The Way to the Other Side

Zynd’s eyes were glued upwards and straining. The sky above was more than his vision could take in all at once. Crossing and uncrossing, his sight could find no middle ground in which to settle. He started getting a headache.

"One day all of you will have to chose, between the world of the Core, the immaculate spiritual power given to you at birth, and the Shell, the manmade world of scientific discovery."

And there they were again, the words of Magister Tellon from when Zynd was only eight. The somewhat favored truth (Magister Tellon himself was a child of the Core) was one every student of The Foundry knew well. The time, from 9 months to 14 years, spent by every child in The Foundry was indeed in preparation for making this very crucial decision. When the Day of Decision arrived, no turning back, the Gateways of the Shell and the Core would open, and each young adult would enter to begin a new life. Once they closed behind, the path of the future was written in stone. This is what, on this clear, warm night, had Zynd looking to the Heavens. The endlessness of possibility above soothing his fears of the actuality of what seemed everything.

Whenever something had Zynd baffled or worried, he looked toward the sky for comfort. Tonight, on the eve of The Day of Decision however, the black expanse offered little comfort. His belly was as fiercely clenched as it had ever been, and he felt so lost he could scarcely find thought, let alone understanding.

It wasn't that he didn't know which door he was going to choose. The Core had called to him deafeningly since he could remember - even the greatest professors of the Core marveled at his aptitude in manipulating it to his desires - and his experience with the Shell left him confused and bumbling. What really worried him about the dawning of the next day was the separation from his home and friends into the harsh loneliness of solitary reality.

On Jaxtapose, one didn't ever really have parents so to speak of. After the mother and father of a child delivered it into the care of The Foundry at nine months, they no longer had any claim over it. Regardless of which side of the world the parents had come from, Cannamar of the Core or Trinsic of the Shell, upon their child's entry into The Foundry the infant was stripped of all heritage and given a clean slate from which to learn. Raised by professors and advisors, each child was considered not as a progeny of mother and father, but of the hierarchy itself. It was thought that if a child knew the choice his or her parents had made regarding their own Decision, it would sway the child's. A master of the Core was a waste in a world of science, and a student of the Shell would never amount to anything in the realm of sorcery.

Looking away from the mighty spectacle above, Zynd shifted upon the bench uncomfortably. It looked so real, the sky above, but he knew - it was general knowledge - that the heavens above were as fake as the grass below. Everything in the middle ground of The Foundry was crafted to look like a relative facsimile of both worlds outside of its walls. It was all the product of clever science and powerful magic, not intended to trick the students, but simply to make their future transition easier. No, the sky above was a ceiling, and the grass below a stone floor - The Foundry was actually a building, sealed off completely from the outside. The Shell and the Core never occupied the same space anywhere in mainland Jaxtapose - the world was split, Cannamar and Trinsic. The two forces only coexisted here in The Foundry, as a means of being able one day to strip a child of one and have them prepared for a world dictated entirely of the other.

Zynd wondered to himself why it was that the Core and the Shell, which worked so well together in the Foundry, had to be separated in the rest of the world. Then, knowing the answer, he scolded himself as Tellon would have for being rhetorical. The requirement of scientific endeavors to use the earths natural resources for fuels stripped the land of the very energy the Core required. Likewise the waves and auras generated by the use of the Core disrupted the natural (or artificial) functioning of mechanics. It was said that neither side really trusted the other one. The History Books said it was a great war between the two that had prompted the construction of the ScioMagical Barrier in the first place, but it was all conjecture really. The ScioMagical barrier - a construction which divided Cannamar and Trinsic and which was made up of both the powers of the Core and the Shell, thus preventing either one side from tearing it down and possibly infiltrating the other, had been erected before the establishment of reliable record keeping. Zynd reminded himself that everything really made perfect sense. Regardless, it was all a bit overwhelming.

Zynd looked up again. He had always loved counting stars, but tonight someone must have goofed, because the points of light, programmed to slowly start appearing every night at 7 had yet to do so. The heavens were as dark as Zynd's heart felt this evening. "How appropriate…" he muttered to himself.

“Someone must have goofed.”

Startled, Zynd’s gaze shifted from above to his side. There, lazily propped up against the bench to his right, face turned upward, stood Rexus. Without looking away from the sky, he continued.

"Ol' Ferverton in Geo-Environmental Mechanics is going to get it! This is the second time he slacked off and forgot the stars this month. I'd hate to be in his shoes when Prime Magister Vyrnix get his hands on him!"

Zynd smiled. Rexus was, and had always been his best friend. They had been virtually inseparable since they met at age three. The same age to the day, the only ones who shared the unique birth date, it had hardly mattered that they excelled in different areas - Zynd mastering the Core, and Rexus a Shell savant. Well, it hardly mattered for 13 years that was… now on the precipice of departure from The Foundry it made a huge difference. Remembering a big part of why he had been unsettled in the first place, Zynd's face returned to it's prior slump.

