Immortal Light: Wide Awake (39 page)

“
What is this one?”

“
That’s Eliza,” he responded
somberly.

Lucy turned. “Who’s Eliza?”

“
Eliza was Jack’s
wife.”

Lucy couldn’t help but look stunned. “He was
married?”

“
They met in 1659, were married in
1660, and in 1665 she died of the plague in London.”

Lucy held her hands to her mouth. “Oh, that is
so awful.” She looked back to the shadow box. “Poor Jack.”
Involuntary tears sprang to her eyes.

“
He was in love
with her as much as a man could ever love a woman. She was special.
He was hunting for a week and she contracted the disease and died
before he got back. He came home to find her … well, it
wasn
’
t pleasant.
He tried to save her. He tried to bring her back, but he just
couldn’t, she was too far gone. He was heartbroken for a very long
time. It wasn’t until the industrial revolution that he finally
snapped out of it. That’s when he fell in love with
machines.”

Lucy stroked the delicate etchings in the wood
of the case; her heart ached for Jack. Then she thought of her own
pain, how she tried to save her mother the night before and that as
hard as she tried, she couldn’t get her to a place where she could
use whatever power she had and save her. Sorrow was at the surface
and she began to feel the weakness and exhaustion that accompanies
deep depression. She had to fight those feelings, suppress and keep
them from distracting from her newly adopted purpose. Her life had
changed irreparably and she had to deal with that.

As she walked around the room and looked at
the thousands of books that lined the walls and the ornaments that
accented every empty space, she thought about what she had to
become. She thought of being a Guardian and how she wasn’t worthy
of such a calling, but she would work her hardest to become worthy.
She wasn’t going to be useless anymore. No more tears; no more
crying. Life was what it was and there was only now and the
future.

Thinking of Jack and Eliza, she turned to
Benjamin and bluntly asked, “Were you ever married?”

Benjamin looked stunned for a moment, but then
recovered.

“
No,” he answered with a confident
smirk. “I’ve never been married.”

Lucy nodded, “Me neither.”

Benjamin chuckled and Lucy
turned back to the walls to continue her perusal. Making her way to
the opposite side of the room, she stopped at a picture of an
ancient Mesoamerican ruin. The brass name plate said “Mayan Pyramid
at Chichen Itza.” It was beautiful. The picture showed the temple
just before sunset as the clouds began to turn orange against a
fading blue sky. The temple stood majestically, and Lucy recalled
the image of the golden temples she had seen in Benjamin’s
haven
. They were so much
alike.

“
Many of the people who built that
temple were our people, including the three of us.”

Lucy admired the craftsmanship, that it had
endured for so many hundreds of years, that it was built by hand,
and that the people who built it believed in a power that drove all
life in the universe, a power that Lucy didn’t fully
understand.

“
What do these buildings mean to
your people, Benjamin?”

Benjamin came up close
behind her. She could feel his
light
radiate from him. He didn’t
even need to touch her anymore for the sensation to affect her; she
recognized his
light
by its uniqueness.

“
They are holy places. They are
places where the Immortal Light is concentrated. We build them from
gold because gold is a powerful conductor.”

“
Is that why the swords are made
of gold?”

“
That’s exactly
why. When the gold of the sword conducts your individual
light
, it becomes
indestructible. When you stand inside the walls of our temples you
feel one of the most amazing feelings you will ever experience.
It’s like …
”
He
couldn
’
t even
begin to describe it. “Come with me, I want to show you
something.”

He took Lucy by the hand and led her out the
back of the house. Standing some fifty yards away was a large
building covered in white corrugated metal siding. Benjamin walked
Lucy through one of the large bay doors at the front.

Inside, Lucy saw machinery of all kinds, tool
chests, and vehicles ranging from tractors to pickup trucks. The
building was at least fifty yards long and thirty feet
high.

Benjamin pulled her to a stair case at the
back of the building. Flipping a switch, he led her down the stairs
that descended deep into the ground; Lucy’s best guess was that
they had gone down three stories or more of stone stairs. At the
bottom was a wide, solid wooden door. As Benjamin opened it, the
stairway was flooded with bright, white light that emanated from
above them in the high ceiling. When Lucy entered the room, she
closed her eyes to bask in the glow because it felt just like the
sun. It felt like she was standing outside on a spring day, and the
smell of life filled her nose, making her smile. There was
something in the energy of the room that made all of her pain seem
to vanish momentarily.

When she opened her eyes,
Benjamin was next to her. Looking around the room, she saw that it
was made entirely of perfect, white marble slabs. In the center, a
tree was growing and thriving right out of the floor, its leaves a
bright vibrant green as they reached for the light above them. It
was a mahogany tree just like those in her book about the
rainforest and like she had seen in Benjamin’s
haven
. The sight was
miraculous.

“
I don’t believe this. It’s so
beautiful. How is it even possible?” Lucy said,
awestruck.

“
It thrives off
of the
light
here. This is just like our temples. Behind these walls are
sheets of solid gold, they amplify the
light
of the tree and create what
you feel here.”

As they walked deeper into
the room that was at least twenty feet square, Lucy could
feel
light
radiating from everywhere. The tree seemed to be the focal
point, as though it were a mirror reflecting life into every empty
space. Lucy felt the most joy she had ever felt in her life while
standing in the stream of Immortal Light
swirling invisibly around her. It was pure, concentrated life
and she felt stronger and more alive than she ever had before. She
took a few moments to absorb as much as she could; she soaked it in
as she walked around the room.

