Mall of Mâvarin, Part Twenty

I'm starting to feel that this story is getting awfully lame, and too dependent on stuff most of you have never read. I'll try to do better.

The easiest way to catch up on past installments of this serial is from the Mall of Mâvarin section of the sidebar to the right of this posting. Synopses to Parts One through Six can be found at the top of Part Seven. Synopses to Parts Eight through Thirteen can be found at the top of Part Fourteen. Synopses to Parts Fourteen through Eighteen are at the top of Part Nineteen. The installments themselves can be read in order using the sidebar.

Part Nineteen: Li Ramet, Lee Ramirez and Joshua Wander go off to try to reverse the effects of Li's modified portal spell, which, along with the appearance of Josh's magic castle, apparently caused all the trouble. Meanwhile, Rani and Randy announce they have successfully returned their own minds and spirits to the right bodies. Rani sets out to try to help Carl and Carli do the same. Despite being only a bookish high school student in a strange and magical land, Randy Foster thinks he has acquired sufficient magic and knowledge to sort out Cathma and Cathy as well. They sit down together to let him try.

Part Twenty: Memories of Me

Cathma closed her eyes. After a moment she heard Randy’s voice in her mind. Cathma? Can you hear me?

“Yes,” she said.

Not that way. Just say the words in your head, as you do with Rani Lunder.

Cathma was a little surprised that Randy even knew about the other Rani. She was also a little embarrassed about having spoken aloud. Oh, right. I forgot, she said in her mind.

That’s because you’re not really Cathma. Are you ready to be yourself again?

Now, wait a minute, Cathma protested. Didn’t we all agree earlier that I’m mostly Cathma, and the person in my body is mostly Cathy? If this works, I’ll still be Cathma, but back in my own body.

That’s one way of looking at it. But Rani and I figured out that it’s not quite true.

What do you mean?

You’re really Cathy Salazar after all. Li’s spell just makes you feel and think otherwise, and feeds you just enough of Cathma’s memories to make it plausible. But it’s just a mindpush, a trick. Underneath the spell, you’re still the same person I had lunch with in school today.

But I barely remember that lunch. Are you sure?

I’m sure.

Does Li know that’s what he did?

Probably not, but it makes sense. Rani told me all about Li’s ability to make people believe stuff that isn’t true. This weird spell of his fooled everyone, including Li.

Well, I guess it doesn’t matter how it works, as long as you can fix it.

It matters, because he’ll need to get his counterspell right to put everything back where it belongs, and get people feeling like themselves again. Rani and I can’t fix the fifty or sixty people affected by this spell, at least not quickly.

But you can fix me and Cathy—I mean Cathma. Right?

Yes. Just relax now, and let me show you who you are.

She tried to do just that as images appeared in her mind, memories of high school, of evenings spent doing homework on the computer while IMing with friends, of buying clothes and eating pizza at the mall, of going to see Batman Begins with Carl and Randy. At first it all looked strange to her, part of someone else’s life in a place full of incomprehensible technology. But as Randy gently prodded, more memories came. They all fit together, becoming more and more familiar as she re-experienced a good chunk of Cathy’s life—her life—in the space of a few minutes. Here was the memory of that one date with Danny from F-M, and there was the memory of 9-11, when…. Don’t, she told Randy. I don’t want to see that again.

You remember?

I remember. I don’t need to see the wreckage of Flight 93 yet again to remember what happened to my parents.

So you know who you are now.

I think so, yes.

What do you remember of Cathma’s life?

Cathy probed for memories that had seemed so much her own just a short time before. I remember bits and pieces, she told Randy, but they don’t seem real to me any more.

They’re real for her, Randy replied. His mental voice sounded exhausted.

Are you going to help Cathma next?

Already done. Where do you think I got the memories to show you? I used you both to feed each other.

And you’re sure I’m really Cathy?

Absolutely positively.

In a way Cathy was almost sorry about this. Cathma had a father who was still alive, and a fairly exciting life as the ruler of an exotic country. But her own life had its advantages, she realized.

“That’s good enough for me,” she said aloud.

Welcome to Mâvarin

Use sidebar to get to past installments of this serial.

