Chapter Twenty One - In Limbo
Project 86Chapter Twenty One - In Limbo
She had been sitting there for what felt like hours, but most likely mere tens of minutes had passed. Like Url had told her, she had been focusing on Sooyoung, on the geysers of light that now with lessening intensity burst through the black ground. Right at the edge of her mind there were hands that were reaching out. She could feel that her consciousness was stretching out of her body, and that she was picking up a scent; possibly the scent of Sooyoung. But no matter how hard she concentrated and tried, she couldn’t grab onto it. She couldn’t fully leave her mind and follow further out into the void. Her mind was still locked.
Url sat patiently beside her, unmoving and quiet. Since Yoona had started concentrating it hadn’t said a word to her but observed the increasing frustration building up in her and could see this pasted on her face. With what looked like one final push Yoona relaxed her face, defeated.
“I think I can feel something, a little tickle. But I can’t get a hold of that feeling, I can’t grab onto it.” Yoona opened her eyes and looked at Url in frustration. “This is impossible without a teacher.”
“It isn’t impossible. Almost everybody learns it on their own, however it is over a long period of time, usually years. You are trying to relearn it in a fraction of that time.”
“We need a shortcut,” Yoona huffed before sinking her cheeks further into her palms. The earlier determination had started to dwindle away as she felt that no progress was being made.
“There is one thing we can try. It can possibly get you into the dream world. You would have to find yourself down to your world from there.”
Yoona perked up but then glanced at Url with confusion painting her face. “I thought the dream world collapsed to our reality and they are one the same.”
“It has. However the Anchor of the dream world is still in place and there is a method we can try that can possibly get you out of here to the Anchor. You can get better assistance from there to reach your own reality.”
“Anchor?”
“When the dream world first came to existence it was as it was, but without an Anchor. The first time it collapsed a person of great skill and power restored it and became the first Anchor. The dream world has collapsed a great many times and there have been many Anchors’. The Anchor holds the dream world in its place, separate from the reality of the earth. But even with an Anchor with enough disruption and destruction the dream world can be collapsed again.”
“So when the dream world collapses you require a new Anchor?”
“Sometimes, usually not. There has been approximately one Anchor for every four collapses when averaged out over the eons. There has been two collapses during the current Anchor’s existence that have been saved. If the Anchor is still in existence during the collapse, there is a chance to recover the dream world without a new Anchor. You only need a person of great power to assist the Anchor to re-establish the dream world.”
“So that means there is still a chance to turn this around with the Anchor?”
“Yes. The current Anchor is still there. The Anchor is both a person and a place in the dream world, and that place is still there at this moment.”
“Soooo… this Anchor person can help me with my powers?”
“Yes.”
“Do they have the same powers?”
“They did.”
“Did meaning they no longer do?”
“Yes.”
“How will I find this Anchor? Will I be transported to them?”
“Yes. The Anchor is a person but also is the place. The location and person are both one and the same.”
“So as long as I get to the Anchor I… I will find the Anchor?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it’s worth a try. What do we have to do to get there?”
Url stood up and for a moment Yoona swore she could see Url frown with worry but dismissed it as her imagination.
“Do you remember how you got here?”
“I… don’t know how I did it.”
“Not how you did it, but what lead to your appearance here.”
“There was a fight and I think I was attacked and then… just blank.”
The massive glaive of Url appeared in its hand.
“Yes. You were in mortal danger and your power manifested itself to preserve you.”
“Ahh right… yeah. Why?”
“Even though I am incapable of emotion I have enjoyed your stay here. You have been my favourite anomaly. I apologize for what happens now.”
Before Yoona could articulate a response she saw Url’s glaive swing back and then strike down towards her. With barely a squeak or scream of surprise she fell back from the rock she was sitting on, the glaive striking the stone and cleaving it clean in half.
Yoona scrambled backwards further into the woods. “What are you-“ Url’s glaive interrupted her sentence and she ducked her head as it cleared right above her head. She barely managed to look back up as it once again barrelled down at her. There was no way for her to move out of the way and she lifted her arms in an attempt to block it.
Then a flash.
