( Part I , VI , VIII )
Club's grasp of history wasn't comprehensive, but he had heard of the Ordinals. Near the beginning of their time, a group of words had formed, as part of the fundamental order of things. According to Truth, they had reflected the order of things somehow, but Club was more interested in practicalities than philosophies or history. He really needed his old friend Mystery for things of this nature.
"We will go and see?" Repeated First. "What is wrong, good fellow?"
"I am not used to interesting times." Club admitted. "This is all... very new to me."
"New to you, sir?" A second word interjected. "We haven't seen a non-Ordinal in numberless days!"
"And I have only heard stories about you."
"But they were good stories, I trust?" The second word persisted.
"Yes. Yes, they were good stories. You're right. We should go." Club turned with alacrity. (But not with Alacrity, who had been out running when this latest disaster had descended upon them.)
He led them back toward the Zone.
* * *
Dream and Surprise headed down the unexpected tunnel to parts unknown to her. Every so often, they would reach another side corridor or trapdoor in the floor, and descend further into the depths.
"This can't be possible. There's no way through the foundation of the Wordspace." Dream muttered disbelievingly.
"That's what we thought, but a chance experiment by that idiot Alchemy revealed the existence of these tunnels. He suspected a connection to the Well, but privately I thought that we were still above the foundation, that perhaps the super-fundamental layer was extra thick in these regions." Surprise couldn't help showing off his vocabulary. It was a little vanity of his.
"But..."
"Neither of us was exactly right." Surprise uncharacteristically stopped Dream before turning the next corner, and asked this question: "Are you sure you're okay, Dream? To be away - vanished - for so long. I think I'm trying to ask whether you can stand, and I know I'm spoiling something here, a surprise?" He looked very uncomfortable.
"Is there a choice? I'm still shaky, so stay close." Dream did her best to look brave.
"Very well." Surprise led his still recovering friend around the corner and stayed close as they came up against the guard rail forming the boundary of a small platform. The platform projected out from the side of mass of foundation, and before them... Well, Surprise summed it up best. "Voila, the great question. The world underneath our world!"
To be continued.
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