It appeared in the middle of the day while everyone was hard at work. It appeared without drama or a loud noise. There was nothing there, and then something was. I was working on the Institute building right then. The construction progress had been significant over the last few months. A lot gets done when there’s not much else to do.
Azarias was the first to notice it. I saw him approach out of the corner of my eye, returning from who knows where. He rubbed his hands together, ready to get back to work with the rest of us. Then he glanced up at the sky. He looked back down like everything was normal, then he did a double take. I traced the path of his eyes… My reaction was similar. It wasn’t the kind of fear I felt when I saw the spider, which was visceral and animalistic. It was more like, “Whoa, what the hell?”
An hourglass floated high in the sky. The top half was filled with sand, slowly trickling down. Its border was engraved with 12 unmissable words: “If the Mountain has not been summited when the time runs out, the Memory Reclamation will begin.”
Azarias and I looked at each other with wild eyes. I shook the person next to me. “Hey, hey! Look up there!” He didn’t acknowledge me. “Stop distracting me. I’m trying to get work done here.” As the man continued to doubt, Azarias walked over, grabbed his head, and angled it upward.
“An hourglass?”
Azarias mumbled, “So you know what it is? Yes, it’s an hourglass. Brace yourselves. There’s about to be a chain reaction.”
Our commotion had spread, but they were still mostly looking at us rather than identifying the commotion’s source. Then there was a scream. “What?”
Like a wave rolling across the plateau, all our heads turned skyward, Explorers and non-Explorers alike. There were screams, but the group quickly sank into silent surprise. Then, someone picked up the 8-Ball. The wielder gave it a few hard shakes and then asked, “Why has an hourglass appeared in the sky?” After a few tantalizing moments, words appeared on the tiny blue triangle: “It’s a warning, and a nudge in the right direction.”
Questions began to circulate through the crowd: “Memory Reclamation, as in reclaiming our memories of before we arrived? Why must we be warned of that? We all want to know about our pasts. What is the Mountain?”
Although the others knew the Explorers were preparing to go somewhere, Azarias hadn’t told them the place’s name, which the spider had given us. For the Explorers, the hourglass’s message immediately took on its own meaning.
The 8-Ball didn’t reply to these questions at first. To get an answer, you have to show it the respect of asking one question at a time. Once the group calmed down, the questions were asked individually. The 8-Ball’s answers went as follows: Yes, by Memory Reclamation, the phrase on the hourglass refers to the memories you possessed before getting here. As for why it’s a bad thing, I only know so much because I’m not omniscient; I am an information provider with a specific amount of information. But I can say for sure that it’s not a good thing for you all to remember. As for the Mountain, why would I ruin the fun and tell you all about it? Go climb it yourself.”
Hourglass-related questions persisted, but the 8-Ball was silent regarding the topic. It was eventually placed back on the ground in a central position near the Fountain of Väinä. Nobody tried to break it for not answering; nobody even showed outward anger. For a while, everyone stood and stared at the ominous hourglass. Azarias mumbled, “I’m so used to light and shadow being present at almost all times; How strange for an object so large to cast no shadow at all.”
Many people were expecting the spider to come out of its cave in reaction to the hourglass. I bet it didn’t even know it was there; the hourglass had appeared silently, and the spider doesn’t seem to know everything. The hourglass’s message did seem to align with the spider’s intentions, though. We have to cross that Chasm… there’s definitely no Mountain over here, just a rather boring plateau and a rather ugly canyon. There are clear boundaries on all sides, up until that darkness. Then, the lower boundary disappears, while the sides remain.
As I was lost in thought, I noticed some of the Explorers heading back to the partially constructed Institute, and I decided to join. We talked in low voices about the recent surprise, then ran right into another one. On one of the walls was a wooden door with a brass knob. We had installed this door, which Azarias had apparently found underground, as an entrance to our living quarters. Since we had installed it ourselves, of course this wasn’t the surprising part. What was surprising was the door right next to it.
“That… wasn’t there before.”
It was a transparent door covered with eleven strange handles placed haphazardly:
One was a light bulb.
One was a black hole.
One was sharp as a thousand blades.
One was a guiding hand.
One was a circular chain.
One was a snow-capped mountain.
