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Ry Omis?"
"Sers of the Nexus. This I swear. I will put down my clavicle from this time
forward, and never know the grace again."
-- Sentencing Phase of Secret Hearings Conducted by the Infinite Hexamon
Nexus, "On the Advisability of Opening Gates into Chaos and Order"
Tracting through the weightless forest of the Wald in the rebuilt Axis Nader,
reaching out to the trees to push or grab roots and branches, half-flying and
half-climbing, in his mind's river-wide eye, Olmy Ap Sennen returned to
Lamarckia, where he had once nearly died of old age, and retrieved a package
he had left there, tied in neat pieces of mat-paper. His wives and children
had kept it safe for him, and now they returned it. There was much smiling and
laughter, then saying of farewells, last of all a farewell to his sons, whom
he had left behind Occupants of a different land, another life.
A s t h e y f a d e d , i n h i s m i n d ' s e y e , h e o p ened the
package they had given to him and greedily swallowed the wonderful contents.
His soul.
THE WAY
Greg Bear
Eon
(1985)
Page 43
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Eternity
(1988)
Legacy
(1995)
Once upon a very long extension, not precisely time nor any space we know,
there existed an endless hollow thread of adventure and commerce called the
Way, introduced in
Eon. The Way, an artificial universe fifty kilometers in diameter and
infinitely long, was created by the human inhabitants of an asteroid starship
called Thistledown. They had become bored with their seemingly endless journey
between the stars; the Way, with its potential of openings to other times and
other universes, made reaching their destination unnecessary.
That the Way was destroyed (in
Eternity)
is known; that it never ends in any human space or time is less obvious.
Even before its creators completed their project, the Way was discovered and
invaded by the very non-human Jarts, who sought to announce themselves to
Deity, what they called
Descendant Mind, by absorbing and understanding everything, everywhere. The
Jarts nearly destroyed the Way's creators, but were held at bay for a time,
and for a price.
Yet there were stranger encounters. The plexus of universes is beyond the mind
of any individual, human or Jart.
One traveler experienced more of this adventure than any other. His name was
Olmy Ap
Sennen. In his centuries of life, he lived to see himself become a living
myth, be forgotten, rediscovered, and made myth again. So many stories have
been told of Olmy that history and myth intertwine.
This story is set early in his life. Olmy has experienced only one
reincarnation (Legacy).
In fee for his memories, he has been rewarded with a longing to return to
death everlasting.
-- G
reg Bear
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