It was magnificent. As the sun hit the impossibly white surface of the Spire, Shin Seungchae had to squint her eyes almost shut in order to look directly at it. It was so unlike anything in the world around it. It started bigger at the bottom and curved into a thinner point that shot up into the clouds so that she couldn’t see where it ended.

It was, quite frankly, a beautiful sight.

It stood in the middle of park (which was really just a square of grass surrounding the tower), but for some reason nobody else seemed to notice the grassy area, or look its way at all. Anyone around just avoided its entire existence.

Seungchae took a deep breath. It had been a weird morning that had followed a long and weird evening. She shook her head firmly - no sense in thinking about any of that now. What’s done was done.

She entered the park and started walking up to the Spire, pulling her suitcase along behind her, the wheels making a steady sound on the pavement. Curiously, there was a person sitting on the steps in front of the entrance. He was asleep, head resting on a laptop bag that was perched on a suitcase and hands firmly in the pockets of his hoody.

As Seungchae came closer the sound of her approach woke him, and he squinted up at her, obviously still half asleep. His glasses were crooked on his face and he quickly righted them and looked back down to the ground.

“Hi there,” Seungchae said with a little wave. She was half expecting him to get confused like everyone else she’d talked to in the past 16 hours or so, but he looked back up at her.

“Hi.”

“Is the door closed?” She asked, motioning towards the Spire.

“No. I mean- I don’t think so. I didn’t check.”

"Are you waiting for someone? Why are you sitting out here?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t really know what to do. Or what I’d find in there.”

Seungchae nodded. “It’s kind of weird isn’t it? All of this? Hard to wrap my head around it all.” She smiled at him but his eyes stayed glued on the ground. He looked miserable. “I’m Shin Seungchae”

“Choi Namsun,” the guy replied, actually looking at her in order to introduce himself clearly. He still looked miserable but at least she knew his name.

“Come on Namsun, let’s go inside.” She approached the doors and glanced behind to see Namsun getting up to follow her. Then she opened the door and entered the Spire.

Everything inside was just as white as the outside. It was almost disorienting how blindingly white and clean everything was. And there were more stairs to lug her suitcase up to. Behind  her Namsun carefully closed the door and looked around nervously. He was quite the character, this one.

She walked up the stairs, and it opened into what looked like a living room of sorts. Although everything in the room was still white, the furniture looked oddly mis-matched. There was one big L-shaped couch that looked a couple years old tops next to a well-worn love seat. The love seat looked as if it could be at least a decade old, maybe older.

Sitting on the older couch was an old man, his hands folded and leaning forward as he watched a strange box on the coffee table. She stepped forward and cleared . “Ehm hello, this is the Spire isn’t it?”

The old man looked up at her then. He smiled and nodded. “You must be one of the new Seekers that Malik just woke up. Welcome to the Spire.”

Behind her Namsun finished lugging his suitcase up the stairs. She saw his eyes widen when he saw the old man and immediately look down to the floor.

“Ah and another one,” the old man said, still with a polite smile. Namsun gave a small bow and looked away again, clearly uncomfortable. She figured she’d save him.

She bowed to the old man. “I’m Shin Seungchae, pleased to meet you.”

The old man nodded back. “Pleased to meet you Shin Seungchae. You may call me the Keeper.”

Strange, she thought. Though it wasn't exactly stranger than anything that had happened since yesterday, so she supposed it was fair enough.

“You must have many questions,” the old man continued. “But I must ask for your patience until Malik returns with the others. It will be easier to everything to everyone at once.”

That sounded fair, but it was still frustrating. Seungchae really wanted to know what on earth was going on. But no matter, if it had to wait it had to wait.

“For now you may deposit your belongings in any of the rooms on this floor,” he motioned to a hallway on the right.

Seungchae started wheeling her suitcase in that direction. She noticed that Namsun was still rooted in place and nudged him. “Come on, let’s find a room.”

The hallway the Keeper had pointed out  seemed to go around the livingroom in a semi-circle with many doors attached. She opened the first one and found a small bedroom within. Single bed, a desk, and a wardrobe and that was it. It was even smaller than her room in her student housing and that was saying something. The furniture seemed old and worn here too. She opened the door next to it and found a similar arrangement but all different furniture that definitely didn’t match the previous room. It was all haphazardly put together much like the living room had been. And empty. And also very small.

She went along the hallway checking out more rooms hoping there’d be one just a little bigger but they were all the same size. She ended up finding the one with the smallest and least amount of furniture, which made the room seem bigger than it was, and hoisted her suitcase inside.