One was dense plants and soil.
One was a hand crank.
One was soft as a thousand feathers.
One was cheap plastic.
One was a closed fist.
Azarias said, “Everyone, get out!”
We obeyed and rushed outside. Azarias remained near the door, staring at it with his eyes glazed over. It took a while for him to snap out of it. By the time he finally turned to face us, his expression was clear. “On the topic of names, this is one I can assign myself. This door is something I remember from Earth, although it usually exists as a concept rather than as a fully realized object. It’s called the door to Tuonela. Whenever a group of humans gathers and forms a civilization, eventually, a door to Tuonela ‘appears’.”
As we began to discuss with raised voices, Azarias hushed us. “We can’t let the others know about this yet. Try to act normal.”
“What good does it do us to conceal it? If it’s dangerous, shouldn’t we tell the others?”
“It’s not dangerous in the way you’d expect. Nothing can physically harm you behind that door. It’s more that we don’t want to create chaos when it isn’t necessary. People are vulnerable when it comes to great rewards. One of those rewards is status. Behind each of those doors is a certain status—a role, you might say. Allow me to clarify what I mean when I use the plural. Yes, there is only one door here, but at the same time, there are eleven. Six are bound to reality; five are not. Anyone who enters a door will emerge a winner or a loser.”
I wanted to know what would happen when you lost, but I decided to be more optimistic and ask what would happen if you won. Azarias smiled lightly, “You become an Explorer.”
“An Explorer? Hold on, I thought we were already Explorers, or at least we will be once we leave. What are you talking about?”
“Oh, we’re Explorers all right; we just aren’t the first. Let’s call this a revival. I have to apologize for something, too. There’s more than eleven of us here, so no matter how determined you are, we can’t all be selected, but that’s only the bad news; I have good news, too. In the past, only those 11 who were selected could go out exploring, but now I can change that. The 11 may have a special role in this world, but I refuse to let it be a barrier. How can cruel fate stop brilliant minds before they can shine?”
“Why are you being so vague? What kind of special role do they have?”
“The problem is I was never selected, so I don’t know. That kind of stuff was closely guarded information.”
Flox said, “If only the people who get the role know what it truly entails, how can anyone be sure it’s a good thing? Can you at least tell us whether they enjoyed their roles or not?”
Azarias replied, “Enjoyment is one thing, but being celebrated by others has little to do with that. When I say the word ‘kamikaze’, does anything appear in your mind?”
Someone else said, “Eleven roles seem like a lot. How could each person have an individual job? This exploring stuff must be real complicated. Where were they headed anyway?”
Azarias inclined his head. Even with my limited knowledge, I can tell you that last answer.”
He pointed at the handle that looked like a miniature snow-capped mountain. “Exactly like that, but way bigger. That was the goal.”
“A Mountain?” We all recognized the snow-capped peak as such.
“A Mountain indeed. Maybe the Mountain we’re headed for is the same one, although this climate definitely doesn’t seem suited for it. The weather hasn’t changed while we’ve been here. If there were snow, where would it come from? Maybe this area stops being a cave when you go farther.”
Everyone was confused, and Azarias’s answers were barely helping. “So, what should we do?”
“Whether the spider knows that the door to Tuonela has appeared is not clear. From my conversations with it, it knows little more than we do, and is on a somewhat lower tier of general intelligence. Although I can’t be sure I’m gauging accurately, it’s reluctant to get chatty with me; it has inverse arachnophobia. No, that doesn’t make sense; I can’t remember what the fear of humans is called… Anyway, it cares most about beauty, or memories, or whatever. Now, at this point, I’d say we have a semblance of bonds called friendship. A few of us have even made friends outside our group. The spider didn’t give us precise instructions on what to do after we reached that point, but, conveniently, this hourglass and door appeared when they did. My guess would be we have to assign the roles, at least some of them, by using the door before we depart on our expedition. I’ll still stick to my word of not letting those roles control us, though. I still don’t know how the friendship part’s going to come in… Don’t worry, all of you. I’ll go talk to the spider right now.”
A few minutes later, he returned with an uneasy expression. “All it said was that experimentation is key to discovery.”
“I want the coolest role!”
Aleksi rushed toward the door before anyone could stop him.
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