A Spark's Light Read online

  Jo gave me one last pat on the back, and though her lips didn’t show it, I felt that she was doing her best to contain a grin.

  Eventually, I stood up straight again as my stomach settled, and Jo took this as her chance to continue explaining. “To shrink back, you do the same thing, but you just say ‘shrink’ instead,” she said and once her eyes were closed, immediately did so. I quickly followed suit and made sure to close my eyes this time. It took me a moment to realize when the shrinking had finished, but I was happy to find that I didn’t feel at all sick this time around.

  Back to our normal size, we floated back down to the ground, and Jo rifled through her satchel, pulling out a hammer, some nails, and two planks of wood, one considerably wider than the other. I looked at her in shock, as her satchel had been far too small to have fit everything she pulled out of it. It took her a few moments to realize, but once she did, she gave me an equally quizzical look in return.

  “What? You’ve never seen a Portal Bag before?” she asked, a couple nails clutched between her teeth as she opened the mouth of the bag to show me the portal swirling inside of it. I was about to answer, but she cut me off as she set her things down on the ground to ramble at me, “Well if you’re to be believed, you’ve technically never seen anything before. How does that even work? You say you don’t know, but I don’t think I believe you. I’ve met thousands of other Ellylldan, and none of them are as messed up as you are. How is that?”

  I stared at her blankly for a moment, unsure of how to answer when I heard Theia’s voice echo through my mind, “Do not tell her about me, Autumn. I don’t want anyone inconsequential to know about our… situation.”

  After an uncomfortably long pause, I cleared my throat, “I told you before. I don’t know.”

  With a hand over her mouth, she nodded slowly. Then, narrowing her eyes she turned around, knelt on the ground, and began digging a small hole. “You’re a bad liar, you know.” she called over her shoulder as, her hole now dug, she hammered one of the planks into it. “But, if you wanna play the crazy narrative, go ahead.”

  I knelt next to her on the ground. “I’m not lying,” I insisted. But all I got in reply was a ‘mhm,’ so I decided to change the subject instead. “What are you doing by the way?” I asked, poking her lightly on the shoulder.

  Pausing in her hammering one plank to the other, she shot me a side glance. “I’m making your sign.” she answered. This only raised more questions though, so I raised an eyebrow at her. “Your sign. For your flower. Because all of these flowers look exactly the same. We’d be forever lost if we didn’t use signs to keep track.” she explained, unamused by my questioning.

  “What if someone rearranges the signs?” I asked, mischievous plans admittedly creeping into my mind.

  “Nuh uh! No! Don’t even think about it. Some girl did that a couple years ago, and so many people lost hands and fingers that day. One guy even got killed. Actually, in total we all killed her about a hundred times, so we got our revenge.” Jo said, and I looked at her curiously. “Oh, right. Since we reappear in our flowers after we die almost instantly, death isn’t a big thing for us. I mean, it still hurts, but overall, it’s a minor inconvenience,” she explained nonchalantly.

  The conversation lulled as Jo got back to work on the sign, and as she finished hammering the last nail, she stood up and stepped back a bit. I did the same, but was confused as the sign was blank. I was about the ask Jo about this but fell silent as I noticed her tracing runes out in the air. She finished performing the spell, and slowly in the wood of the sign, the name “Autumn” was burned. I smiled and gave Jo a quick hug. She lifted her arms up awkwardly in response, but didn’t try to push me away until a few seconds had passed.

  “Anyway, my flower is three to the right of yours, so if you need anything, just let me know,” she stepped away from me nervously and waved before quickly walking away.

  Alone again, I walked up to my flower, unsure of how to get back inside of it. I paced around it for a moment until I remembered that I had originally gotten out of it by touching it. So, I reached up and gently brushed my fingers against the smooth exterior of a petal. Thankfully my guess was correct, and one petal next to the one I had touched unfolded itself from the rest, allowing me to enter.

  Chapter 2

  I had lain on the floor of my flower for two hours, aimlessly staring at the ceiling, lost in thought, but unsure of what to do to escape the boredom that had found me. I silently protested to Theia that boredom apparently didn’t count as a negative emotion, but didn’t see fit to do anything else to get out of it. I rolled from side to side, counted the holes in the honeycomb-like substance on the ceiling, and even tried and failed at sleeping. I knew that Jo had told me that we didn’t sleep, but I had convinced myself to try it anyway. Eventually, with boredom eating me alive, I decided to go fly around the city.

  The city was quiet in the sunset, and no one seemed to be particularly keen on interacting, as the few people I did see floating about wore sour expressions. I flew around regardless though, taking careful note of where my flower was so I wouldn’t get lost. It was about the time that I reached the far end of the city, a foggy swamp stretching out into the distance, that the thought occurred to me to go see Jo. I picked up my pace, and flew back to my flower. Once there, I hurriedly counted out three to the right of mine.

