By Yaasha Moriah
Forin would do it this time. Master the All-Gate. And prove his father’s doubts wrong. All the other Gates were limited, only allowing travel between two specific worlds. Heck, sometimes you had to travel thousands of miles just to get to that world’s Gate. The All-Gate would change that. Forin could think of a place, touch the All-Gate, and instantly arrive anywhere in the fifty-two known worlds.
“Forin, I understand the attraction,” Father had said, fourteen years ago. “But the secret of the All-Gate has been lost for millennia. It simply follows its patterned course. You will spend your life hopping from world to world, chasing it down, and every time you get close enough to touch the sphere, its energy will warp you to a random world.”
Father was wrong. And Forin was moments away from proving it. He knew the exact place where the All-Gate would emerge in this world. He would stand precisely here within the forest of man-sized chrysalises, and the All-Gate would touch him as it passed through the worlds.
Electricity prickled up his arms—the same prickle as the previous three times he’d been close to the All-Gate. It was coming.
A curving shimmer began at his feet—an iridescent sphere rising slowly out of the earth. The sound of rushing water filled his ears. He could not breathe, swallow, or move within the fury of the All-Gate’s perimeter of power.
Almost… there…
Then, suddenly, a vacuum enclosed him—a complete loss of all sensory input—and fear jerked his heart. No, no, no—
Something struck his cheek, and he found himself nose-to-nose with a spotted crab. Forin sat up sharply, squinting against light far too bright for the chrysalis forest. Sand. Sunlight. Turquoise water.
He had been warped. Forin screamed his rage to the wheeling seagulls and the cloudless azure sky.
After this failed attempt, Forin traveled from world to world, seeking the secrets of the experts.
The beetle-like archaeologist on Azinae was little help, cackling like Forin’s story was a comedy instead of a tragedy of lost decades and futile effort. “Not again! I’ve met others like you, obsessed with the All-Gate. But it’s untouchable. As soon as you get close, its power-perimeter will warp you.”
“Yes, I know,” Forin snapped bitterly. “It’s happened four times now.”
“Then you’ve wasted your life more than most adventurers. Why don’t you find a nice girl and settle down?”
“You’re one of the primary archaeologists who has studied the All-Gate. Tell me what the old records say.”
The man blinked behind his thick glasses. “It’s untouchable. Aren’t you listening?”
“Do we have a picture of the All-Gate?”
“We have cave paintings from various worlds.” The man rummaged in a desk, then offered Forin paper reproductions of the paintings. “The ancients unanimously depict the All-Gate like a compass, with four arms that revolve around its spherical power-center.”
“What direction is the rotation, and does that influence its direction of travel?”
The little man shrugged. “I have no idea.”
Forin continued to search for answers. A music master on the world of Reeda insisted that the All-Gate “arms” created a specific musical melody as they twirled around the central power-sphere. On the world of Esser, a historian claimed that the All-Gate completed a full rotation through the worlds every hundred years in Esser time. One of the Brotherhood from the world of Ares said the All-Gate was an illusion created by a certain race of his own world to spark insanity among the weak-minded.
Through the years, Forin never wavered. He investigated, schemed, cursed, and vowed that, one day, he would touch the All-Gate and master it.
Age had taken its toll on Forin’s body, but he pushed the aches aside. This time his attempt would not fail. All his research led him here, to this moment. In its continuous path, the All-Gate would descend from this world’s sky like a celestial gift. As Forin approached the intersection point, his boat bobbing on the waters of a remote lake, he observed a second vessel already waiting there, occupied by four young adult humans. Fury seized him. Those brats think they have the knowledge to master the All-Gate?
The girl waved. “We must be after the same thing.”
“You’re wasting your time,” Forin snapped.
The girl shrugged. The three young men spoke quietly with one another and ignored Forin.
“How many times have you attempted to touch the All-Gate?” Forin asked, irritated by their youthful hopefulness.
“Oh, this is our first attempt,” replied the girl.
“This is my eighth.”
The girl whistled. “What do you need it for?”
Wasn’t the answer obvious? “To travel the worlds, of course.”
“If you’ve followed the All-Gate eight times, I think you have already!” The girl laughed, then sobered. “Our brother is trapped on a world with a closed Gate. We’re going to rescue him.”
Forin sneered. “How noble.”
One of the young men hissed, and they all fell silent. Forin’s chest clenched. There it was, appearing like a star, falling steadily to earth: a radiant, pulsing sphere the size of a man, wreathing itself in splendor. The four arms spun lazily around the core as the All-Gate arced toward the reflective waters below.
The girl whispered to her companions. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
The four young adventurers each lifted a hand toward the All-Gate as though hailing it. Forin angled his boat closer, nudging the neighboring boat. But… but… what was this? The All-Gate deviated, just a fraction, and pulled toward the youths like iron drawn to a magnet. Their hands reached… passed through the perimeter of the sphere… and each youth grasped one of the four slowly whirling prongs.
Forin understood a moment before it happened. Four people for the four arms of the All-Gate, all united in one selfless purpose, all capable of touching the untouchable.
That was the answer?
He blinked—and they were gone, leaving their empty boat bobbing in the water and Forin sitting alone.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Such an unexpected ending…perfect.
Thanks for reading! 😄
Wow.
What a fascinating, sad, epic story. And all in under a thousand words! Quite masterful.
I think those four people could spark another story.
They actually are part of one of my planned series. :-D There’s DEFINITELY more to the story… someday!
Nice build to the unexpected finish which reminded me of the paralytic on the stretcher lowered by four friends thru a ceiling to be healed by Jesus.
Oh, neat, I never made that connection. Coolio!
WHAT A JOURNEY!!! I loved traveling across the worlds with Forin, and his desire was SO real (and the WORLDBUILDING *all the heart eyes*).