Sanctuary

Your life is a lie we made.

  

[There's always a line between Desire and Reality]

 

***

 

The thin boots clapped loud and clear on the marble floor. Echoes bounced off the walls faster than I could run, and it interfered with my hearing. On the other hand the echoes gave me a clear picture of what I was passing by: Tall windows, square columns embedded into the walls, narrow side tables and wall mirrors and I could feel how bright it was. Everything was polished clean as if people came here every day to keep it looking like that.

 

Tough.

 

Chains snaked along my right arm to slip a long dagger past my hand. In a quick motion I flexed a length of chain to hit the tall doors, snapping them open with a BANG. Cold air gushed into my face before I could move through the doorway, and the wind sent chills down my neck. They kept along the skin beneath my coat until the shivers settled in my stomach.

 

The next hall was different. It was outdoors. I smelled salt in the wet air, soaked and dry sand alike. Whispers came from swaying grass and wind. A loose wooden board clattered somewhere behind me while wind dispersed into nothing before me.

 

Small feet plopped swiftly on the sand, coming in my direction. Children laughed. From the sound of it they must be young.

 

They, or we, are twice that age now.

 

The closer they came the louder the ocean waves crashed on the shore and hissed as they were dragged against their will back into the ocean. When Kai came running towards me from behind, laughing bright as day, I twisted around and turned over my hand, palm side up, plunging it into his body just below his chest. The spot of contact sent out vibrating ripples that made Kai's body disappear.

 

He slowed down. Everything slowed down. The wind, the waving grass, the hissing waves, the laughter. It all grew quiet, and then the sounds faded completely. I no longer heard or felt anything.

 

Then I was somewhere, and wherever I was, it was a large room with a high ceiling. I tapped my foot and the sound had a long way to travel. No furniture or any kind of décor here, I guess.

 

That aside.... I lowered my head and lifted my hand. What should be in my hand is an orb of radiating light, yet soft, an orb like a bright little moon. Instead I held nothing. There was nothing for me to take.

Not yet, anyway. Not literally.

 

***

 

[Forgotten memories lie within our hearts

Waiting for the Truth that will awaken them from Time]

 

***

 

Don't get yourself distracted. Focus on the task at hand.

 

A jolt ran from the spine to my chest. Suddenly I was in another place, lying on my stomach as if I'd fallen over. The material beneath me felt cool, smooth, like glass, slightly curved on its surface. Pushing off with my hands, I got to my feet. The chains on my right arm played their tinkling, lighthearted tune. The hem of my coat brushed against the back of my knees as I got up.

 

I felt the hollow emptiness of a void. The chain was tossed out in wide random loops, and I listened to them rasp along the glass. Most of them, with one final clink, abruptly dropped into silence. I was standing on a floating disc maybe twenty feet across. With that in mind I turned in the direction where one chain bumped against something before tumbling and sliding into a fall. The chains were gathered back together as I went.

 

At the right spot I knelt down and slid a hand around. It was a step also made of glass, four feet wide and almost two feet across. I had to be careful. When it took my weight the step dipped a little, but it'd rise again once I stepped off it. Slowly I leaned forward to feel for another step.

 

It was a staircase. I made sure there was something to put my foot on before climbing higher. The steps rose in a slow spiral, every now and then interrupted by a floating disc. The higher I went the louder a hiss of flowing sand became.

 

And the sand turned into monsters.

 

They flew at me like bats, sounding like them too. Wings desperately flapped themselves although it didn't seem to be doing any good. Those things were little more than living, holey rags. It's so easy to get rid of them with a swing of a chain, but I picked up the pace instead. The Memories chased after me, just like they chased everyone. They're that desperate to be remembered, but there's no one to remember them, no one that knows them. They're nothing but leftovers now.

