The Hero's Chamber

by Ian Newton

  Chapter 22

  Wisdom

  After his greeting, Andrew noticed Kaya and Jacob standing off to the side.

  He hugged Kaya, saying, “I felt you leave. I could feel it in my heart.”

  “I would never leave you, my love,” she said, squeezing him tightly and kissing his cheek. “I just went ahead and waited for you, but I didn’t leave.”

  Keeping one arm around Kaya, he held out his other hand to Jacob, and said, “And you!”

  Jacob grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously.

  “What about me?” he demanded with a smile. “You’re the one who took so long. I practically had it figured out before Kaya.”

  “He sure did,” she whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear. “That’s why it took him another fifteen minutes to show up.”

  “How long was I in there?” he asked.

  “You were hanging out at the Fountain for about an hour,” she replied.

  “An hour? It didn’t feel...”

  The man interjected, “It’s not important how long it took any of you to stand up. The Fountain is now being utilized for one of its many purposes, and it is time for us to move on.”

  Turning back toward the man, Andrew noticed something odd. They were still standing next to the Fountain of Knowing, the buildings around them were unchanged, but something was different about the light.

  Andrew turned his face to the sun, but the light didn’t warm him. It didn’t shine the way it was supposed to either. Looking around the courtyard, he noticed the buildings, the Fountain and even the light and shadows had a softened appearance. Everything he could see other than Kaya, Jacob, and the man had a hazy, slightly out of focus appearance.

  “Turn around,” Jacob said to Andrew.

  “Why?” he asked, turning to look at the Fountain, “What’s behind mmmme…?” What he saw perplexed his brain so badly, he barely got the words out.

  Andrew looked back and forth between the Fountain and his friends, and they all heard the unfiltered questions pouring out of his mind.

  The man put His hand on Andrew’s shoulder while he stared at the Fountain in disbelief.

  “Yes, that’s you sitting there and yes that’s Kaya and Jacob too,” the man said, in response to Andrew’s unspoken questions.

  “Well,” He corrected Himself, “It’s your bodies at least.”

  Kaya and Jacob looked on with amusement, only because they had already gone through what Andrew was now trying to understand.

  “I said you would need to leave something behind before we could begin our journey. I just didn’t tell you what “it” was.”

  “But if I’m there,” Andrew said, pointing to himself sitting on the edge of the Fountain, slightly bent over to one side with his hand in the sparkling water, “how am I here?”

  “Look at the water,” the man offered. “Is it moving?”

  Andrew stepped toward the Fountain until he was standing just inches in front of Kaya.

  “No, I mean I don’t think so.”

  “Look up.”

  Looking up at the top of the Fountain, he saw the pulse of water that should have been moving, but it wasn’t. It had stopped in mid-flow.

  “I guess it’s not moving at all. Is it?”

  “No, it’s not,” the man replied. “What you’re looking at is you. It is all of you, but you’re not there right now. You’re with me, and you’re not in any physical place you can understand.”

  Andrew turned away from the Fountain. He had a confused look on his face, and Jacob said, “Yeah, it took me a few minutes to get it too. It still only makes sense to me if I look away from the Fountain and try not to think about it.”

  “Try not to think about what?” Andrew asked in a pleading voice. “What’s happened? Where are we?”

  The man patiently and compassionately spoke into their minds, “Andrew, that’s your body sitting on the edge of the Fountain, and your hand is in the water because it’s keeping your body safe and alive. Your body will be fine for as long as we need it to be, for as long as our journey lasts, because time doesn’t matter anymore. We’ll come back here before we even left. When we’re done, you’ll understand.

  The important thing is we are all together now, not as physical beings, but as curious creatures of energy and Light. This is what you really are, what everyone really is.”

  Andrew turned back toward the man and began to ask another question, when the man said, “Your questions are fantastic, and each one of them will be answered and explained until you can explain things back to me, but for right now the easiest way to begin is simply to begin.”

  Kaya and Jacob, whose questions had been mostly put off for the better part of an hour, were anxious to proceed.

  “Let’s all join hands now and we’ll begin our adventure,” the man said encouragingly.

