Immortal Light: Through the Fire (Book 3)

By John D. Sperry

Stuck between revenge for Benjamin's death and accomplishing her destiny of destroying all evil on Earth, Lucy must make a choice. Her target is Sean, an ancient betrayer of the Immortal Light and the person responsible for taking Benjamin's body, but when Benjamin's light suddenly calls out to her, her mission changes.
The adventure of the Immortal Light concludes in this high-action third installment of the series.
Is Benjamin alive, or is it a shadow of him within Lucy? Will Lucy make it to Peru, the ancient land of Zharem, the lost city of gold, or will she encounter too much adversity and fall short, depending on her friends to make up the difference?
Walk with Lucy through the fire. It will be the last journey against evil she will ever make.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John D. Sperry
• Release date: Jul 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781536835717

John D. Sperry

John D. Sperry was born in Bellflower, California in 1979, but relocated with his family in 1985 to the small town of Roseburg, Oregon, the place John called home until he left on a two-year LDS mission to Italy in 1998.In 2001, John married the love of his life, Sarah, and in the midst of going to school and teaching, the couple had five children: Arwen, Eleanor, John Jr. (Jack), Alice, and Caramina.John has a B.A. in English and a M.Ed. in Teaching and Learning from the University of Oregon. He is currently a 7th Grade Language Arts and Social Studies teacher in Springfield, Oregon where he lives with his family.

Book preview

Immortal Light

Through the Fire

John D. Sperry

For Ron Jr.

You are the master craftsman who molded me and brought me through the refining fire.

Prologue

(Excerpt from Immortal Light: Wide Awake)

In his despair and grief, Benjamin continued, the king demanded that the high priest make him immortal because he knew there would be no heir to the throne without a queen; so, he would be able to atone for failing his kingdom by spending the rest of eternity making Zharem into the perfect city.

For nearly one thousand years the king led his people, and they did become the perfect city. There was no jealousy between neighbors; there was no crime and no war to speak of. The people enjoyed great prosperity. It was truly a paradise on earth. Unfortunately, things changed again when the king had an illegitimate son with a servant woman in his palace. Knowing that any child of his would have a right to the throne, he banished the servant and her newborn son to the outer borders of the kingdom.

Wait, Lucy cut in, the king who decided to live forever because there would never be an heir to his kingdom produced an heir and then banished him? Why?

Well, in his successes as king, he had begun to feel that he was the only person who could rule Zharem properly, and any new king might take what he had worked so hard to build and destroy it. He paused to make sure Lucy grasped what he was saying.

He sounds kind of selfish. Not to mention, he could have raised the kid to follow in his footsteps.

Selfish is one way of looking at it, but he was the greatest king Zharem had ever seen. His judgments were both just and merciful, and his people loved him unequivocally. That’s something you would never see in the world we now live in. Giving that away to a new king would have been a gamble.

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.

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."

"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.

***

Who is doing this to us, Benjamin? I know it’s bigger than this Sukabra, so who or what is it?

Benjamin waited for a reason not to tell her, but he had already broken every promise he had made to himself, so there was no point in keeping the last one.

His name is Korisante-Suen. He’s the bastard son of our last king.  Benjamin waited for Lucy to recall the reference.

You mean …? Lucy started to ask.

Benjamin nodded. He’s the reason my brothers and I had to stay behind.

You have to find the queen before he does.

Yes.

Part V

Chapter 1

A boy’s scream shattered the darkness of an unsettled night on Playa Azul. The air was filled with the smoldering acrid stench of burnt and burning corpses. The small village that sat, just hours before, as a beacon of simple living on the central Mexican coast stood ablaze, orange flames licking the night like serpent tongues, a black plume of smoke rising skyward like an omen of doom.

Down on the beach, where the waves met the sand, lay the body of a young man, one whose flesh had tasted death only hours before, the pallor of his skin reflecting the light of the full moon like a mirror.

