The Distortion

Laith, whose steps gradually slowed the longer he was listening to his brother, finally halted. Râad bumped into him, letting out an unsatisfied groan. Adam noticed and turned to face him.

“I know, it’s a lot to take in.” Adam said calmly.

“Understatement of the last decade!!!” Laith exclaimed. “I mean what the hell are we even talking about here, some sort of magical seals—which no one knew about by the way—suddenly broke and the result was this world?!”

“Pretty much.”

“Don’t ‘pretty much’ me! Do you know how crazy this sounds??” Laith freaked out

Râad let out a roar in conjunction with Laith’s rambling. “See, even Râad agrees!”

“Oh, give me a break, you and your tiger—who I’m sure is just suffocating from the heat.” Adam dismissed his brother’s outrage. “We have been living in ‘crazy’ for a quite a while now so you may want to reconsider the usage of that word.”

“That’s fair…” Laith mumbled, still struggling to process what he just heard.

Up until this point, the Distortion was a complete mystery and people were simply content with adapting to the world it birthed. And now, just like that, he found out the actual cause of how this whole existence came to be. To top it off, the lunacy didn’t stop there as an even more pressing issue was at hand: the Decay. The world was heading towards its doom slowly but surely as long as these three seals remained broken.

“Okay, following this chain of thought still doesn’t solve one issue: where are those seals in the first place? According to your story, there was no trace of them before the Distortion so what makes you think anyone knows where they are now?” Laith asked, cooling down a little.

“I honestly can’t tell you anything concerning the seals before the Distortion. However, what matters right now is that right here in this world, they are very real. They were broken into a number of fragments, one of which I saw with my own eyes—granted I didn’t know I was looking at one at the time.

“These fragments do have an actual physical and tangible form and the documents provided by the president mention most of their locations, which brings us the tricky part.” Adam paused, pushing back his glasses. “They are scattered all across the world and collecting them will prove to be an extremely arduous task, which is why I—”

“Came to ask for my help.” Laith finished his brother’s sentence for him. “You want me to help you gather the different fragments of the three seals.”

“Glad you finally caught up. I remember you a bit more quick-witted.” Adam said condescendingly.

“My sincere apologies Mr. Big Brain, but after dropping one bombshell after the other, you might wanna excuse my brain for lagging a bit…”

It all started to make sense in Laith’s head, the entire landscape of the planet changing, continents rearranged, time flowing differently, people from different eras colliding into one age, mythical creatures coming to life, Incarnated individuals…such mysterious otherworldly alterations could only be the result of a mysterious otherworldly trigger. The cause perfectly matched the effect.

That said, one alarming effect and the most detrimental, involving the fate of the entire world, went unnoticed. The stakes couldn’t get higher than this.

His brother presented him with a groundbreaking revelation and a monumental task with it, a task Laith wasn’t certain he was up to. He was but a simple man in a vast world with a large number of people, some of them surely would be more capable than he is.

Yet, a part of him wanted to do this, not only for the world and his brother, but also for himself. To Laith, this could very well be the chance to grab that missing piece inside of him, a sense of fulfillment he never fully achieved living peacefully day to day in a small village. Laith initially thought that his Incarnation would fill that void, what with being one’s literal calling in life, but it only served to bring him one step closer to feeling whole and complete.

“Before I answer your question, mind if I ask you answer mine?” the hopeful vision didn’t stop Laith from having few questions that needed answering, and by few, he meant a lot.

“Shoot.”

“How come they don’t destroy these fragments if they don’t want anyone near them?”

“They couldn’t, no one could and nothing could. No amount of physical force or thermal energy or atmospheric pressure put so much as a scratch on the fragment.”

“Well then how were the seals broken in the first place?”

“That’s more than one question…and ss I mentioned previously, what happened to the seals before the Distortion is beyond me.”

Laith hummed, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

“Okay then, what exactly happened to the places that ‘vanished’, what was left there?”

“Vanished, disappeared, faded…I don’t know how else to describe it. I understand what you’re getting at, matter transforms, undergoes a specific change, but is never just…gone—as in poof. Provided we’re still relying on pre-established scientific logic of course.

