Chapter Eight – The painter and his canvas
All Andin saw was black earth and pink sky. He was hundreds of feet above the ground. His body was being pulled towards something. In the distance he saw a faint white speck. It grew and grew as it careened towards him. This isn’t good, thought Andin as he realized he was about to collide with something. The white speck was screaming. Impact.
The world instantly went pitch black. Nothing to see, feel, or hear; it was utterly empty. Just as the unimaginable pain of nothingness peaked the world exploded with white light and calamity. The feeling of complete emptiness to overwhelming fullness was indescribable. Andin fell limp and cratered into the black ground.
The prince awoke. He felt awful. He dug his way out of the black sand he was buried in. He breached the surface and sprawled in the sand, gasping.
There was movement in the other crater. Andin was still too weak to summon his sickles. He crawled to the lip to look at what he had hit. He had hit someone, someone who was now buried upside down in the sand. His legs were the only thing exposed, and they kicked helplessly. Andin couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.
Andin decided to help. He slid down the sandy slope of the crater and grabbed one of the legs. Whoever it was they weren’t expecting to be grabbed, the legs kicked even harder, “Relax, relax!” pleaded Andin. He pulled and sent a small belch of flame to loosen the sand around the buried fellow’s waist.
The sand let go of the upside down man. The freed man screamed and sent a flurry of sand towards the prince. When it settled Andin was face to face with a massive armored lizard. It roared at the fire prince. Andin’s eyes widened, he ran. The monstrosity barreled towards him. Andin sent bolts of flame towards the beast over his shoulder. They didn’t slow it down.
Andin drew his sickles and turned to fight. The beast was already disintegrating into a pile of the same black sand that filled the landscape. Andin looked confused as the lizard vanished before his eyes. In the distance he saw the white clothed man running. “You,” growled Andin. He had regained his composure, the chase was on.
He was fast but Andin was faster. Periodically, stone walls would grow out of nothing blocking Andin’s path, he dodged and leapt around them. A breath away from his target the elusive man split into countless copies of himself. Is this the Plane of Deceit?, wondered Andin realizing his quarry could create illusions. All of the copies were kicking up sand, but only one was leaving footprints.
“Gotcha,” said Andin now atop his prey. The white clothed man yelped as Andin tackled him to the ground. The illusions the man had made melted into the ground. “Who are you and what is this place?” demanded Andin.
“I’m Fake and this is my canvas, please get off,” said Fake while squirming.
“I’m not trying to hurt you, I just want to know where I am,” explained Andin as he got off of Fake and helped him up. “And what do you mean your canvas?” asked Andin confused. Fake pinched Andin’s arms and neck. He waved his hands around the fire prince. “What are you doing?” asked Andin bewildered.
“When did I make you? I don’t remember making you,” said Fake.
“What are you talking about I just came here, I was thrown through a manmade portal,” said Andin.
“The what?” asked Fake.
“The portal, you didn’t see it in the sky?”
“No, I was working on a super army when all of a sudden I got pulled through the air.”
Andin was now as confused as Fake. “What did you mean when you said this is your canvas?”
“It’s where I make things, I make all sorts of things, big things, little things, angry things, nice things, cities and castles and towns and monsters and warriors and flowers and…”
Andin interrupted Fake, “Okay I get it, you make things.”
“But I didn’t make you?” asked Fake still moving bizarrely around Andin.
“No,” said Andin flatly.
“So you’re… you’re real?” Fake’s tone rose in excitement. “I always knew there were real things other than me! I knew it I knew it I knew it I knew it I knew it!” Fake was now hysterical.
“Calm down, there are lots of real things; are you the only person here?” asked Andin.
Fake’s eyes widened, “There are lots of real things?”
Andin sighed, “Yes, relax, where is the center of this plane? I need to find a way to open another portal; the best spot will be in the center. If you take me there I can show you other real things.”
“Well the middle-ish is that way,” said Fake pointing in a seemingly arbitrary direction. Andin shrugged and headed where Fake had pointed.
“Hey can I come with you? It’s so cool that you just do whatever you want instead of what I make you do,” rambled Fake. “I mean you’re real! You are a real person! You are made of… stuff not just my sand!” Fake continued to talk, Andin half listened.
Andin normally would have been frustrated with such an overt personality but the utter uniqueness of Fake was too intriguing to ignore. He decided he would wait until Fake had calmed down before he started asking questions. The two walked for some time.
Fake went quiet for a few minutes. Andin broke the silence, “So you’re the only person here?”
“Well the only real one,” answered Fake.
“How did you summon that lizard and those copies of yourself?”
“That’s what I do. I make things; that’s all I do actually. But… they aren’t real, they are just pictures, I change the way the sand looks and moves,” explained the illusionist.
“How long have you been here?” Andin felt a strange sadness asking that question.
“A long time, I stopped counting after five hundred years.” Fake’s tone mirrored Andin’s feelings.
“Was there anything before you came here? You speak the Common.”
“Just blurred memories, there was a great world filled with people and creatures, then a war, then one day I woke up here.”
“So you’re an immortal?” reasoned the fire prince.
“A what?”
“An immortal, you don’t need to eat; you just sleep and feel better right?”
“I could try to make you something if you’re hungry, but it would just be black sand.”
“No that’s okay, I’m an immortal too,” Andin shared his secret with Fake freely, he felt unusually comfortable with him. “Most men are mortal though, they need to eat and they can be killed,” explained Andin.
“I know, I remember many of them dying in the war, I guess I never wondered why I lived for so long,” said Fake.
“So you were there before the Sundering?” asked Andin.
“The what?”
“The great war over the power of creation; the war that broke the world.”
“No the memories are just pieces, I wasn’t there I just remember things from it. What does the new world look like?”
“It’s still broken, from what we know after the Sundering the shattered pieces of the old world reformed into the planes, they are completely separate from another until the summer solstice.”
“What happens then?” asked Fake.
“A portal opens up connecting two planes. It seems to be random; sometimes it goes to the wild, sometimes it opens to another civilized plane, and sometimes to dangerous places. The portal stays open for ninety days until the fall equinox when it closes again.”
“But never to here,” said Fake disappointedly.
“Well not until now.”
“Why do they open?” asked Fake
“The prevailing theory is the shattered world is trying to heal itself, and it opens up portals to try to restore balance. But we don’t know for sure, the energies at a portal behave completely different from normal magical energy.”
“So you can’t control them at all?”
“No.”
“Then how did you get here?”
“We tried to force open a portal, it obviously worked but it was uncont
rollable. I got pulled through it to this place, your canvas as you call it.”
“Is that how you are going to try to get home?”
“Yes,” nodded Andin.
“Wow! Can I come with you?” Fake’s tone rose excitedly.
“Yes, if we can get a portal opened.”
Fake melted into joyful hysteria. “Really? I can go with you? That’s so great!” Andin watched in awe as Fake began the strangest celebration he had ever seen. It was half dance half wild flailing; Andin felt the urge to laugh, but it was quickly overwhelmed by his own secondary embarrassment.
For hours they walked together towards where Fake had pointed. The sun never set, it just skirted along the horizon. The pair asked each other many questions, Fake asked the most. They talked and walked until Andin stopped them.
“Do you need a break?” asked Fake.
“No, get down,” said Andin as he lowered himself to the sand. “Look, do you see that?” asked Andin pointing towards the horizon.