City of Life

 
Life and Light
Mayla activates a display, and we see a large uninhabited island, surrounded by sharp reefs.
“The city is only visible,” she says, “when you come within a hundred feet of it.”
“At a thousand feet away, you enter a field of energy that makes you feel nauseous and cold, and pushes you away.”

“It’s rare for anyone to find the city, unless they know the location, and are determined to see it.”

“But even when someone comes near the city, all they see are the stone walls, and the stone cover.”
The image changes, and we see the city from above, covered with stone, similar to the walls.

“The city is seven miles wide,” she says, “and perfectly round.”

“Now, look again.”
The image changes, and the walls and cover turn into an opaque crystal.

“The walls and cover of the city,” she says, “are really a hard crystal, which lets light pass into the city.”

The image changes again, and the crystal cover of the city disappears.
We see what looks like a large lake in the middle of the city, and four rivers that flow into it.

“The city is built in rings,” says Mayla.
“There are seven rings of buildings, each ring 240 feet thick.”
“Right now, we’re in a meeting room, in the outermost ring, just inside the city walls.

“Between each building ring is a growth ring, filled with a combination of forests, gardens, and open space.”
“There are six growth rings, each 600 feet thick.

“In the center of the city is a small sea, five miles across.”

“There are four rivers.”
“Each begins at one of the four directions, bursts out of the ground, and crosses the city, moving strongly and quickly toward the sea.”

“The rings of buildings are broken by the four rivers.”
“But there are colorful stone bridges, that cross the rivers within each ring.”

The image fades.

“Who designed the city?” asks Berek.

“The Bizra designed and built most of it,” answers Mayla, “and brought the living things here.”

“Come,” says Mayla, “let’s go outside the buildings.”
“There’s one thing I have to show you.”

Mayla walks us to a transport platform, and brings us to the edge of the sea.
The air is warm, and birds fly within the crystal roof of the city, a thousand feet above us.

I look at the sea with energy eyes, and see that it is full of life.

“The city is a storehouse of knowledge and life.”
“After the destruction, many species of plants, trees, and birds were restored to the world from here.”

“It’s incredible,” says Berek.
“You have your own little world.”
“And no one has been here for a thousand years!”

“No one but me,” answers Mayla, “and the machines that help me maintain the city.”

“Such a beautiful place,” says Shazira, “waiting so long for people to return to it.”

There’s an unusal energy in this place.
I feel as though the sea, and the forests are calling to me.

I drop my clothes to the strip of sand at the edge of the sea, and transform into a Kishla.
Then, I rise to the top of the city, and circle the city in a growing spiral, until I reach the outer walls.

Finally, I return to the sea, and rest on the sand, near the others.
And sing.

In a few minutes, a dozen Feldin rise from the sea and surround me.
I find the glow within me, and let it shine.

The Feldin sing with me.
Their voices are simple and clear.

They can’t follow my voice through the many paths of the complex music.
But they find simple parts, that repeat again, and again.
And they sing, emotional and strong.

In the midst of the song, the Feldin glow brighter than ever before.
And my glow shines bright with them.

My companions turn away from the bright light, except Mayla.

The glow is more than it seems.
The Feldin are energy weaving.

Bits of energy radiate from the Feldin and gather outside of my fire body.
My fire body opens, to accept their gifts, and then releases its own energy in return.

Soon, the song ends.
The Feldin make a sound that is something like a laugh.
And return to the water, still covered in a blinding light.

I turn my energy sight toward the city walls, wondering if the energy shield will still hide the true nature of the walls, even though I look from within the city.
But the true energy of the walls is still hidden behind a sea of chaos.

My glow pulls at me, as though it’s waiting for me to do something.
I clear my mind, and ask for guidance.

And I’m answered with a feeling.
I feel the urge to reshape myself into an energy wheel, like the ones that I used to enter the city.

I shape the grandmother pattern, and clothe it in a dark blue sphere of energy.
Then I shape the twelve mother patterns of energy, and join them to the sphere.

I let go of my physical, Kishla body, and bind my energy bodies to the energy wheel.
I become the energy wheel, and fill it with the Feldin glow.

Again, I look toward the city walls.
And their patterns are revealed.

I feel a disturbance within the energy shield, like it’s desperately trying to push me out.

So, I release the energy wheel, reshape my physical body, and rebuild the wintzal.
Then I put on my clothes.

“Yagrin,” says Mayla, in an excited voice.
“Someone penetrated the wall’s energy shield for a few seconds.”

“Was it you?” she asks.
“If not, we are all in great danger.”

“Yes Mayla,” I answer.

“Please,” she says, “don’t do it again.”
“When you open the shield, who knows what may pass through?”

