The Sovereign Road

by Aaron Calhoun

Then Garin turned toward the images of the Conclave that still circled the bridge, and his smile faded, replaced by a thoughtful, pensive look.

  “I only hope,” he said at last, “that the races of the Conclave see that time for the gift that it is.”

  Chapter 38: And the Rough Places Made Plain

  Two days later, Trielle stood beneath the glittering spire of the Arx Scientia with Garin at her side. The three suns shone steadily in the sky above. Crowds of students thronged around them as they headed to their classes. Not too long ago Trielle would have been among them, but no longer. Now she had a higher calling.

  She watched as the endless sea of faces swept past her brother. Most seemed to recognize him but from there the expressions changed. Some smiled in admiration, some glanced away in confusion, many bore looks of outright hostility.

  “It seems prophets have never been accepted in their hometown,” said Garin with a wry smile. “Or at least, that is what I’ve heard.”

  “Who told you that?” asked Trielle.

  “I read it in an old book,” said Garin. “I’ll tell you more about it someday, but right now there is too much to do.”

  Trielle studied Garin. It was as if he were a different person. She understood. One simply could not see what she had on En-Ka-Re and remain unchanged, and from what Garin had told her of his journey his experiences had been far stranger. Even now he would not tell her everything. She suspected that some of what he had encountered simply could not be put into words.

  “Let’s go Trielle,” said Garin, “It’s time to begin.”

  “May I go with you?”

  Trielle turned toward the voice and saw her father emerge from the crowd. For the first time in weeks he was not dressed in his formal robes. Then she noticed that he was smiling. He seemed almost relaxed, as if a vast burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

  “Aren’t you needed at the College today?” she asked.

  “I would be, if I were still High Gravitist,” he said. “I was released from my duties this morning by the Chromatocron and the Ouranos Radii. Yithra-Gor now bears the mantle of office. But even if it had not been taken from me, I confess I would have given it up. There are more important things to do now.”

  Trielle nodded. Though she knew how much work it had taken her father to gain that position, she could not deny the relief she felt. “So,” she said at last, “where are we going, Garin?”

  “Tyr-Fell,” replied Garin. “I received word last night from the Anastasi that many from the outer worlds have gathered there.

  A puzzled expression crossed Gedron’s face.

  “Tyr-Fell? Why there?”

  “I’m not sure, exactly,” said Garin. “The Anastasi told me its name means ‘Hill of the War God’ in one of the ancient tongues. They said it reminded them of a place they had known long ago on Sha-Ka-Ri.”

  Gedron nodded and began to walk in the direction of the Kinetorium.

  “No, father,” said Garin sternly. “I will not use the devices of the enemy, even to accomplish my mission. Besides, we have better means of travel.”

  Gedron turned and looked at Garin, a bewildered expression on his face.

  “Chronocrys, Ramiel, Shardash, we’re ready,” said Garin loudly.

  A sudden gale blew through the crowds, followed by a burst of light which faded to reveal three golden spheres. Then the spheres unfolded, becoming the winged forms of three Anastasi.

  “Come, Garin,” said Chronocrys with a smile. “The crowds wait to hear your words.”

  A female Anastasi approached Trielle.

  “I am Ramiel, and this is Shardash” she said, gesturing to the third figure. “We will take you and your father to Tyr-Fell if you wish, but I must warn you that our method of travel can be somewhat disconcerting.”

  “It’s all right,” said Trielle with a smile. “I’ve done this before.”

  Ramiel nodded, and then folded her golden wings about Trielle. There was a lurch, followed by a sudden sense of flight, and the universe vanished beneath her. When the shining wings opened a few moments later, they stood in the heart of the deserts of Tyr-Fell.

  One of the innermost of the rim worlds, Trielle was surprised it had survived the entropy storms. Windswept dunes, punctuated by low stunted bushes and outcroppings of yellow stone, stretched as far as Trielle could see. A deep blue-black sky rose from the horizon to her right, only to be stopped in the midst of the heavens by the seething green wall of the entropy clouds. And all around her were the multitudes. Representative of almost every race in the Conclave, they had gathered here to hear her brother.

