Spheria (6 page)

“This is the Trail of Passage,” he said. “Remember these arches, for they’ll be your guide back.”

“What do you mean? Why will
you
not be my guide back?”

“It’s not the way. You must find your way back to the Colony alone.”

“But you said there is no passage back.”

“Indeed, there is no passage. But that doesn’t mean there is no way back. You'll have all the skill necessary to get back on your own after this journey. Your final test combines everything you'll learn to make it home.”

“Ugh,” Le∙ma said, exasperated. “What if I don’t make it?”

“That is possible. This entire area is circled by sheer blue rock, leading to the edge of the Rift. There is no way through them or over them. I was the second apprentice selected by Go∙ma. His first selection never returned from this quest. It happens. Only the strong and wise become Lumen Seekers.”

Le∙ma remained silent. Up until now, this felt like a game. Sa∙ma was her safety net. Now, the process seemed serious, and she worried that she wasn’t up to it.

They trudged on for a bit until reaching one of the red rock fingers. What looked thin from the top of the mountain was actually quite vast when standing next to it. It spanned about the width of eight of their bodies.

“We need to cross this,” Sa∙ma said.

“But red rock is attractive,” she stated quizzically.

“Yes, it is. We can’t just walk across it because our feet will stick. It's possible to detach one leg at a time, but this requires leverage. Once you have all your limbs stuck, you'll be helpless. But luckily for us, the attraction isn't that strong unless you touch it.”
 
He waved a leg over the red rock. It seemed effortless. Then he let it drop, and it clanked onto the red stone.

Le∙ma gasped.

“Pull me,” Sa∙ma commanded.

She wrapped two legs around his center and pulled back with her remaining two legs. It took all her might, and his pushing with his free legs, to detach him from the red rock. He popped back.

“Thanks!” he said. Then he asked, “How can we cross?”

“We need to make a barrier between us and the river.”

“Correct. How?”

 
Brown Rock
. She found a loose polyhedron on the ground and threw it into the river. It stuck fast in the middle, then turned red and sank as the shapes below shuffled to make room. Puzzled, but not deterred, she tore loose a hunk of green polyhedrons from the side of a plant and threw it into the river. Again they turned red and sank below.

“What’s going on?”

“What do you think?”

“Well, it looks like anything that touches the river changes into red rock. But you touched it and didn’t change.”

“An enigma, indeed. It turns out that it’ll turn almost anything red. One exception is something living, something attached to a violet life core.”

“Why is that?”

“For this answer, we need to go all the way back before the world existed. This is the story of the creation.”

#

A single eight-legged Polyan, named Ra∙ju, floated in the darkness. He was all that existed. He made himself shine bright white, but there was nothing for the light to fall upon. He searched the void but found nothing. He was alone.

So he detached all his legs, one by one, and as he did they changed color. One became brown, one orange, one red, one blue, one green, one yellow, one violet, and one indigo. They each then sprouted seven legs of their own and became the eight gods. But unlike us, they each had a colored core. To these, he gave the suffix “ro” and named them Ta∙ro, Ke∙ro, Pi∙ro, Ju∙ro, Ca∙ro, Na∙ro, Wi∙ro, and Su∙ro, respectively.

They gathered around Ra∙ju, and he was proud. But they floated in nothing, and this made him sad. So he directed his children to make a place where they could dwell and play.

To Ta∙ro the brown, he said, “Go and make the lands.” Ta∙ro then produced a chunk of brown rock between his legs. This he shaped and smoothed and spread out until it surrounded and contained them all in a continuous sphere. This is the world in which we now dwell.

To Ca∙ro the green, he said, “Go and make the plants.” Ca∙ro exploded in a mass of green polyhedrons that shot out in all directions. These dotted the landscape, and each of them became the plants spread about.

To Ke∙ro the orange, he said, “Make life, so the land may buzz with activity.” To do this, Ke∙ro descended and imbued a bunch of brown rock with orange energy. Thus, the creatures that inhabit our world were born, including us.
 

To Su∙ro the indigo, he said, “The creatures are unable to experience their world. Give them senses.” So Su∙ro waved at the creatures, and they sprouted sensors that allowed them to see, hear, and speak. Some plants also gained the ability to grow new sensors for future generations. But the creatures were too few, and would never find each other, so Ra∙ju turned his attention to Wi∙ro.

So to Wi∙ro the violet, he said, “Make the creatures multiply, so that we may never run out.” To do this, he shone his violet light upon them, and they found each other and increased their numbers. Soon there were too many, and they began to fight.

To Ju∙ro the blue, he said, “Go and make divisions so that the creatures will not fight.” Ju∙ro descended to the land and rolled about, leaving a trail of blue rock in his wake. This rock was so high it became the mountains we know today. But in the valleys, the creatures were too close and still crowded.

To Pi∙ro the red, Ra∙ju said, “Go and make the rivers so that the beasts will multiply slower.” Pi∙ro descended, like Ju∙ro, and rolled around the land. As he did so, trenches formed and filled with red rock to further divide the lands. However, every time he hit a blue mountain, he was repelled and bounced off. This went on for many days, and each time Pi∙ro was halted, he got angrier and angrier. He decreed that everything that touched the red rock from then on would become red as well. To do this Wi∙ro, having a violet core, demanded that anything violet would be immune from this curse. But Pi∙ro did not care because he just wanted to turn all the blue rock to red. But when he attempted to affect the blue stone, he was still repulsed. So he made the red rock attractive. Finally, the forces balanced and he was able to touch blue with red.

Ra∙ju was angry. He said, “Enough! I will not tolerate my children fighting any longer. Your powers are from this point frozen and in balance. Blue will not be changed to red, nor will blue be repulsive to red.”

