Daiki’s eyes widened as he stepped through the portal. He joined Cap, Aquila, and Kasumi on an empty field. Stars glittered overhead. Around the field, the ground bubbled with energy, streams of particles evaporating into the air. High above, a massive pillar of blue wispy streams of energy flowed to the earth, connecting somewhere in the distance.

    “What...what are we looking at?” Cap stammered.

    “I never thought I’d see this,” Aquila said. “I don’t think anybody has ever seen this.”

    “What is it?” Kasumi asked.

    “This is the creation of a story world,” Aquila said. “And that is an information stream. This is all unconstructed story space, being formed into something new.”

    A wisp of energy broke off from the streaming pillar, flashing into a blinding brightness. The night disappeared, replaced by blue sky, fluffy clouds, and a shining sun.

    “Somewhere on the hub world, people are reading or watching a story for the very first time,” Aquila stated. “They’re thinking about it, imagining it, and as they do, the information stream is making it real, right here and now. People, buildings, millennia of history, are all going to be shaped into existence. It’s...it’s beautiful.”

    Cap stared up at the information stream, flowing down from the heavens. “It’s like the finger of God.”

    “Maybe that’s exactly what it is,” Kasumi mused.

    “We may be the only people in the entire multiverse who have ever seen this, or ever will,” Aquila said, smiling, her eyes glistening.

    “It will be one hell of a show while we wait out Daiki’s sword,” Cap said.

    Aquila took a deep breath, her face falling. “Yes, it would be. Daiki, are you sure your sword can’t recharge faster?”

    Daiki blinked. “I can try. Give me a moment.” He opened the interface and started sifting through options. Nothing seemed to be able to speed up cooldown times. “Sorry, doesn’t look like it.”

    Aquila sighed. “Well, that’s a problem.”

    “What’s wrong?” Cap asked.

    Aquila turned to face them all. “I wish I could tell you that we can stay here and relax as we just watch the power of creation unfold for hours. I wish I could. But, I’m sorry. We are all in more danger than any of us have ever been in our lives – and that includes you, Cap.”

    “I don’t understand,” Cap said.

    “We’re standing on a story world as it is being created,” Aquila said. “Mountains, rivers, castles, cities – all of these are going to form into existence in the next few minutes and hours. And if we’re standing where they form...”

    A chill went down Daiki’s spine. “Oh,” he said.

    Aquila looked at him and nodded. “Everywhere we’ve been, we’ve never been directly in the way of what the information stream is trying to create or maintain. Here, we are. And in a conflict between any of us and the information stream, the information stream wins. We’d just be erased.”

    “Wait a minute,” Cap said. “You said when we first met you that you could travel directly between the story worlds too. Can’t you just get us out of here.”

    Aquila frowned and shook her head. “I wish I could. But, I’m not like you or Daiki. You were both created by the information stream attached to your world. I was an independent creation, without any story world – the information stream was attached to me. That’s what gives me the powers I have – they all come directly from the information stream. When the miracle happened, my information stream became tethered to Kasumi – that’s what allows her and her magic sketchbook to have the powers of creation here in the story worlds – but the other end is still attached directly to me. If either of us were to try to do anything in this place, even something as small as to fly or summon a sword, it would be like lighting a match in the middle of a cloud of gasoline vapour.”

    “So what do we do?” Cap asked.

    “We wait, we pray that nothing appears where we’re standing and erases us, and we don’t touch anything. That’s all we can do.”

    Daiki sighed and sat on the grass. He looked up at the information stream, fainter in the sunlight, but still visible, a ribbon of energy flowing down from the heavens.

    “Those flowers weren’t here a moment ago, were they?” Kasumi said.

    “No, they weren’t,” Aquila replied. Daiki turned to look. Kasumi was crouched nearby at the border of a small puddle of little yellow flowers.

    “They’re beautiful,” Kasumi said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like them before.”

    “They are nice,” Aquila said. “Don’t touch them, though. Everything here is bursting with energy.”

    “I won’t touch them,” Kasumi said. “But I don’t want to forget them.” She pulled out her sketchbook and pencil.

    Aquila’s eyes widened as Kasumi touched her pencil to the page and started drawing. “No, wait!”

