Eye of the Ocean Book 3 Ji'jin Station

Eye of the Ocean – Book 3: Ji’Jin Station
“Next, you'll start talking to yourself.”
He turned. She was standing behind him. The central mound of the world-altar
was only feet away, a dome of amber sand. The round of water that separated it
from them was clear and impossibly still. For all its apparent depth, it had no
surface.
“What shall I call you this time?” he asked.
She squatted near the water, hands hanging loosely between her knees. At the
edge, sand broke free from her weight and sank in the water without a ripple. He
saw the black shadow grains rise to meet the amber. “As many choices in a name
as there is in this,” she said.
And looked over to the mound of sand.
He closed his eyes against the layers of images, like disks stacked one on the
other.
“Which of them do you want?” she said. The shadow words rose up to meet
the ones he heard. Closing his eyes couldn't stop him from seeing what he was
creating.
A single Alisim world-altar. “Is it this?” Cassa said, a hand on his arm, he put
his over top. He thought he heard sympathy in her voice. Not one Alisim, but as
many as in the sum of the all the others. Alicia's was there, somewhere, and he
felt his heart go out to it. A memory of the child and the beautiful woman she had
become. The courage and the strength and the pride.
“Or this?” Cassa said. Zimmer. The tooth of the First Mother rose above him. A
mirsasitin called, answering his call of laughter at the beauty he saw there.
Feathers brushed his face and Cassa chuckled deep in her throat.
Then it was blue lace, not a spiral. A network of cracks in a porcelain surface.
A glossy white surface but the white was deep in the glaze, he could see the blue
lines from different angles, seeing it through the clear layers as well as straight
on. Under his hand, the surface was slick. It appeared flat, but he knew it had to
be slanted, the blood would run inwards. A shallow bowl, he thought, and the
image persisted even though he could see no sides, only an even plain that
stretched into the distance without change.
His feet didn't make a sound against the blue lace as he walked inwards. In the
center where the mound should be was a single skull. A giant fish. Rit ran his
fingers along the white bone. A surprisingly high arch for the dome of the skull. A
wide hinged mouth, the sharp teeth as long as his hand. Bits of dried flesh clung
to the surface of the skull, he hadn't noticed until a piece crumbled under his
touch. Gritty, salt dried, not rotted.
When he looked away, the promenade of the central Temple was there where
he had seen only a flat surface earlier. If anything, he would have expected to
see Lillisim, or at least more images.
Laurel Hickey www.2morrow.bc.ca