Tri-ethereal Ch. 08

However, both Johanna and I long to return to Tri-ethereal. Indeed, everything we do is ultimately aimed at that quest.

The bad news is that we both still get headaches after going through union. Also, deep transition after union is seven days long and we each come out of it with a headache.

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Johanna and I have been here in Gratis for over five years. We have gone through all of the scrolls that were written in strange languages. Actually, there were only two scrolls with unknown languages -- neither of which were Tri-etherealian. Both were some form of ancient hieroglyphics. The rest were just scrolls that were so badly deteriorated that they just appeared to be written in a strange language. Shool was very appreciative that Johanna and I were able to repair them.

Johanna and I have re-written hundreds of scrolls, some in Japekian, some in Greckian and some in other languages. While repairing the scrolls, Johanna and I learned how to read and write several languages.

Although she stays in transition most of the time, we have shared much of the work. The reason Johanna stays in transition most of the time is because neither of us wants Shool or the other librarians to get suspicious of frequently seeing my "sister."

Thankfully, Johanna once again looks forward to going through union -- in spite of the headaches and the seven days in deep transition. Whereas before we started working in the library she only went through union to please me.

She also enjoys writing love poems. She folds them up like she used to, goes up to the second floor of the library and throws them off the balcony. But she no longer talks about her prince charming coming to rescue her.

Believe it or not but that saddens me. It's as though she has given up hope. Don't get me wrong. Neither of us has given up hope of getting back home to Tri-ethereal. We never will. As I said, everything we do is with that in mind. But her no longer talking about her prince charming is a small sign that she is accepting life here. I'll never accept it.

The library has some primitive maps of this world. We have studied these and learned much about Corporeal, including the actual shape of the land. All of Corporeal is eerily shaped just like Tri-ethereal.

There are three large continents surrounding the Syrean Sea, which looks like a fat bottle of wine pouring into the Dark Ocean to the east; in Tri-ethereal it's called the Grand Ocean.

Asa is the largest; it compares with Ethereal. It is to the east and north of the Syrean Sea. Greck is located on the continent of Po which is mainly north and west of the Syrean Sea. Po compares to Bi-ethereal. Separating Asa and Po are the Mountains of the Gods, our Spirit Mountains. Both of these continents have unexplored regions to the far north and the far west. Together they look somewhat like a crescent moon.

Then to the south is the island continent of Serenti -- that's where Japek is located. It compares with Tri-ethereal. It looks like a duck swimming toward the Dark Ocean. On the western side of Serenti is the Strait of Pan, which separates Serenti from Po. Its northern end empties into the Syrean Sea and its southern end empties into the Blood Sea which itself empties into the Dark Ocean. The Blood Sea is so named because so many mariners have died there.

To east in the bottle neck of the Syrean Sea are the islands nations.

We learned that Gratis is situated on a major crossroads of trading routes to several other cities to the north, east and west. Pot is to the south of Gratis. It is situated nearly midway between the far eastern and the far western shores of the Syrean Sea. Hence, it is a major seaport for all of the Syrean Sea.

We also learned that King Anday of the kingdom of Greck has no intention of attacking Japek. Like King Andrew, he is a peaceful monarch. In fact, it is the other way around. King Ta wants to attack Greck. King Ta wants to control the lucrative trade that Gratis and Pot enjoy. He also needs more slaves to build his pyramids.

The only reason King Ta hasn't attacked the city of Pot -- it's the gateway to all of Greck -- is because his ships aren't nearly as sophisticated as are the ships of Greck. But even the ships of Pot couldn't match up with the ships of Tri-ethereal. Corporeal is centuries behind the technology of Tri-ethereal. Neither Johanna nor I know why.

But the most important thing we learned is that there is a city far to the west called Lanton in the kingdom of Abeck. It is supposed to have a library twice the size of the library in Gratis.

Johanna and I discussed it extensively. We are going to go there and search the scrolls there to see if we can find anything written by Gabriel or Gabrielle or any other Tri-etherealian. Indeed, we have agreed that if we have to search every library in Corporeal we are going to do it. We are going to find Gabriel's and Gabrielle's books. We are both determined to get out of this world if it takes us a thousand years.