  Suddenly overwhelmed by the task before them, Trielle gazed upward, tracing the arc made by the edge of the entropy clouds with her eyes.

  It’s somewhat like the Conclave, I suppose, she mused. The line between light and dark runs through each one of us.

  A burst of wind and a flash of light announced the arrival of Garin and her father. As they stepped out from the protective confines of the Anastasis’ wings, Trielle saw the mingled wonder and surprise on her father’s face and laughed. Then she looked over at Garin. His eyes swept back and forth, silently surveying the crowd, and his features were clouded with an expression of deep concern. Her father evidently noticed as well, for he walked over to Garin and put his arm over his shoulder. Trielle could barely hear his whispered question.

  “There are so many, son. What will you tell them?”

  Garin paused for a moment, then turned to Gedron with shining eyes.

  “I will tell them the story, Father: the story that the world tells itself.”

  Trielle watched with pride as Garin took a deep breath, climbed atop a nearby rock, and began to preach.

  Epilogue:

  I write this treatise, O Theophilus, to give an account of the things that have taken place among us at the time of the Apocatastasis. Though none of us are now subject to death or decay, each year more and more come into existence who did not live through that terrible time. I thus write this record in the hope that those who did not experience this terrible time might read, and in reading, understand.

  In the decades following the rekindling of Vai, Garin and his family grew in strength and honor as prophets of the Most High. To them was given the charge to travel the final remnants of the old universe and tell the story of He Who Is, calling the people of all worlds to faith. It was a noble task, and many were won to the light. Yet the day came when the hundred years had past, and Garin Donar was taken by death and assumed his throne in eternity. Those were dark times indeed, for the Entrope was loosed and allowed again to make war on the Ekklesia.

  The conflict was universal in extent. Many perished, and as the battles raged on the last stars were extinguished one by one, victims of the Entrope’s weapons. Without their strength the entropy clouds could no longer be held at bay, and fiery storms swept across the dying Conclave. Soon all that was left of the Cosmos was the world of En-Ka-Re and a few lone asteroids. It was there, in the remains of the valley in which we had been imprisoned, that the last survivors of the Ekklesia gathered to make their final stand.

  I remember it well. A great mass of refugees huddled in the center of the plain, surrounded by the weapons of the Entrope. The skies above pulsed with billowing masses of putrid green fire, almost close enough to touch. Then the Entrope himself ascended the mountain ridge and commanded that the last of our number be exterminated before the descent of universal night. I will not deny that we felt fear then, but as one we grasped the hands of those beside us, denied that fear, and prepared to die with a hymn of praise on our lips. It was then that He came.

  The purity of His presence shone in the tortured skies like a newborn star. His robes seemed to be woven of light itself. A brilliant rainbow encircled him, its color as green as emerald, and his face burned like metal in a forge. He did not say a word, but stretched out his hand, and all at once His bride stood beside him. Then, in a way that to this day remains a mystery to me, she c
hanged. Her form shone with a glory beyond anything I have ever seen or will see again, and when at last it abated a mighty city stood in her place: Hyrosol Neos, the City of the Most High.

  It was shaped like a vast cube many hundreds of miles to a side, with walls of gold and foundations of precious gems. Its gates were open, and we watched in wonder as the shining form of He Who Is, Son of He Who Is strode to the threshold and shouted with words like thunder.

  “BEHOLD, I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW!”

  In rage the Entrope ordered his minions to turn the might of their laridian rings upon the city, and a thousand spears of crackling blue fire rained down upon her. But the city shone with new light, and a tidal wave of golden radiance burst from her walls, dispelling the gravitic discharges like shadows in sunlight. I still remember the feeling as the light washed over me, a strange sense of dissolution and recreation, as if the pattern that was my body and soul had somehow been lifted from my physical form and inscribed upon the fabric of the universe at a deeper level.

