Reluctantly, the young mage stirred himself and sat up. Looking around, the entire place was just a collection of greens, blues and purples in streamers of aurora borealis like light that ranged from bright to dark. He could feel a firm, somewhat giving floor but had no way at all of identifying dimension, size or anything else.

He looked at Gan and Rithus in confusion. "Where is this? Scratch that... You said there's a threat coming? What do you know? What have the two of you figured out?"

Rithus said, "I made a floor with my thoughts but I have to keep thinking about it or it will disappear and we'll be floating again."

Orison tried his spirit sight but everything looked exactly the same, just a little washed out. Switching to focus on his weird 'Find Objective' ability, the young mage saw a myriad of little dots. If he reached out to one, it would respond and move a little closer. The one he was experimenting on felt dangerous so he stopped drawing it to him. While he was thinking about only wanting to see the ones that didn't have that feeling of threat, many of them winked out.

While he was experimenting with the dots, he told them what he was seeing and they told them about the things that they had tried. What Rithus and Gan had mostly done, amounted to them playing around with the 'invisible stuff'. There was an insubstantial essence around them that could be shaped but required focus or the created object would return to nothing. While Orison played around with the dots, he had them work on trying to mentally refine something as realistically as possible.

"We shouldn't just keep messing around, I think. I can see a red blot on my map. It's still pretty far away, I guess, but it's coming straight at us," Gan said nervously.

Orison said, "There's no real sense of movement here. It's mostly just thought. Don't go in strange directions with that or you might get separated from us. I've pulled one of the dots close enough to see. It's some kind of- Alright! It's a kind of portal. Let me draw it closer."

When the portal was only a few feet away, Orison saw lush greenery on the other side but little else. Rithus could see it too but Gan couldn't. Not only that but Orison had the feeling he could go into it and so did Rithus but Gan's hand would just go through it when they tried to guide him. It took a little playing around and drawing another dot to figure out that their 'tower keys' didn't fit all the 'locks' for those places.

After Orison had drawn their attention to the 'portal dots' they started drawing the ones that all three could sense towards them. It was an interesting observation that of all the mysterious parts of himself, Orison's busted Find Objective ability was the best method for finding them. He could 'feel' some by following connections in his s.p.a.ce. Spirit sight could 'see' a couple once he knew they were there. Even the remaining eternium formation, down one of its fingers and little left of the crystal dust ring but a few chips of the shattered finger and a spa.r.s.e sprinkle of the highest potency dust, would ring out in a harmonizing vibration that could draw a few.

It was quite different for his companions. Rithus' 'shadow in his bones' drew him to the ones he could interact with as they drew to him. There was nothing else that the Marshlander knew of within him that could affect them. Gan also only had his map but it was as clear to the scout as it was to Orison using 'Find Objective. Between the two, they just watched their 'displays' and as Rithus resonated with one, as long as they could both see it, they drew it forward.

By the time they had around a dozen, they stopped pulling more. The red blot that Gan had saw on his map had gotten close enough that they could vaguely see a slightly darker smudge in the distance. Orison's own instincts start ringing alarm bells by that point. So, with speedy but detailed observations, they made a choice. It was a peaceful and essence rich feeling place that had no apparent signs of danger or discord. Not that they could see much beyond the portal view.

Side by side they walked closer to the portal and right before they would go through, Orison suddenly felt a strong resistance to pa.s.sing build at his chest. He had forgotten about the comatose Duran inside his s.p.a.ce. Orison quickly related the news before his companions finished walking through and he got stuck in this place alone. He started to cycle through the choices even as the three sensed for others without Orison limiting what he could see. By the time he had narrowed it down to two, Gan had been pulling on a match close enough for them to see it.

The dangerous unidentifiable object had grown close enough for Rithus and Orison to see the details that Gan had been able to see for awhile. It looked like a twining ball of tornadoes with jagged pieces of triangular metallic objects and random debris occasionally grinding against each other. They had no doubts that greeting it was a bad idea.

The two choices before them were, by Orison's accounting, a 1940's style world with a slightly dark feeling undertone and a bright, mystical place that felt rich in multiple essences. The third nearby showed a metropolitan city that seemed rather modern but it felt greater in power of existence than them by a good margin. It felt dangerous because feeling like a weak presence in comparison, instinctively seemed to indicate difficulty in survival and high chance of failure to transcend.

