by RAVENC JAMES
As soon as my feet landed on the smooth marble floor of the eighth house that looked like a maze of walls of books—no private room at all—I studied my surroundings. The books were not color-coded, nor were they tiered by difficulty. I could start wherever I wanted. No fledglings paid me any mind, as they seemed highly focused and not very chatty.
Having nothing else to do, I picked up one book and started reading it. And for the very first time, I found myself struggling to understand most of the words. They appeared to me like a series of swirling strokes.
I skipped some words and used context clues to figure out what the rest of the line said and then re-read the previous lines to acquire more navi. How long did I spend reading just one book? I had no idea. Probably long enough, though the other fledglings I met did not seem to be progressing either. I saw the same angels reading the same books, looking eerily as though they were frozen in time. I at least took some intermittent breaks and had the sense of returning books I deemed way above my navi. I mean, why waste my time reading a book that clearly the archangels do not want us to read? One of these books was called The Birth of God. I left the eighth house with this book still unfinished.
The last house before the Great Ordeals came to be the biggest of all the houses and the most populated and only dealt with the experimentation. All activities here were dedicated to creating something using the white energy, Hwit. Since not everyone could conjure the white energy, much less create a life with it, many angels looked resigned to spend their eternity trying. I wondered what the percentage was of the fledglings who made it out of the academy successfully. Maybe one percent?
Hoping to get an idea for a project, I found a new past-time of striding along the hallway, which had a vast space for flying, and of peeking in whichever door was open for viewing. On most occasions, angels allowed other angels to observe them while they worked on their projects. I had come across quite a few who worked so persistently that it broke my heart to watch their projects fail to breathe.
In one of my explorations, I stumbled upon a room whose resident fascinated me so much that I would often come to his room to watch him work. I only realized after probably my second visit that I was not the only one watching.
This fledgling had a yellow glow, which was the standard color of most angels here in Ether. But it was not his wings that made him strikingly beautiful enough to inspire thousands of verses. Instead, it was his long, dark, raven hair; and his eyes with Emerald's exact color and shade. Anybody could easily spot the uncanny resemblance in both their eyes that I began to wonder if he had any familial relation to a specific archangel.
I did not speak to him the first time. I just levitated at the portal and watched him work. But on the second day, as I approached his room, I discovered a fellow admirer, hovering a few feet from the door, but not far enough to see the angel inside the room. He was staring at the raven-haired angel so intently that he did not even notice me coming.
“Fancy meeting you here, Traquus,” I said. I grinned when Traquus glared at me.
“Marvelous. Aren’t you supposed to be working on your project?” he answered without taking his eyes off the beautiful angel.
I studied Traquus’s face. There was an interesting sparkle in his blue eyes. His lips curved slightly upward as though he was holding back a smile. My grin widened.
“Stop staring,” he said in a commanding voice, which triggered a rumble in the back of my throat and became full-on laughter.
“Stop staring,” I said, mimicking his tone.
He glanced to my side, looking annoyed. Taking his gaze away from the beautiful angel must have been aggravating, even if it was for a mere second. But then he did something that surprised me. His lips twitched in amusement, and with that, he became a mile better than his old stern self.
“I can see why you’re fascinated. He has that unique look. Raven-haired with Emerald’s eyes. He’s a beauty.”
“There’s just something about him that gives me a pleasant feeling.” His eyes remained on his prize. “I thought at first it was his eyes, but then realized that it was not. Then I thought it was the hair, but it was not that either. Now I believe it is his determination, his persistence, his ambition. These are all what lures me to him that I am unable to leave until he succeeds. I want to be there when his creature takes his first breath.”
His voice had a certain melancholic quality that tugged at my heart. It was something familiar, something that had been with me ever since I thought of Venir.
“How long have you been watching him?” I asked.
“How long had you been waiting for your friend?” he asked back.
“Long enough that I started to think there is a hole inside the fourth house, and he might have fallen into it.”
He grinned.
“What? Tell me,” I asked, a little scared for the answer.
“No,” he said and chuckled as I made a huge sigh of relief. “If there’s one house here where the angels stay the longest, it would be what?” he asked in a teasing tone.
“Fourth house?” I answered.
“The ninth house,” he grinned.
I glared at him.
“The fourth house is a far second. You wouldn’t know it because you breezed your way through it.”
“How did you know?” I said, challenging him.
“I saw your first arrival, and look where you are now, the last house before the Great Ordeals.”
“Woo-hoo to me,” I replied with feigned enthusiasm.
“I thought you wanted to meet the Great Riddle?”
I swiveled so fast I made myself dizzy.
“What are you saying?”
“Just what I said. And no more questions.”
He said if I wanted to meet the Great Riddle. The tenth house was called the Great Ordeals. Just what kind of ordeals did the house have? What if they were riddles? Or the entire house itself was the riddle. I believed Traquus just gave very valuable information, and this without trading something in return. While thinking about what to do to return the favor, an idea sprang up to me.
