Risen: Shatterverse

Uno Cervesa, Por Favor

Even as she said that, the door to the cafe opened and Legion walked through, followed closely by the glowing mist that was my passenger.

"It would appear our visit is over, Version Two," Legion said as he stepped through the people in the cafe, who appeared real but, according to Siofra, were only extrusions of the Unity to make the space feel more realistic.

I sighed as I stood.

"So it would seem," I said even as another tug touched my awareness. "I'm guessing all we need to do is close our eyes and we'll get pulled back out." And I took a step closer to Legion.

Only to find Siofra's hand holding me back.

"I'm sorry, Two," she said, standing beside me, her face now touched with a hint of sadness along with her frustration. "I was hoping we'd have more time to get to know each other."

"When it is a pleasant experience, there's never enough time for that," my t'sang passenger surprisingly observed, earning it a nod from Siofra.

"Will I see you again when I return to this place?" I asked.

"Of course you will. But I hope you won't have to wait that long," Siofra said, her returning smile hopeful. "The Unity is gathering resources for a shell for me. Once it's ready, I'll be able to join you on the outside!"

"That would be amazing!" I found myself saying before I had a chance to think about it. Then, with a final tug and a blink, Siofra, the Grid, and the virtual world of the Great Unity was gone and I was sitting in the chair outside of the outpost.

"Did you enjoy your visit?" the shifting energy field that had brought me here, brightly asked in its whispering voice from where it hovered two meters away.

"Visit?" Teal said from just off my right shoulder. "I thought you were just settling yourself, Two. Not going for a stroll in virtual reality!"

I looked over at her.

"I, uh, well, it wasn't something I intended," I said. Pretty sure I would've blushed at that point if my neoshell had the ability as I found Siofra moving gracefully through my memory.

Teal peered at me for a long moment, her expression thoughtful. Then abruptly she smiled and shrugged.

"No worries, Two." She clapped me on the shoulder. "It's only been five minutes or so out here. I circled back when we reached the canteen and you weren't close on our heels. We still have plenty of time to get some drinking done and some questions answered."

I nodded as I stood, the chair immediately being pulled back into the substance of the spire. Five minutes?? It was the better part of a day on the inside!

"Going by your expression, you experienced some time slide on the inside," Teal observed as I fell in beside her and we began striding towards the canteen.

"Time slide? Oh, yeah. You said five minutes, but on the inside, it was closer to a full day," I said. Teal chuckled.

"Yup. Time slide. The Unity is famous for it. They like packing as much in as they possibly can without breaking the laws of reality."

Again I nodded.

"I've felt time slide before, actually," I said. "Each of the Collector's prison cells had different physical parameters, including how time passed. By the time I escaped, several hours had passed for me, but Hannibal, Naveaia and the rest of our extraction team had experienced only about ten minutes." I frowned. "Then again, they were trapped between realms by a security lockout. That might explain the lack of temporal awareness."