  Kaya took His hand, and indescribable feelings shot up and down her spine. Jacob took Kaya’s hand and held out his other to Andrew, but Andrew just stood there looking dazed and confused.

  Andrew’s hands were down by his sides, and he unconsciously started thinking a barrage of questions. His friends watched him turn to face the man, and he asked, “What’s your name? What should we call youuu…?”

  Andrew looked into the man’s eyes and gasped. The blue of His iris gently twirled and time slowed down. Andrew felt himself leaving in slow motion, but his brain was processing at full speed.

  Kaya and Jacob watched and listened with anticipation. They knew he was falling into the infinitely deep universe of blue-white Light they had already been consumed by. They knew their friend was tumbling into the eyes of the man who had pulled them from time and space, and they knew he would re-emerge with the same unanswered questions.

  Andrew’s mind was pulled into the whirlpool of blue-white Light. He felt as though he was shrinking.

  His entire field of vision became an uncountable number of blue-white stars. Each one of them produced a heavenly Light as they moved together in perfect harmony; slowly drifting and swirling around the perfectly black pupil on their endless journey. The depth of the star field swallowed his mind, and his mouth hung open as his consciousness was overwhelmed by infinity.

  Andrew fought against insanity, but it would have been so easy to give in. Resisting the path to nowhere, he directed his consciousness toward the inky black center of his universe.

  He felt reality slipping away as he reached the event horizon of the black hole. Relinquishing to his task, he abandoned reality and plunged into the infinite darkness.

  Once again, he felt himself leaving a reality he thought could go no further. He felt the impossibly immense forces of gravity transform him into bits and pieces of stardust until he was lost in the nothingness between what was and what could be.

  The man blinked and Andrew returned to the place he had never left. Reaching up with a single finger, the man pushed up on Andrew’s chin, closing his mouth.

  Kaya and Jacob smiled. Jacob reached down and took Andrew’s hand. The man lowered his hand and held it open for Andrew.

  “Names are for people with bodies,” He said, with a wink. “Now take my hand and let’s see how many of those other questions we can answer.”

  Andrew took the open hand and immediately felt like a small piece of fabric caught by the wind, spiraling higher and higher into the sky.

  The man spoke enthusiastically to them all as His deep echoing voice filled their minds, “We need to go back to the beginning of things, to the first Kingdom of Light. By traveling through your own history, you will come to understand many things about your future.”

  The circle they formed with their interlocking hands pulsed with Light in a rhythmic pattern.

  “Do not be alarmed by the changes to come. Remember, as we travel on our journey we will all be together, no h
arm can come to any of you, and we will ultimately be returning to exactly where and when we left.”

  The pulsing Light intensified until it was a constant glow. Inside the Light, the four adventurers transformed into nebulous spheres of energy.

  Kaya had become an orb with golden hues around the edges, and her center was a deep blue. Andrew shined with brilliant shades of orange and bits of green around his edges, and his center was pure white. Jacob flashed both green and gold in his aura, and his center was light blue.

  “You all look spectacular, and now that we’re ready to travel, let’s begin.”

  There was a “pop,” and everything went pitch black. “Pop,” came the sound again and the four Travelers emerged from nowhere into the sky high above the ground with the Kingdom in the distance.

  “If it feels like you’re still holding hands that’s good. It means you are sharing yourself with another.”

  Andrew looked down at his hand, but he didn’t have one. He looked at Kaya and Jacob, but they were only radiant clouds of Light.

  “Do I look like a big ball of Light?” Andrew asked cautiously.

  “You do,” Kaya answered in surprise.

  “Do I?” Jacob asked them.

  “You do too,” she answered again.

  “The Kingdom in front of us is the first of seven Kingdoms,” the man paused. “Are we all paying attention?”

  “I’m not,” Kaya said apologetically. “I’m still trying to figure out where my body went.”

  “Me too,” echoed Andrew and Jacob.

  “I’m sorry,” the man apologized. “I always forget how strange and difficult this is for the new ones.

  Your physical bodies are back at the Fountain. What you are now is what you have always been. You are adventurers and travelers. Your bodies no longer limit you, and you are certainly not dead. Death only comes to physical things, and as you will come to appreciate, your real self is made of energy that cannot be destroyed. Look into each other and tell me what you see.”

