Page 105 of Angel in Absentia
“How did he actually get out of The Eating Ocean?” she whispered.
“You said that he got out by going through it,” one of the scouts answered, like one of the voices in her head. “Yeah, but now I’m realizing I don’t actually know what that means. What could possibly be on the other side of cien?”
The scouts all considered each other, one of them glancing into the coffin. “My guess would be death,” they said somewhat humorously. A few others laughed, but Iris hung on the word, taking it seriously.
“I guess, what better thing to call on than what cien was running from since the start. A healer who couldn’t heal might very well call on death instead to finish the job.” Iris eased back up to her feet, walking over to the coffin and resting her hands on the edge of it as she looked inside. One of the scouts crept up beside her, torch in hand, and the light flickered over the interior. Something in the mummy's eyes glinted.
Iris leaned over, reaching into its eye sockets and removing small pieces of mirror carved in the shape of eyes. She inspected them thoughtfully before looking back at the writing on the lid of the coffin. “Death is a silent mirror, reflecting the lights of life,”she said, finger moving slowly back and forth across the tiny mirror.
“What do you think it means?” she breathed to herself. She looked at all of them. No one offered answers. She paced quietly and pointed out one small scout standing behind the rest.
“Did any of you ever think it’s odd how the Insednian curse turns its victim’s eyes silver? Odd thing for a curse to do,” she said. “If curses have to be carefully designed, why waste energy on a detail like that when a curse that gives you access to another’s will is cumbersome enough?” she asked, and they all looked at each other.
“What are you suggesting?” someone chirped.
Iris wasn’t sure. She retreated back to the bench again and sat down, her mind racing so quickly she almost felt like she would fall over. “I suppose, what anyone could suggest,” she whispered, “that the eyes are the windows to the soul.” Quieter, she added, “and what better way to be in our world than to borrow one, especially if someone on our side opens the door.”
She rubbed her face tiredly and groaned. “Clea, if Ieversee you again, you will be getting an earful about your taste in men.”
†††
Clea looked out at Loda from a distance with its open gates, and knew at last this world could perhaps be free of symbols and so could she. She saw the flags of every city perched along the walls.
She turned back to see a familiar face standing at the tree line. He offered a hand, an invitation to go into the forest forever, to live a life and one day die in order to give it back. That was thenature of life after all, something borrowed and somehow still something that existed forever.
She remembered taking his hand on the wall of Virday before they’d descended into the woods. It was a game of trust then, but now that game was over. There were no symbols, only people, and the forest’s darkness had no domain. It was a new world, free again, and one they could both dissolve into together.
She approached and slid her hand into his, warm as it embraced hers and pulled her close. She looked into a pair of silver eyes.
He didn’t speak.
Neither did she.
They both knew what it all meant.
Free of the symbols they’d been trapped in, free of the temptation of their vices, they were also free of their illusions.
No longer locked in the lights of life, at last, they could live it.
From the beginning, it had been a game of trust.
They’d played it well and won.
“You still have your eyes, but I’ve lost my power to heal. How is that fair?” she said, grazing his cheek, a playful smile on her lips.
He grinned, pulling her close. “You’ll never lose your power to heal,” he said, “but I suppose some mysteries still remain.”
She picked through his hair thoughtfully. “Yes,” she whispered. “You never told me how you got out of the Ocean and rescued the others after your first battle with Prince. Tenida just said that thehealer closed his eyes and communed with forces even beyond the Ocean.”
“I made an exchange,” he said. “Something had wounded Prince in the first place, set all of this in motion. It’s natural, don’t you think, to guess something was still looking for him? Something that might also need access to the human plane, might need a host in order to finish its work.”
She combed her hands through his hair thoughtfully, “You think that’s what helped you? Odd to think that creatures like that exist beyond us. Like gods, squabbling over eternity. It’s terrible and comical that Prince wanted to squeeze himself into such a small form and live such a short life as we do,” she whispered, looking into his eyes. She moved away from him, light on her feet as she looked out at the city.
“It’s not so strange,” Ryson said from behind her. “Death is such an eternal thing. Even if such a creature stumbled into such a predicament as this, I think, he too, might get lost in all of its peculiarity. He might get so entranced in playing the role, of having a mind, body, heart, and soul, he might be unable to part with it by choice.”
She leaned up against a tree and then turned back into the woods with a smile on her face. “That’s true. It really is rather special, isn’t it?” She trotted back over to him. “Are you implying you’re a god?” she asked with dramatic sweeps of her arms toward the sky. “Confidently striding into life, and one day deciding, ‘Oh? Yes! Maybe I’ll stay here.’”
“Not a god,” he laughed.
