With each rhythmic pulse, the Kingdom grew. When it stopped, the Light from the half-spire, the Light of the Beacon, rose without interruption into the cloudless blue of the morning sky.
Kaya, Andrew, and Jacob walked around the edge of the platform looking at the elaborate patterns formed by the buildings, roads, bridges, and aqueducts. They radiated out from the base of the spire and blended perfectly with the surrounding landscape.
“It still feels like a dream,” Kaya thought aloud. “Did you ever dare to dream you would be here to see this?”
Before either of them could answer, they felt the call from below.
Jacob was confused by the message, and he asked, “Where are we supposed to go? I don’t understand what’s happening.”
“We have to leave the spire now. We’re going to the Fountain at the south entrance,” Andrew said.
“We are? Why are we going there?”
Kaya turned around from the edge of the platform and walked over to Jacob. She put her hand on his chest, and said, “If you listen to what your heart is telling you, you’ll understand.”
He closed his eyes and breathed deeply while she kept her hand on his chest. After several deep breaths, he opened his eyes, and there was a sparkle in them.
“He’s here, isn’t He?” Jacob whispered.
Kaya nodded, and lowering her hand, she asked Andrew “Do you suppose Jacob can fly?”
Jacob raised his eyebrows in surprise and turned to Andrew.
“Fly?” he asked.
Andrew decided to have a little fun at Jacob’s expense so he teasingly replied, “Oh yes, it’s being done by all the fashionable people in the Kingdom these days. Haven’t you heard?”
Jacob turned to Kaya for confirmation, his eyebrows still raised.
Kaya took Jacob’s hand into hers, and asked him, “Do you remember when Andrew and I found you last night? When you were on your back.”
Jacob paused, considering the question.
“I thought I was delusional or dreaming. Are you telling me it was real? Are you telling me you and Andrew actually flew out of the night sky, just the way I saw it happen?”
Kaya squeezed his hand and smiled. In a slightly giddy voice, she asked, “Would you like to give it a try?”
Jacob only nodded.
“Shall we?” Andrew asked mischievously.
“Let’s see how he does,” Kaya agreed, grinning back at Andrew.
They stood on either side of Jacob and asked him to put an arm around each of their shoulders. He did as they asked while they each wrapped an arm around his waist.
“Straight up?” Andrew thought to them.
“Straight up,” Kaya thought back.
Jacob’s arms tightened around their shoulders as they left the surface of the platform.
“He’s as light as a feather,” Kaya thought to Andrew.
“Let’s take him up high enough to catch him if he doesn’t float,” Andrew thought back.
“How are you doing Jacob?” Kaya asked him aloud.
With the enthusiasm of a little boy opening a giant birthday gift, Jacob yelled into the morning sky, “Incredible!”
They flew faster and higher in the rising column of Light until the details of the buildings faded away, and the streets of the Kingdom melted into the landscape of the City.
“All right, let’s see if he can float,” Andrew said.
Kaya and Andrew let go of Jacob’s waist and dropped away.
His fingers fumbled to grab onto their shoulders, and he called out, “Hey, wait. This isn’t funny.”
“Come back!” he yelled, bobbing in mid-air.
Andrew and Kaya flew out of the column of Light and around him several times.
“See,” Andrew thought aloud, “You float just like a cork.”
“And if you can float,” Kaya thought to them, “you can fly!”
“Come on Jacob,” Andrew called out, flying past him on his back like he was lounging in the sun. “It’s just like Celeste’s diary. All you have to do is think about where you want to go and off you go.”
Listening to Andrew’s advice, Jacob’s panic faded into curiosity.
“Just like I’m in the book?” he called out to them as they flew by.
“Just like you’re in the book,” Andrew confirmed. “She wrote it that way because she could fly too.”
“This ought to be fun,” Jacob thought aloud.
“It’s wonderful Jacob! Come join us, won’t you?” Kaya encouraged him.