    The field of flowers and the grass around it erupted in blue ribbons of energy, throwing Kasumi into the air. The energy coalesced into a new stream, flowing out into the heavens and sucking her into the vortex.

    “Kasumi, NO!” Aquila screamed. Cap took off, speeding to the vortex to wrap his arms around Kasumi. Around them, even more of the grass erupted, creating new ribbons of energy reaching into the sky.

    “I’ve got her!” Cap shouted. “I’ll protect her. FIND US!”

    “No, wait!” Aquila cried. “I’ll fly! I’ll–” The grass erupted under her, throwing her into the air and casting her into one of the other vortexes as Cap and Kasumi disappeared.

    Daiki stared in shock at where they had disappeared into the heavens. Then the ground erupted underneath him, throwing him skywards. And then, he was somewhere else.

Cap shook his head to clear it. He was sitting on a hill beside Kasumi, who was holding her sketchbook with shaking hands, tears streaming down her face.

    “I lost her,” she sobbed. “I lost my hero...it’s my fault!”

    Cap turned to her. “It will be okay. We’re safe – that’s what matters right now.”

    Kasumi shook her head. “You don’t understand – she’s my hero...I need my hero! I can’t–”

    “Kasumi, please listen to me,” Cap said. “You’re right. You made a mistake, and things went very wrong, and we all got separated. But, it’s not as bad as you think – we are now safer than we were.”

    Kasumi stopped sobbing. “Really?”

    Cap nodded. “Where I come from we have a saying: ‘blessing in disguise.’ I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. It means something that at first looks very bad, but actually made things better. And I think this is one of them.

    “That world we were in, it could have killed us at any moment without any warning, and there was nothing any of us could have done about it. We don’t need to worry about that here. And by the looks of it the entire field was erupting, so Aquila and Daiki were probably ejected to somewhere else too. Which means they’re probably all safe now. All they have to do is find us.”

    Kasumi sniffed and wiped the tears from her face.

    “So, want to take a look around?” Cap asked.

    Kasumi nodded.

    Cap stood and looked about. The hill was within sight of a large half-timber framed building with a couple of side buildings. A couple of people wandered around nearby. Cap chuckled.

    “What is it?” Kasumi asked.

    “The one time we land where there are people, half of us aren’t here to enjoy it,” Cap replied. “Looks pretty pleasant, though. Actually, it looks like an inn. See, there’s a stable.”

    “We’ve got someplace to stay,” Kasumi said.

    Cap nodded. “I think we got lucky. But we’re going to need money. That trick you and Aquila do with your sketchbook – does it have to be her who looks at it, or does it work with anybody?”

    “I don’t know,” Kasumi said. “It’s always been just us, so we’ve never had the opportunity to try.”

    “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m supposed to be on vacation for this trip,” Cap stated. “And I don’t really feel like paying my way as a stablehand. Let’s see if we can make it work and create some coinage.”

    Kasumi nodded and opened up her sketchbook. “What should it be?”

    “This looks pretty Medieval or Renaissance, no later than 17th or 18th century European, so perhaps some silver and gold? I can’t imagine they’ll care very much what’s on the coin, so long as it’s the right type of metal.”

    Kasumi finished sketching and showed Cap the pad. He looked at the picture. On the page, a pouch of coins sat on the grass of the hill. Under the picture were some rough notes in Japanese enumerating the number of gold and silver coins it would contain.

    Cap raised an eyebrow. “Moment of truth,” he said, and looked at the hill. A full pouch sat in front of him. He grinned. “All right – I think we’re off to a good start here.”

    Kasumi picked up the pouch and grunted in surprise. “It’s really heavy,” she said, passing it over to Cap.

    Cap nodded. “It would be. Gold’s a pretty heavy metal. You never see that in the movies, because they never use actual solid gold.” He stretched. “Let’s go get ourselves some rooms.”

    They headed down the hill, Cap nodding and smiling to a couple of people as they came to the front door. He opened it and held it open for Kasumi. The found themselves in a bright, pleasant room with a lounge area beside the front desk. Behind the desk was a busty young lady with brown hair done up in braids.

    “Hello!” Cap said. “We’re from rather far away, and we need a place to stay. Any chance you have any vacancies?”

    “We have quite a few,” the young lady said, turning the page on the register. “It’s the slow season.”

