Nomad And Dizzy
Dizzy struggled with the controls of his newly created device, a glowing box that generated a hologram only he could understand, and also one only he could use properly. The transquagramtic filtering was still glitchy, but the aether tracking he had managed to get working was still worth it. If he could refine this further, what used to take him a full hour would take a couple minutes. He might be able to finally quit his drinking habit if this was successful.
It was hooked up to various parts of the massive stone Gateway with cables meant for various types of energy transmission, powered by pulling from various types of energy batteries within his job. His job usually only required the use of his natural gravity casting, but he had found that using multiple energies consecutively made the configuration process for a Gateway much faster. Unfortunately, he was still the only caster with a working knowledge of linking Gateways, so this new device was the best he could manage.
Dizzy held his breath. It was almost set. He was standing in Cinderfell, and soon the Gateway would be directly linked to Colossus. He just needed to run through the final checks and lock it down, and then he could finally go get a stiff drink while whoever wished to travel between Cinderfell and Colossus could do so. But he jumped as he felt a tap on his shoulder.
Spinning around, he was met with an overly enthusiastic thermal caster he knew to be Nomad. “Heya, Dizzy! I didn’t realize you were working here today! How ya been?”
Dizzy resisted the urge to explode at Dizzy as he turned his eyes back to the extremely delicate task he was attempting to complete. “Foldin’ go away, Nomad. It’s just about the worst time possible for you to start wreckin’ with me.”
Nomad chuckled, unpersuaded. “Aw, but I haven’t seen you in months! Surely, you can spare a second to go get a drink? It’s not like they can fire you…”
“They can sure as rift fire me if I don’t do my job! At the moment, I’m more foldin’ concerned of losing the last several hours of progress- wait…”
Dizzy checked his watch, suddenly confused at the low light level he had been working in. “Oh… four folding hours. If I wreck this up, I lose four hours of work. So in the name of all that is sacred, please leave me alone, you freak.”
Nomad was taken aback. “Four hours? Does it really take that long? I had figured-”
Dizzy began swearing constantly as he threw his device across the ground. “I folding lost it! The aether spin bolts got out of alignment, and it caused a cascading quasimiscontruation! Do you even have the slightest idea what that means, Nomad???”
“Uh… you have to start over?”
Nomad fell backwards onto his back. “Exactly… foldin’ four hours, gone. I was nearly done, for rift’s sake… fold it! Fold it all straight to rift!”
Nomad picked up the now destroyed device. “Hmm… but now you can get a drink though, can’t you? What’s done is done.”
Dizzy looked at Nomad. “Yes… yes, I suppose that’s one way of foldin’ looking at it.”
Nomad put an arm around Dizzy, attempting to console him as they walked towards the nearest bar. “You really need to relax a bit, friend… too much work is gonna put you in an early grave.”
Dizzy let out a grim scoff. “I consider that a foldin’ blessing at this point. You know what? I’m going to foldin’ explain EXACTLY what I do over a drink. Who knows, maybe even a foldin’ freak like you could pick enough of the finer details to foldin’ help me out.”
Nomad chuckled. “Depends. What’s the pay like?”
“Not foldin’ enough, that’s for sure. By the way, you are the one paying after the rift you just put me through.”
Nomad laughed even louder. “All right, I’ll just get the bartender to extend my tab a bit. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
***
Nomad and Dizzy are characters in the second book in my Gatekeeper series. Both the first and second books are available through Amazon in paperback and digital formats.
Gatekeepers, Unquestionable Truth
Gatekeepers, Order of Gravitas