Chapter 11A: Castle Made of Dirt

Chapter Eleven

It was late in the night when we awoke to the sound of a pound on the door. Aeliana bolted from my side and dashed across the floor. She clenched her daggers in her hands and steadied her arms for battle, but she tapped her foot three times as a quiet message. Somehow I was aware of the reality but locked in a dream. I could hear her admonition, but I deceived myself to stay for just an extra moment in the dying light of a once-comfortable world which would now have to burn. I could picture it in my head as a broken bowl beneath a winter night. Though water once poured from its hole and merely flooded the earth around it, the frigid winter sealed its cracks with ice. It could in this way temporarily disguise itself as ordinary and complete, even if it could only fill with water which would freeze. But time passes and seasons change, so now winter withered all around me. I could feel the proverbial ice thin and erode the flimsy barrier that granted a glimpse of normalcy. It was the end of an era. It was a frozen world at the edge of a fire. It was the suicide note of a peaceful life plunged into pandemonium.

Our tranquil façade of an ordinary life ended in the moment that a battleax came crashing through our door. Woodchips and sawdust exploded into our dusty home, but Aeliana threw herself into the cascade of shattered wood. She lunged past the battleax and ruthlessly tore her daggers into our attacker. I sat up in our bed and watched their shadows dance upon the cluttered floor. Orange streetlight flooded across the threshold and clearly defined her shadow as she repeatedly sank her blades into our invader. I saw hunks of flesh and blood spew forth from his body. I saw him fall upon his knees, and then she set the tip of her dagger against his throat.

“Does the queen of the dark know that you are here?” Aeliana demanded from someone who stood somewhat near.

“She gave us the address with her blessing. Hayatama is a benevolent man meant to build a better world. What right do you have to steal from him? We promised to him we would capture or kill you both,” explained another man as if he had given his oath.

I unsheathed my sword and said as I stepped through the door, “Then you already know that we are weapons of war. You are not the only person who ever dared to cross our path, but if you make one move against us then there is no going back.”

“I was given orders which say that you have to die,” answered the man as he lifted his hand to the sky.

Aeliana slit the throat of her captive with a bloody splash. As she dropped the body onto the doorstep where we had made love on the day this all began, our attacker activated his power with a flash of light. A bolt of lightning shot down from the sky and nearly struck us both, but it crashed instead upon a substitute I summoned with my stolen power. The shockwave destroyed the decoy and dealt us both a paralytic jolt. But even as I slammed against the wall behind me, I lifted my left hand and unleashed a full-force fireball forward at our enemy. The attacker crossed his arm shields and braced himself, but the explosive impact launched him backward in the street. The fiery glow overwhelmed the light of the stars in the sky, and the blazing shockwave sent shadows across the street. I grabbed Aeliana’s hand and took off running, though we stumbled from our electric paralysis. Our enemy unleashed another thunderbolt straight down from the sky, but it struck the street behind us with a shower of sparks.

A deafening crack of thunder tore across the sky and sent a shudder through the street. The shockwave sent a shudder through the streetlights. Two pedestrians stared at the sky with shock from the freak pair of lightning bolts, but then they audibly exclaimed when they saw us run through the street with our weapons in hand. Without thinking or speaking a word, we sprinted together toward the tract of land where I first took her hand. But with our eyes still scarred by lightning, the starlit shadows shifted and swirled up ahead. They contorted and crisscrossed to create a cloaked silhouette standing directly in our path. Unlike the civilians who fled from us as if we were far more dangerous than the plague they feared, this cloaked adversary unsheathed two swords and prepared to fight. A luminous energy coursed down his left arm, but in that moment, Aeliana activated her power and locked everything in place.

After she pressed her lips on mine, Aeliana said, “I have unlocked you in time.”

“Then let us run together to the coastline. Let us run to the beach where we met for the first time. Let’s swim like a spaceship sent to sail the stars; let’s swim through the sea that will one day be ours.”

Aeliana nodded with a shy smile and sheathed her daggers. She dragged me by the hand toward the beach, reversing the path we took on the first night I brought her to my quiet home. We ran past a crack in the street where steam seeped into the sky, and it looked like a waterfall in reverse that fell frozen in place. Tiny spirals in the steam swirled from the edges of the ascending cloud and surfed the breeze that swept in from the sea. As we ran hand-in-hand across this frozen wonderland, I saw a playground where Donovan pushed a smiling child on a swing. We decelerated as we approached the playground, and I peered through the streetlights to see my old friend’s face.

A part of me wondered if perhaps Donovan had betrayed us when Hayatama asked Bellaina where to find us. But when I saw his unguarded smile as he played with his daughter, I realized that it did not matter if he was innocent or guilty. His family meant the world to him, and he had stood at the edge of the shadows so that he could provide for them. He stood with one foot in the darkness so that he could protect them from the underworld. He and I were the same in that way. We were two men driven by love to commit countless crimes because any price was always worth it. Even if he had betrayed me, I knew I would have done the same to him if it meant saving Aeliana. I was just another crime he had to commit.

And though Donovan stood so deeply in the darkness that it drenched his skin with blood, reality rewarded him for his decision. Even frozen in time, his daughter leaned back in her swing just to smile at him from behind. His son swung a short distance away, excitedly watching him push her as if they were in a competition. Anna watched from a bench beneath a tree; her smile practically glowed from a streetlight. Even through the dim light and motionless world, I could see in her eyes that he had set her heart alight and alive with the fire of love. I stopped beside Donovan briefly as we ran past, and I wished him a fond farewell despite the part he possibly played in our departure.

Aeliana and I resumed our run through the next street, but I couldn’t decide if this was in defeat or just retreat. I could not help but glance at the world we left behind. I saw small markets and four families all frozen in time. A long-lost shred of my heart could not help but hurt, as if this city were ever any more than a castle made of dirt. It wasn’t the pain of losing everything again; it was the pain of a past that never was but maybe could have been. If only I were normal, I could have made a friend. If only I were normal, I wouldn’t be the reason it must end. I was always almost happy here, but it never felt like home. This city is the closest thing to a home I’ve ever known.

(Note: there are still 3 more parts to this chapter!)