It had been two full days in the normal world when Sophie returned as if by magic in her bedroom of the Electoral Center. She quickly visited her father and Mall-ik, the Hotel at the Edge of the Galaxy was almost ready to welcome guests. Laurent showed Liam and Sophie their rooms he had prepared for each of them. He also had a room for Milly, Susie and even Marilyn. “There is no reason not to hope for the best,” he joked.

But the loving father noticed Sophie, back from visiting the martians was troubled and lost in thoughts. “You should take advantage of Liam’s wisdom, find a peaceful place where time can be slowed down and just learn from him, that’s what I would do,” it pained the father to admit. “That is really why he is here, to help you understand your role, not tell you what to do. I am mentoring Mall-ik, it gives me the greatest pride and job.”

As usual, her father was right.

She kissed and hugged him.

The Inner Temple

Deep Within Sophie’s Head

The Indian man, deep in meditation was wearing yellow Tibetan robes. Legs crossed, he floated by magic a foot off the ground. He was levitating above a small wooden stage flanked with burning incense. Liam controlled his breathing he was deep in meditation. Around him in the massive hall formed from mental structure were laid out thousands of rows of lit candles barely illuminating the large windowless sanctuary. Here there was peace and wisdom.

After an undetermined period of time, he heard small footsteps in the distance. The steps got louder and closer. Liam spoke while keeping his eyes closed, “Good morning beautiful one.”

He knew it was she, the Attractor. She had returned and was ready. Purpose in this false, internal, reality returned. They were locked into the mind of Sophie in a better place. Now that dream and reality overlapped outside, in her mind she could stabilize structures, dreams in a quasi-awake state.

Sophie walked in the massive temple also wearing a monk’s (albeit smaller) robes. She made her way to him. Today mattered more than the last hundreds of ageless days. One important feature was obvious. When this planetary venture began, since her travel to mars, her posture had slightly straightened. Her pre-teen slouch was gone replaced by the vertical footing of a ballerina. She also had a different look in her eyes. The Attractor was more serene, remote and wise in many ways. In her own made-up world, she cut hair much shorter, military style. On earth, classmates would call her tomboy, but here she did not care.

As she walked in and traversed the immense room, she took the time to cross the eyes of every statue in the room. This would probably be the last time she would see them. Flanking the outer walls stood hundreds of tall statues of strange alien creatures and some less alien. Each towering grey protector had been the subject of hours of teaching by her brilliant mentor. They were each philosophers from the known Multiverse part of a class given many times by the Oldest. This place was a hidden construct deep in the Attractor’s mind the same way Laurent used his Bayou Bed & Breakfast. Or, as Liam hypothesized and told his darling Sophie, maybe this was a long endless dream lost in a new pocket dimension. None of it mattered to the mentor.

Sophie did not really care as the barriers between the digital, the dream, and the real world faded with the approaching Sixth Attraction. Simply by closing her eyes and wishing to be back in the Electoral Center, the humans had left the martians. In the real world, or what passed for that, she learned why the creatures feared Marilyn. She was a Frankenstein Monster by her own nature it seemed. Sophie wasn’t one to think monsters deserved to die even if they hurt their creator.

On the ground, feet in front of Liam laid a small square mat. This was where his young student normally sat for each of her lessons. “Good morning Liam,” said the young Attractor. Without awaiting an answer, she sat crossed legs on the mat and closed her eyes to meditate, hands on her knees.

After a long silence, Liam finally was ready and looked at his praised student. The moment he saw Sophie, his heart was flooded with gratitude. In addition a deep feeling of pride flowed in. At her request, he had now spent years with this gifted person teaching her what as the Attractor she needed to know. “Attractor, dear one,” he called her.

“Yes,” she acknowledged without correcting him. She now accepted her title.

“It has been an honor to spend so much time with you, to teach you these things no human or any living creature knows. Teaching you has been the highlight of my very long life. You master non-linear time, relative time, and most importantly temporal inertia.”

“Knowledge is burden and you transmitted the gift painlessly. How much time has passed in the real world?” she asked.

