“It is not like that. Life here lasts for millions of your earthly years: no one has to work, no reason to be sad – but the soul also sounds in its own way here and strives for something,” Dandin raised his hands and started pointing at the city around him. “Imagine you have no reason to suffer. There is all the food you can eat, all the time you have to rest, what would you want?”
David and Dr Capri pondered. David looked at the doctor and shrugged:
“Maybe you’ll want what you don’t have?” David suggested.
“Everything is here,” Dandin said, making a sign for David to keep thinking.
“Maybe You will start to feel sad?”
“Yes,” Dandin laughed, “unless you decide to devote your life to something bigger than you are.”
Dandin stopped and looked up at the roof of the palace with a deep sense of respect. There he could see an enormous weather vane that was clearly not used to determine the direction of the wind, but to demonstrate the supremacy of this building over all others. The weather vane was in the shape of a huge wheel with many spokes. Dandin turned to the earthlings with a sad expression of pride on his face.
“What does it mean to dedicate yourself to something bigger?” David asked.
“Service,” answered Dandin.
“You seem to have decided that for them,” said Jean-Pierre, pointing a glance at Van, who had approached the group when Dandin stopped. “These can only serve the higher-ups?”
Dandin shifted his eyebrows and shook his head in genuine incomprehension.
“Service is nature, not punishment. Serving the greater justifies the lesser.”
The earthlings moved on.
“So, is Vivasvan a kind of God?” David asked, raising his eyebrows.
“What? No,” Dandin shook his head. “Although…” he smiled and proudly added, addressing the Frenchman in particular. “He only wants to make the world a better place. He serves by giving energy to this planet, and it shines to every corner of the Universe. He is simply giving out. Looks into everyone’s eyes and cleanses everything he touches. He wants those with material sight to be able to see.”
Dr Capri smirked, throwing his hands behind his head:
“So this whole ancient system about demigods and demons, about planetary systems, about the soul is true?” Dr Capri asked excitedly.
Dandin smiled softly and spread his hands in surprise, pointing at himself and everything around him: the golden city, the starry sky and the travelers themselves, letting him know that it was clear as it was.