Finally, the fragments and shards of sky curved all the way down into the ground before them. It created a barrier like a wall at the edge of the land. Belili had led them to a place where the land ended. Beyond it was endless sky.
Belili stopped walking. She stared at the strange tapestry of different heavens.
After a moment she said, “This children…is the Sea of Glass.”
The children began to move towards the strange fragmented wall in front of them. As Sarah stared at it she realized that the fragments were constantly changing. She was seeing different things in each fragment. She put her hand up and touched the strange barrier. Her hand began to tingle under the force of an unknown energy.
“Before you is infinity,” Belili said. “You are observing the unobservable. You are observing Multiverse.”
“We call this event horizon of the Multiverse the Sea of Glass. And we live on an island on that sea. We are on a singularly that floats across the Multiverse.”
Sarah turned to Isiah. He too was looking at the strange expanse before them. “What is the Multiverse,” he asked.
Belili smiled.
“The Multiverse is a very special thing,” she said. “It is all that is and all that shall ever be. It is all…that can be. Quantum mechanics teaches us that everything in existence, every particle, every movement lives an infinite number of lives. Some call these possibilities. Some call this potential. Some calculate it in probabilities. But…whatever can be…is. Whatever possibility is out there occurs somewhere in the vast Multiverse. The Multiverse is everything. It is an infinite number of Universes where we all live and die in an infinite amount of ways. Under different circumstances everyone experiences different fates. From our Island on the Sea of Glass we designate each Universe as a Verse and assign a numeric value to it. This place where we have begun our calculations we call Verse Zero.”
“You children are blessed and you are cursed,” Belili said with a sigh. “In some places children are born into war. They are born into circumstances beyond their control. They have to adapt. You children were unlucky because you were blessed. You were blessed with gifts to avert a great catastrophe which is growing and threatens all of existence.”
“In the Verses we have discovered that there are very special people. They have gifts unlike others in their societies. They are called prodigies by those in the worlds they inhabit. From birth they seem to have an understanding that is innate. They create amazing things in their Verses. Sometimes it’s music. Sometimes it’s art. Sometimes they create magnificent structures. Their vision dazzles the people in the worlds in which they live. However, in truth, these prodigies have a sight which very few possess. They can see through all the different Verses and find the path that will lead them to things others never dreamed of. These things exist in other Verses, but the prodigies can see them and make them real in their Universe. To the untrained eye it is genius. But the prodigies sift through all the possibilities and probabilities and create things in the Verses they inhabit that are truly amazing. They do these things perfectly because these things already exist. Somewhere. But the prodigies can see them clearly.”
“In one Verse a composer writes a song…the song did not exist before…but the prodigy understands that there is a path that can make this piece of music perfect. She can see it. She can see all the choices that can be made…and are made. She can see that one path that leads to perfection. A sculpture can look at a block of stone and see a million possibilities…but he follows the one in his mind that will free the perfect form hidden in the stone. Sometimes writers can see into other universes. They record what they witness in their minds. They don’t realize those characters, those lives they imagined do exist. The must exist. Because anything is possible and by definition in a multiverse it must be.”
“Prodigies can see in the moment…all the possibilities. Each choice made leads to another multitude of possibilities. The choices in one point create one Universe. Through these multitude of choices blooms the great Multiverse.”
“All of you children are prodigies.”
When Belili said this the words hung in the air.
After a few moments Belili went on.
“However, for our task we seek not just any prodigy. We seek the very special ones. The gifted of the gifted. So, we have searched all the Verses for the right ones. We have sought in all the worlds of possibility and probability for the best you.”
“You see children because there are an infinite amount of possibilities there are an infinite amount…of you. All of you exist in different Verses making different choices and decisions. However, somewhere in all of the universes is a special you. We call that the best you. It is the you that has the greatest likely hood to step out of the moment and understand the courses in all the different Verses that are possible. The best you…is the you that can move in and out of the infinite universes. First with your mind…then…”
Belili let the words trail off.
“All of you live in a countless number of Verses,” Belili said. “You live in different circumstances and you live different lives. However, those of you that are here now are the amalgamation of all the best possibilities of your minds. We found you…and we are helping your brains to be more perfect. We do this because we need you. Creation needs you.”
“Why do you need us?” It was Catalina who asked this question. “Why did you take us from our homes?” she asked.
Belili hesitated. Sarah could see she was choosing her words carefully.
“I am sorry,” Belili said. “I am sorry that we took you the way that we did. But…you hold the fate of those left behind in your hands. Not from the threat of us, but from the threat of the undoing that is endangering all the Verses. It threatens to consume the entire Multiverse.”
“This Sea of Glass that we live on is a construct that is a doorway to different points in the Multiverse. On this vessel we travel through the ocean of infinity. We exist outside of causality and this place was created for one reason.”
