CHAPTER 41 - THE EXILE

Current Time

"Although you have inexhaustible vigor … Although our endeavors would not have been possible without your strength and keen intellect … Although you are our brother at every turn in life, and do not deny that you are, there is a truth that we cannot look past. During the days of the alliance war you had … other pursuits. This is but a flaw of history. Love can only make us witness each other, but after that is done, we can accept only what is right. Consider that until it is instilled in your character. Ten years, I will go no further than that, I cannot, or I would miss you. I already do … Your Sister, Echo" read the telegram, as he went through it once more. Feeling the smoothness of the letter against his palm, he could only consider how that neutral sensation was without pain. Uffhill lifted his eyes back up, seeing in the vicinity of the garden plot a non-indigenous species. Unsophisticated yet beautiful, the petals of the simple lilies drooped with the weight of condensation. As white as the telegram, supple and easily torn, but brave enough to speak. Navigating his perspective, the patron examined the rectangular plot-box of tan brick, adorned with cluster of them. Along its length were three squat trees, each bearing the flower as well. "Now I feel like an old timer … these are simple lily trees" Uffhill realized, walking up to them, carefully brushing the foliage. Quaint, the humble flora broke his concentration from the present for a casual moment. Looking through the leaves, their maturity surprised him more than the expanse of space on the other side. Making his way between two rectangles, the exile stood at a corner of the garden viewing deck of Agricultural Gravity-Cube B-51 above Scenic Oblivion. Thoughts of the old days and the boy Zata Marathon playing in the fields with his father intermingled with the naïve light of the thousand stars as the milky way beckoned through the glass. From behind him the chorus returned, making with every repetition the image of the two return with absolute clarity. Ignoring the partition, he crossed through, onto a ledge a step closer to the darkness. Features of pristine nature occupied the emptiness, filling it up to the brim as the frayed edges of light rays amused his face. "Why is the sky blue?" he thought. Then at the side of the post-city at the ledge there appeared the Blue Nebula from the days of the first cave of silence. Studying it, Uffhill could see the tapestry of the fiefdom, the nodes pulsating imperceptibly, a consequence of the scattering of light, "connections … must be part of the pursuit of knowledge. An interesting condition within the focal element, since it is a disembodied state". Looking deeper into the blue, he could see dipoles, and other such things … that lie behind, "So that is why …". Reacting to the emission of sound in that particular order two nodes from the quilt broke free, flicking themselves across the expanse and shrinking in size. The lawyer stood still, knowing he could not evade them as they implanted themselves, returning that which the universe had taken. With another gander at the telegram a curious question unfolded. Blue light made the ink more vivid than before, "where do the Bacteriae come from anyway? they must be of different focal elements and natures. I'll find out and come back from this exile with an answer". Rapid regeneration grew the fiefdom nodes into adaptive eyes, through which he could see the Nebula clearly, and what lay beneath its covering. It approached the ledge, nearer in proximity until contacting the hull of the post-city. Uffhill traveled through the membrane, finding himself standing on a nugget of silver and watching the Bacteriae, larger than a monolith slither away. Later that day, in the garden plot some visitors could hear the simple lily trees give an explanation about the scattering of light and the atmosphere.