Chapter 1: I Hate My Job

Max was taking his morning shower, still half asleep; it was just past 6:30 AM and he hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. However, his morning drowsiness was interrupted.

“Master, you have exactly two minutes and 35 seconds to finish your shower, or you will have to skip breakfast,” said X200, Max’s personal robot, in its mechanical and emotionless voice while standing in the center of the bathroom.

X200, ‘X’ for short, was the result of many hours of work. The robot had a humanoid structure, following the latest robot fashion, and even its face was supposed to resemble a human’s but without skin. However, instead of tendons, bones and blood, he had wires, metal and circuits.

“Thanks, I can’t wait to eat that cheap cereal,” answered Max, as he stepped out of the shower, which made the water stop immediately.

He started drying his pitch-black hair, which no matter how much he tried to brush always came out spiky. He looked in the robot’s general direction, but it was too blurry to see more than a silhouette. He put on his glasses, obscuring his otherwise attractive hazel eyes, and suddenly the world was in high definition again. He took a set of clothes from a pile that X had previously prepared, and put on his usual work outfit: a sky-blue, long-sleeved shirt and black slacks, both crumpled but perfectly clean.

“Always a pleasure to help, Master,” answered the robot, with a tone that was supposed to resemble happiness, but never quite worked. The price one pays for trying to build his own robot.

“I could swear that even if you could understand sarcasm, your answers couldn’t get better than that, X.”

“Sarcasm? Unclear. I am familiar with the term and its meaning, but its usage is not comprehended, Master.”

“Don’t worry about that X, I would have to upgrade you so much for you to understand it, that I believe Julia would kill me,” said Max, while he sat down at the kitchen table and poured some cereal in his hovering bowl. It worked exactly the same as his other regular bowls, but it made a great piece of decoration. He glanced at the fridge’s front screen, noticing a blinking light. Dammit, out of milk again. Now, I’m gonna have to eat this dry, he thought, as he reluctantly grabbed a spoon.

“Is that what you call ‘a figure of speech’, Master? Otherwise, I could call the police for you.”

“I fear what she would do to me after she was done with the cops, to be honest. Forget about it X, you were right, it was just a figure of speech. I would say that you don’t need to worry, but I won’t, mainly due to you not having feelings, but also because I’m not really sure that it would be true. No hard feelings. Get it? ‘Hard’ feelings, because you are made of metal and stuff.”

“Was that an attempt at humor, Master? I could detect a joke pattern, but my systems cannot find where the humorous part is.”

“Sometimes you sound just like Julia. Even my own robot doesn’t like my jokes,” Max said, as he finished his cereal.

“Master, your Vertical Train will arrive at the closest station in 5 minutes, according to their schedule. I would advise you to hurry, or you might miss it. That would result in you being late for work. Again.”

“The ‘again’ was really unnecessary. But although I hate to admit it, you’re right. I’ll get going. I’ll be stopping by a few stores on my way home. My anniversary with Julia is tomorrow and I don’t have a present yet. I should be home at eight; have dinner ready by then,” Max said, as he left the apartment.

Max headed towards the Vertical Station. One of the few perks of renting such a small apartment was that the station was within walking distance, and it wasn’t even necessary to use the Horizontal Line as a connection. As soon as he set his feet on the metallic streets, several ads appeared on the ground around him. He normally ignored them all, but today one of the ads got his attention. It was a trailer for some historic movie; he guessed it probably took place between the year 2000 and 2050 based on the almost square-shaped cars. He watched it come alive with the movements of the led lights under his feet, but before he could get a grasp of what the movie was about, he decided to leave. As X had said, he had less than 5 minutes until his train arrived, and there was no time for distractions.

But the movie’s setting still lingered in his mind. It seemed crazy to imagine that at some point there were cars on the streets, side by side with people. The chances of an accident happening were so high that he doubted he would have had the guts to even leave the house. It made much more sense that the streets were solely for pedestrians, and that the cars hovered hundreds of feet above them. Although crashes weren’t unheard of, they were extremely rare.