  “I see a big ball of Light,” Jacob responded.

  “Me too,” said Andrew.

  “Kaya, what do you see?” the man asked.

  “I can tell Andrew and Jacob are very close to me. I can feel their presence, and I can hear their feelings. I can see my friends for what they are, not what they looked like, and I can easily tell them from one another.”

  “Well yeah, I get that too,” Jacob said, a bit embarrassed, “but you still look like a ball of Light.”

  “I felt you smile when you said that,” Andrew said.

  “Good, now go fly around in the sky and look around the City. Get it out of your system. You don’t have to stay together because you’ll never be further apart than a thought.”

  They hesitated, and Andrew yelled, “Last one to the spire is a glowing ball of Light!” and he shot off into the distance.

  “Go on,” He said, to Kaya and Jacob. “If you can’t enjoy this, you’re probably doing it wrong.”

  With that, both Kaya and Jacob streaked off in pursuit of their friend.

  Andrew waited at the tip of the spire while Kaya and Jacob raced toward him.

  “This is a very tall spire,” she thought, slowing her speed to join Andrew. “I’ve never seen it completed and I just can’t believe how high up we are.”

  “Let’s go explore the City,” Jacob urged.

  “I would like to begin in the mountains, then come down into the City,” Kaya said.

  “I’ve got to start in the City,” Jacob said urgently, “but it’s all right if we split up.”

  Andrew thought about what he wanted to see first, and said, “I’m going to the City too. I’ve waited too long to see the real thing, and I’m way too excited to put it off.”

  “Have fun! I’ll be down when I’ve seen what there is to see in the mountains.” Focusing on her destination, she moved as a streak of Light toward the snow covered peaks.

  Jacob flew around the tip of the spire, then dropped like a stone toward the City below.

  “Hey, wait for me,” Andrew called out, falling in behind him.

  It could have been days, months, or possibly even years that they explored the twisting streets, the endless buildings and the surrounding areas within the sprawling City. Time had no meaning and they each took full advantage of the opportunity to explore and investigate every nook and cranny of their new home.

  When the places that once felt strange and new had become familiar and comfortable, they were summoned. Responding quickly, they each left what they were investigating and came to meet their guide at the very tip of the spire.

  “I trust you’ve each had ample time to explore everything you wished to see?”

  They all responded positively.

  “Good. Then we will begin where we left off. I have brought you here to see and experience things that have happened throughout the brief history of your world. This is the first of many times and places we will visit.

  In order to execute your responsibilities when we return to your time, you must learn from those who came before you.

  The questions bubbling out of each of you are excellent. Since you’re all keen to know what it is you’ll be doing when you return, I’ll begin building your foundation of knowledge.

  The planet you live on, the solar system around you, every star in the sky, the galaxy surrounding you and everything else within my universe is by my design. The only exception and I cannot stress this enough, is the City we are now floating above.”

  “I told you He was God,” Jacob thought to his friends.

  “Shhhh!” Kaya snipped.

  “It’s all right Kaya. You’ve each had the same thought numerous times since we met at the Fountain. In fact, Andrew is thinking it right now.”

  “Sorry.”

  “There is no reason to apologize for the things you think about. Now, where was I…Oh yes, if I didn’t create this City, who did? That’s an excellent question Andrew, and it’s the answer to that very question that brings us together.

  Also, because Kaya and Jacob are now wondering if I have done anything to try and find out who did create the City, I can assure you, I have done everything within my power to identify its creator. I’ve even gone so far as to create more than a trillion copies of this wonderful little planet, just in case the appearance of this City is tied to the earth itself or to some other countless number of seemingly improbable scenarios.

  Most of the copies even have delightful little people like you running around on them, but trying to duplicate the original has never been as simple as I would have liked it to be. I hate to bore you with the cosmic details. Suffice it to say, I have done all things possible to identify the source of the City and its purpose.

  I will also confirm for each of you that while I may not know the answer to either of these questions, I do know how to get them.

  I believe your questions have allowed me to get ahead of myself. Now where was I…Oh yes, let me remind you about the rules governing this City. Rules that were not put into Celeste’s diary because I asked her not to. Rules that each of you knows, but have yet to understand. Rules that have been shared with you by the water you drank upon the half-spire.