Rexus, finally switching his gaze from above to his side where his best friend sat, took note of Zynd's pouting grimace for the first time. The smirk on his face softened, but failed to disappear completely - it never did. Seeing that his best friend wasn’t in the best of moods, Rexus considered for a moment, visually showing his thoughtfulness. Then, acting as if suddenly illuminated with a solution, he spread his smile widely and winked in Zynd's direction. Zynd knew what this whole act meant - Rexus was going into his cheery-clown mode. It was a role he played well, usually to the chagrin of his professors and advisors, but not wholly unlike any other role he regularly played. Rexus' mien and countenance rarely seemed to be anything but cheerful.

Sighing, but feeling a bit better already, Zynd sat back to watch the antics.

Rexus began humming a little ditty, and after a moment started to sway back and forth with the music. Already looking ridiculous, and well known for being a cut-up, the handful of other students playing around the picnic table took note, some pointing, a few giggling. The attention only made Rexus more determined. Suddenly, he increased the speed of his humming and elevated his rate of swaying into a little dance of sorts, a bit spastic for sure, but a dance none the less.

Zynd couldn't help but smile a bit, and he shook his head in amazement. It never ceased to amaze him how bravely foolish Rexus could be without even feeling the least bit embarrassed.

Though all the kids around them had stopped what they were doing and were now watching Rexus, his eyes never left the gaze of his best friend. Even as he started running wildly in circles and changed from humming to incomprehensible singing, he never took his eyes off Zynd for a minute. It was his way of letting Zynd know it was just for him - that Zynd was his intent and that he wouldn't stop until Zynd had been satisfied. Zynd, despite his best efforts, started laughing… it was just all too silly.

Finally, seeing that he had accomplished his goal, Rexus ended his act with a little ‘wah!”, a hop, and his hands out-stretched. As the onlookers around them clapped, Rexus, breathing heavily, playfully wiped his brow and collapsed backwards onto the ground. Zynd thought it was a good thing the artificial grass also had artificial cushioning to go along with it.

The others began to go back to what they were doing as Zynd stood up and walked over to where Rexus was still sprawled out. That was another thing Zynd loved about his best friend - though Rexus was one of the most popular student in all of The Foundry while Zynd was one of the least, he never cared about it at all. He always treated Zynd as most important. The two of them were family, and it was nice to know someone had his back. Slowly shaking his head in astonishment, Zynd went over to where Rexus’ was laid out. “You’re a moron…” he said half jokingly.

Zynd stuck out his hand to help Rexus up. Rexus, eyes closed, opened one slightly as if to see if anyone was looking, and then, closing it again, stuck out his own hand and grabbed Zynd’s to be helped to his feet. Zynd pulled, and Rexus popped up to stand proudly before his best friend. As if none of the prior few minutes of dancing had never occurred, he was back to his sure self. His smirk was at full blast slyness. “I’m a moron, but you love me!” Rexus sang.

“How could I not?” Zynd shrugged. “You’re like my own trained seal.”

“I don’t do birthdays!” Rexus demanded, and they both crumbled into riotous laughter. After a few moments the humor of the incident faded, and they regained composure. They were two of a kind all right. After a moment of silence, Rexus broke through.

"So what's wrong with you then?" he asked in his typical nonchalance.

Remembering what it was, Zynd forced himself to act cheerful, lest he send Rexus back into a full blown circus routine that may never end. "Aw, it's nothing. Just thinking, that's all."

“Ahhh, so that's the problem. What have I told you about thinking so much! I told you you're bound to be the first to die of a heart-attack at 13 years old." Rexus put his arm around Zynd's shoulder. "Live like I do”, he said, holding his hands out to the sky as if encapsulating an image, “under a heavy veil of ignorance." He turned and looked his best friend square in the eye.

Zynd knew better. Rexus was just as intelligent as he was, maybe more so. Truly he was a lot more emotional about things too, but he never showed his feelings in public. Only in private conversation did the heart show through Rexus' façade. "Well" Zynd thought to himself, "No use in bringing both of us down. I don't need to talk about sad things on our last night here." He started to made an idle comment about the sky-star problem and Ferverton's incompetence when Rexus, eyes still glued on his own, continued.

"You won't bring me down. And don't change the subject! Look, I know, I'll bring it up, 'cause I know what it is!" He removed his arm and stare from Zynd and walked forward thoughtfully. Then turning to look back at him again, "You're worried about the decision, aren't you?" He said ‘decision’ in his best foreboding monster voice, as if it were going to come out and bite both of them.

Zynd was surprised. He really shouldn't have been. After all, Rexus was on the edge of a new life too, it must have been on his mind just as heavily. It was more than that though. It was like when Rexus looked at him intently as he had moments before, and often did, that he could see right into Zynd's head, into his brain, and into his very thoughts. Sure, he phrased them like questions, but references to what Zynd was thinking always sounded more like statements. Well, they had known each other so long that he could sometimes read Rexus' mind too. He had asked Rexus about it before, but had never gotten a satisfactory answer. Deciding to let it go this time, he answered.

