The World Outside The Shell

Chapter 12: The End

The familiar comforting sound of the waterfall became a distant echo as time slowed to a stop. I watched the air shimmer until a flash of bright light transported me to another place.

Lady Ri said, “Welcome.”

The room was decorated with blooming flowers, with spare furniture and a similar size to the cottage inside my shell. I waited for my eyes to adjust as the white light of the sun pool faded.

Lady Ri said, “Of course, you are the first person allowed into my world.”

The walls were lined with wood panel shelves filled with scrolls. I looked for a window or door to the outside world, but there scrolls were stacked floor to ceiling

I said, “Is this your study? The place where you translate the maps?”

Lady Ri said, “No, this is home. The scrolls are a record of my time in this world.”

I said, “Where are you from?”

Lady Ri said, “I have no memory of life before awakening in this world. I think you are the same?”

I said, “Yes.”

Lady Ri said, “The world is my creation. I traveled around the known lands for over a thousand years, and everything in this place is a creation of my imagination, but also very real. I wanted another mind to enter this place, to challenge me.”

I said, “Am I real?”

Lady Ri said, “Yes! I tried for hundreds of years to bring another mind into this reality. The floods are caused by our competing worldviews. I need you to balance the forces of creation with a map we can agree on before a thousand years of history is erased from the scrolls.” She stepped close and pulled me into a long embrace, crying with the release of emotions.

I said, “So the world outside is your creation?”

Lady Ri nodded and pointed to the stacks of scrolls and pulled one down to share.

I said, “Are these old maps of the world?”

Lady Ri said, “The map I’m holding is the current landscape. I made mistakes when there was no other mind to challenge me.” She removed her cloak and stood casually in the center of the room, dressed in a simple travel outfit, without a royal crest or other signs of her status.

I walked around the cottage, opening scrolls and returning them to the shelves, while noticing how each world was a different landscape. I soon became frustrated and said, “Send me home. I refuse to live inside your dreams! I watched you command people from the first day I arrived in the marshlands. I will not be another mindless companion.”

Lady Ri said, “I cannot.”

I said, “Why?”

Lady Ri took my hand and said, “Because I am inside your dream.”

© J. Bateman

Concentrikey  © 2024