A Paradox in Retrograde (11 page)

Down over the craggy cliff the conveyance rode the steel rail
down along the steep sides of the plateau. Along the way birds
flittered playfully among the bromeliads that hung there delicately between the sinewy rattan vines. After a few moments
during which she dared not look into his eyes, the conveyance
made the seamless transition from free fall to an abrupt yet comfortable landing. Exiting the conveyance, Xora led them on foot
toward the citadel along the old road that crested the shoreline.
There they were greeted roughly by the crashing sounds of the
surf and mocking sea birds. There too they were harassed by
blasts of wind borne sand. Ananda, to Xora's surprise had endured this well. As they moved, the silhouette of the ever present central tower of Breideblic grew ever larger. It was well
after mid-day by the time they came upon it. To Ananda it stood
there imposingly and somehow he sensed vaguely that it did not
belong. It left him with an odd foreboding feeling, curious to
why the crowd there swirled about oblivious carrying on with
their daily business. Despite this they had passedthrough their
midst unnoticed and without any of the excitement that marked
the previous day. There within they came upon the temple and
passed through the arch way from which hung a large set of
wooden doors. As they approached the temple attendants pushed
aside these massive doors held in place by an equally impressive
set of stout hinges. They held them open until they had passed
into the inner chamber, and then slowly closed the doors behind
them.

Through an ornately decorated ante chamber they approached the
threshold of the crystal room. He did not enter the space however, as he now felt an unconscious reservation. His stomach contents then threatened to come up on him as a wave of unseen energy played havoc with his equilibrium. To steady himself from
falling he held tightly onto the wall beside him. Xora who stood
beside him spied upon him his expression of discomfort and subtle apprehension. "What is it? Have you sensed something?" she
asked delicately. He struggled to answer. "Last night I was witness to a terrifying vision. These images I fear were conjured here
within this room. To these I am both drawn to and repelled from."
She again placed her hand on his shoulder in a reassuring gesture
of friendship. In that instant she too fell into a spell of unfamiliar
emotions. She easily recognized these as not her own. She removed her hand at once and the flood of emotion and imagery
that spilled into her consciousness had for the moment ceased.
Then without warning as if her body had been possessed her eyes
began to roll back uncontrollably within her head. She for the
moment felt the distinct sensation of free fall as her mind filled
with juxtaposed imagery both familiar and unrecognizable. Overcome, her legs had fallen from beneath her. Ananda was there
however to catch her. There within the safety of his arms she was
seemingly in an altered state. Though she was not conscious to it
her body resonated with a kind of energy she had not before encountered.

A few moments later she awoke to find herself on the floor being
cradled by Ananda. Though he held her she no longer felt the
coursing energy flow through him. She sat up confused and a little embarrassed about her current predicament. "What happened?
What was that? Did you feel it as well?"

"Yes, it was very powerful." She rose to her feet running her
hands along the sides of her clothing as if to brush away some
invisible debris. "Well what was that?" Ananda offered a somewhat feasible explanation.

"I was in direct contact with the room. I touched the threshold
and a wave of communication rolled over me. You placed your
hand upon me and you too seemed to be affected."

"I don't know, but perhaps this energy field here held within is
more attuned to my senses than yours. I think we shall soon
learn." He reached his hand out toward hers. They held hands
and walked into the center of the room careful to stay clear of its
surface.

As was the practice she recited from a well-worn prayer wheel
the words that both conferred blessing and activated the mechanism. As if he had anticipated their arrival, James's presence
could again be sensed there. He spoke and his voiceresonated in
a tone that seemed to mimic a cadence of fatherly concern, filling the space around them. "Lady Xora, Ananda, I welcome
you. I am glad to see you have returned. In your absence I have
discovered much that I wish to show you. Ananda turned to Xora and said in a reassuring tone, "For the mean time, I think it
prudent that you should stay clear of me while within these
walls; at least until we know more about the nature of this message." Though her intention was to stay and be a witness to this
message she reluctantly acquiesced. She did not wish to express
her dissatisfaction, so she signaled her agreement to his request
with a simple nod of her head. She stepped quietly back into a
darkened corner, though her eyes and ears remained fixed on
him. "James please continue."

"Dear friends I must apologize for my lack of foresight. It
seems I should have anticipated this turn of events. However
hindsight is often clear than the first view, and it is not yet too
late. It is good that you have returned for after my experience
last night I have discovered the source of that cryptic message
and there is still more there waiting to be discovered. But first
there is a message there waiting for you. I do not understand
how this message came to be here now as I have no memory of
it and it appears to be quite old indeed. Would like me to play it
for you now?"
"Yes, I would like that, very much thank you."

Though the crystal room did appear more as a of work art than of
technology, to its true nature they would soon be witnesses. The
interior surface of the crystal known to the ancients as The Oracle
began to flash and hum in a kaleidoscope of color, as its vast energies mounted. Though its inner workings had remained unknown to any of the islands current inhabitants, the mechanism
by use of a temporal displacement field was capable of passing
any packet of data to any point within the continuum of space
time. Long ago this cryptic message had been sent down through
a micro gravity well to the waiting receiver on the other side. The
message riding upon an electromagnetic field wave had by passed
through the intervening years by tunneling its way through an unimaginably small tear in the fabric of the universe. In a feat of
unrivaled technology it bore its way through, breaching the void
that separated it from its other half in space and time. As the
wave tunneled through the space between them the mechanism
held in stasis the matched pair of quantum entanglements that
represented the sender and the receiver. The message from a virtual middle ground that stood outside the universe would then
flow effortlessly through either end.

