Lily was driving herself insane. That was it. That was the only expnation. She’d been running everything back and forth in her mind for what felt like forever now.
She was ying on the couch in the boat. The sounds of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 for the sega genesis drifted past her as she stared at the ceiling. Nostalgic. But she had a decision to make, and it was driving her mad. Star’s voice broke her out of her train of thought.
“Master, how do I kill this one?”
Lily sat up and looked over. Star was pying. A week ago she had rigged a pystation 2 dance mat to allow him to py the games she’d saved. Emution was a lifesaver. So, now he was checking out her childhood favorites. She was careful not to injure his pride by constantly talking about how cute it was. But it still filled her heart with fuzzy feelings.
“You just gotta time it right and be patient. See, he flies back and forth. The ptform under him shoots ice in a pattern. Left, middle, right. Wait for it to shoot on the left and get ready. When it disappears in the middle, jump on the ptform and hit him once. Don’t get greedy.”
“But, it really seems as though I can hit him twice.”
“Why, got somewhere to be?”
“Master, there is an art to being as efficient as possible.”
“Tell me that when you’ve beaten him before.”
“Do not worry. I will.”
Lily rolled her eyes and turned to watch Star’s third attempt on this boss. Star had gotten curious about Sonic games because Lily had charged the chaos emeralds back up. She’d tried expining the reference, but her companion insisted on actually getting experience. No amount of expining that it had nothing to do with her magic would dissuade him, so this had been her solution. Now he wanted to py games enough to get all of her jokes. It was very sweet, really. Although she suspected he’d just decided they were fun too.
It had been three weeks since she’d heard from Lily One. The message had been… well, worrying didn’t quite cover it. The other version of her had said she was being chased, and would likely be killed. Now, three weeks had passed. To the day.
Lily had tried everything to get back into contact, and failed. Her connection through Bay wasn’t open on the other end. It didn’t matter how many times she connected on her own. It was like calling a phone that was turned off.
So, instead she made herself busy figuring out how she could help when the connection was re-established. She’d gathered mana in case she needed to do Big Magic. Now she had fully charged Chaos Emeralds. She’d perfected her spell that allowed her or Star to take control of Bay. It had a strange side effect of making his little plushy flippers about as strong as her arms. It was still hard to grip things, but she’d left him at La Mancha and gone back home. Now she could use him to keep up on the farm without the hour trip every time.
Then she’d turned her attention to learning more from the basement spell to keep her mind occupied. She had learned a few things. It was slow progress though. The main bit that she had transted was the section that had been breaking down matter around her and turning it into mana. She had been hopeful that she could reverse engineer it to fabricate matter out of mana. But, that was way beyond her. Still, if she needed to she could dissolve solid objects to power a spell.
She wondered what that meant for grander concepts like entropy. But, that was also way beyond her at her current level, so she’d decided to use it sparingly until she understood it better.
Which brought her to today. Three weeks. Still no contact. Was she… dead? That was the only expnation right? Well, no. Not really. She’d already established time was fucky between the two worlds. So, maybe it hadn’t been that long over there? Or maybe it’d been a hundred years. She had no way of knowing. She hated feeling this helpless!
But it was clear: Something was wrong, and she might not hear from Lily One again. Whether she was in prison, or killed, or something else.
The sound of Robotnik’s robot exploding snapped her out of her thoughts.
“Hey, good job.”
“Yes, praise me Master. I have exceeded expectations.”
“Don’t I get to decide that?”
Lily grinned at her friend. She really was lucky to have Star. She’d have gone insane and done something stupid by now if he hadn’t been helping keep her calm.
“Oh, have I not? You did not know if I would be able to learn to py with these floor buttons.”
She ughed. That was true. She’d been really surprised when he found it fairly easy to get used to. Although she supposed it helped that he had four paws.
“No, you’re right. I’m proud of you. You’re incredible.”
His tail wagged, even as he tried to downpy how happy he was.
“If she’s dead, doesn’t that just solve my problem? I didn’t think making copies was a good idea in the first pce. It sucks, but she wasn’t me. I’m not dead. I can just not use the spell again, and everything is solved right?”
“Master, if you really felt that way you would not have charged the emeralds.”
“Well! What if I need a huge amount of mana again for something else?”
“Like what?”
