In the Beginning (Mandala, #2) by Edward Eidolon

Author:Edward Eidolon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Edward Eidolon
Published: 2022-08-01T00:00:00+00:00

Journey of Souls

Gradie looked up and saw the sky above the clubhouse dripping with stars. Night had come out of nowhere sometime during the hazy peak of his drunkenness. He wasn’t sure when he’d passed out, but he knew lucidly that he was no longer awake.

“C’mon kid. Time to go back,” Philip said.

Gradie looked over and saw them all standing there. They were not of this earth.

Their faces were lit by a hidden light, like an old silent film, and they floated like gravity had taken a nap. Philip had on a black metallic overcoat over a dull silver jumpsuit. Lindsey looked like an elven ranger, all wool and leather. The pinstripes on Luke’s three-piece suit panned and jittered like TV static. EP wore a short tunic with black lace and silver accents, pulled tight with a chainmail belt. Sam was dressed as a sci-fi fighter pilot. Black vinyl jump suit and mirror visored helmet. Gradie looked down at himself.

Old t-shirt and sweats.

“Shit, let me change.”

“What for?” said EP. She walked to the edge of the pool and a strange shimmering light rolled across it. When he was able to tear his eyes away from her, he looked down at his clothes and willed them to change.

The cloth rippled and dissolved, giving way to a black silk outfit complete with boots and gloves. He stood up and walked toward the pool. Philip shook his head at him.

“Too dark. Rookie mistake. I can barely see you. Girls in the Allclub will ignore you even more than usual.”

Gradie looked at his clothes again, dark as a starless night sky, and got an idea. He reached out to the impossibly bright and colorful stars and smeared some onto his hand. He ran his hand through his hair, dabbed some of the glittery brilliance on his coat buttons and shirt, then clapped his hands together and let the rest fall to the ground.

“Better?” he said. Philip rolled his eyes.

“We’re not really going clubbing. There’s work at the office.”

Gradie’s stomach rolled, until the sparkling door-covered office Michael had taken him to replaced the other one, with quality reports and staff meetings, in his memory.

“Do you remember the hallways after the gas station, Gradie?” said Michael. Gradie hadn’t even noticed him. He looked like he had stepped out of a space opera. Polished black armor plates over grey cloth, and a dark blue cloak draped across his shoulders.

“Yeah,” Gradie said. “The ones that looked like a big hotel.”

“That was my own personal exit route, you could say. The Hardworlds and the Otherworld have their own kind of gravity, and the Spirit needs help reaching escape velocity. The hallways act as a mental buffer, allowing you to conceptualize leaving the Hardworlds.”

There was a loud splash and Gradie turned in time to see the top of Philip’s Head disappearing beneath the prismatic shimmering surface of the pool. Sam cannonballed right behind him.

“Wait, I need one of you to guide him out,” Michael said.

No one volunteered. Gradie felt like a little brother tagging along.

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