vielä flawlessiin liittyvää! olen tässä pitkin marraskuuta kysellyt kommentteja ja parannusehdotuksia. olen aika lähellä loppua, joten nyt on vielä hetken ajan mahdollisuus ehdottaa jotakin! ehdotus voi olla sana (makkara), paikka (helsinki), nimi (jaska) tai vaikka tapahtuma (orgiat.) :___D kunhan noita kaikkia ei tarvitse yhdistää hyvä tulee... ehdotuksia siis tulemaan!
today i'll be posting in the morning so i'll have the rest of the day to write and do other things (write essays etc.) i'll also be having my test week in a week so i'll try to get ahead in my word count. thank goodness i won't be having very hard subjects on the test week (swedish, french, biology, social studies and psychology.) it should help writing my nano.
and a comment related to flawless! during the month i've been asking for comments and ideas. i'm pretty close to the end, so you still have time to propose something! it can be a word (banana), a place (new york), a name (bob) or a happening (AN ORGY!!) unless i have to combine all those together it'll be fun... so, post your ideas!
Chapter Thirteen
“I have to go to him,” I exclaimed, though my voice shook and fingers trembled. “I have to find him and stop whatever he is doing.”
But before I could take a step on my shaky legs, Severina had blocked the door before me. “You will not find him,” she said in an unbelievably persuasive tone. I found myself frozen on my tracks. “If you leave that door, he will find you before you can pronounce his name.”
But before I could take a step on my shaky legs, Severina had blocked the door before me. “You will not find him,” she said in an unbelievably persuasive tone. I found myself frozen on my tracks. “If you leave that door, he will find you before you can pronounce his name.”
I glanced desperately at the open window. I knew there was no other way out: warping didn’t work inside guardian palaces. Yet it was impossible: if I would flick a finger towards the window Severina would drag me back in and find my escape futile.
Realization crashed over me like a tidal wave wiping me down. Even though I was legally adult (at least on Earth), I had no power over the forces of this world: no rights nor obligations. I was ignorant as a newborn. I knew nothing of this man except that he was Severina’s father, a light guardian and shifting the forces of the worlds…
“Why is it you let him do this? To turn against the council?”
Severina’s face was an indefinable mask of sad amusement. It took seconds before she answered me. “I cannot defy him. He is my father.”
A definite desperation crept into my voice. “But he’s evil!”
Severina’s face was an indefinable mask of sad amusement. It took seconds before she answered me. “I cannot defy him. He is my father.”
A definite desperation crept into my voice. “But he’s evil!”
Severina sighed and missed my eyes, as if she was looking through me. “My father told me once: ‘evil is such a strong word. Do not mistake the fear of unknown to be anger.’ It is one of the few things I agree with him. He is not evil. But he is definitely not doing the right thing.”
She sounded diplomatic – her tone was too general, almost drowsing, as if I suddenly had no will of my own and the world spun only around Severina herself. It was what she was doing: making me believe things weren’t as complicated as they were. But beneath the lines there was a different story. I used to be once like you; ignorant and naïve. I thought I could make a difference. But people don’t change. The way we see them does.
“Is there nothing I can do?”
Severina’s answer was completely devoid of emotion. “Nothing yet. But it all will work out if you listen to me. There are a few things you need to learn of this world.”
Severina’s answer was completely devoid of emotion. “Nothing yet. But it all will work out if you listen to me. There are a few things you need to learn of this world.”
With a snap the door unlocked and Severina suggested me to follow her. The first time she took me upstairs the tower-like building with its dark mineral walls. After a quarter of steps we found ourselves in a round chamber with several stools and shelves. The visage of them shimmered as if they weren’t actually there. The windows were sealed closed with iron bars. By them, his arms gripped like a prisoner’s, there stood a man.
“It is early for this, isn’t it?”
The fact this guy had sensed our presence and was actually breathing, talking and present startled me. I had been living inside my tiny bubble inside one room. I had never seen him before, but the second I noticed his garments I knew who he was.
“Hilary, this is Eua.” The way Severina pronounced his name made it sound like eww-a, but I was pretty sure it was spelled different. “He is our councelor and my mate.”
