Empty Names

2 - Back From The Looking Glass

 

“I hate anime,” Ashan grumbles to himself for the second time that day.  

No, that was not quite fair.  He had some vague recollection of enjoying some show or another as a child.  What was it called again?  Something with magic cards and a girl on roller skates.  An interesting concept for quick casting of spells, but unlikely to be practical with its reliance on bound spirits.  There was also the one with the talking hamsters.  That one had been fun.

Perhaps it is not so much anime itself as anime conventions that bother him.  Even after being back on the world of his birth for a few years now, he is still not used to the sheer density of the crowds.  And the novelty of convention goers stopping to ask him who he is supposed to be wears thin quickly.  Even worse are the ones who mistake him for a favorite character and ask for a picture.  And while he is used to being mistaken for a woman - and even finds amusement in it so long as the mistake is not repeated after correction - the well-intended compliments mistaking his white robes for a dress are beginning to test his patience.  

All that is secondary though to the fact that such concentrated escapism and suspension of disbelief makes for a Masquerade breach waiting to happen.  Coupled with the sheer number of cosplayers making it easy for outsiders to blend in, it was no wonder that there is nearly always an incident at these events.  

An incident like one in one hundred event pamphlets listing an event in a room that the other ninety-nine in one hundred mark as not being in use.

At last, he finally extracts himself from yet another group wanting a photo - this one with costumes unsettlingly similar to his own raiment - and waves them off with a practiced smile.  Almost always best to play along and blend in.  Alone in the crowd once more, he double-checks the pamphlet.  

 

Room 322.  2:00pm.  

Get Isekai’d!: An interactive panel to kickstart your magical journey to another world (without being hit by a truck).

 

Just around the corner and several minutes to spare yet.  

Turning said corner feels like stepping into a new building.  Empty and unadorned, save for two doors flanking the terminus of a dead end hallway.  Through some quirk of acoustics the constant background noise of the crowd fades to a distant murmur after only a few steps down the hall.  Even the lighting is perceptibly dimmer without the floor-to-ceiling windows of the main concourse.  Room 322 has no sign outside to proclaim the event yet the door remains cracked open enough to catch a glimpse of the small audience already seated inside.  

After a quick glance to verify no one else is coming down the hall, Ashan stretches to touch a finger to the top of the doorframe and begins tracing esoteric symbols.  Wherever he touches, the surface takes on a glassy sheen.

Tapping the center of his work a final time, his breath mists in the air as he makes a quick chant with no literal translation.  The drawn symbols shimmer in response then fade, now invisible to the untrained eye.  

He blinks, observes his ward, finds it satisfactory, and rubs some warmth back into his hands before stepping into the room.  

The room is a small one by convention standards.  Only a few dozen plastic chairs lined up facing a small stage set against the far wall.  Less than half the chairs are occupied, making for a lower attendance than Ashan had feared.  Good.  Fewer people to worry about getting hurt.  

Up on stage a tall man in a turtleneck that strains against his bodybuilder proportions paces in front of a freestanding wooden door with a polished white stone inset into the top of its frame.  The stage rattles with the weight of his every step.  As Ashan takes a seat near the front the presenter checks his phone then walks over to a podium with a laptop.  A projector comes to life and throws the title of the panel across a screen next to the stage.  

As the presentation begins, Ashan only halfway pays attention to the words being said or the slides on the screen.  Watching for signs of hostile spells and workings takes up too much of his focus for that.  And besides, the history and greatest hits of a genre about normal people going on adventures in other worlds can only hold so much interest for one who has actually lived it.  Although in his experience the real thing involved significantly fewer women of dubious proportions in impractical and revealing outfits.  

Twenty minutes into the scheduled hour-long panel, Ashan begins to wonder if this is simply a case of a magically-inclined nerd using his abilities to skip out on paying the panel booking fees.  True, the presenter’s body is obviously modified, but it would hardly be the first time a new mage transmuted himself in an ill-conceived attempt at “improvement,” and he has not really done anything incriminating yet.  Still, the “interactive” portion of the panel’s title is worrisome and the door’s function remains forebodingly elusive.  

“Show of hands: who here wishes you could get away from this life and start over as a hero in a new world?”

The sight and sound of a score of hands going up around him jolts Ashan’s focus back to the speaker’s words.  

“Well then, do I have the chance of a lifetime in store for all of you.”  The presenter saunters over to the door in the center of the stage and leans on the frame.  A murmur of anticipation goes through the crowd.  With a theatrical flourish, the presenter knocks four times and the door swings inward.  

The door does not come out from the backside of the frame.

On the other side of the doorway everyone in the audience can see a trail coming out of a forest and meandering over rolling grassy hills.  A castle can be seen in the far distance, white walls gleaming in the sunlight.  A breeze blows into the room carrying the scent of flowers.

Several people gasp.  Others start whispering, asking what is going on.  Someone starts clapping at what they think to be a clever trick.

