The Hero's Chamber

by Ian Newton

  Kaya, Andrew, and Jacob held hands as they stood on the north side of the platform facing the mountains. The wind blew at them with enough force, they had to lean into it to keep from blowing backward.

  “Here it comes,” Kaya said.

  “Look at the size of that wave,” Jacob said with a whistle.

  The platform was hundreds of feet high, but they stepped back from the edge anticipating the splash.

  When the splash never happened, they stepped forward, looking down. To their surprise, the water parted just a few feet in front of the wall and smoothly flowed around it.

  “I hope I never get used to things like that,” Andrew said, in an awe-struck voice.

  “Me too,” Jacob agreed.

  While the flood of water rushed by, the three newest citizens inspected the items of magic on display. They were illuminated from below, and most were resting on crystal pedestals. Some objects they knew from before they drank the water, some they did not.

  The first item was the shield. It was standing upright on a three-legged stand like an artist’s canvas on an easel. Next to it, on a rectangular stack of crystal blocks was a beautiful sword and next to the sword was the book. Off to the side, on its own small pedestal was a ring made of gold and the last item was a small cup, standing upright, filled with water.

  Andrew and Jacob stood in front of the sword while Kaya lifted up the book.

  “I wouldn’t open that,” Jacob said, but Kaya already knew what she was holding. The Fountain of Knowing had taken care of that.

  “It’s just the way we saw it,” Andrew said to Jacob, reaching out and picking up the crystal sword. The grip fit his hand perfectly. “It’s light as a feather.”

  He handed it to Jacob who swished it through the air.

  “It’s perfect. Just the way it’s supposed to be,” Jacob said with a smile, setting it back down.

  They walked down the row to Kaya, who was holding the ring in the palm of her hand.

  “The Ring of Truth,” she said, without taking her eyes from it.

  Jacob held out his open hand, and she tipped the ring into it. He gazed at it in the dim light and closed his hand around it.

  Looking at Andrew, he said, “Your hair is red.”

  Andrew smiled.

  Jacob opened his hand and put on the ring. He looked at Andrew again, and said, “Your hair is rrrrrr, rrrrrr, brown.”

  Taking the ring off, he said, with a smile, “Yup, it still works.”

  Kaya and Andrew laughed as Jacob handed the ring to Andrew.

  “Can you put it back on for a minute?” Andrew asked Jacob.

  “Of course,” he replied, as Andrew handed the ring back.

  Sliding the ring back onto his finger, he asked, “What questions would you ask of me?”

  “I’m sorry to do it this way, but I need to be able to believe your answers this time,” Andrew said.

  “I understand. Trust me, it hasn’t been comfortable pretending to be someone I’m not.”

  Jacob paused, took the ring off again, and set it back on the pedestal.

  “I’ll tell you what,” he said, glancing between the two of them, “Why don’t you ask me whatever it is you want, and I’ll answer with the ring off. That will make me feel better. Then I’ll put the ring back on and repeat the same information. Would that be all right with both of you?”

  Andrew nodded, saying, “I’m good with that.”

  “Me too,” Kaya agreed.

  “Wonderful,” Jacob said to both of them. “What’s on your mind, Andrew?”

  “Do I even need to ask?”

  “No, you don’t,” Jacob said, feeling a little embarrassed. “Let’s go back to the beginning, shall we?”

  “I would appreciate that. I think that’s where my questions begin anyway. Please, take me back to the beginning,” Andrew beseeched.

  “Very well my friends, but I think I know a faster way or maybe a better way. It’s certainly going to be a new way.”

  “If the two of you could please stand together,” Jacob said, motioning with his hands for the two of them to get closer to each other.

  Kaya looked at Andrew with a questioning look on her face but did as Jacob asked. She stepped next to Andrew, and asked, “Is this close enough?”

  “That will do just fine,” he said, raising both of his hands to shoulder height. “I’ve never done this before. Let’s hope it’s as easy as it looks.”

  “Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?” Kaya asked.

  Moving his hands toward both of their faces, he said, “I’m certainly going to give it a try.” His hands stopped. “Do either of you have any objection?”

