Imagine. A young woman dreams in her night of serene wonder. Diving below star-flecked sea surface among whales into deepest black, swimming down as one of them. Calls of joy echo through dark water. Tharcia in this moment understands their song, their secret, spoken thoughts.

Plunging toward black abyss in their thousands, thunder in their ears mounts with rising sea pressure. In ultimate darkness far below, the faintest ribbon of light, stretched taut between past and future. Pink lines, sparked with unknown symbols. The animals dive deeper, the markings resemble written music. Deep in dream, she tells herself, you must remember everything.

The ribbon of symbols a complex tapestry of history and meaning stretches to infinity in both directions. Many whales small below her, dark swimmers, approach the tracery of light. One touches, is consumed as a brilliant flash that ripples the surface, fades and gone. Others touch, flare, and disappear. She is closer, hears music, voices, myriad stories. Glowing lines and symbols fill her universe. Alone now, she is there, and touches it.

Bathed in overpowering brilliance, she is aware of the width and breadth of space, the deep enormity of time, consumes the knowing of all events, thoughts, intentions, beings, all wishes and deeds that have ever been and will ever be. With knowledge of each yesterday and every bright tomorrow through fathomless time, her body dissipates into light.

Tharcia is already sitting up in bed when her mind becomes awake. Her head whirls with fading scraps of dream. Too much to recall, more than human consciousness can hold, she is sick with loss as dream-knowledge slips away.

Stumbles the darkened upstairs hallway, trying to be quiet in the creaky house among silent redwoods. In the mirror glare her hair is wild, mouth agape. She fights to pull the dream reality across the gulf to her waking mind. Like clutching at smoke.

To her mirrored reflection, her astonished lips form the only words she can find. I had no idea.