Mira's shock was palpable. She jumped to her feet, her hand covering her mouth. "A rocky wasteland… an oasis… don't tell !"
Alex looked at her, confused and concerned. "Mira, what is it?"
Mira's mind raced as she tried to piece together the fragnts of her own experiences. She had to know for sure. "Alex, when you entered the Primordial Expanse, did you land on a land filled with nothing but rocks for as far as your eyes could see?"
Alex nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing, still red from all the tears. "Yes, I did. Well, I entered near this landmass. Where I really landed was right on the edge of an ocean made of quicksand, and I luckily saved myself from sinking and suffocating to death thanks to my new talent. Turns out it wasn't so useless after all…"
Mira took a deep breath, her thoughts clicking into place. "Alex, I think we might have sohow switched locations in the Primordial Expanse. The first ti I entered, I landed on a rocky wasteland too. Only I didn't spot any quicksand ocean where I spawned. But the second ti, I ended up in a completely different place, in front of a completely ruined city, surrounded by green, jungle-like terrain."
Alex's eyes widened as he processed her words. The shock was enough to make him completely block out his previous depressing emotions. "Switched locations? How is that possible? I've never heard of people's portals even opening a few tres away from the location they exited from, let alone switching the locations of two people millions of miles apart…"
"I know," Mira said, pacing back and forth. "But it's the only explanation that makes sense."
Alex sat up straighter, the weight of their situation settling in. "What was the na of the ruined city your portal opened near?"
This question was incredibly important to Alex, as it would determine whether or not their locations had really been switched or they were just being paranoid.
If her answer wasn't what he was thinking, then there was still the possibility that everything was just a coincidence and they had been lied to, or had information withheld from them by the federation.
It wasn't like it hadn't happened before…
"I visited a nearby city, and found out that the ruined city was originally called Valentis city before it fell to a beast tide."
The mont the words 'Valentis city' left Mira's mouth, Alex knew they weren't just being paranoid.
Sothing was going on here, and neither of them had any clue what it was.
"I fought in that beast tide… I watched Valentis fall…" He mumbled, prompting a look of shock from Mira.
'Both tis he's spent in the Primordial Expanse have ended in the mass deaths of people…'
Mira made the connection instantly, but kept her thoughts to herself as she didn't want to alarm or startle Alex any further than he already was.
Otherwise he might really start blaming himself for everyone's deaths.
She was sure that he'd overco his current depression sooner or later, as he hadn't actually done anything wrong. He just failed to protect people's lives and he felt guilty for that.
But if the idea that thousands, or even millions of people would die every ti he entered the Primordial Expanse, then he might just never enter it again, or do sothing even worse to himself…
"I don't know why this happened to us, but we need to keep it to ourselves for now. Unless there is a good reason for us to bring it up, we shouldn't speak of this to others." Alex reasoned, and Mira quickly agreed.
***
"Intergalactic Express ship Code 4123, you are clear to enter. Welco to the centre point of Human existence itself!"
It had been over 2 months since Alex woke up on the ship, already on its way to the Solar system.
Now, they had just arrived and were cleared to enter.
The Solar system was a very tightly guarded region of space, thanks to its rich heritage as the origin point of the Human race as well as the fact that it was the centre of politics in the Federation.
During these two months, not much else had gone on, and the journey went better and smoother than expected.
Normally, one might encounter a space pirate or two on such a long voyage, but they were lucky to have encountered none.
Alex had also cald down a lot more. He kept his emotions in check, and vented when he needed to or felt overwheld, but otherwise he seed like he was back to normal.
But of course, he would never forget the events that went down, it just ant that he had accepted them as they were, and no longer blad himself as much.
As they had promised, there was no ntion of location swapping from that day forth, not even when the two were in the privacy of their own rooms.
They had already made the mistake of talking out loud about it when they first realised their situations, as they had no clue whether there were so sorts of listening devices in their rooms etc.
Alex had also reimbursed Mira, as she had taken the liberty to purchase a ticket for Alex while he was passed out.
She denied his money at first, saying she was doing a favour for a friend and that she'd do it again in a heartbeat.
But she relented when Alex gave her a glimpse into his spatial storage…
She had amassed quite a small fortune for herself during her stay in the Primordial Expanse, but it was still nothing compared to Alex's haul…
They had both grossly underestimated their earning potential as Awakened, both overshooting their initial goal of 500,000 credits by a long shot.
"We're finally here. The Solar system!"
Mira said excitedly as she gazed outside of her room's window into the darkness, at the tiny dot off into the distance.
This dot was in fact the blue and green planet they were headed to, Mars!
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