A View Form Above

Being taken by the stream meant she got to spend more time with it. She was excited to hear all about the changes, the river wanted to discuss, as she made it to where Malgastiflorian was last seen. The river thanked her by keeping her dry as she got out. She peered through the forest “This way” it told her in the foliage. She followed until she saw a figure, a white robe with a gray pointed wizard’s hat, and a silken purple scarf wrapped tightly around his neck. “I’m looking for Malgastiflorian” this may have been an error as everything around her changed, nothing felt real, everything around her became unrecognizable.

The trees were gone, replaced with a cold steel hallway. Through a window, she could see bright stars that usually hung over her head at night. “Lieutenant?” He stopped, turned around and asked, “What can I do for you?“.

She desperately wanted to ask Malgastiflorian where she was and what was going on. It came out, “Captain, may I speak candidly?”

“At ease. What is it?”

There was a pause. “I think you know what it is,”she said, looking into the eyes on his alien face.

“Yes, it is time.” The captain’s eyes softened when he smiled back.

May was on a different journey. It was becoming clear to her that she was peering into the mind of a scientist. She studied many of the deep sciences. She had so many things on her mind that May had troubles trying to understand them all. Furthermore, she felt like she had some control, but the other May that lived here moved on her own. As if she were cohabitating with her dimensional twin. This one was far more Intelligent than her; they moved with grace from hallway to hallway. She felt the need to “borrow” her mouth. “Frick is a hat; I need your help to get him out.” The Captain paused at a doorway and looked back at her. “What?” another pause. “We need to get in there and stop them.”

“Frick, your old student; someone turned him into a hat.” He looked at her with urgency in his eyes as his mind worked.

He went through the door. “Everyone stop what you are doing all non-essential personnel leave this room.”

His command left only two other people She did not know them, a man and a woman. They looked like twins. “What’s wrong Captain?” The man asked

“What you are doing here threatens to destroy more than just this small generation ship. It will tear through space itself, destroying everything everywhere. You threaten more than life, you threaten existence.” The twins droppedwhat they were doing.

The man was unhappy with the response, “it this about your divine arcane?” he sounded exasperated.

The Captain looked at him, his eyes glowed bright white, “I am The Divine Arcane.” He shouted. The two of them passed out. He walked over to them putting his hands on their head removing their memories one at a time in a flash of light. “Well that’s that.” He said casually, suddenly she was back in the forest, Malgastiflorian was in front of her. “What’s this about Frick being a hat?” he asked.

Her mind was still in the steel and stars. “What was that?” she wondered aloud.

“That was a different place where they harvest their magic from the infinitesimal and the probabilistic, like a moth to the flame humanity likes to dance around danger.”he mused

Her mind returned, She took off the hat handing it to Malgastiflorian, as the hat touched his hands he could feel the pull of the caster. “It is a Channeled spell. Stop the caster, stop the spell.” he explained nonchalantly.

“Who is it, where do I go?” she begged

“Come back with me to my tower, I have something there that might help.” he began walking. “How is Little Innestra?”

“She’s the Mayor now, we can hardly call her little. Not only that, her son has become a fine young man.” she replied, grateful that Frick took the time to get to know the people.

“Is Crest still making that delicious sweet bread?”

“He married that little Lana about two years back. They have made something special in their little bakery”

“How’s Finnagan he still running his lumber mill?”

“Finnagan died four years ago. His son Kor runs it now, a good man, and a friend.” Her eyes were open to the forest. She saw “Fire” in the leaves “Somethings wrong we must make haste.”

“Take my hand,” he offered. They slipped through the forest in a beam of light. Until they hit a clearing, the forest around it was on fire. He began putting out the fire by pulling it into himself. It was like it was thread on a tapestry. It stopped, silence filled the space. The scarred forest was weeping, “Clearly something is wrong,” May saw smoke coming out of his mouth as he spoke. “That was very clearly set by a man, come to the top with me enough of this tomfoolery.” the smoke still spewed out.