Chapter 16
Friborg entered a portal room and found it blocked by Lester, Fersia, Lakin, Kimber, Tay, Professor Amil Sleiman and a half a dozen troopers. Fribourg slowed his progress, taking hold of his cape with both hands like a child suddenly afraid to fly. Lester came forwards.
“Morlon,” Lester said.
“Lester,” Fribourg said.
“Going somewhere?” Lester asked.
“Um, I just realized I forgot something back home and thought I’d run get it,” Fribourg said.
“You’re really bad at lying,” Lester said.
“I accidentally triggered a doomsday device and we have like minutes to leave,” Fribourg said. “Allow me to pass, and I’ll let you come with me.”
“You triggered it and can’t turn it off?”
“Yeah, the AI interface malfunctioned,” Fribourg said.
“Well, I personally was going to let you leave, but on hearing this, I don’t think I can convince my friends in letting you go,” Fribourg said.
“Lie to them,” Fribourg said. “You’re good at lying.”
“Umph,” Lester said.
Lester walked back to his friends. They conversed. He accepted an envelope from Lakin and brought it to Lester.
“What’s this?” Fribourg asked.
“Free pass of the planet,” Lester said.
Fribourg started to open it. Lester put his cane on it to block. “You could take time to open it now, or you can just take it with you, parting gift,” Lester said.
“You’re trying to trick me,” Fribourg said.
A red emergency beacon began blinking. Lester looked at it, confused.
“Tell me you’re joking about the bomb?” Lester said.
“Sorry,” Fribourg said.
“Take him custody,” Lester said loudly.
“Wait,” Fribourg said. “I have a pass.”
“A Lelu Dallas multi pass?” Fersia asked.
“Ummm, yes,” Fribourg said.
Lester stepped aside. Fribourg measured the face and began walking towards the lineup. Troopers aimed weapons at him. Lakin aimed a wand at him. Kimber aimed her staff. Fersia smiled. Tay frowned at him as he passed, holding his envelope up like a shield. “Lelu Dallas Multipass.” Once passed the line he ran towards the arch and disappeared. Lester rejoined his friends.
“Are you sure we did the right thing in letting him go?” Sleiman asked.
“You can’t kill an archetype,” Lester said.
“I don’t understand,” Lakin said.
“Do you think you’re the only troubled in the whole Universe?” Lester said.
“He’s troubled?” Kimber asked, skeptically.
“No, Jon is troubled, and that one belongs to Jon,” Lester said. “You guys should really screen your applicants for Emissary better.”
“But he saved us,” one of the pink troopers said.
“No he didn’t,” Lester said. “He just delayed the inevitable.”
“That sounds like saving,” Tay said.
“Yeah,” Fersia agreed. “We do all the work, Jon gets all the credit.”
“So, Fribourg troubles Jon, and Jon troubles you?” Sleigman asked.
“Pretty much,” Lester said. “Solarchariot, beam us up…”
“Wait wait wait,” Fersia said. “What about Tay?”
“Not our problem,” Lester said.
“Yes it is,” Fersia said.
“No, it’s not,” Lester said.
“Yes, it is.”
They turned to see Loxy. “We’re not leaving till the job is done.”
निनमित
Kea woke. She could see a light at the end of a tunnel. It looked like day light, but it was so far away- more precisely, she felt as if she had been so far removed from daylight that maybe it was just a memory of light.
“You’re awake.”
Kea scrambled backwards, her back going up against the cave wall. The man who was once Baylor knelt down. “I won’t hurt you. I was worried you might not wake up.”
“Where the others?”
“You and I are the only ones remaining,” he said. He sat down on the worn earth. “After the portal closed, there was darkness. My kind can see in the dark. After a while, the water rose to the height of the temple floor. When it receded, there were no bodies remaining. I brought you here through the current. We did the hard path. I think you have earned the easy path from here.”
“So that’s it? We’re done?” Kea said. “Did we win?”
“It doesn’t feel like a win,” he said.
Kea relaxed. She sat up. She agreed in measure. “It does not.”
He nodded towards the light. “You could go see.”
“We could go see?” Kea asked.
“I cannot return to the surface. I am a creature of the Underground,” he said.
“Do you have a name?” Kea asked.
He thought about it. “Names are discovered. What was before me held the name
‘Chameron.’ Part of us is carried forwards in the union of the new, but I am not that. We are not that.”
“It sounds complicated,” Kea said.
“I feel sorry for you. Your name is permanent, even after it is no longer fitting,” he said.
“Even when no one remembers you.”
“How do you feel about the name Orian?” Kea asked.
“It would be given, not discovered,” he said.
“You brought me to this new day, so it feels discovered to me,” Kea said.
“They accept. We accept. I accept,” he said. “Orian. Kea, thank you for walking with us.
May your days be peaceful.”
“I don’t know if I will ever have peace, but thank you,” Kea said.
Kea stood. Orian stood. She hugged him.
“Thank you for my life.”
Orian watched her leave. Her form became silhouette, shadow, pencil thin, then gone. She stepped out into the light, bringing her hand up to acclimate. She was embraced. She stood there, dazed and not sure. The woman embracing her was crying. Kea stood there stiffly, awkward. There were others in the background. It was a tent with travelers eating at tables. She recognized the home. She pushed away from the woman, turned looking for the cave, but there was no cave. There were two trees where once there was only one.
“I don’t understand,” Kea said.
“Mother, it’s me. Tay,” the woman said.
“No,” Kea said, trembling.
“I am grown,” Tay said. “I always felt grown when I was with you, but now I am for real grown.”
Kea said nothing, merely stared at the stranger. Tay took her hand. Kea didn’t resist as she led her to the group.
“Come, let me introduce you to my friends. My family. My brother…”
“Bob?”
“He is no longer with us,” Tay said.
Kea began to cry. Tay pulled her mother into her. “It’s okay. He was not alone. He was surrounded.”
“I was so bad to him…”
“You were loved,” Tay assured her. “You are loved. Come. Let’s catch up. Let’s acclimate together. I have so many stories to tell you. And I want to hear yours.”
“I was gone but a moment, not much to tell,” Kea said.
“I doubt that,” Tay said. “But I want to hear your whole life, now that I can better appreciate distinctions. Come.”
Kea went with Tay, towards the white tent where people were celebrating a holiday of
some sort. She recognized no one, but was still strangely welcomed.