My eyebrows arched in surprise. Eua was an average size guy – or more like man, maybe few years older than Severina. He reminded me of a benevolent bouncer who let customers inside a club with a smile on his elfish face. His hair was a long dark blond, the same color as his rabbit fur boots. He and Severina stood apart, treating each other with a certain dignity which came with age, like two trees their roots entwined. I knew from the first look they shared they had known forever.
I faced Eua’s eyes with a look of approval – they were the color of a steely blue sky. With a nod he turned his back on me, taking a new hold on the bars on the window. “It is a gray day,” he recited. “Perhaps you will learn soon why.”
For a split second, Severina’s eyes laughed. “Eua enjoys riddling. He has done it since we were children.”
The man exchanged a look with Severina through the glass, and I felt the room go cold. The image of the cases wavered like rippling water. A shiver ran through me, and I was sure I could feel the shelves solify, not only see it. The mush of color and shape had turned into an entity of outlines. I could see books, maps – everything I could expect in a library. It was like a single room would have looked in The Archives if they were still there.
Severina pulled out a thick, gray book with yellowed pages. I could tell it had been read. There was no name on the spine or cover, nothing. Not even dust.
“These books are of the archives of darkness,” Severina explained. “Only a darkness guardian may open them.”
She stroke the spine and the book stirred in her hands, almost as if it had taken a deep breath and come to life. She opened the first page. There must have been a picture once. But now it only reminded me of a compass drawn with watered ink.
“What is that?”
“Nothing you could read,” she remarked, ruffling through the pages. They all were the same: scrambled handwriting or muffled pictures, as if the book had fallen into the sea and none of the words were readable anymore. “Elemental writings are unreadable to those unfamiliar to their meaning. It needs practice. Darkness children learn to read this over time. In the beginning what I saw resembled yours.”
The book was open on a spread with an indefinable picture. To Severina it may have been a map. To me it was an illogical body of black dots. But it was a pattern. Definitely one.
“Nothing you could read,” she remarked, ruffling through the pages. They all were the same: scrambled handwriting or muffled pictures, as if the book had fallen into the sea and none of the words were readable anymore. “Elemental writings are unreadable to those unfamiliar to their meaning. It needs practice. Darkness children learn to read this over time. In the beginning what I saw resembled yours.”
The book was open on a spread with an indefinable picture. To Severina it may have been a map. To me it was an illogical body of black dots. But it was a pattern. Definitely one.
“What does that picture?”
“Darkness,” Eua answered. “What we see is not so different to yours. Darkness is hard to portrait. Harder than fire, earth or water.”
Well, no shit. They were the only elements which could be pictured properly without exaggerating – not anything like wind or darkness or light. What came in my mind was a simple black screen. But where was the life?
“Darkness,” Eua answered. “What we see is not so different to yours. Darkness is hard to portrait. Harder than fire, earth or water.”
Well, no shit. They were the only elements which could be pictured properly without exaggerating – not anything like wind or darkness or light. What came in my mind was a simple black screen. But where was the life?
“Are there books of wind, too?”
Severina and Eua answered with a simultaneous nod. “In the palace of wind, yes. They all hold miniature archives of their own. But is it all they need.”
“So I can’t read anything here? Not a single book?”
“No, you cannot. The elements are very solitary, sensitive of their own boundaries. It is unlikely they let another come to them. The only thing you could read is the Elemental book.”
A picture of the Archives flashed in my mind bright, imprinted on my retina. “But it’s protected, isn’t it?”
“It was written together by the guardians in a language all could understand. I have seen it once. When I became a guardian.”
“So it’s basically like this spilled ink-stuff in an understandable language?”
“Yes,” Severina answered. “Because of the Elemental book I do not only understand the ways of darkness. It contains explanations to every elemental phenomena and the ways of this world.”
Severina and Eua answered with a simultaneous nod. “In the palace of wind, yes. They all hold miniature archives of their own. But is it all they need.”
“So I can’t read anything here? Not a single book?”
“No, you cannot. The elements are very solitary, sensitive of their own boundaries. It is unlikely they let another come to them. The only thing you could read is the Elemental book.”
A picture of the Archives flashed in my mind bright, imprinted on my retina. “But it’s protected, isn’t it?”
“It was written together by the guardians in a language all could understand. I have seen it once. When I became a guardian.”
“So it’s basically like this spilled ink-stuff in an understandable language?”
