Entering the Weave

Josh had only been on an aeroplane once before and that time they had been crammed into narrow seats with all the other boisterous holiday makers bound for Spain. He and his sister had argued all the way and he remembered feeling poorly most of the time. Flying to Peru on Sir Trevor’s private jet was another experience entirely and Josh was luxuriating in the plush splendour of the long cabin with a cup of tea in a proper mug and a packet of chocolate biscuits. The layout wasn’t the same as a commercial aeroplane. There were a couple of rooms which could be used as offices or private bedrooms, a soft seating area that would put many sitting rooms to shame, a dining room, as well as a cabin that contained twenty or so of the more usual forward facing reclining seats, although even these were covered in the softest leather Josh had ever felt. There were more rooms towards the rear of the plane which housed the kitchens and staff quarters.

Josh was sitting with Kat and Coel on one of the enormous sofas. Sir Trevor, Professor Ackermann and his father were all locked in a meeting with some other scientists in one of the meeting rooms. Six other men in dark suits and dark glasses sat silent and unapproachable at various points throughout the plane.

“I can’t believe you broke into Tech-Tonic’s secret laboratory!” Kat chuckled. “That’s so unlike you.”

“Well, I didn’t get very far. The scientists there are all pretty gullible, but once I got inside the spaceship my powers were quite useless and the security guards caught me easily.”

“Didn’t you see anything?” Josh asked. “I bet the Dinosaur chamber wasn’t the only interesting room in that place.” His voice petered out as he remembered that Coel was blind.

“I saw a few chambers, but I’m afraid I know very little about technology, Josh. Either alien or terrestrial. I wandered about for a bit and was captured in a room filled with floating eggs. I’ve no idea what it was though. It’s a good job you were around Josh, because I don’t think that the guards would have been as gentle as they were if Sir Trevor hadn’t decided to let me go.”

“I really believed him when he said he wanted you executed, but I suppose you read his mind and knew he was joking.”

“Far from it. As I said Josh, in that spaceship, I could only feel the slightest vibration from the living minds within. Only enough for me to make out where I was going really. Your mind shone brightly enough once I’d got close to you, but Sir Trevor’s was very dim indeed.”

“What does that mean?”

“Any number of things I’m afraid. Especially during these times. Some minds have a natural defence against intrusion, or perhaps his recent run in with the Gazetteer has left him peculiarly empty.”

“How do you do it? Sense people.”

“Well, that’s a very large question Josh that will take many years to answer. Let’s just say that you are starting on the path of true enlightenment, and…”

“Oh, stop it.”

Coel grinned slyly. “It really isn’t the time Josh. You need to concentrate on enlisting the help of this Geigerzalion fellow, whatever he might be. Trinity Vale has already been attacked and we need all the allies we can muster.”

Josh smiled ruefully. This was the first time he’d been able to talk to Coel since his initial meeting with the raven in the kitchen and he found that he really liked the blind man. He was not nearly as strange as Josh had expected.

He looked out through one of the aeroplane’s small windows and saw the slender fingers of Manhattan’s skyline on the horizon. Quite suddenly he felt the massive presence of the bustling metropolis as if it was a huge creature was looking back at him. He closed his eyes and found that the tall towers were still visible in his mind, shining with a golden, ethereal light.

He opened his eyes again quickly and shook his head to clear it. Coel was gazing through the window too.

“It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

The druid had a strange look on his face that made Josh unsure as to whether he was talking about the skyline or the ghostly afterimage he had seen when he closed his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something but Coel winked at him and grinned. “I knew you’d start to see things properly.”

“What am I seeing?”

“The inhabitants of Manhattan, from the smallest cockroach to the Mayor. You are seeing their thoughts.”

“That’s what you see all the time?”

“Yep.”

“But how?”

“It’s the Weave, Josh. It’s what this is all about.”

“What do you mean?” Josh instinctively looked around.

“You’ll see.” And that was all Coel would say.

