by BC Powell
“Binding connects steel to steel or marble to marble,” Sash replies. “It has no effect on any other material.”
I shake my head, my usual acceptance of a seemingly impossible explanation. “I’ve wanted to ask you something else for while,” I say.
“Go ahead,” Sash says.
“When you kneel to the ground and whisper, other people can hear you, right?”
“The person’s name I say is aware of my words.”
“Any idea how?”
“The roots of the grass carry our words across the Delta. The person whose name we say hears the words through their sense of awareness.”
“So it doesn’t work here on the Mount?”
“The needles on the ground do the same,” Sash replies. “The Barrens are the only place it doesn’t occur.”
A moment of enlightenment arrives. Every substance in Krymzyn synthesizes perfectly with everything else that exists here. Each has a distinct purpose designed to complement some materials but not interfere with others.
Steel cuts marble. Marble molds steel. Pumice sands steel but also softens in water. Binding only works with marble and steel, nothing else. Crystal dirt hardens steel while pulp from vines on the Mount blends threads grown on the Delta into smooth leathery fabric.
One type of tree on the Mount, two types of plants. Two types of trees on the Delta, excluding the Tree of Vision, and one type of plant. Telepathic grass and needles cover the ground. Seven botanical wonders supply everything the people need. Every substance in Krymzyn, every form of life, creates a labyrinth of flawless unison. Never more than they need, never less. It’s an existence of eternal—there’s only one word I can use—balance.
We reach the end of the road at the base of the steep Mount. We both stop, and Sash turns to me. When she smiles, it takes effort on her part. The gloom on her face is deepening, and as hard as I try, I can’t figure out why.
“You should consume your sap,” she says.
“Why?” I ask.
“For the sign of entrance to appear,” Sash replies.
I remove the flask from my belt, twist off the top, and drink the contents. I don’t really feel the need for sustenance because I’m still energized from the sap Tork gave me. If I had to guess, based on what I’ve seen, each person only drinks two or three cups a “day,” and that seems to be all they need. Sash takes the flask from her belt and drinks as well.
After I return the flask to my side, we start up a narrow trail carved into the side of the Mount. The path is just wide enough for us to walk beside each other. Snaking back and forth along the face, we climb about a mile until we reach a flat ledge.
A single Watcher guards a granite door, steel spear at his side.
“Greetings, Sash,” he says, bowing with a solemn face.
“Greetings, Inda,” Sash replies, handing her spear to the Watcher. “The Teller Chase and I are here to view the Reflecting Pool.”
“Do you have the sign for entry?” Inda asks.
Sash holds out her hand, and as she turns it up to the sky, aqua light rises from her skin.
Even though I expect what I see, I’m still stunned when I extend my hand. The same blue-green rays dance over my palm.
The Watcher swings open the black door. “No one else will enter while you visit the Reflecting Pool,” he says to us.
“We’re grateful,” Sash replies.
After we step inside a dark tunnel, the stone door slams shut behind us.
Chapter 26
Side by side, we walk through the passage. Cool aqua light leads us to an oval opening at the tunnel’s end. The sound of trickling water, calm and soothing, echoes around us as we walk.
When we reach the end of the corridor, an immense round cavern opens in front of us. Cyan vines dangle from the domed black marble ceiling of the cave, emitting a soft blue luminescence. Tiny starbursts of golden light, like fireflies on a summer night, weave in and out of the vines. I start to step through the opening, but Sash grabs my arm and pulls me back into the tunnel.
“We must remove our clothing before we enter,” she says softly to me. “Only your containment may touch the water.”
We set our helmets on the ground, take off our clothing and boots, and hang our clothes on hooks in the wall. Sash takes my hand in hers, leading me into the cavern.
A circular pumice walkway surrounds the enormous Reflecting Pool. Light sparkles in the water trickling down the ebony walls, gently flowing across the black stone path, and spilling over a smooth edge into the Pool. At my first step, the stone is scratchy against my foot. As we walk around the outside of the cave, through the water dampening the rock, the path softens into a firm spongy texture.
