Beyond the Void

Chapter 9, Border between worlds

ANDREW

One ten since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

Andrew stood up and stretched. How much time had passed? Everything in front of his eyes blurred, and he saw swirling colours. He looked around as his vision returned. All around the hill people were methodically poking, prodding, examining, digging and doing whatever they could to manipulate whatever irregularities they thought they had found.

Robert had lost it once again when Lenna, Anna and Mai tried to channel energy into the pillars by gesturing or touching certain pillars or places at the same time. So far their method had yielded no results other than awkward looks from the others.

The girl, Becca, was talking to Sarah. In fact, the two of them had been together for the entire morning. Sarah had a pained look on her face. The girl had been talking all the time and occasionally would throw some kind of tantrum. Andrew had wandered close twice, but he could not understand what she had been talking about. And no one had found anything of note about the gateway.

But the pillars had gotten shorter. It was a bitter relief that had not been one of Andrew's hallucinations. He had not noticed before, but neither wind nor obstacles affected the dust. He wasn't sure if the dust went around or passed through his hands. And it didn't gather on the ground either.

The weather was still overcast and grey. A promise of rain hung in the air and little droplets of water already covered Andrew's vaguely black cloak. He returned his attention to the pillar in front of him and the steady stream of dust that was now falling from the top.

This entire time Andrew had trouble concentrating. The hallucinations had become more intense today. The world around him kept falling silent, and his mind wandered to faraway places. There were times he had to look around to make sure he had seen nothing out of the corner of his eye. A shadow kept passing by him behind his back instead of the savage silhouettes in the mountains.

"Guys! This is new." Robert was on all fours in front of the pillar furthest from the stairs. He had abandoned his attempts to find out how deep the tiles went. "This marking wasn't here before." Robert held his finger under a rough silhouette of a crescent moon with a bird in front of it. Above it stood five triangles in a half circle. "It's all lines and sharp corners. No shapes or figures, except this."

"Okay, so?" Jess sounded impatient.

"Why would anyone draw such a large pattern of lines and squares over such a large area? It has to be a way to interact with this."

"The pattern is painted on top. How is this a button if you can't push it in?"

"Touchscreens and pressure-activated surfaces are nothing new. The triangles line up after the left hand." Robert said as he placed his hand on the markings.

Without warning, Andrew felt his legs buckle and a soundless noise filled his head. For a moment the world wanted to turn backwards in front of Andrew's eyes. Time sped up and caught up with reality as Robert tore his hand away from the marking, cursing as he jumped to his feet.

Andrew could have sworn a wave of something had run over the top of his head. This assault on his mind had been so intense, he had stumbled away from those few gathered near Robert. He had trouble concentrating on what was happening, again.

It looked as if a small tornado was subsiding at the opposite end of the gateway. Did anyone else see that? Sten and Eric had rushed after Robert, who was cursing, shaking his hand and pacing around the place.