The demon attacks seemed to slow as they neared Manheim Island. Elisha put it down to the thick fog that enveloped everything for miles around. Even with Arietta’s experienced hand at the helm, the last few miles were slow-going.
“So that’s why nobody cares about this place,” Tami said. “I was surprised when you said that the Moral Revolution had no stake here. I thought they tried to control everything - I figured an island in the Arian Empire, so close to the origin of the Moral Revolution, would definitely be under their command.”
“Too much danger for too little gain,” Arietta said, “The last time I was here, only a handful of families inhabited it, all spread apart. There’s also a forest and some grassland outside the family farms. It could have been a candidate for Sanctuary were it not so close to the Empire.”
“So we’re hiding in plain sight,” Elisha said, as Arietta steered the boat into a small jetty. A few children were fishing, and adults nearby were skinning fish, but other than that it was quiet. Elisha was pleased to see a settlement with no guards.
Arietta tied the boat up and they disembarked, “I guess this is where I say goodbye,” she said. It was no surprise; she had told the others she was leaving after she had told Elisha and all had reacted the same - with a little sadness and a little relief. Unlike Elisha, none of the others begged her to stay, though Tami seemed reluctant to let her out of her sight.
“I know Selesti sent you to watch over me,” Arietta had said, “She couldn’t do it herself, so she sent you. You didn’t come of your own free will, you never would have left her side.”
“So you figured it out,” Tami said, “I will stay if you need me.”
“Your mission is over,” Arietta said, “I’ll be all right on Manheim Island, perhaps better than I’ve been in a long time. I need quiet, solitude - time to grieve and time to decide what to do next.” Her answer seemed to satisfy Tami, who stopped protesting after that.
“Are you certain you want to leave?” Elisha asked. At this point, it seemed almost more of a courtesy to ask than a real drive, and Elisha felt guilty. Of all the things she had expected to happen down here on the surface, for her feelings to dwindle and die so quickly had not been expected. Yet perhaps they had been dwindling for a long time, and new roots growing. I had to see you again to know that I’ve moved on, Elisha thought, and it was true, but she felt bad nonetheless. Just two years previously, if Arietta had asked her to get married, she would have jumped at the chance. But she hadn’t, and now two years later, they were different people, with different goals. You made your choice back then, Elisha thought, only I didn’t understand.
She wondered if Arietta had felt like this when Selesti had left; pain, relief and guilt all rolled into one. Elisha knew that Arietta needed help, but she also knew that it was beyond her power to ease Arietta’s anguish. That healing must come from somewhere within, she realized. So, with a brief kiss on the lips, she bid farewell to the woman she thought she would love forever, and watched as she walked away, disappearing into the fog.
“Will she be okay out there alone?” Tami asked, uncertain.
“Probably better than here with us,” Elisha said, “She needs to be away from danger, and she needs more time and patience than anybody but herself can offer. She needs to be alone. It’s the only way she can start to heal.”
“She will find her path,” Luna said. “We came here to find Lady Thea, right? We should split up and ask around.”
“Right,” Elisha said, and they made their way separately into the small hamlet, asking the fishermen and their wives and children if they had seen anything.
“A lady washed up here maybe two weeks ago,” one woman said, “They took her to the healer on the hill. If you leave this town and keep going up the hill, you’ll eventually find his hut. It’s surrounded by flowers.”
“Thank you,” Elisha said. She found the others, feeling hope for the first time since they had been shipwrecked.
“Don’t get too excited,” Luna warned, “Lots of ships were wrecked, and many people thrown into the water by demons. It could be anybody up there.”
“I know,” Elisha said. Please, let it be you, Thea. I need you now, more than ever. I need to hear your voice. I need to hear your wisdom. I need you to tell me everything’s going to be all right, because I don’t believe it any more. She had grown more and more anxious since the visions of Thea had stopped, and now she almost ran up the hill. Huffing and puffing, she soon stopped. “This is a steep hill. I can’t even see the top.”
“Perhaps it’s more of a mountain,” Tami suggested. “Either way, we should take our time. It’s no good getting there faster if one of us ends up collapsing.”
It took them the best part of an hour to climb the hill, but they broke through the layer of fog to find the sun shining. It was as though they had stepped into another world. Flowers surrounded a small lake, where water flowed into the stream that went downhill to the town. It was idyllic, like a dream after the hell of the world below that was full of demons and bigots. Down a small path was a temple, built in a traditional style.
“It’s beautiful...” Tami said. The sun shone on her sandy hair, and Luna wondered how the soldier could ever have called her ugly.
Elisha wasn’t looking, though. She hurried to the door and knocked sharply three times while her companions stared at the lake.
An old man answered the door, “Goodness!” he said, “Such haste! I was frightened the Moral Revolution had come to my door. What can I help you with, young ladies?”
