All of Everything and Beyond

I am a Toiler, made in the image of The Creator, who is Perfect. My Task is to serve my Queen by serving The Creator, who filled the world with Danger and clumsy Giants to keep Her creation humble. If I succeed in my Task I will be rewarded with wings and fly off to join Her in The Sands Above.

I have a new Task. My time for carrying sand is done, I will no longer search for Morsels. I have met an Angel and my Task is to now impart Her wisdom to all who will hear it.

Our Queendom is located in the fine sands beneath The Frozen Giants, who have not moved once in all of Our Memories. At one end of Our Realm is The Crack, wide enough so that two Toilers may pass as they search for Morsels left by Giants in The Danger. Across the realm We are separated from The Danger by The Shield. Beyond Our Realm Giants tread freely. Only we are safe beneath our Frozen Giants.

Giants emerge from The Danger and approach their frozen brethren. The Shield protects us from their blundering enormity, which cannot be overstated. It would take an infinity of us to equal one of their measure. When they pound on The Shield my antennae vibrate with fear that they will awaken the frozen ones and The Queendom will become part of The Danger. We believe that the Task of The Giants is to make All of Everything into a quaking place of fear.

It would take ten thousand Giants to fill All of Everything. The Creator gave us armor and powerful jaws and strength beyond compare. She made us conscious in a way The Giants clearly are not. They do not build or search, they just crash about mindlessly booming gibberish. She put them here to keep us humble. Or so I thought, until I met The Angel.

I met The Angel in The Dim Time. I had gone through The Crack as soon as All of Everything had darkened. At this time there are very few Giants, but there are Eaters. Eaters are voracious monstrosities. It would take half an infinity of us to equal one of their measure. Giants stomp about and their passing shakes the ground, but the approach of an Eater will make you feel as if All of Everything is about to crumble beneath your feet. Eaters are ravenous leviathans who proceed along the same well-thought path in their search for Morsels each time. They blast a green light before them, washing All of Everything in an eerie, hypnotic glow. I, with strength beyond compare, can carry a large Morsel alone. Eaters, with their mouths that stretch as far as one can see, can eat an infinity of Morsels in a moment. We are Morsels to them.

It was early in The Dim Time when I emerged from The Crack. I could see the glow of two Eaters far in the distance and rushed off for Morsels with a hundred of my Sisters. The Queen was demanding oily crumbs but I was feeling selfish so I did not follow them to the crumby place where The Buzzers are. Buzzers are mockeries of Angels and as mindless as Giants. It would take ten or more of us to equal one of their stinking measure.

I had not told anyone of the intoxicatingly sweet mound of Manna I had found. There was enough for a hundred of us, but as I have said, I was feeling selfish as I often do. It is for this reason that I know I am not Perfect in my Task and I will never join The Creator in The Sands Above, or so I thought until I met The Angel.

I thanked The Creator that the Manna was still there and checked again to make sure that The Eaters were still far off. Even with the distance I could feel their vibrations underfoot. I tore a delicious mouthful of the crystalline goo from the side of the deposit. Manna is the Perfect food not solely for the energy it gives, but also for the way it makes the mind light up and swim with possibilities. Some say that in those moments they can even feel a kinship with The Giants, though I never have.

I had been eating Manna for some time when She appeared and I thought at first that She was a dream. The vibrations under my feet had lulled me to a gentle daze as I’d chewed. She lit on the sticky mound and I saw Her four wings settle to stillness upon Her back. She was built like me, in the Perfect form of The Creator except She was huge and black and winged. I am red and normal sized. It would take five of us to equal one of Her measure. Then She spoke.

“What a funny place this is,” She said. Her voice was not terribly unlike my own. I was surprised She didn’t smell more celestial, but it was a dream, after all, and I am uncreative as well as selfish. It was a funny place. I laughed. “Do you happen to know the way out?” She asked.

I checked for Eaters. They had halved the distance, close enough to vibrate my antennae, and that drew me back to reality. “Way out of what?” I asked, wondering what answers I could possibly have for an Angel? Perhaps The Creator had sent Her to teach me Humility.

“Out of the museum,” she replied. I did not know what that meant.

“I don’t know what that means,” I said. This is All of Everything and here is as ‘out’ as it gets. We’re in The Danger right now. The only way out is to join The Creator in The Sands Above.” She looked at me uncomprehendingly and I had a thought. “Am I being tested?” I asked, before adding “Your Holiness.”

“This is a funny place. How much of this have you eaten?” She asked, tearing a massive chunk of Manna from her roost. I couldn’t remember. She chewed it and said “You think this is all of everything?” She then leaned down and touched Her antennae to mine and gave me The Memories. It is now my Task to share them with you and with them the terrible Truth of our Toiling.

We are in The Queendom of The Giants, and they are not mindless brutes. They built this place long ago and now return constantly to find Knowledge. I know this sounds like madness. I know all Knowledge comes from The Queen, but this is what The Angel showed me.

