“I’m going with her and you should too,” Supplejack says. His green skin is dark, and Maria likes the tone of the green when it reflects light. She smiles at him as she watches him with Thane, and a few of the other Mao Ri, and the first Wazad.
“That’s against prophecy isn’t it?” Thane says and he looks to Garoa.
Garoa is stunning, and when she is in her presence, Maria has to force herself to look away from her. Oftentimes, Maria stares in awe at the blue tint of her black hair that seems to glitter like the cosmos and when Garoa catches her, she smiles before Maria looks away with embarrassment. Garoa is the Mao Ri that Maria knows the least about because she is so intimidated by her beauty.
Garoa looks from Thane to Maria and shakes her head. “You two will not accompany her, you both have taught her plenty about corralling undisciplined power. I will accompany her, but only to bear witness to her exploits. If that is alright with the Transverse, of course.”
Maria is surprised and she can’t help but to look at Garoa, her soft smile and the fierceness of her eyes that seemed to lock existence in place under her glare.
“I will be your witness,” Garoa says with a half bow.
“Well, I am ready,” Maria says and turns, then points up at the sky that is dark in the absence of the comet, but teeming with stars and other celestial bodies in the exotic colors of Outer Spacetime. “I want to start there. There seems to be a current of some kind that interacts with the six rivers and maybe moves to every corner of Outer Spacetime.” Maria is tracing a path across the cosmos with her finger.
“Then let’s be off,” Garoa says and she lifts off the ground. Pearls of moisture coalesce around her when she uses her magic and she is a sight to see.
“Then it is settled,” Thane says to Supplejack and the other Mao Ri.
“How shall we make this trip?” Garoa asks. “I gather that you are not yet able to portal such distances.”
“Wazad has been teaching me to use his spacetime navigator, it should do for the voyage ahead. I’m glad that I won’t be alone,” Maria admits, even if she is a bit intimidated.
Wazad’s spacetime navigator is a hexagonal platform constructed of glowing golden light. It is six feet thick, and each side eighteen feet long. The spacetime navigator is a living sentient being that Wazad discovered in the caves of Theron and he was able to communicate with it telepathically. The hexagonal platform refused a name, Wazad explained, and also refused to divulge its true origins, it was not native to Theron or Outer Spacetime at large, but it accepted Wazad and revealed its ability to navigate Outer Spacetime by navigating the folds of reality to move at speeds that defied even the arcana of the Therosi gods. The platform had helped Wazad to explore nearly every corner of Outer Spacetime and he had learned the wonders of the existence that he had adopted as his home.
The platform had taken quickly to Maria and she was able to communicate with it faster than Wazad had anticipated it would take the platform to open up to her. She had used the platform to see all of Theron from the distance of the cosmos and it was truly a wonder in the exotic space. The platform was eager to take her on a tour of the greater reaches of space and to experience her reaction to the wonders that awaited them.
Maria and Garoa climb onto the platform and Wazad stands below them with the gathered Mao Ri.
“After this, the trials will seem a walk through the unruined Greenspace,” Wazad says with a wry smile.
“If only those existed on Theron,” Maria says as walls begin to grow up from each side of the platform and it eventually encases the two inside. The closed platform is opaque but the figures of the occupants are clear enough. They wave as the platform ascends to the heavens and departs Theron.
“The trials sound more intimidating than they are,” Garoa says as the two make themselves comfortable inside of the spacetime navigator. “In truth, you have already completed them. There are six trials for each of the Mao Ri, and you only need to convince each of us that you are worthy of the immense powers afforded to the Transverse when they touch the roots of the Kōwhai, the existence tree. I think that we are all convinced already. There have been many beings from other worlds, other existences who have made their way to Theron, but none since the first Wazad have even seemed worthy of such immense power.”
“What is the point of the Transverse?” Maria asked.
“To use the powers of Kōwhai to travel the multiversal structure and rid it of the parasite that would steal all the energies of every existence to feed itself. Imagine Kōwhai as a tree and from it, branches spout to produce the various existences of the multiverse. Like trees on Theron, Kōwhai is susceptible to one pest that can wrap it completely and leech its lifeforce. This pest is one of many that float the vast nothingness outside of everything, feeding on other trees, other multiverses like Kowhai. The Transverse can travel the tree of their existence to make sure that Kōwhai is not besieged and being drained, threatening the billions upon billions of lives that Kōwhai nurses.”