After refuelling in New York they were served a sumptuous meal, better than anything Josh had ever tasted. He stuffed more inside him during that single meal than he had eaten during all of the previous week and afterwards he drifted off to sleep curled up on one of the comfy chairs.

Tendrils of grey mist drifted low on the ground and he could hear a snarling undertone of agitation surrounding him. Josh felt exposed and cast about for some shelter from the lurking monsters just beyond his vision. He turned around on the spot, always feeling that something was creeping up on him from behind.

He decided to explore and, as there was nothing to indicate which way would be the most interesting, he just set off in the direction he was facing. The mist seemed to drift away from him as he walked, but the creatures within the shadows always stayed within growling distance.

Josh tried to convince himself that he was getting used to the savage snarls and ghostly shapes. Whatever was following him seemed loathe to show itself, and so he reasoned that he had little to fear. At least that’s what his mind told him; his heart thumped a different message though.

He had thought he was getting higher and the ground rockier, but he was not prepared for quite how high he was when he eventually broke through the mist and found himself standing on an outcrop of rock above the clouds. The view was spectacular, and as a gentle breeze blew away the thick mist he found himself looking out over an host of islands floating on a glistening sea.

He sat down quickly, putting a steadying hand on either side of him. He remembered sitting on a beach with Findhorn the unicorn.

The growling figures had gone, or at least quietened, and Josh suddenly got the feeling that he had been herded to this place. He had not consciously avoided any particular direction but…

Hello, Josh. At last we meet.

Symbols tumbled before his eyes. They were more smoothly organic than he had ever seen them before. He twisted his shoulders round, not wanting to stand up because of the cliff, but desperate to see the source.

An ancient African bushman leaned on a short spear. He looked tired, but he was smiling, and his eyes gleamed brightly.

Who are you?

I am N’rinde Bashala. Shramanah of the Conclave.

But you communicate using these symbols. I thought…

But Josh stopped abruptly. He was creating the symbols too. He had no idea how he was doing it. As soon as he realised he was thinking about it, his symbols fizzled out.

The old bushman limped forward, leaning heavily on his spear and proffered a slender hand in greeting. Josh wondered at his blatant disregard for the fatal drops all around him. Surely a mere gust of wind would be enough to carry this frail old man over the edge to a crunching death far below. Josh reached up unsteadily.

N’rinde Bashala hauled him up easily and Josh felt a lurching sensation in his throat that almost made him sick.

Do not be frightened, Josh. Nothing can harm you here. This is my domain. This is my mind.

Josh looked around. “This place?” He had to speak the words now because he couldn’t work out how to create the symbols again. “I’ve been somewhere like this before.”

Yes. The old bushman chuckled. That was your own mind. I believe you met Trunglepop there.

“The little goblin?”

N’rinde smiled even more broadly.

He is a Gellert. He would be very upset to hear you calling him a goblin.

“But what is he?”

A Gellert is a creature who has no physical form. They exist only in our imagination.

“So they’re not real?”

They are very real Josh. They are the caretakers of the Weave. If something breaks then the Gellerts fix it, or if something needs to be built then the Gellerts build it.

“Well, what was he doing on my…mind island, then?”

He was constructing a gateway from your mind directly to Trinity Vale. The Gazetteer slipped him into your mind when he first met you.

“Yes, he told me that, but…” Josh had the strange feeling that he had an itch on the inside of his mind. He looked away from the ancient bushman, out over the glistening sea.

“So are all these islands other people’s minds?”

Yes. Although they are not necessarily human. Is life not amazing, Josh?

“Er…yes.”

N’rinde conjured up some rickety wooden chairs and a palm tree to shade them from the sun and gestured for Josh to sit down.

I mean really amazing. Don’t you think that it’s incredible that the ecosystem has managed to keep such a delicate balance? Nothing has ever managed to randomly evolve that is too destructively successful. Predators and prey manage to coexist perfectly.

“Aren’t we destroying the world? Humans I mean.”

The Western world does indeed seem to be doing its best to annihilate itself, but even if it used all of its fearsome arsenal of bombs and missiles, life would still continue in one form or another. Perhaps the insects would take another turn at the helm of the world. These changes have occurred before.

