Shadows in the Erd dimension in the style of Félicien Rops, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.
Chapter 25: Practice makes perfect
Expedition headquarters, Mikla metropolitan area, Confluence dimension
Year 42 of the Confluence Republic (local time)
Reading the new chapter about alien enemies engaged in an indirect attack on the Confluence focused everybody’s minds. After their morning meeting in the Tower, the SC agents set up base in the Expedition headquarters to prepare for incursions into the Erd dimension.
The objective of such raids on Erd was not yet clear, but it seemed obvious to everyone that they should develop the capability to enter the Erd dimension and attack the shadows haunting it. Of course, most of the group had very limited dimensions capability, so the first step was to practice the basics.
Sophie ran the first excursion into Kirat, the others tagging along basically as tourists, but on subsequent practice runs the others collaborated on the dimension shift and took turns activating the shift back home. Dimensional magics consume a lot of energy and cannot normally be practiced very quickly, but the agents tapped into the SC hoard in order to get some forward movement. After a few days, everybody in the group – not counting Sherlock – was comfortable with activating the return.
Sherlock was adamant that he must accompany Watson and the others wherever they go, and although familiars are not usually allowed to join their humans on dimensional excursions, nobody could identify any clear operational risk behind this policy. When Watson had familiarized himself with the dimensional shift procedure, he started taking Sherlock with him. There were no smells in Kirat nor, for that matter, anything resembling physical objects giving a clear sense of being in a three-dimensional space, which confused and disconcerted Sherlock somewhat, but he eventually got used to it.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The agents shared responsibilities largely according to what the SC board had suggested, with Charlotte taking care of the obfuscation, Watson of the Transmission, and Bob conjuring up a great light. While Sophie fronted the dimensional magic, however, all the others also contributed and could trigger it if they had to. Bob had to keep the light conjuration dormant for obfuscation purposes, and they worried that if the vampiric shadows attacked, Bob might be overwhelmed before he had the time to activate it. One solution to this problem might have been to share its activation trigger in the same way that they did for the dimensional magic, but adding too many tasks to everybody might risk compromising their focus. Instead, they made Bob put up a contingency flow that would be triggered by incoming high-speed movement. If the shadows stormed towards the group in the way they had done with Sophie’s previous team, the contingency would trigger automatically.
With this precaution in place, the group started experimenting with entering the Erd dimension. For the first run, they jumped in then immediately jumped back out. Then, making sure to vary their entry point, they repeated the rapid in-rapid out maneuver so that each person had a chance to trigger the retreat. Sherlock reported that Erd seemed almost devoid of smells, with the exception of one very dominant one permeating every area they visited; Watson was later able to determine that this odor was that of oxidizing iron. There was not generally a lot of iron around, and no one had any particularly good explanation for why the entire Erd dimension should smell of rust.
Eventually, they started staying in the Erd dimension for a few seconds, then up to a few minutes. On one of those runs they detected movement inside a nearby building. Sophie had to breathe very carefully to avoid panicking, but she managed to stay cool and Charlotte managed to keep the group obfuscated – at least for the few seconds they waited before jumping out. The next time they detected movement, they stayed a little bit longer, then even longer than that.
Finally, they started probing the vampire shadows. Sophie had never seen such magic before – the way its strands were woven together seemed utterly foreign, or she thought, alien. She imagined it was the first time that a Confluence citizen – presumably exempting Soth and the other Elders – had gazed upon alien magics. “We have much to learn from this,” she said to the others. “True,” Charlotte replied – “are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
The group jumped back to the Confluence dimension, shared their latest data with the Expedition supervisors, and started planning how they might capture one of the shadows.
Shadows in the Erd dimension in the style of Abstract Expressionism, as interpreted by DALL-E in February 2025.
