milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The door opens.

The boy on the other side -- dressed in simple cotton kurta pyjamas -- stares for a moment and then shuts it very quickly.

The door opens.

The boy on the other side -- now in a blazer and carefully pressed trousers -- blinks, peers around the edge, and studies the bar for a minute before closing the door slowly and quietly.

The door opens.

The boy on the other side jerks to a momentary halt, throws a wary glance over his shoulder, and slips into the bar. He closes the door behind him, quietly, then reconsiders and cracks it open again to peek out. Apparently satisfied with what he sees, he shuts it and turns back to the bar with a curious, intent look on his face.

In precise, slightly accented English -- "Where is this, please?"

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"You stumbled across a Bound between worlds and you got here."

Jamie waves a piece of bread grandly. "Happens all the time hereabouts, it seems. This place is awful queer, as far as that goes - it seems to be hooked up to a whole lot of different ones. Worlds, I mean. But the food's all right and people seem to get back where they're from in the end."

This last part, he figures, will be the most important for most people.

That curious look in his eyes just got brighter.

"I see. Magic."

The word sounds . . . unpracticed.

"What do you mean by a Bound?"

"If you like," says Jamie, amiably enough.

Magic isn't something Jamie thinks about much. It's the way the worlds work, and worlds work different ways; that's all. But it's as good a term as anything else.

"A Bound's a place you can get from one world to another. Most worlds they don't know about them - even that there are other worlds, come to that." He shrugs. "But everyone seems to know about it here."

"I don't think we know about them in mine. How many worlds are there?"

Jamie raises his eyebrows. "More than I've been to, anyways. You want to take a stab at counting 'em all, be my guest, but don't expect to be Home in time for tea."

"And this place connects to them? Like a -- a rail station."

Jamie considers this analogy, and then, suddenly, grins.

"A rail station - I like that. Something like. Only a lot less ordered and civilized. Like someone threw you off a train you didn't even know you were on, for most."

"It appeared at an extremely useful moment, this time," he says gravely.

"Can you get over -- Bounds -- to other worlds, from here?"

"If other people bring you."

Jamie rips another bite of bread off, and manages to chew and swallow most of it before continuing, "Otherwise they've got a way figured out so you go back wherever you came from. I reckon They - ah, I mean, the management don't want people crashing other people's worlds without an invite.

"I suppose that could be dangerous. Bringing magic into an unmagical world, or technology into an uncivilized one."

"It'd play havoc with the rules of the place," Jamie agrees; there's something that's almost bitter underlying the easy words.

Couldn't have the rules overturned, of course. It might interfere with Their game.

It's gone a second later as if it had never been, replaced with a quick grin. "I've been one or two places where - well, say trains - would have seemed right strange to them. Or carriages, come to that."

He blinks. "There are rules about that sort of thing?"

Quick: "Well, every world's got it's own laws and so on, doesn't it? Natural laws, too. Like what you said about places with magic and without."

A slow nod. "That makes sense. They would have to, or one could never tell one world from another."

"Some of them are awfully alike in any case."

Jamie settles in happily for a chance to expound on his knowledge. (It makes up for the other boy being so tall.)

"They run in sets sometimes. You'll get a whole row that look alike - same sort of geography. Or same customs, or they're all having the same kind of war."

"So how do you know that it is a different world?"

"Well, it helps if you already know where the Bound is," Jamie points out, a little evasively.

He knows what it feels like to cross if you're a Homeward Bounder. Maybe it's different when you don't have the tug to start out with.

Nirupam's eyebrows go up.

"Ah. Yes."

After a second, he gives Jamie a quick grin. "I'm sorry -- I'm Nirupam. Thank you for all the answers."

"Happy to help."

Jamie holds out the hand not clutching a third of a roll. "Jamie."

He shakes the proffered hand. "How do you do. How do you come to have visited so many worlds?"

"I wander about. It's sort of a curse," Jamie explains, easily - he's had a lot of practice with this story - and crams the heel of the roll in his mouth.

"A curse?"

He sounds vaguely alarmed.

"No fear," Jamie says, with slight good-natured condescension. "It's not catching."

"I do not believe most are, though I don't know much of magic. What have you done to earn such a curse? To be compelled to wander from world to world is not a small thing."

They're always sure you've sinned, when you tell them half the truth.

Jamie looks portentous.

"I spied on forbidden sacred mysteries."