Chapter 2: The house that was (k)not.

Post date: 08-Nov-2011 20:47:31

September 25th - 29th

The following days I was very busy cleaning the kitchen. Maybe it was a way for my mind to calm down and get prepared for what I already suspected, and soon enough was to find out. The entries in the diary these first days are very sparse, partly because I was dead tired when I finally went back to my room every evening, with the result that I would wake up in the middle of the night with my face in the book and a cup of cold tea beside me. Even so, here are some small snippets from these days. Then came the thirtieth September, a day when I found myself lost in more sense than one.

September 25th

Mountains and mountains of dishes, I spent the whole day washing up dirty dishes, and there is still more to do. At first it seemed to be never-ending, but at the end of the day there was a slight difference, but so much more to do. The squirrelcats seems to enjoy the show, there was a whole line-up of them watching me this afternoon, and chatting happily among themselves while the great macaw did his act of acrobatics above me. The weather was fantastic, even if I can't go out in the park, there seems to be no exit on this side, still the sun shining through the windows helped my mood and to get the chores done. We had lunch in the orangery, and I had time to go around a bit and look at all the exotic fruit that is grown there. The orangery itself is at least sixty meters long and ten wide, the height is over six meters and all covered with chalked glass, there is about thirty fruit trees, I recognised some intensive red apples and golden oranges, and then several exotic trees with oriental fruits like lychee, tamarind and tomatillo, but some of the fruits there I have never seen before. All in all he must have good connections with the garden we look on, that I only can presume is the Chelsea physic garden, although I never imagined it so huge, so wild, and so void of visitors or keepers, I haven't seen anybody outside all day, maybe it's closed.

September 26th

The lamps in this house is a strange thing, they are obviously electric, but there is no cords, and the bulbs are large. At first I thought it was just a prank and that there is some battery hidden in bed lamp, but it does not seem to be so. I asked the magician about it, and he just said that it was standard Tesla bulbs used just about everywhere. Now I have read some physics and is fairly acquainted with technology, but Tesla bulbs? My doubts must have shown well, because he then said something along the lines that they are used as standard light among his acquaintances. When he thought I did not hear he said something about clods and tech-dregs to Cheetah, I guess I'll have to get some information on those Tesla bulbs, I wont tolerate to be called clod on such an account!

I am almost done with the washing up and have begun to scrape the dirt of the cookers, stoves and such. Not surprisingly most of them are of an unknown design, this magician seems to collect odd kitchen utensils and stuff. Some of them are perpetually warm, others seems to be old wooden stoves, while others looks like any modern gas or electrical stove, well almost. Beside one of the central benches there is a large fireplace with a huge pot as well, I think that pot might be a project for tomorrow...

September 27th

Scouring the ovens and that big damn pot really is dirty work I had to to scrub myself several times and take a long and hot bath to get the feeling of being clean again. While scrubbing I had Cheetah coming in unannounced as usual, even though I had closed the door, and greeting me as he usually does, by sticking his cold nose in some sensitive place like the back of the knee, or like this time the nape of the neck. I am sure that he is out to see how high he can make me jump. Still I was surprised to see that he is the one who picked up my clothes and carried them away, and I am pretty sure that it is he who put them clean and fresh in my cupboard, so far I have seen no one else, and they are always there in the morning, all three blue outfits. Another thing about him is his way to always be there when you call him: the second after I call him, he will stick his nose in the back of the knee, even if I am sure he was nowhere to be seen the moment before. And he always seems to know where I am going before I even say it, it is very practical, but still a bit unnerving.

September 28th

Another day of trying to clean ovens and the other devices, totally exhausted today, almost fell asleep in the tub, but Cheetah woke me sticking a cold nose in my ear. That big cat...

Today the magician gave me a navigator, a small oval stone. "Just say aloud where you want to go, hold it in loosely in your hand, and feel where it pulls at" he said. I thought he was joking at first, but after a few tries I found out that it really works. Like magic! Well the Magician said that it is no real magic, "Just some technology that is not yet so widely spread", and added with a smile, "at least not among the clods". When I told him that I am no clod, he just nodded and said that that was true, but it still was from there I came. So now I don't need to call Cheetah all the time, I was going to write that I miss him, but at that moment he stuck his nose just behind my shoulder and made me jump again. I guess he'll be around whenever I need him.

