"I've already told you what's been happening in the realm of my visions lately. They're evolving again. Instead of abstractions and colorful splotches I'm starting to see outlines that are quite distinct. The images still appear quite suddenly. The brightest of all are a species of tall green beings. I hear them rustling, feel a variety of smells. There's lots of greenery all around. I'm walking barefoot along a carpet of green, and it's tickling my feet. Looking up, I see a vast open space of a radiant blue, with asymmetrical white splotches scattered all around. They're moving over me, changing shape in the most peculiar manner. It all feels clean and exotic. It gets easy to breathe. I hear people's voices, their laughter, a foreign dialect. Yesterday I noticed a boy there. He got lost among the green creatures. I saw him so clearly that I would've recognized him had I met him in real life, but he didn't notice me. Afterwards, I saw their night sky, full of depth and clarity. Their stars are completely different - different constellations, different shades.
Marcius finished his story and looked away.
Karii carefully wrote everything down, turned off the notebook and hung it on his wrist. It was a cylinder about the same size as his pinky, filled with ferromagnetic liquid. It contained within itself their whole life story, starting from childhood. Karii always wore it as a bracelet. A single touch of a finger to the center was enough to make the bottom come apart and spill forth a shapeless gummy substance, which immediately turned into a hard, perfectly shaped circular foil. The Tulonians read and wrote in a circle, the letters spiraling in towards the center.
Karii could write the words down, could dictate them with his voice, could visually capture his surroundings. He could even mold the plastic material like a sculptor, could draw on it, could make an imprint of his own face, and it would remember everything. He'd been recording handprints every day since the age of ten, keeping a record of his own development. Periodically he would bother Marcius with this, recording his hands as well for amusement. He liked to take pictures of them - the shiny surface remembered everything that was reflected in it. Having finished its work, the substance gathered into a droplet and returned into its burrow, like an obedient little creature.
"You haven't told me as much today," said Karii, slightly disappointed.
He tried to recreate the scene his friend had described in his mind, but no matter how hard he tried, the world proposed was too outlandish, and Karii couldn't stretch his imagination far enough to guess what Marcius had experienced.
"It's too bad you don't draw," he said. "Otherwise you would have been able to depict what you have seen."
"It really is too bad," said Marcius.
Seeing the sorrow in his eyes, his friend asked:
"Do you really believe that that this world exists?"
"It exists. I know for sure. It's there, somewhere far beyond the borders of the Seven Worlds. I feel it!" Marcius replied, with not even a shadow of doubt.
"One more day until arrival," Karii calculated.
"Did the forecast predict magnetic storms in the Square of the Stingray?" Marcius asked.
"They'll be gone long before we get there."
Marcius nodded.
The route to Girius was well-known and did not present any difficulties. The capsule reached its destination at the designated time. Girius was a space station in orbit around Yurei. Its magnetic field protected it against Onyx's radioactive rays and against cosmic winds. Only recently this area of space belonged to the Oeelians, but after the destruction of their world it got occupied by vagabonds.
The station consisted of two giant metal spheres connected by thin corridors. The bigger sphere was used as a dock where arriving travelers left their vessels. They would then walk down the corridors into the trade district, which was located in the smaller sphere.
Without losing any ferromagnetic liquid, they managed to enter the dock through the gate at the bottom of the sphere.
Girius' dock was uniquely equipped to house any type of spacecraft from across the Seven Worlds. The sphere was hollow, and its interior was divided up into sectors. Having pulled his capsule into the Tulonian division, Marcius and Karii ventured out. They were fully equipped. Karii carried on his shoulders the flat grey backpack filled with explosives. Just a single touch to the panel on his belt would send everything flying into the air. Marcius carried the diamond dust in a similar bag, and had a magnetic beam fastened at his hip.
Marcius was overjoyed to have it back. The beam had three settings - it could cut like a sword, could stretch out and bend like a lasso and could also shoot.
The staging post was full of wanderers and traders alike, since it was wide open to all. In a nutshell, this was its main and only advantage. Such vulnerability was rare in the Seven Worlds. Everything everywhere was usually locked up tight, but here - unbelievable! No security whatsoever.
It was no easy task to locate in this conglomerate mass a person who was most likely hiding both their face and their name. The only solution was perhaps to start asking around in the crowd, but there was still a chance that Iza would make himself known.
Staying close together, the two young men walked towards the technical division of the market.
"Try to act more natural," Marius whispered to Karii, who was rigid and tense.
Stealing glances at the salespeople as they passed by, they kept moving. As always, the stands were piled high with recycled robots from Iona. Many of them were forbidden. This was just the place to look for a distributor of dangerous systems, but not one of the salespeople examined fit the description.
"If anything, we'll come back later, but for now, let's go upstairs," Marcius decided. They headed towards the top.
The top division was more pleasant to be in. Unlike the soulless robots below, this space was full of life and greenery. The pavilion was bright and spacious. An endlessly long row curled in a spiral towards the center, ending off just as it started - with an elevator leading to other levels. All the counters and stands were woven out of a clear fiber. The vendors showed off their animals, plants, seeds, ready to eat food items and water. Each fair, the Murians always had some new wonder to offer - a new type of plant, animal or insect. Their creativity knew no bounds. These masters of genetics transformed the living world in such unimaginable ways that at times it was even frightening.
Marcius stopped for a minute, captivated by the sight of a new animal with two enormous identical heads on opposite ends of its body and with one leg in the middle. In no way could he guess which types of already existing animals were mixed together in this beast, and for what purpose it was created.
"Careful!" Karii called out to him, pointing at something on the ground.
Marcius warily looked down and saw that a polyp was trying to free itself from under his shoe. He hurriedly step off, muttering an awkward apology.
"Let's get out of here!" he ordered.
The Tulonians picked up their pace.
Krameans and Pacifians dominated the second last level. A reddish glow permeated the pavilion, which contained many shiny reflective objects and surfaces. The Krameans sold stones and crystals, and the Pacifians - fabric and jewelry. The shoppers strolling among the rows were mostly female, so Marcius and Karii looked a bit out of place. It was easy to identify Kramean women, even from the back. On their shoulders inevitably sat a genie. This creature, created on Krama, was in style on their planet. It was essentially a ball of light energy venturing forth from a crystal, and it was able to carry out all sorts of errands. It was a personal helper of sorts. It could act as a translator, a friend, a daily planner, even a means of communication.