by Tui Allen
~~~
And in the time since she had discovered that first chord something had shifted in the universe. I sensed a rapid increase in divine vibrations. It could only mean one thing; other deities arriving! All around us within moments their auras glowed huge among shifting seas of seraphic ardour surrounding them. Drawn in by energy emanating from the prescience of the seraphim, these august presences from the Divine Galaxy were gathering near Azure. They represented every level of the Hierarchy including some great luminaries from the Sacred Council itself.
‘Why is the entire Hereafter focussed on this one little Azuran being?’ I wondered.
~~~
Ripple watched the reef co-operating with the westerly to sculpt the sea into towers reflecting the mid-day sun. Peace returned. The Cosmo sound rang on. Lucid thoughts filled her mind and soon she was working as methodically as she was before the chaos. An hour passed. Chemical signals within her brain flashed from neuron to neuron, leaping the synapses between, like fish leaping from wave to wave, but faster and faster. The acceleration dazzled us. Millions of hormones and electrical impulses inter-reacted, germinating rational thoughts and ideas which flowered in her mind.
‘Never have I been more convinced that I chose the best parents for this spirit.’ boasted sister Sterne, ‘The workings of her intellect already rival those of the great astronomer, her own father Rigel.’
The beauty and order of the thought patterns she generated had reached a peak of complexity when once again they vanished, swept aside in a flash of emotional chaos. We were appalled as before, but as on the first occasion, we saw that it didn’t upset Ripple. There again was that overlay of ecstasy that revealed her to be enjoying the disturbance that had overthrown her thought processes.
This was the second chord. And it was the moment of her breakthrough. Right there on Azure Ripple discovered something that she had tried but failed to discover in all her previous lives. The chord melded into the Cosmo sound and stayed within her, ringing, ringing. This time no cloud covered the sun, no shadow passed, no dark tentacles stirred in the deep to distract her. The chord stayed. To us it was still only chaos.
She called again to the universe but this time she made a statement before she made a request.
‘This is it. Let it not escape me!’
~~~
Sister Sterne, young deity of the Sacred Galaxy, heard Ripple’s prayer. All the divine beings surrounding her were stunned by a sudden expansion and outpouring of glory from Sterne’s aura. It knocked the seraphim flat. Entranced, they stared at the translucent streamers and veils of light in cerulean, magenta and silver radiating from Sister Sterne’s presence near Azure for thousands of miles into space. Sterne granted the request. Ripple was allowed to hold onto the chaos which was her chord.
~~~
The sounds Ripple had collected had combined with the Cosmo sound to create the chord in her mind. But this time it stayed. She could hear it ringing . . . changing . . . lifting . . . falling . . . floating . . . growing in volume, staying before her, not like a picture that she could see all at once, but playing out along a timeline. It lasted several minutes. When it was over, she froze in the water and let herself sink, then swam slowly up again and breathed.
Afraid to leap, afraid to dive, afraid to move in case her moonbeam escaped again, Ripple centred herself and gathered courage to play it through once more. The chord played exactly as it had the first time but now straight from her memory. She changed it slightly to create a second chord and then a third. She took some pure sounds from her memory and let them play among the chords, rising and falling in a repeating pattern creating the first melody. Behind the chords, she allowed her own heart to beat the first rhythm. She played the music over and over re-modelling until it was perfect.
She put words of love into the melody, memorising as she worked. The first music of the universe was Ripple’s love song for Cosmo.
Under a moonlit rainbow
Through the flying spray
Who did you leave behind
When you came my way?
Carried in the midnight silk
Of starry currents in the seas
I listen to the rising wind
That sings to you of galaxies
It sings to me of you,
Stranger from the blue.
And will you take my music
To the galaxies with you?
Under a moonlit rainbow
Through the flying spray
What were you fleeing from
When you came my way?
Her body moved in time to the first music. Those movements were the first dance. The first dance sent spray flying far over the sea. Every drop hit the ocean with a tiny ‘ting’. Those sounds combined in their thousands and joined with the sound of the waves crashing on the reef to create a great up-rush. This was the first applause.
~~~
Our ancient friends, the visiting deities, bestowed celestial respect upon Sterne and myself. Then they de-materialised back into the distant reaches of the universe they inhabited. They had been there when it all began but even they were none the wiser as they left Sterne to her puzzling task.
Whatever our confusion, Ripple’s tired and ancient spirit knew that it had found what it was seeking - a discovery with the power to change and enrich existence. Sister Sterne said suddenly,
‘Look at her spirit!’
‘Where? How? Do you mean her aura?’
‘No, her spirit light. She carries hers just behind her head and slightly to the right.’
‘I can see it but it’s hardly more than a blur.’
‘It’s perfectly clear! Look, it’s flashing like fire! Remember how tired it was before she was born? I hardly recognise it now!’
There was no doubt Sterne could see more in the light of a spirit on a distant world than most deities could see in one that was sitting within the space of our own aura. It was then I first understood that this talent of hers would one day take her to the highest levels in the Divine Hierarchy.
