Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters

by Christa Avampato

  Her mother’s flame grew smaller to be at Emerson’s eye level where she sat on the floor. Emerson let her eyes soften as she stared into the flame. Her vision became fuzzy. She started to feel the exhaustion drain right into the floor. The warmth and light of the flame began to fill her up again. It helped her sit up taller. Her emotions started to shift. She felt an anger rising up from the pit of her stomach. And then one question flooded her mind.

  “Who was it?” she asked.

  “Who was —”

  “Who did this to my mother?” Emerson said, trying to control her anger. “Who forced her to make this choice?”

  Jasper inhaled deeply. Emerson saw fear in his eyes. He was hiding something. She began to cry hot, angry tears.

  “Tell me!” she yelled.

  Jasper didn’t answer. Frustrated, Emerson threw the book down and sprinted to the stairs that led back to the Lake of Possibility. Her heart raced, and a sick feeling rose in her stomach, like in her apartment building when she flew down the steps with her feet barely touching them. From the lake’s edge, she dove into the water head-first. She had to know who’d killed her mother, and now she knew where to find the answer.

  CHAPTER 29

  BACK IN THE WATER

  “Emerson!” Jasper shouted as she ran to the staircase leading to the Lake of Possibility.

  She was at the very top of the stairs and nearly consumed by her own light. He didn’t have time to get the others. He’d have to go after her alone. He’d have to find a way to save her from herself.

  Nora’s flame sizzled and hissed. Jasper snapped his head in her direction. From the very center, a small ball of perfectly round light made its way into his open hand. It floated there, just above his skin.

  “Thank you,” he whispered as he directed the ball of light into the pocket of his cloak. He hoped it would be enough.

  CHAPTER 30

  AND NOW YOU KNOW

  Emerson’s heart beat hard as the water consumed her. The moment she dove in, she doubted her impulse. The water quickly turned to a dark inky color. It reminded her of the black plumes of smoke that had surrounded her in the fire. The burning feeling in her stomach moved up into her chest and throat.

  Instead of gently floating down to the bottom of the lake, she landed face-first with a hard thud. The pain returned in all of the places where she was previously injured. Suddenly, she knew she had made a terrible decision. She’d let her anger get the best of her, but there was no going back now. She came here for answers, and she wasn’t leaving without them.

  Emerson focused on her breath. She tried to calm down so she could see, hear, and think clearly. Again, she found herself on a beach, but this time the sand was black. The sky above her filled with heavy, ominous clouds, and the murky sea in front of her roiled and roared. It was telling her something.

  She looked around for a place to take cover from the impending storm, but there was nothing but black beach pebbles in every direction. She pressed her hands to the sides of her head. Her mind was reeling. She couldn’t control her thoughts or emotions.

  A deep voice screamed her name. She looked up to see Jasper and Friday running toward her. Emerson raced down the beach away from them.

  “No,” Jasper yelled.

  And there she was. Her mother stood about a hundred feet away. Emerson fell backward onto the beach. Her mother was arguing with a woman. The woman grabbed Nora’s shoulders, and the two of them struggled. Emerson scrambled to her feet and sprinted toward them. A bright flash made her stop short, and she had to shield her eyes. A small ball of light exploded on the sand in front of her and created a glass wall that separated her from her mother. She couldn’t help her. All she could do was watch and listen. She pressed her palms against the wall with her face contorted in anguish.

  “You don’t know what you’re doing,” yelled Nora.

  “You can’t trust these people,” said the other woman. “They don’t care about you. They don’t care about me. They’re using you. They’ve always been using you.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Fine,” yelled the woman as she threw Nora to the ground and turned away from her. “But I’m going my own way, with or without you.”

  Nora struggled to her feet. “You can’t do this. I won’t let you.”

  “Try and stop me,” snarled the woman.

  Nora embraced the woman. At first it seemed like she was hugging her, but Emerson quickly realized it was something else. A thin line of light began to trace Nora’s outline, and then her entire body was consumed by it. The other woman shrieked and twisted and turned, but Nora wouldn’t let her go. Soon, Nora was nothing but light. A bright streak flew high into the sky with a screech. Then both women fell to the ground, where they lay side by side and lifeless.

  Tears burned Emerson’s cheeks. She gasped for breath, and her stomach heaved. Jasper and Friday stood beside her, stoic and sad.

  “I’m sorry you had to see that,” said Jasper.

  “I spent all this time looking for the person who murdered my mother when my mother was the murderer.”

  “Emerson,” said Jasper, “ Your mother’s not a murderer.”

  Emerson choked back more tears. “I saw her kill that woman.”

  “You don’t know the whole story.”

  “I saw my mother set herself on fire and kill that woman. Look at her. She’s not moving. She’s dead. They’re both dead.”

  She felt drained. Jasper put his hand on her shoulder, and they began to float up to the surface of the lake. As the women on the ground grew smaller and smaller, Emerson felt more and more alone. She had spent all this time desperately looking for the truth about her mother. Now she wished she’d never found it.