“That is mind boggling,” Maria admits and she shakes her head slowly. Nothing she has experienced thus far, in all of its mind shattering glory, prepared her for the reality that not only is there a multiverse with a near infinite number of worlds, but there are multiple multiverses and there are things large enough to feed on them.
“There are so many secrets of existence, Maria. We Therosi have learned much from our interaction with Kōwhai.”
“Why isn’t the Transverse Therosi?”
“We are of Outer Spacetime,” Garoa explains. “Kōwhai says that the Transverse must travel through the multiverse before arriving in Outer Spacetime. It is the only way to ensure that they can handle the rigors of multiversal travel and the nothingness outside of everything. The Therosi have no power outside of Outer Spacetime. We cease to exist when we travel outside of this space that created us. You, Maria, traveled through two existences to find Outer Spacetime. We did not anticipate that the Transverse would be Wazad, we honestly never thought that we would meet a Wazad who wasn’t from the lower space of our existence.”
“I wonder why the first Wazad isn’t the Transverse,” Maria asks, mostly musing aloud, but Garoa was happy to muse aloud with her.
“I think that Wazad could have become the Transverse, but he refused to leave Outer Spacetime to prove that he could travel the multiverse. After meeting you, it makes sense that he is not.”
“If I am the Transverse, will I have to go where Kōwhai demands? Will I lose the life I had before completely?”
“You will gain the ability to monitor Kōwhai from your life in your home existence, and the ability to travel to Kōwhai at will. You will be the only being in all of existence capable of traveling the multiverse at the speed of her thoughts. You will no longer be Wazad, you will be much more.”
“And the creature that I would be monitoring for,” Maria continues, “are you expecting it to arrive soon?”
Garoa shrugs. “Maybe it has already wrapped Kōwhai and we need you more than we realize. If it has, you will have to use the powers of the Transverse to gather a powerful team from the multiverse who can dislodge it. I wish that I could be part of that, I wish that I could see another existence first hand. The creatures that threaten Kōwhai are not so pervasive that we fear there is one currently draining Kōwhai, but there are enough that someone needs to keep watch. I know that you are that someone, Maria. You are everything that the legends of the Transverse describe. It seems that you already have the powers of Kōwhai streaming through you. I have seen the way you conduct yourself on Theron. You have the patience to deal with the dullness of Tiki, and you are powerful enough to corral the Mao Ri when we get drunk and destroy the very things we make for the beings who inhabit our world and worship us. You charted Outer Spacetime from the surface of Theron, even Wazad had to use the platform to identify all of the systems that I saw you noted in your scrolls. You are here because you are the Transverse, I am convinced.”
The spacetime navigator moves quickly through space as the two talk, safely inside the structure that is undetectable by even the most technologically advanced detection systems of Outer Spacetime. Eventually, after significant time, the navigator arrives at a star system of nine planets that revolve around a giant yellow star. The planets all move around their star together, like a line of marbles of varying sizes moving in step around the sun. There are visible structures that connect the planets.
“The Aifyn Line,” Garoa says and they stare through a wall of the navigator that is translucent to show the passengers that they have arrived at Maria’s intended destination. “Once properly aligned, travel through their structures from the planet furthest from the sun to the closest, and through the sun, allows you to access the pathway to easily navigate all of Outer Spacetime.”
It is a wonder to watch the planets revolving and to imagine the civilization that lived there and made such vast structures across their solar system.
“Do you know the beings of the Aifyn Line? Are they very scientifically advanced?”
Garoa laughs. “To them, their technology, the things they build, are all manifestations of their magic. They wouldn’t recognize the word technology.”
“Fascinating,” Maria says.
“We should land on the planet midway between the closest and farthest from the sun,” Garoa says and Maria feels the navigator agree and chart a course for the planet. “Be cautious Maria. The inhabitants of the Aifyn Line are fanatical about their understanding of Outer Spacetime. We do not want to insult them or they will banish us and not allow use of their structures. Just be very polite and if they believe something you know to be false, just go along.”
Maria nods and watches Aifyn in its orbit.
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