Chapter Three
Father
Prelude: Wrath
DIAMOND
The sun was dark in the astral plane. It stayed low in the sky, some part of it always dipping below the horizon as through perpetually setting. It burned around the rim like a great circle surrounding a void, and that bit of radiance that escaped the edges illuminated the astral plane in perpetual twilight.
"It's being eclipsed by the true sun," a familiar voice said beside me, "but the true sun doesn't shine in the world."
"Hi Arby!" I grinned at the little man. His eyes were orange surrounding green now, and I didn't doubt that mine were purple surrounding emerald.
"Hello Diamond," the old dwarf smiled, his kindly wrinkles sinking into his face. "It seems that you've found your way to your garden."
"Mother's garden," I mused, looking around the plush overgrown estate. It looked like it had been abandoned. Stone pergolas and gazebos were crumbling and entwined with vines, marble statues were defaced and laced with foliage, the earth had reclaimed what might've once been a great pavilion. "Or what's left of it, anyway."
"This is her gift to you," Arby said. "It is yours now. It is in rough shape, but you'll tidy it up in time."
"How do I do that?" I frowned at the decay around me.
"Just by living," Arby chuckled. "This is the plane of cognizance, Diamond; it is a thing of experience and memory. Right now, the vestiges of your mother's existence are diminishing to give way to your own. Look over there," Arby pointed to a well-trimmed shrub that looked entirely out of place, "that one's new. What is it? My eyes aren't so great, even here."
"My first blowjob," I said simply, looking at the bush trimmed to excruciating detail.
"Oh," Arby said, shifting beside me. My eyes drifted around the garden, where little bits of renewal were springing-up from the decay.
"If all of this is going away, does that mean I'll lose all the things Mother taught me?" I asked.
"No, those things are a part of you. What you see here is already dead. Your mind is just clearing real-estate for new thoughts."
"Mom sure had a lot of experiences," I mused, looking at the vast, derelict expanse of marble and foliage. There was even a palace in the distance, with the dome caved-in and vines spiraling the pylons that supported it. A procession of maple trees led to its classical entrance; whose columns were festooned with glowing mushrooms.
"That is where your mother's oldest memories were," Arby said. "That is the center of her realm. Over the millennia, her borders expanded with her expanding knowledge, and as you can see," Arby gestured over the grandiose spectacle, "her knowledge was vast."
My eyes wandered to the south, where the hint of a stone path could be discerned through moss. It led to a gate, whose iron bars and stone supports looked as new as anything here.
"Where does that go to?" I asked.
"That is the end of your realm," Arby said, "and it is firmly locked and shut for a good reason. You are untethered, Diamond; you must never venture from this place."
"I'm what?"
"Untethered. I can walk the astral plane with impunity because I have a safety-line back to the world of life. You have this realm, and in this realm, you are safe, but venture beyond the gate, and you will be exposed. The astral plane is not like the real world, Diamond; space and time don't follow the same rules. In the voids between realms seconds can be minutes, feet can be miles, and the gate you exited will not be there when you turn back. It's best if you just—hey, what the hell are you doing?!"
