Time Passes...

Following Vier’s Path was... strange. I made it to the point of severance and diversion fairly easily after leaving Oerth, and then Find the Path VIII+1 lit up and I hurtled along after it through the astral space.

Finding it taking a huge course change and zipping through trans-omniversal space into another multiverse from where it had been headed was passing strange. Had there been some sort of dimensional storm I didn’t remember in the area, or a sudden breach or vortex pop up leading here?

Whatever the process, the trail was clear, coming in through a conduit of extra-universal energies. I skipped flying along it, just conducting myself along the path to the end, where it breached into something resembling normal space, and I exited.

Finding myself in... interstellar space?

Well, duh. Objects move. If she was on some world, naturally that world was long gone from here, along with its solar system. At least, this seemed to be a normal universe, given the spread of stars out here.

I reached out to feel the residue of the world, getting an instant sense of place and time...

Huh. Thirty years ago in this universe’s time scale. What was it with the temporal acceleration shenanigans? All my soul-shards were going to end up older than I was!

It had moved off thataway at 220 kps, which meant a damn long way in relative to tiny Ael terms.

To a Teleportation at VIII, not so much. Divination magic reached out ahead of me to chart the way, Find the Path was still giving me a straight course, and I powered up the magic patiently and slid along dimensional lines in the right direction.

A breath later I was floating in near orbit above a familiar blue orb... sans the rings and multiple moons and lack of a huge red planet it was orbiting, and the sun was a different color that made my heart ache to see it through Feature’s eyes...

“Right.” I sighed as I cast about for some easy sense of my soulshard’s presence.

Thirty years. Plenty of time to grow up, regain their magic, and make lots of Toys. No way I was going to find them without them wanting me to. I didn’t even know what their magical signature was going to look like. The magic in this place was so different in feeling from what I was used to that it was plain nothing of my own magic was going to survive as it had on me.

Hells, my own Matrix was totally different after the whole Matrix reboot and adding Shugenja and a functioning Arcane Pool to it.

Still, there’d be no way to change the psychic and spiritual resonance between us. I’d just have to broadcast it at a level only a few people could sense it at, hopefully almost none at all, and hope I didn’t provoke a hostile reaction from something.

Well, it would be the equivalent of politely knocking on the door, I imagined.

I pursed my lips, and blew a Seven Tradition Note in the Sublime Chord. It wasn’t going to be very powerful, but it was going to carry over the entire planet below. It should serve as identification to my soulshard, and from there, they should be able to find me, even if it meant pinging off my Astral Ward and letting me get a lock on them.

Well, I should just lower that for the moment and take my chances...

I was floating in orbit, and I still jumped when over a dozen spells promptly locked on me with some very, very high Caster Levels.

Moreover, there was definitely something familiar about each of them, but they also deviated wildly away from my own. Pointedly, they didn’t have the Seven Theurgies, although they all had at least two...

-Come on through, Aelryinth,- a clear woman’s /voice carried into my head, as a Portal opened up right next to me, displaying a brightly-lit and comfortably furnished room on the other side.

That was high-end telepathy. I admitted to being piqued as I floated on through, and set foot on the tiled floor beyond.

The materials here were Energized and incredibly strong, durasteel and better in grade, with the walls surpassing obdurium. A combination of tremblesense and Detect Location assured me I was now planetside, and in some sort of comfortable study, with old stuffed chairs, a much-pillowed chaise lounge, wooden paneling, a tea set, windows, a skylight, and some very, very impressive Wards around the place.

I did a double-take when I saw the sigil formed by that skylight.

The door opened, and a stunning woman in red and golds, with a fluttering ornate cloak that billowed dramatically about her, long deep red hair, and a full assortment of magical bling glided into the room. I eyed the pattern of her attire, and pursed my lips, not knowing quite what to say.

“I am Morgan, the Scarlet Sorceress Supreme of this dimension,” she informed me with practiced loftiness. “Welcome to Earth, Aelryinth. How may we help you?”

I lifted an eyebrow at her, reading a mélange of emotions under her words.

I also noted she had a Legendary-tier Ring on her finger that was almost identical to Magnus, and didn’t miss the complicated glance she gave my Rings and Staff.

“I think you know well why I’m here, Morgan,” I replied patiently. “I’m looking for my fourth soulshard. I know you aren’t her, but I can clearly feel a link between us. Was I too late? Zeben, Zeks, and Funf were all well enough when I finally was able to start coming home, but I’ve been diverted a few times along the way. As a matter of fact, I ended up in a nasty set of altercations on the world Vier was supposed to end up on, giving me yet more delays...”

“She was called Dyna Morgana Ouillette on this world, or Dynamo to most people,” she informed me calmly, and paused, as if wrestling over something. “How long have you been delayed?” she asked with great hidden interest.

I tilted my head. “I doubt you received my last Sending. It took me six months to re-establish my Matrix properly, build a Pyramid, burn a path through a demon army, blow up a Mythos creature feeding on an open planar vortex between that world and bring Mithar there to spit it, powering me up a boost all the way to where Zeben ended up, vanished from, and I had to go to yet another world to find them.”

