Nigel Findley - The Broken Sphere

"The Broken Sphere…" Teldin murmured under his breath.

This Broken Sphere [anticipation] Cloakmaster's name for Egg?

"Yes," Teldin answered. "So the Juna-the Others-came from the Broken Sphere?"

So this one [certainty] has said, Message Bearer confirmed.

Teldin felt excitement flare in his chest. "And where is the Broken Sphere?" he asked breathlessly.

At the center [certainty-awe] of all things.

"And where's that?"

At the center, is all.

"Where is the center?"

[puzzlement] At the center, between the pearl clusters. Beyond the suns.

Teldin sighed in disappointment. He shouldn't have expected anything else, he told himself. After all, what did he think Message Bearer was going to do, pull out a star-chart and give him precise coordinates? These were racial myths that the creature was reciting to him, using terms and concepts that the People could understand. He shouldn't have expected a meaningful answer, and he shouldn't be disappointed. But he had, and he was.

"Do you know anything about the Spelljammer!" he asked. "A great ship the size of a world?"

To his amazement, he felt a wave of comprehension from the trilateral. The Spelljammer [surprise] is what Cloakmaster calls the Wanderer? Message Bearer asked. Memory of the People [reverence] knows the Wanderer [awe].

"Did the Others build the Spell … the Wanderer?"

What build [shock]? Message Bearer spun again to scrutinize Teldin with its third eye. No build, [outrage] Wanderer is. Wanderer and Others [reverence] together traveled from hatched Egg. Others to World of the People came, Wanderer [awe] throughout creation traveled then, [certainty] travels now.

Teldin sighed again. Once more he realized he was listening to myths, which might or might not have any connection to the truth. Even though he knew it was hopeless, he asked, "Do you know where the Wanderer is now?"

Wanderer is [certainty] where Wanderer is.

Well, that was predictable, wasn't it? Teldin thought with a wry grin. "Does the Wanderer ever come here?"

Beyond the suns [surprise]? Any thing beyond the suns [certainly] driven away, or destroyed. Mind of the World [reverence] makes it so.

That was the third time Message Bearer had mentioned the "Mind of the World," Teldin realized. Just what was it? A magical "watchdog" left behind by the Juna, perhaps? The artifact or group of artifacts that controlled the magical forces that had attacked the Boundless? Teldin had concluded that the People definitely weren't behind the attacks on the ship.

"Where is the Mind of the World?" he asked.

Where [confusion]? Message Bearer echoed. Everywhere is where [puzzlement]. All of world that is not People is Mind of the World. World of Cloakmaster has [skepticism] no mind?

Teldin paused. Communication gap, he told himself. I'm surprised we've avoided it this long. "Where is the Mind of the World?" he asked again. "I wish to see it."

Look around [certainty], was the only answer.

He stroked his beard, thinking. "What is the Mind of the World made of?" he asked, deciding to try a different tack.

Everything [certainty-reverence], Message Bearer responded at once. Everything but People. The creature raised a tentacle, used several delicate tendrils to simultaneously indicate different objects around the clearing, [pleasure-acceptance] Ground is of Mind, tree of Mind, fly-flutter of Mind, fruit of Mind. Mind of the World is everything [certainty-wonder], everything is of Mind.

The Cloakmaster stared at the dull-eyed trilateral with dawning comprehension. Is it saying… ? But, no, that's impossible, isn't it? "Are you saying," he said slowly, "that everything alive on this planet is part of the Mind?"

Everything [certainty] alive, Message Bearer confirmed flatly. Ground alive, trees alive, animals alive. All [reverence] part of Mind.

It couldn't be much clearer than that, could it? Teldin asked himself. Everything around me, all part of some great, single consciousness? It sounded impossible…

But, then, hadn't traveling beyond the moons, away from Krynn-so unimaginably far away-sounded impossible not so very long ago? And it wasn't as if he'd never heard the concept discussed before. In The Philosophers' Rest on Star-fall, he recalled, that had been one of the theories that a handful of elven metaphysicians were arguing over in an alcoholic fog: the possibility that an entire world could somehow become alive, merge into one single, planetary intelligence. At the time he'd dismissed the idea as foolish, as meaningless as the old argument over how many spirits could dance on the point of a sword. Now, however,…

He looked around him again, this time trying to reach out with the extended awareness that the cloak somehow gave him. For an instant, he thought he detected a pervasive sense of awareness, coupled with an echo of the strange feeling of belonging he'd experienced while walking through the forest. Then it was gone without a trace, so suddenly that he couldn't be sure whether he'd really felt it, or whether his mind was playing tricks on him. Search for something hard enough, and you'll find it, he reminded himself, whether it's there or not.

He looked back at the trilateral. "Are the People of the Mind?" he asked quietly.

The People [sadness-acceptancel not of the Mind of the World, Message Bearer replied. Others [reverence] started Mind to protect the People. People not of Mind [loneliness], People free to follow destiny alone. Mind of the World protect People, Mind [serenity] cherish People.

Things are starting to make a little more sense now, Teldin told himself. He remembered how the little ratlike creature had brought the fruit to Message Bearer. The trilateral hadn't had to issue any kind of mental order-the Cloakmaster would have "heard" it if it had. Instead, the trilateral had presumably felt hunger, or maybe just a desire for a fruit. The planetary Mind had somehow sensed that need or desire and had sent part of it forth-in the form of the rat-thing-to satisfy it.

Did it go even further than that? Had the rat-thing picked the fruit, or had the plant-being part of the world-Mind itself-just let the fruit fall? The possibilities were almost endless…

And quite frightening. A human was more intelligent than a rat, largely because a human had a larger brain. A dragon was-arguably-more intelligent than a human, again because it had a larger brain.

What about a brain the size of an entire planet… ? Teldin felt his fear like ice water in the marrow of his bones. "Do you… communicate with the Mind?" he asked. "Do you 'think-together' with it?"

The incessant motions of Message Bearer's tentacle tips slowed. Teldin could feel the creature's sadness like a palpable pressure against the fringes of his mind. Mind of the World [loneliness-melancholy] not think-together, it "said" softly. People try often [sadness], never succeed. Mind of the World not made [isolation] for think-together with People, Mind cherishes People, Mind protects People. But not [despair] think-together.

"Protects? "Protects how?" the Cloakmaster asked, suddenly sure he knew the answer. "Through magic'"

People [puzzlement] not know magic.

"By lights in the sky, by lightning strikes from the ground… ?"

By [undemanding] making the suns move, yes, Message Bearer's mental voice cut him off. This [curious] magic?

"It must be," Teldin confirmed.

Message Bearer's pupil tightened down to three fine, intersecting black lines. The sense of scrutiny, of speculation was undeniable. This magic [doubt], the reason [suspicion] why Cloakmaster to World of People come?