The Mortal Fringe

by Jordi Ribolleda

  So it appears that not only I am somewhere I should not be, I am here at the wrong time and won't be able to leave for a couple of hours.

  "You will be safe here."

  Tristan and Elizabeth are talking in a corner, and I am walking around the amazing room that Tristan lives in, I wonder if all Gods own one of this chambers, I wouldn't mind having one for myself. Even the idea of it makes me smile. There's everything one could need, and I am honestly quite happy to see that there's electricity and pipes. Gods, after all, need some commodities, mortal commodities.

  Everything is as smooth and pale as the God living in here. There is no color, and that slowly makes the few traces of happiness in me vanish to another place, to another world, a much darker corner of myself. Nothing I could feel right now in these walls could make any difference to me. The lifeless room has put all joy to rest.

  Something catches my attention. In the middle of the chamber there's a wooden pedestal with strange signs carved on it. At the top, an oak made box with something that shines as sea water, a round drop of silver beauty.

  "That's my soul" Tristan's voice makes me step aside as quickly as I can.

  "Your soul?" I ask, with my trembling voice, wondering if mine will soon be in a wooden box as well.

  "Mine, and the one belonging to my mortal fringe" He puts both hands on the wooden piece and closes his eyes, and for a moment I can see the pain of regret, memory and loss.

  "That's what keeps us alive. There's a drop of Tristan's blood within the soul. Immortal blood keeps things alive, so, as long as this tiny drop is still alive, so will Tristan."

  "So you can die?"

  "Only if my soul is killed or my body utterly damaged.”

  For a moment, I try to picture her soul, and my only thought is to keep it safe, forever.

  "What if someone finds it?

  "No one knows where a God's Chamber is, except for him and his leader. That's why he took a risk when he brought us here."

  "I'm sorry, I didn't want to touch it" That's the only thing I can say given the circumstances. My eyes are fixed on his, and the sorrow they shed makes me shiver. He might be a God, but he is as fragile as anybody else. I wonder what happened to him.

  He looks at me and draws a shy smile on his face.

  "It's quite alright" He brings one of his pale hands to his dark hair and goes back to the corner where he had been talking to Elizabeth.

  "It's alright, he likes you."

  "Good, I don't have to worry about him warning Constance about all this then."

  "He would never do that, Alex!"

  "It's called joking, Elizabeth. You do it all the time."

  "Touché” She smiles at me, and then stands up. "It's time for us to leave, thank you Tristan, and you don't need to worry about the Chamber, I won't tell anyone how to get here."

  "Thank you."

  Elizabeth comes straight at me and grabs both my hands.

  "Wait" Tristan says before we leave "Watch out girl, you don't want to lose him. Hard times are coming, and being a God will be a reward many will kill for."

  Elizabeth looks at him, she is worried but for the look in her face I know she appreciated the piece of advice.

  "Ready?" and we are gone.

  We land somewhere in the old city of Barcelona, I know it because of the narrow streets surrounding us and the time lapse I feel every time I come to this old place.

  "What was all that about? What he just said."

  "Remember Jay told you that you had to stick with us?"

  "Yes."

  "Other Immortals are looking for catalysts. If they become Gods during this year… finding the shadows would be much easier to them."

  "I don't understand."

  "You are a catalyst" she says calmly.

  "Yours."

  "No, anyone's. All they need is a bounded soul, and that you own."

  I remain silent for a couple of minutes, she has placed her hand on my chest, as if she wanted to touch my soul with it.

  "She mustn't know we went down" her voice trembles.

  "I…I was not going to tell her" I only need to look at her eyes to know that she is talking about Constance.

  "Good, because I have a feeling that I won't be telling her much from now on."

  Elizabeth's look is half suspicious, half ashamed. I don't understand why she said that.

  "You heard what Tristan said. About what's going on?"

  "So?"

  Elizabeth takes me to some dark corner, like if she wanted to make sure no one could hear our conversation.

  "Goddesses always had a better shot at finding the shadows, in all past regencies at least one shadow bounded to a Goddess.”

  She takes a long breath, as if every word she was saying was punishing her.

  "Constance hasn't stopped talking about them for the last years. The first time she had a female Immortal something went wrong, she does not like to mention that, but I know it still hurts, deep inside her. "

  "The crossed out name from the wall?"

  "Yes. Malenie. She was her favorite. "

  "Alright…" There's too much information that I don't know that it's too hard to concentrate. I don't understand a word of what she is saying. I don't know what the shadows are, and yet she keeps mentioning them as if everyone knew about their existence. "I don't…"

  She gasps hopelessly.

  "So, Alex, what if she wants me to find them and get it right this time?”

  CHAPTER 22

  "What are the shadows anyway?"

  The tiny streets of the old city of Barcelona are empty and my voice sounds louder than it really is. Elizabeth stares at me with that look of hesitation on her face that keeps reminding me that something is wrong. I don't want to get her on trouble, and maybe that's exactly what she would be facing if she told me about the deepest secrets of her world. So after a couple of minutes of silence I start walking towards the underground station that stands nearby, frustrated and surprisingly mad at her. She wants me to open up, she wants my total trust, and yet she gives me neither.