  The golden light coursed through the valley, and I watched it change those of the Ekklesia as it had changed me. Then I saw real fear in the Entrope’s eyes. Calling his servants to himself, The Entrope ordered one last, desperate attack. But within seconds the light swept over them and they dissolved into mist and were no more. At last the light reached the entropy clouds, and for an instant the golden wave hesitated, the forces of destruction fighting to contain the power of creation. Then, with a sound like the shattering of a mountain, the entropy clouds burst into a million shards of dissipating green fire and we gazed in awe at the ancient sky as one by one the stars came out.

  Of life in the new creation you know well, O Theophilus. Our very being is written on the fabric of space and time itself, where neither death nor sickness can reach. The speed of light is no longer a barrier and the galaxy is ours to explore and inhabit, though each of us regards Hyrosol Neos as our true home. And still the great golden wave travels onward. Scholars speak of a time when it will reach our neighboring galaxies, and then we will have access to them as we do to our own. Yet amidst all these marvels our greatest joy is the simple knowledge that our lives have meaning and that we are loved. For those of us that remember the old order, when selfishness and pride dominated our hearts, such knowledge will always be precious. May it remain precious to you as well.

  Yours in the Bonds of the Most High:

  Yithra-Gor

  1023rd Year of the New Creation

  …and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be anymore pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”

  -Revelation 21:4b-5a KJV

  Glossary:

  Axioms: The basic philosophical principles of Conclave metaphysics. The Axioms are typically expressed as three interrelated phrases: Matter gives rise to Consciousness, Consciousness gives rise to Meaning, and Meaning is subject and subordinate to Consciousness. The corollary of these principles is that meaning is imposed by conscious organisms on the physical universe, and thus is not an intrinsic property of the cosmos.

  Conclave of Ten Thousand Worlds: The Conclave is all that is left of the galaxy: 97,943 worlds arranged in a complex spiral of gravitically stabilized orbits within a 65,450 cubic light-minute volume. Conclave space is bounded by the entropy clouds and centered on the three suns, the last stars in the universe. The term “Conclave” is also used to refer to the society that has grown on these worlds and to their government, much as the name of a country can refer to the land as well as the people. They are ruled by a technocracy known as the Five Heirophants.

  College of Gravitists: The largest body of stellar engineers and gravitic scientists in the Conclave. Under the direction of the High Gravitist, the College of Gravitists oversee all orbital and stellar engineering projects and maintain the laridian ring network. They are based in the Arx Scientia and the Omegahedron.

  The Guard: A ring of brown dwarfs that orbit at a distance halfway between the three suns and the entropy clouds. Although not true stars, their combined particle emissions are enough to partially stall the advance of the clouds. The guard is meant to be the last defence and protection of the inner worlds of the Conclave should the suns begin to fail.

  Latis: Innermost planet and capital of the Conclave of Ten Thousand Worlds. Latis orbits closest to the three suns and is tidally locked, with one side bathed in perpetual noon. Its largest city, Scintillus, is the hub of Conclave government and science.

  En-Ka-Re: A small world orbiting one of the brown dwarfs that make up the Guard. The surface of En-Ka-Re is pockmarked with craters from ancient wars and it entirely airless except for the valley in which the Sur Ekklesia is imprisoned.

  Entropy Clouds: The manifestation of a runaway cosmological constant, the entropy clouds surround Conclave space and threaten to destroy what is left of the cosmos. The mere touch of an entropy cloud induces the spontaneous unbinding of all physical forces, causing the affected material to explosively decompose into its component particles. At present the entropy clouds are held back by the radiation pressure and stellar wind of the three suns, with a lesser contribution by the brown dwarfs of the Guard.

  Sha-Ka-Ri: An abandoned world at the edge of Conclave space, Sha-Ka-Ri is the first world of humanity and in ages past was called Urth. The Sovereign Road begins here in the heart of a dead city.