After walking for two more blocks of other residential buildings, he arrived at the station and got into the smallest queue he could find, waiting for the train to arrive. Half a dozen drones were buzzing around, checking the validity of each person’s ticket. A few seconds before the train stopped, one of them approached him and he pressed his thumb against its sensor. A green light flashed, and it moved on to the next person in line. A few moments later he got inside. It was crowded, as always, but he managed to find a place to stand next to the train’s glass walls. It was built in a way that the passengers had a panoramic view of the city while the train travelled.

Weirdly enough, that was one of Max’s favorite moments of the day. From there he could see the entire level 21 as the train kept going up. All the different styles of buildings, some made of concrete, metal or even glass, most of them almost as high as the sky, just about 500 feet from the ground. He could also see the Horizontal Line going around buildings, moving so fast that one could mistake it for a streak of light. The people walking on the streets below become smaller and smaller, until the train went into the fake sky and stopped at the 20th level.

The city had 50 levels in total, amounting to a total height of 5 miles. That meant that only the people on the first level could actually see the sky when they looked up. All the people in the other 49 levels saw only a gigantic screen that mirrored the actual sky.

Sometimes Max’s commute to work was the best part of his day, just because he got to appreciate the view. He was born in this city and had only seen the world outside through pictures and videos online. Even though he remembered his great-grandparents talking about swimming in the ocean and standing on top of a mountain, all of that sounded alien to him. As stunning as the pictures looked and as excited as they sounded when talking about those things, he never truly thought of visiting those places himself, risking a trip through the savage and scary world outside.

Living on the first level was his dream instead, where he would be able to see the true sky whenever he looked up, instead of a screen, and the view would include the unreachable mountains far away, instead of only buildings. But Max knew deep down it was borderline impossible for him to achieve that dream; he was from the middle class and only the richest people in the city could afford an apartment on level 1.

Max was still daydreaming only to be roughly brought back to reality; with a maniacal scream, he realized that he had just missed his stop. Looked like X was right after all, he was indeed going to be late. The word ‘again’ reverberated in his mind.

***

“Maximilian Gutenberg, you are 5 minutes and 47 seconds late. You can choose between having this time reduced from your vacation time or deducted from your salary,” Max heard a flying drone utter, as soon as he set his feet inside the office.

“But the train was delayed!” Max replied, without even thinking, as he scratched his large and slightly crooked nose.

“My systems indicate that the average delay today is 1 minute and 21 seconds. I will consider that in my calculation. New calculation: you are 4 minutes and 26 seconds late. Would you prefer to have it reduced from your vacation time or deducted from your salary?” The drone’s red blinking light was focused on him.

Max knew there was only one way to get out of this situation. He checked his surroundings, and as soon as he confirmed that it was clear, he lowered his voice to a whisper and said, “Code Orange, overwrite command 34D-8, subject: Maximilian Gutenberg.”

“Processing... Systems reloaded. Congratulations for being on time today, Maximilian Gutenberg, I wish you a good day,” answered the drone, already flying away.

Max knew it was wrong to use codes like that on the work drones for his own benefit, and he didn’t do it all the time, but when someone has a boss like Max’s, one must adapt.

Delio Vargas was in his late fifties and slightly overweight, but what people first noticed when meeting him was his mustache. It was a thick, silver mustache, and it was so exaggerated that whenever Max saw it, it reminded him of those old walrus cartoons that were popular so long ago.

But it wasn’t due to his physical attributes that Max had problems with his boss. Delio used to say, quite regularly, that he didn’t trust computers. Although Max always believed that he said that simply to cover up the fact that he didn’t know how to use them properly, which was odd, considering that when he was born everything was already automated and computers were part of everyday life. It got to such an extent that technical support had to install an actual printer for him, even though it had been almost 20 years since the last one had been produced, simply because he didn’t like to read reports on the computer and preferred paper.

