by Luca Rossi
“Me? Where?”
The pyramid lands on the island. There are dozens of people doing something on little wells of light that are floating in the air.
“What are they?”
“Those are mistrofals. They are powerful magnifiers of magical energy. A powerful wizard with one of these can bridge infinite distances. Cloradil used them to fling a space-time arrow on this world and open a breach between here and the Earth, which you could have passed through.”
“Why doesn't she come here, if she doesn't want to lose me so much?”
“Because she's not powerful enough yet.”
“And how do you get more power?”
Enondil interrupts, saying to Irene: “You're right, all we can do is go to the Well.”
They seem defeated. I feel like I let them down, but I have no idea what they want from me.
“We can't help you anymore. But you can try to help yourself,” Irene tells me.
“Here, where?” I ask. “What should I do?”
“Enter.”
“I have to jump into that thing? No way!”
Irene comes in front of me and places her hand on my shoulder. Again, her green eyes look into my own.
“You'll find yourself in this well. And, probably, she'll be there as well. You can choose. Decide what you want to be for yourself.”
She's almost convincing.
“What should I do?”
“Nothing in particular. Just take a step forward and let yourself go. There are only memories in there.”
“Memories of what?”
“Of this and your other lives.”
“Other lives?”
“Yes, the life in which...”
“Irene!” Enondil interrupts. “It's up to him.” Then he turns to me: “Go. If you want to go back to your life on Earth, you'll have the option down there. And it'll probably be the person you call your wife who gives you that option.”
There we go, that's a convincing motivation. I take a step forward and let myself fall down the Well.
The last words I manage to hear Irene say are “Let the connections guide you.”
8
I'm floating in the darkness of the Well.
A distant glow seems to gradually grow stronger. It's coming closer.
It's light, suspended in nothing. Slowly, a few images become more clear.
I see myself, hiding in the storage closet of my parents' house. We're playing a game called the dark room. A little light shines through the keyhole of the door in front of me. I bend down and put my eye against the little hole. My mother's walking down the hallway, bringing the pizzas to the table. She doesn't know that I'm hiding in the storage closet.
I've always loved this game, which usually ends with me suddenly opening the door to frighten my mother.
Why am I seeing this scene from my life? Is this one of the connections Irene was talking about?
Another light approaches and comes up next to the first.
I see a man sitting on a throne, with a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand. A woman stands before him, talking to him. The room lights are dimmed. A splendid stellar map stretches out over their heads.
The woman explains to him, indicating a point on the map above her: “These are the Misos and Mauteris stars. The forms of life living on their planets just discovered the secret to interstellar travel. We should do further research on their level of magic.”
It's Irene who's speaking. She looks exactly like she did today.
“Alright, Alissalia. It's a good idea to focus in on this quadrant, where the level of magic is still very low. Considering what level their power has grown to, we can give them new opportunities.”
Alissalia? Irene must have another name here.
With one gesture from the king, the planetarium disappears and an intense light shines into the room. I can see the splendid islands of the palace outside of the windows. So the memory of the scene from this second light evidently comes from a place very close to where I am now.
Remember! Irene – Alissalia – had said that I would find memories of this and other lives.
Connections! Did the darkness also lead me to this scene? If it's one of my memories, where am I?
A third light bobs towards me. The scene is intermittent, it disappears and reappears.
The same king as before is on the ground. A luminous green prism is plunged into his heart. A woman is sitting astride him.
“Why did you do it?” the king asks her, speaking with great difficulty.
“Because I want us to stay together. And I want to have the powers that only a queen can have. I'm tired of waiting! How could you not have realized that for all this time?”
“I know you wanted it,” the king's voice is weak, “but I couldn't give it to you precisely because you wanted it.” His words seem to fade away. “Cloradil, what did you gain from this murder? I'll reincarnate. The wizards will find me, they'll educate me and they'll bring me back to my throne.”
Darkness. The memory light fades away.
“How can you be so sure? They may not find you.”
The king's face twists into a mask of pain.
“What did you do? Did you use...?”
“Yes. I set the course so that your frequency will reincarnate in a form chosen by me. It's a primitive and violent place, where magic has been forgotten for thousands of years. And I will be there with you. Before anyone can find you, I'll have absorbed most of your powers. You won't be able to recover the knowledge of who you were. I, however, will follow the course that I prepared myself. I'll wake up and I'll regain my powers. And then I'll start to absorb yours. It'll take years, but I'll have all the time I need. And I'll also have the mistrofal, that I've already sent to myself on that planet.”
A veil of deep sadness falls over the king's eyes.
“Oh, don't be sad. We'll reincarnate and spend a splendid life together. I'll be a marvelous little wife in our next life. Doesn't that make you feel a little bit better, my love?”
A door on the side of the room opens.
“Your majesty!”
It's the voice of Alissalia, who immediately races towards the king and his assassin.
“Cloradil, what did you do?” Alissalia asks, raising her hands as she runs. A blue ball starts to form.
