Chapter Seven: Context Clues
Written by Jeff
When the ocean rushed away from Delvorn’s shoreline, the sound released and then built in intensity, like a wave crashing in reverse. Though it wasn’t a particularly loud sound, it was wide, encapsulating the island entirely, rustling and rising above the evening silence. It was an odd noise, but a noise made unmistakably by the sea, and the moment the people of Delvorn heard it in their homes, they stopped whatever they were doing and made their way to the docks to investigate en masse.
There was already a sizable crowd gathered when Caldwell and his troops arrived at the harbor, most of whom were staring dumbfounded at Danvers and the Sea Mother. The two of them stood at the end of the dock having a conversation, seemingly unaware or uninterested by the growing number of people who had shown up to see what was going on with the water. Some of the villagers were distraught, crying at the sight of the now-exposed sand surrounding the island. Others, particularly the older fisherman, could only stare on at the Sea Mother in disbelief. Caldwell pushed past the crowd gracelessly, deceptively strong for an old man relegated to walking with a cane. His soldiers waited behind as he marched to the end of the dock.
Danvers and the Sea Mother stopped speaking as Caldwell approached, and Danvers turned to meet him. Caldwell eyed the Sea Mother with cautious curiosity as he moved toward them, his gait slowing as he drew nearer. The man’s body seemed coiled like a spring, fists and jaws clenched as he readied himself for the interaction.
“Not sure whether to be relieved or worried here, Danvers.”
“Oh, I don’t think there’s anything to be worried about,” said Danvers. “Her coming here is a blessing.” The Sea Mother gave Danvers a nod of grateful acknowledgement.
“I take it you’re the Touched of this island,” said Caldwell, eyes moving down to the glowing bag in her hand, then back up to examine her body. “Never seen one like you before. Learn something new every day, I guess. Excellent work locating the target, Danvers. Makes our job a whole lot easier.”
“I wouldn’t really say I located her,” said Danvers. “She came of her own free will. And I don’t think she’s quite the same as your other Touched.” His tone was reverent: “This is a Sea Mother.”
Caldwell smirked and pointed his cane to the bag she was holding. “You control that orb? You release the barrier around this island?”
The Sea Mother glared at the man, irritation buzzing in her bulbous eyes. She gave him a small affirmative nod.
“Great, then you’re Touched enough for me. Let’s get this show on the road and load up the airships. We want to be as far ahead of Laureena as possible when we set off. Danvers, you’ll ride with your new friend here in the front ship, along with an Iso regiment of course. We’ll leave a contingent behind to finish rounding up civilians and keep them a safe distance behind in the following ships, in case of an attack.” Caldwell turned and stuck his finger in the air, giving it a twirl as he addressed seemingly everyone on the island at once: “Let’s move, people.”
But after a few steps down the dock, Caldwell paused when he realized Danvers and the Sea Mother weren’t following behind. He spun around with an impatient scowl, only to find an even nastier look plastered across the face of the Sea Mother.
“I’m sorry, did you not understand me?” asked Caldwell. “Did you need me to ask a little bit nicer?”
The Sea Mother beamed her words to the men on the dock. “I have come to this island at the behest of Faullen Danvers, with whom I have a bond. My intention here was never to accompany you to your capital. My obligations lie elsewhere.”
Caldwell chuckled nervously. “Unless your elsewhere is someplace other than the world we all live in together and share, I think you need to reassess your priorities. There is a plan in place to safeguard every living person left on this planet, and the Touched are at its core. We need you on the mainland.” Caldwell’s response was firm, but there was a tinge of desperation beneath his words that he couldn’t hide behind his natural bluster and bravado.
“I’m not interested in being a tool of your Callan government,” said the Sea Mother bluntly. “If you need to leave this island and return to your mainland with the people who live here, by all means, go ahead, but I will not be joining you. Whether or not Faullen does is up to him. Please, leave me to finish my business with him in peace.”
There was an unmistakable storm building behind Caldwell’s eyes, and he considered his words carefully before making a decision on how to proceed.
“My business is the survival of the world, and I’m sorry, but that supersedes whatever plans you think you had for yourself moving forward. Consider your services commandeered by the Capital Islands Isorropia forces. Come with me. Now.”
Danvers looked at the man in disbelief. “Caldwell...you might want to re-think your tone.” He restated what he had said only a moment before, as if saying it again might finally convey its importance to the man: “This is a Sea Mother.”
“I don’t care if she’s the queen of the whole goddamn ocean,” Caldwell sneered, any trace of discretion now gone from his tone. “Your assistance in this matter is not requested. This is an order. Do not make us drag you back to the mainland.”