Mall of Mâvarin, Part Nineteen

Well, I'm getting down toward the end on this. I hope it's not too anticlimactic!

I've been thinking a lot about the real books lately, particularly Mages of Mâvarin. This serial is only a sideshow, probably apocryphal and way too padded. Still, I think it's been worth doing. For more about recent developments in the writing and editing of the novels, please see my LiveJournal, Mâvarin & Other Inspirations.

Synopses to Parts One through Six can be found at the top of Part Seven. Synopses to Parts Eight through Thirteen can be found at the top of Part Fourteen. The installments themselves can be read in order on using the sidebar.

Part Fourteen: Cathma and her friends meet Lee Ramirez, the American who inherited Li Ramet's magical talent for understanding and being understood in any language. With Lee's help, the Americans and Mâvarinû compare notes. It turns out that they all know their situation: their spirits and consciousness have now been transferred into each others' bodies. Lee confirms that his counterpart, Li Ramet, is involved, and should arrive soon with the remaining affected people.

Part Fifteen: Back in Josh Wander's castle, Fabian points out that Cathma is speaking English again, as is everyone else. She remembers more of her life as Cathy, but still feels more like Queen Cathma than Cathy Salazar. Fabian and Fayubi compare notes, and conclude that they both have Fayubi's talents. What is needed, though, is Rani's talent as a mind mage. Rani says that he needs Randy too, to have any hope of helping all the people affected by the transfer of minds and spirits. Fortunately, Randy is just arriving at the half-destroyed mall--in tengrem form.

Part Sixteen: Randy arrives, confused and half-feral. Rani calms him down, and gets him to come inside the castle. There he is able to understand and be understood in words. Although he admits to enjoying the tengrem condition while fully immersed it it, he doesn't want to take Rani's place forever, and experience the kinds of horrors Rani has lived through. After exhorting the others to find the source of the leak between worlds, Rani and Randy sit down together to try to exchange minds and spirits, thus putting themseves back in their original bodies.

Part Seventeen: While Rani and Randy commune in mindtouch, Lee Ramirez reveals that he knows where Li Ramet's portal is, and that it's the source of all the trouble. Before he gets far in his account, Li Ramet arrives with the last of the affected people, and suggests that they all "get started."

Part Eighteen: Li Ramet explains what he was trying to do with his portal, and what he thinks went wrong. Because of the arrival of Josh Wander's castle, the doorway became much larger and more powerful than it should have been, with strange effects. It encompasses the whole of Shoppingtown Mall, part of which is now in Mâvarin.

Part Nineteen: Just Do It

“So what’s the plan?” Carl asked. “How are you going to get Shoppingtown back where it belongs, and us back where we belong?”

“I think I can change the spell definitions enough to make our spirits flow the other way,” Li said. “But I’m not so sure I can get the actual stores back to Dewitt intact.”

“Let me work with you on that part of it,” said Joshua Wander. “I’m used to moving my castle around. Since my magic does work here, I should be able to help you move a shopping mall.”

“That’s good of you, since your castle probably caused the problem in the first place,” Li said grumpily.

“Well, that’s gracious,” Josh said. “I don’t know whether Toujours Chez Moi was part of the problem or not, but I’m willing to help. You can at least be courteous about it.”

“Sorry,” Li said. “Come with me, then, and I’ll show you what we’re working with.”

“Fine.”

“I thought the whole mall was your portal,” Carli said. “Isn’t that what you just told us?”

“Yes, but there’s a particular spot where the spell started, and the effect is strongest. That’s where we need to concentrate our efforts.”

“Then I’d better come with you,” said Lee Ramirez. “If it starts to work, you’ll need your own body there to keep things going.”

“Right. Come on, then.”

“Are we going to trust him to get this fixed properly?” Cathy asked the room at large. “Maybe we should go too, and keep an eye on things.”

Li looked at her. “What would that accomplish? There isn’t anything you normals can do to help or hurt. Just leave it to us.”

The remark was a bit insulting, but Li had a point, Cathma thought. Even as Queen of Mâvarin, there wasn’t much she could do about a problem like this. “Let him go,” she said. “He’s already gone to the trouble of bringing us all here. I think he’s sincerely trying to help, and he has a better chance of succeeding than the rest of us.”

