3 Himalis Garden

As might be expected, no new changes could be seen. The sun shines as magnificently and with its full force down the sky as before. Is there any kind of day cycle here like in my old world? It would be kind of weird if I could never experience the night again from now on. For many people night is seen as something that you would fear, but for me darkness means that you let everything you try to play during the day out. So, you can be another Person. In the darkness, the true figures of living beings are also revealed.

Suddenly, something I haven't seen before appears in my Eyes. A river! It is not far from here. I've heard the noises of it before, but I didn't think it was as close as it really is. The noise was just too quiet to be this near. Again, we return to the large garden. At the well, Pah reaches his hand into the water, but it seems that it does not react to him. He holds his hand in, but there is no chatter or waves. It remains quiet. I ask, "Why doesn't the water react?" He looks at me with a confused face and says, "Is something wrong with the water? I don't know what you mean. There shouldn't be anything wrong with it." Funny. Even when Pah reaches back into the water, nothing stirs at all. Do I imagine this? Certainly not. I've noticed before that Pah didn't tell me the full truth. That must have something to do with his secret. Or is it simply because he is a god and that is simply what happens. No! That would be a far too simple answer to my question.

Nevertheless, he does not let himself be distracted any further and he takes his hand out of the cold water. We move on. Directly in the other direction than we did before as we went to the dome. The garden is now over, and a large wide staircase can be seen. Like the floors and walls, it is made of a white material. We descend them. Now we enter a larger field, which is only covered with meadow. I don't think we can go any further here. On the meadow you have a beautiful view of the river. What hasn't come to my eye before is the massive and huge bridge, which allows a crossing of the river. I guess Pah wanted to show me this structure here. He goes on. Two further paths lead to the left and right side of the large staircase. Both are very narrow in comparison of the great staircase we just walked down. Pah chooses the right path from the estate. Apparently, this is the most direct way to the bridge. As we walk down the path, I am not only spoiled by the buzz of the many insects that pollinate the flowers, but I am accompanied on the sides of the path by a water channel. These, too, have the task of supplying plants in the surrounding area with enough water. This can be seen through the small channels, which lead away from the actual path again and again. We have finally reached the banks of the river. Our path connects with a wide road that seems to have moved along the whole river. On the side, an unlabeled pebble path leads to the mountain region, which characterizes the entire landscape here. We cross the unused route and enter the slightly higher road of the bridge. From a closer look, the bridge is even more astonishing than the whole building complex that I was already able to see over there.

There is something to be seen at every imaginable place, at every corner and at every notch. It almost seems like a whole collection of pictures. Even if I first want to look at the artworks to find out what they mean, I will also be quickly forwarded by Pah. At the center of the bridge, he finally stops. He leans against one of the railings with both arms.

This is also the only thing here that has no decoration. It seems as if it was built quickly afterwards without considering that it suits the rest. Disappointing... rather sad. This part is also separated by two columns. These, too, seem to represent their own history, but at first glance it seems different to me. All the pictures I was able to see until now have given me some kind if a happy feeling, but it seems that the longer you look at these two columns you realize more and more, that all of this is not what it seems to be. Without even knowing the true meaning, I know that this soul which is portrayed here led a bitter life. Full of grief, loss and deceit.

The stories complement each other with the images of the column. One of them catches my eye. It's a story which represent all my feelings I just had about this whole bridge. First, at the edge of the path, a picture of a little boy can be seen. He's playing a game with his friends and it seems like all of them are having fun. In the background there is also another boy. He doesn't seem to be very enthusiastic and decides to construct something with sand alone. At first you think it would be a normal image of children, where one of them wants to do something else than the rest of the group, but the pictures go on. The children who play together slowly get aware of the boy and finally they decide to go to him. Here the story stops on the ground and the last pictures of the story are at the top of the column. The story continues. It continues with the fact that the boy now also looks up to the group. But his eyes are totally black. Empty. As abandoned. As if you were no longer facing anybody. The group is frightened and breaks the structure he had built with sand. The thing that they destroyed also looks like the garden up there... and below is also the bridge. The boy, who first had that black eyes is so shocked, that the normal eyes are coming back now. At the top of the column is now a statue. This is the deeply sad boy. I turn my gaze to Pah. But he has moved away from his previous point. Without me noticing, he put himself next to me. He seems to look at the boy's story too. "What does this story mean?" I ask. Did I just show too much interest? Even though I feel like I don't care about this story, I still have a certain urge to learn more. Who is this boy who was symbolized here?