  CHAPTER 31

  NOT A STRANGER ANYMORE

  Emerson and Jasper stepped onto the shore of the lake. She was numb, physically and emotionally, as she climbed the stairs to the library. Her mind was blank save for the image of her mother killing the other woman.

  “Who was she?” asked Emerson.

  Jasper was silent for a long time. She stopped and waited for an answer without looking at him.

  “Her name’s Cassandra. She’s the person who visited me at Stargrass when you and Skylar were there a few days ago.”

  “The one who threatened you,” Emerson said.

  The lines in Jasper’s forehead deepened. “She’s immensely powerful, though for most of her life she felt powerless.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I was her teacher. Just as I was Nora’s teacher.”

  “So they were friends? That woman and my mother?”

  “They were very close as children. Once they grew up, Cassandra wanted to control who could receive inspiration from the muses. It was her way of finally feeling like she mattered. Nora, on the other hand, wanted to give the inspiration freely to anyone with the courage to ask for it. Cassandra assumed I turned Nora against her.”

  “Did you?” asked Emerson.

  “Maybe. I took sides, voicing my concern and encouraging Nora’s point of view, hoping that Cassandra would come around. It was a mistake. I was so horrified by the depth of her darkness that I shunned Cassandra and encouraged others to do the same.”

  Jasper sighed. “She tried to turn Nora against me and the other direct descendants of the muses. Then we heard that someone had found Calliope’s original writings. According to the rumors, Calliope had put the secrets of unlimited imagination in writing. We’d always assumed it was a myth, but we finally received reliable information that this book indeed exists, and the power it holds is greater than any other force on Earth. If someone possessed these secrets, they could fashion the world in their image, and the lives of everyone on Earth would be under their control.”

  Emerson was filled with dread as Jasper continued.

 
“The two sides of the Council—one with Cassandra’s point of view and one with our point of view—raced against one another to find the book. We all reached the book’s location at the same time, and a war broke out. Many good people lost their lives. Samuel’s son, David, was one of them. Cassandra and Nora got there first. Nora held the book in her hands, and Cassandra tried to take it from her by force. Nora knew if she allowed the light within her to consume her, she could drive Cassandra away. That’s the scene that you saw just now. Your mother isn’t a murderer. She sacrificed herself for the sake of human imagination. The force of her transformation pummeled Cassandra and her supporters. Cassandra was horribly burned in the process, and we assumed she had died from her injuries.”

  He closed his eyes for a brief moment. “After the tragic loss of so many Council members in the struggle, many of the remaining members scattered. Some have not been seen or heard from since.”

  “And the book?” Emerson asked.

  “In the chaos of the battle, the book was lost. We searched but never found it. We’re still searching for it. That’s the book your father and I have been looking for all this time. We’ve gotten close and found people who swore they had it, but every lead’s turned up empty.”

  “And Cassandra obviously isn’t gone,” said Emerson.

  “With the help of her few remaining supporters, she went into hiding to recover.”

  “And now she thinks you have the book?” asked Emerson. “Is that why she came to Stargrass the other day?”

  “Yes, Cassandra thinks I have the book or at least that I know where it is. She believes it belongs to her. And now that she knows about you, she will want your help, the way she wanted it from your mother. If she can bring you to her side, together you can overpower the Council, take the book, and have all the power she’s ever wanted.”

  Emerson’s head pounded, her stomach twisted, and she started to lose her balance. As always, Friday went to her side and pushed his head into her hand to help her steady herself. She closed her eyes.

  “We can talk about the rest after you’ve had a good sleep,” said Jasper.

  Emerson opened her eyes. “There’s more?” she asked.

  “We can talk about it later,” Jasper said as he walked her to a large door at the edge of the Atrium. “This room’s been made up for you and Friday.”

  “Come on, Friday,” said Emerson. They walked the remaining few steps to the door, but then she stopped in mid-stride and turned back to Jasper.

  “Did my mother know that she would die? That to protect all this, she’d have to give up being with me and my dad?”

  “Yes,” said Jasper. “Having to leave you and your father was her one regret.”

  Emerson looked at the flame one last time before she turned and went into her new room.

  CHAPTER 32

  A PLAN EMERGES

  Jasper watched as Emerson walked into the room that Raymond had readied for her. Friday stayed close to her side, supporting her. Jasper worried that he’d just made the same mistakes he’d made with Nora and Cassandra. He shouldn’t have told Emerson so much so soon. Raymond was right—she was too young. She wasn’t ready.

  He cursed himself as he remembered that he had pushed Nora and Cassandra in the same way. He realized now how complicit he had been in what Nora had done. He held people to impossible standards, and it was harmful.

  Jasper turned and walked toward Raymond’s library office on the opposite side of the Atrium, where he was certain a heated battle was underway that threatened to divide the group. Jasper had to keep them united, however roughly. Emerson needed all of them, and he had to make sure she had their full support. With Cassandra’s newfound strength, even he wasn’t sure how they could prepare Emerson, or themselves. This time, it would be a fight to the death with Cassandra, and nothing less. It was her, or all of them.

