The deepest of truths surround us on all sides, if only we would see them. Truths so deep a lifetime of contemplation wouldn't even scratch their surface. Chris Columbo saw this reality, and even so he delighted in the search. A search that led to him finding the final continent of Earth, a discovery of such magnitude it heralded a new age. He faced the infinity around us with open eyes and didn't shy away. Drowning in concepts so powerful they would drive any other man mad. A single man bearing the weight of eternity. A crucial strength to have. For only then can a man look upon HIM…
Chris squinted at the stars and groaned.
“35 degrees starboard!” he bellowed, “And somebody fix the goddamn last sail!”
Around them the ocean roiled dangerously, refracting rays of starlight and turning the entire horizon into a confusing kaleidoscope of patterns.
“Damn it” Chris mumbled as they roughly crested another wave, “Fernand! Take the helm!”
He stumbled down to the captain's cabin, cursing as the ship hit a particularly big wave.
He burst through his cabin door just in time to catch a bottle of ink before it splattered all over his precious charts.
“Shit!”
Then all the energy seemed to drain out of him, and he slumped into his desk chair, almost missing as the ship once again crested a wave.
He had known from day one that this job was insane, but this was a bit much.
“Round world my ass” he muttered.
But he was always searching. It's what defined him, With every discovery he came a little bit closer to finding his treasure. But he was running out of places to search for. He wistfully turned his gaze to the leather bound journal next to his charts.
“One day” he sighed “one day.”
Then, groaning he took a swig of whisky from the metal flask on his waist. It slid down his throat like liquid fire, bringing wakefulness back to his tired form.
With energy belittling his previous state he swept his desk clean and unraveled his charts. With one final wistful gaze upon the journal, he got to work.
I watched from the heavens above as he drew closer and closer to the Earth’s final frontier.
The known continents had long been discovered and settled, with kingdoms springing up by the dozen to govern the vast lands. Yet for all they had accomplished, all they had discovered, the lands across the sea remained undiscovered. Until Chris.
Upon that vast ocean, a ship cut through the raging waves like a blade parting flesh, wet spray flung to the sides. Upon the deck of the lone ship stood a man, glaring into the dark unknown as if he could part it through sheer will alone.
Months passed and the ship drew steadily closer, homing in on the new land like an animal to a new scent. Eager and apprehensive all at once.
Challenge after challenge fell before them. Towering waves that history would name Sky-Touchers and deep sea animals that it would name leviathans.
Chris stood at the helm through it all, forever searching, and eventually, finding.
One day, months into their journey, deliverance arrived.
“Land Ho!” yelled the man in the crowsnest.
Chris laughed,
“Well, damn, looks like those desk-kissers were right after all!”
I watched their first steps onto that sand, silently witnessing the discovery of Earth’s final frontier. I was the only witness that understood the weight of the moment.
“I hear they got amazing food in the sunrise duchies” one man remarked.
“Forget the food! I hear their women are the most beautiful in the world!” another replied, “If i could just…Ow!”
“Enough daydreaming” Chris chuckled, withdrawing his hand, “We need to confirm we really are in the sunrise duchies. The charts…don't match” he finished with a troubled look.
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Then raising his voice he bellowed, “Split into groups and see what you can find! Don't wander too far!”
“Aye” came the answering chorus.
Chris himself retreated to his cabin and opened his old journal. He sighed contentedly, breathing in the smell of old paper and fresh ink.
“He who is searching cannot be lost.” he whispered under his breath, seemingly without notice. Then, dipping his quill into the fresh ink he began to write. He wrote of his journey through the ocean, and of the challenges he faced. He wrote not only of the mighty waves and relentless winds, but also of the confounding fear, and his resolute will. He wrote of his findings, of new lands and newfound courage.
I basked in the path he uncovered so diligently, finding new parts of my infinite self even as he uncovered new parts of his.
Finally, a knock at the door interrupted his musings.
“Come in” Chris responded, quietly stashing his journal.
Fernand entered looking nervous,
“Sir…I think you might be right”
“About what?”
