by RAVENC JAMES
Although we found the crystal device very entertaining, we both agreed that air messaging was more efficient. This was just one of the interesting items we found in the Metropolis. There was one that took our breath away. This one came from a different store.
“What is that?” Venir asked the vendor.
“It’s a flying house,” the vendor said.
“Really? Can you show us how it works?” I asked.
The vendor pressed the front of the little box, and it expanded into one bigger box that looked like a house, the size that could only accommodate the two of us.
“Get in,” the vendor said, which we happily heeded.
The house started floating before it flew out of the building. We were giggling the whole time and were so eager to engage the vendor into trading it with us as soon as we arrived back at the store.
“You all looked like you’re still fledglings at the academy,” the vendor said. “So there’s no way you could reach us here at Tertium by flight. That means you used the back door located in one of the academy houses.”
“Which also means that we have valuable information that might interest you,” Venir said, winking a little.
The vendor snickered. He freaking snickered, which was really rude if you thought about it.
“Whatever valuable information you have, consider it worthless here, for that door over at the academy would collect all your valuables before giving you access to it. A measure in place to discourage trading with fledglings.”
It baffled me that the academy would engage itself in such a trifling endeavor like this. What would they get for taking the fun away from its fledglings?
“We understand. We’re sorry for assuming it’s okay for us to trade,” Venir said. The sincerity in his voice and face elicited a grimace on my face. As though he was not done being subservient, he continued talking. “And…if you don’t mind, could you tell us how to get back there?”
The vendor raised his brows as though he’d just heard the stupidest request. “We don’t run a free market here, fledglings. You’ve had your fun. Now you need to go find your way back there on your own.”
We walked out of the store embarrassed but not enough to wipe away the smiles on our faces.
“I don’t care what that vendor said. This is still fun,” he said.
“I agree,” I answered.
It took us a while walking along the streets with our overwrought faces before seeing a tent with a big sign: Lost Academy Fledglings Here. There was an arrow sign pointing to go inside the tent.
I rolled my eyes. I was right. The academy was my mother, an overly protective mother with a great sense of humor.
We entered the tent and found ourselves back in the garden.
After eating some more fruits, we went back inside and continued our education. Although my reading of the books was easy and unencumbered with unintelligible language, I deliberately slowed down to match Venir’s progress. And when we finished the last book in the house, together we flew to the third house—the House of the Terrestrial Knowledge.
Here I learned that Earth existed. It was a world where mortals lived. I found the books a lot easier to read than the previous two houses. The information I accumulated felt familiar to me like I had known it before. I described it to Venir and asked if he had a similar experience. As usual, he said the books were hard, and the information was new to him.
Using the system we developed back at the lower houses, we found out that most of the books here were difficult for him. I ended up reading a lot, which I didn’t mind.
Another thing that I noticed as we progressed from one level to another, accumulating more navi, our energy-sleeps had become fewer and farther between.
The garden in this house was the most deserted compared to the other houses. Angels seemed to be in a hurry to leave this house, as they took fewer breaks. I noticed Venir doing this too and confirmed what I long suspected when I asked him about it.
“I just wanted to finish this house so we can move on.”
The books were easy for me, so I ended up strolling in the garden with my lonesome self. The garden had a well whose water could make you see images of what it was like on Earth when you touched it.
Eager to see it for myself, I hovered above the well. I dropped the bucket, and with my basic knowledge of controlling energy, I manipulated it into filling it with water and then summoned it back to me.
Instead of peeking into the bucket, I dipped my hand into it. The moment my hand was drenched with the water, I was immediately beset by thousands of images in my head. I might have passed out, but I was too far gone to remember what was going on with me.
Venir found me on the ground beside the well, sitting instead of floating. I did not know how long I’d been like this, but my awareness came when I felt his tap on my shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I shook my head. I clenched my jaw so tight to hold back my tears. But the moment I saw Venir’s concerned face, I flung myself into his arms and cried on his shoulder.
“I was on Earth. I saw a boy. I saw him grow up. I saw a girl who talked to me like she knew me, like we were friends for a long time. I saw a woman who smiled at me with a loving face. I think the woman was my mother, the boy my brother, and the girl my friend. I was there. I could feel it like it just happened to me,” I said, sobbing.
He pulled me off his shoulder to look into my eyes.
“What are you talking about?”
“There.” I pointed at the well. “I saw my life in there.”
The more I talked about my life on Earth, the more concerned and worried Venir looked, so I showed it to him. I told him to get some water and touch it, which Venir did. But when I asked him what he saw, he narrowed his eyes on mine.
“Ori, I saw glimpses of wingless people, but I don’t know them.”
“You have to wait…wait for the flashbacks. You’ll see.”
With his hand in the pail, he waited. And waited. I did not know how long it was until he pulled his hand out of it and dropped the water back into the well.
“Ori,” he started. When I did not answer, he continued. “There’s a lot more we don’t know, but this is the academy of knowledge. You’re in the perfect place to find all the answers to your questions.”
