Jar of Stars

Stars; an excerpt:

The sparkle glinted in his eyes. "Do you know why you're here?" He asked. 

Glancing around the emptiness, she sighed, resigned to her lack of knowledge. "No, but you're going to tell me anyway."

"Actually," Marco paused, catching the small crystal globe he had been repeatedly throwing. "I won't. That's not the point." He slid the globe into his pocket. 

"Let me guess. I'm suppose to figure this by myself? A quest for the deeper meaning? Existentialism? All that?" The eye roll in her voice was almost visible. 

"That, and some." He tilted his head, surveying her with that infuriating expression he wore when he knew he had an upper had. 

In one swift motion, Marco stepped back, and swept his hands theatrically into the vast space. Slowly, behind him, small specks of light began to flicker. They hummed and buzzed, becoming brighter, until the darkness that had enveloped her was illuminated. She saw that the lights, dozens and dozens of twinkling glows, were in glass jars of varying sizes, all hovering in space. 

"I'm pretty sure yours is here somewhere," Marco said, turning around to walk around the floating jars. 

"Are these - constellations?" Medina asked, peering into the jar closest to her. It was large, double her size, and terribly deep. With unfurling dark matter, microscopic rays of light; and in between them, hundreds and hundreds of pastel galaxies. 

"These are, essentially, essences," Marco chuckled. "They grow and form in proportion to your living. See, they're like miniatures, a small physical model of our connection to the universe. Each of us is an expanding macrocosm, as we learn to grow. The stars represent - you know what, actually, that's too much information for now."

Medina pried her eyes away from the mesmerizing jars, just for the jab. "I told you you were going to tell me anyway."

Now it was Marco's turn to roll his eyes. "Anyway," he continued pointedly, "mine's not here."

"What? There must be at least a billion jars here," Medina replied, surveying the lightscape around her. The space was still growing. It was as if she were in an infinite warehouse, with billions of shining jars hanging above and around her, floating in darkness. In the distance, more were forming the longer she looked. "How could you even know yours isn't here? It must take forever to even begin to look."

"How many times do I have to tell you? Time doesn't work in straight lines here. To answer your question, I've spent more than an age in this realm. I know exactly how to feel the presence, or absence, of an essence," Marco's voice carried from behind some glass jars. "Anyway, it's a recent development. It disappeared the night my brother disappeared, too." 

Medina followed his tones, hearing the tinkle of glass as he shuffled the jars.

"It doesn't make sense," Marco murmured. "He's a trained guardian. And even if the Nimbostratus he was guarding had become too much, he's not the type of flee in the face of danger." 

Medina finally found him standing in the middle of a cluster of small jars, picking them, examining them, before letting them go. "And you think his essence might help answer his whereabouts?" 

Abruptly, Marco flashed a triumphant grin, grabbed a jar near his left knee, and shook it. Inside, the glitter in the blackness danced. Medina felt her breath catch.

"No. I'm here for your stars."