Wrapping around the tree were two
crescent-shaped, marble benches draped in mossy green fabric. Long,
dark, wooden tables draped in the same green fabric sat against
every wall, and on each table rested a golden disc with an
intricate design of a bird perched on a tree branch, the leaf of
which was the same as the mahogany in the center of the room. There
were also other objects on the tables, from knives to jewelry and
stones to books and scrolls. In each wall was a recess that looked
like a window, with a backdrop of bright blue stained glass lit
from behind. Each window had something different resting in it. One
had a vase of perfect white lilies, thriving like the mahogany;
another had a thick book bound in leather. Opposite the book there
was a golden bowl that shined brilliantly in the light—it was full
of fruit and nuts and berries that looked as though they were
freshly picked that day. The final window held a sword unlike any
Lucy had seen. It was made of gold like all the other swords she
knew, but it was more delicate, and every inch that she could see
was covered in engravings of leaves and tree branches. The blade
was thin and exquisite, with a slight curve to it. The handle was
ornately decorated with a crimson wrapping. It was easily the most
beautiful weapon she had ever seen.

A two-foot path of carpet elaborately
decorated in woven images of the rain forest surrounded the entire
room in a giant square. It had to have been either placed there
before the tree or precisely stitched together when it was laid
down, because Lucy couldn’t find a seam anywhere, as it was one
continuous pattern not ceasing or starting over, even at the
corners.

With every step around the
room there was an urge to be active; Lucy wanted to dance and move
and swing her arms like a child in the park. So many emotions were
created by the force of the
light
in the room that she felt like never leaving. The
only place that even compared was her
haven
, but even that paled in
comparison to the pure, almost healing, power of what Benjamin
would eventually call the Haven Room.

They stayed in the Haven Room for hours. From
the inside out, Lucy felt herself begin to heal and become whole
again. The pain of her mother’s death started to turn into hope
that she would someday see her again.

All day they sat and talked and
ate the contents of the golden bowl. Benjamin entertained her with
stories of his people and how the city Zharem came to be. She told
stories of her childhood as Benjamin listened intently, as though
she were revealing the most delicate secrets of the
universe.

As the day waxed on, Lucy watched the lights
in the ceiling change color like the sunset, into oranges and reds,
until finally there was nothing but a single bright light and
thousands of tiny dots, simulating the moon and the stars. Lying
next to Benjamin on the intricately woven carpet, she observed how
the simulated sky rotated, and she marveled at its realism. The
last image she saw in her mind before sleep took over was that of
her mother wrapped in her father’s arms, standing on the beach,
watching her play in the surf.

***

When Lucy awoke, she was in a bed covered with
a thick down comforter. She had no recollection of being moved and
no idea where she was. Sitting up, she saw that she was still in
her jeans and blue hoodie. The analog clock on the wall read 5:35,
but it was far too bright to be morning.

Did I sleep all day?

She tried to recall what day it was.
Everything was a blur. She was fairly certain that the weekend was
over, which meant she missed at least one day of school. It was
probably better that way. Still, she had disappeared for more than
twenty-four hours and Kat, the Caldwells, or someone from school
was probably worried about her.

She stood up and looked around the room. There
wasn’t much to see except that everything was neat and organized. A
desk under the window had a stack of books sitting on top of it.
She recognized them as school textbooks. Next to them sat a
computer, its screen saver shooting bright colors across the
display. On the night table she found her phone. It was plugged in
so she picked it up.

You have 7 missed
calls.

“
Only seven,” she said to herself,
feeling a little disappointed. Six of them came from Kat, and one
she didn’t recognize. Her heart stopped as she thought it might be
the hospital. She listened to the messages. Kat’s soothing voice
was the first message, asking where she was and if she needed
anything. The other was, in fact, the hospital, but they were just
informing her that her father was being moved to a permanent room
in a different wing. Taking note of the room, she hung up the
phone.

Approaching the door, she could hear voices on
the other side. She slowly opened it to reveal the large living
room of the Raven’s home. On one of the overstuffed leather couches
she could see Kat’s unmistakable black, wavy hair swaying
animatedly as she spoke. In an adjacent chair, with one leg up on
the arm rest, was Jack. They were having a hearty conversation
about something that made both of them laugh when Kat caught Lucy
coming from the bedroom.

“
Hey, you’re up.” Kat jumped to
her feet and ran to give Lucy a warm hug.

“
How long have I been asleep?”
Lucy asked wearily.

Jack chimed in, “Since about eight-thirty last
night. Benjamin brought you in and put you in his bed.”

Lucy was momentarily scandalized before Jack
put her mind at ease, pointing to one of the other couches. “Don’t
worry; he slept out here. Sitting, folded neatly on one of the
cushions, she saw a pile of sheets and blankets.

“
Where is he?” Lucy asked, running
her hand through her hair.

“
He’s in the shop. Just go out
that way.” He pointed toward the wall of windows that lead to the
kitchen.

She found Benjamin in a
small room at the back of the shop, sitting at a drafting table.
Even from twenty feet away she could feel his
light
radiating around the room. It
was uncanny how she was so sensitive to him.

“
What are you doing?” she asked as
she walked up behind him.

“
Oh, just doodling,” he answered,
without looking up.

Lucy could only guess, but mostly hoped that
he could feel her the way she felt him.