  I’m getting there Jacob, hold on.

  The reason each of you drank from the bowl at the top of the platform is because it is you who gave new life to the City. Your actions created a chain of events that have ultimately revealed, only to you, the purpose of the Kingdom. Only those who drink from the bowl atop the half-spire are given this knowledge and the burdens that come with it.

  Normally that’s the two people who emerged triumphantly from the Chamber, but in your case, there is a third.”

  Andrew whispered to himself, but everyone heard it, “Three thousand years.”

  “Or half the w
orld,” Kaya whispered, completing the shared memory.

  “That is correct. Half the world’s population or three thousand years. Those are the actual burdens bestowed upon you. If the City stands for three thousand years or if half the people of this world should come to fill its walls, then yes. The Kingdom will stand forever.”

  “I remember that too,” Jacob announced with surprise, “but I don’t think I would have thought of it if you hadn’t reminded me.”

  “It is curious, the difference between knowledge and wisdom, isn’t it Jacob?”

  Kaya’s mind was working through all they had been told when her thinking got tangled.

  “If you didn’t create the City, how is it you were there in the Chamber, how did you become part of this?” Immediately she began to stammer and apologize, “I, I, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound the way it did.”

  “There is no need to apologize Kaya. Your question is excellent, and your logic is flawless. The reason I am a part of this is because every time two people complete the connection between the Hero’s Chamber and the Defender’s Portal I am inexplicably and quite literally pulled into the Chamber along with them.”

  There was an uncomfortable pause in the conversation while Kaya, Andrew, and Jacob considered the magnitude of the statement.

  Jacob was the first to articulate a question in a coherent way, and he asked, “With all due respect, and quite frankly that’s all my respect, are you telling us you, the creator of everything, are somehow an unwitting part of whatever is happening in this City?”

  “That, my dear Jacob, is precisely what I’m telling you.”

  Despite their situation and regardless of the outcome of their journey, Andrew had one overwhelming question. “Why are we here?” he bravely asked his Creator.

  “Of all my creations, I love none more than those whom I have gifted with my own sense of curiosity, with my own sense of wonder.

  You are here because you needed to be, because you had to be, and because your world and the people on it need you. More than you know and more than I can reveal.

  Unfortunately, and perhaps what will be most difficult for you to understand, is that you are not just here for yourselves or for the people that inhabit your world. And yet I cannot tell you more without risking the corruption of what is possible, of what will be.”

  “Is that it?” Jacob asked with as much discretion as possible. “Can you be any more specific?”

  “Perhaps I can, Jacob,” He said in a pondering voice. “Kaya, your question is the same as Jacob’s. I will answer them together with the information you already know.

  Your new responsibilities, the ones you volunteered for when you drank from the bowl may appear simple, but looks can be deceiving.

  First, you will share in the task of welcoming new citizens to the City. This is done by performing the customary greeting at the Fountain of Knowing whenever someone is granted citizenship. There are three such Fountains, one at each entrance. This task must be upheld at all times and under all conditions. Failure to do so would be catastrophic.

  Second, you are all responsible and equally capable of utilizing the Light within each citizen to heal those who have been injured. However, I caution you not to underestimate the complexity of your obligation, for you are not only bound to those who suffer physically.

  Third, you have all been charged with keeping the purpose of the Kingdom to yourselves. Revealing what you know would also be disastrous. Additionally, you have all accepted that none of these obligations will be considered complete or fulfilled until the Kingdom has stood for three thousand years or half of the world’s population is sheltered within its walls.”

  It was overwhelming to have it all laid out in front of them. Futility and sadness filled their hearts, and Kaya asked, “Can you help us?”

  “Please help us,” Andrew echoed.

  The Light of the man grew brighter, and the three friends swam in a bottomless sea of love and hope. Fear and sadness were replaced by optimism and courage.

  “That’s better,” He said, with a smile. “Your mission is not hopeless, but your future is always changing. To afford you the greatest possibility of success, I have decided to offer each of you something no other person has ever experienced. What I offer cannot be given, it must be taken, and those who hunger for it will find their appetite insatiable.

