The universe is a mysterious place, and it seems, the more we learn about it, the more we realise how much our eyes are still veiled in ignorance. The fathomless expanses of space are a vast waste and our fragile Earth seems a lone oasis in an overwhelming and unrelenting desert.
Yet I know, in my heart of hearts, that somewhere in the dark immensities of space and time, there are other minds and hearts than ours, other companions in the journey that life takes through countless aeons and through countless incarnations.
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My name is Sebastian de la Reynie and this is an account of a singular experience that I had towards the end of 1905, at the close of my twenty-fifth year. Early in November of that year, I was fortunate enough to secure employment with the prestigious London firm of Arundel & Hoxton of Westminster, jewellers to the crown. My family are of old Huguenot stock and we have always been of an artistic bent. I am a graduate of the London School of Art, so rather than having to spend long years as a lowly apprentice, I was given a junior supervisory position at Arundel & Hoxton.
I was immensely happy and with a generous advance on my salary, I was able to rent comfortable rooms in the vicinity of the firm's offices and workshops. My lodgings were far more salubrious than any I had ever inhabited, complete with a spacious studio room, equipped with large ceiling windows. On clear winter nights, when in a meditative mood, I found myself often lying upon my bed and watching the moon through those windows, in all her luminous majesty.
One night, at the end of the first week in my new lodgings, an unprecedented event occurred for which I was not prepared and which has since given me much cause for wild speculation.
It was a cold, clear Friday night and, at around 11 pm, I lay in bed watching the fire in the grate and half-dosing. I had spent several pleasant hours that evening drafting designs for silverware and I was tired but content with what work I had done. By my bedside lay a volume of Swinburne's poetry from which I had, for several evenings, been reading. As I dosed and watched the fire, some poignant lines from the book entered my mind,
“The delight that his doom is forever
To seek and desire and rejoice,
And the sense that eternity never
Shall silence his voice……..”
At that moment, as I shut my eyes, I was filled with a great yearning, an earnest and commanding passion to seek and to discover some secret of the universe, some sublime truth that has resonated throughout eternity but has hitherto lain beyond the feeble comprehension of man. I did not frame this wish with the selfish intentions of the alchemist, whose lust for gold is ultimately his undoing nor with the rebellious inclinations of the necromancer who vainly searches the darkness for forbidden lore. No, it was with the sincere desire to know something more about the great unknown in which our fragile sphere resides. This wish I made to the universe, only praying that she grant it before eternity shall silence my voice…..
After that my memory is somewhat hazy, until I heard what I imagined was the sound of the wind and, what I took to be, the distant chime of many bells. I remember opening my eyes and looking about for an open window through which the wind might be coming. But there was nothing. I was no longer in my bed nor was I in my rooms, nor was I, I believe, upon this very Earth.
The sight that greeted me was a quiet rocky beach. But it was a beach the like of which I could never have imagined. It was bordered by a strange, almost inert sea; more akin to a lake of pale honey than an ordinary body of water.
Bordering the beach were a profusion of dark plants whose nature I could not begin to guess at. Here and there were boulders of what seemed to be onyx or obsidian; worn smooth by the passage of countless aeons. I picked up a handful of pebbles and inspected them closely with a jeweller's eye. They were minerals totally unknown to me, most were dark but some displayed a weird translucence and still others, a rich iridescence in blues, violets, and greens. Any jeweller would have prized them but on that beach they were as common as quartz. I chose one of the translucent stones and held it up to the sun. Then, a shocking realisation struck me. The light all around me was violet in tone and where mighty Sol reigns in the terrestrial sky, there was another star altogether.
The pebble fell, forgotten, from my hand as I stared at the sky in awe. It was undoubtedly a sun that shone above me and try as I might, I could not stare at it for long. It was a sun, but not of yellow and red. This was a sun of deep bluish violet. I shut my eyes in pain after several seconds, only opening them once I had turned away from the dazzling orb. Slowly I became aware of other natural satellites in that unknown sky; three moons of varying size and of surpassing beauty.
