We don't fall.
I am full of holes.
My shirt flaps around each one, like petals in an early bloom. There is no blood. No pain.
There is only Garrett and Grace.
Their holes.
Our light.
I am as detached as when my field would throw me out of my body, except that now, my spirit is detached all the way. I think my body's fallen away, but I still feel whole. And the whole sky is filled with this incredible light.
That's when I look down and realize we're floating, just off the lip of the mountain, suspended in nothing but air.
Chaos has exploded within the mouth of the mountain. Sean roars and throws himself at a guard, Zane rises up with some kind of Hulk power, taking down one after another of our enemies with Brandon's help. Without his field activated, Mark throws punches as best he can. The Addo and Milo and Deeta are pressed to a wall behind Graize, as a light bursts from the Veritas' folded little body. The light matches the sky around us, filling the cave with light and spilling out toward us, becoming part of us.
"Now," Nok says. His voice is clear and strong, even above the screams and cries and sounds of bones breaking. Nok lies down between the grin of stones and the Capstone.
The moment his head hits the ground, there is a loud CLANK that stops all the commotion in the cave. The arrows stop flying from down below. The semi-circle of platforms rise and spin, aligning over Nok, although they don't touch his skin. They click together, connecting and rotating each other.
As the gear platforms churn, they make a beautiful grinding tune. The guards drop their weapons at their sides. Mark and Brandon and Zane stop throwing punches. Deeta peers up from Milo's tear-soaked shirt. Graize and Milo and Addo begin to hum. The churning of the gears mixes with the sound of the human humming. Grace, Garrett, I are drawn back, our spirit feet finally touching down on the Capstone. We look into the cave.
"What in the..." Van doesn't finish his sentence. His mouth drops open. As I look around the cave, the eyes of my friends and my enemies, both bulging, I understand.
We're dead and they're alive, but we can all see each other.
Van's eyes dart to the left. Whatever he sees there makes them pop as he drops to his knees, planting his face in the dirt.
"I'm sorry!" he shrieks. I look to our side, out to what should be just air. It is filling as other spirits accumulate: my mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Reese, Robin, Ms. Fisk, my grandfather and grandmother, Addo Chad, and faces I have never met. The spirits all gather, buoyant in the air outside of the mountain. Van wails in the dirt. The other Fury members drop and do the same.
"Well kids, here we go," Addo says. He and Milo's hands still rest on Graize's shoulders. "It's time to gather the Cornerstones correctly. Nok, if you would distribute the platforms..."
Nok, who still seems frozen on the ground beneath the grinding stones, suddenly puts out an arm, then another, then he separates his left leg from his right. His limbs leave shadows behind, as if there is another body linked to his. He looks like DaVinci's Vitruvian man.
The stone platforms settle back down around him, lying flat on the ground where they were before. The Addo steps forward. He nudges two of the stones off of the platform closest to him, with his slipper-and-sock-encased toe.
"You see, kids, things aren't magical. The Cornerstones are tools, but it takes us to make the tools work. We are the Cornerstones." Addo wiggles a finger at Zane. "If you would, Zane-O. To make this whole thing work, we need balance. The yin and yang, my cookie to your milk. These seven platforms represent the fourteen sides of human emotion. Some would say they are the seven sins, but that, my dears, would only be half the story. Delicious cookie dough without the incredible chocolate chips. There are also seven blessings. You can see there is enough room on each platform for at least two to stand. There is always room for balance."
Zane steps forward and climbs onto the stone beside the Addo. Addo is so bulbous that Zane, being paper-thin, is the only one who could probably squeeze onto the platform beside the Addo's belly. Addo grins at him.
"You see? I am Gluttony," Addo grabs his tummy and wiggles it, before giving Zane's long torso a light slap, "and he is Temperance."
Addo points to Garrett and I.
"Garrett, you are obviously Lust. We won't discuss those things that happened at the Cache," Addo wiggles his brow. "But Nalena, you are Chastity. Unless I'm wrong."
I shake my head. I'm not sure if spirits blush, but it feels as if I do.
"Van," Addo's voice is deep and warm. "Come and take your place in the balance."
Van stands, his face smeared with dirt. Addo points to a platform and Van shuffles to it like a zombie.
"You are our Greed and Miranda, be a dear, won't you? Come and take your place beside Van, since you are our great Sacrifice."
Mrs. Reese, her smile as pure and easy as a river, drifts to the stone. I expect Van to lunge or Mrs. Reese to sock him, but all she does is take her place beside Van with a forgiving grin, before she turns her loving gaze back to Mr. Reese.
