IV
I leave my swarms scattered around the city to spy. The owner of the apothecary quickly gives up caring about the mask. I assure Vasan the two are safe.
In the brush hanging off the apex of Kerkenos, this new individual, Raptor, instructs Vasan on using the dried herbs they stole from the apothecary. It's vaporised and inhaled, but can also be made into teas, apparently. Raptor sits with my host for some time, guiding them through the relatively rough onset to this substance for newcomers, and waiting until the effects mellowed out.
They say they are waiting to introduce Vasan to the fungus that they seemed to be harvesting when they met, because they can't have their mind too crowded, but can't be too distracted by pain either, to get it's full effects.
Raptor says they've long been known as “walnut truffles”, but that they would more appropriately be called “brain truffles”. Vasan notes they look like they could be either.
They are very adamant that this moon-struck pigeon try one.
Fungi appear to have a stigma among the Drek. Plants are vibrant, colorful, shining, glimmering at times. Fungi are dull, dark, clumpy, gruesome looking things.
Raptor has prepared quite the salesmanship to convince someone to look past these stigmas, but fortunately Vasan is a very easy sell. Raptor gives their entire spiel regardless. Saying they have to “lay down a map” to avoid this experiment getting out of hand.
They eat the truffles, one whole each. Vasan doesn't show it, but I feel they do not at all enjoy the taste or texture.
Though I can read movement and change across many more axes than what three-dimensional Earthlings percieve, it seems that there are more places the Drek can travel that appear, to me, to be staying still.
I sat on Vasan's brow and read the same things I usually read while they were traveling, though the air around was entirely still. Vasan's muscles moved, their signals amplified, they responded to the subtle vibes of their adventuring partner and had what seems to be a long, in depth conversation with them before being able to exchange words.
“Where are you?” Raptor slurs.
“I'm at the sun.” Vasan answers confidently.
“What color is it?”
“Blue.”
“Turn it.”
“It's green.”
“Again.”
“It's yellow.”
“Look into it.” Silence. Raptor pipes up again. “What do you see?”
Vasan takes a bit, their muscles and head craning like they're trying to focus.
“I see dogs.”
“In the yellow one?”
“Yeah.”
“They're not supposed to be there.”
“You look.”
A pause. “Oh shit,” Raptor spits, “You're right. Ok, let's adjust.”
As far as I am concerned, these two are sitting still, sometimes jittering.
They take a few more colorful turns, pointing out that with the sun as an “orange star” they saw “small excited machines”, “the wheels”, Raptor called them. The “purple star” showed them a sky teeming with sanguinesque swarms, where neither of them wanted to stay for long, and a “pink star” pulled them to a place Vasan could not put to words, but agreed when Raptor described it as “a place where space is almost backwards.”
Vasan asks to return to the orange. They try, but Raptor says once they're there they need to try to look back into the Blue star.
“I see one of us.”
“Yeah? Like you and me?”
“No. They're... blue?”
“So, blue like our sun.”
“Yeah.”
“Turn and look into it, and down.”
They navigate for a bit longer. I begin to feel a buzz.
“Oh, that's us, right?” Vasan exclaims, “In that bush, where we started.”
“Nope.” Raptor points out, “Does this look like Kerkenos?”
“No.” Vasan answers.
“How many layers did we cut through to get here?”
“Two? It can't have been four.”
“Zoom out.”
They do. As do I. Vasan takes a bit to regain the sense of consciousness they had, but try to stand up too quickly once noticing a different tint glowing over them than where they left. Lightheaded, the brighter blues around them, and a whole other forest above them clicks itself into their view before it becomes speckled with the approach of a faint. Vasan ducks back down and breathes before this happens. I notice just as many changes as Vasan. In fact, the rest of the swarms I left behind are now much, much farther away. I regain my sense of direction as my pigeon regains their composure.
A view of the Fifth Moon and a check of my altitude against the other swarms confirms it.
We had been taken to the top of the atmosphere.
