AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Anthony snaps his fingers. “Tell Quentin to write Lindsey into his story, let her find a magical item or something that gives her godly powers for a little while.”
“Eek. No.” Lindsey shakes her head in a panic while waving her hands back and forth. “If I become a real character in this world, I’m going to die. Especially if I obtain great power. That’s a death sentence. If he’s going to do that, do it after we’re out of here so only a fictional version of me dies. But I have some thoughts on this obelisk...”
Lindsey brushes her hand down the surface of the crystal, telling us the material is somehow bound to Nesanth’s presence here. She asks us to imagine a sheet floating in the air with a heavy weight in the middle that’s so heavy it’s pushing through the sheet to the other side. Nesanth is like that weight, pulling Quentin across the boundary between these two realities. If we get rid of her, or at least pry loose the grip she has on this world, the sheet will catapult them both back to our world.
“What does the sheet represent?” Anthony scratches his head.
“The boundary layer between realities.” Lindsey swipes her arm horizontally, illustrating a flat plane. “People aren’t supposed to be able to go between them. It’s like cheating in a video game and going behind the scenery.”
“Great, so we’re clipping…” Anthony laughs.
“Clipping?” Kingsley examines his nails. “They’re not that long, thank you very much.”
“Sometimes, I can’t tell if you’re serious or kidding.” Tammy rolls her eyes. “Clipping’s what they call it in video games when you fall between the cracks of the playable area.”
Kingsley stares at her. “Since when are you a gamer nerd?”
She scoffs. “For real. It’s 2022. Everyone plays video games. It’s not a nerd thing anymore.”
“Uh huh. Right.” Kingsley laughs. “So, all we have to do is find an unfindable goddess in a made-up world and we’re good to go.”
“Allie,” says Tammy, poking her in the arm. “Since we’re here and you can talk to him, tell him we want Thae to be safe. I’m going to be really angry with him if something bad happens to her.”
“He knows,” says Allison in a trancey voice. “He’s still aware of everything going on in his world. His original plan was to have her running from an assassin and fall to her death by accident out a window. However… he says he will write her as escaping to Dramden out of gratitude for us getting him out of here and saving his world from being devoured.”
“Awesome.” Tammy beams, then makes a face of contemplation. “Hmm. I wonder if that means Lindsey and her ‘rescue mission’ are technically canon now rather than fanfic.”
Lindsey sighs, thrusting her arms out to either side. “We’re in his actual world now. Everything we do is going to be canon.”
“Not until it’s published,” drones Allison. “Q says we are kind of stuck inside the manuscript file on his computer. Anything can change before publication. It’s only canon after it’s been published.”
I know this isn’t the case for every creator. Charlie Reed, author of the World of Dur, had his own world turn spontaneously burst into existence prior to publication. To each their own, I guess.
“We should be careful…” I squeeze and relax my grip on the sword. “After everything I’ve survived, I really don’t want to end up trapped forever in a Microsoft Word document. Is there anything else he can tell us that might help?”
Allison’s eyes flutter. She swoons back from the crystal. Kingsley, Lindsey, and Tammy all catch her at the same time before she ends up on her backside. “Oof. I think Nesanth got tired of us talking. Q doesn’t know or can’t say. It’s hard to tell where the line between the two of them starts and stops. Also, I think she’s sending a bunch of wraiths here.”
“Ah, crap,” say Kingsley and Anthony together.
I hold my hands out for someone to take hold of. “We should leave. Now.”
Everyone rushes over and forms a ring.
I call the dancing flame right as the hissing of undead echoes in the stairwell passage outside. Sometimes, discretion is really the better part of valor. It’s not cowardly to avoid a fight that serves no greater purpose.
The dancing flame leaps up to the size of a doorway, rushing past us as the first of the shadowy undead reach the chamber.
If I had a free hand, I’d give it the finger as we disappear.
Chapter Fourteen
The Gala of Death
We spent the rest of the day safe in Demetria’s house.
Lindsey continued going over the novels. The rest of us tried not to let boredom or anxiety consume us. There are only so many times a person can discuss reasons for why we trust or don’t trust each of the nobles. How crazy is it that the Galahirs, the only ‘good’ people of the lot are leading the suspicion pool because of how innocent they seem? If this series hadn’t been written by Quentin Arnbury, we’d all be taking them at face value. No one good or righteous lives long in this world.
The day passes in interminable slowness.
