The Communicator (Part 5)

Metanoia - Chapter 2 - Life Path 3

Table of Contents

Character Chart: A Map to the Nine Lives

I awoke with a thirst strong enough to consume all the water I had with me at that moment, but withheld the compulsion. It was just before daybreak, and if I had any chance of making it to the end without collapsing from dehydration, I would have to take advantage of the cool terrain that had just finished emitting all the heat it had garnered the day before. I made it a point to give Thallon more water than I gave myself. He didn’t choose this expedition like I did. There was no morality in making him suffer more than he needed to. Besides, I couldn’t make the trip without him, especially now. He could probably survive without me at this juncture, but not the other way around. It became extremely apparent that there was no possible way for me to carry all the supplies on my own through the dead lands, while I had entertained the possibility all throughout the grass fields and mountain climbs.

We carried on. The days went by, each taking more out of my will to move forward and persist. The grass fields took three days and two nights to walk across, and my assumption was that it would be twice this amount of time given the distance on the map. But I was moving slower. Negative thoughts filled my mind without consent and grew stronger with each passing moment. By day four, the creatures that crawled in and out of the sands no longer deterred me as I didn’t have the energy to react. By day five, I was stopping long before the sun left the sky to rest for the night, despite having a water supply that dwindled close to nothing. On day six, I began to worry about Thallon, who also began to show signs of lethargy. I finally ate the rations that Alaster gave me. I did not quite know what it was, except that it had a surprising amount of moisture to it that gave me an extra boost of vitality that was desperately needed. On day eight, I momentarily forgot where I was and what I was doing. The empty horizon was the main source of confusion, as I had previously walked into it for so long and eventually reached something, anything, until this point in the journey where I came upon the dead lands. On day nine, I felt some strange void creep up from under me and into my being, as if to take permanent residence and send me somewhere beyond my will. We carried on. . .

Another hill of sand. I stopped this time for a few moments before taking it on. With Thallon now almost impossible to move, I wanted nothing more than to bring him somewhere safe. He belonged at home with his kind and with his true purpose. Forget what compelled me to into this, there was no reason for it. In this way, I struggled and fought with myself up that hill, dragging weight that became heavier and heavier over the course of the eleven days. When we got to the top, I had to stop again because I didn’t know what I was seeing.

Way down the hill went before leveling off a certain distance until it reached a wall, and what appeared to be a line of people entering it. This was it.

I was making my way steadily now, hoping that somewhere in Thallon’s animal brain he would recognize the change in scenery as our deliverance.

I could not reach it fast enough to satisfy my excitement and relief. As I got closer, I could make out a gate in the wall. They were letting people in one by one those who also had odyks and other animals that I could not identify. They all carried supplies, perhaps travelers as well, I thought. I reached the wall, now astounded by its vastness up close, I was the last person approaching the gate to be let in. Two people stood at the gate, both Protectors.

In front of me on the single-file line were also three people, two Laborers and an Entrepreneur. One by one, the Protectors stopped them and glanced at something printed on a strap on their odyk, except for the Entrepreneur in front of me, who was let in immediately.

My euphoria suddenly turned into apprehension. It didn’t occur to me until the last minute that this civilization may not know how to handle someone of my physical abnormality. One of the Protectors had been eyeing me as soon as I came into view, and I was about to find out what this meant.

Thallon and I slowly crawled up to the gate entry, both clearly debilitated from arduous journey. Motioning toward us, the Protector on the left grabbed Thallon out from my hands, while the other clutched onto the back of my neck and began dragging me through the wall entry. I screamed in shock and protest, but didn’t have the physical strength to do anything else. In the wall was a tunnel, and all I could see was the man’s body and the light we headed towards as the gates closed on the other side. They spout questioning assertions at me that I could not fully understand, and stopped trying to interrogate me further when they realized that it wasn’t getting them anywhere. Unable to do anything else, I cried for propelling myself into this godawful position, and for Thallon’s security that I no longer had control over. Taking my arm in his other hand, I was dragged along the gritty soil when I could not keep up with their pace, kicking up a cloud of dust in the air that burned my throat.

Once we stepped out into the light at the end of the tunnel, my eyes strained from the brightness and it took me a few moments to see the spectacle before me. I could see a red cloth protruding from the neckline of the Protector who had a hold on me.

