Unforgettable journey to other planets

“Don’t you have such technology?”

“Technology?” Van grinned. “It’s a real punishment, isn’t it? To be trapped in a cocoon that you can’t get out of, and to think you’re in another world. You can’t even see the world for what it is.”

“So we changed bodies?” David clarified.

“Bodies?” Van laughed. “Took the suits off. You must feel very well now without your bodies.”

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Yulia shook her head, not wanting to hear these words.

“But I can see my own body and theirs,” she said in confusion.

“Everyone has a body, but they’re different. For example, in your world, the basis is water. In our world, it’s fire. Each world has a different ratio of elements. We have bodies, too, but they are different,” he thought of how to phrase it differently. “My body is finer than yours on the Earth, so you think that no one lives on the Sun. When a resident of a grosser world goes to a finer world, he leaves his old body behind in the world he came from.”

“But why can’t I see the difference? I am the exact same,” David wondered.

Van smiled and pointed his finger at him:

“Everyone has his sound.”

“Sound?”

“The way he sounds, and you can’t change it. Or rather, it’s hard to change. The body forms itself around that inner sound. Here and there You are the same, though the bodies are different.”

“You mean soul?” Debby smiled.

Van looked at her with an affectionate look and nodded.

“Soul. But it’s not just the soul that creates the body, a lot of things are involved.”

“Past actions, desires,” Dr Capri continued Van’s thought.

Valikhilya nodded:

“We call it sound.”

Dr Capri smirked at something and continued to follow the soaring Van.

“By the way,” David remembered something, “do you all speak English here?”

Van grimaced to show that he didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Language,” said Yulia. “You understand us, and we understand you.”

“Ah,” Van brushed her off. “That’s right, you have different languages there. It’s not like that here. When you change bodies, you have already acquired the ability to speak and understand the language of the Sun. Only on Earth are so many languages. It’s stupidity that prevents your life,” he shook his head.

“So we all speak the sun’s language now?” David wondered. “I feel like I’m speaking English.”

Yulia listened to herself:

“And I’m in Russian.”

Van only smirked.

“Tell me about your world. What is it like?” looking ahead, Dr Capri asked.

“It’s the most beautiful world there can be. Everyone here is happy, and we all help our king, Ra.”

“I thought you said his name was…” Jean-Pierre couldn’t remember the name.

“Vivasvan,” the doctor helped him.

“What?” said Van in surprise.

He looked at Jean-Pierre and after a second laughed in his ringing voice.

“Ha-ha,” he laughed. “I had completely forgotten that in the lower worlds you have only one name. It’s not like that here. The king has many names. His name depends on what the one who addresses him wants to say. Ra is the same as Vivasvan. But Vivasvan is a personal reference or remembrance of the king. The name Ra is used when you see the king in the distance or his palace.”

“Palace? Where is it?” David asked, looking around.

“There it is,” Van pointed to an approaching cloud of light on the horizon.

This cloud looked like the sun, but it was moving quickly right toward them. A huge fire column was erupting from this cloud onto the surface of the Star.

“What was that stream?” Dr Capri asked, squinting.

Van raised his small hands above his head and smiled.

“It is the shadow of our emperor.”

Everyone looked at each other with undisguised excitement.

“Are you leading us to him?” Jean-Pierre asked.

“To Him? No,” Van frowned. “We are going to Dandin’s.”

“Is he,” Jean-Pierre grimaced, “wak-ha-nilla too?”

Van looked at him with contempt:

“Valikhilya. No. He is an aide to the emperor.”

While they were talking, the flying castle approached. It could be seen hovering high above the surface. If one squinted, one could see its yellow color and a glow of such power that one’s eyes could not stand it for long. The castle was rushing right at them.

“How are we going to get up there? Will you lift us up? Or will someone throw down the ladder?” Jean-Pierre asked Van, looking at Debby and Yulia.

Both of them were walking with their eyes wide open in amazement. They pointed at the castle and stared at it in fascination. The palace itself glistened as the walls let in the strong light that was hidden inside. David and Dr Capri, too, opened their mouths and turned their heads, gazing at the clump of mountain above them. The noise grew, and the giant approached closer. Van raised his hands in the air and then lay down on the ground, bowing.

“What are you doing?” Jean-Pierre inquired.