  Vai: One of the three suns. Vai is one of the last stars in the universe. It is the first of the three to reach the end of its lifespan.

  Vasya: One of the three suns. Vasya is one of the last stars in the universe.

  Verduun: One of the three suns. Verduun is one of the last stars in the universe.

  Voidstars: Conclave term for black holes. As gravitational singularities, voidstars represent the only form of matter immune to the entropy clouds.

  The Cosmic Mountain: The great peak of folded multidimensional timespace that upholds the worlds. The mountain arises from the abyss of Tehom, and, at its summit, is crowned by the Temple above All Worlds. The Sovereign Road travels up the length of the mountain, beginning at the lowest world, Phaneros, and ending at the Temple.

  Arethos: The fourth world in the ascent of the Cosmic Mountain, Arethos is the world of virtue and formal causes. It is also called the Cube of Cubes by its inhabitants, the beings called the Arethoi. Notable locations include the domains of the Arethoi and the Abyss.

  Materia: The second world in the ascent of the Cosmic Mountain, Materia is the source and wellspring of physical law and is the world of material causes. Also called the Great ‘hedron by its inhabitants. Notable locations include the Peak of the Third Glory and the Xaocosmic Border.

  Mythos: The third world in the ascent of the Cosmic Mountain, Mythos is the source of story and temporal flow and is the world of instrumental causes. It is structured in a series of concentric rings traversed by narrative arcs made visible called meridians. Notable locations are the House of Hyperion Starfather in the Sepulcher of Suns, the Mare Primum, the ancient city of Hyrosol Eld, the Shattered Temple, and the Mount of Sacrifice.

  Numenos: The fifth and highest world in the ascent of the Cosmic Mountain, Numenos is the source of order and direction and is the world of final causes. It is divided between the City Imperishable and the Cosmic Rose.

  Phaneros: The lowest world on the Cosmic Mountain. The world of linear time and phenomena, Phaneros contains the spacetime of the Conclave.

  The Shadow: A great band of darkness that stretches up the side of the Cosmic Mountain like a wound in the fabric of creation. The shadow begins at the Abyss in Arethos and ends in Tehom. The Sovereign Road crosses the shadow as it passes between Materia and Mythos.

  The Sovereign Road: The father and king of all roads. The Sovereign Road stretches from the shattered remains of Sha-Ka-Ri in Phaneros to the Temple Above All Worlds, touching on all the worlds of the cosmos.

  Tehom: The black churning sea a
t the base of the Cosmic Mountain. Tehom is the primal nothingness from which creation was summoned.

  Temple Above All Worlds: The source and summit of all creation. The Temple stands at the peak of the Cosmic Mountain. Within is the altar and throne of the Uncreated One.

  Datachryst: Small crystalline devices used for permanent information storage and archival.

  Ekklesia: Name for the galactic empire that preceded the formation of the Conclave. The Axioms and Corollaries were formulated in opposition to the ideals and values of the Ekklesia.

  Alapsari: Name for those races of the Ekklesia that have never experienced corruption. They are functionally immortal. At the time of the Conclave, the majority of them have been hunted to extinction.

  Anastasi: Name for those members of the Ekklesia that have been restored to physical life after dying. Anastasi recall their time while disembodied, and their restored flesh has a different relationship to timespace than it had prior to death. Anastasi have the ability to fly both inside and outside the boundary of Phaneros’ timespace and can travel faster than light. They also do not require air or food.

  Dar Ekklesia: Formal title of the Galactic Empire during its period of power and ascendancy. Also called simply the Dar.

  Hyrosol Neos: Primary city of the Dar Ekklesia. Hyrosol Neos is shaped like an immense golden cube and, prior to the defeat of the Dar Ekklesia, was stationed near the event horizon of Sagittarious A* near the galactic core.

  Sur Ekklesia: Name of the Galactic Empire during its time of imprisonment and exile by the Conclave. The bulk of the Sur Ekklesia dwells in a guarded valley on En-Ka-Re.