The Sea Mother chuckled, releasing her voice into the men’s minds. “You believe you can force me to do your bidding? You have some truly misplaced confidence, military man.”
Caldwell’s eyes narrowed and flashed, grip tightening around the top of his cane. “You wouldn’t be the first Touched we’ve had to subdue for replacement, and I’m sure you won’t be the last. Don’t make us turn this into something it doesn’t need to be.”
The Sea Mother’s expression changed from annoyance to curiosity. Danvers’ jaw went slack.
“The Touched aren’t coming with you voluntarily?” the old fisherman asked in astonishment. “You’re removing them from their islands against their will? Why would you do this?”
There was unmistakable disdain in Caldwell’s tone as he answered. “If they’re not willing to band together and fortify the mainland against the Shift of their own volition, well then we don’t have much choice than to force the issue, now do we? There’s no time for diplomacy, Danvers. This is quite literally the end of the world.”
As if on cue, the Iso soldiers at the end of the dock began to march towards their commanding officer. Each was wearing a pair of thick gloves made of a soft, supple material like black velvet. In almost perfect unison, the six men reached for cylinders that were attached to their hips. At first glance Danvers thought they were pulling out batons, but the men pressed buttons on the side of the cylinders that popped off lids and released vials above the edge of the containers. They pulled the vials out delicately with thumbs and forefingers, keeping their eyes trained on the target the whole time.
In the dim moonlight, the vials radiated a dark, purplish hue, with smoke churning endlessly behind transparent glass. The Sea Mother let out an audible hiss, recoiling at the sight of the purple substance.
“You have no concept of what you are toying with!” She screamed the words into everyone’s minds, all the way to the back of the harbor. The people in the distance clasped their hands to their temples, some dropping to their knees, though the Iso soldiers barely flinched at the telepathic intrusion, still moving forward steadily.
“You Touched aren’t the only ones who get to play around with power,” said Caldwell. “The Shift changed everything, and if we have to use some of its purple poison to even the playing field, well then the end still justifies the means. We don’t want to hurt you. We want you to come with us willingly. But make no mistake: you’re coming with us no matter what. Whether you keep your powers intact for the journey is up to you.”
Danvers’ eyes darted between Caldwell and the soldiers and the vials they held before he turned to face the Sea Mother completely.
“I’m sorry. I had no idea. I never meant to bring these men to you.”
Danvers knew that her response went into his mind alone.
“Make a choice, Faullen.”
His response was instantaneous, reflexive: “I belong to the sea. I’m going with you.”
In a single, fluid motion, the Sea Mother pulled the orb from its satchel and held it aloft. It beamed grey light, washing over the dock and the harbor with monochromatic illumination. At the sight of the orb, the Iso soldiers stopped proceeding with caution and broke forward into a full sprint.
The voice in Danvers’ mind returned, urgent. “Place your hand on the orb, friend.”
As he did, a flash erupted from the sphere, blinding Caldwell and the soldiers on the dock and stopping them in their tracks. Those from the village who still remained on the harbor were blinded as well, though most had already turned and fled when the Sea Mother had spoken so angrily inside of their minds. When the spots cleared and the Capital Island military forces could see again, neither Danvers nor the Sea Mother remained standing on the end of the dock.
Danvers gasped, feeling like every molecule of oxygen had been sucked from his blood. He fell to the ground, coughing and choking, air unable to enter his lungs fast enough. The Sea Mother didn’t place a hand on his back or ask if he was ok or give any sort of consolation. She simply walked off from beside the man as he slowly regained his breath and composure, hands planted firmly against the smooth stone floor.
It had been nighttime out on the dock, and it wasn’t much brighter where he was now, but the type of light in his new environment couldn’t have been more different. This room was illuminated in a kaleidoscope of colors, a rainbow of soft tones refracting across every surface. Along the walls, the stone was lined with what appeared to be torch sconces, but there was no fire inside the braziers. Instead, the fixtures held crystals of differing hues, each seemingly floating independently in the air, radiating dull yet prismatic light across the room in fractals that extended from their unique geometric compositions.
The Sea Mother placed the orb she was holding on a carved pedestal along the edge of the room. There were several other orbs resting on pedestals nearby. Some shone with the same hues as the crystals illuminating the room, while others sat dormant. The orb she placed down, which had just glowed brilliantly and blinded Caldwell and his thugs, was now completely dark.
“I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to begin,” said Danvers, pulling himself back up to his feet. “Let’s start with a simple one. What’s your name?”
