The world slows to a terrifying crawl as the hippo’s massive jaws descend toward you…
Your muscles tense, preparing for the crushing impact—for death all over again. The phantom pain in your chest flares to life, a burning reminder of your previous demise. The rancid smell of the hippo’s breath—a mixture of decaying vegetation and murky water—fills your nostrils, heightening your terror.
But in that suspended moment between life and death, something unexpected happens.
The Stranger on your hover-stretcher suddenly twitches. His eyes remain closed, but his right hand rises with deliberate purpose. The motion is so subtle you’d miss it if not for your heightened awareness of every detail in this frozen second.
A faint gold light pulses from his fingertips—a familiar energy signature that your synesthesia translates into rippling golden threads. The threads extend outward, invisible to normal sight but blazingly evident to your perception. They reach out, not toward the hippo directly, but toward something beyond—searching, finding, grasping.
The Stranger finds the tethers bonding the hippo with her babies yards away and tightens them like pulling ethereal ropes. The tethers are like electric golden light, vibrating with primal connection. As soon as The Stranger tightens the tethers, the hippo’s attention is tugged, as if the tethers yanked her mind. She halts in her tracks, still angry, but distance is immediately growing between the hippo and the stretcher.
The beast’s eyes refocus, confusion evident in its expression. It glances between you and the direction of its calves, torn between two competing imperatives. Then, with a frustrated snort, it turns away, powerful muscles rippling as it thunders back toward its vulnerable young.
You don’t waste the opportunity. The hover-stretcher zips forward, carrying you and The Stranger away from danger, leaving behind the exhausted hippo to return to its babies and your abandoned light weaver—probably now burnt to a crisp or trampled to pieces.
Your heart hammers against your ribs as adrenaline surges through your system. The stretcher maintains its urgent pace, carrying you both back to your dwelling while your mind races with questions.
What did you just witness? Those threads… that was tethering, wasn’t it? But not like any tethering you’ve seen before. This wasn’t proxy control or mind transfer—this was something more fundamental, more primal. The Stranger somehow reached into the hippo’s mind, adjusted its priorities, reawakened its maternal instincts when they were most needed. This wasn’t like remotely controlling a machine or puppet. You watched him extend his mind, his actual soul-threads, into the beast’s mind—touching its thoughts, reshaping its reality. The Archivist and Adepts must be right — there’s much more to tethering than mere body hopping.
You glance down at the nearly unconscious figure. Who is this person?
Hours later, The Stranger has not stabilized yet—he remains unresponsive in your med-pod. You study his features in the soft blue glow of the diagnostic panel. He’s young, maybe a few years younger than you are, with a face that carries both innocence and wisdom beyond his apparent age. A slim ether rig streams across his forehead from temple to temple, its design both elegant and efficient. Somehow, you know that you built it yourself—a thought that catches you off guard.
The question burns in your mind: why was he here in the wildlands in the first place? Alone? Unprotected?
The realization that you possess knowledge about this place—the wildlands—that you shouldn’t know unsettles you. Information about the terrain, the local fauna, even the purpose of equipment in your dwelling feels natural, embedded in your consciousness as if you’ve lived here for years. It’s as if you’re tapping into the memories of this proxy body, accessing its experiences as your own.
Your gaze drifts to his belongings, piled neatly beside the med-pod. An ornate satchel lies partially open, the corner of a book peeking out from within. Your synesthesia immediately focuses on the object, highlighting it with a faint golden glow that signals importance.
Curiosity sneaks in, getting the better of you. You’ve only seen books like these in movies about the ancient artifacts and mysterious adventures. You wouldn’t expect to see this in such a distant future…
You hesitate as you reach for it—but your curiosity overwhelms you. You pull it from the satchel with careful movements.
The book has a leather cover, and bears a striking embossed symbol: a RED CIRCLED DOT (identical to the symbol on The Archivist’s temples and the ether rig she gave you). Strange glyphs decorate the corners and spine, forming patterns your synesthesia tries desperately to decode without success. The book radiates importance, knowledge, power. The leather feels impossibly smooth and warm beneath your fingertips—like living skin rather than dead material.
Your hands tremble slightly as you open it, the pages releasing a faint scent of spices and ozone. The text inside is handwritten in flowing script, the ink shifting slightly as if alive under your gaze.
Your eyes widen as you begin to read:
The Rise of Tethering
To the common man, tethering is merely the technology responsible for everyday comforts and tasks like controlling digital avatars & objects in The Etherverse, fast traveling to physical proxy bodies, respawning into backup bodies after facing fatal harm…
But Tethering is THE SECRET to bending and reshaping reality itself.
I believe this is why we’ve secretly dedicated our lives to mastering the art of Tethering.
Tethering is a divine gift, capable of unlocking full human potential, bridging multiple planes of existence and even elevating humanity to the highest plane of life…
The words seem to lift off the page, seeping into your mind like liquid truth. With each line you read, your understanding of tethering shifts, expands, transforms. What you’ve been told about this technology—what everyone believes—is merely the surface of something far deeper, more ancient, and infinitely more powerful.
Fast Travel
“March 2:
Of all our secrets, our TRIALS ON EARTH, THE AN’JELS or even THE KNOXX…
Tethering must be our greatest…
The key to transcending the limitations of flesh, space and time lies with mastering the art of Tethering…
Today, I FAST TRAVELED with my master from NEWARK to the heart of Cairo in mere seconds. This isn’t the crude ‘body hopping’ the masses believe they’re doing—we projected our very souls along the invisible threads between both places. Our minds didn’t just control distant forms; essentially, we became those forms, experiencing reality from multiple points simultaneously..
