The Mirrorverse

Syrhahn

“I need a gun. I feel exposed and generally unarmed. Could you grab one for me please on one of your travels?” Syrhahn shot Xhisara his sweetest smile, forgetting that he had repeatedly been told that it made him look like a maniac.

“Okay, I’ll see what I can do,” she sighed, knowing that he was right. “Make sure you look after April okay?”

“And I know what about teenage girls?” he countered, feeling out of his depth again.

“They can’t be that different from teenage boys. You’ll work it out, just explain what you’ve learnt so far. Leave out the assassin bit though...”

And with that she was gone, off to seek further intel about William, to collect new allies, and to attempt to intercept his new recruits. There was no question that he would slow her down, that was true, but the risk to herself without his protection did cause him concern.

“Assassin huh?” grinned April, having overheard their conversation. She was so much more relaxed now, a different girl.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he shrugged, making his way to the door.

“I’ll find out you know,” she teased, making Syrhahn laugh as he suspected she was probably right.

They went for a walk through the forest, really the only thing to do around there. Not aimlessly, but in the direction of the village centre to introduce April to the other residents.

April was looking around in wonder at the size of the trees.

“Hey, what if these giant trees are for giant people, maybe they are there and they’ll come out and eat us all!” she gasped, running her fingers along a tree.

“I don’t think I’d taste that great, but you, yes, I do think so,” he opened his mouth very wide, pretending to eat her; causing a stake to pierce his heart from the games he used to play with his son. April must have noticed that he missed a beat, because she asked of Viskra.

Syrhahn told her of him, what he was like when he was little, what kind of a man he had become. It broke Syrhahn’s heart to bring it all back up, but somehow it made him more real again, like his memory had faded without his permission.

When Viskra had been April’s age, fourteen, he had been more interested in disassembling their household appliances than making up stories about giants. But there was certainly something about this girl, a way she had about her.

They wandered into the central clearing where the charred remains of the fire sat proudly as the centrepiece. There were folk sat around on verandas of the surrounding houses, talking and drinking strange coloured juices. They went towards the nearest folk who greeted them kindly but explained in some sort of sign language that their translator was broken.

April’s mouth was hanging open at the sight of the green tripod/tail folk much the same as Syrhahn’s had metaphorically been was when he encountered them for the first time.

They moved on to the next house and were also greeted warmly, this time with slightly broken and very heavily accented English.

“Hello friend,” a somewhat hairy humanoid greeted.

“Hello friends,” replied Syrhahn, while April turned shy all of a sudden and started stabbing the toe of her tiny canvas shoe into the dirt.

Syrhahn and the hairy folk had met the previous evening at the gathering, and he had noticed that the humanoid seemed to have problems making words with a somewhat awkwardly shaped tongue.

They entered into a stilted conversation where Syrhahn introduced April, without embarrassing her of the details of how they came across her.

“Another lost soul developing a gift with no guidance, it can be so cruel,” the other hairy person with a higher pitched voice whom Syrhahn had presumed to be a female. “With Unkah here, coming from such an uncivilised place without any real language, it took him a long time to understand there was anything outside of our cave dwelling population, let alone a whole multiverse!”

“You’re Neanderthals!” exclaimed April tactfully. Thankfully they didn’t take offence and even agreed that they were indeed early humans, just like Syrhahn was a much later human and hence much taller. Judging by April’s height and the world they had taken her from, she was somewhere in between, but nearer to his time than theirs.

It certainly explained why their tongues didn’t function well in speech, they weren’t designed for it, hadn’t evolved yet.

Familiar guttural sounds came from behind Syrhahn, and he turned to see a smaller version of the grey man from the night before, with the amazing prehensile snout.

“Hello friend,” said the translator she held in her hand, which seemed to be just very long fingers joining at the wrist. Syrhahn hadn’t noticed that before. “Could I have you for a moment?”

Syrhahn nodded and joined her, leaving April with the primitive humans.

“I believe I have located a tracker,” she began without ceremony.

“William’s tracker?” he asked, as the world stopped turning for him.

“No, a young one. He has been accessing the astral plane without instruction, only through intuition. I have spoken to him, he is special as no-one can follow his trail, not even through the plane itself. He has given me instructions on how to find him, he’s on a planet in this universe. But he is reluctant to join us, he is afraid.”

