Darkness enveloped Aldrick like an enormous warming blanket. He felt a strange sensation similar to falling, but in the darkness it was impossible to judge how far, or how fast. The only thing he could be certain of now, was that the deep bitter cold of the unnatural blizzard they had been lost in, had inexplicably lessened. Aldrick realized he felt no fear in the blackness which now encompassed him, only a warm nurturing sensation.
After an indeterminate time he found himself surrounded by a dim diffused light. Soon thereafter, he began to see faces in the ephemeral glow. Jelénna appeared with a beaming smile on her face, and love in her eyes. Adrias materialized next to her, although he seemed to be distracted. A swirl, and his father Tiberius appeared, with a warm smile that exuded a comforting sensation. Aldrick began to feel his physical and emotional pains fading away like mist.
He felt comforted by the presence, and yet he could not help but wonder why his father was here. Concentrating on his face, Aldrick watched as the cropped white beard began to melt away, and the familiar features of his father morphed into those of someone else. This was the face of a stranger; a man he had never seen before, and yet he felt oddly familiar all the same.
The man was clean-shaven and thin, but healthy. He was older, and yet Aldrick could not put an age to him. His features were friendly and unassuming, perhaps even plain, but his eyes sparkled with both great intelligence, and a hidden mirth.
Aldrick had been shrouded in silence thus far, but something compelled him to speak. “Who are you?”
The stranger in the mist raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Well now, here’s a surprise. I did not expect you to see me yet. No, that I did not.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
The man laughed uproariously. “True Aldrick, very true. Always questioning, how wonderful. Yes, you should do quite well.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Nor indeed would I expect you to, my friend. We shall speak again soon, but for now remember this Aldrick; you must let go of your skepticism and disbelief, before you may attain understanding.”
“What does that mean?”
“It will make sense to you before long; otherwise this entire affair is going to be quite a bother.” The strange fellow rubbed his hands together. “Right, time to go, I would say. See you shortly,” He added with a kind smile and a wink, and then he was gone.
Darkness crashed over him like a wave, but before Aldrick passed into a normal dreamless sleep, he could not help but wonder about the strange encounter and what it might portend. Something told him that this vision was certainly more than a normal dream, but he grew quite tired, and before long he had slipped back into the warm, comforting blackness.
*****
Aldrick awoke with a start. The memory of his unusual conversation was still with him, but like a regular dream, it was already slipping from his grasp. Startled, he glanced around at his surroundings and realized he had absolutely no idea where he was, or how he had arrived there.
The first thing he noticed was the giant feather bed upon which he lay, snugly warm beneath a down duvet with large, soft comfortable pillows. He felt weak, as one might after a long sickness, but he did not feel ill.
Glancing about the warm, dimly lit room, Aldrick saw the walls were lined with bookshelf after bookshelf, all filled to overflowing with hundreds, if not thousands of books. He had never seen so many books in one place, with the possible exception of the great library in Akkadia, and even that contained more scrolls and tablets and other artifacts than proper books. It would take Summers, perhaps an entire lifetime, to read every volume stored in this single room. If ever he were able to choose his afterlife, Aldrick thought wistfully, this warm comforting room filled with perhaps every book ever written, would be very close to what he might choose.
He paused, having no memory of arriving at this amazing, and most unusual room. The last thing he could recall, other than the already fading vision of his conversation with the kind old man, was being trapped in that sudden vicious blizzard in the mountains with Garrick and Aelianna.
He had no longer been able to see their surroundings, and then unexpectedly lost his grip on Garrick and fell through a blinding whiteness. After a painful impact and blinding flash, nothing. They must have fallen off a section of cliff invisible in the blinding snow and plummeted to the ground below. Had they fallen to their deaths?
It was often said that when a person was near death their life flashed before their eyes. Is that what had happened to him? What possible explanation could there be for the circumstances in which he now found himself, other than he had died in the blizzard and was now in the afterlife?
If that was indeed where he was, his biggest regret by far was never seeing his precious Jelénna, and son Adrias again. When he was with his wife, he needed nothing else. He always missed her when he was not with her, but a wave of loss passed over him now; so great he nearly sobbed out loud. At least, he told himself in consolation, she and Adrias were with Tiberius. His father would take care of them; they would be safe.
Throwing back the covers of the heavy warm down comforter, Aldrick looked himself over. He discovered he was naked beneath the blankets, and could see no wounds or injuries of any kind. He had been certain he would find indications of frostbite and other injuries after the incredible numbness and cold of the storm. Yet when he stretched, he felt as strong and solid as the comfortable bed beneath him.
It was generally believed that when someone died, they became an ephemeral spirit in the afterlife, although how anyone had come by that knowledge was a complete mystery. It seemed to Aldrick that people tended to believe what they wanted to believe, even with the flimsiest of evidence.