  "Where are you going?"

  "To sleep. If you don't trust me, I don't need to be here" I am tired of not knowing what I am going through, too tired.

  She doesn't come to get me, and I don't turn back, the night is over for both of us. We don't say goodbye, why should we?

  The tube is so crowded that I can't stop feeling uncomfortable; there are so many couples cuddling around and so many people getting ready to party that I get off at the following station. I don't need to feel more miserable than I already do. It is a long walk home, but some walking will be great to put all my thoughts together.

  The city is at twilight, and there's less than a handful of people along the way. I suddenly find myself thinking about when I should tell Elizabeth what happened last year. I have never told anyone about it, and perhaps she should be the first to know from my own telling. I only hope Constance won't tell her before I do, but I need to be ready, reviving it won't be easy. I will wait for the right moment.

  The cold breeze of the night is already here and I still have a long way to go before I get to the residence. I start running and while I do so I try to picture the situation, there's a whole other world underneath my feet, and for all I heard, these people walking or running near me could be Gods in search of those mysterious shadows that Tristan and Elizabeth have been talking about. That makes me think that perhaps I've been too harsh on Elizabeth and that I should not have left in such a way. I hope she understands that all this is too much to take in. At least I am no longer terrified to be with her, and that's even more terrifying if I think about it, after all, she is going to kill me.

  When I get in my room Jay is lying on his bed wearing nothing but his underwear. The shower is running and the fun look on his face tells me everything I need to know.

  "Can I stay?" I ask as if I was a total stranger

  "Of course you can, you live here" he smiles and sits on his bed
"So, how was it?" the stupid voice he is using makes me nervous.

  "Life changing" I fake a smile, still thinking about everything that happened in The Atlas. I won't let him read my thoughts, so I enjoy the suspicious look on his face. I sit back, take my book about the Immortals and read a random page.

  The shower stops and the door opens, I should not look, I know, but an unexpected moment of curiosity makes me drop the book accidentally and I am surprised to see Jessica, the neighbor, walking out of my room with nothing but a towel wrapped around her body.

  "Seriously?" I ask without even looking at Jay.

  "Yeah" he pauses "life changing."

  I want to stand up and make him swallow the volume, but I don't, I just try to avoid laughing. Jay falls asleep before I can finish reading one paragraph in the book, and finally, I am alone, or as alone as I can be. I turn to the beginning of the book, hoping to find a reference to the Shadows, but after a close look, and a complete study of all the topics dealt in the volume, there's no reference to what I'm looking for. I leave the book back on my night table, filled with disappointment.

  I would contact Elizabeth, it would be as easy as simply calling her on my thoughts, but I stop myself before doing it, perhaps she will do it. That's perhaps the most selfish idea I've had in a very long time, but given the situation, she is clearly the one taking the lead, so I might as well wait for her to call me, so to speak.

  It seems that the best way to avoid thinking in this room is to have a nice, calm, and relaxing hour under the pouring water. I have been in the shower more or less since Jay fell asleep and the one thing I don't want to do is get out. It is so incredible that after years and years of reading all this books about fantasy heroes and watching films about Zeus and all those stories, I'm suddenly part of it. It's too bad I won't go down as part of history, I think they should have a list of "mortals that helped create our society" or something like that. Clearly, the shower helps, I would never joke about that myself. But everything has come to a point where I can't prevent any of this from happening, so I will just make the most of it. As in history, there's always someone who has to sacrifice himself in order for others to become something. That, I am sure, is my goal in life. I will be a drop of silver life, attached to Elizabeth's soul.

  I get back in my bed, with no intention of doing anything but finally going to sleep. Tomorrow I have class and it's only three weeks before Christmas, so my exams will be here soon and all the resting in the world won't be enough to at least try not to make a fool of myself when they arrive. If I die next February, I want to go out as clean as possible, and failing my exams will clearly not help.

  "Good night, Alex."

  I smile when I hear the sound of her voice in my head. My heart starts beating so hard that I fear I will be awake all night, but I do my best and before I can think of the words, I am sleeping.

  The wet ground again. There's mud on my head, and my hands are stuck on the floor. I feel like in a vantage point and everyone is staring at me. The unknown figure with the green eyes is looking at me with a sadistic smile on her face. The long dark hear waves with the air and when I try to stand, she stabs my heart so fiercely that I die, almost instantly.

  The dream.

  I feel the blade of the knife entering my skin and the back of my head wet and full of black, deathly mud. The stabbing pain in my chest disappears in a couple of minutes and I can breathe again. I wake up, and take a cold shower to make sure I am really awake and not just sleeping.

  When I look into the mirror and I see my green eyes I almost jump of fear, it takes me some seconds to analyze the situation and remember that everything is fine. At least as good as it can be.

  My classes today are more interesting than ever, for some reason I am paying much more attention than I used to do a couple of weeks ago. I barely had problems with Constance other than some insulting comments that where obviously addressed to me, but I guess I couldn't care less.

