Keya Ces trailed distractedly behind her oblivious tour guide. Her neck carped from the strain as she swivelled about, committed to beholding every perplexing wonder in view. She failed dismally. Following Jonathan out the ‘kitchen’, they traced the circular passage once more before turning right into a chamber on the outer rim of the subterrane manor. For this was a manor, and he a king or lord of some sort.

The large, vacant, and almost wholly unadorned chamber, was a welcome respite. She would rather not bear further strain on her mind, senses, and neck. Instead, the floor, walls, and ceiling were painted a mockingly bright green: fair trade, in her opinion.

Six square equidistant mats made of long continuous strips were arrayed about the chamber. The peculiar rugs recessed into the floor, flush with the surrounding green surface. Testing a mat, it gave slightly underfoot before she stepped back again. I should forego all descriptions of ‘strange’ in this place, may as well be pronouncing water as ‘wet’ in the sea.

“Those? The omnidirectional treadmills will be off for this program. Here,”

He dislodged a set of bulky eye masks with straps from a station near the entrance.

“These are VR Goggles; you won’t see or hear anything initially, I’m gonna put them on for you, okay? You can remove them any time.”

She acquiesced with a nod, and Jon carefully fitted the thing atop her head, struggling a bit with her long ears.

“Ouch!”

“Sorry! Elf ears weren't anticipated in the design.”

“Why not?” Someone as wealthy and apprised as him admitting ignorance was an auspice. Grandpa always said, ‘The wise know what they do not know, admitting it freely.’

“You’re the first elf ever to use one.” The first… then I am his first Elven apprentice?

Bands were adjusted until it sat comfortably hoisted upon her crown. It was surprisingly light, and luxurious fabric moulded to her skull and cheeks. The comfort was akin to silken sheets she once felt at a trader’s stall.

Even tensioned, the straps flexed and stretched to accommodate motion around her head and neck. With sight and hearing obscured, this world still baffled her. She marginally pulled the mask away quickly met by the luminous green glow of the room. Assured, she relented in darkness.

“Alright, can you hear me? Testing, Testing, 1,2,3…”

“What are you testing?” She pivoted toward the sound.

Master Kel chuckled. “Not to worry, you passed. Okaaay, so you'll see a light appear near me.”

No sooner had he spoken, and despite everything being dark, Master Kelly emerged near a bright blue marbled orb. He wore the same mask as her, covering ears and eyes, and yet they beheld and heard one another unhindered.

Her hands and body were implausibly visible through the mask. The rest of the room, on the other hand, was banished. Instead, an interminable grey vista spread unbroken before her while dim light shone down from nowhere and yet everywhere. Lifting the headdress gave way to the room once more. I see into another realm! Returning, she inspected her spectral body: unchanged save for an aberrant outline where it met this other plane.

“This is magic without a doubt. There is no way in the damned heavens you can convince me otherwise.”

“What it is, is not as crucial as what it can show you. Multimedia is essential to speed your education. Tons of teaching and training will be necessary both here and world-side. I suspect computer literacy is not an extant skill in your world and won’t be for some time, so we've got this.”

“We are safe, no? The apparitions of this realm cannot harm or bewitch us, can they?”

“Safe as houses, just a bit of noise and light is all.”

The spirit realm perhaps? Receiving tuition from beyond the grave was far fetched, even after all she had witnessed. Grandpa! The hope crept unbidden to from her heart; could she say ‘goodbye?’

“I… I wish you to summon my Grandfather, if possible.”

He opened his mouth to respond.

“-A moment is all I would need!” Keya knew it was too much too soon. Already, there was ample she must repay. But this was a further debt she would gladly shoulder, however steep.

“Ah…” Master Kelly lowered is head and tone. “I see. Your misconception is not uncommon; I’m sorry I failed to anticipate it.”

There it was; just as possibility warmed her, so too did despair precipitously freeze the blood within her chest.

“Dashing your hopes was not the ride I intended to give. This,” he spread arms, “is a place of memory and dreams, not a way to peer into the afterlife. I could make something look similar to your Grandfather. Could be indiscernible if I had more data, which I don’t. Still, it wouldn’t be him. Just a doll you could pretend with.” He removed the mask, as did she, meeting her with an equanimous gaze, “As your recruiter and trainer, I suggest this is ill-advised. Your mind and memories are the only true means of consolation. No amount of magic will ever change that, and I would not wish to pervert your recollections with some crap facsimile.”

All she could do was vigorously nod in return. After which, silence stretched for far longer than any lord should entertain a guest. In between, there may have been some brief sobs and tearful eyes. Such things were quickly wiped clean with lavish paper handkerchiefs. A final cathartic sigh left her mostly composed. “Forgive me my weakness, Master Kelly. I have squandered much of your generous patience with my selfishness.”

“Nah, it’s cool. You wanna continue, or take a break?”

