by Ian Newton
Chapter 18
Literally
In a flurry of bubbles, Jacob appeared at the bottom of the Fountain at the east entrance. He looked up into the filtered moonlight, then down at the steps in front of him and started to climb.
“I’m on my way,” Kaya thought to Andrew as she streaked across the sky.
“Go easy on him,” Andrew thought back. The sound of his team percolated around him, and their concerns began to quiet as he returned to them and explained what had happened.
By the time Jacob’s head broke the surface, Kaya sitting on the edge, waiting for him.
As soon as his mouth was above the water, he shouted, “What was that! I stop by for a little chat and he kills me?!”
“You’re dead, get over it.”
He turned and saw Kaya smiling at him.
“Get over it?” he asked, placing his hands on the side of the Fountain. “Very funny,” he said, sweeping his leg over the side. “I’m going to get a dry robe. I’ll be right back,” and he walked toward the changing rooms located off the courtyard of the Fountain, sloshing and dripping as he went.
When he came out, he was wearing a fresh, dry robe and called out, “You’ve been saving that one for quite a while, haven’t you?”
“Well I wasn’t going to just waste it,” she said, standing and hugging him tightly.
“I’m angry and disappointed, but I’ll figure it out,” Jacob thought to Kaya and Andrew. “Looks like I get the prize for being the first one to visit the bottom of the Fountain.”
“Yeah, congratulations on that one,” Andrew thought back.
“What did I do wrong?”
“I don’t think you did anything wrong,” Kaya replied.
“The question we need to answer is,” Andrew thought, “What do we do next?”
“I’d like to go back and freak him out,” Jacob grumbled.
“Father did say to have fun, but I don’t think that’s exactly what he had in mind,” Kaya offered.
“Maybe we should move past Connor and look at the bigger picture,” Andrew suggested.
“I love you both,” Jacob thought to them, hugging Kaya. “And right now, I need some time to think. I need some time to heal, and I need some time to let go.”
For two days, Jacob meditated at the top of the half-spire until an epiphany finally arrived. He almost discarded it, but wisdom made him pause while he applied his hopeful idea to every matter of importance. With the thoughtfulness of a master sage, a hypothesis developed, one that needed testing.
In the same instant he formed his theory, he rejected it, but if he was right, that’s exactly what was supposed to happen. Knowing he couldn’t accept the truth was part of the puzzle; it was part of what had been carefully constructed and deconstructed before his very eyes.
When he started looking at everything from a different perspective, it was obvious what they were doing. They were doing what everyone else had done and once he saw the pieces, he saw the puzzle.
“It’s perfect,” he said to himself, admiring the cleverness of it all. “You can’t win if you play with the pieces you’re given, and you can’t win without them. That’s quite a test,” he mused to himself, wondering if Father was smiling from above. Thinking back to Celeste’s diary, he finally realized why Father had called it ill-conceived.
“I think I’ve got it figured out this time,” he whispered, knowing there would be no answer. “You took us as far as You could, You brought us into this world, just like You said. Now the rest is up to us.”
He smiled at the rising sun knowing he was wrong, which proved he was right. “I’m probably going to go kill myself now, but if I don’t wind up at the bottom of the Fountain, I can’t wait to see the look on Your face.”
He knew everything they were doing, everything they had planned, and everything they were about to do was wrong, but he had to be sure.
Jacob focused his mind and flew into the sky until he was too high to be seen.
“Anything,” he said to himself, “anything,” and he flew toward the sea. The barrier of the outer wall pulled at him, slowing his progress like an ominous warning, then it was gone. He grinned and accelerated, breaking the sound barrier as he headed out over open water.
Speeding across the sky, miles from shore and far from any line of sight he silently commanded, “To me.” Thousands of feet above the ocean, Jacob playfully navigated through a patchwork maze of billowing clouds as a glint of gold made its approach from below.
