“An angel?”
Lulita fainted.
When she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on her bed. Luchy was with her, but it was not the same Luchy. Something had happened to her, and it showed on her face. She was aglow with a strange vibration.
“There’s a ghost in the house,” the grandmother whispered as she sat up. “Allow me, I’ll get the ax to get rid of it. It has wings. Did you see it?”
Luchy took a deep breath and looked at her. “Lulita, it’s not a ghost. I don’t know how to tell you without scaring you, but…”
The grandmother clenched her jaw and half-closed her eyes, preparing for a blow.
“Manchego has come back.”
The expression on Lulita’s face changed instantly. Sadness and anger flooded her. Tears welled up in her eyes. Her mouth curled up as if she were sobbing. She had not expected this. She lost control of her emotions, of her body, which was convulsing with a mixture of pain and unease. She broke into floods of tears and fainted again.
At noon she came to with a start, alone in her bed. The first thing that came to her mind was the news she had been told. Her heart was beating uncontrollably. Outside, she could hear Luchy’s voice and Rufus’s bark. There was another voice, masculine and deeper. Could it be him?
Please. PLEASE! It has to be him. It has to be him. My sunshine, oh, my sunshine, please return to me. Please. Oh, my sunshine, you’re my sunshine, she thought, thinking of the lullaby she used to sing to him when he was only a baby.
She got up and went to the door. She was afraid, afraid of seeing this other person, afraid it had all been a dream and that Manchego was still dead, that Luchy had gone mad. The joyous laughter and Rufus’s barking reassured her, gave her confidence that everything would be all right. She took a deep breath and rubbed her hands; she found it impossible to be calm.
She pulled the door open. Manchego turned suddenly, his smile frozen. Beside him, Luchy turned pale at the sight of Lulita with her face a mask of terror and excitement.
Grandson and grandmother stared at each other for a long time. The old woman soon recognized Manchego’s vital energy, his aura, his strength, and his purity. Then she noticed the wings and the maturing body.
She began to walk toward the boy, and they came together in a warm embrace.
“It’s my grandson! Oh, my grandson!” The old woman crumpled in his arms. “Oh, my grandson,” she cried on his chest.
Manchego’s face melted into tears.
Luchy watched them with a smile and tears of deep feeling.
***
The three of them sat down at the kitchen table. It was round, very like the one they had had before the disaster. Manchego was facing Luchy and Lulita. He took the girl’s hand, and she blushed. Then he began to tell them about his experience in the Interim, leaving out those details that would disturb them or cause them more upset or suffering, like the beings of the Celestial Divinity.
“What happened three years ago wasn’t just a coincidence or an isolated event. I’m afraid Némaldon is preparing to go to war again.’’
Luchy and Lulita looked at each other. They had never thought that misfortune was still threatening them, silent and hidden, but certain.
“Feliel Demanur, the wicked mayor we had in this village, was what Némaldon calls a Grim Shepherd. They bring the dead back to life with Black Arts, and they belong to a very high level in the military hierarchy of Némaldon.”
Luchy and Lulita were overwhelmed and silent. The mention of the Black Arts had frozen the air.
“It wasn’t just any demon Feliel brought back to life,” Manchego went on, weighing his words carefully. “He brought the Master back to life.”
The two women were horrified. They were aware of how serious the situation was.
“Némaldon had stayed in the shadows, not drawing attention to itself, for decades,” Manchego went on. “Its dwellers were planning their Master’s resurrection, and three years ago they succeeded.”
“How terrible!” Luchy cried.
“Why here, in our village?” Lulita asked.
“I’m not sure, but it seems that under these lands, there’s a complex of tunnels. They needed all those souls to bring him back. It was part of the spell. Death was the unit of energy they used.”
Now they understood the sacrifice. So many souls, thousands upon thousands of souls, to bring a demon back to life.
“And that’s not the problem,” Manchego said uneasily. “They resurrected the Master so that he can march again.”
