Transcendence

(871 words)

I’m almost there honey. Just hold on. In the dark tunnel, deep inside the Lassia Mountains, Torin lifted his hammer with all his might and brought it crashing down on the last boulder standing in his way of finding his wife’s cure. The boulder crumbled and suddenly light flooded the tunnel.

Torin covered his eyes against the bright light. He had been in the dark for days and it took several moments for his eyes to adjust. When finally they did, he took a moment to examine himself. He had numerous cuts and bruises over his tanned arms. His white tunic was covered in dirt and grim. The right leg of his brown trousers was torn, and revealed the nasty wound he had received when the tunnel floor had fallen unexpectedly and had dropped him several feet down.

He shoved the pain aside and focused on the task at hand. If his sources were right, the cure was in the next cave. He crawled over the broken boulder and stood up to see a wonder that he could never have imagined.

A sparkling iridescent globe was floating near the ceiling. It was the source of light and though it shone everywhere, one shaft of light greatly illuminated a pedestal in the middle of the room. On that pedestal was a book.

The book of life! Torin hobbled down the broken stairs, only briefly marveling at how magnificent this place must have been once. Now the mural walls were crumbled and the rocks he had dug through were the remains of an ornate stone door.

When he reached the pedestal, he slowed and hesitantly touched the ancient leather-bound book. Expecting it to crumble in his hands, Torin was surprised to feel the soft supple binding and smell the scent of newly cured hide.

This really is it! The book that contains all the secrets of life. With it, I will have the knowledge to cure my sweet Marleena. With those thoughts firmly in his mind, he opened the book.

Colors. All the colors of the rainbow and beyond the rainbow poured into his body through the gateway of his eyes. Momentarily blinded and frozen by pain, Torin dropped the book. As the book fell, so did Torin. Or at least Torin’s body fell, into a heap on the floor. Torin’s soul, however, hovered in midair, gazing at the book which was floating back onto the pedestal.

Torin tried to blink in surprise, but found that he couldn’t. He no longer had eyelids. Yet he could still see. In fact, he discovered that he could see everything around him all at once. And he knew. He knew everything.

Marleena! His soul cried out for her. Instantly, his soul appeared in Marleena’s room. It was dark, the curtains drawn. Marleena, her skin ghostly, lay asleep on the bed just as he had left her days ago, in the care of Marleena’s sister.

Torin floated to her. His soul sank with despair. He now knew how to cure her, but had no body to make or administer the potion. He reached out, not with a hand, for he had none, but with a part of his soul. When he made contact with her hand, he went straight through, but left a luminescent glow that only he could see. The glow spread throughout her body. Torin floated back and watched as she was enveloped. The light flared and then faded away.

Her skin was now its normal soft tan, not the pall of death. Her chest rose and fell more rapidly as her eyelids began to flutter. When they finally opened and Marleena sat up, Torin’s soul soared with happiness.

“Torin?” Marleena croaked as she looked around.

I’m here my love. Torin floated closer to her.

“Torin?!” She threw off the covers and stood on wobbly legs.

My love… Torin moaned sadly, knowing she couldn’t hear him. He just watched as she stumbled to the door and out of the room looking for him. But she didn’t know that he had left to search for a cure. She would never know.

Torin A thought called out to him. He saw several souls appear in the room, all shining full of color like him.

What…? Torin tried to float away from them, but they surrounded him.

It is time to come with us. You are one of us now. They all reached out to him.

But Marleena! he cried.

She will be fine. You know that.

He suddenly remembered that he did know everything. He thought about her and knew that she would be sad for a while, but that her sister would help her through it. Marleena would sell their farm and move into town to be a nanny for her sister’s eight children, three of which had not been born yet. Though Marleena would never forget him nor love another man, she would also be blessed with ignorance. She would never know that she couldn’t have children. Raising her sister’s children would make her happy, bringing her the closest she’d ever be to being a mother.

As he contemplated Marleena’s mortal life, Torin allowed the souls to envelope him and guide him towards his immortality.