The gods accepted their place and returned to the center to look upon the lands that they created. They were pleased with their work, but the terrain was dark. Ra∙ju then turned to his last child.

“Na∙ro the yellow, shine your brightness upon the lands so that we may see them, and the creatures may see each other.” To this, he burst into a shower of shimmering brightness, and the world was filled with light.

#

“So that’s why living things can touch the red and not turn red?” asked Le∙ma. “But nothing else can?”

“That is why. The ancient ones, when they formed the world, created the rules by which everything behaves. Knowing how things work, and how to use their properties together, is what makes us Lumenaries. By your training, and the training I received, we know more about the world than most others, and this gives us an advantage.”

“I feel privileged and grateful to you for having been selected to receive this knowledge.”

“So far, it’s been my privilege to be able to teach you. You're a good student, and I think your deeds will someday exceed my own.”

“I doubt that, but thank you for the words of encouragement.”

“Now,” Sa∙ma said, changing the subject. “You need to use your knowledge to get us across the river.”

Le∙ma was perplexed. She looked around. She thought about the story of creation. Without realizing it, she worked the problem out by speaking it.

“Okay, so the red rivers turn everything red, except the living. But living things stick to it, and it’s difficult to detach oneself without help. If we put something living on it, we can walk over that!” She was proud of herself. As they walked along the bank, she found a plant leaning over and pushed it down, laying it upon the red river. Starting from the point where the plant touched the river, it turned red along its length until it reached the ground. The part over the river sank down, leaving a strip of red rock remaining on the shore.

“Why?” she asked.

Her logic was clever, so Sa∙ma explained why it had failed. “Remember my story. ‘The Living’ applies to those with violet cores, like us, or the beasts. Plants are alive, in a sense, but they don’t have a violet center so they’ll turn red.”

“So we need to pile up a bunch of beasts onto the river.”

“Maybe, but there has got to be a better way.”

Le∙ma worked through the problem, replaying the scene in her mind.
I laid the plant down so we could walk across it, but then it touched the river and turned red. It would’ve worked if it didn’t touch the river.

A realization came to her. She strutted away from the river, found one of the arched plants, a big one, and pulled it from the ground. She dragged it and tossed it across the river so that one end landed on the opposite bank. The arch made a bridge, something she’d never seen or envisioned before.

“Perfect!” Sa∙ma commended her.

Le∙ma knew it would just fall over if they climbed on it. So she yanked it back over, retrieved three more, and lashed them together side by side to make a thick archway. With Sa∙ma’s help, she heaved this structure across the river once more. It was both broad and stable enough for them to cross, which they did.

“I solved it!” Le∙ma danced with joy on the opposite side, as the Source began to dim above her.

“Come on,” said Sa∙ma. “I want to get to the Rift before night. It’s not far now.”

They marched off in the direction of the chasm that divided their world in two.

Chapter 6 - First Impressions

“There is no personal charm so great as the charm of a cheerful temperament.” - Henry Van Dyke

Max tapped his foot, waiting for the elevator. He watched the numbers count down, pausing at every digit for an unusually extended period of time. He pulled out his phone and looked at the time: 10:05. He was already late for the interview. His team desperately needed this candidate to be a fit. They’d been without an intern for six weeks following the tragic suicide of their previous one.

A ‘ding’ was heard, then the elevator doors opened, brightening the corridor. Two kids rushed out, laughing. They dodged around Max as he stepped in.

The lift was empty. Max poked his head out the door and shouted, “Where are your parents?” But the kids were nowhere in sight. He ducked back in and the door shut. As he went to press floor seven, he noticed all the lighted squares.

“Damn kids!” he exclaimed. They’d pressed every floor before leaving the elevator.

Max pressed the numbers randomly in frustration. He pounded his fist on the panel as the elevator began moving upwards.

The door opened on the second floor. He stared out into an empty hallway. After what seemed like a full thirty seconds, the door closed.

 
Why the hell don’t they allow you to unselect elevator buttons?
he thought to himself.
It should be like check boxes on a computer form. If you press it again, it’ll uncheck that option. That way if you make a mistake, you can fix it, or in the case of annoying kids, reverse their joke.

The door opened on floor three. Carts of medical equipment were lined up along one wall. They looked like expensive devices. One resembled an oscilloscope with a bunch of dangling electrical cables. The door closed.

 
We’ve had radio buttons since the sixties. And computer interfaces with them for decades. But Otis Elevator, in all its wisdom, has never thought to allow you to unselect a floor by pressing it again.

The door opened, revealing floor four. Across from the elevator was a special fountain used to flush one’s eyes out in the case of an accidental chemical burn.
I hope I never have to use one of those
. The door closed.

Max watched the floor four light go out as the elevator made its way toward floor five. The door opened.

A lab across from the elevator glowed an eerie red through its smoky white window panel.
Why’d they have red lights in there? What twisted experiments are they doing? Probably sticking sensors into monkey brains and seeing how they interpret colors. I’m glad we only experiment on fake creatures.
The door shut.

Max looked at his watch again. 10:08. “Damn.”
Fucking kids
.

Floor six. A sterile cinder block wall, institutional beige, filled the view. With a sudden rattling noise, a cart of glassware sped by. It was pushed by a woman who was obviously in a hurry and had built up quite a bit of momentum. The sound startled Max from his thoughts. “One more to go,” he said.

“Sorry?” asked the woman pushing the cart, as the doors closed.

Yeah, you’re sorry. I’m the one who’s late.

The final ding and the elevator delivered Max to floor seven. Max rushed down the hall to the lab, which was tucked away behind an unassuming wooden door. He yanked it open and it slammed into the adjacent wall. A young Asian woman looked up from the magazine she was perusing. She sat in the first of two chairs they had set up as a makeshift lobby, with a browning fern placed in between.
Reminder to self, water the plant,
he thought.