Gen – Hands of Power and Light

 
Lines and Symbols
A ring of buildings surrounds me, miles high.
Sunlight flows down the edges of the buildings, through light pipes, and brighten the walkways far below.
This is my city, the largest in the world.
Today,it seems tiny, as I imagine the endless world that the Gen live in.

When I get home, my rooms feel too small to hold me for the long hours until day’s end, and my meeting with Vala.
After a short rest, and a light meal, I wander the city until I reach the streets and parkland near the school.

Day’s end … Read more

Gen – First Lessons

 
Thirty-Five
I wake up, and almost jump off my mat.
I’m thirty-five cycles today, a child no more.
Fully grown, with all my adult strength.

I want to celebrate, but my friends think it’s foolish.
I also hear mother’s voice in my head, saying it’s childish to celebrate birth cycles at my age.
Once, there were great celebrations at thirty-five, but the customs are gone, five hundred cycles ago.

I live on my own, and I became a full citizen at thirty, but I’m still excited.
What the world has forgotten, the Gen remember.
At thirty-five, you … Read more

Forest – Death Climb

 
Death, Feelings, and Fire
The climb lasts five to ten hours, for those who come out of the hole.

We wear strong, thin leather on our hands and feet.

We rub our skin with the bark of the felik bush.
It toughens the skin for a few days, but we still bleed.
Felik also has a good scent which hides the smell of blood.

It is forbidden to practice the climb in the hole, but there are other places with sharp rocks to cut us.
We climb and crawl through narrow spaces without water or food, and learn to … Read more

Dreaming and Weaving

 
Energy Weaving
One last room to touch before my training begins.
The Yellow room shows a different face to each person who enters it.
What will I find there?

Shazira walks me to the room.

I feel dizzy as I approach the doorway, and get more nauseous with each step.
I turn to Shazira.
“The room is already making me sick.”
“What will it do to me when I get inside?”

“This is the room of weaving, Yagrin,” she says, “your own guild.”
“You need this room more than all of the others.”

She stares at me.
“It’s doing … Read more

History and Change

 
Shaken
Late in the evening, the Watchtower is quiet, and I come out of hiding.
Most of the visitors are gone now.
A few stay overnight, sleeping on soft mats in the white and violet rooms, but it’s easy enough to avoid them.

So many of the people I meet are filled with hatred and fear of me.
I can’t bear it.
Something is broken in me, and I can’t face anyone except Shazira or Tzina.
Emotions scream at me, circle within me, over and over, larger and larger.
I have to escape to another room to quiet this … Read more

Tzina’s Laugh

 
The Traveler and the Sea
I sit in the indigo room, a place for sleeping and dreaming.
Shazira brings me a learning dome, and explains how to use it.

The dome is flexible and clear, and feels like silicon rubber.
I close my eyes and fit the learning dome over the top of my head.

My scalp tingles as the Watchtower’s computer feeds sensory input to my brain, and creates the learning room.
I see and feel myself standing on a blue stone circle on the top of a hill overlooking the ocean.
The circle is surrounded by a … Read more

Island and Tower

 
Arrival
It’s a clear summer night, with a soft breeze, and the full moon reflects off the water.

I look again.
The moon is wrong.
It’s too big, and there are no familiar constellations in the sky.

I remember.
This is not my world.

Am I caught in a dream?

My bare feet rest on the cool, delicious sand, and the sound of the waves fills my ears.
The ocean is near, but I can’t see the gentle waves that greet me.
One moment my vision is clear, and the next moment, the world is covered in fog.… Read more