The Interplanar University, # 13— "The Elite and the Lamb, Part Two"
- David Parker
- Oct 3, 2023
- 4 min read
The Interplanar University, # 13— “The Elite and the Lamb, Part Two”
[Short stories. Images generated by hotpot.ai]
“It’s an intricate schemata that is necessitated due to the limitations of a single language,” said Miriam, referring to the nature of Magic itself.
“You might be surprised to know I just understood that,” said Harry.
Miriam laughed warmly. “I think I’ll make you my little pet project.”
“No thanks. I prefer to have, well— the word is, ‘free agency’.”
“So it is,” she said with heightened cheer. Then she laughed just a little and said, “But you agree, don’t you? All that discussion about Celestial and Planar Conflicts;” (this was the class they had just attended), “There would be no distinctions at all if we didn’t need to make sense of it.”
Harry cleared his throat. “This is a very… rigorous discussion? For me.”
“Don’t tell me you don’t understand it!”
“I do. It’s just—” he paused for thought, “I don’t have an answer for that.”
“But you’re Magos. Don’t you want to know it’s real before you stay with it?”
“I know it’s real. I died one time. I saw the other side of Death. My headmaster was there.”
She gasped slightly, in a slightly patronizing manner, “What was it like?”
“It was like— a platform. A train platform, getting ready to move on. But I came back.”
“How do you know you died?”
Harry found her prying to be more than a little repelling. “I am 100% sure I died.”
She breathed in and said, “Well, okay.” Her eyes shone with affection, which was not repelling. She did, however, keep calling him a ‘Lamb’, her word for a hapless surface dweller.
She was, in the very least, a master of diction, whereas Harry, though knowing most of the words, did not speak them with such flow.
The pocket-dimension cafe at the interplanar College, Havenforth, always had enough room, because the portal leading to it automatically allocated the user to a dimension with the most convenient available space. As for the cafes, they were manned by some type of golem, mass produced for service. Or perhaps a robot. It was hard to tell.
“Come to think of it, I do have an answer. We’re here, aren’t we? That means we’re growing.”
“Go on.”
“Well, if we can understand more all the time, then we’ll find something better. Later on.”
“That’s adorable.”
“You know,” said Harry, repositioning his glasses, “I don’t know if I like that, in this context.”
“Oh, come on. You’re cute!”
“I have someone. Ginevra. She’s a real fox.”
She gasped ever so slightly, “Of course you do.”
How did you not love this person? And yet he didn’t agree with her or what she was doing.
Perhaps for ego, Harry pressed the matter.
“I’m serious about dying, though. You should take it into consideration.”
“Well, so glad you said something. Because I have my own ideas,” she did something with her hair and said, “You know all these pocket dimensions?”
“Yes?”
“Well that just goes to show. We were all in a different dimension before this cafe, so where you were when you say you died—”
“—Actually died.”
“Died— well whatever constitutes your existence was drawn into another dimension.”
“Obviously.”
“Well, why does it have to be, some kind of sorcery?”
Harry sighed, “I saw my beloved headmaster, Dumbledore.”
“Naturally.”
“Have you ever had feelings before!?”
She gave a look of discontent. “Now you’re being condescending.”
He sputtered. “B-but the point is!” he could tell she was rebelling against his current demeanor, “It wasn’t just a ‘randomly generated’ Dumbledore. It was Dumbledore, who had blood, heart, and brain.”
She gave him a thin smile.
Harry perspired and sighed. “Sorry. I’m not Ethos, but I know people have souls.”
“Alright Harry,” she said, smiling broadly and revealing an unnaturally perfect mouth, “You win.”
“Really, though.”
“Really. Souls. I love them.”
“You really are from outer space.”
“I’m going to index that as funny.”
Despite himself, Harry laughed. That, actually, was a good one.
From her homeworld, Miriam was familiar with a fusion of both technology and ether; however, it was eventually revealed that Magos was far more diverse in specific capabilities. In Miriam’s world, Astra, ether was a more general form of energy used by humans, usually harnessed as a power source, manufacturing standardized weapons, or to enhance bodies and machinery. Magos, alternately, had by comparison a shed full of tools versus a swiss army knife. That was, at least, in terms of magic, which Astra called ‘ether’, and it was dubious if they even had the same ‘energy signature,’ as Styfe called it. But the technology common in Astralus was above and beyond that of Terra, and while it came with its advantages, it also came with prejudices. Harry perceived rivalry with Magos and what was called Manifest Tech, and he didn’t like being called a Lamb. Miriam meant well, but he couldn’t help resent an orbiting space society that played games with surface dwellers.
*-------------------------------------------*
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