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- Suddenly the inky black cold tube is gone and TLG finds himself freefalling now in an expansive sky. Still speeding down ahead of him, an ambiguous writhing cloud of ethereal gas and tentacles is falling through the air. TLG looks up behind him to see a hole in the blue sky close to a point in the distance. The exit of a vortex is now a known sequence of events to TLG so he expects to land hard somewhere in the near future, so he relaxes a bit and watches curiously as the brittle star speeds out of view. We will meet again I’m sure and our fate will be realised then my nemesis. TLG muses to himself.
- TLG orients himself so he is falling back first. He places his hands behind his head and gazes up at the blue sky and the clouds. There is a bright sunlight shining on his face now offsetting the cool air as it wisps past him as he falls. Now bolstered with a certainty that he is vulnerable only to his fate he just lets everything happen to him.
- Whatever will be will be. He thinks to himself as he falls. As he watches little fluffy white clouds steaming past him he suddenly gets the impression he has been here before. But that is not surprising. Nothing is surprising now. He distances himself from himself in his head, and resigns to be a spectator to his own performances. As if he were just an actor in a bizarre play in a bizarre theatre where the actors play their parts reading line by line, never knowing when the final scene will be played out.
- TLG muses about the freedom of death, but wonders if it is even possible for him to die.
- I am a strange creature indeed. He reminds himself as he falls.
- Suddenly he is roused from his daydreaming with a though.
- Odelin, could he have survived?
- Maybe this is not just an escape vortex for the ghost head. Maybe this is an escape vortex for Odelin. At this revelation he turns in the air, head first with his arms pinned to his side and speeds off. He pears down at the array of light clouds underneath him that obscure the surface of world he is falling to. The whole skyscape is filled with light clouds in all directions, breaking up the clean crisp air. The sun is now struggling to break through the clouds he has left behind along with his personal cloud, ever present now trailing behind him as he accelerates toward this world.
- Maybe Odelin is OK. Maybe he has landed safely.
- As he bursts though the crooked array of light clouds, a pristine landscape is revealed to him.
- Rolling planes of green grass stretch out forever. No mountains just a beautiful soft green grass plane. TLG now realises he has been here before. As the grassy ground approaches at speed his suspicions are confirmed as the cream coloured monolith and the mirror stream towards him. He turns himself in the air but and notices that his little storm cloud is now below him. Suddenly TLG's storm cloud slows and catches TLG. It is as if the storm cloud has gained substance and is cradling his fall. TLG puts his hands into it and it feels like the lining of Robin's ether scope, spongy and supportive.
- This time TLG does not land with a bang. Instead, he is gently placed upon the ground by his little storm cloud, which immediately afterwards, resumes its position above TLG where it has always been.
- He stands in exactly the same spot as he did the first time he visited this place when he fell into the whirlpool but a few day before. At least it felt like a few days.
- *The mirror and the perfect stage*
- TLG looks around. ‘Odelin!’
- He can feel the gentle warm breeze and senses the rustling of the tall grass. He cannot see very far as the grass is so tall. He glances up at the stage with the same though of climbing up so he can get a better view. There is no sign of the ghost head or a brittle star and certainly no Robin.
- He almost expects time will repeat itself. He feels stuck in a bizarre circle from which he has no escape. He struggles through the tall grass and stands in front of the mirror. Still beautiful and clear and clean, exactly as he remembered it from not so long ago.
- I wonder if you will take me home one day. TLG thinks to himself.
- He looks up at the monolith stage. It occurs to TLG that he could get a better perspective if he were elevated.
- He struggles over to the edge of the stage, reaches up and grabs the edge of the stage and pulls himself up.
- He pulls himself to his feet, and to his surprise, sees a old Gnome lying curled up on the gleaming surface of the monolithic stage. He is a giant. About the size of Robin, but old and lean with a long white beard and white hair and he was well dressed in exquisite clothing with shining buckled shoes and white thrilled collar. He appears to be sleeping. TLG slowly approaches the creature. TLG can see he is breathing and decides to wake him.
- He reached down and prods him on the cheek with his index finger.
- ‘Giant gnome, awaken!’ he shouts at the creature. The giant slowly opens eyes.
- He looks up at TLG who is standing over him with bolts of lightning flashing over the coiled figure. TLG stumbles back in horror when he realises he has seen this face before.
- ‘Ghost Head! Where is my Odelin?’
- ‘You fool, he is gone.’ The old gnome groans, as he turn is head away in anguish.
