novelraw Interlude: Plato's Cave
Interlude: Plato's Cave
Within a cave that never was, a number of shadows were cast as a fire that burned without a flame cast its light into the vastness of reality. The shadows all came from the same object, yet none were the same, as angles of light, distances, and the surfaces they were cast upon combined to make them unique. Some of those shadows were vague and indistinct, barely visible within the dimly lit cave, but others were clearer.
Three of those shadows were distinct enough to have a clear outline, though only one of them seemed to be somewhat constant, its changes and movement only minor, compared to the other two. Of those two, one was quite faint, almost as if the light casting it came from a far-off place, making it a little diffuse, yet the depths of that singular shadow seemed deeper, giving it a certain weight within the dim cave. The last shadow had a clear outline, but that outline wasn’t constant; it repeatedly shifted between two different forms, only one of them humanoid.
Suddenly, that one, usually shifting shadow, stilled, freezing in its humanoid form as an incredibly faint light seemed to shine from within the shadow. The light was a riot of colours, its components shifting in intensity and hue, trying to pierce the dim gloom of the cave. However, as bright as the light might be within the shadow it came from, it was powerless to pierce the cosmic vastness of the cave that never was.
For a moment, the light coming from the shadow seemed to recoil, as if shocked at the impossible nature of the place it tried to illuminate, but then it rallied. It still failed to banish the gloom, but the light it radiated out of the shadow was enough to push it back a little, far enough to make the other distinct shadow, the one that seemed to be the most solid and constant, react.
For a few moments that might as well have been years within the timeless, eternal cave, the second shadow started to pulse with its own internal light. At first, the light seemed almost a reflection of the rainbow of colours shining from the other shadow, but then it began to coalesce in the depths of the shadow, as if something were swallowing the different lights.
Outside the shadow, the cave began to lighten in a strange way, as if the gloom itself were being swallowed by the shadow, creating something that could easily be described as an anti-light.
The influence of this anti-light began to spread beyond the reach of the first shadow, making it seem more powerful, but that might just be a trick of their vastly different modes of exploration. One working to pierce through the darkness with its own efforts, shedding light in places where there was none, the other devouring the gloom, reducing its influence and thus creating a slowly spreading sea of light. Or maybe a sea of lessened gloom.
Eventually, both processes interacted for a moment, streamers of light striking into the lightened area, only to explode into sparkling dust, motes of understanding that drifted through the cave for endless moments before fading away once more. The devouring anti-light immediately reacted, its previously diffuse and directionless expansion gaining a targeted quality, as if it were seeking out this new light, spreading in its direction even if the primary shadow wasn’t moving.
Tendrils of anti-light and rays of light started to explode between the two shadows, occasionally striking each other, and each collision between radiance and anti-light created more sparks of knowledge, more motes of understanding, only for those motes to fade away soon after.
Eventually, as if both shadows made a simultaneous decision, they started to drift towards each other, though neither truly moved. Some of their convergence was due to their base forms stretching; some might be due to the surface they were cast upon changing, causing both shadows to draw closer together. But, regardless of their stretching, regardless of any changes to their form, they seemed to be unable to truly join together, as if there was some invisible barrier in the gloom, keeping them separate.
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After some time had passed and neither shadow could make any further progress towards their counterpart, both seemed to pulse with power once more, rays of light and tendrils of devouring darkness flitting back and forth, once again causing the cave to sparkle with dust.
For another unknowable length of time, this exchange continued, tendrils of gloom, rays of light, and pulses of power flickering between the two shadows, neither changing despite the mesmerising display of light. Maybe because the radiance shining from the two shadows and the light of the flameless fire were conceptually very different, maybe because the cave was so impossibly vast, it didn’t matter, not in the endless cave, not in the timeless void. The cave only ever is, it never was, and it never will be.
Eventually, the flickering from the first light dimmed a little, as if the light was running out of energy. At the same time, the other shadow flared with power for just a moment, causing a single, impossible bright tendril of devouring darkness stretch through the gloom, connecting the two shadows for that single, impossible moment.
In that moment, the outline of the first shadow gained a dim boundary, insulating the shadow from the cave’s gloom as the gloom was devoured without intruding on the first shadow at all. This embrace of power gave it just a little more time in the space that has none. The first shadow stabilised once more, remaining strangely stationary as if it is biding its time, or maybe planning its next step.
Then, from deeper within the gloom, the third shadow grew closer, stretching and warping until it loomed over both of the other shadows. Not necessarily threatening, but clearly indicating that it was present in this space, and that it might not appreciate the intrusion of these other two. Or maybe the shadow was simply attracted by the flickering light and the dimming sparks of conversation.
Regardless, it, too, started to shine with a light of its own. This light was closer to the light from the first shadow, its source an immense and diverse palette of colours. However, where the first shadow was radiating that diverse palette, with a few of them taking up more space within its rainbow light, this third shadow was different. With it, the light seemed to be filtered through a focusing lens, turning the riot of colours into a cold, monochrome silver light.
The other two shadows, especially the second, immediately reacted. The second shadow began to devour the gloom around it once more, fresh tendrils of darkness meeting the beams of light. These exchanges, too, began to spark understanding, exploding into being as the consumed shadow met the light. The first shadow, still surrounded by the faint boundary of deeper darkness it had been shrouded in by the second, was hanging in there and not being idle either. While it wasn’t sending out many rays of light, nor any streamer of power, it was able to spark a few motes of understanding between itself and the third shadow.
Eventually, all three shadows had spent as much power as they were interested in using, and the reality between them started to settle down. Motes of understanding began to fade back into the gloom, sparks of knowledge and memory dimmed and were swallowed once again, their present firmly rooted in the past, while dreams and ideas for the future grew thin and brittle, easily shattered by the uncaring void within the cave. The cave, and everything within it, could only ever be; it had never been, and never will be.
Finally, the lights from within the three shadows started to flicker and fade away, too, leaving the cave still once more. No agency existed within it, only shadows cast from a singular object, images drawn upon the ever-changing walls of reality by the flickering and dancing flame of the fire without flame.
In the gloom, the shadows started to shift once more, slowly and without direct agency, but something had changed. Each of the three shadows that had engaged in the exchange of light was a little more distinct, still connected by the object that all cast them, but all three were altered. How they were altered was impossible to tell; it was a question for the future, and within the cave, only the present had any influence.