“You are too kind.” She sniffed. Even such a pleasantry, however perfunctory, was far too charitable. “Please, anything to divert my thoughts is a welcome reprieve.”

“Alright, if you’re sure…” Waving her to the room’s centre, they adorned the Headdresses of Dreams and Memory and peered once more into the Grey Realm. “Anyway, this is the best us Gamma Worlders can offer as far as intuitive interfaces go. I’ll acquaint you with the haptics later. For now, have a look at this.”

Moving toward the glowing orb, she noticed white swirls shifting gradually on top of blues, browns, and greens. Its significance became immediately apparent. “This is some kind of moving map is it not? Why is it round?” Tiny landmasses floated below wispy clouds.

“This is my homeworld Gamma C-037-072.”

“That is a very odd name.”

“It’s the designation; almost everyone calls their origin world Earth. It can get confusing. To answer your second question; this a model, not a map, scaled-down obviously, but entirely accurate. It’s round because all worlds, or ‘planets’ as we call them, are.”

As he spoke, two more almost identical orbs materialised stacked beneath the first. Cloud cover differed, but the landmasses traced similar shores.

“This is the next level down,” The central orb was a world with far more browns than his. “the Delta worlds, and deeper still,” He pointed to the bottom globe, perhaps a tinge more verdant than his. “are Epsilon worlds like yours. Bear in mind, what I’m showing is abstract. We are not literally floating above your world.”

“Seers and soothsayers maintain our world is flat. Albeit, I grant round worlds like the moons appear more elegant, explaining why things do not fall off is considered an intractable problem.”

“Yeah, the same laws that govern those moons of yours govern your world too. And that’s an axiomatic principle to remember. Homogeneity applies to all universes, though not necessarily between universes. In any event, your world is definitely round, I already have enough network stations in place to extrapolate curvature. Hell, your world is either very similar or an outright twin of most Earths.”

“If Master says as much, then I will not question it.”

“Nah-uh. Rule 2: Question everything. Don’t bank on my say-so, in fact never just accept on anyone’s say-so. Always question. ‘Nullius in verba.’ Always ask for evidence. Until then remain unconvinced either way.”

“Very well, do you have evidence?”

“Sadly, nothing that will be compelling enough for you. Numbers on pages would be a meaningless overture, I expect. Anywho, in the next few days, I can offer some visual confirmation.”

“So I am unconvinced then, by your own rationale?” She raised an eyebrow, a fruitless gesture under the mask, but her tone carried intent.

“That you are!” His head bobbed agreeably. “So, to get back to my exposition. Imagine your world as one of many, connected via a series of branches and offshoots. Visualise a root system like that of a tree.”

With a wave of hands, the orbs multiplied, expanding to fill the void above, beyond, and all around them.

Keya gasped at the sudden change as these worlds inundated her sight. There were thousands! With childlike glee, she spun amongst the glowing balls like the fruit of a divine tree sprouting from above. The orbs finally dimmed to lucid spectres; Master Kelly made no comment, but his twitching lips spoke volumes.

“At the top is Alpha.” He pointed, and a single world glowed bright red at the apex. This dream realm had no ceiling. In contrast to the green room, infinite grey ether spread upwards beyond all bounds.

“They… are a story for another time. Suffice to say, the power to connect new worlds, like yours, is up to them. A few months ago they did just that, and here we are, just me for the moment though. There’s a lot of red tape and paperwork required to petition Alpha, people with funny clothes talking across long tables, boring stuff, trust me. Next, are the Beta worlds,”

A wider swath just below was lit in green.

”Mostly part of the primary root system.” A smaller selection of these green worlds and some worlds below illuminated; they clustered in the centre. “Fertile, resource-rich planets with natural laws identical to, or compatible with, Alpha. Excellent candidates for Alpha migration, expansion, and growth; pleasing for them and marvellous for the natives.

“To become a main root candidate is a boon to all involved. Absurd amounts of riches and technology is shared. Society is uplifted beyond your wildest dreams. We are not in the Main Root. We are here. Our parent Beta world, ain’t even on the map.”

The initial three measly worlds were lit in blue with her supposed world right at the bottom edge of the massive cluster. The ‘Delta’ realm was further in the mesh of roots, while Master’s realm of ‘Gama’ circled quite close to the green primary worlds. The world above, as he inferred, was unlit.

“My realm is quite distant,” Keya said.

“Deep would be a better analogue. There are only four degrees of separation from Alpha to your Epsilon world.”

White lines highlighted the connections.

“Each level has been burrowed into from the world above. And while one world could feasibly burrow into an infinite number of offspring worlds, there is but one parent. Or so we’re told.”

Examining the other globes, she confirmed that they only ever branched down and not up. “I believe I catch your meaning; this resembles a family tree but with only one parent.”