“You may call me Adan,” she said. “Though it has been quite long since anyone spoke to me using this name. Among my people, we don’t address each other this way. Each one of us has a specific...” she paused for a moment to think of the right word, “frequency that relates to the individual. Though the language we speak with one another is nothing like the language you understand, so if I told you my true name, you wouldn’t have any use for it.”
“Can I hear it anyway?” asked Danvers. “I’d like to hear what it sounds like, even if I can’t understand or pronounce it.”
Adan looked at him inquisitively, and then Danvers felt a tingling in his frontal cortex. The sensation wasn’t reminiscent of a word, but of a feeling, and not an everyday one. Her name evoked duration; of having existed somewhere for a long, long while - so long that you couldn’t possibly imagine feeling at ease if you were anywhere else. Danvers knew this sensation, though he had never thought about it consciously. He recognized it almost instantly. It was how he felt about Delvorn.
“It’s a beautiful name.”
She smiled and drew closer to him. “Faullen, I have lived in this world for a tremendously long amount of time. And not only this world; I was also present in the world that existed before this one came to be. I am happy to answer any questions that you may have, but I fear there may be no end to the process if we go about it in the way we are currently communicating. Unfortunately, that wretched military man was not wrong about one thing: time is very much of the essence. There is a way to give you the answers you deserve, but you may find the process uncomfortable. And invasive.”
“Is it like a Ylvers Bloom?” he asked. “It was definitely strange having my memories leached away, but I didn’t find that process particularly uncomfortable.”
“The process is similar, but much more concentrated. Ylvers Blooms act as a conduit for the sharing of memories from your people to mine, but if we want to share information the other way, it works a bit differently. Memory is extremely powerful, Faullen, and it doesn’t just reside inside of the mind. Each cell of your body is a vast universe capable of holding immense amounts of information. My people, the Nemarus, can condense the totality of our knowledge into a single scale on our body, allowing us to transfer entire lives worth of memories almost instantaneously. I can share my memories with you, Faullen, as you did with me in your childhood. I won’t lose the memories I share, as you did with the bloom - mine are simply copied. It’s only because our minds already share a bond from the Ylvers Bloom that you are capable of receiving one of my scales. But in order to transfer these memories to you, I would need to place the scale directly on your brain. Unfortunately, that is not even the most uncomfortable part of the process. If this is not something you want to endure, I understand, but it would undoubtedly streamline our journey moving forward together. The choice is yours. Do you wish to know more?”
Danvers’ tried and failed not to look horrified. He paused, starting and stuttering a few times before finally saying, “No point in half measures now, I suppose. Tell me what’s going to happen.”
“Are you aware that Callans only use a small portion of their brains?”
“I did not know that, no, but I can’t say I’m entirely surprised.”
“Yes, in fact, only around 10 percent of the Callan mind is actually used for memory, decision making, and motor functions. The rest is just...there. Dormant. When I give you my memory scale, that other 90 percent is going to start being utilized, and when it does, the sensation will not be pleasant. For most Callans it would be simply too much to bear. I do not believe that will be the case for you, Faullen. But I want you to know exactly what it is you are agreeing to.”
“If it is too much, can you take it out? Return me back to normal?”
“Theoretically, yes, the process could be reversed if the scale was removed. Eventually my memories would fade from your mind, but in all honesty, a man of your age would die naturally before they all left. I will say this: no Callan who has received a memory scale has ever asked for the process to be reversed. That being said, in the eons I have lived in this world, the Nemarus have only offered this service to three others like you.”
“If this is such an honor,” asked Danvers, “why choose a soggy old sourdough like me? Whatever you’ve got in mind for us, I’m pretty sure you could have found a better helper. Like, literally anyone else on Delvorn.”
“Accept the scale and you’ll find out,” Adan said with a smile.
Danvers glowered.
“In your heart, you want what is best for this world,” she explained. “You wish to help your granddaughter. The bloom didn’t only give me your memories, Faullen, it created a bond. This world is going through great change, and powers outside of Callan understanding are at play. But that does not mean that Callans should not be involved in the process. It is your world as much as it belongs to anyone else.”
An image of Laureena flashed in Danvers’ mind. In it, she was the sweet, inquisitive little girl he had raised and loved so dearly, not the harbinger of end times she had supposedly become.
“Will doing this help me save my granddaughter?”
“I can say with certainty that you will be better equipped in every conceivable facet to try and save her from the force that is corrupting her.”
“Ok. Give me the scale.”
