Prologue
Numerous lines of code flicker across the screens in front of me.
Finally, I’m done. Two hundred work hours, ending with 24 hours without sleep or rest, but the program finally works.
Sighing silently I open my internet browser and send my work to my professor. Looking at the clock, I realise that I was lucky this time around.
Only 10 minutes remained until the deadline of my assignment.
I should really work on my working morale, we had an entire two months for this shit, but NO, dumb Mr. Sebastian here had to procrastinate until the last week.
Hah, well, it’s not like I’m going to change. This mentality has been with me for a long time now and I can cope with it, somehow.
Turning off both my beast of a PC and my two monitors, I stand up from my desk and make the three steps to my bed.
Feeling the exhaustion wash over me, I can feel my mind slipping into the desired and very much needed dreamless sleep.
As I am waking up, I notice the abnormal smell that is permeating around me. It is in no way a bad one, reminding me of a wide field of grass, shortly after a short summer rain.
The problem lies with me living in a student hostel in a rather big city. Even though there are parks, there are none even close to where I live.
The idea of a lucid dream comes to my mind and considering the tranquility which comes with the scent, my eyes stay closed, savouring this moment as long as it may last.
It feels like only five minutes have passed by, as I am rudely awoken by a tickling feeling at the tip of nose.
Unable to suppress the natural urge, a heavy sneezing ends my peaceful time.
Rubbing my eyes to remove the remaining sleepiness, I stand up, noticing that I was lying on the ground the whole time.
Looking down I see the little one who disturbed me: A tiny blade of grass, swaying in a breeze so soft I cannot feel it.
It is not alone. Raising my eyes I find myself on top of a platform, covered by a fine natural carpet of grass, each as graceful in the wind as the one which woke me up.
Though small, they are growing very densely, covering the entirety of the plateau in a flowing field of emerald.
But what truly stuns me, making my mind go blank is the view in front of me as my focus rises to the sky above.
Eternal fields of white clouds stretch into the distance.
There is a moon, shining in a cold, calm radiance. It is enormous, looking several times larger than the one we see on earth.
Stars cover the heavens with their brilliance, making even the grandest and purest of diamonds pale.
Turning my head I can see them vanishing from my sight as the sky brightens up. There is a sun, burning in yellow flames, hot and fierce, directly opposite of the moon.
I do not know how long I simply stood there, on the border of night and day with the celestial bodies above my head, the moon to my left and the sun to my right.
It felt like an eternity and like an instant.
Slowly my senses come back to me, ending the mysterious trance.
And with this there come the thoughts.
I know for certain that this is not earth.
This realisation hits me, hard.
Pictures and memories flood my mind: My family, my mother and father, my siblings, my grandparents. I see their smiling faces in my mind, replaying the memories we shared. Happy and sad, angry and forgiving and all those countless more.
I do not know what happened to the me back on earth. Did I simply vanish? Did I die and only my soul crossed over?
Either way, I can see them before me, crying at my grave, whether empty or not.
Tears flow down my cheeks, and I kneel down and weep at the loss of my loved ones, knowing I will never see them again.
Will never see my little siblings graduate school or get into their first relationship. Will never be an Uncle and play with my nieces and nephews.
I can feel my heart and soul wrench in agony.
Again I did not know how long I mourned before calming down and managing to come terms with my situation.
It seemed like time did not matter in this place, as even now I did not feel the slightest hunger or thirst.
For the first time since coming to this place I have a conscious look around where I ended up.
The plateau is not as empty as I initially assumed, noticing not only a pond with a diameter of 10 meters in its centre, but also two truly strange looking trees, growing on either side of the pond.
One is so white, it hurts my eyes as they focus on it, while the other is of a black so absolute, light simply seems to vanish when it comes near it.
But at the same time, they are identical when looking at their form. Even after searching for a good while I do not manage to make out a single branch or knot which is not mirrored by the other.
The pond on the other hand is very shallow, the water being only a few centimetres deep while giving the impression that it has never been disturbed in its entire time of existence.
Beneath this crystal clear liquid there is a pattern which is very familiar to me from earth: Yin and Yang.