Three darkened figures stood back from the boy’s body, their figures silhouetted against the glow of the ocean, their attention fixed on two other figures who knelt over the prostration of the corpse. It was he, the dead boy who was screaming.

One of the two men whose hands lay on the dead boy’s chest spoke rapidly, sweat dripping from his forehead and down his nose. The man on the other side of the body held the first man’s wrists and contributed silently to the iterations being canted.

In his hand, the first man held a golden chain attached to an equally golden teardrop medallion. A necklace that belonged to the dead boy in more ways than one.

The first man’s mumbled incantation ceased and the second man sighed and released his grip on the first man’s wrists. He spoke not a word, but raised his left hand to the upper portion of his black coat, a jacket he had made himself, a jacket not unlike the one worn by both the first man and the not-so-dead dead man.

From his jacket, the second man withdrew a short-handled golden knife that glinted in the moonlight. Its blade only as long as the distance between the tip of its owner’s fingers to the base of his palm, but it would more than do the job he needed it to do.

One of the men among the three distant observers shivered and wrapped his arms around his own torso. It was difficult for him to watch. One of his companions, an older man, gripped him around the shoulders but said nothing.

On the ground, the man with the knife closed his eyes and touched the blade to his lips as he uttered a prayer in a language unheard on Earth in more than two millennia. As the final word of the prayer exited his lips, he raised the knife high above his head and swiftly plunged it into the dead boy’s heart. The body screamed again, the timbre of the voice like sandpaper over soft flesh, painful to hear for all present.

It was only the second of three times the blade would pierce the boy’s heart. After each of the first two stages, he returned to his lifeless state.

The second man, his hand with a firm grip still on the knife, withdrew the blade. The boy’s body did not react.

The two men who knelt over the boy looked at each other. The second man looked at the bloodless blade and closed his eyes. The first man spoke the same prayer, and as soon as the last syllable left his lips, the second man drove the knife into the heart of his dead brother for the third and final time.

The boy screamed again, not unlike the other screams, but this time his eyes shot wide and every muscle in his body seemed to restrict all at the same time. He looked into the face of the first man, the agony of the moment described in his visage like the last look of a dying man rather than the first look of one who had been resurrected. Perspiration formed instantly on the brow of the formerly dead boy. Once his ragged cry had faded into the sound of the lapping waves, his body relaxed and fell back to the ground, unconscious.

The second man pulled the knife from the chest of the boy, whose body twitched slightly, but did not arouse. There was blood this time on the blade, a product of the two men’s success. The first man placed his hands over the wound and held them there for a few seconds. The boy’s chest rose and fell with slumbering breaths.

He won’t remember any of this, the first man said.

How much will be lost? asked the second.

It’s difficult to say. It could be everything, it could be nothing. We’ll soon find out, but for now, he needs to rest. The man withdrew a long, thin piece of fabric like a cape or child’s blanket from a satchel that lay close by.

He will need help not looking for her, the first man said. Because of their bond, though, he may not know who she is, but he will want to seek her all the same.

So what do we do? asked the seemingly youngest of the onlookers, his face glowing in the moonlight behind a mop of unkempt black hair that covered his forehead and crossed over one eye. 

The first man rose to his feet and turned to face the trio of men watching the proceedings.

"You will take him to the Zharem lands and find the conduit before he does. Benjamin is the only one who can find it."

The black-haired boy’s eyes widened. "And how do we get past the blockade? There must be a million reapers waiting for us. Why couldn’t we just get her and bring her with us? Would it have been so bad to just let them know our plan?"

The first man turned back to the proceedings. The two long Japanese Katana blades he wore on his back stood above his head in their sheaths. The time will come for the Guardian to know everything, but that time is not now. It is time she learned to walk without a crutch. That is imperative if any of us hopes to return home.

