The Aspiring Archivist

"Yep. Oh, and I can increase my mental speed with these." He held up his hand, displaying the zinc rings. "That's how I did the thing with the books earlier."

Lerac came out of the void dead. His body was twisted unnaturally, his chest and neck cut open and bleeding. He lay on the ground, unmoving. "No. A different dimension entirely. And the powers are from another different dimension. It's complicated." He Pulled the coin back to himself and caught it.

"Here, I'll show you." TAAron walked to one end of one stretch of hallways and checked to make sure no one was around. "You might want to get out of the way." He held a coin up to the wall, and then Pushed. He was flung all the way down the hallway, landing steadily on his feet with the aid of pewter. "That's what I mean." Lerac could see nothing, feel nothing. It was like his connection to reality had been cut. I could see someone going crazy in here. Suddenly, he felt a lurch, and a pull. It was like he was being grabbed and yanked. The only thing keeping him from flying away was the rope around his waist.

"Sure thing." He finished taking the rope off, and tied it around his waist. "Off I go." He stepped into the Void.

"Um, one small problem. I don't know how to ride a horse. But I could Push myself to the griffin if I had to, I'll just need a pouch of coins." "Okay." Lerac began untying the rope from Wynn. "Do you want to tell me what happened in there?"

"He did already see us, but Haly made up a lie to excuse it. Hopefully he's not still very suspicious. So, what exactly should I be saying and doing while I'm in Nolika?" Lerac quickly made his way to her side. "Wynn, are you okay? Do you need me to heal you? Something happened, I assume."

Lerac counted off three minutes. Let's hope this works. He tugged on the rope to pull Wynn out of the Void. "No." He paused. "Do you think this is the best course of action? For me to go, I mean."

TAAron looked almost disappointed. She still didn't say it back. Maybe it's too much. He went to follow Ashli.

TAAron went and gave Haly one last hug. "I love you. See you soon."

TAAron sighed. "I'll get it." He walked over and opened the door reluctantly. "Hello, Ashli."

He hugged her back and held her there. "I'll wait here for Ashli, okay?"

Lerac sat and waited for three minutes to pass.

"Pretty soon, I think. I'll have to wait for Ashli to get back to me on it. I'm sorry, Haly, I just want to protect you."

Lerac laughed for the first time since he had died. "Alright. How long should I wait before pulling you back out?" "You just said... never mind." He said nothing for an awkward moment. "Anyway, I want to go because I'm the most capable one for the task. If there is another way, I would love to stay. It just seems like the best option."

"Wait, don't you care about your brother maybe being dead?" "Fine, I guess that makes sense." Lerac picked up the rope. "You ready to go?"

Lerac looked worried. "Are you sure about this? If we both might not be able to get out anyway, I should go."

"Right. But will you be able to get out if I somehow can't pull you back in?" "That was a... pretty convincing performance. But what are you going to do if someone looks into it?"

"You execution rope? You'll have to tell me more about that. And, uh, will you be able to get out if you get lost?"

TAAron tried to hide his surprise at the lie, instead putting on his best sad expression. "Yes... I was breaking the news to her." "I'm not sure. Would you be able to get me out if I did somehow get lost in there?"

"Got it... you might need to show me how to step through, because that looks completely normal to me."

Are we allowed to have more than one character?

"So... What does that mean for our mission?"

"Interesting. I think it just makes me happy. And I kind of got a jolt when you hugged me right after I came back to life."

Cool. I'm excited!