Freddie was waiting in line for a double espresso when a man with his face rode through a death forest, sword in hand.
The kingdom of Ophania was green, lush, and elusive. The only way one could reach Ophania was if they already knew it existed, which most people in our dimension did not. It existed between worlds, where this one started, and another built up, a shade greener and slightly more acidic. So when our Freddie was standing in line at the coffee shop waiting for his double espresso, his double, also coincidentally named Freddie (though we will learn in time there are no such things as coincidences), was riding his horse through the wild lands of Nelkio, sword in hand and his best friend Almeni at his side. The two Freddies shared a face, a name, and (although neither knew it yet) a great many consequences.
For clarity’s sake, we’ll call the man on horseback Freddie Beyond the Veil. Freddie BV, for short.
Both Freddies were currently frowning, shielding their eyes from the same sun as they surveyed the landscape before them—one being a slightly disheveled coffee shop on Third, the other, a Black Forest full of danger and possible disease.
The giant burning gas ball in the sky scorched the bald spot at the top of our Freddie’s head, whereas Freddie BV enjoyed the glint of the light cascading through his full, unbalding, blonde hair. No one ever said the mirrored lives between veils were fair.
Our Freddie worked in IT for the government, hence the chronic stress and bald spot. He constantly stressed about the winding clock of life and lived with a persistent sense that his life had already been decided somewhere, without his input. He worried over choices. Should he marry his girlfriend or break up with her? She had a habit of locking her phone and feigning privacy.
“If you really trusted me, you wouldn’t ask,” she’d say, as she jumped up in a start if our Freddie so much as twitched in her phone’s general direction.
He certainly had to do something about that. Eventually. Right now, however, he had a killer headache from caffeine withdrawal, a presentation due at noon, and something in his sock. A pebble? When would he have picked up a pebble?
At that exact moment, Freddie BV was scraping a thorn from the bottom of his foot with the tip of his dagger.
That’s how the Veil worked. When something happened to one of you, it happened to all of you, although usually dulled in some way, unless it was death. Death was a group effort. Mandatory attendance only.
“I told you those snatters were a nasty business, Freddie,” Almeni said. “We should have gone around to Port Ethos and avoided that whole bloody death forest.” Almeni kicked a stone out of their path. It grew legs and scuttled away into the underbrush. “You’re lucky it’s only a thorn in your foot and not one of those poisonous butt worms this bloody place is known for.”
Freddie BV smiled and wiped his blade on the grass. “If we’d gone to Port, we’d have missed all this.” He gestured at the towering trees, the luminous flowers, the distant flicker of movement among the roots. “Besides, the wood nymphs are said to be fairly generous with strangers.”
“Generous with what?” Almeni asked. “Syphilis?”
Freddie BV rose to his full six-foot-five height, the sun shining off his silver-plated armor and long golden hair tied into the most manly of man-buns as he patted his horse lovingly on its rump.
The beast looked back at him and seemed to flutter its eyelashes, bowing its head coquettishly.
Almeni rolled his eyes.
Freddie Beyond the Veil brushed back his wind-swept hair and swung expertly into the saddle. “It’s nearing lunchtime, Almeni. Let’s ensure we’re somewhere with more food than adventure for a change.”
“That,” Almeni sighed. “I can agree with.”
Yet in the next instance, food would become both sustenance and threat, a lesson both Freddies would learn somewhere between a soggy gas-station sandwich and a murderous entrepreneur-witch.
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