The Innkeeper

Lex himself had never been to a circus, but had seen enough of them on the television. Their performance was very impressive and the timing of it was immaculate, especially when you considered there was no safety net below. Yet somehow, Lex had expected a little more when he noticed they were cultivators.

To be fair, their performance had just begun. They were likely warming up the crowd before. But Lex did not want to wait as there were many other stages as well. He would watch a replay of this later to see if they did anything more interesting._.

Driven by curiosity, Lex skipped all the human stages and went to a Beast one. This particular stage was not raised like the rest, but was instead lowered so that the viewers would have a top-down view. A layer of sand covered the stage, and various snakes slithered through it. At first, Lex did not understand what they were meant to be doing. He observed each snake individually and focused on it as it went from slithering on the surface to somewhere below it.

The confusion disappeared, however, when he noticed that his focus should not be on the snakes but on the sand. Influenced by dozens of snakes moving in calculated coordination, the sand pulsed, as if a beating heart lay right under it. Dunes rose and fell quickly in the sand, making it feel as if Lex was watching an accelerated view of a changing dessert. Slowly, he became aware of patterns in the rise and fall of the sand, but to view it he had to stop focusing on the sand, and somehow focus on the whole.

This was a little difficult for humans, as the human eye was designed to be attracted to and focus on certain points. To forcefully stop yourself from focusing on a certain point and somehow taking in the whole was a bit of a challenge, and something most others would miss out on unless they were actively trying to do so.

Lex had an easy out in this, as he could rely on his awareness of the entire Inn to view this stage as a whole, rather than focusing on it with his eyes. But the moment he did so was when Lex realized just how much he was actually missing and was momentarily stunned. The movement of the sand had a strange kind of symmetry. The rise and fall of the dunes started forming patterns in the landscape and started to form some kind of art.

This was unlike the art humans created, but seemed like it was a creation of nature. It was so wholly random even while maintaining its previous pattern. It was like Lex was becoming aware of the course of how things progressed as nature intended. He was reminded of an old documentary he saw about repeating shapes and patterns in nature called fractals – where the shape or pattern would be repeated on various scales. Whether you focused in on a certain part, or focused out on the larger whole, the patterns would be present. The strange way of repeating the pattern is also what gave birth to the sense of symmetry.

But if all there was to it, Lex would not have been so overwhelmed. The depth of the snake’s art was not just limited to the visage of it. When Lex used his awareness to view the stage, he also felt the vibrations in the sand. As the snakes moved through the different layers, the way the sand in between the layers rose and fell between them, the way they rubbed against other grains of sand and the way they pressed against the scales of the snakes produced a sensation Lex could only describe as music.

The oscillations weren’t large enough to produce a sound greater than a gentle hum, one that could easily have been mistaken for wind, gently caressing the dunes into its desired shape like the paintbrush of an artist. Yet since Lex was aware of it in greater detail, he felt the same visual pattern emerge in each and every vibration. He saw the pattern in the way that each grain of sand fell, and in the way that each grain of sand rose.

The pattern that emerged was so much greater than the two-dimensional ones he had seen on paper, or a three-dimensional one a person might encounter in an art exhibit. The pattern existed in the top down view. It existed between the layers. It existed in the vibrations. It existed in the way the snakes moved. For a moment, Lex felt himself enter a trance, and felt a strange thought form right outside of his range of perception. It was like a word on the tip on his tongue – he knew what it was, but could not say it. The feeling was abstract, yet at the same time concrete.

“Not bad,” Lex murmured, and decided to make a change to this stage. Currently, to prevent the performers, each stage prevented spiritual senses from coming through. Yet now, Lex changed it so that others would be able to use their spiritual senses only to view the stage. This would still prevent them from using it to pressure or communicate with the performers. Lex did not want others to disturb the snakes, yet at the same time he wanted them to enjoy it on a greater level as just simply viewing the sand would leave them missing out.

Indeed, if some simply focused on the snakes, and did not take in the whole, this was probably one of the least interesting exhibits. It was only snakes moving in the sand. He hoped others would also be able to pick up on the intricacies of this display.

What Lex did not realize was that all the people at the top of each respective world were paying a lot of attention to the Innkeepers’ every move. His murmur may have been soft, but it was like an announcement on a loudspeaker for them. Especially when they felt the changes on this stage, they immediately used their spiritual senses to try and observe the peculiarity of this display. Whether any of them noticed it to the depth that Lex had, there was no way of knowing.

Impressed by what he had just witnessed, Lex went to the next Beast stage. This one only had two Beasts that Lex had never seen or recognized before. This Beast’s hind legs were similar to that of a frog and allowed it to leap long distances and far into the air. Yet, unlike a frog, this Beast was around four feet in length and three feet in height. Its body was covered in violet hexagonal scales that reflected light in an unusual way. Lex had never encountered light that he had to describe as ‘dark’, but that was the only description he could think of at the moment.

Near the neck of the Beast, colorful feathers started emerging from within the scales and covered its forelegs and shoulder blades. It did not seem enough to allow the Beast to fly, but Lex imagined that the Beast could glide great distances. Yet as the stage provided was not big enough, the two Beasts were not gliding, but seemed to be doing a dance. They would leap towards one another from the ends of the stage and twirled effortlessly in the air.

Its shining scales, bright feathers and intricate moves enamored the viewers, making them completely oblivious to how lethal its moves exactly were.

As the Beasts approached one another they did not collide, but somersaulted in the air and clapped their hind legs against each others. Then, pushing against one another, they leaped higher into the air, all the while not forgetting to twirl. Once they reached the peak of the jump, and had no other platform to push against, they spread their forelegs and formed thin wings akin to the gliders used by humans. Moving counterclockwise, they glided down in the air, dancing in the air, near one another.

It was a spectacular show indeed, and Lex was very impressed by the visuals. It was unfortunate then that his wonder was completely deflated when he overheard another Beasts saying that they were displaying their mating ritual. He supposed exhibitionism transcended species and even worlds.

Lex quickly moved away from the stage before he saw something he would regret.