Veritas | Meditative Adventure | Mars Ep 4: Your True Self

So how we're going to begin is you're going to sit comfortably,

However that means to you.

Could be legs crossed,

Could be sitting in a chair.

Whatever it is,

Sit somewhere comfortably that you feel relaxed and comfortable.

And you're going to close your eyes and you're going to take three deep breaths.

Deep breath in,

Count to four.

Deep breath out,

Count to four.

And each time you exhale,

You're going to try and relax your body a little bit further.

So you're going to inhale,

Pause,

Exhale,

Pause.

So as you're doing this and you're relaxing,

It's in those pauses between breaths where we're going to go.

That is where your creativity meets your imagination,

Meets your subconscious.

So let's see what awaits you in the spaces between breaths.

It's not over yet.

A lone figure hanging from a rock wall with some sort of monster bent on your destruction,

Mere feet below you.

For a second you lean your cheek against the rock and think,

I could just let go.

All this pain,

It could end right now.

But you know you won't.

That weakness is gone.

Your ironclad will has slammed that gate shut.

You feel oddly energized and confident.

As you lift your cheek off the rock to look around,

You notice that some flakes of slate fall to the ground.

Interesting.

You wiggle your fingers,

Not daring to release your fragile hold.

Sure enough,

Your fingernails can chip little chunks of rock out.

This rock is soft.

It's so obvious.

You watched the rock monster do it when it climbed out of the canyon.

You steel yourself,

Shift your weight to the left so you're hanging from your left hand,

And with your right hand you smash your fist into the rock as hard as you can.

Pain explodes from your knuckles as does blood showering the face of the rock and dripping down to the monster below.

It howls as if it knows something is happening.

But sure enough,

A fist-sized hole is now in the rock,

A hole you can fit your fingers in and hold on.

You don't realize it,

But you are laughing out loud hysterically.

You grab hold of your newfound support and release your left,

And reach up as high as you can and smash your fist into the rock,

Again and again.

Another handhold.

With your right foot,

You swing your leg back,

Smash your toe against the rock,

Again and again.

Then shifting your weight onto your left foot,

You smash,

Again and again.

Now we're getting somewhere.

Right hand,

Smash the wall.

Left hand,

Grab hold.

Right foot,

Smash.

Left foot,

Grab.

Right hand,

Left hand.

Right foot,

Left foot.

Just keep going.

Don't look up,

Don't look down.

Just focus.

Right hand,

Left hand.

Right foot,

Left foot.

It seems like ages passed,

But you are putting some distance between you and the monster now.

The same soft rock that is your salvation is inhibiting its large weight from achieving a proper handhold in the rock.

It keeps sliding down,

Leaving huge grooves and streaks scarring the rock wall.

Still you climb.

Left foot,

Right hand.

Left hand,

Right foot.

Left foot,

Right hand.

It is amazing that your survival has depended so much on this basic cadence.

Always forward.

Each step,

No matter how small,

Adding up to you still being here.

Still fighting,

Despite all the odds.

At last,

Your hand reaches and feels nothing.

You look up.

You've made it.

You have ascended.

With one more foothold,

You push yourself up onto the ground above,

Exhausted.

Now you begin to feel the throbbing in your hands,

The bleeding.

You roll onto your back and take a breath,

The adrenaline of your ascent pushing your heart to pound in your ears.

It is at this point you remember that you were terrified of climbing.

And there,

Staring at the alien sky with its alien moons,

You can't help but laugh.

It is so picturesque and beautiful.

You know this moment you will remember for the rest of your life.

You just achieved the impossible.

Several times,

In fact.

Of the three people here,

You were the last one standing.

You hear smashing and snarling below.

It seems the creature's climb is progressing.

It's time to go.

You roll over,

Push yourself up,

And with unsteady hands,

You stand up.

Looking around,

The top of the cliff looks much like the bottom of the cliff.

Red desert as far as you can see.

But then,

There.

Quite close.

About 50 yards away or so,

Is that a door of some sort?

A destination,

Perhaps?

Perhaps this is that beacon you saw reflecting off in the distance.

This is where you're supposed to go,

You just know it.

Feeling somewhat elated at your discovery,

You start forward,

Taking the first step and pushing off,

Thinking to begin your glide run towards the door.

But then something strikes your legs and you go sprawling forward.

With a roar,

The rock monster ascends and finally catches up with you.

The sound is deafening.

Your ears burn with its screams.

With one clawed leg,

It smashes the ground where you were and you roll away just in time.

It's not enough.

It grabs your leg,

Throwing you through the air,

And for endless seconds you were flying,

Only to smash into the ground.

You hear a pop as your shoulder dislocates.

The pain is excruciating.

It's all you know.

Your world is pain.

There's blood.

There's screaming.

