Chapter 4: The Flow
It's in everything, almost; A short read
“There has to be a first group of people or Gods, or whatever that made all the known and unknown realms. Stands to reason, right? I mean.” Bill’s lips twitched up. “It’s not like all the universes all of a sudden and all together magic’ed themselves into existences? Is it?”
There wasn’t anything Jax could add, so he remained quiet.
“For your edification, when you get out there, no one will know what you mean when you mention Dark Matter. In all the realms, this energy that connects everything and can give you powers so far unimaginable by you is called, The Flow or sometimes shortened to Flow.”
“And it’s in everything and everyone?”
"Almost," Bill said as he transported them back to the lagoon. He stood behind the bar while Jax took a seat on a stool. "Your physicists had it partially right. They believed that The Flow was everything except 15% of the universe. However, they didn't know about all the other universes and realms. I can't blame them for that, but surprisingly, they were close to that 15%. Call it dumb luck," Bill said with a smile.
“Almost.” Bill chose that moment to transport them back to the lagoon, Bill behind the bar and Jax seated on a stool. “Your Physicists were partially correct. They believed The Flow encompassed all but 15% of the universe. They didn’t know about all universes and realms. I can’t fault them for that, but surprisingly, they were close to that 15%. Dumb luck.” Bill smiled. “There are places where there is little Flow. There are places where there is no Flow at all. Some of those places are in the depths of space, some are parts of a world or realm, and some realms have no Flow at all. These places are known as Blights. If you’re ever stuck in one of these places, you better have a plan. Otherwise, you’ll be stranded forever.”
“Forever?”
“No Flow, no magic, and limited technology. You could walk out or maybe build some sort of transportation device to get you out, like a car or a plane. Of course, you’d have to know how to make one. But, more than that, no extended life, self-healing, or any of the other benefits the Flow gives you.”
“Interesting. I wonder why there are places, realms, whatever, where The Flow doesn’t exist?”
“No one knows for sure. There’s been plenty of speculation but no facts to back up some pretty wild claims. My favorite is that The First Ones fought a devastating war with themselves, or maybe some other group on the same level. This war eradicated both sides and left these Flowless Blights. In some cases of the Blight, ruins of great cities or fleets of wrecked starships can be seen from outside its borders. Many explorers, scientists, and adventurers have sought out their fortunes in these places. They never return, even with the best contingency plans to get them back.”
“Not a place to go then.”
Bill dropped his head to the side and shrugged. Jax got the impression Bill wasn’t convinced going to one of these blights was such a bad idea.
“All I can tell you was when I was free to do whatever I wanted.”
Inwardly, Jax rolled his eyes. 65 million years ago.
“I’d done a great deal of research on these Blights. Some held the promise of a prompt return. But, these Blights were part of a realm where you could physically move into, walk, swim, and fly into and through them, but none through the use of magic. Rumor has it there is a badge with the qualities to negate the effects of the blight and allow The Flow to function within a certain area created by the badge. Actually, there are supposed to be two. One developed by one side of the Great War and one developed by the other side. Unfortunately, no one I ever spoke to heard of such a badge, nor could I find or acquire that badge. The Badge of the Damned and the Badge of the Accursed.”
Jax almost laughed. “That’s what they’re called? A bit ominous, don’t you think?”
Bill nodded and smiled. “I didn’t name it. Some badges are very descriptive, and you know exactly what they can do. Others have names that make no sense but are very powerful. In the case of the Badge of the Damned and Badge of the Accursed, the names come from folklore. As far as I know, no one has ever found them, let alone seen them.”
“What made you interested in visiting one of these Blights?”
A bottle of beer appeared in Bill’s hand. “Inside some of these Blights, there are enhancements to the Flow that are so incredible they can be nearly incomprehensible. You might not be able to imagine the power one could wield with these enhancements, but their powers are vast indeed.”
“Speaking of powers, what about me? If I’m going to go too far off places, won’t I need some of what you have?”
The Veil thing would be nice, and he was sure there was plenty more, like his alleged ability to transport himself wherever he wanted. The thought crept into his mind that if things really worked out, he might take what he could and just go. What obligation did he have to help Bill?
“Indeed.” Bill stood, and everything disappeared.
His chair was suddenly gone Jax squeaked in surprise and fell on his butt.
Standing, Jax said, “Thanks. How about warning a guy next time.”
“Of course,’ Bill said with a tight little smile.
They stood in the center of a long rectangular room. Every surface was white. Eyes squinted, Jax glanced at the ceiling. Jax couldn’t tell how the room was lit, but it was bright. The walls were empty, as was the floor.
“This is where your training will take place.”
“I don’t know what you have planned, but it’s a bit barren, don’t you think?
As if on cue, every imaginable weapon Jax could think of appeared on the two long walls. At the two far ends, punching bags of every type appeared hanging from the wall mounts, ceiling mounts, and big black metal stands. There was even a Wing Chun wooden dummy on a corner stand.
On the wall to his right were stabbing and cutting weapons. Starting left from right, Jax let his eyes wander over two-handed swords, knives, spears, kukris, halberds, and others he didn’t recognize. The long wall behind him held firearms galore. He saw rifles, shotguns, pistols, machine guns, and many more in the arsenal. Some he recognized, others Jax had no clue what they were. A pistol at head level to his left looked particularly interesting. It was big, like a Dirty Harry 44 caliber revolver, but the similarity ended there. This one looked like it was made of plastic, cheap plastic at that. The barrel was long and rectangular, there was no trigger, but there was a trigger guard, and there didn’t appear to be any kind of sight to aim in on.
He walked over and reached up to take the odd-looking gun off its rack.
“Don’t touch that!”
Jax jumped back, pulling his hands back to his shoulders.
“What?” Jax said and turned around.
Bill bent over and started laughing. He pointed at Jax. “You should have sent your face,” he cackled. “Are you sure you don’t have a yellow stain running down your pants?”
“You’re hilarious.” Unamused, Jax walked back over to Bill.
“They’re unloaded. Pick up anything you want.” Bill chuckled one last time. “Shall we get started?”
“You’re kind of a dick.”
Bill snickered. “Well, we are related, so…”
Maybe dumping Bill at the first opportunity wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
Thank You for Reading!
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