Chapter 5A: A Hand to Hold as the World Erodes

Chapter Five

Some men cling to a glimmer of hope like the dying winds of a dreary winter. Even as I saw her stand in the starlit shallows, I convinced myself that she was a daydream borne of a lovesick prayer. Even as I held her hand in mine, I theorized that this was nothing more than a fantasy of a far-off future – a prospect I wanted but could never actually have. Steam lifted from the warm water and swirled around us as weak waves washed ashore. The glow of lava illuminated the horizon and fought the starlight for the right to light the ocean. Scarlet shimmers scattered the sand and the sea; the city itself stood still and silent behind us. It felt like the entire world had frozen to facilitate this foregone fantasy.

I wrapped my arms around her in the shallows and said, “Please let me waste away if I am trapped inside my head. If this is a dream, please let me sleep forever. I cannot face a world where we are not together.”

She whispered the words as she gazed in my eyes, “It called like the lava that lights up the skies. A whisper in the dark drove me to the edge of the sea. I swam so far that I could not see the sand; I swam past the wall that surrounds your city. I swam for the light when I didn’t know I’d survive. I swam through the silence toward the call. I swam through the darkness and toward the light. I swam past horizons and islands and even the wall; I found the glimmer of daybreak through the dark night.”

“Do you know who I am? Do you know what it is that brought us both together?” I asked in an embrace which I wished would last forever.

But she shook her head and said, “It felt like I answered a call left by the dead. I cannot explain it in any other way. It was a voice calling me, driving me like the breeze that carries the clouds across the sky. I do not know your name or why it is that we were driven together. But even when I closed my eyes, the stars aligned and illuminated the path to your shore. I pushed my body to its edge to follow tiny steppingstones of light.”

“I am Asivario, and I was driven just like you. I was driven by a foreign force I figured must be true. My last life ended in loss like a quiet ember in a stream, but its dying smoke ignited us like a new life in a dream. I believe we are bound for each other, but the stars are crossed against us. We burn too bright for the stars to smother, so there’s nothing left to discuss. Like a long-lost letter from a past life, we long to look past life as it flies by,” I said as her skin shimmered from the light in the sky.

Tears surfaced in her eyes as she stood in my embrace. I briefly scanned her body and saw the scars which stained her skin. Even before she explained her reason for swimming to this city, it was clear that she had come from the badlands just like Alyssa. This served to me as proof that they were one and the same; they both put their life on the line to set sail from the shadows and swim to a brighter life. But her birthplace was a common curse that befell most people in this land, besides the privileged few blessed to be born inside Bones City. Some of her scars were shaped like teeth, but others looked like they were torn by blades long ago. I saw a flicker of dismay in her hazel eyes when she glanced at her own scars, and then she covered them with her hands.

She said as she concealed her trauma, “My mother named me Aeliana. I haven’t spoken to many people since I lost her, but that is the name I want you to call me. If it’s not too much trouble, could we please exit the ocean? I have been swimming for so long that I fear the sea will claim me as its own if we wait any longer.”

I chuckled and nodded with a smile. Aeliana offered me her hand, so I gently led her onto the sand beside the spot where the waves washed away the burial of three more bodies. I closed the wagon with my free hand, and then we walked together toward the nearest rows of homes. The flickering light of a television illuminated the darkness of the nearest house. Even from a distance, I could see the outline of a character parading himself on the screen. It was a program I had glimpsed many times before – a series about some righteous hero defeating evil and defending the innocent. Every time I saw it, the main character would overcome some inane adversity and then celebrate as if he had done something miraculous. I could understand its formulaic popularity, but it was nothing that ever appealed to me. Perhaps it was because I was neither motivated for justice nor bettering a worthless world that breaks itself. But in that moment as I held her hand in mine, I cleared my mind and dismissed my judgment. Nothing else in this world meant anything when I had her by my side.

A nervous wince struck me, but I managed to say, “Can I bring you to the home where I stay? It is desolate and barren but at least it is safe, and perhaps I can show you the city one day.”

Aeliana opened her mouth and revealed a beautiful smile. Her crooked teeth shimmered in the starlight, and her dark hair danced in the humid breeze that swept in from the sea. I could feel her trembling betray the composure she felt compelled to project; the size of the city had overwhelmed her. I led her by the hand and pushed the wagon before me as we stepped quickly through the quiet streets. Any time a person walked by us in the road, she clung to my side with a familiar warmth. Any time a person opened their door to set out a bag of trash, she gripped my hand tightly. Even the sound of paper flapping in the breeze managed to derail her calmness.

“I can’t imagine how hard it was to live out there; I ventured there once and nearly died from despair. I once knew someone who escaped when she was young. She had nightmares which never quite came undone,” I explained to her as she kept my hand clung.

Aeliana said with a shaky breath, “Out there it is always life or death. The sands and the storms shroud the stars in the sky. We often hear a threat before we can see it, and then we’re forced to fight or flee. There were times when I would run until my lungs would cave; I’d collapse on the ground and beg the shadows to hide me from the monsters. There were times when a sound in the shadows saved me from starvation. If I heard something scurry through the sands, if it was something I could kill, I had no choice but to eat it.”

I said though her words weighed me with sadness, “There are those in this city who think that that’s madness. I left the city for three weeks and nearly wasted away; I could feel my body start to starve and decay. I met a swordsman who strived to consume me for a time, but in the end his spirit was devoured by mine. Through his eyes I see this world with a second view, so I applaud the cannibalism that allowed me to find you.”

(Please note: There are still 2 more parts to this chapter)