Prologue: Light Falls

I say there is no darkness but ignorance. ~William Shakespeare 

_S he was dressed in light. The glimmers and sparkles bounced off of her skin in such a way that the light cloaking her frame, appeared to glow from within her. She straightened her neck and allowed the feeling of joy to take over her every expression. She had found joy. The light she wore traveled outward in tethers. It touched everything and everyone it came in contact with.  Then it formed a light bond between them until all things were connected in a translucent web of light. Life didn’t stop. People kept doing the things they had been called to do, but now they knew they were their brother and sisters’ keeper. They knew their connection was as real as their own lives. They couldn’t help but treat every life with an awe they had forgotten they had. Once they felt their oneness with the ALL, the sky parted. It was like two massive hands had reached down through the clouds and pushed them to each side, leaving an open lapis colored portal in the center. 

 From through the portal a light much brighter than any light ever known to exist poured forth. It looked like a giant, white laser in the sky. The light kept pouring forth until it formed an ocean just above the tops of people’s heads. It looked like an ocean of light in the air. It moved fluidly like the ocean. It smelled sweet like a tropical breeze. When they reached their hands just above their heads to touch it, it tingled the tips of their fingers and then began to spread all over their skin. Those that chose to taste the light on their fingertips, began to fill with it as it spread from the tip of their tongues through to every cell in their bodies. Once the people knew the light came for their joy and enjoyment, they began to play. They figured they could hold it and mold it into pretty things–anything they wanted. So they did. If they jumped up to it, it caught them in mid air and they could swim in it upside down. The world they knew was still there, but the light was too.  Just above the tops of their heads. They could use it.  Play in it.  Exist in it. If they so chose.

Kai was still. She watched as all the souls around her frolicked in the light that was always there, but had never been noticed before. She noticed the tethers that she held in her hands. She knew the connection. She looked at them. The thousands, millions, billions of tethers of light of all the souls she was here to save. She was looking for one. The one she had waited for all her life. She was with him once, but now he was lost. She dropped the light tethers she held and started to run. Her daughter was with her. She felt her, but couldn’t see her.  Was she one of the tethered too? 

She ran faster until she found herself at the door of a garden.  It wasn’t The Eden.  It was an Earthbound garden that reminded her of Eden. She pushed through the wooden door and was awed that she found herself there. It was breathtaking. The grass was as green as she’d ever seen.  There were plants and trees of every shape and size. She saw bright purple Lavender swaying in the breeze with every aromatic flower and herb she could think of. They were all there making the air ever sweeter with every breath she took. And there on a tiny patch of dirt, all its own, was  a little sapling avocado tree.  It was out of place among the other garden foliage. Where she was had the chill of fall in the air.  She knew this sapling tree wouldn’t survive the winter frost. Her instinct was to go to it, uproot it and take it someplace warm so it wouldn’t die. But a thin stream of pink orange light pierced the sky and streamed down on the plant giving it its own pink orange glow. Once the sapling was full of the light, it spread out to all the other plants in the garden.  The pink-orange light from the avocado tree tethered the plants  together like Kai’s dress of light had tethered the humans together. Once they were all connected by the web of light, the sky opened further. The pink orange stream meshed together with the original white light and became a blinding silver light that flowed down from the seat of light and right through Kai. She was washed over and through with it and she lifted her palms to allow the light to fall through her fingers like water.  She began to sparkle like diamonds had taken over her skin. The unseen star in the middle of her forehead flickered and then burst forth with all the light within her and surrounding her. She breathed it in and then out.  The light from the sky slowed as Kai became full. One final drop of silver light landed in her open palm. She looked down at it knowingly. When she brought the light droplet closer to her face, she let a tear fall. The light and her tear mixed together and then dissolved in her hand. 

Suddenly, there was nothing. The quiet surrounding her was deafening. She didn’t know where she was or even how she got there. She walked around the garden as night fell and she became the only source of light around. Except for one. As the last of the sun shone on all the plants and trees that populated the garden, it was only she and that misplaced avocado sapling that still glowed. A vital thought crossed her before the sun gave in to the moon.  She had to find her love. As that thought sat in the front of her head like a boulder, the dress made of light she wore began to flicker and then dim. Her own skin followed suit. The glowing star in the middle of her forehead went out last. Until the only thing left with any light at all was the avocado tree. But its young light wasn’t bright enough to light the whole garden without her.  It was then she understood what it meant to be dim.