The sun looks more like a moon. It looks like a bright, full moon, such as the moon the day of the harvest festival in the Home Planet. I still avoid looking at it, because that’s still a bad idea. But there is something deeply serene about the sun. Something deeply peaceful. Something deeply calming. Like a parent singing to their baby. 

There is a lake stretching out in front of me. Its dark blue waters reflect the sky. The sun’s glow reflects on the rippling waves, shimmering as the wind blows. It is like an entirely different world, and there is something mesmerizing about the waves. There is softly glowing algae on the waters, forming networks of bright blue-green and green-blue. I wonder what sorts of strange life forms are under there. 

The sky darkens the sun dips down below the horizon. Everything around me is pitch dark. It is darker than night on any of the planets I have been to. It is almost as dark as the void. Almost. But not quite. It’s a natural sort of darkness, a welcoming sort of darkness, a soothing sort of darkness. I feel as if the world around me and the world inside of me are becoming one. 

And the stars. Dear universe, the stars. There are perhaps threefold the stars in this sky than the stars I have ever seen before. Of course, the stars everywhere are absolutely unique and absolutely breathtaking. That doesn’t stop me from being entranced by the stars here. Some stars shine and twinkle brightly, brighter than any star I have seen before. Some stars are tiny, fading little dots up in the sky. The streak of light through the sky is brighter than it has ever been before, darkening as it grows out towards its edges. 

The Imerials have said before that Valesi is the worst planet in the galaxy. That everything here is dark and terrifying. But I do not feel terrified. I feel the darkness all around me. The darkness and the light. And I feel perfectly calm, perfectly at peace, perfectly one with this world, with this beautiful planet and all its specialness. Dark and light are both needed, are both parts of the galaxy. So are cold and hot, and everything that is made by the forces of nature. 

“Do you believe now?” Sarvemm asks Maell once we are all back in the room, looking at each other astonished. 

“Yes.” Her voice holds wonder. 

The Stone casts shadow all around itself, and is hidden and revealed in the blackness. 

———

I am in a land where the wind blows strong. It howls around the sheet metal of the walls of the hut. It is fierce and strong and fiercely protective. I cannot help but feel great courage as well as great fear upon hearing it. 

“What can these Stones be used for?” A youth named Jasey asks me. 

“Very many things,” I respond to her, “as many as your hearts can imagine. It can tell us the plans and the tactics of the Empire. It can hide us from their wrath. It can give power to our soldiers and our spies. It can heal our sick and nourish our hungry.”

“That’s really great,” a woman in her thirties, Jamali, responds, “can we use them now to overthrow the Empire?”

“Not yet,” I reply. “First, we need to learn how to channel our magic through them. We need to know how to wield our magic and how to be precise and deadly. That will take time. For now, I think we should practice channeling our magic through the Stone.”

“So how long will it take for us to master these powers?” A young teenager named Jailen asks.

“A while. I would say at most, ten years.”

“How are we supposed to hide the Stones until then?” An older person named Jakeley asks. 

“We’ll have to just be quiet, and not let them know,” a little girl named Javali answers. 

“But how do we make sure everyone keeps quiet?” they ask again. 

“The Imperials don’t know that we have the Stones,” I tell them, tell them all. “They have no reason to suspect that we have them. They have no reason even to suspect that the Stones still exist. They will never ask us about them and as long as they don’t ask us, which they won’t, then none of us will have a reason to tell them anything.”

“Exactly,” a preteen boy named Jakilen agrees, “they have no reason to ask us about them. They have no reason to try to torture the information out of us. So why would they ever know?”

“Because,” Jakely responds, “there are so very many of us. How are we going to be sure that none of us will give us away? How can we be sure that none of us will tell the authorities?”

“We all love each other,” a woman named Julili tells them, “we’re all loyal to each other. You know that we’re all loyal to each other. There is no reason for any of us to put the others at risk and betray this new hope that we have.”

“How can you be sure that all of us are on board with this plan, though? There are so many of us spread across the entire galaxy.”

“And yet we’re all connected,” I speak. “Can’t you feel that we are all connected? Everyone feels this connection in their hearts and, whether they know it or not, and whether they know that they know it or not, everyone lets that connection within themselves guide them. I have travelled all across the galaxy and it’s the same everywhere. People want to have hope. People want their people to have hope. And people are doing anything they can to hold on to that hope.”

“And if anyone thinks that it’s a safer option for everyone to turn us in?” Jakely asks. “I know that people want what is best for our people. I know they don’t want to harm us. But what if someone thinks that it’s safer to give the Imperials what they want?”

“Then we’ll make them see that it’s better to hide,” Javali retorts, “we’ll make them see.”