Enormous buildings towered above us on both sides, reaching heights I never thought possible. It appeared we were on some sort of road that extended for miles in one direction, eventually leading to a strange looking structure at the end that I could not make out. With each building we passed, I saw another road that extended far out into some other location of this strange village. From what I could tell, we were walking past endless grids of buildings and roadways. I gaped at the sight and grappled at the man, utterly astounded, suddenly feeling like a child again walking to my first day of school with my mother on those bustling streets, but they were nothing like this. I cried again, this time for the absence of my mother whom I left without a trace for this.

Suddenly, we cut across a stream of people walking in opposite directions, and began walking down one of these roads. The buildings along this street were smaller and neglected, some crumbling and giving way to the arid desert air. Again, I was forced down another road as they made a sharp turn to the right, where the Protector finally let me go by throwing me to the ground. Confused from this alien world and utterly broken by the desert, I laid there motionless as they took everything off Thallon that I had attached to him and threw it at me onto the dirt. Presumably, those items were of no use to them, all except for Thallon. Powerless, I watched them turn around and take him with them, quickly turning around the corner that we came from and disappearing from view. After they vanished, the horizon I looked out into became fuzzy and began to disappear as well. Soon it was completely black, as was the street that lead to the corner, and the dilapidated buildings that surrounded me. They all faded out of my vision as well, until there was nothing but a small circle of the sky left. I closed my eyes so that it could stay in my memory before that went black too. Slowly dissolving into the particles of blue, I faded away.

I awoke with a strange tingling sensation in my hands and feet, not remembering where I was, with only the faint feeling of having been moved. With fuzzy vision, I could make out the unmistakable figure and beautiful eyes of a Caretaker. I was seeing my mother, who seemed to be tending to my poor physical condition, but as my eyes adjusted to the room and were able to focus, it was just a stranger. A beautiful and kind stranger, but not my mother.

I was laying on a hard wooden surface in a small room where faded sunlight passed through thin veils of cloth. It was hot, with only a slight breeze gently teasing the fabric at its ends.

The beautiful stranger noticed my stirring and looked up from what she was doing, meeting my eyes with warmth that I had developed a longing for during my strenuous expedition. It all came back to me and sprung forth from the momentary amnesia.

“Welcome back” my stranger said. “I gave you lots of water last night and cleaned you up the best I could. You should eat something as soon as you’re ready.” She pointed to a small table on my left that had a small bowl of berries, and some strange lump of grain.

“Its not enough for your full recuperation, but its what I have right now, enough to send you on.”

I ate the food in small careful bites, trying not to be overcome with dizziness from sitting up. It appeared that I was bathed in some manner, most of the desert dust wiped off my skin except for some dirt still collected around my finger nails.

“So how did you escape past the gate?” the woman asked.

Not feeling ready to talk just yet, I only responded by shaking my head.

She looked confused.

“If you didn’t make it past the gate then why does it look like you’ve spent a month wandering around in the dust?” She inquired.

It was not just my pained throat that withheld my response, but also from not knowing what to tell this woman or how to explain where I came from.

“It isn’t like that” I began. “I didn’t escape from here, I journeyed here.” She looked at me wide eyed. I searched her eyes for fear or contempt for me being an outsider, but thankfully only saw astonishment.

“There have been rumors, but no proof!” she exclaimed.

“What are you talking about?” I began picking at the berries, and noticed that all my belongings were neatly stacked in the corner of the room, seemingly untouched.

With wide eyes and a stiff glare in my direction, the Caretaker was clearly working through something in her mind. “Who are you?” she finally said.

“Xenia Gybe.”

“What are you?” was the logical questioned she asked next.

I thought for a moment, not knowing the kind information she wanted from this question. Was my identity my individuality, my incomprehensible biology? Or in this case, was it the village I sprung from?

“I don’t know.”  I answered honestly.

In hind site, we were two worlds that casually collided without even noticing. This was the second glance.

I set aside my confusion of everything this person said and the strangeness of this city, and decided to just tell her everything about myself, where I had come from, and the journey that I had. I told her about finding the books, the map, and that my anomaly left me feeling ostracized and unable to find a place where I was, so I went out looking for something else. I told her about how the map eventually directed me towards her city.