“Yes, yes, it’s amazing, I know,” the presenter says.  “And to answer the question I’m sure you’re all asking yourselves right now,” he steps in front of the door and begins walking backwards, “this is very real.”  To drive the point home he steps to the right, disappearing out of sight entirely before coming back into view from the left before coming back through the door and walking a circle around it on stage.

“So, who wants to go first?” he asks with a smug grin.

Hands shoot up.  Chairs get pushed back as audience members jump to their feet.  The questions of what is going on get louder.  A couple of people with stronger survival instincts start edging toward the door.

Ashan sighs, gets to his feet, and calmly climbs onto stage before any of the over-eager fools can beat him to it.

“Now that’s what I like to see!” the presenter says as Ashan approaches the door.  “Can I have your name miss…ter?”

“My name is mine to keep,” he replies, “but perhaps you would not mind answering a few questions?  I imagine it would set the rest of the audience at ease to know more precisely what awaits them.”

“I’d be delighted.  Although I assure you all that this is perfectly safe.”

“As we saw with your demonstration, I am sure.”  Threshold wards rarely affect their casters.  “But what about language?  Will we be able to understand the people we meet on the other side?”

“Obviously.  The portal auto-magically applies the standard multiversal translator spell used by all  travelers.  Would you believe I’m not even speaking English right now?”

“Fascinating.”  Ashan mentally runs through the signs of the seven different translation practices common in this local cluster that he can recall off the top of his head.  This man is showing none of them.  “And what of the Autogenesis Principle?  Do you have any advice for those here wanting to escape their failures from physically manifesting their own internalized inadequacies?”

The presenter’s smirk falters.  “I’m not sure what fandom you’re roleplaying at right now, but that’s not anything anyone here needs to worry about.  So either go on through or get out of the way so everyone else can get their adventure underway.”

“Just one more question, if you would kindly humor me.”  Ashan places a hand on the doorframe and closes his eyes for a moment.  He opens them and asks “Does this essence siphon function on infernal or necromantic principles?”

The presenter’s smile disappears altogether.  “How did you - ”

“Necromantic then.  I cannot imagine a patron willing to aid a novice who would fail to even recognize another mage in this blunder of a Masquerade breach.”

The necromancer regains his composure and shrugs.  “Okay, you got me.  But hey,” he snaps his fingers and spikes of bone erupt from the floor, barring the mundane exit from the room, “it’s not a Masquerade breach if the witnesses are all dead.  So what do you say we split the haul seventy-thirty and you look the other way.”

The room goes silent for a moment before the dawning realization of the situation finally breaks and the audience starts shouting and rushing the barred exit, trying in vain to escape.  Except, of course, for the handful of stubborn skeptics mocking them for freaking out.  

Ashan looks at the crowd pressing themselves into the bars of bone and makes a tsk sound.  He should have noticed that on his way in.  Returning his gaze to the necromancer he says “I shall never understand people like you.”

“Fine, sixty-forty and that’s the best you’re getting unless you wanna help me herd the sheep in here.”

“I shall never understand those who believe the possession of knowledge and power makes the lives of those without expendable.”

The necromancer begins to back up.  “So that’s how it is, huh?  Fancy yourself some kind of hero?”

“No one has yet been hurt.  I shall give you one chance to leave now and never try this again.”

“How very generous of you,” the necromancer replies.  The words drip with sarcasm and venom.  “With an offer like that I can only say…” he reaches the edge of the stage.  “Get boned!”

The surface of the stage splinters and cracks.  With a flick of the wrist Ashan has his pearlescent wand in hand.  An ivory spear hurtles up at him from below.  A quick looping motion with the wand and a transparent shield appears in the air.  The spear is deflected through the portal.  As are the next three after.  Ashan follows up with drawing another, larger shield over the door.  It would not do to fall in himself.

That precaution proves timely as the necromancer lets out a bellow of pain and rage and his right arm explodes into a tendril of muscle and bony spikes that darts across the stage before slamming into Ashan’s side.  He manages to get his free hand up, palm out, in time to keep the tendril from making direct contact but now finds himself squeezed between two of his own barriers.  Stabbing the wand into the barrier holding back the tendril he wills his conjuration away and up.  The tendril swings away from him and out over the heads of the audience before retracting back into a semblance of an arm.

The audience is screaming now.  Even the most skeptical have been made believers.  The bars on the door still hold.  Ashan’s breath mists in the air grown cold around him.

The necromancer wastes no words as he charges the wizard.  As he runs, his other arm shreds its sleeve as it bulks up and grows talons over its fingers.  A morbid parody of dance ensues back and forth across the stage.  The necromancer rains down crushing blows and Ashan casually deflects them with shields that flicker in and out of existence.  More spikes erupt from below and Ashan gracefully sidesteps.  The necromancer’s face twists in rage and Ashan’s remains placid.

