#12 Fancy Dresses and Alternate Dimensions: Truth

We weren't going down without a fight. No way. Dorian and his horse-wrangling friends couldn't round up the Fabric Healer and a Dimensional Guardian with a magical parasol.

But the tough thing about cowboys is that they have guns and this duo shot a few rounds at us before we could think of a plan. Trust me, it's really hard to dodge bullets inside the cockpit of an airship. Lloyd shouted for one of his crew members to pilot the ship and ordered the rest of them to detain the intruders. Molly and I hung back; she charged her parasol while I tried to think of something I could do.

There must be some way to move the fabric in this ship without breaking it. That was the big problem. It was one thing to just yank on the stuff to make a new hill while on the ground, but changing the shape of a moving object in the sky is something else entirely. If I screwed up--and I probably would've at that point because I didn't know anything about anything--we would all crash and die and the universe would be overcome with darkness until another Fabric Healer showed up.

Or something like that.

Lloyd and his gang were armed with short swords and smaller versions of the steam guns Michael and Ophelia had. They were doing a pretty good job distracting Dorian and his cronies. Like Molly and I, Dorian kept back so he could cast spells uninterrupted. Or at least, that was his strategy. In reality, it wasn't working out too well for him since a crew member always managed to get in a hit before he could finish.

But the fact that he was chanting longer spells in the first place didn't make much sense to me. Even though I wasn't as familiar with Secorian magic back then as I am now, I knew that Dorian should've been using quicker spells to take out some of the crew members and even out the battlefield. Using more complicated spells meant that he was either underestimating us or had a bigger plan.

I hoped it wasn't the latter.

"Molly, what are some basic Secorian attack spells?" I shouted over the sounds of swords, bullets, and battle cries.

"I do not know much, but I know you can do many things with the four basic elements. Fire is Ignis, water is Aqua, air is Aer, and earth is Terra," she said as her parasol reached full charge. "You focus on Dorian and I will focus on his companions."

"Sounds good," I said and focused on Dorian. He was trying to cast that spell again, eyes closed and ears perked.

"Aqua!" I shouted and a thick stream of water burst from my hands. It hit Dorian in the stomach, knocking him back a few feet. He definitely didn't see it coming, but in an instant he opened his eyes and glared at me.

"So, you've managed to learn a simple trick. No matter. You're still just a fledgling Fabric Healer. Nothing a servant of the Grand Master can't handle."

I smirked. "Quit fooling yourself, buddy. Just acknowledge that you underestimated me and that I've now figured out your entire plan."

Dorian froze and his brow twitched. He released a forced laugh. "You don't--you don't know a thing about the Grand Master."

I had him. I most definitely had him. I was playing the game I play best, one my sister taught me when I was a kid.

"Please, I'm the Fabric Healer. I know what I'm facing and I can see right through this distraction you call a hostage attempt," I said, taking a step forward and never releasing eye contact.

"This is not a distraction! It's a nobel mission from the wise Grand Master!"

"The Grand Master is powerful enough to wipe me out in a single blow the way I am now, right? Sending you to come fetch me means I'm not a threat and therefore not a top priority."

Dorian scowled. "You know nothing of the way the Grand Master's mind works! I was chosen specifically for this mission and I will succeed!"

"I think I do know how the Grand Master's mind works," I said and crossed my arms. "And I think you'll fail because, like I said, you underestimated me."

Apparently, that was his breaking point. He screamed, grabbed his head, and fell to his knees.

"You're a weak-minded fool to lose yourself so quickly," I said. "Is that why you joined the Grand Master in the first place?"

He was cowering and I was starting to feel sick, but my choices were to either break him mentally or have him hand our asses to us on silver platter. For now, it was better for him to go on thinking that I had more power than I actually did.

The things my sister taught me. Geez. I never thought they'd work as well as they did. I stole a glance at Molly; her eyes were fixed on me and held a mixture of respect and fear. I looked back at Dorian, who was muttering to himself. At this point, he was the only one making any noise. Lloyd and the others had since defeated and detained the rest of his crew, including Dorian's cowboy/cowgirl guardians.

"Amber, your words have a. . .certain power to them," said Molly. "Do you realize this?"

I was going to pause a think about that for a minute, but Dorian suddenly lifted his head and shouted, "Ferre!"

I caught a glimpse of the smirk on his face before everything went black.

I smelled the dungeon a second before I opened my eyes. It was damp, cold, and misty like asphalt after rain. My entire left side was wet and my muscles ached. I pulled myself to my knees and my eyes caught a shadowy figure sitting under a lone torch. I felt dizzy, so I didn't get a good look at it, but I knew it was definitely staring at me.

The place got significantly colder, or maybe it was just me. The two of us locked eyes and I never saw the figure flinch. There was something about it--something strange that I should've been able to figure out, but I couldn't.

"Hey," I said with a small cough. "What is this place? Where's Molly and everyone else from the air ship?"

The figure stood and with its head right next to the torch, I saw for a moment dark red hair, green eyes, and crafty smirk. It approached my cell and dropped something in front of me.

"You'll be able to leave when you figure out the truth."

It was a woman. Before I could ask what that was even supposed to mean, she stretched open a piece of black fabric and disappeared. I grabbed the item she dropped. It was a necklace.

"Wait, this isn't--but it has to be." Amethy's necklace. What other necklace would possibly be thrown at me by some mysterious woman? I slipped the necklace in one of my cloak pockets for safe keeping. I'd worry about the woman later. Right now, I needed to get out of this cell, find Molly and the others, and somehow get back to Walden.

