The full strength of the storm had set itself against me and I had prevailed. In all honesty, it was not even a proper mountain, merely a glorified hill. And yet it had been my Everest. The shrieking wind was suddenly silent, the echoes in the distance faded away. Even the chill in my bones felt some relief… it wasn’t that the cold had gone, but a warmth had kindled within. You might argue that the exertion had warmed me, but I would argue it was hope. Blind hope, perhaps even reckless hope… but the thought of somehow finding a way out of here…. It warmed my bones like nothing else could.
Yet the hope that had kindled quickly sputtered back into mere embers. This hill that was meant to be my salvation (though I knew not HOW), was little more then a rise of earth crowned by strewn stones and a faded, fractured crystal rock near the center. It appeared as if there had once been walls and a central tower on this rise. The presence of the crystal mystified me, however.
Yet this flimsy hope was built on something more then these unimpressive ruins. For days (weeks?) I wandered in the dark, my only company being the wind’s whisperings and the vague flashes of the echoes in the distance. I was still trapped here, but for the first time since I had reached this forsaken realm, I was truly not alone.
She stood just in front of the fallen tower, her impression ambiguous, but if I had to define it I would call it disappointed. She was forgettable in almost every way. Her clothes were worn and faded, her frame small and frail looking. She was pale, almost white. There were several scars on her. She did not look like a warrior. But the one thing about her that was inescapable was her eyes.
In another world, the real world, there was nothing remarkable about them perhaps, other then the way they seemed to fade and intensify, pulsating like some strange energy source. They were the color of the sky… and in fact, the only actual color I had seen since I had come here. They seemed at once serene, determined, disappointed, and intelligent. And they were boring into my soul as if there was no secret I could keep against her.
I have to say I did not know her. She bore no resemblance to any specific person I could remember. I was quite certain we had never met. She looked so oddly familiar to me though, as if we had been friends for many years. My tongue moved to blurt out a name but only produced a mumble, for though she seemed closer then family, in truth I knew nothing of her.
“Hello, Watcher. I hope the journey did not tax you too much.” She looked up and over me into the distance and the warmth in her expression died away. “The Night never rests. Thus neither can we.”
The words seemed so odd, as if I really had entered wonderland. She was maybe 4 feet away from me but her voice sounded so far away, faded, yet echoing through my consciousness. She was not so different from the world around her. She was a flame flickering in the wind, but elsewise she was as faded and worn as everything around her. I tried to look away, but the powerful magnetism to her eyes drew me and in and held me there. The blue of her eyes faded and then came back stronger, only to fade again. It was as if her spirit was rebelling against the world around her and her strength ebbed and flowed. I realized that she was the one thing in this place other then myself who did not belong here.
I had so many questions for her. But where to begin? And were there some answers that I just wouldn’t want to know?
“What is this place?” a hoarse voice asked. “How did I get here?”
She frowned as if I was being rude or obtuse. But still she answered, simply and patiently.
“You haven’t given it a name.” calmer now, but just as wary.
I blinked a few times and breathed deeply, my senses still blunted by the effort of the ascent. “Why would I give it a name. I’ve never been here before. I know nothing of this place.”
“And yet it is your creation. It knows much of you.” Again, a wary look into the distance. “More each day.”
She eyes came back to me. “I’ve never seen someone like you get this far.”
“Someone like me?”
“Someone so faded, empty, devoid of the light. You’ve been in the shadows too long. And that would be trouble enough, but now their master looks upon you too. You may know the shadows my friend, and you may think you know the Night, but you have much to learn and the Night is a most vigorous teacher. But perhaps the determination that got you this far may yet save you.”
I was struck by how her every answer only led me to more questions.
“What is this place, truly?”
“As I said, it is nameless. But it is a battleground. Your battleground. And if they find you? A cemetery.”
“They? I see no soldiers, hear no weapons.”
She laughed an almost mirthless laugh. “Don’t be so simplistic. This is not a battle of sticks and stones. The soldiers you do not see are everywhere. They want nothing more then to destroy what is left of you. They are much closer to that goal then I feared. It’s not a battle for your body, it is a battle for your mind, the essence of who and what you are.”
“Why did they pick me? I’m no different then anyone else”
“Oh but you are different, Watcher, and you know that well. You talk different, you act different, you think different. Everyone around you is either trying to change you into something you are not or destroy you. Why have you been so long in the shadows if you have so many friends? We don’t have have time for games now, but suffice it to say that you have lost your way and now you have drawn the attention of forces that have no equal. Positive thinking will aid you as much as cough drops cure cancer. And you know that.”