“I don't think we are in the Sunrise duchies”
“Chris frowned,
“Why?”
“There is not a single sign of civilization everywhere and some of the plants and animals we have come across are…strange.”
“How so?”
“I have never seen their like,” then, dropping his voice to a whisper he continued,
“We found the skeleton of a massive monster, with ribs large enough to contain several men and horn sharp as a blade mounted on a massive skull.”
“Are you sure that isn't something just native to the sunrise duchies?”
“I asked Frank, you know how he is with animals, and I swear by God himself I have never seen that man so excited. He just lept upon it and started babbling about how he was going to be famous. Something about a book.”
Chris’s frown deepened.
“At nightfall, I’ll check the charts again.”
Night fell and the charts only confirmed what some of the men had already realized. They were not in the Sunrise kingdoms. Months of frantic exploration and calculation followed as everybody pitched in to answer the burning question: where were they?
I observed in amusement, waiting for the moment of realization.
It came not in a single realization, but two.
The first was a small group of sailors returning with the crucial information that the land they stood upon was no island. They had climbed the tallest mountain, and from the top beheld a new world. Familiar in the vitality of it all, but different in its untouched nature. This was land that had never seen the touch of man. The second was a discovery of the captain himself, devised not in the observations of man, but rather in the cold logic of numbers. They gathered before him to finally hear the answer to that burning question. I gathered with them, eager to hear of the conclusion the captain had reached. With burning eyes and a vicious smile, he announced his findings,
“We have made perhaps the most important discovery in all of human history. We have discovered a new land. And within it, we will be kings!”
That night the men celebrated and cheered, and I celebrated with them. The world was almost discovered. I wondered what would come next.
That night Chris lay awake, pondering the implications of their findings. He had put on a confident front for his men, but in the privacy of his own cabin he could admit he wasn't certain. If this truly was a new land, they were in grave danger. The opportunity for new lands and resources of this magnitude would drive men to dangerous lengths. They would need to gather information and samples, little treats to throw the dogs off their scent. If they gathered enough, recorded enough, they wouldn't be needed. And then they would be free.
But he was feeling the itch. That unreachable tick that whispered warnings in his ear. It had been years since he had been in one place for longer than 3 months. That date was approaching. Dissonance loomed like a storm on the horizon. A division of astral and physical. And he was trapped.
Chris didn't sleep that night.
The next morning, the work started. A comprehensive catalog of all new animals and plants led by the animated Frank. A detailed map of the geography of this new land, led by Fernand the first mate and cartographer. A dozen other small projects, from a search for intelligent life to a fossil dig all aimed to get as good an understanding of the land as possible. All meticulously documented. Chris himself drew upon his knowledge of star charts and math, pushing himself to his limit in an effort to complete his task as fast as possible.
It was no use. The storm drew nigh.
It arrived on a sunny day. Chris woke up feeling comfortable, feeling at home. He sleepily got dressed and stumbled out of his cabin, absentmindedly waving to the crew he passed.
“It's a beautiful day in Nirvivan, isn't it?” Fernand remarked as he walked up beside Chris.
He said something else, but Chris wasn't listening.
“Nirvivan?” he questioned, forcing his way through growing terror.
“Yeah, Nirvivan. We figured the land needed a name.”
Chris heard him as if he was a thousand miles away, the air turning to molasses as his heartbeat thundered in his ear. He felt the blade looming like death itself. Aiming directly at the fatal split. He who is searching cannot be lost, but what of when he finds what he's searching for? A gap. For all his life, Chris had matched his soul and his world. He was always searching in both. Searching his world for wonders and his soul for himself. A unity defined by the unending search. But for months his world had been stalling at this land. In that name, he saw an anchor dropping, a horrible lurch as his soul and world wretched out of synch. A man flying overboard at the sudden halting of his ship. A fatal gap, exposing himself to the cursed blade of pathbreaking dissonance. Names hold power, more power than most understand. And in that moment Chris faced the full power of such a name. It bound his world, and ripped his soul from it. He trembled, and without another world, dropped to the floor.
The last thing he heard was Fernand shouting for the ship’s doctor.