Once Johanna and I repaired all the Greckian scrolls we packed up our few belongings and headed for Lanton. Shool gave me a letter of introduction to the librarian at Lanton. With that I hope to get a job repairing their scrolls or possibly a job as a scribe, seeing that I can read their language. While Johanna and I do that we are also going to search for Gabriel's and Gabrielle's books.

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"John, Erin recognized you. I told you not to have sex with her. I told you that she was in love with you."

I didn't answer my counterpart as I headed for the library's door. I was trying to think of what to tell Erin the next time we met. Sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, I knew we'd meet again. Erin works there and we have to go back there in order to finish translating the ancient scrolls. That's why I said that she is sure to see me again.

Erin was like a huntress after her prey -- and I was her prey. I don't mean that in a derogatory sort of way. I guess what I should say is that Erin was just curious to know why I haven't aged at all in the past fifty something years . . . and she was determined to find out why. Nor was she was going to let me off the hook if I came up with some lying cock-a-mamie story, like 'you must be thinking of my grandfather.' She wanted the truth.

Not that I would lie to her. I have never told a lie in my entire life to anyone and I'm not about to do it now. I may have stretched the truth sometimes -- like telling someone that Johanna is my wife or sister -- but I've never lied.

We met during the Great War. That's what most Corporealians called it. It was suppose to be the war to end all wars. It was fought mainly between the countries on the continent of Serenti against those countries from the continents of Asa and Po. Most of the island countries remained neutral as did Pealand on the continent of Po. But then Pealand has remained a neutral country for the past 750 years.

However, the war to end all wars didn't end them. There have been two major wars since then -- both involving nearly two-thirds of Corporeal -- and several revolutions on the continents of Asa and Serenti.

First, were the East-West Wars, fought mainly between those countries from Po and Serenti against those countries from Asa. That war was followed twenty years later by the North-South Wars, fought mainly between the countries of Asa and Serenti against the countries of Po. Again, the island nations and Pealand remained neutral.

Anyway, my left foot had been injured by a bomb fragment during the Great War. I was laid up in a hospital for about a week. No, I was not a soldier or any other type of combatant. Johanna and I were rare coin merchants at the time. We bought and sold rare coins. I just happened to be in a building that was hit by a bomb.

I had a government deferment allowing me to stay out of the war. Over the years Johanna and I have gotten quite adept at forging papers in order to protect ourselves from the kings, dictators, presidents and the like who wage war on each other and then expect their citizens to do the actual fighting. We also used forged documents to travel across a country's borders. We are very good at it; we have never gotten caught in all the years we have been here.

Also, over the years Johanna and I have provided for ourselves by saving coins of the various nations we have lived in. We have had other jobs. But frequently our main source of income is from the rare coins we collect and carry with us everywhere we go. We have a couple of hundred of them.

They are very portable. When we have to make a hasty retreat from some place in order to avoid someone discovering that we don't age and that we are a Trimorph, that is, that we change sexes periodically, a bag of rare coins is very easy to hide in a small luggage bag or even in our pockets.

Most Corporealians wouldn't recognize a rare coin if they held it in their hand. Hence, thieves are less likely to steal a few coins. Besides, we always keep several ordinary coins in the bag to help hide the rare ones. We also keep a few bills of large denominations of paper money nearby so that they will steal that instead.

But most importantly, coin collectors will pay dearly for rare coins that are in excellent condition.

Anyway, Erin was a nurse in the hospital. We dated, took long walks together, the usual stuff. Johanna told me that Erin was in love with me, that I shouldn't go to bed with her. She said that sex with her would only break her heart when we had to move on. Which we have had to do every few years when someone notices that our body isn't aging and theirs is.

But I wouldn't listen to my wiser counterpart. Erin was beautiful and I had to have her. Now I wish I had listened to Johanna.