It'd be really awesome if I knew a spell for light--wait a minute. I held my hands in front of me and said, "Ignis." Two flames burned above my palms and l could see Molly slumped on the floor in the cell next to me. Okay, at least she's relatively safe. I then stuck my arms through the bars so the light would hit the walls. Maybe there was a key hanging around somewhere.

Nope. No key as far as I could tell. I sighed and leaned against the bars, rust scratching my back. The flames still hovered over my palms and I had no idea how to get rid of them. Molly needed to wake up so she could explain things to me like she always does.

"Molly. Hey, Molly. Get up and tell me how to get rid of this fire."

She didn't answer and I didn't really expect her to. Oh well. I sighed and grabbed the rusty bars separating my cell from Molly's. Their dampness doused the flames and suddenly, like a bright light illuminating the room, I saw fabric covering everything. I'd gotten so used to seeing it all the time at this point that I barely noticed it, but I quickly learned to always be conscious of its presence. Anyway, I remembered how that strange woman disappeared and the only way she could've done that was by traveling through fabric (unless she was a wizard, which was entirely possible given the kinds of people I'd met so far). Therefore, I only had to stretch open the fabric and jump through it, right?

The only problem was that I'd never traveled through any other color fabric besides blue. Hell, I wasn't even sure if it was possible. I vaguely remembered Molly saying something about how Dimensional Guardians could only travel through blue fabric, but as the Fabric Healer, I probably had special privileges.

Here goes nothing, I thought as I stretched the brownish gray fabric and stuck my head inside.

There were mirrors everywhere. My reflection stared back at me from all angles, but the background was different in each image. One had a rainforest; another had a city, and another resembled my backyard. I crawled in further and more mirrors appeared. I saw Portchester, Walden, and Secoria, but nothing that looked like the dungeon Molly and I were in. I thought I could use the fabric as a shortcut to get into Molly's cell like we did in Secoria to get to Octavia's house, but apparently black/brown fabric didn't work like that. I quickly figured out that the mirrors were different worlds and I assumed that touching one of them would transport me to that world. At that moment, I could've thrown everything out and gone back to my own world as if nothing happened. David had to be wondering where I was by now. The thing is, I'm not one to abandon an important task, especially if the universe is counting on me to keep it from being molded into some giant entity.

For that reason, I didn't go any further, but before I pulled my head out, the same woman from before stepped out from one of the mirrors. Its surface rippled for a few seconds and then became solid again.

"This is a pretty roundabout way to escape, don't you think?" she said playfully.

"Well, I was planning on getting my friend first and then escaping."

"That doesn't seem to be working out too well."

I glared at her. "Excuse me for never traveling through black fabric before. I'm just trying to break into her cell."

The woman laughed. "Didn't you hear me before? You can't get out until you understand the truth."

"The truth about what? Why is it that all you villains have to be so vague about everything?"

She stepped forward. "You think I'm the villain? Well, I suppose I can't blame you, but let me ask you something. Do you know how you ended up in that cell?"

"Dorian casted some kind of spell and then everything went black and then I woke up. Then you were staring at me like a creeper and gave me Amethy's necklace. He's obviously working for you, whoever you are, and you've got to have some sort of ridiculous plan, especially if you're basically telling me how to escape and giving me something I need without a fight."

"Hmm, you use your head well. Good," she said, her voice almost nurturing. "But it's not quite enough. Let me ask you a few more questions. Why don't you come inside and have a seat?"

I hesitated, but decided to risk it. As long as I sat right in front of where I came in, I wouldn't have any problem getting back to the cell. Besides, there was something about this woman that made me trust her at least momentarily. If I wanted to get out of that dungeon, I had to figure out what she meant by "truth" and the only way to do that was to let her talk. She sat in front of me, her green eyes piercing through me as though a glance told her absolutely everything she needed to know. The weird mirror angles and all the different backgrounds made it difficult to get a good look at her.

"Tell me why you need Amethy's necklace," she said.

"Well, it's, uh, it's a relic of an old Fabric Healer. I'm supposed to travel around to different dimensions and collect them."

"Why?"

"Because I'm the new Fabric Healer."

"But what exactly are these things supposed to do for you?"

"I don't know. I guess it's written somewhere in the Guide."

"The Fabric Healer's Guide to the Universe is perhaps the most biased collection of published material in existence."

I blinked. "Excuse me?"

"It claims to tell you everything you need to know, and yet it tells you nothing. Just as your Dimensional Guardians have told you nothing."

"Well, I'm sure they'd tell me lots of things if we didn't keep getting interrupted for one reason or another. That and there's no way they could know everything about everything."

"But they should know about the relics and the purpose behind the journey to collect them--why they're spread out throughout the worlds and why they're so closely guarded."

"Are you telling me you know all that stuff?"

"I know enough."

We were silent for a few moments; I expected her to launch into an explanation, but instead she stood and left me with another vague statement. "Read between the lines of Amethy's story and understand that the relics contain remnants of each Fabric Healer's power. They are meant to be passed on like an inheritance. That is the first piece of truth I'm giving you."

"I thought you said I had to figure it out for myself."

"Amber, I've already told you that you have a sharp mind. Use it to piece together everything thrown at you and you'll figure it out. Maybe then you'll be the first Fabric Healer to actually do something right."

She disappeared before I could say anything and for a few minutes, I stared at myself in those mirrors--existing in all of those worlds at the same time. I shook my head and reached behind me to open the fabric and return to my cell. Molly was still out cold and I had no other leads besides what that woman told me. So, I pulled out the Guide, cast another fire spell, and curled up in the coziest corner of the dungeon cell for some quality reading. Amethy's story began like this:

I have made it my life's goal to purge the universe of unnecessary worlds and use their fabric to build upon the superior ones.

Genocide.