Someone is screaming.

Is it you?

Maybe.

The monster comes for you again,

This time grabbing your leg and throwing you up,

Down,

Smashing against the ground.

As it lifts you and hurls you,

Again you sail through the air,

The lower gravity making you fly so far it seems like forever.

You sail through the air and then.

.

.

SMASH!

Unexpectedly,

You hit something.

You're tumbling to the ground now.

With a thud,

You hit the ground,

Confused.

You hit something in the sky?

What could it possibly be?

You groan.

Your shoulder.

Your knuckles.

Your feet.

Your face.

Everything hurts.

You rise and look,

Trying to ascertain what it is you collided with.

To your shock and surprise,

You find yourself staring at your own reflection.

At least,

You think it's you.

You barely recognize the bruised and tattered figure standing in front of you.

But yeah,

You place your palm in the mirror and your reflection does the same.

Confused,

You look up and there looks to be a spiderweb of cracked glass where you collided.

You smash against a mirror extending from the ground high into the sky.

What is this?

You seem to have damaged it.

It is flickering.

Groggy,

But curious,

You roll your head and look up.

You can't see the top of it.

It seems to extend as far as you can see.

Then looking down towards your feet,

Back the way you came,

You look down into the crater where you started.

You can see the structure where you started as a faint blurry smudge against the horizon.

But now that you look for it,

You see,

Running parallel along your path,

An impossibly large mirror.

Like a guardrail,

It funneled you in a single direction the whole time.

Confused,

Your brain is fuzzy.

Something stirs.

Something in your subconscious begins to put the pieces together.

And then that voice,

That alien voice you heard before,

Just a faint whisper.

The voice of the beast.

Do you see?

You're not even sure you heard it.

When?

A mirror?

Suddenly you're back on the dais looking at the runes.

You see the beast standing atop of you,

Leaning over to whisper in your ear.

What it told you changed everything.

You see the rune in the underground chamber,

Three circles becoming one.

You see Phobos exiting their structure and fleeing their rock monster.

But it was a mirror,

Or at least a kind of mirror.

That means there never was a Phobos.

Or a Deimos.

With a start,

You sit up and look to your left.

Sure enough,

Across the way,

Perhaps a kilometer away,

The reflection of the damaged mirror was reflecting in a second mirror.

Two mirrors running parallel to your course.

Not competing against two other contestants,

Seeing a reflection of yourself.

Do you see?

And you're subconscious of these stirs.

Have you ever unlocked a piece of the puzzle,

But not the whole thing?

You're missing something important.

With a roar,

The rock monster smashes the ground.

A large bang snaps you back to the present.

The truth is here,

Beckoning you.

Look at it.

There it is,

Just on the tip of your tongue.

What are you missing?

Your salvation depends on it.

Again,

Back at the dais.

The beast.

The dragon.

The storm.

Your reflection in the dragon's eyes.

A figure,

A weaker version of yourself,

Holding onto the rock inside the cavern.

In the storm,

In that exact moment when your iron will slammed shut and you were sure that you would survive,

That weaker version of yourself let go.

And again,

Hanging from the cliff.

When you knew you weren't done,

Another version of you gave up and let go and fell,

Disappearing in a cloud of dust and violence.

So those parts of you died.

And what is left?

Something.

Something.

And then the voice again.

Do you see?

See what?

You don't understand.

There's so much pain in your arm.

Your eyes glaze over.

You're about to pass out.

Do you see?

Your attention snaps back.

You're staring at the rock monster now.

Its scorpion tail flickers.

It seems to be unsure,

Somehow aware that something is happening.

You're still on the ground,

A bleeding mess,

But you're not out yet.

And then staring at this absurd creature trying to destroy you,

Your subconscious bangs on the door.

Something waits to be discovered.

What are you missing?

Running.

The storm.

The monsters in the cave.

Climbing the rock wall.

The runes.

The dragon's eyes.

Your reflection.

Wait.

In your first vision you were the storm.

At least you thought you were.

But you were looking down on the storm,

And in your next vision you saw the dragon behind the storm.

You were the dragon.

You saw your reflection in your own eyes.

And then staring at the rock monster,

The key finally fits in the lock and turns with an audible click.

Do you see?

The answer is almost comically simple.

That's no dragon.

Do you see?

You are the dragon.

Stirring in your belly that confidence,

That power.

It overwhelms you now.

As you surrender to it,

It flows unrestricted through your veins.

Something has startled the rock monster.

It can sense that something has changed.

It takes a step back.

You stand up and breathe deeply.

It still hurts,

But you can feel it.

Your power is growing.

Your arm dangles uselessly at your side.

Still staring at something unseen,

You grab your arm and pull.

Your shoulder clicks back into place.

Excruciating pain shoots through your body,

But it's as if it's happening to somebody else.

