The Life of Gaia

CHAPTER 22: Dépersonnalisation

They sat together on flour sacks and talked for as long as they could. After introducing themselves, Gaia and Zantas tried to explain to Alexis as simply as possible what had happened in his previous life, about Deep Reality and CURE, and about their journey to find him; he told them, frightened by the situation but at the same time eager to share with someone what he had experienced, about the Usine Vintage, about the Protestant sheets, about how he had felt a strange sensation at the sight of Gaia's picture on the factory screens, about Helix and Veir IV's project to apply an ancient mechanical process to defeat death. Words were barely coming out of concern, although he was thanking heaven and earth for allowing him to be able to confide in someone he perceived as trustworthy...especially after the betrayal of the very man who had dragged him into it.

His interlocutors did not need to ask him questions as far as he managed to be comprehensive - it was he himself, rather, who focused on a few points that might prove most important. In particular, he tried to recite in a low voice the strange phrase engraved in the room where he had found the last scroll of the Rebirthing Processus Technique as accurately as he could: "When the three elements come together in the fourth, the mechanics will have failed. The solution to the problem will be the force that unites them." He did not know why it had stuck with him so much.

Zantas found it very interesting, and squinted thoughtfully.

°Do you think the situation described by that kind of prophecy could be ours?° Alexis frowned and thought about it for a moment.

"I don't know, especially since I am not sure if the condition described occurred. On the wall were depicted a man, some kind of snake and an apple."

°And you who were present, you did not see any mention of these things, perhaps close together?°

"No, there were many men, and the apple...that was definitely there. But I don't seem to have se-" The boy's voice suddenly stopped on a detail in his recollection: the director's walking stick. What did its handle represent? "A snake with its jaws closed." But also, after all, what about that sneaky traitor he had helped? Couldn't he be considered a "snake"? Gaia saw him lost in thought and put a hand on his shoulder. The one suddenly looked around and to speak lowered his voice even more.

"I take back what I said: there were all three elements in the room." The flying sign made a sign of assent and turned to the girl.

°Gaia, if things are as they seem to be, then you will have an important task in this story. I thought about it many times, and now it is clear that the fourth element the writing speaks of is life: it is what unites the human, animal and plant worlds, but also the fluid you saw in the walls of the factory.°

She squinted her eyes as she assimilated the information; after all, it did not seem absurd to her that it fell to her to stop a manipulation of life. At that moment she remembered the vision of the pulsing white heart behind the giant face in the Usine Vintage, and told herself that this was the right time to clear her head. She described to Zantas and her brother what she had seen on that occasion, and while the boy struggled to imagine the absurd network of white veins, the flying sign remained impassive.

°What you saw was the life of something infused into a foreign object, exactly as Veir IV seems to have done. Not common, but not too rare in the universe either, you will see. What I find peculiar is its extent: are you sure it enveloped the whole factory?°

"Yeah, and not only that, it came from one source: the huge face on the wall. It's as if someone had infused their soul into the Usine." Somewhat bewildered, Alexis had tried to follow along as much as possible, but this last sentence brought out a suspicion in him.

"As far as I know, such a thing was done only one other time, two thousand years ago, when the founder was still alive. They talked about it during the Processus without saying how it was used." The other managed to complete the reasoning on her own.