“Have you ever talked to him?” I did not give him time to reply when I added, “C’mon, let’s get a closer look.”
When I reached the door, I knocked first and asked permission to enter. The raven-haired angel swiveled around, nearly knocking over his project. His eyes narrowed with curiosity.
“I’m Orieumber. May we observe you while you work?”
“Go ahead. It wouldn’t be the first time,” he smirked. “I’m Jasper.”
So, Jasper knew that he was being watched. But did he know by whom? Soon enough, the answer to my question came when Traquus grew some balls and stepped out from behind me.
“Hello, Jasper. Sorry to disturb you with your work. Orieumber here just wanted to meet you.”
My eyes widened when I caught the blush creeping over Jasper’s face, accompanied by a shy smile.
“I don’t mind,” Jasper said. “Have you had a project in the works?”
I shook my head. “No. I was hoping I could get some ideas from yours.”
“Feel free to look around then.”
My gaze swept over dozens of unfinished replicas of Jasper’s image on top of the huge marble table across from us.
“You’re creating another image of yourself?” I asked, staring at the form lying on the golden rectangular table. It looked precisely like Jasper.
“Yes, it is me that I am creating. Ambitious, I know, but how else do you think I would spend my eternity?”
He pressed his palm on the breast of his likeness and pumped him to life. Nothing happened.
“Can you conjure the Hwit?”
“Yes, I can, but not enough to sustain him.”
“What do you think is wrong with it?”
“Just not enough life force. I tried to give him the maximum that I can conjure. It almost drained me empty. One time I pushed it toward my limit, I woke up in the healing house. Thanks to
Traquus here, he had the sense to carry my unconscious self there. The healer said it could have been worse. I could have ended in deep sleep.”
Deep sleep was a healing sleep. This was a type of sleep that could be likened to the sleep an angel would do when inside the Womb. In other words, back to the factory mode.
“Did it ever occur to you that perhaps the amount of energy it needs is everything that you have?”
Instead of answering my question, Jasper flew across the room to get a pitcher from the countertop where a mini garden was. He poured the green-colored liquid into the cup and drank it.
“Juice?”
At my nod, two cups floated, one toward me and the other to Traquus, who’d found a corner to lurk in. The liquid followed and flew inside the cups.
I drank the juice, and its sweet taste of kalaskig burst on my tongue and reinvigorated all my senses. When I emptied my cup, I smiled and sighed in contentment.
“You made a juice out of the kalaskig fruit?”
“There have been many angels who were able to make this kind of concoction.”
“Thank you. It tastes good,” Traquus said from behind me.
“And you have your own emerald trees too?” I said, eyeing the small garden on the counter.
Jasper chuckled. “You have a very refreshing presence. You take everything with wonder.”
I sneaked a glance at Traquus. And there it was, the jealousy, searing in those blue pools, so enchanting to behold. I was grinning from ear to ear.
“You might be right,” Jasper said. The seriousness in his voice roped my attention back to him. “This project might require my whole life force to breathe. So, I’m thinking I might need to change my project.”
“Absolutely not!” Traquus said.
“Well, it’s not your project,” I answered him.
Traquus started pacing. His wings were glowing in such intensity that I thought I was witnessing a supernova. I sensed Jasper’s nervousness as he stood beside me, vibrating off his skin.
“Why are you upset?” I asked Traquus.
“You want to create a person, another you. That in itself is admirable. Godly,” Traquus answered.
“But he is going to kill himself in the process.”
That stopped Traquus from pacing. He turned to us; his eyes full of regret mixed with understanding, as though something had just dawned on him. This act was ambitious, but what good was your creation when you were not there to see it?
“You’re right,” Traquus said, his eyes gleamed like stars on Earth’s sky. “It’s a folly to create beings only to leave them, orphans. So when you collapsed, and you were in my arms, it never occurred to me that the only way for you to succeed would be to give your own life to it, to your own creation.”
The little tears that welled up in the corners of his eyes clenched my angelic heart. And as though his sadness were contagious, I too felt the wetness sprouting from my own eyes. If the mood did not improve soon, I would surely burst into a sob.
“Why don’t you just create a dog?” I said randomly. In one of those Earth images, I saw this creature that the water in the well at the third house showed.
After the initial shock, Jasper studied the image of a dog floating above us, an image I provided using the kalaskig juice. Jasper liked the idea and started planning how to approach it. He hadn’t had a name of it yet, so we temporarily called it semi-canine.
I walked back to my room with an idea of a creature to make. It would be simple. Easy. And soon, I would be out of here. Then a thought crossed my mind. This was the last house before the trial, yet there was no answer to my questions, and Venir was still in the fourth house.
I gathered the materials I needed. I used Heaven’s soil, which was much softer than the soil on Earth. I mixed it with water so that the skin would be watery. It took me a while to create the flesh.
“I assume you finally know what to create,” Traquus said at the door.
“Yes. Finally.” When Traquus did not make any comment, I asked, “You’re going to his room?”
