"Maybe we should think about getting married," I said. The words popped out of my mouth before I was aware of it, but once I said them, they felt right. But then something occurred to me and I frowned. "Uh, Darkfolk do get married, right?"
Devona pulled me down toward her, then stood on her tiptoes and kissed me. When she pulled away, she beamed at me and said, "We can make plans later. Right now we should concentrate on finding Papa Chatha, OK?"
"All right."
Varney moaned. "Great! You propose to Devona, and I couldn't film it! My producer is going to put a stake in my heart for sure over this!"
Shamika smiled at us. "Can I come to your wedding?"
"Of course, honey," Devona said. "In fact, you can help us plan it if you-"
We were nearing one of the barriers around Demon's Roost, this one made of a row of vehicles parked end to end across the street, with armed demons standing on the roofs. The air rippled around us, as if distorted by waves of heat rising from the asphalt, and at first I feared that Talaith was already retaliating for the salamanders' fiery destruction of the Greensward. The distortion effect increased, accompanied by a strange disorientation, as if the entire world was slowly tilting to the left. Ghostly images began to appear around us – people thronging the sidewalks, vehicles clogging the street, tall modern office buildings rising into the sky… The people were all human, the vehicles normal cars, trucks, vans and the like, and the buildings lacked any hint of the bizarre that typified the Sprawl's architectural style.
"What's happening?" Devona shouted. Her voice had a strange hollow quality, as if she was shouting from the other side of a thick wall.
"I don't know!" I shouted back. The ghost images reminded me of Bonetown, the Dominion of Edrigu, Lord of the Dead. But unlike Bonetown, these phantasms all appeared to be from the same modern time, and none of them possessed any sign of having died in violent ways – their bodies were unmarked, and aside from their transparent quality, they appeared whole and healthy. It was as if we were gazing upon a faint image of an Earth city, an American one, like New York or Chicago.
Or Cleveland, I thought. My old hometown. Varvara has a mirror in her penthouse – though it hadn't been visible during our latest visit – and it opens onto a park in Cleveland. It was through this mirror that Dale and I had first traveled to Nekropolis. The more I looked at the people and buildings around us, the more convinced I became that I was looking at Cleveland. And what was more, some of the people had begun staring in our direction and pointing, as if they could see us too. Others were looking around them, and I wondered if they were seeing ghostly images of the Sprawl superimposed upon their city.
And then, just like that, the apparition of Cleveland disappeared, and the world righted itself once more, taking the strange sensation of disorientation with it.
"What in the Nine Hells just happened?" Devona said, her voice sounding normal once more.
"Whatever it was, we weren't the only ones who experienced it." I nodded to the demons standing on top of the barrier stretched across the street. They were gazing about in terror, and a couple fired off shots into the air, as if trying to fend off some unseen foe.
"Let me call my producer," Varney said in a shaken voice. He pulled a hand vox out of his pants pocket and made a call. "Murdock?" he said. "It's Varney. What-" He broke off and listened for a couple moments. "Yes… yes… All right. I'll get right on it." He disconnected and tucked the vox back in his pocket. "My producer said they experienced the same thing at the Eidolon Building, and reporters all over the city are calling in, saying it happened in the other Dominions as well." Varney looked at me. "Murdock wants me to forget about shooting footage of you for now and go find people to interview about what just happened." He sighed. "I didn't want to tell him Varvara destroyed my camera."
"So you're going to just keep hanging out with us since you can't do what your boss wants?" I asked.
"I guess so. He's got plenty of other reporters out in the streets to talk to witnesses, and as long as I stay with you, I can still observe what you do. It's better than nothing, you know?"
It sounded like a lame excuse to me. I had no idea how long it would take to repair or replace Varney's cyber-eye, but as strong as vampires are and as swiftly as they heal, surgery can be performed on them rapidly. Switching out Varney's cyber-eye might well prove no more difficult than changing the spark plugs in a car. So why wasn't he hauling ass back to the Eidolon Building for a repair job right now?
I was about to confront Varney about it, but Shamika said, "We were on Earth. Just for a few moments, but we were there."
The enormity of what she said stunned us into silence. When the Darkfolk decided to leave Earth four hundred years ago, they traveled to another dimension where they built the city of Nekropolis. But if what Shamika had said was true, the entire city had been transported to Earth's dimension, if only briefly.
"Is that even possible?" Varney said.
"The amount of power it would take is staggering," Devona said. "I'm not sure even a being as powerful as Talaith could do it."
"Why would she?" I said. "Why would anybody? It's not like the Darkfolk are completely cut off from Earth and dying to get back. They import goods and materials whenever they want, and they can apply for travel visas at each of the Darklords' strongholds."
"Maybe it was her retaliatory strike against Varvara," Devona suggested. "Perhaps she was trying to exile Varvara by transporting the Sprawl to Earth."
I thought about this for a moment. "Maybe, but Varney's producer said the entire city was affected, all five Dominions, Glamere included."
Devona shrugged. "Maybe Talaith screwed up. She wanted to transport only the Sprawl, but the spell accidentally affected the rest of the city."
"I guess it's possible. But if Talaith was in possession of a spell or magical device that powerful, why didn't she use it in the first place? Why bother with destroying the bridges?"
"Maybe she didn't want to risk using it until she felt pushed to strike out at Varvara in a big way," Devona said. "And the spell must be an unstable one and not very reliable. After all, it failed, didn't it?" She turned to Shamika. "What do you think?"
"That seems… logical," the girl said. I had the sense that she might have said more, that she wanted to, but for some reason she remained silent.
Devona continued. "And the other Darklords – including Father Dis – are probably going nuts right now. Using such a powerful spell was bound to get their attention, and Talaith wouldn't want to drag them into her war with Varvara unless she had to. But the destruction of the Greensward angered her so much that she no longer cared whether she upset the other Lords, so she tried the spell, but it got away from her and failed, thankfully."
"Maybe." Devona's theorizing sounded good, but like Varney had mentioned earlier, we didn't have any evidence. "If Talaith was responsible for what happened, let's hope she doesn't try it again. Next time she might get it right."
"That would be awful!" Shamika said.
"That's putting it mildly," I said. "It would be bad enough if the Darkfolk suddenly found themselves back on Earth. Especially the vampires, if they appeared outside during the daytime. The humans would panic, of course, and there would undoubtedly be fighting and casualties on both sides, but that wouldn't be the worst of it. If people and buildings suddenly occupied the same space… well, I'm not sure what would happen, but I bet the laws of physics would be mighty unhappy with the situation and the end result wouldn't be pretty."
We reached the car barrier, and the demons on top waved us past without a word. In the middle of the street on the other side of the barrier, people were starting to gather, and they were clearly upset about the ghostly images of Earth that had briefly appeared. Some were talking loudly about what they'd seen and demanding someone in authority do something, while others simply cried or just stared blankly into space, traumatized. The crowd continued to grow as we did our best to make our way through, and while most of them ignored us, a few recognized me and begged me to investigate the strange occurrence and prevent it from happening again. It was a weird feeling knowing that people were looking to me for help – and frustrating too. You save the damn city a couple times, and suddenly everyone expects miracles from you.