  As he walked to Raymond’s office, he remembered the first time Nora and Cassandra tumbled through here. He could hear their gasps of astonishment as they learned about their heritage and their responsibility. Those revelations of who they really were and the gifts they possessed were the stuff of wild dreams and fairytales.

  Of course, the world then wasn’t in danger the way it was now. The Cassandra of then was not the Cassandra of now. There was no In-Between then. There was no threat against this library and all the lives and works it held. Calliope’s book was a folktale then—nothing but a wonderful, fantastic myth.

  A dark cloud hung over all of them now. If Emerson couldn’t or wouldn’t stand up to Cassandra now the way Nora had, then...no, Jasper shook his head violently. That possibility couldn’t come to pass. But he also couldn’t risk losing Emerson the way they’d lost Nora. For the first time in his life, Jasper couldn’t see any way forward.

  He heard loud voices coming from Raymond’s office. He placed his hand on the door handle, paused to gather himself, and entered. Raymond’s library office was similar in style but larger than his office at the museum. A thick cloud of heat and tension immediately enveloped Jasper as he looked around at all the long faces.

  “Don’t you see that nothing scares her now?” Truman yelled at Oliver. “Nothing!”

  “There’s a lot that scares me,” said Oliver. “And I won’t put my daughter in the middle of this.”

  “Your daughter is already in it,” said Raymond. “You should have taken her away when you had the chance.”

  The argument ceased as soon as Jasper closed the door behind him and stood with his hands folded in front of him.

  “What do we know now that we didn’t know an hour ago?” he asked.

  His question was met with silence.

  “Raymond?” Jasper asked pointedly. “Truman?”

  “Good God,” yelled Oliver. “Just tell him!”

  “The Heart Mantle. It...I designed it with 3 backup pumps so if one should fail, another would kick in.”

  “We’ve always known that, Truman,” said Jasper.

  “Cassandra has activated them all. At once.”

  Irene took a step toward Jasper.

  “Cassandra now has the strength—mental, physical, and emotional—of four powerful people, not just one,” she said.

  Samuel put his large hand on Jasper’s shoulder. “But there’s a flaw,” he said.

  “A potential flaw,” interrupted Oliver.

  “A potential flaw,” said Samuel.

  Jasper looked at Truman.

  “The flaw I put in the fake plans I left behind in the In-Between can help us,” said Truman.

  “Potentially help us,” said Oliver.

  “I instructed that the Heart Mantle be built from a material that disintegrates when exposed directly to light,” said Truman.

  Jasper furrowed his brow as he listened.

  “Cassandra won’t be able to resist showing it off once she puts her plan in place to come above ground,” continued Truman. “You know how vain she is. She’ll wear it like a queen wears a crown. When exposed to light, the hearts would stop working and crumble into dust.”

  “Would any kind of light do the trick?” asked Jasper.

  “No. It needs to be an intense light from the sun or the stars,” said Truman.

  “I see. And that includes Emerson’s light—and Nora’s.”

  “There is one other way,” Truman said meekly.

  Oliver raised his head, and everyone looked at Truman expectantly.

  “The Fresnel Truman built with Mrs. Morgan,” Raymond whispered with a smile.

  Truman nodded. “The Fresnel harnesses and directs light from the stars to be used here on Earth,” he said.

  “But how would we get Cassandra into a place where we could direct it at her for any length of time?” asked Oliver.

  “We’d have to arrange a meeting that she couldn’t resist,” said Truman. “And keep
her there.”

  “Who would be at that meeting?” asked Oliver.

  “The one person she wants desperately to talk to,” said Truman.

  Everyone looked at one another. Slowly, Oliver realized who Truman meant.

  “You want to use my daughter as bait?” he asked.

  The muscle in Truman’s jaw tightened.

  Jasper intervened. “First we need to determine that the Heart Mantle is made of the material you specified on the plans, Truman.”

  “We are not entertaining the idea of Cassandra meeting Emerson no matter what the Heart Mantle is made of,” Oliver said.

  “No one here is going to let any harm come to Emerson,” said Jasper. “No one.”

  Oliver relaxed a bit.

  “The first thing we need to do is figure out if Cassandra followed the plans Truman left behind,” said Jasper. “And if she has, then we’ll decide what to do.”

  “But none of it involves meeting Emerson,” Oliver said, and Jasper nodded.

  “How can we figure out what the Heart Mantle is made of?” asked Irene.

  “Cassandra said something to me outside the museum,” said Truman. “She said, ‘You’ll come back. They always do.’”

  “So you’re saying you could tell what the Heart Mantle is made of just by seeing it?” asked Irene.

  “Maybe. If I could get a close enough look. And if that doesn’t work, then I’d have to find a way to get a sample of the material. Something from the person who actually built it for her.”

  “How would you do that?” asked Jasper.

  “I don’t know,” said Truman. “But I’ve got to try. She expects me to come to her so I’ve got to start with that.”

  “You’d also have to be able to resist her, Truman,” said Samuel. “She inspires something in people. Something horrible but also powerful: fierce loyalty. She draws people in and doesn’t let go.”

  “I know,” said Truman. “But what’s the alternative? I’d love another idea, but I don’t have one.”