- ‘I killed him do you not see? Maybe your only chance to be a truly great creature of the Meta universe.’
- TLG collapses to his knees and hangs his head down in despair then raises it again this time with tears welling in his eyes.
- ‘Why?!’ He cries.
- The giant gnome sombrely pulls himself to his feet and stares down at TLG who is staring back at him.
- ‘I am afraid I was overcome by the metaphor creature Nemis. The one you thankfully expressed from me. The desolate one, the one with red and black tentacles. When one attempts to become purely abstract, one is left vulnerable to creatures of the abstract, to take possession of one’s spirit. This is why I could not fully form as I appeared to you as a ghost head.
- My soul was imprisoned and replaced by the creature Nemis. He controlled me and used my knowledge and wisdom to his own ends. Which was to prevent the union of the Odelin and The Lightning Gnome as this union would spell the end for the Nemis. But it appears he has completed his menacing work before you were able to stop him. I am sorry, I feel responsible. If I had not existed, the brittle star could not have possessed me, I could not have possessed Robin and you would not be in this predicament now.’
- TLG just gazes at the giant Gnome in disbelief. All this time, the ghost head was possessed, and trying to hunt down Odelin. Yet, it all rather made sense in this bizarre existence. The thought that Robin was possessed by two levels of entity was astounding to say the least, but the question of Odelin and Nemis was still burning in his mind.
- ‘What nature is the Nemis?’ asks TLG.
- ‘The Nemis is an abstract creature known as a Metaphor.’
- ‘A Metaphor?’ asks TLG.
- ‘A Metaphor is an ethereal entity that represents a system or process. Any system can be represented by a metaphor. In fact metaphors are all around us and make up much of the broken realms. Our Vortexes are Metaphors, this stage and the mirror are...’
- The giant gnome pauses when his gaze fell upon TLG's storm cloud which was ticking and sparking with apprehensions and confusion.
- ‘And I'm not so sure, but maybe even your storm cloud is --- But the Nemis represents something far darker. The Nemis is a Metaphor for the broken realms that we inhabit and make up our substance. The Nemis represents the outlaw realms, that do not adhere to the ethics of nature. It has much power in these strange places. You could say that the Nemis is the ambassador for the broken.’
- ‘That is insane. How can something be metaphor?’
- ‘There are many paths to existence in this infinity, especially for us abstract ones; this is just one path.’
- TLG paced around the platform with his hands clasped behind his back in thought, his mind is a mess with so many questions that he does not know where to begin, but eventually he asks.
- ‘You say Odelin has been destroyed, But I feel he is still about us. How do you know he is dead?’
- ‘Well little one, I do not really. I just could not imagine such a tiny creature could take such a blow from Robin and survive.’
- TLG thought for a moment and asked.
- ‘But it is ridiculous to think that he could die. I do not believe it! Did you say we are abstract. How can abstract things die?’
- TLG watched the giant gnome’s face for a response but the giant gnomes face was frozen in confusion, as if he had had stumbled upon a paradox. He finally reanimated and said.
- ‘But I cannot feel his presence in the meta universe any more. This can only mean he is gone.’ The giant replied defensively.
- ‘But I can.’ said TLG with a sudden gleam in his eyes.
- ‘Really? Well I must admit, that is curious. Maybe he is someplace but I tell you, that place must be quite the ceiled realm. Yet, I would not be surprised that you are the only one who could sense him little one.’
- ‘I can sense him, but I can sense no direction, like you. I just feel his existence.’ TLG thought about Odelin then watched the giant for a reaction, but there was nothing but a curious look about him.’
- ‘So you sensed nothing?’ said TLG.
- ‘I'm afraid not.’
- ‘If he were somewhere, do you know where that might be?’
- ‘Maybe in a completely collapsed universe but I know of nothing that can exist there. Maybe a vortex? Encapsulated in a metaphor as if he possessed it.’ TLG thought for a bit but his searching for Odelin in his mind had led him to a dead end so his mind drifted back to the Nemis.
- ‘Do you know what the Nemis wanted of Odelin? Maybe this would be a clue to his whereabouts.’
- The giant Gnome though for moment and replied.
- ‘Not for sure, but I would hazard a guess that it is knowledge, as knowledge I a powerful thing in the meta universe. When one truly knows one’s own nature, anything can be realised. Maybe he possesses the knowledge to destroy the Nemis and remove your cloud. Or maybe you’re lightning.’ but as he said that TLG's storm cloud gave an angry crack that made TLG cringe as if in protest at his remark.
