That's how to save people's lives

I said goodbye to Norn and stepped into the Lace. I moved through a whirlwind of power lines and lightning and thought about some of the paradoxes of creation: On Earth, my home world, people know nothing about the Lace. Earthlings build spaceships and can't answer the question: are we the only intelligence race in the universe? Unfortunately, the Lace is closed to people who want to reach the stars. 

What is the Lace? It is the sixth dimension, the other side of reality, a shortcut between the stars, or something else. All I know is that the Lace was created. Created by the Demiurge with unlimited potential, but with a human type of mind. The one called the Great Master designed it so that people could travel between worlds quickly, safely, and without any technical stuff. It could be that he even created all these worlds. I think so, because they are all similar in some way and populated by humans. Not humanoids, but real humans. They may have different customs and manners, but they are still human. 

About the Lace. I see it as a huge disk divided into sectors, covered with flashes and colorful shimmering lines. I know how to get from one world to another. I can do it in an instant, or I can walk along the glowing boundaries of sectors, leap over the gaping holes of anomalies, and still reach my destination. Just don't ask me how I do it. I really have no idea. For me, it's no more difficult than an evening walk along the waterfront. But I could never explain it to anyone. 

First, I visited my den in an open world known for its freedom of manners and its monstrous mixture of cultures and customs. I had chosen this place because every outfit is appropriate here and people are not curious. 

The den was empty, dusty and uncomfortable. This was the large room full of various hunter's stuff. I kept my gear there, a weapons kit, boxes of tools and all sorts of gadgets needed for the job. Some of them are unique, made for me by a weapons maker named Aidar from District of Shadows. 

I never lived in my den, I just used it as a warehouse. And this time I came just to take everything I needed for a mission. I put on black pants of dense and the same shirt, an unloaded vest, a leather jacket with a hood, and good boots. I strapped my katana, a gift from my uncle, to my belt. This sword has saved my life many times. I also brought a sling with throwing knives and a dozen smoke balls. Firearms are not useful on most of the Lace worlds. And where they have been invented, they don't know the Lace. Kind of a Sullivan Pact of universal proportions. I also brought the backpack full of many necessary things and some money for unpredictable expenses. 

By the way, I wanted to see Aidar! 

The way to the Shadow District leads through the square in front of Kardwash's only church, the Temple of Unity. To tell the truth, the people of Kardwash are not very religious. But some gods are still worshipped. They are really specific, like for me, but suitable for the inhabitants. For example, the guild of hired assassins worships Bjeng Fourfingers. Mercenaries are favored by Jan the Steel Fist. 

I had chosen my own patron saint too. I didn't pray to him, but I respected him as the one to ask for help. I was assured that gods exist when I met Twelly the Ice. 

My patron had no monument in the temple. Dusty Dron, the God of tramps is the humblest of the pantheon; instead of an altar, he has street posts. They say he still walks among the people, but I've never met him. 

I left the square behind me and after two crossroads I reached Aidar's house. I raised my hand and rang the bell. 

"I was going to ask you," Aidar said thoughtfully and then fell silent. 

I put aside the multi-shot automatic crossbow, the last invention of the crafter, and looked at him waiting. 

"What?"

"How do you do that?"

"Do what exactly?"

"How do you get into that thing, Lace?"

"Touching," I hummed. 

"Archee, I want to know!"

"Why do you need it?"

He grew somber and looked to the side. 

"Just wondering. Ever since you told me about the Lace, I have been mad of it. Of course, I don't have the gift of 'lace bug'. And I have no legs anymore!" He slammed his palms on his wheelchair in anger. "But I have to understand! To find out! It's a mystery that bothers me."

I opened my mouth to object, but exhaled and said nothing. Aidar didn't want to blame me, mentioned his handicap. He never told me. But the fact that I was the cause of what happened to him. It was only because of me that Aidar had come to the temple square that night. And if I hadn't gotten into a drunken argument with a bunch of flibs, there wouldn't have been a fight. And my friend's spine would still be intact. 

"I think if you had a gift, your wheelchair wouldn't be an obstacle." I said and made a decision. Who would know if I told my friend secret information that hadn't been secret in fact for a long time? "The transition to the Lace consists of three steps."

"It's like Came, Saw, Won?" Aidar leaned forward. His eyes were shining. 

I stood up, walked around his wheelchair and grabbed its handle. 

"Sort of, but not the same. Let's go for a walk." 

I took my friend out through the sloping ramp that was in this house instead of the usual stairs. We entered the green yard, separated from a noisy street by a high fence. The craftsman didn't like curious neighbors. 

"Only three steps. The first is - I see my goal". I pushed the chair in front of me and took a step with my right foot. The reality around us changed, covered by mist, at the same time we saw shimmering stars ahead of us. 

