Wingheart: Luminous Rock

Chapter 6: Myth and Magic

Cecil's eyes arrowed across the chart. He placed a finger near the bottom of the eastern land mass. "Somewhere...here."

"On this island?" asked Magnus. "MorningStar is on this island?"

"Island?" Cecil gave an ironic smile. "These aren't islands, Magnus. These are far, far larger than islands."

Magnus frowned harder and peered closer at the antiquated chart. The map bore a great many names in a finely inked script, each one spanning inches of land. Depictions of plains, forests, lakes, and deserts alike suggested a vast array of climates.

"But they can't be that large," Magnus insisted, despite the seemingly gargantuan scale of the map. "I've never heard of MorningStar all my life. And I've..." He paused in an attempt to decipher some of the unusual names. "I've never heard of any of these places, either. If this place is so huge, then show me, on a globe or atlas, where these...islands are."

"Well," Cecil replied, "this is quite where they are. You could search every last globe on Earth, and I assure you that you won't find any of these places."

"So what are you trying to tell me?" Magnus asked with rising frustration. "That this is another planet?"

"It's the exact same planet," Cecil answered haltingly. "Just a different...version."

Magnus bounced a frown off the map and back over to the impassive Cecil. He felt an uncanny shiver—whether of excitement or terror, he couldn't tell. "Version? A different version? Where is this place?"

"Not where..." Cecil eased back into his seat. "What. This place is called Arkane."

"You're still not making any sense," Magnus barked. "I've never heard of any place called Arkane."

"No, I suppose you haven't." Cecil returned a grin to his face. Then his expression fell flat and he gaped dumbly, as if he were angling for the right words to say. "You see," he finally continued, "Arkane...is one of Earth's counterpart worlds."

Magnus didn't know if he had gotten the response he wanted or not. Cecil's answers were growing stranger with every question.

"Or, as many refer to them, parallel dimensions," added Cecil.

"That doesn't mean anything," Magnus persisted. He sensed a light-headedness overcome him. "How could I've been born in another dimension?"

"I'm not explaining this very well, am I?" Cecil sighed. "Why don't I start from the top of things?" He shifted himself in his seat to face Magnus again. "Any universe can divide itself into a potentially infinite number of copies at the point of its creation," he said. "Each of these copies exists on its own plane in the universal spectrum, and as they evolve, they also diverge, growing increasingly farther apart from one another. Some evolve so drastically that they become separate universes altogether; others tend to stay relatively in alignment with each other to form what we know as parallel dimensions, or parallel universes.

"Thus, a universe parallel to ours is not far unlike our own universe. Its cosmic structure is virtually identical to ours, meaning that there would exist in it a solar system with a planet Earth similar to the one on which we live. This particular version of planet Earth I now refer to is known not as Earth..." He splayed his hand over the open map. "...but rather, as Arkane."

"And this theory is...accepted by modern science?" Magnus asked with obvious sarcasm.

"Perhaps not Earth's modern science," replied Cecil. "Earth has its own theories, not to say that any of them are wrong. The origins of parallel dimensions have been forever disputed, even on Arkane, where science has a much better grasp on the subject. What I've just described to you is Arkane's most widely accepted theory—put in very simple terms, of course."