“What are you saying?” Lulita asked, enunciating every syllable.
“That Némaldon will try to conquer us again. And this time they’ll risk everything. There’ll be no mercy.”
“When?”
“Their army might be on the move already as we speak. I guess they’d want to control Ágamgor first. Then, they’ll go on destroying everything in their path until they come to the Stratta Trigonosphere and destroy the very center of the Empire. Unfortunately, I don’t know much. That’s why I’ve come in such a hurry. I have to find out more.”
“Where are you going to go?” Luchy asked warily.
Teitú became visible, floating as a rosy-colored orb. Lulita got up with a start, the ax in her hands, ready to defend her loves.
“No, grandma! This is Teitú, my guide. I’d be lost without him. He’s a Naevas Aedán warrior. He’s my custodian, my friend, and my faithful companion.”
Rufus started to bark at the luminous being as if he were jealous, but after a few moves Teitú ended up winning the dog over; after all, this being and Manchego shared the same essence.
The grandmother also felt the energy of the Naevas Aedán and that of her grandson within it.
“Oh, how beautiful. Teitú,” she said, trying out the name. “Oh, Manchego, you’ve come with so many strange things that I don’t know what to believe anymore. But, why did you become this?” She pointed to her grandson. “Have you always been… him?”
“I—I think so, Grandma. From what little I can understand of everything that’s happened to me, I am the God of Light reborn in this body of a human. I am Manchego, but also Alac Arc Ángelo. And when the Master was resurrected, I guess the God of Light within me reacted to counteract the evil we had all witnessed taking place in this village.”
“So a god is sitting at my table having breakfast?” said Lulita.
“Well… yes,” said Manchego.
“Splendid. I must admit for a god, you’re quite humble. Are you sure you’re a god?”
“A being I met told me I was a demigod. Half-human, half-god.”
“Stop. Just stop right there. Too much,” said Lulita, holding her temples. “Let’s just go back to where you need to find out more about this evil that’s spreading. Let me—let me process all this,” she said. Her eyes were wide open as if she were seeing too much.
“I must consult with someone who knows more than I do,” the God of Light said. He was looking out of the window toward the green horizon, that paradise which had been part of his life. How he had missed all this!
“What do you mean, my boy? Who do you need to consult?”
“Actually, I haven’t the slightest idea,” Manchego admitted. “I’ll have to start looking for clues, asking questions, but I have to act now. I’m going to give you an important task: convincing the village and the Empire that evil is advancing. Háztatlon needs to be alerted so it can start readying the Imperial Army; otherwise, we’ll be caught by surprise, and that would be catastrophic. The proof is in the center of the village, in that accursed pit where the Master tried to murder me.”
“Yesterday, I went to visit General Leandro Deathslayer,” Luchy announced.
Manchego and Lulita focused their attention on the girl.
“Three years ago, after the destruction, the king sent the general, a philosopher, and a mage who’s an expert in Conjuring Arts to find out what had happened here.”
“Those wastrel
s haven’t done anything for us except scratch their asses,” the grandmother explained to Manchego.
“Because nobody helps them, Lulita. Nobody! As soon as I got close to the village, I realized our responsibility in all this. We’re so defeated that we’ve done nothing, absolutely nothing to get ourselves out of it.” She turned to Manchego. “Can you believe it, the pit’s still full of corpses? We haven’t done anything to bury our people? Have you seen the streets? They’re dirty, abandoned. You can still see the remains of a war; nobody’s stirred a finger to sweep them away. It’s our fault and nobody else’s. I can’t take any more of this sloppiness. Now, after what you’ve told us, we need to go to Leandro and offer our cooperation.”
Manchego nodded. The fact that the government envoys were in the area would help spread the news. They needed to set out for the North and warn the king.
“Luchy’s right,” he said.
A somber current oozed into the house. Manchego and Teitú stood up defensively. Lulita got to her feet at once. An unpleasant premonition ran down their spines.