Belili walked towards the wall of differing possibilities. She pointed at a spot on that wall. The children gathered to see what she was pointing at.
“There,” Belili said. “Do you see that speck on the horizon? That darkness?”
Sarah squinted. She saw in this shard of sky that Belili was pointing at a fragment of blue sky. She could also see mountains in the shard. However, above one of the mountains was a dark spot like a dark moon.
“That is the Phage. The Phage is what we call this great unravelling. That is the undoing of all that is. And it is coming for us. It is coming for all of us. It will erase everything. Not only all that is but also all that ever was. It is a cancer that is devouring the Multiverse.”
Belili moved her finger away from the wall and pointed at another spot on the wall.
“It is there…it is there…”
She pointed to more and more locations on the wall. “There…and there…each day we see more and more of it.”
“That is why you are here. Your minds are the most brilliant in existence. We have taken you all from different times and different places. We have taken you because we seek the one prodigy who can see perfectly through all the points in the Multiverse to that one path of chance that leads to the only place that can save us. The heart of the Phage. We seek the one who can find what we call the Threshold of Degradative Concurrence where the heart of the Phage resides.”
“The Threshold is the point from where the great unraveling spreads. It is the only place that it can be stopped. It is the point where the great undoing is slowly infecting all infinity. It is the antithesis of the point in space and time where the Big Bang occurred. The Threshold is a reverse of that. It is an anti-Big Bang. It is anti-creation. And it is eating away all of existence.”
“Only the greatest minds can hope to see the Threshold. And there will be one great mind who can find the path through the Multiverse to reach the Threshold. That is the one m
ind that we seek the most.”
“Some…some have glimpsed the Threshold,” Belili said. Her eyes became lost in thought as she said this. It was as if for a moment she was trying to comprehend what a vision of the Threshold must be like. “There was once a man…he was gifted in a very special way. He took music as his art. He took it as his passion. He lived in a land called America. He lived in the southern part of that land. His instrument was the guitar. He played it like no one before him had ever played it. He inspired generations with his work. His name was Robert Johnson. We believe he glimpsed the Threshold. Just for a moment. He did not truly understand what it was that he was seeing, but he understood that he had seen something profound and it changed him. He tried to explain it through his art. He wrote a song about his experience and he called the song the Cross Road Blues. In his song he went to the Crossroads…and saw the Devil. Many people believed this song represented the tale of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil to become a great guitarist. But...Robert in glimpsing the Threshold understood something. There is sometimes a price for knowledge. There is sometimes a cost…a great cost.”
Belili sighed.
“We searched throughout the Multiverse to try to find Robert. So that he could aid us in our cause. To give us a better understanding of what he saw. But is not easy to move physically in and out of different points in the Multiverse. Right now, Joshua is the only one who can transcend.”
Sarah thought back to her abductor and she felt a chill. She was still haunted by the night that she woke to see Joshua with his wild eyes in her room staring down at her.
“We hope one of you may be the one to reach the Threshold and help us save all that is. Because the darkness is spreading. We look to you…this next generation of prodigies to help us find the place in existence we seek.”
Belili waved her hand across the great Sea of Glass.
“We are sailing through infinity children. This is our canvas. The doorway to a multitude of Universes is hidden in the moments before us. Each moment spawns a multitude of different possibilities. What is…what could be…what could have been. They form a pattern. They form a web. Many people do not control where fate takes them. They are pushed along the path of this web like people lost in a strong current. But there are a few…a select few who are true prodigies and can see the web. This vessel that sails through the Multiverse passes thousands of Verses constantly. Our Scholars locate those in the Verses we pass that can aid our cause.”
“Touch the tapestry of space and time children,” Belili instructed.
Sarah approached the wall. She touched it again. This time she pushed her hand forward through it. As she did so her hand began to tingle again and Sarah realized there was a force pushing her back.
“I can’t push my hand forward,” Sarah told Belili.
Belili nodded. “Right now, you children cannot move into the Sea of Glass. Your minds don’t understand how to traverse its waves. But with time…we will teach you. You will learn. You will learn how to leave our island. You will be able to see where the different possibilities would go. And hopefully one of you can find the proper course through the Multiverse that leads to the Threshold.”
“Over time we shall teach you to swim in this great sea of infinity. It is difficult to master moving in and out of the different possibilities…the different Verses. You will first learn to do it with your mind…then…as energy…and a very select few of you…may be able to step physically from one Verse to another. Those that can transcend are able to move through the Multiverse as energy and matter.”
“This magical place we are in…this floating island on our glass sea was created by a great man. His name was Farinata Uaegli Abertio. He understood the threat that was growing in the Multiverse and he drew up the initial designs for this singularity outside of space and time through which we can work together to save all that we hold dear.”
Belili looked down for a moment. When she looked up her eyes had sadness in them.