It was long winded, with many breaks as I did not have my full strength yet, and when I looked up, I saw that she was distressed.

“The people of this squalor have been lead to believe that there is no hope. But you are hope. We’ve been lead to believe that if we try to leave, we’d die in the desert. This oasis is hell for our kind, but the dreams of escape to a life without hardship is not even a fantasy anymore, just something unimaginable.”

I had never heard that word before, what she called squalor, but something else suddenly crossed my mind in shock.

“How is it that I understand what you’re saying? I couldn’t understand those Protectors at the gate!” I shouted.

“Our verbal languages slightly differ, having been segregated for so long. Its very similar and easy to understand if you pay close attention, you were probably just caught off guard and weary from the desert sun. Since you are most likely some sort of long forgotten descendant of this place, that is how we are able to understand one another.”

It was one of the first things that began to make sense.

“What do you mean anomaly?” the woman wanted to know.

I thought this was odd, perhaps she didn’t see the tuft of feathers on the back of my neck, or how strange my figure was in my emaciated condition.

“My body, you can’t tell its different?” I asked her.

“Its only like everyone else’s in this squalor. That’s why you were dumped here.” she replied.

I stared blankly at her, and then at the window where I tried to catch a glimpse past the cloth. I didn’t comprehend where I was and what these people were about, and I was set on finding out. I stumbled towards the door and walked outside into the unwelcoming sun that stung and induced a wave of nausea. Once my vision focused and I got my bearings with the help of the Caretaker, I was finally able to see where I was. A large banner was raised above where I stood. Attached to disintegrating infrastructure, it read “Please cause someone to hear our cry!” Next to it was the painting of man’s face, full of tears, desperately motioning towards symbolic suggestion of the Gods.

Next, my eyes went to a little girl playing in the dirt. Her back turned towards me, I was able to see it. It was the remarkable combination of yellow, indigo, and blue on a delicate little frame, and in an instant I was looking into a mirror.

The little girl was toying with a few stones, perhaps playing a game she had made for herself. I slowly motioned closer to her, feeling the presence of the Caretaker watching me from behind. I was walking closer into this mirror, about to meet myself, about to relate to another in a way I had not known possible. I stood motionless and amazed for a few moments as she played. I watched her, wanting to soak in the reality and understand something, what would happen, what she was like. When I walked around to see her face, I saw that it was covered in dirt and expressionless. Neither sad or happy, but void, and suddenly I felt that void as well. The way it had indifferently took over her was something foreign, horrific. I saw her, but I didn’t feel that she was entirely there.

“Thats Caspen” I heard the caretaker say behind me. “Her mother was taken a few months ago, and we’ve all been pooling our resources together to take care of her.” I watched her sit next to her, stroke her hair and exist with the absent creature that she had now become. I slowly turned around to get a detailed glance of the desecration. The maze of this forsaken place was disorienting. I wouldn’t have been able to make out which direction was which if I had been blindfolded and brought somewhere. Then, about four feet from where Caspen was playing, I saw a heap of cloth on the ground and went to investigate. Slowly tugging at the fabric, I could see that there was something underneath it, a strange stone with odd coloring. I pulled back more to find the remains of a body, now only bones weathering into the desert sands.

Promptly standing up, I walked over to the dwelling I had emerged from, and vomited everything I had consumed.

I had no concept that a people could turn against themselves like this.

The Caretaker, who finally introduced herself as Ira, brought me and my belongings to another place to get better care for my recovery from the desert. I expressed remorse for having completely wasted the nourishment she provided, but she turned it away, saying that I was imperative to the community now, despite what they’d be able to believe.

Later I had learned that while Ira could have had a better life closer to the village capital where there was money and sustenance, she chose not to. She could have entered into a typical caregiving position in the hospitals that would provide just enough money to feed and clothe herself, but when she saw a baby born with multiple morphologies and watched it get cast aside, she decided to dedicate her life to helping this community. Occasionally she did leave the squalor to replenish resources, and those times were more taxing than living in the poverty. It was seeing the way Entrepreneurs and Technicians were living that was difficult, while Caretakers and Artisans were strung along, and Protectors stood on the sidelines watching it all happen as impure Umarians were brought somewhere to rot and exploit. She told me there were a few who wanted to help but didn’t know how, and only some who made the leap that she did.

