Dream Walker✔️

5.5

A couple of men—one a borin, one an emerald kapi—in scarlet robes stood at the base of the altar, speaking to a group of what looked like relatively young, maybe high school-aged, tourists and a couple of gray-furred adult borins. We joined the group beside an older man in a suit operating a large, boxy camera on a tripod. He had a curtain of fabric thrown over his head and the back of the camera as he aimed it at the telescope over the altar.

"Can anyone tell me what they think this is?" the kapi priest asked. He waved his upper arms at the altar, then at the telescope above.

A young borin man answered in a pretentious voice, "The oldest focuscope in the country, used to sacrifice livestock to the great goddess Friwa for hundreds of years before someone finally got a clue that giving all your food to a giant lizard is a dumb idea."

One of the older borins, a stern-faced woman who was obviously a teacher, clapped the boy over the back of the head. "This is a sacred place to many. Show some respect.

"What for, a bunch of idiots that've been dead for centuries?" He jerked his lower hands at the priests. "Even they can't believe in super smart magic lizards."

The teacher raised her hand to smack him again, but the emerald kapi shook his head. "No, let him speak. We invite debate here."

To the student, he said, "A'ka vi, my young friend. All members of the SPD hold a deep-seated belief that dragons not only were powerfully magical and intelligent in the past but also continue to exist among us today. This is a belief supported by fact; labs across the country have studied draconic artifacts with impressive qualities that even our most advanced science cannot replicate, and we hold one of these artifacts here."

He nodded at the focuscope. "This device gets hotter than any mirror-based focuscope."

The student scoffed. "It's just Primacy tech, not magic. That's why our science can't explain it; it's just too advanced."

I rolled my eyes in time with the kapi's amused chuckle. The Primacy Era was the time when Mystica was free of all sentients except dragons, back when the Lenarian colonists still lived on their home planet, before it had been rendered inhospitable by countless nuclear wars. When refugees from the wars fled to the stars and landed on Mystica—or rather, crashed on Mystica—the sun's constant radiation rendered their technology unusable. Then it mutated the Lenarians, turning them into the borins and kapis and voidcats of the modern day. Apparently, it also mutated their brains, because how else could someone be so dumb as to think Primacy tech could work on Mystica for centuries without some kind of huge workaround to account for the solar radiation?

The emerald kapi said nearly as much, albeit more politely. "You should also know," he added, "that years of study have yet to come up with a way to shield Primacy tech from solar radiation. So, logic suggests that this focuscope shouldn't work." He moved behind a velvet rope around the altar and twisted several knobs on the side of the focuscope. "But I assure you, it does. Anyone who would like to view the demonstration, I'll ask you to put these on to shield your vision." He waved at the borin priest standing near him.

The borin priest disappeared behind a podium of levers and knobs behind a stone half-wall, and he came back with a box of dark-lensed glasses. As he handed them out to the watching crowd, the emerald kapi continued to speak.

"Even when viewing the demonstration through normal lenses or a camera, the power of the light can cause serious eye damage. Anyone worried about the risks, step outside now before we close the doors."

The borin priest walked by us, and I took a pair of glasses, nodding at Aster to do the same.

"Put them on," I murmured in English, "and try not to look directly at the telescope thing or the altar. I'm not sure how safe these safety glasses are, and I'm pretty sure we're about to look directly at the sun."

He hurriedly put the glasses on and shielded the gaps around them with his hands. I moved forward so I could get a better look at the altar. I didn't think I needed the glasses to protect myself, but the keen eye of the emerald kapi landed on me.

He cleared his throat, obviously looking at me over the tops of his dark glasses. "I repeat, anyone not wearing the protective glasses will likely go blind within the next five minutes."

Fine, it was probably better safe than sorry anyway. I put on the glasses. They instantly made the room so dark that I couldn't see anything but extremely dim shadows moving about. I looked over the top of the glasses to see the borin priest finishing his rounds back at the podium in the corner. He pulled a lever, and the main doors to the building slowly closed with a low rattle of gears and a final thud as they came together.

The emerald kapi slithered down from the altar and paused between me and the nearest column. "Everyone stay beyond this point. In addition to the brightness, this focuscope generates a large amount of heat."

Everyone shuffled back, some much farther than others. I stayed at the front, determined to get a good look at whatever came out of the focuscope.

The emerald kapi leaned closer to me, arms crossed as he whispered, "Don't get any ideas. You're not stronger than the sun, and no one's ever ascended to Paradise by blinding themselves or setting themselves on fire."

"What're you talking about?"

He flicked out his hood, showing the lime green scales on its underside. "I've witnessed multiple fools attempt to throw themselves into the focuscope's ray, claiming it was 'Friwa's will' or some other such nonsense. You have the same look in your eyes as they did, and if you attempt to follow in their footsteps, I will be forced to incapacitate you." He flashed his fangs at me.

"Don't worry. I have no intention of dying today." I edged away from him and looked back at the altar.

"Start the focuscope," he called, "in ten... nine... eight..."

The crowd murmured in anticipation. As the countdown neared its finish, more gears clanked in the ceiling over the focuscope. I glanced up over my glasses at the hatch in the ceiling. A crack of sunlight appeared as the hatch split in two and slid apart.

As soon as sunlight hit the focuscope's largest lens, the room went white. I saw it unfiltered by the dark glasses, and it was brilliant. It wasn't just white; spots of yellow and red flared at its center, flew off to play across every brick and column. It was only a sliver of light at the top of my glasses. I ripped them off  and pushed my hood back so I could see the light in its full glory.

It was radiant, and it called to me. I knew I shouldn't reveal how much I wanted to touch the light at its source, but I couldn't resist the call. My feet moved against my bidding. The light grew closer. Brighter. It was warm and welcoming, a murmured call in the midst of a cold, cruel world. It could heal me, wipe away every trace of the piranhas' poison. Everything I needed was right there, filling the room with power.

The light sung to me. It would bring me home again. I would see my family and sleep in a warm bed with no fears of dying in my sleep. It was right there. All I had to do was reach it.