Eventually, the necromancer grows frustrated with this game and changes tactics.  He extends the tendril of his right arm once more, sending it plunging toward the one audience member still seated.  Ashan makes a slashing motion with the wand followed by an upward flick and a wall of what looks like glass rises to cut the stage off from the rest of the room.  The tendril crumples on itself as it slams into the newmade wall.  

The fact that the seated man in the yellow vest did not so much as flinch at nearly being impaled distracts Ashan enough that the followup swipe from the left claw manages to graze his cheek.  Enough playing around to wear the brute down then.

Wielding his wand like a brush, Ashan visualizes the chains running from the floor to the necromancer’s limbs and then paints them into being.  The next blow comes to a rattling halt midair.  The necromancer has just enough time to look at his wrist in surprise before Ashan makes another gesture and the chains pull him down, forcing him to his knees.

“You have lost,” Ashan says in an even tone.  He is no longer the only person in the room whose breath is condensing into mist.  Every surface in the room now bears dewdrops from the rapid drop in temperature over the past few minutes.  Ashan resists the urge to shiver before continuing.  “And still, no one has been hurt.  Come along quietly and I imagine you can still negotiate a lighter sentence than you deserve.”

“Who the hell are you?  Some kind of cop?” The necromancer pants heavily, pausing for breath between sentences.  “How did you even know I was here?  And why is it so damn cold in here?”

Ashan cocks his head at finally hearing a question from the novice mage he might deign to answer.  “Tis but a slight twisting of thermodynamics.  Absent a local concept for ambient energy such as aether or mana, one must needs improvise.  Only the inexperienced and the foolhardy draw from their own metabolism,” Ashan nods toward his shaking opponent, “as you seem to be.”

“Oh really…”

“Indeed.  Although I would not advise such a technique to the untrained.”

“Cocky bastard, bragging about your secret techniques when you think you’ve won.”  Frost begins to form on the stage around the necromancer.

“It is hardly a secret.  And really, you should not attempt it.  Especially in your current state.”

“You know.”

The spikes of bone scattered about the stage begin to shake.

“Where you.”

The necromancer begins shivering violently.

“Can take your advice.”

The spikes rise into the air.

“And shove it?”

The spikes all turn to face Ashan.

“‘Cause I’m about to show you!”

The spikes begin to move in on Ashan, gathering speed.

The necromancer falls over with a thud and the spikes clatter harmlessly to the stage.  Ashan walks over to him and notes the white and blue patches of frostbite covering the fallen man’s skin.  He bends down and checks for a pulse.  He finds one.  Unconscious, but alive.  Beginner’s luck.

Ashan stands back up, exhales, lets his remaining conjurations dissipate, and allows himself to shiver.

A slow clap from the sole remaining audience member disrupts his reverie.

Wait.  Sole remaining?  When did the screaming stop?  Where did everyone go?  He whips around to see the man in the yellow vest leaning against the wall next to the exit door.  The bars of bone now lay shattered on the ground.

“You certainly live up to your reputation, Ashan Glassheart.”  The man stops clapping and looks around the ruined stage.  “Well, maybe a little more collateral damage than I expected, but credit where credit is due, the rookie knew what he was doing with stashing unenchanted raw material for his trap.”  He pauses to stroke his goatee in consideration.  “Or maybe just dumb luck on his part.”

“Do I know you?”  Ashan asks.

“I should hope not,” the man replies.  “I try to keep out of the spotlight.  The name’s Sullivan Bridgewood.  At my service.”  He gives a flourishing bow as makes the introduction.

“I thought the sorceress Bridgewood was a woman.”

“That would be my dearly departed wife, Void rest her soul.”

“My condolences, but that still does not explain what you want with me.”

Bridgewood puts a hand to his chest and feigns an offended gasp.  “So suspicious.  And after I helped and set all the normies free while you were giving your lecture.  Nice job on the amnestic ward by the way.  Always fun to watch them go from running for their lives to milling about confused.”

“You are avoiding the question.”

“Oh, lighten up will you, I’m getting to that.”  He walks over to the stage and leans an elbow on it, looking up at Ashan.  “Have you ever heard of the individual known as Road?”

Ashan arches an eyebrow in surprise.  “The guy who runs around in purple armor fighting subway dragons and saving goth kids from vampire cults?”

“Among other things, yes.”

“From what I have heard they are a noble fool who just happens to be skilled and lucky enough to back up their reckless actions.  But a fool whose heart is in the right place.  Supposedly they used to be a big deal before disappearing several years ago.”  Ashan stops himself and gets back to the still unanswered question.  “Why?”

Bridgewood chuckles.  “Because,” he drags out the word, “said noble fool just so happens to be an old friend of mine and recently got back to town.  They’re looking to put a team together and could use a proper spellslinger.”  He smiles just a little too widely and reaches up a hand.  “So, interested?”

Ashan feels a shiver go down his back that is only partially related to the cold.

“Help me clean up in here and get this villain to the authorities in Crossherd and I shall consider it.”