The boy scoffed. I get your whole ‘push her out of the nest and see if she flies method,’ I really do, but come on, Peter, she needs our help. She can’t possibly know what to do next. She’s trapped on that island, the guy she loved is dead … he looked at the slumbering boy lying on the ground. And now she’s expected to find and destroy the most evil being alive. That’s a hell of a lot to ask a person to do without throwing her some kind of a bone. Send me back there. Let me help her. I’m not him—he gestured to the boy on the ground—so I won’t be as much of a crutch as a … guide. 

The man with the knives suddenly broke in and said, your job is to the King’s Own. You’ve known this. He will need you far more than she will. She has her army and she has her queen. Is that clear to you?

The boy turned to face his superior. "Oh now you’re the king, he said in a severely jaded tone. So nice of you to finally make up your mind."

Jack—the first man with the knives—who stood next to the body of his surrogate brother lying on the ground has sunken eyes and a greatly reduced physique from just one year earlier due to a near-transformation into an agent of evil, a voluntary task he needed to perform in order to save not only his future queen, but all of their entire existence.  His expression was not one of confrontation, but of pity as he approached the boy. I could never possibly fathom what you have experienced in your life Senneck—

Sean, the boy corrected.

And I understand that there is probably very little I can do to regain your confidence in a monarchy and a world that betrayed you. But, Sean, as much as you don’t need us, we need you. My guardian needs you, and only you, save me and Peter, have the knowledge, the ability, and the understanding of how to get him to where the conduit is. Jack paused for a moment then added tenderly, almost paternally, "Can we … can I count on you to do this?" 

Sean’s head hung, but his eyes glared up at Jack, the new king of Zharem.

The man next to him—a dark-skinned man named Raymond, with Sean’s exact hair color, jaw-line and nose, but with thirty more years of wear on his face—wrapped a tender arm around his brother. A transfer of soothing Immortal Light connected and bound the two men together with a closeness that transcended millennia of time in which they had both believed the other to be dead.

Despite the aged appearance of the older man he was, in fact, Sean’s younger brother.

Sean’s accusing eyes softened and he shook his head. It was difficult to tell if the head-shake was meant for Jack or for himself, but dejectedly he said, Yes, I’ll do it.

Raymond squeezed his older brother again, but Sean pulled away and headed back toward the burned out village behind them.

Peter had been watching the confrontation between Sean and Jack through dark glasses, an absurdity considering the fact that it was night, but a courtesy to all those present.

He’ll come around, the final observer said to Raymond in familiar and amicably consoling tones as his eyes contemplatively remained on the calm ocean before him. James Higgins was Raymond’s one and only true friend. Their relationship was forged more than two-thousand years prior in Zharem, the lost and ancient city of gold, the city for which each of the men present fought and to which they hoped to soon return. But James’ focus was not the lost city, it was not the destruction of the most evil man that existed on Earth, and it wasn’t uniting the three worlds of the Immortal Light, which was necessary to stop the aforementioned evil man; James’ sights rested on an island beyond the western horizon where his daughter remained trapped, believing her father to be in a coma and her one true love to be dead.  James was certain Lucy needed him, because he needed her. If there was anyone on planet Earth who could get her through the impossible errand with which she was tasked, it was James. The only other person who could help her was the boy who, only minutes before, had his own life force collected by his brother from where it lingered on the beach, and then restored to his body giving back not only his existence, but his mortality, an experience James knew all too well.

Chapter 2

Lucy Higgins stared at the ground where Benjamin Raven—the only boy she had ever loved—had been lying only two hours before. Directly behind the spot stood three remaining high archways that led to who-knew-where. There were no clues as to where Benjamin had gone and who might have taken him, except for a feeling in Lucy’s gut. Klarr had his theories, as did Kat—who faded in and out of consciousness like a dying fluorescent tube—but Lucy didn’t need their nearly baseless theories of darkness at work. She knew who had taken him.

With the hilt of her masterfully-crafted golden sword firmly locked in her hand, she stared hard at the spot on the floor and muttered a vow to the traitor who took Benjamin’s body. I’m coming for you, she hissed under her breath as she simultaneously sent the same message out over the light in hopes that its target might hear.  If I find you, Sean, I’m going to kill you.

