Episode 61

Sorry, Stonefoot, for making you hold your breath for so long. xP

Light and Dark – 3

The dark was on the move. Out from the shadows, it reached. Out from the writhing mass that had been gathered there. In tendrils sharp at the ends and stretching, the dark reached out from itself.

The candles in the room, though, had already been extinguished. And dark moved through dark. But what I couldn’t see, I could still sense all too well. In a way, my mind was still a part of it. I knew where it was, what space it filled, and what ways it twisted and turned.

And I knew it’s target.

You.

End.

End. You. Be nothing.

You.

You. You. You.

Traitor.

The voiceless words, the inhuman shape and sound of them, came at me from all sides. Each word with a tone ever-so-slightly different from the word before it. Like a dozen different voices, and yet not one of them like a voice at all.

Betrayed. Come. Come, come… Traitor. Go.

Go.

Gone.

Gone where. Where. No. Nowhere.

The words started to overlap themselves. Each word by itself was only so loud as the slightest of whispers, but together they started to drown out all other thoughts.

Both physically and mentally, I was drained from bringing Pegasus through the dark. But when the shadowy words drew close, I knew I had to find the strength to move once more. With my hands, I grabbed at the backs of benches for support as I turned and scrambled away, even before I could fully get back to my feet. Away from the words, and away from the dark within the dark.

The dark was faster. It came up from the stones beneath my feet and swept around and in front of me in a tight net. And I was out of ideas.

You. No. Nowhere. No where. No thing. No. No you.

There were many different ways for the dark to finish the job. The possibilities were more than I had left in me to imagine. But what did happen next wasn’t any of them.

In a single moment, the air in front of me lit up with a burst of heat and orange-red edges.

Fire.

For that moment, I could see again. Just enough to make out the shapes of the other three figures still there in the dark with me. Just enough to make out the source. The dragon-flame coursed like a great wave up through the very heart of the dark, and its warmth rushed over me as it went. Drelmdor had understood. Even without me to ask or to explain. And he had helped.

I watched with relief as the fire curled up and out through the shadow as if eating through it. The fire came to a point near the top of the room where it lingered for a moment before it seemed to lose the fight against gravity. The flames crackled outward and came apart in pieces like rough-edged leaves; leaves that seemed to curl over on themselves, shrink, and then were gone altogether.

In the lack of light left over, the afterimage of the flames still smoldered against the backs of my eyes. I could see the shape of the burst that had gone up, like the thinnest of halos that ringed where the center had been eaten out of the dark. But for all that it had done, the dark still connected to my mind seemed no less than it had been before.

After only a brief pause, Pegasus acted again. Another burst of fire rose up and with the same effect. The shapes of the flames left strange, glimmering marks that remained in the midst of the dark. Meanwhile, the dark had been pushed aside but had lost none of its strength.

The two lingering afterimages overlapped each other in my vision, becoming fuzzy at the edges and making me dizzy. I blinked, trying to erase the lines. As I did, I realized that the shape burned into my eyes wasn’t only the shape of the fire. The light had been reflected and now lay also in a long, hazy shape in the direction of the floor in front of me.

I realized the difference, and I realized what was needed. Trusting in what I had seen, I let go of the back of the bench where I stood; I moved forward with one hand out and grabbed where I knew it would be.

My fingers closed around the smooth surface of the staff. With one hand I held it, and with the other I ran my fingers along its length, up to the top where I could feel the star-shaped emblem of Fyria. The priest’s staff. It had been in my hand when I had first gone into the dark. How and when it had come back out again, I wasn’t sure. But I hoped that there was a reason it had.

I remembered Ethere’s sword. So long as my muse was stuck in its other form, we didn’t have that. But maybe…if the emblem of Fyria was really that of a star…then maybe it could be as bright as one too. I took a deep breath and then shouted out. “Again!”

I heard Drelmdor’s voice faintly. “Joey, it doesn’t—”

But Pegasus had heard too and didn’t hesitate. The burst of fire went up into the center of the room. I raised the staff in my hands toward it and moved closer. The fire crumbled and fell away, just as before. But now the staff in my hand was brighter. Not obviously, but I could see its shape. And the space directly around me now held the faintest of glows. I couldn’t see farther into the room, but I didn’t doubt that I could be seen.

Up above, the dark started to move again, angrily, and I knew that I was on the right track.

I didn’t have to shout again. Pegasus let loose more fire, this time in a rush that passed just over my head. A nearby banner went up in flames – the fire burning through the rings that held it aloft – then fell to the ground and smouldered on the stones nearby. The passing fire had added glow to the staff in my hand. I held it out towards what was left of the banner, and it grew brighter still, gathering what light was given off with every passing moment.

The dark moved towards me again, but now the glow from the staff around me acted as a barrier and the dark couldn’t get close enough to touch. I watched the light from the staff grow – almost as if it was strengthening itself now – until the staff and the shining star on top were all that I could see.

This. I should have chosen this.

In the moment when I had been afraid, I hadn’t been able to see past the dark. It had been easiest. Accessible. Understandable. It had seemed the only choice. But I should have known…the power would have come either way. I had always still had a choice.

For a moment, I wasn’t in the church anymore. I was back in the shadows. Back in the moment. Back in the choice.

This time, the girl was standing rather than sitting before me. Watching. Waiting. If she was dark, then what was I?

Come.

After all that had just happened? I heard myself speaking, echoing a memory. “I thought you were supposed to protect me.”

“If you’re in danger.”

“Then what do you call this?”

“A choice.”

Come.

I had been so focused on the dark before. So sure of it’s power. So sure that I had no choice, that I hadn’t heard the other whispers around me.

Come higher. Come.

If she was dark, then I was light. And I would shine.

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