Unison (The Spheral) (53 page)

I took Shisa out to explore the valley, and Sutara came along. We walked over a small bridge and paused to admire the river below.

“Why did you come, Master Damon?” Sutara asked.

A cool wind brushed against us, and Sutara pulled down her cap to cover her ears.

“Damon. Call me, Damon.”

“Uncle Vivek will be mad.”

“Tell him to see me if he has any problems with my request.”

“Okay, Damon. Answer my question.”

“I want to find out about the keeper of past, present, and future.”

“Who is that?”

“I’ll let you know when I find out.”

“What makes you think he’s here?”

“How do you know
he
isn’t a she?”

“I don’t.” Sutara leaned down to pet Shisa. “It’s about time you made it here. I was almost ready to give up.”

“What do you expect from me?”

“I can’t tell you. I wasn’t even supposed to ask you here.”

“Why not?”

Sutara stood and pointed to a cloud in the sky. “See that cloud?”

I tilted my head up to where Sutara was pointing.

“What does it look like to you?”

“A cloud.” I smiled at her.

Sutara crossed her arms. “I say it’s not just a cloud. Stare at it longer—until it reminds you of something.”

I observed the cloud until a form came to mind. “An elephant.”

“Uncle Vivek told me about them,” she laughed. “He promised to take me for a ride on one someday.” Sutara pointed towards another cloud. “That is a hawk.”

“Looks like a lobster to me.”

“What’s a lobster?” she asked.

“It’s a small animal that lives in the ocean. It has a skeleton on the outside and walks on ten legs—two of which have large claws.” I gestured the snapping motion of a lobster’s claws with my hands. “They can cut off your toes if you walk in their way.”

“I’m glad I don’t live near the ocean,” she laughed. “It’s funny how we both see different things.”

“We each have our own unique way of interpreting what we see.”

Sutara gazed at me. “That feeling you got when it looked like a lobster. You have to have that about why you’re here, or it won’t work.”

“What won’t work?”

“If I tell you, it’s not the same thing as seeing. You can only see what’s ahead of you with your own eyes.”

“Who’s giving you your information?”

“Me, from the future, who doesn’t want me to talk to you because I’m too young to understand—which is silly. When my memory returns, I grow up very fast.”

I rubbed my chin. “So, your future self is contacting me in this current timeline?”

Sutara nodded.

“What does the future version of yourself expect me to do?”

“See the lobster soon.”

“Does this have to do with the Six?”

She nodded her head again.

“Do you know who they are?”

“I only know about you and Tyrus. The future me knows all but one.”

“Did your future self tell you the identity of the other two?”

“I asked and was told I have to see the eagle for myself.”

“Like I have to see the lobster for myself,” I smiled.

“And we have to do it soon. Whatever is going to happen to me will make me very tired, and I won’t even have enough energy to get up in the morning.”

“You, or rather your future self, said something similar to me.”

Sutara cried. “I’m scared. I don’t want that to happen to me.”

I held Sutara’s hand. “I’ll make sure it doesn’t.”

“How?” Sutara asked.

“Find the others, but it won’t happen in this incarnation.” Seeing Sutara in front of me made me realize I had to put my own interests on hold. “Including Tyrus, I identified another Six, but she keeps dying and no matter what action I take, I can’t save her.”

“She’s closed to me. You have to help her understand what she is.”

“Do you know what we are? Why we’re being drawn together?”

Sutara gazed up at the clouds. “I see two yaks walking.”

I looked up and saw a camel. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Sutara returned home to help Tanzin, and I explored the riverside until it got dark. When I returned to the Crossings, Vivek found me a vacant corner room with a view of the river below.

“Suti must like you. She helped Tanzin clean up your room.”

“What happened to her parents?”

“Shortly after her birth, my brother abandoned her and her mother. People here do not respect women who bear children before marriage, and most refused to even speak to her. I looked after both mother and child, hoping my brother would succumb to guilt and return home. He never did.”

Tanzin stepped inside the room and set a folded blanket at the foot of my bed. “Does Master Damon have all he requires?”

“Even more so,” I answered. “You’ve all been very kind.”

Tanzin smiled and left the room.

“Did you ever hear from your brother?” I asked.

“I have not seen him since he left. Thirty days after his departure, I heard a rap at my door. Suti was left at the bottom of the stairs, and her mother was never seen again. I still do not know what happened to her…or my brother.”

“What do you tell Sutara?”

“Whenever Suti asks me if I think her mother will ever return, she always answers the question before any words leave my mouth. She tells me, ‘have faith, Uncle Vivek. I do.’” He laughed softly. “She sounds so certain that I almost believe her.”

“Maybe she knows something you don’t.”

“I thought about that as well, but until I see Suti’s parents with both my eyes, I will have to assume they are gone forever.”