The sensation is… inde—
A wave of phantom pain washes over you, the burning sensation crawling up your neck, making it difficult to focus on the text. The pages blur momentarily as you fight through the discomfort, gritting your teeth until it passes. When your vision clears, you continue reading, drawn deeper into the journal’s mysteries…
The sensation is… indescribable…
One moment, we were surrounded by our TEMPLES and the backdrop of New Manhattan skyscrapers —
And in an instant — enveloped in lush greenery and the cacophony of tropical life — those ICONIC EGYPTIAN PYRAMIDS emerging from the trees…
My master promises me that one day I too may be able to fast travel (TRANSMUTE — is the precise word my master uses)”
Respawning
“March 15:
I was surprise to see my lovely sister Amina and my nephew Jinn today near THE SPIRE…
I hadn’t seen them in a decade since I joined The Order…
Seeing my sis and nephew instantly took me back to the first time I witnessed a RESPAWNING…
It happened so fast…
[Undiscernible writing]
I won’t go into the details now — maybe later…
Here’s what I will say now —
I’ll never know the feeling of respawning — I’ve vowed to THE SEVENTH ORDER not to amalgamate with this technology, only to bend it to my will.
The technology is indeed “miraculous,” but I can’t shake the unease.
Are we cheating death?
Or just foolishly postponing an inevitable fate?”
A cold realization washes over you as you read these words. Is that what happened to you in the Temple? Were you “RESPAWNED” after the explosion? Is that why you experience these phantom pains? Your fingers trace the words with reverence and fear, as if they might hold the answer to your own condition.
The Ethics of Tethering
“April 3:
The ethical implications of tethering keep me awake at night.
Humanity can jump between bodies, between realities…
And according to our sacred teachings even time itself…
These answers only bring more questions to me:
Are we playing God?
And what of those who can’t afford multiple proxies?
Or Etherverse subscriptions?
Is humanity creating a new class of division?
The elite live immortally while the rest are doomed to traditional death — or eternal servitude?
The Seventh Order emphasizes harmony and balance in all ways of life…
So how do we bring such harmony back to this very fabric of existence?”
The ethical considerations echo your own growing concerns.
Where does the soul reside in all this jumping between bodies and realities?
The questions posed by the writer feel uncomfortably personal now that you’ve experienced multiple tethers yourself.
Another surge of phantom pain interrupts your reading—a solid 5 out of 10 on your internal scale. The burning sensation creates moments of clarity followed by distracting surges that make concentrating on the text difficult. The journal’s words occasionally blur as the sensation intensifies, forcing you to pause and collect yourself repeatedly.
Transmutation
“September 20:
I’ve done it!!!
True fast travel, unaided by any other person or proxy technology — My first solo TRANSMUTATION!
Unlike the masses who rely on proxies or the Etherverse, I tethered my very essence across continents — naturally…
From NORTH WEST AMEXEM all the way to CANAAN — in the span of a thought.
The rush of energy is indescribable…
But the drain of my life force… that’s even more concerning…
My master says it took weeks for me to build up enough energy to make such a journey —
Each future jump will take less energy than the previous…
But the other concern I have — this power, what if it fell into the wrong hands…
It could jeopardize the entire human family…
Perhaps this is why THE NOBLE ONE said we must guard it at all costs.”
Harmonization
“September 30:
My master spoke today of ‘tones and vibrations’—how each mind vibrates at its own unique frequency. He says the most gifted Adepts learn to harmonize with these frequencies rather than override them. ‘Force creates resistance,’ he warned. ‘But harmony… harmony creates healing.'”
The question hits you like a physical blow. What if this isn’t just about controlling proxies or digital avatars? What if this is about manipulating the fundamental fabric of reality itself?
Your mind reels, questions exploding like fireworks. This man is AN Adept? Like the ones back at The Temple?!
He’s a rather young Adept if so…
And is the events in this journal real?
Or is this man just imagining what he’s writing?
Who are these Adepts — really?
And what else are they capable of?
You wonder if the —
— Suddenly, a sharp pressure at your throat snaps you back to reality…
“Who are you?!!!” a hoarse voice demands.
You freeze, your eyes locked on a strange, GLOWING BLADE hovering at the side of your neck—the top layer of your skin already singed by its hot edge. The leather journal slips from your trembling fingers, landing with a soft thud on the floor between you.
The young strange Adept from your med-pod stands across the room, shaky but upright, eyes blazing with a mix of fear and fury. The ether rig sits heavy on his head, its lights glowing rapidly in response to his elevated heart rate. His left hand grips the edge of a nearby table for support, but the blade seemingly controlled by his outstretched right hand, remains perfectly steady at your neck…
“Where is this place?!” he demands, gaze darting around the room before returning to you with laser focus.
The Stranger glances down at his journal sprawled on the floor at your feet, and his expression hardens further. “And what do you think you’ve read?”
You can feel a drop of your blood rolling down your neck where the blade has broken skin. The weapon chimes and hums with otherworldly energy, a sound your synesthesia translates into sharp, crystalline patterns that cut through your perception like fractured glass.
The blade presses in slightly more, its edge vibrating with barely contained power. This is not a threat, but a promise.
And with a jolt of terror, you realize that your next words might determine whether you live or die…
Again…