PROLOGUE

In the time before time, existence was a paradox. Time ran like tumbleweed across a desert of infinity: first this way, then that, putting down no roots and following no path. Past, present and future had no meaning.

The impossible moved and breathed alongside the possible. Fish swam through air; land creatures walked upon the surface of the waters and Nature had no laws.

Mankind was and was not.

The mighty Fozz declared that change must come and it was his task to bring it about.

Long into the endless night and ageless days he laboured, studying books not yet written, speaking to wise folk not yet born. He gathered together all the knowledge and wisdom that was, had been and was still to come and, at last, he understood what needed to be done. In the eternal flame he melted the infinite sands to make a glass so magical that it held itself aloft like a drop of water in space. From this he fashioned a mirror made up of many layers; planes laid one over the other; touching, but not connected. The mirror's surface was smooth, its back curved and blackened with the soot from the flame of eternity. To contain all this he carved a frame from a limb taken from the World Tree, crafting an intricate tracery around its rim that added to its power.

And all this he did in the name of Order.

Through the face of the mirror, he passed all existence and inexistence, knowledge and ignorance; transmuting and transforming it into being. Time was reined in and made to run along straight lines, no longer subject to the eddies and currents of the winds of confusion, moving through each layer in a different, but constant direction. Each plane of existence had its own inhabitants and nature. No creature could pass from one to another unless the time was right. And for many, the time would never be right.

Inside the mirror, all creation learned its place. On the earthly plane, land stood still and water flowed, except in limited areas where extreme heat or cold caused them to mimic each other’s nature. Fish swam in water, creatures walked upon the land or flew over it; but all were subject to a magnetic force known as gravity. Mankind took its place within this layer of creation and the mighty Fozz was content. Here he placed the mirror in the care of the wisest of the wise, showing them what it held inside and warning them to keep it safe for all time.

All was well. The mirror passed from generation to generation in the safekeeping of those that knew its power and understood how to care for it. In return for their dedication, the keepers were allowed to look into the mirror and see the truth, every truth, on every plane of existence. Past, present and future were visible to them and they could make of it what they wished. But it is said that a seer cannot foretell his own death. And so it was inevitable that at last, a caretaker of the mirror died without passing it on and the mirror was at large in its own world floating free and unfettered until it was found by a man with an eye to a profit.

 
 
Copyright 2002 Susan M Phillips

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