[audio http://198.199.93.193:4000/StarDreams.m4a ]

He steps into the light. The Threshold of Reality, The Gate of Knowledge, The Void of Dimensionality. It has been known by many names in many tongues. It has claimed the lives of those driven to rabid insanity in their quest to track its ever-elusive traces that surface over time: the brief but incredible flashes of its power that even the skeptics could not explain; the wise whispers of faithful bards trained in the Ways of Old; the chilling marks that rest on the darkest and oldest pages of history, sealed with a cruel and unforgiving magic. All tell of its terrifyingly transcendental aura. All say feverishly but fearfully that it is the point of no return.

Yet our bold hero passes unfazed. Through what has been the object of desire for millennia, he emerges with his resolve as iron, his heart as tender. Once he is free of the radiating white purity, the light fades until his surroundings are blanketed in the blackest of darknesses. Then, the journey’s end manifests before him: a large rock structure floating celestially, without any visible support.

And as his pure white eyes fall upon the very reason for his existence, his heart lifts, knowing that his destiny, what will become the determiner of all life, awaits but moments away. Though in the splendor of the new island, our hero can quite easily discern that he stands at the very edge of a bottomless precipice. What lies for those who fall over the edge? Not even our brave hero dares to think of such horrors. His spirit declines quickly, for there appears to be no means of achieving his goal. The mass that he must reach rests high above and some distance away from the infinite cliff face.

So ancient is this realm. The mightiest of civilizations have been slaughtered and overturned, entire worlds have decayed, eternities have passed. All since the creation of this place of nexus. Yet none but this hero, who stands now before the sacred Place of Origin, with nothing but a small and humble padlock, the key to everyone’s survival, have ever reached this land.

Just as despair and futility begin to creep over our savior, he notices a pair of gleaming eyes peeking over the top of the island…