Footsteps of heavy-soled military-style boots climbed the few stone steps leading up to the archways.

Lucy sheathed her sword and turned to face Klarr who was accompanied by Jem, a soldier who had taken it upon himself to be the personal caretaker of the queen during the battle of Playa Azul.

How is she? Lucy asked, fighting back the ire and vitriol she felt rising in her chest.

She’s fading out for longer periods, Jem responded. She needs help that I can’t give her.

Lucy headed down the steps toward the Aterran transport vehicle that she and Cerina had stolen. Cerina was another anomaly in Lucy’s life. She was an Aterran scout who wasn’t Aterran at all, but Jack’s adopted sister made immortal by the light of a king hundreds of years before. Lucy wanted to be her friend, but she had doubts about Cerina’s loyalties. Her relationship to Jack—another betrayer—made her involvement in the quest just a little questionable. But because Cerina did not have the gift of the Immortal Light, Lucy did not consider her a threat.

Cerina sat by Kat, holding her hand, a forlorn look on her face. I don’t know how much longer she can keep this up,

Kat? Lucy said softly. Can you hear me?

Kat breathed in deeply, but her eyes remained shut, a gentle moan issuing out from somewhere deep in her chest.

She needs our healers in the city, Cerina pleaded to Lucy.

Lucy shook her head. That’s not possible. We’re fugitives here, remember? She sighed. We need Peter.

Peter’s dead. Jack killed him. You saw it with your own eyes. Klarr stated. So, If we’re going to save her, we need to use all the resources we have available.

Even if it means turning ourselves in to a government that, last time I checked, was being held hostage by Suen? Lucy questioned snidely.

There was silence.

I’m sorry, that was rude, she backtracked. I agree with you that Kat needs help, but I need some assurances first, Lucy said.

Yes, I absolutely agree with you, Klarr replied enthusiastically … as enthusiastically as Klarr gets. Send out a small squad, ten men. I’ll lead them. We’ll go into the city, assess what’s going on and send back word. It’ll be easy enough. We have the transport. If there is no reaper threat, we take our chances with the Chancellor, or whomever is currently in charge that isn’t Suen.

Lucy nodded as she pondered. I’ll go, too, she said.

Me too, Cerina chimed in. I’m from this island. I’m an asset. I know my way around, I know people and places.

Lucy looked skeptically at her. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Cerina could, at any time, betray them just like Jack. Just like Sean. Her very request could be part of that betrayal. Perhaps she would lead them directly to Suen. But how much of that was paranoia?

Okay, Lucy said. Set it up, get seven of your men besides you, Cerina, and me. We’ll go into the city and see what’s going on. Let’s be ready to go in an hour. Lucy paused and nervously gripped the hilt of her sword. I don’t have to tell you all that this makes me really uncomfortable.

We’ll be careful, Klarr replied.

Lucy nodded, unconvinced.

Despite her insecurities, Lucy may not have noticed it, but Klarr certainly saw a change in her. She had become a leader. And all it took was the death of someone she loved. It was a theme that sounded all too familiar.

Klarr, Jem, and Cerina left Kat and Lucy alone. Kat lay semi-conscious as Lucy gripped her hand, filling her with light.

Lucy waited until everyone was out of ear-shot. She didn’t want them to know that for all her paranoia about betrayal, she was about to leave them all.

You’re not going to like this, Kat, she only sort of whispered to her best friend, but I have to do something about this; I can’t just sit here. She ran a hand through her thick golden hair.  I have to do it fast. Like … tonight., she said almost regretting saying anything for fear she would lose her nerve and have to explain it later.

Look, I want to wait until you’re better, but I don’t know how long that will take, or if you can get better at all. Lucy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, and I know what you’ll say. Is it the right thing to do? I don’t know, but I can’t accept the way it happened. How it happened. I don’t understand why he would take Benjamin’s body like that, but I hate him for it. I want to get Benjamin back, and I want Sean to … she didn’t finish.