Delio always gave Max the computer work he himself was supposed to do and threatened to fire him if anyone found out about it. On top of that, he constantly complained about Max’s work, his poor punctuality, and even his hair and clothes.

Max had just sat down at his desk when he heard footsteps approaching.

“Maximilian! I asked you to give me the report on the energy distribution of levels 17 to 21 yesterday, and I haven’t received anything! That’s unacceptable!” Delio said, in his usual loud voice. Max suspected that if Delio were to appear on the radio, half of the people in the city would go deaf.

“Mr. Vargas, you asked me to do this report yesterday at 6:55pm,” Max tried to keep calm. He was already used to Delio by now; if he raised his voice, it would be much worse.

“And what’s the problem with that? Work knows no time; it’s always there!”

“But Mr. Vargas, my shift is only until six. I had already worked overtime by staying until seven to finish the quarterly report on nuclear power plant productivity!”

“There! That’s the problem! You did only one hour extra! You shouldn’t leave until you’ve got no work left, regardless of how much time you must stay here to do it! It seems to me that you do overtime only for the money in it!”

“With all due respect, sir, I don’t get paid for it at all.” Max was grinding his teeth, doing his best not to lose his patience.

“And neither should you! It’s not this company’s fault that you aren’t competent enough to do your job in the regular work hours, like everybody else!”

“But Mr. Vargas, you requested the report after regular work hours in the first place.” He let it slip, pondering whether Delio hadn’t just contradicted himself. But again, he knew the man simply didn’t care.

“You’ve got the guts to talk back to me after not doing your job!? That isn’t what working is! You should answer me with a simple ‘yes, sir’, and considering how often you screw things up ‘sorry, sir’! I want you to do that report by the end of the day, but to teach you a lesson I want it for all the levels, not just those five! If you fail to comply, God help me, I will have you fired!”

“All levels? I won’t finish before nine!” Max was already clenching his fists.

“What did I just say? Are you stupid or something?” Delio’s head was getting red; Max could see a vein pulsating in his neck. “Only answer me with ‘yes, sir’! Do you understand me?”

Max had to pause for a few seconds before answering. He really needed that job, he needed the money to pay his rent. If he got fired, not only would he have to move back in with his parents, but his idea of one day proposing to Julia would be gone. With all that in mind, he took a long breath and answered. “… Yes, sir.”

“Good! Now hurry up and start already!” Delio seemed satisfied with himself. He marched towards his office, which was just a few feet away, and closed the door behind him.

Max was glad that he was gone. It was taking a humongous amount of self-restraint to not throw at Delio all he had in mind, or maybe just punch him in the face; he wasn’t quite sure hich he would prefer. But thanks to this little exchange between the two of them, now he had much more work to do than he could have anticipated. He would have to skip lunch if he were to have any hope of buying Julia’s present before the day was over.

He opened the grid distribution system, but was interrupted before he could even start. “Hey man! Is this the Energy Department?”

Max looked up from his computer screen to find a guy around his age in front of his desk, but they couldn’t be more different; he was around six feet tall, and his sapphire eyes had a look that emanated confidence. I wonder if I would be confident like that if I looked more like this guy, Max thought. “Yeah, can I help you with something?” he said instead.

“Yeah, I’ve got this report on the marketing expenditures that you guys had last month,” he said, waving a few sheets of paper. “I thought my boss was kidding when she said to print the stuff, kinda weird to have it on paper.”

“Tell me about it. Delio’s the department’s head, he’s in that office over there,” Max said, pointing at the door. “But did you come here just to deliver that? You could have just sent a drone.” It was normal to receive reports from other departments, but nobody ever delivered them in person.

“Yeah, I know. It was more of an excuse to come to this level,” he said, with a wink. “I’m gonna take a detour to Accounting on my way back. It’s close, right?”

“Just take the elevator two floors up to the left.”

“Thanks, Max, my man!” he said, passing on his way to Delio’s office.

Max was surprised; he didn’t remember telling him his name. “Sorry, I’m terrible with these things, but do we know each other?”

