#8 Fancy Dresses and Alternate Dimensions: The Inter-Dimensional Tour Part Two

I had no idea it was possible to burn Fabric. Of course, there was a lot of stuff about Fabric that I didn't know back then, but Octavia was burning holes all over the place. I could see the inter-dimensional space, the flashing lights as bright as ever. Could I fix this? Could I make Fabric from nothing to repair the holes?

The only thing I could do was stand and stare at what was happening. I was completely useless--I hadn't learned any spells from Secoria and I didn't have a parasol on me. I couldn't even shout out some flashy entrance speech that gave my position away to the enemy while proclaiming that I'm a warrior for love and justice and stuff. Thankfully, Molly, Locrio, Vincent, Ophelia, and Michael were at my side seconds later.

"Instructions, Amber?" said Molly, charging her parasol.

"What?"

"Give us a battle plan," said Ophelia with a sigh as she reached behind her and unstrapped a very long silver gun from her back.

"Yeah," said Michael, doing the same. "But we're only letting you tell us what to do 'cause you're the Fabric Healer."

"Well thanks for the permission," I said flatly. "What is it that you two do anyway?"

"These are steam blasters," said Ophelia.

"You've probably never heard of them."

"Of course I haven't, but thanks for telling me," I said, glaring at them.

"Yeah no problem. Just don't tell anyone else, okay?" said Ophelia.

"Whatever," I said and went back to paying attention to Octavia. Somehow, she still hadn't noticed us standing there, but she was pretty busy destroying the Fabric of Secoria so her lack of awareness was understandable. Clef was sitting on her shoulder swinging his legs and calmly observing the chaos. If I couldn't attack at all, the least I could do was use my brain to figure out a good battle strategy. Molly and Locrio were my strongest assets when it came to magical attacks. Those huge weapons the twins had were perfect for long-range and because Vincent was a velociraptor, he had speed on his side. If I had the five of them focus on disabling Octavia, then I could work on repairing the Fabric. I closed my eyes for a moment and everything fell into place. Yes, this would work.

"Vincent, you chase Octavia into a corner. Do whatever you need to do to grab her and hold her down. Molly and Locrio, you two work on something that'll somehow make Octavia stop moving. Don't kill her because I want to talk to her. Mikey and Hamlet's dead girlfriend, you work on putting out the fires. I'll try to fix the Fabric."

"My name is Michael."

"And don't compare me to the silly girls of your dimension's old plays," said Ophelia.

"What, you mad that she killed herself?" I said with a laugh.

"That idiot drowned herself," she said, aiming her steam gun at a burning house. "Too mainstream."

Molly tugged at my arm. "We do not have time to talk about our names. Please give us the command."

"Do you all understand your orders?" I said. Everyone nodded. "Then go."

We all split off in different directions. I heard Vincent roar as he snapped at Octavia, and the twins' steam guns fired with a hiss. I hustled away from the fray toward the closest hole in the Fabric I could find. The closer I got to the disintegrated Fabric, the sicker I felt. Locrio was right. I needed to control the effects Fabric had on me. Still, that gaping hole was intimidating and just. . .unnatural. When I was right on top of it, everything blurred and I could feel the earth trembling. I fell to my knees and quickly looked behind me to see if everyone else was okay. They were fighting and moving as usual, which confirmed that the shaking only occurred in areas where the Fabric was completely damaged. Topaz said all she had to do was touch Fabric and it healed, so that was the first thing I tried.

It didn't work.

"Oh, come on!" I closed my eyes to ignore the shaking, desperately trying to think of what to try next. By now, all the villagers had fled and I could feel the heat from the fires growing stronger and stronger.

I have to close these holes or a Direct Link could form. Even worse, someone from another dimension could just wander in here.

I opened my eyes again and immediately focuses on the grass beneath my fingers. Octavia's fire hadn't touched it, so the Fabric was still a healthy green. I suddenly remembered Topaz saying she could bend Fabric to create something new. So, I grabbed the grid and pulled it up with all my strength. It was much lighter than I expected and the result was that the gaping dimensional hole became a new hill. The shaking stopped and I almost struck a victory pose. Almost. I had a bunch of other holes to cover.

As annoying as they were, the twins were very quick with clearing out the fires. For about five minutes, we had a nice system going where they would put out a fire and I'd seal up the remaining hole. By the time we finished, Octavia was on the ground, desperately running away from Vincent and casting spells to ward him off. He swiftly dodged them while never losing his pace.