After a moment’s pause, Lucy kissed Kat’s hand and cheek and carefully crossed her friend’s arm over her body. I’m going after Sean, Kat. I’m going to find out what he did with Benjamin, and I’m going tonight.

As she stood to leave, Kat said something. Lucy spun back around to see that Kat’s eyes were wide open and filling with tears. She raised her hand a little above her chest—it was probably all she could muster. Don’t … leave me, she mouthed, unable to actually vocalize the pleading request.

Lucy’s jaw began to quiver at the pitiful sight of her only true friend in the world.

I have to, Lucy said as the first tear fell down Kat’s cheek.

Kat’s face contorted as she fought to control her emotions. She wasn’t sad or upset. She was scared. Lucy could see it as plain as day, written all over her face.

Lucy rushed back to her friend’s side and took the hand that could no longer hold itself up. I’ll be back, Kat. I will, I promise.

Kat stared with wet eyes at Lucy for a moment then weakly pulled Lucy closer to her.

Lucy bent down toward Kat’s mouth.

You are … my … hero, Kat whispered. Lucy choked back an emotional tidal wave, and threw herself on Kat, hugging her tightly, flooding her with light.

You know I have to do this. Please don’t stop me, Lucy pleaded.

Haven, Kat said with all the air she had left in her. Lucy sat back then jumped immediately to her haven.

The tide of Sunset Bay roared in her ears just as it always did. The warmth of the sun radiated down and engulfed her in familiarity.

Kat! she called, and Kat was there.

The queen, or future queen, sat cross-legged on a large gray stone just under where the parking area would have been if Lucy had chosen to include such an out-of-place feature in such a metaphysical world.

Even in the haven, Kat looked tired. Her hair, though luxuriously long and black with a ripple of soft waves throughout, hung over her athletic shoulders while being whipped by the wind as if there was nothing she could do to control it. Her hands rested heavily on tan legs sporting a pair of Nike running shorts.

When she looked up at Lucy, she smiled so warmly that it could have challenged the sun in radiance. But the smile faded fast. Whatever it was that Kaisen had done to her, and however she had wasted herself in helping Lucy on Playa Azul, it had taken its toll even in the haven where the Immortal Light sustained its occupants.

  Don’t go Lucy, Kat said bluntly. You cannot go. Your soldiers need you. The emotion she bore in the outside world was gone.

They have Klarr and Aux. They don’t need me, Lucy replied.

"Then I need you."

Lucy sighed. I have to know what he did with Benjamin. I have to, Kat.

I won’t condone it, Lucy.

Lucy scoffed. What, now I need your permission? she said, feeling affronted.

You are my guardian, Lucy. I don’t know exactly how all of this works, but I’m pretty sure that means you are responsible for guarding me.

Lucy rolled her eyes. "I am your guardian, and I will be there for you, but … Lucy couldn’t think of a reasonable way to finish her statement, so she didn’t. Please, Kat. You have to understand. I need this. I need closure."

Kat stared up at her friend.

I need to know where he is, I want to bring him back or at least be the one to take care of what’s left of him. I can’t let that … she stopped as Sean’s face flashed in her mind.

You want to destroy Sean, Kat inserted. You don’t just want to find Benjamin, you want to kill Sean.

Lucy’s eyes grew wide. "It’s the only purpose I have left, Kat. It’s what I know I can do. Saving the world … I can’t do that right now. I don’t even know where to begin with that. But this … I can do this."

"Your light, your aura is very dark right now, Lucy. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but it frightens me. I know you’re mad at him, but you don’t even know if it was him. What if it wasn’t him? What if it was someone else? Your motivation is flawed and you only want revenge for something you can’t even prove. You’re chasing a flying needle in a sand storm inside a hay stack. If you’re not careful, it will come back and hurt you."