“It’s me, Steve, man! We met during the analysts training, about two years ago!”

“Of course!” Max said, as he scratched his nose. He vaguely remembered that training, but certainly didn’t remember the people that were there with him. “Sorry man, I’m not that good with faces.”

“No problem! I’m the opposite; I never forget a face, kind of a gift I always had,” said Steve, passing his hands through his perfect, sandy, blond hair. “But I gotta go, or I won’t have time for my detour! Thanks for the help, anyways!” he said, and went towards Delio’s office.

Max wondered how much time this little talk with Steve had cost him. As soon as he was gone, he worked on that boring report for so long that he couldn’t think straight anymore. He managed to finish everything just after eight o’clock. It wasn’t easy spending the entire day having eaten only cereal, and he even had to take a few extra minutes to print the entire thing and leave it in Delio’s office, who had left a few hours ago without a word. Regardless, he was glad it was finally done.

He left the office in a hurry; he knew it would be hard to find a store that was open at this time of night. He thought about ordering online, as the service was available 24 hours and it would be delivered within a few minutes. If he did it that way, he wouldn’t have to worry about the present any longer. But Max knew Julia well, and despite her saying that presents weren’t necessary, she would certainly be happy if he got her something special or, if possible, even unique.

With that in mind, Max decided to take the Vertical Train to level 26, notorious for its high concentration of small, independent stores that had a diverse selection. If he had any luck, some might still be open.

Max suspected that it would be too late once he arrived there, though. He knew he should have bought the present in advance instead of leaving it to literally the last possible moment, but money had been tight. Max barely made enough to pay for rent, food and the occasional treat, so his only option was to wait for payday, which happened to be that very same day.

Once he arrived at the vertical station, he darted towards the shopping sector, but it was already almost 9 p.m. As he had expected, all the stores were closed, and the few movements in the street were of the employees leaving.

Max had almost given up, but suddenly he saw a single independent store that still had its lights on. He ran towards it, only to see, as soon as he got in front of its door, red letters saying ‘closed’ appearing on it. It was almost like fate was playing tricks on him.

Chapter 2: First Encounter

“Please sir, let me in! It will be quick, I swear!” Max couldn’t believe how unlucky he could be in one single day.

“We’re closed, boy. But please come back tomorrow, we open at ten,” said the shop owner, from behind the closed door. His voice was weirdly squeaky, getting Max’s attention.

“I can’t wait until tomorrow! It’s for an anniversary. If I don’t have it by tomorrow at dinner time, it will be meaningless!”

“Can’t you just buy it online? All the kids do that these days anyways. You’d probably just come in, take half an hour looking and then leave, just like half the people that pass through this damned door.”

“I wanna give her something special! She could order anything online herself! I promise I will buy something if you just let me come in!”

“You must be really desperate to promise to buy something in a dump of a store like mine, especially without even seeing what I have to sell,” he chuckled. “Come in, boy, quickly, before I change my mind.” As the man opened the door, Max could see that he was a dwarf, around a foot shorter than himself, and one of his eyes was bigger than the other.

“Thank you!” Max hurried inside without even thinking.

As soon as he entered the store, the smell of mold filled his nostrils. That was shocking in itself, considering how serious Hydra was about air quality. Once Max recovered from the initial shock, he noticed the store was bigger on the inside than he had originally thought. But that wasn’t what surprised him the most; its interior was so old-fashioned that it could very well be a museum. The mysterious atmosphere made the hair on the back of his neck tingle. There were functional wooden shelves, to Max’s surprise, that seemed to be made of real wood, almost reaching the ceiling, packed with all kinds of exotic items, from porcelain to stuffed monkeys. He would never have expected that such a place even existed in Emporion, it appeared to belong to another era. Of one thing he was certain: If what he was looking for was something unique, he had come to the right place.