“So it doesn’t matter?”

No. That is not what I said. It matters very much. The human race must learn to curb its appetites quickly or it will extinguish itself and a million other species all of which have the same right to exist in this world. But ultimately that will have only a small impact on the future evolution of life.

N’rinde slouched back in his chair and rested his spear against his knee.

But now we are facing a adversary far more dangerous than the human race. Something that is seeking to corrupt the very foundations of life. Something that is making a direct assault on Trinity Vale and if that falls, Gaia will cease to exist and we will have nothing to regulate the mechanics of the Earth. Our eco-system will tear itself apart.

“I still don’t understand what Gaia is though. I’m sorry…” Josh had been leaning forward in his chair despite the plunging cliffs surrounding him, but his frustration with his lack understanding deflated him. He slumped back.

The world is like a machine, in the sense that, like your body, it is made up of parts that work together. You wouldn’t get very far without your heart and likewise the Earth would become a lifeless ball of rock without its oceans. I’m not comparing your heart to the ocean you understand; I’m just trying to make the point that the Earth is a complex system.

And as such it would not be able to regulate its existence without some sort of control unit. Something that would regulate everything from the average temperature to the chemical composition of the atmosphere.

Josh nodded slowly. “And the control unit is Gaia?”

Yes. The symbols glowed pleasantly.

“But who would want to attack Gaia then?”

I believe it is the entity that was masquerading as the Doge in the hybrid land of Vienopolis.

“But he’s been destroyed. I saw it happen.” Josh could sense some other meaning buried within the symbols but he couldn’t decipher what it was. He thought for a moment that it might be deceit, but he dismissed that thought hurriedly.

No, Josh. He is still very much alive, but now we do not know where he is. I can feel his presence but I cannot locate him. I hope your strange friend can help with this matter.

“Geigerzalion?”

Yes. He has powers beyond my understanding, far beyond what I thought was possible. I believe he is our only hope in uncovering and defeating the traitor.

Josh sensed something strange about the symbols again.

“What are these symbols?”

They are a necessity. I do not speak English or French or any language you might know. This is the natural language that has evolved over billions of years to the shape it is now. With it I can communicate with the smallest microbe or the largest whale. Or you.

“But how do I know it?”

Because you were born to understand it. At the moment you will only have a meagre comprehension of what each symbol and movement means, but in time, with Coel to guide you, you will learn how much more can be expressed using this method. Much more than any mere spoken language. For instance, I doubt if there is a human word for the feeling a butterfly has when the wind changes quickly and yet:

A complex pattern of symbols cascaded from N’rinde’s hand and Josh felt a sudden elation, and fear mixed with something that was like opening a mysterious Christmas present.

But I am afraid we do not have time to delve into the secrets of the symbols, Josh, although nothing would give me greater pleasure. We must turn our attention to the task of saving Trinity Vale.

“Can it really be harmed?” Josh remembered the lush fields of Trinity Vale. He had seen nothing to make him think that it was under threat from anything. “Surely the Doge is just one…thing.”

I am afraid he has managed to corrupt many of Gaia’s subjects and Trinity Vale’s defences are weakening.

You must get Geigerzalion to help us.

Josh saw how the pleading in the old man’s eyes was reflected in the symbols and he nodded slowly. Although he could not quite believe that the whole world depended on his actions, he could see clearly that this old bushman was relying utterly on him.

“I’m sure he will. He’s already tried to destroy the Doge once already.”

N’rinde picked up his old spear and proffered it with both hands. It was ornately decorated with beads strung around the blade. A halo, like a heat haze, flared up around it and continued up the bushman’s arms until it glowed around his entire body. He suddenly looked less tired and more alert.

This weapon can destroy our enemy. I have invested into it as much of my power as I can. This island around us is usually teeming with thoughts which manifest themselves as flora and fauna, but now as you can see it is barren. Only my most primal urges and instincts remain.

