Afaris: Shadows on Aora

by Ciubotaru, Tudor George

‘It is easy. Back then I struggled to prevent this from happening. Currently, we are on the ocean floor, it cannot get any worse than this. Things can only get better.’

  ‘Yes, tell that to the man who lost his wife and daughters, crying all night long the other day.’

  Saraf lowered his gaze. His son had managed to hit the nail in the head. He replied in a more serious voice:

  ‘Well, then, if you will not accompany me, I will tell Pandora you had other business to attend to.’

  ‘Who?’ Afaris asked puzzled.

  Saraf smiled:

  ‘I see you do not trust me enough to follow me blindly. You are right in everything you have said, it is an extremely bad time to go on a trip. But now you understand why I am doing this.’

  Afaris nodded, marked by his father’s words:

  ‘So, will you join me?’

  Afaris took a couple of steps towards his father’s Nymph:

  ‘Yes, I cannot miss such a thing.’

  ‘He grabbed the Nymph’s feathers and mounted it behind his father.

  ‘I knew you would change your mind.’

  Saraf looked at their little house; Calis was in front of it, amused by their argument. He waved at her and she replied in the same manner. Afaris looked at her and smiled, nodding ironically at his father’s games.

  The Nymph fluttered his wings and took off heading to the sunset.

  At first, Afaris asked his father tens of questions about the place where they were going, when they would be back and how come they would meet Pandora. Yet, Saraf was unwilling to answer his questions. He comforted him by saying: ‘You will soon learn everything.’

  ***

  As dusk fell, after a long and tiresome journey, both for Saraf and Afaris, the Nymph started descending. In front of them, there was a huge mountain, several times bigger than the Mountain of the First Light next to Saraf-Menom. Its summit was concealed by thick snow clouds which were shinning at the light of the sun slowly descending behind them.

  Saraf saw a small clearing among the trees below and steered its way. He slowed down the descent as he reached the trees, then with outstanding finesse he landed the Nymph on solid ground.

  Afaris dismounted the Nymph first, looking forward to feeling the solid ground under his feet. He stretched his back and legs and his joints cracked, then Saraf dismounted his energy form and sighed satisfied:

  ‘We arrived fast, we have had favourable currents’ he said.

  ‘Fast? It seemed time was frozen. At least, you could have been kind enough to talk to me.’

  ‘Stop whining, we will discuss immediately. First and foremost, fetch some dry branches.’

  ‘What do you need them for?’ Afaris asked.

  ‘You will see … go on, now!’

  Afaris did as ordered. He went to the tree trunks looking for branches torn by the wind. Several minutes passed and he found no branch, but looking deeper in the forest he came across another clearing where the sun was shining on some inclined trees. Reaching them, he noticed they had been knocked down by a massive creature. Carefully scrutinizing the trees, he noticed a large red spot. Touching it he understood it was blood, fresh enough as it had not curled. He called Saraf in his mind, but he did not reply from behind his shield. He tried again more strongly this time, but still no answer.

  Renouncing the idea of calling him and the possibility to find dry branches, he went back to the first clearing. He saw Saraf sitting down next to several branches fixed in the ground with their thinner end pointing up and supporting each other. Saraf stretched his arm to the branches in front of him and a strong flame appeared lighting up the branches on top:

  Looking up, at Afaris, he said:

  ‘I have given up waiting for you, I found dry branches myself.’

  ‘Where? I looked all over. And why are you setting them on fire?’

  ‘Well I broke some and dried them completely. Some old friends from another world taught me this.’

  ‘What’s the purpose?’

  ‘They used it to warm up and relax. We will use it to have a pleasant and quiet atmosphere.’

  Saraf’s Nymph sat down behind him and hid its head under the wings, going asleep.

  ‘So …’ Saraf continued. ‘It was too difficult to keep it and myself awake.’

  ‘I found something’ Afaris said.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Trees felled and blood on them. Fresh blood. I think it’s …’

  ‘Akdarosif’s?’ Saraf asked and Afaris nodded, worried. ‘Yes, it is his blood, he had left this place shortly before our arrival.’

