The boundaries between individual lives and the flow of time become increasingly porous within the pages of M.D. Dixon’s IKONA. This story observes the intersection of four disparate paths, each pulled toward a central point of resonance by an object of ancient origin. As their realities shift and converge, the narrative explores the weight of human choice and the persistent echo of memory across different eras.
A gold Russian Orthodox cross, an icon whispered to possess inexplicable healing properties, begins to surface across multiple lifetimes and fractured timelines. Four strangers find themselves pulled into its mysterious field of influence—from the coastal bustle of Sydney and the urban sprawl of Atlanta to the stark, quiet isolation of a post-apocalyptic Siberian tundra. In Georgia, Kate Davies observes the icon’s strange effect on a suffering child, while in Australia, Finley Minor is haunted by visions of potential futures and the heavy consequence of every action. Jia Li MacPherson, a former thief and Shibari performer, carries secrets that powerful forces are desperate to keep buried. Meanwhile, a century ahead, a monk named Wallace Deng Moroz clings to visions of a cure in a world nearly destroyed by a genetic engineering catastrophe and radical political polarization.
Their meeting feels fated, yet it is ultimately shaped by the difficult choices they must make regarding which version of the future they will inhabit and what they are willing to surrender to reach it.
One mysterious icon. Four fractured timelines. A global conspiracy. A leap in consciousness that could heal the world—or end it.
Threads of religion, mysticism, and past lives are woven throughout IKONA, a work of visionary fiction that explores the intersection of ancient mystery and the future of human consciousness.
When a centuries-old Russian Orthodox cross begins to fracture the fabric of linear time, four strangers are pulled into a convergence that spans centuries:
In Atlanta, Kate Davies witnesses the icon’s inexplicable healing power on a dying child.
In Sydney, Finley Minor is haunted by visions of possible futures and the crushing weight of consequence.
In Hong Kong, Jia Li MacPherson—former thief and Shibari performer—holds secrets a shadowy power will kill to keep buried.
In the Future, Wallace Deng Moroz, a monk living a century ahead, clings to a vision of a cure in a world silenced by a genetic engineering catastrophe.
As a global conspiracy unfolds from the neon pulse of the city to the frozen silence of the Siberian tundra, these four souls must confront a terrifying reality: the cross is more than a relic—it is a key to a future they can barely comprehend.
Their convergence is destined, but their choices will shape the final timeline. Merging high-stakes suspense with deep metaphysical inquiry, IKONA is a large-scale exploration of shifting realities, memory, and the ultimate price of healing a broken world.
Which version of the future will you choose to inhabit?
Enjoy an Excerpt
Finley Minor was by his own accounts an empty man, a listless man, spiritually and emotionally sparse. Blink a thousand times and his course in life would not have shifted an inch. He was motionless like a chameleon in the presence of a threat. But this was not fact, only fear, and that of a man who knew that he’d not lived at full throttle and had succumbed to the fate of it —a slow and shallow life. He ruminated on it. He judged himself for it. He laughed at his own expense, without thinking he might ever change a thing.
In the way one always has a beginning, a great excuse, this was Finley’s: at the age of seven, in his native England, he sat on the beach as his stick wove tessellations in the sand (almost of its own accord, it seemed in retrospect), and he looked to the horizon towards France with the open, impressionable curiosity of his young age. He wondered at the sea’s depth, its great distance, how one might (as many had) swim across the channel, what creatures might lurk there, what they might feel like against bare skin. He imagined something slimy and cold, fanged, and slithering. The waves seemed to roar at him, even though they descended in the rockpools with the gentleness of pooling cream.
He stood, determined to satisfy his curiosity. He took halting steps over the rocks and shells, straight ahead, then bearing left around a rock face that jutted into the sea. He sat on a big, flat rock and stared into the gray water. He heard his father calling out his name, but ignored him. The water rushed in again and again, and each time reached further and further, first sucking at his toes, then his heels, then his knees. His curiosity fled; he became afraid, and all sound was magnified, the dull ocean roar, the seagull squawking a few feet away, his heartbeat. He knew he had to go back to shore. He waved to his father, stood, and took a faltering step. There was a low murmur; the water fizzled once more in retreat from the rocky sand like the gasping breath of a dying man. He felt dizzy and fell to his knees. He crouched on all fours and steadied himself as the water swirled and grasped at him, and the sky looped and the clouds fell from the corner of his eyes. He felt his head winched back towards the horizon, and the sea reached for his throat. Blackness.
When he came to, dragged back to shore by his father, he announced that his aunt would never return from her Côte D’Azur holiday. He wagged his finger towards the surf and pulled a face, “Over there, there is smooching.”
The official prognosis was that he’d had an epileptic fit, though none of the tests proved it. He must have passed out, in that case, the doctor pronounced, low blood sugar, a low-level virus, dehydration.
But Finley knew, only he knew.
The ocean had rent a hole in his soul, and let in the future.
About the Author: M.D. Dixon is a novelist, somatic therapist, and explorer of the intersections between the psyche and the sacred, science and mysticism, trauma and transformation. Holding a Ph.D. in the social sciences with a focus on Russia and Ukraine, Dixon has spent nearly fifteen years in therapeutic practice in Sydney, Australia. Dixon’s debut novel, IKONA, weaves visionary fiction, myth, and metaphysics to illuminate the evolution of consciousness. Dixon also hosts The Shattering Place, a podcast on multidimensional healing and the awakening human story, launching in early 2026.
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