by H A Tisdale
“We should get him inside,” she spoke softly but also decisively, knowing Kokoma needed someone to take charge of her life for a while. So Reina wrapped her arms around Kokoma from behind and brought her inside as Hanna and Gretta led Probaton after them, keeping Jedd’s body steady as they went.
Thus, I stood there alone in the rain. And for once in my life, my mind possessed no thoughts, only pain. And this pain rang and rang and rang so much that I could hardly withstand my reality. Indeed, I desired a different reality. Any alternative universe that did not include Jedd’s torturous departure would have sufficed. Yet when I tried to ignore the reality in my mind, my heart stepped in with rage at the one who created us.
ARE YOU HAPPY?? IS THIS WHAT YOU CALL WORKING EVERYTHING OUT FOR OUR GOOD?! IF YOU BROUGHT THIS ABOUT, YOU’RE NOT A GOOD GALE. YOU’RE A WICKED WIND! A WICKED WIND THAT BLOWS SADISTICALLY WHEREVER IT PLEASES. WHY WOULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN?? WHY DID YOU LET OUR ANCESTORS FALL INTO THIS MISERABLE PIT?
With my last bitter thought, my abominable heart sounded like Sylvester, and I scolded myself for raging at the Domikos like that scoffer. The Good Gale had not done these terrible things. He had not brought about my ruinous reality. My own foolishness had. I’m the one who ran off to Lake Shale without a plan. I’m the one who slept with another man’s wife and abandoned her to his wrath. Her arrow was probably meant for me, and I should have been the one struck with it. If only I had done things differently! If only I hadn’t been such a fool!
Irrationally, I started running. I rushed past the orchards, the vineyards, the animals, and the spinning sculptures, making my way to the Dream Stream where Jedd had shared with me the Domikos. I thought maybe that same power I felt in the river could miraculously raise Jedd from the dead, or at the very least, could somehow swap my worthless life for Jedd’s wonderful existence.
But when I reached the Dream Stream, all I found was my distorted reflection, rippled by the clouds’ tears, and for the first time, I saw the shape of Hive’s hand scarred on my face. In an outburst of anger, I slapped the miserable water, and as my hand interrupted the glassy surface of the river, my eyes noticed the formerly rough-looking stone I had cast into the stream before receiving the Domikos.
Reaching below the surface, my hand picked up the smoothed-out stone, and it felt like I was finding something I had lost long ago. But finding that something had come at a terrible cost. So with much anguish, I firmly squeezed the rock in my hand as I heard Jedd’s words echo through my soul.
But that is all life seems to be for someone, a meaningless dream. For as we all live in our many dreams, we are asleep to the fact that we will ultimately perish one day, cut off from the current reality we’ve come to know as life. Inevitably, we will all end up in a place like Lake Shale.
“WRAHHHHHHH,” I shouted, completely beside myself.
With overwhelming anger at the loss of my fatherly friend, I tightened my grip on the stone and launched it at the willow tree where Jedd’s old windcycle had been tied up. The smoothed-out stone struck the tree with great force before falling to the ground in pieces. I then dropped to the ground in pieces myself and curled up in the mud on the bank of the river.
Exhausted, I let the rain patter against my skin as the Domikos pulsated within me, and a chilled numbness subsequently fell upon my senses. Jedd was really gone. His life had been taken from the Pit, his spirit squashed, his voice silenced. This present, irreversible reality delivered to my body a deep desensitization. And my brain felt fried.
As the sadistic seconds passed without end, I possessed a despairing desire to enter into my own death. I did not want to live in this reality any longer. I cared not to take part in this story. The Pit had nothing to offer me anymore. My heart longed for the Haven instead where all my troubles would wash away. But my time had not come, and I could not enter death’s door despite how much I now yearned for it.
After days of my depressed reflection, eating nothing but a few crumbs brought to me by Bamboo, Reina walked up to the riverbank and sat down beside me. She said nothing, and I didn’t even look up at her face. But I knew her presence well at this point. Her spirit had a certain way about it, a calm, determined demeanor. She remained seated by me for a while as I continued wallowing in my sorrows.