She noticed Namsun was awkwardly checking out the other rooms but he didn’t seem to have much energy. He looked like he was doing something just so he could be doing something. “Go on,” she said. “Find yourself a room.”

She went back into her own room and sat down on the bed. This was really happening huh? She’d kept herself going by trying not to think too much about it. She’d just gone home, gone straight to her room, and gone to bed. When she woke up and her roommate still didn’t recognize her she had to come to terms with the fact that this was real. She’d packed her bags and come this way immediately after. No sense in hanging around if the reaction was going to be the same. Might as well actually try to figure out what on earth was going on.

Still she couldn’t quite bring herself to unpack. She’d accepted it but she wasn’t okay with it yet. Unpacking would be too much like being okay with it all. Maybe she’d look around the Spire a bit first, check out her surroundings. Then she’d unpack.

She exited the room that she supposed was now hers to see Namsun still standing in the hallway looking from room to room. The doors were open it looked like he was just unable to make a decision. “I’m sure you  still switch later,” she said. “Just pick one.”

“Hm?” His eyes were unfocused for a bit before he came back to reality. “Oh right yes.” He looked at the rooms again and finally chose one, depositing his suitcase inside.

“Come on let’s go see what else is in this tower.” Seungchae let her hand trail the wall for a bit as she walked the length of the corridor, Namsun awkwardly following behind her. Everything was so cold and white - almost clinical. “Any idea what all of this is about?” she asked. “I wasn’t told much except to come here.”

Namsun shook his head. “I don’t know anything. I’m not even convinced any of this is real.”

“This wall feels real enough to me,” Seunghcae said. She tried to keep her tone light and cheerful, maybe it would help Namsun’s mood a bit though she supposed being uprooted from one’s life is good enough a reason to be a downer.

He put a hand on the wall and nodded. “Dreams aren’t usually this vivid.”

“No they’re not,” she agreed. The hallway ended with the other side of the living room on one side and a staircase going up on the other. She could see now that it curved all the way around, with a very bare kitchen and dining table behind the set of mismatched couches. The Keeper was still sitting on one of those couches, back turned towards them. Seungchae gestured at Namsun to be silent and went up the stairs.

She wasn’t entirely sure why she was doing this literally behind the Keeper’s back. Maybe she wanted to see the rest of the Spire in a neutral light? Maybe there was something just a little off-putting about the Keeper? Whatever it was she was sneaking up the stairs with a nervous Namsun trailing behind.

She definitely wasn’t expecting to find what she did.

There was what Seungchae could only describe as a portal. A circle with something suspended inside that resembled water. She stepped closed and reached out her hand.

“I-I don’t think you should do that,” Namsun said.

Reason agreed with Namsun, but Seungchae didn’t always listen to reason. She was just so curious. She wanted to know what it would feel like. Was it like water? Her finger connected with - whatever it was. It was cold and it did feel like water. She pushed more of her hand through. Though it felt wet where the substance touched her, the tips of her fingers felt dry and she couldn’t see them anymore. “Can you see this?” She couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice, this was so cool!

She pushed half of her arm through, though pushing might be the wrong word for it, as there wasn’t really any resistance. The feeling of the substance moved up her arm but where it left felt dry. What’s more, she thought she could feel a breeze. How curious.

“I would not go through that portal if I were you.”

That wasn’t Namsun’s voice. Seungchae pulled her arm out and turned around. The Keeper was standing in the hallway behind Namsun, who was looking at the floor.

“What is that?” She asked.

“A portal,” the Keeper said.

“Where does it lead?”

“To another universe.”

“Excuse me?”

“As I said before, it will all be explained when Malik returns with the last Seekers. Now please go back to your rooms and wait.” The Keeper turned around and went back down the stairs leaving Seungchae and Namsun alone.

Just as she went to follow she noticed a big red X on the wall next to the portal. “What’s that?”

“Come on let’s just go down,” Namsun said. “I don’t want to cause more trouble.”

“Alright fine. Time to unpack I guess.”

 

~*~

It was well into the night when Malik finally got to the Spire. Oh man she really needed that coffee and maybe some alone time before setting off again.

She went up to stairs and into the sitting room and- why the hell was there a guy standing in her kitchen, drinking from her mug? Her mug! The one with the kangaroos!

Oh. Right. No such thing as alone time anymore.

The guy lifted her mug in greeting with a lopsided grin. “Good morning, you were out late.”