Spanning the entirety of the small body of water it seems to represent the very realm I am in, a perfect balance of light and darkness.
Taking all of this in, I squat down, grabbing one of the small blades of grass, trying to pull it out to inspect it further.
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Though to my astonishment, it doesn't budge in the slightest, on the contrary, it still sways in the invisible wind, like all the others. Even after I put the weight of my whole body into it, there isn't any effect at all.
Last but not least I go to the edge of the platform which is approximately 50 meters in diameter, walking along its border, looking for a way down. There is none.
Realising the fact I am stuck here, I sit down in front of the pond, contemplating on what to do now.
As my mind starts to wander my eyes focus on the symbol before me. Feeling the deep mysteries hidden in it, its image begins to fill my mind, slowly at first, but with increasing speed until all thought vanishes and there is only yin and yang.
With each step I take towards its secrets my understanding grows, while only deepening my respect, as the ocean of insights before me only continues to grow.
Unbeknownst to me, my body grows old, dying. At my last breath, one of the blades of grass near me begins to glow a deathly green light, before withering away.
The old male body begins to shrink, the skin becoming young and soft, until there sits a small child, still staring at the symbol without rest.
It is a girl.
For a lifetime I had gained insights into the aspect of yang, when the focus of my mind changes, taking my first steps onto the path of yin.
The circle continues like this, time and time again, my body dies of age before changing into a child of around three years old again, also switching my gender to uphold the eternal balance of this place.
Like this I spend countless lifetimes on comprehending the essence of yin and yang, the image still occupying every corner of my being.
It is after the last blade of grass has withered away, my body once again becoming male, that the pattern in my mind begins to fade away.
I blink, coming to the realisation of being only one step away from my goal.
I see it, there right in front of me in my mind, the last piece to the puzzle of life and death.
Why am I unable to reach it?
I look back at the countless paths I have walked, the ways I have traversed, all leading to this one place.
They define me, making me who I am right now...
I see it, the first path I ever walked...
In my mind I walk it again, from the first moment of life, when the DNA of my mother and father fused together to the moment when I reached this realm. My expression changes as memories and the corresponding emotions flash through my mind at inconceivable speeds.
This is my life, this is who I am.
I answer finally dawns on me and with a smile on my face I take the last step, all paths behind me vanish.
There are no paths.
There is only me.
I am me.
I am the way.
In an instant, the world becomes clear before me. I can see a strange energy wafting through the air in front of me. But I'm not just seeing, I can feel all of my surroundings with an incomparable clarity.
My sense reaches over the edge of the platform, and further down into a depth of around 10 km.
The outside of it is as smooth as it can possibly be, with no roughness whatsoever.
I also discover that it is far higher than I initially thought, with my heightened senses there is still an inconceivable distance to reach the layer of clouds.
At the very least I'm confident in surviving the fall now.
But before there is something I want to try.
The only remaining things here now are the two trees and the pond.
By now I see the trees for what they really are: One, the utmost extreme of Yin, the other the most extreme of Yang.
Normally it would be impossible to bring the two together, but with my current complete understanding of these two concepts it becomes possible.
I walk onto the pond, not a single wave gets created.
After reaching the centre, my arms raised, I summon the very essence of them into my hands.
Slowly they begin to shrink in the corner of my eyes, until both are nothing but small spheres which fly towards my open palms.
Once there I slowly, ever so slowly bring them together.
The very foundations of this world begin to tremble as they begin to merge in front of me.
They need a new form, one not too distant from what they were moments before.
A simple shape comes to my mind, and they follow my will, as a staff materializes before me.
Unadorned and still of incomparable beauty, as black and white light seem to flow endlessly in it.
After some time they begin to stabilize in this form and with a small final nudge from my will, begin to merge.
In the end, a grey staff, 2 meters in length lies in my hands.
"From today onwards, you shall be called 'Bal'."
Still standing in the pond, the staff moves to my right hand and with a gentle tap, I shatter the symbol of yin and yang, leaving behind only a normal body of ordinary water.
With my last objective being achieved I walk to the edge of this small realm and, without looking back, jump into the unknown, only my voice echoing in the empty space: "Life is there to be enjoyed. I shall live this life to its fullest."