The air pushed hard against me as I flew straight up through the thickening clouds. They thundered and shuddered my whole body. My new wings flapped open as if they had always been there. The ground melted out of sight. Bright light surrounded me. I wished Mother could see this. I tried to slow down to feel the damp clouds, but a strong wind seized me. I sank. I sank up.
The thunder drifted away until no sound remained. I stopped using my wings, useless against the pull. The brightness that surrounded me was extinguished as my trip through the sky was brought to a quick halt. I plunged into the dark Edge of the Sky.
I rested snug in the warmth waiting for my eyes to adjust. My arms and legs were heavy, pulled in each direction. The thickness here in the Edge made it difficult to move. The air smothered my face. My eyes darted back and forth. I saw the clouds I had just flown through drifting through the waves on my left. To my right, utter darkness drifted, broken only by a few bright stars wiggling in the star space.
The bracelets caught each other as I waded around to get a better look at the little stars. The dark space began to wobble around the largest bracelet as it played. A faint red glow spun around my arms with the bracelet. I played another note. Spots of orange and yellow joined the red. My hands moved fluidly in the places the notes rolled. A new hue formed with each note until greens, blues, and purples joined the others. The colors ripened and circled me. I controlled my legs and wings again. I played faster.
I hurried before the Edge’s space stilled and swam out and into a current wandering through the star space. The current chilled my skin. I remembered swimming in the Northern Lake at home before it dried up. Mother took me there on scorched afternoons to cool off in the summers.
A faint ringing tickled my ears. I swam in the direction of each star looking for its source. It grew into a soothing hum when I aimed for the biggest star in the sky. It was familiar. The hum expanded and divided into pitches as I swam closer.
My wings navigated the swift changes of the currents easily. The brightest star came into focus in front of me and the gripping hums stopped. Fluffy clouds floated over a glowing, agitated ground with holes dug all over it. I swam closer to the surface. Beyond the horizon, I saw the back of a man, with a body I could see through.
He jerked his head away from his work in the ground and cocked it slightly. He knew I was there before he saw me. I stopped swimming and held as still as I could. He floated up effortlessly, a master of the powerful currents I wobbled in. "Do not be afraid." I heard the deep tone of his voice, but could not find his face. "I’m happy you are here, Sera."
After a long blank thought, the breath came back to my lungs. He turned to me and I saw familiar eyes set in a massive frame. I must have looked like a grasshopper to him. I composed my voice for him. "Hello." A violet -blue glow wrapped the word and carried it to his silhouette. It dissolved into the star space as it reached him.
The silhouetted man leaned his head back and took in a long breath. The wind changed around me despite our distance. He let the breath go and released more star space. I shielded my ears as a screech surrounded us. He had blown away half his size when the screeching ended. He paused a moment, shaken from the transition, before releasing a smile and making his way to me. "How are your wings?" He closed the distance between us.
I splayed my wings and nodded back at them. "They are strong here." His chuckle relaxed them. He changed direction when he reached me. "I was expecting you sooner or I was expecting you later."
I pivoted against my toes, trying to keep up with him so he could see how well my wings worked in the current. As we traveled, I saw he wore the same crystal bracelets on one arm. They held no color, though. What did his notes look like?
We aimed for a spot on the ground with holes in neat lines and circles about the size of his hand. The man had been working with a pile of beans like those I ate last night. I swam closer to the holes and tried to get a better look. He walked toward me and tossed them on the ground in front of me. I knelt and jumped up as the ground poked me with a grumble. I tried again. Dozens of invisible needles poked me as I tried to touch the ground. They quieted and softened when the Steward closed in.
We knelt together. The beans he tossed on the ground were reacting to the ground. He waved his enormous hand over them and they found their order. A breeze came from both directions to reposition them into alignment. He pushed each of the beans into the glowing ground, one after the other, with the tip of his large finger. The beans wiggled under his finger as they found their way into the surly ground. He sang a note above each of the beans he sowed.