With common sense elimination, the choice was clear not only to Orison but also the others. Unanimously and without reservation, they stepped through the portal which would take them to the bright world that was much more dense in essence. It would have been their first choice before the Duran hiccup but it's strength of existence compared to themselves was a good deal higher than their second best choice which made them feel that the survival curve might end up being a bit more challenging than they were comfortable with. Right or wrong, it was time to see where stumbling around in the dark with a little guidance from Lily had brought them.

***

Once Orison had walked through, his sense of sight immediately vanished. He didn't appear where the image of the portal showed. Instead, he floated in a darkness with the feeling of 'ending' all around him. Through that, there was a sense of possibility.

Within the darkness, Orison heard Lily's voice, "If you're 'hearing' this, it means you did it. You started your climb. Experiences during step baptism vary almost as widely as the major archetypes of keys but no matter what kind it is, the process will rebirth you. It will strengthen your existence a little each time. The biggest help comes from acc.u.mulations of 'structural poison' and other harmful things being released from you unless the ent.i.ty instilling them is seventh tier or above. Don't confuse tiers with steps.

"Steps are a collection of experiences that indicate the expected understanding of a person as they 'climb the tower', greatly flawed but decently useful as a general outline. The tiers are a broader concept that involves other 'climbers' who use different ideologies. No matter if they call themselves espers, mages, cultivators or any other endless variant of MOSTLY meaningless labels, there is a general consensus of power. I haven't recovered enough to give you much here, since this piece has to be embedded a little more strongly to keep the baptism from wiping it immediately, so listen up.

"Don't stress over what you don't know. When it comes to your first few steps, knowing too much is almost as bad as going in blind since it can give you bad misconceptions. Your intuition is your best friend right now. It can screw you over too but it's less likely than 'advice', even well meant.

"If you're like most, you'll have choices of realities your first couple or so times. In general, there's no inherently better or worse one for your fist step except for three off the top of my head. There's more to it but like I said before, too much 'advice' is bad.

" Don't chose realities that are stronger 'feeling' than you and, if you like to play it safe, any that are over half as strong. You want to be able to resist a reality's will if it's a meddler like the one you came from. Just know that playing it safe's no guarantee that it actually will be. Look at what happened to me.

"Do NOT go for realities with high concentrations of essence unless it looks primitive. It is either a trap or filled with natives that can threaten you. Usually both. Sometimes it's a protected hub which could lead to voluntary/involuntary recruitment into trans-dimensional organizations or just plain old slavery.

"It should be obvious but don't chose ones that feel dark with no essence because they're dead. Well seasoned and experienced climbers sometimes aim for those as high risk gambles, you are neither. Dim with little essence are moderately dangerous but most consider those 'treasure'. By most, I mean fourth step and higher.

"If you find yourself in the first or second kind, don't panic. Just keep your head down and try to blend in until you have things figured out. If you find yourself in the third, uh, good luck.. No matter how many 'steps' you need to take, don't jump from low to mid dimensional realities until you're a fourth tier.

"Just a quick draft here... First tier is no supernatural qualities. Second tier is gifted in low dimensions, no supernatural qualities in mid dimensions. Third tier is legendarily powerful in low, not much stronger than average but stands out in dangerous ways in mi... rth tier... emiG.o.d...oundary ite...ooting for y-"

Orison didn't have anymore time take in the message. It was ripped from him as a cool, refres.h.i.+ng feeling washed over the young mage. That euphoric wave didn't last long until it built into a painful ripping sensation as Orison's physical mind and body wavered on dissolution, shaking out damaged, corrupted or dead pieces on a molecular level before reintegrating him into a healthy whole. Orison's soul and s.p.a.ce were washed through in much the same manner. Body, s.p.a.ce and soul alternately supported each other to keep the cleansing force from taking things away that were wanted.

Dispa.s.sionately, the sub-mind provided that the baptism wouldn't have been so intense but Orison got more than a double dose as whatever greater law of reality that supplied the cleansing and rebirth had to work 'through' him to reach Duran. It speculated that the tree which had made a place for itself within Duran was also sentient but on a different level and elicited a minor response from the cleansing and 'rebirth' force as well.