“I just haven’t thought of it yet.”
“You are lying to yourself. And me. I am hurt. You hurt me.”
It had taken some practice to learn when he was teasing at times like this. Tone didn’t always come through the transtion perfectly.
“Oh shush you. Fine. I want them there in case I have to use them. But, I’m not going to use the spell. Sending another copy of me there would just get another copy of me killed. Even if I went prepared. If she died, it’s her own fault and I’ll just leave it.”
“Liar.”
“Sounds like someone doesn’t want me to keep finding cook books.”
“Lady Fmewalker, you wouldn’t!”
She smiled at him. He wagged his tail hopefully.
“I wouldn’t.”
“My Master is cruel. My Master is evil. My Master teases.”
Lily ughed, and Star’s own joy came through the spell too. As stressed as she was, moments like this still lifted her heart.
There was another complicating factor when it came to thinking about using the spell. Of course there were all the reservations she’d already had. But, also, she was scared. Scared of causing damage to the universe. Scared of seeing people on the other side. Scared of maybe dying there too. She was so frightened that when she thought of going through with it, she had to quickly change thoughts to avoid a panic attack.
It was such a me paradox. In the moment of a true emergency she found she was willing to do whatever it took to do what she was trying to do. Time and time again she’d proven that. To the point that it was insane and self destructive. But the thought of going through that spell and interacting with the people on the other side was almost too much for her. And she didn’t want to die.
But, she had told herself she’d choose in three weeks. One way or another. That’s how she’d stopped losing her mind about this a week ago, when it had been two weeks.
Now here she was. This was the day. It was time to make a choice. But she still didn’t know. She was paralyzed.
“What do you think I should do, Star?”
“We have had this conversation a number of times.”
“Yeah but what do you think?”
“I think that if I say you should go to her aid, you will go on and on about how you would be poisoning the universe to spread yourself any further than this one world and maybe another, and how you do not even know if you can help. If I say that you should not do it, you will go on and on about how you have a moral duty to preserve yourself if at all possible, and because a copy of you will remain here as well there is not even any particur danger to you, Lily Zero. Only a hypothetical Lily Two would be in danger, so it is silly to be afraid.”
“Yeah. But. What do you think?”
Star gave her an exasperated look, then turned back to the game when he heard the sound of Sonic’s rings getting knocked out of him.
“I think that if my arguments were strong enough to sway you, they would have already. Deep down, I think you have already made your choice. Or else you would not have charged the emeralds. It is only a matter of when you conquer your fear.”
Lily stared at him for a minute. That was ridiculous! She could absolutely just not use the emeralds for that. She wasn’t that simple minded. It wasn’t just fear keeping her from doing it. A small petunt emotion built in her chest. She felt like stomping her foot and yelling ‘nuh uh!’.
“It’s not like that! In fact, you’re right. I’ve made my choice. I’m not doing it. Let’s go on an adventure instead.”
“So you can distract yourself?”
“So I can prove that it’s not fear holding me back! Let’s go check out the thread.”
“Master, you do not have to prove anything to me. I know you are a competent and powerful–”
“I have to prove it to myself! I need to be sure that I’m not letting fear control me. That I’m choosing not to do this because it’s the right thing to choose.”
“In that case, I will come with you.”
Lily was a little relieved. She never really doubted he would come with her when she decided to go see the thread. But having it in words calmed her heart.
“Let me finish this stage first.”
“Oh good luck. Big Arms is gonna wreck you.”
“Big… Arms?”
To the north, an anomaly was brewing. Lily had first spotted it two days ago. It was huge, but could only be seen when the light hit it just right. From miles in all directions it was visible. Seemingly from the heavens themselves a thin shining thread stretched down until it met the ground below.
It was hard to tell if it was actually as thin as it looked, being visible from quite far away. But the shining thread reflected a radiant rainbow of colors in the sunlight, and was near invisible where the sun wasn’t hitting it directly.
But, more than just its clearly magical appearance, there was something about it. Every eye that nded on it seemed to linger. And in the wilderness surrounding the thread, life moved. Animals of all shapes and sizes. Insects. Even the pnts themselves turned their attention towards the thread.
When it caught your eye, somehow it caught your heart as well. Curiosity can be a dangerous thing, and there’s not a creature alive that’s immune to its allure.