“Jedd’s funeral will start soon,” Reina broke the silence at last. “Why don’t we head over to the amphitheater together?”
“I’m the one who should be dead,” I said resolutely, watching the river flow endlessly before my eyes.
“Nonsense, Benjamin,” Reina rejected my caustic conclusion. “Don’t you know how vital your life is to the Pit.”
“What are you talking about?” I scorned her rebuttal as I sat up to make my point. “I’m just a pathetic pebble within the never-ending stream.”
“Even the smallest pebble can create a ripple in the water,” Reina countered with a deep serenity in her ruby eyes, “but even still, Benjamin, you’re no small pebble.”
“What makes you so sure?” I barked bitterly.
“Didn’t you ever wonder why I stayed in Come Play City even after my kids had gone?” Reina suddenly put forward.
“I suppose I never thought about it,” I admitted a little caught off guard. “I guess I just thought you missed your chance to escape.”
“No, Benjamin, I had the opportunity to leave,” Reina corrected me. “In fact, I basically did leave. I had already made it up Victory Hill and was camping in the Winner Woods with my children when I had this crazy dream. I dreamt that the Ancient Boulder exploded, and its waters swiftly flooded Come Play City. But then, I saw one man who overcame the flood. And that man was standing on the surface of the water with the sun shining down on him with all of its glory.”
“So what?” I responded dismissively. “Sounds like another dream about the Glorious King.”
“No,” Reina remarked calmly, “the dream was about you.”
“Me?” I protested. “But you didn’t even know me!”
“No, I didn’t,” Reina expounded. “I truly had no idea who it was at the time. But I just knew that I had to go back to Come Play City so I could find the mystery person from my vision. And when you busted out of the Ancient Boulder and washed up on the beach by the Sea of Surrender, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was gazing upon the man from my dream.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I interrogated.
“I wanted to so many different times,” Reina claimed, “but something kept getting in the way.”
“But I still don’t understand,” I whined. “What are you trying to say to me?”
“I don’t fully understand either,” Reina confessed. “But now with the assurance of the Domikos in my birthstone, I do know that you will help us escape the Pit, Benjamin. Without a doubt, you are part of the Alchemist’s rescue plan for us.”
I looked deeply into Reina’s ruby-red eyes, wanting to believe this meaning of her dream just as I desired to believe in the meaning of Father Edd’s dream, but many dreams can be meaningless. Indeed, just as a breeze blows through the fields for a little while before vanishing with no explanation, so too a dream can come through the mind without any lasting purpose. And that’s how all of life felt to me then under the cavernous ceiling, meaningless and fleeting.
Sensing she could say nothing to really comfort me, Reina stood up and held out her hand to me. “Come on,” she beckoned. “I don’t want you to miss out on this beautiful occasion.”
Reluctantly, I took Reina’s hand, and with her gentle but firm grip, she led me through the beautiful land as the rainfall subsided. Meanwhile, a soft breeze had arrived to carry the cold cavern’s clouds far away from Kokomanor. Thereafter, the evening glow of the cavernous ceiling could clearly be seen and shined with the same amount of vibrance as Jedd’s moonstone eyes had under the beam of the moon.
When we neared the amphitheater, my heart lifted as I heard the sound of chimes resonating through the air of the estate. Tenderly
massaging my eardrums, the light whispers of the instrumental fixtures called me prodigally to come and see the mysterious glory veiled within death’s dark dominion.
As we arrived at the commencing service, we observed the quiet assembly of people, all holding little pinwheels that spun with the breeze. Below in the center of the stage lay an altar where Jedd’s body had been laid with flowers of every kind surrounding him, and there, Kairou whined with the most pitiful of whimpers, scratching at her eyes with her paws. And when night fully fell upon the solemn scene, Kokoma walked on the stage with a torch in hand.