I nod in agreement.
And turn back toward my friends.

“Turn down your glow, Yagrin,” says Shazira, irritated.
“We can’t see.”

“Sorry,” I say.
“I didn’t notice the bright glow, when I turned back into a man.”
I pull at the glow, and it disappears within me.

 
Language Training
Mayla brings us to a large room, fifty feet by fifty feet.

The floor of the room is all hardwood, except for twelve stone circles, laid out in two rows of six.

The circles remind me of the the training circles that I’ve visited before.
But these are only five feet across, and each has a comfortable chair in the center of the circle.
Each circle shines brightly with a different color.

“These training circles are for individuals,” says Mayla.
“But if any of you want to train together, I can link your circles so both of you enter the same simulation.”

“Tzina and I want to train in weaving,” says Shazira.
“We’re tired of being carried.”

Balshown chooses a training in war strategy.

“Berek and I will link our circles,” I say.
“We’ll learn the alien language, together.”

“You’re taking Berek with you, when you go to the aliens?!” asks Shazira.

“No,” I answer, “but I want him to learn their language, and do some other training with me.”

“I’ll leave you two to train together,” says Makish, “but I also want to learn the language.”
“I want to go with you to the aliens.”

“Why?” asks Balshown.

“I may not always act like one of the sisters, pursuing peace, but I have been trained in negotiation.”
“And who knows what dangers Yagrin will face.”

“He needs another energy master with him to watch for danger.”

Balshown nods in strong agreement.

“You’re too trusting, Yagrin,” he says.
“Be careful.”

He turns to Makish.
“You’re not the trusting type,” he says, approvingly.
“That’s exactly what Yagrin needs at this meeting.”

“Only one of you should speak at a time.”
“And the other one should watch for attack.”

“Don’t worry,” she says to Balshown, as she flows a sword out of the air, and swings it viciously toward the floor.
“I learned to fight twenty generations before you were born.”
“And despite my training as an old one, I haven’t forgotten how.”

She flows the sword back to air, before the blade reaches the wood.

We separate and go to different training circles.
We sit in the chairs, and Mayla activates the simulations.

Berek and I stand together on a mountain top, with a steep cliff that falls away to the ocean below.
Mayla joins us.

“In order to learn the language,” she says, “you have to take on the Fiklow form.”
She brings us down to the ocean.

“When I transform into a Fiklow,” she says, “look at my energy, transform yourselves, and join me.”
She transforms into the Fiklow form, and drops just below the waves.

Berek and I complete the transformation, and join her.
I hear sounds coming from Mayla, which quickly turn into three-dimensional pictures.

Some are pictures of objects around us, and things that we saw in the city.

Understanding comes, as I feel a stream of information move from the training circle into me.
The Fiklow communicate like Dolphins.

Dolphins emit complex sounds which reflect back to them.
They can tell from the changes in the sound, what objects “look” like, and how far away they are.

Some people think that dolphins reproduce the reflected sound, to tell other dolphins what they’ve seen.
It may be true of dolphins, but the Fiklow definitely do this.

And the Fiklow have sound images to represent more abstract concepts, and provide structure for complex thoughts, a sort of grammar.

I heard the Jiku once describe the Fiklow as worms.
But a Fiklow looks more like a large octupus, with a large brain protected by thick cartilage, and strong tentacles for precise handling of objects.

When the language finishes settling into us, Mayla tells us to change back into people.
We do, and she brings us back to the top of the mountain.

 
Learning to Fly
“What’s next?” she asks.

“Ina,” says Berek, “I’d like you to teach me enough energy weaving so I can glide on the web.”

“You don’t need me for this, Yagrin,” says Mayla.
“Just call my name, when you want me to return.”

Berek is quiet until Mayla disappears.
“It’s frustrating, ina,” says Berek.
“It’s so easy for me to flow one energy pattern into another, to change shape.”

“And I can even move inanimate objects along the web.”
“But when I try to bind my own body to the web, the web just feels like glass.”

“Tell me,” I say, “how you move an object along the web.”

“First,” says Berek, “I have to bind the object to the web.”

“Tell me what that feels like,” I suggest.

He thinks for a moment how to describe it.
“I create a net of energy.”
“I feel the net, like I feel my body.”
“I can sense its surface, and feel its position in space.”

“The net surrounds the object, and holds it strongly.”
“And there are multiple trails of energy that begin at the net, and make light contact with the web.

“I send energy through the object, and along the web in the direction I want the object to travel.”
“The energy travels through the object, its net, and the trails of energy, and then pours out across the web like a river.”

“And the object is carried along.”

“Berek, where do you get the energy that streams through the object, and creates the energy current?”

