The Five Dimensions Part 1: Shadow World

Chapter 35

"That's Naporia. It's the capital of Conficturion, that's one of the three areas the Third Dimension is divided in," Ash explained. Hailey couldn't even nod. She needed her total mind capacity to take in everything she was seeing.

It was not only beautiful; it was also a lot. They must've been on one of the highest floors of a very tall building, which stood on a hill, making it even higher. At the bottom of the hill there was a valley with a big city covering it. It was not at all like any city she'd visited before, no skyscrapers or offices. In the middle was a grand castle, like literally grand. It was as if someone had ripped out a page from a fairy tale book and then had pasted it right there. That was how unreal it looked.

Of course it looks unreal. Hailey thought, trying to think about it logically. It is completely out of my world, so it's supposed to be a fairy tale come to life.

If she thought it through, very slowly, it made sense in a way. That didn't make it any less confusing. Hailey put the thought away ― not risking letting her head explode ― and she turned back to the view.

The houses were very different from Pinemarsh ― especially as Pinemarsh was the most mundane a town could get ― some were large, others were huge, but there were also small cottages. They were all very old-fashioned, it might have been identified as medieval but otherwise it would be something like from the eighteenth or nineteenth century. Hailey wasn't sure in what way time passed in the Third Dimension or whether anything was supposed to be connected to a part of human history. Every bit of new information brought about twice as many questions.

The valley was surrounded by beautiful forest, which also looked very mysterious and dangerous. It was a mix of countless different shades of green, Hailey was sure some of them she couldn't possibly have seen before in her life. Suddenly, she became aware of the lack of whiteness; there was no snow. None at all. She wondered about how time worked here, compared to Earth. Was it winter here, or didn't they have seasons at all? It was a question for later because her eyes caught something vividly luminous. It was glittering brilliantly in the sun, as if thousands of tiny light bulbs were lighting it up.

"The Holy Lake," Ash said, following Hailey's eyes again. "It's close to my house."

"Why is it holy?" Hailey asked, not letting her eyes leave the lake. Just after the words left her mouth, she thought of an answer herself.

It's beautiful enough to be holy, she thought. But that wasn't the answer Ash gave her.

"That's a very long, historical and utterly boring story I'll maybe tell you later when there is absolutely nothing else left to do and I'm bored," Ash said. Hailey just nodded, not going in on the subject. She turned away from the window and they continued walking down the hallway.

There was no decoration, but it didn't look empty either. The view from the windows was decorative enough. However, after a while there were no windows anymore. The new part was exceptionally boring compared to the fairy tale outside the window and the monotonous shades were quite depressing. All the happiness and colors from the views were completely left behind.

They stopped in front of a door, Leo got a key ― moving too fast for Hailey to see where he got it from ― and opened the door with it. Behind it were stairs. Ash went first and motioned for Hailey to follow him. Leo was behind her after he closed the door.

It was even worse than before. Everything was a dull grey and there were no windows at all. There was only one feeble light bulb hanging from the low ceiling. She was silently glad that the stairs weren't long, she was already getting claustrophobic.

"Do you have electricity here?" Hailey asked.

"Not electricity no, but we do have a primary source of energy. Most of it is stored here in the Team Building," Ash answered. Despite herself, she was getting much less bothered by his presence. She couldn't pretend anymore that she found him irritating. Even his simple answers were reeling her in, making her want to hear his voice again.

Hailey was trying to sort out all of her thoughts and all the questions she came up with. She was still very confused about the workings of the Third Dimension, but she didn't know what questions she needed to ask in order to understand. Wouldn't it be much easier if they had like an introductory video for humans? The Order was clearly not focused on human integration into their Dimension.

"What are these three areas of the Third Dimension?" Hailey asked, curiosity creeping up on her again as they reached the end of the stairs and went through a door identical to the one at the top. "Are they like countries? Or continents?"

"More like continents. They all have several countries within them. Naporia for example is actually the capital of the country Roseiron, which is the most important country of Conficturion. That makes Naporia capital of both the country and the ... in your words, continent," Leo explained after turning a corner. This hallway was also dark, but not as gloomy. The ceiling was higher and it was lighter. "Conficturion has fifteen countries, but the other two have much less."

"Frozenia has four and Waterblossom has five," Ash stated, then a grin appeared on his face. "Want me to name them all, capitals and various species of inhabitants included?"

"Sure," Hailey said, giving Ash a daring look. He took a deep breath, right when they came to a stop. "No, no, please not. I thought you were bluffing," Hailey added before Ash could begin. He chuckled. They were standing in front of what looked like several elevators.

That can't be right. Hailey thought. Yes, they had fancy computers and all that stuff, but elevators? She shouldn't be surprised that they had the technology. But somehow her mind had come up with the idea that these overly trained Soul Hunters would use stairs just to get in an extra workout.

Leo softly pushed Hailey inside the elevator that opened with a beep and Ash followed them. He pushed the button of the ground floor. Hailey noticed that the buttons didn't have numbers, but letters. Or to be precise, Greek letters, the whole alphabet. Alpha at the top and omega at the bottom, just above ground floor.

"Every Team has its own floor?" Hailey asked. She could feel the elevator going down, but the feeling was swift and almost went unnoticed.

"Not exactly," Leo began, making Hailey look up at him interested. "Most Teams have several floors, but the elevator only goes to the main floors of the Teams. Those floors are open for possible visitors, the others are not. Only members of the Team have keys to the stairs that lead to those floors."

"So, why was I allowed to be on another floor than the main one?" Hailey's question made silence fall in the small space. She couldn't get anything from Leo's or Ash's faces ― or rather masks ― and they didn't give her an answer right away either.

"It was just convenient to put the Portal there. And you are kind of a special case, aren't you?" Ash said after he regained himself. Leo looked at him quickly, looking somewhat relieved for the quick explanation. His expression barely changed, so Hailey couldn't be completely sure that she was interpreting it correctly.

"Why..." she started to say, but then the elevator stopped. The doors opened onto a lobby. On the right and left were several more elevators. The room itself wasn't like anything Hailey would've expected either.