The kitchen is almost done; tomorrow I will begin to scrub the floors...

September 29th

Finally done! The kitchen looks like new. I even got compliments from the Magician, but it took me the whole day, and I worked till I almost dropped, hours later than the other days. The Magician told me that I could take the day off tomorrow and relax. I think I might just do that, after all I have worked all through the weekend I think. I still find it very strange that there is no one outside in the garden, I have a feeling that it might not be Chelsea physic garden at all, after all, but then where would it be, and where am I? Well, there is time tomorrow to find out I guess. Only need to make it to the bed...

September 30th:

There are certain things you expect based on experience and simple logic, when those expectations are not fulfilled it is like stepping out on a glass floor above a precipice. The gut already feels the fall while the mind tries to grasp why you are still there. That feeling has still not left me, but now it is my mind in free fall while my body is keeping a reassuring hold on the present reality.

The day began calmly enough, I woke up with the light and went down to the kitchen following the nice smell of newly baked bread. I was doubted that the Magician had gone up early to bake bread, so I guessed that he had some delivery arranged. Put on a large kettle and got some yoghurt from one of the large coolers, not in any canister, it was in a large pot, and seemed home-made and with a wonderful taste. Still another mystery, since it always seemed to replenish itself. Found a jar of jam marked in some unintelligible writing, some butter and went back to brew the tea and eat wonderful fresh bread with jam and honey. I felt refreshed and relaxed, and I was ready to explore the large house that the Magician referred to as his abode. I guessed that by lunch I would then relax and with a little luck I would find some nice book to read in the orangery while enjoying my tea. I never even suspected what this day would hold for me...

To be honest I had somewhat given up on the idea that it was Chelsea physical gardens I was viewing from the kitchen windows and the orangery, but I still had no other explanation, and thought I perhaps had mixed up how the parks in London where placed. Or if there was some lesser known private park in this part of town since I had not seen one single human being outside since I arrived. One evening I had played with the idea that maybe I had been moved in my sleep the first night, the only thing opposing that idea being that I am sure I woke up in the same room, but after all, the mind can play tricks on you. Either way I was sure that I would find out during the day.

I had the loadstone the Magician had given me in the skirt pocket, but in broad daylight I didn't think I would get lost, especially not when I would try to keep track of how I went. From one of the exits in the large kitchen I came out into a corridor that led into a hallway, passing a couple of smaller rooms going through. The hallway had four doors one in each direction and a staircase going up one floor. One door was obviously a door outside, although not the one I had come in thorough, when I tried it it was locked, and the high narrow windows on each side where both deeply coloured and frosted, so I could see nothing of the street outside. The door was locked, so no chance to take a peek outside. I decided to continue through the door opposite to the one I had entered and found myself in a large living room overlooking another park through large windows on my left. Now this was confusing since this park was obviously not the same park as the one seen from the kitchen, and here autumn seemed to have progressed much further, the leaves had already begin to turn golden on the trees. Furthermore I couldn't see any passageway or path leading towards the door that should have been to my left, the park went on undisturbed both right and left from what I could see through the windows. There was a door in the other end of the room and I decided to look through this first, and if there was nothing of interest, to go back and go upstairs instead. Through the door was another hallway much like the last, but without any front door, to my left and right there where two corridors leading on to other rooms, the door opposite me was a duplicate of the one I came though, and the staircase going up a floor beside it. Something felt horribly wrong, but I couldn't put a finger on what it was.

