Immortal Light: Wide Awake (26 page)

Lucy nodded her head in agreement
and motioned him to continue his story.

“
When the mistress of the king—her
name was Shaharia—and her new son had been suitably arranged
outside the city proper, they encountered a man with
spectacular—almost magical—powers, who offered to help them with
their land and take care of all their needs. In return, Shaharia
would simply give him a home in which to stay. Eventually, Shaharia
married the man, and the two of them raised the boy together. He
taught the boy how to use his own magical powers. The man was
Krohan.”

“
But, he lived a thousand years
before Shaharia was kicked out of the city,” Lucy said
curiously.

“
That’s true, but how old am
I?”

Lucy nodded, conceding her point
to Benjamin, but raised another. “Speaking of which, how is it that
you’re still alive?”

“
I’m getting there,” he responded
calmly.

“
Okay,” Lucy said, “but tell me
this: The evil sorcerer shows up a thousand years after
disappearing and decides he wants to settle down and raise a
family?”

Benjamin chuckled. “Not exactly.
He knew who her son was, that he was royalty by birth, so he raised
him because he wanted to use him to kill the king and take control
of Zharem.”

“
So Krohan used the king’s own son
to kill him?”

“
Yes,” Benjamin answered
directly.

“
But how did he know the kid was
royalty?”

“
Remember that
Krohan carried the light of the queen inside him. It made him
sensitive to anything she would be sensitive to, and when Krohan
came across them, the queen’s
light
identified the boy as royalty.”

Lucy mulled over the information,
shaking her head. She understood so little about the ability or
gift she had that the thought that it could be sucked out of her,
thereby killing her, gave her the creeps, so she tried to steer the
conversation away from the bad guy.

“
So, you said that you’re
two-thousand years old and the story is not at the two-thousand
mark; where do you come in?”

Benjamin smiled at her
astuteness. “That’s what I was just about to tell you.” He nodded
approvingly in Lucy’s direction. “When I was eight years old, my
father was made the high priest of our people by undergoing a
ceremony we call the Transfiguring. He is able to use any
light
of any kind for
the good use of mankind. Our high priest before him, we thought,
was the most powerful being on earth, until the king was killed by
his own bastard son, who had grown so powerful under the tutelage
of Krohan, that not only could he use the
light
, but he could take it from an
unwilling victim. Our high priest is unable to do
that.”

“
Why is he unable to take
it?”

“
Well, I guess
it’s not that he can’t, it’s that he won’t. We didn’t fully
understand the practice of restraint like that until Krohan. The
reason we don’t steal life is because once you forcefully take
the
light
of a
person or other living thing, your own
light
begins to turn dark, and you
become incapable of distinguishing good from evil. The thirst for
more
light
controls your body; you become addicted, a slave to your own
desires. When your every thought is on getting more
light
, you kill for the
sake of getting more. You are so desensitized to the value of human
life that you don’t care that you are killing innocent people, you
only want the
light
they possess. That insatiable need for
light
turns you into an inhuman
creature. A creature we call a reaper.”

The sound of the word sent a chill up Lucy’s
back. Another convulsive shiver spread out all over her
body.

“
Do they still exist; the reapers,
I mean?”

“
I’ll get to that. Am I going too
fast, is any of this overwhelming?”

“
It’s all overwhelming, but you
said I needed to hear it, so I’m listening,” Lucy answered
honestly.

“
After the king’s son had killed
him by stabbing a golden knife into his heart, he fled to the
woods.”

“
Wait a minute,” Lucy said,
holding up her hands. “If he’s immortal, how could he be
killed?”

“
There is one way to kill an
immortal. It’s the same way you make someone immortal. You stab a
golden knife into their heart.”

“
Does that mean
…
”
She looked
down at Benjamin
’
s chest.

Benjamin nodded his head and pulled open his
shirt. Right over his heart Lucy saw a six-inch scar that ran the
length of his left breast.

“
Did it hurt?”

“
A lot; but, not for long. Once it
was done, it was done.”

Lucy reached up as if to
touch the scar; Benjamin didn’t object. Her hand hovered over it
for a moment, but instead of touching it, she reached down and took
his hand instead. She filled him with her
light
. It was becoming easier to
control.

“
I’m sorry, Benjamin.” Her words
were filled with pain and empathy.

Benjamin squeezed her hand and
continued his story. “After the king’s death, my father, being the
high priest, was made steward over Zharem by our high council. For
ten years we lived, hoping that the son of the king had
disappeared, having settled his own personal vendetta. It wasn’t
until my father received a prophecy that we knew how badly the
king’s son wanted to take control of the city.”

“
What was the
prophecy?”

“
It stated that the son of the
king would return, bringing with him an army of evil reapers so
immense that it would overpower us in a matter of
hours.”

“
So, what did he do?”

“
Going to the high council, my
father shared his prophecy, and the council immediately made plans
to move the city.”

“
What do you mean move the city?
How do you move an entire city?”

“
It takes some effort. Though our
city is meant for this world, it does exist on many planes and in
many universes. It is possible for the high priest to take the city
from this world and temporarily move it to paradise, which is a
perfect, immortal replica of this earth in a different universe. It
is the place where our people go when they die.”

