by C. A. Sabol
Obsidian had fled to the farthest reaches of the desert earth to hide. He had taken shelter in a rocky formation in the Great Desert of Sapphira, as he could no longer return to the starry prison he’d been kept in for these past millennia. The time had come when at last he had been let free from the Four-point prison, and he had hurriedly escaped. He knew that it was better that he be stuck here on the planet then in that endless hole once again. He began to pace around his rocky dwelling, trying to think of what to do.
He had tried to get the princess to choose a life of darkness, but he had failed to manipulate her in the right way. He needed to find a way to get her to see things his way. He walked around and around, his mind preying on the different things he could use against her.
She was the key, he knew. Obsidian also knew that if he could lay claim to her soul, the bridge between humankind and the Gates of Crystallon would be broken. The Guardian would be cut off, and that would be the end of it. He could rule freely over this desert world in darkness, eventually bringing the Dark Plague to all things, allowing a bleak silence to consume all that was bright and happy in this world. Obsidian could feel his mouth watering at such a notion. He hated man, and despised the Guardian who loved them with a great passion. He wanted nothing more than to see the world suffer for all eternity.
“Let me see, then,” he murmured to himself, using his demonic magic to conjure up his crystal ball. “There is a war, and not just any war, but a civil war pitting the nations against the monarchy. That I can use.”
He knew that the princess often suffered from loneliness. That he could use as well. He sat down on a chair he had called out from the depths of the planet’s core. Looking into his crystal once again, he tuned into what the princess was doing for the moment. He looked to see that she had looked up from her studies to gaze out her window. Her focus seemed to be on one of the castle towers, the one that raised above all the rest. All of a sudden, it came to memory that she had great feelings for one besides the Pegasus ... that boy, the first son of the rebel Ammos, who was trapped in a coma in Silverton City. Obsidian sneered at his discovery; what a plan it would be, to pit the princess between her two great loves—the human or the spirit, the boy or the horse.
He leaned back and relaxed, taking the time to laugh cruelly. “That is it!” he exclaimed with renewed enthusiasm. “The princess will be torn in two ... it is perfect. Her love for that young man will be her greatest undoing yet. Love is such a weakness. Humans are so stupid ... they do not realize that the more they love, the more they can be hurt in the end!” He laughed again, nearly doubling over with the force of such laughter.
SELENE LOOKED UP FROM the book she read and sighed, just letting the words mull over in her mind. They were not hard to understand, but the style was very symbolistic and slightly confusing. Though the book was very interesting and made her want to continue reading it, she wasn’t sure if any of it would be made clear to her or not.
Her room was silent; she had allowed her handmaidens a free day, and Aura was still being called on by her social cliques for the latest news about Selene’s condition. Selene decided that she liked being alone in her room; somehow she felt that she was lonely, but she was not alone.
Turning her head, she looked out her room’s windows and noticed the High Tower in the distance. Suddenly she missed Etoileon so much, there was a great pain in her heart and she ached with a longing to see him. She slumped over, putting her head down on her desk. Ever since that night in the Medical Ward that she’d heard the doctor tell the nurse that it would be unlikely if Etoileon would wake up again, Selene had been fearful that the doctor was right. She was heartbroken over his concussions, and she could do nothing to make herself feel better about the matter. She glanced once again at the High Tower, and realized that she did not want to go back there without her friend.
She sighed, and found her eyes were wet with tears. “Etoileon ... ” she murmured as she laid her head to rest in her arms once again as she let her tears go out silently. She felt her heart cry out in pain for his companionship, his company. She missed his smile, his laugh, his kindness.
She felt herself drifting off to sleep as her tears slowed. There was a numbing feeling in her body as she was whisked away to another world.
SELENE OPENED HER EYES to find herself on her little island of dreams once more. She was lying on the beach with the warmth of the sun tickling her cheeks, as though to wipe away the tearstains. She sat up slowly, looking around. Despite that evil man leaving her dream world, she couldn’t completely shake off his words of Pegasus leaving her. Selene stood up and began to look around carefully. “Pegasus?” she called out.
A moment later, there were footsteps coming out from the forest, and her face broke out into a smile. “Pegasus!”
The horse almost seemed to smile back at her. The crystal flames of his eyes sparked with a playful cheeriness. “Selene.”
Selene suddenly stopped in her tracks. “Wow! How did you know my name?” she asked. “I don’t think I ever told you before.” She was a little scared all of a sudden.
Again, the creature seemed to smile. “My friend, I have known you for years,” he said. His mouth never moved, but his voice was clearly heard. It called to her above the wind and the water, rang in her heart and in her thoughts. “I have been with you since you were conceived, and I had known you long before. It is the same with all my precious ones.”
Selene walked cautiously up to him. “Who are you?”
“Who do you say I am?” he asked her softly. When she could not answer him, he nudged her hand with his nose. He then turned and took a step toward the beach. “Come, follow me,” he invited.
“But I have so much to ask you,” Selene stammered. “There is so much I am confused about. Why are you here? What is it that you do? Where did you come from? How is it that you know me, and knew of me so long ago? Is this really real?”
