Mercenaries of the Gods: Chronicle Two - Adventures

Something is Different

You awake from a very pleasant night of rest after the long day of reading in the old, creaky house from the day prior. After a small stretch you look around and notice the room is different. Instead of the simple house of the night before, the room is a flawless and matte white. Everything is smooth and adorned with the occasional robot doing a small task. The whole room has a sterile feeling to it. After rising from the bed, you look around some more when you notice a small sphere floating in the room. Like a lamp, it emits a soft light and constantly moves around the room to the location you need it most without any commands. You hear a faint whirl of a motor and look around to find a small robot cleaning the wall like a snail in an aquarium. After watching the strange robots for some time, you get bored and decide to explore this new place more. Carefully, you move out into the hall and look from side to side. The hall seems to go on forever in each direction and countless doorways line each side, each exactly forty-two feet from each other. 

"I sensed you awakening." A voice says from behind you. Spinning around quickly, your gaze falls on a strange floating, featureless cube about two feet across. As white as the rest of the place, it says in a surprisingly generic female robot voice. "Do not be alarmed, it is I, The Seer. I do hope your sleep was satisfactory. Please follow me, for much there is left to show you and time grows short." 

As it floats down the hall, you carefully follow a few paces behind it. Just as you're about to ask it what is going on, it says "You must be confused by this place. The place you fell asleep in was my library on the spiritual coil where those stories happened. What you see around you is my library a different coil. If you could not guess, my form differs from coil to coil. However, all my forms are manifestations of the greater whole that is me; as is standard for most multi-dimensional beings." You glance into the rooms as you move down the hall and see many robots arranging small, flat objects, not more than a few inches across, onto well labeled shelves. In one room you think you spot another creature at a table looking at some kind of projection, but you don't have time to take a closer look. "The next story you must know took place in this universe. In my long experience, I discovered it is far less complicated to move you from coil to coil rather than all the stories I must show you. That is why you are here." 

Like the surface of the cube is made of a liquid, a small pointer emerges from The Seer and points into a room just as it stops. "Enter with haste for there is a major event transpiring on this coil that requires my full attention." While still thinking about the idea of being moved across planes of existence as you slept, you enter quickly and take a moment to look around. The room is empty except a single table with a short stack of the flat objects and the same ceramic cup and bottle from the house on the hill. From beneath you there is a strange sound that is somewhere between a machine and water. The floor beneath you moves just like the surface on the Seer, forming a seat around you and then moves you to the edge of the table. As you look at the odd stack of objects, the Seer says "Those objects are holobooks, the most common data storage devices used in this coil. I must admit, they are far less cumbersome that the books you read yesterday. To operate them, simply place them on the table and press the square in the middle." 

You turn to ask something only to find The Seer is already gone. Used to the Seer's vanishing act at this point, you look at the bottle and ponder what drink you want. After pouring yourself that drink from the magical bottle, you take the first holobook from the stack and set it on the table in front of you. Looking closely at it, you see the square described by The Seer and give it a gentle press. A slightly teal glow covers the holobook and, on the side facing up, a three-dimensional projection starts to rise. You lean back a bit and take a sip of your drink as the holobook starts to play.