Eyes widened and jaws dropped when Vexyna and Cateran took in a sight they thought they never would again. Standing in front of the group was Phantasmine.
“It appears you have brought guests from Vangrash,” Phantasmine said matter-of-factly.
“Phanta…” Vexyna gasped. “You’re… How? Your crystal shattered. I’m so sorry.”
“Calm yourself,” Phantasmine reassured her. “It was much too early in the development of our relationship for me to trust you with my real crystal. The one you carried was merely a spare. I am certain you now understand my cautiousness.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Meen!” Cateran screamed as she ran forward to hug the Illusian girl. After giving Phantasmine a hearty squeeze, Cateran said, “Thanks for being solid.”
“I thought my presence might provoke some sort of emotional response in one or both of you,” Phantasmine stated. “The illusion of being solid for you to grasp was meant as an emotional release for you. It should at least placate you for the moment and keep you quiet.”
“You’re so mean, Meen.” Cateran kicked at the ground.
Phantasmine turned to Doctor Deathbrain and Cinnamon. “Doctor Deathbrain, it is so pleasant to see you again. It has been a long time. From the look of you, it appears your longevity experiments were successful.”
Deathbrain blinked to clear some cobwebs off his memory. “Phantasmine, it is you. Now I remember.” He looked down at Cinnamon when he said, “This is Phantasmine. She is one of the people from the house that ruled Illusia.”
“I am pleased to make your acquaintance.” Cinnamon curtseyed.
“Is this one of your creations, Doctor?” Phantasmine didn’t have to ask, because she already knew the answer by scanning Cinnamon.
“Indeed,” replied the doctor quickly. He stood a moment regarding Phantasmine. “You’re keeping your essence bound to this world through the Crystals of Change, aren’t you?”
“It is my birthright, Doctor,” Phantasmine informed him. “Can you provide my crystal with new flesh?”
“Yes, but first we need your core crystal and you know what that means.”
“I do. Please follow me.” She turned and led the group away from where they had been standing to a narrow hallway. The hallway led to a small chamber, inside of which the girls discovered rows of blinking lights behind glass screens. Wires in a variety of colors were strung throughout the room. In the center of the room was an enormous clear container, into and out of which smaller glass tubes fed liquid and wires. A young woman floated motionlessly in the liquid inside the container. She was frozen in the fetal position. Tubes were attached to her nose, mouth and nether regions, and wires streamed from her head.
“Welcome, my friends,” said Phantasmine. “Here is my last fleshly body.”
“Are you still somehow inside that body?”
“Yes. The crystals merely act as amplifiers of one’s essential vibration. When the crystal you were carrying broke, you thought I had been lost forever. That event simply caused a breakdown in our abilities to communicate with one another. It did not pose any real threat to me. It has taken this long for me to lead you hear because I needed to be certain I could trust you before allowing you to find my real body.”
“Why don’t you just switch off the machines and come out?” Cateran enquired.
“The ravages of time would rapidly take their toll on that body should it be removed from the chamber,” Phantasmine explained. “It only survives because it is preserved in that liquid.”
“Are you going to grow Phantasmine a new body, Doctor?” Cateran was again curious.
“That is the general idea,” said the doctor. “The equipment here shouldn’t have been contaminated the way mine was back in Vangrash. For the sake of the growth process, I’ll have to get one of you to handle the actual work. I can only supervise from a safe distance. I wouldn’t want Phantasmine’s new body to catch what my body has.”
“So that story about your wife wasn’t completely true. The part about you dedicating your life to growing new tissues was your job all along.” Vexyna confronted the doctor.
“The deterioration and death of my wife spurred me on to perfect my growth processes,” the doctor informed Vexyna.
“How long will it take you to grow Phantasmine a new body?” asked Raj, who was still in a bit of a daze over everything he was experiencing.
“That depends on what there is to work with around here,” stated the doctor.
Loud rumbling noises emanated from Cateran’s stomach. She gave the others a cheesy grin and asked, “Food?”
“Help the doctor and food will be provided,” Phantasmine said. “Nourishment is being prepared even now.”
“Thanks, Meen,” Cateran said.
Deathbrain surveyed the chamber containing Phantasmine’s body and several of the surrounding rooms. He returned to Phantasmine’s chamber, shaking his head. “I have bad news. The equipment here is too badly damaged for me to attempt any organic growth that isn’t already stabilized. I could accelerate growth, but I couldn’t start any new growth.”