This time I took the stairs up, hoping to get a better view, I noted that the door I came through had a stair going down beside it. I arrived in a small hallway above the stairs and from there a corridor led back in the same direction that I had come from, good, that meant that I would come to the stair going down at the other end. There where three rooms on my right hand side now and in the other end of the corridor there where stairs going down, and up, there where also a large window overlooking a rocky plain. I don't know how long I stood by that window looking out at this plain with a sense of disbelief, but the gut feeling was that I was falling. Was this some advanced projection or painted scenery, the thought ran through my head, but what my eyes saw was a very real and windswept plain, there was even a creature looking like a rabbit far below, much to far below. Feeling more than a little confused I want back to the corridor and looked into the three smaller rooms I had passed. Each of them very differently furnished, with very different windows, one latticed, one deep set in a stone wall and the third quite modern, and all looking out into three very different landscapes. By now my guts, and my mind was in free fall. I steadied myself against windowsill, I don't remember which, and not really seeing what was outside any longer, my mind was racing as I tried to get a grip on the situation.

Deep breaths, calming myself, I needed to get back to the kitchen and get hold of the Magician and get him to tell me what ever they had drugged my food with, at least I still had a sense of direction. Perhaps it would have been easier if I had trusted the lodestone he gave me, the tug from it had been to the left, but I got out to the right and down the stairs to the hallway I had started from a moment ago coming from the kitchen. It was not the same hallway, there was nothing looking like a front door with narrow windows beside it, the stair hall was lighter, round and had several stairs leading up and down, as well as three arched portals leading into rooms decorated in an oriental style.

My first thought was to retrace my steps back up but there was three identical stairs going up and I lost my bearings when going around the hall looking into the rooms a couple of time. Now I was getting more curious than anything else, and decided to continue my exploration. I went into a large beautiful room with a roof height that widely exceeded the height of stairs I had come down, I decided to keep left wherever I could, which was fairly easy, to avoid getting lost, that way I must get back to my new starting point sooner or later. A dozen rights later I had to abandon that idea, although I should have been going in a circles, new and wondrous rooms and places kept appearing, even when I counted my steps it did not add up. I now had the feeling of going through a large wonderful museum with rooms from all different cultures and times connected in a somewhat haphazard way. I passed through a large stone castle that seemed to extend out on its own, here the rooms did appear more normal, that is: the view out of the windows where the same and four right turns got you back to the same place. This place even ha a large oak door that opened out into a large cobbled courtyard. Afraid to get lost, however that should be, I guess I was as lost as can be already, I got back to the changing rooms again and continued my wanderings, now more or less by feel. I only dared to take any stairs up or down if I had to, trying to keep to one plane as much as possible, I thought it is enough to get lost in this plane layout, the feeling was that the stairs would behave much like the rooms. It's not that I never came to the same room twice, I am sure I did, but the interconnectivity seemed to be beyond normal physics.

Somewhere in the afternoon I found my way to a town-house, furnished in some odd Victorian style, which also seemed to be a solid structure. To my delight I found a small kitchen, fairly well stocked, where I made some tea and took a small selection of cookies from orderly arranged jars, while enjoying the view from the kitchen window. For the first time since I arrived I looked out on a busy street, with people, carriages, horses and strange automobiles, this could be London, but not the London I knew, this was a London from another time, and another history, I felt it in my hearth, and I was overjoyed. I would hate to wake up from this dream...

A few hours later I had wound up in a large library, just wandering along the large shelves, looking on finely bound leather volumes, reading their titles randomly. Many of the books in the library were unknown, but now and then there appeared a title that I recognized. I settled in in one of the large leather armchairs I found, and it is possible that it was in the same room where I first met the Magician; I really like to think so at least. There where two sphinxes standing in one doorway, even if they where cold and unmoving when I passed them. I had taken out an unknown edition of Shakespeare, and was looking on the wonderful watercolour drawings of Rackham set in the book. to tired to start reading. I must have fallen asleep that way, and I don't know for how long.

When I awoke I was surprised I was still sitting and not in my bed, the memory of the house in the dream lingered and I didn't want to let it go. The room was dark, and the book heavy in my lap. My thought was that I had fallen asleep with my diary in my lap and dreamt this strange dream. I didn't want to let go of it yet, enjoying the idea through half closed eyes for a while, a mild light from a lamp filtering through. I heard something move in front of me, probably Cheetah looking after me I thought. I contemplated if I should write down this strange dream before I went to bed, opened my eyes...

And was back in the large library, with the Rackham illustrated Shakespeare in my lap and the old Magician sitting in the armchair opposite with a small table laid out with the evening meal between us.