“Can you tell April where it is so she can take us there?” Syrhahn was feeling the first embers of positivity for the first time in a while.

“No traveller can get a lock on his location from the astral plane, it is impossible, the boy cannot control his power. You will have to go by more conventional means and bring him back here.”

He looked at her strangely, wondering what conventional means entailed.

“I am not getting on one of those things,” Syrhahn glared at the hairy beast that had eaten his hair. He automatically stroked the remaining hair the revolting creature had failed to eat.

The snouted woman laughed a low gurgle at him as she led him around the beast to a house on the edge of the settlement. He breathed an audible sigh of relief as they passed it towards a more civilised form of transport to the nearest space port to the boys’ planet.

April was still laughing at his aversion to the hairy beasts when they arrived just as the front door was opened. A slightly larger grey snouted person stepped aside as they entered the spacious kitchen. Syrhahn was greeted by his new ally, the same man he had conversed with at the gathering.

April and Syrhahn joined him at the table, and the male started immediately.

“I am Phy, and this is Rea. They are our human names,” he said, leaning on the table with his long fingers pushed together as if in prayer.

“Syrhahn and Alysson,” Syrhahn introduced them, giving April a look to play along with her new name. Something told him to keep her identity a secret for as long as possible, causing the abrupt change in his introduction.

“So you agree to enter into the mission to locate the tracker, and bring him here?” Clearly small talk wasn’t commonplace where they came from, it was most refreshing to Syrhahn.

“I do,” affirmed Syrhahn, sounding like he was taking his hand in marriage.

“Of course you understand why non humans cannot undertake a mission to a humanoid planet?” it was Rea, the lady who had brought them there, the only other person at the table besides snout guy and April. Her voice was sharp and crisp, a no nonsense interaction.

“Of course, but I am human, so I can go,” said April rapidly, continuing straight on when she saw the look on Syrhahn’s face.

“You might need out of there, and I can always take you somewhere to safety. You need me, you need me to get you back safely!”

The kid had a point. He couldn’t take any of the grey guys, he would stand out enough being so tall anyway. But then he realised that was merely an assumption, perhaps the planet was inhabited by tall people. Perhaps they might even be friendly, though he didn’t hold his breath.

“And I’ll be safer with you than with anyone, you can protect me and I can protect you!” The fourteen year old may have spoken with the grammar of a young person, but her meaning was that of someone much older. Her logic was flawless and Syrhahn might have consented had it not been for Phy’s concerns.

“This is no mission for a child. You have no idea what is out there, and your portals won’t save you from attack from behind, or even from the front if it’s fast enough. Syrhahn cannot protect both of you.”

He has a point, thought Syrhahn. maybe I’m being selfish putting her life in danger to maybe protect mine.

“He’s right Alysson, I’m not putting you at risk,” Syrhahn waited for the explosion he feared was imminent, but she just glared at him with unrestrained hatred.

* * * * *

“I will take you to a planet you can board a passenger ship to the planet Seig, which is your destination. Once there, I will obtain local currency and leave rapidly. I will be as discreet as possible,” said Phy.

“Why can’t you just try and take me to Seig, if you know where it is?” he wondered, as it seemed such a lot of effort for inter-dimensional travellers.

“No-one has ever been there, and we can’t follow the boy from the astral plane like we normally would to go somewhere. Attempting to travel when you have no idea of the destination could land you in all kinds of danger.”

Still a little confused as to the limitations of what he saw to be limitless powers, Syrhahn was nevertheless eager to commence a new mission. Anything was better than sitting around, and a tracker was a leap forwards.

“Would you excuse me to have a word with my young friend outside?” he asked, as Phy nodded and he and April and arose from the table.

“Create your own history, a new life,” he instructed her rapidly. “Give nothing away to anyone about who you are, okay?” He grabbed her arm as she turned away from him.

“I could create my own history by coming with you and protecting you. And I can bring you home,” she pleaded, eyes wide and lower lip wobbling.

“I have enough problems dodging bullets myself, I can’t protect you. Bullets move faster than your reflex to open a portal,” Syrhahn knew he was making excuses, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on his worry of taking her with him.

April glared at him again, pulling her arm from his grip and putting her hands on her hips.

“Stay safe, and stick with the story,” he glared back, before turning and walking back in the house.

Phy gave him the information he needed to locate the boy, and they vacated the kitchen through Phy’s portal, leaving April and Rea behind.