Every word Kat spoke made Lucy more and more angry, but not because she was wrong; it was because she was right. But Lucy didn’t care. It was a mission that gave her purpose.

Lucy pulled her sword from its sheath, a violent jerking swing, and launched the blade out into the sky. The golden weapon flew upward then came straight down, its perfectly balanced nature causing it to slice straight down through the waves and bury itself more than a foot in the sand.

I’m going, Kat! I’m doing this, with or without your blessing! Lucy shouted with hot angry tears in her eyes. I don’t know why you can’t understand that I need this and just support me. But I’m going!

Kat stared with a sympathetic frown. Then take me with you, she said.

Lucy stopped her tirade and stared at her friend. How am I supposed to do that? You can’t even walk.

Help me walk, then.

Lucy scoffed and sagged her shoulders in frustration. How? I’ve tried, Kat. You need help that I can’t give you.

There is help that you can get me.

What? Where? The Aterrans? We’re already going to talk to them, but Kat, what if they can’t help you? What if Suen is still in control of their Chancellor? I can leave you here and Klarr will find a way to get you the help you need, way more than I ever could. I feel out of control here.

Then I don’t condone your course of action, Kat replied.

You mean if I don’t take you with me, you’re going to be mad at me for what, ever? That’s a little juvenile don’t you think?

Yes, Kat answered flatly.

Goh, Lucy scoffed as she turned to face the ocean. You know, I don’t need your permission, Lucy said childishly. I can just go. She faced Kat again. Unless you plan on telling Klarr why I left.

No, Kat said. This is between us, but I am so afraid, Lucy, that if you leave me … she paused to gather herself, emotion taking her over now. If you leave me, I will never see you again, she said with a quivering voice.

Lucy said nothing.

Take me with you. Find a way, Lucy. There is a way. If it’s the healers or if it’s you, there must be a way. I want to never leave your side again. There is something deep inside me that says if we leave each other … Kat didn’t need to finish her thought. Lucy understood. She felt it herself.

Alright, Lucy conceded. I’ll try, but if the healers won’t help us …

If the healers won’t help us, then you have a huge decision to make, Kat finished sternly.

Yeah, then I have to leave you, Lucy said.

Chapter 3

Sean sat on a thick piece of driftwood, practically a whole tree, as he stared out at the Pacific Ocean from a beach near Puerto Vallarta on the Mexican central coast. It was night, and once again he couldn’t sleep. In his hand he twirled a thin clear vial of water, his sword.

Que pasa? Raymond said as he strode up to his older brother. It had been three days since the brothers were reunited after centuries of misconceived notions about each other’s fate. Both had believed the other to be dead. Both While their reunion had been filled with tears of disbelief and joy, both had spent the last two days having only slight contact and even less real conversation with each other. Two thousand years of estrangement was not an easy thing to overcome. Both men had changed, grown in opposite directions, and neither was too eager to try and take things back a few millennia just so they could feel good about being reunited.

"I’m just a little leery about having to follow him into the mouth of the lion. Do you know what it looks like down there?"

Raymond nodded. I’ve heard.

"Well I’ve seen it. It’s crawling with reapers. I don’t understand why we can’t just go with you guys, unite the worlds from those worlds, and then come back here, throw down a healthy battle with the rest of the Serpents and link Earth. Isn’t it that easy? Isn’t that what Peter is going to do anyway? Why do we need the stupid conduit? I mean, what can he do? He’s just a guardian, and he doesn’t even remember anything."

You know what his job is, and you know that you are the only one who can help him find it.

So, because I’m the only one who has any idea what the conduit looks like, that means I can find it? What if it’s not the same. What if it’s changed into something totally different by now?

That’s why you’re going now, Raymond responded, studying his brother’s face. Though Sean hadn’t aged physically in three-thousand years, the weight of his burden, his previous betrayal of the light, and what must have been his interminable guilt, showed heavily on his countenance; it was almost as if he was older on the inside in all the wrong ways.