Cloradil brusquely tears the prism from the king's heart and plunges it into her own chest. Her body falls next to the king's body.
He closes his eyes. The image disappears.
After a few seconds, the king reopens his eyes. The image is faint and very dark. Alissalia is kneeling next to the dying king, and has taken his head into her lap.
Darkness again.
The image reappears one more time, so faint that it can barely be distinguished from all of the surrounding darkness.
The king's eyelids strain to open once more. A tear rolls down Alissalia's face and falls on her cheek.
“Your majesty, I'll find you again and teach you.”
Darkness.
Memories! Connections! A king! Cloradil!
How could these memories be mine? What does all of this have to do with me? Who is this king? And why did a woman, who has the name everyone uses to refer to my wife, kill him?
A primitive and violent world. No, that couldn't be Earth. Maybe there's a lot of war and tension, but we're not savages. We study. We grow. We build. We do our best to evolve. And besides, could there possibly exist a place in the universe that's truly pure?
The three lights in front of me disappear. I'm again plunged into deep darkness. From a point further away than the others, a faint light slowly heads towards me. For several long moments, it's barely visible. Then it becomes more intense, brighter, pure.
A newborn is in a cradle created from a luminous material, similar to that of soap bubbles.
A light blue foam surrounds its body, leaving its neck and little head uncovered.
A woman bends down to look at it tenderly. H
er blonde hair falls down to her shoulders.
Marvelous sparkling stones, placed a few millimeters away from one another, form the shape of a crown on his head.
The woman sings a sweet melody to the baby.
“Eina sto fil,
ardas mael,
bis or manil
ei tam lual.
Ardin faras
al bel tomir
ei to bras
ol tur momir”
The baby responds with joyful coos. He waves his hands to the rhythm.
“Your majesty, it's a stupendous baby. And he'll be a great king.”
Costantino Valenti is speaking. He's wearing a blue tunic and standing behind the queen.
What is my neighbor doing in this memory?
“Dearest Tainador, he'll be a great king if you help us raise him.”
“Your Majesty, if he wishes and is worthy, he'll have access to all of the knowledge of our king. Have you already decided on his name?”
“Yes. His name shall be Turlis.”
Turlis? The Kingdom of Turlis? Is this baby the future king? Do they want me to believe that I...? No, there's no way. This is all an illusion!
“Antelmo, you're in the Well, right?”
The image in front of me disappears. Anna's voice cuts through the darkness.
“Anna, it's completely dark here. Where are you?”
“Wait, I'll open a portal.”
The darkness is broken by a luminous disk similar to the one that was drawing me down to the bottom of the stream, near Irene's house.
“Anna, my darling, how did you find me?”
“It doesn't matter, Antelmo. Now you can come back to me. I don't have the strength to bring you to me if you're in the well. You have to come and meet me.”
My wife is in the living room. She's holding the mistrofal in her hands.
“Anna, I've seen some...strange things in this place. There was a king who was killed by a woman. And she had the name that people use here for you. In another memory, I was inside the storage closet in my house. That memory is mine. But the others...I don't know what they were about.”
“Don't worry, Antelmo, come here. You'll be safe here and I'll explain everything to you.”
“Anna, tell me something: what do you know about magic? What do you know about this king? I don't understand, why didn't you tell me anything?”
“Antelmo, I wanted to protect you. I didn't want you to worry. There are worlds out there inhabited by wicked forces. Some of us have the task of protecting others, but it's not always possible to explain what we do.”
“You don't think I'm worthy of knowing all this?”
“I'm sorry, Antelmo. Of course you're worthy. I'll tell you about it as soon as I can.”
“But we're over thirty years old! And we've known each other since we were six. When did you intend on telling me that you have an instrument for communicating with the rest of the universe?”
“You have every right to be angry. I'll tell you everything, I promise, but there's no time to waste now. Come here before they come back to stop you.”
“Okay, darling. I'm sorry. I'm coming. What do I need to do?”
“Go towards the portal you see in front of you. Then go inside of it and you'll be here, next to me. All of this will just seem like a bad memory.”
“Okay, but you have to help me, I don't have the courage. Please, come towards the portal. Hold out your hand, otherwise I don't know if I'll be able to.”
“Of course, sweetie. Wait.”
Anna comes near the portal. She holds out her left hand towards the portal and, with her right hand, keeps her hold on the mistrofal.
“Can I come in? Listen, you need to tell your husband to never again put a plank in our walkway. Do you know that he ruined all of the grass with his motorcycle? Is that how a well-behaved young man acts?”
Costantino Valenti appears at the French doors of our living room with a cane in his hand. Anna turns around, surprised. She obviously wasn't expecting this interruption.
While she's distracted, I place my hands around the portal and pull the mistrofal away from her. She turns immediately towards me.
“Darling, sweetie, what did you do?” she asks.
There's a fear that I've never seen, in so many years together, in her eyes.
“Anna, that old man is Tainador. He came here to take the mistrofal from you.”
