Bloom

I’m watching a rather decent young man walk through the Maze right now.

My recent nap was only a few months long, I haven’t really needed much sleep lately.

Maybe I should look into that…anyways, at first I wasn’t paying attention, yet I couldn’t help after hearing the Maze whisper to me. Apparently this guy is like a sun compared to the candles that have been winning through lately. He brings me remembrance of those long years ago, the indomitable moment when I fought against fate to save my favorite tree. Memories of when I’m human are difficult to recall these days. It takes a special spark to ignite the ones that remain. It’s not that they aren’t clear, it’s just that I don’t care to purview them as much anymore.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with all the memories I have. I don’t want to forget them, but I can’t hold onto them forever.

I mean, just from talking to Dryad I can look forward to living at the bare minimum thousands of years, if not millions, billions, or even eternally. The amount of memories I have merely from just under two thousand five hundred years is already a bit overwhelming.

It’s at this moment that the spark of genius strikes me.

I stare at the lump of raw refined chaos in front of me.

Yes, why not take a page from all those stories, oh so long, ago?

There is no reason the memories have to remain inside me alone.

With newfound purpose I begin pulling on the refined Chaos.

I’m going to bring back something that’s part of my old world, and part of this one.

I think I’ll call it…

Memory Crystal.

***T***

I’m close, I can feel it now.

There’s something just ahead, something waiting in the center of the Maze. It calls to me stronger than anything I’ve felt in my life.

I may be a peasant now, but the whispers it holds tell me I could be so much more.

A noble, king, emperor, or even greater!

More madness rises up, flowing from the mirror bright walls around me in a tidal wave of insanity. I’ve watched others that I encounter lose their minds, ripping flesh from bone, clawing out eyes, the list goes on.

The tide of madness strikes me and I pull from the will deep within me.

The well of sanity lit from the flame that all creatures have inside themselves. I break the madness with my own sanity and force myself deeper into the Maze.

I’m close, I can feel it now.

A few more walls, a few more steps.

And then the walls open up, and in front of me is a large circular room.

I’ve reached the center.

I have won.

No longer will the madness affect me, I am Robert, and I did not break.

My reward floats gently a few feet above the floor of the central room.

A sparkling crystal, appearing like a well-cut shard of glass.

My hands reach out for it, almost of their own volition.

Í touch the crystal, and then, I see.

As the crystal is absorbed into my body it takes me a moment to realize that the change of scenery isn’t an illusion born of madness.

I am within someone else’s mind.

And they are looking within mine.

I see them peruse the memories of my life like a child flipping through a scrapbook.

When I learned farming.

When I learned the first spark that led me to the Maze, the power of the written word.

When I fought my way for five thousand kilometers for a chance to change my fate.

I can feel the one in my mind, and they acknowledge me.

Then, they pull back the veil and I see into their own mind.

A world.

A world of utter and complete madness.

Glass towers that reach the sky.

Flying metal beasts that consume humans.

A world where information is more powerful than the strongest sword.

Knowledge flows into me, brought by the creation I now know is a Memory Crystal.

I know the secrets of science. The power of technology. The basis of energy. The laws of reality, or physics as they called them.

I know these and more.

I can see the history of this world, how the humans there rose from dirt and became each an emperor to themselves.

How nations rose, how they fell, how gold became more worthless than secrets.

The tide of pure memory almost destroys me, but at the last moments the creature’s will supplants my own, fusing them to my very soul.

Do not forget.

This is what humanity can do.

I will not remain in this world forever, but you, are my gift to them all.

I am the Tree.

And you, Robert, are the Avatar that I have chosen.

I can see the long stretch of infinity extending out from these words.

The will that powers the Tree shows me that we are merely tiny insects on a planet bigger than his home world.

There is so much space out there waiting for us to discover.

So many horrors, and so many brilliant lights.

I try to look further, but my time is up.

Even your will is not enough to last here forever.

Return, Robert Wood, and be reborn.

These are the last words I hear as darkness takes me.