4.04

“Checkov’s Door is an extremely simple concept, even a simpleton can understand it, which I assume is why you are reading this book. It is the governing principle for extraplanar conjuration. It posits that the process of creating a planar gateway is similar to that of opening a door, and that such a door exists for every plane. Thus, and you will have to read the next line several more times as it involves a logical leap, one can assume that in order for something to move from one plane to another, two such doors would have to be opened.” - Excerpt from ‘So you want to throw a Fireball? A Comprehensive Guide to Magic for the Intellectually Deficient’ widely attributed to the infamous Magus Smar Da Ten Yu.

‘-and he knows his chance had come.’

The moment I read that line, I was no longer in the library.

My vision darted around, taking in everything. Neither Noam nor the wisps seemed to have followed me. I snapped the Historia shut, I made a mistake letting the wisps run free and away from me. My combat capability was not unduly lowered by their absence, but they would’ve still been useful.

I was still in a library, but this one appeared several times more ancient. The place was completely silent, save for the sound of a pen writing.

Everything was covered in a layer of dust at least several centimetres thick. The place gave a similar impression to an actual library I once visited. Destitute and in decline, tax dollars drying up the second decade eBooks became widespread. Though it was still well illuminated, and there was still an air of… history, this library has probably been through more than I have or ever will. Looking up, I saw that the ceiling was transparent, or maybe there wasn’t a ceiling, what surprised me was seeing a familiar landmass past it.

The continent of Braunad, the landmass Noam and I started in Indiri.

So I was in space.

Tracing my finger on the shelves around me, I randomly selected a book. Nothing, it was filled with nonsense. Randomly checking several other books showed the same thing. The letters were Common, but they were scrambled.

There was little to be gained from staying here.

I began walking towards the source of the only sound in this desolate place. Thinking as I walked.

Going off Eve’s cryptic assholery, I’m about to be involved in something she wanted to avoid but found pointless to stop. Which, just narrowed it down so much didn’t it?

One. She believed I’m going to need a new computer, likely a quantum one. She should be aware of my fears of her, so either it was a negligible cost that she could just throw around or she believed it likely I would seriously consider taking the offer.

Two. The being I’m dealing with was likely a god. I glanced at the book in my hand, the Historia. I wasn’t a fool who failed to educate themselves properly. I am aware of who or what writes the Historia, but their capabilities and the general roles of gods in this virtual world was still a mystery to me. I determined that their religions and cults were the main thing to focus on as the gods themselves didn’t exercise their presences on the world with enough regularity or to great effect to be truly relevant. My research about the gods themselves effectively ended when I found that Eve didn’t exist amongst them in some obvious capacity.

Three. Eve somehow believed I would be able to handle this situation, which had implications depending on how accurate she is. On the extreme far, far end of this, she is able to keep track of literally millions of variables to calculate multiple cohesive and almost fully accurate predictions of the future. I am not too invested in this theory, as the basis of all my assumptions about Eve begin with the idea that I could affect her in some meaningful way. If I really believed this then I would’ve just given up and dropped dead because there was literally nothing I could do in a world that had just proven determinism.

A more sanity preserving interpretation was that she has a good enough read on me that she could make educated guesses about my reactions to certain events, similar to how I could often predict the reactions of my parents and people I knew very well. The first theory was also unlikely unless Eve had something on the level of a Type II Matrioshka Brain, something supremely unlikely as humanity hasn’t even colonised Mercury yet. If she did then it also brought about the possibility that even my ‘real’ world was simulated, which just led me down the rabbit hole of simulation theory.

I shuffled my thoughts to the back of my mind as I reached him.

The figure at the desk turned towards me, though his hands never stopped writing. Twenty-three pure black, glass-like eyes considered me. Next to him was a globe… of Earth? No, it was similar, but clearly outdated, on it, Alaska and Britain still existed and New Oceania hadn’t been made yet.

“I really should’ve read up more on theology,” I started in a conversational tone, “I’ll have to admit that I don’t know why I’m here or what you want from me.”

I’ll extract information about the globe later, right now I need to understand his capabilities and intentions. But… something was strange, behind the globe of Earth there was a body next to him. It looked-

‘Like lands unknown and unseen becoming known and seen. Like the roar of the wind on your sails, the warmth of a campfire in hidden forests, the filling of a map. It was the Guiding Star. It was-’

“Do not finish that thought,” a voice cut through that vision, a voice older than language or man, a voice that was a maddening record, written since First Dawn to Final Dusk. Forcing my mind back to reality.

I staggered back, “What the-”

What did I just see?

The god looked away, not that it did much given that his eyes ringed his skull, “Ah… sorry about that…” he sheepishly said, none of the previous power in his voice.

