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    THIRTY-THREE


    <h2 style="text-transform: uppercase">SARIEN</h2>


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    The hand from beyond the barrier held fast as it pulled on Sarien, forcing him to follow. Sarien’s hand and arm disappeared, and he had a moment of panic as he imagined his arm being torn from its socket when the rest of him came up against the barrier.


    He needn’t have worried. From one breath to the next, the opening grew gigantic before him.


    No, he had shrunk and was standing in the palm of a giant hand. The fingers began descending. He screamed and fell as the hand closed into a fist.


    He woke feeling the wind in his hair and something tickling his chin. Groaning, he opened his eyes. Sarien sat up. He was on a hill overlooking a vast field of grass, stretching as far as his eyes could see. Below him, on the slope, someone sat facing away from him. A woman with long auburn hair. She wore a dress, light red with a pattern of white flower petals.


    “Come sit with me,” she said without turning her head.


    He sat cautiously a few steps to her side.


    “Who are you?” he asked.


    The woman smiled serenely. She looked about his age. “You know who I am.”


    Curious, he looked within himself to find a sliver of his gray flame.


    “I wouldn’t use that here.”


    “Why not? Where are we?”


    She ran her hand through the grass and closed her eyes to feel the wind blowing against her face. “Everything you see here is made for your benefit. If you saw with my eyes, your mind would shatter. The gray flame might open your senses past my manipulation. Best not to test it.”


    Sarien immediately withdrew his attention from his gray flame. “You are Order.”


    “I am.”


    “And I’m seeing you as a woman because that is what my mind expects to see.”


    Her expression turned amused. “A male cannot be Order. Isn’t that so?”


    “How are you a person? You’re supposed to be one of the main forces of the universe.”


    “I can be quite forceful.”


    “Was that a joke?”


    Order cackled so hard she snorted. Sarien sat back in alarm. It took her quite some time to regain her composure. “Yes.”


    “Yes, as in you are a force of the universe?” Sarien asked, confused.


    “I am.”


    “Do you know Daisy, by any chance? You remind me of her a little.”


    Order shook her head. “I am bound to stay out of your realm. Her purpose is best served in your realm.”


    “Then how is Wyndemir in our realm? Or, at least, a part of him?”


    “Chaos finds itself in a space between, accommodated by lessers who wish to use his powers as their own.”


    “So, it’s not a world he’s in?”


    She shook her head.


    “What happens if he breaks through?”


    “When Chaos fully enters your realm, it will be torn apart.”


    “Torn apart?”


    “Your entire realm will cease to be.”


    Sarien’s chest grew cold. “Then you must stop him!”


    Order’s face hardened. “Must I?”


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    “Sorry,” Sarien blurted, holding up his hands as if to shield himself from her potential anger. “I meant, can you please help us stop him?”


    “No.”


    “No?” Now, rage blossomed in his own chest. “Why not?”


    “It is not within my power to control Chaos. Even if I could, I would not. Do you know what will happen when order and chaos are combined?”


    “Nothing?” Sarien asked.


    She nodded. “Correct. It would doom your realm as surely as Chaos would on his own.”


    “Can’t you speak to the Council, at least? Convince them that what they are doing will destroy us all.”


    Order placed a hand on Sarien’s forearm, sending a shiver through his entire body. She had closed the distance between them in an instant.


    “The limitations on us are strict for a reason.”


    Sarien looked up into the blue, cloudless sky. “I need to go.” He stood. If Order would not help them, then he needed to find another solution quickly. “We are running out of time.”


    “Sit,” Order said.


    Sarien blinked and found himself sitting down again. This woman, this force of nature, was in complete control of this place.


    “There is no need for such haste. Time has no dominion here.”


    “What does that mean?”


    “Many things change when you move from one realm to another. In my realm, the years are mine to control.”


    “What do you want from me? If you cannot help me, there is no reason for staying.”


    Order looked at him wryly. “I’ve helped you since the moment your link to me manifested.”


