Through Pain to Heaven I
Here follows another bit of travelogue-y Slipways fic.
The Heaven-stormers are a mad bunch to be sure. Some a young and as reckless as they come, some are old and looking for death as a final beautiful rush. I used to be one of the former, so I know what I am talking about. Perhaps, when I feel to tired to carry on, I will become one of the latter kind. An old man with tears of joy in my eyes as I climb the heights of bliss.
If you are like most people, sensibly, hard-working, not feeling an inexplicable need to throw your life away, then I salute you. All the same, you probably have only the vaguest idea about what I am talking about. I do not intend to be patronizing, or boring. Read as much as you feel the need to. In my life, I myself had little patience for books, even when I was a boy and would be caned if I neglected my studies.
What you may think of as the world, or the Nexus if you're thusly inclined, is really just what the scholars and cartographers call Midheaven. Even if your home sphere may never rise or fall beyond this vast expanse, be assured that there are dizzying heights above you and frightening chasms below. I will tell you what I know of the former.
Beyond the Upper Midheavens lie the Radiance. All things that grow are bountiful here. Fruit trees and corn fields yield enormous harvests, and animals grow to impressive sizes. Why, I have many time seen wealthy farmers lose their rich harvests to monstrous birds or insects.
Time moves faster here too. Stay a couple of weeks and you may see fruit ripen, infants begin to walk, and surprisingly smooth-faced old men die as the very life force of the Radiance. “Life is short and pleasures plenty”, could be a saying about this area of our world.
If we let our ship climb beyond the Radiance, we enter the expanse known as the Pinions of Ecstasy. I do not know which poetic soul invented this name, but it is fitting. Your mind and body feel as though they are on fire.
Sailors who want to traverse this region had best bring some protection. Science and sorcery have provided us with suits of armor, masks imprinted with demon letters and many other ways to ward off the wonderful, yet dangerous energies of the Pinions. Of course, as a young Heaven-stormer, I declined the use of these protections. Some may say that it is a miracle that I am alive today, and that it is proof that the gods love a fool.
Entering one of the spheres may feel to the inhabitants of a sphere in the lower part of the Nexus as though he has entered a place solely inhabited by mad people. Life is a heady blur of motion in the Pinions' spheres. Outsiders will seem noticeably slow to the natives, who live bubbly, frantic and brief lives. Everything lives in these spheres, everything breathes the shining, colorful air, eats, fornicates and dies.
The people who live in the spheres of the Pinions may be hard to understand, simply on account of how fast they speak. They move like wildfires and lightning and smile perpetually. Should you stay in one of these spheres, you will end up the same. Your life will be much shorter, but you will live it in simple happiness.
Tomorrow: More Leverage-horror stuff, now with rules.
The Heaven-stormers are a mad bunch to be sure. Some a young and as reckless as they come, some are old and looking for death as a final beautiful rush. I used to be one of the former, so I know what I am talking about. Perhaps, when I feel to tired to carry on, I will become one of the latter kind. An old man with tears of joy in my eyes as I climb the heights of bliss.
If you are like most people, sensibly, hard-working, not feeling an inexplicable need to throw your life away, then I salute you. All the same, you probably have only the vaguest idea about what I am talking about. I do not intend to be patronizing, or boring. Read as much as you feel the need to. In my life, I myself had little patience for books, even when I was a boy and would be caned if I neglected my studies.
What you may think of as the world, or the Nexus if you're thusly inclined, is really just what the scholars and cartographers call Midheaven. Even if your home sphere may never rise or fall beyond this vast expanse, be assured that there are dizzying heights above you and frightening chasms below. I will tell you what I know of the former.
Beyond the Upper Midheavens lie the Radiance. All things that grow are bountiful here. Fruit trees and corn fields yield enormous harvests, and animals grow to impressive sizes. Why, I have many time seen wealthy farmers lose their rich harvests to monstrous birds or insects.
Time moves faster here too. Stay a couple of weeks and you may see fruit ripen, infants begin to walk, and surprisingly smooth-faced old men die as the very life force of the Radiance. “Life is short and pleasures plenty”, could be a saying about this area of our world.
If we let our ship climb beyond the Radiance, we enter the expanse known as the Pinions of Ecstasy. I do not know which poetic soul invented this name, but it is fitting. Your mind and body feel as though they are on fire.
Sailors who want to traverse this region had best bring some protection. Science and sorcery have provided us with suits of armor, masks imprinted with demon letters and many other ways to ward off the wonderful, yet dangerous energies of the Pinions. Of course, as a young Heaven-stormer, I declined the use of these protections. Some may say that it is a miracle that I am alive today, and that it is proof that the gods love a fool.
Entering one of the spheres may feel to the inhabitants of a sphere in the lower part of the Nexus as though he has entered a place solely inhabited by mad people. Life is a heady blur of motion in the Pinions' spheres. Outsiders will seem noticeably slow to the natives, who live bubbly, frantic and brief lives. Everything lives in these spheres, everything breathes the shining, colorful air, eats, fornicates and dies.
The people who live in the spheres of the Pinions may be hard to understand, simply on account of how fast they speak. They move like wildfires and lightning and smile perpetually. Should you stay in one of these spheres, you will end up the same. Your life will be much shorter, but you will live it in simple happiness.
Tomorrow: More Leverage-horror stuff, now with rules.