He shook his head slightly. “I cannot tell you all the things you wish to know, dear one. I must ask that you trust me on certain things.”
“Will you give me the answers to some of my questions?” Selene pressed.
He smiled patiently. “With time, you will see all that you need to know. With faith, you will understand all that you need to know.”
She did not hesitate to follow him after that. His words held no note of falseness, only of the truth. Selene picked up her skirts and caught up to him as he walked. She could not take her eyes off of him, she was so entranced by his beauty.
He turned towards her as he walked. “This is a lovely dream,” he said.
Selene was a bit surprised. “Thank you ... but I thought that it was you who made it beautiful, not me.”
“All of the humans on this world have a choice in such matters,” he told her. When she just looked puzzled, he went on and said, “There are some who try to read the mind of the Creator, and say, ‘Surely a man is destined to be either good or bad,’ and think that no matter how good or bad he is, he will hold true to his fate. But I tell you, all have been given the free will to choose. Though the outcome may be known, the path of fate is not one of a simple journey to an end place. It is one of discovery.”
“What do they discover?” Selene asked.
“Each one will discover his own darkness,” Pegasus replied. “But it is then that the decision of their fate is before their feet. Will they turn away from their inner darkness? Will they embrace it? Or will they choose to get rid of it?” He looked up. “Only the Guardian knows the fate of each one; but it is not his will that any should choose the darkness over the light.”
“Why?”
Pegasus looked down at her. “The Guardian’s most precious dream is Sapphira, Selene. As his most precious dream, he wants the people he created to love him as much as he loves them. He is their Father. For their own safety, not to mention their own good, he also wants them to listen for his direction. He can see the trouble ahead and does not want us to fall under its sha
dow. He wants to protect them. But if they do not want him to protect them, if they want to go out on their own strength, then the Father has chosen not to intervene.”
“Why not?” Selene asked. “The advisors at the castle intervene all the time to prevent bed decisions being made.”
“A father must let his children choose their paths freely. If he controlled them, and made them love him back, how empty would their love seem?”
Selene thought about it, and suddenly she understood. “Pretty empty, I would say,” she said softly.
“Love is willing to wait, Selene,” Pegasus explained. “It takes time for a relationship to grow. In the same way, the seeds of a flower are planted, but only with the proper nutrients can it flourish.”
“But in the end, the gardener would rejoice?” Selene asked.
“Yes,” Pegasus nodded, smiling kindly down at her. “Nothing worth having is ever easy. That is why Sapphira’s people have been given the free choice. It is not a decision that is always easy to make.”
Selene nodded, thinking of Dorian. “Do you believe in the Guardian then?” she asked.
Pegasus smiled, his eyes twinkling strangely. “Yes, I do. It is on him that I cast my faith, my trust, and even my life. I tell you the truth, whoever does not believe in him and his great love, or have faith in the Prince, shall never see the Great Light of Crystallon.”
Selene bit her lip. “I want to believe in such a love,” she said quietly. “But how do I know if I am even lovable? Do I even deserve his love?”
“Dear child, I told you it was not his will that any should die in darkness,” her friend responded. “He loves you, and wants to be there to help you through all things. He has given you many gifts, has he not? He has formed you to be original and unique among all that he has created. If his love has made you, then you are capable of loving him back.”
“But I am not perfect,” Selene insisted. “I’m not very nice all the time, and I do not always tell the truth, and I have doubts about some things, and all these other things.” She looked up at him and sighed. “I am sorry, Pegasus. No one has really told me of the Guardian since I was a little girl.”
“Ah, yes,” Pegasus nodded. “Haiasi was a good man, a very devout follower. He was filled with the truth.”
“You know him?”
“Of course.”
“Will you tell me how?”
“Not yet. Tell me what he taught you,” Pegasus urged her. “I will listen.”
Selene thought about it for a moment or two before she began. “Well, he told me that all the people on the world had been corrupted. He said that they all knew what the difference between good and evil was, but they choose evil over good many times and that the Guardian, though he loved them, could not dwell with both goodness and badness in their hearts.” When Pegasus just nodded, she continued. “I read in that book I got from Dorian today that all who carried something called the Dark Plague and were evil must die apart from the Guardian.”
“That is true,” Pegasus nodded. “Every human since the birth of man has had the Dark Plague in his heart, passed on from the first infection.”
“Then how can anyone ever hope to see Crystallon?” Selene asked. “Is there no way for the Guardian to overlook sin?”
“No. But there is a way to get rid of the Dark Plague. You have managed, all these years, Selene, to hold off the symptoms of it, because you believed in the power of good dreams, and though you may not realize it, you also believed that they were given to you by the Guardian. There was a conviction in your heart that most do not have, because you chose a long time ago to believe in those stories that your mentor shared with you.”
“I did believe in them,” Selene agreed. “They were beautiful dreams, and I was surrounded by loneliness. I think they saved me from being consumed by the darkness. But I know still have some in me.” She thought of Etoileon, and the guilt in her heart over his injuries, the war, and Dorian’s disregard of a higher authority. In a way, she felt that her actions, or in some cases her inactions, had allowed the darkness of the world to get at those she cared for.
