The World Walkers: Aerith: Theron: Trapped on Aerith

[k_a_webb]

A communication crystal was Theron’s only hope and everyone knew that one in ten crystals failed. On Kankirin it hadn’t been until a Brown had managed to travel into the dream of a family member that they’d known about the door failing. Unfortunately the group with him didn’t include a Brown, or a Green, or even a Grey who could hopefully create a new communication crystal from the stones they had on Aerith. Instead he had three Golds and a Red, while he was a Silver, and none of the magics they had were any use if they couldn’t contact Athare.

Theron stared at the crystal, wishing there was some way of knowing if it was going to work before he tried using it, but there wasn’t. All he could do was use it and hope that he’d get through, even though he didn’t believe that there would be anything any on Athare could do to help. No one had been able to get help to Kankirin, although they’d tried several different way, as though the magic of the world had decided that no one was leaving, which was a possibility considering that world creation was relatively new. He didn’t entirely believe that the Blues hadn’t experimented with it before, but it was different when the worlds were actually created for life.

“Good morning,” Theron said, because it was morning on Aerith and he had no idea what time it was on Athare.

“Good morning, Theron. Halfrith speaking. What can I help you with?”

For a moment Theron couldn’t help thinking he might be hallucinating, because he’d really wanted to hear a reply. “I’m not entirely sure you can help me.” He sighed. “When Bella walked past the door this morning it looked wrong, sort of empty was how she described it, so she tried to walk through it and found that she couldn’t return to Athare.”

During the long silence that followed Theron became even more sure that he’d been hallucinating when he’d heard Halfrith’s voice. It seemed utterly pointless to keep sitting at the desk when he had things to do if they were going to be stuck on Aerith, but he stayed anyway, just in case. He found himself staring out of the window, wondering why it had to be one of the Blues more experimental worlds that he found himself trapped on with a group who had no helpful magics.

“Theron, are you still there?” Halfrith asked finally.

“Yes, I am.” A wave of relief swept over him. “What have you found?”

“It’s not good news I’m afraid. We checked the door from here and it has failed. The Greens are working on a repair, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to work, and none of the new doors they created want to connect with Aerith either.”

“Are we looking at another Kankirin?”

“It’s looking likely. We have some other options and we will try them all, but you may be stuck on Aerith.”

Theron ran a hand through his hair. “What does the magic feel like?”

“You remember the descriptions the Blues and the Greens gave when they were trying to work out how to create a connection to Kankirin?”

Nodding, even though Halfrith couldn’t see him, Theron replied, “I remember.”

“Aerith feels the same to them, so I don’t think that anything we try is going to work.”

“This world doesn’t want to be connected with the other web worlds and can somehow stop the creation of any doors leading here, even from non-web worlds. Do the Blues have any idea how the magic evolved to do that?”

“Not yet. They hoped they’d be able to before it happened again, but obviously they haven’t, and personally I don’t think they will. You should plan for the worst, Theron.”

Even though Theron was pretty sure that they would be stuck on Aerith he couldn’t help hoping that maybe the magic had evolved differently and it would want them gone. “Thanks for your help, Halfrith.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do more. We’ll be in contact with the families of everyone, so they know what’s going on, and we’ll keep trying to get through to Aerith. Goodbye for now, Theron.”

Breathing deeply Theron looked up at the map on the wall. It showed the whole of Aerith, including their position, and tried not to think too hard about the world itself. Surviving on a world that had only one season, winter, wasn’t going to be easy for anyone, so they’d done all the preparation they could to help the new inhabitants. When he’d believed he was going home their survival hadn’t really mattered to him, which made him feel a little guilty because they were people too even if they had been created by magic, but knowing that he might be on Aerith for the rest of his life changed his perspective.

“Did you get through to someone?” Arabella asked as she walked into the room.

“It seems possible that we’ll be stuck here for some time.” Theron’s eyes met Arabella’s. “Maybe even permanently.”

“Mother was right. I never should have volunteered for this, but I wanted to travel and becoming a part of this group seemed like my only chance.”

“Would you regret volunteering if we could get back to Athare?”

Arabella shrugged. “Aerith is fascinating and the people in town are always friendly, so it’s been a good experience, and I guess I wouldn’t regret it under those circumstances, but we can’t get back. I don’t want to be stuck here for the rest of my life.”

“After the door failed on Kankirin another failure was always a possibility. I know everyone who volunteered was told that and about the way the magic of the web is already evolving. Unfortunately we got unlucky, but it could have happened to anyone.”

“How can you be so calm?”

Theron smiled. “Things happen that you can’t change and this is one of those things. Getting upset or angry isn’t going to do us any good, because I need to plan for the future.”

Mirrored from K. A. Jones Writing.