Chapter 2: Knowledge is Thought

Because I was sitting in as the Head Librarian at the Great Library this month, Ginny, Andy, Serenity and I were spending the month at the Montecristo station. Andy loved the beach, but for Ginny and I, being at Montecristo always reminded us of our honeymoon.

Andy and I were on the plateau behind the cliff top above the Montecristo station using the debris-strewn expanse to expand and strengthen his telekinetic gift when Eru's thought came in.

"Do you want to go meet Uncle Eru at the Great Library with me?" I asked Andy as we ran across the rugged and windswept plain.

"You bet!" He said with youthful glee. "Can we go have a buffalo burger and see Borthun and Yela after?"

"We'll see. Your Mom won't like it if I ruin your dinner. Here, catch!" I sent another piece of rock flying towards him. There were a dozen rocks circling him already.

He caught the rock with his mind and held it for a second before adding it to the spinning ring that circled around him. The new piece jostled its way into the ring, and it looked for a second as if it was going to settle in, but suddenly it faltered, and the smooth progression of the stones faltered, as stones began to wobble in their orbits, dipping down or straying out away from the rest of the stones.

"Ack!" Andy hollered suddenly, and the entire spinning ensemble flew apart before dropping to the ground around us.

"Not bad Son, but you're still running into the problem of trying to steer each stone like you were flying a model airplane." We stopped and I began pulling rocks and pebbles from the nearby area, adding them to multiple orbits around me. "That works fine when you're dealing with only a small number of objects, or your objects are all on linear or ballistic flight paths, but the secret to doing multiple orbits is to tell the object what to do in a way that lets it continue on without needing constant input."

I went from dozens of orbiting rocks to hundreds, until there was a blurry cloud of items whirling around me.

<Look in my mind Andy. Do you see how I do this? Do you understand why this works for me so easily compared to what you were doing?>

<Yes Dad.> Andy thought back after a while.

I let my cloud of debris drop to the ground around us.

"Good! On your next trip to the Garden, ask your teacher about orbital mechanics. Let's get changed and go wait for Uncle Eru and his guest."

The Great Library was an imposing structure, with a central round and domed building somewhat reminiscent of the Taj Mahal on Earth. Our building was a true cylinder, where the Taj was not, and our dome was not so imposing, nor did it have a spire. The slender minarets of the Taj were replaced by a single tower that rose a hundred yards to the South. The tower contained the living quarters for the staff. The Head Librarian's quarters were the top two floors of the tower.

After a quick change, and a stop by the beach to let Ginny know where we were going, I jumped Andy and myself to the Head Librarian's study. The room was lit with oil lamps, as most homes in Eruda were. Our lamps were not really using the local oil of course, but something much cleaner burning.

I was showing Andy the wall map of the 'known world' when Eru and his guest arrived.

"Well hello Andy, I wasn't expecting to see you today!" Eru said on arrival.

"Hi Uncle Eru." Andy said.

"Wow, that's some shortcut!" The stranger with Eru said with humor. I liked this man immediately. He reminded me of my dad.

"Laik, I'd like to introduce you to Dave McKesson. He is currently serving as the Great Library's Head Librarian. Dave, this is Laik Hulin, Meadow's only known natural telepath."

"Welcome to the Great Library Laik." I said, as we clasped forearms in the common manner on Meadow. "The gift that allows the use of that shortcut is what brought me to Eru's doorstep many years ago, and began a friendship that has lasted for many, many years now."

"Dave, Laik has shown his trust in me, and allowed me to enter his mind. I have read his thoughts, and seen his memories and I find him to be a perfectly trustworthy individual. He awaits an offer from me to return the privilege, but of course the secrets I hold are yours to give, not mine."

"Of course. Laik, will you extend that same privilege to me?"

"Dave, I've already come to the conclusion that finding you all is going to turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. Go right ahead."

I slipped into his mind, and immediately liked what I found. Here was an orderly and organized thinker with a desire to learn and a lifelong desire to find a place where he felt he belonged. A desire I saw in his thoughts that he felt he may have finally satisfied.

"Eru, I think we've found the man we've been looking for."

"I concur completely Dave. We will never find a better candidate than Laik." Eru said with a grin.

We spent a while just letting Laik talk about his life, and the different parts of Meadow that he'd visited. He really had been traveling most of his life.

"Laik, we enjoy surprises, so before Eru fulfills his promise to you, would you journey further with us?"

"I would be happy to. I have spent a good portion of my life looking for something that would surprise me. I suspect I enjoy surprises as much as you do."

<Blossom, I'm bringing company, are you dressed?> I sent out.

<We're fine. Ren and I are in the kitchen baking a pie for our dinner tonight. We made some fresh lemonade too if you'd like some.>

<Be there in a minute.>

"Laik, what do you think of our map on the wall there?" I asked, pointing at the map Andy and I had been looking at when they arrived.

"I am very much amazed by it, to be honest." Laik answered. "I've never seen a map that so completely covered the world in such detail. Most maps of the world that I've seen have blank areas, usually with 'unknown' or 'here be monsters' or some sort of superstitious drivel."

