“Fascinating!”

Iowara was listening to Kaleb’s story with wide eyes, though the things that piqued his interest were not those that Kaleb had thought much of: what they ate, how their families operated, the council, and the crops that they grew on the pillar. At every turn, Iowara would question things with his eyes sparkling and filled with joy. Who is this guy? Thought Kaleb, his eyebrows raised at the peculiar interests of the man. He felt himself growing bashful at the fascination of someone he’d never met before, and wondered if he hadn’t overshared.

The interior of the pavilion they were in had evidently been in use for quite some time. There was a bed in one area, and clothes hung from ropes that were suspended all over the ceiling, and there was a small cooking set in another area, as well as a low metal table that they were seated around. There hadn’t been such flippant use of steel in the settlement, it took a lot of energy to refine, and it was saved for important constructions. This table, though, was simply there, and seemingly treated as any other piece of furniture. It was scattered with various papers, as well as some curious metal boxes with cords and wires woven around them.

“And so you landed on this pillar fragment without knowing where it was going solely so that you could go to the origin of those stories that you had heard from travellers?”

“Yes, to cable city”

The man smiled a somewhat strained smile.

“You know that cable city doesn’t really exist, per se”

“What?!”

“Oh no, not like that, I mean, I talk about cable city, and you talk about cable city, but it is really like calling a bundle of wires it’s own object, at least that’s how I feel about it. There are many different cable cities, all vying to be the cable city, that is another way of putting it. It is because of the very structure of the pillars that we have this understanding. They allow us to see people across from us, and to acknowledge the need to broach those gaps in order to live, thus I believe that the cable city you mention is really a massive network of smaller cities, villages, settlements and individuals, even entire other cities! All joined together in different ways. What I mean to tell you is that what you are talking about is an imaginary entirety. The reality… well you may find it somewhat different than you anticipate. I just want to warn you so that you find yourself prepared. It is not nearly as cohesive as the label might suggest. But there are forces that are interested in the entirety of those networks as well, which are certainly attempting to consolidate the cities and communities into one…” the man drifted off into his lecture, and then paused, Kaleb leapt into the space,

“Forces… like field generation?”

“No, no, though they certainly have enough of that kind of force to deploy as well. No, I’m talking about the forces of the Companies, and the Clans, as well as various governors and even governments and institutes like my own. They are all vying for control of cable city or control of its parts, you know… In the early wire era, small villages connected to each other on separate pillars and put lines between each other for the transport of goods, of information and for transit in general, but then larger communities began to install lines for others, and slowly they began to gather power from this very act itself, and slowly the individual came to be superseded by the large enterprises and organisations… sometimes to the advantage of communities, sometimes to their detriment… or at least, that’s one theory on the emergence of cable city. I can’t claim to be a historian or an ethnographer, I’m really here to research the physical reality of the pillars themselves after all”

“I won’t pretend to understand a lot of what you’re saying. There were no wires connecting my home to any other”

“Yes, yes! Which makes yours such a fascinating case! When did your community secede from the wires? For it does seem to have been a decision made, rather than a necessity undertaken. To isolate your whole community like that… I’m surprised there were no doctrines or teachings that went against cable city in your community… When did it form, in order to have both a modern linguistic ability and yet be separate enough that I have not heard of such a lonesome pillar before…? Though there are certainly many other things I do not know”

Kaleb felt the need to rein this strange man in. His mind felt like it was awash in an overabundance of information and questions, and he felt dizzy, though he couldn’t deny the excitement that was also bubbling up within him in reciprocation to the man’s attitude. He had never met anyone who asked such questions before. This man, he was sure, knew an awful lot about the world, but something he’d said had piqued Kaleb’s interest again.

“You said you were researching the pillars, and I guess that’s why you’re on this fragment… but what is its deal?”

“Ah, yes, a very good question indeed! That is exactly my question too, whatever is this pillar’s deal? I wish I had a good answer for you.” The man stood up and began to pace around the interior of his pavilion. Then he looked at Kaleb as if appraising him.

“Before we begin I need you to promise me that you won’t tell anyone about anything I might reveal. You seem like a trustworthy man, but I am bound not to reveal anything to my competition, you understand.”

“Oh, ah –I mean, if you can’t tell me, I understand.”

“No, no, after all you were so generous at telling me your own story… I feel the need to repay that trust, but I need your word. Your word that you won’t spill the beans”

“Spill?”

“Oh sorry –that you won’t reveal anything of which we speak to anyone.”

“o-of course.”

“Hmm very good. I’m sorry to ask that of you –to keep this a secret. For even though it may not seem very important, there are many people out there who wish to investigate this particular phenomenon, and even cause harm to those others who are already investigating it in order to make off with the findings…” his voice took on a low dark tone as it reached the end of that statement, then he shook himself and began “I came out here a few years ago to research this moving pillar. Unfortunately it is highly difficult to track down. It doesn’t move quickly, but its movement is quite complex – while it may seem to be moving in a relatively constant manner, it does in fact wobble and change its movement! I had a great deal of trouble finding it, following rumours to and waiting fruitlessly where it was supposed to show up until I finally spied it –almost by chance, to be honest. My assistant Egren Ohallow was with me then… but then we set up camp on it in order to take a series of measurements, and my oh my, isn’t it even more peculiar than I had thought! Not only a moving pillar, but a pillar with its own field!”

“So it is… the pillar itself that is generating the field that is holding us here?”

“Well yes, I believe so… it is hard to say, hard to measure even! But more than that my theory, as it currently stands, is not only that this pillar generates the field that holds us here, but more that all the other pillars are themselves generating the parallel field!”

“But the force goes downward… at least at home it did…?”