“There have been many people who thought that it’s a better idea to give the World Stones up,” I add, “but we have always been able to convince them that the World Stones are the best hope we have. We have always convinced them to join our side and keep the Stones a secret. And we can convince everyone.”

“We can convince everyone,” and little boy named Jimen agrees, “people remember the World Stones. People remember the power of the World Stones. They will realize that we need them.”

“Besides,” Jailen adds, “we’re all a community. A community spanning the whole galaxy. And this galactic community is made up of so many smaller, interwoven communities. And we can, as a community, convince everyone in the community to fight with us. To hide with us.”

“We’ll keep working until all the community is convinced,” Jamali vows, “and no-one will turn us in even if they’re not convinced. No-one will want to put the rest of us in danger.”

“The Stones are hope just as much as they are danger,” Jillia tells us, voice dark, with vast undertones.

———-

II am in Helvitica. The windy planet. The planet that once was a vast prairie before the Empire came. The wind still howls outside our meagre shelter. I am teaching the people how to connect to their World Stone. I am teaching them and they are teaching me. We are all teaching each other. And it’s beautiful. I find it really beautiful. I find the land really beautiful. And I find the people who live in the land really beautiful. Just as all people in all lands are. Well, perhaps with the exception of the Imperials.  

It’s amazing, how much I am being able to learn from the people all over the galaxy, scattered across different neighbourhoods around different power plants. Horrible, looming power plants. It’s amazing how much I am able to learn from them. It’s amazing how much they are able to learn from me. And it’s amazing how much we are all able to learn together, from the Stones and from the silences of our own hearts, hearts that are infinitely powerful though they are powerless. The realizations that we are coming to, they are just as precious as the World Stones themselves. They are just as magical. 

Right now all of us in the hut, all the golden-skinned people with pure blue eyes, and me with my secret-concealing body of blue, all holding hands tightly, confidently, desperately, forming one long unbroken chain. All the rituals are so similar. And yet all the rituals are uniques in their own way. Each planet is tied to all the other planets, each place to all the other places. That’s part of what makes us powerful. That we are all each other’s. 

“May the power flow from us. May the power heal in us.” The low, melodic chant reverberates through the room. And it heals our spirits, soothes our souls. Not all the way. Not nearly even close to all the way. But I am beyond glad for what it is able to do for us anyways. I am beyond glad for what we are able to do for each other. For it is all about having each other. All these chants and rituals are all about having each other, about the connection, the community that we share. They are not about the specific rules and orders of the rituals but rather they are about the ways in which we are brought together, the ways in which we all feel each other. 

The trance comes over me, the trance overcomes me, and once again, like innumerable times before, I am transported. I am transported to a land that is wild and free. I am transported to a land that is healthy and strong. A land that can feed the people, can shelter the people, can provide for the people. A land that existed long before the Imperials came with their technology and their structures. A land that will revive, rejuvenate, and exist long after they are gone. 

There is a vast prairie before me. A beautiful prairie. A bountiful prairie. A prairie that fills my spirit and brings peace to my soul. But it also fills me with a sense of deep, aching sadness, as there is so much loss there. There is so much longing. For all of this was lost. All of this was lost and now it is lying in waiting to be gained again, free and alive as the people will be free and alive. 

There are wild grasses of green and gold, reaching up tall into the air. They blow and away in the wind that is all around, like the waves of a vast ocean. There are shrubs with leaves shining in the sun, burning almost with light, dotted across the landscape. Green leaves and brown bark in the dry air. There are wildflowers growing in patches throughout the landscape, bright yellow and burning white and flushed pink and cornflower blue. And every once in a while there is a tree. 

And the sky. Oh, the sky. It stretches above me and around me, going forever and ever in every direction. It is a bright, reaching, aching blue. It is lighter at the horizon and supersaturated above me in the air. In the sky the sun burns hot, creating the dry air and raging winds all around me. And the clouds, big, while, billowing clouds, white and shaded with grey, they seem to burn as well. The whole sky seems to burn, just as the land does, and there is so much energy here. 

Above me I can see an owl soaring. And in front of me, off in the distance, there is a herd of buffalo grazing on the grasses. They are beautiful, majestic creatures. Broad and sturdy and strong in their vast herd. Strong enough to take on any predator. Strong enough to keep their young safe. There is a prairie chicken picking its way through the grasses, feathers mottled to blend in to the landscape. And little burrows can be found here and there. 

The sunset is a burning orange, and it paints the whole sky, paints all the grasses, paints the whole landscape with its bright colours. All around me everywhere that I can see is touched by the sunset. All around me everywhere that I can see is touched by the wheel of time creating the world anew. And then the stars come, and as always, they have infinite stories hidden inside them. The world keeps turning. 

I breathe as I come out of the trance. We all breathe. We all look at each other. And we all feel the wind flowing through the room, coalescing around the World Stone, encasing them in currents.