  ‘How do you know? Why aren’t we going after him to help him?’

  ‘While we were flying, I scanned the area for unwanted guests. I traced his thoughts. He was weak, he collapsed. He rested for some minutes, then resumed flying.’

  Afaris remembered that, the previous day, after the battle, Akdarosif had flown in the same direction, sunset.

  ‘Is he going in the same place as we are?’

  ‘Indeed. And trust me, it is better to leave him alone. His heart is broken, he lost authority in front of his people, he was dishonoured when we saved his life and, above all, he saw us slaughter his people. How would you feel if you were him?’

  Afaris bowed his head. He did not even want to imagine how that would feel.

  ‘You see’ Saraf resumed ‘he will be back sooner or later.’

  Saraf showed Afaris the mountain behind him. He turned to look.

  ‘Do you know that mountain?’

  ‘No.’

  Saraf wetted his lips:

  ‘Sit down next to me. Stop standing so tense or you will make me tense, too.’

  Afaris sat down in front of the fire, next to his father.

  ‘That mountain, a long time ago, was a volcano. You know what a volcano is, do you not?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Well, it went extinguished long before I was born. Aora was not always green and covered in rivers, lakes and oceans. Once it was a dead planet, made of rocks and it was very hot. Then Pandora arrived and created what you see around you. Well, she was not alone …’

  ‘Did anybody help her?’

  ‘Yes, I will not tell you now who, you will find out later.’

  Afaris bit his lip, annoyed with his father’s pleasure for secrets. Seeing how sad he was, Saraf started laughing and resumed the story:

  ‘When she created Aora, as it is, the volcano died, and inside a lake was formed from the rainwater which kept falling into the volcano.

  Afaris looked at the mountain, then asked his father:

  ‘That sounds interesting, can we go there tomorrow so that I can see what it looks like? I’m just curious, we won’t stay there long.’

  ‘Absolutely. What is even more spectacular is that the magma which laid there formed countless huge crystals inside the volcano and they reflect everything. This is why they are called mirrors.’

  Afaris asked his father surprised:

  ‘Is this it?!’

  Saraf nodded.

  ‘Yes. That is the Lake of Mirrors.’

  ‘And what are we doing here, so close to a sacred place for the Nymphs?’

  Saraf laughed:

  ‘I will not spoil this surprise. Tell me, what do you know about Pandora?’

  ‘This is what we call her. She has an emissary or, better said, a counterpart in most worlds, under various names and forms. She created and governs the universe.’

  ‘Well said. And yes, we call her Pandora, and the image she left on us is that of an Aorian woman. Thus, we feel closer to her, he feel we have something in common with her. Or maybe she is our mother.’

  ‘Well, she is our mother. You are her direct son, aren’t you?’

  ‘Hmmm, to some extent, you are right. But there is a father. And he is closer to us than Pandora.’

  ‘A father? Do you mean there are several gods?’

  ‘Well, he is not really a god.’

  Saraf started l
aughing again:

  ‘And this is another topic I will illuminate you upon on another occasion.’

  Afaris rolled his eyes:

  ‘When will you stop this secrecy?’

  ‘When it is no longer so funny’ Saraf replied smiling.

  He stared at the flames for some seconds, then asked him:

  ‘Do you want me to share with you something only I know?’

  Afaris looked at him patient.

  ‘Pandora has no form. At least, not the way you perceive it. A long time ago, at the beginning of time, the universe was void. There were no suns, planets; there was nothing, but darkness, just like a room with no windows or doors. I call it the Void Ocean. Then Pandora came. She was just a soul back then, a puny tiny soul who decided that this world would be her land. In time, and I mean the life I have lived for a billion times, she has grown and developed incrementally. And the shape she took is that of a planet.

  ‘Is Pandora a planet?’

  ‘Hmmm, yes and no, but try to picture this: a planet made up of the same energy like energo-spirits, only much stronger. Pandora’s fauna consists of energy plants and trees, millions of types of creatures, speaking and mute, all spirits.

