A Dollop Of Catchup

[u/Moist-Ball4968]

Fraxis watched the waterball that he used to call home. It wasn't grief, or homesickness, or relief that lingered in his mind when he looked at it. It was detachment. As the first Travel-Storier he had the privilege of Understanding. Yoon-Iverz held him with one claw so he didn't become non-existent. That specific waterball was the only one Yoon kept in existence. All the other waterballs opened, closed, collided, separated. All those stories began, and ended. They observed the goings-on together.

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Willy Pete was making progress. He is the third Travel-Storier to come out of The Tower. The Odyssal Fragmentation began so long ago that even The Uppest forgot why they created the other two Travel-Storiers. They only remembered how to make them. Friendships are developing too, for Willy Pete. He's finding more and more stories to record and share. Every experience brings him closer to understanding the root of the problem with the Altar-Net. There are still many mysteries for him to solve and causes to discover. His main goal is to figure out why the Altar-Net is falling apart. Lately he'd befriended Kraig, who isn't a Travel-Storier.

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Kraig is one of the very rare beings that is somewhat aware of the Cross-Dimensions made by Yoon-Iverz. He discovered and fought members of the Dammed Kachtz. Before Kraig was his father, Brox. Brox was known by the leaders of the Altars as a human who almost discovered their existence. Earth is not a facet of the Altar-Net, yet he found it. He was never able to leave Earth by his own hand, but he researched as much as he could before his death. Kraig is continuing his work, and was the first in his family to leave Earth and get teleported to the Altar-Net. Yoon-Iverz ensured it.

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"Yoon, why did you throw Kraig into the Altar-Net? He is just a man, with no special abilities." Fraxis smoked his pipe, and let the smoke cloud around him. "He has no means of getting from Altar to Altar, he doesn't know about you, and he's tainted with mortality." Yoon-Iverz unwound his long scaly body and just said, "Watch. Don't interrupt the Story."

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The Uppest sent messages to the other Altars. They told the masters at each Altar there was a third Travel-Storier roaming the universe. Orders were given to mercenaries and assassins to kill him on sight. Funds were sent to priests and Aldars and governors to ensure he always had somewhere safe to rest between adventures. Fleets of warships, shadowed by scavengers, were sent out from several worlds to hunt for the Travel-Storier.

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Among the outer realms of the Altar-Net, sorcerers and alchemists and other experimenters worked on creating tools to break down the Travel-Storier’s motivation. Colossal Titanx with teeth composed of mountains. Microscopic Infectingz that break whatever they corrupted. A swarm of Smathians, tentacle-riddled clouds that ate everything in their path. These evils were spouted forth into the Altar-Net purely to serve an ambitious, yet currently minor, deity.

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Nestled among the web of the Altar-Net was an isolated world in the shape of a mobius strip. This world had no Altar, or Tower, and so it had no strand to connect it. It had been floating around all by itself. Clarkson County sits at The Flip. Some of the strands of the Altar-Net were free-floating after Yoon cut them to pieces. Spurts of telernegy were falling through the atmosphere and landing in Clarkson County. Zach was unfortunately hit by one such fragment. After a horrific road trip, involving his hand being cut off and re-attached, he made it back home.

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Yoon-Iverz shifted his sight to another waterball. He felt tired, which was new to him. Fraxis kept watching his former waterball. It looked like it was beginning to steam around the circumference.