From Light to Dark

by Irene L. Pynn

  “Don’t look so worried,” the Exile said, creaking in from the shadows. “It’s only me.”

  Eref released his breath and sat back down.

  The Exile dropped a pile of plants onto his desk. “Caer,” he said. “Would you help sort these for me? I’m trying to make healing ointments. You’re good with those, aren’t you?”

  She stood up but stayed close to Eref. “Yes,” she said.

  “Then get them started for me, if you don’t mind. I have to talk to Eref about something.”

  Eref grabbed Caer’s hand and squeezed it reassuringly. She smiled back and walked over to the huge stack of plants.

  “Come here, Eref,” the Exile said, hobbling over to the thin river. “Let’s not bother Caer while she works. Those leaves and sticks can be tough to sort. I can’t ever do it without cussing at least fifteen times.” He winked and waved Eref over.

  “They don’t bother me,” Caer said cheerfully from the desk.

  Eref followed the Exile and sat down by his side.

  Water meandered lazily before them, its murky color making their reflections hazy. It came in from the mouth of the cave and wound its way back through a small corner of the cavern out of sight.

  “Do you know where this river leads, Eref?”

  “No.”

  “It’s as large as all of Dark World. In fact, it is even bigger than that,” he said.

  “How can it be bigger?”

  The Exile hesitated. Then he seemed to come to a decision. “Do you like puzzles?”

  “What?”

  “Sometimes the only way to solve your problems is to think your way through. This river, for instance, is larger than Dark World. But that can’t be possible.”

  Eref didn’t understand.

  “You are in the middle of enormous problems right now,” the Exile said. “And the only way you will succeed—the only way you can survive—is by solving riddles. Do you think you’re up to the task?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s start with something easy. I’m going to give you a series of sentences. Every other sentence will be a lie, and every other sentence will be true. Can you listen to what I say and decide which sentences are true?”

  “I guess so,” Eref said. He felt a sinking disappointment. Was the old man crazy? He wasn’t making any sense.

  The Exile cleared his throat. “Listen carefully: Dark World is bigger than Light World by only twelve feet around the perimeter. Light World has more species of animals than Dark World. Light and Dark World share the same government. Light and Dark World have the same population. Dark World was not always called Dark World. The next sentence will be a lie. That last sentence was a lie. This river is deeper than twenty feet. I know magic. My tunic was given to me by a Dark Person. This river connects Dark World and Light World. I became the Exile when I tried to take over Light World. My favorite food is Dark food. This riddle contains six lies.”

  Eref thought hard. That was a lot of information to digest.

  “Now,” said the Exile. “Choose one thing from my true sentences that you would like me to explain.”

  Eref stared at the murky water and went through everything sentence by sentence. There was a way to sort it out. He knew there was. The Exile had given him clues.

  After a minute, the Exile spoke. “Are you ready?”

  Eref nodded. “Yes.”

  “What would you like to ask?”

  “How can this river connect Dark World to Light World?”

  The Exile’s expression changed from a stoic stone face to the contented smile of a proud teacher. “Well done.”

  Eref waited.

  “Now you’ve earned your answer. Do you see where the river runs around that far corner of the cave?”

  “Yes.”

  “What do you see coming from beyond that wall?”

  Eref peered down the cave toward the bend where the river ran. He saw nothing at first, but then he noticed—

  “The water,” he said under his breath.

  “What about it?”

  “There’s light reflected on the water. Just a little bit, but I can see it.”

  “Excellent,” said the Exile.

  “Where’s it coming from?”

  “Would you like to look?”

  Eref nodded, his heart quickening. He didn’t want to speak or think. Without looking back, Eref walked toward the light.

  Behind them, Caer was still hard at work.

  Though they were already well into the cave, it took another ten minutes to reach the turn. The Exile didn’t speak, so Eref studied the cave walls around them.

  They were made of the same deep brown as the sand in Light World, and hundreds of limestone spikes hung from the ceiling in jagged patterns. The muddy water reflected the magically bright candlelight and the flickering from around the corner. It illuminated their cavern like a strange dream.

  The closer they got to the turn, the easier it became to see the light. This was more illumination than could possibly have existed in Dark World. Eref’s heart raced faster. Where were they?

  Just before Eref reached the wall, the Exile stopped him. Eref looked at the bright rays reflected in the water. They called to him. The golden bars waved slowly back and forth, as if saying hello after a long absence. He longed to run forward and discover what lay ahead.

  The Exile’s face was serious. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes.” Yes yes yes yes yes.

  “We won’t be able to stay long. It isn’t safe. I’m sure you understand.”

  Eref nodded. It didn’t matter. He just wanted to get beyond that wall. He needed to see the light. It couldn’t be…. Could it? What was beyond the bend? “I’m ready,” he said, his voice a hoarse squeak. Every muscle in his body had grown tense, as if he might hurl himself forward without permission at any second.

  “All right,” the Exile said. “Let’s go.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Light

  Eref dropped to his knees and clutched the sand. He grabbed a nearby Spiked Aloti plant and held its prickly skin to his chest. He opened his eyes as wide as possible and soaked in the light. It hurt at first, but that was just fine with him. The pain was good. He took a deep breath until his lungs hurt from stretching.

