Alia was always destined to reset the universe, to become the Hyperion and rewrite history. She achieved this with the help of the Kazi, and shortly after, she returned to the planet Eel with Kazi Fandral.
“It’s strange,” Frandral said as he navigated the ship from beyond the Banned Regions to Eel, a long trip made much shorter by the powers the Kazi wielded. “Since you reappeared after touching SoEl, I can’t stop smiling. It’s like something was bothering me that I forgot about and even though I can’t remember it exactly, I know that it was resolved. But most of me wonders why we had to travel all that way, just for you to meet SoEl.”
“It was predestined,” Alia said absently. She was in a kind of dream state, her memories were flashing through her mind like a flip book but instead watching a single scene progress, it was as if single images from many different flip books had been jumbled up and her mind caught glimpses of scenes from two different lives she had lived simultaneously. She remembered her life pre and post Hyperion and even though both of those existences had led her to the same point when she completed the Hyperion, they were very different experiences. The post Hyperion life revealed itself to her in the jumbled flashes of her memory. It was likely that she was the only being in existence who was still aware of life pre Hyperion and she wanted to be sure that her new memories wouldn’t crowd out the old ones.
“I see we finally made a Kazi out of you,” Fandral said with a soft laugh. “We will be back to the Dojo soon, prepare yourself for celebration, Alia. The Kazi are sure to be in the mood for it.”
When they arrived, the Dojo was in intense celebration already. Furry Kazi in gi and robes danced to music with heavy bass that made the plateau dance along. Alia wore the orange vest and pants with a navy blue undershirt of the Kazi, so she blended in well. They landed the ship and were greeted by cheers of Kazi who were eager to pat Alia on the back as she made her way inside the Master Dojo.
Alia was surprised to see the old head of the Kazi, Quail, dancing when she entered the Dojo, and when he saw her, he scurried over on all fours to greet her as fast as he could. He stood before her with a big smile, his furry body heaving up and down in exhaustion.
“Come with me!” he said gleefully and wrapped one of his furry arms around hers and led her through the now cheering crowd of Kazi in celebration. Quail slid a door open and closed it once she was inside. Fandral had joined the party outside.
They were alone inside of the small meditation room that was mostly empty, and the floor was cushioned.
“I remember,” Quail said. “I remember what was and what is, but everyone seems to only remember what is. What do you remember?”
“Everything,” Alia said. “We are at this moment thanks to two very different but similar pasts that converged at the moment of Hyperion.”
“It is a wonderful thing to experience the realization of prophecy,” Quail said almost dreamily. “But soon after the Hyperion, I was inundated with memories and I sought comfort in the Cavern of Tranquility. It’s helped to order my mind, and I think that you could benefit from time there.”
Alia knew of the cavern that was a short hike through the mountains from the Master Dojo, but she hadn’t actually visited it before. Most of her time on Eel had been spent inside the Dojo.
“Can we go now?” Alia asked, eager for tranquility amidst the revelry. “I’m glad that everybody is so happy and I want to be part of that happiness, but it would be good to get my mind right, and if you think the Cavern would help, I could use that now.”
They left the Dojo and Quail led Alia out into the Red Mountains. There was brown and dark red foliage along the rocky path they took that looked dry, but gave the pathway a different character than the plateau. There were high walls of the red mountains on either side of them and soon they came to a dark crevice in the rocky wall to their right that was small relative to the size of the mountain, but large enough for Alia and the Kazi to slip inside.
It was dark inside but Alia illuminated one of her hands and it glowed yellow-white, lighting the cavern in a circle around them as they moved inside. The walls of the cavern were smooth and reflected Alia’s light like red mirrors. The space opened around them as they continued inside and soon they were in a dark place with a soft red glow because of Alia that revealed they stood at the lip of a large stone colliseum with large steps of stone, like a large bowl carved into the cave with bleachers around the perimeter and something like an altar down in the center.
“Sit,” Quail said as he moved to sit on the lip of the top step. When Alia sat, he continued, “I will leave you to organize your thoughts. Be careful, Alia, this is a place of immense power. But if you only mean to sort your thoughts in peace then there is nothing to be concerned about. I would advise against the use of your mental abilities here, though.”
Alia nodded and they both sat in silence for a while. Alia’s eyes were closed and she felt her mind rushing through the past, ordering thoughts into proper sequence and sorting them into their correct tracks. When she opened her eyes again, Quail was gone, and a gentle fire blazed at the center of the coliseum below her. She saw the figure of a man sitting next to the fire and she slowly made her way down. The steps of the coliseum were about half her height and she jumped them easily as she descended.