  Andrew and Kaya looked at each other, then Andrew thought to both of them, “I’m all right with this. It should be interesting to see how well it works. Kaya, how do you feel about this?”

  She thought back to both of them, “I don’t believe that it can hurt any of us, at least I don’t remember anything about physical pain or it being able to hurt us. Let’s give it a try.”

  Jacob’s hands started to move toward their foreheads, when Kaya said, “Don’t forget to keep your focus. I think that’s the key. Focus on what it is you want us to see and the rest should happen by itself.”

  “I will do my best,” he replied in his mind, then he very lightly placed a thumb in the center of each of their foreheads.

  “Back to the beginning,” he said, closing his eyes, “back to the beginning.”

  Jacob thought about the time he first met Andrew, shortly after his birth. Andrew and Kaya were inundated with Jacob’s memories and feelings.

  Jacob shared trivial events in his life as well as deeply profound moments still very much alive with emotion. At first, it was overwhelming for Andrew as he met his mother and father through Jacob’s eyes. Then, almost immediately after his disembodied introduction, a wave of shock and grief hit him as he lived through the time of his mother’s death.

  The trials and tribulations of Jacob’s life played through their minds. They felt his inner struggle when he and George Weaver turned Andrew and Connor over to the care of the headmaster at the orphanage.

  They watched the journey across the Wastelands race by until they reached the Kingdom. Time slowed for Andrew, and he watched every detail.

  They felt the bone crushing pain when the shield destroyed Jacob’s arms, and they survived the devastating anguish that unfolded during those dark days.

  They suffered with him on his journey back across the Wastelands. They watched the years pass by as he struggled through life with his crippling injury; barely managing to care for himself. They felt the heart-wrenching grief and the conflict within him when he knew he couldn’t rescue Connor and Andrew from the orphanage.

  It wasn’t long until Andrew recognized himself, bloodied and breathless, approaching Jacob on horseback. Jacob’s heart and mind were racing.

  When the tragedy of the Defender’s Portal unfolded, Kaya started to cry. It was the second time he had lost his son, and it was more than either Andrew or Kaya could endure.

  Jacob lowered his hands to his sides and slowly opened his eyes. Kaya was crying. The streams of tears dripped from her cheeks and chin onto the stone platform. Andrew stood stiffly. He was expressionless, his eyes were wide open, but there was no focus to them.

  Jacob turned his attention to Kaya and looked into her eyes. He could see the impact of what he had shared.

  “I guess it worked, didn’t it?” he asked her in a quiet voice.

  Kaya’s lip quivered as she opened her mouth, trying to find the words that wouldn’t come. She took a small step toward him, slipped her hands under his arms and wrapped them around him, burying her face into his chest.

  In a voice just above a whisper, and filled with gri
ef the only thing she could say was, “Oh Jacob.”

  It took Andrew a few more minutes to wander back, but eventually he started looking around. He saw Kaya standing next to Jacob, and they were both looking at him.

  “How are you?” Kaya whispered. Her face still wet with tears.

  “I’m better,” he said, still sounding far away.

  “Are you all the way back yet?” Jacob asked.

  Andrew rubbed his eyes and looked around the platform until his eyes finally came back to Jacob and Kaya. He could see the tears on her face and the look of concern on Jacob’s.

  Andrew cleared his throat and met Jacob’s eyes. For the first time since they had met, so many years ago, he saw the real Jacob Duncan.

  “I’m sorry for doubting you. It won’t happen again.”

  Putting his arm around Kaya’s shoulders, Jacob smiled and offered his open hand to Andrew. Andrew took it, and Jacob asked, “I think we’re all together now, aren’t we?”

  “Almost,” Andrew said.

  Jacob and Kaya looked puzzled as Andrew let go of Jacob’s hand and took the small ring off the table.

  He slipped it on his left ring finger and looked at Kaya. She smiled at him, and he smiled back.

  “Kaya Elbe, I love you. I hope our life together is as wonderful and amazing and fulfilling as we both know it can be. Thank you for risking everything for me, thank you for choosing me.”

