Exciti

Chapter 17 (Adam)

They were standing on a small balcony halfway up a spherical, well...Frankly, Adam had no name for this big a space! It reminded him of a massive cave, except this one was so big that the far parts faded in a haze, even though everything was bathed in a golden light that, as far as he could see, had no source.

And the wall.

Every available inch of the wall that made the sphere was covered with every kind of door there ever was, or wasn't, colorful, dull, old gates, modern doors with exit signs, fancy doors with ornate frames, chipped doors with broken glass panes, doors big enough for an aircraft carrier, doors too small for a mouse, and everything in between, all with their own little balconies.

Adam ran to the railings and looked down, was that water?! It was so very far and too shiny, like a sea of gold and silver glitter seen from an airplane. He lifted his head and looked ahead, right into the middle of the sphere. Hundreds of gigantic globes floated like planets in slow, gentle motion. Their formation reminded Adam of a DNA model. They all had a sheen to them, like soap bubbles that never popped. All the globes were studded with what looked like crystals, but that was where the similarities ended. Every globe was unique in its color, pattern, and size.

The whole thing looked so surreal, and very...very beautiful. Adam thought he could spend the rest of his life just looking at it.

"Close your mouth, Adam Dunton...flies will get in," Smirked Lucy, a hint of pride in her voice.

"Toto, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!" Adam turned, and half whispered-half whimpered to Liam, who stuck to the wall far from the railing, looking like someone had whacked him on the head with a hammer.

Lucy frowned, then pointed off in the distance. "No, the Kansas entrance is that big door there down there...and who is Toto?"

When the boys gawked at her in disbelief, she rolled her eyes. "Whatever! Welcome to The Society's headquarter, HQ for short!" she gestured at the globes' general direction, "The library is there."

Liam finally managed to move. "How do we get to it?"

"Unless you can fly, we will use those," Lucy pointed at the space between them and the globes, where detached wooden terraces with golden railings floated like flying islands, carrying people and stuff between the globes and the doors. Adam's eyes followed a couple that twirled and zigzagged as they made their way between the floating globes.

They followed Lucy to an opening in the railings. She threw a coin out. "All we have to do is throw this into the Waters Below and ..." She waved a hand at one of the floating terraces that started moving toward them, "Voila! The TerraFerry comes to you."

The three of them got onboard, the TerraFerry dipping a little as each of them stepped on the polished floor.

Lucy closed the small gate then went to a silver cone, fixed at one corner of the railing. She warned them to, "Hold on tight," before she spoke into the cone, "The Sumerian Bubble, please."

The TerraFerry accelerated so fast that Adam felt like he'd left his stomach somewhere behind them. "Sumerian?" he finally talked when their speed stabilized.

Lucy yelled against the wind, "The Sumerians invented libraries five thousand years ago, so their bubble contains one of the oldest Libraries in the world." She picked a corner and sat cross legged on the floor, "This will take a few minutes. It is further than it looks. Sit."

Adam noticed that it took Liam longer to let go of his grip on the railings.

Once sat, Liam started signing, "Why does everything have a green glow."

Adam frowned. Green?

Lucy raised her eyebrows. "Your Visus is more advanced than I thought." She started explaining "Exciti come in many forms. In the case of Exciti spaces, like old buildings and cities, the emotions they absorb create a Bubble. A separate dimension, I guess, that is only subject to laws derived from the place's own history, and not to the usual laws of physics and nature."

Adam looked at the floating globes ahead of him, "Wouldn't those Bubbles be all over Boston? It is full of old buildings!"

She shook her head. "The Society has a division of Chasers with the sole job of actively searching for bubbles all over the world. They extract them from wherever they are and bring them here. So it is very unlikely to come across one."

"Why would they do that?"

Lucy pulled back a strand of her hair that the wind had whipped into her mouth, "Bubbles in the outer world are generally bad news, lethal even." She gestured around them, "Long ago, The Society found a way to neutralize the bubbles' threat by bringing them together in one place." She looked at Liam, "I have heard that naturals with advanced Visus can see a green glow when looking at a Bubble. Who knows, you may have a future with the Chasers in The Society. You'll have to study a lot of architecture, though."

Liam didn't comment, or look happy for that matter.

Adam looked through the ornate railings, thinking of what Lucy had just said. Did Tam have a future in The Society, too?

He was deep in thought when a blur of white and blue sparks passed a few inches from his face, "Yikes!" he yelled as he fell backward.

Lucy laughed, "Sorry, some of the coins in the Waters Below are so old, they keep waking into Exciti. We call them Tails. They are more like adorable pests around here really. Harmless but absolutely untamable."

Adam squinted at the Tail that flew away, "It looks like neon lights in the shape of a... peacock?"

Liam signed, the change of subject lifting his mood, "The coin probably had a peacock on it?"

Adam's eyes widened as he gasped, "Must be a Roman one! The peacock is the sacred animal to Juno, the wife of ..." He trailed off when he saw Liam giving him a look that said, are you seriously rambling about old coins? Now?

Adam cleared his throat and turned to Lucy, "How long have you guys been throwing coins into the water?"

"It is the Waters Below. And I don't know, millennia? I think? The Society is old, and there are strict rules about throwing nothing else into the Waters Below."

Adam's eyes swept the space around them, straining to look for more Tails. He saw some flying around, but none were close enough for him to decipher their kinds.

The TerraFerry slowed down, jarring him out of his trance.

Lucy stood up. "We are here."