Aqua light and moving points of amber gleam in the Pool’s glassy surface. The air around us is still, not warm, not cold—a perfect feeling of nothingness against my bare skin.
We continue until we’re a quarter of the way around the cavern. I stop to glance up again at the floating points of golden light.
“What are those?” I ask Sash.
“Flits,” she replies. “They dwell in the caverns on the Mount. The creatures never rest. They’re always in motion.”
I gaze into the familiar amber of Sash’s eyes, her face splashed in blue. I lean in to her and kiss her full, red lips.
“Walk to the center of the Pool and look into the water,” Sash says quietly after we kiss.
“Are you coming with me?” I ask.
“No,” she replies. “This portion of the journey is only for you.”
I kiss her again, turn away, and step into the Pool. My feet are immersed in an invigorating wetness, no feeling of temperature at all, but still refreshing to my skin. As I slowly tread through the water, it’s ankle deep at first, but gradually rises up my legs.
When I reach the center of the Pool, I stand still with the water just above my knees. The tranquil sounds inside the cavern serenade my mind. I remain motionless while the shallow swells created by my movement slowly disappear. I glance up at the Flits circling overhead then down into the mirror of water.
My reflection stares back at me as I look into my own blue eyes. An unexplained circular ripple spreads from the center of my face, seeming to wash away my skin. I lean closer to my reflection, trying to perceive the changes in my appearance as the water calms.
A deathly white skull, blurry around the edges, stares at me from the Pool. Deep, hollow eye sockets, empty black with circles of blue, pierce into my mind. A colored spectrum of light undulates in the center of my skull. Murky brown waves fall from the outline of my head, while dull red lines frown at me.
My eyes drift down the skeletal frame of my body—luminescent bones encased in a web of three-dimensional blue veins. A crimson-red glob pulses in the center of my ribcage.
I lift my hand to my chest, watch the bony fingers move across my shape, each throb of red matching the beat of my heart. It’s like staring at one of the scans I’m all too familiar with in the hospital, stripped bare of skin, showing only my organs and bones.
When I raise my eyes to the ceiling of the cavern, the vines electrify like sinuous fiber-optic strands. The tiny floating points of gold momentarily flash halos of green when they intersect with the aqua light. Above the semi-opaque surface that defines the ceiling of the cavern, tangled midnight blue roots spread upwards, candescent inside the black void.
I drop my head to the pool, returning my focus to my own terrifying eyes. The sunken, shadowy sockets with rings of blue in the center send a shiver through my spine. I try to grasp what I see, try to comprehend this vision. Everything I’ve ever seen and experienced in Krymzyn strobes through my mind.
My pulse soars with revelation while bolts of truth spike into my brain. I know why Sash was so confused by my sketch of her. She knows exactly what she looks like.
Nothing in Krymzyn exists as I see it. Everything has been shaped, molded, given a texture and a surface that I can grasp within my understanding
of reality. The obscure shapes of light I saw in the metal bridge and in the quartz walls of Sash’s habitat—those are what I look like here. What I see in Krymzyn isn’t what it really is. It’s just a fabricated image for my eyes.
I slowly turn to Sash.
A specter stands at the edge of the pool and stares at me—Sash stripped bare and naked to the core, as she actually exists. Tiny gray particles swirl in her glowing white skeleton while a maze of glimmering veins hovers around her bones. Pulsing organs cast red light, molecules moving within. A brilliant spectrum of color oscillates in her skull, neon scarlet tendrils growing out of it and weaving through the black that hangs from her head. A thin, translucent film contains the light, shaping it into a human form.
The hideous apparition stings me to my marrow.
“This is how I look to you?” I ask.
She lowers her eyes to the water. A single glistening orb of amber light falls from her face. Suddenly, in slow motion, my eyes follow the sphere as it floats down the front of her ghostly form. Crimson bursts around the tear when it splashes into the water at her feet.