“What about what Rani and Randy are doing?” Carli asked. “Is that going to work, in case Li and Lee and Josh fail?”

“It worked for us, anyway,” said Rani—or was it Randy? The two of them had finished their mindtouch and gotten up from their chairs in the back of the castle’s Great Hall. They came forward, smiling.

“I think we can both help everyone else with this,” said the one who was dressed as Randy Foster. “I may be only Randy now, but with a bit of instruction even a certain high school student from Dewitt can do mind magic here.” His smile faltered. “Too bad I don’t get to take that ability home with me. That would be cool.”

“We’ll take you in pairs,” Rani said. “I can do Carl and Carli, and Randy will work with Cathy and Cathma. Then we’ll need to rest, but we should get to everyone eventually.”

“And if Li and Lee succeed in what they’re doing?” Jami Baret asked. “What then?”

Rani smiled. “Then our contribution should speed the process, with less effort on our part. We can do this. I know we can. All you have to do is trust us, and cooperate in the mindtouch and transfer.”

“Well, you know I trust you,” Carli said. “I always have.”

“Come on, then,” said Rani.

“Come on, Cathma and Cathy,” Randy added.

The idea made Cathma a little nervous, but she knew it had to be done. She followed her counterpart and Randy to the back of the room, not far from Carli and Carl. Randy had two chairs pulled next to each other, with a third chair facing them. Cathy sat down in the left chair, and Cathma sat next to her. Randy sat across from them.

“It will help if we all hold hands,” Randy said. Cathy and Cathma exchanged glances. Then Cathma reached out with her left hand, and clasped Cathy’s right one. Randy took hold of Cathy’s left hand and Cathma’s right one.

“It’s like a séance, except that nobody’s dead,” Cathy remarked.

“Ready?” Randy said. “Here we go.”

Welcome to Mâvarin

Mall of Mâvarin, Part Eighteen

As predicted, I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince after nearly 24 hours of almost-continuous reading. As a consequence of this, I'm terribly short on sleep, and need to go to bed soon. I'm also rather annoyed at Rowling for killing off a favorite character of mine, although I suspected about halfway through the book that he would be the one to die.

Furthermore, her latest novel contains a spell that follows the same rules as one in my first Mâvarin novel, and a plot point about unspoken magic that mirrors a plot point in my second Mâvarin novel--darn it! I am not going to change what I wrote just to avoid her accidental echoes. If anything, the plot point in Mages, which is already more developed than Rowling's version, needs to be developed even further in mine for the sake of Darma's character arc. Still, it bugs me. People will think I ripped off Rowling, when it fact I first wrote about the darkness spell about thirty years ago, and the unspoken spell thing at least three or four years ago. The latter has a totally different emphasis in my iteration than in hers, and it's thematically important, so it stays.

On with the recap, and then maybe I'll manage to actually write a little piece of this darn serial before I go to bed!

Part Fourteen: Cathma and her friends meet Lee Ramirez, the American who inherited Li Ramet's magical talent for understanding and being understood in any language. With Lee's help, the Americans and Mâvarinû compare notes. It turns out that they all know their situation: their spirits and consciousness have now been transferred into each others' bodies. Lee confirms that his counterpart, Li Ramet, is involved, and should arrive soon with the remaining affected people.

Part Fifteen: Back in Josh Wander's castle, Fabian points out that Cathma is speaking English again, as is everyone else. She remembers more of her life as Cathy, but still feels more like Queen Cathma than Cathy Salazar. Fabian and Fayubi compare notes, and conclude that they both have Fayubi's talents. What is needed, though, is Rani's talent as a mind mage. Rani says that he needs Randy too, to have any hope of helping all the people affected by the transfer of minds and spirits. Fortunately, Randy is just arriving at the half-destroyed mall--in tengrem form.

Part Sixteen: Randy arrives, confused and half-feral. Rani calms him down, and gets him to come inside the castle. Once there, he is able to understand and be understood in words. Although he admits to enjoying the tengrem condition while he was fully immersed it it, he doesn't want to take Rani's place forever, and experience the kinds of horrors Rani has lived through. After exhorting the others to find the source of the leak between worlds, Rani and Randy sit down together to try to exchange minds and spirits, thus putting themseves back in their original bodies.

