Chereads / God's Mercy / Chapter 5 - Autre Vuoto

Chapter 5 - Autre Vuoto

Staring at the sunset, the cold and darkness of the night arrived. Jed's companions readied the camp for tonight as the prince set up the metallic apparatus at the mountain's very peak. The prince stood awake unable to shake off the uneasiness that he was feeling. He was scared that with all his efforts, the enlargement of the moon would not appear before his eyes ever again. Despite the efforts of his companions to force him to rest, the prince stayed awake for the night.

It was almost midnight. All of Jed's companions have already slept, yet he forced himself to stay awake. Jed was starting to lose hope and thought to himself that maybe it wasn't real. Maybe he just imagined that dreamlike moment. But as he stood up, ready to rest with his companions, he saw his shadow over a reddish light. He shut his eyes when suddenly this bright light glimmered with its warmth that chased the coldness of the night away. He saw the magnificence of the moon once more -- it wasn't a dream. But something was different this time. The moon had turned bright red. Standing there, yet another familiar voice spoke to him. While he wasn't able to pinpoint who exactly was talking to him, it felt comfortable. With a soft smile on his face, he gracefully touched the moon's surface.

A reddish void… Jed watched the void. He was suddenly transported to get smaller and smaller as a light blue color started to surround it. He fell on his back to a surface that seemed to be grass that had been slightly tinted with blue. There he noticed a suspicious yet familiar figure. He stood back up and slowly and carefully approached forward until he finally saw the person. Jed instantly knew who it was. How could he forget those eyes which are the color of the sky -- that hair as light as snow. Out of nowhere, he can finally understand what that lingering voice had said. It was "Blane" -- the name of the boy he had been subconsciously searching for. He was shocked and relieved that his efforts weren't in vain after a month of travel. He had finally met the person in his dreams. Nervous and anxious, he wondered what to do. He had never been in a situation like this before.

.

Jed spoke, trying to make Blane notice him. Once Blane had heard his voice, he assumed a defensive stance but stopped halfway. Blane recognized the man before him – he wondered how he could've snuck close behind him so quickly. He lowered his guard and asked the name of the one before him. Jed replied with his name and another question. Where is the place he stands over now? Blane's response caught Jed off guard. The name isn't familiar to him, yet with such a unique landscape filled with luminescent flowers and blue-tinted grass, its name should've been somewhere in the maps he'd studied. "Autre Vuoto." The two words together didn't make sense to him, but separately they did. "Autre" stood for another from the language of Nail, and "Vuoto" meant space from the language of the Huccforn. Translating these words to Schligne and coining them together forms the phrase "another space" or "another world." Translating these words to Schligne and coining them together forms the phrase "another space" or "another world." Could it be that Jed had been transported to another world or perhaps even another universe? Whatever it was, Jed wanted to invite Blane to come back to his world. Blane was an academic -- he had been bored in his world as their technology and knowledge had reached their peak, so he did not hesitate to accept Jed's offer.

Jed told Blane everything he knew about the gateway between universes as they went to Blane's very own tower. Blane was the most renowned academic of his time and was granted his own tower by the king for his contributions to humankind. And as the two climbed the stairs, they shared many similar stories of their adventures. It turns out that they had many similarities -- like a copy of each other. While Blane went to get some snacks, Jed sat in a chair on the tower's balcony. He worried the moon might not let them back to his universe, for the tower wasn't tall. He got impatient and decided to wait for Blane at the tower's entrance.

Blane hadn't arrived yet after so long. The night had come, and while bored, Jed decided to watch the night sky and its stars, only to be surprised that the moon was enormous. After several minutes had gone by, Blane finally arrived. He apologized for being late -- he was apparently summoned by the king for a long meeting. The two climbed the stairs together while they chatted and ate the snacks that Blane had brought. Jed's heart started to beat faster and quickly, not knowing the cause. Jed wanted to shift the attention when he saw that the moon was yet larger again than at the bottom. Jed asked Blane if this was a normal circumstance. Apparently, it was not, but it wasn't something to be worried about. Blane explained that the night when the two of them were transported in that reddish void, the same thing happened. The only concerning thing was that only Blane was witnessing such. After a long chat filled with laughter and joy, the two stood and held hands. As the two were about to kiss, their vision went black. While they still felt each other's hands, it was as if they were falling. Seconds later, they found themselves hugging each other in the metallic platform Jed had made.

Looking over the magnificent sunrise, they saw Beatrice, who fell to her back, surprised. It turned out that Beatrice had seen Jed touching the moon and disappearing in thin air. Out of confusion and panic, Beatrice watched and did everything to try and bring back Jed. She tried and failed, again, and again and again. She had continued her futile attempts had been for naught til now. Beatrice tried to stand up but fell to her knees, on the verge of crying, from relief. Her slight hiccups woke the others up, and they were confused as to why the prince was hugging a man they had yet met.

Jed introduced Blane to his followers. Of course, his followers were in doubt. George, Beatrice's personal guard, told Jed to blink twice if he was threatened. Almost all of Jed's followers, except for Beatrice, thought that Jed was being held as a hostage. Jed blinked thrice instead. This confused his followers, and they pursued an offending stance. The two figures that stood on the platform instead laughed at their faces. With a confused look that filled their faces, Jed introduced Blane once more: "He is my boy- I mean best friend."