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The Voyage
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Back in his room, Jason took the grain of sand out of the napkin he had wrapped it in, and placed in on a white handkerchief on his desk.
It was small, and barely visible. It did not quite look the yellow of beaches -- more like a tiny, oddly shaped pebble.
He pulled out a pin, and began to push it about. It rolled irregularly, like a tiny football. As it turned about, it gleamed every now and then. He pulled out a magnifying glass through which to look at it. Magnified, it appeared a small, bulbous crystal, which turned light and dark as it rolled over the fibers of the cloth.
"I wonder if..." He wrapped it up and went to a jeweler, to see if it might be a diamond or some other precious stone.
He came back, disappointed. It was sand, the same as untold numbers of other grains on beaches and in children's sand boxes. It puzzled him. Was it more precious than diamond, a key to a magical portal? It did not scream out, "I am magical!"; it did not glow in the dark, or levitate in the air, or shock him as he touched it. If there was something special about it, it was more subtle than that. But how would Jason unlock the secret? Time passed, and he began to doubt that there was any secret at all -- that it was anything more than a common grain of sand.
It was in one of these moments of doubt that he again encountered Senex in the diner, drinking a cup of coffee.
"I don't get it," Jason said, sitting down. Senex still looked into his coffee, sipping it. "What don't you get?"
"You hint at a world of wonders, and then give me a common grain of sand. Are you playing games with me?"
Senex set down his coffee, and looked into Jason's eyes. "What do you think?"
Jason looked at the old man. He began to open his mouth, and then swallowed. "I cannot say that you seem cruel, but neither can I say that your words and actions make any sense to me."
"And?"
After Jason said nothing, the old man said, "What were you looking for?"
"Something great. Something awesome. Something mysterious. A storm of light, maybe. Turgid forces. Ritual magic."
"And what did you find?"
"A common grain of sand."
"Is that all?"
Jason pulled the napkin from his pocket, and unfolded the grain of sand. "All I see is a common grain of sand. Maybe there is something else, but it is invisible to me." He looked at the old man in puzzlement, and saw a look of knowledge in Senex's eyes. "Can you see something else, something that is invisible to me?"
"I can."
"What?"
"Tell me everything that you know about it. What is it?"
"It is something that is found on beaches."
"That is where it is found. What is it?"
"It is an odd-shaped, bulbous thing, very tiny."
"That is its size and shape. What is it?"
"The jeweler said that it is not diamond, or quartz, or anything else like that."
"That is what it is not. What is it?"
"The jeweler said that it is a crystal of silicon and oxygen atoms."
"That is its scientific structure and constituency. What is it?"
"Is it all of these things?"
"All of these things are true of it. What is it?"
Jason drew a deep breath and said, "I don't know."
"Make it into a rabbit."
"How am I supposed to do that?"
"If you can't do that, make it into something else. A fish, perhaps."
"I can't."
"Destroy it."
Jason placed the grain of sand between a knife and a spoon, and crushed it to dust.
"You have broken it into smaller pieces. Now destroy it."
Jason dropped the spoon and knife; the fragments that were the grain of sand, settled on the table. "I can't."
"What is it?"
"I don't know." Jason looked into the old man's eyes, expecting to see a look of sadistic pleasure. Instead, he saw the look of greatest compassion.
Jason said, "It is a mystery."
The old man smiled.
Jason gathered the fragments into his napkin, and walked away.
Jason began to think about stones and crystals. The exquisitely rare crystals, the diamond as their queen, were prized, not only because they were beautiful, but because they were rare. Quartz and other crystals, in their luminous beauty, were no surprise to be said to be magical. So it was not too surprising that there should also be a hidden, tiny beauty to the stone and crystal commonly called a grain of sand. Few people owned these gems, not because they were hidden deep within the earth, but because they were hidden from people's notice. When entering another world, Jason would like to be ready to appreciate its beauty -- and who knows? Perhaps sand was a treasure imported en masse from that world. In the mean time, he would enjoy his newfound crystalline treasure.
Jason asked Senex, "Am I prepared to enter another world, the world from which crystals come?"
Senex answered, "You have begun to begin."
Jason asked, "Are there wonders which make sand pale in comparison?"
Senex answered, "There are wonders which make sand look very bright by the light they shine on it."
Senex lit a candle. Jason watched, waiting for an explanation.
The flame danced and spun. It filled the white column of wax beneath it with a soft glow that melted into the darkness. The flame itself, divided into tongues, danced and jumped again and again into the air, looking as if it just might fly. All around, it illuminated the surrounding forms with a golden light; shadows loomed on the walls and melted into the surroundings.
As Jason watched, a thin layer of clear, molten wax began to form atop the candle. As the flame burned, the heat began to seep into the wax, and the tiny pool grew deeper. A drop, like a tear, began to form on one side of the pool. The molten wax flowed, the stream carrying an indentation in the top of the wax column. The flame jumped and blazed, then settled down as, one by one, drops of molten wax trickled down the side.
The candle was tapered and thin, and it seemed to Jason only a minute until it burned all the way down, and a tiny red glow in the wick rested at the base of an ascending, twisting, turning stream of wispy smoke. Jason sat in peace, enjoying a sense of calm and fullness, digesting the beauty he had watched.
Senex's voice broke the silence. "You have passed your second test, Jason."
The old man had helped Jason open his eyes to one part of the natural world, and he began to explore, with the wonder of a child, the magic all around him.
He discovered that there was one type of item which was the easiest thing in the world to cut with a knife -- but, as soon as you had cut it, the cut would instantly heal; there it would be, as whole as ever! It would shape itself around whatever you put it in, and could squeeze through even the tiny holes in cloth -- but he had to be careful, because it would also climb the cloth like a ladder. It was quite mischievous -- there were some things, which resembled grains of sound, which it would take and make completely invisible.
There were other things that would hide behind, and yet mimic the people and the trees. They were like marionettes, except that they exaggerated and distorted the profiles of whatever they were making fun of. They also played hide and seek with the light, and were very quick -- whenever the light would peek to see if it would find them, they would already be hidden somewhere else.
He saw great, massive citadels with vaults beneath, storing hoards of gold and gems deep within, under protections that a dragon's fire could not scratch. Those citadels were decorated, so that even those who dare not break in, would yet come and visit, seeing the gay streamers and the skittish sentinels.
There was another creature that Jason could not see, but was forever sneaking up and tackling him. It never knocked him over, but always wanted to play -- it would tousle people's hair, and tickle the little children. It played with the other creatures, too -- it jumped around on the grass, and danced and spun with the leaves.
There were other strange creatures that skittered around timidly -- some jumped along the ground; some climbed trees and buildings; some swam like fish through the air. Most fled at his approach, but a few would let him touch them -- and they were soft and warm.
Even greater than his joy at this beauty was a sense that, beautiful as these things were, they also hinted at something else, a deeper magic. Jason tried to see what it might be, but it always eluded him.
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The Voyage
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