Adan and Danvers sat cross-legged on the floor facing each other. The Sea Mother closed her eyes and began to concentrate, and within moments a scale on the center of her forehead began to emit a soft, green glow. It pulsated, the light building and dropping in intensity, and with each concurrent build the light grew slightly brighter and brighter, the intervals between growing smaller and smaller, until the scale was steadily illuminating the entire room. Without opening her eyes, Adan reached up with her thumb and forefinger. Two talon-like claws extended from the ends of her fingers and plucked the scale away.
“Are you ready, Faullen?”
Danvers clenched his eyes shut, pushing his forehead and cheeks together with every muscle in his face.
“Do it.”
He felt the claw go in through his right nostril, gently but assertively, extending through the sinus passage until his gag reflex activated and his throat began to convulse. Though he coughed and squirmed, Adan did not hesitate, continuing to extend her talon until the scale that rested on its tip was administered to Danvers’ frontal lobe like a tiny, shimmering sticker. Once the scale was in place, Adan put her other hand on Danvers’ shoulder to steady the man as she delicately withdrew the talon from his nose.
Danvers slumped over, taking in heavy, deliberate breaths. With each inhale, it felt as if the air filled his skull, not his lungs. His brain throbbed, clenching and releasing like it was being inflated with a hand pump. There was no instant sense of euphoria, no transformation from common intellect to genius. His mind merely felt split, fractured, and every time a new piece broke off it quadrupled in size and pushed the other sections harder against the barrier of his skull.
He pulled his head up to look at Adan and her face seemed to rest behind an endless series of opaque glass panes, each one distorting her appearance further. The panes switched in and out across his field of vision, clicking in front of his eyes like an optometrist test. At first the panes merely obscured Adan from view, but as more lenses snapped into place, her physical form simultaneously came into focus and dematerialized, until she was a specter in front of him, a sparse but unmistakable outline. Behind her, the panes projected vibrant scenes, though they were overlaid and impenetrable, like looking through an entire stack of film negatives at the same time. The memories moved forward and evaporated in seamless continuation, an onslaught of indiscernible information being parsed and catalogued. Danvers gazed backward through millennia, paralyzed.
Eventually, the progression of images slowed, and Adan and the room behind her came back into proper focus. She was smiling at Danvers, holding his left hand in hers, looking at his face closely to make sure he was cognizant again.
“You did well, Faullen.”
Danvers brought his hands up and ran his fingers through his hair, stopping when they interlaced on top of his head.
“I thought you said this was going to be faster than asking questions,” he said meekly. “That felt like whole lifetimes stacked on top of each other. How long have we been sitting here?”
“Only a couple of minutes.”
“Well, I suppose that’s good,” said Danvers, creakily rising to his feet. “I’m glad I only feel a couple thousand years older.”
“Besides the weariness of accepting all that information, how else do you feel?”
Danvers took a moment to reflect on his current mental state.
“Honestly, I don’t feel all that different. I don’t just know the answers to all the questions I had, if that’s what you mean. How is this supposed to work exactly?”
“Well, the mind isn’t continuously thinking about everything all at once,” Adan explained. “Knowledge comes from accessing memory, and memory is stored until it is needed. Ask yourself a specific question you didn’t know before and see what happens.”
There were so many things the man wanted to know, but the first question that came into his mind without any thought or deliberation was: What are the columns? Instantly, effortlessly, his mind flipped through countless lived experiences. They were clearly Adan’s memories, but felt equally like his own inside his mind. The sensation was off-putting, like he was appropriating someone else’s most precious possessions, and he had to remind himself that Adan had given him these memories freely.
As visuals of the columns flickered through Danvers’ mind, he didn’t immediately and instinctively understand what they meant. But as they played out, context began to fill in around the edges and a bigger picture took shape. Following the stream of memories, he began to grasp what each one signified in relation to others he had already seen, and when the memories looped around again, he understood them with new clarity. Countless disparate thoughts and images sucked together into a single form to tell a cohesive story, and he just sort of knew how it all related to answering his question.
It reminded him of how his wife could never remember what anything was called, so she just referred to most proper nouns as things. Danvers would have to use context clues based on what she was talking about to discern exactly what thing she was referencing, but since they spent all of their time together, he always knew exactly what thing she meant without much given information. Adan’s memories were now his context clues for the Shift. Within moments of reliving her memories, he understood exactly what the columns were.
The world as Danvers knew it was quite literally only the surface of a much deeper truth. His world was built upon the foundation of an older one, a dark and dying world filled with terrible creatures. The columns that now extended into the skies in his world also descended into a world below; they were the columns that held his world aloft above a desolate and forsaken wasteland. The islands on his world that had been transformed were the tops of the original columns, with the orbs stored deep below ground acting as barriers to keep the platform of the new world intact.