“Verse Zero is what we refer to this wondrous vessel as. It is the Verse from which we can move outward in various directions. However, it is still a singularity floating through the cosmos. We have moved past the Verses where you children came from long ago. This is why you cannot return to them. Those Verses are no longer connected to our shores. For this…I am truly sorry.”
There was silence for a few moments as the words spoken by Belili sunk in. Sarah realized just how far from home she was. Now she was trapped in this place. She could not move through the borders of this place. Belili said at some point she would learn how. However, Sarah realized it did not matter. Her Verse was far away. She could not return to her home.
“We need you children,” Belili said breaking the silence. “We need you desperately. Believe me children if there was any other way to get you we would have done it. I too was taken from the world I loved. But children cannot choose the circumstances they are born into and you were born with gifts when they are needed the most. You are our hope. You are part of a steady progression to save all of existence.”
“You will learn more in the weeks, months, and years to come. You are not the first. We are able to aggregate one generation at a time. There are twenty-seven of you currently. We gather you every few years. We find the best of you and we find the pieces that are missing in order to make you greater. We have done this for quite some time. You are the seventy-third time we have done this. You are the Generation of Seventy-three. I am part of the Generation of Sixty-five. I was brought here…a long time ago now.”
Belili’s next words were spoken firmly.
“You…are our hope. You are our hope for the future. You are our hope that the past shall remain. We have sought you prodigies from different times and different places. Time knows no barriers for us. You are the essence, that spark that is needed for creation to survive.”
“I know your fear in the past. I know your uncertainty now. However, one thing I can tell you children…is that I once stood where you stand with that same fear. But time will help you understand. Here we have all the time in creation. We are limited only by mortality. But perhaps one of you will be the one to solve even that elusive puzzle for us.”
“Come now Children. I shall show you more of Verse Zero. I will show you Adar.”
Belili began to walk back down the path they had come from and towards the field.
The children followed.
***
Belili led the children away from the shores of the Sea of Glass. As they traveled back towards the direction of the pond Belili noted the forest to the side of the field.
“Beware the forest children. That is the Forest of Uncertainty. Verse Zero is a magical creation made by the most advanced sciences men have ever dreamed. We harness the energies of the universe to create this island world of ours. But there is always that which is unknowable to mortal minds. The forest was never part of the design of Verse Zero. It sprung up as an abstraction and flaw. First one tree appeared, then many. It is part of the uncertainty of probability. Even here we can only master so much. Remember children do not go into the forest.”
They continued their walk and Sarah realized that Belili was leading them to the valley. They were going to see the city.
As they neared the city Sarah began to see more of its amazing design. The city was filled with buildings that had no rhyme or reason. They were differing fantastic structures. Some buildings were great arching stone structures. Other buildings had sharp edges and curves. They were painted a multitude of colors. Some buildings had walls which flickered with varying images. These buildings dazzled Sarah the most. She could not understand how the walls were able to show different images from moment to moment.
When they entered the city streets the people who they encountered saw the children and smiled.
“This is the city of Adar,” Belili said. “Many of the people in this city were once like you. They were once great prodigies. Some are the descendants of gr
eat prodigies. We have a cast system of sorts. It is based on abilities and aptitudes. Some are designers. Some are administrators. Some are craftsman. Everyone contributes and everyone works together. We all work for…the greater good.”
The children followed Belili as she led them through this city of wonders. They walked past a shop and as they did so Sarah could smell a wonderful smell. Belili stopped in front of the shop.
“Percy!” Belili called out. “Percy!”
A few moments later a man stepped through the door. He was a large man who was very round.
“Hello,” he said when he saw the children. To Belili he said, “So this is them?”
Belili nodded.
“Wonderful,” he said. “Welcome. Belili told me she would be bringing you by. I too did my time in the campus on the hill. When I was learning I did my best. I excelled in some areas. I did not in others. However, eventually I found my passion. It was a unique passion.”
Percy chuckled as he said this.
“I have a passion for cooking. I love food. And over time you all shall get to see my passion. Hold for a moment and I will give you a taste.”
The man disappeared into his shop. When he came back out he carried with him a tray. On the tray were large pastries. They were covered in chocolate and cream.
“Try these,” the man said. “I have just made them.”
The children all took one. Soon the tray was empty. Sarah noted the man had brought exactly twenty-eight pastries. There was one for each of the children and one for Belili. Had he been able to instantly count the children as they walked by or had Belili told the man how many children there would be, Sarah found herself wondering.
Sarah looked at the pastry she had been given. It looked absolutely delicious.
She took a bite of it. As she did so joy washed over her. The pastry tantalized the taste buds. The chocolate tickled the tongue. The bread of the pastry melted in the mouth. Sarah had a moment to think the pastry was the single most delicious thing she had ever eaten.
Prisons of Stolen Dreams Page 8