The enormous scrying stone that gleamed in infinite shades of green dominated the stage and their view. Locked in place by a mighty clamp, it pulsated with the potential to make outer worlds that would make inner worlds, that would make more worlds inside them, and so on.

‘It’s–’

‘–It is.’

There were never words to describe it. Just a sense of endless wonder.

Jink located the podium on the front right and led Jawanza to it. Faster than light, they whooshed past the stone that was far greater than the largest worlds anyone anywhere could conceive.

At the podiums’ base, the pair looked out into the firmament. The vast gathering of spectators whose lights flickered in countless numbers reached far into the dark. Jawanza liked to imagine he saw faces in the front rows, though even from his vantage point they were mere pinpoints of light, which they were. ‘I wonder what they look like close up,’ he murmured.

Jink thought then replied. ‘Spirits are mostly light, so even more resplendent.’

‘Indeed.’

The orator’s eyes scanned all the way to the side and back again, such a distance his squat and rigid neck hurt. ‘How many per row?’ he wondered as always.

‘In the squillions, for sure,’ Jink replied, also as always. ‘It’s time, Orator.’

Jawanza turned back to the stone. Light from a source so bright it would blind a mortal bounced off smooth facets and shone their way. He soaked up the energy that brought with it a sense of the stones’ mood. ‘It’s eager.’

‘As are the spectators.’ Jink waved a delicate arm. Tight vibrations of anticipation rippled towards them from every direction.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

‘They emit strongly this eon,’ Jawanza remarked.

‘The stronger, the better,’ replied Jink. Spirits guided the revelation in ways neither understood.

Jawanza always found it odd that the spirits came for the worlds and yet had no interest in the orator who read them into being. Dwarfed by the enormous stone, not even the spectators in the front rows paid them any attention. Everyone was more interested in seeing the worlds inside the great set come to life. ‘Do you ever wonder why they vibrate so much before the show?’

Jink shook her head. ‘Perhaps it’s because they loathe being bound to time. It makes them impatient.’

‘But worlds containing worlds take time to conceive, otherwise the readings would happen more than once an eon.’

Jink laughed. ‘Perish the thought! How many worlds can be imagined before they all collapse? The spirits cannot conceive that material realms struggle with chaos and need good guidance.’

‘It’s a matter of management,’ Jawanza repeated Jink’s own words from the previous eon.

‘And a management of matter.’ Jink’s head eagerly bobbed as she went off on a fervent rant. ‘Good managers are hard to find, not to mention staffing shortages due to their incompetence. It’s the living beings that suffer, Jawanza. But spectators aren’t interested in administration issues. They’re only here to watch the great orator breathe life into the stone and to see worlds arise. They’re here to be entertained but never underestimate the role they play. Without witnesses, there is no reason for the reading.’

Jawanza appreciated the spectators; he just didn’t understand them. When he went home after a reading, he would speculate for ages on end where they came from and what they did when they weren’t watching worlds rise from a mammoth stone above a stage away from everything.

The great clamp groaned as the stone it held gave a brief shudder. Shards of light burst from it, causing a great rush of energy from the spectators.

‘If that’s not a sign, I don’t know what is!’ Jink laughed then waved the Orator towards the podium steps. ‘Go!’

Jawanza smiled. ‘See you at the end,’ he said.

‘You’ll excel at this reading as you have all the others,’ Jink gave one last morsel of encouragement. ‘And my feeling is that this will be the best yet.’

They locked eyes and said together, ‘Find the essence of the tale and it will tell itself.’

Jawanza had never quite understood the phrase they said before every reading. Countless revelations later, and he still didn’t know if there was such a thing though it did sound alluring.

Jawanza watched Jink whoosh past the stone, back towards the exit, then headed for the podium steps.