Aldrick slid to the edge of the bed and stood. He felt a little weak, but on the whole, quite healthy. Not far from the bed he saw a well-padded reading chair, which held his clothes in a small, neat pile on the seat. They appeared to have been cleaned and pressed, and he put them on while he glanced around the room. Other than the chair, bed, and row upon row of books he had already seen, there did not seem to be anything else of note in the room.
He did find it curious that he could see no sign of a lamp or candle anywhere in the room. The light was dim, but warm without any discernible source of illumination. It merely existed, seemingly emanating from everywhere. It was slightly brighter near the reading chair, perhaps in the event he wished to peruse a book or two. Aldrick had no explanation for the ubiquitous existence of the light, other than some trick with hidden mirrors. Of course it could just be another feature of the afterlife, he thought with a shudder.
Taking a deep breath––there was a pleasant hint of lavender in the air––Aldrick walked over to the one door he could see in the room. It blended in with the far wall so well he had nearly missed it. With no idea of what he would find, he turned the ornate handle and swung the door open.
He hesitantly glanced out of the doorway, and found a long, bright white hallway, extending off in both directions. The hall was immaculately clean and curved inward, as if his room was on the inside of a giant circle.
The hallway was completely featureless, except for white doors similar to his, uniformly spaced down both sides. Aldrick stepped out of the book-lined room and peered in both directions, unsure of what to do. He was considering whether or not to pick a random direction, when the door across from him slowly swung open.
To his surprise, Garrick poked his head out from the opening. Upon seeing him, the king grinned like a schoolboy receiving his first pony.
“Garrick, thank the All Father.”
The king stepped out into the hall. “Hello Aldrick. I guess this means we aren’t dead.” He pointed back towards his room with one thumb. “That is one fantastic room!”
“I’m surprised to see you so excited about a room full of books,” Aldrick said with a confused look on his face.
“Books?” Garrick shook his head with a snicker. “There are no books in my room. I’ve never s
een anything like it before! Well, see for yourself.”
Aldrick stuck his head in the doorway and looked about, yet he saw nothing but a plain featureless room, completely devoid of furnishings. The walls were as solid white as the blizzard which had struck them so abruptly.
“It’s empty.”
“Empty? What about that?” Garrick pointed towards the center of the room.
“I see nothing but an empty white room.”
Garrick peered into the room with a bemused expression. “I don’t understand. Perhaps you are recovering from a head injury. You are missing out on the most amazing…”
He was cut off when Aelianna joined them. Looking around she said, “What is this place?”
They both turned to the warrior, but Aldrick was the first to speak. “There you are. We were deciding if we’re dead.”
Garrick patted himself in disbelief. “I don’t feel dead.”
“We not dead,” Aelianna scoffed. “We would be spirits.”
“But the blizzard…” Aldrick began.
Aelianna cut him off. “I say wizard not let us go. He want Clavis back.”
“You should have waited for us!”
Aelianna retrieved the artifact from her pack and held it out. “My plan work. Clavis is mine, not wizard’s.”
“At least we got it,” Garrick added.
Aldrick shook his head. “I don’t see how we could have survived…”
Aelianna snorted. “I say we not dead!”
Garrick became serious all of a sudden. “You know, there is a perfectly good explanation for where we are, and it’s not the afterlife. We have arrived in Khodara.”
“Khodara is a myth,” Aldrick said without thinking.
With a stern look, Aelianna shook a finger in his face. “Again you say thing not real!”
“Think about it Aldrick,” Garrick continued. “Either we are dead and in some crazy afterlife where I get to spend eternity standing in a hallway with you, instead of with a dozen beautiful women, or we are in Khodara. What other explanation is there?”
Aldrick opened his mouth to provide an alternate theory, but then closed it.
When he said nothing, Garrick drove his point home. “It is said Khodara appears only at greatest need, and unless I’m forgetting something, we were in considerable need.”
Aldrick nodded, lost in thought. Ever since he and his family had begun their journey to the Tournament in the spring, so many things he had known and taken for granted had been turned upside down. The words of the stranger from his vision came to mind; the old man had said he would need to let go of his skepticism and disbelief before he could understand. Perhaps this was what he had been referring to.
Aldrick took a deep breath. “Let’s say for the moment that you are correct, and we’re in Khodara. What now?”
Garrick scanned the white hallway in both directions. “As in life, we can only move forward.”
“Which way to go?” Aelianna wondered, peering in both directions.
Aldrick scanned the hallway. “It looks like the hall curves inward. It may not matter which way we go if it’s a giant circle.”
