Maria doesn’t like flying through space as much as some do. Sure, there is a feeling of freedom knowing that you can go anywhere anytime the mood strikes you, but the speed required to move significant distances in a reasonable amount of time is so fast that she has to protect her physical being from instant incineration, from the force exerted on her body that could crumble her bones to dust, and she has to be aware of random objects floating space that might intercept her path.
Maria prefers to portal over long distances and this is a feature of Wazad the Wonderful of the Dark Universe from which Maria hails, who was an ancient being of Arcana from an early civilization of the universe that was so advanced in science and technology that they began to inadvertently tap into the arcane magic that permeated the young universe. Wazad the Wonderful was a physicist, carpenter, and stonemason on his home world. He spent most of his time developing prototypes for theoretical machines that he sold to developers with the means to actually create his theoretical machines and put them to use in greater society. When he wasn’t tinkering, Wazad liked to make miniature sculptures from wood and stone. He had recreated every landmark on his homeworld in miniature and he also created extensive models of the universe based on his own observations of the cosmos and accounts from others who had traveled into space. His models were so detailed that Wazad began to notice the patterns of spacetime, and he developed what he thought was a Set of scientific principles based on observation, but were actually arcane spells that used arcana to move around the universe in the blink of an eye. He eventually disappeared from his homeworld and his models were preserved for posterity, his home and workshop preserved as museums.
The story of the first Wazad of universe Prime 5 is similar, but when he disappeared from his home world, he traveled to what has become known as Outer Spacetime, the veil existence that overlaps reality. It is exotic space, representing the potentials of the reality of Prime 5, and is heavily influenced by the psychic energy generated by beings of Prime 5 and Fonlanders who inhabit the universe. It manifests as the existence that it overlays and is populated by the daydreams and nightmares of the beings of Prime 5 made real. All of the Gods worshiped by beings of Prime 5 manifest in Outer Spacetime, every fictional character created in the arts, and mirrors of every conscious being of Prime 5 who have the same appearance as their Prime 5 counterparts but with characteristics and attributes shaped by their experience in Outer Spacetime.
When the first Wazad arrived in Outer Spacetime by complete accident, it was sparsely populated, like Prime 5. Wazad wandered the space to figure out where he had landed, instantly recognizing that he was not in the existence he knew. The color palette of Outer Spacetime was bizarre compared to reality as he knew it, it is hyper color that clashes to create stark contrasts in celestial bodies and the space that they inhabit. He eventually arrived to a castle-shaped planet that he did not know existed in Prime 5, and the Outer Spacetime planet was inhabited by the gods of the beings of this planet in Prime 5. Wazad would spend considerable time on this planet known as Theron, home to the Therosi, and even when the beings who created the Therosi were long extinct from the universe, their planet destroyed by a meteor, the Therosi persisted in Outer Spacetime as its most wise and respected denizens, with the first Wazad the Wonderful as their expert of arcana.
Wazad had children with a few Therosi Gods, and he is accepted as a Therosi God by the gods themselves, and is perceived as such by beings who encounter him.
Knowledge of the Therosi in Prime 5 is practically non-existent since the destruction of the homeworld that created the pantheon; this knowledge is truly arcane in the relative present of Prime 5.
The only beings of Prime 5 who have knowledge of the Therosi are those who have been chosen to carry the mantle of Wazad the Wonderful. The bearer of the mantle is able to access Outer Spacetime at the whims of the first Wazad who sometimes summons the current Wazad for an audience; once the Set is mastered, each new Wazad is summoned to Theron to be gifted the powers by the first Wazad personally.
Before Maria and Sao-Reyne go to help Issac banish Omega to what Issac refers to as the veil existence, though he is unknowingly referring to Outer Spacetime, they enjoy lunch together on the steamy beaches of Fumarole. They had taken two meals prepared in the cafeteria of the Guardian’s dormitory to the beach on the campus while Issac tries to find the fifth he needs to complete his spell to banish Omega.
“After taking that bolt from the Master, I cannot imagine another being of this universe strong enough to withstand it,” Sao-Rryne says as he eats. “Maxx, of course, this Queen Rowen of Oin is apparently very formidable. Maybe the Lead Shaman of Druinte? But they also interact with Outer Spacetime to access their powers, as do the Kazi of this universe, and they probably wouldn’t be able to make it in time, they are often in Outer Spacetime. There may be a Kazi on Eel that we could use as a fifth.”
“We should go there and find out,” Maria says. She is surprised how much she enjoys the food of Bludon. It happened often in her travels around her own universe that the food of the planets she visited were too exotic for her to enjoy right away. Bludon has excellent cuisine that is primarily seafood, which Maria loves.
“Do we have time?” Sao-Reyne asks with a mouthful. “Even with the portals, Issac should run tests on anyone willing, and there are a lot of Kazi.”
“Can we show them Maxx’s test?” Maria asked. “They know how strong Maxx is so they can gauge their own strength to narrow down the numbers and they can come here.”
“That is a good idea, we should tell Issac when we get back.”
But even cutting their lunch short to run the idea by the Master would prove unnecessary because the Needy had been unleashed on the young Omega of Prime 5, freeing up the Queen Rowen to be the fifth in Isaac’s quintet.
They all gathered together in Isaac’s dark room with the golden hologram of the rampaging Needy that focuses all of his malice on Omega, and Maria creates a portal to the Queen’s location in space where they followed Issac direction to vanish the Needy.
The bolt of Isaac’s energy strikes out at Maria first once they are all in position, with Issac at the top of the pentagram, Maria and Sao-Reyne beneath Isaac in the middle, and the Queen Rowen and Maxx the Superguardian as the base of the formation. They are all inundated by the lighting and their formation is large against the cosmos, large enough for Omega to fit through. The Needy hurls Omega into the pentagram formed by the lighting and when it connects with the lightning, a portal to Outer Spacetime opens instantly. Maria feels herself being drawn into the existence of exotic colors on the other side. She watches the portal to universe Prime 5 close from Outer Spacetime.
And now she is falling through space, so many bold colors and she struggles to orient herself in this place. She doesn’t know up from down, she feels wrong in every position.
Until a man in flowing white robes with a staff of brilliant gold appears and she stops still in her position. She is upside down compared to the robed man whose skin is a browner color of gold than his staff, but just as brilliant. Maria turns herself in space.
“You are Wazad,” the robed man says. “But not the one I have chosen. How did you come to wield my powers without my permission, being of lower spacetime?”
“I am Wazad of another universe,” Maria explains, “brought to lower spacetime by chance. You are him? The original Wazad the Wonderful?”
“I am. And you are Wazad the Transverse, fulfillment of Therosi prophecy that I thought was far fetched. If you are here, there is much danger ahead, and I am the first of your instructors to prepare you in your quest to save all of existence. Do you accept, being of another lower spacetime?”
“I guess, but you can just call me Maria.”
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