- TLG wanders to the edge of the platform and stares out over the grass planes of this unlikely realm. Suddenly he feels so isolated as though he did not belong anywhere. He felt as though he were not real. He raises his little right hand and examines it intently, expecting it to be transparent and ghostly, but it is opaque and solid. Just like a real think.
- By this time, the giant gnome had joined him and was gazing off into the distance. TLG looks up at him and his curious stature and asks the inevitable question.
- *Leonardo*
- ‘What type of a Gnome are you?’
- The giant gives out an ironic laugh and replies. ‘I am not a Gnome. I am a creature born to the Meta universe purely abstract, but I was once a Human so that is how I appear to you.’
- ‘A Human? I have not heard of such a creature’
- ‘I originate from a world called Earth in a good and starry universe not too far from this one. In a galaxy call The Milky Way’
- My name is Leonardo and I was a great artist and inventor of my time. It was when I was entering the twilight of my mortal life I accidentally discovered the method of immortality. So I stand before you as I am now.’
- Leonardo’s face displayed a shallow pride, as if he was not completely sure of the wisdom of his reincarnation. As if, he were beginning to regret his existence.
- TLG looked up at his cloud also regretful and resigned to the fact that it would always be with him. It reminded him of his life back home. This caused him to be gripped with homesickness. All he wished for was to return to Nimrod and Gnome Village and his cave.
- ‘Can I return to my home now? I am tired and wish very much for things to be back to normal.’ TLG asked Leonardo.
- But as TLG asked this, Leonardo’s expression of shallow pride was replace with a look of dread and almost panic. This startled TLG who reacted in kind as if infected by the panic. Leonardo looked away, back to the distance of the plains, then he hung his head as his was panic replaced with sorrow. ‘Little one, you cannot go home.’
- ‘What do you mean?’ TLG asked with wide eyes and a tremble in his voice.
- Leonardo sat himself down cross-legged on the stage and looked TLG in the eyes again with great pity. ‘Your home world is in grave danger little one, as you home universe is about to collapse.’
- ‘Collapse, it was fine when I left. Why should we not be warned of such events?’ TLG asks with increasing anxiety.
- ‘Have you not noticed the impossible nature of your world?’
- ‘Well... I must admit, things were starting to defy reason.’ TLG had flashes his visions of Odelin and the impossibly immense impasse and the flower and the bees.
- ‘Your home Xroud is broken. That is how you exist in the first place.’ said Leonardo.
- ‘Now you are confusing me more than ever.’
- ‘Can you explain your cloud? Your world. Where is it? Do you know of other lands on your world other than your village. You see little one. Your universe is collapsing and that is why cannot go home. Your visions of Odelin are but a symptom of your universe coming to an end. A distant beacon for your salvation. You should be thankful you escaped with your life.’
- ‘I do not believe you. Now I think you are fooling me. I must get back to my Village. That is where I belong.’ But even as TLG openly doubted Leonardo, internally, he knew Leonardo was right.
- TLG could not even remember being a child. But he knew he had to have been one. He thought of his contemporaries. None of them had children. How could there be no children?
- ‘Then how did we come to be?’ asked TLG.
- ‘Ah, now this is where it gets interesting. You see, you and your people were created accidentally and inadvertently when I pulled myself out of my mortality and into a broken universe. This is the only way a mortal can be resurrected after its death.’
- TLG just stared at Leonardo in astonishment. ‘You must be mad. Are you trying to tell me that you created me from a thought in your head? That is ridiculous!’ TLG said feeling anger building inside of him. Leonardo flinched as TLG's cloud flashed and cracked upon TLG's head causing him to blink with both eyes.
- ‘Well not exactly created. You could say discovered. This is a side effect of infinity. Because you and I are possible. We must exist. Even if this existence is tenuous and strange. You must accept this before we can move forward.’ Leonardo said with a grave expression.
- But the truth was instantly so obvious that it stabbed TLG though the heart, cutting him to his core, whatever that was. He could feel his gut churning with spasms at the acknowledgment of this desperate revelation. TLG then plonks himself down on the edge of the platform hanging his legs over the side and bangs his heals idly against its perfect edge staring down at the grass below shimmering in a gentle breeze.
- ‘I know you are right Leonardo. I have felt my existence to be precarious all of my life. I tried to tell this to my peers but they just laughed me down and encouraged me to accept my place. But I knew something was wrong. This is why I had to mission for Odelin. All along, I knew my days were numbered in that place.’