Pegasus stopped. “There is only way to get rid of darkness completely. The Pure Light will absorb it, kill it, gather it, and lock it away from the world ... but for such a gift, the world has its own price to pay.”
“Price?”
“Yes. There is something that humans must give to the Guardian for his gift of redemption.”
“What is it? Is it very expensive?”
“It cannot be purchased, but it is more priceless than all human wealth,” Pegasus told her. “It must be freely given.”
“Not our free will though, right?”
“No. The Guardian has promised never to interfere with that, and he has never gone back on his word, nor shall he ever. At first it is a simple gift, but it will be hard for some.”
“What is it?”
Pegasus looked over at her, and Selene began to feel the familiar sensation of waking up begin to stir around her. As her dream faded away in the shimmering display of light, Selene could hear his whispered response.
“The faith that grows from love.”
And with that, Selene felt her dream fall away from her and the human world settle around her once more.
SHE WOKE UP TO CYERRA standing over her, shaking her shoulder slightly. “Princess?” Cyerra asked quietly. “Are you well?”
Selene straightened up at her desk. “Yes,” she said, shaking the remnant of her nap away from her face. “I’m ... quite fine, actually. I guess I was just tired, that’s all.”
“You do need your rest for tomorrow,” Cyerra agreed. “I walked by Master Omni’s schoolroom and heard him getting things all prepared for you. He seems to be a likable instructor.”
“He is, most of the time,” Selene agreed. But then she yawned. “But his lessons are rather dull some days. Still, he has been a wonderful teacher, and I have learned much from him.”
Cyerra nodded, and then replied, “I came to let you know that all of your handmaidens are back on duty, Highness.”
“Selene, please, Cyerra.”
“Oh, right ... sorry.”
“That’s quite alright,” Selene brushed it aside. “But I like to be called Selene by my friends, that’s all.”
Cyerra smiled brightly. “Thank you, Selene.” She broke into a grin at the thought of being a friend of the princess. “Did you have a nice nap? It couldn’t have been too comfortable sitting at your desk there.”
“Huh? Oh ... Well, it was a good nap,” Selene said cheerfully. “I definitely feel refreshed. I think ... I think I would like to go and take a walk in the gardens before dinner tonight.”
“Okay. If Aura comes by, I will tell her that you’ll be back to dress for dinner in a couple of hours, right?”
Selene cocked her head thoughtfully. “Why don’t you come with me, instead, Cyerra? I can’t imagine that you’d like to defend me to Aura anyway.”
“If you want, sure,” Cyerra agreed. She smiled again. “That sounds much more preferable to getting the heat from Aura, yes.” They both giggled over that while Selene grabbed her cloak.
A few moments later, they were walking in the Courtyard Garden Hall on the main stone path. Selene and Cyerra chatted for a few moments of the beauty of the place and how glad they were that the reconstruction workers had been able to fix it up without harming any of the flowers. After a brief period of silence, Selene looked over at Cyerra and asked, “Cyerra, what was it like to grow up in the city? Was it nice?”
“You mean what was it like to grow up outside of the palace?” Cyerra asked, a little startled at the unusual question.
“Kind of, yes. I have not been outside the palace much. Certainly not enough to know what it is like to live there. Would you tell me?”
So Cyerra complied and told Selene about her aunt, and the shop that they ran. “It’s just a little shop,” Cyerra said, “But it’s quite charming. I help decorate it. It’s fu
nny, but I actually miss it sometimes. The palace is nice, don’t get me wrong, but I think one has to be born here to feel at home here.”
Selene nodded. “Maybe. I don’t really feel at home here right now.”
“I’m sure it’s just because of all the walls and windows that are still being worked on,” Cyerra assured her.
Selene nodded. “I hope you’re right. But I think something else is missing, too. It’s more than that, but it’s too hard to explain.” I don’t feel as trapped here as I did before, she realized. There was always something confining about being here, but now it doesn’t feel so ... hopeless, I guess, to be free, she thought.
Cyerra studied her for a moment, trying to decide whether or not to bring up Etoileon. She had heard the news that he was still showing no signs of improvement, as usual. But before she could mention him or anything else, Selene spoke up.
“Cyerra, tell me,” Selene implored, “Do you think your brother will call off the war anytime soon?”
Cyerra shrugged. “I guess I don’t really know him as well as I thought I did,” she remarked. “I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years that he would grow up so cold and so prone to take revenge. I suppose that deep down, I may only ever remember him as Auntie’s little helper. It certainly is a better choice over leader of the rebels.”
Selene sensed Cyerra’s heart was full of pain, just as Selene felt for Etoileon. Somehow both of them had lost someone that they deeply cared for. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Cyerra nodded. “It’s fine. It’s actually rather nice talking with you, you know. I wish more of the monarchs were like you, Selene.”
Selene shook her head. “I don’t think I would make a great Queen. I would happily resign my title, if only Dorian had a family. But he tells me that he likes it, being just the two of us. He says that he doesn’t want a wife under the conditions like our father’s. I don’t blame him, in many ways,” Selene admitted. “People around here still won’t talk about my mother to me.”
