“The Way is Light! The Way is Light!” continued the chant behind the High Priest as he led them towards the prestigious and mysterious inner circle of the Elucian Way. Shen shuffled nervously along behind Kai at the rear of the file, glowing dimly yellow in the dark — tiny, focussed beams of light escaped from the ends of his hair-filaments, etching phosphorescent spirals across the walls.
“Salvator?” whispered Shen anxiously behind Kai, “Salvator?! Stop, Salvator! Please!”
“The Way is Light!” continued the eager incantation.
“Salvator!!” continued Shen, hissing out as much urgency as he could without disturbing the procession, “Are you actually sure that you should...that is...?”
Kai glared round at Shen, whose face was flickering through uneasy fulvous hues.
you’ll see
“You see, I feel this might not actually be quite the correct path for you.”
you’ll feel
“Not quite yet at least, I feel. That is, I know you seem to be searching for something rather particular here, but....”
Kai slowed and stopped then turned to Shen, as the procession continued down the passageway. He studied Shen’s shimmering scepticism for a moment, then smiled down at him hubristically and placed a dismissive hand on his shoulder.
you’ll...
Shen flared up into an immediate blaze of ruby and his top three buttons tore open at once as he exploded in wrath, jabbing an accusatory finger forcefully into Kai’s shoulder as he snapped —
“You...fool! Idiot! Indicime! Look what you’re doing! You have no idea...no idea of how monumental a mistake you’re making, do you?!”
“The Way is Light! The Way is Light!” echoed farther down the corridor.
Bewildered and unnerved by the fury, Kai pressed his breathless back against the wall beside a holographic flame, which burned off his terrified eyes as he looked desperately after the receding procession.
“That was quite a sudden conversion to the Way, don’t you think, boy?! Grecknous zikk!!!”
“The Way is Light! The Way is...”
His fellow followers descended away from despairing eye and ear into the curving corridor, which glowed dimly red.
“No!” continued Shen manically, “NOOO! I’ll not let you do this, Salvator! Your gift is too great. You saved me, after all! Saved me!!!”
Shen rolled up his sleeve; the two scars from the hydra serpent’s fangs were glowing white on the coloured texture of his arm.
“Your destiny is another, Salvator! Anyone can give themselves over to the Way, and then just disappear into the SYStem. The Way is good, I’m sure, but...there’s something there that I don’t...I just can’t trust. Can anyone really be that selfless?! Young man, can’t you see...?”
Enough!
Kai stepped forward furiously, and raised his left hand at Shen, who turned pale and swallowed his words at once. Again Kai’s visage softened and he simply smiled benignly at Shen...
forgive
...then turned and walked away down the corridor towards the crimson glow below, leaving Shen behind, disheartened and speechless.
As Kai reached farther down the dark, empty passageway, following the echoes of the far-off chant, he passed an intersection. He stopped for a moment as a draft of cool air brushed past his face from the side, and he closed his eyes to feel the breeze. The distant incantation wafted over him, and just as he noticed the rapid shuffle from behind, his muscles tensed, his eyes forced in and his footing thrust back and over and down, and as he felt his body thrown and dragged across the floor, the pain seeped in from his tightening throat and smothered face and his breath smashed back against the stone.
His sight was gradually returned to him — Shen’s blazing blood-red eyes were a razor’s edge from his own, and a vice-like grip pierced him with paralysing dominance against the cold, coarse wall. Kai gasped quickly at breaths, as Shen simply shook his fiery head, then stopped, then jerked several short, sharp nods, then shook them ferociously away again — an infernal, private debate.
“Yes!” hissed Shen through his clenched, scarlet jaws, “This was the only thing I could do. I....”
His eyes swirled a deeper shade, and he brought a silvery finger up to Kai’s face threateningly.
“You! I told you! Ignorant boy!”
Kai tried to stretch out a trembling palm to offer peace, but again Shen flared up, crushed an arm against his mouth, tightened the other around him and dragged him away down the narrow passageway to the side. Struggling futilely against Shen’s abnormal strength, Kai could only focus his terrified eyes on the two glowing fang wounds on Shen’s arm pressed against his face; his ears took in only his own smothered breathing and his feet against the rock.
After terrifyingly endless seconds of twisting, scraping, violent turns, Shen stopped short and released Kai, who fell to the ground shaking in shadowy fear. Shen looked around frantically. The chants of the Elucian disciples no longer reached the dank air around them. Suddenly, Shen’s ruby fury seeped to blue and he leapt ecstatically from foot to foot.
“They’re gone, Salvator, we’re safe!”
Kai pushed himself with quivering legs to the wall, and breathed hard back against the wall. Shen stepped towards him; Kai turned away at once, his arm raised to protect himself.
“What? What, Salvator?!” said Shen, his violence gone from colour and mind, “You saved me, I saved you!”
Shen’s light reflected off Kai’s incredulous, terrified eyes.
“Well...I had to! I’m doing you a good deed, here, my friend! That’s just.... Now just you look!”
Shen burned up again to ruby; Kai cowered.
“Salvator! Fool! You’re no follower. ‘An outcast spurning all yet bound to lead’! Remember, lothal?!”
Kai steeled himself and clenched his jaws, then rose defiantly to his feet. Shen cooled again to blue.
“My friend. My friend! They prey on the young, you see, and the easily led. Those looking for something, anything — only for them would the promise of everlasting life actually mean anything. Some esoteric words and a prescribed interpretation then add a touch of fake passion...well, to be honest, Salvator, I’m surprised you fell for it. And, I have to say — I'm a little disappointed.”
Kai looked at Shen with disgust for the first time, and shook his head slowly. They stood opposite each other in tense, dark silence until, gradually, drifting into the air came distant chants —
“The Way is Light, the Way is Light!”
“They’re coming for us, Salvator! We have to get out of here!”
Shen moved off, but Kai remained obstinately where he was. Shen saw, and his anger boiled back up to the surface.
“Young man! I’m serious! Come now!”
Shen stepped threateningly up to Kai, but Kai stood his ground. The chants became louder, drifting up from below. Shen clutched at Kai’s arm, but Kai lashed out defiantly, and struck away Shen’s arm with all his might. Immediately Shen fell to the ground screaming in agony, holding onto his arm.
“One hand saves me, the other hand harms me,” he sobbed, “Salvator!? How could you?! I’m your friend!”
“The Way is Light, the Way is Light!” rose the distant chant.
Whimpering through pitiful, dry tears, Shen lifted his hand — a single drop of light oozed from one of the wounds, burning impossibly brightly into the dark. Kai lifted his left hand to shield his eyes.
an incandescent arc of final light to end his crimson sight
Shen sobbed pathetically; Kai went to him, reluctantly. He kneeled down beside him, and placed his left hand over the wound. Shen flinched and rippled through a spectrum of colour, and the space darkened. As the chanting grew from below, Kai lifted his hand — Shen’s wound was again miraculously restored, but a drop of light remained hanging from Kai’s palm, and as he pulled it away it fell blindingly to the ground. Kai instinctively lurched down with his left hand to cover it. Darkness enveloped them again in the strait passageway.
Gradually, Kai’s hand began to glow; the light spread out slowly in a circle from his hand and seeped down into the stone floor. He lifted his hand cautiously; the circle expanded farther, rippling through colours and shimmering gleam until an image began to form — a round, stone hall lined with smoky candles; faceless monks led in files of eager, chanting volunteers, who arranged themselves obediently in lines before a white-robed figure — the High Priest, looming by the altar at the far wall in the chamber directly below them.
Next chapter — The Offering
Sunday 3 April 2011
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