Regretfully, Manchego knew it was time to leave his loved ones again. It was the curse of loving: the fear of losing everything. He clenched his fists.
“The enemy advances while we’re telling each other stories. There’s no time for rest. I’m happy to have seen you, and I know there’s a lot to talk about, but you have to understand: I’m the God of Light, and I have a responsibility to protect this world from evil.”
The grandmother was looking at Manchego with a mixture of fear, curiosity, and pride.
“Yes, Grandma. I was always an eccentric child, though now I understand why, and that’s because, within me, I was carrying the essence which has now blossomed. I’m the God of Light, and I know now that you aren’t my blood-grandmother.”
“What? What?” Luchy cried.
Lulita smiled and shrugged. A tear rolled down her cheek.
“Let’s solve one enigma at a time,” Manchego said with a warm smile.
They had to make haste. There was no time to lose.
***
Tomasa, spade and pick on her shoulder, was going back over her life since the death of Eromes. Her golden skin shone under the intense sunlight; her soul too, now that Manchego was back. She had seen him in the distance. Lulita assured her that soon she would be able to hug the young man, although Tomasa did not feel ready for anything of the sort.
Emotions of this kind were not to her liking, since they did nothing but cloud her reason and trap her in a closed loop of thoughts. Today, once again—particularly after her farewell to Eromes—she was weighing whether to go back to the lands of Mother to be as natural and simple as her brothers and sisters of Devnóngaron. And yet, she knew her heart would always be joined to the estate and the family of the Holy Comment Ranch, and that made up for being away from her people. She had shared too much with Lulita, and the fact that she was a Wild Woman comforted her existence as well.
She smiled to herself, burying her spade in the ground, ready to go on working. She heard the young shepherd’s laughter and could not help but remember other times. She felt a jolt in her chest. She left the spade and set off for the ranch, where she found Lulita and Luchy watching Manchego playing with his dog on the hill.
The look in the grandmother’s eyes said it all: happiness had returned to the Holy Comment Ranch, and although this would never be what it had once been, its essence remained.
The three sat down at the table with a view through the window, that little piece of the world where Manchego was running around with his dog. Now he had wings; he was an angel. How was anyone supposed to believe anything like that? If it was possible, it could only be because it was someone as special as Manchego.
***
At the observatory, Manchego was sitting beside Rufus just as he had years before. Teitú was flying around them, like a good spirit enjoying the moment.
“I’m so glad you’re well, Rufus. I missed you, you know?” the boy murmured as he stroked the dog’s head.
Rufus licked his master’s face over and over again. When Manchego got up, the dog barked to register a protest.
“You know what? I never thought I’d be back here, watching the sunset with my best childhood friend, and now I’m with you and with Teitú, two beings I’m so fond of. Thanks to you, I’ve found out who I am, and the love I have for you is the reason I’m alive.”
The beauty of the ranch overwhelmed the boy. The trees, most of them still blackened by fire, quivered in the air, which swayed their brittle branches to the rhythm of life. The imposing mountains on the horizon offered him comfort. Although this was no longer the landscape of his childhood, he still felt small in it.
“Here I am, old pal, here I am,” Manchego said, scratching Rufus behind the ears.
He hugged the dog. Rufus, sitting on his haunches, felt complete and at peace.
“This is just what I needed, old friend,” Manchego muttered. “Before I leave, I needed to see my loved ones and the horizon I love so much. We might lose it all, Rufus. I’ll fight to the end, but I don’t know whether I’ll win.”
Rufus barked and licked his master’s face.
In the distance, Luchy, Lulita, and Tomasa watched the scene in wonder. Truly it was a miracle to see the shepherd happy, sitting in the observatory, leaning against the Great Pine and in the company of his dog.