“You’re beautiful to me,” Sash cries.
I stare at her. Krymzyn wants me to see this world as it truly is. A dimension of light and energy, spiraling molecules of matter, all molded into eerie shapes. Krymzyn is putting a question before me. Can you accept this world for what it is? What Krymzyn doesn’t know is that every question was answered in my mind before I ever stepped into this Pool.
I can design fantasy worlds for video games, or I can live in one that’s real. I can struggle to stay alive on Earth, probably die after a painful fight with cancer, or thrive in Krymzyn if I have a purpose here. More than anything else, I can stay in my world knowing that there’s no woman there I’ll ever love. In Krymzyn, I can be with the only person I belong with.
The answer to the question given to me by the Pool was never meant for me. This answer has to come from me. This answer is for Sash.
“Not as beautiful as you are to me,” I say.
Amber points rise from the water and flow across the cavern into my eyes. Skeletal fingers veined in blue rise in the air, reaching out to me. I run through the water to Sash, hold out my hand, and take hers in mine.
A flood of amber blinds me. I close my eyes, open them when the light recedes, and see Sash standing in front of me—my perception of her once again. Porcelain skin glazed in aqua light, long black hair shining with scarlet, and tears falling from amber eyes.
She pulls me to her, and I step out of the pool. We engulf each other in our arms. Sash burrows her face in my neck, presses her breasts to my chest, and holds me against her body.
“I do belong with you,” she whispers.
“I know,” I say. “And I belong with you.”
I kiss her neck while her fingertips trace up my spine. Our lips find each other’s, and we kiss while absorbing each other in our arms. I crave her in all of my senses, wish I could smell her and taste her, long to be filled by her in every way I can.
We drop to our knees, facing one another with our hands exploring each other’s bodies. When we kiss, passion burns through her skin and into my veins. Sash gently pushes me to my back, the shallow water tingling against my shoulders and legs.
She climbs onto me, crouching on top of my body, her face directly over mine. Reaching one hand between her legs, she slowly strokes me with her smooth, slender hands. I skim my fingertips down the length of her hair as she guides me inside. Amber beams dazzle my eyes when she slowly slides down on top of me, lowering her hips until I’m completely within.
Thousands of sparks erupt in my nerves and my muscles tense out of my control. Brilliant blue streams from my eyes, intersecting with an amber flare. The water around me seems to seep into my skin, blending with my blood and flowing through my body. I hear the beat of Sash’s heart reverberating through the rock beneath me while the Flits circle inside my mind.
“Sash!” my voice echoes through the cavern.
“Be calm,” Sash whispers, looking down at me with a knowing smile. “Your sense of awareness is awakening inside you.”
Her fingers gently slip through my hair. Wet, soft warmth grips me inside her. She leans her head down, scarlet brushing across my face, and kisses my lips. I feel everything inside her, around us, my new consciousness leaping to life.
Sash slowly raises her hips, sinks them again, moving up and down on top of me. I lift my hips to meet her then lower them as she glides back up. Her hands hold the back of my head, clutching my hair. I run my fingers along her shoulders, lower them to circle her nipples, and finally rest my hands on the curves of her hips. Time stops inside the aqua cavern while we make love, everything inside us exposed and shared with the other.
Our rhythm quickens and our breathing grows heavier, her face over mine. I feel her tense and arch my back when our bodies both spasm. Waves of orgasm surge through us until she collapses into my arms.
As our muscles relax, she stretches out on top of me, legs on legs, chest on chest, keeping me inside her. Intertwined with my hair, her fingers gently massage my head. Minutes pass, maybe hours—I have no idea. We lie silently with our heartbeats pulsing against each other, her eyes never leaving mine.
“Was this why you’ve seemed so sad?” I finally ask. “Were you afraid of how I’d react to what I saw?”
“I didn’t know what the Pool would show you,” she whispers.
“It showed me what I already know,” I say. “That I love you.”
Sash smiles most beautiful smile that ever was.