  “Whoa, where did that come from?” Jacob asked, looking surprised.

  He took off the ring, but before he could set it down, Kaya stepped forward and kissed him. Jacob looked on as Andrew dropped the ring on the pedestal and wrapped his arms around her.

  Jacob was speechless until they both turned to him with a smile, and Kaya said, “Jacob, we spent a little extra time together when we were in the Light. Andrew and I have chosen to be together.”

  “Oh,” Jacob said, with a little hesitation. “Well, congratulations.”

  “Thank you,” they said at the same time.

  The three friends stood atop the half-spire talking and watching throughout the night as the raging water from the mountains gradually slowed to a trickle. Just before first light, Jacob turned to Andrew and Kaya, and said, “This perspective thing is really strange. Are either of you playing around with it in your head?”

  “I’m doing it right now,” Kaya said.

  “Me too,” Andrew said with a smile.

  “What are you seeing, Kaya?” Jacob asked.

  Kaya furled her forehead and closed her eyes.

  “I hardly know where to start.”

  “Does it flip back and forth? Is it your memory, but not your memory?” Jacob asked.

  Kaya nodded her head.

  Andrew was staring off to the east with a blank expression.

  “It’s almost like looking at yourself in a mirror, but it’s not just my reflection I see. Even when I look at myself, it’s not…it’s not…”

  Kaya completed Andrew’s thought with “It’s not always the right reflection of yourself, like it might be your twin, but it’s not.”

  “That’s close enough,” Jacob said, “I’ve got the same thing going on in my head, too.” He closed his eyes, and said, “Now see if this is happening to you, too. When I focus on something specific, like when I was sitting outside of the Portal and Kaya, you came running toward me.”

  “All right,” Kaya said, “I’m there.”

  “Well it’s strange because I can see how it happened from inside my head, but my memory or my point of view or, what the heck do you call it?”

  “Your perspective?” Andrew offered.

  “It’s happening right now,” Jacob narrated. “I’m thinking about the moment and flip, there it goes. Now I see myself the way you must have seen me and there’s a feeling of purpose and something else I can’t quite describe. I feel like I’m watching things through your eyes. There it goes again. It just flipped to the other view, the one from above.” Jacob sighed, overwhelmed by emotions. “The feeling now is very different. What I’m seeing is overwhelmingly important, I can feel it! But at the same time, it doesn’t really matter if I’m there or not. See,” he said, not realizing his eyes were still closed and the thought was his alone, “See, there I go fading away as you round the corner into the Portal.” Jacob opened his eyes to look at his friends. Andrew looked at him with an amused expression.

  With her forehead scrunched up and her eyes closed, Kaya said, “There I am running toward you, Jacob, and Wow! The Light just exploded from the Portal, and I see your shadow. Then you’re right, it just sort of flips and now I see myself running. My face is lit up, and I’m slipping off my waterskin. I drop it into...,” she had her hands out in front of her with her palms up as if she was going to catch something, “…into your hands. I feel disappointed and…Oh, there it goes again. I’m above us now watching the whole thing over again.”

  Kaya took a slow, unsteady breath and with a trembling voice, she said, “This is the most important…Oh wait, I’m in the Portal now.” Very softly, she put her hands to her lips.

  “What is it Kaya, what do you see?” Andrew asked.

  “This is my choice,” she whispered, in time with the image of herself. She watched herself grab the brilliantly glowing spire and she felt the connection to Andrew. Tears dripped off her small chin, and her voice broke with emotion, as she whispered, “This is everything.” Her lower lip trembled, and she struggled to say, “I didn’t know there was this much love and hope in the whole world.” A smile spread across her face wrinkling the corner of her closed eyes, and she asked, “Is that really me?”

  “It sure is,” Andrew replied.

  She opened her eyes and wiped the tears away. She stepped toward Andrew and hugged him. He hugged her back.

  Jacob wrapped his arms around them and just held on. As the three friends embraced, the first rays of sunlight slipped over the horizon.