“
So, let me get this straight.
When you die, you go to a paradise. But, if you moved your city to
that paradise, where do people go when they die?”

“
They don’t go
anywhere; they stay in the city. Their
light
simply passes from their body
like anyone else and they live on forever as beings of
light
. The best part is
that they never have to leave the city.”

“
It’s like living with a bunch of
ghosts?”

“
Not quite. We can’t see them and
they can’t see us. Different eyes see different things, but we both
occupy the same space.”

Lucy rubbed her eyes, not fully
grasping the concept of multiple universes or paradise or anything
Benjamin had said. She understood the words, but it was a lot of
information. She was just hoping to remember it, at the very least,
let alone understand it.

Benjamin held Lucy’s hand
tightly, and transferred
light
to her. She instantly felt better, as if she
would have the stamina to continue.

“
Anyway, the council decided that
they would prepare the city, and in three days they would move it
to paradise, where the city would remain indefinitely, having no
king or queen.”

Lucy interrupted again, “Why couldn’t a new
king or queen be appointed? And why would it have to stay in
paradise forever? Why couldn’t they just take the city away for a
while and when they were sure the king’s son was dead, bring it
back?”

“
Well, to answer
your first question, the King and Queen are chosen, but not by us.
The Immortal Light chooses them because the
light
knows best what our people
need. And, because the family line had not been broken for
thousands of years, it was easy to choose a king. The oldest child
of the current king and queen would be heir. But, we know why that
couldn’t happen.”

Lucy nodded her head in understanding. “So
they never had children?”

“
No.”

“
And there were no other children,
like brothers and sisters?”

“
The king was an only child, and
the queen had both a brother and a sister. The brother disappeared
with the king’s secret army, and the sister …” He halted for a
moment. “She was the queen’s guardian.”

Lucy didn’t say anything. The
story was beginning to feel too detailed, but it was making the
picture clearer to see.

“
The reason the
city must stay away is because without the king and queen, it would
fall like every other great city in the history of this world. Our
kings and queens have kept our home safe for thousands of years. It
is their combined strength of
light
that helps protect us.”

“
I see. You really didn’t have a
choice but to leave.” Lucy said.

“
Exactly.” Benjamin responded.
“The night after the decision was made to move the city
permanently, my father had another prophecy. It stated that a new
queen would be provided, and when that time came, the prophesied
queen would join a new chosen king, and they would rule the city as
the most just and powerful leaders the city had ever or would ever
see. The only problem was that she would be provided here, in this
world, and our people were preparing to take the city
away.”

As Lucy processed the last few words, she was
hit again with understanding. She looked up at Benjamin and felt
his sadness all over again.

“
That was the decision you made
here, wasn’t it?”

Benjamin looked her in the eyes.

“
You and Peter and Jack all
volunteered to stay behind and wait for the queen, no matter how
long it took.”

Benjamin caught Lucy’s gaze
and nodded in affirmation, focusing intensely on her. Lucy held his
hands as
light
passed between them. She tried to decipher his look when
the
light
she was
receiving from him conveyed to her what he believed her part to be
in his story.

She let go of his hands and stood up. She
started to pace, then turned abruptly to face him again.

“
So, if I’m all
of a sudden experiencing these abilities with the
light
, and I can come
here with you …
”
She searched Benjamin
’
s blank expression for any sign
that she was on the right track or not.
“
Does that mean that you think
I
’
m the …
queen?
”

“
To be
completely honest, we don’t know if that’s who you are. We know
that you have an important role to play, but we’re still not sure
what that is. That’s one reason why we came to your house tonight.
Peter had to meet you. He was hoping that just by touching you he
would be able to tell, but unfortunately there was nothing
conclusive. Your
light
didn’t offer him anything definitive. Even so, he wants to
assume that you could be the queen we’ve been waiting for.” He
stopped and scratched his head. He looked apprehensive as he looked
back up.

Lucy’s heart started to
pound again and she could feel the anxiety building; she had to
calm down. Benjamin recognized it immediately and stood up to take
her hands. They both closed their eyes and Lucy could feel
the
light
flowing
from Benjamin and soothing her troubled emotions.

“
Lucy, I’ve told you a lot today.
But, I want you to know that whatever happens, I will be there for
you, and I don’t mean in here. I mean out there. When the time
comes, you will know everything for certain out there. I
promise.”

Lucy breathed deeply. As
Benjamin’s
light
started to equalize her, she felt a fount of her own
light
well up from
inside. She was no longer scared. The feeling was miraculous and
empowering. It seemed almost to come from nowhere. She opened her
eyes and felt confidence and strength in every part of her body.
She knew, beyond any doubt, that what Benjamin had told her was
true, but it wasn’t just the truth of the story, Lucy could feel
something else emerge from within her. Though she didn’t understand
at all what it meant, she knew exactly who she was and what her
purpose was to be. It was as though it had been spoken to her, but
in her own voice; she heard it as plain as day in her heart and in
her mind.