"Sean?" Addo continues, "if you would escort your wife to this stone right here?"
Teagan floats from the crowd of spirits, a lone balloon string, and settles beside Sean on the stone. He puts his arm out and the film of her own wraps around it. Whatever she whispers in his ear, I cannot hear.
"Teagan, you are our Envy and Sean, you have and will always be, our Patience." Addo settles a thoughtful finger to the side of his jaw. He sighs. "Alright, Iris, do you think you can be our Humility? Are you up for such a big job, kiddo?"
Iris nods and, even though she doesn't spring across to the stone Addo indicates, she smiles as she climbs onto the stone beside her mother's. Iris's little hand extends to touch Mrs. Reese's spirit and Mrs. Reese's hand encloses her daughter's.
"Mark, who else could be our Pride? Get on up there beside your sister." Once Mark takes his place, Addo continues to the last two stones.
"Cinchy DaVinci," he says. "Wrath and Peace seems like the perfect fit for Brandon and Walter. And Sloth, oh Milo, who can slack off better than you? I never saw anyone get out of recording memories like you did. And Evangeline, you were the most diligent Alo I've ever known."
But as Milo takes a step away from Deeta, the binding box between the two of them zips. Deeta looks terrified that the Addo will cut the rope, but the Addo flashes us all an angelic grin.
"Ah yes," he says. "The bindings. This is for a purpose. Deeta, no no, don't think of cutting the binding, unless the two of you don't desire it."
Deeta raises up her chin, eyelids last to follow, to look at Milo's face. He smiles at her, his hand out and palm up. She places her hand in his.
"Alrighty then, that's settled," the Addo says. "You see, there are more of us than there are stones, but if we look closely at where we are at this moment of our lives, you will see that we all have a place upon one of these platforms. We are sorted, day by day, hour by hour. The rocks beneath our feet may change, but we remain in balance. It's quite beautiful, isn't it?"
"Addo?" I say and the Addo turns to me. "What about Grace?"
"What about her?" Addo asks. "If you're wondering if she is the reason that you and Garrett are on the Capstone, well, that wouldn't be completely nutsy-butsy. Grace is there because of your sacrifice. Crazy how things don't just happen, isn't it?
"And the reason that the two of you are on the Capstone together, the reason why you are being asked to make the decision of our Reset, is because the three of you together, make one. Grace is linked to both of you, through Sean's blood and as Nali's Connection. When you sacrificed yourselves to save her, you became a triple field. Incrediballs, right? We thought your double was pretty fandango and you go and pull off one even better. A triple field. Wow."
Addo shakes his head with a smile. "Now do me a favor and turn away from us. Take the feelings you have for one another right now and apply that to choosing our new beginning."
I'm about to open my mouth to ask a million questions, but Addo shoos me with his fingers, skittling them like spiders, so that I turn away from him. Garrett and I move together, with Grace still held between us. Her chubby legs bounce and she giggles once we are facing what should be the open air, the view off the top of the mountain.
What is there, maybe forty or fifty feet out from the edge, are a million glistening orbs, dazzling as soap bubbles in the sun, drifting without bursting. I stare at the iridescent Christmas bulbs, each with a soul dancing inside it, strung upon the beautiful view of the landscape and I recognize what they are. The rings. The spiraling, shiny rings that Mrs. Neho once used to offer a soul a different choice. Inside are all the souls that were partying down at the base of the mountain. Now, they're suspended and waiting for another chance.
Looking out at the horizon, I swear I can make out more orbs, zillions of them as far as my eyes can see, which seems to be maybe as far as all around the world.
Down below, the shed bodies of The Fury and the Veritas and the Ianua lay flat on the ground. Left behind. The arrows spilled, the bows lifeless. There is no fighting, no fear, no life there.
"Nalena," Garrett says and I raise my chin. Ahead of us is a stack of crinkled, parchment papers as large as doors, thin as tissue, and glowing.
"We're supposed to choose one?" I say. Even for a spirit, I'm not sure I'm smart enough for this job. The heart of my spirit swells, inhaling beats of time. Addo's giggle bubbles up behind me.
"There are no mistakes," he says. "We are all in this together. Each of these dimensions is just like each of these platforms. We've come from Greed and Sacrifice, we've lived this dimension to the point of imbalance. It is time to start fresh. It's not to say that the next stop will be a flaming success, each of these dimensions has the ability to deliver either end of the spectrum it offers. It's what we choose to put into it. Not to sound like the wise man on the mountain, but follow your instincts, kids. Let love guide you and give peace a chance, and all of that."
