The Lighter That Shone Like A Star (Story of The South)

by Dan Cash

  “But how will she get here? The wall will stop her,” reasoned Max.

  “That’s what we thought, but the wall is an illusion, conjured by magic. Although it appears to be a solid barrier, by sight and touch, there must be a way to break through it.”

  “But how do we know this?”

  “Because somebody already has. A week ago, you asked me to put Anne-Alicia in a cell. I think it’s time you speak to her, whether she is willing or not.”

  Joz

  He had lived his entire life not having any regrets but in the end, when he had expected his life to flash before him, all he could do was regret. For one, his wife was not with him. That had been the agreement since she moved to Pipton, but it was a mistake. He should have called her back, just for one day, so they could say a final farewell.

  The decisions he had made when he first came into power had been difficult, unpopular, and arguably immoral. Stripping the whole of Naegis from their magic had turned the land into one of despair and anger.

  Naegean folk had spent centuries living a certain way, relying on their magic and the magic of the land to survive. But they were no longer able to travel easily, flying from one town to another. They could not hunt or gather food as easily. They were not only stripped of their magic but also of their way of life, their identity, their spirit.

  Joz had seen the effects of his decisions for three centuries. Naegis and its people struggled on, becoming weaker and weaker, while the other lands prospered. He would look down upon Terexe and see the most wonderful things: fire and water living in harmony, the souls of Terexians transforming into wild and beautiful spirits. .

  And Salmont - its people finally living in harmony. The language had been lost but wonderful magic linked the cracked communities together.

  Red Sky saw a glorious transformation. Once the blood red had lifted from the skies, and the land saw sunshine and moonlight again, everyone had rejoiced. Rysked was the start of a new era; one of hopes and dreams instead of gloomy foreboding.

  But not long ago, small communities began to hide themselves under their powers of invisibility, scared of what trouble was coming. Little by little, the people of Rysked began to disappear until nobody dared show themselves.

  But it was Rysked that told Joz of a new danger, or rather a returning one. Red mist mingled with white and grey clouds. People were, once more, shrouded in fear. They had become unable to hide themselves, their magic fading along with their hope and belief. He should have told Max all of this, and of the latest rumours that came from Rysked. Another regret.

  Hurburt, though, had always been his favourite. The ‘unmagical’ land of The South. But, really, it was the most magical. Even during The End, the war to end all wars, Hurburt had refused to fight. They would defend themselves, as any would, but there was never any offence. It was not their war, and they would not choose sides. And that’s why it remained unmagical, at least in their minds.

  Hurburtans were so content, truly and completely, that they did not seek any change. But there were changes, and magnificent ones at that. Joz never doubted that they would be discovered, but not until it was necessary.

  And so the four lands of The South saved him from his doubts. He would have no regrets while Terexe, Rysked, Salmont and Hurburt lived in harmony.

  No, the regrets that surged through him in his final moments had all happened during the last sixteen years.

  Max Myers. The New Clemari. The Last Naegean.

  It would be down to him to put a final end to the war. Eimaj was growing in strength and was determined to take Naegis as her own. She would reclaim the five lands of The South and wreak havoc, destroying all that Joz had created.

  And Joz had acted irrationally in order to save The South from her dictatorship.

  He created Max.

  It was no accident that a boy from Pipton was born Naegean. And he regretted the ways in which he did this more than anything else. It had resulted in heartbreak and murder, as well as the biggest damage for Naegis - since Max was born, no other Naegean child had been. Couples struggled for sixteen years to have children, but they could not. And it was Joz’s fault.

  It was Joz’s fault, too, that Max was so confused about everything. He had been offered no real explanations. Joz could not tell him the truth. The reason he could not have his friends with him was simple and stupid. Joz did not want Max to be distracted. He had to learn to fight, he had to win the war, and he had to stay alive.

  Freddie provided a diversion and, if Joz was honest with himself, which he rarely was, Freddie would be collateral damage. A sacrifice.

  As for Sofia, she should have been with Max. No Clemari is as strong without a queen, a Vraxen. But Eimaj’s army had prevented that from happening, it was out of anyone else’s control.

  Matthew, Russell, Anne-Alicia, and Lornea were in the way. How could Joz have predicted that they would form such close bonds with Max just before he was needed? They did not matter to Joz, which was a mistake because they were important to Max.

  In the end, his plan to prevent distractions coming to Naegis had backfired. Max was caring and in love. Until he knew his friends were safe and beside him, he would always be distracted.

  Joz had spent a small amount of time with Max but it was valuable, to them both. They had strolled through the forest after a particularly productive training session (Max had managed to make Luc forget his name, which was the best mind-magic he had performed) and spoke about life and life’s natural foe, death.

  “But, you said before that you were dying,” Max said. “Does that mean… Well, how long do you have left?”

  “That is unknown. Like I say, I have been dying for some time.” Joz replied.

  “Surely, though, someone who is dying has, like, weeks to live, or knows when they will die.”

  “Everyone, at some point in time, makes a transition from living to dying. For some, that transition is the moment before their last breath. For others, it comes days, weeks, months, or even years before they part this world. Myself, I have been dying for decades,” explained Joz.

