From the day Mira whispered that her grandmother would not wake with the dawn—and the truth unfolded so—the villagers began to avoid her. After she foretold the chief’s final hunt, no one dared meet her eyes.
So they banished her.
Mira wandered deep into the woods, where roots curled like the bones of olden gods and the air tasted of iron and rain. For days she walked until she arrived to a towering gate of stone. The air around it shimmered. She recalled this was the gate spoken of only in hushed warnings.
A strange calm came over her as she pressed her palm to the stone, and it groaned open.
Inside a figure cloaked in shadows yet burning with presence waited.
“You carry the sight,” the Guardian said. “Now, you must answer three questions.
Mira’s throat tightened, but she nodded.
“What is heavier: the grief of leaving or the grief of staying?”
Mira closed her eyes, remembering the sorrow she carried. “The grief of staying,” she whispered. “Because it never ends.”
The Guardian inclined its head.
“What is time to one who can see its thread unravel?”
She thought of knowing her friends end before their story was complete. “A gift that is also a wound. Time is both cruel and merciful, and I walk its edge.”
The shadows shifted, softer now.
“And tell me, child: when your final hour comes, will you dread it?”
For the first time, Mira’s lips curved in a smile. “I have walked beside death since my birth. When it comes for me, it will not be a stranger.”
The Guardian’s form dissolved like smoke, and a gate behind it opened to a light brighter than any sun. Mira stepped forward, not knowing if it was life, death, or both.
The Five Realms Beyond
When her eyes adjusted, Mira found herself in a land that was not silence but song. The air hummed with long-forgotten tales. Paths of shimmering dust stretched before her.
The Guardian’s voice echoed one final time:
“To witness what few have seen, you must cross the five realms, and bring back their truth.”
The Stone People Realm
She stepped into a valley surrounded by mountains that breathed. Boulders glowed with an inner fire, and the cliffs whispered ancient hymns. They told her they were the first dream of Earth, the bones of the world, endless keepers of time. From them she learned perseverance—that all will endure.
The Plant People Realm
Beyond the stones was a forest of jeweled trees, roots intertwined in dark earth. Leaves whispered in the language of wind, vines gently brushed her face, flowers of a thousand hues opened for her. The Plant People spoke of generosity, of endless giving—breath, food, shelter, beauty—without demand for return.
The Animal Souls Realm
Mira skipped onto a plain where Eagles soared, wolves padded beside her, radiant insects shimmered in swarms. The Animal Souls spoke with the raw pulse of instinct. They showed her the strength of living fiercely with each heartbeat, neither clinging to yesterday nor dreading tomorrow.
The Human, Dolphin, and Whale Realm
She entered an ocean that met the sky, where people walked the shore alongside leaping dolphins and whales whose calls vibrated through her bones. They were kin in spirit, the stewards of legends. They taught her the power of sisterhood, of weaving voices across distance and difference to create the song that holds and heals all beings.
The Homo Luminous Realm
At last she arrived to a field of sunshine so warm it felt like honey on her skin. Figures of pure brilliance shimmered with human outlines. They whispered that she carried the seeds of Homo luminous to share with her people.
Mira longed to remain here blissfully, but the Guardian spoke, deep and kind:
“You have seen what lies beyond endings. But your people still wander in fear. Offer them the gifts of the five realms!”
The Guardian offered her a pebble, a leaf of gold, an owl feather, a drop of whale-song, and the spark of Homo luminous.
When she opened her eyes, Mira was at the edge of the forest. Her people gasped, looking for the dark web of death—but finding she carried a soft radiance and news: That the earth endures, that life gives endlessly, that every heartbeat is sacred, that you and I are interwoven with the All, and that we can become the new human.
Dr. Alberto Villoldo