  Here he was. The sun on his skin, the dry air in his lungs, the dusty road stretching all around him.

  Home. He was home.

  The cave stood behind him. Eref could feel the Exile waiting, watching, ready to remind him that he couldn’t stay here.

  But Eref knew exactly where he was. An internal compass had clicked into his consciousness now that he was in Light World. From this spot, Eref could find his way back to his apartment in a matter of hours.

  Tears made their slow way down his cheeks. He looked at the sand in his palm. “How is this possible?”

  “The cave,” said the old man. “It is the entrance to both worlds.”

  “But when I fell,” Eref said, his voice catching in his throat. “It went on for so long.”

  “Didn’t you notice we climbed to reach the cave? The incline is disguised, but surely your legs felt the strain. I used much of what was left of my power to get us there faster than it would normally take to climb so far.”

  He was right. Eref remembered the journey had felt more like a mountain climb than a level hike through the jungle.

  “I don’t – I don’t know what to say.” Eref took another huge breath, and a gust of dry wind blew around him. All the scents of home came back. Thin, dusty air. Sun-scorched people, tall and slender, with clear, sparkling eyes. Animals running along the mountainsides in search of prey. The breeze carried them all toward him, and it was as if his own skin soaked up the joy of this moment.

  A few feet from where Eref kneeled in the sand, an injured ocanroc, long and fat with black and brown striped fur, lay dying in its own blood. A regular sight on the outskirts of Light World. It wasn’t beautiful, but it, too, was familiar, a
nd it felt like home.

  “We don’t have long,” the Exile said after a moment. Eref felt his heart sink as the Exile said these words. “Let’s get to business.”

  He stood and faced the Exile. What did he mean by “business?” There was nothing he had to do. In fact, there was no reason he had to stay. The Exile couldn’t catch him. Eref could hide somewhere safe where he could see and feel the sun. A very long time might pass before anyone noticed he was back in Light World. Even if he did get discovered, he could just come hide here. Now that he knew about this place, he could use it to his advantage. Light People didn’t dare venture near the Exile’s cave.

  He wanted to do it. He could already feel his legs burning, ready to run.

  This was his home. No one should have the right to keep him out.

  “What are you thinking, Eref?” The Exile’s voice was slow and cautious.

  Eref turned away and faced northeast. That was the way to his apartment. Caer and Vul…. They would be fine, wouldn’t they? They were in their own world, after all. This was his world.

  “Don’t do it,” the Exile said. But Eref tried to ignore him. He was going home.

  “You have a great task to perform. All of the world – of both worlds – depends on you.”

  Eref turned back to the Exile, his eyes narrowed.

  “It’s true,” the Exile said sadly, shaking his ancient head. “Give me the chance to prove it to you.”

  But the Exile was wrong. “I can’t.” Eref said. “All I’ve done is bring everybody trouble. I just want to live like a normal person. In Light World. This is where I belong, Exile. I’m a Light Person. Let me go.”

  “Is that really all you’ve ever wanted?”

  “Yes.”

  “This is truly all you care about? Your only dreams have been to be ‘normal’?”

  What was he getting at? Eref thought of his internship bagging groceries at the Life emporium. He thought of his favorite games on the mountainsides. He thought of his bedroom. Block bed made of stone, light shining down on him all the time. Yes. Of course he was a normal Light Person. That was what he wanted.

  “Tell me about Balor,” the Exile said.

  Eref bowed his head. Ever since the stoning, he’d tried to keep Balor from his mind. It was too much to think about their friendship, their pranks. Their promise.

  “Tell me about Vul.”

  Eref looked back at the Exile, his temper rising. “Why should I? How do you even know about these people?”

  “I told you. I’ve been watching.”

  “Vul’s different,” Eref said angrily.

  “Why?”

  “Because she’s from Dark World.” His tone came out all wrong – he hadn’t meant for “Dark World” to sound like a dirty word. Eref cleared his throat. “I wasn’t supposed to meet her. I shouldn’t be involved with—”

  “Why not? Would she have escaped if you hadn’t been involved?”

  Eref paused. No, he honestly didn’t think she would have gotten away. Nobody in Light World ever did. The Eighteener Entrance was inescapable.

  And that, of course, was the flaw in his own plan right now. There was nowhere safe to hide. In Dark World or Light.

  “Tell me about Caer,” the Exile said.

  “What about her?”

  “What should I say when I get back?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Should I tell her to forget about saving Vul? Should I tell her you left her alone at the end of the world?”

  Eref looked around at bright, beautiful Light World. A week ago, he couldn’t have imagined troubles like this. Now his life was completely turned around.

  This was his home. He belonged here. And yet… he couldn’t stay. He couldn’t leave Caer and Vul. He couldn’t give up everyone who had helped him just for a selfish desire to die in the sun.

  It was like having his own life ripped from his body. Eref had never felt such pain before, even at the End. Now he realized why he’d come here, why the Exile had brought him through. He was here to say goodbye.