As he started to search for a present that would fit Julia’s tastes, he looked at several objects: some handmade totems that seemed to have an African origin, some Persian rugs, and even old paintings of mountains, trees and the sea, in the artistic style that was typical of what used to be Asia. But none of those things were the right present for her. He was starting to regret the commitment he had made with the owner until he saw something promising. The store had a section fully dedicated to rings and jewelry in general, all handmade by people instead of robots. Or at least that was what the signs claimed.

Although these options seemed better than the other items in the store, Max was still having trouble finding something that he thought Julia would like. That was until he saw a golden ring with a pearl as an adornment. Julia loved the sea, even though she had never seen it personally. Max suspected the pearl was either produced by oysters bred in captivity or collected by robots from wild animals, but regardless of which it was, he was in a hurry and running out of options.

“I will take this one,” Max said, putting the ring on the counter.

“Really?” the man seemed shocked but quickly recovered. “I mean, of course! It will cost you a thousand credits.”

“What? You must be kidding me! I bet that’s more than all the rings you have here combined! Five hundred credits sound more than reasonable.” Although Max wanted to give Julia a nice present, he also needed to eat, even though he hadn’t done much of that today.

“But you see, it was handmade! And by human hands, that is! But since I like you, I will let it go for seven hundred credits, but not a single credit less!” It seemed that even though the vendor supposedly didn’t make many sales, he still knew how to negotiate.

“That’s still too expensive! Come on, help me out here!”

“It’s a small price to pay for such a beautiful present! She will be overjoyed! And just ‘cuz I like you, boy, you can choose any jewelry box in the store, for free! And besides, it’s not like you have many other options right now, is it?” The dwarf had a little smirk on his face.

“I guess I will take it, then.” Max felt as if he had just lost yet another battle. He was wondering just how many times he could lose in one day. “Which boxes do you have?”

“That’s what I like to hear, my boy! I’ve got this beautiful mahogany box with hand-drawn images on it,” said the vendor, as he brought it out. It was made of dark wood with rough shapes and symbols all over its surface.

“What else have you got? I don’t think that goes well with the ring.”

“What about this one? It's made by authentic Asian descendants!” The vendor showed him a jewelry box with the image of what seemed to be a geisha, it looked like it was made of porcelain.

“That’s better, but still… I don’t know, I’m not sure if it’s a good fit either.”

“Come on boy, it’s getting late. What do you expect, a jewelry box in the shape of an oyster? I don’t have that!” He seemed to be regretting the decision of offering the jewelry box in the first place.

“What about that one over there? The gray one.” Max pointed at a box that was behind the man, at the height of his head.

“Huh? Oh, that one. Yeah, I forgot about it. It’s ancient, made even before the city. It’s probably worth something, but nobody pays any attention to it. It beats me why. It’s made of a good material, you see, marble!” he said, while putting the box on the counter.

Max wondered why someone would use marble to make a jewelry box, but regardless, he liked its classical design. “I will take it.”

“Great! Finally, I can go home!” said the vendor, as he hastily put both the ring and the box in a shopping bag, and gave Max the usual scanner for him to pay.

“I hear you.” Max could feel how tired he was, as he put his finger on the scanner, and with his fingerprint, the payment was completed in a second.

Once the deed was done, Max left the shop and went directly home. He had forgotten to update X about his arrival, and as a result, his food was cold when he finally got home. However, his hunger had gotten to such a level that he ate it as it was, not even bothering to heat it up.

Before going to sleep, Max sat on his bed to look at the gifts he had just bought. The ring looked even more beautiful with the light of his room reflecting on the pearl. He then opened the jewelry box to put it inside, but the box wasn’t empty.

“Dammit, he sold me a box with trash inside! It’s all dirty, and there’s even a piece of glass in here!” Max removed an uneven piece of glass from the box, wondering who would put that kind of thing in a jewelry box. Had he not been careful, he might have cut his hand.

“It is unsafe to hold a sharp shard like that, Master. Also, I suggest you go to sleep sooner rather than later; it is past eleven hours.”