“Ah yes, exactly! It is exactly that which is so interesting. Why is this the only pillar that attracts everything? Every other pillar’s forces are in parallel to them, aren’t they? And in combination I believe that they influence the entirety of our world… all of ‘cable city’ and the mists. I can’t help but feel that there is some relationship between it all, you know: the dust, the mist, the pillars, and the force… but alas… so far I have been quite unable to propose any theory that could rigorously prove the relationship, or that could be tested.” Iowara looked sadly about him, and then kicked the ground “this pillar has been quite the menace, let me tell you…I have been here for two years and yet…” Iowara sighed and sat down in a heap “I am no closer… no nearer… It’s a real pain… it’s quite…” he seemed to be lost in some sudden cloud of despair. Kaleb looked at the sudden change in this man who had been so enthusiastic but a few moments ago. He was certainly an erratic sort. He decided to try and direct the conversation a little more, after all, Iowara said he hadn’t spoken to anyone in a long time.

“How does it not crash into other pillars?”

Iowara’s energy immediately seemed to return to him at this question.

“Well, that is also a fascinating problem! ...I wonder... Do you have any interest in being a research assistant? Ah, no, how improper of me… anyway, it seems that the pillar is actually engaging in acts of course correction by itself. It’s quite incredible, but the rotation and spin that it possesses functions to generate effects in its attractive field, and so it is able, over large distances, to steer itself in various directions.”

“But… but that means it must know where it's going?”

“Well possibly, but not necessarily… it may simply be that it is responding to the presence of other pillars. It is not entirely unheard of for pillars in the wider world to suffer from collisions, but they rarely seem to damage the pillars themselves.. Undoubtedly due to the great durability of the things… but anyway… it is so rare considering the scale and number of pillars in the constellation –I’m sorry I mean what you would call the world– that it is tremendously unlikely that the pillars do not perform some function that maintains their arrangement! Isn’t it quite spectacular?!”

“So… what exactly is making this pillar like this? This is only the second pillar I’ve ever stood on… but it is perhaps the strangest I ever will, is that what you’re telling me?”

“Yes, it probably will be… To be frank, I haven’t really been able to find much at all in terms of causality. My measurements have given me a tremendous number of other mysteries, such as finding that the fragment does indeed perform course corrections, which was quite the discovery, let me assure you! But I have not been able to find anything that might indicate a control mechanism or a processing device… It is, it seems, something that must be occurring innately within the very structure itself! Which is quite extraordinary, far beyond anything I could feasibly get to function… A real mystery indeed… in short there are very few remaining experiments that I could perform to determine what this pillar’s mechanism is… one is simply to cleave it in two”

“Break a pillar!?”

“Yes, yes. I would need to spend a good length of time doing it, even with spikes designed for the job, it would take me a good hmmm… year and a half or so to break through the whole thing. Then we could see what a small section does by itself. Or at least a significantly large enough section. You see, the constellation of the pillars are full of small pillars and so called ‘fragments’, but they still function like pillars. Yet if there is a small enough piece of any given pillar, it ceases to function as a pillar and follows the ‘parallel field’ instead. Of course, there are records of various experiments that have attempted to break up the pillars, but there are only several outcomes that have ever been recorded: either the pillar maintains its position –even if forcibly moved, it will maintain that subsequent position in relation to the other pillars– or it will fall through the pillars, and often be easily disintegrated and destroyed in the collisions with others, as if their incredible durability was also part of their ability to resist the parallel field. Never has any experiment resulted in a pillar moving of its own accord”

“And so this pillar is unique?”

“Yes, quite so. It is a real puzzler, and hence why there is a great reluctance to actually perform the experiment that would break off part of this pillar and find out. I mean, I’ve broken off a minor boulder, but it was not nearly enough to reach the threshold of significance in terms of affecting either this fragment or the removed piece… and so I am simply here, awaiting the return of my research assistant with word from the institute, really, and trying to think of any other options that might provide me with some insight or some idea… but to be honest, I am just not sure anymore!” Iowara chuckled, but it was a laugh laced with sadness and a certain melancholy. Well, thought Kaleb, I had wanted to escape from a place enormously larger than this one, so it makes sense that he’d feel a little sad about being stuck on this rock.

“Anyway, would you like to eat? There are some rather tasty things that grow on this peculiar pillar… I speculate that its movement through the mist allows filter feeders to enjoy a constant stream of new nutrients, and thus support a vibrant ecosystem!”

“Ah.”

“I see you are not convinced, very well! Do you have any ingredients you wish to add, I shall prepare a soup that shall not disappoint!”

And so they began to prepare to eat. Kaleb found himself smiling in the company of this strange man more and more. They went and harvested some shelled creatures from a small area on the pillar, and then returned and threw them into Iowara’s large pot to boil them before preparing the black fungus Kaleb had brought with him for lunch, before he had intended to leave his home, and some other peculiar vegetables that Iowara had gathered from the surface of the fragment and dried. When he tasted them, Kaleb thought they might have been some kind of carbohydrate– some form of seeding plant, but with a peculiar shape.

After an hour and a half of cooking, they ate. It was pretty good. Kaleb hid his surprise, and gave a compliment to Iowara, who gave a mocking bow. Then he gave Kaleb a drink – alcoholic. Kaleb gulped and then sipped it, not wanting to appear rude. Alcohol was not allowed for youths of the settlement, but he’d snuck some from the storehouse with his friends last year… The memory made him feel guilty and filled him with sadness, but he shrugged it off, as he enjoyed the strange yeasty taste of the home-brewed beverage Iowara had made. Iowara even made a little compartment in the tent for Kaleb to sleep in, and as they turned in, Kaleb stared up at the rustling fabric roof, wondering at his luck, and at the kindness of strangers.