“I was told a lady washed up on the shore a few weeks ago. I think she may be a friend of ours. May we see her?” Elisha said, desperate to get inside and see with her own eyes. Butterflies raged in her stomach.
“You look like her kind of people with that white uniform,” the old man said. He let Elisha and the others in and gestured to a bed where a woman with white hair lay sleeping. Elisha’s heart skipped a beat as she recognized Thea.
“It’s her!” Luna said, smiling for the first time since she had lost Pandora.
“Don’t get too excited,” the old man said, “She is in a bad way. She was okay when we brought her in, babbling and injured but I thought she would be fine. Then she slipped into a coma and has grown weaker ever since. I’ve tried everything in my knowledge, but without a miracle, your friend here may die any moment.”
“She’s not going to die,” Elisha said in a determined voice. She turned to the others, “I lied to you. I didn’t see Lady Thea in a dream. I saw her in a waking vision where she told me she was here and begged me to come. I saw her in many visions the first few days. Then they stopped. That’s why we had to come here...”
“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” Luna said, a hurt look on her face.
“I thought I might be going crazy,” Elisha admitted. “With the loss of Sanctuary, and finding out how much Arietta had changed, I wasn’t exactly at my best. I wondered if I was losing my mind, and I thought nobody would believe me if I told the truth.”
“She came to you in a vision? Fascinating...” The old man shuffled to a bookshelf and pulled down a dusty old tome, “Could it be... that she has Ancient blood? No, it couldn’t be...”
“She is an Ancient,” Elisha said. The others tried to hush her, but she shook her head at them, “No. If he knows something, I need to know it as well.”
“It is said in this book that the Ancients can send their spirit to the side of somebody they love in times of desperate crisis,” the old man said. “To retrieve the spirit, one has to “dive” into the consciousness of the Ancient. Otherwise, the spirit will perish and so will the body.” He shook his head, “I thought the Ancients were gone forever, that what these books speak of are merely myths of a dead world. These are strange times indeed.”
A little girl entered the temple, flowers adorning her hair. She looked up at Elisha admiringly. “Grandpa, who are these people?”
“Guests, Maybine,” the old man said, “Could you make some tea for them? Be careful not to burn yourself, though.”
“Certainly, Grandpa,” the little girl said, hurrying off. The old man returned to studying the book.
“Only the person who has been called by the spirit may dive to retrieve it,” the old man read, “There are risks. If the host should die while the diver is still within, the diver will die as well.”
“I don’t care about the risks,” Elisha said, “I promised her I would come. I didn’t come all this way, through the dangers of Arian waters and roaming demons simply to turn away now. Tell me how to do it.”
“It says that you must rest your hand upon the wrist and feel the pulse. Breathe in time. You must become one with the heartbeat of the host. Then your spirit will dive into her. Once inside... the book is not clear. It says something about needing to move the host emotionally, but I’m not sure what it means.”
“I guess I’ll just have to try,” Elisha said. She knelt down by Thea’s bedside and took her wrist in her hand. It was cool, her pulse slow.
“Elisha, are you sure?” Tami said, “You might never come back!”
“I have to try,” Elisha said, “I made a mistake that set a chain of events in motion. I can’t change it now... but I still have something I need to say to Lady Thea, and I can’t just let her die. It’s worth the risk just to see her again...” Dissent quieted, and she felt the pulse of Thea under her fingers, felt the roar of the wind as it had been upon Sanctuary, that fateful night under the stars when Thea had asked her to marry her...
She slumped upon the bed, unconscious, her hand still tight around Thea’s wrist. Luna went to move her to a more comfortable position but the doctor shook his head, “It would be unwise to tamper with her,” he said, “Forces beyond our understanding are at work here. I can fix a stiff neck, but death... death I cannot cure.”
Maybine came back with tea and they went into the main area of the shrine, where they knelt at a table. Maybine served the tea and Tami and Luna drank restlessly, their eyes darting to the door of the other room.
“I hate waiting,” Tami said.
“Sometimes, you need to have patience,” the old man said. Trust your friends, and you will lend them your strength just with your faith.”
“Odd words, for a man of science,” Luna said.
“I am also a man of faith,” the old man said, gesturing to the temple. “When all other methods are used up, all sensible options expended, all that remains is hope.”
~
Elisha stood at the edge of Sanctuary, looking over the edge. She sensed Thea was behind her, and she turned.
“Tell me this is reality,” Elisha said, almost crying, “The sweet smell of Sanctuary, the feeling of the wind on my face... Tell me that everything that happened was just a bad dream.”