“You were about to do something rather inconvenient due to- Actually you wouldn’t know, you said you didn’t read up much on theology did you? Not that I blame you, of course, honestly this ‘god’ business is rather complicated, though you don’t need to take my word for that, you see the vision you saw was that of an Apotheosis- Ah you wouldn’t know- Sorry, I seriously don’t blame you, really, honestly most people don’t even know about the exact mechanics of godhood so you don’t really need to worry about not knowing…”

Despite the fact he rambled seemingly pointlessly, I listened carefully to every one of his words and noted, that no matter how fast he talked, how far he meandered, his hands were on his book, constantly writing, as if they were a separate entity from him. Despite the burning curiosity, I took care not to look at the… body? next to the globe. It altered my mental state until he broke me out of it. I was not going to investigate it until I could look at it safely.

The god finally caught himself in his ramblings, “Ah… sorry, really sorry, it’s been a long time since I’ve been able to cordially talk to another,” several of his eyes blinked in a dazed manner, “I guess my manners withered somewhere along the way… Please take a seat…” he gestured in front of him, “if you can find one without dust…”

Taking up his offer, I found a nearby chair that had been stacked upside down alongside a dozen others, which left the actual seat pretty clean, I attempted to carry it first, but my short size and relatively low strength made it clear it wasn’t happening, so I simply dragged it to him, stopping in front of his desk and taking a seat.

“Sorry… very much for your sudden displacement…”

Embarrassment, that was clear, even if his facial structure was wildly different from what I’m used to reading, I could tell this was genuine.

“Not the first time I was abducted by higher entities with little or no warning,” I answered in a conversational tone. Let’s start with an attempt to build rapport, though it apparently backfired as the gods eyes- the normally placed ones, scrunched up.

“Ah… yes, warning. That would’ve been a smart idea.”

For a brief moment, I looked at the being in front of me in sheer disbelief. My mind almost failed to process his expression of stupid regret and embarrassment.

“Did you seriously not think about that?” I retorted. Almost as soon as I said that, I bit back my lips. Goddamnit, there goes my attempt at making friends again.

That day I learnt a face covered with completely black eyes could somehow look self-conscious.

I rubbed my brow, fighting back internal cringe, “Just… Get on with it please?”

“Yes… We should, I am the Historian if you did not know that before,” he said.

It took me a moment to realise he was prompting me to introduce myself, “Dustin.”

The Historian nodded, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t know my name up till now.

“So what do you want?”

In an instant, that flailing idiot I was introduced to seemed to disappear. It was hard to tell at first, but there were dozens of signs once I noticed them. How he started to hold himself with confidence, or the way his facial muscles tightened slightly.

This I can work with.

“I’ll be frank, I require your assistance in a magical ritual to reverse the effects of Apotheosis.”

My eyes narrowed. The desire to glance at the body next to us flaring up even more now. “Something related to that?”

I made no gesture, but the intention was clear.

With a pause, he firmly replied, “Yes.”

“How do you think I am capable of helping?” he wouldn’t have dragged me here otherwise.

Several of his eyes blinked, before he began, “It is a complex issue, having to do with the laws of this world, especially in regards to Divinity.”

“A god is just a person who pursued a Path to the final step, the end goal, the destination,” he explained. “But in doing so, they have turned their very existence into their Path.”

“When such a thing happens, they become a Domain, the purest representation of that Path,” he paused, eyes blinking. “I have tried to slow it down for them, but they took the final step,” he glanced melancholically at to the side, towards the body, “Planar Laws dictate that they will become a Domain and they…” he paused, brow furrowing. “He no longer has the will to change that,” he bitterly said.

“And I factor in this how?”

“I theorized a way to completely stop this transformation, though I have lacked the necessary assistance,” he turned to me.

I raised my eyebrow, “Lemme guess, I am that assistance?”

“You catch on very quickly.”

“And what kind of assistance is it, that you will need some seemingly random person?”

The Historian looked at me, and for a brief moment, I saw that his eyes were not truly black.

Every single one of his eyes, was something that was a bastardisation of an insectoid compound eye. But instead of thousands of photoreceptors, each eye contained millions of eyes, and they were not his eyes. Every single eye within an eye, was the eye of something sapient. Something that lived and saw and remembered. They were so small, shrunken beyond what light could reflect, till all that I could see were the nanometre thin black walls that separated them all. Giving only the illusion of pure blackness.

The Historian saw through them all. He saw through every eye, no matter where, no matter who. He saw it all. Just staring into his eyes, the back of my mind began to fill with visions of places I’ve never seen and the slowly maddening sound of the world grinding on without me.

And then it was gone.

“Are you aware of Checkov’s Door?” he began.

“I am, I’ve read ‘So you want to Throw a Fireball,’” I replied. Checkov’s Door was one of several magical ‘laws’ that facilitated magic. To leave or enter a plane you must a ‘door’ and that ‘door’ is most easily opened by someone already on the plane.

“I have discovered, nay, theorised that for him to cease Apotheosis, I need to remove the effect of Planar Law on him.”

The pieces started falling in place around me.

“And the simplest way to do that-”

“-Is to remove them from the plane,” I finished.

The pieces fell and I saw the picture. “No, it can’t be…” My eyes narrowed as my mind reached two conclusions. “Gaia?”

“No,” he denied.

That left one option I knew of.

“Earth.”