Adan had recently been to the Outer Rings. The columns there rose clumped in the skyline, connecting a platform that blotted out the sky. These columns were pulling the ocean up to a new, higher level, but the platform wasn’t complete yet, so the water hovered around the columns, waiting. Perpetually rising and falling. Somehow, a new world was being built on top of theirs, just as theirs had been built atop another. Before long, their world would be swallowed in darkness and death. It would look just like the bottom level did now.
As each new piece of information became clear in Danvers’ mind, it created multiple new questions, like walking through a doorway and finding ten more. Every time he came across a piece of information that didn’t fully make sense, he had to start the process over again, focusing in on the new specific question and reviewing the appropriate memories until he understood its context. But every answer presented more questions. It was an endless tunnel of wormholes with seemingly infinite information at his disposal, and coming to one reality-shattering realization after another was transfixing. Euphoric. His mind only stopped racing when he felt Adan’s hand against his shoulder. At some point he had sat down again, and she was standing above him.
“I know it’s exhilarating,” she said, “but we should probably continue forward.”
“I’m sorry,” said Danvers, mind gradually returning to the physical world. “How long was I dazing off this time?”
“Over an hour.”
“Huh, guess my mental processes aren’t quite as quick as yours,” he chuckled.
She smiled back. “You’ll adapt. I wanted to give you plenty of time to put the pieces together in your mind. I assume you have a much greater understanding of the situation than you did before.”
“I can’t even begin to explain how differently I understand things now,” said Danvers. “I had no idea. Nobody does.”
“Then you understand why I brought you to this place?”
Danvers looked around the room. He hadn’t stopped to think about it in particular, and as he took in his surroundings with his eyes, his mind overlaid that information with Adan’s memories of it. This was a room of great power, a room of transformation, built by those who had constructed the original columns. He understood that there were those who lived deep beneath the water, wardens of the platform that separated this world from the one below. Protectors of the border between his world and the nightmares trapped beneath. When this world was originally formed, there was movement and interaction between those who protected the surface and those tasked with guarding the bottom of the seas. But in order for those who lived in the air and sunshine to travel so deep underwater, a transformation was required.
At the far corner of the room, a corridor extended into blackness. Danvers knew that at the end of the corridor there was a barrier, and past that, the ocean depths. Along the wall on either side of the entranceway stood stoups carved from rock, each containing a murky, viscous green liquid. The same liquid that had coated the orb inside of the Sea Mother’s bag.
“Accepting the memory scale was a choice,” said Adan. “But if you wish to continue on with me to the base of the platform and beyond, drinking the abyssal nectar is a requirement.”
Danvers had only to ask inside of his mind before he saw memories of other Callans in the distant past gathering in this very room and drinking from these containers. He saw their bodies change, their skin become sleek and green, gills forming around their necks. He saw them become Aquine, or rather, a precursor to what the Aquine were now.
He chose to ask his next question to Adan out loud, preferring to hear the answer from her directly.
“Is the transformation permanent?”
She paused, knowing that merely asking the question aloud would give the man the answer he sought, but gave him the courtesy of responding nonetheless.
“Semi-permanent. There once was a reagent that reversed the process, but any stores of it I know of have long since disappeared from the world. I cannot promise that you will return to your original form, Faullen.”
Danvers cupped his hands into the liquid, cold as any waters he had ever touched, pulled them to his lips, and drank.
Fate Index:
1. Antagonist gains great power
2. Character loses a limb and has it replaced with an unexpected alternative
3. Protagonist has/develops some incurable urge they must sate daily
4. Protagonist has great power but loses it
5. Protagonist’s identity is thrown into question
6. Flashback episode
7. Protagonist learns unsettling information
8. Protagonist joins or befriends powerful creature
9. A great artifact of the past is found, calling to a new owner
10. Something consequential turns out to be an illusion
11. Shrek and Donkey cameo
12. Betrayal
13. Protagonist finds powerful item or treasure
14. Magic finger traps, but for the brain or heart
15. Semi-permanent transformation
16. Goonie squad
17. Protagonist takes up cause of beleaguered
18. Super intelligent magical infant
19. Protagonist becomes famous
20. Ancient deity decides to walk the mortal realms
Outcomes Used:
7. Protagonist learns unsettling information
18. Semi-permanent transformation
Added outcomes:
A utopian world is described or created by an adolescent
(thanks to Laura Wadsworth, Ethan’s mom)
Millions of insects start their march to devour everything in their path
(thanks to Dennis Kirby, Jeff’s dad)