"Holly Dron!" cried Aidar, who saw what I saw. 

"The second step: I don't see any obstacles. I left the cozy courtyard behind me and made the abstraction of the Lace visible. "It means opening your mind and allowing the unbelievable to change reality". 

"Sounds great!" 

"I studied it for half a day!" I continued. "And the third is to deny the three dimensions." 

Kardwash had disappeared and we reached the Lace. 

"Is that all?" asked Aidar. 

"What else did you want?" I shrugged. "Everything's really easy when you don't think about what you're doing." 

My friend scratched his head and sighed. 

"You're a lucky guy, Archee." 

"In a way, maybe," I didn't start to argue. But I'm really sure that a man's happiness has nothing to do with the size of his personal universe. "So, let's go back?"

"Are you kidding me?" shouted Aidar. "You haven't explained anything! What is it? What am I seeing?"

I am not really good at explaining. I can show, it's easy. But that was not enough for Aidar and his inquisitive mind. If he had been born on one of the civilized worlds, he would have become a great scientist. But Kardwash had its own peculiarities. 

"So..." I crouched beside the wheelchair and waved my hand. "See that light there? That is the Center. There is Oeldiv, the home world of the Children of Light. Do you see the stars? They are all inhabited worlds. Some of them are like a Kardwash, but most of them are quite different." 

"Show me where your home world is," he asked. 

"It's there," I waved my hand toward the center. "In the opposite sector. You can't see it from here. Go on. That black line is the Shadow - the forbidden zone, very dangerous for one's health. And where the stars are lost in infinity and darkness approaches, there is an Edge beyond which there is only Primordial Chaos. 

I stopped speaking. Aidar focused on the darkness at the Edge, trying to find all the answers to his questions there. 

"You are a poet, Archee," he said at last. 

"I am. Only everything comes out without a verse. Okay, brother, it's time to go home. I will give you a detailed tour some other time."

Aidar grabbed my sleeve. 

"Do you promise?" 

"Dron've heard my words," I answered with a standard word of confirmation. 

My friend beamed. 

"Great! Now how do we get home?"

I shrugged. 

"The same way. Only in reverse." 

*** 

The instructions I received from Norn had nothing to do with a plan and looked more like a collection of charades. I had to solve them all and finally find the Rock of Heroes. It wasn't too complicated, but it was a bit tiring: I had to run around the Lace. 

In one Mediterranean world, the clue was on top of a mountain, in another it was in the center of the maze. I was really happy not to find any beast bigger than a bat. The third clue I stole from the altar of a religious cult, barely escaping the angry mob of fanatics. When the hunt for the next key was ended by the eruption of an ill-timed volcano, I began to suspect that all of them had a specific meaning. But I couldn't figure out what it was. Sometimes it seemed to me that all these difficulties were made just for me. But each new key took me farther and farther, closer and closer to the place called the Dark Edge, so I was moving in the right direction. 

To get another hint, I had to dig through a mile of beach by the azure sea in the unfamiliar world. In the end, I looked like I was crossing the desert on foot. I had sand in my nose, in my ears, on my teeth. But that was the last secret of Norn. In the steel box with the Great Master's monogram on the top, I found a ball of glowing filaments the size of a tennis ball. The inscription on the inside of the box said that I was holding the thread that would lead me to the Rock of Heroes. The instructions followed. 

I placed the ball on my palm and  formulated the task, then threw it on the ground. The ball went three circles around me and stopped, bouncing near my boot. For the next step I had to go to the Lace. I said the formula to cancel the task and hid the ball in my pocket. Before going to the last part of the performance I had to wash and eat something. 

I gladly bathed and washed my sweat and dust-soaked shirt. 

Suddenly there was a reflection of stars in the sea.  

I jumped to my feet and rushed to my things, hoping to grab my sword. Bright flashes filled the space on my way to the blade. The electrical discharges were fountain-like, spinning and condensing to form a glowing figure. 

I wasn't surprised or impressed by this phenomenon. Someone was in a hurry to move from the Lace to the reality of this world, and I didn't feel happy to meet a stranger. I doubted that he had come here by chance. He probably came for the same reason I did. Which meant that there was nothing good to look forward to. 

The next moment, he appeared - a big guy dressed in an unfamiliar manner with a long blade in his hand.  His hair was still standing on end from the discharges in time of the transition. It seemed to me that he was in a hurry. The man waved his blade and took a step forward. 

"Hey, who are you?" I tried to strike up a conversation. At the same time, I stepped aside and bent down to grab a handful of sand to throw in his eyes. 

The stranger staggered, walked towards me... and suddenly fell down, stretching to his full height.  The handle of the knife protruded between his shoulder blades. 

I was confused. For a few moments I stared at the man lying at my feet and couldn't figure out what to do? The stranger didn't move and I understood that he was unconscious. 