“For us this felt like a human decade. But in real life, a little more than a day has passed. Like your father who controls time in his mental world, you were somehow able to slow down time for us. Marilyn now needs you in the real world, LO arrives and without your help, he might not land. We have a real second or two, this will give us a final hour together. This, young one is the proverbial goodbye. All good things have an end. There are no words to express, young prodigy, my feeling and my respect for you. I fear your training is complete. If I could take any of the pains which await you, I would.”

Her eyes remained closed. “My training is incomplete, you have one final lesson to teach me. The hardest one.”

“What else? We have spoken about every topic possible. I have nothing else to teach you.”

“Trust me. You do. You must teach me how Beacons work.”

“Beacons?” He looked at the girl a smile on his face. She finally opened her eyes and looked at him with deep respect. She was serious. She stood on the mat and with her hand gestured Liam to come down to take her place. He stepped down and came next to her as she took his place floating gently in the mentor seat.

She was now the teacher and would ask a questions. “Great one. You are unique. From the Lower, how did you know I would come?” The question surprised him. “You waited so long. No one creature has ever held the will to remain alive for more than several thousands of years. Everyone, even the strongest minds go mad even in your own world. When we first met, I figured time was different in your world and claims of having lived more than a thousand years felt odd. In your guiding run at the game, humans could barely handle twenty lives, much less a million. What force deep inside of yourself gave you the power to wait for me for an eternity?”

Liam was surprised by the question. “I do not know,” he replied with hesitation.

“You do but these memories were removed in the First Attraction.” Sophie smiled. “For years now in this world you kept reminding me knowledge or lack thereof was not an answer. Even matters which are unknown are known. I ask you, why were you able to wait for so long. Why? Search and give me the answer.”

The teacher was proud of his student. He was unable to hold his joy and began to cry. They only had an hour. Sophie waited as Liam managed to control himself. “The strongest of emotions isn’t love or despair, it’s pride,” he offered wiping tears. “No creature has ever been so proud of anything or anyone except your father of you. You, dear one, are truly exceptional.”

“My question demands answer. I know the answer, but the Multiverse needs you to say it. Beacons are the solution to the end.”

Liam was surprised by the suggestion. He collected himself, took two deep breaths and entered a deep stage of meditation. Sophie waited patiently. Time here was different. After a moment Liam’s expression changed as if he was fighting inside with thoughts he was refusing to accept.

“What is it?” She knew he held the answer.

“It’s not possible.”

“It is,” spoke the Attractor.

“I.... I.... knew you,” he said finally ending the meditation and looking at her face in disbelief. “Deep in myself, I knew you would come. I knew about today. I felt it.”

She smiled. “Yes, you did. Please continue to express yourself.”

“I felt my own future. I knew about this day. How is that possible?”

“Living creatures in four dimensions cannot know their future, they lack the discipline to accept it and not alter it. They live today and know yesterday but have at best a gut impression of tomorrow. So our own roads are hidden from us. But our minds see all of what we are, they hold our past, our present and our future. Every moment of ourselves exist. We know our death, our pains, our loves. In your heart, you knew you had to live billions of years, you knew it and felt it. What kept you alive and motivated was the strength of the experiences at the end of your life. It was a Beacon. Energy drove you past boredom and madness. The power that fueled you, my dear friend is what is a temporal Beacon. It stands united with Attraction.”

“Will I die today?”

“Yes. In a way. We all will and must die.”

“Why?”

“That is much more complicated. I would love to say something wise teacher, but we now have a task. We must now create this Beacon before the next is needed.”

“How?”

Liam needed no more, tears returned. He was an emotional wreck. She then spoke words which had true meaning, “Irrespective of the road’s ahead past the Sixth Attraction, you, Oldest, the destroyer of worlds as they once called yourself have played a greater role in saving the Multiverse than I. You remained, endured and because of the length of your life, the Multiverse knows you. I was selected but you willed yourself to this point. Thanks to your gifts, I can speak with her, somewhat. The Multiverse has asked me one favor and, unlike her other demands, I will gladly grant it. It owes you a debt of gratitude and has no real way to repay you. She has and must continue to use you.”