“I see you made it here.” She opened the coffee maker a little too roughly, poured water into the middle and ground coffee in the bottom compartmen,t and put the pot on the furnace. God the coffee couldn’t come soon enough.

“I did just now,” the guy said, drinking from her favourite mug like it was his. Prick. “I don’t believe I introduced myself last time, I’m Jian. Guo Jian, or Jason Guo, whichever you prefer really it’s all the same to me.”

“You’re drinking from my mug.”

“Oh! Sorry I didn’t know.” Jian poured the the contents down the drain and rinsed it off. He hadn’t even been drinking coffee, it was tea in there. Oh her poor abused mug.

She grabbed the mug from him and poured a cup of steaming black coffee. This made everything a lot better. “I’m Malik. Are the others here yet?”

Jian shrugged. “Don’t know, I just got here.”

“The first thing you did was make a cup of tea?”

“The first thing you did was make a cup of coffee.”

“Fair enough.” She set her mug on the table and gestured to a chair. “Sit, I’ll see if the others are here. If they are then we can start talking.”

Jian did as he was told and took a seat. “I imagine we have a lot to talk about.”

“We do.” She went to the area with the bedrooms, as it was likely the Keeper had sent them there. She didn’t imagine he’d let them roam around the upper floors and mess with the portals.

Just as predicted there was a light on in one of the rooms, she could see it from underneath the closed door. She opened the door none too gently and the guy inside jumped. He was sitting on his bed with a laptop on his lap. “You made it,” she said.

He nodded.

“Are you the only one here?”

He shook his head. “Seungchae is here too.”

“Alright show me her room and then we can get this ball rolling.” Donut guy closed his laptop and got up. He looked every bit the nerve case he’d looked before but he really did remind her of a Seeker she once knew. Marvin had turned into a strong asset - maybe donut guy would too.  

A few doors over donut guy stopped and hesitated which Malik took to mean this was the girl’s room. She opened the door and the light. Seungchae had been sleeping and squinted against the light. “Come on get up, it’s time to talk.”

Seungchae looked at her watch. “It’s 4 in the morning,” she protested.

“I’m well aware. Come anyway.” Malik left the girl to get up and walked back to the kitchen. Donut guy hesitated but followed her.

Back in the kitchen Jian sat at the table, a new steaming mug of tea in front of him. At least it wasn’t her mug this time. She turned to donut guy. “You want some coffee?”

“May I have some water?”

Malik shrugged. “Sure.” She poured him some water in a mug and handed it to him.

“Do you have tea?” Seungchae said as she came in, voice still scratchy from sleep and wearing pyjamas.

“I put the tea in the top cupboard,” Jian said. “And milk is in the fridge.”

“Oh no milk please, or sugar, just the tea.”

Malik sighed but poured a cup of tea for Seungchae too. Nadira always said it was easier to accept things with a hot drink and Malik could use all the help she could get.

She handed the mug to Seungchae and sat down at the head of the table. She took one long sip of her coffee. Bitter, black, and strong just as she liked it. They were all looking at her expectantly. Oh how she hated this part.

“Okay let’s do this. First of all introductions. I’m Malik. I already know you’re Jian,” she said motioning to Jian who sat across from her. “And you’re Seungchae?”

The girl nodded. “Shin Seungchae. This is Namsun,” she pointed at donut guy who was looking at his water and avoiding eye contact.

“Right. Okay. So. There’s no easy way of saying this.” She took a breath. “The universe is dying- or well all the universes are dying. Ah crap I’m not starting this out well am I? Okay so there’s multiple universes and they’re all dying. And our job is to try and stop it.”

Jian opened his mouth to say something but Malik motioned for him to shut it. “Let me explain things first. You see there’s this girl and this box-”

“The Spire was created to watch over the many different universes and uphold balance.” The Keeper walked in carrying Pi’s box. Malik breathed a sigh of relief, he’d be better at this than she was. “The Spire holds portals to all the different worlds and a select few people were taken from this universe to serve the Spire. You are such people.”

Malik studied the faces of the new Seekers. Namsun looked troubled, but Jian and Seungchae both looked curious if anything. Come to think of it, Jian in particular was very different from the mess she’d encountered at the police station.

The Keeper continued. “We are taken from our former lives to uphold the Spire and to keep the universes safe. None was as instrumental in this as Pi. But as reality started to unravel we were betrayed by our own and her essence was locked inside this box.” He put the box and the table and the Seekers gawked at it.

“Are you saying there’s someone in there?” Seungchae asked.