“You’re right, X. It’s not a big deal; I’ll just clean it tomorrow morning before leaving for work,” Max replied, as he threw the piece of glass back inside the box, put the box and the ring on top of the nightstand, and went to sleep.

“Good night, Master.”

“Good night, X,” Max replied, even though he knew it made no sense to wish a robot good night.

***

As he opened his eyes, Max found himself in an ample room. The floor and ceiling seemed to be made of marble, and there were several Greek columns around him. He couldn’t see very far due to the area’s poor illumination, but he could hear water splashing somewhere. He came to realize that he wasn’t alone for he could hear voices, sometimes whispers, and even laughter at times, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. They were talking in a weird language he didn’t recognize, but he was certain that they were men’s voices.

He ventured through the dark with caution, following the voices. The closer he got, the brighter it became, until he got close enough to notice the source of the voices. There were five men, all of them naked, in a huge pool right in the middle of the room, talking to each other. As he got closer he was sure one of them would spot him, but none of them reacted, so he took the opportunity to study them further.

One of them talked more than the rest. He was the only one with a beardless face, and his neck seemed bent slightly forward, but what caught Max’s attention were the man’s eyes. They were two different colors: one was black as the night, and the other blue as the sky. Maybe it had something to do with his different eyes, but the man had a powerful stare. Max was still analyzing him when he was startled by a voice next to him.

“Do you like what you see? You’ve been staring at him for a while.”

Max then noticed a little girl next to him. What an odd place for a child to be, he thought. She was cute, but unconventional. She had silver hair, which was weird for a child to have, to say the least. Her skin was as pale as a sheet of paper, and Max wasn’t sure whether his eyes were deceiving him, but her eyes seemed purple. It must be a trick of the lights, he convinced himself.

“What is a little girl like you doing here? And how come you speak English and they don’t?” She couldn’t be more than 7 years old, and Max felt weird asking questions of someone so young, but he had so many that it was hard for him to even know where to begin.

“Oh, sorry, you can’t understand, can you? Let me give you a hand with that,” the girl said. She snapped her fingers, and suddenly the men switched from whatever language they were speaking to English.

“And then I charged into the center of the enemy formation. As soon as I met Darius, he thought he had me because he had prepared for it, but of course, I had expected him to be, and had a counter measure: a double phalanx! That broke his center, and he had to flee for his life!” said the man with the mismatched eyes, and all the others started laughing.

Max stepped out of the shadows. Now that he could understand what they were saying, they didn’t seem so threatening. “What’s a phalanx?” he asked, as he got closer. He couldn’t explain it, but that man had something different about him.

But no one answered. Worse than that, nobody even looked at him; he was utterly ignored, and their conversation continued.

“How cute! Are you trying to make friends? They can’t hear you, dummy.”

“Why not? And you still didn’t explain why you’re here; and how did you change their language like that?” Max decided to ignore the brat’s insult.

“Well, I kind of work here. Yeah, I guess you could see it like that,” the girl said, balancing herself on the tips of her toes playfully. It was clear now that she was deliberately choosing which questions to answer and which to ignore.

“So, you’re trying to convince me that a little girl like you works here? What are you in charge of, playing with dolls?” Max was trying to make fun of the obvious lie that the girl had just told him, until he realized something. “Oh my god, are you being kept here against your will? Are they hurting you here?”

“Hurting me? I think you’ve got it wrong.”

“You don’t have to hide it, I can help you! As soon as I find a way out, I will sneak you out with me.” Max was already scanning the room, looking for an exit.

“You don’t understand. Watch: Alexander!” the girl said, now looking at the man with the mismatched eyes, and he instantly looked at her, got up in a hurry, and ran in her direction despite being naked.

As soon as he was just two feet away, he bowed. “Nike! Do you have a message from the gods for me? Or maybe an omen?”

“Yes,” she answered, with a devious smile. “The gods say that the only way for you to win your next battle is to prove yourself worthy. And to do that, you must carry a horse on your back.”

“A horse, you say? I shall do as the gods bid, but I’m not confident of how I could possibly accomplish it.”