  ‘I reckon she is a very large planet.’

  ‘Yes, she is. Much larger than our little Aora. Going back, when she reached that stage in her evolution she desired, she started laying planets and sun eggs.’

  Afaris frowned in surprise.

  ‘Those pure energy eggs were formed inside her and when the energy was strong enough to ensure the development of the body outside Pandora it was shot out through orifices just like volcanoes on Pandora’s surface. They were pushed into our universe and these eggs developed into planets, suns and, in unfortunate cases, were destroyed, turning into dust and rock pieces floating chaotically in the universe.

  ‘Wow, how come you know all this?’

  ‘She told me.’

  ‘Pandora?’

  ‘Yes. I have told you she is a good friend of mine.’

  ‘So have you talked to her?!’

  ‘Yes and tomorrow you will, too.’

  ‘Well, you said she was a planet. Floating somewhere in the universe?’

  ‘Indeed, she is a planet, but not floating in the universe. It is rather complicated to explain, but she exists both in our material and spiritual worlds. The link is very frail. You cannot find her unless she wants to be found. Or if you die and she calls you back home.’

  ‘So when we die, we return to her. That means that we once, before our physical body, we were mere spirits living on Pandora’s surface?’

  ‘Exactly. For us, Aorians, this is slightly more sensitive. You see, I do not want to look down on anybody, but we have our special place where we go after we die. She does not want one single Aorian soul to go to her. So, we go to our father’s garden.’

  Afaris smiled:

  ‘About whom you will tell me more on another occasion.’

  ‘You are learning fast. Anyway, you understand that, if I had tried to explain this to you earlier, you would not have had the intellectual capacity to grasp it.’

  ‘Yes, I can tell that. This is why you continue to postpone specific information.’

  ‘You are right. And something else, the suns, planets are not floating at random in the universe, but they are balanced on Pandora’s energy waves. Like a web supporting all cosmic bodies. And that web becomes omnipresent. It is all over. You cannot see it even if right now it surrounds you, but you can feel its effects. Our energy pits, flowing from inside the planet, are indirectly fuelled from Pandora’s web.’

  ‘So Pandora fuels Aora and Aora fuels us.’

  Saraf nodded.

  ‘Then, what are the other energy pits? The clandestine ones?’

  ‘This answer, unfortunately, I do not hold. But I think I know who can answer and this is why we are here.’

  ‘Here where? If Pandora is everywhere, then why did we have to come all the way to talk to her?’

  ‘Because inside that mountain is her emissary, her counterpart on Aora.’

  Afaris looked up at the mountain which one could barely make out in the darkness.

  ‘Well, I look forward to meeting her’ he said, his voice trembling with enthusiasm and emotion.

  ‘I believe you. You must bear until tomorrow, though.’

  ‘Why did Akdarosif come here? To talk to her, too?’

  ‘No. Nobody but the two of us and Calis know she lives here.’

  ‘Meaning the Nymphs do not know this, even if they come here to bury and visit their dead?’

  Saraf nodded sad and replied:

  ‘I think our winged friend came for his own burial. Weakened, he is waiting for death, planning to sink himself when the time comes. It breaks my heart, I can see and feel him right now, he is hidden in one of the mountain caves, broken-hearted and tears pouring from his eyes. But there is nothing I can do, he either faces his fate alone, or …’

  ‘You could talk to him.’

  ‘He may be my best friend, but I do not think he wishes to see the person who ordered the slaughter of his people.’

  ‘I think you are right.’

  Saraf grabbed a long stick and added wood to the fire, watching it pensive:

  ‘One more thing I would like to tell you.’

  Afaris looked away from the fire to his father. He seemed restless. It was obvious that what he wanted to tell him did not come easy.