He stopped to watch as the Lady Marie drifted up, nestling her keel deep into a brilliantly white cloud, awaiting his command.
Lastly, he held out his open hand, thought about his staff and watched it appear in his palm with a little “pop”.
“If anything is possible,” he said aloud, “the only limits are the ones we create.”
From the corner of his eye, Jacob saw a rainbow in the loop of his Shepard hook, and when he turned, it was gone.
Turning back toward the towering Beacon of Light he gave his command to the Lady Marie and set off to share the news of his discovery.
“How are you?” Kaya asked Jacob as he floated in. She was sitting on the edge of the Fountain looking out through the archway.
“I’ve given that a great deal of consideration,” he said, leaning over and putting his hand into the water. “And I’ve decided I’ve been looking at everything from the wrong perspective. I think we’ve all been looking at things the wrong way.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I’m not really sure where to start,” he said, wiping the water over his face and sitting down.
“How long were you up there?”
“Two days.”
“Any thoughts about Connor?”
“Not really,” he said shrugging. “Actually, he was all I could think about for the first day, then he just faded away. Now I’m stuck on something else.”
“Go on,” she prodded.
Jacob watched the citizens going about their day and thought about how easy it was to get snared in the trap, how easy it was to look past the obviousness of it all. He wrestled with himself, trying to figure out how to bring Kaya into a place she couldn’t see.
Finally, he asked her, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”
Kaya reflected on the question, she could be meticulous when choosing her words. When she was ready, she said, “Everything, anything.”
“Do you remember Father telling us anything was possible?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember how many times He told us?”
“Several I suppose, why?”
“What do you think He meant?”
Kaya waved to friends walking by and eventually she said, “I think He was just telling us life is unpredictable, and you can expect just about anything to happen at any time. You know, life is random and all your philosophy stuff.”
“Like improbable things can happen no matter how random or unlikely they seem?”
“Something like that,” Kaya acknowledged. “Why, what are you thinking?”
“What if He meant it literally?” Jacob asked, turning to meet her eyes.
“Maybe you should go back up on the spire for another few days.”
“Will you humor me for a few minutes while I teach you what I learned up there?”
“If it’s going to be a philosophy lesson, I would rather not indulge you. No offense, I just have a hard time following you or Andrew when you go there.”
“Trust me, you’re going to like this, even if you hate it.”
Kaya sighed and reluctantly agreed to what she hoped would be a short bout of philosophical waxing by the master himself.
“Good,” he said. “I’m going to show you som
ething unexpected, but you have to see it for yourself.”
Kaya closed her eyes and did her best impression of someone who was interested.
“Where is your staff?” Jacob asked.
“It’s behind me on the edge of the Fountain. Where’s yours?”
“It’s in my hand.”
Kaya opened her eyes and closed them again, “No it’s not.”
“Where did Father tell us our staff would be at all times?”
Kaya’s forehead wrinkled, and she said, “Your staff will be with you at all times.”
“Is that literal or figurative?” he asked.
“Obviously, it’s figurative,” she said impatiently.
“Open your eyes please.”
Kaya placidly opened her eyes, looking bored, but willing to play along.
Jacob focused his mind and whispered just loud enough for her to hear, “With me.”
A pinpoint of blue-white Light winked into existence just above Jacob’s open hand and “pop”, his staff appeared out of nowhere. It gently rocked side to side as it came to rest in his still open hand.
Kaya flinched but didn’t pull away.
“Literal or figurative?” Jacob asked.
“All right Jacob, you have my attention,” she said, repositioning herself on the edge of the Fountain to face him.
“Where can you fly?” he asked.
“Only in the City.”
“How do you know that?”
Kaya’s forehead wrinkled again as she combed through every nook and cranny of knowledge, and finally said, “Because that’s how it works.”
“How do you know?” Jacob asked patiently.