“The energy just pours out of my hands,” he answers.

“Ok,” I say.
“Tell me how you try to glide your body along the web.”

“I try to move it with an energy net, like I move an object.”
“But that doesn’t work.”

“The energy net that I put around the physical body, doesn’t make contact with the web.”
“It’s missing the energy extensions that touch the web.”

“There are people,” I say, “who carry their own bodies with an energy net.”
“But I’ve never made that method work, either.”
“To me, it’s like trying to pick yourself up with your hands.”

Berek smiles.

“But we don’t need an external energy net to glide on the web,” I say.
“Our pattern body is already an energy net, and it surrounds our physical body.”

“But ina,” he says, “I’ve tried to send energy through the physical body, and through the pattern body to create the energy current.”
“Nothing happens.”

“That doesn’t work,” I say, “because there are already complex movements of energy between the physical body and the pattern body.”

“What then?” he asks.

“Describe the connections between your pattern body and the web,” I tell him.

“There are millions or billions of connections,” he says, “between the pattern body and the web.”
“And energy moves back and forth between the web and the pattern body.”

“What does the web look like to you, Berek?”

“It looks like an infinite number of energy streams, moving, and branching in all directions.”

“Berek, have you ever watched my energy body while I’m flying?”

“I’ve tried,” he answers, “but the energy is blurred between the web and your pattern body.”
“I can’t see clearly what you’re doing!”

“Here’s what I do,” I say.
“I immerse my pattern body in an energy stream that’s moving in the right direction, and let go.”

Berek looks frightened.
“How can I do that?”
“My pattern body is much larger than the individual energy streams.”

“And even if I could do that, wouldn’t my energies dissolve within the stream?”

“Your pattern body seems bigger,” I answer, “but the energy in a single stream is powerful enough to carry a mountain.”

“And you won’t disappear.”
“The web isn’t a threat.”
“It’s a friend that supports you, in all that you do.”

“You need to let the shape of your pattern body be fluid, without altering the energy patterns within the body.”
“Some people like to make an extension along the back of the body, in the shape of wings.”
“That’s how I flew, after I first arrived in this world.”

“But I think it’s easier at first to form an extension at the top of your pattern body, and let your awareness rest on that extension.”
“Then let the extension dive into the energy stream, like you were diving, head first, into a lake.”

“Won’t I get lost in the streams,” asks Berek, “and be pulled at random in a thousand directions?”

“Keep your physical eyes open,” I answer, “and keep your attention focused on where you want to go.”
“Your attention will automatically direct your energy through the right streams, and keep you moving in the right direction.”

“If you focus on the individual streams as something distinct from you, you’ll be overwhelmed, and the connection will break.”
“Feel that you are a river of energy, raging across the web.”

“Remember Berek, that we’re in a simulation here.”
“You can’t hurt yourself, even if you fly into a mountain.”

I watch his pattern body, as he lets an extension form at the top.
But he doesn’t move the extension into an energy stream.

“What’s wrong Berek?” I ask.

“The energy streams look too powerful.”
“I can’t let go.”
“I’m afraid of getting lost.”

“Lower your wintzal, Berek.”
“I’ll do the same.”
“I’m going to touch minds, and let you experience what it feels like to let go, and become the river.”
“Lie down, and we’ll leave your body here.”

I drop my wintzal and make the connection between us.
Then, I extend my pattern body, and let that extension dive into an energy stream.

“Focus on the feeling that I have of energy moving, of being the river.”

“It’s a great feeling,” says Berek within my head.

I fly around at high speed, for about ten minutes.

“I want to try it now, ina,” says Berek, excited.
“But how do I control the speed?”
“And how do I make the shield to protect my physical body while I fly?”

“Just feel yourself moving through space, at the speed you desire.”
“It’s easier than it looks.”

“For your first flight, just go slowly, and you won’t need a shield.”

I return to the mountain top, and flow the air into goggles and gloves, and hand them to him.

“Wear these,” I say.
“We’ll work on the shield after you get the basics of flying.”

“Some of the skills we’re working on will take hours of practice.”
“It’s not exciting, but you need the practice to get it right.”

“Ina,” he says, “how can we spend so much time on this today?”
“Don’t you need to get ready for meeting with the aliens?”

“Don’t worry,” I tell him, “outside the simulation, much less time will pass.”

He rises slowly, and I follow.

At this speed, he can still hear me when I speak.
“I’m going to keep the mind connection open as you fly Berek, in case you have questions or get into trouble.”

“Ok, ina.”

He’s a little wobbly, and has trouble flying in a straight line.
And his speed keeps changing.

But he’s gliding on the web.

“It works, ina!”