We are deep in their Queendom. Beyond Our All of Everything is The Real All of Everything and it cannot be filled with an infinity of anything. It goes up and up to The Shield in the sky, which is brightens and dims, just like the Shiners here. Angels cannot fly high enough to reach The Shield but there are Monsters and roaring speeding Beasts that soar above.

Most of what is Beyond is more dangerous than we can imagine, even for Angels. There are stinking massive Beasts that eat and regurgitate Giants everywhere. It would take ten or more Giants to equal one of their measure. There are Buzzers and Suckers and Floaters and silent streaking Screechers that see all of us as Morsels. There are clumsy Beasts and stealthy Beasts. Some are larger than Giants and some would take two to equal a Giant’s measure while some would take two hundred. I have seen them.

Water falls from the Sky! Crystals do too! Crystals like Manna that are so cold they will freeze you just like The Frozen Giants and you will Toil no more. There is a place beyond our Beyond! I know this sounds like madness, but I have seen it!

I was lost in reverie receiving The Angel’s Memories when the green light hit me. It blasted across The Angel as the vibration hit me. I lost footing in all of my legs and cursed myself for not paying attention. The Eater was nearly upon us. I spun as if in a dream and began to crawl away with lurching steps but it was too late. The Eater’s mouth stretched across the expanse of my vision. I turned so that The Angel might be the last thing I would see and I was filled with regret that I would not be able to share the things She had passed on to me.

She looked annoyed as She quivered Her antennae and spread Her wings, which beat with strength beyond compare as She shook each foot free from Her sticky perch. With elegant grace She swooped towards me, grasped me gently with Her mandibles and lifted me into the air. She touched Her antennae to mine and said She would show me. The Eater seemed of no consequence to Her at all as we rose above it. She implied we should be grateful for The Eaters, that Beyond there were places where Morsels piled up into mountains that ran with stinking sludge.

She said Beyond was mostly a mess with an acrid, confusing tang in the air similar to the overpowering chemicals that rose from the liquid Eaters left in their wake, but there are Plants that smell like Manna nearly everywhere as well. Some are delicious. We Know what Plants are. They emerge from The Sands all over Our Realm. They are frozen like the Giants, ancient, inedible, and nearly scentless, but I will tell you what I saw.

She carried me through The Danger and showed me the source of the Morsels, so far that only the smartest, luckiest Toiler could make it there and return. The Giants collected morsels so large it would take a million Toilers to equal their measure.

We landed on a place that hummed with the same feeling as The Wire in The Crack. It was the Electricity that was in The Shiners and The Eaters and some said in The Giants a little as well. There was a pool of orange liquid Manna that I lapped up greedily, parched from the crystals and my traumatic encounter, forgetting what the sweetness does to my head.

The next part seems like a dream, so forgive me. The Angel beckoned and I followed her to a mound of crystals. Cold. Not cold like the Wind from The Hole above The Frozen Giants. The crystals were transparent like The Shield and slick with water. They emanated cold. The Angel sipped from the crystals so I did too. The drop of water suffused me, chilling me from the hard shell of my armor through to my center, freezing everything within. I became as The Frozen Giants.

The crystals of Manna in my head froze and I was Timeless and Nothing and part of All of Everything and Beyond. Just a crystal in the Creation made by Our Perfect Creator in all Her Infinite Wisdom. I became One With Her and She gathered me in Her legs, touched Her antenna to mine and beat Her wings, powerful beyond compare, until I was warm and alive again. I awoke to find myself held by The Angel. “Careful,” She said, “the ice is very cold, you drank too much.” I felt I hadn’t drunk enough.

I watched The Eaters, safe at this height. I was far from home and unafraid. “I want to show you something,” said The Angel, and lifted me again into the air.

All of Everything raced by beneath me. Eaters and Buzzers and here and there I saw the corpses of my Sisters who expired during their search for Morsels. We swooped through the air until we arrived at a familiar yet unfamiliar place. I could see The Frozen Giants and The Queendom below. We were on the far side of The Shield.

The Angel said The Frozen Giants were statues made from Memories. My head swam. I saw my Sisters emerging from The Crack with Morsels. I was an infinity away from them. My world felt small in that moment, but that was nothing compared to what happened next.

The Angel plucked me from The Shield and carried me again into the air. We flew and flew past Frozen Giants and Frozen Beasts until we came to rest upon another shield. I could not comprehend what I beheld.

A dark dome lay beyond with a massive Shiner shining above. Countless little Shiners surrounded it. All of them seemed an infinity away. Closer was the Queendom of The Giants, festooned with Shiners. Things that looked like Eaters raced past with Giants visible inside them. The Angel had spoken The Truth. “I need to find my way out,” She said. I could not speak. She pressed her antennae to the shield. I felt helpless.

She did not speak during the long flight back. She deposited me gently on the ground by The Crack and regarded me curiously for a moment before flying off, leaving me with Knowledge, which comes from many places and a new Task.

There is more than what we know, my Sisters. All of Everything is bigger than we ever imagined.