“Do you understand how to get us all to Carthago, at least?” Dion asked.
“Yeah, I think so. I guess I just have to concentrate in the same way you did for that armor, just as Neddy stated. But let’s be honest, dude: we’ve got bigger problems.”
“True. So how do you propose we handle those two thugs when we arrive?”
“I don’t know really,” I said, solemnly. “Neddy, do you know the identities of those goons?”
“In fact, I do,” Ned responded. “The second man described, the one in robes, is named Zyrrk. He has abilities not unlike your own, Lester, but he is a much more powerful entity. The other man with the eye-patch is the one who stole the book from this library, the prime enemy of my captain.”
“Sky,” I remembered aloud. “So he’s obviously a person of magic too? What can he do?”
“His power is derived from the soil. It is said that he can cause earthquakes or landslides with a whim. Primarily, however, Sky is known for his ability to manipulate the physical bodies of human beings without their consent.”
“Like a puppeteer, then,” Dion offered. He looked over at me, warily. “We won’t be able to handle them, man. You might be able to handle that dude Sky with your ability, though I doubt it. And the other one, Zyrrk, would rip each of us a new one. And all I could do is make an anvil fall on one of their heads.”
“Correction,” Ned said. “Both of your abilities are now in their nascent states. Though you are able to successfully access a great deal of your powers here in Pipeline, you will not be able to do the same once we reach Carthago.”
“Why not?” I had to ask.
“Pipeline magnifies the abilities of people of magic. Thusly, the two of you may easily explore your potential here, within your individual disciplines. Of course, when you arrive in Carthago you will have hardly any powers whatsoever, since you are both simple novices in sorcery.” It was so ridiculous to hear a robot speaking about the nature of magic – any other normal human being would have woken up at that moment, I just know it. Unfortunately for me, though, the dream continued on.
“There has to be another way,” Dion said, freaking out a little. “This can’t be it! Chris, why couldn’t you have just gone along with the original story?”
“Because I’m not Chris, I’m Lester,” I said.
“But you act exactly like Chris.”
“Let’s figure this out,” I said, “because I’m sick of you calling me that.”
“Okay, then,” Dion said. “I’ll play devil’s advocate. Why wouldn’t your name be Chris?”
“Because my father named me Lester,” I blurted out, instinctively. Dion took a second or two: I could see the gears inside his head turning. I believe he had a good idea of what was going on, and so I waited for him to spell it out.
“I think I got it, man,” Dion said, “but you’ll have to keep an open mind about it.”
“Lay it on me, brother.”
“Have you ever heard of parallel universes?”
“Sure,” I said. “What if Hitler and the Nazis won the second World War, or what if the South won the Civil war, etc. A whole bunch of what-ifs.”
“Exactly. So, what if there was a world where your parents named you Chris instead of Lester?”
“But why would they do that? Giving me the name Christopher makes no sense at all.”
“Maybe not,” Dion said, “but I think it’s quite possible that the ‘other you’ exists somewhere out there, as well. I mean, doesn’t it stand to reason that there could be another version of me out there, also? Maybe there are other copies of these robots in another reality, too.” This was all too much for me to wrap my brain around. After all, I’d just finished up hearing about my own personal parallel universe in the form of a book.
“Perhaps you’re right, Dion, but this whole thing is just ludicrous to me.”
“Stay with me though, Lester,” Dion used my given name now, which reassured me that he finally believed I wasn’t Chris. “If they wrote a book about Chris and another Dion, calling it Mystery Thesis, isn’t it possible that somebody also wrote a book about you?”
As crazy as Dion sounded, he did have a good point. It was possible, especially in light of all the other unfathomable shit that had gone down. What if? And so, we sought out a new book. Carefully, clearly, we described the exact book we were looking for to the Solomon Learned unit; off he went, searching the shelves with precision.
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