Chapter Six: Results
The gods of the Sereniad gathered together and they saw that the world was once again filled with darkness. They sent an envoy to the dark gods who explained what had been done, that she had relentlessly chased the dark and given the demons and monsters no place to live. So, the gods of the Sereniad decided that the sun should have a guide, a mortal, who knows the plight of man and his suffering. They chose a righteous man from across the ages, and charged him to guide the sun out of the womb of The Horizon.
And so, the sun, eternally wounded, will begin to tire and retreat at the beginning of the year, but at the end of the year, her guide will come to fetch her from The Horizon and guide her back across the sky, beginning the cycle again, until she once again dies and must be reborn.
-The Great Teacher
I need to know. I need to understand.
She rose to her feet, clasped her staff and pointed it toward him, directing her mana. He blinked his green eye slowly, looking exhausted. The swirling snow in the air above them began to drift toward the ground.
Forever is in the palm of my hand. He had it, the measurelessness of infinity, and he squandered it, just to give useless trinkets to children. He wasted his godlike power. I will not!
The Allfather flickered brightly and she turned her head away for just a moment, when she did, she saw Scobee’s face. He looked utterly distraught, horrified.
Foolish child. You understand nothing.
You understand nothing.
Nothing.
I don’t understand.
I don’t understand it.
Young Celestra left her father alone in the dining hall. There was no arguing with him. It was clear that The Feast of Lights wasn’t happening this year. Not in the Livannya house, at least.
She wandered down the hall toward her room. The door to Lunelda’s room was closed. It had been since the incident.
Celestra wasn’t sure what it was that made her want to turn the knob, but she found that Lunelda’s old room wasn’t locked today. The door creaked open, and she walked in.
The chamber was empty, completely swept clean. Apparently, Mother and Father had decided that the best way to move forward was to get rid of everything and try to forget. So soon. Too soon. Celestra wandered into the center of the room. There used to be a little table here where the two of them would have their tea-parties. Deadly, cloak and dagger affairs, of course. One of the stuffed animals was always a murderer, and another would end up drinking poisoned tea. Sometimes they were all murderers, and sometimes they all drank poisoned tea.
She thought of Lunelda falling back, spasming and pretending to be dead after Lindgern, the lizard with the buttons for eyes, slipped deadly serpent’s venom into her nonexistent tea.
I don’t understand it.
How can it all be empty now?
Quiet now?
She sat in the middle of the room for a moment. A bit of dingy gray sunlight beamed
through the curtain. She scanned the room and saw something underneath the undressed bed. She crawled over and climbed beneath the bed. Whoever had cleaned out the room had missed something, just this one thing, a small, green stuffed lizard with buttons for eyes, lying under the bed like he was hiding. One of his button eyes was missing now. She took Lindgern and brought him to the center of the room, where she hugged him and cried.
Later, she adopted the lizard, even though he was known to be a vile poisoner. She brought him to live in her room with her.
“Everything is changing so fast.”
A voice brought her back to herself. She turned her head and saw Scobee, and the child was in tears.
“I just . . . the house is so lonely. I wish The Feast could just be normal.” he stammered.
Celestra’s eyes were full of tears too.
She looked back at her prisoner. His form was shaking, flickering in and out of visibility like a dying light, and he looked like he was nodding off.
This is immortality. This is everything, the first step, the key. She thought, but none of that made the tears go away.
“Foolish child,” she smiled and let go of her staff. It dropped to the snowy ground and crossed the fifteen seals.
That was all it took. As soon as she let up and stopped focusing her mana, the cage was broken. Allfather zipped into the night sky like a shooting star rising off the ground and vanished with one final HO HO HO!
Celestra wrapped her arms around the child, who cried into her chest. She hugged him tightly, just the way she’d hugged Lindgern.
—
It was a long walk back. Celestra let Gaib carry the boy. The journey was quiet at first. It was late.
“Your father will be missing you.” Celestra finally said after an hour.
The scamp didn’t answer at first, then he said, “I didn’t know you had a skeleton.”
“Well . . .” Celestra smiled, “Everyone has a skeleton if you look inside of them.”
The boy chuckled.
“But seriously.” she added, “Don’t tell your dad about my skeleton.”
—
The soldiers and servants were scrambling all through the town when they got back to Thorppling after midnight. The evening feast had been suspended to search for the boy, and when he was sighted, his father ran out into the freezing street to embrace his lost son.
“Don’t ever leave me again.” Lord Gnornoth said, stroking his son’s hair. He glanced behind the boy at Celestra, “What happened?”
She wasn’t sure what to say, how to avoid being, at the very least, fired from her position and at the very worst, burned or hanged for necromancy.
“I got lost in the woods!” Scobs spoke up, “Heard some rumor about a dead body and I wanted to see it myself. Vulchee came looking for me.”
Gnornoth frowned, “Don’t ever wander on your own again.” he said, then he looked to Celestra, “You should have told someone. No one knew where either of you were.”
Celestra sighed, “My apologies. I usually have a fine sense of direction, but the snow obscured my path. In the end, I was the one who got lost, and the young lord helped me find my way back.”
—
The next morning, Celestra wore her best to breakfast. Feasteve being ruined, the lord hosted an elaborate holiday breakfast instead. As the guests were unable to attend at such short notice, the dining party was only the lord himself, the young lord, and Celestra.
She wore a fur-lined green dress and a pair of new boots she’d recently bought with her pay.
There was a fine meal, which she did her best to enjoy, and some light conversation. She discovered, much to her surprise, that she was smiling and laughing at the lord’s tactless jokes and tomfoolery.
She also watched Scobee open his presents; a few uninteresting toys and games from his father, and a mysterious package with no known origin, which contained several very sharp knives.
—
Earlier that morning, upon awakening in her small bed chamber, Celestra had found her own wrapped package, with a note attached.
She opened the note first. It was written in black ink, in simple script.
“To- Celestra Livannya, Seeker of Light and Truth
Happy Feast Day, dearest sorceress
Many of us who would seek light often fail to see the light that sits readily before us, in the faces of young children, and in those who love us. A person who knows that light can never truly become lost. I beseech you, as well, to learn to appreciate mystery. There is a certain pleasure in mist and darkness, I think you know this. Find pleasure in what is before seeking what is not.
-Sincerely
~Your Humble Captive
PS: While I sat still in order to give you the opportunity to make the right choice on your own, know this, there is no number of seals or circles that could possibly restrain me. If you saw what I think you saw, I know that you know this.
PS to the PS: I know the day will come when I can truly reward you, but for now, please understand I have a duty to uphold.”
She read over the notes a few times, shrugged, then put it down gently, “Could qualify as an enchanted artifact for all I know. I’ll need to do some tests.”
Then she went to unwrap the package.
Inside she found a large, heavy hunk of black coal.
“That’s fair,” she thought to herself.
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