  ‘In life you must do special things to protect your loved ones. Sometimes, you do bad things. Controversial as it sounds, from a bad deed, greater good may emerge. It could …’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Some time ago, when I was the only one feeling the presence of those cursed pits, I was fighting a battle trying to persuade you all about what I felt and what I had seen in my vision. Nobody believed me, everyone thought my imagination was playing games on me. But there were two people who trusted me and without whom I would have probably lost it. Calis and Akdarosif. But there was the three of us against tens of thousands of voices saying the opposite. Our words weighed nothing. One night I met Akdarosif and proposed a plan. An insane and stupid plan, but it was the only option to open your eyes on time. Even though it should have been applied sooner …’

  Saraf stopped narrating, continuing to stir the fire with his stick. Afaris was sitting quietly waiting for his father to continue his story, wondering what he had done so terrible.

  ‘To my great surprise, he agreed to help me. I realized then that Akdarosif had been and continued to be the best friend I could ever have.’

  Saraf swallowed hard and continued:

  ‘We ran a huge risk. Even the risk of causing my prophecy to become true, but we knew it was the only way to prevent it, to cause an artificial conflict we could manage.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘The Nymph you and your friends found on the Mountain of the First Light … I killed him.’

  Chapter 23

  The hidden forest

  The cry of a Nymph woke Afaris abruptly. He looked around, then at his father who was awake, too. Then, the cry was heard again. They sprung to their feet, looking at the sky to see where it was coming from.

  The wood in the middle of the clearing was still giving out smoke so Saraf blew it away with a gust of wind, then the two and his Nymph hid in the forest fast.

  ‘Did you see where it came from?’ Afaris asked.

  ‘I did.’

  He pointed the sky.

  ‘There. There are some and they seem to be carrying some dead fellows.’

  Afaris saw the Nymphs. They were fewer than ten and, indeed, three were carrying a dead Nymph each.

  ‘Maybe, after the battle some died because of the wounds.’

  ‘They are going to the Lake, aren’t they?’

  ‘Yes. This is not good. I hoped we would have no company.’

  ‘We can wait for them to leave.’

  ‘No, there is n
o time, they will spend hours on end praying for their souls.’

  The Nymphs went out of sight entering the huge volcano crater. The clouds around it shattered and the sun illuminated slightly from the east. It was dawn.

  ‘Do you think they have the time for that?’

  ‘There is no need for them to rush, they know we are not going to attack them so they do not need to go back to the rest of the flight too soon. Crifius is very injured, days will pass until we can expect a new conflict.’

  Saraf mounted his energy Nymph.

  ‘Come, let us see what they are doing. If they do not make it too long, we will hide until they leave.’

  Afaris too mounted the Nymph.

  ‘And if they don’t?’

  ‘We will see …’

  The Nymph flew out of the clearing and waved its wings flying towards the volcano. During the flight, Saraf kept a low altitude, at a small distance from the trees, so that they could hide quickly if the Nymphs exited the volcano.

  Flying up to the volcano brim with rocks passing below, Saraf made a sudden turn to the right and headed down. Afaris noticed he was heading towards a cave entrance. Saraf ordered the Nymph to land in front of that cave.

  The Nymph slowed down, continued to wave its wings strongly. Paying close attention so as not to make much noise, it landed on the mountain rocks. Saraf dismounted it fast, followed by Afaris.

  Seeing his father had stretched his arm to the Nymph in order to cease its life and consume its energy, Afaris asked:

  ‘Wouldn’t it be a good idea to have it with us in case something happens?’ he whispered.

  ‘No need, we can manage. You saw they were not too many’ Saraf replied and his Nymph collapsed, breathless.

  In a couple of seconds it turned into pure energy and entered Saraf’s body through his open palms, and nothing remained of it.

  ‘Ready, let us go. Make sure you do not make much noise.’

  They entered a cave into the mountain. It was dark so they had to use their extra-sensorial perception. The cave was a windy and long tunnel, going left and right. Judging by the strange rock formations on the walls, Afaris realized that had been the flowing bed of the magma a long time before.

  After several minutes of walking fast and silently they reached the tunnel exit. Saraf urged Afaris to bow and advance. They hid behind rocks and saw the Nymphs in a line on the lake shore.