The Music of the Spheres

Cander was a non-believer. His brain simply could not accept the unproven, despite having been raised by a priestess. He mouthed the right words, flowed in the prescribed motions, sang with the circle to strengthen the ritual. He knew it was important, but he never found the comfort others did. He couldn’t entirely discount belief in the spheres, as he was certain that theirs could not be the only world or beings in the vastness of time and space.

Andara sang the final word, the circle settling down to the low hum of vibration that followed. Cander had always felt like he could sink into that sound, disappear in it, let it take him wherever it led, but it always came to a halt as soon as the circle link was broken. The celebration afterwards was never as exciting as that soft buzz, so he let himself mourn it.

The disentanglement was a graceful dance, the volume of the hum dropping as each person stepped away. The girl next to him (Keily? Kenra? He couldn’t remember; she was new.) shook her head and held onto him tightly.

“It’s there,” she whispered. “Don’t you feel it?”

Everyone was looking at them, waiting for them to end the ceremony and eager to socialize. Cander pushed away the anxiety and looked into her eyes, an odd combination of gray and gold. “We’re the last two,” he murmured, “as we were the first two to join.”

“We will be both again if you hold onto me. The rest don’t understand, but I think maybe you do.”

None of it made sense to him. “I’m not a believer.”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter. You hear the hum, yes?”

“Everyone does.” The rest of the circle stared at him.

“What hum?” Andara asked for the group.

“The sound. It happens every time we do this,” he insisted.

The circle frowned and looked to Andara for guidance.

“There is no sound but the ones we make as we praise the Spheres, save the music from the gathering that awaits us. Let go, so we can enjoy the bounty they give us.”

“Do NOT let go,” Kenra hissed. “Listen!” She gripped him harder, and the sound got louder.

Andara seemed to double in size, though Cander knew that was a trick. “I am the Priestess of the Spheres. Do as I say.”

Cander looked to Kenra. She vehemently shook her head.

“The ritual is done,” he said slowly, “so there’s no harm if we link again as a community, so we can discover why Kenra and I hear something it seems you don’t.” He gave his mother a diplomatic out.

She took it. “If it will ease your mind.”

“I know it seems strange,” Kenra offered, “but if we could just stay silent and focus on what we feel and hear, it would help me become stronger in community.”

The vibration increased, got louder and…wider? Higher? Cander didn’t know, but Kenra’s trembling told him he wasn’t alone. Everyone else looked confused. And hungry. He could see them wavering.

“Hold fast!” he yelled above the din. They were affronted by his screaming at them, but the sand began to move, and even the non-believers (in this, at least) realized something was about to happen.

“This is it!” Kenra’s eyes were pure yellow.

Cander’s skin began to glow an odd silver. The circle participants gaped. And then the circle did, too, creating a hole in front of him. Sand rose like a wall before the rest of the circle. Kenra pushed him through the opening and followed. The circle broken, the hole disappeared, sand swirling away in the patterns of a dance he’d known since childhood.

The spheres stood before him, proof of all he had never been able to believe.

“Welcome home,” Kenra said. “I have waited so long for you to be born anew. Your birth mother will be blessed and your community’s circle grow stronger for having hosted you. Now, my love, let us take our places and talk of how you came to be and when you will be again.”

They were nothing but light and sound, vibration and harmony, no form, no gender, no needs. Cander’s light reached Kenra’s; memory followed. Below and beyond, the sound of millions of circles throughout the galaxy rose and fell, and Cander finally understood: They were the Spheres worshippers had been calling for all along, and the worlds below were now Theirs.

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750 words. For the Midweek Flash Challenge here.