“You’re just being philosophical now, and this is the part that bothers me. You know that’s how it works. That’s what Father told us, that’s what we’ve seen in every Kingdom for the past twenty thousand years. You can’t fly outside of the City it’s just the way it is. Don’t you remember when Marcia flew outside of the City walls? It was the very first Kingdom, and it killed her. She turned to stone.”
“Father never told us we couldn’t fly outside of the City and Marcia turned to stone because she abandoned the City, not because she flew outside the walls.”
“Of course, He told us, and if your plan is to frustrate me, it’s working.”
“Before I came and sat next to you I was flying over the ocean.”
Kaya knew Jacob wouldn’t lie and yet she knew what he was saying wasn’t true. She felt his forehead and there was no fever. She looked into his eyes and thought to him, “What are you playing at Jacob Duncan? This isn’t like you at all.”
Jacob reached up and gently touched her cheek, “Fly up to the clouds and go to the ocean. The worst that can happen is you’ll crash and reappear at the bottom of the Fountain.”
“Why Jacob? Why would I do that?”
“Because anything is possible.”
“Figurative,” she said, staring at him with her eyebrows smashed down in frustration.
“Literal.”
Kaya took several deep breaths, considered everything at play and decided Jacob was wrong. The problem was she didn’t know why he was wrong.
“I’ll be right here when you get back.”
“You’re wrong about this Jacob. I don’t know what you saw in your meditation, but it’s got your thinking all turned around.”
“I have never lied to you and right here, right now, I’m trying to save your life.”
Kaya flipped her perspective above them and was immediately overwhelmed. This moment and whatever came next wasn’t just important, it was a defining point of immeasurable magnitude. Her breath caught in her chest, and her eyes opened wide. She stared at Jacob and in the blink of an eye she abandoned reason, and logic, and everything telling her to stop.
“I will die for you, but I will only do this once,” she said, floating into the air. She picked up speed as she approached the clouds above and shifted her momentum toward the ocean. In the blink of an eye she had left the City behind and her fears with it.
With the ocean spreading out below, Kaya opened up her mind to Andrew. He watched her soaring above an endless field of blue as they shared the impossible.
“Andrew?” Jacob thought.
“Yes Jacob, I’m here,” he stammered, pulling away from Kaya’s vision, “but Kaya’s flying over the ocean. What’s happening?”
“If you look to the south, into the sky, you should be able to see something?”
“What am I looking for?”
“I need you and everyone in your group to come home. Everything has changed.”
“Come home? Jacob, what’s going on? How is Kaya…?” he paused as the sun gleaned off the golden ship descending from the clouds. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Come home Andrew, bring everyone home. I’ll explain when you get here. Trust me, you’re going to love this.”
Andrew and his band of wanderers stood mesmerized as the Lady Marie made it's graceful decent. He opened his mind, allowing Kaya to witness it. “I don’t understand any of this, but I’m coming home,” he told her.
Kaya sent him love that rippled with hope, and she told him, “Anything is possible my love. I’ll meet you at the Lady Marie in port.”
Kaya patiently waited at the dock while the two hundred Wanderers in Andrew’s party stepped off the Lady Marie. When Andrew finally stepped off the gang plank, he and Kaya embraced. With everyone gathered around them, Kaya announced, “Thank you all for the unexpected return. I’m sure you were just as surprised as we were to see the Lady Marie flying through the sky. I can’t explain what is happening because I’m not entirely sure myself. For now, please return to your families and let them know you are safe.”
To her surprise, the entire group was very accepting of her request and instructions. She and Andrew walked hand in hand alongside the group, back to the south entrance where Jacob was waiting for them at the Fountain.
The three hugged and Jacob thought to them, “There is no one on approach, I would like to talk on the half-spire.”
“Lead the way,” Andrew said.
As they touched down on the top of the spire, they watched the Lady Marie returning to port.
“How is that possible?” Andrew asked him.
“How is it not?” he replied.
“That’s not fair Jacob,” Kaya said, stepping next to Andrew.