“Forever,” I said softly.

“What about it?” Vivek asked.

“The magnitude of that word scares me.”

“And to me as well. It is one of the reasons I abandoned my belief in an afterlife. The idea of living eternally seems more like a prison sentence.”

“When there’s no way out, it is a prison sentence.”

After Vivek left I surveyed the river below, pondering the uncertainty of why I came to be here. The Crossings seemed more than a building. The name reflected my present circumstance. My old way of thinking conflicted with most of my new endeavors and assimilating them took constant effort. I wondered if my incarnations would ever flow as effortlessly as the river below. And I wondered if I’d ever be free of them.

RELUCTANT PROPHETS

S
ilence took on a whole new meaning for me in Middle Crest. At first, hearing the sound of my breath made it difficult to sleep as my mind constantly raced through six incarnations of experiences. By my second night, the isolation within the walls of the Crossings became my cocoon, sheltering me from places that reminded me of events I preferred to forget. I needed this security because I had none after I fell asleep. Flora, Wade, and Kai continued to invade my dreams, refusing to let me forget what happened. To get my mind off my past, I immersed myself in Middle Crest life by helping with the harvesting. As long as I kept busy during the day, it was easy to forget about my dreams. I volunteered for another chore when I came back from a walk and found Vivek gathering straw.

“Slow down,” Vivek said after I started filling another basket with straw. “You have not stopped working since your arrival.”

“I don’t know the meaning of slow.” I inspected my hands as I recalled Sephroy’s comment about them. “These were built for manual labor.”

“Pah hah hah!” Vivek’s eyes stretched wide open, and he laughed. “If I did not see you working as you are now, I would have assumed you spent your whole life in New Athenia.”

“I’ve done this for many lifetimes—and without the aid of yaks.” I laughed. “Although I wouldn’t call my existence primitive. I had electricity to help keep my cabin warm at night.”

“Shall I have Tanzin bring you another blanket? They do not allow modern technology here.”

“A wise decision. Our inventions have evolved further than our ability to reason. I never stopped to realize technology has the potential to harm, and my shortsightedness condemned a whole population to servitude. Better to be free by candlelight than enslaved by conveniences.”

“So what is your solution? Should we live with candles and the smell of yak manure for the rest of eternity? Would that not make us all defeatists—surrendering ourselves to the dark side of human nature?”

We emptied the baskets in the stable.

“Doesn’t sound so bad to me.” I walked away. “There are some parts of me I would rather avoid.”

Vivek followed behind me. “You choose to surrender?”

“Knowing when to stop is different from surrendering.”

I set the basket near the pile of straw. “How long can I stay here?”

“For as long as you want. I shall be leaving after the melting. I can only tolerate limitations for one season.”

“When you find a place that has none, come get me. I’ll live there for
all
seasons.”

Vivek laughed. “Do not expect a visit from me any time soon. No such city, town, or village exists—which is why I travel a lot. There is always some pointless ritual, custom, or law I must conform to, and I can only comply for so long before it feels like a rope tightening around me.” Vivek wrapped his long fingers around his neck.

I laughed. “Don’t you think you’re being a little over-dramatic?” I asked.

“Not at all. If not for Suti, I would say good riddance to this place.”

“The only way out is to live alone.”

“If I had that cabin of yours, I would never want to leave.”

“Isolation can be lonely without a companion.”

“Pah! Not for me. I do not want a woman to keep me chained to my home. I prefer to glide with the wind…swoosh!” Vivek widened his eyes and stretched his arms out to the side like a bird.

“Why do you believe in Sutara?” I asked.

“You may think I sound rigid, but I want to be proven wrong. I
want
to believe I am more than a pile of useless flesh.”

“You think she’ll ever prove you wrong?”

“When Suti talks to me, she sometimes seems beyond my years.”

“She’s far older than her nine years.”

Vivek peered towards the mountains as though reflecting on them. “She can be very convincing. If my presumptions are incorrect, Suti will be my proof.”

Sutara and I walked along a snowy path beside the river without saying a word. I didn’t mind the silence as it allowed me to fully absorb the stunning scenery. The clouds and mountains reflected on the surface of the icy river that seemed to stretch out infinitely.

“Very soon, you will not even see the river,” Sutara said. “It will be covered in snow.”

I picked up a small rock, and Shisa started barking. I raised my hand to throw it.

“Don’t you dare hit her!” Sutara shouted.

“You misunderstand…watch.” I tossed the rock, and Shisa ran off. She returned and dropped the rock in front of my feet.

“She’s very smart!” Sutara picked up the rock and threw it. She giggled as she watched Shisa chase after it.

I tapped Sutara on her cold nose. “Would you like to try again?” I handed her another rock.

“Stop treating me like a child!”

“You
are
a child.”

“Then why do I feel older than everyone else here?”