I must have looked really surprised; the Magicians smile suggested something like that. but that was far from how I felt. I was bewildered; it was like I had woken up in the dream and found that the thing I thought was reality was the dream instead. Now I was more afraid that this was only another dream I would wake up from.

- "I thought that you perhaps would be hungry after your little exploration", he said with a huge smile. He waited a little while then added: "You might want to close your mouth, or some bat might think there is a new cave around".

I closed my mouth with a snap, feeling blood rush to my cheeks, I felt really silly

- "Please eat something first, there s plenty of time to talk later, and I guess you might have a question or two".

- "Where is this place" I blurted out.

- "Everywhere and nowhere" he answered, "now eat first, and I'll explain a few things that might help you more".

My stomach growled it's agreement, apart from the dry cookies, I had eaten nothing since my early breakfast.

- "As you might have noticed the Abode is not located in any place, but connected to many".

- "You mean like it's connected to several different places around the earth with some type of dimensional portals?" I answered. I had figured out something like that while I was walking, I am not that stupid.

- "No" he said.

So much for my self-consciousness...

- "It usually only connects to one place on any Earth, although there are exceptions, it rather connects to several possible Earth's".

I felt my jaw dropping again as I tried to understand what he had said.

- "So it connects to all possible Earth's" I echoed, trying to grasp what that signified.

- "Not all, just some selected Earth's, oh, and some other places as well", he said with a big smile. "But it changes now and then, so there is possibility to visit some odd reality from time to time.".

- "So the house, I mean Abode, is linked to London and several other possible realities at the same time" I began, and was about to continue when he interrupted me.

- "Well not really, "your" reality is one of those odd ones that the Abode only connects with occasionally. It really isn't much to find among clods in the Tech-Dreg realities. You are the rare exception I am afraid, most clods show no promise at all, and daemons are rare among them", he fired off a huge smile, making me uncertain if I should feel offended or honoured by what he said. Being a Clod from a tech-dreg reality didn't sound nice at all if you ask me, and what was that with demons.

- "Well I am honoured that you chose me as a housemaid in that case, and I will try..."

- "You where well chosen my girl, and I think there is more for you to do than you ever imagined, the sisters knew what they where doing when they picked you I guess", he then sobered up a bit and continued: "That is unless you really want to go home, in that case I will release you."

Going home? I had nothing to go home to, and if this was a dream, I had already wished not to wake up.

- "I wish to stay as a maid, if I may", I said silently.

- "I am glad to hear that, and you are welcome as I said before, and who knows, others might pop up later, seems like just my luck".

He continued to talk a bit about the Abode and the rooms and places I had passed through during my tour. The oriental section was connected to an imperial portion of China I was told, even if I never had I had ventured out of the Abode there. It is one of the sections that always are attached to the Abode I was told, although I can't claim I understand what he meant by that. The large castle I visited is called the Hyperborian annex and the town-house was in some version of Londonia, which I guess is as close to London as I got.

- "It usually takes some time to get to know the abode, as you might have noticed it is built on a hypercube symmetry, in fact as far as we can determine it is a octeract with every cell representing e set of rooms, but in most places they are interconnected with tesseracts, so you can normally get around on just eight corners".

I was to tell the truth totally lost, but I at least grasped what it might mean. The house was a multidimensional knot, and I guess there was a fair chance of getting really lost.

- "I also advice you not to go down to deep or try to open closed doors, there are places less hospitable here as well, and places where one can get really lost", as he said this his voice was lowered and he looked more serious than before.

- "However, I think you should go to bed now, there is much more to explore tomorrow, maybe we will start with the library, I think you will like it".

I said that I am sure I will, and asked if I could lend a book or two. As an answer to that he smiled and said that I was welcome to it, as long as it was no dangerous book:

- "If they are chained to the shelf, or wall, there is usually a reason", he said.

A pretty lame joke I first thought, or was it...

It has been a long day, and tomorrow is another day out of this world, or reality, at least I hope so.

If I wake up and find that this is a dream I will be really disappointed.

Octeract: orthogonal projection