I sat down beside him, pushed his sword away, and began to examine the wound. A quick glance was enough to know that it was bad. The knife was in his back all the way to the hilt. And I wondered how he could walk through the Lace with a wound like that. He was going to die in a few minutes, but I had something to help him. I took from my pocket a small vial of the miracle cure. It was the Tears of the Forest, a gift from Forever Young Leah. This cure could heal any kind of wound and would never end. Then I pulled the dagger out of the wound and poured the cure into it. There was thick green smoke and the wound began to heal. I waited a few minutes, then turned the man on his back and poured some more Tears of the Forest on his pale lips. I made sure that a few drops of the remedy remained in the bottle. It was a condition that the medicine would never run out. After a few minutes, the wounded man turned a little less pale, his breathing evened out. 

I picked up the dagger, stood up and took a few steps away, studying the blade.  The broad blade is made of an unfamiliar bluish metal. The rough leather hilt fits comfortably in the palm of my hand. There was nothing special about it at first glance, but I couldn't guess where it was made. I had never seen a dagger like this before. 

A sharp blow to my hand made me drop the dagger. With a cut of my eye, I noticed the movement of the other boot, which tried to reach my knee, and jumped aside. It was ridiculous! I was being attacked by the man whose life I'd just saved. When he couldn't knock me out with the first punch, the stranger jumped on his feet and attacked me again. I parried a straight punch to the body with my forearm, slipped out of his grasp, and immediately missed the knee strike. I got a glancing blow to the jaw, and then I landed a direct punch to his stomach. 

That's how to save people's lives. 

We continued and soon I found out that he was as fast as me, but much heavier. Another time, it wouldn't have been easy to knock him out.  But the Tears of the Forest only healed his wound, that's all. It takes much longer to recover. So in a few minutes, the stranger was exhausted. Absolutely. I pushed him at his chest, he fell down and couldn't get up. But he tried. 

I crouched down beside him, wiped the sweat from my brow and stared at him, waiting for him to understand that I wasn't going to kill him. 

"Who are you?" he finally asked. "What do you want from me?" 

He spoke Lace argo - the synthetic language used by Hanters and other people of Lace, but I had never heard that kind of accent before. 

"Who?" I shrugged. "The one who saved your life."

He thought about it and asked another question. 

"Saved? What was that?" 

I said nothing and showed him the dagger.

His dark brown eyes looked pensive. Then he bowed his head and offered me his hand.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I did not understand the situation at first." 

"That's okay, it happens." I agreed and helped him to his feet. 

Now I realized how big he was. I am six feet tall and he was at least eight inches taller than me. 

"Where are we?" he asked, looking around. 

I told him the coordinates of the world - everything I knew about this place. 

"This is really far from home!" he said thoughtfully. 

"It's all relative." I shrugged and said. "I was going to have lunch. Will you join me?" 

He agreed and I started to lay out the supplies on the spread out napkin. 

"How did you get here?" he asked. 

I smiled and shook my head. 

"It's my business. By the way, you didn't introduce yourself."

"I'm Alex," he replied. "I know who you are. Archee the Fearless." 

"Arthur or Archee would be better." I wasn't happy to hear the stupidest of my nicknames. "How did you know?"

"It's the Tears of the Forest," he explained. "Lea doesn't give the cure to just anyone."

"Wow! You met Leah!"

"I did," he bowed his head, made a sandwich and started eating. 

I did the same, glancing at Alex from time to time, trying to figure out who he was and where he came from. 

I decided he was about thirty. Not less, but it could be much more. There were some places on the Lace where the age of a person had been longing for centuries. What was his profession, his social status? He was a good fighter, but that was common for the people of the Lace. He might have been of noble birth. I could tell from his behaviour. I also noticed some jewelry on him, and his sword: it was too expensive for a hunter. 

The stranger was pale and had shadows around his eyes. He had a high forehead, curly brown hair, and a neat beard. He had noble features that could not belong to a villain. But first impressions can be misleading. 

"How about some coffee?" He asked suddenly. 

"Coffee?" I was shocked. "How could you get it here?" 

"It's the least I can do for my savior." 

Then he made a few passes with his hands and I felt the wave of magical energy. The next moment I saw a tray with a coffee pot, a sugar bowl and some cups. 

"That's impressive," I admitted. 

Alex poured coffee into the cups. 

"You don't look impressed," he said. 

"I've met wizards before," I explained, taking a sip of what turned out to be delicious coffee. "But coffee is not well known in the Lace, it is from Earth."

"I've been to Earth before," he said, getting up. "It's time to go. Thank you for everything." 

The next minute he was gone, leaving behind him the familiar fireworks. At that moment, I was sure I'd never see him again.