The seraphim had been strangely calm since Sterne’s aura had knocked them flat. Now they began to make ‘praise’, as they called it. They surrounded Sister Sterne and babbled a cacophony of chaotic ideas in appreciation of her contribution to Ripple’s mysterious achievement. Sterne let them express themselves for the very short time it took her patience to run out. Then she expanded herself until she towered over and around them, extended her aural wing into a vast celestial broom and swept them aside with a great swoop. Even as they were tossed and tumbled on their way, they stared adoringly at her, babbling garbled praises.
But then the seraphim did something that surprised us. They regrouped themselves in the space above Ripple. They formed phalanxes on both sides of her and stared down, babbling the same drivel. Seraphic praise for a mortal creature? Never before had we known such a thing. What had this dolphin done?
For days afterwards the seraphim behaved like supernova remnants whose excitement exceeded their confusion. They corkscrewed around the galaxy in unpredictable swarms, more distracting than ever. I tried to persuade them to visit other parts of the universe so Sister Sterne could work in peace, but they had become obsessed with Azure and would not depart from Koru. I took it upon myself to control them.
~~~
My search is over. The sound clues, the poetry, the Cosmo sound. All the clues were pointing to music! How could I not see it singing in my face? I must tell mother.
Mother? Maybe not Mother. The first song is Cosmo’s song. He must hear it first. I’ll make a special song for mother. And I’ll make a song for Father and one for Echo and one for the sunrise and the mist and the scent of the landflowers. There are so many songs to make. My task has changed from searching for music to creating it.
Once Cosmo hears my song, he’ll love me as I love him . . .
~~~
Read on, or if desired . . .
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Chapter
14: Glissade
Ripple sensed Cosmo among the crowd at astronomy class.
I must give him the song, she thought. She swam towards him.
Not now, dimwit.
She turned away.
It has to be a private thing. I should arrange to meet him somewhere.
Delph made them study the nebula in Carina. Ripple took nothing in. Never had a lesson dragged like this. The nebula remained nebulous in more ways than it ought. She kept watching Cosmo and sometimes she thought she caught his thoughts coming her way. Delph dismissed them at last. Ripple waited to see which direction Cosmo took. She prayed he’d swim away alone but he was still talking to the one called Rush from the practical astronomy group. He headed north-east. Great, she thought, he’s alone. She swam after him but not hurrying. She mustn’t seem too eager.
Rush passed her like a sou-west squall and braked alongside Cosmo.
Whistling whitecaps! What does he want now? She followed at a distance hoping the two would split up, but they were too busy discussing the nebula. She picked up snatches of their thoughtstreams glowing with celestial dust-clouds and newborn stars, enough for her to glean that Rush was picking Cosmo’s brain, hoping to understand the complex energies of the nebula.
These dolphins aren’t as hostile to him as they used to be, she thought, but it’d be easier for me if Rush would just leave him now.
Rush spotted his family, said good-bye to Cosmo, and swam to join them.
Now, thought Ripple.
She swam towards Cosmo. He saw her coming and slowed. She felt the song waiting inside her like a land-flower expecting the touch of the sun. But she screened every scrap of it from him, calmed herself and approached smoothly. He didn’t seem unhappy to see her. Could this be the time to give him the song?
A group of five adults shot by heading for a hunting spot. They were not the only other dolphins in the vicinity.
No, she thought, not here. Too many stray thoughtstreams flying around.
‘I need to meet you somewhere private,’ she said.
He jumped over a wave, dived below another and surfaced alongside her. His flipper brushed her side.
His touch is like the breath of the nebula.
She explored his thoughts and saw nothing but curiosity.
‘I can’t explain what it’s about,’ she said, ‘I can only show you.’
‘Where and when?’
Her brain trolled and miraculously hooked answers to both questions.
‘Cascade Cove,’ she said, ‘first light tomorrow.’
The waterfall will make it perfect.
‘I’ll be there,’ said Cosmo.
Now I have to give him the song. He’ll be proud to think that he helped to make it happen.
But what if he hates it?
~~~
At first light, Cascade Cove was full of blackfin hunting stingray. She heard the giant mammals long before she reached the bay and recognised them as being of the class who sometimes ate species close to their own kind, like dolphins.
The sky is so clear, every star distinct. The light will be harsh when the sun rises. How can I give him the song? Thank the stars for hungry blackfin, but I must escape before he sees me, in case he names some other place.
She raced back to the main school without looking to see if Cosmo was in the vicinity.
He approached her two days later after a class.
‘The blackfin made it difficult,’ he said, ‘Want to try again?’
Did he know I was there? Does he think I never turned up at all?
‘We could try again tomorrow,’ she said.
~~~
Ripple arrived first and Cosmo came soon after. This time there was not a blackfin for miles. The sky was overcast and a pearly morning light glimmered on the bay. The sound of the cascade seemed muted. Perfect.
He’s happy to see me. He’s wondering why I called him here. His skin is the colour of the planet itself. Oh, I’m ready to give him this gift.
Dawn was approaching and she believed that music was about to rise like the sun. She sensed millions of years of empty silence vanishing behind her. The future rang with music expanding and rolling down the millennia and it was all to begin here . . . now.