  The reason we are together, the reason for our journey and our travels to come, is to allow each of you to gain wisdom. You already received the gift of knowledge when you drank from the bowl, and you will now be given the opportunity to apply what you think you know.

  To live out many lives. To experience lifetimes of decisions and to learn from your successes and your mistakes. You must take these steps together, and you must learn from each other.

  The wisdom you gain will be taken back to the moment we left. It’s the only thing that can save you from the burden of time.” His words faded as His thoughts wandered.

  “Time is an odd thing for those who live within it,” He said, in a detached voice, “and while you may never truly understand my words, you should each know that you have already succeeded, the doorway is open.”

  Kaya reached out with her heart until she felt Andrew and Jacob’s hands. They all gave each other a reassuring squeeze and the world beneath them shimmered and flickered as if it were coming back to life.

 

  “A daughter,” was all Kaya could think about as she watched a small caravan emerge from the foothills. The thought of children had always been far from her mind and yet here she was being told about what would most certainly be. An incalculable number of contradictory thoughts scrambled through her brain.

  Andrew watched the small group trudging out of the foothills and wondered what it was like for them to see what had never been seen. He focused on the scene before them, but in the back of his mind, he was sure there was something else needing his attention.

  Watching the leader of the caravan, Jacob smiled. She was realizing her wildest, most impossible dream had just come true.

  Pushing the thoughts of her future to the back of her mind, Kaya watched the seven determined Travelers struggle through the desert sands. Their emotions washed over her, pulling her into their struggle.

  “The woman leading this group was called here. Not by my doing, but by the City itself. She has been traveling for more than two months. In that time, she has recruited two friends, happened upon three like-minded individuals and found a desperate wandering soul. They all share the same unexplainable desire to reach a destination that did not exist until today.

  Just because I cannot tell you why this woman, why Marcia, is compelled to do what she is doing, it does not preclude me from knowing that it is happening. The mystery, if we can call it that, is “why.” We will not find the answer to that question here, but you can witness the beginning.”

  “Can they see us?” Kaya asked.

  “We are not visible to any of them, but if you get to close you can be felt by any living creature. We are here to observe, not to interact. That part will come soon enough. For now, just watch.”

  “How can the City already exist if she didn’t do what Kaya and I did?”

  “Remember, this is the First Kingdom. How it came to be is beyond explanation. One day ago, it did not exist and today it does. I have brought the three of you here to witness the beginning of a cycle that has lasted for more than twenty thousand years.”

  “Twenty thousand years?!”

  “Yes Kaya, twenty thousand.”

  “So right now,” Jacob asked in amazement, “Right now is twenty thousand years ago?”

  “It doesn’t really look any different,” Andrew observed.

  “We’ll be doing quite a bit of time traveling before we go back to when we left. You’ll need to try to get used to the fact that
your physical bodies are sitting on the edge of the Fountain of Knowing in the seventh cycle of the City of Light. And right now, that moment is twenty thousand years away.”

  “That’s not possible,” Andrew thought, but his thoughts were overheard.

  “Andrew does not believe this is possible. Jacob, you are also staggered by the idea and Kaya is skeptical, but not in total denial. Good. That is right where I hoped you would be. Until you can accept the fact that anything is possible, you will not be ready to return.”

  “So, we’re here hovering above the very first Kingdom, watching the very first people enter the Kingdom, for the very first time, and all this happened twenty thousand years ago?” Kaya asked.

  “But none of this existed until today, and you don’t know how it got here or why?” Andrew added.

  “And we’re not dead. We’re just blobs of Light that can fly because our bodies are hanging out at the Fountain twenty thousand years in the future?” Jacob threw in for good measure.

  “That’s close enough, for now.”

  Marcia’s dark hair was streaked with gray, but the look in her eyes was that of a child. Wrinkles flared from the corner of her eyes as the smile on her face brightened, and she dropped the reins of the horse she had been leading for more days than she could count.

  She looked back at her friends to make sure she wasn’t dreaming, then back at the City from her dreams.

  “I never thought I was crazy until right now!” she said to her weary band of Travelers.

  “It is there,” Sakra said to Marcia, “You have led us to the place of dreams. You have brought us all home.”