Sean jumped down from the log and placed the clear vial back in his pocket. Yeah, I should go check on my traveling partner, Sean said with disdainful condescension.

What do you have against Benjamin, anyway? Raymond asked. He’s a good man.

Sean didn’t face his brother, only stared out at the dark sea that reflected a single beam of moonlight like a path leading into oblivion. I don’t know. It’s just … Sean picked up a small rock and flung it out in the surf. I just don’t like him.

Raymond watched as his brother walked away toward the ocean and followed the foamy trail north a few paces before stopping to stare at the moon again.

Raymond used to be the pest his brother knew as Marek. He remembered the days when he was the tagalong. His older brother, though annoyed by him, always looked out for him, made sure he was always safe. Senneck was the man of the house after their father’s death on the Zharem wall. But looking out at such a broken man, Raymond couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to him?

Raymond pitied his brother, and wished more than anything that he could take away all that had happened to him. In his lifetime he had lost his father, his wife, and his brother. It was a lot for one man to suffer in any period of time, and for most of that time he’d had no one to depend on. Therein lay Raymond’s only piece of guilt. He had given up on Senneck after that day he was supposed to have died. He abandoned the one man who never abandoned him, and this new man that stood in Sean’s form scared Raymond. He was afraid for his brother’s future, and this is why Raymond couldn’t be there for him this time either. Raymond was an old man now. As much as he wanted to do for his brother as his brother had done for him when they were children, he knew he couldn’t. Sean had to figure it out on his own.

James Higgins was reading an ESPN Deportes magazine when Sean reentered the hotel room they had all been using as a base camp during Benjamin’s three days of convalescence.

How’s he doing? Sean asked, his affect very flat, emotionless, like he was inquiring on the status of a vehicle in the shop.

He doesn’t remember anything, James replied as he closed the magazine and placed it on the coffee table in front of him.

Like he doesn’t remember any of us or anything that has happened?

No, he knows Jack and Peter, but that’s about it.

"Does he know where he is, when he is?"

Yeah, he knows he’s in the twenty-first century, that didn’t affect him. He remembers leaving home and being made immortal, but he doesn’t remember much beyond that, as far as events, but he’s familiar with the time, its technology, physical and political geography, even some current events, but almost nothing personal; it’s really kind of weird.

Does he know he’s not immortal anymore?

That’s what they’re telling him right now, James answered as he looked toward the closed bedroom doors that housed the proceedings between Jack, Peter, and Benjamin.

Sean hesitated for a moment before asking Does he remember … Lucy?

James tilted his head a little bit to the side. No, he doesn’t remember her at all.

Sean’s face tightened, almost like he wanted to react to this news but didn’t know how. 

You have to help him a lot, Senneck. He’s going to need you. He doesn’t know what the conduit is, he knows that he has the mantle of the King’s guardian, but he doesn’t know you, and there might be trust issues.

I guess it could be worse. If he doesn’t already know me— Sean stopped. "Does he know anything about me and … Suen?"

I don’t think so.

Maybe he and I can start from scratch, then.

One of the two bedroom doors of the suite opened and Peter exited quietly.

Well? James asked casually as he put down the magazine and stood up. What’s your final prognosis, Doctor?

Peter nodded his head back and forth. It was still so odd that even indoors he wore sunglasses, wrap-around polarized shades like the US military handed out in the second Gulf War. The reason, something no one truly understood, nor could they ever fully sympathize, was on account of the transfiguration that took place only days before. A change in himself that all high priests mandatorily experienced in the final stage of their development. It made the priest more attuned to the vibrations of the Immortal Light, essentially plugging them directly into it, making him or her a literal conduit of the light. Unfortunately, because of an error in the process—Benjamin arrived late in ending it—Peter had lost his sight. A minor setback for a man who now saw through the Immortal Light, making useful eyes a simple redundancy.

It’s interesting, Peter began. "I’ve restored to him those things that I could,