“We’ll have to return to Vangrash with Phantasmine,” Vexyna concluded. “You could do what you needed to do at Vangrash, couldn’t you?”
“Returning to Vangrash at this time would not be wise,” Raj reminded her.
“Din, again?” Phantasmine asked Vexyna.
“Yes, she seems to be everywhere.”
“Why is Raj wearing one of the Red Empress’ uniforms?” As Phantasmine spoke, a table laden with food exposed itself from one of the walls of the room. Up through the floor sprang five chairs. “Sit and relax for a moment. Have something to eat and fill me in on all the details of what has happened since our separation.”
Each member of the group of travelers in turn took it upon themselves to continue the story for Phantasmine while consuming the digestibles. By the time the food had been finished, the tale was over and Phantasmine had been brought up to date.
“Just before we lost contact with you, Phanta, we ran into the blond man who brought the Earth Elementals into Shojiki,” Vexyna said. “You recognized him as Span, the man you were supposed to marry. Don’t you want to go after him once you have your body?”
“That was a long time ago, Vexyna,” Phantasmine replied. “The ravages of time and untold amounts of Fog have surely worn any memory of me from Span’s mind.”
“We could try hitting him with Yellow Mist,” Cateran suggested. “Dr. DeeBee said he could make it. Didn’t you, Doc?”
“Given the proper minerals, yes. I should be able to create any of the various fogs or mists.”
“Doctor.” Phantasmine spoke earnestly, looking directly at Doctor Deathbrain, but couldn’t hold her eyes up. “Cinnamon may be my only hope now. As ruler of Illusia, I could order you to perform the procedure to implant my consciousness into Cinnamon’s body.” She looked up at him again with imploring eyes. “But I cannot. Has she developed any sort of outward personality? Or is Cinnamon merely a collection of random data?”
It was Deathbrain’s turn to gaze at the ground. “Random data. Well, not so much random data as vast data with superficial personality. It’ll take eons to fully develop a real personality using machines.” He sighed heavily. “I understand the importance of the situation.” He glanced over at Vexyna, but said to Phantasmine, “We must venture to Nogard as quickly as possible. First, I will implant your core crystal into the nanobot brain in Cinnamon’s body. The nanobots will know how to permanently incorporate the information from the crystal.”
Kneeling in front of Cinnamon, Deathbrain’s eyes were watery and his voice came in spasms. “Come along, Cinnamon. Your time has come much sooner than I anticipated.” He took hold of her tiny hand and squeezed it, wiping at his eyes with his other coat sleeve.
Phantasmine addressed the trio of non-Illusians. “Are you tired? Would you like to rest or bathe?”
“I could use a nap,” Cateran admitted, stretching a little.
/> “If we aren’t needed here, it might be a good idea to rest up a bit,” Vexyna suggested. “You mentioned something before about contaminating growth materials, Doctor. Do you still require the assistance of one or more of us?”
“There is no threat of contamination to growth being accelerated. No, I do not believe I will need the assistance of any of you except Phantasmine and Cinnamon, of course.”
“Then we’ll relax in our rooms,” said Vexyna. “I’m assuming the rooms are still where they used to be.”
“The rooms have not moved.” Phantasmine turned to face Raj, then paused. “This is a bit awkward.”
“Yes,” he answered Phantasmine’s unasked question. “I do require my own set of accommodations.”
“Just how long do you intend to stick around this time, Raj?” Vexyna asked the Vag.
“I’d feel much better with my eyes directly on Din right now,” Raj confessed. “But if she’s at Vangrash, there’s no way I could get back there fast enough to see what she was up to.”
“Then sleep an hour or two before bathing and having a light meal. By that time, we should be ready to depart for Nogard,” Phantasmine said.
As they left the room, they turned back to see Cinnamon waving at them. “Goodbye,” was all she said. A lone tear squeezed slowly from the edge of Cinnamon’s eye and fell silently to the ground.
Doubt riddled Vexyna’s thoughts as she led the way out of the chamber containing Phantasmine’s body. Vexyna recalled the route up the stairs to the rooms on opposite sides of the hallway. A door further down the hallway provided Raj with entrance to his own suite.
Once they were each safely tucked away in their rooms, Vexyna fell into a heavy slumber.
There was a knock at the door. It startled Vexyna awake. “Come in,” she half-shouted.
