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Shanshu
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When he came to himself, he was surrounded in something. It was something he couldn't describe.
It was a place. Or a person. Or both, or neither. And it was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. And it seemed allright to simply stay in this presence, to wait. He could wait forever here, be perfectly happy. Perfectly, perfectly happy in the flowing body of it-- the indistinct, overpowering light that illuminated no forms and showed no borders.
He paused. An eternal pause. But it wasn't really waiting, either. Time didn't pass. It was simply now. It was simply now and simply here. And the simple fact that this was enough-- forever enough, was a feeling he couldn't ever explain.
And it could have been a day or a thousand years, perhaps both, before it moved around him. And when the presence spoke, in his mind-- in the echoes of words that remained in some part of conciousness, it spoke in the voice of his mother.
"Are you ready?"
He thought he'd smile, if he could. Of course he was. He was here. That was the point. And he thought, though it didn't have a form, that the presence smiled, too.
"Good," it whispered gently, with a soft tremor of growing excitement in its tone, "Because, William-- it's now. Now is the time."
The light flickered around him.
"Now is when the adventure really begins."
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When he came to himself, he was surrounded in something. It was something he couldn't describe.
It was a place. Or a person. Or both, or neither. And it was like nothing he'd ever experienced before. And it seemed allright to simply stay in this presence, to wait. He could wait forever here, be perfectly happy. Perfectly, perfectly happy in the flowing body of it-- the indistinct, overpowering light that illuminated no forms and showed no borders.
He paused. An eternal pause. But it wasn't really waiting, either. Time didn't pass. It was simply now. It was simply now and simply here. And the simple fact that this was enough-- forever enough, was a feeling he couldn't ever explain.
And it could have been a day or a thousand years, perhaps both, before it moved around him. And when the presence spoke, in his mind-- in the echoes of words that remained in some part of conciousness, it spoke in the voice of his mother.
"Are you ready?"
He thought he'd smile, if he could. Of course he was. He was here. That was the point. And he thought, though it didn't have a form, that the presence smiled, too.
"Good," it whispered gently, with a soft tremor of growing excitement in its tone, "Because, William-- it's now. Now is the time."
The light flickered around him.
"Now is when the adventure really begins."
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