Costantino starts laughing. “If I wanted to take the mistrofal from her, I had plenty of chances to do it before today.”
“It doesn't matter, Mr. Valenti, you don't belong to our world. Go into the portal, go back to your kingdom and leave us alone forever. Otherwise we'll have to throw you in there,” I tell him, dryly.
Valenti heads towards the portal. He uses his cane to support his every step. He's a little less in shape than the man I saw in my vision, but other than that, he looks pretty much the same.
“Goodbye, Cloradil.” he says, turning to my wife, before going into the portal.
“Very good, my darling,” Anna says. “You did the right thing. I couldn't stand him either! And I never would have thought that he was one of our enemies, too. Now that we're finally safe, come on.”
Both of us remain silent for a few seconds.
“Goodbye, Anna,” I tell her. She looks at me, expressionless. “You expected to find a primitive and savage world on Earth but, in reality, it's a world that's rather suited to you and in which you'll do splendidly. You and your earthlings have been given many opportunities to evolve. You're the ones who have to understand. If you don't, you'll remain what you are now. You will be your own biggest punishment.”
I can't see him, but I note the presence of Costantino near me.
“Tainador, how do I close the portal?” I whisper.
“Your Majesty, place both your hands on the mistrofal and recite mol rim daina mris.”
“Wait, don't do it!” Anna interjects. “They showed you what they wanted to show you. Those were all illusions. I didn't kill you. I love you and you know I never would.”
“Anna, I never said that I saw you kill me. How did you know who my murderer was?”
Anna's eyes fill with tears. She looks down to the ground and falls to her knees on the living room carpet.
Through the portal generated by the mistrofal, my last four words on planet Earth are:
“Mol rim daina mris.”
The portal closes.
“Tainador, how do we get out of the Well?” I ask, in the darkness.
“Come along, your Majesty. You have a lot to learn.”
Life in Prison
1
I'm innocent. That's what a lot of people will tell you in this god-forsaken place. I, however, truly am innocent. I want to scream it into the void in front of me, but my voice would get lost among thousands of others.
I'm in a cave hollowed out of a rock mass. In front of me, the enormous chasm swallows screams, cries and moans. The prison is in an immense hole that sinks dozens of miles into the ground. The cells are carved into its walls. We're tucked inside of them.
There are hundreds of robots that constantly move about, like bees in a hive. They distribute food in pill-format, take prisoners away, bring in new ones. The unlucky ones are transported on platforms, small flying disks just a few dozen inches in diameter. Keeping your balance and not falling is the first test of survival. When someone gets lost in the void, nobody knows what happens to them.
There are no common areas or outside recreation time. Cells, bars, robots, voices in the shadow, that's it. Well, I also have my cellmate.
His name is Narios. He sleeps and lives in the bunk below mine. Each of us has a little cabinet, a table and a stool. There's a holoprojector in the upper right corner of the room, next to the bars. On the other side there's a single dim light to fight against the darkness of the cell. Beyond a little door there's a sink and a toilet. This is our everyday reality.
2
Whe
n I came in on the flying platform, carried by two robots on either side, Narios was sleeping
I had no idea how a prison worked and had never met a prisoner before in my life. The robots left me on the cell floor. I heard the spooky metallic sound of the bars closing behind me. I tried to make out what was in front of me. The beds were on the left wall and the other prisoner slept on one bunk with his head towards the entrance. He snorted and turned over, annoyed by the noise.
My only ideas about this world had come from watching holomovies, when the criminals massacred each other in massive brawls.
He got up and came towards me.
He was bigger, taller and fatter than me, with thinning hair and a week's worth of stubble. He was wearing a frayed, dark blue prison uniform full of patches.
“Hi, I'm Narios.”
“Hi, my name is Germil.”
“First time here?”
What did that mean? Of course this was my first time here! I had never done anything wrong in my life, I never even stole candy as a kid.
“Yes, of course,” I responded.
“So what are you in for?”
I had no idea how to answer. I still hadn't been told why they had brought me here. “I was at home, in the evening. I was putting the kids to bed.” I stopped. Thinking about them made me feel a sharp pain in my heart. I went on: “My wife was washing the dishes. I had helped the kids brush their teeth and put their pajamas on and was starting to tell them a story. I heard the doorbell ring and I asked my wife to answer it. I heard her talking to some men, then I heard the footsteps of several people entering my house. I kissed the kids goodnight and went into the living room. I saw two guys sitting and waiting for me, another five standing up. My wife had turned pale and was looking at me, worried. One of the two on the couch showed me a badge from the national security service and told me that I had to follow him, without giving me any other explanations. I reassured my wife, telling her that this must have been some kind of misunderstanding and that I'd come back soon. I had no idea what they wanted from me. They took me to their space shuttle. Once I got in they told me that, for reasons of security, they would have to put me to sleep. When I woke up, they were unloading me on this planet. They told me that due to the crimes committed, I would be kept here while waiting for trial. Then two robots had me get on the platform and brought me here.”