Part Seventeen: While Rani and Randy commune in mindtouch, Lee Ramirez reveals that he knows where Li Ramet's portal is, and that it's the source of all the trouble. Before he gets far in his account, Li Ramet arrives with the last of the affected people, and suggests that they all "get started."

Part Eighteen: The Connection

“Get started doing what, Li?” Cathma asked. “Do you know how to fix all this?”

“Not exactly,” Li said. “I have a fair idea what went wrong with my original spell, though, and there are a number of things I can try in order to reverse the process. I just needed to get all the affected people here first.”

“What exactly are you planning to try?” Carli asked. “Is it dangerous?”

“No more than what’s already happened, I think,” Li said.

“Why did you do it?” Cathy asked. “The other Lee started to tell us what happened. I want to know the rest of it. Did you even know our world existed?”

Li looked a little annoyed, and then amused. “Your world?”

“The other world, then. The world of the Americans.”

Li shook his head. “Not in any specific way,” he said. “I was trying for a world with no magic, on the theory that it was one less variable to worry about. Also, it might be handy to go able to go someplace where I couldn’t do magic, you know, in case I lost control again.”

“Would you really cut yourself off from magic forever, with no way back?” Jami asked. “That sounds pretty drastic.”

“Well, not at first, no. I needed to keep the portal open, so I could get back, and to let a little magic in after all. Then I got to wondering whether it’s the place or the person that has the magic, or both. If I lived in Dewitt, would I lose my magic? Would I become someone else, or would I just be Li Ramet without magic?”

“Interesting,” Fabian said. “What’s the answer?”

Li shrugged. “I still don’t know, but I got sidetracked thinking about the problem. I thought I could stabilize who somebody was by connecting him or her with the world of origin. But that meant forcing the portal to stay open even further. I was just starting to experiment with this when your friend there showed up with his castle. That forced my portal even wider, and the mind experiment I had started went completely out of control.”

Cathma remembered a similarly disastrous result to one of Rani’s magical experiments. “I’ll bet it did,” she said.

“Wait a minute,” said Cathy. “If this portal of yours is so big, how come we haven’t seen it yet? I assume you’re not talking about the one Lee Ramirez let us through a little while ago.”

“No, that’s a little thing compared to this.”

“Then why haven’t we found it?” Fabian asked.

“Found it? You’ve been in it for hours. Some version of you has, anyway.”

“You don’t mean…” Fayubi started to say.

Li nodded. “It’s this mall. My portal is Shoppingtown Mall.”

“What, all of it?” Jamie asked.

“All of it,” Li said.

Welcome to Mâvarin

Use sidebar to get to the individual installments)

Mall of Mâvarin, Part Seventeen

It's short this week, because I'm distracted and tired and relatively uninspired. Sorry! Follow the links if you need to refresh your memory of past installments, or read them for the first time. Synopses to Parts One through Six can be found at the top of Part Seven. Synopses to Parts Eight through Thirteen can be found at the top of Part Fourteen.

Part Fourteen: Cathma and her friends meet Lee Ramirez, the American who inherited Li Ramet's magical talent for understanding and being understood in any language. With Lee's help, the Americans and Mâvarinû compare notes. It turns out that they all know their situation: Their spirits and consciousness have now been transferred into each others' bodies. Lee confirms that his counterpart, Li Ramet, is involved, and should arrive soon with the remaining affected people.

Part Fifteen: Back in Josh Wander's castle, Fabian points out that Cathma is speaking English again, as is everyone else. She remembers more of her life as Cathy, but still feels more like Queen Cathma than Cathy Salazar. Fabian and Fayubi compare notes, and conclude that they both have Fayubi's talents. What is needed, though, is Rani's talent as a mind mage. Rani says that he needs Randy too, to have any hope of helping all the people affected by the transfer of minds and spirits. Fortunately, Randy is just arriving at the half-destroyed mall--in tengrem form.