His departure was bitter for all. They had to say farewell after such a prolonged absence. They wept; even Rufus seemed to weep. Luchy wanted to tell him she loved him a thousand ways, and even that would not be enough. Lulita smothered her grandson with kisses and hugs. Tomasa patted his back, surprised by those wings, unable to believe he was the God of Light. Manchego bent to give Luchy’s lips one last kiss, and with a leap, he took off and lost himself in the orange sky of the evening.
Luchy saw him disappear with her heart frozen and the sense of a void which only the return of her beloved would fill again.
***
A young man, who might have been possessed, watched a winged being fly past in the sky.
“Sun, little sun,” he said in the voice of a corpse.
The winged being, as if summoned by these words, landed close to him. The boy’s name was Mowriz, and he lowered his head in reverence before the God of Light.
“Stand up,” the God of Light said firmly. “I don’t know who put a spell on you, Mowriz, and I don’t even have good memories of you, but you helped me follow the path I had to tread to find out who I am and be able to come back. You were a good guardian, you defended me, and you showed unswerving loyalty.”
In his right hand appeared his spear of white gold with a brightness that dazzled the sun.
“Kneel.” What am I doing! This is so strange, but it feels… Without realizing it, the god within the young man had taken over and was directing this blessed event.
The faithful servant obeyed.
“I, Alac Arc Ángelo, God of Light and protector of this universe, grant you the privilege of serving under my command, Mowriz. From now on, you may and must protect the survivors of this village. I want you to be alert to everything that happens in this village. Evil is on its way, and the villagers need you to protect them.”
Manchego touched him on each shoulder with the head of his spear, and the weapon vanished.
“Stand up.”
Mowriz’s gaze was different, though he was still under a powerful spell and still showed the same faithfulness. At last, Manchego understood why Mowriz kept saying “Sun, little sun.” He was referring to him, to the God of Light! This meant that the sorcerer, whoever it had been, had always known that he, the little shepherd, was a god. Could it have been Ramancia?
“Sun, little sun,” Mowriz muttered, which Manchego took to be thank you.
“Go, my friend, and protect the people of this village. That’s your mission.”
Without another word, the God of Light launched himself from the ground and shot up to the clou
ds.
Chapter VII – Emotional Hangover
Argbralius was going mad. He had followed that strange young man with wings, stalked him, and even seen him produce a spear of light out of nowhere. Who was he? Why did he feel such repugnance towards him?
He could not explain this revulsion toward that being, but he was absolutely sure he wanted to strangle him, murder him. Eliminate him from this world.
“No! No! No! I can’t think like this!” The sacristan punched himself in the nose. A dribble of blood came out. The pain was numbing, and the sensation managed to drown the need to murder that being. It was a need. Like the need he had to kill Trumbar. Why?
When he went into the Décamon, he was paralyzed. There was something in the air, and it did not come from evil. The oratory and the benches were empty. He went on stealthily toward the Décagon, where he found an unruly mass of people. The beggars who had been vegetating in the Décamon were crowded there to witness the incredible materialization of the stained glass window and the statue of the God of Light.
Argbralius managed to make his way through the crowd to the Décagon. On his face was a look which was not of surprise, like all the others, but of hatred.
Amid the crowd shone the Emanating Rose. Who had picked it? He found Savarb and Crisondo praying with their eyes closed. Argbralius felt a dagger in his ribs as he concluded that Savarb had supplanted him in his duties.
Who does that moron think he is? Does he want to take my glory, my fame away from me? he thought with loathing. The young sacristan felt a bolt of fury, which he quickly quenched the moment he was assailed by a vision of Savarb dead, strangled by his own hands.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself in another world. The black flower had grown and was now a plant of great complexity. Its petals opened as if to receive the warmth of the sun. The spiny leaves protected the thick stem. Instead of pistils, it had tongues which thirsted for something: for meat, for death, for blood. The flower emanated evil from every pore. Argbralius went closer to it, unafraid and curious; he wanted to know why it had come to dwell in his soul.
Archangel’s Ascension Page 6