    “The white flame? Wait, was it you that helped me heal Trillian?” Sarien thought back to the moment when he hovered over Trillian’s bloodied body. When he used his white flame to save his nemesis. It seemed so long ago. Petty fights with the local bully eclipsed now by his ongoing fight with a Prime and his minions to save Maydian.


    “A brief whim of my sibling, Life. Nothing more. Even then, you could reach far if the circumstances were right.” Order assumed a look Sarien interpreted as wistfulness. “Light and darkness. A pale comparison to what my people once were. Fools trying to put chains on Chaos.”


    “But Chaos crossed through to our realm. How was that even possible? I don’t understand any of this.”


    A small furrow appeared between Order’s eyes. “Chaos, as his name implies, has always been an unruly one. Unfortunately, he is unwilling to communicate with me and my siblings.”


    “Your siblings are the other Primes?”


    “That’s right.”


    “But you and your siblings came from Maydian?”


    “I will not burden you with our origin. Infinity has a way of blurring the past.” She paused, before continuing, “You are correct in your assertions that your home was once our birthplace, but it was different then. Rhinerien, I think that is what you call it, and Maydian were as brother and sister, near and dear. The first of your kind knew us then, but we hardly knew ourselves.”


    “Okay…”


    A soft smile played across Order’s lips.


    Despite Order claiming that time did not pass in this world, Sarien still felt the urgency to leave. He needed to find a way to stop Wyndemir and if the answer was not in this realm, then he had to seek it elsewhere. “Before I leave, I have a few more questions.”


    “Ask away.”


    “Making the white flame and the black into one, was that your doing, or Wyndemir’s?”


    “You are part of me, true, and Chaos is in every man’s heart, but the credit is not ours, not solely. The three cornerstones are incomplete, but to gather them is to set the future into motion.”


    Sarien sighed. More riddles. “Wait. Cornerstones. Does this mean you know how they imprisoned Wyndemir?”


    “Those who came before did not possess the cornerstones, as they did not yet exist. Even if they had, they would not have succeeded as you cannot hold a force of the universe in the void. Rid yourself of that misconception or fall to doom.” Order looked thoughtful. “You will need a vessel.”


    “Vessel. What do you mean? Wasn’t that the huge cube with carvings on it?”


    “I have two things to offer you, Sarien. One is a cornerstone.” When she caught his excited expression, she continued, “Yes, it is one of the items you seek. The other is advice.”


    “Thank you. The cornerstone, is it you? Absolute Order?”


    “Close. It is you, though you are incomplete yet.”


    “Me?”


    “Through me, you have access to a flow meant to keep balance in the universe, both a counterforce and a sibling to Chaos. Once you leave this realm, I’ll grant you access to the full scope of my powers. Be warned, though, it alone will not be enough.”


    “Thank you.” Sarien swallowed hard. He was one of the cornerstones? “Do you know where the other two are? And the vessel?”


    “All of them are within your reach. One is in Nexus, one in Maydian, and the vessel is elsewhere. Unpredictable, that one.”


    “I am grateful for the information, but can you be a bit more specific?”


    “I,” she stopped herself abruptly, seemingly confused, “can’t.”


    Sarien knew that pressing Order would amount to nothing. If she was unwilling or unable to answer him, then he’d have to figure it out on his own.


    Instead, he asked, “What about the Council and their plan? They are anxious about some unknown enemy. Are they right?”


    “I cannot say. We are not omniscient. As I share my power with you, Chaos may do so with others. The Council’s greed will be their undoing.”


    “And these beings they are preparing against?”


    Order shrugged. “You have experienced three realms. Yet, there are many more. So, who can say? Not I.”


    “Three?”


    “Your worlds and the flow that binds them, this realm of mine and my siblings, and the emptiness of the void.”


    That reminded Sarien of what he’d sensed in the darkness. “The void is not empty.”


    “Isn’t it?” She gave him a mischievous smile.


    “I should leave,” Sarien said.


    Order held out her hand. “Perhaps we’ll meet again, Sarien.”


    Sarien took her hand. The realm erupted in roaring gray flames as an incredible amount of power flowed into him. In the blink of an eye, he burned away.