Space

"SPIRITS SAVE ME!"  I shrieked as loudly as I could.

Instead of being in my house, with all of my books at the ready to become weapons, I found myself standing on nothing.  There was nothing under my feet but I could feel I was standing.  There was no buzz of bugs nor was there the unbearable humidity, harsh sunlight, or anything I knew.

Out of reflex I grabbed onto Tempus's arms and shivered uncontrollably.  Looking down all I saw was swirling darkness, peppered with silver dots and white lights.

"What did you do?!  Is this an illusion?!  Where—"

"Breathe first," Tempus instructed.

For some reason I listened to him.  I shut my eyes and took a very deep breath.  How was there air?  There was nothing!

"How am I breathing?"  I gasped.

"This is my home," Tempus explained.

I opened my eyes and searched his.  Gold eyes with white pupils stared gently back at me.  I shivered and turned to look over my shoulder.  Still nothing but dark colors and white dots everywhere.  I felt cold, isolated, and very, very, small.

"Where…"

"We're in the space between worlds, aptly named space," Tempus chuckled.

Oh I'm sure this was a riot to him.  I was still trying to figure out how the damn hell I was standing.  Down below us was a giant sphere of blue and green, with swirls of white around it.  I didn't know what it was, but I felt like I should.

"You live between worlds," I whispered.

"Yes.  And that is your world."

I blinked.  "The…the sphere down there?"

"Mhm."

"That's the whole thing?"  It looked so small and far away.

"Don't take that tone, it's very impressive!"  Tempus praised, as if I had some hand in shaping that colorful sphere.  "I've been to many worlds that aren't half as beautiful, some of them don't have life on them either.  You would be surprised at how hard it is for planets to make viable living things."

I only half-heard what he was talking about.  I let go of one of his arms and turned around, trying to see my world better.  I tried to let go of his other arm but Tempus held fast to me.

"Trust me, it's better if I hold onto you," I heard him say.

I gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him hold onto me.  Looking down at my home…I don't know how to describe the feeling.  All of the places I had read about, taught about, dreamed about, they all boiled down to this magnificent sphere in Space.

"There's more than I expected…" I said, noting more masses of land that I had never seen on a map.

"The people of your world are young.  They've yet to discover what lays all around it."

Apparently.  I nodded dumbly, still amazed at what I was seeing.  I walked forward, Tempus walked with me, his hand shifting and sitting in the center of my back.  I walked around the whole world, just seeing masses of green and a cover of blue.  Some of the white spots were grey, swirling and looking dangerous.  There was even a giant expanse of yellow.

"The desert stretches farther than we've mapped," I said stupidly.

"There must be tons of Rash'ka-tala!" Tempus laughed.

I laughed hollowly, a forced sound because I didn't know what else to do.  I stared down at my home bewildered, trying to take in everything I was seeing.  It was…quite a lot.

"I'm sorry," I said softly, trying to pick out Haven from all the islands I was seeing.

"Hm?"  Tempus must have drifted off.

"For shouting and nearly plastering you to the wall with books."

Tempus laughed softly, his fingers tapping between my shoulder blades.

"It's fine.  People have reacted better, and worse."

"I take it bringing them here usually has the same placating reaction?"  I murmured.

"You're one of the few I've been afraid I couldn't calm down.  I was working off the hope that taking you out of your environment would calm you."

Quite the bet, that one.  I nodded anyways.

"…What is a Black Dog and why do you fear it?"  Tempus asked.

He was bound to bring up the question at some point.  I sighed and kept my eyes on my world.  We walked around it until I found a landmass I recognized.

"The Black Dogs hunt people like me," I said softly.

"Your type of creature?"  Tempus asked as politically correct as he could.

"I'm a nesthan," I could vaguely remember him asking about that earlier.  "And they'll hunt neshtans, humans, hallori, anyone really, who has magic."

"Why would they do that?"

"Magic is illegal," I stated plainly.

Tempus hesitated a moment and rounded my side to get a better look at me.  It was hard to read his expression.  It looked as if he were searching me, maybe tying to find an answer to the question he hadn't asked yet.  There was a flash of disappointment to his metallic eyes.

"Then why did you learn it?"

I laughed, softly, amusedly, maybe even with a bit of hurt.  (Not a bit, really, a great deal of hurt, actually.  Magic has been both a curse and a gift.)