It pierced the sky and ground illuminating her surroundings and she could finally see what the forest looked like around her, but only for a split second before it was too bright to look and she closed her eyes.
As fast as the piercing light had arrived it disappeared and the overbearing shine no longer crashed against her closed eyelids. She placed her hands down on the ground and couldn’t feel the mossy ground under her. Instead she got a fistful of sand.
Opening her eyes she was greeted with a sandblasted wall, coarse and rough. She stood up cleaning off the bits of dust gathered on her pants and looked around her. She was in an alley between two similar buildings, both of them approximately two stories high and appeared to have a flat roof. To her right she could see the clear sky and in the distance a lake, and soon enough one person walked past the entrance to the alley. Then another. There was a busy street there with people actively walking by, people with darker tanned skin and men not wearing any shirts on.
She made her way towards the entrance of the alley one hand touching the wall as if to give her some sense of reality to where she was and soon she stepped out into the light. A vast view opened up with water far ahead of her and buildings in between, dotted by greenery and trees here and there. All the buildings in her immediate vicinity were similarly sandy looking with flat roofs and not very high. She was clearly on a hill that overlooked a city.
People were walking past her and none of them were bothered by her appearance even though with her attire and features she stood out. Most people wore simple white clothes wrapped around their waists, the men topless and the woman covered with another cloth over their upper body. They had dark tanned skin that had been worn out by the sun and their features were very different to hers. They were clearly somewhere from the sub-Saharan or North African region.
Yoona was unable to understand what language they were speaking. The families and friends walking past talking to each other were utterly unintelligible to her and she wondered if there was any way that she could make meaningful contact with her. She wanted to ask someone where she was or if anybody could help her, but she wasn’t sure if anyone could understand her.
After people watching for a minute or two while gathering up her courage, she spotted what looked like a friendly looking elderly woman walking with a younger woman and her kids. They seemed approachable. Pensively she walked over to them and although they didn’t pay attention to her as she approached them from the front, much like everyone else ignored her, she decided to try establishing contact.
“Excuse me? Can you help me?”
The family stopped and looked up at her. The first people to acknowledge her existence.
“Do you know… Anchor?”
The kids, a young boy and a girl both in white linen and thatch sandals, ran up to her and took Yoona by the hand gently pulling her. The elderly woman smiled at Yoona as the mother of the kids motioned to her to follow and began walking forwards.
And she followed. She allowed them to take her and lead her through the town. They walked down the hill towards the lake in the centre where people of all ages dressed similarly in white linen clothing crowded the roads. The further down the hill they went the more crowded it got, the higher the buildings rose. Eventually sandblasted rough brown buildings were turning into white buildings, now three to four stories high leading to the bank of the lake.
There was a path that rounded along the banks, palms lined the road and white marble paths guided them along the waterside. Further along their path Yoona saw a harbour with huge towering storage buildings lining the immediate waterfront with massive sail ships parked at the harbour. More and more people appeared but everyone seemed happy, everyone was well behaved and walked along the roads.
Reaching the harbour there was a causeway that lead up a hill and through the high hills that surrounded the lakeside. They began walking up the hill, along this huge wide causeway that appeared to be the main central road of the city leading out from the harbour.
Eventually cresting the hill a view of a huge valley opened up behind the hills. The causeway continued down into the valley straight as an arrow for miles. Lush canals and fields dotted the valley far and wide, huge buildings of white shining in the sun, and beyond all these following the causeway were three massive pyramids. Painted white with golden tops, they shined brighter than anything and dominated the skyline at the other end of the valley. The view was out of her world.
The family kept leading her down the causeway, but before they had completely past the high hills that ran along the valley edge, they turned right off the main road into a smaller side road. The houses became shabbier but still presented them with an amazing view. Eventually they reached a rundown brown building that jutted out of the side of the hill. Out from here you could see a fourth pyramid, this one still in construction. She was guided behind the building up through steps to a roof and at the edge of this roof, against the magnificent backdrop of a lush green valley and huge pyramids and monuments of splendour, stood a man.