- TLG looked out over the plains again, but this time he could see things differently. Everything seemed to writhe as it did in the cave of bees back home. As if moving in the corners of his eyes. He hung his head and covered his eyes with his hands but the writhing persisted. He uncovered hid eyes and looked at Leonardo.
- TLG though about his future. ‘So we are just figments of your imagination. Desperate souls set to float for eternity among the universes.’
- ‘I cannot say for sure but I feel our journey is not over. Who knows what lies ahead. Although I know as much as I have told you, things still bewilder me, like your storm cloud for instance. I did not imagine Gnomes with clouds following them. And for Metaphore? I know what they are but I cannot say what role they play. There is much to discover in the meta universes.’
- TLG's thoughts returned to mortality. ‘You said you were resurrected from death, can you die again? Can I die?’
- Leonardo stood up and paced the stage stroking his beard as paced.
- ‘This is a good point you make my friend and I will try to answer it as best I can. There is no such thing as death, only change. Nothing really disappears; it just changes into something else. That is the right granted by natural ethics.
- You see, a mortal cannot live forever because that breaks the ethic of change, which is innate to all of existence. If you cannot come to a natural end, then that system cannot change and without change, no complexity can form and the meta universe would be an inconceivable infinite chaos.
- Creatures like us however where created without this right. In a realm where this law has been broken. We are the outlaws of nature and can only come to exist in universes that have been some disrupted and no longer abide by all natural ethics. We cannot die naturally, but we can be destroyed. You see little one, you are created complete and complex. A complex system such as yourself and I, normally creates its self over millennia via small changes that utilise the natural ethical laws of change. To become something other than it is. If you look at the stars and the planets of all lawful universes you can see this everywhere. Right from the most simplistic thing to the most complex. A star was once a gas cloud. Then when it changes it becomes the stuff of the planets, and when they grow and change, they develop creatures and they change still into intelligence which is the most complex system in the universes that I know of. I can only wonder at what beautiful and strange things are in existence that I do not even know of but I am sure one day we shall encounter.’
- Leonardo stopped pacing and turned to TLG to see his expression.
- ‘So how can we exist without this method?’ asked TLG.
- ‘We have cheated the ethical path to intelligence as we were created by intelligence itself. By already complex creatures that have dreams and thoughts. Using dreams and imagination is another way to be created. Remember, ethics are just guidelines, not laws set in stone.
- If an intelligent creature has discovered this method of creation. Then all that need is the intention, and if that intention is something complex and plausible, no matter how imaginary, then somewhere in an infinity of broken realms, this idea or dream or vision, will exist, and usually these creations have qualities that mortal creatures cannot posses. Outlawrish qualities afforded only to those of this unlikely but magical existence.
- This is what we are. But you little one shine so bright with all manner of wonder, I cannot even begin to know your potential, but I suspect it is great as I have experienced what you can do.
- But we must beware, as this existence is mostly precarious, as these broken realms are often unstable and may collapse with little warning.’
- Meanwhile, Leonardo’s face had lost it’s melancholy and now his eyes were burning with an intensity of the fire of revelation, as he ranted and TLG could hardly keep up. But somehow, it all made perfect sense. It was as if, he always knew and everything sounded so familiar. Like Leonardo’s revelations were his own. That this knowledge came from the ether to those of this unusual predicament.
- ‘But how do you know you are right?’ asked TLG.
- ‘I needed to know. This knowledge was the instrument my creation. Knowledge is power. If I did not know, then I could not have had the intention to resurrect myself in this fashion’.
- As Leonardo spoke TLG's head was burning with questions, the most prominent came to his mouth first.
- ‘Then why was I created?’
- ‘Now this is a good question and one that is most relevant to you and your people.
- When I had the original thought and intention that resurrected me as I am now. I was also working at the time. I was finishing a painting I had begun years earlier. I had finished the subject in the foreground, and had only to complete the background, but as it had been so long since I had worked on this piece, that I had forgotten the background of the subject. But not letting that get in my way, I decided to paint an imaginary background.
- So I painted mountains and streams and bridges and waterfalls. All from my own invention. But as I was painting furiously, my mind wandered as it normally does, in all manner of directions. It was in one of those wanderings that I stumbled upon my immortality. I was wondering about the absurdity of my existence and how I could come to be in the vastness infinity of the universe. I imagined that, if I exist then I am possible, so if the universe is infinite, then somewhere in infinity, I must exists somewhere else. So then, I reasoned that if I existed somewhere else I must exist infinitely in this infinite universe.
