“So where’s our first port of call?” Peter asked, looking around at the bizarre buildings that lined the streets. Staring at the buildings was unavoidable. There was inevitably one that was so distinct, so different to its surroundings that the eye would be attracted to it naturally. Sometimes it would be because of a difference in colour, like a single building of blue surrounded by various reds, yellows and oranges, sometimes it was because the styles or materials used in the facades were odd or rare. Sometimes, however, it was because the buildings simply did not make sense. As they walked down the lane there were three or four monstrosities that could barely be called buildings, let alone houses. One was simply a figure of a man folded over a thousand times, his face warped in a combination of pleasure and pain. His mouth was the door and it would stretch open when someone walked by, as if inviting them to witness his insides. Another house they walked past was simply one that seemed to invert the moment you walked inside. The ceiling became the floor and the floor the ceiling. It seemed odd to passersby that things would fall up if dropped, but the family who lived within seemed entirely comfortable with that fact.
As they reached the end of the street, Laurence stopped before the massive statue in the middle of the crossroads. These statues existed everywhere in Thought, as they worked as signposts to direct people. At the base of the statue was a massive grid that signified the city. Unlike Spirit, which was a massive sprawl of naturally grown streets, much like the roots of a tree, Thought was a labour of love to ordered chaos. The city was a massive grid that spanned the entire plane, with small statues that guided people and larger statues that allowed people to move vast distances in mere moments, for a price. The city was perfectly rigid, even though the buildings themselves were in a state of slow flux.
“We’re going to see an old friend of mine. I haven’t seen her in a while, but the last time we saw Jim, he was staying with her. Do you know the city well at all?”
“Not at all. I skipped Thought the moment I was able to travel between the floors freely. All I really cared about was getting as much power as I possibly could as quickly could”. Peter spat on the ground, feigning disgust at himself. “Fat lot of good that did for me, eh?”
“I know the feeling. Well, then you won’t know much about the city. The statue in front of us is a city map, and the icon denotes what section of the city we’re in. The red statuette on the map is our location, and then the four colours that border the streets deonte each of the cardinal directions. All the blue statuettes are transport stations, which allow the citizens of Thought to move rapidly through the city. It’s a nifty system”.
“Master,” Fen said, tugging upon Laurence’s sleeve slightly. “How do you get to travel between floors?”
“It’s a reward for reaching the twelfth floor testing area. As long as your body is of equivalent rank to the mana of your target floor, you can just will the floor you wish to travel to, and then anyone who follows through the doorway with you will be taken along. If your companions can’t deal with the added pressure then they get crushed by the residual mana or you spend all your time looking after them”. Fen nodded as Laurence spoke, taking note for his inevitable journey up the tower. All three of them knew that the boy would eventually climb the tower, so Laurence and Peter would often instruct him on the goings on inside each floor, to pave his way and to make his journey smoother than either of theirs ended up being.
After instructing Fen, Laurence guided the rest of the group towards a blue statue to the far north of them. Occasionally they would talk about the state of Thought, but often Laurence would spend his time walking down the long, straight streets staring at the towers that dominated the skyline. Half of them held very odd spots in his heart that he could not work around. He knew that likelihood was, he would have to go and visit them to solve the issues that he was having, and to clear his mind so he was better prepared for the journey that he was undertaking. After about fifteen minutes they arrived at a statue shaped like a doorway with a simple map on a raised platform set before it. Pushing past the mass of people that stood around the platform, Laurence quickly input the number and region signifier then ushered Fen, Peter and Rose through the gateway. On the other side of the gateway they made their way through the busy streets, turning at intersections and avoiding as much of the crowd as they could. Much of the crowd split apart at their mere presence, but some were not as sensitive to the auras of those far stronger than themselves. It was only twenty minutes later when they finally stopped before a relatively plain house. The building was a soft yellow, with light waves carved into the face, as if the wind was caressing the facade. They walked up the small set of stairs and Laurence paused before knocking on the door.
“Just so you know, Jim isn’t here. The front of the house is very different to what I remember, but I haven’t been here in about six years. Either way, this should be able to at least point us in the right direction”.
With muttering assent from Peter, Laurence knocked on the door and waited. When there was no response, he knocked again. Still there was no response. As he prepared to knock a third time, he felt the door click and saw a small, stout woman open the door and frown at the mismatched group before her.
“Oh,” she said. “Laurence. It’s you. You’re actually the person I least expected to see today”. She stopped and took a good look at the people behind him. She smiled at Fen as he looked up at her from behind his master’s leg, but her eyes bulged when she saw Peter and Rose. “Are they... Are they who I think they are?”
“That’s Peter, and the body that was formerly Rose Mephisto,” Laurence replied, shrugging.
The woman opened her mouth, thought for a moment, and then slammed the door on Laurence.
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