From the shadows Xora looked on in rapt amazement as the connection was made. As the link was acquired the crystal room began to shine and resonate in a manner she had not before seen.
There emanating from upon the surface of the wall and ceiling
before him first appeared what he thought to be a kind of illusion.
What they both saw there was a representation of a potential
space as a dark sphere in three dimensions. Not a mere vacuum
but a tangible expanse. For a moment this impossibility hung
there as the air around it crackled and flashed with a visceral static charge. These appearances were fleeting and changing at an
ever increasing rate. A closer look revealed that there within,
what appeared to be the swirling black water of this void was a
growing pin prick of light. As if approaching from a distance began to slowly fill the dark sphere. It hovered there suspended like
a dandelion seed against the deep black. Before their eyes these
flashing images were transformed to ones more distinct. Suddenly the room was filled with brightness akin to daylight. The images there though ancient were as bright and clear ason the day
they were captured. Xora had little understanding of the strange
symbols and objects she saw. Focusing upon the meaning of
these images they had failed to notice that this projection had
begun to fill the entirety of the space. Without warning the images again transformed. Before them there now appeared a vision of a raven haired beauty. She stood in regal splendor,
dressed in finest clothing and jewelry. She was by far the most
beautiful woman Xora had ever seen. She could barely believe
her eyes for this image seemed to have an almost tactile presence as if she were truly there. Ananda and the figure within this
vision seemed to lock glances upon each other. Ananda reached
out and tried to touch the figure before him and was confused as
his hand passed straight through. Though she was not there in
body there was energy present within the chamber that seemed
to somehow respond to Ananda's own presence. Xora watched
transfixed as the resonance willed from its beating crystal heart
an emanation of soft warm glowing light. It began to fill the air
surrounding him. Soon he was enveloped in its shimmering veil.
As if amplifying his writhing emotion his mind hovered there,
caught within its gentle embrace. Deeply he breathed in the amber tinted air that swirled and charged the space about him in an
intoxicating haze. A soft familiar voice filled his conscious mind
as the message having spanned the gap of millennia reached his
ears. The words she spoke were soft but its content hard. With a
word she would unravel a spell cast long ago.

From her hiding place within the shadows Xora continued to
listen as she stared into the image emblazed there. She somehow
recognized that it was Lady Samantha. In the language of their
people Samantha had spoken to Ananda. Though Xora could not
understand her strange tongue, she saw on the woman's image
softness in her ebony black eyes that spoke volumes. She found
there also something she had not known in her own life. It was
the look of love from one to another. Feeling now more like a
voyeur than a librarian, Xora was intent on learning the secrets
that were there held between them.

To Ananda her voice was true and clear. "Ananda, do you recognize my voice? I am your queen, Lady Samantha. Long you
have slept my beloved king. You have sacrificed much for your
people though we must again awake you from your peaceful
slumber. The time of alignment is once again upon us. You must
again take up arms against our immortal foe." He looked at her
in confusion as a swirl of images entered his mind. Though he
could see conjured there shards of disjointed imagery, their reality stood for the moment beyond his comprehension. He cried out
"I don't understand. What does it mean?"

"Soon it will be clear to you. With a key that was planted long
ago we shall unlock this mystery with a simple question. And so I
ask you, what is your name my king, my husband?"

Ananda's thoughts whirled as he stumbled through the trail of
logic. "But I am Ananda. I am a prince, not a king. My blood
brother Amida is king."

In a cool and reassuring voice she asked, "What name did you
take upon your ascension to the throne?" A word appeared in his
mind though he tried to speak it, it would not come. She asked
again this time more insistently.

An involuntary stutter rose from the back of his animal brain and
flowed out through the cage of his grimaced teeth. "I am Hector
The King." In that instant the disjointed images that flowed
through his mind coalesced into a crystallized sober reality. All
that had been hidden had rushed in one leap to the forefront of his
mind. All at once he found himself again within the grip of an
overwhelming weariness. The way there before him now, seeming stark and bleak weighed heavily upon his conscience. For
one last moment however he would forget his torment and remember Samantha. For they knew their time was brief, they
looked upon each other through the lens of ages. Time it seemed
had not dulled the shine they held there frozen each for the other.
"Dear husband I am glad to see you have so well survived your
journey." Tears welled and then rolled down her bronzed face.
"It's fading; I may not see you again. My dear I'm sorry. Don't
ever forget how well I love you." Still reeling from the effects of
this neural download he could muster only the mostbasic sentiment, "And I you." As he spoke these words the image became
distorted and a crackling sound of white noise filled his ears.
Their unlikely presence there together, having surpassed its allotted bandwidth capabilities had reached its end. The image grew
grainy and the background seemed to glow around her. Then in a
burst of light the image flickered out and the aura about him
evaporated. As mysteriously as she had appeared so had she
gone. Xora emerged into this emotional vacuum from the shadows and stood beside Ananda. "Who is she?"

James in a perfunctory tone then spoke, "The connection has
been severed. I'm sorry I held it as long as I could." So the signal having crossed the portal, through which no living thing
could pass, was lost. Xora tried as best she could to make sense
of what she had just witnessed. Because Ananda still had the
translation device on his person, she at least had understood his
side of the conversation. His responses were clear. It was also
plain to her that by his responses, that he was not accustomed to
this manner of communication. He was surprised and frightened
by what he had witnessed there. Though he initially seemed stifled he managed to stumble over some of his words. He had also
managed to recall her name and spoke it out loud. From his lips
arose her name, "Samantha." With his arm reached out to her.
Though they could not touch, she had seemed to respond too by
reciprocating the gesture. The gesture she concluded was all it
was. For even Xora's limited experience she could see that this
could be no more than illusion. However for Ananda the experience had seemed quite real. Thinking critically she thought to
herself that it all seemed a bit too theatrical. If this show she
mused was produced wholly for his benefit, she wondered
aloud, "To what end?" It did seem to her like an awful lot of
trouble to put one's self through, for what?