"Backwards From Infinity" by Will Follett

(Sile is posting this on behalf of Will, so please direct all comments to him. Enjoy!)


Backwards From Infinity

By Will Follett


Part 1

Flexing Fate Hypothesis

‘Initiate the seeking orb.’
‘Transreality penetration in two minutes.’
‘Sphere map is finalizing.’
The orders were quick and crisp and had been issued many times before. They’d well-rehearsed every possible scenario and these orders for Integration from Lector Obtuse were proceeding along a direction scenario called ‘Tri-Fox Point.’ Like pawns on a game-board, they were bringing the capture to an inevitable and foreseeable close.
The esteemed High Commander Farpace called to his strategist Waywit.
‘Take this beacon and engage the perimeter orb on my signal.’ He handed him the metarealm net-stick as he manipulated the Etherskein and found the balancing point between order and chaos. They were prepared for every contingency. These were the Aadhon Wanderers and they had decided that this particular recipient of the Lector’s Probability 117 had been without the help that only they could provide, for far too long. Yet it had not been easy. This particular subject was profound in his ability to evade even the most complex of strategic Integrations. Commander Farpace was enacting the last, best, most expensive procedure left in his arsenal of derivative concepts. This Concept had yet to fail, and he was confident that this Solution would be successful. No matter that this otherworldly gnome had escaped from every past calculation of the Wanderer’s Solutions so far. Commander Farpace knew without a shred of doubt that no-one ever escapes the Master Solution ‘Tri-Fox Point.’ And they had never put so much effort in trying to bestow their blessing on anyone before. This was the Solution Directive that had brought Tohn Obtuse the rank of Lector in the Neuroplex, early in his career. It is a Solution honoured and revered and set apart as an infallible success with a rank of one hundred percent in the Chronolog. If not for the ridiculously expensive cost this Solution would be used every time but fortunately the Tohn Concepts had been broken down into a number of lesser scenarios that had at least eighty percent hospitalization rates and were one hundredth the cost of ‘Tri-Fox Point.’ This was why Lector Obtuse had full possession of the Throne of Roads.
Waywit spoke with just a small tremble of excitement in anticipation of participation in the Conceptual Solution Prime
‘Dimensional Reverence is enacted Commander. Initiating the Nine-Corner-Box. Parallel Lucidity has been pierced and stabilized in the Etherskein as well as in the Metarealm. Awaiting the final directive.’ The Chronoton Array was displaying ninety eight percent and this was the time for the true understanding of the Tohn Concepts to coalesce into the final resolution of Probability 117. The metaparadox of the Seven Spheres was about to be solved and this gnome from the realm of Taal; this Taalasman was about to realize the pure and powerful mind of Tohn. The High Commander would then be truly blessed to revel in yet another example of Omen’s true order.
Commander Farpace went through the last check and called out the Concepts to his strategist Waywit.
‘The final net-stick is placed and the final orb is empowered. The last amulet is being reasoned in Metarealm relativity and fate is flexing. All cords are ‘skeined and all psuedostrands are looped. The Sphere Paradox has three sides and transreality flux is being quantified.’
He looked into his opula and found the last Thread of Possibilities. And as he tied up the Solution he felt immeasurably pleased that Dustmote would finally receive the healing he so desperately needs.




































Part 2

Three-Sided Sphere

Who can understand the journey of a raindrop?
Dustmote laughed while eluding the last crux core-node of Concept 9. ‘Did they truly think that that would work after Concept 14 failed so miserably?’
This gnome was skilled. He had altered precognitive abilities. He was bonded to a Gumtoo. He had learnt two lesser Words of Power and he could reave possibilities like an urchin steals a piece of fruit from a vendor. And his mentality was radical. He was from the Other Side; the Far Realm; the Loop of Mirrors; the place where stories have endings. He was from the manifest reality; the universe called the Realm of Taal. And he was resolute in his determination to evade capture. He hadn’t passed through the Vault of the Tesseract only to be imprisoned by these deluded self-righteous warrior-doctors.
Dustmote felt incredibly confident that these Tapestry Lords had never come up against an intended recipient such as himself. He was in possession of an alien intelligence such as this realm of stories had never seen before. He had committed atrocities that had no parallel and eventually was able to free himself from the evil possession of his master, the Unmaker. If he could release himself from the web of enslavement such as only an avatar could create then surely he could elude these lesser mortal’s snares. Although he had to admit that last scheme had been incredibly clever. Dustmote knew that if the last Concept had been slightly altered to incorporate three sided sphere theory than he might be rotting, held in stasis in a biocrypt, at the mercy of those who think they know best.
‘What arrogance,’ he mused as he sought out the next manipulation of eternity and started counting backwards from infinity.
This next Solution was challenging his mind in such a way that caused him great concern. If he was correct, than these hunters were manipulating the Reverence Fabric of the Etherskein and were creating a tri-point position in the universe. If this were true, then no amount of threshold intelligence and wisdom would save him from imprisonment. He hadn’t traveled for three days through the many doors of the Beginning and Ending House only to land in an insane asylum run by delusional men.
Quickly, his attention focused on the next Concept.
These doctors were relentless.
Dustmote peered into the Etherskein and saw the Celestial Loom being manipulated on a scale he could barely recognize. He reaved the Infinity Paradox and for the first time in many years was terrified by the equation’s solution. He unravelled the Seven Spheres and set a recollapsible vortex. Then as a final safeguard he undermined the Weaving and set up a tagline of immeasurable depths. Then he only had to wait for the next hypothesis.
While he was waiting he contemplated his situation in this new universe known as Omen. As he thought about the Universal Duality Paradox his attention was abruptly focused on his current problem of eluding the Aadhon Wanderers. They had enacted their latest directive and while he felt confident that a flaw could be found in their formula he couldn’t afford any idle thoughts.
Who can foresee the pattern of a snowflake?
This undertaking was the most insidious of the Tohn Concepts yet. He directed his Gumtoo to prepossess the initiative of Benign Chaos. Then he struck out at the Binding Threads to stabilize his Metarealm destination. Then with the Tesseract Stone’s six remaining nodes fully nexed out, he hoped that this latest directive had a flaw like the others. He fell through the nexus that he opened with a calculation from his journeybook. The Tesseract Stone had one of its seven nodes destroyed back in the Seventh Age by a servant of the Unmaker and in his last moments of freedom saw his flaw.
So unfortunately for him his fox-hole through his hunter’s hypothesis was a fat flex.
He flipped.
He saw the Order and Chaos of Creation.
He saw the face of God.
Then he saw the inside of a paradimensional biocrypt. And in his undeath he resides there still..