Millennia on earth had passed before Philemon got the idea to write it all down--before he forgot. Even more millenia after that, Ara and Mishra were grateful he did take the time to do it.

Two guides, instead of one, had been assigned because the test was a difficult one. Once Ara and Mishra had been assigned, they reviewed Ed’s life-to-come as any good guides would do. In agreement between each other, they decided that Ed’s karma was too complex and burdensome for two guides alone. They requested from the Council of Wisdom additional help in the matter. They were somewhat dissapointed when the Council forwarded them a copy of the basic guides’ primer: "The Guidebook for Guides."

"Do it by the book," was the assumption Ara and Mishra made of the Council’s odd gift. It was also a warning, they supposed. The example in the book was clear: Failure for such a endeavor had serious consequences. They would do well to study the examples given and understand how to circumvent all the inherent problems of testing in the Tower of Dreams. It was worth a re-read, Ara and Mishra agreed, even if success all depended on the subjects being guided. Some luck, some planning and then a lot of prayer: that was what guiding was all about. Planning was the only aspect of guiding they had any real control over. Thus, they were eager to review any past examples, particularly failures, in the hopes of avoiding the same fate.

Philemon had provided just such an example, having given permission to the Akashik library to hyperlink a failed life (as he saw it) when he was the guide in charge.

Mishra and Ara dissolved within the narrative, jumped through the hyperlink into page 82 and peered into the happenings of another time for themselves. From their vantage point of invisible observers, they reviewed the drama that was to teach them ‘what not to do.’

"It can’t be!" Lokmi stared into the sacred waters deeply. Her dark fingers clutched the gazing bowl, her knuckles whitening. Within the waters lay the mythic Colis shell which cast its jeweled lights across Lokmi’s face and on to the shadowy walls of the alcove.

The prince stood waiting outside, unable to breach the secrecy of the black velvet curtain that protected him from the magic inside. He heard Lokmi muttering to herself, but he couldn’t catch the words before he heard her scream in frustration. Still, he clasped his hands impatiently and clamped his mouth even more tightly. He knew better than to disturb his sorceress until she came through the curtain of her own volition.

When she finally appeared, her golden hair was grayed with matted perspiration. She stumbled from the alcove, pale and defeated.

The prince couldn’t pity her. They were both in the same predicament. "What did you find out?" he said.

"Evil--great evil!!!" The sorceress leaned up against the wall, catching her breath.

"I told you," the prince stood straighter at her announcement. "Didn’t I say he should not be allowed to live?"

"NO!" Lokmi blinked away the shock as she determined to fight. "I don’t want him killed! He is not the source of the evil!"

The prince’s fists dug into his hips stubbornly. "You are not being objective about this. He may have been your student at one time, but now he is something more--something dangerous. He’s looked in the waters and survived!"

Lokmi shook her head in agreement. It was true: Manu, her student, had dared to steal a glimpse in the waters and she had saved him from certain death.

"You should have let him die," the prince shook his head angrily. "He transgressed the sacred waters--by all rights he should be dead. Instead, he holds the mark of the damned: ‘the evil eye.’"

How could she explain her gift now? The third eye, that’s what he referred to as the "evil eye." It had saved Manu and, at the same time, doomed them.

"I must leave," Lokmi spoke the words she knew were unwelcome.

"What?!"

"I said: I have to go." She made no explanations.

"And leave us with Manu this way and on this day? I shall kill him the moment you abandon us!" The prince fumed.

"I can’t stop you," Lokmi surrendered. "You shall do whatever is for the best."

"We need you!" The prince grasped her wrist unwilling to let her depart. "The magic is stronger now. It is all around us. Mere mortals can not stand against it. Hear it?"

The bells sounded throughout his kingdom, their source unknown. It had been that way for many years. They came at random and without reason. With them came the voices. They pleaded and begged for release. Some shouted obscenities in anger and frustration. Even within the prince’s kingdom, some people were driven to madness at the first peal.

"The magic IS all around," Lokmi sighed, hearing the bells. "If only I hadn’t forgotten that."

They were a series of bells lasting a day. From what they had determined, there were twelve different tones, each one ringing once more than the last. There was very little they did know about the bells, except that the last one usually signaled a disaster within the kingdom and the appearance of a new evil. Manu had gone into the alcove of the sacred waters moments before the bells had started to sound.

The prince dropped his hold on Lokmi. "Do you know what they are now?"

"I always knew," Lokmi admitted. "I had just forgotten. Manu and the sacred waters have brought the memories back. They are the call of the Tower of Dreams."

"The Tower of Dreams?"

"The seven-story Tower of the sorcerer’s way. It is the challenge that holds all the secrets and powers of magic."

"Magic--I thought so. And you choose to leave us now?"

Lokmi ignored the prince’s bid for her loyalty, her blue eyes chilling him into silence.

"The Tower is calling me," Lokmi explained apologetically. "The sacred waters have revealed to me that it is time to go."

(Actually, I told her that--Mishra and Ara heard Philemon interrupt the story).

"Are you going to the Tower alone? Where is it?" The prince demanded. "I’ll send a group of my best warriors with you and we will destroy the magic before it finds my kingdom and destroys us instead."

"The Tower is here," Lokmi replied, "and there, and nowhere. I can not go to the Tower, because essentially I am already here. The Tower is our reality. No--I go outside our own reality, to a different dream. I go to find the end of magic itself."

The prince shook his head, confused. His brooding eyes gazed at the floor as he considered his options. "Promise me you will return with the secret to the ‘end of magic’ when you find it. If you promise me this, I will let you go willingly."

Lokmi laughed in amusement. "I promise, I will return," she said as she turned to go back into the alcove of the sacred waters. She had to leave before she forgot again. Manu was trapped here, within the Tower of Dreams, and there was nothing she could do about it--for now. Lokmi knew it would only dig herself deeper into karmic debt. The waters did not lie.

"Lokmi?" The prince questioned the closed alcove.

No reply came from within. The prince squared his shoulders and went to find a guard. Manu would die today--before the twelfth bell rang. Outside he heard a riot in full swing in the marketplace. Damn the bells, he thought, uneasily. One day he feared they would be the signal for an advancing sorcerer’s army. Feeling vulnerable at the loss of his own sorceress, he blamed it on Manu. The reckless boy had caused this mess, he was sure of it. Finding, a guard, he ordered the prisoner, Manu, to be tortured until he died. Feeling some satisfaction at this small revenge, he headed back towards his audience chambers.

Manu’s screams were just a few of the piercing sobs that echoed throughout the prince’s kingdom that day. None of them had the prince’s pity. They were all in the same predicament.

"We failed not because of bad intentions," Philemon’s voice narrated in Ara’s and Mishra’s minds, "but because we forgot our lessons. Thus, I have taken the time to write the rules down. Use them as you see fit."