Academy of Light

by A Y Beltran

  I stared at Fide who was one step ahead of me. His strides were unhurried as if he did not want it all to end.

  CHAPTER 3

  The Garden in the most literal sense of the word looked like a garden. It was a giant maze much like Emerald’s garden. Its walls looked like twenty times my height and were covered with glowing shrubs and flowers. Here Fide left me. And as I watched his back retreating farther and farther from me, I felt a pang of loneliness. Would I ever see him again?

  “He’ll come back. He always will. He’s the caretaker of the Ortus of Calx and he delivers fledglings to the Garden.”

  I stared at the speaker who was yet to introduce himself. He was about a couple of inches taller with a pair of blue eyes. His wings were glowing with yellow light, which was strange as most of the fledglings in the Garden, though we all glowed a little, did not have glowing wings. So what made this one different?

  “My name is Orieumber,” I said, extending my hand to him in greeting. I did not know where I got this gesture.

  He stared at my hand confused.

  “I’m Venir,” he replied. He too extended his hand the same way I did.

  I reached out for his hand and shook it. I had no idea why I did it but it just felt like the most natural thing to do.

  Staring at his wings, I said, “Why do you have wings?”

  “Because I’m ready to leave the Garden. I’ve accumulated enough navi to be able to fly over the wall.” He bent down to pick up the glowing fruits that looked like berries. He gave some to me and ate the rest. “That will provide you more navi though it’s not permanent. The more questions you ask, the hungrier you’ll become.”

  I stared down at the glowing shrub on the ground and grabbed a handful of its fruit. And without much hesitation, I put them all in my mouth.

  “Slowly,” he said, chuckling.

  “They’re delicious. I could eat them all the time.”

  “But you need another source of nourishment. One that is permanent.”

  “And how can I get that?”

  “Easily. Through learning. Just learn whatever knowledge the Garden offers you and your navi will increase.”

  Fledglings with no wings were everywhere running around, bumping into each other, falling down on their asses and struggling to get up. I was able to help two who mumbled a ‘thank you’ before running again like everything was fine. There were others who were busy making wreaths out of flowers, or leis, or anything they could think of that would look pretty with it. As long as they were doing something. But there were a few who were just staring at the flowers as though they were in trance.

  “They learn by playing. Your energy increases every time you learn and experience something,” Venir explained. “Even when they are were observing, they are also infusing the information their sense of eyesight provides.”

  When Venir left from the Garden to go to the Academy, I started to explore the place all by myself. I felt the grass, the soil and studied them. Although no one told me yet the name of the energy fruit, I found myself spending more and more time deciphering what it was made of. Where was their energy coming from? How did they grow? I did not meet another Venir who was so willing to share their knowledge, so I settled with studying their usual location, their different colors, sizes and texture.

  “Fuzzy!”

  I turned to where the voice was and found a little girl with white hair, looking at me with her adorable eyes. The little girl was holding a glowing ball of light the size of a tennis ball. She kept saying ‘fuzzy.’ I assumed that was the name of the ball of light in her hand.

  “Hello. That’s so pretty. Where did you find it?” I asked.

  “Over there, behind that wall. It’s hiding under the Musa tree.”

  “So what are you planning to do with the fuzzy?”

  “I’m going to take care of it so it will grow bigger.”

  Oh. I did not know that fuzzy was a real creature.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Hannah.”

  “Hannah, can I see it?”

  She nodded and gave the fuzzy to me. It was light and smooth in my hand. I squeezed it or tried to as my fingers merely sank into the supposed flesh of this ball of light and touched in the middle. It looked like fuzzy had no core. If there was no core, what pulled the light together? It obviously had a mass no matter how feather-like it felt in my hand. So? And how? Interesting.

  “A fuzzy is a rare species of plant. They’re usually found in Secundarium rather than here. Fuzzy is also said to have been created by God himself.”

  I smiled upon hearing the voice. He’s back.

  “So the Academy is so scary you run back here?” I said, teasing.

  “It’s a little intimidating. So I figured, I should hang out for more navi.”

  Hannah tugged at my skirt and raised her arm forward, palm up. Understanding the gesture, I handed the fuzzy back to her. She giggled and started running away from us and disappeared into a corner.

  “I think you just need a companion. I’ll volunteer if only I’m allowed to go.”

  “No one is holding you here but yourself.”

  I frowned in confusion. Why was he making it sound like it was my fault I was stuck here? But I did not voice this thought.

  “How will I learn to fly?”

  “This wall,” Venir pointed to the flower-filled wall, “is about the same height of the step in the academy. You will practice flying by reaching its top.”