  “What about those who fear death, or that wish death upon themselves?” wondered Max.

  “To fear death, to feel its presence upon all of your days, is to stop living. And nobody lives out their life wishing they were dead.”

  “What makes you say that?” enquired Max, not sure if Joz understood what he meant.

  “Clemari,” Joz began. “If somebody truly wanted to be dead, be dead they will.”

  They had spent the rest of the walk in silence, Max lamenting over Joz’s words, and Joz considering what death would be like: painful, relieving, frightening? And of course the biggest question: would he be ready?

  It turned out to be peaceful, and he was prepared to pass over, but of course it was scary. How can anybody not fear the unknown?

  The day that Joz had decided to die was the day after he realised he had regrets. When he found Max and Luc in his secret room, with the portals to several people in The South, he panicked. Max was so close, so close, to learning his true magical potential. Yes, he struggled with mind-magic, but he excelled in everything else. He could not be distracted, not now.

  Joz obliterated Max’s memory of the room altogether. That was it. The only clue Max had about his friends, about finally bringing them to him, had been forgotten. And Joz regretted that. He could have saved Freddie once and for all, as well as give Max all he wanted, but he was selfish. The way Luc looked at his father haunted him, and that was when he realised what he had become.

  In his final moments, he was so relieved when Max was by his side. And he tried, oh how he tried, to tell Max everything – how to reach his friends, how he was planning to win over The South when the war came, why he had chosen Pipton, and why Luc was so important… but he was too far gone and it came out in blurred fragments of memory.

  And his final memory, right before he passed over, was Luc clutching his hand. Despite everything, Luc
still cared about his father. And Joz was certain that he did not deserve his son’s love.

  With his last breath, his regrets disappeared along with everything else. He was free of guilt and remorse, unburdened from power and impossible decisions, liberated from himself.

  He had allowed himself that final act of selfishness – to be taken to the garden that had been black for so long, and taken away from the world he had so recklessly created.

  Anne-Alicia

  Footsteps echoed through the darkness, a shadow slowly growing bigger in the flickering torchlight. The door to her cell clanged open, a familiar figure standing before her. It had been a few days since Max had personally paid his prisoner a visit.

  Anne-Alicia was perched on the edge of her bed, if you could call it that, and waited for her best friend’s boyfriend to sit on the dusty chair opposite. She fiddled absent-mindedly with the bracelet on her wrist.

  “Hi, Anne-Alicia,” greeted Max.

  “Hi, Clemari,” she drooled, her voice ice cold.

  “Look, I’m going to be completely honest with you. I don’t know what’s going on. No idea. I’m actually a bit confused with everything. All I know is that you and Matthew were taken by Eimaj’s army, then you suddenly walk into my castle unnoticed, and announce that my friend – our friend – was dead. I just need an explanation, some answers…” Max said.

  Anne-Alicia looked up at her old friend. His lips trembled slightly as he spoke, the corners of his mouth pointing downwards, which was unusual for him. Around his eyes were dark circles, and he seemed to have picked up a habit of rubbing his forehead with the back of his left hand. In that moment, she felt sorry for him.

  “Max, I don’t know what to say,” she began. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry about Matthew, and I’m sorry that I didn’t talk earlier. But I was just so shocked. How could you throw me in jail?! I’m your friend, I’m your girlfriend’s best friend and I came to you for help!” She had not planned to shout, but everything she had been mulling over for the last week was exploding through her and she had lost control.

  “Why didn’t you talk to me when I first arrived, and ask me questions then? As a friend?”

  Max sighed, and looked at his feet.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I’m here now, and all of them are in danger. Our friends, our families… The whole of The South. Please, please, tell me what happened when you were taken.”

  She wanted to scream at him, slap him, refuse to say anything. But she knew she could not. Anne-Alicia was caught between two sides, and she had to make her decision now. But with so much at stake, she was terrified.

  Lowering her voice to a barely audible whisper, she tried to explain.

  “I had to lie. To get here, I had to lie. Promise me that you’ll protect me.”

  Max shut his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose and vowed to protect his friend.

  Anne-Alicia told him all that she could. During the commotion at the Light on the Landing gig, she had been dragged across the floor by a man in a grey cloak and pinned against a wall.

  “Where is Max?” He spat at her. “Where is Freddie?”

  She denied any knowledge of the two boys that he was after, but he knew she was lying.

  “TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!” he yelled at her, driving his fist forcefully into her stomach.

  She coughed and spluttered, “No.”

  The man said no more and let her go, the girl dropping painfully to the ground. She thought for a fleeting instant that he was going to let her go, but instead he grabbed her wrist and the chaotic room around them disappeared.

  When Anne-Alicia woke up, she was in a cell not unlike the one she was in now, her arms above her head, chained to the wall. She squinted through the darkness and could see somebody opposite her, in the exact same position.

  “Hello?” She called tentatively.

  “Anne-Alicia, is that you?” a boy’s voice echoed back.

  “Matthew! Where are we?”

  “N… Naegis.”

