Dell (part 1 of 3)

Dell

"Let the colors take you,"

World Worshiper Adage 

Mara’s native people, The World Worshipers, whose hidden place of worship was Valen greeted Dell with a far warmer welcome than before.  Even better than not poisoning him they invited he and Mara to communal worship when they arrived.  Although tired the young Newtopian adventurers attended the worship service.  Mara was expected to attend but Dell was secretly eager to experience his new faith in the regal hidden dome beneath the Pan-Atlantic River.  It was the teachings of those people he camped with that kept him warm in the cold nights outside in the Sam’s Town Forest.  When he worried about losing his family he shut his eyes and “let the colors take him” as the worshipers described it. Now he could join other people who experienced the infinite just like him in just a spectacular place of worship.

The large domed worship area bled a weak green glow through the Pan-Atlantic and the thick glass windows above.  Before he and Mara were marble pillars of various heights scattered seemingly at random throughout the smooth marble surface.  There was no alter, stage, or even a podium so the numerous worshipers that appeared from every angle of the large circular room sat in no particular direction on the floor.  Some were hooded while others wore jeans and a polo.  The air was fresh but Dell knew it had to be filtered through some complex ventilation system within the skeleton of Valen.  The worship service itself was silent but for the noise of distant dripping that echoed into the large hall.  

The participants followed each other in slow movements or conducted their own uncommon bodily movements. The later the service ran the more Dell became lost in meditation and he stopped trying to keep up with the simple choreography.  Soon the sense of his own drool on his hand woke him up.

Worshipers were standing and quietly talking to each other; the service was over.  They stretched and laughed softly.  Mara just leaned on his shoulder.  He stared forward recounting the journey he just took.  Different colors had come into view at first but he had fallen asleep again which was something he had been working on not to do.

“You must see what the colors are trying to show you because that is where it all starts,” Mara had told him one cold night during their trip to Valen.

“And then you can see the future?” Dell had mocked.

“No,” Mara answered seriously, ignoring the jab, “If you can see and understand the colors then you’ll learn what’s been blinding you.”

“The colors are blinding,” Dell added.

“Nope,” Mara corrected. “What’s blinding you is what the colors form.”

“What do they form?”

“That’s different for each person and for each moment in their life,” Mara said.

Chorus Falls on the Pan-Atlantic River, Newtopia