 

How many steps there were...there was enough for me to not want to think about it. Eventually I reached a disc larger than the ones before, deep cracks running all through the rounded face, threatening to trip me up. Broken pillars stood all around like guards starting to wear themselves out, but I guess they still thought they had a job to do. No Memory had the guts to go inside their circle. They fluttered thickly outside the pillars, making a noise that sounded like a whine.

 

How annoying. Maybe they really are whining. Ignoring the Memories, I passed the pillars by until I came to a pair of large doors, faded and worn and cracked just like the rest of this place. I heard a voice that did not sound.

Only Wielders of power may open this door.

 

Those who bear the strength of heart may pass.

So what? Taking the blade in my left hand, I drove its point into the crack opening between the two doors. My will is definitely strong enough to force these doors open. For this job, I had to be strong enough for anything!

 

My fingers poked into the crack between the doors once the opening was wide enough. After that it took time to pull one door slowly open, and the hinges creaked every inch of the way. I dug my feet in and pulled.

 

The Memories suddenly went quiet. I heard them flee from something much bigger than they are, a Giant Memory. The name, I think, is pretty much explains itself.

 

Giant Memories are vaguely man-shaped creatures and, like their names say, they're giants in size. The bodies are made of coiled up cords and knots, zippers lying where a mouth and eyes should be, and what color they are tells what kind of memories they've bundled. Green for peaceful, ordinary memories, yellow for especially happy memories, blue for sad memories, gray for misery, red for rage, black for hate.

 

The smaller Memories shrieked and burst. Their bodies scattered into hundreds of small spheres of smoke. Feeling the heat rush at my back, I knew it was a Red Giant. There wasn't time to waste. The red ones never did.

 

I didn't wait until the door was completely open; once the space was wide enough for me, I slipped my body on through. The door slammed shut as the Red Giant was unzipping its mouth to blow out scorching flames that swirled and roared at the circle of pillars. Since they couldn't actually get past them, all they could do was form a hurricane of fire. I left that behind.

 

...Was I floating in a void? No, something solid was under my feet.

 

I came to stand on a flat surface, and it felt...alone. It was one massive pedestal, round and flat on top. A light chill eased through the air.

 

There were things around me. I felt and sensed my way about. Three stone blocks stood an equal distance from each other, and something large was suspended in the air behind each of them. Later I would find that they were colored windows, deeply cracked, etched with the symbols of Time, Truth, and Dream, an hourglass, a double loop of infinity, and a ring.

 

Even without knowing that, I already knew what floated above each block. An orb of either gold, green, and blue for Time, Truth, and Dream. I'd finally reached Trinity Hall. And it was about damn time! What was that long, overly complicated way to this place about? Security? Yeesh.

 

My hand reached for the Dream orb, then it paused, and gradually shifted over to the Time orb. That was the one Obelisk Tower wanted, so that was the one I took.

 

It was like a glass ball in my hand, perfectly sized to fit in the palm of my hand. The power that should be inside was actually a seed right now; something, someone, had to make it grow. Someone had to provide that radiant light.

 

***

 

[“How could you! Were you playing around with us all this time? After everything we've been through! Together!”]

 

***

 

Suddenly I can't breathe, then I can. The Time orb had transported me to another room, circular in shape with a high ceiling. I guessed that the windows were just as tall. There's a certain theme to the design of these places.

 

But they each felt different. The Time orb was safely zipped inside one of my coat pockets. Going to one window, I touched the glass with my hand until I got used to the touch of the dented plates. Different levels of warmth told me of different colors. My fingers ran along to put together pictures of faces, towns, trees and roads.

 

The time to get out was now, now that I had the Time orb. When I feel a hairline crack my hand is withdrawn. The arm that held the chains revolved around once to loosen the metal links to the floor. Taking hold of the chain, I hurled it into the window.

 

When a window breaks everything breaks; the floor went to pieces and I dropped with the chunks of marble floor and raining bits of glass.

 

It must be beautiful.

 

***

 

[Because some dreams, by the laws of Truth, can only be a Dream]

Author's Note

The image used for this story was created by me but the materials used for it are not mine.