The Baron La Croix is one of four now. Before, he was one of two, the Grand Brigette alternating the one spot, but the two were always known to be together since that time, very long ago, when he and Brigette opened their eyes on the center ring of Arada where they sat in lofted seats and other beings of power, that they would slowly come to recognize as their children, siblings, parents, or sometimes no relation but still a rich shared history that bled across his memory like ink in water, looked to them as their rulers, or as their paragons who set trends and made patterns. They were the Patternists of Arada, more godlike than royalty, able to impact reality with concentration because together they were a complementary expression of reality that represented the space they inhabited. La Croix and Brigette, and all of the Aradnans who presided over the many rings of Arada, came into existence fully formed at some specific point in the history of Outer Spacetime and they had memories of lives lived before that point, and who knows if they were real, but they all remembered it so it was history.
The present had existed as an extension of that shared history for so long that the Baron La Croix had become bored. He seemed to realize what other inhabitants of Outer Spacetime who had been born there either were ignorant of or chose to ignore, that their existence was static. It should be noted that new systems with fully realized cultures and peoples appear regularly in Outer Spacetime, but it is always the same paradigm, a pantheon of godlike beings who rule practically faceless peoples who are representative of the many conscious beings of lower spacetime. Nothing died in Outer Spacetime, any being could sustain any injury and be healed from it eventually and presumably every being is ancient and has existed for a long time, never aging, though children are born and age to a specific point in adulthood when maturity stops forever. Disappearances happen and it was in pursuit of a being native to Outer Spacetime who had disappeared that the famed detective of the Aifyn Line discovered had disappeared when they left the bounds of existence that could be observed at specific points in space.
“That’s not possible,” the detective’s loyal assistant said in his office on Aifyn. “Existence doesn’t just end. Outer Spacetime is infinite.”
“The Ice Prince proved that there are bounds to this existence when he used the wynds to travel all around Outer Spacetime. It is large, there are wonders in the depths of space that we can hardly imagine, but it is not infinite, and beyond it, we cannot exist.” The detective was disturbed by the realization and so were others who learned the fate of the missing fyn, though there were plenty who thought like his assistant that even if it were true, it didn’t really mean anything. It couldn’t really have any implication in the everyday lives of the fyns of the Aifyn Line nestled inside the seemingly infinite space around them.
The wizards of Oliju were among the most concerned by the news and they went to the edge of Outer Spacetime to study their reality first hand. With their magic, they discovered that the beings of Outer Spacetime were wraith beings, not spirits or ghosts, but also not beings of physical space like the beings who traveled to Outer Spacetime from lower spacetime. They were shaped from the stuff of Outer Spacetime, inspired by the dreams of beings of lower spacetime and formed by the magic of the realm, magic that ceased when it did. Some beings of Outer Spacetime reject the Oliju conception of their existence, but when the Baron La Croix desired to know more about his existence, he went to the Oliju wizards, also known as the Pattern Wizards.
Lead among the wizards is the High Patternist, a former engineer who helped to design the structure of the Aifyn Line. Many of the inhabitants of Oliju are expert engineers who design structures all over the Aifyn Line, and the Oliju Wizards are able to create sound structures on any terrain because of their advanced understanding of pattern magic.
“So we are already dead?” La Croix said to the High Patternist as they floated over the mountains of Oliju. “Outer Spacetime is some kind of holding place for souls?”
“No, we are not dead. We can only know death by leaving Outer Spacetime. We are perpetual in this space, we are likely to exist for as long as it does. We are Outer Spacetime, our sentience comes from the magic of it. We are wraith beings in the sense that we do not have mortal lives that will expire, we persist as impressions made on the very stuff of our being.”
“So we can never know the death that I saw in my dreams?” La Croix asked wistfully.
“Why do you want it?” The High Patternist asked.
“Because I have felt it and it is more than anything I have ever felt before. Death Magic…” La Croix started and the High Patternist ground to a halt in their slow floating over the mountains. The Patternist lifted both his hands as though he were shielding himself from an attack.
“Don’t even speak of it! The wizards discovered that magic beyond the scope of Outer Spacetime. It can’t exist here, it is the antithesis of pattern magic that dictates the rules of existence as we know it. I can’t imagine that beings of Outer Spacetime would be able to wield that magic, it would completely undo us, not to mention the environment that sustains us.”
“But I am Death,” La Croix said with a laugh that mocked the High Patternist’s concerns. “I have learned of the Baron Samedi and we are one in the same, therefore Death Magic has its place in Outer Spacetime. I appreciate your concerns, but one does not remake their existence by being timid and afraid. I bid you farewell, High Wizard. I’m sure that we will meet again soon.”
“Heed my words, Baron Loa of Arada, your current path bodes ill for all you know and love. For all that I have sworn to protect. We leave as enemies if you intend to realize your dreams. ”
“We could leave as allies, everything needs its counterpart,” La Croix said as he began to fade from the High Patternist’s view. “I will bring what Outer-Spacetime has been missing and we will finally know a full existence.”
When the Baron La Croix disappeared, the High Patternist went back to his coven of the Oliju Wizards determined to save their existence from the reckless Baron.
PRL Serials 