Pah returns to the original rest point he had chosen before, where he now looks again at the ever-preceding current of the river. He begins to say: "Everything you can see here, this place called Aza was created by me, the dark god and the fourteen people. But the huge structure up there where we were before was made by a servant here. Except for the dome id you payed attention. The palace up there is called Himalis Garden. The one builder gave it the name.", he directs his head toward Himalis Garden. He hesitates for five seconds. Again, it feels like he's forced to talk to me. His slight muscle movements on the forehead are not hard to overlook. Nevertheless, he continues to speak as before without showing any pain: "You have just seen the story that ended at the pillar. All the pictures here are memories of the one who built this. The bridge has no use because nobody is going to use it, but he constructed it anyways. It was a pure prestige project for him. The builder Arch, when he came to Aza, immediately began the construction of this bridge." So, the builder of this thing is called Arch and every picture represents a memory of him. "Why did he immortalize his memories here? He could just keep it in mind" I say. Attentively, Pah turns his gaze to me and replies: "The servants who exist here are in fact not real living beings. All of them are called Ska. These Ska are a collectively thinking unit, which thus have an enormous work efficiency. The Dark God was responsible for the creation of this Ska. He created these before the fourteen helpers appeared. He thought, however, that it would be far too boring if you hadn't represented individuals here, so he chose the stories of a builder and a chef out of your world. With these memories he created the two Skandi Arch and Rora. However, since the memories were used that the Skandi had an instant personality, these two Skandi were created in such a way that they slowly lose their memories of their old lives. Rora, the chef here in Himalis Garden, is extremely talented when it comes to preparing food, but he is not good at anything in other tasks. Arch, on the other hand, has an enormous talent in too much of everything. Among other things, he has enormous intelligence. That's why you should always be careful with your statements, because he has vowed to remember everything that is happening here. If you accidentally say something wrong, he knows that even after a few weeks later!". Pah starts laughing. It sounds dry. I don't quite understand why he warns me about this trait, but it will probably have its reasons. To my surprise, it is finally beginning to dawn. So there really seems to be a daily cycle here.

Pah obviously wants to tell his story a little faster and finally concludes: "In any case, this story with the children is a memory. Arch was bullied for his many talents. Everyone also thought that his mindset was that of an empty doll. That's why he finally committed suicide in his old world. Before his dead the Dark God took at least his memories. Pah understood his whole situation and appearance in Aza right away and just decided to keep his old self, even if there were no good memories." Pah walks away from his place and moves, again towards the way we came here. The evening red shines over the white material and accordingly it adapts to the color. Now it reflects the red-orange light evenly. So, if I have understood correctly, the material adapts to the ambient light. This will probably also mean that Himalis Garden is illuminated whenever either the sun shines or the moon appears in the night sky. In the main garden, all irrigation systems are still in use. In the aftermath it doesn't seem to get colder because so far, I wouldn't have noticed an exact temperature difference.

However, we only pass the garden through our way. We both go to the great building in the middle of Himalis Garden. There we will eat dinner. "I hope you're hungry! Rora will prepare you any dish that comes to your mind." Pah says. But before we enter the hall over the huge wooden gate, I ask: "Where am I going to sleep tonight. I'm certainly not going to stay out here in the garden!" Without turning his head in my direction at all, he simply replies: "You get a room right next to the large garden. A Ska will take you there after dinner! If you are dissatisfied with a beautiful view, then you can also sleep in the other buildings of course. But there is no luxury offered!". He starts laughing and enters the building slowly. Now I go up the precursors to the entrance and I open the gate. A golden glow covers my whole face. I am almost blinded by the enormous light. My eye, however, quickly gets used to the bright light and I enter the hall.