“But never thought we’d ever see a place big enough.”
“To have them.”
“That is so cute, ” Marce flashed her spectacular smile. “Do they always finish each other’s sentences and talk in unison like that?”
Kari nodded. “Trust me, it gets annoying very quickly.”
Giving Kari a queasy weightless feeling that made her stumble, the lift slowed to a stop, opening with a ding. Stepping out, Marce gestured for them to follow.
“Come, look, see,” she said excitedly. “The air is too thin to breathe up here so the windows don’t open, but you can still see everything through them just as well.”
Stepping out of the lift, Kari found herself in the center of a circular room perhaps two hundred feet across with large picture windows all around. She could see pink sky through them and ran to look out.
Stretching out for countless miles, the golden plains seemed to go on forever with a range of mountains and a deep blue lake in the distance. They were so high that she could actually see the curvature of the world. It was amazing.
“Oh wow,” she said in awe, leaning against the glass to look down at the tower slanting away outward.
“We sure got a winner with our first try,” Michael said. “Look over there. Is that an ocean? I’ve never seen so much water in the same place before.”
“Look at these mountains,” Jonathan cried. “They must be as high as this tower is. And there, that’s a city, isn’t it?”
Wandering around the edge of the room, Kari looked out at the breathtaking
scenery in every direction. The World Tower was well named. She felt like she could see the entire world from it.
Watching them as they took their time seeing the sights, Marce sat in a
comfortable looking chair, not speaking or interrupting them in any way. A strangely satisfied, motherly smile spread across her features, incongruous with her child’s face.
Reaching the place where she’d begun, Kari decided that she had wasted enough
time staring at the wondrous view. Walking over to Marce, she sat down in another chair facing her. The twins soon wandered over. Jonathan sat next to Kari, but Michael opted to remain standing, examining a bank of computer consoles. Their father had taught them in the use of various forms of computers, and Michael had always had an
uncharacteristic interest in them.
“You said you’ve been waiting for us,” Jonathan said. “So, you really can see the future?”
“Somewhat,” Marce said with a nod. “The future is always shifting like the sands of a desert, or the clouds in the sky, and it’s hard to sift things out of it. The more likely events are to happen, the clearer they become. You look so much like your father. All three of you.”
“You know our father,” Kari asked, surprised.
“Who doesn’t know of the great Northern Sage? That is a long story, and I
should start at the beginning. It’s so refreshing to have visitors that don’t try to grovel at every opportunity. Speaking of refreshments, here they come. This is my loyal servant and friend Markus. Markus, this is Kari and her brothers Michael and Jonathan.”
“How did you know our names,” Jonathan asked.
“One of the perks of being a goddess,” Marce winked at him.
Carrying a silver tray balanced on one hand, A man of about twenty years with a very neatly trimmed beard and long dark hair approached. He bowed deeply and set the tray on a small table between them.
“Welcome,” he said in a deep voice that sounded like it should belong to someone at least twice his age, and perhaps three times his size. “Please ask if there is anything I can do to make you more comfortable.”
With a bow he backed away and straightened, shooting a disapproving look at
Michael when he thought no one was looking.
“Markus’ family has served mine since before the original colonists from Earth settled this world during the war with the Demons so very long ago,” Marce said with an appreciative look in his direction. “Please, help yourselves. You have many questions, and there is much that I must tell you.”
Kari took one of the small honeycakes from the tray and a cup of a reddish orange juice. The cake was a lot sweeter than the ones her mother made, and the juice had a very pleasing tang to it, complimenting the sweetness of the honey.
“Before we start,” she said. “I need to know if you have any way of contacting our father?”
“I’m afraid I don’t,” Marce said apologetically. “I’ve already used my single allotted visit to his pocket of extra-dimensional space. If you leave a message with me, I will try to find a way to send it in the time that I have left.”
“Please tell us,” Jonathan said, leaning forward, stroking the fur of his tail in his lap absently with one hand. “What is going on here?”
“Like I said, it’s a long story that begins just over a thousand years ago. I was once a young girl like any other, and in that time, my world was very technologically advanced. We lost the ability to travel the stars so our scientists tried to make a gateway that could take us to other worlds. There was an explosion, creating a space-time anomaly that nearly destroyed this world. Markus and I were visiting my father at work when it happened, and we were at the center of the blast, the only ones to survive it. We were changed by it, never aging again. We are still mortal, but so long as no one kills us, we will continue to live forever, unchanging.
“After the accident nothing would grow, and a seven year long winter fell upon the land. Our high and mighty civilization crumbled into primitive anarchy with rampant violence and cannibalism. I felt responsible in some way because it was my father that first envisioned a doorway between our world and others. With Markus by my side I sought out the Northern Sage.
“He told me that all of the energy generated to make a gateway to another world had somehow become trapped within my body. He told me how to build this tower so that it would sap that power from me and send it into the land, making it fertile and green once more. These things came at a price. I would be the power source for the tower that staved off the destruction of our world. I could never grow old, and if I were ever to die, this world would soon follow me to my grave. All of my beautiful, wonderful people would die with me.
“With the tower built, the winter ended. The land grew fertile once more, and law and order were restored. As time passed, the technology was forgotten and good riddance to it. Peace has reigned for a thousand years. I taught the people how to farm the land rather than build machines to do all the work for them. They’ve become peaceful and hardworking, deserving of every bit of happiness that they have.”
“And then the Apostle showed up,” Michael said, leaning against the bank of
computes.
Marce nodded gravely. “I do not know where this Apostle came from or how. I
know little about him, not even his gender. I call him a him for the sake of brevity. He began to convert my people by the thousands in a very short time. It appears that he has some sort of power to influence the emotions of my people. I never claimed to be a goddess, and having people worship me is highly embarrassing. Jealousy of this Cain is not what angers me about the poisonous teachings of the Apostle. I made a pact with my people in the beginning, that I would stay here and preserve their world so long as they live in peace and do not raise arms against one another ever again. They have forgotten that if they kill me in the name of their new god, this world will soon die as well, and everyone in it would follow me to my grave.”
“Kinda ungrateful of them,” Michael said.
“My people,” Marce’s voice cracked as she said it, eyes welling with tears. “My poor, poor people. They’ve been led astray and they don’t remember that if I die, so does their world. They will kill me because this Apostle teaches that I am evil and false, and then their world will begin to crumble again. They will cry to their new god to save them, but no salvation will come. Any repentance they offer then will be too little too late.”