  I tilted my head back to see the top of the wall. It was so high that my neck started aching from being stretched that far.

  “So show me how to fly.”

  He grinned and his wings fluttered. Show off. He spread his arms and shot up into the air, way up and up and onto the top of the wall.

  “How is it down there?” he asked, waving.

  “Pretty awesomely grounded. How is it up there?”

  “Breathtakingly high.”

  I gazed up as far as my eyes could see. Someday, I said to myself. I would fly up there and touch the sky. And so I began my quest for a pair of wings.

  Venir took me in every corner of the garden where I imbued the beautiful sights around me: the vivid colors of the flowers, the clear and smooth texture of the stream flowing from the cascading water fountain found at the center of the garden, the glowing animals and fruits, the vibrancy of the surroundings. These stimulated my senses and I felt a surge of energy growing inside of me.

  I never had any idea how long I had stayed in the Garden as there was no time in Heaven. The sky was forever blocked with bright cotton-like clouds so there was no telling where the light came from. Did it come from a star nearby? I also rarely saw anyone sleeping. But there was an infrequent resting where they sat on the ground with their legs crossed and their eyes closed. This must be how they slept. Or let me change that. This must be how we slept. Venir later confirmed that this was, indeed, a manner of sleeping. We only felt the urge to sleep when a significant amount of navi was growing inside of us. And when it happened, our wings would grow as well. This interesting tidbit excited me and made me long for a nice long nap.

  But when it happened, I was so unprepared that Venir later told me how I just dropped on the ground. The way he described it made me think I actually passed out than slept.

  Regardless of how embarrassing my manner of sleeping was, I woke up with a new pair of wings. I expected it to look green like my eyes, or pink or yellow like most of the fledglings here. But instead, I got myself a bright white one that Venir described as extraordinary.

  “Why is that?” I asked.

  “Because it resembles an archangel wing.”

  A spike of energy spread into my body and made me feel light-headed.

  Venir grinned. “You look excited.”

  “You just told me that my wings resembled an archangel. Of course, I’m excited!” Then I turned pensive. “But can I fly now?”

  “Why don’t you try it?”

  I
fluttered my wings and spread my arms, imitating what Venir showed me when he flew. When nothing happened, I jumped up, and up I floated, hovering above the ground for a good few inches. Venir was grinning ear to ear.

  “Go ahead, go up higher.”

  I looked up and propelled myself up, higher and higher. I was too close to the top when I fell back to the ground. Ouch, indeed.

  “Ah, your wings are deceitful. They look strong, but they are not. You need more navi,” he said, offering his hand to help me get up.

  And so we spent more time in the Garden. We played hide and seek, eating more of the energy-fruit, creating a song where Venir seemed to be good at.

  “Is there really a god in Ether?” I asked randomly. When I realized that I just asked a question, I put a couple of berries into my mouth. I learned to always carry a bunch of them with me.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know much about Ether. I’m a newborn angel like you. But they say that the Academy holds all the answers. That’s why everybody goes there.”

  And that’s why I had to go there too. If only I could fly high enough to escape the wall.

  My wish came true when I was not even practicing to fly. This happened when Venir and I had found a heap of red, blue and green gemstones. They were ruby, sapphire, and emerald. I picked two of them and rubbed them together. We were thinking of making it glow because we discovered that there were items and objects in the Garden that glowed more when being smashed together.

  The stones emitted a purple glow. I mixed up the stones and created a different color. I was so thrilled and excited that triggered another burst of energy inside me, so strong that I was beginning to think I would self-combust.

  “Ori!”

  I did not know how it happened, but one thing was sure—I was way up above the ground, higher than the wall.

  With my mouth opened wide and my eyes bugged out, I stared down at Venir.

  “Ori, you’re flying!”

  CHAPTER 4

  Venir took me to the palatial house of gemstones that was so high I could only see two of its huge steps while the rest was covered with clouds.

  “That is the Academy of Light where the answers to all of our questions are found,” Venir said smiling.

  “I would assume the only way to get up there is to fly,” I said. “So have you tried it?”

  “I did, but the moment I reached the top of the first step, I wobbled.”

  “Which scared you and you decided to run back to the Garden.”

  He shrugged. “Something like that.” And without much of a warning, he shot into the air and landed perfectly on the first tread.

  “You said you wobbled,” I said, huffing. I had to raise my voice so he could hear me.

  He merely chuckled. “Now, your turn.”