You breathe in,

Sensing the gravity here in this world,

And you know that in that instant,

Your bones are way denser and your muscles way stronger than anything here.

That means that you are faster and stronger than anything of this world.

You are the most powerful thing here.

You turn and look at yourself in the mirror,

Your ragged clothes,

Your dried blood,

Your figure somewhat distorted by the cracked mirror where your body slammed against it.

You raise your hand to one of the threads of cracked glass,

And the strangest thing happens.

The glass liquefies,

And the spiderweb of broken glass begins to repair itself.

It flows together,

And in an instant,

It is gone.

And just like that,

You are staring at not a broken person,

But a full person.

A soul full of potential.

A bit ragged perhaps,

In need of a shower,

But it's your eyes.

They are intense and bright and ready.

They are the eyes of a warrior.

A faint glow begins to shine around the outline of your body.

Slowly,

It starts to intensify.

You should be afraid,

But you're not.

Your reflection in the mirror continues to glow with growing intensity.

You're not afraid because you've been through it and come out the other end stronger than ever.

This reflection shows potential.

It shows emotion.

The light intensifies until great wings burst forth from your body.

They extend from your back 20 feet in either direction.

Your veins pulse with raw power as you stare at this reflection of you.

This is the version of you that could be.

That can be.

The glow of your wings glows so intensely until there is nothing but light.

And then just as soon as it came,

It is gone,

Along with the mirror,

Your reflection,

And everything else.

With a sense of finality,

You turn and look at the rock monster as if for the first time.

It screams in defiance and rushes towards you,

Its jagged,

Clawed arms smashing into the ground where you were standing.

But then,

You're not there.

You've moved.

You skipped across just out of the way and land on your left foot,

Immediately changing direction and smash your right foot into its front leg,

Causing its leg to sprawl out.

Without slowing,

You redirect your momentum to the left,

Smashing into its left leg back.

And this way,

You zigzag beneath the beast,

Splaying its legs out so its belly hits the ground.

When you come out the other side,

You don't stop.

You simply redirect,

Plant,

And jump over top of the beast.

As you sail above it,

Your feet come over your head as you flip upside down and you grasp the top of the scorpion rock tail.

As you fall back to your feet and land,

You pull and you hear a snap.

Rocks explode in a shower of pebbles.

You rip the tail right off.

Keeping the momentum going,

You land and you swing its own tail.

As it tries to get up,

You smash its rear leg off,

Followed by a perfectly timed spin,

Which smashes its front leg.

Leaping in the air,

You let your weight fall and let your momentum drive as much force as possible as you smash its own rock tail into its back.

Again and again,

You leap from one side to the other until it can't get up.

The rock monster finally shudders,

And then with one last explosion of rock,

It collapses.

The rocks come apart into pebbles,

And once again,

It is a pile of rubble.

Even the leg you're holding disincorporates,

Leaving you holding only the sharp,

Stinging end.

You're about to cast that aside too,

But for a second you swear you see the outline of a dragon glowing along the jagged stinger.

Perhaps you'll keep this after all.

It is time.

You turn and resume walking towards the door.

The pile of rocks,

As if sensing your presence,

They part one by one,

Creating a path.

Your own red carpet.

Unhurried now,

You move closer.

You can see the door in more detail now,

And it is beautiful.

The doorway is golden and engraved with runes,

Some of which you recognize.

A giant dragon's head and serpentine body around the perimeter of the doorway.

The runes begin to glow as you approach.

You don't even need to touch them.

Dragons be here.

And then below that,

Three new runes.

Breathing in,

You sense their power,

Their purpose.

One means enter.

The other speaks of your past.

The third,

Your future.

You contemplate this for a moment,

Then reach out and touch the dragon rune.

Light fills your eyes and the door begins to shine.

With a final explosion of light,

A beacon of blue light shines into the air that lasts for a second.

Part of you wonders,

Who came through the doorway when you saw the beacon before?

How many times have you been here?

How many times have you failed?

It does not matter.

You are here now.

With a shimmer,

The door bursts open into a universe of light.

Behind it,

You see a universe of possibility,

The most terrifying thing of all,

Perhaps.

It is your future,

But a future unbound,

Unrestrained.

It is exhilarating as much as it is terrifying.

As you step through the outline of the door,

Great wings can be seen briefly,

And then you vanish.

The red planet is quiet again for a time.

Then the crunch of gravel is heard as a man in a perfectly tailored suit and dress shoes walks across and kicks the remains of the rock monster out of his way.

A second set of shoes joins him.

These more worn,

And the sound of a cane clicking on the ground can be heard.

This man wears dark glasses and feels his way with a cane.

The first man turns towards the blind man.

No one has made it before.

The blind man smiles,

And so it begins.