The Paragon of Eden
Chapter 5

Jonce wasn’t Eden, and so Deelia couldn’t stay. She was just beginning to have a mind of her own again. It was wonderful, but it wasn’t without its pains. It wasn’t anything new, but that time she had spent drifting in her consciousness had been a strange sort of bliss for while it lasted. At least, that was how she saw it now that she had these new things on her mind.

Did she have to settle for perfection? What was wrong with the way Jonce managed a pretty good civilization without succumbing to pirates or war? It was perfect in someone’s eyes, at least. Perhaps it was simply the fact that this place made such an explicit effort to be perfect that its shortcomings shone much brighter. Yes, that is a good way to justify Hau, isn’t it?

But Deelia knew that was not what Hau was really thinking. No, he did want perfection in all of its mysterious glory. He would settle for nothing less. His strange Warback was even named the “Paragon,” and it was perfect in many of its own ways. The only thing it wasn’t was a paradise that fit every need a society could ever cherish. And, with the power that Hau’s actions suggested, perhaps he was justified in searching for something impossible. The Paragon should have been impossible. Deelia’s survival should have been impossible. Hau was an impossible man, shrouded in the realm of impossibility. Everything was possible to him.

And yet he seemed to be taking his time replaceing this place they could call home. The world must have been big if such a person hadn’t yet found it.

“The world is a small place,” Hau suddenly said with a grimace.

Deelia was lost in thought, but she responded as naturally as she could. “You already knew about Jonce?” Of course he had. He had shown her the clothing store and had known just about every way to handle going about that place. But Deelia was feeling lost at the moment. Anything is possible now.

“Oh, I thought it was obvious. I did know about it. I know a lot of places, you see. I even know one place that I need you to promise to me you will never tell another soul about it. Will you?”

“Yes…”

“Ok, good, because it would be one of the greatest sins to do so, and also because we are headed there right now.”

But they had been in space, in the Paragon, many stretches of space away from Jonce for quite some time now. There was nothing but void all around. Deelia didn’t seem to be able to feel fear of that, it seemed. Her relationship with this strange vessel proved to be unyielding. This wasn’t just a tool, it was a constant, something as powerful as nature. Wasn’t it?

It could open pathways toward other reaches of space…

It was doing that right now. Slowly, the Paragon inched towards that great eye in space until it passed through and ended up somewhere completely different. This new place, however, didn’t have a great city or some planet on the other side. It barely even looked different. It could have been the same location for all Deelia understood, and the stars could have just shifted from a new angle.

But Hau seemed sure. He wasn’t lost. Though Deelia was more the individual she could have been now more than ever, she still believed that Hau could do anything he wanted with perfect planning and execution. He had done so before, and he hadn’t failed yet. Except for being kicked in the balls. And being captured by pirates.

Ok, were they actually lost now or what?

The space around them changed. Something strange was going on, and Deelia’s understanding of the world seemed to be uprooted by what she saw. The black abyss around them slowly faded into a very light orange, and clouds whisked themselves into existence all around, spaced evenly like some master-crafted painting. The stars wavered in behind this visage, springing into and disappearing out of sight. Eventually, reality stilled, and the realm of this cloudy, sunset sky became settled as their surroundings.

As they drifted, Deelia noticed that strange structures grew out of the floating puffs at random angles. These buildings were not unlike the ancient historical sites from her home world, but they were also unmistakably alien. It was just enough to say that there was a common interest in mankind to build, but not particularly what. And here, Deelia wasn’t sure what these things were or where they came from. When were they built? Had they been built at all?

As the Paragon drifted casually in its perfectly straight trek, the structures grew and began to take on a more diverse array of forms. Some sprouted cloth like curtains and tarps, and some supported great platforms and bridges. It was beginning to look more and more like some sort of city, but it wasn’t anything perfect.

The strangest part of it all was the lack of any sort of inhabiting people. This place was lonely. Did Hau live here? How did he know about this place? Did the other factions of Ookon know?

