Angus put his hands down again, and they climbed on. Then he took them out and up, flying rapidly across the monstrous countryside. He was huge, but so was his planet, and despite his velocity the journey took some time. They relaxed, having a meal and even snoozing, secure in the gentle hands.
In due course Angus came to a rad which looked identical to the one by which they had arrived at Jupiter. That was not surprising; only its position on the planet distinguished it. He mounted the filament, and they were back in the speeding light of the alternate realm of patterns. Their movement seemed faster than when Nona had brought them, and perhaps it was, being proportional to the scale of the giant.
Then they were in the sea, protected by Angus’ magic, which was as strong and versatile as Nona’s. It was clear why there had been no revolution on Oria before Nona brought the anima; the men of the animus had had overwhelming force of magic. But if women with that same magic were brought in, then there should soon be peace again, perforce.
Angus bounced out of his landing place in the dimple of the East Sea and reached the surface. He did not bother to swim; he simply rose up into the air and flew above the sea, letting the water drip away from his body. The five of them cupped within his hands were not wet at all. This was certainly the way to travel!
“Now before we approach a community, we must formulate a plan,” Angus said. “I suspect it will be better if I do not appear, at first. So I will clothe myself in an illusion of nothing.” At which point he disappeared, and the rest of them with him; Darius could not even see his own body. It was as if he were a ghost floating high in the air, alone.
“Yeah, a plan, for sure,” Colene agreed from empty space nearby. “Here we’ve been zooming along, and we never thought how to present the case. Maybe just have Nona walk up to the town hall or whatever and talk to the headman?”
“There will be no headman, if it’s anima,” Darius pointed out. “And maybe no headwoman either, if it just happened. This could be another world of chaos.”
“I wish we could tell just by looking,” Colene said. “But I guess a farmstead is a farmstead, no matter who has the magic. We need to talk with someone.”
Nona considered. He could tell not by sight, which was vacant, but by her thought. Then she came to a tentative conclusion. “Perhaps Darius and I should approach the leader of a village, or a castle, with Seqiro. Colene can wait with Burgess in the forest nearby, with Angus, and should there be trouble, they can decide what to do.”
“Seems good to me,” Colene said. “I can connect some with Angus, mentally, so we can be coordinated. Maybe we should stay out of sight until Seqiro sends a signal. If there are women ready to volunteer, they still need to be prepared for Burgess and Angus.”
So Angus came to land in a forest glade between a village and a castle built around a suitably sized rad. The terrain of this world seemed very similar to that of Oria, making it parallel in every visible respect. Darius wondered whether there was any cache of giant musical instruments, as there was near the anchor on Oria. That depended on whether the giants of Jupiter had colonized this world, millennia ago, and been unable to use their instruments when succeeding generations grew smaller to accommodate the scale of the planet. Certainly it was possible. It seemed that all the Julia universe had been colonized by the species of man, originating from one world. No one knew which world that had been. The legend Angus had told suggested that it was Oria, but there could be similar legends identifying other worlds scattered throughout this universe. However, the fact that the anchor was on Oria, and its people were the same size as those of other Modes, suggested that Oria could be the origin. Men might have crossed to it via some other Virtual Mode, too long ago for contemporary memory. All the other animals, and the plants, might have crossed the same way, brought by man.
“Yeah, like Adam and Eve,” Colene said as they became visible. “The Garden of Eden might have been on some other Mode, and the first man and woman came here with a Noah’s Ark full of goodies, I mean animals and seeds galore, to be fruitful and multiply across a new universe.”
“Unless man evolved in Julia, and crossed from here to the other Modes,” Darius suggested.
“It sure is a bigger framework than we know,” she agreed. “Back on Earth, they think Earth is all there is. I’d like to take one of their scientists and give him a taste of the Virtual Mode!”
Soon the three set out, in a reduced version of the traveling show: Darius wearing a blue tunic, leading Seqiro, with Nona riding, her tunic red. This was an innocuous group that should be able to pass muster as either me servant of an animus man leading his master’s horse and mistress, or an anima woman with her horse and husband. Darius was armed with a theow club, which he as an animus servant might carry more for show than for use. Not all men had magic, on an animus world; only the firstborn and firstborn descendants of firstborns. Just as it would be the lastborns of the lastborns who had the most magic, on an anima world. The pattern of magic became confusion to Darius, and he never had figured out exactly how it worked.
At least there were no barricades. Seqiro explored the minds of the inhabitants as the three approached the village, orienting more rapidly because they were quite similar to those he had encountered on Oria. Almost immediately he had the answer: These are animus.
“Then there is no point in proceeding farther,” Nona said with regret. “We do not want more animus on Oria. In fact, we do not want them even to know that Oria has changed, lest they get mischievous ideas.”
Seqiro started to turn, to go back the way they had come without entering the village. But at that point someone came out from the village, hailing them. “You folk lost?” a man in blue called. “Who you looking for?”
“We changed our minds,” Darius replied. He had to be the spokesman here, being male. “We have decided not to visit this village.”
“Where are you from?” the man asked.
“A far village,” Darius said, not wishing to misrepresent their situation, but also not wishing to give it away.
“Have you checked in with the despots? You have to know you can’t just come through here on your own without despot approval.”
“We had better do that, then,” Darius said, feeling uncomfortable.
“I will lead you to the castle,” the man said.
“There is no need; we can see it from here.”
“I insist. It is my job to inform the despots of anything that happens in the village.”
Worse yet! Darius had forgotten how tightly the despots of Oria had controlled things, when they had been in power.
Now a blackbird altered course and flew toward them. That is a despot familiar, Seqiro thought. I can stun it.
“I think you had better,” Darius said. Then, to the man: “We have decided not to check in with the despots after all. We will simply go away and not disturb your village.”
“You are acting suspiciously,” the man said. He started to raise his right hand.
Stop him! Seqiro’s thought came. Grabbing his club, Darius leaped for the man. He saw the bird falling out of the sky as Seqiro stunned it.
But the man had a club of his own. He lifted it to parry Darius’ blow, and it was quickly apparent that he knew more about its effective use than Darius did.
Then the man leaped up into the air—and didn’t come down. His arms and legs flailed ineffectively, unable to gain purchase against the air.
Darius stepped back, realizing that Nona had used her magic to lift the man up. But she would not be able to hold him that way long, because magic did take energy.