The Fifth World

...would be her home for a while. As he wound his way along the path in front of him, Jeffery remembered what Sydonie had told him about the woman he was about to meet.

"She was a saint in another world," Sydonie explained. "Her followers were begining to believe she was holy. This troubled the government, so they locked her up. She was supposed to be executed, but we knew if she were enough of her followers would be angry and grieved enough that the religion they'd form would be an angry, violent one too. So we came and took her from her cell before she was executed. Her followers believed it was a miracle from a gracious god, and the religion they founded was peaceful instead."

None of this made much sense to Jeffery, whose own world, as Sydonie had pointed out, had no real religion. But apparently this woman was somewhat lonely in the world they had put her in, and welcomed the chance to raise a baby for a year or two.

"Then she'll be sent back to her own world," said Sydonie. "She has a fate there."

"This ticket entitles the bearer to a one-world shift."

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Saint's hair here at Raonsims.

The Fourth World (pt 2)

Jeffery was certainly not ready to accept everything at once, but Sydonie did not seem to leave him any choice, really. She turned and went out the door, with the baby in her arms, and Jeffery felt he ought to follow.

Finally, when she was feeding the baby in the kitchen, he asked, "Why did you send me to the world with the mermaids?"

"To see how you would react. We were pretty sure you'd make a good worldwalker, but we had to make sure."

"I ran away!"

"Oh, but cowardice is no big deal. In fact, it's desired--it means you're human. If you had thrown rocks at the mermaids, or tried to seduce them, or despaired entirely and flung yourself in with them...then we would have worried. And that world was a good place to send you because it was so stable that no matter what happened you wouldn't screw it up. Mating mermaids cannot be deterred."

"They were mating?"

"You do remember their singing, don't you? Those were mating songs, mating calls. And didn't you notice the egg mounds in the morning?"

"I wasn't looking for egg mounds at the time, somehow!" he said. Sydonie was simply quiet, though, rocking the baby.

"What will you do with her?"

"I won't," she said simply. "You will."

"What were you planning for me to do with her, then?" he demanded. He certainly did not appreciate her assumption that she was completely in control of his life.

"Take her to another world, of course," Sydonie said, as though it were obvious.

"No! I'm not going back to any other world. Not when I finally managed to get back!"

Sydonie looked up at him, though only for a moment. "This isn't your world," she said simply.

"No?" His heart fell again, and then his fury rose up.

"I know," said Sydonie. "It's a little similar-looking, from in here. But this 'world' is only a little fragment of something that was made for me to live on. If I walk straight down that road half a mile, through a bunch a mist, It'll come back to my house again. This isn't a real world at all."

Jeffery had no idea what to say. It was almost as if, when it was most important to have something to say for himself, he was out of practice. He supposed it had only been a day since he was in his own world, but something told him it had been a great deal longer as well.

The baby was asleep now. Sydonie set her down in a the crib at the far end of the kitchen. Then she turned and came to him, and there was suddenly no longer anything in her that made her seem young, or impulsive, and nothing about the way she moved was careless.

"Listen, Jeffery," she said, and a small part of him shivered that she knew his name. "You've lived practically all your life so far in what is truly one of the dreariest worlds in existence. Even drearier than the world I come from. People in your world abandoned all religion almost 2,000 years ago--that's pretty much is all you have to know to understand your world. Are you really content to spend all your life in there, in your same boring technical job, living alone in an apartment building that looks the same as the other half a thousand in the city?"

And Jeffery realized quite suddenly that he wasn't. The mermaids had frightened him, but they had amazed him too, and enchanted him, and inflamed his curiosity. They were the most brilliant, beautiful things he had seen in his entire life. And though he had spent barely three minutes in the other world, he guessed it held an infinite number of wonders of its own, the least of which was the child sleeping peacefully in her cradle across the room from him. His knee-jerk reaction had been to get home, but now he knew with just as much certainty that he did not want to stay there.

After a long moment he took a sudden, sharp, breath, and said "Explain to me what I have to do."

The Fourth World

...held the explanation.
Jeremy found himself standing in an empty bedroom, so normal that he immediately guessed he was in his own world. It was a relief to him, although he quickly felt less relieved when he remembered the baby in his arms.

What on earth was going on? He had asked himself the same question many times last night--was it last night? He had no sense of time anymore--but he could only accept what had happened to him, however unwillingly. He could not imagine why it had, except that he began to suspect it was all being coordinated. So that he could take the baby from the soldiers, he wondered?
At that moment a girl burst through the door.
"You're here!" she cried. "Oh good! Give me that baby!"
"What?" he cried back at her.
"I mean--oh dear. I don't mean her any harm! I have a bottle and such for her..."
"You knew I was coming! You made this happen!"
"No! Not really!"
The baby was, if possible, more disturbed by their shouting match than they were.
"Look what you've done, silly!" said the girl, softer.
"Me?" the sheer injustice of the remark held him silent for a moment. "You arranged for her to be...kidnapped!"
"No--I--saved," she said softly. "Can I explain? I started this all wrong."
"Please."
And then the girl started speaking very quickly and without pause.

"That girl--is the illegitimate daughter of a queen who's husband had been away for 11 months and so knew it very well. She was supposed to be exposed when she was born. But the queen asked the oracle at the temple what could be done, and the oracle said it was not fated for her to die. The lady-in-waiting who took her out of the tower knew this, and she knew that all the streets had been cleared of commoners so no one would save the baby. And therefore, when she saw you, she knew that you must be meant to save the baby."

It took him a moment or two to digest this. During this time the girl, with the confidence of someone who knew, in the end, that what she was planning would happen, took the baby from his shaking limbs.

At last he merely stammered, "I had no idea what was going on!"
"But we did..."
"You?"
"Sorry. We, the worldwalkers. We--we change the course of events in different worlds to make them--more balanced. Better. We've just recruited you. I suppose that's where I should have started."
"I suppose," said Jeffery, "You should have started with introducing yourself and asking me."
She looked sheepishly at her feet. "It's too late for the second one. But as for the first--nice to meet you." She turned her eyes up to him again. "My name's Sydonie."

*****************************************

Sydonie's Hair by Sare_Sare at MTS2

The Third World

...was entirely different again. Suddenly he heard pounding footsteps, and then a woman and a bundle were in his arms. He could not have been more stunned when she pressed a baby into his arms, but he reflexively held it as she pulled away. He could not even find words in his language to call out in, and something told him she spoke another. The second time he heard footsteps, he drew back. The men did not look like they meant the baby any better than the mermen had him. It was fortunate he drew back, too, because that is how he left the third world.

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Objects and furniture (including tent) at Tarox

Baby's eyes: Gemstone eyes by Pickpock at MTS2

Soldier's and woman's clothing by Alexasrosa at MTS2

Woman's cape and earrings (which you can't really see but oh well) at All About Style

The Second World (Pt 2)

They called out in a language was as slippery and moist as they were, and the others came.
The Mermen didn't seem very welcoming.
He spent the night not sleeping under some sweet-smelling bushes, listening to splashing and eerie laughter. He did not come out until those sounds stopped and the trilling of birds started. This time when he saw it he could guess what would happen, but he chose to pick it up anyway.