Part Sixteen: Randy arrives, confused and half-feral. Rani calms him down, and gets him to come back inside the castle. Once inside it, he is able to understand and be understood in words. Although he admits to enjoying the tengrem condition once he was fully immersed it it, he doesn't want to take Rani's place forever, and experience the kinds of horrors Rani has lived through. After exhorting the others to find the source of the leak between worlds, Rani and Randy sit down together to try to exchange minds and spirits, thus putting themseves back in their original bodies.

Part Seventeen: Brain Drain

Despite the importance of what Rani and Randy were trying to do, Cathma knew better than to sit around watching them do it. “The other Rani once told me that there’s nothing more boring to watch than a mind-reader at work,” she said. “What about this leak? Does anyone here know where it is?”

“Well, it was in the mall, obviously,” Cathy said. “Does that mean that the Mâvarin end of it is right around here somewhere?”

“It would have to be, wouldn’t it?” said Jamie Barrett. “How else would parts of the mall’s stores have gotten here? Not to mention our American bodies.”

“Yes, but that’s all physical travel,” Fayubi pointed out. “Our minds and spirits clearly traveled farther than that, at both ends of the transfer.”

“Still, it seems reasonable to assume that the physical and intangible movements took place through the same portal,” Shela said. The Americans all felt the change most strongly in the mall, just as we identify most strongly as our counterparts when we are outside these castle walls.”

“There’s no need to speculate, you know,” said Lee Ramirez. I know exactly where the portal is.”

“You do?”

“I do. Didn’t I tell you I was there when Li Ramet arrived at Shoppingtown? I saw exactly what happened.”

“What exactly did happen, Lee?” Sheila Crouse asked.

“He was experimenting with the Otherworlds spell, trying to find a way to keep different versions of the same people from becoming too much a part of one another. That’s been a problem in the past, you know. But it backfired, and had the opposite effect. Li started remembering what it’s like to be a poli sci major at Syracuse University. And then when he saw me outside Penney’s—”

“Why don’t you let me tell the story, Lee?” said a voice in the doorway. It was the same voice as that of Lee Ramirez, but a little more cynical and bitter. Li Ramet walked in, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Behind him were at least a dozen more Americans in Mâvarinû clothes. Cathma looked with interest at the new arrivals, most notably the alternative Tilen brothers.

“Well, well,” Li said. “Looks like the gang’s all here. Shall we get started?”

Welcome to Mâvarin

Use the sidebar of this blog to get to earlier installments and other past fiction.

Mall of Mâvarin, Part Sixteen (scroll down - glitch!)

The synopses of previous installments have gotten out of hand again, so follow the links if you need to read them, either to refresh your memory or because you're new to the story. Synopses to Parts One through Six can be found at the top of Part Seven. Synopses to Parts Eight through Thirteen can be found at the top of Part Fourteen. Maybe if I'm very lucky, I'll figure out how to fix the template soon so this post will be at the top of the page where it belongs. It was working until a week ago, really!

Part Fourteen: Cathma and her friends meet Lee Ramirez, the American who inherited Li Ramet's magical talent for understanding and being understood in any language. With Lee's help, the Americans and Mâvarinû compare notes. It turns out that they all know their situation: Their spirits and consciousness have now been transferred into each others' bodies. Lee confirms that his counterpart, Li Ramet, is involved, and should arrive soon with the remaining affected people.

Part Fifteen: Back in Josh Wander's castle, Fabian points out that Cathma is speaking English again, as does everyone else. She remembers more of her life as Cathy, but still feels more like Queen Cathma than Cathy Salazar. Fabian and Fayubi compare notes, and conclude that they both have Fayubi's talents. What is needed, though, is Rani's talent as a mind mage. Rani says that he needs Randy too, to have any hope of helping all the people affected by the transfer of minds and spirits. Fortunately, Randy is just arriving at the half-destroyed mall--in tengrem form.

Part Sixteen: Lure of the Tengrem

“I’d better go out and meet him,” Carl said.

“Me, too,” said Cathy. Me, too,” said Cathy. Cathma watched them as they started for the door. Much as she wanted to go too, this was her counterpart’s friend, not the Rani she knew.

“Be careful!” Rani called after them. “He’s confused, and potentially dangerous.”

“He won’t hurt me,” Carl said.