“You’re right,” Jacob agreed. “I’ll start from the beginning, and when you can’t accept the truth of it, you can prove me wrong. If you can’t prove me wrong, we’ll all be in the same place.”
Kaya took Andrew’s hand as Jacob started to explain.
“When I was up here meditating about what had happened with Connor, I thought about who could and couldn’t see the Lady Marie or the image of the Kingdom in our staffs. I wondered if Connor would be able to see them. I wondered if I would have been able to see them when I brought the two of you out here.
Back then I was mentally in a different place, and I think I would have been blind to them. I changed the night Connor went into the Chamber. I can’t explain how and it’s really not important, but I couldn’t stop wondering what would have happened if I’d never been in the Chamber with him; if I’d never been given the chance to change.
Then I started thinking about all the people who might never see the Lady Marie or the City hovering right in front of them. And that’s when I realized those people were just like me. Are you still following?” he asked.
“If you deserved a chance, everyone does,” Andrew replied.
“Exactly.”
“Even Connor?” Kaya asked hesitantly.
“Everyone,” Jacob confirmed. “Unless we make it our job to decide what people can and can’t do, the choice isn’t ours to make. I don’t know about you, b
ut I can’t decide if someone can change. And I don’t want that job, do you?”
Kaya and Andrew shook their heads.
“So why does our entire plan revolve around finding only those people who can see the Lady Marie or the City floating around in our staffs? Do either of you know why?”
“Well,” Andrew started, “I don’t think we want to have to convince anyone to come here. Shouldn’t they want to?”
“You didn’t answer the question,” Jacob pointed out.
“I know,” Andrew said.
“Isn’t that just the way it works?” Kaya asked. “I mean, isn’t that why we have them? Aren’t we supposed to find the right people? You know, the ones who won’t bounce back or get popped with Lightning?”
“That’s exactly what I said to myself,” Jacob said pointing at them, “but I couldn’t find a single scrap of evidence to support my belief. Father never told us what they had to be used for. What He told us and showed us is anything is possible.
Look at the objects behind you,” he said, pointing to the collection of magical items. “If you can look at those things and tell me anything isn’t possible with the gifts we have been given, you’re lying to yourself.”
“Are you saying,” Andre asked, “anything, literally anything is possible?”
“What I’m trying to tell you is the only limits to our powers are the ones we have created. Nobody’s ever told us what can’t be done, all we’ve ever seen is what can be done.”
“I don’t agree,” Andrew objected. “You’re taking it too far.”
“The Lady Marie can fly by the command of her captain and we can all fly outside of the City. You know Kaya did it, I did it too. The last experiment I performed to prove myself wrong was with my staff. Do you remember what Father said about your staff?”
Kaya helped out this time, “He said it was with you at all times.”
Jacob nodded in agreement and asked Andrew, “Is it with you now?”
“No, it’s not. I left it on the Fountain.”
“Hold out your hand and call it to yourself,” Jacob instructed.
Andrew and Kaya held out their hands, willing their staffs to appear. As both of their staffs popped into their hands, Jacob said, “Father’s words were meant to be taken literally. He was never that explicit, but when you think back, it should have been clear enough.
The part that bothers me is we told Him we accepted the truth of His words, but we didn’t or we couldn’t. Maybe we weren’t ready, I don’t know, but I can tell you this, nobody in our position has ever taken His words literally.”
“How do you know that?” Kaya asked.
“Because you can’t win this game we’re playing if you don’t play by a different set of rules.”
“If anything is possible,” Andrew said, twisting the problem around in his mind, “then everything is possible.”
“Now imagine a test so clever, even if you come up with the right answer, you instantly reject it because it’s obviously wrong. And since you can’t accept the answer, you trap yourself in your own little box of limitations. Once you’re stuck, once you’ve rejected the truth, you can never pass the test, no matter how hard you try.”
“So we have to change the rules of the game?” Andrew asked Kaya.
“Throw away the rules,” Kaya said, looking at Jacob.
