET, the machine to turn them, after it was done I was…going to be next…only…only four chamber…but then…the light…that….uuugghh.”

    “A violet light,” states the woman, “in a flash you were gone, someplace else.”

   “Madness,” says Jim weakly, “spiraling madness, I saw…my body…dissolve, come back, dissolve again, the pain…the pleasure…I was…I became…”

   *KAboom!*

   A shock wave of energy flashes through the room shattering everything, save for the woman who is un-phased by the power, as Jim jumps to his feet shouting, “I became The Thing Named Jim!”

   Jim practically sings, “Immortallll…and powweeerfuuulll…I am…The….Thing…Nammmed…Jiiiimmmm!!”

   “Yes…” says the woman nonchalantly, “You learned to control the power, the power to warp reality. You returned to your world did you not.”

    “Oh yeah,” says Jim pulling up jeans he is now wearing and spitting while talking in a country western accent while tipping a cowboy hat is now wearing, “Dat der world…she was gonners.”

   The woman continues, “Lava and rock, a world torn apart.”

   “Yeppers,” says Jim as he spins and dawns a white tuxedo while holding a martini shaker. As he pours the contents into a martini glass that now exists, and on a desk that has just reformed he says, “The old world is gone now, I am alone, the last son of Earth, the great and powerful Thing Named Jim. I’ve explored other Earths, but its not the same, I am alone, and cool.”

   She appears next to him and whispers in his ear, “That was me.”

   She teleports in a violet flash back into the air, “You were thrown aside as I arrived. My aura engulfed you little James Porter of Earth-F.”

   He stops; his cloths turn to those of a lab tech as he stares at her.

   “Your world, that Earth, was not lost, it was taken by power beyond your comprehension. Taken to the universe of Other World, the surface laid out flat into a specially made container, the beings on it have lived and evolved for the last two million years in that time line, just as you existed for two million years thinking yourself an invincible uber-being that world continued to evolve.”

    *she laughs slightly*

    “In fact those four scientists succeeded in their plans, but between their new bodies and their little dimension drive hide out, not to mention my influence, they went insane. Their minds became like beasts as they were scattered…well…Riff and Lilly went to one world, while Ray and Kathryn went to another, they’ve met since then….don’t remember each other, it took them well over one point five million years or so of physical evolution to regain sentient thought and are now the ancestors of two distinct super power supernatural races and many descendent species.”

    *she laughs some more*

   “Oh but what of the Earth you ask…you seen it now, the end result…”

   She smiles wickedly and whispers, “Aesperia…the Flat Earth, home of many races clearly descended from humans, and many, many altered forms of life forms you’d easily recognize. Not that it matters, you likely won’t care past five minutes of this conversation and those four don’t remember…well…one is remembering…”

    Her eyes look off to the distance as though watching someone on the horizon, “Ah, yes, one is indeed remembering, such torture for her ancient mind to try and recall things from before the lengthy time she was an immortal animal. Any who, despite your powers and because of them you’ve all gone insane, your minds were never meant to cope with such long life spans and having so much power; you weren’t born as these beings, these gods you claim to be. Your souls are still those of mortals and your minds despite the changes in biology are still fundamentally human; insanity was the only escape.”

    She looks around and says out of no where with a drastic change in tone from dramatic to that of someone who has been at an amusement park too long, “Well….this has fun little Jimmy…enjoy your madness…what you can…enjoy thinking about this for oh…about five minutes…I have things to see and people to do, tootles.”

   *she vanishes like a blink*

   Jim stands perplexed for a moment. Suddenly however the ground, if it can be rightfully called as such shake. A massive woman’s hand of pure darkness swoops up from below ripping the building apart as though it were mere paper, scooping up Jim. Before him towering over his mansion in this white world is the three dimensional shadow form of a gargantuan woman wearing a long dress, bountiful bosoms, and long hair; six strands of which seems to form antenna around her face and leaning back over her head; something strangely archaically divine. Her eyes however offset the darkness as they glow like blue suns with in her face, a face that would seem below the nose to be covered in some sort of guard mask made of the same darkness as her body.

   *On second thought* says this being in a voice that speaks not with sound, but rather ripples through dimensions themselves. Her voice alone making Jim feel weak as a new born kitten *I have a better idea, as you and Litmet the goddess of destruction as she calls herself now; but you knew her as Lilly, both have some memory of what has transpired, I shall place you into her realm. A reality far more solid than your own or the photonic, cartoon like realities you prefer to travel too. Thus your powers will be weaker and your mind clearer.*

   She clinches her fist around him, he tries to rise and fight but can do nothing as the darkness envelops him.

    ….

    ….

   Moments of darkness as his eyes are closed, his body curled up trying to shield himself. He opens his eyes. Above him the sky is dark yet blocked out to some degree by a red energy. He stands to find himself on top of a sky scrapper in a city, some towers sent out beams of red energy to the sky, into the dome. He peers out, he can see strange bat like creatures flying through the air between buildings; yet there is automobile traffic on the roads below. If not for the flying creatures and the odd dome he’d think it was just any other city on some typical Earth.

    ******

    *yawn*

     On Aesperia, atop a mostly barren rock mountain out in the middle of the desert Corinth awakens from a nap. As she reaches for her staff and sits up she notices another shadow on the ground besides her own and dashes to her feet to face the intruder. What stands before her is a very familiar face, her own. Rather than act surprised as one might expect she instead grasps her and bows on one knee facing the ground at her feet.

   “Great Goddess,” says Corinth, “Blessed light, I see once again you have descended in the form of one of your children.”

   The second Corinth *sighs* an exasperated sigh, “Seriously Corinth,” she says, “How many times have I told you, you can call me Mom, Mommy, even Mother, I already gave you your revelation like forever ago, you don’t have to keep acting like this when we’re alone.”

   “My apologies,” says Corinth, “but I can not do that, you are the Light…and you are the Shadow, the Shadow that emits light and the Light that casts a shadow. You are sacred.”

    “Any who,” says the goddess in Corinth’s form, “I have a mission for you.”