Josh stretched out a hand and sparks flew between his palm and the weapon. He felt the inherent power surging into him, and as he took it the old man crumpled back in his chair. Josh lurched up.

“N’rinde? Are you alright?”

The bushman’s breathing had become shallow and hoarse, and the symbols that tumbled around him were faint now. Josh was kneeling by his side, oblivious of the cliffs.

I have passed on my mantle and my power. Use them wisely, Josh. You have shown that you are my true successor. Your mother will be proud of you.

He coughed loudly, a crude rattle which sounded like the sides being ripped out of his throat.

Save us.

He reached a frail hand up to touch Josh’s cheek, but didn’t have the strength.

Save us all.

Josh felt the ground trembling and heard the thunderous crash of an enormous boulder breaking away from the island. Frantically he tried to stand, but he felt himself sliding downwards, picking up speed as he fell. He flailed his arms wildly, but kept a tight hold of the spear.

He careered down the cliff along with house sized boulders, but before he crashed into the roiling sea below a different darkness enveloped him.

Josh woke up with a start just as they touched down in Lima. He flexed his right hand as he sat up, trying to work out if it was stiff because he had slept on it or if he had been holding the spear in his dream too tightly.

“Are you alright, Josh?” Coel was sitting next to him. “You’ve been dreaming.” He looked as if he was going to say something else, but was reluctant to continue.

“Yes. I’ve spoken to N’rinde. I think…” Josh found his mouth aching and a lump rose in his throat.

“Has he gone?”

“I don’t know. He gave me his spear and…”

Coel bowed his head. “He has passed on.”

Josh felt his own tears and wondered at them. He had not known N’rinde before meeting him in his dream and yet he felt a tremendous sense of loss.

“This is not the time to grieve. Trinity Vale has never needed him more. You have been given a great gift Josh, and with it a great responsibility, but you do not yet have the wisdom to deal with such power. I will help as much as I can.” Coel put a comforting hand on Josh’s shoulder.

“Hello, hello, Josh. I trust you’ve enjoyed your journey so far?” Sir Trevor appeared. “We’ve got to change flights now. The staff will see to your luggage, but obviously we need to get you aboard the new plane.”

“Er, sure.” Josh’s voice was thick and he coughed to try and clear it.

“Are you alright, Josh? You sound terrible.” Sir Trevor grinned at him.

“I’m okay. I’m always like this when I wake up.” Josh struggled to control himself. He knew Sir Trevor had no idea what had happened, so it wasn’t his fault, but Josh thought he had no right to be grinning so happily.

Coel seemed to have much more self control and, after giving Josh’s shoulder a quick squeeze he started asking Sir Trevor all sorts of questions about how they were going to get to Cuzco.

Josh saw Kat waking his dad up and excused himself to go and help. His dad could be a little more eccentric than usual in the mornings and with lack of sleep and a different time zone, Josh thought he should be on hand to help out with any misunderstandings that might occur. Also he felt he needed to be closer to people who loved him.

The waking up went well enough and before long they had settled into the cramped confines of a much smaller plane. Josh’s stomach heaved as they took off, which replaced the sense of loss he had felt at N’rinde’s passing, and he found when the plane levelled out that his insides had stopped dancing about, and he actually felt better.

The dusty city streets quickly gave way to rolling hills and Josh marvelled at the mountains rising before them. The sun was rising and they were travelling east which meant the huge peaks were silhouetted against the clear, dawn sky, like a row of jagged teeth.

The engines whined louder as the plane gained altitude and most of the other passengers settled down to get some more sleep. Josh continued to peer out of the small window at the mountains.

They landed a couple of hours later and once more entered into the hustle and bustle of changing transport. This time they clambered aboard a convoy of jeeps, which bounced them out of the airfield, through the streets of Cuzco and into the surrounding jungle.

The drivers of the jeeps seemed to have no fear as they skidded over the dirt tracks and zoomed through the overhanging trees. Josh was in the same jeep as Kat, his father and Coel and every time they lurched around a corner they all held on tighter, until their knuckles were bone white with the strain.