Liam was shocked. He was about to explain why his life was perfect and needed nothing more but Sophie did not let him speak. She raised a hand and added. “The Multiverse has a gift for you. She wants me to give it to you with her thanks. It is a Beacon. It curses your life. She told me one other living has been given a Beacon and such gift was needed before your time. The First Attraction worked because of a Beacon. It hurts her in many ways because it violates her laws of nature, it shares what she is with another. She apologizes for what it will now do to you, which has already did to you.”

Liam was in shock by the words. He was humbled and needed nothing. There was nothing he could think of which would give him more than what he now felt. There were tears in the corner of his eyes.

“Remember my first meeting with the Multiverse when we three went there.”

“I do.”

“Her message wasn’t for me. It was for you. A Beacon is an emotional shock so deep and powerful, it touches and wraps around the soul. The shock of the gift will created the Beacon of emotions so deep in your soul, it will travel back billions of years and fuel your patience and resolve. Today, you will touch your young self.”

Liam was speechless.

“Do not move,” said the Attractor. The man’s eyes were already full of tears.

Before Liam could brace himself he heard light footsteps on the floor behind him. He saw Sophie’s face. It went from being fully composed back to a vulnerable little girl. She was seven again. Behind Liam, the footsteps accelerated until he heard the person in his back was now running. He turned and saw Susan Lapierre, Sophie’s mother. There was a simple rule which Liam had explained to the Attractor, the greatest gift a person could be given was kindness to a loved one. Liam’s emotions toward Sophie were unequal.

Sophie stood, “Mom?” she said with the most touching voice.

The Attractor lost all her composure and as the child she needed to be one last time ran to her long lost mother. Her sweetness and the reunion was so beautiful, it was too much. He looked back and saw in the corner to the left Laurent holding Mall-ik by the hand. The family formed a triangle. He had seen the vision. All four humans abandoned themselves to the touching reunion. Mall-ik was, it now seemed, truly the soul of her long lost brother who found the Purple. The tall lady let Sophie’s full force hit her in the largest embrace. Laurent was there in seconds on his knees as the young boy hugged his mother for the first time. The family was there, they knew, they reunited and loved.

Liam’s jaw was shaking as tears were filling his eyes. He silently had dreamed of giving Sophie a gift. This was it. He wanted her to feel the true love of her family one last time before the inevitable end. The sight was so powerful. He loved Sophie with every fiber of his being.

His only dream was to give Sophie something she truly desired.

The Multiverse was gifting to Liam what his heart really wanted, joy for Sophie. He did not know how to act or what to say. All he could do is cry. He saw Sophie happy, a child and in the gentle arms of her mother. He also saw the vision the Multiverse had given Sophie the first day. Now he knew the vision was his, not hers. There, the family vibrated and loved.

How could have predicted this was the way the Multiverse worked.

Anyone else would have fainted. The sight was so powerful, it created a level of emotion so violent in him he felt power fill his heart.

There was a violent shock deep in the Multiverse.

The energy sent a wave backwards in time in his body and his mind. He knew this was what the young Liam had felt. The emotions were so powerful, they would permeate his entire self, not just his present self. He would need to be here, see this. The Multiverse told the young creature, in the Lower, it needed him to be here, see this and more importantly feel this love.

A loop was ready to close.

Today was the reason why a billion years ago he awoke to a need to come here.

Liam had been the source of his own motivation.

Liam had always believed he was not special and he had called the Attractor to him. Sophie has created him and called him. The Multiverse placed a beacon, a force rippling in time to guide him here. He was in shock, his mind was overwhelmed by the sight. She, finally, was truly happy. The four hugged for an eternity.

Then all four turned back to look at him. They smiled and thanked him.

In addition to Attraction which existed in Multiversal dynamics, there was a Beacon. It connected a creature to itself, giving it true purpose. It rippled back. It changed the Multiverse and anchored the past to the present in more than cause to consequences.

Liam’s work was done.

Sophie had a plan, a role. She would save her world.

Liam passed out as Sophie opened her real eyes on mars.