Much like everyone else he had white linen clothes and was shirtless. He wasn’t particularly muscular either and his sandals and waistcloth appeared to have had better day’s ages ago. The children let go of Yoona’s hand and the mother motioned with her hand towards the man. Yoona looked at her for a moment before bowing and thanking her and the family. She replied with a gentle smile and tiny bow before the family turned around and walked off leaving Yoona to stand on the roof with the man.
He had paid no attention to Yoona who wondered if she should just walk up to him directly or first make herself known to him. She decided the latter.
“Excuse me? I… I asked for help and this family brought me here. Are you the Anchor?”
The man turned around. Tanned and with a few scars on his face, he was a rather young man, couldn’t have been older than thirty years or so. He had short black hair and a rather large nose coupled with high cheekbones giving him a very generous and authentic smile. He motioned to Yoona.
“Yes I am. Come here please, I’ve been waiting for you.”
With apprehension Yoona made her way towards the man as he turned back around to look at the view in the valley.
“Magnificent isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
“The view,” the man glanced sideways as Yoona reached his side. “My name is Sinuhe, I’m the Anchor and this, well this is also the Anchor.”
He chuckled at the notion before looking back out towards the construction site of the fourth pyramid.
“Nice to meet you Sinuhe, I’m Yoona.”
“You must have many questions, please ask and I shall answer what I can.”
“Why does it look like ancient Egypt?”
It was the first question that popped into Yoona’s head. The further she walked in the more it resembled what she imagined it looked like, and the final nail in the coffin had been the sight of the huge pyramids. The paintings and images she had seen looked so similar to it and no matter how she looked at it she couldn’t shake the idea.
Sinuhe laughed once again, his high cheekbones bringing out his smile even further. “That’s a good place to start. It will actually lead well into another explanation. What do you know about the Anchor?”
Yoona shrugged. “I only just found out that it is what keeps the dream world from collapsing. Url didn’t really tell me much.”
“Ah yes, Url is a being of few words.”
“You know hi- uhm, it?”
“Yes I met Url once a long time ago. Come, let’s walk down to the valley. I shall explain it all to you.”
Taking the lead Sinuhe departed first and the two made their way down off the roof and down a narrow passageway that lead them out of the hillside and to the foot of the hills to the edge of the valley. There were gardens and fields that spread in vast arrays across them and she was lead down further towards a straight marble road. It was only a few metres wide and it was lined by narrow canals with boats slowly drifting by.
“The Anchor is what keeps the dream world in place, you are correct. The reason that it looks like this what you call Ancient Egypt,” Sinuhe laughed a little at this notion,” is that I created it like this.”
“You created it to look like this?”
“Yes. Of course for you that happened thousands of years ago but for me it was my present day. I created the Anchor to look like the world I lived in, what I knew and was comfortable with. This place and I are the one and the same. This Anchor is part of me as much as I am in it. I lived in your Ancient Egypt during the reign of the great defender Ramesses III.”
“You… lived back then? So you are thousands of years old?” Yoona asked eyes wide with surprise. Everything got weirder the deeper into the rabbit hole she went.
“Yes I would be. Or am. But technically I’m not alive so I don’t know if it counts,” Sinuhe chuckled once again. It had been a long time since he last spoke with someone from the outside.
“I stopped the catastrophe that was the dream world’s collapse that happened back then. It was a huge catastrophe that impacted multiple kingdoms. It almost completely brought the civilizations as we knew them back then to ruin and because I became the new Anchor I got to decide what my residence was going to look like, what the Anchor and the general dreamscape looks like. That is also why the dream world looks like a huge desert.”
“Ohhh, that’s why. Sooyoung said they had no clue why it was so, just that that’s how it has always been.”
“Always is a relative term,” Sinuhe smiled, “in your lifetime it has always been like that. It looked very different before I became the Anchor.”
“Can you see what is going on in the real world?”
“No, unfortunately not. However, I can see what happens in the dream world so I have glimpses of how the times have changed and what has happened in history. I know of the rise and fall of Alexander of Macedon, Rome, The Mayans, Byzantium, the Mongol horde. Discovery of the New World, the technological golden ages of the India, Islam, the not so dark Dark Ages, Renaissance, flying to the moon,” Sinuhe glanced at Yoona noticing her intensive stare. She was hooked and followed his every word. “So I haven’t been completely blind to everything even if I’ve had to gather and piece everything together from the muddle that is a dream.”
