Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 204 by Neil Clarke

Author:Neil Clarke [Clarke, Neil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, science fiction, Science Fiction - Short Stories, Science Fiction And Fantasy, science fiction magazine, short fiction, short stories
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2023-09-01T00:00:00+00:00

It is dark for a while as our eyes adjust.

Then, we look around.

“We’re in the center of the world.” Lemma says.

We are standing on a floating pentagonal platform. The miniature dodecahedral temples surround us, with the exception of the Mountain Temple.

The old woman who was chosen is wrapped in light, almost seeming swaddled in it, entirely immobile. She does not react to anything, she is hypnotized.

“What are you doing here?!” Contradiction climbs from a ladder onto the platform. “You’re not supposed to—it’s dangerous here! The two of you need to LEAVE—”

She is cut short by a rumbling sound, one that grows louder and louder.

“Oh no,” Contradiction says. “The Beast of Dreams.”

The fragments of light providing the scraps of perceptible sight we were holding onto start to amalgamate, spinning and spinning into a massive whirlwind of illumination, a vast storm of light taking up the entire space around us, the eye of the storm directly centered on us. When I look into the thing, I realize it’s not a disk at all but a tunnel, and then I notice teeth within the eye of the storm, serrated things lining an infinitely long digestive tract.

“GET DOWN!” Contradiction pulls me and Lemma to the floor of the platform. The Beast of Dreams lifts the chosen old woman up into the air and swallows her whole. It starts to shrink, then, thankfully, as Contradiction, Lemma, and I cling to the floor of the platform.

Lemma lets out a whimper, and when I look at her, my heart drops. The storm is shrinking, but it is now centered directly above her, just barely above the top of her head.

Almost as though it is studying her. I think, as the Beast of Dreams finally dissipates entirely.

We stopped being priests that day. Contradiction revealed to us the nature of our true god, the Beast of Dreams, a creature that digests each of us in a process that converts us to a dream and feeds the reality to the creator of the world. This is what the door at the bottom of each temple leads to, that the transparent-cloaked priests guard. Lemma and I did not tell her we met the creator.

The transparent cloaks knew about Alvira, knew the nature of the reality, how each citizen of the world was destined to die and become a dream.

“During a dream, you are able to show the creator whatever you want to show.” Contradiction said. “And you saw the woman, the feeding process is painless, her mind was entirely dissociated.”

“How could you?” we asked her. “How could you let something like that happen?”

Contradiction only sighed and said something about how our anger was exactly a reminder of why the ranks of priesthood were important, how the information would only make sense when delivered slowly through the ranks of the white and transparent cloaks above us.

“Unfortunately, you will not get that opportunity, Lemma and Axiom. With this, your priesthood is being revoked.” she told us sadly.

When we went home that day, resentment at the structure and manipulative nature of the world burned in our guts.

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