She positioned herself where the sound of the cascade was the perfect volume. Ripple’s audience consisted of Cosmo, countless seraphim and we two deities.
She released the first song in streams of thought that soared into the air and sea surrounding Cosmo.
Her audience listened but not for long.
Music was sound. She was streaming it to us. Thoughtstreams are not sound. They are ideas. All we heard was chaos. Cosmo too, heard only chaos.
When her love song for him had hardly begun, Cosmo dived deep and turned away.
‘I get the message,’ he called back to her as he swam out of the cove, ‘Good-bye.’
He never looked back.
Ripple stared after him, stunned. The music faltered . . . and stopped.
~~~
Sterne turned to me and said, ‘I know this spirit well. I have watched her through many lives. Her will is strong but I cannot see her surviving this blow.’
~~~
Rain began to fall.
In Cascade Cove there was no breath of wind. The sea heaved smoothly and the ripples spreading from each raindrop collided on the swells. Ripple swam slowly out of the bay through the hissing rain. She picked up speed away from the island, veered right, swam for half an hour, then veered left so she would reach the deep sea without passing through the school. She swam eastwards, far from any other dolphin, to a place where the sea was empty. Empty and silent. The silence monster waited for her in the blackness of the deep.
You’ve won and I’ve lost, but I’ll fight you one last time.
To defy the silence, she let the first chord ring faintly from the deep places in her mind. She let the chords grow and the melody begin to play . . . but much slower than before and sad as the grey rain. The silence monster waited, biding its time.
Under a moonlight rainbow
Through the flying spray
Ripple danced slowly to the music of the only song that had ever existed. There was no waterfall here; only falling rain.
When the song was finished, Ripple slid toward the silent abyss.
Cosmo didn’t want my song. I can’t give it to any other. I must hold it within me. Will it eat its way out through my flesh? Shall I die down here in the dark? I’m so tired. . . I must find the place where I can rest . . . forever.
~~~
Cosmo was not afraid to fight a legion of giant sharks but now he was afraid of Ripple and afraid for her. Her terrifying chaos had forced his retreat from the cove just as the rain began falling.
‘Her physical beauty blinded me,’ he thought. ‘How could I have been so shallow? I thought she liked me, but that was rejection wasn’t it? Or is there something wrong with her? Is she another Maram? Stars of Dorado! I must warn someone.’
He found Pearl and Aroha in the main school swimming in a mist of happy excitement. Their mood evaporated at his arrival.
‘Something’s wrong with Ripple,’ he said. ‘She was in Cascade Cove half an hour ago in a state of chaos.’
‘I must find her,’ said Pearl.
She sent a distance thought-stream to the outer scouts. One in the south had identified Ripple heading for the deep water. He gave Pearl the details.
~~~
Ripple’s consciousness faded as her glissade continued. Meanwhile the seraphim whimpered and clung closer to my aural wings as they followed our divine gaze into the depths and saw a flesh and blood monster there, armed with razor fangs loaded with poison – the Shade Erishkigal, Nightmare of the Southern Seas.
She lurked below Ripple with her ladies in waiting. The eight tentacles – Vipa, Lucifina, Malevine, Venga, Sadistine, Clawdine, Fera, and Lashette – writhed around her like a nest of anacondas. Their squirming stimulated the suckers on each tentacle
to a unique vibration which performed two functions to ensure Erishkigal’s survival. The vibrations spread into the sea like a nectar which her prey could not resist. They also stimulated the muscles around a cluster of blue neon fangs sprouting from each tentacle tip. The constant working of the muscles sucked the fangs up inside the flesh one moment to load with venom, and disgorged them the next, clutching and straining for living victims to invade. The repeated sucking in and out of these fangs made the tip of each tentacle appear to pulse with blue flame.
Erishkigal discharged a stream of ink through a funnel protruding from the bloated bag of her body. This ink spread the stench of death and shadowed the surrounding water, hiding her from creatures lacking echo-locatory senses.
The Shade was feeding. Fish were drawn in by the sweetness of the vibrations which grew sweeter at their approach until each fish was a sensitive tongue that could taste all over itself, basking in honey. Near the end the pleasure became intense, then came a shadow, a flash of electric blue, the grip of a suckered tentacle strong as the jaws of megalodon. The blue tips skewered them, vomiting agony into their flesh.
‘Bring me food my deadly daughters. Bring me any living creature you can entice with your piquant venom.’
‘You are beautiful my Queen,’ purred Lashette to her mistress as she fed her an overweight three metre tiger shark. Deftly she passed the struggling animal in towards the circular mouth at the junction of all eight tentacles. She forced it in headfirst where her mistress could rip the plump flesh from its bones with her double ring of dagger-teeth.
‘Take this, my Queen. Eat! Eat!’ she cried.
‘My gifts for you,’ screeched Venga, ‘are always better than Lashette’s. Accept this great tuna, my Glorious Queen!’
Venga clawed at Lashette until she bled, then smacked her aside and fed her own contribution into the mouth of the monster. Lashette whimpered and shrivelled from the pain, then rallied and slashed at Venga. The Shade ate everything they gave her and revelled in their conflict.