  After her class I walk straight to my next lesson and I am impressed to see how many people are gathering around the Christmas party posters, making plans already. It's three weeks away, just after the exams, and for what I've been hearing, some girls are already making plans to go shopping to look, as they put it, "so terrific that no star could ever beat us". I would like to be so naïve as well, unfortunately, I think I know too well the world I live in now. I give more importance to living the day, rather than organizing my life around a party that will only last five minutes, because after that, everyone will be so drunk that no matter how nice you look, everyone will be exactly the same: drunk students pretending that their lives are much more interesting than the ones of those around them.

  Elizabeth doesn't show up at the following class and even though I would have liked seeing her, it makes me be more attentive.

  "Excuse me?" someone touches my shoulder on my way out. It's my neighbor Jessica. "Hi."

  Awkward.

  "Oh hi" I try my best to look nice and comfortable.

  "I wanted to apologize about yesterday."

  That just makes it even more uncomfortable.

  "It's quite alright" I say mimicking Tristan's words from when I almost touched his soul.

  "Thanks" she says, and before I turn away and start walking again she gives me a couple of tickets. "For the Christmas party.”

  "Thank you, but I don't think I will be going."

  "Take them, in case you want to come, it's the least I can do."

  I take the tickets politely and thank her once more, then I make some excuse up and run away from the conversation. My first instinct is to throw the tickets away but before I get to the garbage can, I reconsider it, and put them in my front pocket.

  When I get to my next class I see a note on the door that says that my literature teacher is not coming today. Good, I didn't have a chance to read whatever it was we had to read for today's class so I'm quite relieved.

  I leave the university building, put my headphones back on and start walking as I listen to some U2. Their music keeps me alive, that's the way I picture music: it can either put me off or keep me alive. I personally don't care about greatest hits albums, they usually get it all wrong so what I do is my personal set list and simply hope it will work to build up my mood for the moment.

  Walking through Barcelona is like witnessing thousands of different stories at the same time, and the longer I live here, the more amazing it gets. The mixture of people walking near you is such that I could go from one side of the world to the other just by asking the names of the people I have in front of me. I am glad I have one of these days in which I don't think about myself, I just want to get home, get on with my homework, study, and whish that tomorrow will be just like today.

  With no self-regret, and worries about what's going to happen next, I go on.

  CHAPTER 23

  Classes again, and still no sign of Elizabeth. I didn't have a chance to ask Jay about her when I got back to the residence yesterday, he wasn't there either. I am starting to worry, and I can't stop wondering if they would feel something like this if I were to disappear. Probably they would, but not for what I consider the right reason.

  "Are you there?"

  No answer.

  Whatever it is she is doing, I hope it doesn't go on for much longer.

  My grammar class is as boring as it usually is, although I try my best not to let my mind flew elsewhere. It is no secret to anyone in the class that I am an American so there's a general assumption that I don't need that lesson. I can't say they are wrong, but it would be nice if it was a little bit more challenging. However, I really can't focus on the board or on what the teacher is saying. I only think about my last minute with Elizabeth, I revise it over and over again.

  I get back at lunchtime and luckily Jay is in the room eating something while reading, again, my book about the immortals. I am at least a little bit relieved to see that he has not vanished.

  "I literally cannot believe that you b
ought this piece of junk."

  "I literally cannot believe that you keep reading it" I drop my bag on the ground and go straight to my bed. It's been a tiring day. "So, where were you yesterday?"

  "With Elizabeth, and she thinks the same about the book".

  I stand up immediately.

  "Why, what happened? Is she alright?!" I might have been too euphoric, I didn't want to look desperate, well done Alex.

  "Hey man, take it easy" he looks at me with that look on his face, like trying to say «you loving boy» "she's fine, everything's fine."

  "So why hasn't she been attending class?"

  "I don't think that's your concern.”

  I take the book from his hands.

  "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was not my concern. Do accept my apologies."

  I leave the room closing the door as hard as I can. I walk towards the aisle and straight into the dining room. There's some of the other students of the residence having lunch, I look at them and with a shy nod I salute them. I put some food on my tray, go to a lonely table at the corner of the room and start eating without even looking at the food. Jay's comment was so excluding that I don't want to be near him right now. It's only after I have finished half of my food that I realize that I brought the book with me. It's on the table and I suddenly feel a great need to open it up and read it. It's like an instinct thing, I know exactly where I have to open it: first section, prologue. And there it is.

  It is believed that mythology is a collection of stories that people gathered up to explain all natural phenomena that could affect their daily life. That is a wrong conception of the origin of mythology which could not be further away from its true origin. Gods, rulers of the world, began to feel the need to populate their creation that was the earth they looked at from up above. And so they did.

  They mixed with the people that, thousands of years after being brought to life, were using the land of the Gods as their home. But they could not show their true selves, for the people were different. Those living on earth were not special, they had no powers and every day was a challenge. Life was a path that leaded them to death, an unknown destiny to the ones living above.