“That’s what I always say,” Carli said. “But I’m always careful anyway.”

Carl nodded and walked out, followed by his sister. At the last second, Cathma decided that she couldn’t leave it to them, and followed them out.

Just beyond the edge of what had been the mall, a tengrem clattered to a stop. He tossed his head and looked around, sniffing the air. In a moment his eyes settled on the three twins—no, wait: four twins. Carli had followed Cathma out.

“Hwwrr?” the tengrem asked.

Carl said something in English. Randy tossed his head, and said something that might have been an intelligible word.

“He wants to know why there are four of you and two of him,” Rani said. Cathma hadn’t seen him come out of the castle, but it was no surprise. Of course he would want to be here.

“Doesn’t he know?”

“Randy understands, but the tengrem doesn’t. Right now he’s more the tengrem than Randy. Excuse me, Cathma. I need to concentrate.”

Carl said something in a soothing voice. Cathy did the same. Rani held up his hands, gesturing for them to wait. They nodded and fell silent.

All four twins stood and watched as Rani walked up to the tengrem slowly. The tengrem tossed his head once, but then stood still. Rani touched the horn. The tengrem let him. After a moment the tengrem shuddered. Then he reached out and touched the necklace. The tengrem disappeared, replaced by someone who looked exactly like Rani. The only difference was that Randy was wearing Rani’s brown slacks and quartz necklace, while Rani was wearing a t-shirt with colorful people (the Beatles, Cathma remembered vaguely) depicted on it.

“That’s better,” Rani said. “Do you understand my words now, Randy?”

Randy shook his head, and said something in English.

Rani sighed. “We should have asked Lee to come outside with us.”

Randy shook his head again. He reached out, and put his hands on Rani’s head. For a moment, Cathma thought Rani was going to pull away, but after a brief turn of the head Randy was still. “Now? You want to do it now?”

Randy just looked at him. Cathma guessed that words were being exchanged inside the minds of Randy and his counterpart, or at least emotions.

“All right, but come inside first. It will help.”

Randy looked confused, but Rani pointed toward the castle. Randy nodded, and let Rani go.

In a moment they were all inside JW’s castle again. Randy looked amazed as he looked around. “How many of these people are from Dewitt?” he asked.

“If you mean in mind and spirit, most of them,” Rani said.

“Hey, I understood your words this time.”

“Yes, I know. Joshua Wander’s castle does that. That’s part of why I wanted you in here.”

“What’s the other reason?”

“What do you remember about my life?” Rani asked.

Randy’s eyes widened. “Oh my…I do remember. Maybe not everything, but a lot of it. Did you really…I think I’m going to be sick.”

“Never mind what happened on Sanlodal,” Rani said sharply. “Do you still want to try this right away?”

Randy nodded. “More than ever,” he said. “I did kind of like the running, but you’re right. We should do this if we can, before I change my mind.”

“What are you two talking about?” Cathma asked.

“Randy and I are going to attempt to change places now,” Rani announced. “If it works, we’ll know how to proceed with everyone else.”

“But what was that about changing your mind?” Carl asked. “Changing your mind about being a tengrem?”

“I was terrified at first,” Randy said. “Even back at school, I was scared as bits of tengrem instinct started to affect me. But once I was a tengrem, I…I liked it. A lot.”

Rani looked startled. “You did? Really?” Cathma thought she heard a desperate eagerness in Rani’s words.

“Really. But I don’t like it enough to give up my whole world, and spend the rest of my life as you. Sorry. I’d rather write about it than live it.”

Rani nodded. “I was afraid you were going to say that. If we’re going to do this, let’s sit down.”

“Just what I was about to suggest,” Randy said. He led Rani to a loveseat that Cathma didn’t remember seeing until that moment. She glanced over at Joshua Wander, and caught him looking pleased with himself.

“The rest of you should get on with some other part of the problem, like exactly where the leak is between worlds,” Rani said as he sat down.

“Right,” Randy said as he did he same. “There’s not much point in transferring all our spirits if we just slide back into each other again.”

Then Rani and Randy closed their eyes, and reached out to each other.

Welcome to Mâvarin

Use the sidebar of this blog to get to earlier installments and other past fiction.