Garrett, Grace and I move our heads together, the sheets flitting off the top of the stack, one at a time after we look them over. Each sheet is an entrance, it seems, although I can't tell exactly what lies beyond any of the thresholds. A couple are dark, as if they've been inked over or burned up inside the edges. The rest are blurry, so I can't see through them or inside them.
All I have to go on are the feelings that seep out of the papers, things that get caught inside of me. Things I can feel getting caught inside of Garrett and Grace too.
I think they are our stories, the stories of the human race and the Earth, still to be written, I say.
I think you're right.
Are you sure we're doing this right?
No, Garrett laughs.
Shouldn't it be...I don't know. More holy or something? Shouldn't we leave this up to Addo or the Veritas or the spirits or Sean? It does seem like everybody else could do a lot better job.
Garrett chuckles. It seems like that to me too, but we're the ones on the Capstone. I guess we're supposed to do this together. He laughs again, that sound that could easily translate into languages like sunshine and waterfalls and Earth.
Alright, I tell him in my mind and I send a smile with it. Let's not screw it up then, okay? Which one do you think?
He points to two papers, the fourth and fifth. A question, a proposal. The fourth is Pride, the fifth is Sloth.
Pride and Diligence? I don't know. If we bring The Fury souls into that, won't we start off on the wrong foot? They kind of run on pride like the Addo runs on cookies.
Good point, he says.
Last door is Sloth and Diligence. I say, and I realize how weird it is to be talking like this and feeling so floaty. It's weird that the whole world is kind of on pause, waiting for us to make this decision. Us. Garrett's smiling and Grace is wiggling her little legs and I'm so full of sunlight I can hardly keep myself in one space. But this is so much bigger than us. I focus.
This is for mankind.
The Fury aren't really slothful, I say, letting the idea jump my tracks and move into Garrett and Grace. They're actually pretty diligent.
And in that world, the diligence could be a positive instead of a negative, Garrett adds.
Grace claps her hands. This one, she giggles, this one!
I guess it's this one, Garrett says. I am caught in every beautiful thing about him and in that moment, when I scan that bare and hopeful sheet in front of us, I know it is the best chance. For all of us.
This is the one, Addo, Grace's little voice says.
Well, let's not keep life waiting, then, Addo answers. I certainly hope you picked a world with cookies though. I would hate to leave that particular miracle behind. I suppose we'll just have to see. Ok, kids, if this is your pick, go on and take the first step for us.
It feels like permission.
It feels right.
Garrett and I squeeze our interlaced hands, Grace's feet kicking excitedly at our chests, as we step into the expanse of the paper.
The souls inside the mouth of the mountain drop their bodies like worn clothes. Free of her skin, Iris jumps into the arms of her parents, the Addo boot-scoots along close behind us, Sean and Teagan follow with hands clasped. Grace wiggles and giggles as we hand her back to her parents.
"I thought you were finally rid of me," Zane says, as Robin floats to his side.
"You would think that," she smirks.
Zaneen and Deeta and Milo clump together, laughing as Mark and Brandon zing around like untied balloons, whistling out their air. My parents, my grandparents, Mrs. Neho and Trig, Peggy and Victor, the Addos, Annabelle and Tommy, Regina and Jen--the rush of every soul that I’ve ever known, along with those I knew just a short time ago and those that I've never known at all--they all move through the milky, ancient tissue with us, into the dimension we've chosen. Every soul on Earth, I am aware of them somehow, rises up from their bodies and joins us.
And with the thought of all these spirits and our millions of connections to them, the film around Garrett and I begins to spin. Garrett and I are one gear, the outside mist churning while we stand, holding one another, at the center.
There is no fear in this.
None.
All the spirits do the same, their outer edges swirling and clicking into place around one another, all joining together, churning off each other's motion. If I were still breathing, what we've formed would take my breath away, this enormous swirling vapor of our beautiful, spirit machine. All together, we are glorious. We are a complicated and extraordinary machine, whirling and covering the emptiness of the dimension we've chosen.
And as I look upon us all, interlocked and spinning, I see that there is no such thing as waste.
There is no such thing as lost. No such thing as alone. No such thing as finished.
Garrett leans down and I stretch up. Our spirits touch.
It is paper day and love is bigger than any word.
In its infinity, we find the grace for all of us to begin again, in this new world we’ve all chosen.
-THE END-
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Discover some of these characters again, when they appear in The Dimension Thieves. Try the first episode for free!
If you love a romantic and magical story, try the first book in the Caste Series, Forecast, for free.