The Keeper nodded. “Pi was different, she wasn’t of this world. She was a direct product of the Spire meant to maintain it and she is the only one who might know how to reverse the process and mend reality as we know it. The Spire itself created this box to contain what was left of her when she was attacked by one of our own.”

“So it’s a storage device,” Namsun said. Malik was surprised that he’d spoken up. “And she is in there, in the data?”

“Yes.”

“So how do we get her out?” Jian this time, a hint of scepticism in his voice.

“Every universe has the same people in it,” Malik said. “Just in different circumstances. All we have to do is find a version of Pi and bring her back here. Then the Keeper can put the Spire’s Pi into the body of the other one and voila we fix everything.”

Jian’s eyes widened. “Wait, are you saying the other worlds have the same people as this one?”

Sort of,” Malik answered. “Things differ slightly depending on what happens in those worlds. Sometimes we finds a Pi. Sometimes we don’t. You won’t find yourself if that’s what you’re asking. As far as I can tell becoming a Seeker doesn’t just erase you from this world, it erases you from every world”

There was a loaded pause as her words hung in the air.

“So you’ve found one before?” Seungchae finally asked.

“Unfortunately we’re not the only ones looking for her,” Malik said. “There is another world out there that found out about the Spire and the different universes. They’ve found a way to jump between them and they’ve been looking for Pi too. Except these people are looking to kill her.”

Malik paused and took a sip of her coffee and she watched the faces of the tree new Seekers digest the information. “So,” Seungchae started. “How do we find this Pi? What does she look like?”

Good, they were asking functional questions, that meant they were starting to accept the situation. The Keeper reached inside his pocket and produced a photo of Pi when she’d been alive at the Spire. Malik knew it well, a young girl, asian, with long black hair and big eyes. She looked slightly annoyed into the camera as if she didn’t approve of the photo being taken. “This is what she looked like when she was alive at the Spire,” Malik said. “She’ll be a bit older now but she looks  mostly the same.”

They passed the photo around the table, each of them studying the picture. Finally Jian looked up. “Okay so, just to recap. There are a ton of other universes out there, they can be accessed from this tower, and we have to find one particular girl in one of those worlds in order to save the world?

“Yeah, that’s about it.”

“Alright then.”

“One of you goes with me, two of you go on your own,” Malik said. “Go to a world and find Pi.”

“If that’s all we need to do how come you haven’t found her yet?”

“It’s a lot harder than it sounds to find one girl  one a whole planet,” Malik said. Though lately it had been getting easier. Ah well, not something Malik was going to worry about. “And Zhu’s agents are everywhere. If you see any do not engage and return to the Spire. Trust me you’re no match for them.”

“Zhu?” Seungchae asked.

“She seems to be an important person in the world of the agents,” Malik shrugged. “Not sure but they seem to be reporting to her.”

Malik drank the last of her coffee and stood up. “Get some rest, we’ll go out in the morning.”

Jian and Seungchae looked at each other for a moment and got up too. Seungchae paused in front of Pi’s box and bent down to look at it closely. “Looks so unassuming for something so important.”

Jian just looked slightly dazed, like he was lost in thought. Ah well, Malik supposed that it meant he was processing things. That was as much as she could ask right now. She put the mugs in the sink and watched the three of them filter out to their rooms. Though Jian still had his suitcase, so no room to go to. Ah well the other two should show him to one.

The Keeper picked up the box and put it back on the coffee table as he sat back on his usual spot on the couch. Malik briefly thought about the girl in the park. She wondered what the girl was doing now. Probably agonizing over her boyfriend. Maybe she should have waited for the girl but Malik knew the type. She could be waiting for days for that girl to show up. Best to get started and see when she’d finally show up.

Malik sighed and headed to her room. She wasn’t particularly tired but might as well catch some sleep anyway. At least tomorrow she could get to work again finally.

author's note

Hey guys! This is Lils since Monkey stayed up to midnight finishing this and then fell asleep :P As she should. 

Hmm, what to say? Well I for one really like this chapter, and I hope you guys do to! I think Monkey does a great job explaining what are some pretty weird concepts, so I hope everyone is following along! Get ready for a crazy ride guys ;)

Morning edit: Aaaah Monkey here, risen like a phoenix as Conchita would say (my head is so full of eurovision rn you Americans are missing out xD ). First chapter that has some interactions between the Seekers! It's not a very exciting one since it's mostly necessary exposition most of which you already know but now that's done we can get to the more exciting stuff. Also where is Nari you must be asking? We shall see~ 

Also thanks Lils for taking care of things when I passed out xD