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The Word 9
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The Word 9 (Disk 2 of 2).adf
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11-DualWorld.txt
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11-DualWorld.txt
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1996-01-17
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|1-Dual World
by Sparhawk.
Read this and learn...
I awoke from a deep slumber, vestiges of a nightmare still bothering
me. It was my big day, I had the honour of unrolling the carpet in
front of the Cardinal, head of the trio of ruling Sorcerers.
Yavoral, for that was the Cardinal's name, was to open the first portal
in over twelve thousand years on this very day, and I would have a
enviable view.
What lay behind the portal? Nobody knew, least of all me. Not even
Yavoral himself knew.
According to ancient records, the first portal was created in 844, on
the eve of the infamous Ferali invasion. Fearful that the Ferali would
overrun the whole world, the ruling trio of that time had taken drastic
steps and ripped apart the fabric of space itself. It was a highly
dangerous manoeuvre, because nobody knew what would happen.
What did happen though was that the first ever portal was created. A
shimmering disk appeared, suspended in the air. Objects thrown at that
disk disappeared, never to be seen again. Eventually one volunteer
pushed his arm through, and pulled it back unarmed.
As the Sorcerers grew hasty one of them pushed his head through the
hole, and when he came back he reported a new world on the other side.
He climbed back through, fully in body. He didn't return.
After that the Sorcerers deemed the portal too dangerous to meddle
with. They turned their attentions back to the Ferali. After a few
days of the battle it was discovered that Ferali had an extreme dislike
of bright light. This was enough with which to force them away.
Long after the war had been forgotten the Sorcerer who had entered that
first portal returned, seeming very dazed. He was very disoriented, but
when he had calmed down and was interviewed, it turned out that a very
strange thing had happened.
It seemed that there was a massive time loss between the two worlds.
On one side of the portal a day, which the Sorcerer had spent there, was
the equivalent of two years on the normal side. With this information,
a team of Sorcerers entered the portal and were told to spend no more
than a few hours on analysis.
A few months later those Sorcerers returned with their analysis. It
seemed that the world on the other side of the portal was very similar
to their own, and seemed totally uninhabited. There were animals, of
course, and these were the equivalent of sheep, cows and such. Because
of the impossibility of using this world with the massive time-lapse, it
was forgotten.
The second portal was opened in 1139, on the whim of the mad king
Febold. He ordered the Cardinal of that era to open one because he was
curious. After intense preparation it was done, but as soon it opened
floods of water came pouring through. This water ran for days, ruining
the royal palace and causing a new river to be created, the aptly named
Portfebold river. Sorcerers eventually closed it.
Febold had ordered the entire trio to be killed.
The third, and final portal, had been created in 1521. The purpose for
this one was a pure magical experiment, to try and create fast trade
routes across the world. As usual, a volunteer entered first. But he
did not return. There was no time lapse problem this time, it was
merely a one way portal. The world was inhabitable, and deserted, but
no living creature could leave the portal once entered. This was
revealed when the original volunteer sent a note through.
The trio were loathe to close such a potentially useful portal, so they
came up with an idea. It would be used as a penitentiary. Eventually,
a massive walled blockade was built around the portal and a gate before
it. This 'Gate of the Doomed' as it was to be called led to the prison
world.
Too late someone realised what they had all forgot. A body came out of
the portal a few weeks later. It was the original volunteer, used for
sport by the violent criminals.
And now the fourth, and latest, portal was to be opened. Perhaps it
would be useful, perhaps disastrous, but it had to be tried. For a
deadly plague swept the land. Already the countryside lay quiet, towns
burned in the distance. Only the great cities remained unaffected,
quarantined from the rest of the world.
I was to be one of the first to see. Yavoral intoned the necessary
spells and waved his arms in a complex pattern. Slowly, a shimmering
appeared in the air between two engraved pillars already set for the
purpose. The trio had worked long creating these. Yavoral had
explained that this way they could exercise a small amount of control
over the outcome. They wouldn't explain what they hoped the outcome
would be.
When he had finished Yavoral entered the portal himself. And came out
the other side.
There were sighs of sadness in the crowd as they realised the portal
had failed. They were resigned to death by the plague. Across the
land, in other cities, similar scenes must be occurring, for exact
replicas of this portal were created there.
Yavoral himself seemed dismayed as he could be. He walked up to the
king, and bowed before him. Tears glistened on his face.
"I am sorry, my liege. I have failed."
The king went to tap Yavoral on the shoulder in commiseration, and his
hand passed through.
A gasp of wonder spread through the crowd.
"It worked!" said Yavoral as he realised what had happened. "We have
created a portal to our own world!"
Later, when everyone had entered the portal, it was explained that
Yavoral's portal led to their own world, only shifted in reality.
Nothing could harm them, but they could outwait the plague here.
Messengers on horseback (passed through the portal) sped to neighbouring
cities to tell them the portals worked.
That night there was rejoicing in the land.
Weeks later the plague ended. Animals began to live longer, and
everyone noticed a stronger sense of vitality in the air. Soon, someone
was brave enough to return to the real world. She stood by the portal,
and stepped through. Nothing happened.
...And that is my story. We are many now, we have food a plenty for
the animals we brought through have bred, and the crops we have planted
have given bountiful harvests. We also have bred, most of the women
have had uneventful births.
There is nothing wrong here. There have been no illnesses, and no
death. The air is pure, the water and land is pure. We live in the
open. There is no danger from predators, or from cold or heat. It is
merely comfortable. The sun never moves.
We live a discoporate existence. We are merely ghosts upon the world.
We can see vaguely our great cities, already overgrown, though we just
walk through then. In time, our newborn will now no different, but for
now it eats at our hearts. We have discovered paradise, but at a great
loss. We know that it should be perfect, but we yearn for our old
lives.
I, Charl, Cardinal of the trio, have tried to open a new portal, but we
lack the materials, or the knowledge. The complex spell is written in
the books, but books we cannot see. We are frustrated by being able to
read the pages that open, but unable to turn them.
There is no-one on the world now but us. The plague wiped everyone
else out, even those felons on the prison world. They were killed by
infested food sent through. We are the only survivors of mankind,
trapped in a ghostly existence forever.
I am keeping this record so we will never forget. Our newborn will
have children, and the children will have yet more children. But we
cannot forget, records must be kept, for some day we will break free.
Someday.
End