"Of course I'm worried. Aren't you?"

Rexus shrugged. Zynd knew indifference on his best friend’s part was always a hesitant affirmative. If it was a no, or a definite yes, Rexus reveled in the avetting of it.

"That's what I thought!" Maybe it was Rexus' actions that Zynd could read, not his thoughts. "Well, what are we going to do about it?"

Rexus walked back over to his best friend, put his arm back around his shoulder, and led him to the bench to sit down.

"Well', he began, his tone more serious than usual, "there is nothing we can do, is there? The Day of Decision, the one we have been so careful to ignore over the years, well, it's come upon us finally. There was never anything we could ever have done to change how it works." He looked blankly away. "This, well, this is just how it works."

"It is our decision though… I mean, ok, I'm obviously meant for Cannamar, and sure, everything about you screams Trinsic, but one of us could just play fall guy. For instance, if you came to Cannamar with me, well, my control of the Core is great enough that I could support you. You could just, just…"

"…just live the rest of my life as the house bitch of 'Zynd, Master Sorcerer of All the Land'? Is that what you’re thinking?"

Zynd laughed. "No, no, ok, you're right." A pause. "Well then I could come over to Trinsic with you. I'm sure you'll be making a great living in a couple years, and then…"

"… and then I could support you, sure, but what would you do for the rest of your life? You know what Advisor Delsome told me happens to those not skilled in the Shell who choose Trinsic? Well, apparently there is a position called Sewage Waste Technician, and all they do all day is wade through…"

"Ugh, Rexus, I get it. You can stop right there." He sighed. "So that's really all there is? We just leave tomorrow and never get to see each other again?"

"Well, no, the great Creator might come down and destroy the ScioMagical Barrier, pay us each a house call, and then pick us up and put us together in a vast garden of nirvana-like bliss where we can frolic with the magically created and naturally evolved beasts all together for the rest of our gleefully long and fruitful lives."

Zynd grunted. “Well you don't have to make fun of me. You know, one would think with your colorful imagination that the Core would be right up your ally.”

“And one would think with all your deeply intellectual and disgustingly serious points of view that you would be the Shell brat. But as it turns out, it worked the other way around, didn’t it?"

“Yeah.” They sat in melancholy silence for a moment. Then Zynd perked up again. “But if you came with me over to Cannamar we could...”

"Drop it, will you!" Rexus snapped. The reaction, that like of a wounded animal was an extremely rare, but not unknown response to Zynd. It meant his best friend was at a loss for an answer – a place in which Rexus loathed to be. Despite the fact it had been seen before, coupled with the situation at hand it hit Zynd hard in the gut, and he was taken aback. If the king of all answers was without a solution, woe betide all involved.

There was a long, miserable silence framing the helplessness they both felt. Nervous and frightened eyes darted for what seemed like forever as they stared alternately between the ground and blankly into the distance.

Finally, biting his lip in another sure sign of vulnerability, Rexus broke through "I'm sorry, man, I really am. It's just, you're all I've had in the world for 14 years. I want desperately for there to be a way around us parting ways, but there simply isn't one. This is how it's supposed to be."

Despite his best efforts, and still smarting from Rexus snapping at him, tears began to run slowly down Zynd's face. He hurried to wipe them away and silently cursed his childishness. Crying in public… at almost fourteen years of age… how was he ever going to make it in Cannamar alone? He fixed his gaze at the ground in a feeble attempt to hide the tears from his best friend.

Rexus nudged him with an elbow playfully and said with a grin, "Ok, how about this: "Zynd, the greatest sorcerer in all the history of Cannamar, found a way to harbor control over the Shell with only his magnanimous power over the Core, and in the greatest achievement upon Jaxtapose to date he smashed down the ScioMagical Barrier in disgust. When questioned about his actions, he replied to this reporter 'Well, Janet, I just wanted to play a game of hopscotch with an old friend of mine'." Having said the whole thing in a high-pitched voice with one fist clenched in front of him like a microphone, he now shoved his fist to Zynd's mouth. "What does the man himself have to say about this heroic and most certainly sexy to the ladies achievement?"

Zynd laughed and pushed the ‘microphone’ away playfully. "I don't know. I guess it could happen…"

"Of course it could happen!" replied Rexus, dropping the act. He looked seriously and intently at Zynd for a moment or two. Then, one side of his mouth rose in a contented smile. "And you know what? I think it's going to be alright." Then nodding as if with growing assuredness, still looking right at his friend in front of him, "In fact, something tells me it's going to be better than alright. It's going to be great. Yep… it's all going to work out just fine." He stood up and stuck out his hand.

Zynd looked up at him curiously. He wasn't sure why, but somehow he felt a whole lot better. He smiled, wiped his eyes, nodded, and took Rexus' hand to stand up. Looking at each other, each let out a big, not completely discontented sigh.

Then, with one of Rexus' arms over his shoulder, and Zynd's hand behind Rexus’ back, they walked towards the cafeteria together. Together, for what might very well be one of the last times ever.