CHAPTER 15 – MIRROR MAZE

Second Age, Echo Realm

Alexa was cataloging in her armory workshop when a knock came on the door. "Can you take a look at this and see if it can be sharpened" Echo asked, taking out and studying the bedlan axe with the blacksmith. "Has it been used recently?" Alexa asked, and the customer nodded in approval. "This part can definitely be improved" she observed, looking at the cheek, when a telegram came for the visitor. "What can it be now … another academic conference, do you mind?" Echo implored. "Actually, I'll come along, and once you get that over with we can come back" Alexa pledged, despite knowing what a drag such meetings could become, but wanting to break up the sameness of the day. When they arrived at the boardroom, a committee including Enrique Will, Saga Def and Imani Veralux who they had acquired from Chalk-Dust where waiting. Echo took a seat, the other leaning against the wall as Enrique began, "Mam, the measurements of data we have received lately from our probes of Wonderstruck Synthesis have allowed us to rectify the standard cosmological model. There appears to be an amendment to our original concept of the behavior of the singularity event, which is well documented in prior studies". The conversation continued like so for about twenty minutes. "This meeting is super dope (sarcasm)" Alexa texted Chaz Water-pasture. Meanwhile, Echo listened intently as Enrique arrived at the crux of their discovery, "With the clarity of these new readings, we can plainly say that during the first phase the singularity divided into two singularities. Looking at this backwards, we call this event Anti-Mitosis". "Are you saying this universe has a twin?" Echo queried. "No, we're saying that it split in two in a sense, but stayed whole, and calculations show that the singularities would have disintegrated, becoming remnants but never perishing completely" Veralux replied. They stayed for a few minutes after the meeting to chat. On a side table there was a spread of crackers and cheese that the researchers tentatively picked at. "Let's get back to business" Alexa urged as they left the building. "Change of plans. Alexa, since you're my companion today, I'm going to put my trust in you. There are things about me which you must keep hidden away" she decided. "Oh … juicy dirt" Alexa beamed, eager for a shot of tasty scandal. "More like dust" Echo corrected, lying flat the palm of her hand, and from the dot in the center a speck of dust emerged. The "ES" upon her chest alighted, and the speck grew in size, into the dust-throne. "I hope you like road trips" she beamed back and led Alexa through into the interior. "Maybe a little cramped, but it's surprisingly clean in here" the companion noted. After settling in, echo directed the dust-throne down through realm-space into the mirror maze dimension. "Unreal … this place is just like the vision I had when I altered" Alexa told her as they disembarked, then in detail about the lemur garden asteroid, and of wandering through a maze such as their new habitat, but could not recall the rest, despite grasping for it like a daydream that flutters away. While she listened, the woman did not notice behind her the dust-throne decomposing and dropping with a thud, its substance spreading as a wave over their surroundings until they were both caked in a layer of gray. "Don't worry, I'll sweep it" came a voice from behind them, coming from around the corner of the maze. "Why is there a janitor down here?" Alexa asked Echo, but she was equally dumbfounded. They interrupted the woman as she swept up the dust into a dustpan to ask her name and what her business was being down in the realm. "Lonely being down here, but I'm the only janitor on this floor. My name is Sarah" the newcomer answered. "I see, she is the seed of the LOTES" thought Echo, and as she did Alexa had a flash of memory. "There are eyes down here! I saw them in my vision … but I can't really picture them now. Janitor, do you know anything about the eyes". "that part is already clean, and it's some ways from here" Sarah tried to explain, but the visitors where insistent on her guiding them there. "Please … we'll make it worth your while" Alexa bargained, and elbowed her companion to give the janitor a bribe. "What is that thing in your pocket?" the Janitor wondered, pointing to the rectangular impression. Echo elbowed Alexa and sounded in her mind, "give her the phone, girl". Looking over the shiny new toy, the keeper's reluctance soon dissipated, "Well, I suppose you would maybe get lost if I didn't. it's a big maze after all", and guided them through the duplicitous landscape. "Just a moment, ladies, is this what I think it is?" Echo asked, stopping the other two as she looked over another seemingly solid mirror wall. "Uhhh … it's nothing really. Sometimes if you squint you can see a little crack. I've tried to cover it up several times, but it still comes through" Sarah admitted. "Stand back everyone" Echo demanded and summoning a shotgun pointed it dead center at the fissure in the wall and pulled the trigger. Alexa coughed a bit from the smoke, then followed the other two as they were drawn inside. From the labyrinth they walked out towards the shore of a lake. Young, vigorous greens of spring spread across the expanse until stopping at calm, cool waters. "Is this what it's like on the other levels … splendid!" Sarah exclaimed. "This is only a vision" Echo realized aloud as above the surface of the water there appeared a tree, its roots barely brushing it. Directly above the first tree there appeared another, and then another, making a series one above the other that extended up into the sky. "Look at the subtle changes in the leaves" Alexa realized, as those higher up were darker, and reflected the celestial skin in greater abundance. Squinting her eyes, she saw the highest most tree, just above the atmosphere, in full bloom of its void-leaves. Energy cascaded down the pillar until meeting the lake below, making it glow for a brief minute. The two women heard the voice of Echo as she narrated the events, "The birth of humanity, and the stamp of our genetic potential that has culminated in the phenomenon", then followed her back out to the labyrinth again as the wall sealed itself. When they came to a dead-end Sarah took from her waist a spray bottle and, getting very near spritzed the wall. Like dominos all of the labyrinth walls collapsed until the sight of what hung above them became clear. And as Echo looked into the Eyes of the Mirror Maze Alexa had her memory enlivened, "yes … there used to be four eyes, two sets looking towards each other, but each set combined into one eye, making two". Echo shook. Tears streamed down her face, and she tasted the memories of those who had witnessed her replica, skin painted the color of coffee by the rain. "So … I am the dreamer" Echo realized at last. "Bravo!" Visioness declared. "Encore!" Pelfe declared. Quickly she turned to her avatar and took both her hands, locking sights with her, "Alexa, I need you to listen to me now, and I want you to know, really know that you have been my friend since the beginning, and that no matter what things change, that will stay the same, even if reality itself changes, it can't take away what this friendship is". The look on the empresses' face was of immense pain, red and soaked with tears. Alexa tried to reassure her, "Echo, it's alright., things can't stay the same. the world is always changing, so what is true one day might not be true the next". It was so anechoic in the room that she could hear her own heart, and the painful beat as it throbbed with angry disappointment "I think she's not doing so good" Sarah said to Alexa. "I am uneasy" Echo thought in desperation, as if the revelation was but a symptom of an illness, and looked back to where they had come from, where a thin layer of dust had been borne by the wind, following them. It swirled around and solidified becoming the voyeur of the spectacle. "I am always hidden in the dust" Ruin reminded them. "Ruin, I feel so cold … and …" Echo began, shaking with the thought of Alexa and the others fading away. Ruin cut her off, "you are not alone", and caught her as she fainted, him being the only other that had perceived the fact of the matter. Later that week she bought another mobile phone.

