Under a Starless Sky novel Chapter 1

Carl Jung quote: “He (man) cannot conquer the tremendous polarity of his own nature on his own resources: he can only do so through the terrifying experience of a psychic process that is independent of him, that works him rather than he it.”

Chapter 1

To hear the child speak, you would believe he was from the other world, and that the stories of his adventures started before his birth. I can neither confirm nor deny his visions. I can only assure you that he is my son.

Lanore

Light blazed to life like a thousand suns simultaneously going nova. The shadowy places and dark corners melded into one; there were no shadows to contend with. Mundane objects looked surreal, fake even. The people looked fake. He didn’t have to sort this, as he was instantly transported elsewhere. Memories assaulted him from all directions at once. Every thought, every dream, every nuanced reflection of word flavored with a thousand emotions came at him as he relived his entire life. Backwards. It was unpacked backwards and it bothered him going the other way. He had a thought outside of thoughts, ‘this is not how it’s supposed to be.’

There was no turning the light off. It was full on. It wasn’t painful. It felt cold, clinical. It was just there. The sun isn’t just there. It can be pleasant and unpleasant, but this light was present. It was as if it were alive, an entity in itself. The only option was to a retreat to a safe place. It was place of his own creation, a memory that defied the present law of physics. He established a forward going continuity that allowed him to make sense of the world line going backwards. He built walls and windows. Sometimes he would look out a window and see a younger version of him. It didn’t make sense. There were things he didn’t remember. It was hard to watch, the same way listening to a tape of your own voice is hard to listen to.

This unwinding did not happen in real time. It was accelerated time. He eventually came to a place of darkness. Darkness outside the room. There was nothing. His room became a sleeping bag. He curled up in it, completely zipped up, as if fighting a long winter’s night. His own breath bothered him at first, too warm, but the cold outside the bag turned this into a welcome friend. He slept.

निर्मित

Lanore felt suddenly very odd. Her daughter, Candace, noticed. She looked at her expectantly. Candace was practicing her letters on a tablet at a small table next to the window facing the cliffs and the Tower Of Light. It was an overcast sky, and the light from the top of the tower gave the cloud a strange glow, as it often did at night.

“L’Ma?” Candace asked politely.

“Go fetch a-Ceolla, and have her guard the Light,” Lanore instructed. “I’m going to see N’Ma.”

Candace obeyed without hesitation. Lanore felt comfortable leaving her post to her apprentice guardian. After all, there was little wind, and the flame was constant. They had refueled only last week, and so there was not likely to be any emergencies. Lanore gathered her cloak, gripped her trusted staff, and headed out of her home. Each house was a dome, connected to each other and laid out in a circle, and under the Light, it strangely looked like an inch worm doubled back to investigate its tail end. There was the Central fire, and as always, several people gathered around it for warmth.

One of the fire guards was going to approach, but changed her mind as Ceolla arrived, urgent.

“L-Ma, what’s wrong?”

“Why must there be something wrong?” Lanore asked.

“Because your cloak is on?” Ceolla asked. “If you’re leaving me in charge, shouldn’t I know what is driving you out at this time of night?”

“I am going to see N’Ma,” Lanore said.

“It can’t wait till tomorrow?” Ceolla said. “For day light.”