Crewel

I watch from my quarters or even a blizzard like the one I witnessed moments ago, but I could never have imagined what the break reveals. In between the fibres of the weave, I see a shapeless bloom of light and colour.
    What lies behind the screens on Loricel’s studio walls isn’t what I imagined. Even though I’ve been manipulating the weave around me for years, only now is the truth clear. The weave we call up on a loom, or manipulate in the room in front of us is only a façade. Behind it lies another layer, even more brilliant than the first.
    ‘None of it’s real,’ I whisper.
    ‘It depends on your definition of real,’ Loricel replies. ‘I can touch this floor. I can touch you. I can eat the food at mealtime. How is that not real?’
    And I can’t answer her, because she’s right. The tickle of water as I step into the bath, the way the pillow cocoons my head, Jost’s hands stroking my face. How could these things not be real? And yet, standing here staring out at the raw matter flowing into oblivion, nothing can ever be real again.
    ‘So that’s it. This is reality,’ I whisper, the words barely making a noise as they leave my mouth.
    Loricel purses her lips together as though she’s unsure where to begin. ‘Yes and no. This is our reality, but not reality in the truest sense.’
    ‘I don’t understand,’ I admit.
    ‘The Guild doesn’t mean us to, but if you are to take over here then you must understand.’ She gestures to the magnificent work space.
    I can’t tear my eyes away from the open seam. My hands twitch; I want to touch it. Finally, Loricel closes it up and leads me over to a small couch.
    ‘We create it all?’ I ask.
    ‘We create Arras,’ she says. ‘But we only create a mantle – a cover, if you will. Matter and time exist on another planet, and we merely harness them. The looms allow us to weave and create Arras. Our reality is layered upon another world: Earth.’
    ‘Earth?’ The word sounds strange and foreign, but it plucks at some long-buried memory.
    ‘Underneath Arras are the remains of the former world – a world that is no longer inhabited,’ she tells me. ‘Few are left who remember the name Earth, and it’s dangerous for us to speak of it outside the safety of my studio. What you saw was the raw material that flows between our old home and Arras.’ She stares at the wall where the rift had been.
    ‘So that’s it?’ I ask. ‘We’ve created our world on top of another world, but no one knows it.’
    Loricel smiles. ‘Oh no, there are some who know, Adelice, but they aren’t sharing the secret. The truth has a way of changing to suit the purpose of those in charge. They would deny what I’m telling you. The Guild has worked hard to make sure we forget about Earth. Only the highest officials know, and even those working the mines are lied to about exactly what they’re doing. I must be very careful what I say during my trips to visit them each year.’
    ‘Why keep it a secret?’
    ‘You would be surprised at the amount of discontent here. The number of plots the Guild quells each year. Arras is not as peaceful as they make the citizens believe. Some would want to leave Arras, and the Guild would never allow it.’
    I think back to my parents, who clearly loathed the Guild and tried to protect me from it. I’d thought they were a bit paranoid until I came here, but now I wonder how much they knew. And Jost’s brother-in-law, who had mixed with rebels. Yes, there were people who knew, but I already understood why they kept it quiet.
    ‘But you have access to someone who knows the truth,’ Loricel continues.
    ‘Who?’
    ‘Me.’
    ‘Then what are they? Arras? Earth?’ I have a hundred more questions, but I shut my mouth to keep them from tumbling out all at once.
    ‘My predecessor was the second Creweler and though she knew the story better than I, much of it was lost in the passing from her own teacher. Some of it makes little sense to us now because we have lost this knowledge and with it the words and reality they describe,’ she explains.
    ‘On Earth, a war was fought to end all wars. Many of the regions, once called countries, became involved in the battle. One created a weapon so fearsome that it threatened to destroy everyone. They called this science, but it was merely the creation of men aimed at controlling the world. However, while one country readied to use this weapon, another scientist stepped forward with an alternative