Quantum Leap

“Nia? Did you just see what I saw?” the Hecatian cried, turning over nearby stones nervously.

“Are you referring to Alma’s sudden vanishment right in front of us?” replied Qu’l-Nia.

“A-Aye. So, I didn’t just imagine Alma disappearing into solid air.” Hwalín’s eyes darted around restlessly, recalling the vividly surreal scene in her head. The ex-soldier had seemed unusually giddy on their way back from the witch’s house, skipping around and admiring the scenery despite the time crunch they were on. In her haste, it seemed she had forgotten she was their navigator, even so far as to offer to take the scenic route. What’s scenic about being surrounded by miles and miles of trees? But Alma had seemed odd during the final seconds before her disappearance. Like there had been some sort of strange obfuscating force emanating off of her, coalescing into a nebulous portal directly in front of her as she marched until it seemed like she walked straight through the fabric of reality. Not a single trace remained of the sniper.

“No, but I would agree that it was highly unusual.”

“No kidding.” Hwalín stuck her head in a nearby knothole, investigating curiously. “Should we go back and alert the witch? She probably knows what’s going on.”

“There is no need.” Qu’l-Nia gazed at the sky above her. “I suspect that what we have witnessed was yet another new burgeoning stage of Alma’s unique ability.”

“You mean her spooky vision? Like when we tussled with that nuckelavee? What? Did them monsters finally gobble her up?” Hwalín said jokingly, albeit with a nervous chuckle.

“Indeed, however it is much more than that. It appears that rather than just being able to recognize spatial oddities from other dimensions, she can now physically access these other planes—unwittingly or not. Ever since we have met Alma, I have long held a hypothesis that her ability to perceive extradimensional interference is merely a by-product of something far more powerful. It is something that has brought some frightful assessments to mind, judging from the experiences she has divulged of her childhood and the odd coincidence of our meeting. A power that has long incubated inside of her since birth, that is now only beginning to take shape after the foment of my singing. If it is as I surmise, then she has yet to even reach the pinnacle of her transformative progression.”

“Wait, what’re you saying? Exactly what kind of beast we lookin’ at here? Is this shit caused by some kind of othering like what me and you have?”

“I believe so, and if it is, then it dwarfs anything I have previously bore witness to. Alma truly has massive potential and it is for that reason that we must watch over her.”

“Whoa, stronger than you?” Hwalín slapped her friend’s back, letting loose an unrestrained guffaw. Qu’l-Nia somehow remained unflinching. “Nonsense! There ain’t no one more powerful!”

“Yes sense, I am afraid. For one’s othering to be some form of spatial abstraction to the extent that it can give a mortal the ability to hold influence over dimensional space is equal parts astonishing and terrifying. Connecting one universe to another is already something beyond my means. It requires much too complex of a catalyst. I cannot even begin to imagine where or from whom Alma is channeling this power from. Whereas in our case, your body simply became a conduit for the planet’s electromagnetic waves—which improved your speed, your stamina and your senses.”

“Yeah, and it makes my swords all cool and shiny!” The red elf fondled the pommel of her twin weapons. “Who knew using that power to attune the metal in my blades made it possible for me to cut down all those eldritch baddies? Don’t sell yourself short, Nia. I probably wouldn’t be standing here without ya.”

“Yet I still fail to understand why you would lie to Alma about your enhancements coming from those flowers.”

“What?! That wasn’t a lie! Those things might really fuck me up, but the state they put me in… I’m literally attuned to the fabric of the universe.”

“They are simple narcotics and any effect they might have on your elfwin brain I can only perceive to be adverse.”

Hwalín scoffed. “So, uh… Should we be worried about Alma or not? She is coming back, right?”

The eldritch woman pondered for a moment. “Alma may require our assistance. If she is not dead already.”

“You wanna run that by me again?” she asked, taking a double-take. The red elf was already afraid to hear Nia’s disconcerting answer. “Weren’t you just saying we need to watch over her?”

“Alma may require our assistance.” Qu’l-Nia said, running that by her again. She had walked over to the spot where Alma had crossed universes, examining the spot closely. “There is no telling where she has jumped to, and if whatever universe she has found herself in is even hospitable to her human constitution. As far as we are aware, she might have been atomized instantly by a world that supports completely different physical laws from ours.”

“And how in Sarracas do you propose we do that?! You just said we don’t know where she landed!” Hwalín rubbed her neck furiously, her gaze trained on the ground. “Oh Gods. What if she is dead? What are we gonna tell her family? Or that crazy witch bitch?! I ain’t going back to that bloody house to break the news! Get fed to a fucking plant? Plants don’t eat me! I eat them!”

“Being that Alma is native to this universe, along with the slight connection of our thoughts, I may be able to detect a quantum fluctuation that still tethers her to this universe. Following that connection, I should be able to get a general idea of where she would be general to our location in this universe.” The eldritch woman traced her finger along the air in front of her. “Barring vibrational frequencies, along with calculating the number of parallel universes currently in tune with this one at the time of her jump, I cannot imagine she has gone too far yet. Rather unfortunately, however, if we do not find her within the next decade or so, she may be lost to us forever.”

“Right, right.” Hwalín nodded along to Qu’l-Nia’s convoluted explanation, arms crossed in contemplation. “I didn’t catch a word of that.”