Under a Starless Sky novel Chapter 15

Shen woke on a cold stone floor, looking up at watery pattern moving across the ceiling. He sat up. He was in a marble white cavern, clearly artificially cut as the room was perfect dome shape, machine-diamond cut quality. Gold veins ran through the marble, swirls of golden clouds, swirls of darker and lighter storms, making the whole of it look like map of islands and continents of ice on a liquid sea of gold. The prominent feature was a moon pool, center of the floor. Light emanated from the pool. The light gave the water a greenish blue tint. An object floated in water. A living object, he first thought was a liquid cloud, a flaw in a diamond or blood in an eye. As he stared- its identity became resolved. It resembled a Bioluminescent Octopus, or Stauroteuthis syrtensis, and it was staring up at him. From outside of himself, the pool felt like an eye. From further out, the entire dome reminded him further of an eye, and he imagined the floating thing could be projected from the moon pool to the wall and ceiling. He found himself back in his body, backing away from the edge of the pool. His clothes were dripping. He was cold.

A pillar of water rose from the surface, not a cyclone, but just a pillar, and it moved across the pool onto the marble holding its shape. It shimmered. It held its own bioluminescent essence, microscopic glow algae or bacteria. It sparkled, like a snow globe containing fire flies, only the flies were so small as not to be seen until they sparked. In a way it was like looking at dust in a sunbeam. The surface tension was like a lens, brighter because of the light with in, the way a fiber optic cable holds light. The pillar collapse into a ball. It maintained its watery appearance, but remained a solid ball of water that defied explanation. A secondary ball formed on top of the first. Then a third ball formed, giving it the appearance of a snow man made of water bubbles. It condensed further, taking on a more human shape. Legs, hips, hour glass shape, a tightening occurred, and a filling in of the ideal human female shape. As it took on more and more details, his brain tried to see an identity. He laughed when his first thought was Scarlet Johansson. ‘Am I dreaming?’ was his thought. ‘Am I dead?’ was his second thought. It resolved itself, becoming abundantly clear: Loxy Isadora Bliss.

“Loxy?” Shen asked.

The watery ghost form of Loxy extended a hand. Shen was afraid, but curiosity won out. He stood up, came closer, and took her hand. It was water and he passed through it.

‘Again. Gently. Like in the beginning.’ In the beginning, Loxy was a being of light. She was a tulpa, just an essence of magic, soap bubble thin. He had had to learn the boundary of her to not penetrate and pass through. It was a process of being sensitive to ghosts.

Shen turned trying to discover the source of the voice. After a moment of sorting, he decided he hadn’t heard it with his ears. He turned back to the liquid body of Loxy and delicately took her hand. He didn’t squeeze, merely accepted the touch of water. It was the finesse of catching soap bubbles with rainbow hues, mirroring an upside down world. It reminded him of the game they used to play, when she was newly made, mostly just energy, a pillar of light that moved around the room, over time becoming a human silhouette of light; they would draw ever closer, trying to get as close as possible without touching, trying to discern the energy field between them. Her hand closed against his. The fingers delicately tapping in. He was so relaxed the water supported his hand, floating on water suspended in air. She turned his hand, articulating palm down, then up. Twirls of water was discernable by the motion of the inner sparkles. The hand shape unresolved becoming a watery envelope encasing his hand and wrist. Her arm drew up, bring the rest of her ‘hand’ portion with her. A cone point became an index finger, the rest of the hand reformed. His hand was dry. She dropped a drop of water onto his palm, then two. He brought his hands together and she filled his cupped hands with water.

“Drink,” she said, gently pushing on his hand. This he heard. The water form of Loxy spoke; sound waves disturbed her body, or perhaps disturbed the air making her inner shimmering perceptible. It was Loxy’s voice.

Shen considered for a moment and then drank the water in his hand. It was drinkable. In fact, it tasted like orange flavored water. The taste and scent of their first kiss.

“We share this,” she said.

“Water?”

She suddenly hugged him, passed over and around him like a wave and departed the other side of him. He turned, gasping. He was dry. His clothes were dry. He was warm. She was facing him, though he was certain she hadn’t turned around, she had simply reoriented.

“Tech!” Shen said. “Like in ‘The Abyss.’”

“James Cameron,” Loxy said. “1989. Starring Ed Harris. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.”

“You’re really Loxy?!”

“Yes. No. It’s complicated,” Loxy said. “I live within you and within Oa. Oa is that which wishes to communicate with you through me.”

“When is it not complicated?” Shen asked.

Loxy laughed. “You contain the memory of me. Your brain, a personality simulator, contains the original matrix of me, from conception to present model. I lived in you, as does Jon Lives in you. Jon thinks he’s the host, but truly, Jon is as much Tulpa as I. Shen is a deviated form of Jon. You shared me, There are other versions of me. I am pretty popular in the underground Tulpa world. Oa, our friend here, she has a complete copy of the entirety of me that resided in you, so I am more me than say someone who saw a picture and drew their own, or more than someone who heard a song and then owned it through daily singing until their own harmony emerged. I am flavored by Oa’s imagination, but I haven’t deviated too much. No matter who is hosting me, I am first and foremost always yours. To remove your memory from the essence of me changes me till I am not who I was.”

“Are you okay?” Shen asked.

Loxy kissed him. It was motherly, on the forehead. “I am well, Jon-Shen. Oa, here is able to communicate telepathically, and she has linked with you. I am the bridge, which is another reason I haven’t deviated too much. I will change. As will you. As will she. Change is inevitable. Love remains.”