The Bridging of Worlds Ritual

This article is archived, and is no longer part of Vekllei canon.

Tzipora is the oldest person alive, now aged 1,056 years. With the body, temperament, and vitality of an 11-year-old, and the lived experience of a dozen generations, she is a victim Gregori syndrome. She has seen man rise from Earth into space, and although she still calls her birth-country of Vekllei on Earth home, she frequently tours the cosmos as part of complex interplanetary diplomacy. The press calls her the Princess of the Earth.

In 3,119 A.D., she visits the Ra system. She meets the people there, called Roala, who were once descendents of East Asia on Earth. Here she takes part in an ancient ritual in which she bridges herself between the spirit and human worlds.

She is dressed in both ordinary Vekllei clothing, which is familiar and Earthly, and Roala ceremonial dress patterned with reflective gems.

• Using her left hand, she guides the angle of power.
• Her right hand, raised above her head, is the focus of power and is anchored to the human world by her left foot. If she breaks the angle directed by her left hand, and they become unaligned, she will lose her physical space in both worlds and collapse into nothing.

For a few minutes at a time, she is able to see and contact both the human and spirit worlds.

• As she closes the ritual, the power of the stars wane, and so her heart becomes an auxiliary power source to help close the bridge. As it strains under the pressure of joining two worlds, her heart glows through her shirt.
• At this moment, plants die under her feet and she mustn’t be touched, otherwise the bridge will cascade into a wider collapse that can destroy several people.
• Finally, her heart settles and Tzipora collapses into the arms of a photographer, dripping with sweat and sapped of all strength.

It is a great privilege to know how to contact the spirit world. Ordinary Earth people like Tzipora usually have ask for passage from the bones of angels, called Derden. But out here, with the Roala, she partakes in their way of life to cement the bond humanity has across systems.