  And I did. I first hovered several inches above the ground, and then I slowly floated until my wings got a hang of it and started propelling me upward. I could see the pride on Venir’s face as he watched my approach. It wasn’t instant, but I made it to the top. I could never really do Venir’s manner of flying.

  “How do you do it?” I asked, now standing beside him. “You shoot up and boom you’re here.”

  “I’ve had a lot of practice. Believe me, sooner than you think you’d be flying faster and better than me. You have the wings for it.”

  “So aren’t you coming in?”

  Venir and I both turned around to face the owner of the voice. A male angel was standing in front of a giant door made of gold and emerald. Carved on the door was, I supposed, ancient angelic writing, but since it was unintelligible to me, it appeared more like beautiful strokes of hoops and loops.

  The angel who spoke to us was a few inches taller than Venir. His hair was golden and his wings were bigger, brighter and breathtakingly red. His gaze fell on my wings and he frowned.

  “I see. You have the archangel wings.”

  “That’s what I told her,” Venir said. “I’m Venir.”

  “Truquus,” he said. “And you?”

  “Orieumber.”

  “Nice meeting you both. ”

  Truquus’s wings expanded, and it was magnificent to behold. Then he flapped them like a bird and zoomed into the sky until we could no longer see him.

  “Wow,” Venir said. “So that’s how it is to fly.”

  “I thought you got this one down to perfection.”

  “Not really. I can’t hover like you.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  He shook his head and laughed. “C’mon, let’s get inside.”

  The first level of the academy was a huge chamber with the ceiling so high it could no longer be seen from below. And lined up in a row were five high walls made of marble with a color of a cat’s eye. The front and back of each wall had several small squares that looked like plates carved in the stone. The plates were in different color and their colors changed as they went higher. The first ten rows were in green. Then I could see yellow. Then above yellow, I assumed would be blue, and then red.

  Fresh from the Garden, Venir and I knew nothing about what the plates were for, so we observed the fledglings around. They would touch the plates with the palms of their hands, and the plates would glow and then would turn into a book in the shape of a tablet. To flip to the next page, they would touch the front cover and the words would appear.

  “Can I start up there?” I said, pointing at the plates on much higher location.

  Venir shrugged his shoulders. “Go ahead.”

  With much excitement and enthusiasm, I started flying but when I reached the height where the yellow row started I hit an invisible wall and fell down hard on the pristine floor. A few angels saw my stunt and laughed.

  “You didn’t warn me,” I said to Venir while getting up from the floor. “You’ve been inside before, haven’t you? I thought angels don’t lie.”

  Venir looked incredulous and a little vexed. “You think I lied? Never. I didn’t really know what would happen, but I figured it would be the same principle with the Garden wall and the Academy steps. You won’t be able to fly higher unless you have enough navi.”

  It made sense, so I offered an apology. “I thought you’re playing a prank on me.”

  Venir shook his head with a smile. All was forgiven then, I supposed.

  “However, “ he started and then smirked. “I may have been trying to prank you for encouraging.”

  “I’m glad you got a laugh out of it.” I stared at the first row of plates. “There are like millions of them here. It will take us forever to read all of these bottom books.”

  “Good thing we live forever here in Ether,” Venir said. “So, so how about we start our quest for knowledge now?”

  We approached the first few plates from the door.

  “Are we going to read the same book?” I asked.

  “There are like thousands of these plates here. I guess it’s better if we read different books. That way we each have different knowledge we can share later.”

  So this was what we did. I came to stand in front of the first wall from the right while Venir started at the last wall. The huge distance between plates was enough to provide a reader a semblance of privacy. I touched the plate with my palm and a book was dislodged. This one had the words The Academy written on the front.

  The book gave information about the ten houses of the Academy of light. Each house had a certain type of knowledge. The first and the second were about the Celestial Knowledge; the third, was about the Terrestrial Knowledge; the fourth, the Trial of Knowledge; the fifth, Arts and Science of Medicine; the sixth, the Arts and Science of Communication; the seventh, the Arts and Science of the Elements; the eighth and ninth, the Arts and Science of Creation; and the tenth, The Great Ordeals.

  The book also discussed the origin of the Academy and who built and designed it. Much to my surprise, I enjoyed reading it. And after I returned the book back to its shelf, I felt the drowsiness that signaled the increase of my navi. This time I wa
s ready for it. So I sat crossed legged and hovered a few inches above the ground. I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

  When I woke up, I felt light and energized. I went to the last wall to check on Venir and he said that he was still reading the very first book he chose. He told me to go ahead and read as much as I could to accumulate enough navi to reach the books on the higher level.