Unison (The Spheral) (67 page)

“Violin.”

“I was very moved by your performance.” Signy’s expression reminded me of how Master Franklin looked at me after I won the competition.

“That night I had a dream of you playing on a crowded stage. The theater got all dark, and this bright light shined on you. You looked at me and told me to help you or you’d die again. I then saw you take your life by jumping off a tall building.”

“You saved me.” I grabbed Signy’s hand as I recalled the time I tried to kill myself after Headmaster refused my entrance to the master’s apprentice school. “But one thing I don’t understand. How did you find me in your new incarnation? The chance of our meeting seems almost impossible.”

“I had a dream the night before we met. I got up from my bed, grabbed my longbow and headed for the wood. When I came across a glade past a thicket, a large dog charged towards me. As it leapt, I shot it straight through the heart. There was this bright glow of light, and when it cleared, a woman who called herself Sutara appeared to me and told me to go to the glade after I woke up. I asked her why, and she told me I was to meet someone and help them on their journey, but I wasn’t to mention I knew about our meeting ahead of time. It wasn’t hard to do. When I realized you were from Dome Dungeon, it was easy to keep my distance.”

I bowed. “Thank you…Old Mentor."

“You don’t have to thank me. I owed you.”

“For what?”

“Reminding me of what I had given up because I thought winning was impossible.” She held my hand. “We won.”

“We won’t know that until all of us are together.”

“We won where it counts.” She placed her hand over her heart.

When we returned to the cabins, I continued working on my message. Vivek joked about telepathically delivering it through COR, which gave me the idea of using the implants as receivers. I only had one chance at transmitting to them before Unity Forces changed all the security codes, so I had to get it right on my first try.

On the day of the broadcast, I nervously rehearsed my message in front of Tyrus and Wade. When they hurried out of the cabin at the start of my fourth pass, I assumed it was their way of telling me I was ready. I looked into the optic of my holologue and began transmission.

PERSONAL RELIGION

PC 1324-127TH DAY
MESSAGE TO UNITIANS

D
on’t be alarmed by my voice in your head. This message is transmitting through your implant, so a trip to a curate isn’t necessary; this isn’t a malfunction. While performing a system upgrade, one of the purple sleeves forgot to log out. I used his clearance and created an access gate that permits me to speak with you. Miraculously, the codes never changed through eight incarnations of which I’m aware. You’ll no longer hear my voice after today as Unity Forces are now aware of my invasion. They won’t find me because I’m a deleted file in the Unitian database, long forgotten but not silenced. By the time they stop my broadcast, my message will be delivered.

During my past seven incarnations, I attempted to stop myself from inventing technology used by the Corporate Hierarchy to enslave you. I succeeded, but if that were my only objective, I wouldn’t be here, talking to you. Who I am requires a new definition. Since destruction inevitably follows definitions, I prefer to remain unlabeled and undefined. I have no expectations you’ll believe one word of my message. The Unitian quagmire spread from the virus of belief, so I encourage your mistrust. Go to your window and look outside. Verify what you hear is real. Each visible face will prove you’re not alone in your doubts. If I’m a worthy messenger, you’ll distinguish yourself apart from a system run by a small group of men who’ve placed themselves as gods above you. To tune me out, return to your faith and trust in the Corporate Hierarchy. My voice will eventually fade, and your life will continue on as it always has. The choice is yours, which is more than you’ve been given, until now.

I spent all my lifetimes attempting to understand my experiences, and all the answers I got only led to more questions. I’ve been called a prophet and a savior, but I’m neither. I’m only a messenger sent by something I can’t define, wouldn’t want to define, and couldn’t define even if I so desired. Whatever it is that guides me, I trust it with my life. This is my personal religion, which is natural to all of us but presents itself in a way that we can understand only as individuals. By religion, I refer to connecting to the undefined that presents itself as an internal light, so bright, and so powerful that it opened all my senses to the true reality that is nature, of which we’re all a part. The only place worthy of trust and reverence is here. When we detach from this sanctum, we relinquish our trust to rulers and tyrants, distancing ourselves from what we truly are…beings filled with this vast, immeasurable consciousness of eternal light. From within this light, our knowledge flows out like a fountain throughout our Universe and never dies. You don’t need to live eight lifetimes to connect to this truth. The purple sleeves and the Overseer use your fears to keep you trapped inside the dome, which has become your dungeon. Once you loosen the chains that keep you shackled in fear, they can no longer bind you.

If you’re still listening, you’re ready to leave. As an individual, you must decide what kind of life you want to live. Being taken care of within the walls of Unity may keep you secure, but you’ve given up too much as a consequence. Safety is an illusion. It isn’t any more real than the Overseer’s claims at godhood. Life is hard, filled with challenges, heartaches, death, and failures, and I lived through them all. The rewards make it all worthwhile. The first cry from a baby born from the womb of its mother, the look on the face of a Unitian who tastes freedom for the first time, and a friend who sacrificed his life to save mine—these are only a few examples that made me listen and trust my intuition.

