In the Fold

Somewhere, Sometime

As fragile dominos were being set in the Solar System and other portions of the Multiverse, a young girl refused to lose the only thing dear to her, her crippled father. Few unfoldings in the last couple of billion years were to the Multiverse as important as the one taking place now. It twisted and bent upon itself so the impossible could happen changing Pi in portions of the worlds. In places, this altered the very fabric of space. To the Multiverse, the latest bent was needed along a simple path, from its outer regions of The Cold to its core, The Lower where the Oldest waited.

The Multiverse wasn't petty. There would be a cost to this needed waste of energy, and those responsible would pay. But for the moment, it awoke to scratch an itch. The Multiverse allowed its walls to weaken, the same way skin and tissue had to be cut open before a surgery could happen. The child needed help, but it stood far from the guidance and mentorship she required to save her.

The very nature of space bent, everywhere.

A twelve-year-old Earth girl, the only creature valued by greater things, armed with the best of intentions, entered what she believed was her father's mind. His rescue would wait another day. Unbeknownst to her, the Multiverse had already taken care of Laurent and rescued his sanity by sending a boy from the Purple. The boy was a gift to Laurent because it gave him power. To the Multiverse, Sophie and her love was unique. Her heart was pure and was her friend, she had not given an afterthought as to her well-being before jumping into the unknown.

The girl had no survival instinct. Selfless, utterly. Her love for her father was complete, and frightening in its intensity. She felt drawn to enter his mind, but what she really felt was the Multiverse calling her away from her own reality. She closed her eyes, and with the help of Marilyn, she was once again at the mercy of greater things.

The faint gravity of Mars disappeared. In her heart there was some distant sadness; who was she kidding? Sooner or later, her disabled father would leave her, and his suffering would end. She was fine with that. She felt selfish. How dare she force her father to live in this illusion of a body? Then she felt weak and drowsy. She had lost her mother and her unborn brother. She would rather die than to be an orphan. Luckily, in this immaterial form, she was unable to tear up. Laurent would one day die, but not like this, and not today. She felt the emotions were pouring in from somewhere.

Sophie slid the circle of electronics around her head, and instantly lost contact with the strange Electoral Center. This was a bit like traveling to her dream version of Wonderland. She lost all sense of her own body. There was darkness. She knew there would be a new dream.

Virtual reality was to Sophie nothing more than a long and elaborate man-made illusion. She didn't care about the technical mambo-jumbo. Part of her hoped her father was waiting, in his rocking chair on the porch of his big white house where she had last seen him. He loved the large southern house. But Sophie had a nagging feeling things would not be that easy.

The place in which she now floated was strange; this wasn't her father's normal interface. Her head also felt heavier than normal; there was no pain, but she was definitely under some type of strain. She was in a fog, like what she had felt as she was absorbed by LO's music back in the catapult. She had to focus, her mind had to be sharp. She tried to think of the present, her body, and the tube around her. Slowly she began to feel better, more awake. The darkness remained, unrelenting.

***

She was formless, in the dark, and then gravity returned. Her formless body began to fall, drawn forward and accelerating. She'd become a cosmic skydiver, punching through dark layers of invisible clouds. The feeling felt good against her immaterial skin. At first she saw nothing, heard nothing. She just felt the waves hit her face in a rapid succession.

"Daddy!" she shouted in vain.

There was no sound. She was on her way to someplace dark, deep. The feeling of being dragged through invisible walls intensified. She was wasting precious time. In her mind she tried to visualize her father, go to him, and that effort appeared to slow down her progression to the deep pits of this hell. Then, as if she had arrived at her destination, the ballet of cloud layers stopped. This must have been where Laurent was lost.

Slowly, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she began to distinguish shapes. Sophie was floating immobile in a strange new world. The girl began to distinguish rocks and crystals. Everything here was some shade of brown. This definitely wasn't where she wanted to go. She now floated, bodiless in an endless underwater cavern. This place was huge and around were millions of crystal-like structure anchored to the rocks. This felt like being in a deep geyser, with surrounding walls covered by giant snowflakes. Somehow she could see in this muddy soup.

"Daddy!" she tried again. There was no up or down. "How could anything live here?" she wondered to herself. This must have been some strange dream created by her father. "Daddy?" she ventured, unsure of herself. This time the words seemed to have an impact on the world around her. As she said it, a shock wave spread in the water, in every direction away from her body. As the sound waves hit the distant walls of the cavern, they damaged some crystals and bounced back like a sonar. This place was weird. No one could dream up something this strange. Somehow, the brown reminded her of the Purple space where she met the rock creature.

"Daddy, where are you?" she tried again but this time without shouting. The weaker voice had almost the same effect on this fragile world. A new wave spread outwardly, snapped of more of the wall crystals and rebounded back her way. She had to be careful.