Eventually they reached the staging camp for the final trek up to the lost city of Machu Picchu. Josh felt as though he had already run a marathon due to the rather intense nature of the journey in the jeep. His arms and legs ached from holding on and he groaned as he looked up the steep trail.

Sir Trevor on the other had looked invigorated. He had swapped his shirt and tie for more suitable jungle clothes and he grinned happily at everyone as he told them to keep everything ship shape. He clapped Josh on the back, nearly knocking him over, and asked him questions about the journey.

When all the porters were loaded up with the expeditions essentials and Sir Trevor had found a suitable walking stick, they set off along the narrow dirt path.

It seemed there was something more spectacular to look at over each and every peak, and Josh marvelled at the looming cliffs topped with a exotic flora and the mist shrouded chasms filled with rainbows. He wondered what it had been like to live here when there were no aeroplanes or jeeps and realised that he could feel the maelstrom of life surrounding him with a clarity that stunned him. He felt connected, as if here in the jungle, away from the dirty fumes of the Westernised world, he was finally home.

He was lost in these thoughts when they rounded the corner into the valley that lead to Machu Picchu and the whole party stopped.

Perched high along a narrow ridge sat the ancient ruins, and rising majestically beside it was the rocky triangular mountain of Wayna Picchu.

“It translates as the Young Peak. Do you see? The Young Peak.” Sir Trevor was enthusing.

“What do you mean?” Josh’s dad asked.

“Well. It all makes sense doesn’t it? The people who built this place must have had some dim racial memory of the arrival of this mountain. The Young Peak. I think we’ve found our spacecraft.”

No one said a word. Mostly because of the lunatic assumption their employer had just made, but some of the party were just staring in slack-jawed amazement at the enormous mountain before them, wondering.

Dusk had settled into the valley by the time they had hiked up to the visitors’ centre, which was located on the outskirts of the ruins. The building had been sympathetically constructed in an attempt to blend in with the style of the surrounding area, but it still stuck out against the splendour of the scenery and the ancient grandeur of the ruins.

A small man in a cap had appeared from somewhere and insisted that no one was permitted to camp nearby, but Sir Trevor had pressed a pile of American dollars into the man’s hand and the porters had managed to pitch the tents without any more interference. Now the bustle of activity had died down and they all sat and watched the final rays of the sun disappearing behind the rugged mountains.

Josh was sitting slightly apart from everyone else, drinking in the dramatic beauty of these remote ruins. His uncanny sense of the surrounding life intensified as the light diminished until he could hardly tell whether he had his eyes open or closed. He could easily make out the quick, bright thoughts of the larger animals and birds, and beneath those he could feel the delicate minds of the insects and the slow meandering consciousness of the plants and trees. And below that were other thoughts, too alien or ponderous to comprehend, but there nevertheless.

“Can you feel it?” Coel whispered next to him.

Josh almost fell off the mossy log he was sitting on. He had not heard or sensed the blind man approach.

“How did you creep up on me? I thought I could feel everything in this valley. It’s almost as if I can sense the mountains themselves and yet I had no idea that you were behind me.”

“You are powerful indeed, Josh, if you can connect to the heart of the ancient rock. But you’ll have to learn to look differently if you want to see me when I am trying to be stealthy.”

Josh sighed gloomily. “It seems to me that there’s a whole world of stuff for me to learn.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t start worrying about that.” Coel chuckled and settled down on the log next to Josh. “There is much to learn for all of us. There always will be. I was N’rinde’s student for more than twenty years and there are still many things of which I am ignorant.”

“Great.” Josh snorted, but Coel’s good humour was infectious. “I’m a student of Maths and English and Geography. I sort of understand these subjects. This”, he waved his arms about emphatically, “this is too big.”

“There are benefits, you know.”

“Yeah?” But then a sudden thought swelled his heart almost knocking the wind from his lungs. “I met my mum in Trinity Vale. She’s been dead for just over a year and yet she’s there. She’s real.”

