Chapter 44: Here There Be Gods

Chapter 44: Here There be Gods

The journey between realities is never pleasant.

The main reason for this is because between realities there exists a membrane of silent absence, a thin layer of nothing through which objects must travel. One would believe that traveling through such a non-existent substance would be easy. On the contrary.

The Edge of Everything, as this membrane is known by the Divine and Particularly Well Informed Elite, resists. That is its sole purpose. It resists and therefore, it contains.

But there are ways to break through the Edge. One such way is to enlist the aid of a Hurling Servant.

"Are you getting all of this?" Chip asked Carl. He had been giving a brief explanation of the Edge of Everything. Carl was distracted by, well, everything.

The Wiggletit had been thrown through time and space, speeding towards some ominous blanket of shadows. Carl didn't like the look of that blanket of shadows and, as his stomach twisted into a shape closely resembling a mutant pretzel, he started to panic.

"This is textbook information," Chip said, "Really, everyone knows this. It's basic Edge of Everything trivia."

“So,” Carl managed to scream as the roaring wind whipped about his head. He was afraid his hair might actually be blown out of his head, uprooted by the force. He’d never traveled this fast, and coincidentally, he never wanted to do it again. He bore his head forward, tried to shut his eyes against the raging winds, and said, “What happens next? That big guy throws us through space at this wall. What’s the secret? Is there some sort of door? A ticket booth?”

There was what would otherwise have been an incredible silence, but the moment was filled by the constant cacophony of what Carl guessed were g-forces rushing past his face. To the tenth power.

“Of course there’s not a door,” Chip said with what Carl thought was a chuckle, “We simply break through. It’s like that song. You know the one, right?”

“We break through?” Carl screamed, “Are you nuts?”

Carl looked at the Captain of the Wiggletit and pointed his stump and newly acquired silverware appendage at the man, who labored at the helm.

“Is he crazy?” Carl asked in a screaming voice that screeched and trailed off incoherently.

No one answered.

When Carl opened his mouth again, he suddenly forgot what he might have been planning to say. It was at this time, in fact, that the ship came face to face with the Edge of Everything. It was a veil of blackness that seemed to absorb all light, all energy, all matter.

And it swallowed the Wiggletit.