I won’t tell you to leave Unity. That will have to be up to you to decide. I can only tell you—from my personal experience—I’m lucky to have a family that would’ve been denied to me had I grown up in Unity. You all have the right to be born from your parents, get married, and raise your own children. This is your natural right, should you want to exercise it. The sound of nature is within all of you, and it’s the true harbinger of Unity. Listen, and you will hear it for yourselves. Leave your personal dungeon, and contemplate the world with your own eyes. Only then will you understand the true meaning of Unity. And Flora, if you’re listening, I’m waiting for you. If you remember, you’ll know where to find me.

REUNION

T
hree days after my broadcast, Mother pounded on my cabin door. “You must come now! Tyrus collapsed!”

I ran outside as Sephroy helped Tyrus up. “He’s okay…for now,” Sephroy said.

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure. I was overcome by an intense pain in my head, and the next thing I remember is Sephroy helping me up.”

“Were you sick this early in your previous incarnations?”

“I did have symptoms…but not this debilitating.”

I turned to Sephroy. “Did you heal him?”

Sephroy dug his cane into the ground and sighed. “I did.”

“Why didn’t you help Flora when—”

“I don’t have a limitless supply of life, and Tyrus wasn’t as far gone as Flora.” Sephroy winced in pain. “My body is broken because I gave too much of myself to my wife, and she died anyway. Seeing what those savage dogs did to her, I couldn’t stop myself. I couldn’t bear seeing her torn to pieces.” He tapped his cane in succession as he said, “I kept giving and giving and giving.”

Sephroy lost his balance. Tyrus and I held on to him and led him towards the cabin.

“I gave until my body withered into this useless pile of matter. I had to stop healing for years to regain some of my strength.”

“I hope I didn’t take too much from you,” Tyrus said.

“It’ll take years for me to recover, providing we have enough of them left. No Six has ever been healed before a Union. What I did was trickery. I’ve never seen nature successfully tricked, but I had to try because I started all this.”

“When will we know if it worked?” Tyrus asked.

“When Union happens…or doesn’t.”

Twelve days after the delivery of my message, I returned to the cabins with Wilfrid, Genevieve and Michael. Flora still hadn’t shown up, and Sephroy doubted she’d arrive on her own. I shared his concern and had Tyrus contact one of his proteges still loyal to him. He got no response, and I decided to go after Flora myself. Three days before I was to leave for Unity, I was monitoring the security holoscreens as I normally had when Flora appeared near the top of the waterfall. I sprung from my chair and ran outside yelling like a madman. “She remembers! She remembers!”

Mother rushed out of the cabin. I picked her up, swung her around, and put her back down. “Gather the others. Flora’s here.” I ran all the way up the path. When I got to the ridge near the waterfall, Flora clasped her mouth with her hands and cried.

“You remember!” I said.

Flora ran to me, and we embraced. “All these years I thought I had an overactive imagination until I saw you in Unity Hall.” Flora stepped back. “The guards took you away before you could speak, and I started to think I was crazy…until I heard your message through my implant.” She laughed. “When I heard the sound of your voice I wasn’t afraid anymore. I didn’t stop until I got here.”

Flora and I walked towards the ridge where she paused to gaze at the cabins.

“I still can’t believe I’m here,” she said.

“Took me a couple of incarnations to get used to it.”

“After you died, Kai and I performed your sacred burning together. He decided not to return to Unity and came to New Athenia with me. I found a record-keeping job at the repository, and I traveled to many of the places you mentioned in your journal. I didn’t see too much of Kai. He kept to himself and spent most of his time volunteering at the hospital. He died ten years later of a brain tumor.”

“You read my journal?” I asked.

“You gave me the code…A5673.”

“Good memory.”

“You had me repeat it over twenty times,” Flora said.

“Let’s not exaggerate now.”

“Hope you’re less paranoid in this cycle.”

I smiled. “I read through your journal as well…twice through.” I placed my arm around her, and Flora leaned her head against my shoulder.

“Guess we don’t have any more secrets,” she said.

“No more secrets.”

We lingered in silence for a while. All we’d been through finally brought us here, to a place where words were no longer necessary. When I gazed at Flora, I sensed she felt something similar. At least, I hoped she did.

When we approached the cabins, everyone came out to greet Flora. They formed a circle around us because they understood the significance of this day. I was uncertain that Union would move us forward, but it no longer mattered. The Six were together. Wilfrid, Signy, and Tyrus joined us in the center of the circle, and Mother handed Sutara to me.