Scales like Stars Pt. 07

Brash, meanwhile, was on Merton's shoulder like a small black cat on the shoulder of an OC self insert character in a fan-fiction. He was snoring happily.

Gunner sighed as they took their seat. "We're ready to engage the planar shields. No dragon ship has ever headed into the Outlands before. We don't even know if we'll arrive there...but...it's better than heading directly into the guns of however many Bryaugh ships have arrived since we left."

Merton nodded. "Have the shields ready. And the guns warmed up."

Gunner smiled - something that had once been a hideous sight. But now Merton was used to him.

The forward view of the plane of negation suddenly bloomed with a portal. As the shields were designed to just snap open for a few moments - and only create holes the size of railgun projectiles to boot - the Talon-9 had only a few seconds to jet forward. Those few seconds of acceleration felt like getting kicked by a mule. Merton grabbed onto his thighs, gritting his teeth as weight mashed him back - and then deceleration smashed him forward. Only the protection field surrounding his seat kept him planting. One of his friends was less lucky. Trevor went skidding across the floor with a cry of alarm.

The forward view showed an utterly bizarre mishmash of shapes. It took Merton a few seconds to realize that he was looking at what seemed to be hundreds of bricks, mashed against the cameras. He blinked.

"We've HIT something!" the drow pilot exclaimed.

"What?" Relix asked, her head lifting up.

"A...wall?" The drow pilot said, slowly. "Uh...one second." She took hold of the controls, then wiggled them. The movement sent new groaning, grinding sounds through the ship. But it also dislodged the bricks. They skittered forward and away, sliding off the nose of the demiship. Soon, the view was cleared and Merton could see that they had crashed into an Escher painting. Specifically, they had crashed into the famous Escher panting, the one that everyone recognized.

The one with the stairs, leading off at right angles and curves, heading into possible doorways set at gravitational odds with one another. The one that gave any right thinking architect a pounding headache and eternal blood oath of vengeance against surrealists.

"Where the hell are we?" Julia asked.

"Detecting a life sign," the pilot said. "Half-elven."

"Put it on the main screen," Merton said.

"They're right there," the drow pilot said, pointing. And, well, there the half-elf was. They were a huddled figure, seated on one of the landings that the stairs led towards. They wore robes and were hunched forward, looking as if they had been sitting there for a while. And as Merton looked closer, he realized that that...was...true. The walls and floor near the half-elf were covered with tally marks. Merton's brow furrowed as he started to try and guesstimate them.

The robed figure slowly reached up, then tossed back their hood, to reveal that they were female. Their hair was short cropped and black, their eyes cat green. Their ears were pointed, but not as long as a full blooded elf's might be, like Thuwit. She slowly stood up, then started to wave her arms over her head, shouting.

"Uh, open the airlock," Merton said, standing. "Lets ask the natives."

The front of the bridge whirred and clicked, unfolding open as if a mouth was being pried apart.. A ramp unfolded like a tongue and Merton realized that he could literally just stand up from the couch and walk forward. "I...didn't know there was a front airlock."

"It's for boarding," Gunner said.

Merton shrugged and slowly walked forward, onto the ramp, then down to the balcony. As he walked close, he realized that there were roughly three hundred notches on the wall. Maybe more. Maybe less. The robed figure had stood and was looking at him with eyes as wide as saucers. She spoke. Her voice was raspy and hoarse, as if she hadn't used it for a long time.

"A-Are you real?" she asked.

"Yup," Merton said.

The half-elf flung her arms around him and buried her face against his shoulder, sobbing as she clung to him. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry!" she gasped out. Merton, feeling as if he had walked in on someone else's plot, started to pat her back gently, biting his lip. The woman sagged further and Merton started to have to actually holding her up to prevent both of them from falling to the floor.

"I-It's okay?" he asked.

The woman drew back, then blinked. "W-Wh...did...did you come on a spelljammer?" she looked at the prow of the ship.

"A spelljammer!?" Relix spluttered, sounding utterly offended as she walked down the ramp, her hands on her hips. "The Five Talon Empire hasn't used spelljammers for five thousand years! They're utterly antiquated! This is a PER powered demiship! With a full compliment! Sans, um, seventy five percent of our armsmen. Also, uh, who are you?"