“Amazing…” Yoona gasped. She couldn’t believe just how much Sinuhe would have experienced living thousands of years. Being able to gather and follow mankind’s journey through the ages, even if indirectly, was something Yoona found fantastically fascinating. The amount of times she had wished she had a time machine to travel through the history and ages, Sinuhe had done that in a sense.
The two walked for a moment in silence towards the massive pyramids being built far away, the afternoon warming their faces and a light breeze helping with the heat, which could be felt but never burned on their skin. Yoona wanted to ask more but was having a hard time finding the right question to ask and Sinuhe sensed this.
“What is it you wish to ask?”
“I… I don’t know? The direct question at least. I just need help. To get down,” Yoona stumbled over her sentence trying to gather her thoughts and focus. “Url said you could help me with that. To unlock my powers?”
“Ah yes, I can assist you with that. It is a pretty simple exercise, although it will be extremely taxing on your mind…” Sinuhe’s eyes darted to the pavement sliding his sandals across the surface. He didn’t like what he would have to do.
“What is it? How do I unlock my powers and get down?” Yoona had perked up with excitement. Finally she could do something. Finally she could be of use and get down to help her friends, maybe help with this disaster that was unfolding.
“I need to simply make you remember again. Remember everything you are and everything that has happened to you. Recover all the lost memory you have,” he said looking back at Yoona, his eyes now creasing further with concern.” The recovery is the easy part, but it will exhaust your mind extensively with a minor risk of… breaking it.”
The excitement and bounciness that Yoona had just felt died down very quickly. She stopped walking and stared and Sinuhe. Sweat falling down, with her body shaking ever so slightly and a quiver in her lip she was scared. Biting her lips to stop the quivering and squeezing her hands into a tight fist she renewed her resolve. There was only one way out.
“It’s okay. I can do it.”
“Alright then, follow me here.”
Sinuhe turned to his side and next to the canal was a little alcove and grove with a fountain and plants that shaded it from the sun. Yoona hadn’t noticed it walking up the road, it could have just as well appeared at the will of Sinuhe.
The two walked in and sat down in front of the water fountain that had a statue pouring out water from various pots and utensils. It was an image of what Yoona assumed was an Egyptian god that she couldn’t recognize, not that her knowledge of the Egyptian pantheon was particularly good anyway.
“I will open all your memory channels and your mind completely so that you can remember everything from your life, this will also unlock your power. However, remembering so much so suddenly is extremely risky and taxing on your mind and it can be difficult for you to piece your memories together. If I could I would rather open your memories in short segments, but it is more of an all or nothing kind of operation unfortunately. So before doing all that I would like to tell you of the previous collapse.”
“Does that help somehow?”
“I think before I open your memories, giving your mind a focus – on this event, the collapse, me and the previous Anchor, should help your mind to focus once the floodgates are open and your whole life pours in at once. Maybe it can help you channel it correctly.”
“Okay…” Yoona breathed in deep breaths, cold sweat forming on her brow and the quiver on her lip returning once again. She could do this. She had to. For Seohyun, for her new friends, the whole world.
Sinuhe put his hands on Yoona’s shoulders and her eyes snapped back at his face. The most gentle smile Yoona could ever have thought to exist beamed at her and she felt the calm wash over her. She returned the smile nodding that she was ready.
“So who or what was the previous Anchor? What were they like? And what was the previous collapse like?”
Sinuhe looked away from Yoona up into the sky. His mind began to wander searching for the memory that was far off, thousands of years old. One that he had not thought about for ages since but one he could never forget. He turned back to look at Yoona moving his hands from her shoulder and placing his fingers on her forehead. She recoiled slightly but then relaxed under Sinuhe’s touch.
“I unfortunately didn’t have the privilege of knowing the previous Anchor for long. Her name was Chimalmat and she was a force of nature. Let me show you.”
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