  When she had heard Matthew say the name of the mythological land, she thought he must have been beaten badly. But he explained how he had been awake for a while and overheard some of the guards talking, and they had definitely said Naegis.

  The prisoners’ voices must have echoed through the dungeons, and soon two guards arrived. They took Matthew away and interrogated him. He returned a long while after with blood trickling down his face, both his eyes forced closed by heavy bruising. Then they took Anne-Alicia.

  She was tied to a wooden chair, her arms and legs completely locked into an uncomfortable position. A woman stood before her. She was tall, much taller than any other woman Anne-Alicia had seen, and she seemed to fill the entire room. Even the guards cowered before her.

  Eimaj’s hair was pure white, curling down her shoulders eventually stopping just above her waist. She wore a black dress, corseted around her middle and then flowing outward waist down. It had reminded Anne-Alicia of her cousin’s wedding dress, only in black and with astonishingly intricate patterns sewn into the material, glistening silver in the dim light.

  Anne-Alicia was only half-sure that Eimaj wore silver lipstick; there was every possibility that her lips were actually silver. Her eyes were violet, her nose pointed, and her cheekbones could surely cut through glass. To say she was intimidating would have been an understatement.

  And Eimaj was powerful. Anne-Alicia gave her no answers, but Eimaj took them all anyway. The woman in black placed the forefinger of her right hand on her prisoner’s forehead and lightly closed her eyes. The girl could feel it. She could feel her mind being explored, she could sense her memories being watched, and she squirmed as Eimaj extracted all the answers she needed.

  And only then did she speak.

  “We should have started with you. Your little friend didn’t want to tell us anything.” Anne-Alicia furrowed her sweaty brow.

  “Neither did I,” she protested.

  “Oh, but you did. That was too easy. Your friend put up a fight, I struggled for over an hour to dig deeper and deeper into his mind. To break him. Then again, he has some secrets that he wouldn’t want people to know. Not you, though. You’re an open book. You want to be found out. You enjoy people knowing your business.”

  “That’s not true,” spat Anne-Alicia.

  “Don’t lie,” snarled Eimaj. “We could use you.”

  “Use me?”

  “You could join us, help us.”

  “And why should I, exactly?”

  Eimaj smirked, her face growing even more petrifying as her eyes gleamed. She looked towards her guards, the smallest of which hurried to her side carrying a small object. A ScribblePad.

  “You think this is the first time we have spoken,” she said. “But it isn’t. We have been speaking for weeks.”

  “But… No!” Anne-Alicia was horrified.

  “Yes. All that time you spoke to a ‘friend’ you had met on Scribbler. ‘Oh, Rebecca, I love Max so much but Sofia has taken him.’” She mimicked the girl before her, laughing as she did.

  “’Oh Rebecca, I haven’t seen Sofia properly for ages because she spends all her time with Max.’ ‘Rebecca, I love you! I was late for school because I was talking to you. Ha. Ha. Ha.’”

  Eimaj’s voice had grown less comical and more serious, until she was spitting each word. “’Rebecca, I wish you lived in Pipton.’ ‘Rebecca, Sofia knew I liked Max. I hate them both.’ ‘Rebecca, shall I just leave them all and we can be best friends?’” Eimaj laughed maniacally, her face distorted and horrifying.

  “All that time you spent on your ScribblePad speaking to oh-so-perfect Rebecca. But it was me. I know you, Anne-Alicia. I know everything about you. And I know what you want. Work with me, with us, and we’ll see that Max and Sofia, and everyone else, get what they deserve. Because you are the special one. You deserve happiness, not them with their perfect little lives. You.” Eimaj was now standing directly in front of her prisoner, her warm hand resti
ng on Anne-Alicia’s freezing wrist.

  And Anne-Alicia believed her. She could not help it, but Eimaj had spoken to every part of her soul and had known exactly what words to use. Of course, Anne-Alicia had never believed for a moment that she might kill Max or Sofia or anybody else.

  The planning began. Anne-Alicia needed to find out if Max really was the rightful Clemari, or if Freddie owned that title. And so they, Eimaj and Anne-Alicia, planned out every detail.

  Eimaj had known that Joz would not wait to crown Max, and she had known when the inauguration would be. She wanted Anne-Alicia to make a dramatic entrance, to announce Matthew’s death. That way, Max would want to ask her everything and she could speak to her friend – find out everything that had happened since they had last seen each other. Maybe she would even see him perform magic and confirm himself as Naegean.

  The following day, Anne-Alicia arrived at the castle.

  “But how?” Max interrupted, needing to find out how his friend had crossed the wall.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, there is no way around that wall. No way through it, above it, or below it. How did you get from the East to the West?”

  “The wall?” asked Anne-Alicia.

  “Yeah. You know, that enormous, sky-high, impenetrable barrier that separates the two sides of Naegis? The wall that is all I can see from my bedroom window. The wall that is in the last fairytale…”

  “I… I didn’t come across a wall. I just went through a forest. Eimaj told me to follow a path and I came out at the bottom of a hill, your castle straight ahead.”

  Max was baffled; it did not take a mind-reader to work that out. Of course, Anne-Alicia was lying.