Yggdrasil Forest

Next Chapter

Chapter One: Departure

The Forest, the eternity, the expanse of world trees. Here now is all that ever was, wasn’t, is, and isn’t; all the will and will not be. All of that is a drop in the infinite ocean. That ocean is a single dewdrop on a single leaf of a single tree of probabilities in the eternal Yggdrasil Forest.

A metaphor for a breadth of existence none of us can begin to grasp.

And here: a door, not a metaphor, not an abstraction. A simple door in an unmarked alley somewhere in the City of London. Early twenty-first century. Your world, or very close to it.

Where the door leads is physically unimportant. To the two people standing in front of it, all that matters is that it is a door.

The door ceased to lead to an abandoned delicatessen. It ceased to be a specific door, and for as long as it took these two to pass through, it would be a symbol, a synecdoche for travel from here to there.

Colin, a young man in an aviators jacket, unreasonably large glasses and a more unreasonably colorful button up shirt, turned a small mint-scented tin over in his hand “Care to take a look?” He handed it to his friend, a woman of approximately the same age.

“Of course.” Alex smiled. She probably also winked, but it was impossible to tell with so much hair in the way. She pulled a screwdriver from the pocket of her red track jacket; set the tin on the ground, and popped it open.

A tower of kitbashed tech sprung from the tin reaching more than a meter into the air. Alex leaned in close to the middle “Hmm, circuitry is immaculate as always, but the polarity reversal unit is alarmingly close to the QPM conductors.”

“What?” Colin leaned in to look. Alex took a step counterclockwise around the device to inspect another component. “ I suppose you’re right, though I think it has something to do with the compres—“

“Oh, excuses, excuses!” Alex teased as she adjusted an antenna labeled with several alien symbols. “Everything looks properly screwed in.” She took another step around. Colin followed, triple checking her double checks; Alex tilting her head to quadruple check his.

“Alright then, much better.”

“Lovely” Colin adjusted his glasses. “Where to then?”

“Ooh, what better maiden voyage than spinning the wheel?”

“One random retro classical 3D universe coming up” Colin pocket the tin. “Care to do the honors?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” Alex put her hand on the handle of the door, that was just a door, any door, any door from anyhere to anythere ready to go anywhere.

She opened the door, and they passed through—

They exited a glass door. The pair turned to see a shop. A human shopkeeper seemed utterly unaware that his storefront had been dimensionally hijacked.

The city around them was, for a random universe, remarkably similar to their London, a sizable metropolis. Though this city had considerably more variation in the color of the architecture. Buildings of purple and gold and crimson showed influences of ancient Greek and Mesopotamia. The climate was Earth’s, but not England’s.

Alex had been to another version of this city a long time ago, and although she was a million possibilities distant, she still recognized it as an iteration of her namesake.

“Welcome,” Colin said pulling a black and white Quantum Guidebook from his pocket. “to Third Alexandria.”

“All the worlds and we’re on another Earth?” Alex chided.

“It does seem…improbable but I suppose that’s true random for you” Colin said. “Be glad we didn’t come out the same door.”

“Aye, that’d be a sour first outing. So, we’re in an Alexandria, I suppose the first stop should be the Library?” Alex grabbed the Guidebook from Colin and unfolded a map of the city. She oriented herself to the compass and handed the book back “It’s that way.”

“Well look at you, all on top of things.”

“Someone’s got to be, mister misaligned QPM conductors” Alex stuck her tongue out.

Colin smiled, but the window for a return quip passed before he could think of one.

All the while, both travelers took their time to read signs and banners, they appeared to be in a commercial district.

“Why ‘third’?” Alex finally asked

“What?”

“Why ‘third,’ the Library is here. It’s not the third Alexandria Alexander founded. what are First and Second Alexandria.”

Colin pulled the Quantum Guidebook back out and flipped through its citrus-scented pages. “No idea. Doesn’t even mention the others.”

“I don’t think you’re using that book properly.”

“Here, you try, it’s not like—“ Colin cut off the thought. This was their first outing, no need to dig up old wounds.

Alex had heard the rest of the sentence. She brushed the hair from her eyes and tied it backing one fluid motion. In a second fluid motion, she grabbed the book. She paged through it, bit her lip, kept paging through it.

“Blimey, there’s a lot here on one city.”

“Big city I s’pose.”

“Aye,” she tossed the book back to Colin. “How about lunch, then Library.”

“Lunch then Library sounds wonderful.”

“Lovely.”

“But, what about our funds.”

“Uh..” Alex pressed her tongue to the side of her mouth in thought “let me the—

There was a soft thud as Alex bumped into an older woman. “Oh, wow I am so sorry” Alex feigned a smile.

“You’d better be.” The old woman didn’t even turn around. Too bad. If she had, she might have seen Alex flipping through the contents of her wallet.

“Impressive. We’ve been in this universe less than an hour, and you’ve already committed a crime.”

“And what was your idea?”

“That was a compliment just take it.  Speaking of taking…”

“Relax. A master pickpocket takes only what she needs. This should be enough for a meal. going be the menus we’ve passed.”

“Are you actually hungry or did you just want an excuse to show off.”

“Very hungry.”

Soon, They had obtained two gyro-adjacent food items on a pair of paper plates and accompanying drinks. The two found a bench in a nearby park. About half a block of sculptures, benches, paths, and trees,  it was less crowded than the surrounding streets. Only a few other people enjoying a stroll, admiring statues or enjoying their own lunch.

“This is nice.” Colin said between bites “Been forever since we’ve been off-world.” his tone a clear attempt at paving over the reason for this.

“Yeah.” Alex smiled  “Too long. I guess we, uh” She looked down at her drink. Of course, they were both excited. Lifetimes of adventure lay ahead! But…

Nostalgia is inherently painful. Best not to spoil their maiden voyage with it. “Too new experiences.” Alex held up her drink. Colin reciprocated. They finished lunch in rare silence and went the last few blocks to the Library.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for reading, If you enjoyed this chapter or story, please consider donating a Coffee (or rather tea, but the site’s named after coffee) over at Ko-Fi https://ko-fi.com/I2I48U4X