“I wish that I could,” Thea said. “Yet it happened. Sanctuary crumbled before our eyes, and with it, a lifetime of hopes and dreams. I thought I had failed when I let hatred rule my heart, but the day Sanctuary died made that seem inconsequential. I failed you all. I never should have encouraged you to find Arietta. It was pure selfishness on my part... I wanted you to find her. I wanted her to tell you it was over, so we could go home and be together...”
“That’s not what you said before,” Elisha said, “You told me you blamed the Moral Revolution for this. That you were angry at them, not any of us.”
“I didn’t want you to kill yourself,” Thea said. “Somehow, I heard you cry out in a scream that pierced my heart, and I couldn't ignore it. I let my body go and my spirit come to you. I told you what you needed to hear.”
“Come back with me,” Elisha said, “My physical body came to you as fast as it could. Come back to our world and we’ll make a new Sanctuary together.”
“I don’t want to come back,” Thea said, “That world full of pain and suffering... I’d rather be here, in my dreams. Sanctuary was everything to me. What do I have to go back for now?”
“You have me,” Elisha said. She reached for Thea’s hand and held it, “There’s something I wanted to tell you, Thea...”
Thea shook her head, “I appreciate it, Elisha, but I can’t be second best to Arietta. You love her. I’m sure she’s at your side, waiting for you to come back. Go back to her. I know she’s scarred, but she’ll be okay, with time.”
“I don’t want to go back to her,” Elisha said, “She left us to find herself, and I think it was for the best. I’ve been thinking a lot about that night - this night.” She gestured to the stars.
“I wanted to say yes. Wanted it more than I even realized at the time. I was bound to Arietta with chains of guilt, each night going to bed wondering if she was locked up in a Garanian prison, waiting for my help. I let those dark thoughts overwhelm me until I was certain that they were true. The guilt of leaving her in that world alone was only compounded by my growing feelings for you. I thought that loving another was the ultimate betrayal to Arietta. I wish I had known - I wish I had known that she wasn’t waiting for my help, that she had moved on, that my help was too little, too late, and that the Arietta I loved had said goodbye to me two years ago and had meant forever. I made a mistake, and it cost everybody on Sanctuary their lives.” She was crying now, standing at the edge of Sanctuary, looking over the edge.
“I spent two years looking down there when all the answers were right next to me,” she said, “I love you, Thea. I don’t know how to say it and I don’t know how I tell the others that the mission was a fool’s errand, but it’s true. If I could make a wish, it would be to turn back time and say yes to your proposal!” She crumpled, and before it she was kneeling on the soft grass, Thea’s arms around her and she was crying tears from the very bottom of her soul - powerful, gut wrenching sobs that tore at her.
“We could stay here together,” Thea said, “I know it’s not real, but it’s not so bad.”
“No, it’s our fault, Thea. We did this by not being completely honest with ourselves and each other. We have to go back and make it right somehow, or at least suffer with the others.” She stood up, helped by Thea.
“They’ll judge you for walking away from Arietta,” Thea said. “Luna will be angry. Her wife’s life is on the line for somebody you didn’t even want after all.”
“I know,” Elisha said, “But I must face the truth, even if they all hate me. That’s my burden to carry.”
“I’ve carried it for a long time,” Thea said, “Ever since I nearly destroyed the world. Nobody ever looked at me the same after that. It was as if they didn’t know me any more.”
“I never loved you any less for it,” Elisha said, “Though they would never admit it if they were still alive, many people harbored the same feelings about the Moral Revolution and the people who voted for it as you did. Even I felt that way at times.”
“There are few left to judge us for any of it now,” Thea said, her expression sad. She held Elisha tightly in her arms, stroking her hair, “Long nights, how I yearned to hold you close, Elisha. I’ll come back with you for the same selfish reason I came on this journey in the first place - because I want to be with you. I want to erase the love you feel for Arietta and have your heart all to myself.” She let go of Elisha and walked to the rail, looking over one last time, “I’m jealous and cruel and hateful, Elisha. You’ve seen my true colors. How can you still look me in the eye and tell me you love me?”
“Because I do,” Elisha said, “I think you’re too hard on yourself. You’re kind, loyal and wise. You’re strong and passionate and driven. You were by my side when all others turned away, you bore my sorrow and woe when you could have been enjoying your hard earned peace. You listened to me talk endlessly about Arietta, sometimes for days at a time, even though you wanted me.”
Elisha took Thea in her arms and kissed her passionately. It was a kiss tempered with experience, but filled with passion, a kiss of joy, of love, of feelings long repressed. When they parted, both of them were crying tears of mingled joy and sadness, for the time they had lost and the time they had yet to spend together.
“Let’s go home,” Elisha said, and Thea nodded.
“Let’s go home,” she agreed, and they both disappeared.
~
Tami was asleep in a chair by the bedside when Elisha woke. She first checked Thea, whose eyes fluttered open, then she shook Tami awake.