"Beast! What manner of tomfoolery is this?" she shouted. Meanwhile, Clef sat on her shoulder and acted as though nothing was happening. Vincent was herding Octavia toward Molly, who stood ready with her parasol open out in front of her and her hat floating a couple feet in front of it. Locrio stood next to her, his hands glowing with a spell. When they were within range, Locrio cast his spell and it hit Octavia square in the chest, stunning her for a few seconds. Before she could recover, however, Molly shot her parasol. The energy filled her hat and as she swung her arm around, a section of earth leapt up and wrapped around the witch. Clef jumped out of the way just in time and sat quietly on the ground.

The six of us surrounded Octavia, who grumbled and squirmed in vain. When she set her yellow eyes on me, she scowled.

"Curse you, Fabric Healer!" she spat. "You will be the first Fabric Healer to fail! We've seen through the tricks of the legend and the universe no longer needs you!"

"I am here. Therefore, it needs me," I said, crossing my arms.

"Only if we choose to need you and we choose not to need you! You insist on enforcing separation and censoring knowledge!"

I stooped down to the ground and gave her a fierce glare. "And you insist on killing people and destroying Fabric for the sake of an impossible ideal. Last time I checked, I haven't killed anyone."

For a moment, Octavia seemed genuinely frightened. Her eyes were searching for some kind of response, but I was confident I'd won. Then, she took another good look at me and cackled. "Well isn't this interesting. Your stubbornness is familiar. Very familiar indeed. Oh, I know where I've seen this before. I almost feel sorry for you, Fabric Healer. You won't stand a chance."

Octavia really enjoyed telling me vague, cryptic things that made no sense when I was hearing them. Like everything else she said before and since, I took this with a microscopic grain of salt.

"I shall transport her to the Super Secret Jail of Secoria," said Locrio. "She'll be perfectly contained there."

"Is it by chance beneath the Super Secret Elven Library?" I said.

"Once again, Amber, I am astounded by your quick understanding of out world," he said with a wide smile.

"I really wasn't serious," I sighed. "But it's cool that there's a jail under the library."

Locrio, on the other hand, became very serious. "In Secoria, we believe that knowledge is above criminals. Therefore, they must sit and live with the fact that an entire world of knowledge is just out of their reach."

"Sounds like a real punishment," I said flatly.

"Indeed! I'm glad you agree with me!" He closed his eyes and prepared another spell.

I decided not to respond to that. Besides, it would've broken his concentration. Meanwhile, Molly quietly tied her hat back onto her head and rested her parasol in its proper place against her shoulder.

"Carcera!" said Locrio. A bright light emitted from his hands and engulfed Octavia.

"Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200 dollars," I said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" said Ophelia.

"It's from a game in my world called Monopoly," I said and then turned to her. "You've probably never heard of it."

Ophelia scowled for a moment, but then smiled. "Fair enough. You're clever."

Seconds later, Octavia was gone and Clef ran off on his own. There was no point in chasing after him; he wouldn't do anything.

In the hours that followed, people slowly began making their way into the village again. To celebrate the witch's defeat, the inns and bars kept their doors open for the rest of the night, serving ale to anyone who asked for it. The six of us were always offered the best drafts, but I declined. The last thing I wanted the next morning was a hangover, especially if we were gonna keep traveling.

"So where exactly are we going?" I asked Locrio as we all sat in the grass outside of the inn where we were staying. He took a long sip of ale and then looked up at the stars. "To Aeolia, capital city of Secoria. We will present you to the royal court and then they will send the announcement to every town and city in the land. Then we'll be finished here and can move on to Portchester."

"Doesn't seem so bad," I said.

"Of course not. And there'd be no sense in revealing the existence of the Fabric Healer and Dimensional Guardians to absolutely everyone."

"Why not?"

"Well, some people simply wouldn't be able to comprehend how these things work. They might get too curious and try to get involved without fully understanding everything."

"Can't you just teach them? I mean, I started off not knowing anything and look at me now. I'm the freaking Fabric Healer."

"Yes, but you are a special case, obviously. For the most part, it's best that some people simply know of your existence and works without actually seeing you."

I guess that makes sense, but it doesn't sit right with me, I thought. I didn't say much else after that, partly because I was tired and partly because I couldn't get what Octavia said off my mind. "Censoring knowledge." I had no idea what she meant by that, but I hoped that whatever she meant wasn't true.