Jacob focused his mind and shot up even higher, twisting and turning like a bird. He zoomed back down to Kaya and Andrew and flew circles around them. Then he hovered in front of them with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Just like I’m in the book!” he said, with a huge smile.
The smile faded, and Jacob looked sad. Andrew and Kaya felt the emotions radiate from him and touch their hearts.
“Say the words, Jacob, tell us what it is,” Kaya pleaded to him.
Andrew floated closer to his friend, put his hand on his shoulder, and said, “I think I know.”
Jacob raised his head to look into Andrew’s eyes, when Andrew confided, “I miss him too. I wish he could be here with us.”
Jacob nodded and cleared his throat. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop missing him,” he said.
Floating in next to them, Kaya put a hand on each of their shoulders, and said, “I hope neither of you ever stops missing him. I also hope he comes to terms with what happened in the Chamber and that he learns and grows, and eventually comes to join us.”
They felt Jacob’s hopefulness returning when Andrew said, “We all drank the water and it’s even in Celeste’s diary. You know it’s possible. Especially since he’s not in the village.”
“You’re both right, my friends,” Jacob said, with gratitude. “If he grows into half the man I know he can be, it is possible.”
“Jacob, in case you hadn’t noticed, we’re flying! My mouth isn’t moving, and I’m talking to you,” Andrew flew in an upside down circle and came back to exactly where he had been, and said, “Anything is possible my friends, anything at...”
The sound of his words trailed off as they felt the call from below.
“We must go,” Kaya thought to them.
“To the Fountain of Knowing at the south entrance,” Andrew said, completing her thought.
“Off we go,” Jacob said, as the three inaugural members of the Kingdom began moving quickly through the sky.
Focusing on their destination, they reached a blurring speed. Within seconds, they stood facing the Fountain of Knowing.
Jacob reached out to the waist-high edge of the Fountain and steadied himself.
“Did either of you even try to land or did we just arrive here?” he asked.
“I was going too fast to land,” Kaya said, steadying herself against the Fountain.
“I agree with Kaya,” Andrew said, turning to Jacob. “I have no idea how I landed, but I’m glad it wasn’t really up to me because I would have crashed.”
“That’s the strangest…,” Jacob began to say when the Light of a thousand suns appeared behind them throwing their shadows onto the ground and into the distance far beyond the archway of the inner wall.
“Oh my,” Kaya whispered.
Andrew instinctively turned toward the Light, and while he couldn’t see into it, he knew its source. Kaya glanced over at him and mouthed the words, “Tell him.”
“We have to go now,” he said to Jacob.
“Where are you going?” Jacob asked.
Andrew put his arm around Jacob’s shoulders, and the two looked at each other.
“We’re all going Jacob, the three of us.”
“I didn’t realize that,” he said, with a little grin.
“It was the only way to save you last night.”
Andrew and Jacob turned back to face the waves of Light washing over them. Stepping in front of them, Kaya whispered, “We’re all in this together, wherever it takes us. I hope you don’t mind. Andrew and I just couldn’t see it any other way.”
Andrew wrapped his other arm around Kaya while Jacob put an arm around each of them and the three embraced.
“Thank you,” Jacob said to them. “Thank you for everything.”
The three separated, joined hands and turned back toward the Light. Kaya was in the middle, Andrew was on her right and Jacob was on her left. The Fountain trickled and splashed playfully behind their backs.
The silhouette of a person moved toward them, but it wasn’t coming out of the Light, it was bringing the Light with it. As the figure came closer, the Light grew. It overwhelmed everything around them until there was nothing; nothing but a white, featureless, endless space.
The voice of the Light spoke, and their grip on each other tightened.
“We’ll be leaving this place in a moment.”
The three friends unconsciously nodded.
“Before we go, you’ll each need to leave something behind. Please take a seat on the edge of the Fountain.”
“I can’t see the Fountain anymore,” Andrew thought aloud.
“It’s here Andrew,” Kaya said, pulling his hand back to touch the edge.
Each of them fumbled a little, and eventually, they sat on the side of the Fountain with their feet dangling just above the ground.