Through the thick woods of Chewing Gumption National Preserve in portion Wolas Ruin carried Echo until coming to a halt and laying her on a soft bed of earth. The most ancient trees wove heraldic signs in their branches and leaves, and he continued until making his way into a clearing. In the midst of decorating the preserve, Timecurrent took from her pocket a knife and drew a thin incision in her chest. From it a deer was born, and it slipped out, plopping onto the fresh dew of the clearing. With the knife she cut the umbilical cord, and the newborn stumbled off into the tree-line as the incision healed. "Oh, there you are father. As you can see, this nature reserve needs more deer. Most of the animals have already evolved resistance to the time-lapses" she said as he drew to her side. "Looks respectable, my little spool-lass, it's in fine shape" Ruin, said, priming the conversation. "I was thinking of putting some saxophone cherry-vine over there near the rock-climbing park". "Yes, yes, but right now I have a more urgent subject to talk to you about", reckoning that she was ready for the truth. "Uh, not the war again. This is the first real break we've had in months" Timecurrent whined, knowing the brief reprieve would soon elapse. "This is bigger, darling, and I wanted you to know first. In fact, I want you to keep this hush until things settle down" her father started. "What is it? Are we going to lose to the bedlans and wind up drinking rum and eating turkey legs for the next ten thousand years? Have you been drinking again?" she joked. "No, spool-princess, just listen. This place is but the dream of the empress Echo, who is the dream-self of that dreamer" Ruin confided. "Whoa! That's crazy!" both Sisters cried in unison from within the combined form. "The ramifications are certainly …" he continued, until being cut off by Minus, "But that means the Couple are …". "We don't really know, do we. They, I suspect, are truly much more than the first aspects of Echo's subconscious. There will be much to see on the other side, just as when we explored this new world and came to enjoy its convenience" he promised, subduing the inevitable whim to tarnish the Couple. "Another migration is in the cards? It's too soon dad! Then that is our bad luck, and nature is simply too cruel to care. I'm a real person! I'm possessive and greedy. I have built so much here! Look how much work I've put just into this meager park. We're going to have to give up almost everything again and start over" Plus griped intently. "Is that how you feel? Don't let me pressure you, I'll accept whatever it is" Ruin asked, and prayed his daughter would relent. After a minute of shouting expletives, she calmed down, then put a hand on his shoulder, "Flipping Flapjacks! But … if it means going with this family on another road-trip with all of you to … wherever … I would gladly do it once more". Lowering his tone to one even more sober, he embraced her, and sighed, "It's like the observation all over again. Promise me that when we cross over, we won't get separated. I just don't want to lose you. If that happens, send a deer to find me, and it can guide me back to you". "Of course, dad" Timecurrent promised, whilst wondering why everything was conspiring to banish her fun, and watched him glide back towards the tree-line. Deeper in that green, Echo leaned against a tree, trying to empty her mind of everything when she saw shuffling through the forest a gentle newborn deer. Searching for a companion it drew closer to her and raised its nose. "you are fucking real" she groaned, petting the top of its head. Throwing back her head against the trunk, and letting out coughing, inarticulate sounds, she watched as it stumbled back towards a pile of leaves behind a tree, then, it's trust granted, returned to her with a gift in its mouth. "Did you bring me a knife? You're too young to even know what this is. It's just that you want my love, don't you?" she whispered, kneeling down and taking it from its mouth before it hurt itself, then petting its back to calm its nerves. Back in the clearing, Timecurrent patted her vest, "Where did my knife go?" and was distracted enough that for a jiffy she did not notice the man approaching her from the tree-line. "Fabulous Fiddlesticks! A clown!" she exclaimed, as the red-nosed jester skipped towards her. "He must be the only one to survive the clown-tantrum" snapped the epiphany, then laughed aloud as with a beaming smile he honked his nose. "I just wanted to make someone smile before I …" the clown said, but before he could finish his hands, and then his arms, and his legs began to fade away. Before she could even reply, the summoning was gone. Bitter regret marched through her mind as she recalled how her own reflectant killed young Enow, and how Etab lashed back in vengeance against him. Taking the yoyo out of her pocket, she unwound the string, flinging it down towards the ground. As it returned back up to her hand, time reversed in direction, and the form of the faded clown reappeared before her. Timecurrent reached out her hand towards his face. "Honk, honk" she said, forcing a smile as she did, then let time slip back into its normal routine, watching him vanish once more. "I thought time was just a toy" she sighed and returned back to the city where there was less quiet, less solitude.