“A few theories were presented, namely that of black holes and universe contraction, but it led nowhere. In this case, a defined mass of the world was just…gone. The phenomenon was referred to as The Decay, a void closing in on Mihad.” Adam explained.

Laith was slightly disturbed by the word “void”. Nothingness given shape was a hard concept to picture or grasp, let alone a fate one had to fight off.

“And how long until the world is just…gone?”

“No clue.”

“Beg your pardon? I thought you said this Decay was periodic, that it happened each year. Doesn’t that give us an estimate?”

“It would, if the rate at which the calculated surface of decay wasn’t increasing each year—at random mind you. The only constants are the time of its occurrence and the fact that it’s always the furthest outskirts of the world being affected.”

“Are you shitting me?! Is it possible that the entire world could vanish in one fell swoop?” Laith’s eyes bulged out from his sockets.

“Possibly, which is why I’m planning for us to move as soon as tomorrow.”

“The way you said that so casually makes it seem like it’s a quick world tour with a lot of fun in store for us…”

“You could record some vlogs if you’re still into that sort of thing.” Adam shrugged.

Laith snored audibly. “Seriously though, why the hell would anyone not want to stop this from happening? Why would anyone be fine with the world vanishing into nonexistence?”

“Aside from the identity of the enemy, that would be the other big question I couldn’t find an answer to…” Adam said, pushing back his glasses.

Those two mysteries tied Adam’s mind in knots. Facing an unidentified enemy while also ignoring his motive was by no means encouraging. His brother quickly realized it as well, a troubled expression adorning his face. Râad rubbed his fur against Laith in an attempt to comfort his friend—the tiger had sensed his friend’s concern. It was Râad’s reminder that Laith had nothing to worry about; the giant orange cat had his back.

Appreciate it buddy.

“I still have a billion questions to ask but there’s one last thing I’d like to know for now,” Laith said, “do we have any clue as to what happens exactly when the seals are finally fixed?”

“To be completely honest, I don’t know for sure, I don’t even know how to properly reform them after they’re gathered, it’s not like these seals are broken every now and then. Besides, ‘balance shall be restored’ is quite the broad statement. The one thing I can speculate for now is that fixing them will most likely stop the Decay.”

They both fell quiet for some time.

“Listen to me, I will be straight with you, we don’t have much—if anything—to go on as of right now. Limited resources, limited information, limited personnel…you name it. Our chances of success are quite frankly closer to zero than any other number. So, knowing all of this, are you still willing to embark on this quest?” Adam laid it out for his brother with brutal honesty.

What followed was a moment of silence, not because Laith was hesitating, not because he didn’t have an answer, but because he took a moment to picture himself undertaking this journey and battling his way through it.

It was his own way of putting himself on trial and knowing whether he fit in that picture or not. He did that every time he was about to make an important decision. This was by far the most crucial decision he ever had to make. And in his mind, Laith overcame that trial.

“Were you trying to bait me when you said ‘quest’?”

“Did it work?”

“It sure as hell did.” Laith replied and extended his hand to shake his brother’s.

Adam did the same, feeling a huge sense of relief. A mountain was lifted off his shoulders right then and there. He’d been through so much just to get to that moment, much more than what he let his brother know. If Laith were to refuse, which he had more than enough reason to, it would have all been for naught.

Despite all of that, he knew getting his brother to join his cause wouldn’t be the hardest part. There was still a slight yet no less tricky issue that was bound to cause a headache.

“I assume you’re gonna tell mama and baba about this, correct?” Laith asked.

“I doubt I could find a convincing pretext to leave so soon after my long absence.” Adam replied, pushing back his glasses.

“You realize they won’t take the same bait, right?”

“Yeah, no matter how hard I think about it, I just can’t see myself simply convincing Faïrouz Kacem to let both her sons go on a ‘trip to save the world’.” Adam’s delivery of that last bit was deliberately corny.

Râad cocked his head as he watched them laugh hysterically.