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Prologue

A Very Special Boy

It was all about the soulikens

Master George sat in his study, the lights diht of dawn’s birth still an hour off He stared at the wall as if thein the Realities had been stapled there for him to see whenever he wished, but it was only a knot in the wood of his paneling A knot that had two eyes and a ht, and for soinbottom

Atticus Tick The young

The boy who’d disappeared from existence

It was a shaedy Master George had never ached in his heart so un to understand why the boy had such extraordinary powers, why he was able to harness and use Chi’karda as if he were himself a Barrier Wand—and a powerful Wand at that, even ic story of her own—he was gone

But none of that really e missed Master Atticus so much He missed him—ached for him—because the boy had becoenuine Such a kid, but so grown up Oh, how he missed that dear, dear boy

He was a wonder

Sato had coe had asked of him He had visited each Reality and searched until he had found the saginbottom—the boy’s “twins” in the other twelve Realities Never before had such an odd coincidence occurred, where only one version of a person rehout all the Realities They’d never know if there was some deep cosmic reason behind it, or how it had happened

But one thing was for certain: every one of those Alterants’ soulikens had traveled to and collected within the body of the one reed his structure, his makeup, his quantum mechanics He was full of Chi’karda, filled beyond measure with the powers that bound and controlled the universe Filled beyond anything mankind could ever hope to recreate or dream about

He was lost now, gone from existence

There’d probably never be another quite like him, in far more ways than one

George called for Muffintops He needed to hug a friend

Part 1

The Nonex

Chapter 1

A Gash in the Forest

The forest s

Jacob Gillian paid the stench nothe narrow path that threaded through the tall oaks and pines like a dried-out stream Of course, the reason he paid it no o in an unfortunate spice sniffing contest His grandson, Chip, had to tell him that the place stunk like a three-week-old dead rat stuck under the pipes

The two of the full well that so horrible had happened deep within the dark woods Exactly what had happened was still a mystery, and the reason they were out there Jacob had heard the awful sound of ripping and shredding and boo stench Those two things together spelled trouble, and by golly, the source behind it needed finding out

Jacob and his grandson had moved into the boonies after Chip’s parents had been killed in a train collision near Louisville Ever since then, they’d learned to live with little and less, loving the wild freedo shbor lived a good thirty miles down the poorly maintained state road, and the nearest toas forty miles in the other direction But that’s just how Jacob liked it, and the life had seerow on Chip as well

One day they’d return to civilization and start learnin’ Chip on the ways of society But for now, there was tirow, time to enjoy Time to have time

“I think I see so up there, Grandpa,” Chip said, a little too enthusiastically, considering the circuht them out into the woods

“What is it?” Old Jacob couldn’t see much better than he could smell

“There’s a bright patch Seeoes all the way up to the sky!”

“On the path or off it?”

Chip grabbed Jacob’s hand and started hurrying down the little ribbon of beaten leaves and undergrowth “Just to the right of it We’re almost there!”

Jacob followed along as careful as he could while still keeping up with Chip’s eager steps Warning bells rang inside his mind, but he did what he’d done since the day he’d stepped out into the hunored thee came as naturally as a nice belch after dinner

They’d just rounded a bend, skirting past two mammoth pines that looked like brothers, when Chip suddenly pulled up short Jacob ran right past hirandson’s aro But then Jacob sahat had stopped the kid, and all he could do was stand and stare He felt Chip’s sweaty hand slip out of his own