“Thank you all for being here and helping to put this ceremony together. I know Jedd would not only be honored but also extremely delighted with each person’s contribution,” Kokoma began, a brief pause following as she tried to maintain her composure, and for a moment, only the sound of the chimes could be heard. “When I was growing up, my people taught me the ways of the wind. I learned much about its nature and its patterns of flight. But I also learned of a different kind of wind: the spirit of a human. And my mother frequently reminded me that this special type of wind needed to be watched carefully, ‘for one’s inner wind,’ she would say, ‘could lead one astray at any moment.’
“Eventually, I learned firsthand how people’s inner winds could drive them wild with passion and anger, and many tempests came close to wrecking my life. However, I also learned firsthand how someone’s inner wind could feel more like a breeze. Refreshing, rejuvenating, invigorating, certain souls drew near to me with a touch of the sublime. My husband possessed such a spirit, a very soothing inner wind. Though a little rough around the edges at first, Jedd soon captured my birthstone with his gentle, loving spirit, and every day, my love for him increased, up until the very day when his breeze left us for good.”
Kokoma paused again with a very deep reflection in her zircon eyes, and I tried to ignore the bitter grief that her tears triggered within me. With determined serenity, Kokoma continued, “But that’s the thing about a breeze. You can’t ask it to stay. If a breeze were to stay, it would cease to be a breeze at all. Thus, we cannot tangibly hold onto someone forever, just as we physically can’t catch the wind, for wind is meant to be free, unconstrained. But above all, I believe wind is meant to be enjoyed. So tonight, let us remember the Master of Wind. Let us enjoy the sweet memory of his beautiful and tranquil breeze."
When she spoke her final word, she proceeded to light Jedd’s remains on fire so that his family could watch his light shine one last time. The ember took root in his empty vessel and softly ignited the gentle glow of his birthstone. And as the fallen sage burned away, his moonstone ashes sparkled into the air, carried off by the cool breeze of the evening. All the while, I looked on in awe as Kokoma watched her husband’s final glow with a peaceful smile on her face.
“This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” I asserted quietly amidst the chimes and the crackles of the fire, watching the shimmers of the moonstone ashes.
“It is, isn’t?” Reina stated somberly over the slow cadence of the chimes. I turned back to Kokoma, whose eyes had just closed, and watched a tear roll down her cheek. An internal acceptance seemed to come over her as she let go of her husband’s breeze in the wind. I too closed my eyes and yearned to accept the storm of my own reality but struggled greatly to let go of my good friend, the Pit’s legendary Master of Wind.
Suddenly the Domikos moved within me, and I once again heard the Good Gale’s soft, majestic voice: I am the breeze that stays, Benjamin, the inner wind that will calm every wave of your soul. My eyes shot back open right as a twinkling sparkle rushed past my face, and I turned to see the moonstone ash that had just whizzed by me, staying lit as the wind carried it far out of the amphitheater.
Within my heart, I felt the breeze blowing and perceived that the Domikos wanted me to follow after Jedd’s moonstone ash. So without delay, I removed myself from the vicinity of the chimes and ran after the little ash that ceased to die in the air. All the way across the fields of Kokomanor, Jedd’s little light led me back to the bank of the Dream Stream where the moonstone ash lingered above the face of the water before dropping beneath the surface.
Immediately, a flash of golden light glistened on the stream, and before my eyes, the two star-children stood with gladness on their faces.
Chapter 20
In Search of the Sun
“Hey, it’s you!” I exclaimed in disbelief.
“Greetings, Sunseer,” the star-children spoke in a harmonious unity.
Indubitably, I had so many questions for my glowing guardians, but only one seemed suitable with which to begin. “Who are you?” I inquired.
“I’m Emmet,” the star-boy proclaimed, “and this is my sister Karissa. We are servants of the Chief Ruakia.”
Completely bewildered by his shocking statement, I contested for clarification, “You can’t possibly serve Gannacleft!”
Karissa burst into laughter. “No, no, silly,” she remarked, “that wicked wind has no right to such a title. The real Chief Ruakia is the one who now dwells in your birthstone, the Domikos as he is befittingly called.”
An inexplicable tide of joy welled in my heart at the mention of his name, and even more questions swirled through my mind. “Then why do Wick and Devon think they serve the Chief Ruakia?” I asked.