Coel smiled at Josh and allowed him to savour his thoughts before he continued. “Yes. That is the true miracle of the Vale. Everything lives on there. When a brain can no longer be used for processing the problems of the World, the Weave uploads all the memories and feelings into the neural network of living minds. Then that dying soul can live on forever in the collective dream. It’s one of the reasons that humanity’s intelligence has developed so quickly.”

“Haven’t we got enough to do just living our own lives?”

“Well, not really. You must have heard scientists say that we only use ten percent of out brain’s capacity. And have you ever wondered why we sleep?”

“Because we’re tired?”

“Couldn’t we just lie down and relax for a bit then? Physically that’d be just the same, and mentally it doesn’t sound too taxing to laze around for a while. Yet if you do that you still get tired. In fact you’ll find you often get more tired. And that’s because the operating system of the world which manages the threads of thought realises that your mind is available for processing some data. So you drift off to sleep and unconsciously work out how many black ants should make their way across a stream to curb the sudden increase in the population of red spiders on the other side. And when you wake up, you remember a dream of ants, or streams or spiders.”

Josh nodded. “I suppose it makes sense. Although…” He trailed off.

“What?”

“Well if Trinity Vale stores everyone’s memories, then how can N’rinde be gone?”

Coel sighed heavily and turned to look away, which struck Josh as a strange gesture for a blind man to make. “N’rinde spent most of his life in Trinity Vale. His body was just a shell for him. Now that he is truly free, he has a journey to make, but he will return when that is complete.”

It’s those answers that make it impossible for me to understand what’s going on.” Josh laughed as he said it, but when Coel turned to him he looked hurt.

“I can’t tell you anymore, Josh. I really wish I could, but I can’t.” He sounded genuinely sorry, but before Josh had time to say anything Coel added brightly, “But I can start teaching you about Travelling.”

“Travelling?”

“Moving you mind from your own body and letting it ride on winds of the Weave.”

“Really?” Josh sat bold upright, his mind already racing with the possibility of flying high over the surrounding mountains as a soaring condor.

“Yes. But hang on. I can feel a certain amount of excitement coming from you. In fact your mind is almost blinding my inner eye. Don’t be thinking that you’ll be able to fly around in a bird or anything just yet. This is difficult stuff and very hard to master.”

Josh felt his excitement ebb away a little at these words, and Coel nodded. “Hmmm. Just as I thought. Anyway we need to start with something simple, like a frog or an insect.”

A strange shifting next to him startled Josh and a sphere of amber light fizzled out from Coel and darted into the surrounding vegetation. A moment later something came hopping back and sat on a rock before them. It was a tiny red frog.

“Now concentrate on the frog Josh. Not what you can see with your eyes, but what you feel.”

Josh stared at the frog. It just sat there occasionally turning its head or moving a webbed foot.

“I can’t see anything now. I can’t feel anything.”

“I told you it was difficult. But be patient. Just concentrate on the frog.”

Once again Josh stared at the amphibian glistening before him. His eyes started to sting and he blinked to clear them. In that instant he saw the frog as an ethereal outline of energy. Quickly he closed his eyes again and examined the golden tendrils of light that were now visible.

“Good. Now imagine yourself going into the light.” Josh vaguely heard Coel’s soothing instruction and willed himself forward into the swirling light. Suddenly he could see himself. He was enormous and sitting next to an equally gigantic Coel. The sight was so surprising that he immediately lost concentration and snapped back into his own mind and then promptly fell backwards onto the damp grass.

“Well done.” Coel was laughing as he hauled Josh back up.

“I didn’t… I… What happened?”

“You managed step one. Seeing through another’s eyes.”

“Oh.” Josh said.

“I think that’s enough to be going on with Josh. We’ll be able to practice this type of thing a lot if we get back home.”

“If?”

“When. When we get back home.” Coel had already started to make his way back to the tents, but Josh got the impression that he had turned away deliberately.

Later, as Josh lay in his tent, he wondered what major crisis his brain would be used for that night. It was difficult not to think about it once he had started and so it was a long time before sleep finally took him.