Book 1, Chapter Six: The Wonder Stone, Pages 129 and 130
“What does she mean?”
Alexander ponders,
when he resumes his journey on the road.
He raises the wonder stone necklace at eye level.
“How can this little thing...
be both simultaneously light and heavy?”
The stone, catching the setting sunlight.
gleams under his gaze, and sends out
a faint ray of light towards a faraway horizon. A beacon. A compass,
pointing towards the Water of Life.
In the path of the ray is the Servant,
staring distant at the forest below.
Alexander puts away the wonder stone.
“What’s the matter, Servant?”
“My king,” the Servant says.
“Before we proceed…
Right now, here we stand at the border.
Ahead is a world to come, Paradise,
known to us only by the dreamings of poets and painters.
A world as yet untravelled by mortal flesh.
Once we cross,
and till our goal is reached,
there is no turning back.”
The Servant turns to Alexander. The wind pulls gently at his hair long and white, the colour of bleached seaweed.
“Are you ready, King Alexander?”