Venir was right. We’d only covered the third house, and there were seven more houses to go. But this did not appease me as tears continued falling down my face.
“What is it?” he said, kissing my forehead as he put his arms around me, protecting me from my own memories, for that was what they were. My memories.
“I was inside the burning building. I was on fire, but I felt no pain. But the others, they were screaming in agony as the flames consumed them. I could feel it, Venir, their pain, but not mine. It was so…” I paused to gather my thoughts. “It was confusing. Because when they were dead, when the life was extinguished, severed from them, I felt….” I paused again and averted my eyes from Venir, for I could not stand to see his eyes while I confessed it to him.
“What did you feel? Tell me?” he urged.
With my gaze fixed on the well, I said, “When they died, I felt…” I gulped. “Blissful.”
He touched my cheek and made me turn my head to him.
“It wasn’t you,” he said.
“But what if it was me?”
“We don’t know anything about it, Ori. Do not assume it was your experience. Let’s look for the answer here.”
I wiped the wetness on my face. “We already have a quest, the darkness and the Focus Room, remember?”
“Then let’s add it to the list. The more, the better,” he said, smiling at me before he leaned in and kissed me.
We went back to the library. A new sense of purpose was born inside me. I now thought of the academy as a mother who had been keeping secrets from us. And I would find out about those secrets. Where else could the mother hide them?
Instead of slowing my reading, I read as
fast as I could and infused as much information as I could get. If the answer was not here, then maybe it was in the other house. I was ready to go there, but I could not leave Venir behind. When our eyes met as soon as I got back to him after I finished the last book, he sighed and then said. “Alright, help me out with the books.”
We flew to the fourth house. Venir decided to try to fly again, and though he was a little slow, he became accustomed to flapping his energy wings steadily as he rose into the air. Halfway to the fourth house, I glanced back at Venir and saw the fear on his face.
“You look scared,” I said.
“Because I’m not sure I’ll pass the test.”
The fourth house was the Trial of Knowledge.
“Relax, I’ll help you.”
“I cheated to get to this house, Ori. I’m quite certain I’m not ready for the trial.”
I changed course and maneuvered myself into a position where I was facing him as I flew upward.
“Trust me. We’ll pass the test. Now, c’mon!” I held his hands, and together we glided along with the air and upward to the next house.
A few feet away from the house, Venir wobbled.
“Are you okay?” I asked, holding him. Then, I noticed that he was becoming heavy.
Fear was sketched all over his face.
“I won’t make it,” he stammered before he fell.
I dove down and caught him just in the nick of time and gently helped him reach the tread of the third house.
With a forlorn look on his face, he said, “Just leave me here and go ahead with your trial. When you’re all done, find me.”
I could no longer hold back my tears. I buried my face in his chest as I broke down. We kissed. Longer this time. We were both aware that we could not just stand like this forever. If it were up to me, I might have tried leading a life just like this. No trial, no quest. Just him and me. But what if the angels were really missing? What if the darkness had taken them? What if these people I saw in the well were my family? And why did I feel exhilarated at the death of the mortals? Could I live a happy life with these questions haunting me?
It was Venir who finally broke the kiss.
“Go,” he said with a smile.
“I’ll come back as soon as I’m done with the trial.” This I promised. “Don’t eat too many berries!”
And I left him, feeling like there was a hole in my chest.
CHAPTER 13
It was the darkness that greeted my eyes when I entered the House of Trials. Having been accustomed to the seemingly eternal light in Ether—except for that one incident—that the sudden absence of it disturbed me, so much so that I began considering going back to wait for Venir. If I were to be stuck here, it wouldn’t be that bad if he were with me. But I had a feeling he wouldn’t like it. And so, I swallowed my fear, and onward I moved.
I learned from the first house that the fourth house was supposed to have three challenges. Every time a challenge was completed, a pair of doors would appear, and behind each door lay another challenge, like pick your poison kind of thing. But this may not always be the case for the third challenge.
The third challenge, according to the book, reflected one’s greatest weakness. At the end of the challenge, only one door would materialize. What would be behind it hinged upon my performance. If I passed, the door would lead me to the next house. But if I failed, it would lead me to a monster the book deemed impossible to defeat. Consider me wing-flutteringly scared.
Percolating in my head were two ways to deal with the first challenge. One would be to find the light switch to get rid of the darkness; the other, to find the door in the dark, which was like finding a needle in a dark forest. Whoever designed this house must’ve really hated fledglings. Was this their idea of population control, by preventing or slowing down the fledglings’ advancement to angel-hood? Well, this fledgling would do everything she could to get out of here. I shivered just by thinking about spending my eternity in this house—time to test-run my plans then.