Garrick faced left, and announced with conviction, “It’s this way,” and then strode off down the hall. For all his show of confidence, Aldrick was certain he detected a hint of uncertainty in his voice. Aelianna raised an eyebrow, but with no way of knowing the truth, Aldrick simply shrugged and followed Garrick down the pristine white hall, with the warrior close behind.
They walked along for a time, past identical doors spaced at regular intervals on both sides of the hall. Without a clear idea of what they were looking for, they continued on, keeping to the right.
After a while, Aldrick called a halt. “This is ridiculous. We must have gone around the circle three times by now.”
Aelianna nodded. “This is long.”
Garrick stared off down the hallway, not focused on anything in particular. The king took a deep breath, and then spoke. “It’s a test. The only way out of here is through one of the doors.”
“How do we know which one?”
“That may very well be the test.”
“Stupid doors all look same,” Aelianna snorted, and then reached out and opened the closest door on the right.
“Another empty white room,” Aldrick mused, peering over her shoulder.
Aelianna gave him an askance look. “You blind now? This is my room. See beautiful, green oasis?”
“Oasis?” Garrick repeated, sounding dubious.
“It seems we can only see our own room,” Aldrick realized. “I could see nothing in Garrick’s room either.”
“How can this be?”
“I don’t know,” Aldrick admitted.
“So you not know everything?” Aelianna said with a small smirk.
“I never said I know everything!” Aldrick retorted, and then took a deep breath. “Let’s keep looking.”
They went to the next door, and Aldrick pulled it open. Sure enough he saw his own room, complete with the comfortable bed and bookshelves lining every available wall. Meanwhile Garrick opened the door across the hall, and called out that he had found his room right where he had expected to.
“We are back where we started,” Aldrick said. Walking over to the door to the right of Garrick’s, he added, “Let’s see what is behind this new door.”
Aldrick turned the handle, and was shocked to discover his own room once again, this time on the opposite side of the hall.
“Nothing but another empty room,” Garrick sighed.
“Worse,” Aldrick said, staring at the bookshelves. “It is my room again, on the wrong side of the hall.”
Aelianna raised an eyebrow. “How can this be?”
They looked at each other helplessly, but no one had an answer. They continued down the hallway opening doors, but in every case found their own room when opening a new door.
Aldrick finally called a halt. “This isn’t working. Every time we open a door, it only leads to our own room.”
“As I said, this must be a test,” Garrick mused.
“That may be,” Aldrick acknowledged. “But if we can’t solve this puzzle, we could very well be trapped in this hallway forever.”
Chapter 3
They stood in the middle of the hallway, staring at the mysterious white doors with thoughtful expressions for a time. Aldrick was the first to speak, and began hesitantly. “If every door we open only leads to our own room...”
Garrick nodded. “None of us can get out of here by ourselves.”
“But we are three…” Aelianna thought out loud.
“So if we are unable to escape this hallway by ourselves, it must take…”
“All three of us,” Garrick finished with a grin. “Come on, let’s try it.”
They all gathered around the closest door. It was plain and white, indistinguishable from any other they had passed in the hall. Glancing back and forth, they each placed one hand on the door handle. Holding their collective breath, they turned the handle as one.
For the first time since they had awakened in this mysterious place, all three now saw the same room before them; and what a room it was.
Their frustration quickly faded upon seeing the magnificent chamber beyond the white door. Without any regard for the danger, they crossed the threshold. Striding into the cavernous room, they gazed about with bemused expressions, looking like three lost children who had just discovered a house built of candy.
Nothing in their collective experience had prepared them for the incongruity of the wondrous room, if it could even be merely called a room. Part rustic wood paneled cabin, part mythical cave, they beheld a new wonder everywhere they looked.
The center of the massive chamber was an enormous sunken hollow with a large round wooden table at its center. Polished to a dark brown and golden glow, the table was surrounded by a ring of cozy cushions. Although the table was large, and the cushions richly embroidered, they still could be cons
idered commonplace items. That is where the normalcy of the room ended.
The right side of the room appeared to be the wall of a natural cave. It may have been hewn from the solid rock, but if so, it was done in such a way that it appeared to have been formed naturally. In front of the rock wall stretched a series of natural hot springs filled with steaming, bubbling water.
Behind the gouts of steam gushing up from the pools, water trickled down the stone walls in rivulets. Whether the moisture came from natural springs above, or was formed by condensation from the steaming pools lining the wall, was impossible to say.
The left side of the chamber would have appeared to be outside, if it was not for the wooden cabin wall stretching the length of the gigantic room. That entire area in front of the wooden wall consisted of an enormous garden, designed far too methodically to be a natural part of a forest, yet clearly efforts had been taken to make it appear so. A small stream bubbled through the center of the garden, and a quaint wooden bridge connected a small footpath that ran the length of the lush verdant expanse.
The Key of Creation: Book 03 - The Temple of Kian Page 2