Rigel

by Eli Ingle

  “I can’t leave you for two minutes…”

  “What about the Shadow?” asked Laurie. “The Darkness. Where are we with that?”

  “We’re unsure at the moment, Laurie, very unsure. When you left there were rumours that it was beginning to build its strength in the Planes of Nowhere.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Rona. “I don’t understand all this about the Shadow. Will you tell us please?”

  The King and Queen exchanged dark looks before turning to the children.

  “It is a long and sometimes unpleasant story,” said Alcor, “but nonetheless important because of that.”

  It was starting to grow dark so a fire was kindled and the lamps were lit, covering the walls in a soft orange glow. Mizar sat back and lit another cigar. Alcor stretched before beginning the story.

  “When this land was far younger than it is today, when it was almost newly born in fact, it was still older than most other worlds. People lived in the world and the days were filled with sunshine and life.

  Then one day an asteroid bigger than any recorded before crashed into the world and rent a huge crater in the surface. The land was swallowed in Shadow for many weeks and the people began to believe that they would starve, as no crops would grow when no sunlight reached the soil.

  Finally the air began to clear but there were darker things to come. Natural disasters began to wreak havoc: volcanoes erupted, earthquakes shook the land, and fissures split it.

  Then the worst finally happened – the crater split open. General opinion could never decide why, but it didn’t matter; it happened. From the crater poured all manner of demons from the centre of the earth. No-one knew how long they had been bound there. They wreaked havoc across the land, killing and maiming at will. The people attempted to control the demons but it was no good; they could not fight the creatures and soon they had to fall back into hiding, living in constant fear for their lives.

  When all hope was lost, they finally came: the Light Ones. It is said that either they were created by the Gods, or the Gods took on a physical form; either way they appeared to fight the Shadow. They were able to conjure up life and light when all was thought to have been sucked from the land. They fought the demons until the land began to regain its former glory. But just as the Gods had sent the Light Ones, the remaining demons sensed they needed their own champions to fight against them. So they were created, the Three High-Demons: the Warrior, the Shape Shifter and He of the Five Eyes. The battles that were subsequently fought were said to be the worst the people had ever known: never had there been such ferocity and destruction. But the Light Ones realised that neither side could win – they were almost equally matched and there was no way to destroy the other without destroying the land.

  So they came to the final conclusion – that they must cast a spell so powerful that it could banish the demons from the land, even if it meant destroying themselves in the process.

  The final battle came and at the crucial moment the Light Ones cast the spell at the Three and the Shadow. The magic destroyed the Darkness except the essential essence of the demons. The Light Ones intended to cast them into a realm beyond physical form where they would be trapped, harmless and unable to return to the physical world. However, just as they were about to be destroyed, the demons realised what had been done and cast their own spells. Rather than being trapped in a dimension they could not escape from, the demons created a new dimension, the Dark Realm, where they took sanctuary instead. The Light Ones were equally affected by the spells and were ripped from the earth. They were scattered to five different planets, where they remained ever since. It is only now that we have ever made an attempt to recover them. At first the people were too exhausted from the wars to go in search of them. Then they realised they lacked the knowledge or capabilities to do so. Then when no Shadow re-emerged the Light Ones chose to leave the people, believing they were now safe.

  Thousands of years passed without incident, but then the professors at the Institute began noticing a shift in the pattern of the world. Suddenly nothing felt quite right anymore but it had been so long since the Darkness was present, it was almost impossible for them to identify what was wrong. Because of this, daily life continued as normal for some time … then one day a boy wandered off into the forest beyond the city and never returned. When search parties were sent out to look for him they found no traces. However, there were signs of a struggle and when experts were sent out to try and discover what might have happened they found certain runes and patterns that indicated the use of certain types of powerful dark enchantments which was so old that they were unfamiliar with it.

  Several days went by during which the professors were hard at work analysing the enchantments – and having a hard time doing so I might add. Then quite intentionally, a professor summoned one of the creatures into her office. They couldn’t isolate or return it so it was locked in there … still is actually. So it was decided that the Shadow was finally recovering its power and the Light Ones had to be recovered. So we set the most prolific engineers, sociologists, magicians, labourers, researchers, psychologists, and scientists the task of locating, finding, and recovering the Light Ones in the hope of bringing them back here where they would be able to defend the land. The rest is what you have told me.”

  Rigel had always known that there would be an explanation for his existence, but now that he had finally heard it, he was not sure whether he could comprehend it. Rona looked equally surprised and shocked. What could they say? All this responsibility was resting on their shoulders and they barely had any idea of where they were or what they were supposed to do.

  “There’s something that’s always bothered me,” said Rigel, “and now you’ve explained that, I need know for certain. Why are we children? If we’re such mighty warriors, why are we children? And what happened to us and our powers … and everything?”

