The Star Whorl (The Totality Cycles Book 1) Read Free Page A

consumed all the information in his new texts, and most of
the information he understood. It had been thrilling, learning new things, but
once learned, the thrill had gone, sunk back into the greyish-blue fog of
listlessness. And Tertius was only a possibility, not a certainty.
         Is the need to strive so
important? He looked out at the stars between the double horizon, a
brilliant slash across the dark-time sky, brightest at the Whorl-hub. Having
come from a pre-sentient race that had had to fight and contend and strive to flourish,
was aimlessness as deadly to the spirit as poison was to the body?
        
         :Criers
         :We cry out. What about?
         :About the industries
that consume our children, about the unbridled authoritarianism, that saps our
souls and sucks the marrow from our bones.
         :But these industries are
dead, you say. These shackles lie broken at our feet. We freed ourselves, with
the Unification and the Great Unveiling, we broke the chains of exploitation
and now we are truly free, free to do nothing all dark-turn and light, if we so
choose. But are we? Are we truly free?
         :We cry that we are not.
For if even one of us is bound, then we are all bound. If even one of us is
exploited, even for what those above us feel is the good of all, then we are
living a lie, and we despair in vain. Must we cry it again? That to which we
aspire is just another mill of blood and souls, and no one questions, no one
believes. When will we awaken to the falsehoods of our suzerains? When will we
no longer cry?:
     
         The Criers, as usual, were
vague in their ominous warning. They always spoke in such a vein, implying that
there were people being exploited, and that the masses were being deceived.
         But if they won’t be more
specific, what are we to do about it? He wanted to believe, but where was
the proof, the evidence? How to free those bound when they were not to be seen
or even known about? Give us something more, and then we can act.
     
         :The Happy Hedonist
         :I am happy. Of course I
am.
         :I have everything I
could ever want, I can make anything I would ever need. I have the largest
domicive I can dream up. I have jewels, pretty things, time and resources to do
anything. So I’m happy. Right?
         :I have all the things
around me to do everything I’ve ever wanted to do. I have all the time to
become everything I want to become.
         :So why am I – stagnated?
Why do I just sit here with all my useless treasures around me, as if I’m
waiting for something?
         :Am I happy?
     
         The morose tone of the forums
did nothing to lighten Kreceno’Tiv’s disposition, and there was only more of
the same once he got back to the domicive.
         Perhaps I should go back.
She’s surely lost interest for the dark-turn, thinking that I left, he
rationalized. And why should I have to leave because of her? She doesn’t own
the Mji’Hives! But standing around with his friends was only a palliative, and
did not really alleviate the ennui, just spread it a little thinner. But he did
not turn back – once set on a course of action, it was difficult for him to
change, and especially to backtrack. He looked out as he descended, but this
time he did not see the strip of stars left by the double horizon made by Algna
Suprum above and Segela Miridum below. Nor did he see the false constellations
made by glyph-lights on the underside of the Algna landform. All he saw was his
own morose thoughts and the despair that was almost a concrete glyph that he
could apply Nil’Gu’vua to.
         Shaking himself, he turned
back to his skimming of the Spheres. But none of his other discussion forums
had anything new, high or low. He shut down his connection to the interlinks, leaned
back and closed his eyes, but it was almost painful to not have something to
think about, something to stimulate his mind.
         Sighing heavily, he