    “Oh good,” Cap said. “We’ve got a couple of friends coming, but we don’t know when they’ll be arriving. So, I guess we need three rooms in total for...I guess a week, just to be on the safe side. I’ll take one, Kasumi here will take another, and Daiki Yamato will take the third. Our fourth, Aquila, will be rooming with Kasumi.”

    “And your name?”

    “Captain Infinite,” Cap said. “I know it sounds a bit silly, but there’s a story behind it. Once we’ve settled in, I’d be happy to tell you about it.”

    The young lady looked at Cap with alarm. “You’re a captain...are you from the army?”

    “My army days are long gone,” Cap said. “And, we’re from far enough away that I don’t think you’d have heard of mine anyway. But, yes, I was in the United States Army. I was a captain in the 42nd Rangers.”

    She breathed a sigh of relief. “I apologize. My husband and I, we...um...we had a bit of trouble with the army a little while ago.”

    Cap held up his hand and smiled. “Ma’am, you have nothing to fear from us. We’re just looking for a comfortable place to stay and wait for our friends.”

    The young lady smiled and finished filling out the register. “Here are your keys,” she said, handing him three.

    “Lovely,” Cap said, pulling out the pouch. “We would like to pay for this in advance, and we’re from far enough away that we don’t know how much anything costs.” He placed two silver coins on the table. “Would you accept these, and would these be enough to pay for the rooms?”

    The young lady’s eyes widened. “More than enough. Just one would pay for two weeks.”

    “Thank you,” Cap said. “Please take the second as a token of our gratitude.”

    The young lady nodded. “Meals are called at noon and six in the great hall,” she said, pointing at one of the side doors. “The stables are at your disposal for as long as you are staying here, and the stairs to the rooms are just down there. You’ll be on the third floor – the numbers are written on the keys.”

    “Thank you so much,” Cap said, handing Kasumi a key. “Shall we go take a look around the premises of this fine establishment?”

    They wandered far enough away that nobody would be able to overhear them, and then settled on the crest of a grassy hill.

    “That’s the first step,” Cap said. “Now comes the hard part.”

    Kasumi shook her head. “I don’t know what to do. Aquila is the one who knows everything. Without her, I’m just...useless.”

    “Please don’t say that,” Cap said. “If it wasn’t for you, we’d be mucking out stables for a place to stay.”

    “You don’t know me,” Kasumi said quietly.

    “True,” Cap stated. “You’re usually quiet enough that I can’t get a very good read on you. But, I’m looking forward to learning all about you.”

    “What would she do?” Kasumi asked. “I just wish I could figure out what she’d do.”

    “That’s the ten thousand dollar question,” Cap said. He blinked. “Wait, not it’s not. That’s the wrong question. We don’t need to figure out what Aquila and Daiki are going to do – we know what they’re going to do. They’re going to try to find us. What we need to figure out is what Daiki and Aquila need us to do.”

    “Aquila’s connected to me by an information stream,” Kasumi said. “She should be able to follow it to me.”

    “Right!” Cap declared. “So, Aquila’s sorted out – she just needs us to stay put. And that leaves Daiki. What does he need?”

    “He’s using that magical sword to open portals,” Kasumi stated.

    “And he’s following it to his world,” Cap said, grinning, “so it must be locking onto it somehow to give him a route. Which means that what he needs is something for his sword to lock onto. Something that will tell his sword that we’re here.”

    “I could draw a magic circle,” Kasumi said. “And I could give it a property that allows it to communicate with Daiki’s sword in my notes. That should work.” She pulled out her sketchbook. “We can put it right here.”

    “Make it invisible and undetectable to anything other than Daiki’s sword,” Cap said. “We have no idea of what the people of this world feel about magic circles. The last thing we need is to have to run away because they think we’re witches.”

    Kasumi nodded. “On it.” She held up the pad. Cap looked at the picture – a simple magic circle on the hill with notes in Japanese underneath the drawing. Then he looked at the hill.

    Nothing was there.

    Cap’s heart skipped a beat, and then he smiled and shook his head. “Right...it’s invisible.”

    “You know, you have a really nice smile when your eyes are smiling too,” Kasumi said. “I wish they did that more often.”

    Cap nodded. “Thank you.” He stood up and looked around. “Well, now all we can do is wait.”

NEXT: “Stranded”