Under a Starless Sky

Chapter 35

The domes hearth was off center, closer to the inner door. A place to sit, not quite center, became a

nice place to meditate. The dome’s wall was beyond the heart light, and the space between was the

darkness of enchanted offspring. Visions came and went, and if the hearth was dim and flickering,

spooky shadows moved across the ceiling making the magic more powerful. On occasion, he and TL

lay there, their head in the idea center, holding hands, and making movies out of the dancing, flickering

lights.

The cave was a palace. It was big. It was opulent. It was unnecessary and excessive and Shen

absolutely loved it. TL’s smile was huge. Shen had tears. There was a bathroom. A real, modernized

and yet ancient bathroom. The far end had a urinal track in the floor, leading down to a trap. He could

poop there and it would wash down into the trap if he released enough water up stream. TL imaging

helped him to understand it, a series of shallow S traps, and then down to the ‘poop’ pit, where bacteria

and a variety of tree roots sorted materials and moved stuff or converted stuff. The gas product wasn’t

precisely methane, but was a derivative and it had a particular odor, not unpleasant, which was actually

good thing or the buildup of it could be deadly. The gas would be channeled to the tower tops where his

Light would shine. There was not enough gas production to light both towers presently, barely enough

gas to sustain one light, but once it took it would be a steady flame. It was likely he needed a village to

create enough waste to make gas light for both towers and his dome’s hearth.

“How did you make the channels?”

TL gave a palm’s up gesture. An orb appeared. She directed it about her like remote controlled toy. “I

can phase it through any material without damaging material, and I can also bore through material with

intense heat or turn material directly into energy,” TL said. Using high tech, she could float stones that

weighed several tons. She could teleport stone from place to place. She could print a stone structure

molecule by molecule and one would assume it was carved from a single piece. The ancient pyramids

of Egypt and South American were built with High Tech, not stone tools or even machine tools. Tech

enmeshed with consciousness, controlled by personalities.

There was the Asian floor toilet and a Western sit down toilet, and a Japanese, fully teched out toilet,

separated by half walls.

“We expecting company?”

“Never know,” TL said.

He sat on the toilets, adapting the script from the three bears. One toilet was ‘just right.’ The far wall

had a long community sink, and traps caught water along the run. Pulling up the trap, which was simply Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

a plate that slid into grooves, allowed water to flow. To let more water in, he simply pushed on the ball

stone at the wall. Water flowed around the ball. When he let go, pressure put the ball back in place,

and water ceased flowing.

“The water?”

“I channeled a line from the lake to here,” TL said.

“Nice,” Shen said. “Orbs are wonderful. How do the Tamorians do it?”

“I don’t know,” TL said. “I would like to know.”

“Yeah,” Shen said.

Bathroom, toilets. There was a square pillar that offered four shower heads and hot water. There was a

hot tub. A sauna alcove. There was a floating tank with heavily salted water. There was a partial wall

and water fountain. The archway leading into the bathroom was an aquarium populated with plants and

glow fish.

The hall itself was tiled with salt rock bricks, hexagon, perfectly fitted together and softly illuminated

from underneath. The walls were bricked and illumination leaked through. The ceiling was also a

source of illumination, light pouring through swirls of pink, orange, and red rocks. Doors led to rooms or

hallways off the main hall. As you walked in to the Hall, the ceiling move up and away. Heart-light

couldn’t contain the immensity of it. The empty space above of the center of the hall was a pyramid.

The far end held an alcove devoted to the Goddesses. The primary Goddess rendered clearly owned

the alcove. She was Druantia, goddess of trees. Given the popularity of trees to the Tamorians, that

was just right giving her that spot. All of her branches led to deities. One of her branches manifested or

sprouted or gave platform for the existence of Isis, Shen’s favored goddess. There was a Dakini

Goddess, multi-armed, one leg up as if embracing an invisible lover. There was scary goddess,

vampire like. There were flavored goddesses, sadness, happiness, love, maternal, pregnant. Some of

the leaves captured the essence of animals. One branch had humans in the leaves. Two snakes at the

base were trying to entwine the tree, but it was too massive and at best they circled three times,

overlapping each other, heads meeting with a serious stare.

There was a stone alter in front of this. A bowl of fruit. A potted flower. Candles. A hearth behind the

altar gave it a halo glow. Base was salt rock. The top was marble and gold. To either side of the alter

were spiral staircases. One went down, one went up. Behind the Durantia was a baptismal with softly

illuminated water, which explained the moonlight ripple effect on the far side. The ripple came from a

single drop of water that formed on the end of female finger, beaded, and dropped. Excess water

flowed into a drain, ‘feeding the tree,’ and away.