“Very nice! Not many folks notice that initially. The organisation is indeed taxonomic, with traits from parent worlds passed down.”

Keya nodded at the praise.

“Now for the bad news, or the not so good news. What stays the same is, of course, not as vital as what changes. Life in the universe is a fine balance and minor alterations, even in history, can have major impacts down the line. It is said that a flap of a butterfly’s wings," Jon flapped arms 'majestically', "can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world!”

“What is a hurricane?”

“Ah, it’s a huge storm, with strong winds and often flooding.”

“I see. That a butterfly could manage such a feat seems rather absurd.”

“Aaaaand, I’ve I lost you again. Anyway, Beta worlds often have these differences, but the deeper you dive, the greater and more varied those disparities become.”

The worlds about them vanished, and a series of paintings appeared floating in space. Except, they were flawless paintings, indistinguishable from vision. Not even the art in Jon’s abode compared to the vivid colours and light of these.

“Examples such as bungled or successful assassinations.”

She saw a white-robed man surrounded by others with knives, their garb very similar to the venerable Reka Elves near the Southern sea.

“Or new sentient races and an extra set of laws, like friggin magic. Case in point, your world Epsilon H-037-072-030-010.”

An image of some dwarves, elves and humans in a village market floated to the fore.

“There are no elder races in your world?” Such an idea was untenable to her. Next, Master Kel would say there were no wyverns!

“Just humans, only ever humans up to this point. Although there are some whispers on the Multinet of rather interesting things popping up in other Delta and Epsilon worlds, I remained unconvinced until this assignment.” Though the mask was obscuring his eyes—something increasingly frustrating—she caught the brief smirk.

“A moment please, where does all that nonsense about my world being a story feature? You purport these realms are varied purely by chance.”

“Oh right… forgot to explain that, must’ve skipped ahead on my notes.” Jon scanned unused space, likely filled with things only he was privy to. ”There we go. Do you understand Venn diagrams? No, wait, stupid fucking question. Let me just explain.”

He cleared the images with a swipe up and drew a bright blue ring out of light, hanging like everything else before, in empty space.

“This circle represents all the possible universes, or worlds, that one parent universe might sire. Outside are the impossible or unstable universes, again it’s an abstract depiction. Now,” He drew another circle partially overlapping the first in red. “These are all the fictional worlds people create in the parent universe. They are mostly set in the past or present, which quickly becomes the past. As you can see, most stories lie outside the blue circle and are impossible. As an aside, stories of the future tend to miss the mark a lot and are almost always impossible. But a certain segment…” The overlain area of the two circles turned a purple glow. “Is both possible and imagined by someone in the parent world. For some reason, the preponderance of universes we delve into, occupy this intersection: possible, in the past, and uncannily similar to a parent world narrative.

“There are likely more factors and the ‘why’ of it is contentious. The Alphas probably know more, but their lips are sealed. The long and short? In a genuine sense, the stories we tell each other bring those worlds closer to us.”

“You mean to tell me even fanciful childhood tales exist in a realm somewhere? That’s preposterous!”

“You do realise you are yourself a fairytale elf, asking me that question? Now you know exactly how I fucken feel.”

Even proposing that she was some puppeteered character in a book felt insulting.

“I know that face, don’t dwell on the existential implications. Down that way be demons, and unnecessary ones at that. Though these tales may find or lay the pieces on the game board, the paths laid out rarely go as planned. Yours, once again, a case in point. You are you, Kay, so don’t go flipping out on me. I need you. Your world needs you.”

Again she wished she could see his eyes, so she pulled the mask from her face and was greeted by sickeningly jovial green. After a short squint, her eyes adjusted.

Master Kelly responded in kind, and she stood there for long moments evaluating the man, he surveyed the room casually, occasionally making eye contact and shifting from side to side. He opened his mouth to quip but-

“Not a word, Master! I am thinking! That tongue of yours is almost as bad as your addled mind.”

He conceded and simply smiled with mischievous, knowing eyes. There was much to ponder, too much in fact. Am I in any immediate danger in this strange place?

Actions did not lie, though they could be misunderstood. She would work off that for the time being. He had fought for her, stood for her, gave her sustenance, and even clothing. In prior moments of distraught, there had been ample chance for him to take advantage or simply do nothing.

“Very well Master Kel, I will take your wild imaginings as face value, for now. If nothing else you are a considerably wealthy noble with great magicks at his disposal and your actions show no ill harm thus far. The rest I must take time to think on.” Regardless, she would sleep with Gavin’s blade tonight.

“Awesome, that’s good enough for me.” He strolled over and docked his mask, turning back to her “Right let’s get your ass to medical, and we can wrap up for the night.”

“I have no such beast of burden in my care as you well know, what do you speak of?”

“This is gonna be our thing, isn’t it?”

“I have most certainly lost your meaning now, Master.”

“That you have. That you have.”