To summon the white energy Hwit, I poised my hands in a manner where I looked like I was squeezing an invisible ball the size of my head. My plan was to gather as much energy as I could, hoping for it to glow. While my focus deepened, I felt the white energy swirling around the area between my hands. I moved my hands closer to each other to tighten the space it was occupying. The energy immediately responded by heating up and emitting a white glow, equivalent to a light made by a matchstick. You would think I could get it bigger and glow even brighter and use it as a torch, and hopefully, be done with this challenge and call it a success. On to the next one. But nope. Nothing like that happened. As it turned out, summoning a massive amount of Hwit was like dragging a T-Rex by the tail. It was physically exhausting and easily slipped through my hands. Time for plan B, I supposed.
This time, my plan was to mind-control the darkness to disappear. Maybe if I showed it that I was not scared and that I would not tolerate its presence, it would listen to me? I took a deep breath, wiped my mind of any thoughts, and commanded the dark to bend to my will. Begone, darkness! Begone! You are not needed here. I poured it all out and mentally communicated it toward the wall of dark. Then I waited for the sign—any sign. Much to my dismay, nothing happened. The darkness either did not hear me or was silently laughing at my ridiculous assumption that it would answer to me. Venir’s doubt started to creep into my mind. What if I was not ready for this?
A whole list of what-ifs began running in my head. What if this was all just illusion? What if I was seeing darkness because I thought of it as dark? What if…
Suddenly a light bulb went on in my head. That’s it. A light bulb in my head. Literally. Er… not a light bulb, per se. I meant that I did not need to summon any energy around me but rather summon the energy within me. I could make myself a living torch. I then closed my eyes and invoked an image of my center in my head. My inner core was a ball of bright light so intense its heat started to make me sweat. More, I commanded myself the same way I commanded energy. More, I said again. I was well aware that I was now soaking in my own sweat. But I needed the light to be visible, and so I said it one more time.
More.
More.
More.
My body was pulsating, like something inside me was unleashing. I screamed when I thought I was exploding. Perhaps I did explode because the next thing I knew was that I was glowing. My glow started chasing the darkness away, lighting my path. This was what I called a success. A grin spread on my face.
For the first time since arriving in this house, I could see my surroundings. I was in a garden filled with bird-turning flowers and walls of kalaskig. If I did not know any better, I would have thought I was back in one of the earlier houses. So, what now? Since I vanished the darkness, did it mean I had completed the task? And could I now claim the reward, preferably in the form of a door? Optimistic that I would find one somewhere, and soon, I went for a little exploration. The grass was well-trimmed, and the kalaskig-bearing trees were of the same height so that you would think they were clones of each other. This was nice and all, but I really could use the door now. A few strides later, I did thankfully stumble upon something. Hint: not a door.
Before me was a glittering cascade of a water fountain in the middle of a mini round pond. Perhaps another task? I peered closely. This one resembled the garden pond in the lower houses where angels tended to gather around. Its water was malleable to energy and could easily be transformed into anything your mind fashioned. Maybe the clues were written on the water? I was only half-serious, but it would not hurt to try. I touched the water, creating ripples in an otherwise smooth and still surface. My heart made a victory jump when the ripples—instead of doing what ripples usually did—wiggled, curved, and then transformed into letters and letters into words with the message I believed was meant for me.
“Beware of the door that eats the light.”
Now that’s scary. Message received. Avoid the door that eats li
ght. Greedy little thing. But how to find a door that was not a light-eater? My mind screamed, Mirror!
Mirrors reflected light. Since the water was energy-pliant like playdough, I could use it to create a mirror. To start, I touched the water again to make it aware of my plan. Then I visualized the kind of mirror I wanted and communicated this visual to the water. A stream of water surged into the air and then transformed itself into a mirror. Easy-peasy.
I held the mirror up as I walked deep into the garden. So far, the mirror reflected images it caught along the way. Red, yellow, and white flowers. Trees clad with energy-berries. More of those trees. Grass that turned purple when I stepped on it. Interesting. What was more interesting, though, was the next image being reflected on the mirror. You guessed it! The door.
Since this door was shown in the mirror, it was safe to say that it did not absorb light. I put the mirror down, planted it on the ground to get it to stand. And then I walked toward the spot I assumed the image was transmitted, as it was directly across the mirror. The door was only visible in the mirror, so I needed to grope the air for anything solid. It took a while before I hit something. This something then started to glow. The door manifested itself as though an invisible artist were drawing it with a glowing pencil. When I touched it, light swirled around my hand, warm and silky. A few heartbeats later, it opened. I took a deep breath before I entered.
One down, two more to go.
The door led me to another garden that was nothing like the first one. If there was a Garden of Eden, then this was it. Flowers and fruits were not all energy-looking, but more like those found in the paintings on Earth.
Searching for the door, I looked around, then randomly stared at the wall filled with vines and commanded it to show the door to me. Presumptuous much? Yes, that’s me. But lo and behold, as though it responded to my request, a door appeared in front of me. This looked suspiciously easy, so I thought it was a trick. A trick or not, soon enough, words appeared on the surface of the door like an invisible hand were writing it.
Tell me my story