Another Caucasian woman wearing a simple white croupier’s mask popped around the corner of the door, raven-black hair swinging about her as if subtly alive. “Is he here? He is!” She glided into the room with inhuman grace, a welcome smile on her face. “Wow, it took a long time for you to get here, Aelryinth!” She glided right up to me and without the slightest hesitation gave me a welcoming hug, and a very nice hug it was.

Six Theurgies, basic Aura almost ten Levels above mine, and her Silver eyes gleamed back at me, our Pacts thrumming in recognition of one another. Morgan just sighed, glided up to me, and bestowed a kiss on my forehead.

Also six Theurgies, but very different, seven Levels higher than me, and some Tradition I wasn’t aware of.

Very deftly, the woman in the tight-fitting vest and croupier’s outfit and blouse hooked an elegant nail under my glasses and lifted them up.

Both of them froze as they stared at the burned pits that were left of my eyes, the tiny Silver sparks where the optic nerves had been, and the Hellscar still cutting across my nose slumbering mostly black at the moment.

“Who did that to you?” the masked woman asked very calmly, but I could feel the temperature starting to drop rapidly all around.

“Peace,” I sighed, raising a hand to stop the coming chill. They both blinked, and stopped the freefalling temperature immediately. “First, please tell me how you are related to myself and Dynamo.”

Dealer smiled, and somewhat reluctantly, so did Morgan. “I’m Dealer, Dynamo’s first Clone, now the Prime!” She leaned over against Morgan and gave her a quick elbow. “Second Clone!”

I couldn’t blink in surprise, so eyebrows up had to suffice. “Well enough, then. We share memories up to the point I cut Vier off, then?” Both women simply nodded. “I cut off three more soulshards, and of course you know I didn’t realize any of them or you were actually separate entities at that time.

“When I arrived at my final destination, the one with the Mythos thing feeding on the dimensional friction stirred up by the conjoined dimensions, my eyeballs decided to turn around and eat my brain after seeing it. My Pact didn’t much like that, and blew them both out.

“My Wrath did it again after I Regenerated them and they tried to eat me again.”

They both hissed at my words. “Always a price for being the heroes,” Dealer said, her Silver eyes flashing.

The storage chamber for Baneskulls on Mortus Dius slid open, and a non-human Skull drifted out of it, empty eye sockets in the dark bone burning with the black flames of Bane to Undeath... very intense and powerful Baneflames.

They both leaned forward at the same moment and with the same motion. “Alright!” they chimed together in grim satisfaction, and held up their hands. I high-fived both of them without even thinking about it.

The Demi-Lich Death Titan Necromancer ex-Dark Cardinal who’d set all this into motion was my Dreadskull. Couldn’t be a more fitting fate.

“It seems I am going to be unable to get back to anyone in time to actually do anything helpful for you all,” I grumbled unhappily. “I haven’t been able to get back in time to actually aid anyone yet...”

Both woman just sighed, nodding in agreement. “By design, possibly?” Morgan asked, nodding at my Amulet.

I glanced down there, and could only sigh. “Sending the soulshards somewhere with temporal shenanigans involved is certainly within Their range of subtle power,” I conceded reluctantly, not about to play down Mithar and Sylune’s power or influence. “I guess this means we can blame Them?” I hazarded off-handedly.

“They ARE pretty good at taking all the blame and continuing right on,” Dealer mused in agreement.

“He IS here!” Two more women with resemblances to Dealer and Morgan came in, except one was two inches taller than I was and brown-haired, and the other could have been Dealer’s twin sister, sans the Mask. The first one was in fairly old-fashioned robes she filled out like a goddess of vitality, and the other modeling a VERY nice business suit that showed off elegance and control enough to send any man drooling. She had to be an utter terror in a boardroom.

“DiDi and Ursula,” Dealer introduced them to me. I offered a hand; DiDi took it, but Ursula just swept me into a hug I couldn’t resist and planted another kiss on my forehead.

Yeah, Auras waaaay up the scale. Divine on Ursula, terrifying Lightning for DiDi.

“Damn, that’s a 28-fold Theurgic Aura?” DiDi murmured, staring at me with a complicated expression. All of the women had strange expressions while looking at me.

“You’ve all got post-60 Spell Power, are at least Twenties, have at least five Theurgies, and you’re envious of me?!” I exclaimed, clapping my chest and mock-staggering. “Rapid-time shenanigans for the win?”

They all shook their heads in unison, rather funny to see. Dealer held up three fingers. “We have exactly three advancement Tranches, in addition to the three Human Levels and its later benefits. We can take them all the way up, but we aren’t capable of going Deep like you have!”

“Huh.” Well, I suppose, different Rules for different Places... “You all beat me to Twenty and post-Twenty, and you’ve got physical benefits an order of magnitude above me, so color me unimpressed by your envy,” I sniffed. “Are you all Clones?” That seemed odd, even for what seemed like a Marvel supers-verse.

“Ursula and I are actually Duplicates, but effectively independents, with our own souls now,” DiDi replied crisply. At my questioning gesture, she explained, “Think Jamie Madrox Duplicates, slightly different personalities and focuses, who can be sent out to gather up Karma and come back to return it to the core personality.

“And no, there’s no issue, as Dynamo had enough thoughtstreams that we are all basically thoughtstreams inside one another at this point.”

“Mithar and Sylune.” I almost cringed. “How many of you-all are around?”