🇨🇦 Jack and the Marble Beneath the Northern Lights

The air in Banff National Park was crisp and clean, the kind that filled your lungs with life. The mountains stood proud in every direction, and the snow-capped peaks glistened under a pale blue sky.

Jack and the others arrived at the edge of Lake Louise, its frozen surface glowing beneath the northern lights that had unexpectedly arrived early this season.

Bernard stepped forward, nose to the wind. “This marble doesn’t lie in stone or snow. It lies in reflection.”

They hiked along the lake’s edge to a quiet cove known by the Cree as Whispering Mirror. The sky above danced with green and purple ribbons of light, and in the centre of the clearing stood a wooden totem carved with wolves and owls.

As they drew closer, the frozen lake cracked faintly and a shimmering message appeared on the ice:

“Where sky meets soul and trees stand still,
The marble waits by silent will.
Show your face but not your voice,
And earn the marble’s quiet choice.”

Ollie frowned. “Show your face?”

Jack stepped cautiously onto the ice and knelt near the totem, staring down into his own reflection. The stars above spun in the water’s mirror-like surface… and then it changed.

His face faded, replaced by dozens of others — children, animals, creatures… marbles.

The pouch pulsed and released a marble.

🍁 WHITE COSMICS

It shimmered like frost and moonlight — speckled with tiny starbursts and cool misty glows. The marble didn’t glow… it gleamed.

“White Cosmics connects the inner world with the outer one,” Bernard said. “She sees what’s inside people — who they are when they’re quiet.”

Jack didn’t speak. He simply pressed his palm against the ice and watched the stars shift in the marble’s centre.

Pop!
The marble entered the pouch, and the reflection vanished — leaving only the auroras and the sound of the wind through the trees.

“That one felt personal,” Imogen said softly.

“They all are,” Jack replied.

Bernard looked toward the horizon. “Get ready. The next marble’s buried in the salt flats of Bolivia — and it only appears when the sky touches the earth.”