Story: Wordspace, V

(Part I , IV , VI)

A few days later, after extensive and arduous interviews with Sorpresa, the Council of Lesser Abstracts had reached the conclusion that firstly their visitor was mostly harmless, and that secondly full communication would eventually be possible. No conclusions as to the cause of the first hole had been reached, predictably, although there were worries that the first visitor might be much less friendly than the second.

The Wordspace had not seen open conflict in many eons, not since the destructives had been imprisoned in the Zone of Accumulated Meaningless Jargon, a region impenetrable to all but the most concisely and flexibly minded. Locked up there for time almost uncounted were War, Chaos, Violence and all the most unbending destructives known to the wordspace; Words as predictable in their behaviour as Order and Bureaucracy but with the most disruptive of intentions.

Our protagonist Mystery had been staring up at Sky for ages now. Sky occasionally winked back a massive syllable but otherwise was silent as ever: She only ever talked to Earth and Air, or other words as massive in their importance. Ideas were sparking within our ambiguous abstract, ideas that he could never fully follow through himself without violating his own nature. Sorpresa had fallen from on high, from on very high, and that meant that the lessons he alone had received from wise old School and Education had some truths behind them after all. There was something up there... something no-one else could even conceive of, dedicated as they were to their own meanings. Mystery had always been one of the exceptions and now his role was to seek out a truth previously unsuspected.

Mystery set out for the island of Truth, the great sage, who spent his time surrounded by his friend Water, whose fluidity comforted him in his quest for all that was knowable. Walking on Water, he approached Truth for the first time since Lies had been put in the Zone and their triangle had been broken.

"Saged Truth, I have news of others from on high. A word fell from elsewhere, outside our Wordspace, causing damage to the land and surprise for the Council."

"From on high?"

"Yes, a word called Sorpresa, although a prior is also at large with intentions unknown."

"Then you too must go up, or send an agent."

"But how to come back?"

"We must ascertain how they came here, or how to go there, before we know how to make the return."

"I understand, sage."

"Go now, and be careful, words from abroad can be unpredictable in their unknown natures."

Mystery departed, and crossed Water once again before summoning Cloud and Club for a journey. A very long journey.

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