“Use your intelligence instead of brute strength, Alexander. But you must do it now.” It was weird for Max to see such a young girl commanding such a big man. He’d had his doubts before, but was sure now that she definitely wasn’t normal.

“Hmm…” Alexander scratched his beardless chin. “Well, a baby horse still counts as a horse, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, a smart idea, just as I expected from you. Just make sure no one sees you. You don’t want to start a rumor that the king is going crazy.”

“I will do it at once, Nike! Thank you for helping me!” Alexander bowed again, and stormed out of the room, still naked and ignoring the cries of the men that had been talking with him before.

“As you can see, I’m fine here. No need to try to sneak me anywhere!” Nike was now looking at Max with a cheeky smile, as if she was purposely not telling him everything.

“Ok, that was weird. Where are we, anyway? And did you just ask a naked man to carry a horse just to make a point? And why can you talk with them, but I can’t?” Max had so many questions that he could barely keep his thoughts straight.

“Do you always ask so many questions? Jeez! We don’t have that kind of time; there’s more to be seen.” And with that, the world around Max shifted, and everything changed.

Chapter 3: Wildest Dreams

As the world around Max unfolded, he found himself in a completely different place than before. The first thing he saw was a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling, maybe bigger than himself. It was certainly unique, with beads and engravings all over, and it illuminated the entire room, even though the room itself was enormous. Paying more attention to his surroundings, he noticed that the chandelier wasn’t the only reason for the room’s brightness; it was the furniture, which was covered in gold. It seemed that someone had painted all the wood or metal of the furniture with golden paint, and that made the room much brighter than it ought to be.

This time it seemed that he was alone; the girl, Nike, was nowhere to be seen. He decided to explore and went closer to a table to inspect it. It appeared it was made of the finest materials, and it had beautiful drawings and colors on it. The walls around were white, but with golden frames and symbols decorating them. In the center of the room there was a huge bed with green curtains; it had a beautiful design and golden details fixed to its top.

If Max had to guess where he was, he would’ve said a king’s room. It was so luxurious and all of it seemed to be ancient, no technology in sight. He was still exploring the room's details when the doors flew open and a man stormed in. He was clearly nervous, and was speaking with someone in an exasperated tone in a weird language that Max couldn’t make out. He thought it sounded like French, but he wasn’t quite sure. After all, languages weren’t that important when everybody in the world shared one.

Max noticed that there was an old lady behind the man, and as soon as she got inside the room, the man slammed the door shut in one swift movement. He was pacing the room, and one of his hands was on his head, pulling his short black hair, while the other was scratching his beardless chin. He was talking quickly, and seemed quite stressed. The woman didn’t say anything, but was giving him her full attention, until she suddenly looked at Max.

“Sorry, youngling, you can’t understand him, can you? I will fix it for you.” She snapped her fingers, and at this moment, three things happened. First, the man instantly switched to English; second, Max noticed that the woman had exactly the same impossible purple eyes that Nike had; and third, he recognized the man that was with her. He was none other than Napoleon Bonaparte.

“I gave them one job, and that’s the result?! I should have known! If you want something done well, you have to do it yourself! I would have done better, or my name isn’t Napoleon!” shouted the then emperor of France.

“Calm down Napoleon, you know your stomach gets worse when you get yourself stressed like that. There’s no such thing as an accident; it’s fate misnamed.” The old woman was talking to Napoleon as if he was her grandson.

“You are right. I don’t mean to complain, but sometimes the pressure of running an empire is just too much! Sometimes I think it will be impossible to win this war…” Napoleon sat down on the bed with his head in his hands.

“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools! You are capable; remember what happened in Marengo? You won even though you were outnumbered.” Now she sounded more like a teacher than a grandmother.

“Why am I in Napoleon’s bedroom? What the hell is happening here?” Max was sure he was losing his mind.