His notes were clear at first, then exploded into a frenzy of reds, blues, and yellows. They combined into new color wisps around us. The star space danced and the buried beans glowed as the colorful notes reached them. Each color chose a bean. The glowing beans grew into blinding balls of light as they resonated with the colors.
Each shot out of the ground when they saturated, and could not hold anymore color. The glowing balls each found a current and floated through the star space until their lights vanished. Darkness again.
The man stood up tall and shook his hands slightly. I swayed a little. It was hard to control myself here. The currents pulled and pushed me about. The man moved through them as easily as I walked the path to the market at home.
"I am the Steward." He reached out to me with a small smirk on his face.
The Steward reached deep into the grumbling ground and pulled out a fistful of golden coins. "This is Mystery." He slowed his pace, raised his hands, and offered them to me. I took one in each hand. They were as big as my head but as light as a feather.
He returned the remaining coins to the ground and pointed to a set of pyramids at the horizon. The clouds cleared a path for us. He took a coin from my hand and adjusted my fingers to grip the outside of the other one. The Steward sang a beautiful note into both. The air around them swirled softly.
I added the notes of my crystal bracelets. As we sang into the coins together, the star space swirled around and around. "This is our Mer."
There was movement above the distant composition of pyramid keys, the Mer. I squinted, but saw nothing through the ripples swirling around us. We continued.
The air became more and more agitated around the coins the longer we sang. The Steward began to play a soft rhythm with his clear crystal bracelets. I heard the accent now, coming from the smaller key. A note that fit our scale several octaves below us played in the distance.
He took long strides through the prickling sound of the ground. We hurried our trip to the foot of the largest key. The sound seeped through the stones.
He lowered me down and I crouched behind him as we made our final few steps up to the base of the huge arrangement of stones. As we continued to play our harmony, I noticed the currents churning around the peaks. I focused my eyes to make out the faint object swimming around the top, but could not penetrate the turbulence that surrounded us.
He studied me, amused, before taking a deep breath. He sang into the coin as he held it to the Mer. The stones came alive. They shifted when the golden notes from the coin touched them. Some slid out and others spun around. The stones found their place and revealed an opening. He glanced back at me and nodded towards it, a signal to float up and look inside.
A nest inside cradled a large golden egg. Above it, sat a bird with a gold beak covered in deep blue and violet feathers. She was singing the loud, high tone to her egg. It amplified the bird’s melody with its low complement. The Steward nodded once again, and sang. We joined them.
It was quiet here except for our song. The note colors danced around us carrying away all the worry. I felt love.
I swam up to the peak of the largest key. It consisted of the same crystal as my bracelets. A blue column of light climbed out of it and into the star space. The light danced with the melody and the star's clouds. The dance captured the clouds as they rumbled sweetly. They cried sweet tears into the waters around the Mer.
The light made its way toward Sleep. It also made its way toward me.
My muscles ached in the blue light. I felt my arms and legs growing again. Brightness returned all around me. I hurried down to the Steward, but the relentless blue light pulled at me. "What’s happening?" His attention turned to me drifting away from him.
"I know there is not enough time to take all things into consideration. You must choose now where you will serve, and in turn grow strong in that place." I swam with all my might against the light and currents, and reached out my hand for him to grab. He stretched out his hand and gazed into my eyes with the softest expression, but did not grab mine.
"How do I know? How do I choose? I'm not sure I want to go back to Sleep."
He smiled as if he was telling me something I already knew.
"The decision is not for me to make. You must choose now, and choose wholeheartedly. You must set a strong course. Any uncertainty will strengthen the currents and keep you still. Your father's heart was powerful, but he wavered for too long. The currents took over and debilitated him." His glance swept the stars behind me.
"Close your eyes. Do not open them until you are home."
I did. I closed my eyes as he gently launched me up. The blue light grew stronger and pulled me away from the Steward’s tufted star. I swam back to the Edge of the star space.
The ripples of the thick Edge appeared in the distance. It was so peaceful here. It was so hard there.