“I already went.” His enigmatic smile came back. I raised my brow. “Say hi to the first-known Ego.”
I followed where his gaze went. And there on his feet was a creature with a heart-shaped face, cotton-like fur, tail of a poodle, and wings and feet of a dragon. I knelt and studied it closely. The tiny creature was so cute I immediately scooped it into my arms.
“Alright, I need to return this lovely creature to its master.”
Traquus took it back from my arms with no regard at all as to how I felt about it. With a smirk, he left.
With no Ego to play with, I returned my attention to my work. Traquus came back later, chuckling after he saw the form of my creature.
“Seriously, a plant?”
Ignoring him, I closed my eyes. Then gathered the white energy. None came. Frustrated, I changed course. Instead of the Hwit, I summoned the Sylfur and broke it into pieces to get whatever little Hwit it had. I used it to pump my creature to life.
Feeling proud of myself, I turned to face Traquus, who asked, “So, what are you going to call it?”
“This new species of plant will be called Ven.”
A flower shot up from Ven’s stalk. Its veins elongated and curled around Traquus’s wrist.
“Alright, I see what it can do. Does it respond to your command alone?”
“I think so,” I said. “Ven, back to your spot.”
Ven untangled its vines off Traquus and crawled toward the spot where it had been born.
“I was expecting a more grandiose creation from you, but that will do,” Traquus said. “So, you’re ready for the Great Ordeals.” There was a hint of admiration in his voice.
“I’m not going to the tenth house until Venir comes out of the fourth.”
And so, I waited in the ninth house and hung out with Jasper and Ego. I didn’t know the reasoning behind the name, but Ego proved to be entertaining.
But the day had soon come, and it happened. I was playing with Ego when all of a sudden I heard his voice.
“Hey, Ori. I’m back.” Venir’s voice coming through my bracelet made me scream in utter joy.
“About time! Are you in the fifth house now? Hang on. I’ll fly back there.”
“Hurry, I may need some help stitching my wounds. I have one…a huge one right on my stomach.”
I was so glad to hear his voice that I failed to even think about what condition he would be coming out of the trial house.
“I’ll be there,” I said with a voice shaking both in fear and excitement. My heart thundered as I swiftly flew toward the door. Descending from the ninth house, I passed by many houses—the eighth house, the seventh house.
I was flying past the sixth house when the temperature around me decreased. Farther down, I flew and descended right on the tread of the fifth house. But when I entered through the door, my stomach rolled, and my heart surged with fear, for it happened again.
The light disappeared.
And the darkness returned.
CHAPTER 17
“Venir,” I whispered in our open comm link and cried when what I heard on the other end was dead silence.
The singing voice came, but it did not deter me from what I was planning to do. I lit up my mind just like how I had in the fourth house. The energy inside me surged through my entire body, and I began to light up from the inside. I flew like a torch floating in the hall, lighting the area my radiance could reach. I saw some angels floating while asleep, but I did not bother to wake them up, as I was only searching for one particular angel. Venir.
“Venir!” My voice echoed while the voice was still singing in the background. And then, out of desperation, I started talking directly at the darkness. “Why don’t you face me, the Great Riddle? I’m not scared of you.”
The singing stopped. The light returned. And I resumed my search for Venir. He must be here closer to the door because I told him I was coming.
One b
y one, the angels woke up, but I had yet to find him. I was on the verge of panic when I remembered how I woke up already in a room, so I extended my search from one room to another.
“Orieumber!”
I knew that voice. I spun around and found her hovering across from me.
“Naia,” I moved closer to her. “Have you seen him? Have you seen Venir?”
“Yes, I did,” she said in a small voice. “But when the light returned, he—”
I did not let her finish. I did not want to hear what she was about to say.
“Where did he go?”
“Orieumber, he was just right in there!” She pointed at the room to our right. “Come, I’ll show you.”
We went inside the room, and I saw blood on the bed.
“He was lying right here, for he was hurt. He was reading this book…” Naia picked up the book from the ground. “Yes, this one. He asked me which book to read to stitch the wound, so I gave this one to him. He was reading it when the Great Riddle came, and then I woke up floating. And he’s—”
“No, no, no, stop!” I said. “He’s not gone!” I screamed at her with my eyes blurry with tears.
She pressed her lips together as though she was trying to stop herself from talking. Feeling remorseful for screaming at her, I apologized.
“I understand,” she replied. She was poised to return the book to the shelves when something caught her eyes. She looked down to read the cover of the book.
“I think you need to read this.” She gave it to me. Her eyes were huge with fear.
I took the book and read the cover myself. It said: The Great Riddle.
“That’s not the title of the book I gave him.”
With my heart hammering in my throat, I tapped the cover with my finger, and it flipped to the first page. And right there, the words appeared, coming from the Great Riddle himself.
“You dare to challenge me?
How old do you think you are?
Do you know who I am?
I am the Great Riddle,
I am the Mist.
I am the Darkness.
I’ve been in existence since long before your birth.