The door swung smoothly open to admit Phantasmine. She stood before Vexyna and did a little turn. “Tada!” she exclaimed with a definite giggle in her voice. “Behold, I am the Crystal Queen, Phantasmine, ruler of Illusia and keeper of the Crystals of Change.” She held a long staff twined with silver and gold. It narrowed to a point and was topped with a large crystal. Precious stones glimmered along its length. She pounded the staff on the floor to give emphasis to her last statement. This caused a bit of wind to push back the butterfly wings on the front of her pastel blue garment and revealed more of the white high-laced boots and blue stockings she wore.
“I’m amazed,” Vexyna stated truthfully. “The hair, the eye color, everything… from Cinnamon… How?” Vexyna was truly dumbfounded.
“We could call it magic,” Phantasmine told her friend. “But in truth it is a technology better left unexplained. Suffice it to say the tiny robots in my new head are capable of engineering whatever organic changes I desire. Oh, Vex…” She exhaled as she ran over to the bed. Grabbing Vexyna’s arm, Phantasmine gazed at her passionately and said, “After all these years, I can really feel again. I can experience tactile sensations. I can honestly taste food again.”
“That’s wonderful,” Vexyna replied to her friend, whose hands now rested on Vexyna’s legs. Swallowing slightly, Vexyna felt an electric tingle fill her body as her friend continued to move her hands higher up Vexyna’s legs.
“You look like a butterfly, Meen.” Cateran’s voice came from the doorway. The way Phantasmine’s outfit was constructed, it did resemble a large, pastel blue butterfly. The larger wings covered her upper body and flopped out from her shoulders. The smaller bottom wings draped over her legs. “The door was open, so we thought we’d come in.”
Standing quickly and acting a bit guilty, Phantasmine replied, “Uh, yes, I guess it does.”
Raj entered just behind Cateran. “Hello, is everything okay? What’s our next move?”
“My next move is over to that bowl to relieve it of some rolls,” Cateran stated while strutting toward the bread.
“I can do that, too.” Phantasmine beamed as she also made a dash for the rolls. The two stood around the bowl of rolls happily munching away.
“There are a few things you’re going to have to get used to, Phanta,” Vexyna advised her friend. “You can’t pass through walls and floors anymore.” She stopped and thought about that a moment. “Can you?”
“Yes, and no,” Phantasmine answered vaguely. “Not generally speaking.”
“Would one of you mind expanding the change screen so I can get dressed?” Vexyna asked the assembled group.
“Certainly,” Raj said with flair, then put up the screen for Vexyna to change behind.
Quickly slipping on the once again freshly laundered garments, Vexyna stepped from behind the screen. “Where’s Doctor Deathbrain?”
“The doctor is in other parts of the castle searching for information,” Phantasmine informed the others. “He said for us to take Senomar and go to Nogard. The doctor will be in search of ingredients to create the different fogs and mists.”
“Did he explain all about how Senomar works?” Vexyna was curious.
“The brain I inherited knows what to do,” Phantasmine responded. “I am just not sure I am ready for the experience. It all might be too overwhelming for my senses.”
“If anyone can do it, I’m sure you can, Meen,” Cateran said while chewing on a roll. She then busied herself by stuffing rolls into various pockets in her coveralls. When she looked up, everyone was staring at her. “What?” she asked innocently. “They’re for the trip to Nogard. When do we leave?”
“Right now,” proclaimed the Crystal Queen. “Follow me to Senomar. Then we shall depart for Nogard.”
The group left the castle of Illusia and ran into Doctor Deathbrain beside Senomar.
Vexyna suddenly realized they had forgotten to blindfold Raj when they left Illusia. “Raj,” Vexyna began.
“There is no need to worry, Vexyna,” Raj reassured her. “I cannot say where I have been. My eyes were somehow blinded at some point along the trip out of the castle. I couldn’t see a thing.” He shrugged. “Many of the things I’ve seen, no one would believe.” Chuckling, he added, “Most of it, I still find hard to believe myself.”
“Not to put too fine a point on it, but Nogard is not a place for dealers of deceit like the Vags,” Phantasmine coldly stated.
“What?” Cateran was incredulous. “You mean I can’t go?”
Deathbrain approached Cateran. Resting his massive hands on her shoulders, he said, “I need help to gather the minerals and herbs I’ll require to make the mists and fogs. Phanta and Vex have something to do. Please help me do what I need to do, Cat.”
“We’ll both help, Doctor,” Raj chipped in. He looked at Phantasmine and said, “There’s a lot you don’t know or cannot remember about the way the Vag people used to be.” Looking down his nose at her, he accused, “Or maybe you just don’t want to remember what really happened at the time of the Great Fire.”