“Hello,” she said to the man seated before the fire when she was in the innermost ring of the coliseum. The fire was even smaller than it seemed from the top step, and the depth of the center of the bowl was cooler than the cavern at the top step.
The man startled and jumped to his feet, turning quickly to face Alia.
“How are you here?” the man asked. “This is supposed to be a place of solitude. And I didn’t know there were other humans on Eel.”
“Me either,” Alia said. “I don’t mean to disturb you, I was just curious if you knew if the parties were still happening at the dojo. I’m not sure when Kazi Quail left, or how long I’ve been here, but I wanted to get back before everything dies down.”
The man looked at Alia with a look of confusion that teetered on anger.
“Kazi Quail?” he asks.
“Yeah, he brought me here because he thought it would be helpful. It has been, my head has been swimming since the Hyperion, but I want to party with everyone else.”
“I’m sorry,” the man said and his stance became more defensive. “Who are you? Why do you speak of Kazi Quail like he is still alive, and why do you wear the ancient colors of the classic Kazi?”
“Who are you?” Alia asked and she too became defensive.
“I am Ali,” the man said and he bent his right leg to settle into a fighting pose, “Ustulate, and Master of many ancient techniques. Are you an enchantress haunting the Cavern of Tranquility, hoping to prey on a distracted warrior?”
“I am the Alia,” she said confidently. “I am no enchantress, and Kazi Quail is alive and well. What color do you wear? No Kazi wears an all white gi.”
“I am a member of the Masters Guard, first human to achieve the ranks,” Ali said. He was very curious about Alia now.
“What is the Masters Guard?” Alia asked, and then she wondered if she had used her mental ability and this confusing interaction was the result that Quail had warned her against.
“Maybe that’s not important…” Ali said and he seemed to relax out of his fighting stance. “We both find ourselves here in the Cavern of Tranquility. What is bothering you, Alia?”
Alia didn’t feel threatened by the man, and there was no feeling of danger, so she shrugged.
“Why not?” she said to herself, then to Ali, “I worry that I am not a person anymore. I have done amazing things, I have spoken with an abstract of existence, and I have seen all of existence from a point of view that a human cannot. I think that my mind, my awareness, has dwarfed my personhood and there is no coming back from it.”
Ali nodded and his eyes went wide for a second. “You’ve seen all of existence?”
Alia nooded. “I saw the entirety of the universe in my mind, like they say God does. Does that make me god? I don’t want to be god. I just didn’t want aliens to invade Earth and enslave humanity, and a bunch of other shit happened to my family that set me up to be this Hyperion who would make the universe bright. It was a lot to put on me, but I soldiered through and came out on the other side. It changed me and my family is still gone, and my friends are scattered around the universe and I’m afraid I won’t be able to just do normal things. I haven’t been to a park that wasn’t a mental construct in so long I don’t even know what grass smells like anymore. I miss living with Clay and Ivan. It was so good to be with them, they were my family. But after everything, we’ve all been through so much, can we even have our life back?”
Ali nodded slowly. “I haven’t been back to Earth in a while, either. The last time I was there, I saved it from an alien invasion, so I get where you’re coming from. It’s crazy what we give up to keep the world safe but everybody looks at us like we’re so lucky for having powers. It’s like winning the worst lottery.”
“Preach!” Alia said.
“But we aren’t anything but human, Alia. No matter what we do, we were born on Earth. No matter if they’re still alive or dead, our parents had us on Earth, where they were from, and their parents. Nothing that happens to you in your extraordinary life can take that away.”
Alia nodded and she smiled. “That is true.”
“When you’re chatting it up with abstracts of existence, just remember where you came from. It helps to ground you. And your friends need the same thing. Y’all can ground each other.”
The conversation with Ali made her eager to return to Earth. She could practically feel the sun that shone down over Clay’s backyard and it made her happy.
“I appreciate that,” Alia said.
“You really don’t know the Masters of the Universe?” Ali asked. “The Bludonians?”
“I don’t think we call the same universe home,” the Alia said, shaking her head.
“Do the Pito exist in your universe?” Ali asked.
“I haven’t heard of them either. What are they?”
“A mystery to everyone in my universe who I thought might know. But I won’t bother you any longer, Alia. I think that we have done what we came here to do.”
“I won’t forget you, Ali Ustulate, master of many ancient techniques. I wonder if we will meet again?”
“If we do, I pray it is as tranquil as this meeting has been.”
Alia left the Cavern of Tranquility, and soon after she eagerly departed Eel for Earth.
PRL Serials 