Chapter 1

          Standing upon the mountain, Jaco lifted his eyes from the city below, hopeful for the new beginnings waiting in the city above the sky. It was the eve of the Interstellar Summit, and Jaco would be accompanying his mentor to represent their humble island nation of Argulan as the leaders of the two worlds, Mobius and Tarran, determined the course of their future together. Beneath the indigo sky, the evening sun cast the buildings of Argulan City in a diorama of orange and shadow stretching all the way to the coast. A damp breeze swept toward the sun, sending waves through the grass and fluttering Jaco’s simple robe.

           Behind him, the side door to the mountain temple clicked open, followed by the scent of mint tea. “Good evening, Jaco,” called his mentor. Named after the mountain, Goh ba Argulan had raised Jaco like a son, training him in the ways of a Dream Crafter, a spiritual guide for the Argulan people. With streaks of gray running through Goh’s black hair, the way the corners of his eyes creased when he smiled reminded Jaco that no matter what happened, everything would always turn out all right. Like Jaco, he was short, with bronze skin and a flat nose characteristic of their people. He joined Jaco near the ridge with two steaming ceramic mugs, and held one out to his apprentice. “It’s quite amazing, isn’t it?”

           Jaco looked at his smiling mentor, the older man’s eyes twinkling in the morning light, and accepted the cup with thanks. “What’s amazing?”

           Goh swept his arm over the city below. “What our people have become. Before joining the Democratic Union of Mobius, our islands couldn’t support this many of us. The DU provided us with new techniques for food production, medical tools, and of course,” he pointed across the rooftops to the complex of buildings and silos running along the coast, “making the ocean drinkable.” He swirled his earthenware coffee cup. “We even have running water all the way up here.”

           Jaco fought back the pang of sadness that arose at the mention of the desalinization plant. Goh was giving him two topics of conversation to choose from: the new opportunities that might arise for their people at the Interstellar Summit tomorrow, or Jaco’s ex-boyfriend who worked in desalinization.

           On that subject, there was nothing to talk about. He’d broken up with that status-digging jerk, and his life had returned to the way it was supposed to be. Now he could focus on the things that mattered, and would tread more cautiously around the next charming man or woman who entered his life. He looked up to the sky, the first stars heralding the night, and imagined the city of Oridion somewhere above the sunset clouds. Oridion was Mobius’s nexus of the space settlements, where the stars shone day and night and the influence of the constellations was strong.

           “Tomorrow,” Jaco said. He sipped his tea in thought. “What new ways do you think trading with Tarran will benefit our people?”

           Goh tapped his mug. “The most useful thing to trade, I think, would be knowledge. The people of Tarran have been developing their own ways of producing goods as long as Mobius has. Imagine food getting easier to prepare, or the ability to craft new kinds of tools. It’s hard to say exactly, but I imagine fifty years from now, when you’re standing in my place, you’ll be telling your apprentice about how the Mobius-Tarran partnership trickled down and changed our lives.”

           Jaco smiled as the sky grew darker, the hues of the clouds deepening. It was a time of change. The stars were aligning, signs were appearing, the spirits were speaking. Now, more than any other time, Jaco’s role as a Dream Crafter mattered.

           After a time, Goh nudged him. “Don’t forget, you have Sacred Dream training tonight, and we have to get up bright and early to catch our flight.”

           “Right.” Jaco drained the last of his tea, his gaze lingering on the stars, before turning toward the ancient temple’s refurbished side door.

           “Don’t forget to perform each step of the purifying ritual,” Goh called after him, “and don’t stray from the path of the Sacred Dream.”

           Jaco waved over his shoulder. “Yeah, yeah.”

           His mentor chuckled. “And brush your teeth.”

           That night, Jaco dreamed. It was no ordinary dream, but the Sacred Dream, passed down among his people by generations upon generations of Dream Crafters. Hovering above the dark, endless ocean, he turned his eyes to the undefined horizon, waiting for the story to begin. Out there, beyond the edge of the world, the ancestors of his people, the Dream Shapers, flew above the deep, looking for a place to rest their feet.

           For a moment, all was darkness. Then, a great stream of light burst forth from one end of the sky to the other as the first of the gods, Jacoshen, gave his life to create the Shaper’s Path. The light dispersed, its twinkling dust motes drifting toward their predestined places where they would become the stars. And the sky was named Jaco, after the god who gave his life to show the way across it.

           Through the Shaper’s Path flew the Dream Shapers on manifested wings, led by the three remaining gods, Nayashen, Isishen, and Gohshen. Their bodies glowed like the stars, their majesty vibrating the air around them. When they saw Jaco, they halted and spoke. “Child of ours, behold the beginning. Through our actions, you will know where your people came from and who you are.”

           As soon as the words left his mouth, Gohshen dove beneath the waves. For a moment, all was still. Then the water began to churn and boil, until a great mountain rose from it, reaching toward the sky. The waters receded, leaving behind the Argulan Islands. And the mountain was named Goh, after the god who gave his life to create the land.

