Dream Spirits

Beneath the Pyramid Temple, the sea of Sun Cup flowers still bloomed as ever.

Polo, the child who had gone wandering out in the world, returned to the Kingdom of God, and as always it was Shelly who greeted him. The girl sat high upon the steps and watched him, letting out that familiar gurgle gurgle~ of blown bubbles.

There was no telling whether she was truly greeting him, or only crying out from boredom.

Out in the world, a great deal had happened. Some had died, the throne had changed hands, and for the trilobite men, one era had given way to another.

Even Polo himself had changed, and yet here, nothing had changed at all.

Time seemed to have stopped here. Some overwhelming power had cut the God-Given Land off from the outside world, splitting even the passage of time itself in two.

"Oh Great God, Polo is back."

God was not within the temple this time. Instead, he stood in the temple's side colonnade, looking at the relief Redlichia had once carved for him.

Polo did not know how many times God had already looked upon this same image. Once he had not quite understood it, longing only for what was new and unknown, and now he felt, dimly, that he understood a little.

Once he had someone to treasure, and something to treasure, those cherished memories became a treasure of his own.

Polo knelt on the ground and looked up at God. Never before had he been this quiet, watching God's face in profile without a word.

"You found the answer?"

God asked him.

A smile spread across Polo's face. "I didn't find the answer myself. Someone else told it to me."

"God, I met a girl, the very one I told You about, the one with the talent of a genius."

"Her name is Star. She's your priest."

"And now she's Queen of the Yinsai Kingdom as well!"

"Star perfected her Divine Technique of Consciousness Projection. And how to bring God down into this world, Star showed me the way to that too."

Polo waved his arms and danced about, like some orator.

"The strength of one person is a fragile thing."

"One person can't do it. But ten thousand? A hundred thousand? A million?"

"Star found the answer for me. She showed me that power has no end."

"If I can't do it, then I'll create a whole race!"

"A thousand of me. Ten thousand of me."

"All of them drawn together into one vast spirit realm, a dream kingdom able to bear the weight of God."

"Then You, God, would finally be able to descend into this world..."

As he spoke, his words gradually began to slow.

Polo sank into memory, thinking of someone, thinking of something.

God looked toward Polo, and Polo, lost in thought, noticed the gaze upon him.

"It seems this journey has changed you a great deal. That carefree white dream of yours has begun to take on color."

"Polo, what have you gained? And what have you lost?"

Polo lifted his head to God. "God!"

"I don't know."

"I don't understand my own heart."

But God told him, "You already understand. You just don't want to lose your freedom. You don't want to face the fact that you've grown up."

"Polo, everyone in this world loses something in the same moment they gain, and gains something in the same moment they lose."

"If you will give up nothing at all, then you are bound never to get what you want."

The wind blew across the sea of flowers and stirred up waves in it, and it lifted Polo's golden robe as well. He drifted on the wind above the sea of flowers, circling around God.

He loved the wind. He longed for it.

Just as he longed for freedom.

"The weather really is lovely today."

God stood at the center of the God-Given City, blanketed in Sun Cup flowers, like some star fallen from the heavens down to earth.

One after another, ribbons of white light spilled out from the deity's shadow, streamed up into the sky, and flowed out in every direction.

God looked at the sea of flowers swaying endlessly beside him, and spoke.

"Polo, what do you want to call your race?"

Polo seemed to have already decided, and said happily.

"Let's just call them dream spirits!"

"Spirits that wander through dreams, dreamlike spirits who guard the garden on God's behalf."

Such an ordinary name. It hardly suited Polo's character at all.

God asked him.

"Not a more impressive name?"

"Don't you want to name them after God any more?"

Polo remembered the conversation he had had with God back when he was only just born, and at once could not help bursting out laughing.

Even as he laughed, he shook his head.

"It was because I knew nothing that I was afraid of nothing."

"The name of God is far too heavy a thing. To speak in God's name alone can send thousands upon thousands of people to their deaths."

"Everyone waves God's name about for their own ends. Every single thing becomes God's guidance. Every choice becomes God's will."

"It's more than I can carry, and it isn't what I want either."

"I'm just a dream spirit, wandering a dreamlike sky of my own."

"All I want is the carefree ease of being on my own."

Having said this much, Polo suddenly paused.

Then he added one more thing.

"Maybe!"

"A few more friends could be nice."

God looked at Polo and said nothing.

At last, he had come to understand reverence.

God set a hand upon Polo's head. His golden robe shuddered violently, and then folded upward.

Ring after ring of dreamlike starlight spread outward, until it reached across hundreds of meters.

Polo's roots sank down and took hold in the earth, and he turned into one colossal Sun Cup flower, the head within its cup slowly, slowly closing its eyes.

The Dream Sovereign.

Fell asleep.

Polo scattered a portion of the mythical factors of his dream ability out into the sea of flowers, and at once, all through that dense-packed expanse of Sun Cup blossoms, changes began to show.

One after another, great dream bubbles rose up and enveloped each Sun Cup flower.

The golden blossoms folded their petals into buds, and within them, spirits of dream took shape.

One after another, seven or eight dream spirits were born in succession, scattered across every corner of that sea of flowers.

The buds bloomed open.

Small heads poked out from within the buds, gazing curiously out at the world.

"Hee hee hee hee!"

Peal after peal of giggling laughter filled the air above the sea of flowers.

The dream spirits let loose their own power, and the small patch of flowers nearby turned into a dreamlike place caught between dream and reality.

Once they had bloomed across the whole of the God-Given Land, perhaps together they would form one vast spirit realm, and by then, Yin Shen would be able to descend into this world through the very cracks between time and space.

The dreams of thousands upon thousands of dream spirits together would surely be enough to hold the will of God.

This place would become his greatest and most steadfast anchor point, in truth the very embodiment of his will.

Yin Shen looked toward that colossal Sun Cup flower, and spoke to him.

"Polo, you have done well. Better, even, than I expected."

Polo slept on with his eyes shut tight, and yet his voice carried out from within the dream.

"This is my promise. And this is how I repay You."

"It was You, God, who created me, and who guided the course of my life. You allowed me my mischief. You tolerated my offenses."

"Set beside everything You have given me, what I have done is a small and trifling thing."