This morning I was in the Stellear Library. It's the largest library in the Free Republic of Po. It's named after Alan Stellear, a patron of the arts. Johanna and I were searching through the Tarah Desert scrolls for what we hoped were the long lost writings of Gabriel and Gabrielle. We had read some published reports that the scrolls contained some ancient hieroglyphics of an unknown language.

The Tarah Desert scrolls were discovered about 25 years ago in the Desert of Tarah -- that's on the continent of Serenti. Some of them were finally made available for public viewing last year. Even then you had to get special permission to see them and could only view them under glass. After three months of writing letters of requests, I finally got a letter of permission from the library's vice president.

Our first look told us all we needed to know. The scrolls were written in ancient Japekian hieroglyphics! The language is unknown because King Ta attacked the city of Pot three years after we left Gratis -- Johanna and I were living in Lanton by then. King Anday declared war on the kingdom of Japek and destroyed it. But he wasn't satisfied with just conquering Japek.

He also destroyed every trace of the kingdom -- he couldn't destroy the pyramids. But he did wipe out every trace of their language and their culture. He crucified King Ta, several of his wives and children as well as numerous priests and scribes. The only reason history knows that the kingdom of Japek ever existed is because of the writings of the scribes of the kingdom of Greck and because of the Natenian prophets. King Anday set them free after he destroyed Japek.

I had been in the library about half an hour and had just started looking at the Tarah Desert scrolls -- with Johanna looking over my shoulder from transition -- when Erin comes up and says hello. Even as old as she was, I recognized her in an instant. I answered her with a surprised hello. The conversation immediately turned to our mutual past.

I sidestepped her questions about why I left and how I haven't aged and changed the subject. I asked her how she came to be in the library.

She said that after the Great War she retired from nursing and picked up my hobby of deciphering ancient texts -- fifty years ago I told her that it was my hobby. But what she was really saying was that after I left her, she tried to follow me by learning how to translate ancient languages. She knew she could find me doing that also.

She revealed that the translation of these scrolls was primarily her work. I gave her a puzzled look because I knew the translations were done by someone with a different name. Then it dawned on me that she was married and the translations were published under her married name.

She said that the strange language is similar to ancient Greck -- but Johanna and I knew that. But her next statement knocked me over. She told me that the scrolls were written by a scribe named Alexander who said he was from the land of Trimorph. She asked me if in my studies of ancient languages I had ever heard of such a land.

I wasn't going to lie to her and tell her no. But I didn't want to answer her without first talking it over with Johanna. I made a hasty retreat for the door, telling her that I would be back the next day. I added that I had to consult a friend of mine who knew ancient Greckian. I didn't tell her that I wanted to talk with Johanna about the scribe who wrote the scroll before going any farther into translating it. Nor did I reveal to her that the scrolls were written in ancient Japekian hieroglyphics and that I could translate it.

As I took my seat in the subway, I was also thinking that of all the libraries in Corporeal, Erin had to pick this one to work in, when Johanna again broke into my thoughts.

"You also know I don't mind if you have sex with female Corporealians. Don't I have sex with male Corporealians?"

"So what are you complaining about?" I whispered softly. I didn't want anyone else riding the subway car to hear me, although the car I was in was nearly empty. But I was also trying to change the subject. I knew where Johanna was heading and I didn't want to talk about that.

"I'm not complaining about your having sex with a Corporealian. I'm just stating that Erin knows you were the same individual she had sex with and fell in love with when she was in her twenties. And now she's what . . . seventy something years old."

Again, I didn't answer Johanna. I knew she was right.

"She's going to want an answer to her questions about you leaving her and not aging in all these years. . . . Our stop is coming up John. Pull the cord so that the conductor knows to stop the subway."

I pulled the cord and got off when the subway came to a stop. I walked up the steps to be greeted by the hustle and bustle of New Kory traffic, busses, taxi cabs, police cars, garbage trucks, limousines and the inevitable road repair gangs all over the place, fixing potholes. You would think that the largest city in Po would have better streets.

The autumn wind blew my parka open. I zipped it up and thought about Erin, about Gratis, about Lanton and all the hundreds . . . no thousands of libraries Johanna and I have searched through only to come up empty handed every time.

