sparking in different-colored eddies that dance along his skin. I cannot help but watch. His veins pulse, changing from white-gold to orange and red rivers. The transformation is strangely liquid, fire-like. That fire starts from a particular structure over his head, leaking down through his light skull like thinned, living paint.
What are you doing? I ask.
I want to show you something, he says.
Show me what?
But he doesn’t answer me. Not directly.
Inside the Barrier, he says instead. There is only one rule...
The fire spreads to me, touching my light forearm first, where he holds me. Before the color has finished traveling to his waist, it is spreading into my transparent skin. Once it soaks my arm, it sears like ice, absorbed by my light bones.
Wait. I am fighting panic. Something’s wrong! Dehgo, whatever your name is—
Revik, he says. Dehgoies Revik. Do not be afraid. I am slowing it down so you can feel the process accurately—
No, Dehgo! Wait—
Revik, he repeats. Dehgoies is my family name.
The fire spreads up my shoulder. I struggle against his hold, panicking, but I can’t extract myself from his fingers, nor from that fire-like light.
...The rule is this, he continues, as if I hadn’t interrupted. To go anywhere you wish to go, to find anyone or anything inside the Barrier, you must become what you seek. Distance can impact this, and time. But ultimately, even these can be overcome.
Orange fire spreads to my stomach.
His body is all bright orange now, with the exception of one hand, which stubbornly remains a sparking gold-white. The denser orange sinks into my thighs, moving swiftly to my knees...
Wait! I shriek in the dark. Revik!
...Whatever you become, you are drawn to. This is called resonance. It is what you and I were born to do...
My left foot fills with liquid fire. Right as the last spot changes, his hand flushes orange. It occurs to me that he used that last piece of himself as an anchor...
When everything disappears.
I come out on the other end into the deepest silence I have ever felt.
Stars flicker in an expanse without clouds. Everything is so still and silent that a kind of wonder comes over me as I look around. Here, that same orange light he used to bring us here pulses in the sky. Gaseous clouds swirl in inexorable silence, a spiral with a fire-orange cloud at its center. We are swimming inside a nebula, I realize.
I watch flares arc over us and dissipate into the night.
It is heart-achingly beautiful.
He is pleased.
You like this? he asks. It is pretty, yes?
Are we...here? I manage.
He nudges my mind towards a particularly beautiful flare of light as it explodes outwards.
We are, he replies. But not in the physical, Esteemed Bridge. This is the Barrier. He watches as I look around, still exuding satisfaction. I thought it best to go first to a place where accidents were not so much of a danger.
I try to make sense of his words, can’t.
We float over unspeakable beauty for what could be minutes, days...
A part of me will never leave this place, I think.
...when suddenly, he changes frequency again.
The new vibration spreads more quickly this time. Several structures over his head are involved, working conjointly.
But I’m not ready to leave.
Wait! Can’t we stay a little longer?
You will only grow accustomed through doing. His presence exudes understanding, but his thoughts are firm. I want you to see that you can be anywhere, he says. With anyone...
Revik...wait!
The new frequency locks in. It is pale blue, the color of a virgin lake...
It rips me out of that flame-filled sky.
We pop out into a new night sky.
At once, I make out the familiar outline of Earth.
But Earth here is not the Earth as I’ve ever seen it, not even in satellite images. Light beings streak and hover over the shining blue sphere. They cluster over continents, attach themselves to other beings both lower and higher in the layers of atmosphere over the ground. They attach
What are you doing? I ask.
I want to show you something, he says.
Show me what?
But he doesn’t answer me. Not directly.
Inside the Barrier, he says instead. There is only one rule...
The fire spreads to me, touching my light forearm first, where he holds me. Before the color has finished traveling to his waist, it is spreading into my transparent skin. Once it soaks my arm, it sears like ice, absorbed by my light bones.
Wait. I am fighting panic. Something’s wrong! Dehgo, whatever your name is—
Revik, he says. Dehgoies Revik. Do not be afraid. I am slowing it down so you can feel the process accurately—
No, Dehgo! Wait—
Revik, he repeats. Dehgoies is my family name.
The fire spreads up my shoulder. I struggle against his hold, panicking, but I can’t extract myself from his fingers, nor from that fire-like light.
...The rule is this, he continues, as if I hadn’t interrupted. To go anywhere you wish to go, to find anyone or anything inside the Barrier, you must become what you seek. Distance can impact this, and time. But ultimately, even these can be overcome.
Orange fire spreads to my stomach.
His body is all bright orange now, with the exception of one hand, which stubbornly remains a sparking gold-white. The denser orange sinks into my thighs, moving swiftly to my knees...
Wait! I shriek in the dark. Revik!
...Whatever you become, you are drawn to. This is called resonance. It is what you and I were born to do...
My left foot fills with liquid fire. Right as the last spot changes, his hand flushes orange. It occurs to me that he used that last piece of himself as an anchor...
When everything disappears.
I come out on the other end into the deepest silence I have ever felt.
Stars flicker in an expanse without clouds. Everything is so still and silent that a kind of wonder comes over me as I look around. Here, that same orange light he used to bring us here pulses in the sky. Gaseous clouds swirl in inexorable silence, a spiral with a fire-orange cloud at its center. We are swimming inside a nebula, I realize.
I watch flares arc over us and dissipate into the night.
It is heart-achingly beautiful.
He is pleased.
You like this? he asks. It is pretty, yes?
Are we...here? I manage.
He nudges my mind towards a particularly beautiful flare of light as it explodes outwards.
We are, he replies. But not in the physical, Esteemed Bridge. This is the Barrier. He watches as I look around, still exuding satisfaction. I thought it best to go first to a place where accidents were not so much of a danger.
I try to make sense of his words, can’t.
We float over unspeakable beauty for what could be minutes, days...
A part of me will never leave this place, I think.
...when suddenly, he changes frequency again.
The new vibration spreads more quickly this time. Several structures over his head are involved, working conjointly.
But I’m not ready to leave.
Wait! Can’t we stay a little longer?
You will only grow accustomed through doing. His presence exudes understanding, but his thoughts are firm. I want you to see that you can be anywhere, he says. With anyone...
Revik...wait!
The new frequency locks in. It is pale blue, the color of a virgin lake...
It rips me out of that flame-filled sky.
We pop out into a new night sky.
At once, I make out the familiar outline of Earth.
But Earth here is not the Earth as I’ve ever seen it, not even in satellite images. Light beings streak and hover over the shining blue sphere. They cluster over continents, attach themselves to other beings both lower and higher in the layers of atmosphere over the ground. They attach
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