Hue and The Discovery of Manipo (Chapter 3)

Some details are necessary. Others are better left unsaid — especially now. I know where Eden lies. No one else should. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ve probably noticed how carefully I’ve chosen my words.

When I jolted awake from the dream, I found myself strangely refreshed, as though the vision itself had carved out a space of rest inside me. But I couldn’t stay in that room any longer. It had served me once when I had nothing, and in those days it felt like safety. Now it was just a cramped box full of echoes I didn’t want to hear — and memories I wasn’t ready to revisit.

Besides, I had a far more pressing reason to leave: I needed to see what David was doing underground.

The moment I stepped back into the past, the underground looked exactly as it had in my dream. But David… David was different. He stood in the distance, his posture familiar, yet his presence felt real in a way the dream never had. There, nothing had been sharp except the moment his eyes met mine. Here, he wasn’t blurred. He wasn’t frozen. His movements were slow, deliberate — anchored.

It made me wonder if he sensed something.

Or worse — someone.

Could he detect a presence that didn’t belong to his timeline?

Did he have abilities unlike mine?

Who was he, and how did he fall into a place no human should have reached?

I approached cautiously, my footsteps silent in the dust of ages. Even up close, I couldn’t read his expression. A cloth covered the lower half of his face, and he stared into the darkness ahead.

In my dream, this was where he had picked up an object — something important enough to distort the entire vision. But now the cave was too dark to reveal anything. And even if I wanted to investigate, I couldn’t. A massive chasm split the cave in two. No bridge. No path. No way across. The gap separated David from whatever lay beyond — and separated me from both.

I waited to see what he would do. Would he reveal some power? Unfold wings? Conjure a path? Pull out a device that defied the era he lived in?

But he only stood there.

Silent.

Still.

Moments like this made me miss my abilities. I wanted to reach across time and close that gap, but Eden was far too close. Hidden, yes — but not distant. I had no interest in provoking Yahweh again.

So I watched.

Eventually, David turned without hesitation and walked out of the cave — he didn’t look back at me, didn’t pause, didn’t acknowledge anything. Not even the silence he left behind.

I followed him to the surface and watched as he vanished into the horizon.

I knew he’d return.

So I withdrew to a safe distance and pushed time forward.

He came back sooner than I expected — this time with three others. I recognized their silhouettes from the dream, though their gear was unfamiliar. More modern. More purposeful.

“Are you sure we’re nearing the entrance to the garden?” one of them asked.

The question stunned me.

How did they know about Eden?

“Yes. It is just up ahead,” David replied.

That stunned me even more.

How did he know?

No one besides me should have any knowledge of Eden’s location. It wasn’t lost — it was sealed. It wasn’t forgotten — it was protected.

David…

Who in the world was he?

The skeptical man pressed on. “Forgive my doubt, but I still struggle to believe you found such a paradise. According to the Bible, it should be guarded by cherubim. And unless my eyes deceive me, I don’t see a single cherub.”

David didn’t respond. He simply descended into the hole.

The three men exchanged uneasy glances and followed him in.

And — of course — I followed them.

Inside the cave once more, one of the men looked directly at me. His brown eyes passed over me without recognition, as expected — but something about the moment unsettled me. Traveling into the past of the main timeline always made me feel exposed, even though no one could detect me. But after the dream — after the uncanny way David had locked onto me — I couldn’t shake the suspicion that he had seen me, even when no one should have.

The cave walls were plain, unremarkable — dolomite, smooth and blank. But the three men traced their hands over the stone as if reading inscriptions only they could see.

After a few moments, David broke the silence.

“Are you satisfied? Have you confirmed what I told you before?”

They nodded.

But I understood nothing.

What had he told them?

What were they confirming?

How could they read meaning from bare stone?

Was there some hidden language?

Something revealed only to them?

Something Yahweh had hidden from me?

Questions piled on top of each other like fallen stones.

The men removed their gear and followed David deeper into the cave — straight toward the vast chasm that had stopped me earlier.

“Wait!” I shouted instinctively, even though my voice meant nothing here. I lunged forward, uselessly reaching for men who couldn’t hear or feel me.

But they didn’t fall.

They walked across the empty air as if an invisible bridge stretched beneath their feet — solid, obedient, unseen.

Shock rooted me in place. But with it came a strange relief: maybe David hadn’t sensed me after all. Maybe his strange behavior had been coincidence.

Until he stopped.

He turned.

He looked directly at me.

And then — slowly, deliberately — he removed the cloth covering his face.

The grin he revealed was wicked.

So wicked it froze the breath in my lungs.