No, not every time. Lanton proved to be a bonanza. We found a scroll there written by a Trimorph. It was old and badly deteriorated and wasn't written by either Gabriel or Gabrielle. But we both recognized the Tri-etherealian language.

Its author -- a Trimorph named Alexander and Alexandria -- had been here in Corporeal for over two thousand years when he and she wrote it. It was about 150 years old when we found it. We still have a copy of that scroll.

They said that they too were looking for Gabriel's and Gabrielle's books but couldn't find them. Other than giving advice on how to avoid detection of our Trimorph status, the scroll didn't offer much information. But the scroll did give us hope.

They advised their readers not to reveal their Trimorph status to anyone; they hadn't.

They further said that they had never met another Trimorph in all the time they were here. I got the impression that they weren't trying very hard to meet other Trimorphs, but were keeping a low profile. So have me and Johanna.

They speculated that the reason they hadn't met another Trimorph was because Trimorphs became rather skillful in hiding their true identities from Unamorphs while still in Tri-ethereal. That ability just carried over to Corporeal after they were forced to drink the hemlock concoction.

Alexander and Alexandria also speculated that Trimorphs probably cannot recognize each other upon meeting -- another ability lost from drinking the poison -- and that's probably another reason they have never met another Trimorph. Further, it was their belief that most Trimorphs gave up hope upon arriving here in Corporeal; they just gave up trying to find out how to get back to Tri-ethereal.

So, when Erin mentioned that the Tarah Desert scrolls were written by a scribe name Alexander from the land of Trimorph, we naturally thought of the Trimorph Alexander and Alexandria. Johanna didn't say anything to me at that moment but I felt her get excited. I felt her grab my shoulders and squeeze them. I knew her hopes were as high as mine.

After twenty thousand years of searching, we have finally found another scroll written by Alexander and Alexandria. Looking over the ancient scroll in the Stellear Library, I knew Johanna was thinking the exact same thing I was -- that maybe we would finally find out how to get back to Tri-ethereal.

All the way to our apartment Johanna was silent. But I knew that she was thinking about Erin and what I should tell her. As I unlocked the door I decided to face up to my . . . no our problem.

"So what do you think I should tell Erin tomorrow when we meet?" I asked Johanna.

"I don't know John. You can't lie to her and she won't believe the truth."

"No, I'm not going to lie to her. I haven't lied to anyone in my entire life and I'm not going to start now. I don't care how much it hurts me."

I turned on the television but muted it. I think better that way and I needed to think about what to tell Erin. I didn't want to hurt her . . . again. I also wanted to get a look at all the scrolls which were not open for public viewing to see what else Alexander or Alexandria may have written. I knew Johanna wanted to see them too. The letter I had only allowed me to view the ones opened for public inspection.

But in order to view those scrolls which were not released for public viewing you had to get special permission from Erin as well as the owners of the scrolls, the library's CEO, the insurance company . . . you probably had to get permission from God for all Johanna and I knew.

I sat down and stared blankly at the screen. After several moments I said to Johanna, "Why not tell her the truth, the whole truth? We got a copy of Alexander's and Alexandria's scroll, written in Tri-etherealian. That's a language she's never heard of."

"She's not going to believe you John."

"Suppose we let her watch us go through union? Once you're in possession of our body and I'm in transition that would convince her that we are not just some quack or some fanatic trying to look at rare scrolls. It would convince her that we know what we're talking about when we discuss Trimorphs and Tri-ethereal."

"How would that help?"

"Then she would be more inclined to let us look at all her notes and let us look at all the pages, including the ones that are not open to public inspection. Maybe she could use her influence with her bosses to get us permission to look at them."

"But suppose she goes to the authorities and tells them that we're an alien or some kind of monster."

"She won't. And besides, if she does what is she going to use for proof."

"She won't need proof, John. All she has to do is tell someone . . . anybody of authority who can lock our body in a prison cell until they are satisfied that we are not a terrorist bent on destroying everything and everyone."