The Truth About The Many Worlds Of Printed Pages

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"Christopher was here the whole morning, and so were George and Jake, now it's just me and Albert. But I can call them right now..."

"No," Siena said, glancing at James for confirmation, "we were actually hoping to speak only to you and your Eins... Mr Albert first."

"We just want to know the specifics about how this works before we decide on a book. There is so much we need to know before we jump into this," James continued.

"Of course. All right, let's just have a chat before we call the others. Albert! We have guests!" Alicia called but there was no need, the old man just appeared in the doorway carrying a huge tray laden with tea-- a steaming white-and-golden teapot embellished with tiny pastel coloured flowers, four matching cups, and two plates filled with scones and biscuits of several sorts and flavours.

"Wow, thank you," Siena beamed at the old, white-haired man, jumping to her feet, taking the heavy tray from him and carrying it to the low coffee table standing between hers and James' loveseat and Alicia's armchair. She found the old scientist intimidating yesterday, his looks hinting at his great intelligence and the knowledge of things Siena knew she would never entirely comprehend herself, made him feel like an unapproachable superior being. But today, in this less official and more friendly sitting room, he looked like the Doc Brown from the Back to the Future film, rather than Einstein.

"You are welcome, my dear," he said, sitting down on the sofa and smiling at Siena who, following Alicia's silent gesture, took it upon herself to pour out the tea and set the cups and biscuits-filled plates on the coffee table where everyone could reach them.

She sat back next to James then, shivering as the heat of the fire caressed her bare forearms after the cool air of the room, not protesting in the slightest when James noticed and drew closer to her, flooding her with his heat redolent of cedarwood, grapefruit, and rain.

A contented sigh escaped her, only audible to him, and as if it was the permission he had asked for, he wrapped his arm around her hips in a way their two companions could not see, before he addressed the old man who was looking at them expectantly from above the rim of his dainty tea cup.

"I don't even know where to start, I have so many questions... For instance, you said that the moment we walk into the world of our chosen book, it will start drifting away. That's why we'll have limited time to fix it, and once it's fixed, it can't be done again, and so we must choose a book that wasn't fixed yet, correct?"

"That's what I told you, yes. But it's very simplified," Mr Albert replied, excitement turning his brown irises into spots of faint light within the grey penumbra reigning in the room. "Do you know enough about the matter, James, for me to take this explanation further, I wonder? No Book Traveller that I met before you two did, or at least they didn't care enough to try to push the limits of what we already know."

"You spoke about the Many Worlds Theory, and I wonder why it should not apply to our book worlds," James interrupted his musings. "If every decision we make creates a new universe, it should mean that the moment we step into a book universe, we cause it to branch into a new world and only that one world would start drifting away, leaving the original untouched. You said that yourself, indirectly, when you told us that the events in the original story won't be changed by our actions for the readers. So, hypothetically speaking, if we won't manage to improve the plot at the first attempt, we can always retry..." James trailed off.

The old man set his cup on the table, looking at James with an obvious admiration, wringing his hands in his lap excitedly.

"Are you as brave as you are clever, young man? It does sound perfectly possible, doesn't it? But it has never been tried, so it's only a theory, a potentially perilous possibility."