“Huh... Elisha? Elisha, you’re back!” Tami embraced Elisha in a bear hug. She looked over at the bed where Thea was starting to sit up.
“Hi, Lady Thea. I’m Tami, Selesti’s wife. I’ve heard a lot about you... Excuse me now, I must go wake Luna!”
It wasn’t long before they were all awake. Even the old man and Maybine were soon at Thea’s bedside.
“Honestly, I didn’t know if it would work,” the old man said, “You must be very devoted to one another.”
“We are,” Elisha said, and Tami and Luna fell quiet suddenly as they absorbed the news.
“So you’re together,” Luna said, trying her best to keep an even voice, but in somebody usually so happy, her voice sounded strained and discordant.
“Yes,” Elisha said, and Luna rushed from the room, angry and crying.
“I should go after her,” Elisha said, but Tami shook her head, “I’ll go,” she said. “Elisha, I’m happy for you two. I’m glad you came back safely.”
“Thanks,” Elisha said. Tami’s such a sweet girl; she reminds me of how Luna used to be, but then who can blame Luna? Pandora’s out there somewhere and we’re no closer to finding her...
Thea squeezed her hand as if she could read her thoughts, “It’ll be okay,” she said, “Give it time.”
~
Tami went outside to find Luna throwing rocks into the lake, “Luna,” she said, “Talk to me.”
“We came all this way for Arietta because Elisha told us for two years that she loved her, that she missed her. Now she turns around and wants somebody else instead? Even if it’s Lady Thea, that’s not acceptable! What was this whole mission for? Why did we sacrifice Sanctuary? My wife is out there somewhere and I’m the only one who seems to care...” She started to cry, “My Pandora, crazy with grief and pain, and I’ve done nothing to help her. Nothing! I wish we’d never come on this stupid mission!”
“Then you’d be dead,” Tami pointed out, “Pandora’s out there somewhere. You can’t give up hope, and you can’t blame Elisha and Lady Thea for their happiness. Things change, people change. Arietta has changed a lot. Selesti told me how she used to be, compared to how she is now. It’s not just what she’s been through, either. Arietta made her choice not to be with Elisha. Hasn’t Elisha earned the right to move on with her life?”
“I suppose,” Luna said, “I just wish she’d decided sooner, before we lowered the island. Then all the people I love would still be alive.”
“It’s easy to see in hindsight,” Tami said, “Nobody up there could have known what was going on down here. You could have come down to find Arietta smiling, waiting for Elisha with flowers in a fair and free world, a world where the Moral Revolution was a thing of the past. You just didn’t know. Nobody did. Don’t you think they would have made different choices if they’d known what would happen?”
“Yeah, I guess they would,” Luna said, “I guess I should apologize. Pandora wouldn’t want me to be angry at them, I know it.”
“You’re a good person, Luna,” Tami said, “Don’t let all this sadness blacken your pure heart. You might need it to bring Pandora back to us.”
“You’re right,” Luna said, “I’m going to sit here a few minutes more, if you don’t mind. Thanks for talking, though.”
“You’re welcome,” Tami said, and back inside the temple.
“Fire God, if you can hear me, heed my prayer,” Luna said. “Please give me a sign, anything to tell me where Pandora is. I have to find her, not just for me, but for the whole world. Please help me find her!” Tears sprung from her eyes and she wiped them away angrily.
She nearly jumped as the lake began to glow. The others rushed from the hut as they saw the light, but stayed at a distance as Luna stood and made her way to the edge of the water. Looking down, Luna could see a burning forest. The vision moved over the forest, to a mountain that seemed to have steps cut into it. Pandora was climbing the steps, her wings shredded, her face bloody, her eyes filled with rage and purpose as though she were climbing to challenge the Gods themselves.
“I know that place!” Lady Thea said, “Maia and I went there on our search for Sanctuary. The locals called it the Forbidden Palace. It’s far to the north.”
“Why would she go there?” Luna asked.
“A lot of the ancient temples are places of power, pieces of the old world that didn’t die,” Thea said, “She may have gone there to gather more power. There’s no way she could keep using such powerful magic at the rate she was... it’s a drain on the body, even one of Ancient lineage.”
“How do we get there?” Elisha said. “We can’t take the boat, it’s too slow. If the vision is true, then Pandora is there now!”
“I may have an idea,” the old man said, “The books tell of temples that connect to one another, ancient places that could be used to move quickly. There is such a temple near here, though it is only ruins now. How you would use it and even if it works is a mystery, but it is less than a day’s walk. It has to be worth a try.”
“Then it’s settled,” Thea said, “Get some rest. We’re leaving at first light. We’re going to find Pandora, no matter what it takes.”
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