  “A good question,” said Mizar. “I’ll try and answer it as best as I can. You have lived many lives, several hundred for all I know. You were children, grew up as adults, became old and then died. Your bodies then reformed identically to how you used to look as children before, and then you started again. Your powers and knowledge of your true selves were hidden deep in your minds (what use would they have been?) until the time was right for them to be used again. It was a defence mechanism built in to keep you alive until you were found again. I think perhaps that the amount of time it took you be found was the reason you were both so poor and hungry. To start off with, you would have been well fed, rich and happy but the resources – such as the reserves of your powers which would have sustained you through the appearances of food and money – would have been used up after so many years.”

  Now Rigel finally understood where The Account of all his fifty and twenty pence coins kept coming from.

  “So the photos in all the albums will have been me?” asked Rigel.

  “Undoubtedly.”

  A strange hollowness filled him. Perhaps, deep down, he had known that he had no parents, but he had always imagined that they had moved away or died. To find out that he had never had any at all was difficult. Nevertheless, it all made sense. Suddenly his pitiful existence made sense. He sat in silence, thinking it all over.

  “So what’s the plan now?” asked Laurie.

  “I believe that unfortunately they won’t be able to do anything for several days because of all the media attention they will receive.”

  “I don’t want media attention,” protested Rigel, thinking about the vobox presenter again.

  “I’m sure,” sighed Alcor, “but it is an unfortunate necessity. The people will want to know more about you, what your plans are.”

  “We don’t have any plans.”

  “I know that! That’s why I’m trying to tell you some!”

  “Sorry.”

  “Once that has been completed, you will be expected to begin your training. This will be undertaken by the military head
quarters, or Institution, as you may have heard it called. That is on the outskirts of the city. Whilst this is happening, Laurie and his crew of pilots will, after a short period of recuperation, of course, be sent back out in their flying machine in the hope of recovering more Light Ones – we believe there to be five of you. Now that it seems we are on the eve of war, we must prepare ourselves as fully as possible. Does that sound agreeable to you?” asked Mizar, hiccupping a little.

  “That sounds well planned out,” said Laurie.

  “Will we get interviewed by the press?” asked Tink, his eyes shining.

  “Yes, I suppose you will,” replied Alcor. “You were as much a part of this adventure as Rigel and Rona were.”

  “Excellent!”

  Silence fell again as the group contemplated what the future might hold. One thing was pressing on Rigel’s mind.

  “Why isn’t everyone panicking?” he asked.

  “Sorry?”

  “If there’s a threat of civil war and of this Shadow coming, why isn’t everyone panicking about it?”

  “Well, I think everyone is concerned with it,” replied Mizar, “but it’s like everything: they won’t do anything about it until the problem is right in front of them. Until then they will carry on living their lives as if nothing were going to happen, too worked up in their own minds about petty matters to do anything. They’ll regret it, of course, when it’s too late, but until then they choose to ignore it. It’s always the same …. It’s like people who live on a volcano. They think it’s great because the ground is so fertile. It isn’t until it’s erupting that they think it might have been a bad idea and they should probably do something about it.”

  “You can’t say that, Mizar!” protested her brother.

  “I can say whatever I want,” she replied, exhaling a thick plume of smoke. “Just because it offends people doesn’t mean it isn’t true.”

  Alcor shook his head. Rona carried on the conversation.

  “It just feels like we should be doing more …,” she said. Rigel was still feeling very uneasy and unable to explain why.

  “I think you have a warped perspective of it all,” Laurie said, trying to be helpful. “You’ve gone to three worlds, two of which have been overrun by Darkness. You get here and there’s the threat of it and no-one’s doing anything about it. I understand how you feel. The threat of the Shadow has been hanging over our heads for two years now and it’s only just starting to increase its strength. You think that we need to raise an army immediately and prepare to fight to the death, but that’s not the case. It will take several years for it to fully develop. That’s when we need to start worrying.”

  “I suppose ….”

  “The best thing you can do now, Rigel,” said Alcor, “is to live your life. You’ve been liberated from that terrible existence and now you’re free! We’ll all look after you here and so, for a while at least, you can just enjoy living a normal life. The city here has so much to offer. I suggest one of the first things you do is to explore it with Rona. You two seem to be getting on very well.”

  “So you’re sure that I don’t need to worry right now?”

  “Absolutely,” said Laurie. “We have ages.”

  Unfortunately, on that point Laurie was very, very wrong.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “That’s it, sit up a little straighter, Rona. You relax a bit more in that position. No, Rigel, sit straighter. No, like this. Okay, let’s stop a minute.” The photographer seemed to be running out of patience.

  He had been signed to exclusively photograph Rona and Rigel together for the city’s top newspaper, The Moon, but it did not seem to be going as he had planned in his head. If he had been expecting two people who were both photogenic and not camera shy then he must have stumbled across the worst combination. Rigel had never had his photograph taken. With no parents, he had had no-one to take pictures, as there were no happy moments to remember and share. Rona however, was just completely non-photogenic. She would manage to blink at just the wrong moment, spoiling the picture. If she managed to keep her eyes open, she would accidently cross them at the last moment or forget to smile. This, combined with Rigel’s and Rona’s apparently innate and uncontrollable ability to occasionally burn a whole roll of film when they started glowing with a pure white light, was causing the photographer to wonder whether he had just been assigned his hardest job to date

  “I’m sorry,” said Rigel, feeling guilty. “I’ve never had my photograph taken before.”