No color or trace of pupil could be found in Phantasmine’s eyes. Then a small glowing red diamond-shaped crystal grew in the center of each eye until it was the size of a normal pupil. The crystals in her eyes glowed a flaming red and continued to spin endlessly.
“Phanta!” Vexyna shouted. “That’s just plain freaky. Please don’t do that.”
Shaking her head, Phantasmine’s eyes returned to their normal shape and color. “I am sorry,” she said briefly. “I must remember that emotional outbursts now come with different consequences and may result in some physiological changes.”
“Did you read the notes about your new body?” the doctor asked Phantasmine.
“Some of them, Doctor,” replied Phantasmine. “The rest will have to wait. Will you require transport?”
“If I recall correctly, everything I need should be within a day or two walking distance from here.”
“Good,” Phantasmine said. “Vexyna and I shall depart for Nogard. You take the Vags and prepare as much of as many different fogs and mists as you can.”
“Vex,” Cateran said, her fingers twisting into
Vexyna’s cloak.
“I’ll be okay,” Vexyna told her friend as she gripped her hands. “We’ll see each other again very soon. You’ll see.”
“Come along, Cat,” Deathbrain called. “We have much to do.”
Cateran gave Vexyna a quick hug, then turned and cart wheeled off to join Raj and Deathbrain, who had already started to walk away from Senomar.
Phantasmine appeared to be absorbed by Senomar.
A small set of steps melted out of Senomar’s side, granting Vexyna access to the doorway that had appeared.
Vexyna boarded Senomar and found herself once more surrounded by the luminous walls.
“Oh, ick,” came Phantasmine’s voice from the walls. “I am all slimy and cold. I must change that.” The walls took on pastel purples and blues. The atmosphere was still cheery; it just wasn’t nearly as shiny. “That is a bit more tolerable. Hang on. We will be in Nogard before you know it.”
Vexyna relaxed in a row of chairs hollowed out of the wall. Her body was buoyed slightly by soft cushions as she lay across the chairs.
Resting her hands behind her head, she looked up vacantly without seeing the blue ceiling. Vexyna’s thoughts were swirling about in her head.
It occurred to Vexyna that Phantasmine might be able to tap into her thoughts. Phanta, Vexyna thought loudly, with the intention of attracting her friend’s attention. There was no reply.
Aloud, Vexyna asked, “Phanta?”
“Yes, Vexyna,” came Phantasmine’s voice from the wall.
“Are you still able to communicate through thoughts?”
“Even with this new body, it is possible for thought transference to occur. That is not a possibility at the moment due to the amount of concentration required to pilot this craft. Please excuse me, but I am rather busy at the moment.”
Silence returned.
Flipping over onto her stomach, Vexyna gathered up an armful of cushion and rested her chin. These cushions, she thought, like the rest of this vehicle, are all the same organic material. They are all the same being, sort of. And Phanta is experiencing everything this craft goes through. Does that mean that she can feel me squeezing these cushions?
Yes. A thought from Phantasmine flashed brightly into Vexyna’s mind.
Hey, Vexyna thought back swiftly. I thought you were busy.
I am, Phantasmine replied. But after you brought up the matter, I had to know.
Now you know you are capable of simultaneously steering the vehicle and holding a thought conversation.
It would appear… Phantasmine’s thoughts were cut off. From the wall, her voice said, “That is going to take a little more practise. I really must concentrate on navigating.”
Sighing, Vexyna sank her chin into the cushions up to the tip of her thin nose. Breathing calmly, she tried to think of something that would keep her mind occupied.
Before she could settle on one train of thought, Phantasmine’s voice issued forth, “Vexyna, prepare to leave this vessel.”
“Are we in Nogard already?”
“We will be there soon.”
Nogard, Vexyna thought. What am I going to find in Nogard? Her head reeled with thoughts of all the awesome spectacles she had witnessed since leaving her simple village. Ancient technologies, cultures and magic, she pondered. They all seem to be resurfacing after all this time. Why? Or have they been here all the time and I just wasn’t aware of their presence?
Light from a source outside Senomar flooded the room.
Getting up from her resting place, Vexyna noticed the hatchway and stairs had reappeared in Senomar’s side.
“We have arrived in Nogard,” Phantasmine’s voice announced. “Please meet me at the bottom of the stairs leading from Senomar.”
“I’ll see you in a moment,” Vexyna replied. She took a deep breath, in preparation for what she might be faced with, and walked toward the exit.
Chapter 13: Nogard: Land between Lands