The Life of Gaia

CHAPTER 13: Universia

I was sitting on the edge of the Divine Castle, looking at the horizon enveloped in a thousand shades of color that reflected in my eyes like an aurora borealis. I had one leg clutched to my chest and the other left dangling in the light breeze over the endless emptiness below me; my hair blew in the wind.

The moon appeared distant in the sky and with it the myriad of stars that, like tiny light bulbs, lit up one by one in the endless space. The white mist that loomed under my gaze rose as it did every night, and rippled into many waves that broke gently against the castle's foundation. For three days I had been going to witness that spectacle that had been repeated identically since the beginning of time.

When in Deep Reality Zantas returned to me and the whirlwind of light rose once more, everything that was there before disappeared, and after a few moments I found myself surrounded by the imposing walls of the Divine Castle. I felt as if I had walked away from there ages ago.

I didn't know what we were waiting for, but for the days that followed the flying sign sank into his thoughts addressing me only a word now and then: never anything about Aries, only considerations about the weather, my potential, and other such trivial things. I knew very well that something was bothering him, which is why I pretended to ignore it so as not to cause him any more trouble.

Besides him and me in that realm there seemed to be no one else (besides the guards in armor, at least), and although I had never had the feeling that he was lying to me in this regard, I could not ignore the two empty thrones in the hall where I had first met him. To the questions that were already plaguing me was added "Who occupies those two thrones?" but I told myself that time would answer that one as well.

I strolled through places known and unknown, saw incredible things and visited the garden many times, in an attempt to sharpen my eyesight enough to catch a glimpse of the Flower of Life's shape; I ran like crazy through the castle corridors, jumped out of doorways and danced to the rhythm of the stars...ah, what good times those were. It was my home, after all.

The first night I stayed there I went in search of a place from which to observe the coming of night, and after a little searching I found the clearing I mentioned earlier. It was a spot where the Divine Castle ended in emptiness with a small clearing of forgotten ground, I saw it only because I looked out from a particular spot on the walls. In short, it immediately attracted my attention, and after a handful of seconds I had already reached it.

I sat down on the cool grass, let myself be lulled by that unique spectacle that I would gladly watch for the rest of my life, and decided to do the same the next day. And the next day again. So for four long days I passed the time without thinking, fully experiencing everything I could grasp from that mysterious place. On the fifth day, however, things changed.

It was dawn, the mist and darkness had just receded. I vividly remember the voice that broke the silence of the moon being swallowed by the light.

°Gaia, the time has come.°

With a sigh I waved to the horizon before turning my back on it. Then, taking the entrance steps, I reached the highest part of the walls. Zantas stood there waiting for me.

°I have seen you much caught in the sunset these days. I'm sorry to ask you to leave, but you know we have no choice; everything depends on it.°

"Never mind, at least I will see Aries again."

He looked at me somberly, and I remembered what he had explained to me about the reincarnation of the Soul: that she remembered nothing of her past lives. The most she could receive was some sensation at the sight of familiar things, and the character of the next life was always linked to the experiences of the previous one. Otherwise, total darkness.

°We will never see Aries again, now she is someone else,° he said bitterly. °And she is somewhere else,° he then added with a nod. I blinked a few times before I understood what he meant: she would not have had the same shape as before, nor the same character, nor even her same memories. Was I ready to accept her, whatever she would look like? Absolutely. I stretched my palms out in front of me and pressed them together, imagining I could see where my sister was at that moment. Above our heads, in a giant spiral, opposite worlds colored the space with their thousands of shades of colors like glass marbles. Each of them was different from the others, unique and dangerous: which one could she be transferred to?

°Go!°

I spread my arms apart in one sweeping stroke, and in the space between my hands I saw two strings of light appear, swaying over each other. Their color was an orange that reminded me of that of a flame. Zantas looked at it for a moment, then gave me another nod, and I let the image disappear into thin air.

°I know where we have to go. The place where the Soul is a small world called Mécanique. We will stay here just long enough to explain a couple of things, and then we will leave directly.°

As I listened to him talk about mechanical cities and mammoth industries, I looked at my image reflecting his pure white body: the silhouette of a young girl with a face that almost did not belong to me. And, enveloped by Zantas' voice, I looked closely at that silhouette, noting that, for the past four days, a segment of her pale irises had turned red.

After two hours, we left.