  “It’s alright dear,” said the man. “It’s not your fault. Perhaps you will get a little more used to it later on. You, on the other hand,” he said, pointing to Rona, “are trouble. Are you doing that on purpose?”

  “Doing what on purpose?” asked Rona, looking irritated.

  “Blinking and then pulling faces.”

  “I’m not pulling faces on purpose! Your flash is too bright.”

  “Of course it’s bright – that’s the point!”

  An assistant came bustling in, carrying fresh rolls of film and looking eager to please his mentor.

  “How about we light the set softly?” suggested the assistant. “That way we won’t actually have to use the flash and you might be able to create a more dramatic effect.”

  The cameraman turned around to his assistant, sighing deeply.

  “Why do you dislike me?” he asked, folding his arms. “I show you nothing but compassion and careful tutorage and this is how you repay me – by coming in here and telling me how to do my job.”

  “No, sir!”

  “Never mind. Perhaps in time you will learn something that I try to teach you. I would have thought that after these months you would have learnt something but evidently not. I tried … I did try.”

  “Sir, this is ridiculous!”

  “Silence!” he replied, holding up his hand as if he’d just had a great idea. “I’ve just has a great idea! Go and fetch me some lights. That way I’ll be able to light it for dramatic effect and not have to use the flash either.”

  The assistant left the room, muttering, “I’m getting so tired of you …”.

  The assistant returned several minutes later. Rigel and Rona had to wait while the lights were set up to allow a better shot to be taken.

  Once the set up was finally completed, they were photographed in various poses: standing back to back, standing together, sat down on the floor, Rona reclining on a chaise longue whilst Rigel sat at the other end. They were not particularly inspiring shots but as the children reviewed the photos once the assistant had developed them, they saw they looked quite impressive and charismatic with the light creating shadows on their faces. Rigel and Rona mentioned to each other that they hoped it would at least give the right impression to the public, showing that they could be trusted and counted upon to do something good.

  “Right. Well, I think that’s all we can do for today,” said the cameraman, beginning to pack up his things. “Thank you for your eventual co-operation. We got there in the end. Well … goodbye.”

  He left the room.

  “What now?” asked Rigel.

  “I think we have a conference later,” replied Rona, “but nothing until then. Come on, let’s go.”

  It was the morning of their second day in Kozenia and now the prospect of a whole morning and afternoon to themselves exploring the city was very exciting.

  Leaving the empty hall, they descended the steps until they reached the double doors that led them out into the street.

  They walked down onto the pavement, and looked up at the sky, smiling as the warm sunlight hit their faces.

  “What do you want to do?” asked Rigel.

  “I don’t know,” mused Rona. “We’ve got most of the day to ourselves but when you don’t know what there is to do it’s quite difficult.”

  They continued to ponder when a skinny teenager wearing a heavy golden cloak cycled up to them. Swinging her legs over the
frame, she brought the bike to a halt in front of them, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out a piece of paper.

  “Are you Rigel and Rona?” she asked, looking at them with a mixture of awe and fear.

  “Yes,” said Rona.

  “I have a message here from Captain Laurie, if you would be so good as to hear it?” she asked.

  “Certainly, go on.”

  “It says: ‘Before you go off gallivanting around the city, please return for an appointment on Plum Street. Come to the Ministry as there is something that needs to be discussed with you regarding your activities.’”

  “Erm, okay.”

  “He also included this,” said the teenager, pulling out another thin sheet of paper and holding it out. “It’s a token to use on the tram so you can get back quicker.”

  “Okay. Thank you very much.”

  “You’re welcome. Have a good day.”

  “And you.”

  They watched as she clambered back onto her bicycle and pedalled away down the street and out of sight.

  “Suppose we better go then,” said Rona, taking Rigel’s hand and pulling him along.

  The tram tracks were inlayed into the centre of every street but they had no idea where to catch one or which one would lead to the Ministry.

  “Which one do we get? And where is it?” asked Rigel, peering around.

  “Better ask.”

  Going up to a stall holder on the edge of the street, they asked where to catch a tram and which one to take to get to the Ministry.

  “Ministry?” croaked the woman. “Take your next left and you’ll see a tram stop halfway down the street. Wait there; then you just need to take the blue-route service. That will get you there.”

  “Thank you.”

  Walking down the street, they arrived at the stop, standing awkwardly among the other people who were waiting.

  A tram rounded the corner, but a bright yellow square in the corner of its windscreen indicated that it was not the right service for them. The actual vehicle looked very similar to vintage trams that used to be used in England. It was painted cream and maroon and was very pleasing to the eye. Several people clambered on or off before it drove off again, rounding the corner sharply.