“Thank you,” said the Light, in His deep and comforting baritone voice. “Now, if you would each place the fingers of your right hand into the water, we’ll be ready to start our journey.”
The water of the Fountain was lower than the edge they were sitting on, and they leaned over and reached down. When each of them had all five fingers submerged, the water changed.
“My hand is stuck!” Jacob yelled, pulling against the immovable object attached to his hand.
“Mine is too,” Andrew and Kaya responded.
“None of you are stuck,” the voice resonated through their minds. “Quite the contrary actually. If each of you would please stand, I think you’ll see things a little differently.”
Andrew pulled and pulled until his shoulder hurt, but he still couldn’t stand up. Jacob grabbed his wrist with his left hand and pulled until he thought he was going to break it, but he couldn’t stand up either.
Kaya tugged at her hand a couple of times, but she knew it wasn’t going to come unstuck. She fought off the instinct to panic and calmed herself the way her grandmother had taught her. When she had steadied her breathing and relaxed her mind, she realized where she really was, where they all were.
Sitting on the edge of the Fountain, surrounded by nothing but empty white Light, she thought, “Anything is possible.” She took a breath and let it out, saying, “I’m in the Light, and anything is possible.”
She focused on standing up, and she made herself do it, but without moving a muscle.
Her hand came free from the Fountain, her feet dropped toward the ground, and the Light began to pull away. At first, she could only feel it rushing by. When her feet touched the ground, the Light took on its familiar shades of blue and began pooling around a central point.
Daylight flickered in her peripheral vision, and she watched as the blue-white Light flowed into the silhouette of a person. Like filling a cup with water, the Light filled the shape until all the Light was gone and an elderly man stood in front of her.
He was wearing the same robes as Kaya, and He gave off the same faint glow. He had a short, thick nose, a flowing white beard and when He smiled, lines appeared around His large blue eyes and Kaya felt love.
He opened His arms, saying, “It’s either a hug or a handshake, and I’m pretty sure I know which one you’re going to take.”
Kaya practically floated into His welcoming arms.
“Welcome home, little one. I’m very, very proud of you,” He said hugging her, “Welcome home.”
She went weak in the knees as the sound of His voice, and the comfort of His embrace filled her with more love, hope, peace and confidence than anyone would have ever dreamed possible.
Andrew was still yanking at his hand when he felt a tug on his soul, then part of it seemed to vanish.
“Kaya,” he called out, but there was no answer.
“Kaya!!” he yelled into the infinite, featureless Light.
“I think Kaya figured it out,” he thought to Jacob, but there was no answer.
“Jacob!” he yelled, “Jacob!” but there was still no answer.
Exhausted and aching from the effort, he stopped pulling. He tried not to panic, but his mind was racing. There had to be a trick to getting free, but he couldn’t figure it out. Leaning down against the edge, he rolled over onto his side.
With his hand stuck in something he couldn’t see and his body lying on the edge of a Fountain that no longer seemed to exist, he closed his eyes and found himself drifting in the Light. He slowed his breathing and let his mind wander.
It took time, but eventually Andrew realized where he was. He knew this place even if there was nothing in it and no amount of strength or physical force mattered here.
Sitting back up, Andrew opened his eyes, focused his mind and willed himself to stand up.
Like water running down a drain, the Light that filled his world was immediately pulled toward a central point just a few feet in front of him. It swirled and pulled at him as his feet fell toward the polished stone street. The Light rippled with streaks of blue, and he watched its churning motion and its unbelievable speed. When his toes touched the ground, daylight had already become visible at the fringes of the Light and the world around him began to feel more familiar.
He stared intently at the Light as it gathered and concentrated into the shape of a person; filling the silhouette until a man stood before him with His arms open wide.
“What took you?” Jacob asked with a grin, but Andrew didn’t hear him. He barely even noticed Kaya and Jacob standing next to the man.
“I think I’ll take that hug now,” the man said to Andrew, and the two embraced like Father and son.
“Welcome home, Andrew. Welcome home.”