“Stormbringer,” Lelani answered.
“What the hell kind of Norwegian death-metal name is that?” Seth asked. The unlit cigarette rolled along his lips.
“It’s Centauran, and it’s a prestigious name among my clan.”
Seth snorted.
“Please have a seat,” Cat said.
“Thank you. I prefer to stand.”
“The horse-lady can’t sit, Mommy,” Bree said.
“Bree, that’s not nice. I apologize. I don’t know why she calls you that,” Cat said.
Lelani smiled. “Brianna is every bit James MacDonnell’s granddaughter. Where I’m from, the MacDonnells are legendary because of their inherent strong will and a gift for seeing through deception. It’s why they are effective lawmen. Cal, too, could probably discern something odd about me if he were conscious.”
“I don’t need ESP to know that you’re odd,” Seth cut in.
“A child is far more accepting of the incredible than any adult,” Lelani continued. “Their minds are not clouded by preconceived notions. And a MacDonnell child…? Well, I have no doubt Bree can see flaws in my illusion.”
“So, what are you really?” Seth asked. “’Cause I for one would really like to know.”
“I told you… I’m a centaur.”
“A what?” Cat asked.
“A centaur,” Seth snorted. “Half man, half horse. Except,” he added, gesturing toward her breasts with his beer, “you’re a girl.”
“Yes. That would be where baby centaurs come from. The one constant throughout the universe is that males could never handle the pain of childbirth.”
Cat grinned.
Seth wasn’t amused. “So you mean to tell me those long sexy legs aren’t really there, and that at some point your beautiful body, the one I’ve been fantasizing about all day, turns into a horse’s ass?”
“I wouldn’t have put it quite as eloquently, but that is correct.”
Seth turned to Cat. “You do know this girl’s on medication?”
Cat turned to Lelani with a guarded look. “It does seem like a lot to swallow.”
“Even after all you’ve witnessed?”
“It’s not like there aren’t eight-foot people in the world,” Seth said. “Most of them just happen to play for the NBA.”
“Is it true you’re on medication?” Cat asked Lelani. Lelani noticed that Cat’s breathing changed after asking the question. She was tense. Seth’s game of devil’s advocate was dangerous.
“To cope with pollutants in your atmosphere,” Lelani said. “Aandor is a pristine world with little industry. I’m more susceptible to the airborne toxins than a human.”
“Human?” Cat said.
Cat looked even more uncomfortable hearing language of that sort. Lelani held her husband’s life in her hands and she realized talk of other worlds would undermine Cat’s confidence.
“I told you she was nuts,” Seth said.
“You are a feckless dullard, Seth Raincrest,” Lelani scolded. “After what you’ve seen this night…”
“Everything has an explanation. I just don’t know your bag of tricks.” Turning to Cat, Seth went on. “She shows up at my door this morning claiming she knew me thirteen years ago. That would have made her about four or five years old. No one I know can remember spit about being four, much less me. Hell, I can’t even remember being eleven.”
“Are you exaggerating?” Cat asked, surprised.
“No. I have psychosomatic amnesia. I can’t remember anything before thirteen years ago due to extreme trauma. My parents were burned to death in a house fire, not too far from here. The police found me dazed, wandering the streets with second-degree burns. They patched me up and threw me in a foster home. Life started at age thirteen far as I’m concerned. No relatives… just me. One thing I know for sure, I did not come from another planet like someone is implying.”
“Cal can’t remember before thirteen years ago either,” Cat said.
Seth stopped rolling the cigarette along his lips. She had his attention.
“One day he woke up in a clinic upstate,” Cat continued. “Some farmers found him unconscious in a field. They assumed he was in an accident. No one was looking for him, not a friend, not a relative. Months of inquiries and nothing. As far as Cal’s concerned the day he opened his eyes in that clinic was the first day of his life.”
“You’re shitting me,” Seth said.
“Watch the language,” Cat snapped.
“What an amazing coincidence,” Lelani said dryly. As the other two conversed, Lelani began to paint runes on Cal’s forehead with black paste from her satchel.
“What are you doing?” Cat asked. She looked unsure at this point.
“It will help,” Lelani said. She met Cat’s gaze and with the most sympathetic expression she could produce, said, “Trust me.”
“That still doesn’t change the fact that Mrs. Ed here was only four years old when we supposedly first met,” Seth continued.
Lelani finished painting the runes. She blew on them and the ink faded, the way water disappears into a sponge. “Time passes at different speeds throughout the multiverse,” Lelani said. “Months on this end would have been minutes on our end, plenty of time for the first group to have settled in. We should have had immediate confirmation of your safe arrival. We didn’t. Proust organized a rescue party, but we were betrayed by one of our own. An acolyte named Sazar. By the time the second party was ready to step through to this universe, Dorn and his hordes had broken into the sanctum and we were captured.”
“Who the heck is Dorn?” Seth asked.
“The opposition… the nephew of the grand duke of Farrenheil. A proficient sorcerer… and a deadly swordsman. He’s in command on this end.”
“You mean there are more freaks than the three we met?”
“Dorn and his contingent used the link to arrive here. A fight broke out with our captors back in Aandor. While everyone was otherwise occupied, the rescue party rushed the link. I was the only one who made it through the hail of arrows and daggers alive. I entered the link only hours after your group left us, but I arrived here three weeks ago. Dorn’s contingent was only minutes ahead of me, but he has been here almost two months. I had one major advantage. Dorn rushed through unprepared, unaware of the time differential. He thought he was right behind the first party, that he could track them, wipe them out, and be back in Aandor in time for dinner and gloating.
“Dorn had to scrounge for magical energies, which are rare here. He has wasted time coming up to speed. Proust had prepared me with language spells for your native tongues, maps, culture manuals, mana batteries, catalytic powder, and an assortment of other instruments. I was able to, as you say, ‘hit the ground running.’ Now it’s a race.”
“Where exactly is this ‘other’ world?” Cat asked.
“We’re all part of a complex multiverse; countless universes that exist side by side on cosmic platforms called Branes. A good metaphor would be an onion. Each distinct universe is a thin layer of the onion, only slightly different from the next layer closest to it. At the core is the source of all, for lack of a better term, magical energy. The energy dissipates through the multiverse through veins and arteries extending outward. The outside of the onion is dry and hard because the farther one gets from the core, the fewer in number, and smaller, these channels become, until you reach the outer realms, where no magic exists at all. The universes at this extreme are stark and operate on pure scientific principle.”
“You’ve been there?” Seth asked sarcastically.
Lelani noticed Cat became more distant the more she explained. Talk of other worlds did not boost her confidence.
“No one has ever gone to the edge of the multiverse,” Lelani said. “Even our scholars are not sure about what constitutes life in those regions.” She checked on Cal. Only a ghost image of the runes remained. If the spell did its job, Lelani could leave Cat’s skepticism to Cal. The runes needed time to work, though. She continued her story.
“Between the core and the outside of the onion is a universe where magic and science are in perfect balance. We call it the Prime Meridian. Aandor exists halfway between the Prime Meridian and the center of the multiverse, thus magic exists in abundance. Earth exists halfway between the Prime Meridian and the outermost universe. Magic is sparse here. Where we use sorceries, enchantments, transmogrification, and so forth to manipulate our environment, you use physics, chemistry, and genetic engineering. In the end, each of us is manipulating our environment to suit our needs by whatever means available.”