He focuses on the Stone and his eyes glaze over with intense concentration. Almost immediately, rays of golden light shoot up from the top of the rock. As the beams slowly rotate, a three-dimensional image forms in the air, much like the holographic displays I saw during the story of The Beginning. The only difference is, the picture from Marc’s mind gradually turns from gold to full color.
In the image he creates, calm swells roll across the surface of an aqua sea. Cutting through the water is a three-masted schooner with a few “Krymzynesque” changes compared to sailing ships on Earth. The hull and masts are made entirely of steel, while the huge, billowing sails are woven from the same black fabric that’s used to make our clothes.
“That’s incredible!” I exclaim.
The image fades away and the light rays recede into the stone.
“Is that what a ship looks like?” Marc asks, turning to me.
“Right on the money,” I say, still in awe of what I just saw.
“Money?” he asks.
“The expression means it looked exactly as it should,” I answer, not wanting to launch into an explanation of currency on Earth.
“I’m pleased I could show it to you.”
He steps into the tunnel again and I follow him deeper under the hills. We stop by two openings to caverns that are located directly across from each other.
“A Keeper’s room,” he says, pointing to one, “and a child’s across the tunnel from it. When they first arrive, infants sleep in cradles in the Keepers’ rooms. Once a child has grown enough, he or she is given their own room. But their primary Keeper is always in the room across the tunnel from them while they sleep.”
I poke my head into the child’s room. “Awaken,” I say.
The Swirls illuminate an oval-shaped room that’s not much larger than my bedroom was on Earth. Although there’s no door to the cave, a curtain hangs by one side that I conclude can be drawn shut for privacy. A mattress lies on the ground by one wall with two pillows on top. A broom and bucket for cleaning reside in a rounded corner. A table and stool stand against one wall, and shelves containing personal items are carved in the same wall. The sound of a waterfall filters through an opening at the far end of the cavern.
“Does each cavern have a fall?” I ask.
“Of course,” Marc replies. “Once they’re tall enough, the children are responsible for keeping themselves and their caverns clean. We have small gates that lock across the entrances to the waterfall caverns. Until they’re old enough to safely go in there by themselves, the children aren’t allowed near the water unsupervised.”
I start to turn away, but the golden light reflected on the wall across from the bed seems to slowly dance across the granite surface. As I examine the lights more closely, an image gradually develops. The unmistakable shape of the Tree of Vision comes into focus with its branches calmly swaying back and forth. The Tree eventually dissolves into random patterns of light, but they soon shape a large hill. Several small pools form on the slope with ripples of light defining their surfaces. A golden silhouette of a Serquatine soars out of one, dives over a small waterfall, and splashes into the next pool below.
“The Swirls of Home are unique,” Marc says to me. “They can cast their light through the crystal in such a way that different images of Krymzyn appear on the walls. No one can explain it, but it only happens in the children’s rooms.”
“I hope they don’t show them Murkovin,” I comment.
“Never,” he says. “It’s always creatures or places pleasing to the eye.”
We walk past several more bedrooms before reaching an enormous cavern with a vaulted ceiling roughly twenty feet high. Padded mats cover almost the entire floor of the room. Scattered across the mats are a dozen balls ranging from baseball-sized to basketball-sized and made of the same leathery, black material as my clothes.
About two feet under the ceiling near the back of the room, a single steel beam extends from wall to wall. Two ropes hang from the steel beam to the floor. Both of the ropes have a series of knots tied from top to bottom, much like the climbing ropes I used at school as a child. On opposite sides of the cavern stand a small jungle gym and a set of monkey bars.
Marc explains that the inside exercise room is used when Darkness comes during the middle of the morrow. He also tells me that several more pieces of exercise equipment, including swings, are located in a broad, grassy crater that’s centered in the hills above us. The back entrance to Home that he referred to earlier is in that crater. I’ve never traveled directly over the hills we’re under, so I didn’t even know something like that existed.
The next cavern we stop at isn’t as large as the exercise room, but still more spacious than my habitat. Marc calls it the common room, a place for the children to play or relax. Similar to bean bags, stuffed seating pillows are piled in the center of the floor. Several small tables and stools stand near the outer edges of the room. Neatly arranged in shelves lining the walls are a variety of toys, all made of either steel, padded fabric, or a combination of the two.
They include concentric steel circles stacked on a small pole that an infant would use, and a complex rolling marble maze about three feet wide. A huge metal box on the floor under the shelves holds what looks like a combination of an Erector Set and Legos, all the pieces made of steel.
After leaving the common room, we pass by another series of bedrooms. Near the end of the arcing tunnel, we
