“Now you really are crazy. You don’t know what’s in there!”
“I know. I backed out, closed the door, and came to you for advice.”
He brightens. “You came to me? For advice?”
“Yes. What do we do about it?”
His face scrunches up. “What do you mean? We should ignore it.”
“But what if it’s a clue?”
“A clue to what?” Now he’s looking at me in a different way, confused.
“This place, Tomas. Haven’t you ever wondered what the fuck is actually going on here? I mean, we’ve been here for thousands of years so the time for questioning things is long gone, right? We just accepted this place. We just… assumed that we are prisoners and this is our prison.” I spread my arms wide to encompass the entire sanctuary.
“Isn’t it?” Tomas asks.
“I don’t know. Maybe. But maybe not. We don’t know what’s in those tombs.”
“Well, not true. We know what’s in Tarq’s tomb.”
“Exactly.” I point at him. “If there’s one world hiding behind a door, wouldn’t all the doors be hiding worlds?”
Tomas shrugs. “I suppose it’s the logical conclusion. Do you want to walk through this door?”
“Do you think I should?”
“Should? No.” He laughs. “But not much happens if you always do the things you should.”
“That’s a good point.”
He puffs up with pride. “Thank you.”
“Do you want to come with me?”
“Through the door?” He almost guffaws. “No.”
“Why not? It’ll be an adventure.”
“I’m already in the middle of an adventure. Dr. Love is on. And after her, there is a show called Conspiracy Hour. I’m really looking forward to that one. Then, of course, I need to go into town to get Pie her own solar generators and have dinner with Madeline. I have a girlfriend now, Pell. I can’t run off for a crazy, spur-of-the-moment adventure.”
“Hmmm,” I growl.
“I think you should table your adventure until Pie gets home.”
“But she’ll just tell me not to do it.”
“Exactly. This door has ‘bad idea’ written all over it. Go back to your smithy shop and forget you ever saw that door. In fact, you should not tell Pie about it. All the monsters are worried about her.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s clear that her job is stressing her out.”
“She’s been there one day. How stressful could it be?”
“The monsters say she is, Pell. They know what they’re talking about. Most of them said they’ve been to that world.”
“What?”