Orison's latticework 'filter' that ran between s.p.a.ce, soul and body was so gummed up with poisonous, corrupted and completely useless material that the cleansing wave didn't fully clear it after he kept the latticework from being ripped away entirely. Since the lattice was like a kidney/ liver combo and his s.p.a.ce was essentially the supernatural equivalent to a digestive tract, it wasn't so much a surprise as it was disturbing and unsettling just how much the supernatural side of himself had in common with the physical. This realization brought a practical, if somewhat vulgar, enlightenment to the young mage.

In general, souls didn't have bowels. Whatever c.r.a.p they acc.u.mulated during life had nowhere to go. Without a way to cleanse themselves, all souls would end up dark no matter how 'virtuous' they lived. Orison already knew that souls moved elsewhere after life and due to his 'religious' experience at the Whiteriver temple, he was mostly convinced virtuous souls were rewarded. The baptism that climbers experienced wasn't meant for them at all and a physical body with no supernatural augmentation wouldn't survive such an experience, much less benefit from it.

The baptism hadn't been all beneficial either but nothing wildly beyond expectations had occurred. He knew that he'd lose the remaining items in his s.p.a.ce that weren't 'strong' enough and now he was intimately aware of the mechanism responsible for that. There was an inkling that non-boundary items which WERE strong enough to survive the crossover would conform to the new reality and that was partially verified as little remaining looked as it did before.

While a light bloomed and grew in the distance, Orison realized a few more things. His soul and s.p.a.ce had shrunk well over half but had become more dense and stable. He also noted, with some amus.e.m.e.nt, that Duran had been 'washed' out of him as well. With a movement of will and some physical effort, he was also wearing a set of clothes unlike his. .h.i.tchhiker.

As the light drew closer, Orison was able to see that it wasn't moving to them, they were moving towards it, and 'it' was a sight to behold. In front of them was what appeared to be a mountainous and deeper hued celestial cousin to the eternium formation within Orison. Around it danced luminescent ribbons of nebulous ga.s.ses and bits of stone fragments that were forming minute quant.i.ties of similar crystal formations.

A fingernail piece of the crystalline substance floated towards them. As Orison grabbed his piece and examined it, he noticed that Duran looked at his skeptically while he seemed to be pantomiming holding a s.h.i.+eld. Switching to spirit vision, the young mage saw that there was a kind of spectral s.h.i.+eld in front of Duran. That s.h.i.+eld was not only protecting Duran but also Orison from what looked like hazy ripples drifting off the mountainous piece of 'astral' eternium.

The piece of crystal that Orison held, melted into him and attempted to shoot itself toward Orison's spiritual seat. Out of reflex, the young mage brought it into his s.p.a.ce instead. Once there, the liquidized crystal attempted to burrow through his latticework towards his soul but only managed to aid the speed of it's digestion. Orison was horrified to discover that over half wasn't digestible and within those parts were a mult.i.tude of complex models that Orison couldn't even begin to identify but would have permeated every part of himself, causing untold amounts of effects. Under the working of his s.p.a.ce, the models began unraveling, turning into dust particles no weaker in strength to the ones he currently thought of as 'max potency'. Not wasting the chance, Orison called upon the telekinetic model granted to him from the book of alien knowledge. He was pleased to see a few more pieces come to him but wasn't pleased at the weakened strength and shortened range of the spell. Much like Find Objective it had become busted and more of an innate ability with limited use.

Knowing the willful actions of the darting crystals, Orison managed to catch one with control of his s.p.a.ce and isolate it. Before he had a chance to look it over further, a sense of free fall disrupted his thoughts as he was surrounded by a cylinder of vertical light beams. Once the light cleared, he found himself b.u.t.t-planting in front of a floating astrolabe-looking device.

Standing up, Orison looked around to notice a fairly small but clean and happy looking village. Aside from a couple of people who had briefly chuckled at his rough landing in front of the device, everyone took the appearance of strangers on the platform with ambivalent familiarity. The young mage wondered why Duran's state of undress didn't faze anyone but noticed that at some point during transfer here, the boy had been dressed in what appeared to be well made commoner clothes with leather or metal sewed onto them in key places.

"Are you alright, Duran?" Orison asked.

The boy nodded then grabbed Orison's hand and said, "Can I see?"

Confused, Orison gave the boy permission. Duran closed his eyes and Orison felt a sharp energy poke through his spiritual protection like a small needle.

Withdrawing the incredibly focused energy, Duran smiled faintly before returning to his expressionless face and said, "You're not infected."

Orison frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The big crystal music box, we're in it's cage," Duran said.