“You are seeing a tiny fraction of my life, child. I want you to understand some of it,” she said, looking again at Max, her purple eyes fixed on his. He noticed that even though she was old, her eyes showed vast experience, as if she was much older than a person could possibly be. It also seemed that Napoleon couldn’t hear anything that she was telling him.

“Are you some kind of war councilor or something?” Max looked towards Napoleon, who was now talking again in French, and apparently didn’t require an answer to keep the conversation going. “Why are you showing me this? Why am I here?”

“Are you uncomfortable here, dear? Well, we still have one more stop, anyway.” And just as she said it, the rich room they were in turned instantly into a small village.

The village was simple, with several small houses mostly made of wood. There were lots of people, apparently of Indian descent, walking around, including several kids. Again, Max noticed that no one was paying him any attention. It was as if he was invisible, which he actually believed he was, as crazy as that sounded.

Some distance away from the rest of the people, there were a man and a woman looking at the horizon, talking. Just as a bug feels unexplainably attracted to light, he felt compelled to approach them, and as Max got closer, his suspicions were proved correct. Despite the woman being in her forties and the sun being relentless, her skin was as white as snow. And as soon as he approached, she looked at him, smiling just as before, and her purple eyes seemed to sparkle in the sunlight. Max heard her fingers snap, and just as it had happened before, the man started speaking English.

“When I admire the wonders of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in the worship of the creator,” said the man, while appreciating the sunset.

He was bald, short, and was wearing round glasses. Based on his appearance, and their surroundings, Max came to the impossible conclusion: the man was none other than Mahatma Gandhi himself.

“The creator will be pleased that you like the work,” she answered, turning to look at the villagers. “It’s your mission to save these people, to free them and all the others, and I will aid you.”

“I am but a servant,” Gandhi said, humbly.

“No, you are a leader! You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

“I see. You always help me see the bigger picture; I am truly blessed to have you by my side.”

“You must live as if you were to die tomorrow, but learn as if you were to live forever. I will help you with the latter,” she said, with a soothing smile.

“Wait a minute,” Max said. “Are you actually trying to tell me that you were the one that told Gandhi ‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world’?”

“Yes, and I believe you just saw the exact moment it happened,” she answered plainly, now looking at him.

“So, you were friends with the naked Greek guy, Napoleon and Gandhi, is that it? Are you some kind of ghost with a god complex?” It was difficult for Max to make sense of everything that was going on. It seemed that the more information he got, the more confused he became.

“Well, just so you know, ‘the naked Greek guy’ was Alexander the Great. And answering your question, I’m not a ghost.” It took a while for Max to realize that she had finally answered a question about herself, mainly because he was still perplexed, thinking that he had seen one of the biggest conquerors in ancient times not only naked, but running to carry a horse because a little girl told him to.

“It looks like even you can run out of words.” She seemed to be entertained by the whole situation. “I showed all of that to you for a reason, Maximilian. I have a mission, and all those people that you saw tried to help me accomplish it, but they failed. I believe with you it could be different.”

“Let me see if I’ve got it straight. You want me to help you do something that neither Alexander the Great, Napoleon, nor Gandhi could do? Who do you think I am? That’s way above my pay grade.”

“It’s not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles. It wasn’t the case that those great men tried to help me; they became great men exactly because they tried to help me in the first place.”

“Are you promising me success in exchange for me helping you? Are you trying to involve me in a pyramid scheme?” Max had to admit that a ghost running a pyramid scheme would’ve been a first.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer your questions now; our time is almost up.” She looked uneasy. “We will talk again, and I’m sure you will change your mind. You’re still young. The more sand that escapes from the hourglass of our lives, the clearer we should see through it.” And just as she said it, everything around him started to fade.

The village was gone, the people vanished, and even the dirt under his feet disappeared; he was now standing on a white floor. Everything had become white. The only thing left was the woman, but even she was starting to fade. Her paper-white skin became transparent until it was completely gone. The last part to disappear was her big purple eyes, staring deeply into Max’s, as if she was looking into his soul.

And then Max woke up.

I hope you enjoyed the Vessel’s Short Stories.

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