"I have another map to show you." As I said this, I jumped the four of us to the living room of the Montecristo station. The back wall of this room was covered with a complete map of Meadow, done in bas-relief from chromed steel.

"I met a man in the city of Hedera once, a mathematician and stargazer named Uris Peleka." Laik said, staring at the map. "He told me that he had done extensive calculations, based on what he had observed of the world and its movement within the heavens, and that based on those calculations the world should be more than twice the size of the world as men knew it. He would be amazed and very pleased to see this map."

"Perhaps we should go find him, and invite him to the library. We built it to attract minds like his." Eru said. "In any case, Here is the reality of the world, which we call Meadow."

"Why does the world need a name?" Laik asked. I knew he was anticipating my answer.

"Because it is not the only one."

We all stood staring at the map for a while, sharing in Laik's sense of wonder.

"Andy, mom says there's fresh lemonade in the kitchen." That sent Andy zipping off to the kitchen.

"Let's follow him. I'd like you to meet my wife and daughter while we're here."

We followed Andy into the kitchen, and I introduced him to Ginny and Serenity.

"Ginny, I have a job offer for Laik, do you have time to help me give him the company physical?"

"Can we watch?" Serenity asked.

"Yes sweetie, but if you have questions about what you see, ask your Uncle Eru. Your Dad and I will be busy." Ginny answered. "Lets all go back to the main room and get comfortable."

With all of sitting and comfortable, Ginny and I joined our minds and slipped into the full Light-fueled fusion we used for our medical investigations. With the familiar world washed away by the familiar diamond and silver version our Light sight rendered, we sent our senses washing through Laik's body.

Laik Hulin was an incredibly fit and healthy individual. We found nothing that needed correcting except for a slight bit of scar tissue that marked an old stab wound near his left shoulder blade. We quickly dissolved the scar tissue and pushed the memories of the healthy tissue into the Light signature of the surrounding cells, which quickly regrew the missing tiny bits.

"You, Mister Hulin, are an incredibly fit young man, and you have absolutely no health issues. There was a little scar tissue that probably caused a twinge now and then when you rotated your left shoulder, but we cleaned it up and let healthy tissue replace it. You shouldn't be feeling that twinge any more."

"Amazing!" Laik said, then he laughed and shook his head. "Somehow I expect I'll be saying that a lot in the near future."

We sat and talked, went swimming at the beach with the kids, had dinner and talked some more. Laik didn't know it yet, but he was acing his interview for the job of Head Librarian of the Great Library at Ureda.

That evening after the kids had gone to bed, reluctantly of course, Eru fulfilled his promise and Laik swam in Eru's thoughts and memories. He saw and experienced through Eru's remembrances everything that had happened since joining us, as well as Eru's own history as a Soul Diver on Taluat.

Laik cried, as everyone had at the remembered end of the Guardians, and at the return and passing of Aya, Kes and Beloth. It was only late afternoon in North Carolina, so I jumped us to the grotto and we all walked between the statues, and wept.

The next morning, Laik joined us for our morning meditation. We gathered in the main room, beneath the map we had been examining the night before. We sat together in a close circle, almost touching, as I preferred during my Spirit Master classes. We linked, and Eru gently pulled Laik into the link with us.

He had seen us linking in Eru's memories, but now he was able to experience it for himself. We slowly ramped it up, tighter and tighter until he couldn't stay focused, and fell out.

"Practice is required to be adept at the gifts. Once you begin your service as Head Librarian we will make sure to let the gifted there know to include you in the morning meditations. Tavi and Cuhi will both be delighted to assist you." Eru teased.

"Andy, please list for Laik the gifts as we know them."

"The gifts are those of thought and memory. We share our thoughts and join our minds." Andy recited. "They are sense and touch. We reach out to both the physical world and the world of thought. They are heart and soul. We share our feelings and our future, and strive to protect and promote those without the gift."

Andy stopped, but I sensed his desire to continue.

"Do you have more to add to that? Go ahead!"

"The gift is Light, and Light is life." He finished.

"Very good Andy!" Eru exclaimed.

<Precocious children can be a blessing.> I thought to myself.

"On Taluat, the world I come from," Eru continued. "people such as you and I were known as Soul Divers, and we once held a special place in the hearts of the people, for we offered guidance and knowledge and healing, even in the darkest of times. Those like Dave were known as Spirit Masters, and they were legendary as 'walkers between worlds', but they had long ago vanished from the world. Of course you have seen the reason why in my memories. Andy has just added to the standard Soul Diver recital the key difference between us and Spirit Masters. They wield the Light that flows between the worlds."

"Except this Spirit Master has figured out how to turn Soul Divers into Spirit Masters!" I reminded him.

"It is true. Dave has found the pathways in the brain where access to the Light lives, and he has been able to slowly free those pathways in a few of us. Ginny and myself and the twins Zaia and Riah Seco."

"And then there are the children!" I said, ruffling Andy's dark mop of hair.