It was true that the bumbling Dr. Clapton with his simplistic workbooks and cookie cutter solutions had no idea of the reality of my situation. Why would you invite a fool in to tinker with something as precious as your own mind, especially with how poorly he peddled CBT, the current therapeutic flavor of the month. If he was my only ally… I would have to place my trust elsewhere. “Tell me what I need to do.”
She smiled for an instant. “We cannot hope to defeat the Night just yet. I have a task for you, one you cannot fail if you hope to survive. If you seek the answer, and possess the strength to pursue it, wherever it may go, you must first seek the counsel of the other. Go north further still, and look for an orange glow in the distance… the glow of the one true forge. There you will find her, if indeed she still persists.”
“The Other?”
“The only other person in this world or the next who can both help you… and is potentially on your side. Everyone else you know or think you know either cannot help you or doesn’t care to. I’m sorry Watcher, but the night is darkest just before the dawn.”
In that moment the time flashed back. I wanted to tell her she was wrong. I wanted to tell her to go to hell. But she was right. She was right and she was the only hope I had of finding a way out of here. All this time I had looked around me for the answers, and now I would look within.
She seemed to see my mental decision in my expression, for as soon as my mind was decided, she spoke rapidly.
“Go Watcher. The faster you reach her, the sooner you can seek shelter from the your true enemy. GO, and when you return all questions will be answered, I will give you that one assurance. For now, nothing more. GO!”
Again, more questions then answers, so rather then continue to pursue facts I decided to follow instructions. It seemed there was little alternative. I was maybe 20 feet away when I realized something. I turned back and she was standing there waiting as if she had known exactly what I would do.
“You never told me your name!” I had to shout over the gathering wind.
“You haven’t given me a name.” She said calmly, quietly, and yet somehow her voice carried over the wind to me. “But there have been those who have called me the child of the Skye.”
Why would I create such a place as this? Why would I create all this, and her? All of it seemed a meaningless jumble.
Because you lost your way. Because you spent too long in the shadows. Because, little by little you allowed the light to fade. Because you are losing the battle. Because though there are hospitals, doctors, and nurses, therapists, psychics, scholars… they claim to understand an enemy that barely know. For them it matters little that as they peddle their simplistic solutions to problems they openly admit they do not understand, it is their patient that bears the burden of not only the disease, but the failed interventions.
It was on the second day of walking that I finally found the light in the distance, the orange glow I had been promised. At times I wavered once more. It seemed like days following the orange glow. I questioned my course of action with each step I took. A few times I even turned and looked back, but all I could see was darkness.
As I drew closer I could feel a radiating heat and the dim glow was now a fantastic illumination. It seemed so out of place here in the fog and shadows. I could only imagine that the master of this place was a powerful being indeed, and Skye’s urgance that I journey here began to make a little more sense. The glow roared and flickered in the distance and grew as I pressed on. Finally I arrvied at the base of a true mountain, with a giant river of lava flowing down before me. It was like looking down the gullet of a mighty dragon through the fog.
But there was no one to be found.
I wandered around the lava lake for most of an hour but all I found was more lava and more mountain. The air was eerily silent, as if the wind was afraid to blow here and the echoes as well.
It was then that I stumbled, falling face first into the ashes. At first I believed myself to be merely clumsy, but there was a stone or some hard object sticking from the ground. I eagerly dug away the ashes to find an engraved plaque.
Those we call Watchers must know Night from dawn
And thirst for the chance to fight all Night long.
In battle eternal, we wait for the dusk
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust
Suddenly the ground in front of me began to move.
She was tall and muscular for a woman. She was younger then the Sky child, and seemed to belong amongst the debris from which she rose. Her eyes were colorless but burned with intensity and sharpness. Her hair could be described as blonde, but it was about as colorless as her eyes. Her face was as impassive as the other and she seemed to be waiting for something, whether it was for him to speak he knew not.
“Let me guess, I haven’t given you a name.”
She said nothing, but kept her gaze locked with mine.
“Is this… forge yours?”
She said nothing, but turned and walked towards the flames. She plunged her hand into the molten lava and murmured something inaudible. When she drew it back out it gripped a small polished dagger. It was small, but the metal gleamed in her hand like a torch. She returned to me and tossed it up in the air, flipping it and catching it on the blade so that the handle was extended to me. Though the metal looked sharp it did not even scratch her. I took it in my hand examined it closely, turning it at angle. Though I know little of metallurgy, it was obviously a fine piece of work, as if she had spent many days refining it. There were small inscriptions on either side of the blade itself, but I struggled to make out the words.
When I looked up to question her about it, I found she had vanished completely and without a sound. Again, more questions then answers, but I could see only one logical path from here.
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