The Great Game 🎲 Vicino Prossimo
By the Light of Fractals 3
Sages & Priests
August 1, 2018
Talfar looked down at the crystal orb, and recited the ancient formula, passed down from the Fractal Sages of the Golden Hill. He recited from memory the following lines: “The only knowledge that can harm you is the one that’s hidden from you. Shine a white beam on the fractal’s colourful world, a microcosm in time, then let the beam continue on its path. A white line travelling in space across more fractals in time, through them, around them, across the Stream of Time itself into the Open Field.”
Half a million years ago the Two Empires also agreed not to interfere with the expanding Baulian Empire, which had taken over the Orange Hoop universe. The Baulians were completely unaware of life beyond the Great Triangle.
The expansion of the Baulians was tolerated by the Two Empires because it promised ecological viability. If the Baulians understood one thing, it was ecology. If the Baulians acted on one understanding, it was ecology. The free reign given to the Baulians was in no way a threat, however, since the Baulian understanding of fractals was so basic that they posed little risk of gaining real power in the Kraslika. The advanced species of the Kraslika — Vicinese, Fallarians, Blue Dreamers, Green Buzzers, Ataari, and Tarnese — operated at fractal depths the Baulians couldn’t fathom, either literally or figuratively. The only Baulian who understood the possible limitations of the Baulian Empire was Rablanar the Fractal Mystic.
The problem for Talfar and the highly-placed Vicinese officials was that the Baulians were in the process of conquering an outer region of the Violet Hoop which in all likelihood contained the Soul Star. Here, in the Local Void, mere megaparsecs from the Milky Way, the Soul Star was rumoured to float somewhere in empty space.
The Fractal Sages who constructed the Soul Star hid it so successfully that even the Vicinese didn’t know where it was. This was part of their plan, which may or may not have been part of some greater plan. In The Book of Fractals they wrote that they created the Soul Star so that the Vicinese could “retain the sacred knowledge” and “continue to pursue the finest fractals.” The Sages hoped that one day they might merge their selves along “the finest wavelengths and pulses,” arriving at last at “the Fractal Heart of God.”
Despite the fact that thousands of species had scoured the Local Void, the Baulians were unaware of the existence of the Soul Star. In Vicino Prossimo, the Golden Council asked the top security ministers, What if the Baulians stumble upon it? Or worse,“What if the Fallarians find it before we do?
Talfar looked down at his fractal orb. He took comfort in the idea that all conflicts would resolve themselves in the Stream of Time. Talfar believed in the Stream of Time and in the Open Field. He recited several lines from the Precepts section of The Book of Fractals: “In time, all time will circle back upon itself. All will be understood. All will be well.”
Yet from the depths of the Black Pulse, the Fallarians plotted and schemed. Knifesteam was laying a fine thread all the way from Fallar Discordia to Vicino Prossimo. It wasn’t clear whether he or his fellow Demon Priests had any principles whatsoever. Or perhaps their principle, Anarchy, was so powerful that it would take over the Kraslika, Soul Star and all.
Talfar looked down at his fractal orb. He saw a catlike creature slinking from one universe to the next, pouncing like a jaguar upon Planet Earth. This line joined the lines of the other females — felines he thought to himself — creating a colourful stream that flowed into the Atlantic Ocean and became a current. Just as he was beginning to see a way out, a clear line from this current to Dactalla, the fractal dissolved into the crisp air of the Golden Hill.
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Next: Attractions: Next: 🎲 One: The Water Damsel
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