- So in that instance I was created. Well, sort of created. You see, I always existed in this form, all I have really done, is discovered my immortal self. But that was not all. I also thought that if I was possible and existed infinity, then maybe Gnomes do also. So in that instance you and your fellows were created. Oh, and incidentally, along with the landscape I just happened to be painting at the time.’
- Leonardo’s face gleamed with pride at his excellence conveyance of wisdom that he knew would so amaze even the most uninspired of souls, and TLG was amazed. In fact his head was spinning.
- ‘But how do you know about Gnomes’.
- ‘Ah my friend, that is what brings us to the story of your ultimate but indirect creator.
- A few days earlier, I was visited by a contemporary of mine, Wilhelm Bombast and his Son Philip.
- He was a physician and was visiting to help me with a medical complaint. But as they had both travelled very far, I offered them a bed.
- It was that evening while eating supper before retiring to bed, when Philip, who was very enthusiastic about the mysteries of nature, told me of the existence of wonderful creatures he called Gnomes.
- He explained to me how these creatures resided in the underground in little caves and came out on occasion to wreak havoc on the human civilisation with their magic. He also explained the appearance and culture in such detail that I knew every little thing about them.
- The next morning, they went on their way, but the idea of the Gnomes stayed in my mind. I found the notion, astonishing.
- I do not think Gnomes actually existed. I suspect he had been reading much folk stories and took too much heed in the tales of mad old women to formulated his own ideas based around the romantic notion these mythical fantasy creatures. But the vision upon which you Gnomes were designed came from he, then to me via the simple propagation of an idea.
- I must say, I was very surprised when you turned up on my doorstep.’
- ‘I was very surprised also.’ said TLG with a slightly ironic expression.
- Leonardo cleared his throat and then continued. ‘You and your people are but reflections of the thought of a boy from my home world.
- Your existence was only possible in a broken universe such as your own. Mislead from is true right and ethical nature by a Starmite’s inhibitor machine. But yours is a universe that burns with such a fleeting wonder that it cannot burn for much longer. It is soon that this candle will be extinguished and the brittle stars will reclaim your realm’.
- TLG's head was spinning as he realized his entire existence was the incidental creation of the thought of a completely random creature in another random universe.
- But of course, he knew this was possible as he had met the menacing Robin that was created from the unpleasant dream of a small child. Now he realised that he was made of the same potion; a mere thought, falling though infinity.
- Then TLG's mind wandered back to his doomed village Odelin. He could not shake them from his thoughts. They were what defined him and he could not ignore the feeling that he was falling toward them and that they would all be reunited someday.
- Eventually, he looked at Leonardo and asked.
- ‘Is there any way I can save my people? I feel this is not over, I must do something.’
- Leonardo got to his feet and paced around the monolith with his forehead clenched in one of his hands, but suddenly looked at TLG with sudden urgency.
- ‘Why did I not think of this before?
- We could rescue them!’
- ‘But where should we take them? What realms would accommodate us.’
- *Paracelsus*
- Leonardo looked thoughtful as he paced around some more.
- ‘I guess you could take them to meet your maker.’ He said with a wry ironic smile. ‘He is the young man Philip whom I mentioned earlier. (Or Paracelsus as he prefers to be called) He is destined to be a great Alchemist and your company will make him yet greater. As he created you in his thoughts, he is the obvious person to receive you and your fellows. He will be very surprised to see you as I was.’
- TLG walks to the edge of the strange stage and looks at the mirror. ‘Then we must go now before it is too late. I suspect this is the way to go.’
- ‘I think you know better than I, little one.’ The old man said now standing beside TLG, facing the mirror.
- TLG remembered how Robin had jumped into the mirror. TLG was not tall enough to jump at the mirror face. He looks up at Leonardo.
- ‘Could you jump through with me? As you possessed Robin to do so. Now you are whole again, surely you can do such a thing. My legs are too short.’ TLG said with a grin.
- ‘Of course, little one, at your service’. At that, Leonardo grabbed TLG under the armpits and elevated him to his shoulders minding not to be caught up in TLG's cloud. He then walked to the other end of the stage, turned and ran with all his might towards the mirror.
- ‘Hold on little one’. With that, the Lightning Gnome with Leonardo Jumped into their own reflections.
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