I learned that Entrepreneurs and Technicians were considered most useful to the population, and therefore had acquired most of the access to resources. They learned in school that this is the only way that life could be, otherwise the whole population would collapse. Entrepreneurs had a skill that no one else possessed. It was an instinct that allowed them to know what practices and products were best for prosperity, and Technicians were the race that could make that happen. Laborers and Caretakers were necessary as a result of this, and some of it would trickle down to the Artisans in times when ideas were needed and established cultural themes had to be actualized in art form.

The entire population was contained in a giant five sided structure. At each corner of this pentagon, there was a gate and a giant main road that lead to the capitol center. The closer you traveled to the center, the more affluence there was.

Days went by as the reality of everything sunk in and I gained my strength. The moment I felt vitality return to my body, I was set on escaping this hell I had foolishly walked into. I missed the safety of being on my own in the security of the mountains that were apparently being kept safely away from a corrupt people. With the map, I could work my way back home. It no longer mattered what waited for me there, as I knew it could never be as bad as the ill-fated lives of my kind in this civilization, but before I could even think about leaving, I needed to get Thallon back.

As I was going through my belongings one evening, Ira caught a glimpse of the green crystals I had poured into my hand for close inspection. It was a habit that I developed while on the mountain trails and grass fields.

Standing a short distance away, she instantly gasped at the sight of them. Their cleaved edges glinted in the sunlight, catching her attention involuntarily.

“How on Galem did you get those?”

“They fell into my possession unintentionally, as a gift I suppose. He was a fellow traveler, Protector actually.”

“In that case, he lived up to his purpose” she told me.

Ira told me about their currency, and how just one of those stones could feed a person for a year. When she finished explaining, I put them back in their pouch and gave them to her. I wanted the image of a little girl playing in the remains of the dead to stop haunting me in my sleep, but for reasons that I couldn’t comprehend, she refused to take them. She said that this was the only way I could get Thallon back. I would have to make an offer the Entrepreneur at the odyk dispensary couldn’t refuse in the presence of my kind. They weren’t keen on letting people choose their animal, let alone allow someone impure to make a purchase.

In exchange for telling my story with the locals, sometimes one by one, or in small groups that Ira selected, she would sneak me into the center of the city where I could try to find Thallon.

I had to be cloaked and act like I was ill. She knew that the salesman would be suspicious of having me with her while she tried to make the purchase, and wonder why she would be there rather than going straight to a hospital with the sick. Escape attempts have been made before, and they knew what to look for. Because my identity would inevitably be revealed, we would try to control the situation, with Ira standing on guard while I presented the Entrepreneur with the crystals.

   When the time eventually came to execute our plan, I was surprised to find myself overcome with everything except anxiety. Only anticipation and unfamiliar determination. I was merely expectant of the outcome, there could be no other destiny than my body leaving the inside of these walls. I would not accept any other fate, as it came down to escape, or death. Ira saw it in my eyes and reminded me that to achieve what we were about to do required wit and calculated actions. Brute force was futile.

On the two month anniversary of my arrival to the city, we left right before the sun began to rise. This would give us just enough time to retrieve Thallon and get me on the morning line of people leaving the city, the darkness providing extra cover for us walking towards the capitol.

I mostly kept my gaze at my feet as I pretended to be in pain. Occasionally I snuck a glance at my surroundings to see only a few people walking around grudgingly. There was also the smell. It was an aroma that hit me the first day and took a persistent hold of my attention. It wasn’t something I could identify. It lingered.

The further we walked, the busier the road became. Buildings grew taller and structurally sound. It even got cleaner somehow with a certain sheen coming off the structures and landscape. The ground displayed a brighter red than the pale dust of the desert, and suddenly a fountain the size of 5 city blocks emerged on the horizon along with the rising sun and our encroaching presence.

And then there were the guards. They came to us as expectedly, not wanting to let Ira through. I kept my head low as she explained to them our situation and why they needed to let us through. I was grateful I didn’t have to make eye contact with the Protectors and be strong like Ira had to. If Ira was in a place like this, and just happened to be where I was thrown into the squalor, then perhaps there was help on my side, and the fate for escape.