“Yes,” Severina answered. “Because of the Elemental book I do not only understand the ways of darkness. It contains explanations to every elemental phenomena and the ways of this world.”
The pages rustled and the book closed with a thud. The case quivered, and as if a curtain had been pulled over it, it became unrecognizable.
“The children of water have through ages worked together with the children of light to create optical illusions,” Severina explained, sitting down on one of the chairs rounding the council table. Her eyes took her back and she lapsed inside the story, inside a memory. Her black eyes caught mine, though she never looked into them. They pushed me down, making my legs feel weak and airy. “Thus they have preserved the seen – made memories rewindable. Many years ago I visited the Archives the first time with my father. I saw the most wondrous thing. This world in its whole glory as it had been.”
“Wait a sec. Did you just tell me you saw someone’s memory?”
“Not a memory,” Eua corrected, “But a trace of one.”
“Many of the maps of the Archives are optical illusions,” Severina proceeded. “Because as written they can be read only by few. This map of Kaiya I saw was more thorough than anything I had ever seen. It located everything.”
“Many of the maps of the Archives are optical illusions,” Severina proceeded. “Because as written they can be read only by few. This map of Kaiya I saw was more thorough than anything I had ever seen. It located everything.”
Somehow Severina’s amazement traced itself into me: the questions circling inside my mind had popped one by one and it was all that was left. My mind drew a map, a guideline as Severina returned to her memory. As I closed my eyes I saw an island with six peaks, almost like the rays of a sun. The Cities was in the middle, isolated from nature, like the guardian palaces were somewhere far away…
“Have you ever thought what is in between?”
My illusion crashed for a second as an image of Talia hit me. It’s emptiness beneath. “Nothing,” I mouthed. “That’s what Talia told me.”
My illusion crashed for a second as an image of Talia hit me. It’s emptiness beneath. “Nothing,” I mouthed. “That’s what Talia told me.”
“That is how it seems,” Severina spoke, her eyes reflecting the haze outside. “But it hasn’t always been like that. Kaiya is an island with six elemental peaks. The opposites are the furthest from each other but lined perfectly. It would be possible to walk from here to my father’s palace without taking turns if the city wouldn’t come in the way. But even though it would be a clear land like in the beginning, the haze would always be there.”
I remembered the thunderstorm the night before. Even fire and wind have turned against each other. If they interacted, they couldn’t be so far away.
I remembered the thunderstorm the night before. Even fire and wind have turned against each other. If they interacted, they couldn’t be so far away.
“You for sure have already heard how The Cities has gotten its name?”
I nodded with a compliant mumble. “It’s divided into different cities, one for each element. Nolan lives in the city of fire.”
“It’s not far away from your city,” said Severina. “The Air City and Fire City border each other on land. They extend further away from the central, submerging with nature at some point.” She paused, taking turns at glancing at me and Eua, both of them noticing my confused expression. Eua smirked and his pleasant features carved into a smile. He pointed at the free seats next to Severina and we took them together. “Close your eyes if it helps,” he instructed in a casual tone. “And imagine two ends: a grassy meadow of life and a dead pavement. But sometimes life crawls among the dead – a single stalk pushes out a gap, reaches the sun and grows. Life conquers. The pavement cracks, and what once had no trace of life becomes an oasis of it.”
The thought was faintly familiar to me. It reminded me of one of the documentaries we had watched during biology class – about the life after man. After us the world would change: the polluted skies clear, flora grow wild. Fish would fill the waters, birds sing once again. And night by night the stars would shine down brighter.
I nodded with a compliant mumble. “It’s divided into different cities, one for each element. Nolan lives in the city of fire.”
“It’s not far away from your city,” said Severina. “The Air City and Fire City border each other on land. They extend further away from the central, submerging with nature at some point.” She paused, taking turns at glancing at me and Eua, both of them noticing my confused expression. Eua smirked and his pleasant features carved into a smile. He pointed at the free seats next to Severina and we took them together. “Close your eyes if it helps,” he instructed in a casual tone. “And imagine two ends: a grassy meadow of life and a dead pavement. But sometimes life crawls among the dead – a single stalk pushes out a gap, reaches the sun and grows. Life conquers. The pavement cracks, and what once had no trace of life becomes an oasis of it.”