Then, contrasting with the ambient numbness, she saw in the distance one little dot, a bubble shape made of the crystals of incredible complexity. Inside it, there was beautiful shining lights. She knew this thing was alive. The creature was swimming in the murky liquid. Broken, floating shards, and coming directly her way, evading the light. As it got closer, she could distinguish more of the details inside of it. It was round and looked like a perfect snowball made of a giant snowflake of transparent crystal. This was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen in her life. She had no doubt, this thing was alive. It looked like a jellyfish without tentacles. The bubble came closer and stopped within touching distance.

~ Welcome, visitor, ~ resonated a deep voice. As it spoke, the light pulsed to the sound. This creature was talking to her.

"Where is my father?" she asked as softly as she could, not wanting to hurt the creature. There was no sound wave this time.

~ I are sorry. I do not know the creature you call "father." You are the first outsider to enter our world. We do not hold him. He is not here. ~

"He must be here, we're in his mind now. This is his dream."

~ I wish you were right, young one. When you came here, you moved between worlds, realms, facets of the Multiverse; characterize them how you may. I was able to attract you here. I must help you. ~

"You are mistaken. I entered my father's head using a machine. We are in his mind. Let me go. I must find him." Her last word was stronger, it created a wave. The energy hit the creature's outer shell and pushed it back. Sophie saw the few broken crystals on its shell regenerate. It swam back from where it stood.

~ Apologies. I want to help. I understand how confusing this must be for you. I must be blamed; I made you come here. I have a proposition. ~

"Forreal?" said Sophie, dipping her verbal toes into the lake of 2072's slang of the young.

~ This is our world. Many call it the Lower. You are our guest. We mean you no harm. ~

"Let me go. Now."

~ Please, listen to my proposal. It may be useful for you. ~

"I don't care. My father is in danger. Let me go, I have to find him."

~ I apologize. You are, and have been, free to go. ~

Sophie needed to find her father. She needed to be next to him and had no time to waste with the bubble creature. She closed her mind's eye and focused hard on her overarching desire to be with him. It worked, and immediately this world called the Lower began to fade. The flooded brown cavern was replaced by darkness. Soon, she could feel a sensation of punching upward through invisible dark walls, she was going back home.

She was leaving this place.

The creature had not lied; it let her go.

She wondered if her impulsive nature was not getting in her own way. She may have been hasty in dismissing the help. She knew the beautiful creature meant her no harm and was in no position to turn down help. Strange things were going on, to say the least. Sophie decided that she wanted to go back to hear the proposition. So she imagined the brown cavern, and the strange little bubble of light. The rising sensation slowed and she felt like she then began to reverse course. She was returning to the place called the Lower. Within moments, she was back where she had been, in the large cavern. The brown color reappeared. The small crystal bubble was still there.

~ I am honored that you have returned. I wish to help. ~

"Why? You must want something."

~ Correct. Yes. I want, above all else, to travel between worlds, and you alone can take me. To do so, I must help you and advise you. ~

"You said you have a proposal. Let's hear it."

~ The line you must walk is thin. There is a task that you need to complete. Something very important. I cannot interfere with your task, but I can help. Others will try to hinder you. I have vast knowledge, collected with great cost and effort over many millennia. I can provide information about these others and other potential pitfalls that may lead to your downfall. Information may be the key to success. ~

"I don't get it?"

He could sense the girl's building frustration. ~ Strange things must have begun happening around you. The law of impermeability, what let you travel here, does not bind you. When you travel between worlds, to search for your father and meet your destiny, I would desire to follow you and help you find him. If you simply will for me to follow you, I believe I will be able to. I vow to remain with you until your task is done, or I die. ~

"Why do you want to leave? Are you a prisoner of this place?"

~ In my world, we do not grow old and die. I am old. Very old. In fact, since I am the oldest known creature of the Multiverse, many simply call me “the Oldest.” Since we cannot move between the realms that compose the Multiverse, I've come to feel like a prisoner. Quite frankly, I am bored. I want to see other places, even if for a moment. My survival is inconsequential. ~

"This place is boring in colors. You will love other places." The creature began to pulse with light. Obviously, it was happy. "You will have no body if you follow me, how is this possible."

– Things will work out. Trust yourself. Greater forces are at play around you. –

"What is your name again?"

~ I have many names. Here, I am called the Oldest. ~

She thought briefly. "No. I will call you Liam."

Sophie saw a beautiful ballet of lights tingle in the bubble as she named it. She looked up. In the distance other bubbles were approaching.

"Others?"

~ Yes, they envy me. They will interfere. Let us go, please. ~

"Now?"

~ Please. ~

Sophie was not in mood to debate with others. Plus, she found herself liking the wordy little glowing ball. It was cute, in an alien sort of way. It reminded her in a strange way of the rock creature from the Purple but in a much more refined version.

As she did moments before, she closed her mind's eye and imagined she was back with her father. This time, she imagined Liam was there with her, zipping to and throughout the enveloping blackness. She began her way up, smashing through the layers of the Multiverse.