"We are born with magic, Tempus.  We cannot learn it, only how to control our abilities.  But the empire," I pointed to a large expanse of green, with the sea of sand extending from it's eastern borders, "marks us as illegal."

"That doesn't make sense.  People like you are doomed then," Tempus frowned.

That was the conclusion all of us had faced years ago.  No matter what, our existence was labeled as illegal.  At some point or another any magician in Meydera could expect to be hunted, and most of them expected to be captured, by the Black Dogs.  Tempus put two-and-two together and sighed softly.

"Ah…that was why you were so scared."

I nodded slightly, tracing the borders of the Meyderan Empire from my spot so far away.  As interesting as this was, I couldn't help but feel cold out here.

"Is it always this quiet out here?"

*********

It was always interesting to see how my guests took to space.  Warren calmed down considerably faster than most.  Though he was constantly making sure I was near him.  He did not relish the thought of being lost out here—not many did.  Especially since without me to control the area they would die.

"Yes," I answered after hearing Warren's question.  "There is nothing out here but us to make any sort of sound."

The silence was something familiar to me.  It was like a well-worn jacket, something warm and comfortable.  The quiet of spaces always made me relax.  Sure, I loved the sounds of a world.  The buzz of insects, the hum of voices, the rush of water, the beating of wings, but it was nothing like the silence.

"It's unnerving," Warren said off-handedly.

I blinked.  That was a term I would never use to describe space.  Then again, I was used to the silence.  It was natural to me.  It was wholly unnatural to Warren, and therefore he had the right to dislike it.

"I'll have to respectfully disagree, teacher," I smiled.

Warren laughed hollowly, just like he had before.  Bright yellow eyes traced back and forth over his world.  His hand stretched out as if he could pluck up the continents and hold them in his hand.  Maybe he was trying to find a way to memorize this all.  I could wipe those—oh, no, I couldn't.  I remembered earlier, trying to touch his mind…

"You're a psychic then," I revived the topic.

My friend nodded his head.  "Yes.  Most neshtan's are, or they have a magic related to psychic magic—like illusion magic."

"Magic is dependent on the race?"

"Some.  It's…complicated.  I'm not sure how much you want me to lecture," Warren shrugged.

"You mean you don't feel like lecturing right now," I smiled.

My friend chuckled lowly and nodded.  He didn't look to be in a lecturing mood.  Too much had changed in the last few minutes.  I don't think I could imagine it, knowing that everything I knew seemed like nothing when there was more than just one world of information.  I was used to the overload, the endless amount of ideas, but Warren only knew his world.  He only knew the bits of information he had access to.  Discovering space, how big his world was, that had to be more shattering than anything I could imagine.  Though I can understand what it was like to be shattered.

"Where do you even live?"  Warren asked, glowing yellow eyes finally darting away from his planet and scanning space.

"Out here.  Anywhere, really."

"But…you have no house…" a sentence that seemed to die off as he spoke it.

I got the feeling that Warren knew what it was like to live without a home, but I didn't mention that guess.  Vagabonds who had finally found a home rarely, if ever, wanted to remember their times adrift.  Those stories were always worth hearing, even if they hurt to listen to.  Most tellers didn't relish reliving the pain though, and I had learned to not ask.  I simply shrugged.

"My kind are meant to survive out here," I explained.

"Where are others of your kind?"

"I don't know," I admitted.  "I've only met a handful of others.  Really, only two at this point."

"Two?  In your entire life?"

I smiled a bit hollowly.  It was an isolated life we lead, but it was what I knew.  The friendships I made were with those on other planets.  Perhaps that was what we were meant for.  Only to befriend those who were nothing like us.  Though the way he spoke…his voice was laced with pity and confusion.

"It is not as isolating as you think.  I have friends, on many different worlds."

"And your family?"

That struck a chord in me.  Warren must have noticed it and quickly backed off the question.

"I'm sorry, I did not realize—"

"It's fine.  But…I would prefer a change in subjects," I requested gently.

Warren's glowing yellow eyes seemed to shimmer with understanding.  I knew better than to search his mind, but something told me he had family problems as well.  Looking back at his world Warren sighed.

"If you could return me to my home…I have a student coming over sometime.  She would be scared if I wasn't there."

"Of course."