The half-elf sniffed, then blinked. "M-my name is Dart..." she said. "I'm a wizard. And I...I..." She gulped. "I did bad things."

Merton looked around, slowly.

"This is maze," he whispered.

Dart nodded, slowly. "I was Mazed by the mistress of Sigil, its ruler. She, uh, the Lady of Pain, that's her name. She cast me in here, for my crimes. I...I almost destroyed a whole dimension. Out of greed." She closed her eyes. "And for the past three hundred and fifty six days, I have been here. Alone. Alone with my thoughts..."

"Evil wizards trapped in a pocket dimension seems to be a theme," Julia muttered.

Relix growled, slightly. "Give us one good reason to not leave you here? The last evil wizard trapped in a pocket dimension almost killed my husband with the embodiments of her own guilt!"

"You live odd lives..." Dart said, slowly, her voice rasping. But her eyes were filling tears. "I...I ca-can someone pinch me. If this is another dream-"

Julia reached around and squeezed her butt.

Dart squeaked and leaped into the air, as if she had been jabbed by a pin.

"See?" Julia asked. "Not a dream." She paused, watching as Dart started to sob in earnest again. Her hands went to her face and her shoulders shook as she started to sink to her knees. Merton stepped forward, sliding his arm around her back, holding her up. Julia's voice was hard as iron. "We're not leaving her here."

"Absolutely not," Merton said.

"But-" Relix started.

"I don't care what she did," Merton said. "This punishment? It's inhumane!"

"Well, she did say the woman who did it was named the Lady of Pain!" Relix exclaimed. Then, sighing, she said. "F-Fine. I didn't want to leave her anyway." She narrowed her eyes at Dart. "But absolutely no destroying our universe. Understand?"

Dart blinked, her eyes still brimming with tears, her cheeks blotchy. "O-Of course not..." she whispered.

"Do you know the way to Sigil?" Merton asked as he started to walk Dart to the ship.

"No! I'm not going back there! No!" Dart said, shuddering. "Please, don't-"

"Okay, okay, it's just we need to get home!" he said. "To Earth."

Dart looked at him. "W-Which Earth?"

"Uh...ours?" Merton asked as they came to the bridg.e

Dart closed her eyes. She breathed in, trying to compose herself. She stood up straighter, then spoke with a firmer tone. "Does it have magic or is it magic free? Who is the President of the United States. Is it the United States, or the Confederated States, or are both there? Who won the second or third world war? Were there a second and third world war? How did the first world war go? How many zombies are there. And, uh..." she paused. "You know, stuff like that."

"You've been to that many Earths?" Julia asked, her eyes wide.

"Of course," Dart said, chuckling. It was a brittle sound. Like she was barely hanging on. The airlock door whirred shut behind them. She slowly looked around the bridge - and the bridge crew looked back at her, clearly curious. Dart trembled like a leaf, as if she could hardly believe where she was.

"Uh..." Merton coughed. "There's the United States. There is magic, but we didn't know there was any. Basically, dragons came from Earth, and when they left, they left behind mage-blind slaves. The President is, uh..." he coughed again, then muttered under his breath.

"Who?" Dart asked.

Merton adjusted the collar of his shirt.

"We don't like to talk about it," Lisa said scowling.

Dart's brow furrowed.

"Oh!" She said, her eyes widening. "Oh that Earth. Oh. Oh." She blinked again. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay," Merton said, shrugging. "I mean, okay, technically, it's not okay, but..."

Dart squeezed his shoulder, gently, then smiled. Like her chuckle, it was brittle. "I know the way. It'll take three portals, but they're all in the Outlands. We'll pop through a portal near the Skull of Ru, then have to dip through Eberron. Ebrron will take us to Highpoint, and there's a portal built into the back of the city-mech of Ultarmort. We fly through that and you'll appear on the south pole of your Earth."

"There's a dimensional portal over Antarctica?" Trevor asked.

"Well, yeah," Dart said, nodding as she drew her robes around herself. "It's right over Atlantis."

TO BE CONTINUED