           Nayashen Looked upon the barren land and cried, “This is not good! Nothing can live on such empty sand and stone.” And she plunged herself into the sea. With her sacrifice, the ocean filled with fish and squid and all the things that live beneath the waves. From the sea, life spread onto the land, trees and crops and animals. And the Dream Shapers who followed the gods along the Shaper’s Path descended to the land and made their home, tending the fields and trawling the shallows. And the sea was named Naya, after the god who gave her life to fill it with living things.

           The last god, Isishen, looked down on her people and saw that there was one thing missing. She spoke unto the Argulanians, and said, “Remember what we have done today. Build four shrines, one for the sky, one for the mountain, one for the sea, and one for me, for I will give you a great light, so you may see the beauty of the creation we have given to you.” And she turned to Jaco, her eyes glowing, and said, “Child of Argulan, remember this day. Lead the pilgrimage to the shrines every year, so that your people will respect the gods and the sacrifices we made so that you may live.” And Isishen turned and ascended into the sky, brightening until she outshone the stars a thousand-thousandfold, and the islands were bathed in light. And the light was named Isi, after the god who gave her life to create it.

           Thus, the Sacred Dream came to an end. His training complete for the night, Jaco would wake and journal all he had seen and heard, so Goh would know what to teach him next. He felt proud of himself, getting through the whole story with no distractions. Still, he had one question on his mind. The people of Tarran were human, yet neither planet had known of each other until recently. If they had lived so long beneath another sun, could Tarran be the home the Dream Shapers left behind?

           His mentor had warned him many times not to deviate from the path of the Sacred Dream, but what Goh didn’t know wouldn’t hurt, right? His decision made, Jaco leaped upward into the Shaper’s Path, speeding through the iridescent dust of the starry road. Around him spun scenes of cities, rivers, deserts, and strange vistas, all passing quickly out of sight. He kept going, all the way to the beginning of the Shaper’s Path, where the source of all things waited.

           His feet touched ground. He stood on bare rock in the shadow of a hill, orange light seeping over the shadow’s indistinct boundaries. Around him, grass and trees reached with charcoal black leaves toward the sun like starving hands. Was this what was left of the home of the Dream Shapers? Was this why they fled? At the top of the hill stood a young woman, the sun fringing her wispy white hair with an incandescent halo and painting an orange crescent on her pale cheek. Jaco was startled to see, beneath her blue tunic skirt, a sparkling bead of blood trickle down her inner thigh.

           A bestial growl made him jump. He whirled around to find a tan-furred cat slinking toward him, as big as he was, staring at him with carnivorous eyes. With a cry, Jaco ran up the hill, toward the woman. The chase seemed to last forever, his legs turning to lead. Surely the cat would be upon him at any moment.

           He passed through a pair of great metal doors embossed with flowing patterns. Finally, the top of the hill was in sight. He flailed his arms, trying to get the woman’s attention. “Run! There’s a . . . Get away from here!”

           As he broke the crest of the hill, he froze, the bottom falling out of his stomach. Above the horizon, the half-risen sun loomed like a mountain, a storm cloud, a gaping cosmic maw. Despite his feet planted on the ground, Jaco felt like he was falling, as if the very world itself were tumbling toward its fiery death.

           Something struck the back of Jaco’s leg, raking sharp pain across it and sending him toppling forward. For a moment, he saw the cat behind him, its paw glistening, before tumbling down the sunward side of the hill. The world spun around him, inky black grass cutting his arms and staining his clothes. At the bottom, he found himself on his back, looking up at a row of trees. They had no branches on the sides facing him, as if turning their backs in contempt of the intruder.

           Leaning up on his elbow, he froze. The cat prowled toward him, placing one paw slowly in front of the other. She crouched, her eyes glowing an embrous red.

           She moved. Instead of pouncing on him, however, she turned sharply, rearing on hind legs, one front paw above the other. With a blinding flash of crimson from her eye, Jaco gasped awake.

           Heart hammering, Jaco pushed aside the sweat-dampened blankets. It was still dark. He stood and approached the window to gauge by the stars how close it was to dawn. From childhood, he had been taught to identify the constellations and the stories behind them. He knew when during the year and what time of night each one could be found in the sky. When he saw the asterism shining brightly to the north, the question of time fled his mind. Ocatta, The Great Cat, reared up to the side, one paw raised above the other, just like the cat from his dream. But instead of a burning eye, the space between Ocatta’s ear and muzzle was dark and empty.

           He wondered at the meaning of the dream. It had been so vivid, surely it was a sign of . . . something. A warning about the Interstellar Summit? Goh would know. But then again, Goh had told him time and again not to leave the path of the Sacred Dream. Poking around unused corners would cause the manifest structure to weaken, and it would lose rigidity and become like any other dream. Maybe that was what had happened. He had gone into an empty place in the Sacred Dream, and his own mind and the spirits passing through his room had filled it in.

           Looking at the darkness where Ocatta’s eye would be, however, he couldn’t believe it was meaningless. Lights appeared and disappeared in the sky all the time—comets, spacecraft, shooting stars . . . Jaco would watch, so that when Ocatta’s eye began to glow, he would be ready for whatever he was meant to do.

© Christian D. Horst, 2024, christiandhorst.com