Chapter 12A: A Past which Plunders the Present

Chapter Twelve:

“It was in the forest I first learned that I would find you, and I did not rest until the day that it became true. You saved me from the shadows like a lifelong lifeline; you saved me as you kept me across countless lifetimes. I have loved you a hundred times in a hundred past lives. I have killed for you countless times with countless swords and knives. It makes no difference that we are cursed and crossed by the stars, because it is in this life that the stars themselves are ours. We were once cursed to a piecewise love that lived only if you found me, but it is in this cycle that we shall set sail into eternity.”

Aeliana pressed her lips on mine in the moment I stopped speaking, but she struggled to respond, so she sat back onto the wet floor of our stolen boat. I stood upright on the back with my hands fastened firmly to the oars, but I infrequently pressed the paddles. Shortly after we had sailed away from the city where we met, an ocean current caught our catamaran and carried us from land. The glow of distant lava brightly illuminated the water with a fiery glow. The sea spray transformed into a shower of sparks, and every splash became a scattershot of shimmering scarlet. Even at a distance, the volcanoes transformed the ocean from water to fire. I could see every detail of our stolen ship in the fiery light. I could see our footprints on its deck, and I saw its edges covered in ash which was carried by the wind from the burning pier. But at this point, I could not see anything around us except the fiery ocean and the stars in the sky. Aeliana sat at a short distance. It had been a day since our departure, but she still struggled to recover from our skirmish on shore. Her injuries had sealed, but her heart had not healed.

I heard the words whisper from the girl who’s cursed by the stars above, “I don’t know what you mean. What is a piecewise love?”

I answered as I stared upon her perfect smile, “It’s a math thing I probably cannot use for a while. It’s like a trigger or a switch that discretizes day or night; it sets a condition that can decide left or right. It’s like if X equals a world where I never met you, then Y is a lifetime that is worthless through and through. But if X crossed over on the day I met you by the shore, then Y warps into a world where we are cursed to go to war. It’s a tiny thin line that stands between my emptiness and passion; it is a single event that stands to end this world in a fiery fashion. As if by poison we were pressed to play and plague a piecewise love, but all that pain was worth it for the one I’ve always dreamed of.”

Aeliana smiled sweetly and stumbled slowly across the deck. I pressed the oars just slightly to reorient our ship, and then I set my lips against hers. Even after all this time, I still felt stars turn into supernovae in my head every time I held her in my arms. Even while rowing between active volcanoes and the ocean they illuminated, she monopolized my reality and eclipsed everything else. All this worthless world was obsolescent in her presence.

Every wave sent a splashing motion through the world around us. It almost felt like the ocean itself could send us to sleep in a spiritual slumber, but I found myself instead transfixed by a glistening mass in the water. While it still shimmered scarlet from the fiery light, it did not dance in the darkness in between waves. It was a small rock island standing in the sea, formed long ago by an underwater volcano which had since abandoned it to live out its days at a distance from the mainland. But by a glimpse given by the starlight itself, I saw the silhouettes of trees standing on its rocky surface, swaying in the fiery glow of distant lava.

I asked Aeliana as her hair danced in the breeze, “Would you like to land on an island that is filled with trees? It isn’t very large, but at least it may have fruit.”

Aeliana smiled and answered with a tired breath, “A part of me feared that we might starve to death!”

I could sense a thin veil of overenthusiasm in her words, given that she had gone weeks without eating many times in her life. She had told me about the scarcity of food out in the badlands many times before, and I think in many ways it scarred the way in which sees this world. She had always jumped at the prospect of food in the past, almost like a feral animal unsure where it would find its next meal, but she also knew that she was far from approaching the edge of starvation. I suspected that she had said this to disguise an inexplicable truth; she hardly had any appetite even though she had not eaten in a long time.

Aeliana confirmed my suspicions when we reached the rocky shore of the forested island. Lava had dried at the edge of this island long ago to create a bay which shielded the shore from waves. We stepped together into the steaming sea and secured our ship safely onto shore. Despite the darkness of the open ocean, the fiery light of distant lava and swaying stars summoned a symphony of shimmers to illuminate the island. I could see every branch dance in the breeze, and I watched red and white fruit bounce in between the leaves.

Aeliana said as the wind swept through her hair, “I had a dream where someone tried to steal my air. She could breathe through me from a distance, but I couldn’t feel a thing. It was like I lived a life locked in a lie, forced to watch a wayward wanderer with a worn-out welcome. I could see myself as fragile in a way I’d never admit before.”

“You are not fragile now that you have me at your side; I possess an infinite power that leaves death defied. Just to protect you I would go to any length, and I can overcome anyone with my stolen strength. Nothing can stop us now that I have Elijah’s heart. No force in this world could dare to keep us apart. I wish I could have defended you even in your dream,” I said to her as we slowly stepped through the steam.

I offered Aeliana the first fruit I picked from a branch, and she delightfully sunk her teeth into its white flesh with a splash of juice. I reached for another fruit for myself, but I quickly realized that my appetite had outpaced hers. By the time I devoured three different fruit, she had only nibbled her way through half of her first. I set another in my mouth and picked a few more to carry with us. A part of me wanted to declare that we had already found our island hideaway where we would live out our days, but in reality, this small island could never support us. A quick mathematical extrapolation confirmed that every tree would be picked bare in four weeks’ time. Nevertheless, I pocketed another red fruit while Aeliana leaned against a tree for support.

When I searched for fruit of another color, I saw a fiery glow pierce the narrow space between the leaves and trees. Unlike the distant lava we had seen from our ship, this lava possessed a proximity that eclipsed the light of the stars. I stumbled through the forest toward the far end of this rocky island and saw that an active volcano had overtaken the southern sky. From an untold distance, I watched a gentle flow of lava pour into the ocean on a faraway island. The fiery light illuminated everything it touched; the southern side of every tree glistened in the glow. I could see every crack in the rocks as if a scarlet streetlight stood directly overhead. The dancing branches cast swaying shadows across the island. I saw the silhouettes of small shacks standing by the distant shore, shimmering in the light of lava.

Note: There are 2 more parts to this chapter