Chapter 13 – Education of Himself

Silk was floating through nothing. He didn't know how long it had been but he was very bored. A hand tapped his shoulder, he turned excitedly to see who it was, any company was an improvement at this point.

"Hi," The teenage boy said.

Silk was surprised but quickly regained his composure. "I would ask who you were but I think I know. James, right."

"James Sailor in the flesh." He looked exactly like Silk but in a school uniform.

"So, where is this place?" Silk asked.

"Honestly, I'm not exactly sure but I think this is a different dimension." James answered.

"What are you?" Silk asked.

"I think I am a figment of your imagination except I remember everything." James said. For no apparent reason he punched Silk but it went straight through him. "I can't hurt you, nice to know. Just thinking, couldn't you be a figment of my imagination."

Silk looked at James quizzically, "Does it really matter, we need to escape from here."

"What happened to you? Of course it matters, everything does." He blurted.

Silk disregarded this comment. He looked through his sewing equipment and looked at his jacket, there were many enchantments on it. Silk hadn't done nothing while waiting for something to happen, he had read the book and felt the content was familiar, he had also embroidered some enchantment to help with his survival.

"That book, I know the author." James said nonchalantly.

Silk stopped everything. "Who? Do I know the person?"

"You know him very intimately," James said happily.

"Just spit the name out."

"Just look at the front."

Silk looked closely at the red cover. "There's nothing."

"That's because that is not the true cover." He said maintaining his smile.

Silk looked closer and then felt the cover. The cover felt cheap. Silk rubbed the cover and the paper surrounding it ripped. The cover was revealed to be elegant with two blossoming words in the middle, Magic Theory. The author was detailed underneath, by Silk the Spider.

"Silk the Spider, is that my name?" Silk asked perplexed.

"Who else?" James smiled, "you know, you used to be a general of a big group of people, the same neutral collective you work with now before it was corrupted."

"I was important." Silk was in disbelief.

"Truly, you stopped the twelve-year war, there may have been skirmishes afterwards but they were nowhere near as damaging as the war."

"Was I amazing?"

"You knew a lot and you could do a lot. You discovered the origin of magic. Amazing, I'm not so sure."

"Was I powerful?"

"Not to begin with but you eventually learned things and with knowledge comes power. In the end you became a one-man threat to both sides."

"How could I become powerful with my lack of magical ability."

"You could undo all the plans that they thought up by using your wits, your power came from your enchantments. You had great magic control so you could activate more than one enchantment at once and most importantly you were confident. From what I've seen with your enchantments you have on your clothes you are already halfway to completely restoring yourself to your previous glory."

"How do I get out of here though?"

"Belief and a bit of science." James paused for a second and then got two photos out, "take these. One will help you remember your family in detail unlike the haze you have now and the other will reveal your past to you."

Silk took them gratefully. Memories flooded back of his family, they were brilliant until the end. He saw his sister with a gun wound through the head. Tears rolled down his eyes. A second set of images rolled like a film through his head of his time in charge of the neutral collective, he saw his great success I stopping the war and the pride he felt then rushed to him now but then memories of all the friends he lost appeared, the thousands of deaths. Silk saw himself struggle to survive until his betrayal where the rest was what he remembered from the beginning.

"This, this can't be me." He mumbled sadly. Silk thought about all the deaths of friends and family, he gritted his teeth. "This can't continue."

Silk began thinking of how to get out of here. "I need enough energy to break through space and forcefully keep it open with magic, it will only be luck if I succeed in getting to Earth this way though."

This was the dilemma he was facing. Silk needed something to anchor him to the right world, he needed something that he could pull himself to the next world, it had to be something powerful and he could recognize with his power.

Silk took out a needle and focused intently at it, he was moving his magic power into the needle. Magic materialised becoming a thread for the needle attached to his body, he made a scissor mime with his hands and cut the magic thread, he then threw the thread down into the centre of the nothingness of the world he was in. Silk then threw the needle and watched as it pierced through space.

The hero was admiring his handiwork, "two annoyances are gone, now to move to the next targets."

"Why didn't you kill Silk, he might still escape." Grace said coldly.

"Orders from higher up. Silk can't be killed easily so I am trying to trap him."

"What are the higher ups thinking? One touch from me and he would be as dead as a dodo." Grace kicked Mary's dead body.

"You need to be a bit more respectful to the dead, you would think death would know that." The hero smirked.

"Shut up!" Grace warned.

The hero saw something from the corner of his eyes attach to Mary's body. He ran over to inspect it to find a needle pinned to it, there was a weird energy coming from it. The energy suddenly strengthened and thickened. The hero looked to see a whole appear from thin air and Silk pull himself through.

Silk bowed, "hope you didn't miss me." Before the hero could react effectively Silk threw an unusually sharp pair of scissors straight at him.

Silk had tapped into the energy of the very universe he was in to created the hole to enter back into his own world, he had also used Mary's energy to lock onto. Silk had only thrown the scissors for a distraction. Clutching his sewing equipment, he darted picking up the needle with the magical string, he could no longer cut it with his fingers. Sliding on the floor he grabbed at the scissors, he just managed to get a finger on them, he pulled the scissors closer and channelling his energy into them he cut the magical thread. He felt a kick into his body.

"Stay down," Grace sneered.

Silk quickly regained himself and pushed himself to his feet. Grace came forward looking to grapple with him but he knew one touch from her could kill him. Silk ducked and jumped inelegantly out the way crashing into the wall. Silk ran to his sewing equipment past Grace. He felt static in the air, Silk instinctively channelled energy into one of the enchantment in his suit, electricity shut out at Silk but as soon as it touched his clothing it dispersed. Silk had an enchantment that changed the composition of some threads so they could conduct electricity and it was surprisingly god at acting like a faraday cage.