Astounded as I was, I had enough presence of mind to walk along the beach for the better part of what seemed an hour, until I saw a relatively steep natural pathway leading to higher ground. The violet light from the sun was bright enough and I even began to feel its feeble heat. I climbed the path until I stood on a flat rocky rise overlooking the beach. Before me, an even more astonishing sight awaited. It was a vast, spired city. A city as silent and still as it was beautiful.
It was only then that the notion came to me that I was experiencing the phenomenon known as lucid dreaming. I had read about this but until that instant, I had never experienced anything like it. With this thought in my mind, I walked towards the city with something like renewed confidence; slowly learning to enjoy the incredibly beautiful sights before my eyes. Nothing stirred in that city of lofty spires and delicately conceived buildings; whose sheer variety and aesthetic accomplishment spoke of a sophisticated and audacious culture. No trees lined the wide streets, no birds swarmed in the elegant squares, no dust and debris marred the perfect, gleaming surfaces; like polished silver, emerald, labradorite, turquoise and amethyst.
The deeper into the metropolis I penetrated, the more I became aware of a variety of exotic sweet aromas; not unlike those one would find in a Mediterranean garden in high summer. Stopping before the entrance to one building, I took a deep draught of these fine scents. Truly, it was as though someone had presented me at that instant with a bunch of fragrant blooms.
It was at that instant too that I became conscious of something else; a succession of high, icy voices, deep in my mind. They were gentle and seemed to speak with a benign earnestness; full of encouragement and reassurance; much as a kindly parent would speak to a child. Instinctively I knew from which direction they came. It was a fine low building, rather more ornate than the rest, whose walls seemed to be inscribed with row upon row of intricate and arcane glyphs. My eyes scanned these with considerable interest as I approached the building, but soon my attention shifted to the ornate curtained portal that rose enticingly before me. Now the profusion of voices resolved themselves into four clearly discernible but strangely accented syllables, syllables that were well known to me.
“Se-ba-sti-en.”
It was almost as though they were singing in my ancestral French, a Capella.
Standing upon the threshold, I looked through the gaps in the curtains. There was dim light beyond but the chamber was not sufficiently illuminated for me to make out many details. What I beheld was a large and lofty room. The voices renewed their chanting of my name as I stepped into the chamber then they gradually faded away. I advanced slowly until I stood in, what I took to be, the very centre of the room. It was hung with elegant draperies of cool, sea hues in a variety of intricate designs and the furniture seemed to have been conceived with the utmost comfort and beauty in mind. Sweet-smelling incense rose in languorous curls from a pair of covered urns and I noticed a table covered with a profusion of food and drink all; contained in elegant vessels.
For several, long moments, I took all this in, relishing the sheer beauty of it and recalling the utter astonishment that I felt at having found myself in such a place. But a far greater surprise awaited me. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the delicate hangings in the room stirred as though disturbed by a slight breeze. Next, I once again heard the soft cadence of many small bells and I looked around me to see where this sound might have originated. I was never to know, for at that moment I found myself surrounded by the reclining forms of several smiling women. I say women for they were clearly female, all were nearly nude save for a few discreet items of jewellery and some wore loose diaphanous garments.
Naturally, I was surprised by their sudden appearance and something instinctively told me that these ladies were the source of the mysterious voices that had led me here knew too that they meant me no harm. I returned their smiles and I found their appearance most welcome and agreeable.
Three of them rose to their feet and approached me, raising their hands in what I took to be a humble form of greeting. I reciprocated and I was then able to see them properly. They were all remarkably beautiful, with pointed chins and slightly aquiline noses, and long, delicately lobes ears. They had high cheekbones and long straight black hair such as one might see in Japan. Arched brows with long lashes and sensuous full lips. But there, I am not sad to say, their resemblance with human faces ended. I marvelled at smooth, seemingly faultless skin of violet hue and fathomless, totally black eyes that reminded me of the obsidian pebbles on the beach; such was their unearthly lustre. Behind their sweet smiles, I caught a glimpse of wickedly pointed teeth in perfect white rows. Later, more surprises awaited me.