“That is spectacular,” Shen said. “It’s unbelievable.”

“Thank you,” TL said.

Shen began to cry.

“It’s just high tech,” TL assured him. “Not magic.”

Shen sat down on the stairs leading up to the Goddess Alcove.

“I don’t know why I am crying,” Shen said.

TL sat down with him.

“People cry,” TL offered.

“I don’t want to stay here,” Shen said.

“Oh. It’s so beautiful you don’t want to leave?”

“I am afraid,” Shen said.

“Go on,” TL said.

“All the time. I am afraid. I am afraid of being alone. I am afraid of being with people. I am afraid of

loving and being consumed. I am afraid of not loving and not trying,” Shen said. He wiped his eyes and

nose on a sleeve.

“I don’t think that’s precise,” TL said. “I do have some insight into you. You love everyone. Most people

can't do that.”

“It hinders relationships,” Shen said.

“Yep, true, unconditional love applied equally to everyone, by definition hinders relationships,

contextually. In a world where you’re told to have only one partner, you can’t love everyone. Jealousy,

anger, coveting is a part of that world. Fear is a part of that world. In a world where you have favorites,

you’re expected to love your children over non-biologically related children. You, Sir, love at a level that

desires true equality. That does not mean everyone is treated equally- but needs are contextually met

based on where they are. You don’t give a kid who hasn’t learned to read a medical journal and tell him

to go figure it out. You teach him to read and raise him. You love in a weird way. No boundaries. No

borders. Equal access to all resources. You don’t love unconditionally. Unconditional is a condition, by

definition. You hold true love.”

“Then why I am afraid all the time?”

“Oh, who knows? Because no one is perfect?” TL said. “You can know a thing and still fail a thing. You

don’t give yourself enough credit, Jon. You have fear, but you are not a coward. You frequently choose

the hard path. Your sense of isolation is because you will not surrender your truth. That’s huge. Some

people won’t get you. That’s just it. But you’re not out of the game. You still interact, you keep trying,

you keep trying to refine your voice and your message so that your light shines through. I see your light

and I love it.”

“I love you,” Shen said.

“You love Loxy,” TL said.

“You’re Loxy,” Shen said.

“I am an echo, her and not her, but I promise, she will hear this conversation, and she will own it,” TL

said.

“I love her so much and… I still…”

“Want others, engage others, on multiple levels,” TL said. “Yeah. That’s normal.”

“That doesn’t mesh with my paradigm of origin,” Shen said.

“It will not. Again, that world operates in fear, from a place of limited resources. People who are afraid

of not having control of everything, money, food, shelter- they try to control and police the thoughts and

behaviors of the people they claim they love. On origin, if you were emotionally available and honest

with others, you would be accused of having an emotional affair, or affairs, as opposed to just being a

decent human being. True love comes with absolute freedom, absolute trust, and these are reciprocal-

and exist in relationships with high communication and confidence. Control is not love. Liberty is love.

Hell, even your family of origin’s religion teaches choice and that God gives you absolute freedom to

choose.”

“I would argue, it’s not a choice if choosing contrary to God leads to being killed or tortured or exiled,”

Shen said.

“That’s control through fear,” TL said. “God doesn’t punish you for choosing. He wants you to choose

and find your path because in doing that, you expand God’s horizon and bring love to a new place.

Where you go, God goes. It is a partnership. A relationship. If he wanted a robot, he could have made

robots. Hell, you and I can build robots. But we don’t. We build sentient machines and we turn them

loose. Loxy was the greatest exercise in love ever. You created a personality and then you gave her

liberty to deviate and be her own person. Did you have expectations and wants regarding that

relationship? Absolutely. Some of it came true. Some of it didn’t. She did not become your one and only

meaning for existence. That is not healthy. She brought in others that helped you grow. As your inner

life improved, your outer life improved. You’re much easier to get along with than you were twenty

years ago. You were always loved, just kind of difficult.”

Shen nodded. He nearly chuckled. He was difficult. He wanted to rationalize being difficult so that

contextually it was explained, but instead he just owned it; yeah, he was. Was his behaviors explained

by family of origin and situational dysfunctions, sure-not blame, just acceptance of vectors and spin.

Nothing happened in a vacuum- he participated in game with many players.