They let us through.

We continued to walk, a short distance now from this checkpoint to the Entrepreneur. I was ready. She brought me to the shadows of the establishment, and waited for the person in the facility to leave. After uncloaking me, she quickly turned towards the entrance, and closed the entryway behind her.

It was still dark, the sun just barely surfacing, highlighting the edges of the buildings outside the window. To my left was a massive room full of stalls, odyks just beginning to wake up and begin feeding. The Entrepreneur fiddled with gear in the back as I came to approach him.

“I’m here to collect a particular odyk” I asserted.

“We don’t allow selections” he stated, still keeping his back to me.

He was a small man, half my size but twice my weight, feathers patchy and falling off. He looked ill. I lightly prodded his arm to get his attention, until he finally turned towards me, eyes now glaring and angered.

“You have something that’s mine and I intend on leaving with it” I stated again.

Without saying a word to me directly, he started waddling towards the door to alert the guards of my presence, mumbling hateful things under his breath. Swiftly stepping in front of him, I revealed the crystals in the palm of my hand, the pouch tied to my waste.

The atmosphere drastically changed, the man now faced with a difficult choice, but weighing risks was what he was born for and the ultimate decision would inevitably lead to his benefit. What was it going to be?

At first he seemed uncomfortable, but once he looked out of the entrance to see my friend guarding it, his face changed. With sudden tranquility and warmth, he motioned towards the odyks.

“Which one is yours?”

    My body ached from the cramped compartment I forced myself into that Ira attached to Thallon to tow. Stronger than ever from the journey we conquered, Thallon pulled my weight with ease as Ira held tight to his rope, guiding us back up the road towards the village entrance where my journey almost ended for good. My nerves eventually calmed and the feeling of nausea subsided with the rhythmic bump of the cart and swaying bands of light cast by cracks in the crate’s lid. It was time for my escape. Fate wasn’t so callous to have me come all the way to a foreign land and have me perish. If I were to die, it would be in the hands of the desert, and not in the hands of these criminals.

The bumping eventually slowed and came to a complete stop. I braced myself for the worst as I saw violent images of Ira being ripped away from the cart and executed. I winced at the inescapable grip of the Protectors, subduing us with bodies thrashing, the blackness of death waiting close by. The crate lid swung open swiftly and I cringed, but instantly the nightmare was over.

Ira stood over me with a warm, content smile, and we cried.

To Ira’s surprise, I did not give all the crystals to the salesman. I kept two for her as payment for bringing me back from the dead, and risking her life to help me escape. Her face beamed, and I could feel better as we parted, and I went on my way with an old friend, and nourishment.

“Come find me.” I showed her where I was from on the map and explained to her how to get there. “Bring the others.”

A slow drift into the orange blurry horizon, I pulled out the map to get my bearings. Somehow, the circle at the edge of the page gleamed and caught my attention. In a sudden moment of bravery, I took hold of Thallon to stop our westbound stroll towards home, and turned south.

    It was not long, perhaps five days time, when I began to feel the air thicken around me. It was a strange sensation that I’ve never felt before, if only for a brief moment on my vacations to the Descended Springs when we held our bodies close to the steaming pools. Of course with this, the landscape also changed drastically into something strange. Bulbous plants and odd flowers the size of Thallon protruded into the path we stumbled upon when we came to the end of the dead lands. Colorful insects jutted across our path, sometimes only inches away from our face. I saw several things that looked like food, but was too afraid to eat.

The map revealed that the trip from the desert village to this settlement was much shorter than the walk home. It played a part in my decision to go the extra length to find out what was down there. It was apparent I may never have the chance again, and had gone so far, beating all odds.

This time, I would be careful. If I saw a wall, I’d turn around and head straight home on the shortest route I could find to the land of fields and mountain valleys. If there was any suspicion at all that this village was similar to the one I just narrowly escaped, I would not permit any further investigation from the map placed in my possession, but I wanted to know it all. I wanted to know what was at the end of the lines, what laid beyond the paper. Not up and beyond the sky, I knew what was there. The sky held a place of origin, uncorrupted by the projections of our minds. It was better left alone. What the skies created here was the real mystery.

   Devoted, I followed the path until I reached my destination.

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