“I’ll pay with information,” Will said.

The man nodded appreciatively.

“I accept,” he said. “Let’s have a few answers then. Consider it a down payment on your first lessons.”

“Okay,” Will said. He started to get nervous for what the man might think to ask.

“How’d you get over here?”

“I went through the Neptinox portal. I fell into it.”

“And how long did it stay open afterwards?”

“I’m not really sure. My friends say that it was open for another two days, I think,” Will said.

“Another two days…” he muttered this back again as if considering something. “Last question,” he said finally as he stood. “Did you have the Cakrit before or after you came through the portal?”

“I got it only slightly before.”

Credic looked confused. He started to ask something else but stopped himself. “Let’s talk about the Voidside. You need to understand what it is before you go in again.”

This was good. Will had wanted to know what was going on for quite some time.

“It’s a sort of shadow of the regular world. For the most part, everything on the outside shows up in the Voidside as well. You probably recognized that. Once you went in, it looked the same, except purple right?”

“Yes, but there were differences.”

“That’s right. What were they?”

“The first thing I noticed was that my friends were moving slower.”

“Half-speed. That’s what a Darkhand calls it, but what’s really happening, is those inside the Voidside are going faster. Your friends… they were just continuing to talk or move or whatever they were doing. To them, nothing slowed down at all.”

“I’m confused.”

“That’s okay. We’ll try it out tomorrow. What else did you notice?”

“I walked through your wall.”

“Good, this is also important.”

“How could that happen?”

“Remember, I called the Voidside a shadow. Most things inside have no substance.”

“So, you can walk through anything?”

“Practically. Now, don’t go trying that out. As a rule, Darkhands don’t go through anything that they aren’t positive where it ends. There’s been quite a few who have lost their lives wandering into something that they couldn’t ever find their way out of. If you were to attempt to come back to the real world, but you happened to do it on top of something solid. Well… let’s just say it would be your last jump.”

“I thought there was a way to hold things in the Voidside,” Will said.

“Oh, there is, but we won’t talk about that yet. You need to understand the basics first.”

Thump, thump, thump. There came a loud rapping on the wall.

“You’ve got cautious friends,” Credic said.

“Yeah, I need to get back to them. They should know that you’re going to teach me.”

The man gave a nod. “Makes sense,” he said. “Listen, I know the three of you are tired. You need a place to sleep. Let them know they can do so inside tonight, if they’d like.”

“Thank you,” Will said, “but I’m not sure they’ll accept.”

“I understand.” The man didn’t look irritated. “Go ahead, open a pocket. Be careful of the solid things outside. Oh and lastly, one feeding will allow you inside and out. Your Cakrit will be able to create two pockets each time.”

Should Ezra, Bet and Will…

Sleep outside for the night

Sleep inside Credic’s house

This Poll is Closed