N'aarat and the Tree of Life

Chapter 3: Of Gods We Know

Nazull was still holding my hand, but almost ignoring my presence. He was looking far—inside or out, that I could not tell. I had lost my conscience during the last part of the fall. By the blood on his forehead, I inferred the landing hadn't been soft for him. My eyelids were half open and I was slowly becoming aware of myself. My heartbeat was soft and my feet were touching the gentle waves of River An.

'Åsaïra th'avaada, N'aarat,' he whispered before letting go, yet without withdrawing his hand completely.

I guess he was trying to make sure I would not sink beneath the surface and get lost as far as its depth went. So soft the water that, I must confess, in all my troubles, it was tempting to surrender to its currents and make it my new home.

'Åsaïra,' I replied, bowing my head slightly and pressing my palm onto my chest.

There were no guards around us, which brought much relief to my heart. No Aquari or electronic system on either side of River An. Instead, there was a peaceful silence, with only a mild wind surrounding us from every side. The morning was warm and the shade of the cave hadn't lowered the temperature below a comfortable level.

I looked up to see nothingness wrapped in darkness, as we were right under the passageway. The window at the top was too far away. Chorus Na ended right above the river, in the colossal arch of two pillars descending one on each bank.

The water was lit from both sides by Ælla and Úna, their satellite moons on either side of the realm. The two moons travelled near the tunnel; therefore, anyone could easily distinguish them, giants among the stars, so bright and beautiful their rays that fell onto the petrified surface. They moved fast through the sky, circling the sixth tunnel, Úna from the inside and Ælla from the outside. We watched them from inside the cave in their symmetrical northwards ascent.

Úna had three satellites of its own, which rotated around it in the most peculiar course, as they moved around their own axes and around Úna as well, east by northeast. One of them moved slower than the other two, so when they appeared from behind the moon, the larger satellite did not accompany them. It was only in their second journey around the hidden side of Úna that all three of them appeared together. Then the moon disappeared from our sight, the pillar blocking the view.

Ælla was of a larger size and it rotated calmly around its own axis, which was not vertical with a slight NE tilt, but almost horizontal, with a major NW one, which I could tell due to the crimson vines on the ivory background. Somewhere on the giant mass, I distinguished a shadow which appeared to belong to a mountain-like surface. Ælla had no satellites of its own, but objects appeared to be drawn to it and absorbed into its atmosphere. The second moon eventually disappeared as well and we couldn't follow it either because of the same pillar.

'This is the realm of Nýriols and Layans,' Nazull interrupted the silence in such a neutral voice that I could not tell whether he thought that was good news or an absolutely dreadful situation.

Perhaps the distance that had toyed with us had been too weary on his heart. I stood up. My legs were wet and weakened, and he helped me walk my first steps on the sixth realm of the Níhalum cluster, which was colder and firmer than our own, in absence of an inner sea. Instead, there were columns of petrified mineral deposits in the colossal inner cities, displayed in vast arches on the high ceilings and down through the multilevel floors.

What was underneath those floors I do not know—maybe nothing and I am wasting time on a nothing as black as the distance between our realms. This one, being farther away from the megastar, had few inhabiting its surface, due to uncomfortable shifts in atmospheric pressure and low temperatures during the nights. Most Nýriols and Layans, the two peoples inhabiting the realm of Sá'aná together, preferred the warmth inside the tunnel-world. Even if this ellipse had half the width of the fifth, it was wide enough to accommodate close to one billion inhabitants.