Free Astonishing the Gods by Ben Okri

the end you’d scream for visibility and you’d flee this island, crying out for places where people have names and where you can participate in some useful struggle and where there are a thousand useful and beautiful illusions.’
    â€˜So what should I do?’
    â€˜Quite simple, really. Leave now. Don’t delay. The longer you remain, the more invisible you will become. Leave. Depart. Go to better places, where visibility is bliss.’
    â€˜What do I do?’
    â€˜Easy. Simple. All you have to do is go now and knock on the palace door. Knock, it will be opened. Then tell them you want to leave. Or you can merely start to scream your desire to be visible now. Then they will come and take you away. Very simple.’
    â€˜But what if I like it here?’
    â€˜Believe me, you wouldn’t like it here for long. Soon the excessive beauty would make you miserable. It would become like hell, an inferno of perfections. Imagine it: a hell made out of beauty. Can you think of anything more stultifying, more suffocating, than a nightmare composed entirely of beautiful things, of flowers, and pure lights, and mirrors? And the worst would be that you would become trapped here, like me, forever.’
    â€˜You make it sound chilling.’
    â€˜It is chilling. It is more chilling than I can make it sound. Leave now while you can. Be free of this impossible place, this rigorous land, where everything is guided by the wisdom of suffering, and where the journey towards perfection is continued without any hope of ever arriving. Find joy! Live your life! Make your mistakes! Enjoy life’s illusions! Don’t become invisible, don’t turn to stone. Don’t seek impossible loves, find possible ones! Leave now, knock on that palace door, and soon you will find yourself where you belong. Soon you will arrive at the destination you’ve been seeking since you left your home.’

15
    He thought about what the figure had been saying. For a moment he was convinced. The square was all mist now, receding into the wind. All he could see was the palace door and the dazzling sword of the equestrian rider, pointing towards an eternal destination.
    The darkness around the dwarf-like figure had grown massive. The darkness grew as his doubts waned. Then, all of a sudden, the figure moved. Without knowing why, he thought of his first guide. He looked about him. The square became clearer, with the sea-god emerging from the billowing marble waves.
    He said:
    â€˜This place has not been unkind to me. I saw my first unicorn today. I even saw an angel. I think I’ll have some more water and some grapes. You have been a most interesting companion.’
    There was a long silence. The figure, eventually, said:
    â€˜The door is always there.’
    â€˜I won’t lose it.’
    â€˜So you prefer to stay?’
    â€˜The grapes will last me all night. The square is peaceful. And I haven’t yet enjoyed this bed.’
    â€˜You prefer to betray the deep thing that made you leave your home?’
    â€˜I don’t know what I have found.’
    â€˜Then you can’t be saved.’
    â€˜Perhaps not. I am touched that you think I am worthy of being saved. Thank you for trying.’
    The massive figure watched him silently. Everything was still.
    He bent over, and helped himself to some grapes. And when he looked up, the figure was gone.
    There was stillness in the darkness of the loggia.
    The wind was fragrant.
    The square had survived the eclipsing mist. And moonlight made everything shimmer.
    â€˜That’s two things I have to learn,’ he said to himself. ‘I have to learn how to give life, and I have to learn how to find.’

16
    He was eating of the grapes, breathing deeply of the rose-flavoured wind, when a woman came to him out of the moonlight. He couldn’t see her face clearly, but he felt her to be of extreme beauty, full in body, rich in sensuality, but