Hopping Celestial Fox

“So, let’s start with the obvious,” Casey took charge once the initial reactions to Frank’s introduction passed. “First of all, Renee obviously has something supernatural, magical, and/or divine going on about her.”

I grumbled to myself, but couldn’t refute her.

“Only you can see and interact with the portals. And… For you, they have always been around, right?”

“Well, yeah…” I nodded. “But I didn’t do anything about them. And then later, they started shocking me.”

Casey nodded. “But they don’t shock you when you are like that, right?” She gestured to my fox ears.

“No… they don’t.”

“Right. So, I’ve been thinking about it since you messaged me about Mrs. Chrona’s dream.” She nodded to my mom. “My thought is that the portals weren’t supposed to shock you, but for some reason, being in a normal human body doesn’t mesh well with… whatever they are.”

I frowned.

“Not supposed to shock me? Why do you think that…?”

“Because again, you are the only one who can interact with them. You are meant to interact with them, so getting shocked for it wouldn’t make sense.”

I pursed my lips.

“And so, if I use true form, I become someone who can interact with the portals without getting shocked.”

“Exactly. Even if it’s not your true form, it’s still something close. Closer to… whoever you’re supposed to be. Someone who can interact with the portals.”

The theory sounded fairly reasonable.

“I guess so…” I mumbled. “Still no idea who I’m supposed to be, though.”

“A foxgirl, right?” Frank quipped, making me blink.

“Uh, um… I-I guess? But that’s not what I meant…”

Frank grinned and elbowed Casey. “Oh hey! She finally admitted it!”

I felt my cheeks grow red at the sudden topic change, looked to the side, and muttered, “Frank…”

Casey cleared her throat, gave me an encouraging smile, and then put on her serious expression once more.

“The next thing we know is that the portals all lead to fictional worlds, and by entering them and interacting with the people inside, they become real.” She glanced at Elyssa and Wi. The latter wore a conflicted expression, while the former nonchalantly nodded with a smile.

“That might not be true, though,” Mom interjected. “We only have a sample size of two, after all. There could be different types of portals for all we know.”

Casey nodded. 

“That’s true. But we won’t know until Renee opens more portals.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go and open more of them and see where they lead!” Frank suggested enthusiastically.

“Hold on, that’s just reckless,” Mom argued. “We still don’t know for sure whether opening a portal has any long-term side effects. Not to mention, other portals could directly lead to something dangerous. What if the other side of a portal is filled with noxious fumes?”

“Oh sh– poop. I didn’t think about that,” Frank admitted, paling a little.

I hadn’t thought about that possibility either. I didn’t think opening one of the portals would immediately kill us with whatever lay on the other side, but… Could I maybe feel what was on the other side without opening the portal first? Both of the portals I had opened had a slightly different feeling to them, so maybe…?

“Anyway… It’s not a hundred percent certain, but from what we can tell so far, each portal contains a fictional world,” Casey concluded, pulling us back on track. “Moreover, it seems like it’s still possible for the original creator to change the fictional world even after you open the portal to them, but only in ways that wouldn’t contradict what has already become real.”

Casey then pulled out a palm-size device and placed it on the coffee table. She clicked some buttons on it and it lit up, projecting a holographic image above it. Casey continued to fiddle with it, going through menus and opening folders, while Wi and Elyssa stared at the marvels of modern technology. After a minute, the hologram landed on a text document.

“I linked my novel’s document to this holocard, so I can look at it and edit it anywhere I go.” She waved her hand at the hologram before scrolling through the text and stopping on a certain passage. “Now, unfortunately, physically changing the world doesn’t retroactively change my novel or anything like that, and I also have no idea when an edit works or not, so I always have to manually check.”

She gestured at the projected passage.

“For example, I tried to write in an entrance to a secret lab of some wizard of the past, but when I wrote it in a place where you had been chased by the spider, nothing happened. When I changed the location to be on the opposite side a little further away, though, it was there when we checked.”

“Yeah, it was super rad! Casey put in a ton of magical items and stuff and now we’re loaded!”

Huh. It felt like I had missed out on quite a bit… In the end, they’d gone ahead and had their fantastical adventure without me, hadn't they…?

“So… Yeah. After visiting it, it became impossible to edit the place any further. I can only edit things fairly far away from the castle now, I think.”

“So it’s like your power over reality fades the more you interact with it…” I murmured.

“You know, I still think you should canonize your existence before you lose all power.” Frank cleared his throat. “The goddess of origin, Casey, labored day and night, designing all the intricacies of the world. When she was done, she handed her work to Renee, the goddess of creation, so that she could bring life to her world!”

Casey elbowed him.

“I’m not gonna do that!”

“But why not?! It’s true!”

“I agree that it would make sense to include it now, if only to be honest with the residents of that world,” Elyssa suggested, glancing at Wi. 

Wi’s expression got even more complicated. Anguish, pain, and… resignation, warring on her features.

It looked like Wi wasn’t as okay with everything as I thought she was. Did she blame Casey for everything that had happened to her…?

“I… don’t need to do that. It’s my fault that that world is the way it is, but I can still go in and fix things. People don’t need to know all the problems are my fault in the first place…”

A hint of anger and annoyance found its way to Wi’s expression when she thought nobody was looking.

She was definitely blaming Casey…

“So, you’re planning on going inside and doing what Wi was supposed to do…?” Mom asked. “That sounds awfully dangerous. Especially after what happened the last time Renee was there. I can’t approve of this, Casey.”

“I know but… I feel like it’s my responsibility. It’s a world I created so…” Casey shifted around uncomfortably. “Even if I didn’t know it would become real, I can’t abandon it now.”

Mom was about to protest more but Elyssa cut in.

“What is your plan then?”

Casey paused and pursed her lips.

“Well, it depends on how much is already set in stone and how much I can still edit… But either way, the first step would be to find one of the Truth Seekers and befriend them.”

“Uhh… Truth Seekers? Were those the funky mysterious conspiracy guys?” Frank interrupted.

“Yes,” Casey confirmed with a roll of her eyes. “They are a group of time travelers from the future who survived the Ragnarok and are now trying to prevent it.”

Huh?!

“What?! Time travel?! I don’t remember you mentioning that!”

Casey scratched the back of her neck awkwardly as everyone stared at her agape. Wi in particular wore an ashen expression.

“Ah, well… That was supposed to be a bit of a plot twist revealed later into the story… But there’s no point in hiding it now.” Casey shrugged.

“Riiight… Wait, hold up! If they are time travelers, they probably already know about us, right? Since they can just go back in time before we meet them and whatnot.”

“Oh, uh. They can’t. Time travel magic was only possible after the Ragnarok because it changed how magic worked. They can’t time travel in this era.”

The staring in Casey’s direction intensified and Wi looked paler by the second.

“By the way… What exactly causes this… Ragnarok?” I asked.

“Well, it’s… A magical experiment gone wrong in one of the secret labs deep in the demon country. It’s the main reason why Wi would have canonically needed to unite the people against them. Because they refused to stop the experiments when the Truth Seekers told them.”

I grimaced.

So canonically, Wi would have united the humans and elves… to go to war with the demons. I already knew that the story was quite dark considering Wi’s backstory, but dammit…

“And when does the Ragnarok happen? How much time do we have?”

Casey narrowed her eyes for a second before replying.

“About five years.”