No, they didn’t. Hau had told her to never speak of this place to anyone. This was a secret beyond the officials of her home world, beyond the pirates that scavenged what was left, beyond the wars of the two major factions of Ookon that had destroyed everything she had ever known. What was beyond this place? Before knowing the answer to that, however, it would have been a good idea to get a better understanding of what this place was.

The Paragon took them slowly onwards, and the clouds began to converge at an increasing rate. The architecture slowly combined and formed great castles of strange white stone and multicolor cloth. Some of the spaces began to look different and specialized as if they were modified for a specific purpose. There wasn’t any obvious machinery, but whatever those curious designs suggested was not a display of ancient history.

There were arches and drapes of waving cloth, clouds circling all around in tighter and tighter patterns, passing just by the outside of the Paragon. They were getting close to the center.

Once it came into view, Deelia saw some sort of inner chamber. The lighting was all natural, but the views of the sunset sky outside were almost completely blocked by a domed ceiling of ancient paintings depicting what appeared to be something religious. Below that massive ceiling was some sort of complex contraption, old yet still in perfect working condition, hosting a glowing, ominous orb of cracked crystal. On the ground, there was a great empty space of shallow water and all sorts of flowers decorating each unoccupied spot. At the very center, a dais rose and hosted five colorful characters, all with an air of impatience.

Behind them all were their own complimentary Warbacks, suspended in the air just above the water, and they were nothing like anything Deelia had ever seen. The first one that caught her attention was the one most resembling the Warbacks she had seen before this: a hulking figure of armor and decorated plate mail. It was like some sort of massive knight, but anything in that visage would have been too weak to carry it. Its shoulder pads spiked out with golden gilding, completing the motifs of gold scrollwork on a grey body.

There was also a complex entanglement of what seemed to be spikes and strands of waving, bending, silver strands. There was a feminine statue of plating, distinguishable by its conical head and many wrappings of silky, dully colored cloth. There was a monster, a combination of living flesh and machinery, symmetrical and beautiful and terrifying, and there was a great behemoth of brass spheres melded together to shape something vaguely humanoid.

The pilots all stood in a semicircle, presumably incomplete from a missing member or two. As Hau and Deelia approached in the Paragon, the pilot’s faces followed them with a stern gaze. Once the Paragon had taken its place, it was clear that there was still room for one more Warback. Despite that, the pilots seemed to think that Hau’s arrival was the last. This last person was not planned to show up.

Hau stepped out of the Paragon, falling onto the edge of the dais below. He landed without any trouble despite the fall of a few stories.

“Hau,” said a tall, muscular man in formal wear. He was the Pilot of the knightly Warback. “I don’t need to ask if you knew how long you kept us waiting.”

“I’m not in trouble?” Hau responded.

“He knows you know, idiot,” said a woman in an expensive coat. She was the pilot of the Warback with the conical head.

“And…?”

“Do you even know why we are having this council today?”

“The same as always?”

“Jesus, Hau,” said a very tall man with spiky hair. He was the pilot of the silver Warback.

“Ok,” Hau said. “What do I have to do now.”

“Nothing,” said the muscular man.

“Great!”

“No, Hau.” It was the woman again, and she looked like she was getting more annoyed by the second. “That’s not what he meant. We need you on standby for a minute or two.”

“You all seem happy to see me today. Did something happen?”

“Well, Hau, for one, this is hardly any different than any other day with you. And two, you have a random girl in your Paragon with you! Right under the Genesis Crystals! She is seeing things we would kill anyone else for hearing whispers of! And you’re acting like we shouldn’t notice!”

“Is it that weird?”

“We aren’t judging you! This is against the rules!”

“I told her not to tell anyone.”

“Son of a bitch--.”

“Veena!” yelled the muscular man. “Calm down. We cannot let these passions control us lest we become the Warbacks to something much less predictable. And Hau, we cannot delay this topic any longer. The time is soon approaching that you change.”

“Wait,” announced a man with a haggard face and blond hair. “Let’s see this all out one step at a time. And that first step is to get this interloper somewhere she can’t hear us talk. Right Hanin?”

“Agreed, Neem. Veena, why don’t you show her to the lounge? We can handle the yelling.”

“I wasn’t planning to yell anymore,” she responded.

“You never do. Just go.”