  Caer needed him. He thought back to the time their hands had joined, and they had made such a beautiful light together. It had felt even better than the sun of Light World, a soft and gentle glow that put an end to all suffering.

  Maybe there really was life after death.

  Eref took a deep breath and looked at the Exile. His heart felt heavy as a rock. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

  “You are the one who will save the worlds.” The Exile said this like it was a simple fact.

  “What?”

  “I should start earlier.” The Exile leaned on his cane and creaked to the ground until he sat cross-legged. Eref still stood at a distance, feeling the bright, dry air of his world. If this was goodbye, he was going to cherish every moment in the sun.

  “Long ago—over nine hundred years ago, actually—there was a war. You wouldn’t have heard about it.”

  This was true. Eref had never known of a real war at all. He was familiar with the concept. Learning instructors used to say that the confusion of youth was what caused wars. They said the Eighteener Entrance saved them all from that fate. But he’d never heard of a war actually happening.

  “It was a war over a place called the Safety.” The Exile leaned forward. “I think you have heard of that.”

  Eref nodded. “Caer mentioned it. And so did someone in the Learning when I was younger.”

  “The Safety is real,” the Exile said.

  “But how can that be? Caer said it was in between Light World and Dark World. I fell between our worlds. There’s nothing there. Just blackness.”

  The Exile smiled. “That doesn’t mean anything. I created that hole in the ground, Eref.”

  Eref inadvertently took a step backward. “You what?” Was this man serious? He hadn’t even been at the stoning.

  After a long breath, the Exile said, “I need to explain more.” He rubbed his temples, apparently trying to decide where to begin. Eref watched and waited.

  “About nine hundred years ago, there were no Light or Dark people.

  People looked like me. Both dark and light could be found in the sky at all times, and we existed comfortably together. Our world was called the Safety.”

  “We? You were there nine hundred years ago?”

  “Yes,” the Exile said, as if his age should not be surprising. “The Safety gave us long life and strong health. Our health also gave us special powers. I am actually thirteen hundred years old.”

  Eref looked at the bony old man sitting on the ground. Ancient, yes. But over a thousand years old? No one in Light World lived beyond one hundred, and that was pushing it.

  “The average lifespan of a Safe Person was a thousand years. But then things changed. Five people who found themselves reaching the ends of their lives got greedy. They wanted more. They devised a plan to live forever. They captured the daughter of a prominent Safe family. Do you know what a daughter is, Eref?”

  Eref shook his head.

  “In the Safety, married couples created their own children out of love and raised them as families. A female child was called a daughter. A male child was called a son.”

  This was new to Eref. No compounds devoted to raising engineered children? How did untrained couples learn the skills to bring up babies?

  Several feet away, two young fire dogs prepared to fight each other over the meat of the dying ocanroc. Eref watched them crouched low, growling. He knew they’d wait to strike until the ocanroc had stopped breathing. Light World had rules, even among the animals.

  “In those days, there were two powerful families whose surnames were Luminous and Opaque. They had never liked each other very much.

  “These five greedy people captured a Luminous daughter and cut off her head. She was twelve years old—considered an infant in those days.”

  Eref’s jaw dropped. “Why did they do that?”

  “It was just the first part of a terrible plan. They
left her head on her family’s doorstep with a forged note bearing the Opaque seal. In reality, the Opaque family had nothing to do with the murder at all.”

  “What did the note say?”

  The Exile looked hard at Eref. “It said Light Person.”

  “Why?”

  “This was their plan. Next they took an Opaque son and cut off his head. The son was nine years old. They left his head on the doorstep with another note. This one bore the Luminous seal. Can you guess what the note said?”

  “Dark Person?”

  “Yes. The greedy people who did these things wanted to start a war between the families. It worked. Soon Luminous and Opaque were fighting in the streets. Friends of the opposing houses joined sides and fought, too. The violence escalated over several years. Anyone who tried to stay neutral was slaughtered by any number of horrific forms of attacks.”

  One of the fire dogs barked and pawed the ground, his teeth bared. The ocanroc sputtered.

  “How did you survive?”

  “I am—well, I was at the time—a very powerful mage. It was my job to teach metaphysical skills to the most promising intellects in the Safety. However, once the war was underway, the five men and women who had committed the crimes kidnapped me and put a binding spell on my magic. They forced me to use my powers for their purposes.”

  “How could they do that if you were so strong?”

  The Exile looked Eref dead in the eyes and said, “They had stolen the Moonstone.”

  Eref knew of the Moonstone. The most powerful gem in existence. According to their lessons in the Learning, it was the source of all power and light. Few people had ever seen it in real life. The Governors kept it locked in the Center and moved it only to bless stonings and Eighteener Entrances.

  The Exile went on. “That was the worst thing that could have happened. With control of the Moonstone, they were more powerful than everyone else put together. These people could control me with barely any effort at all.”

  “How did the war end?”

  “It ended when they made me separate the Safety forever into two opposing worlds.”

  Eref stared at him. “Light World and Dark World?”