Impossible Dreamers

Chapter 44 (mektwi-tag): The power of herelina

'There are many things that can be done with herelina,' said Karema, 'and once you understand the way it works in the world, you start to think of new things that you can do with it.

'Your Wise One, Piacho, was the first person to realise the power of herelina. He understood that it could interact with energies in the body in a way that could move people through space, with little regard to gravity, which is the force that keeps us attached to the planet from day to day. Put into a bracelet, the force combines with the power of the human body, enabling people to fly. This was an enormous, important discovery, and Piacho's incredible understanding here is something for which we all feel grateful. But we have had herelina for many years now, and we understand more about it than we did before.'

Karema looked around at her listeners. Each person in the room found themselves in the grip of her gaze. She had something of the ability that was so apparent in Ralkino. She could hold people's attention with a phrase, a pause, a look. She could make an announcement into a story, and the story would make people hungry to learn the next twist.

'Our Wise Ones also knew about herelina, but we had used it for another purpose. When we discovered that the herb could move people through space, regardless of gravity, this was a great revelation, though not one that we could make use of. But what we also knew was that herelina could move a person's gaze, without that person having to move their body. By consuming herelina, it was possible to see things that were happening at enormous distances. It was because of this that we knew what was happening in Seren-ila. Sometimes we felt that we were part of the world that you lived in. We followed the deliberations of your wise ones, and the showings of your young people. We rejoiced in your achievements, and sympathised with your disappointments.

'But we could not be seen or heard by your people. We thought of you as our brothers and sisters, but we were invisible relatives. Maybe we were long-lost cousins, though from a part of your family that was so distant that you did not remember us.

'Our use of herelina was one that Seren-ilians did not know. But it was a wasteful procedure. The herb had to be consumed, allowing a Shadowlander's vision to travel to a place distant from their body. Our Wise Ones used the herb to report on what was happening in Seren-ila, so that we were constantly acquainted with the goings on there. But having consumed the herb, it was only possible to do this for a short time. If we all continued in this way, the herb would all be used up before very long. Growing it was only possible in certain places very close to the Greblara mountain. We knew that it was much more plentiful on the Seren-ila side of the mountain, but we could only harvest it on our side.

'What Piacho's invention of wrist-flyers showed us was that properties of herelina could be used outside the body. Herelina could be combined with a machine, for that is what the wrist-flyer is, and in this way it could join with human energy to break through barriers in the physical world – or at least in the world we think of as physically fixed. If we could harness this power, we realised, we could travel to Seren-ila, even while the mountain spouted its smoke and ash, and be part of a world that we had come to love.

'We had worked it out. We managed it with small objects, moving them instantly from one place to another. We realised that distance was irrelevant. It was possible to move an object to the other side of the world, or even to a distant star, and it would make no difference to the amount of power, human or herelina, that was consumed. But the mass of the object – the amount of stuff in it – that did make a difference. Our machine was set to transport one person from the Shadowlands to Seren-ila. We would do it at a time when everyone in Seren-ila would see the miracle. I was chosen to travel. I was all set to appear alongside Ralkino as he told his story at the Festival of the Green Jewel.

'Perhaps it was because we rushed to have things ready for that occasion, or perhaps because there were things about transporting humans that we did not understand, but our plan did not go as we expected. Though we were sure we had set things as we had before with stones, pieces of cloth and wooden sticks, this time, with a human, the force in Ralkino's body affected the way things moved through space and time. The body must travel through a sort of tunnel, that is created in the very fundamental stuff of the universe. But we did not understand that for people, travel in some of these tunnels worked only in one direction. So, instead of me being transported to Seren-ila to stand alongside Ralkino...'

Ralkino completed the sentence: 'I was brought, piece by piece, to the Shadowlands, and found myself standing alongside Karema.'

Trentaya broke in, speaking to Karema. 'But why didn't you send Ralkino back? Surely you would just have had to do the reverse of what you had done earlier!'

'We would dearly have loved to do that,' Karema replied, 'but we had little herelina. Not enough to do this experiment safely. If we had managed to get to Seren-ila, we could have harvested more herelina and got all of our small population across the mountain. We could have used the machine we had made to explore the rest of the planet. Perhaps we could have gone to the moon, and returned. We might have been able to go to distant stars and their planets, but there would have been complications then to do with how we experience time.'

'What sort of complications?' asked Falera.

'Because of the way time works,' said Karema, 'anybody who travelled that distance would experience the passing of time differently from those who remained on earth. So even if they seemed to have been away for only a few minutes of their time, the time on earth when they returned would be many, many years into the future. They would return to a distant future world.

'So,' continued Karema, 'we apologise to the people of Seren-ila for taking your esteemed story-teller from his home. We hope we have treated him well and given him as comfortable a life as we can. We know it has not been easy for any of you, especially you, Trentaya ...'

'And our daughter, Liana, who has not seen her father for all these years,' said Trentaya.

Ralkino nodded, sadly.

'But I can tell you,' said Karema, that although you have not been able to see Ralkino, he has been able to see you. We had enough herelina to be able to witness what was happening in your land, and we made sure that Ralkino could regularly visit and see what was going on.'

'Yes,' said Ralkino, eagerly, 'I saw what happened in Seren-ila. I was there, and not there. Happiness and sadness flowed together as I followed what you were doing, without being able to speak a word to you. But I was there. I saw Piacho speak to the Counsel of the Wise, telling them that my disappearance had something to do with herelina, and that he must take responsibility for it. I shouted out to him that it wasn't his fault, but he could never hear me. I was there when Trentaya flew swiftly over every part of Seren-ila looking for me, not realising I was next to her. I was even there at the extraordinary showing with Liana and Herago. The showing that was interrupted by the arrival of the Bartys, who you thought would be new friends, but I knew.... I was even there as you set out to come here, though only for a short time, as our supply of herelina was needed for other things ...'

'Yes, yes,' said Jengara. 'We understand more now, but what we don't know is what we are going to do from now on? Will we ever return to Seren-ila? What will happen to our people?'

'We have more to tell you about the Bartyronians, and what we have to tell is not good,' said Karema, 'and for this reason, you cannot go to Bartyronis in the way that you planned.'

'Is there another way?' Trentaya asked.

'There is,' said Ralkino, 'but it will be some time before we are ready to make this journey. We need some months to gather more herelina.'

'How many months?' asked Mertingo.

'Until the birthday of the ruler of Bartyronis.' said Karema. 'If all goes to plan, we will all be able to celebrate that occasion.'