THE INNKEEPER'S TASK was worse than Toh expected.
Toh scowled at Hetsa as she picked up the next rusot and its feathers started falling off.
Damn magi got us in this mess.
He continued plucking away at the feathers on the dead rusot in his hands. The feathers didn't come off easily, each one demanding a harsh tug to break free of the rusot's tough skin. Some came off with chunks of the rusot's flesh on it, revealing the slimy grey blood with the notoriously acrid stench of rusot blood.
Hetsa threw the rusot into the 'plucked' basket and picked up the next one. As soon as she had it in her hands, its feathers started falling off. She smiled as she worked, oblivious to the foul stench that had settled over them as they worked.
Damn, kret, damn magi.
Toh tugged extra hard on the feather he was holding. It came off with a chunk of flesh. A glob of grey blood smacked onto Toh's arm, smaller globs splattering around it.
"Sharta!"
He wiped at the blood using the feathers on a dead rusot.
"I am detecting agitation," Hetsa said throwing another featherless rusot in the 'plucked' basket.
Toh glared at her, venting his anger through his eyes, then continued plucking.
"Very least you could magi-magi plug my nose or something," he muttered.
"Now, Toh," he heard a smile in her voice, "You know it doesn't work like that."
"Don't it?" He was doubtful.
"Just try not to think about it," she said.
"Easy for you to say."
"It's the most basic form of awareness. Being able to focus on, or ignore, sensations," she threw the next featherless rusot in the basket.
"Damn your awareness, magi," he said careful not to pluck too hard on the feather he was holding.
"These feathers are very soft and bouncy. We don't have feathers like this where I'm from," Hetsa said. She was trying to redirect his attention.
"Where you from then?"
She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye then looked away. He couldn't believe she still had to think about it before telling him. After everything he'd accepted so far, how much more could there be?
"I'm from another world," she said.
"Aye, you are. But where is it? On another landmass? Beyond Kolini? Beyond the Wild Islands or Village People?"
She shook her hear. "I am from another world," she said waving her arms around in a circular gesture. "There are other worlds from this one. Not countries, or landmasses, or anywhere."
"Aye..." Toh stopped and thought about what a world could be. "I've heard some of the Zingundi priests talk about there being people out there living on the sun and moon. They all seem crazy to me, but now you're here..."
She smiled. "I don't mean that, Toh. I mean a whole world. When you look around you, you see things everywhere. Stuff, space, all around us. This farm, this land, the moon, the sun and stars, everything. This is the world we are in.
"There are other things exactly like this thing. Other things that are also worlds. Other worlds," she paused scrunching up her nose, "Imagine that everything about the world is exactly the same. Except, instead of being human we're all talking donkeys. That's another world."
Toh's laughter abruptly cut off when he saw her serious expression.
"So where you're from, you're a talking donkey?" He asked slowly. Sharta. She told me they go mad after moving things around too much.
It was Hetsa's turn to laugh. "No, Toh, but maybe that world exists. I'm from another world, where we have humans. And houses. And air conditioners." She shuddered.
"No talking donkeys?"
"No talking donkeys."
Toh scratched at the stubble growing along his chin. He needed to shave before they got to Gretoza.
"Alright, you're from another world, but where is it?"
"Worlds are not like places. They are not in spacetime. I'm not from somewhere or anywhere. You can't travel there," she said.
"But you came here. Must a' got here somehow," Toh said resuming plucking.
"The only way to exist in another world is to become aware of it. Except instead of living in a fake world in your head, you exist in a world that already exists," Hetsa said.
Toh spent some time mauling over Hetsa's words.
"Sharta! Are you saying you've gone crazy and we're all in your head?"
"No! No, not at all," she paused in memory. "That can happen too. When you try to enter another world..."
"How'd you get to the Seat of Puth then? If you couldn't send a carrier ahead to tell them you were coming?" He paused then decided to change the line of questioning to something he would understand. "How'd you get involved with the Puth anyway?"
"In my world-" she stopped then started afresh, "You cannot send a carrier or a message, or anything across worlds. Since you can only exist there by becoming aware of it. Anything you're aware of while you switch worlds would come with you, but unless you have a consciousness you cannot become aware of another world," she looked at him.
She was checking whether he was still following. He wasn't, but she was in one of her chatty moods so he nodded hoping that she wouldn't stop. Maybe it would make sense later.
"So we didn't send a message ahead. We didn't even know what we'd find here," she continued. "In order to determine that a world exists our mathematicians — our scholars — do a bunch of complicated scholarly stuff with numbers. And then they tell us the probability that a certain world exists. If there's a good chance it exists, we can become aware of it.
"They don't tell us about the world though. They describe it to us differently, using numbers and stuff. There might not be a good probability of a world with talking donkeys existing, but there's a good chance there's a world where the grass is orange.
"Hannika and I have a special sort of message for The Black Sun, so we knew we had to come to the government building, the Seat of Power, of your world. But there are two of them here. So, we ended up in Councilman Lawsonfab's office.
"We told him who we were and what we wanted. Turns out, the magi in Puth have been researching the possibilities of other worlds for a while. You guys are getting pretty close.
"Councilman Lawsonfab was fascinated by what we had to tell him. And delighted, because now they know their theories are true..." her voice deepened as she trailed off, lost to her thoughts. Toh heard the undertones of regret in her voice.
"He was very supportive. He called you in to help us and paid for your services. Which I'm very grateful for," she threw another featherless rusot in the basket and turned to face him. "We would not have made it this far without you. Thank you."
"Just doing my job," Toh said although he was unable, and unwilling, to fight the warm feeling in his chest.
They continued plucking in silence. It was only when there were three rusot left that Toh realized he could not smell the acrid stench of their blood.