…and stepping through the rift, with just a glance back. His glowing, sparkling form still undeniably shaped by his perception of the lanky, lovable lug that he was, turning just once to her.
And she heard it in her mind.
… not forever. Bring me back.
And then her cry of loss and helplessness cut through the air. She ran toward the rift, but several sets of hands caught her just in time, before the blast of heat and the surge of energy sent them all reeling back in a heap, dazed, singed and bruised.
Helpless amidst the bodies of those she loved. Caleb, Orlando. The children.
All so close and yet a universe away.
36
The tree, magnificent, scintillating and dazzling, was anything but a tree.
Caleb understood that fact. Understood it, just as he understood that he was no longer a being of matter, a thing in any sense of the word. He and Raiden were pure consciousness. Contained in a finite space, perceived by themselves and others as localized humanoid presences, but really nothing more or less than infinite thought, projected as energy or something just as indescribable and foreign in this other place beyond reality, beyond anything but the mind.
The tree loomed over them. Immense. Cosmic. Godlike in its intricacy, its countless branches, thriving golden leaves and kaleidoscopic hues defying definition.
Vines, shimmering in some indescribable multi-colored spectrum, oscillated over Caleb and Raiden, and now that he noticed, now that his ‘eyes’ adjusted, he could see that there were other forms attached to those vines.
Six other forms and two smaller ones, there in the center, nearest to the trunk. Glowing redder than the others, as if feeding off the tree, or being fed. Consuming lifeblood and having it course through them. The vines seemed to be attached at the heads, in what would have been a grotesque visual but instead seemed more like a natural biological-cosmic normality. Like an umbilical cord directly down the throat, enabling direct consumption of the infinite knowledge contained in the bits and bytes and 1s and 0s and cosmic interdimensional cells comprising the matter of the Tree of Life.
The Tree of Ultimate Knowledge.
It was Raiden’s voice, amplified and resonating along with pulses in his form, right beside Caleb. You’ve come full circle from the arrogant youth. The Fool of your precious Tarot, but unlike the Gnostic mystics throughout the ages who have sought for this, you have succeeded.
Caleb shuffled forward, only he knew it was more like hovering — floating and being drawn forward by the power of his mind. Or the pull of the tree, like a gravity well sucking him toward it.
You’ve felt the attraction all your life. From the first book you read, to the first time you asked your father why something was the way it was. Why the world was the world. Here, Caleb. Here are your answers.
Two vines approached like snakes, sinewy and even vibrating with a hissing-like sound, and their ends grew and swelled crimson, almost bursting with flavor, with an irresistible scent of mouthwatering fruit.
Are we supposed to take a bite? He thought, but it came out louder, reverberating. He cringed, as the other forms in here shuddered and writhed in his direction.
He wondered if the whole thing was sentient, and the snake-vines were just the holographic extensions of the whole mind-consciousness. He felt the temptation again, seeing the vine-fruit, hovering closer. Raiden’s form extended, pulling toward the fruit like a mask stretching in the wind.
Don’t hold back.
He saw his hand — a collection of particles and waves, and when he looked closer he could see images on the ‘skin’: memories from this and countless lifetimes flourishing in his mind-flesh. And in the fruit itself: a compelling array of loves and lovers, of friends and foes: their very essences appealing to be absorbed, touched, consumed and understood. He could join with his father, with Mom, with Lydia. They were all there, and the aching need to be with them surged. Not just a need, but a full wholehearted joy at a reunion beyond anything physical or temporary.
This was infinite.
This was forever and ever, and nothing would ever be the same.
No going back.
Not sure if he said-thought it or if that came from Raiden, but it was there. The others had gone back to their absorbing. To downloading or uploading. To becoming or assimilating.
And that was it, Caleb thought, as the fruit edged closer, as he touched the vine and his fingers trembled with the energy and vibrational power from the tree. A shudder from it, or from him, or from the eight other forms balanced here on the edge of forever.
Not just eight, he realized, as Raiden pulled the fruit closer to his maw, extending now and flashing with crimson teeth.
One more. A new arrival… had to be right behind them.
A familiar form. Lanky and thin, reminding him of a cartoon character, a friend of a talking dog.
Orlando?
The name itself called to mind something so ordinary and banal. Drew him careening away from the eternity at his fingertips, even as the form itself rushed headlong toward the massive center of the radiating, glowing trunk. Toward the two smaller crimson figures.
If they too noticed this newcomer, they showed no signs. They continued in their symbiotic feeding: taking and giving in return. As if their connection to the tree rejuvenated it, powered the vines, heated the sap, and invigorated the cells like some direct connection to photosynthesis.
Orlando got there in a blink, but in the next instant the vines reacted. Swooping in, encircling him, pinning back his arms, entwining tight around his body, right up to his neck. One of the fruit-bearing stalks rose from the center glow and approached his face.
Glorious, Raiden whispered. He spread his arms as the two stalks hung above them, and the crimson bulbs ripened.
Something’s wrong, Caleb thought. The twins. The others, can they even disengage?
Why would they? came the haughty response. They’re becoming one with Everything.
And how long does that take? Caleb wasn’t sure, but an image of a computer screen surfaced in his thoughts somewhere, with that little progress bar showing the download speed and time left. Shouldn’t take this long, no matter how massive the download.
Doesn’t matter, we’ll find out now.
Maybe we — you — should wait. See what it does to them.
The glowing face turned to him, and the colors swirled and fused into a mask of anger. Why? That sounds very un-Crowe like. Your father would not approve.
Something in the vine flickered and again he saw his dad’s face. And instead of shame, it brought a smile to his core.
It’s time, Crowe, Raiden said. You and I, we’ve met before, and due to the curse of amnesia, we’ve forgotten. But now, we see the larger picture, the grand map of destiny that has brought us together once more. One to rule, one to advise.
He clasped Caleb’s shoulder, and against his resistance, eased him forward, toward the forbidden fruit.
And as the vine extended with the gift offered, he saw Orlando struggling; he thrashed and tried to free one hand to grasp one child, to do anything to break the connection, and in that moment, Caleb knew…
Knew that the sinewy thing that now seemed like a massive serpent intrinsic to the tree itself but with countless smaller medusa-like appendages, had sought him out. Like with Adam, it had waited patiently, from his first page read in wonder from a book in his father’s library, to the discovery of the forbidden scrolls in the Pharos vault, to the first time he gazed up at the heavens in wonder… It had waited, knowing that with every taste, every page, every word, every vision, every bite — it only made this moment inevitable.