“Do not concern yourself with their kingdom of darkness,” Emmet warned, “for your path is one of light, a journey that will lead you to the Glorious King.” My eyes widened, my heart beating fast, but then the two star-children turned their backs as if to leave.
“Wait,” I demanded, desiring them to stay and explain. “How do you know these things? And where will I find the Glorious King?”
The two star-children turned back around in unison. Emmet then took a step forward and pointed at the water as he said, “Many hard stones lie in the stream, but only the casted out geode can wake you from your dream.”
With this strange saying uttered, Karissa sang her signature high-pitched note, releasing the familiar flash of golden light that carried them into the air. Darkness then settled back on my surroundings, but with a light flickering behind me, I soon realized I had not been left alone by the Dream Stream. So I spun around to see Reina holding a torch with a starstruck expression on her face.
“Reina! You saw the star-children too right?” I asked to make sure I hadn’t been hallucinating.
“I can’t believe it,” Reina breathed, her ruby eyes dazzling by the fire. “The Radiant Ruakia hardly ever appear in such a visible way, at least according to the wind followers.”
“Good! You saw them too,” I inserted, unphased by her comment as I sought to uncover the meaning of Emmet’s words. “Now let me see that torch real quick.”
Reina obliged my request and handed me the burning limb of wood. Thus using her light, I hurried over to investigate the stone I had casted out by the water, and there under the willow tree, I discovered the hidden mystery of the Glorious King.
I saw that I had broken the smoothed-out stone from the Dream Stream, but on the inside of the crushed rock lay the most beautiful crystalline pattern, which shined magnificently under the light of the torch.
“That’s a geode,” Reina astutely observed. “Those are incredibly hard to find in the Pit.”
“Which explains why no one has found the Glorious King,” I remarked, seeking to understand the star-boy’s riddle, “but we will find him, Reina. The star-children said it themselves.”
Reina gave me a conflicted look. “The Radiant Ruakia did say that your path will lead you to the Glorious King,” she responded, “but I’m afraid I can’t take that journey with you, Benjamin.”
“What are you talking about?” I objected. “You’re the one who started us on this journey, and now you’re saying you don’t want to finish it.”
“That’s not what this is about,” she insisted.
“Then what is it about?” I demanded.
“Look,” R
eina started solemnly, “when the Master of Games ripped Jake out of my life, I had no one around me who understood what it was like to lose a husband. And being alone in my grief made the pain of his loss so much harder. I just don’t want my brother’s widow to face that misery alone.”
“What do you mean your brother’s widow?” I asked completely baffled.
“There’s something else I didn’t tell you in Come Play City, Benjamin,” Reina finally confessed. “The night when Bill killed my husband, I chased after him in a rage, hoping to rip him to pieces for what he had done. Without regard for my own life, I tackled him to the ground and began beating on him. He quickly overpowered me though and held me to the ground with his hands around my neck. And I didn’t care anymore. I told him to go ahead and kill me. But he said he couldn’t. When I demanded to know why, he told me something which I refused to believe at the time. While pinning me to the ground, he said he wouldn’t kill his sister over something so trivial.”
My eyes widened as I stared at Reina completely speechless.
“I instantly rejected his explanation as nonsense and yelled violently at him for even mentioning the absurdity,” Reina continued all worked up now, “but he insisted he was telling the truth. Still resisting his insane notion, I asked him how that could possibly be true, and he disclosed to me that his father was Zedd and that Zedd had killed my mother’s husband to cover up the affair that had taken place between them. And from that disastrous affair, Zedd begot an unanticipated child. Me.”
“That can’t be true,” I exhaled in denial. “The Master of Games must have been lying.”
“It is true,” Reina wept. “I didn’t believe it at first either. I couldn’t. I couldn’t accept the Master of Games being my brother. But then I saw Jedd in the dungeon for the first time. I never knew Bill had a fraternal twin, and fraternal twins run in families, Benjamin. But even ignoring all that evidence, my actual encounter with Jedd confirmed the reality I had tried to push away for so long. When I saw my long-lost brother standing before me in the shadows, my birthstone could sense our shared vitalixir connection. It felt almost like a dream.”