Chapter 27
When we step into the pale green light outside the tunnel, I suddenly worry that the Watcher might have heard what happened inside the cavern. I have to assume that it was a first for Krymzyn. His face appears as solemn as it did when we entered, so I decide that everything’s fine.
“Thank you,” I say to him as we stand on the ledge.
“If your experience was enlightening, I’m honored,” he replies.
After bowing to the Watcher, Sash takes her spear from him. We walk down the trail hand in hand. As I look out over the forest below, I see a few scarlet-haired Hunters strolling through the woods. Constructs work at marble slabs in the clearing. Watchers stand guard on the distant wall. They all feel the world around them, deep inside every part of them, every moment of their lives.
They don’t need to show feelings of fulfillment with a facial expression, Sash once told me. If I don’t see smiles or hear laughter in Krymzyn, it doesn’t mean the people lack emotion. If they don’t have immediate family as I know it, it’s because they have the entire world around them, including every living being in this world. They seem to have transcended beyond emotions as I understand them. They feel a perpetual sense of fulfillment, honor to serve the whole, and share those feelings with everything around them.
“The first time I came to Krymzyn,” I say to Sash, “I was in awe of you, fascinated from the moment I saw you. Now, I feel that way about everything here. I mean, it really is a world of balance.”
“When you feel that balance,” she answers, “you understand Krymzyn.”
I stop walking, pull her to me by the hand, and stand in front of her. “I do understand Krymzyn,” I say. “I want to be here with you.”
When Sash looks into my eyes, her face is darkened again by a look of overwhelming sorrow. “If you seek a purpose in Krymzyn, you should do so because you want to be in Krymzyn, not because you want to be with me.”
“Why are you saying that, Sash?”
“I want you to live the life that’s best for you,” she replies, “because I care about you.”
“I belong here . . . with you,” I say.
“We belong together, but that doesn’t mean we’ll be together.”
“Sash, what are you talking about?” I ask, more confused now than by anything I’ve seen or heard in Krymzyn.
“Make decisions that are best for your life, Chase. That’s
all I want for you.”
“My life is with you.”
She whisks by me and walks down the path. I know this discussion is over. She’s the most determined person alive—which is a polite way of saying stubborn—and I’m not sure how to react. With frustration growing inside me, I trot to catch up to Sash. As I walk beside her, she takes my hand firmly in hers but doesn’t say a word. Larn, his face stoic, waits for us where the trail meets the road.
“Have you successfully completed your visit to the Reflecting Pool?” Larn asks when we reach him.
“I saw what I came to see,” I say, still distracted by the conversation with Sash.
The three of us walk down the road towards the gate. Sash is quiet, withdrawn, but she keeps my hand grasped tightly in hers as we walk. Larn breaks the silence.
“We have items to transport to the Delta on our return journey. Our travel will be slowed, but I’ll carry you as we did coming to the Mount.”
“Larn,” I reply, “I never know when I’m going to leave, so if I’m suddenly gone, I want you to know that the only reason I said what I did about Balt earlier is because I care about what happens to all of you here.”
“I believe your intentions are sincere,” Larn says to me. “I’ll discuss this issue with the Disciples immediately upon our return.”
“Thank you. It means a lot to me.”
As we near the gate, I see two large metallic objects by the side of the road that look like they belong in the Smithsonian. One reminds me of a fuel tank from a fighter jet, a twelve-foot-long tube, maybe two feet tall, with rounded points on both ends. The rear stands on forks connected to a single wheel, a foot-high thin orb of solid steel. Like wheelbarrow handles, two metal arms extend from the front.
The other is a football-shaped wagon the same length as the aerodynamic tube. Inside the wagon stand a few stools with their feet in the air, four table legs sticking straight up, and an assortment of spears, stakes, pitchers, and knives. A black mesh net tied to the sides holds the steel items in place. Two metal handles are attached to the front of the cart, while a single wheel holds up the rear. Both of the vehicles have small angled wings seamlessly adhered to their sides.