Mindmap

Chapter 1 ~ Ferrin

     Hello, I am the charming stranger Tia allowed entrance into her room. At 4am. Now I'm sure the first thing you're wondering is what I was doing awake at 4am. My answer to you you is that it was not 4am where I came from. Time is strange where I came from. Everything muddles when you're dead. 

     Fear not, I am no corpse. Nor am I a vampire or any of the many undead creatures you humans write about. I merely left the land I went to when I died. That also plays into why I arrived at 4am. Jasper might be very good at opening his portals, but he is very bad at keeping track of things like time zones. Now that we've got that very important bit out of the way, let's move on to the less important stuff. Who am I, and what am I doing here? There's a very long story to who I am, so I shall describe it how Tia described it in the first words she said to me. 

     "A-are you Ferrin? From Lyrian? The hero I read about?"

     "Yes to the first," I responded. "Yes to the second as well. As for the third, I had thought not, but apparently so." 

    At this, Tia's face did not know what to do. Likely because it was not receiving logical signals from her brain, which appeared to be melting. From what I saw, she could not decide between confusion, distrust, resignation, denial, annoyance, delirium, and undiluted joy.

     "I must be dreaming," she said. "It's late, I'm tired, I must have fallen asleep."

     "I'm afraid that makes no difference to me," I said. "I have a purpose for being here, whether you're imagining it or not."

     Tia was now absently cleaning her room, clearing surfaces only to dump other things on them. Finally she had a mostly clear chair, which she offered to me. I took it, and gestured for her to sit on the bed. Tia sat, then almost immediately rose to fiddle with more of her stuff. 

    "And what might that purpose be?" she asked, hardly daring to acknowledge that the words were hers.  

     "It'll  be your purpose too, if you accept it," I began. To say she was skeptical would be an understatement. "But it's not mine to explain. That falls on the shoulders of our friend Jasper."

     "Jasper?" asked Tia.

     "You called?" said Jasper, walking into the room from a glowing black void in the center of the fluffy purple rug on the floor.

     Tia jumped in shock and clapped her hand over her mouth to muffle a small shout. I admit I also jolted in surprise. Jasper needed a lesson in knocking. 

     "How much have you told her, Ferrin?" Jasper said to me.

     "Nothing," Tia responded for me.

     "Alright," said Jasper. "Normally I'd have liked to continue with everyone else on Earth49, but getting here was far more tiring than I'd expected. So. You know Ferrin. My name is Jasper Pemberton."

     "Pemberton?" asked Tia. "From the Outskirts?"

     "Yep," replied Jasper. "My mother is Princess Miracle Pemberton."

     "And you're, what, a Waymaker?"

     "You got it,"

     "Ok," said Tia. "But how did you get here? What's going on?"

     "Uh... Ok... How do I put this... The sparks kinda just... brought us here... Like, I just opened wayports and got to where Ferrin was, and then everyone else,"

     "Sparks?" asked Tia. "Everyone else?"

     "I... don't really understand the sparks," said Jasper. He looked to me for aid.

     "Alright," I began. "The sparks. They're sort of like little prickles of lightning that we all seem to glow with. And we think we're all different colours."

     "And who's 'we all'?"

     "Kinda hard to explain," said Jasper. "You'll meet them as soon as I'm able to open wayports again. Assuming you come with us, that is."

     "I- why would I come with you?" Tia asked. "How  would I come with you? I can't just leave. My- my parents would never just let me go off, and I can't just go without them knowing."

     "Ah, but you can," I said. "Something about the sparks makes it so time won't pass in your world, while you're with us. The only thing to hold you back is whether or not you want to leave your home and make a perhaps perilous journey."

     "And how do I know you're not just trying to kidnap me or something?"

     "You know we'd gain nothing from that" I said.

     "Also, can you not feel it inside you?" Jasper asked. "Your mind and heart already know you should come. It's just your doubts getting in the way, the kind of doubts everyone has, all the time. The kind of doubts that don't matter"

     Tia's eyes knew he was right. She had no more choice in this than we had had. 

     "Not to mention," I said. "The sparks won't give you much of an option."

     As if on cue, the sparks returned to us. Tia's gaze fell to her hands, which were glowing with red, orange, and violet, just like mine and Jasper's. Tia's eyes were bright as she looked at at us.

     "Either you're right," she said with a grin. "Or I'm crazy. Or both. But I'm coming with you."

     "Excellent," said Jasper. 

     He opened up a wayport. On the other side waited four silhouettes of sparkling coloured light. I led Tia through the darkness, Jasper following close behind us. As we neared the end of the tunnel, the sparks flared brighter than I had ever seen them before. If I hadn't trusted them before, I did now.