“Prove me wrong,” Jacob challenged them.
“I would rather prove you right,” Andrew said, sounding hesitant, but excited.
“This is why I asked you to come back. If I’m right, and I know I’m right, then our strategy is all wrong. Our plan was flawed from the beginning, our thinking was limited by whatever we thought we couldn’t do, and we need to rethink everything.”
“Remember when you stuck your arm into your staff when Father first gave them to us on the island?” Andrew asked Jacob.
“Sure, we were all on the Lady Marie.”
“Do you remember what He told you when you asked Him how it worked?”
Jacob remembered Father offering to show him the overwhelming complexity of how it worked. “I remember telling Father I didn’t need to know how it worked, and I was fine calling it magic.”
“That’s right, and it's always stuck in my mind how He referred to what we were seeing. He called it now.”
Jacob smiled mischievously, and said, “Let the experimentation begin.”
Andrew held out his staff, and imagining the loop of the shepherd hook to be much larger, he said, “Grow,” and the hook instantly expanded.
“Show me, Ross Elbe,” he said, and Ross appeared in the hoop of the staff. It wasn’t an image of Ross, it was Ross walking in the apple orchard with Ravi. Without pausing, Andrew put the loop of the staff over his head and dropped it over himself.
To Kaya and Jacob, Andrew disappeared. A heartbeat later Andrew’s staff disappeared and in a few more seconds Ross and Andrew appeared together on top of the half-spire.
Ross looked very confused as Jacob and Kaya looked on in amazement.
“It’s all right Ross,” Kaya said, coming up and taking his hand. “You’re on top of the half-spire. You’re safe. We’re just experimenting.”
“Oh,” Ross said, sounding relieved, but confused.
“Take a look around while we talk, but don’t touch the things on the pedestals, all right?”
Ross just nodded and walked toward the edge to look around.
“Anywhere in the world, instantly,” Andrew said with a grin.
“Or anything moved to anyplace,” Jacob added.
“If we can fly anywhere, we can heal anywhere,” Kaya said.
“Remember how Celeste traveled around the City?” Andrew asked.
Jacob focused on the other side of the half-spire, but since he didn’t attempt to fly he disappeared and reappeared with a “pop”.
Kaya walked over to Ross and gently took his hand. She thought about Ravi walking in the orchard, imagined herself standing next to him and she and Ross disappeared with a “pop”.
Seconds later she reappeared next to Andrew, “pop”.
Jacob knelt down and put his hand on the stone of the half-spire. He imagined it to be made of transparent crystal, and it changed to a beautiful clear blue all the way down to its base.
“Anything,” he said, standing up and putting a hand on each of their shoulders, “Anything is possible.”
Just as the words left his mouth, Kaya popped into existence next to herself. An instant later she popped in again, making three Kayas all standing side by side.
Jacob jumped back, Andrew stared, and Kaya said, “That’s interesting.”
The second Kaya looked at the first Kaya, and said, “I’m about fifteen seconds from now,” and the third Kaya said, “I’m about twenty seconds from now, and I’m the only one who should be sticking around.”
With her staff in hand, the original Kaya made the loop grow larger, and said, “Fifteen seconds ago,” and disappeared as she dropped the loop over her body. The second Kaya stepped over, picked up her staff, and said, “Twenty seconds ago,” and she dropped the staff over herself and disappeared. The only remaining Kaya smiled at Jacob and Andrew, picked up her staff and shrunk the loop back down to normal size.
“Well,” Jacob said, “that’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t believe it,” Andrew agreed. “Do you feel any different?”
“I feel fine, but I never really left. You just saw it happen backward.”
“I’m going to have to start working on my imagination,” Andrew said to Jacob.
Jacob shook his head, and said, “I’m starving, let’s go back to your place for some breakfast. We need a new plan.”
“Five hundred years,” Kaya scoffed, lifting into the air. “Not by my rules
.”