PAGE THREE |

The ripped dimensional fabric of the Multiverse portal

With no thickness, neither generating light of its own nor absorbing any of the present dimension's, and an eerie, vaguely starry green void visible through the rift, nothing about the portal looked real. Thin slivers of the wall behind it were visible across the hole like yarn dangling off the side of a table. Aside from an old wooden desk, the room was otherwise barren.

"This was my portal, all those years ago," Theo explained. "I kept it hidden until the building was mine by dragging a bookcase in front of it every day. Was it your portal as well, Kevin?"

"I don't know! Seb found me in a dumpster in The City."

"Curious."

A malady snapped into Theo's head. I don't recall how to get to Caerpinwyd. I don't remember which bubble is which. I don't know where I'm going!

"Erm, Kevin, why don't you go first?" The bunny stood off to the side, paralyzed and idly fixing his cape as he stalled for time.

"I don't know where that Cayer place is, Theo!"

"Oh, that's quite alright. It shouldn't be too far off."

Doing as instructed, Kevin stuck his head through the portal, inspecting what was directly below him. The portal was an opening on the outside of a large, cloudy, dark blue bubble, like a miniaturized version of a planet, that housed Apricot Bay and all that surrounded it. A rocky island with the top overgrown in lush grass hovered in midair some distance directly underneath the bubble. The void took on the colors of liquid soap as the aardwolf approached, iridescent, though with a strange filmic grain to the eye.

Sticking one leg through at a time and clinging to the edge of the hole, Kevin could feel the effects of the void's lower gravity acting on his dangling limbs. He let go of the ledge and gently floated downwards, delightfully amused as his clothes flapped and floated around his body. Theo followed, though he more stumbled and tumbled through the air on his way down. "Dearie me."

Kevin and Theo tumbling into the Multiverse void

More stirred in the vacuum of space than in the void of the Multiverse. Aside from their steps and bumbling around, the silence was deafening. Other bubbles and islands were dotted across the landscape, differing in their colors, sizes, and how diffuse the auras surrounding them were. Which one led back to Theo's home was anyone's guess.

"I haven't been down here in so long..." Kevin thought aloud.

"Likewise. You'd think the library became my occupation or something."

"Where do we go now?"

"It's the next one over. I'm sure of it."

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