The thought was faintly familiar to me. It reminded me of one of the documentaries we had watched during biology class – about the life after man. After us the world would change: the polluted skies clear, flora grow wild. Fish would fill the waters, birds sing once again. And night by night the stars would shine down brighter.
“But that’s not how Kaiya is,” Severina mentioned, as if she had read my mind: the expressions of my face, the tiniest twitches. “It’s the opposite. What once was only wilderness has become a swarming metropolis. It has spread uncontrollably, taken over all land. Only the peaks of Kaiya are safe. At some point the city merges into the forest. It takes over, suppresses the wild, smothering all life. Eighteen years ago, when I was five, I opened my eyes in Kaiya. A new world nothing like this. Yet it was the same.”
“And since then it has been changing? But your father… he can’t possibly have done all this. How can one person-“
Severina’s interruption was precise but not rude. “Do not ever underestimate what one can do,” she pronounced. “Even the people we least expect of do let us down.”
Ashley’s slap burned hot on my cheek, like a ghost of my pain. And even though I could think logically and had no troubles in solving a mathematical problem or reading the emotions on someone’s face, it was impossible to connect the clues scattered around like pieces of a broken vase. These pieces were parts of me, parts of my mind which shouldn’t have been missing. They were all almost too clear: the haze, The Cities and its halls resembling my old school, my visions of a new world. So clear they blinded me and I saw nothing but light.
“And since then it has been changing? But your father… he can’t possibly have done all this. How can one person-“
Severina’s interruption was precise but not rude. “Do not ever underestimate what one can do,” she pronounced. “Even the people we least expect of do let us down.”
Ashley’s slap burned hot on my cheek, like a ghost of my pain. And even though I could think logically and had no troubles in solving a mathematical problem or reading the emotions on someone’s face, it was impossible to connect the clues scattered around like pieces of a broken vase. These pieces were parts of me, parts of my mind which shouldn’t have been missing. They were all almost too clear: the haze, The Cities and its halls resembling my old school, my visions of a new world. So clear they blinded me and I saw nothing but light.
Behind my eyelashes the light formed into contours and figures – a pair of closed eyes with short lashes, thin eyebrows, a bridge crossing her nose. Like I was watching myself lay asleep.
“But what about the council?” I spoke, seeing my eyes roll behind my lids as my mouth was zipped shut, cold and dead. “It’s the place of perfect elemental balance. Where does it exist?”
Inside my vision Severina’s words materialized into letters and numbers, stills and living pictures. “There are worlds – greater realms which exist parallel and shadowing the other without conscious thought. Kaiya and Earth are two of these dimensions. They reflect each other. But there are also worlds within worlds which exist only partially, such as the realm of spirits. Within these dimensions and the realms within them there are worlds, reflections of somewhere else. The veils between them are not meant to be opened. They open only with a tip of balance.”
How she saw it was as it there were millions of worlds entwined, like colorful strings, sticking together and forming knots so they merged into new colors. As if a world could be anywhere: on the other side of the mirror, inside a burning candle or a pearl in the bottom of the ocean. Worlds of light, reflections and glass – worlds that were so similar to ours but different only in small ways. As if the council had a world of its own.
Inside my vision Severina’s words materialized into letters and numbers, stills and living pictures. “There are worlds – greater realms which exist parallel and shadowing the other without conscious thought. Kaiya and Earth are two of these dimensions. They reflect each other. But there are also worlds within worlds which exist only partially, such as the realm of spirits. Within these dimensions and the realms within them there are worlds, reflections of somewhere else. The veils between them are not meant to be opened. They open only with a tip of balance.”
How she saw it was as it there were millions of worlds entwined, like colorful strings, sticking together and forming knots so they merged into new colors. As if a world could be anywhere: on the other side of the mirror, inside a burning candle or a pearl in the bottom of the ocean. Worlds of light, reflections and glass – worlds that were so similar to ours but different only in small ways. As if the council had a world of its own.
“In one way it is part of this world,” Severina answered, tracing invisible patterns on the table ahead her, “And in one way it is not.”
As I saw the strings of the world crossing one another in my mind, I couldn’t help wondering of the truth of life – how we met a countless number of people every day, shared a quick look with them and turned away, reappeared and disappeared like flashing spotlights. And as I changed a glance with Severina which seemed like time without end I couldn’t help wondering the most simple of things: how, of all the worlds, particularly our strings had entwined.
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti