Young Writers Society

"We got people on the moon, kid, it ain't that far-fetched," Auryon informs him, leaning against the wall casually in stark contrast to the tension and edge of fear in her eyes.

"This isn't happening," Adamina whispered to herself, wishing she could huddle in a corner, alone. Or even be in Edwin's arms. Good empires, Alanis must be trying to make me go crazy.

Maahes was getting a horrible feeling that his attempts to make things better were only making things worse. "Don't worry!" he hurriedly said; he seemed to be saying that a lot lately.

He turned his attention to Peter first. "Um, how to explain this? You know the stars in the sky? And how sometimes some look a little different? Those are called planets. You live on one too. There's countless planets and countless groups of people that can live on them."

He spun around to face Mina. "I know how strange this must sound to you, but trust me when I say that this is the usual reaction I get when I meet people from other worlds." He had also been accused of being the devil's spawn and occasionally crazy, but he decided to ignore that little bit. "It would explain all of our differences, wouldn't it?"

And then there was Auryon. He looked over at the woman from Earth; her words said she was alright, but something about her face told him otherwise. It had been easy to comfort the other two because he had dealt with situations like this before. He had never had to speak to someone from the planet he loved, and he found himself unable to find the right words.

"I mean, I'm from Earth. You say you're from Earth. That doesn't correlate."

James knew what planets were. But he had not considered that life actually existed on them.

"How is it that all of our home planets are called earth but none of us are talking about the same place?" James asked. If they were different places, how did they have the same name? Was there some common string amongst universes? Was the creator just uncreative in this instance? And how did they all speak the same language? What were the chances?

He bit his lip. "I think I've heard of the existence of alternate universes," he commented, glancing at the other people around him. "Stargates have also been known to help with time travel, and I think the Ancients may have once developed technology that was able to do that. So if you put the two together..."

"That'd be a trip, what's a Stargate?"

It was hard to explain what one was without one to point to, but it looked like he would have to do the best he could. "A Stargate is a large, circular device that allows you to travel to different planets. They're kind of like portals. But if there's a sun between the two planets, and that sun has a solar flare, you're sent to the future or the past. It's a problem that was never fixed after they were initially made, but it doesn't happen that often."

"Huh, trippy. And this is, like, a 2018 Earth thing?"

Adamina turned and walked out of the room. No, no, no, no. She hated situations over which she had no control. She hated things that sounded like nonsense.

She headed down the hall alone. Perhaps this was all really just her nightmare, strange people her only companions. She was more than this. She was the Heir Apparent and her mother's daughter. Adamina could solve her problems by herself if all anyone else would do was talk.

She turned another corner and came across a nondescript door with a songbird on it.

No one was making sense - and by no one, he mostly meant Leo. James looked between the two strangers as Leo kept talking about this Stargate or whatever it was. Then he saw Mina leave the room.

Not having much interest in overloading his mind with more confusion, he left after her, following from a distance. While at first he'd wanted to stay together because they were all, essentially, keys to doors, he preferred to not remain surrounded by the chaos that was them discussing their wildly different world.

He balked when he heard the year. "More like 2004," he weakly managed to get out; apparently he and Auryon weren't from the same point in time and reality.

When he saw that two of their small group had left the room, he also exited it. If they were done looking through it, then so be it. It seemed like too cursory of an investigation to find anything substantial, but he wasn't Peter. He couldn't understand the significance of anything in it without his help.

Mina and Peter looked like they needed their space, and Auryon hadn't exactly provided any useful answers to his questions. He'd have to some investigating on his own. He pushed past Peter and then past Mina, who was standing by a door with her marking on it, and kept walking. He had to find one of his rooms.

And, after passing a few more doors, he found a door with the marking of a lotus on it.

Adamina touched the door and pushed it open a crack. She made a sharp intake of breath at what she saw, and she rushed in.

There was a man lying on a bed, unmoving. The expression on his face was almost childlike, vulnerable.

"Edwin?" When he didn't stir, Adamina felt a flutter of panic and hurried to the bedside. "Edwin! Good empires, wake up!"

He took a deep breath. Removing his hand from his pocket, he gently placed it on the door. The lotus on the door flowered in turn, and Maahes gave the now slightly ajar door a gentle nudge with his foot. He gagged at the strong smell that entered the hallway. It wasn't something a human would be affected by, but it made him feel absolutely nauseous.

The floor became intricately designed sandstone. Horrific trophies of victories and lives lost lined the walls; skulls that had once belonged to Jaffa warriors served as decoration, and artifacts taken from fallen worlds served as a reminder. And in the center of the room was the most cursed thing of all - a horrifying pair of pentacles, the flames of their candles illuminating their chalk lines.

His limbs felt weak.

From somewhere within the warm cocoon of his dreams, Edwin heard a familiar voice, calling his name. In his mind, he was immediately running towards that voice.


A lone tear quivered at the edge of Adamina's eye, but she swiped it away. These churning feelings inside her, seeing Edwin like this . . . they disturbed her. She tried to focus her attention on rational thoughts.

But why? He was definitely here, flesh and blood. His hands were still warm. How had either of them gotten here?

She began to pace a small area by the bed. While her back was turned, she heard a soft, gentle voice.

"Mina?"