World's End (The Pendulum Trilogy)

by Will Elliott

  Ah, but there was also that opposite, that rivalry, that dark a light banishes, that light the dark snuffs out …

  Light, dark – which of the two entities was which? It didn’t matter. Soon, one or the other would be extinguished, for something had been born in one of the worlds to bring about a final change … in this sphere of existence, at least. Whichever was the Light and whichever was the Dark, they now moved towards one another at equal pace.

  Siel felt them coming long before she saw them. There was light, dark, light, dark, from one moment to the next. The light when it came was so complete that nothing could be seen within it. The dark was so total that it seemed nothing existed where it fell. Her hand squeezed hard as it could upon the charm where Shadow was trapped.

  A desperate voice said, ‘Beauty,’ and then something grabbed her and lifted her. Away from the heaving, rolling ground, she could think again. ‘Where do I take you, Beauty?’ said a voice speaking into her mind.

  ‘Where is safe?’ she said.

  ‘Nowhere. They are awake again. Soon they will collide and things will change. All shall be changed when it is over.’

  ‘Take me to the waters,’ she said. ‘To the South.’ She knew that whatever changed, that place was eternal, and would remain.

  Dyan began to fly that way, but then she saw it: the Dragon of the South was not a dragon. It was huge, as huge as the castle … but a golden light burned all around it. Its enormous eyes were fierce but of such beauty she would never have feared them. Huge wings were upon its back but it was not covered in scales. Its enormous face was feline.

  Dyan shrieked in fear and turned to the north, but then there was the other, the Parent of the Eight, coming towards them with lightning flickering from its gnashing mouth, its eyes alight with savage erupting red fire. The two powers rushed to their collision, faster now that they’d seen one another. A force seemed to draw all things towards the point at World’s End where the two would meet. Dyan tried to fly east but he could go nowhere except directly up.

  Siel looked down as the two entities met. She was the first human being ever to see this moment. Such energy blasted from that contact where they met that she was blind. She was deaf. She did not know that only the golden glowing love of the feline god kept her and Dyan from being destroyed. She did not hear Dyan say, ‘Are you alive, Beauty?’ From the impact, scales by the million rained over the ground.

  She felt Shadow lashing and writhing in the prison she still clenched tight in her hand. She felt rather than saw the two entities – one feline, one dragon – pushing against each other at World’s End, where the Great Dividing Road met its twin, where the Wall had stood. Two worlds, two realities ground and pushed against one another.

  And Siel understood now. She whispered into her cupped hand, though she could not hear her own voice: ‘Shadow. Come. It’s your choice now.’

  She threw the amulet away, not knowing which way it flew. It sailed down gracefully, far too small to be noticed by either of the grappling powers, even as it landed on the back of the feline and bounced to the ground behind it.

  Neither power knew of Shadow, any more than they knew the names and powers of other minuscule aspects of their respective realities. And Shadow in an instant grasped at last his purpose, the answer to the question no one had ever truly understood. The feline’s golden light poured love upon him even as it fought savagely for its own existence against the Dragon-god, for it poured love upon everything it touched. The lightning of the Dragon poured something else, a feeling he was too familiar with: an unknowing sense of nothingness, hiddenness, devoid of love and light, just as his life had been.

  Shadow made his choice.

  The Dragon screamed, not understanding how it could have two rivals now. An instant was all it took. Shadow destroyed himself in the same instant he shadowed the Feline-god of the South. But in that fleeting time, the Dragon turned in confusion to face this second rival, which it had not in all its timeless life perceived before. And that instant’s distraction was enough. The Feline-god’s jaws closed upon its throat and ripped it away. The conflict – in this part of existence, at least – was now finished.

  At World’s End, golden light bloomed through the twin worlds, which were twins no more: they were whole.

  Not many lived through the falling of the artificial sky. Those few who did saw the stars gleaming like diamonds in the black sea of space. That forbidden distant light reached them at last. A knowing flew through all who had remained, filled them all. They knew the prison holding them was broken, when before they’d not known it to be a prison at all. They knew that there were other worlds, with souls the same as theirs. Joy poured down from the stars amidst the destruction, as the golden blooming light filled them with warmth.

  Eric knew that buildings and cities now were crumbled in the world he’d once thought was his home. He knew that many had died in that world, but that it didn’t matter, for death was no more than a quick change of form. All would have their chance to return, if they wished – the game of existence was eternal, timeless. Perhaps they’d return to the world they’d toiled and slaved in, a world which was a prison no longer.

  Now, for a time – for a long time – all aware things which came to this world would bathe in light, until all the wounds of their souls were healed, and understanding was gained. And finally, their precious knowing would be returned to that place where the first questions of existence had so long ago been asked.