  “Jo!” I called, excited to have someone to distract me from the mind-numbing boredom.

  A vague shuffling came from inside the flower, followed by what I assumed to be a curse in a language I didn’t understand. A petal of the flower then opened up to allow Jo to fly out. She landed in front of me, arms crossed and a scowl distorting her features. “It’s only been a few hours, what in the world could you possibly need?” she asked.

  “I’m bored, and there’s nothing to do here.” I smiled sheepishly.

  Jo sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Alright, fine. Come inside, and you can borrow one of my kill tokens,” she relented.

  “A what now?” I blinked in surprise.

  “Just come inside and I’ll show you. And don’t stop floating once you’re inside unless you want to lose your feet.” Jo insisted, opening the flower back up.

  “Are losing limbs to the flowers really that common that you use it in every warning?” I teased, but Jo turned around and nodded seriously. Her response shut me up, and I followed her inside.

  The inside of Jo’s flower was identical to mine, apart from the pile of things she had laying in the middle of her floor. The majority of the pile appeared to be coins, but there were books, a sword, a few precious stones, and some jewelry.

  Jo landed next to the pile and motioned at it largely. “These are kill tokens. One forms inside your flower every time you kill someone other than another Ellylldan. Most of us agree that these are supposed to be physical reminders of our guilt, and they are certainly effective. I’ve seen a few of us that sit in their flowers and just count them over and over again. I admittedly do that every now and again, but for the most part I just read and reread any books that form.” she explained and began digging through the pile of books.

  “Well, I had these in my flower.” I pulled out the coins I had in my pocket.

  Jo just glanced over her shoulder at first but turned around fully to face me and sucked air in between her teeth when she noticed them. “Two? Well not the worst I’ve seen, but most of us start with zero or only one. Guess it’s good you supposedly don’t remember your past life.”

  I turned the coins over in my hands for a moment, wondering who I must’ve killed to have gotten them, but then quickly tucked them back in my pocket. Jo nodded at this and turned back to digging through the pile of books. It took her a few moments, but eventually she pulled out a book wrapped in a purple leather cover. She dusted it off and handed it to me as she sat in the air, facing me. The book was surprisingly heavy, and it had the word “Almadeth” embossed into the cover. Feeling the book in my hands
gave me a strange sense of nostalgia, but I didn’t know why. I did know that for some reason, just holding the book made me happy, and that was all that mattered.

  I hugged the book to my chest and smiled widely at Jo. “Thank you, Jo! I’m going to read it right when I get home.”

  Jo waved a hand dismissively, “Yeah, yeah. No problem.”

  Holding the book up to look at it better, I noticed the same honeycomb-like substance on the roof of Jo’s flower as I had in mine. “What is that stuff by the way?” I asked, pointing up at the porous plant.

  “Hm? Oh, that’s Ambrosiamycetes, it’s a type of fungus that produces Ambrosia. We can only eat if what we eat has ambrosia on or in it. We don’t really have a digestive system past our stomach, so the ambrosia magically consumes the food and itself until there’s nothing left,” Jo explained, and floated up to the plant to scoop some of the golden syrup hiding inside into a glass bottle she fished from her satchel. “The stuff makes everything taste amazing, though, so it’s not really an inconvenience as much as it is a treat.”

  Jo handed me the glass bottle, and I happily took it, placing the bottle on top of the book carefully. I then floated over to her and gave her a quick hug before motioning to the petal we had come in through. Jo floated over to the side of the flower and touched a hand to the petal. It responded, folding open, and I flew out and back home.

  Once back in my own flower, I immediately got to reading. The nostalgic feeling never left me the entire time I read, and in the end, I was filled with a deep sense of longing. I didn’t know what for, perhaps another book or another story as good as this one, but whatever the reason, it felt strange. It felt like a part of me was missing, and that I was empty of purpose without it. The feeling demanded to be explored, understood, but the more I dwelled on it, the more I thought that it was likely something to do with my past life, something better off forgotten.

  So, with my book finished, I flew out into the cool of the night where the city was about as busy as it was during the day, but ten times as beautiful. I had originally intended to fly over to see Jo again, but as I noticed that the flowers were lit from the inside by the Ellylldan that inhabited them, lighting the darkness with a gentle glow, I knew I had to fly up and see it. Flying above the city, I saw lovely lights dotting the foggy landscape, and it took my breath away. The flowers, though not the most beautiful, were made as such by the light of the fairies within, and the fog that swept around them added a blur to the light that made it seem as though the entire landscape were made of golden fire. I could’ve watched it flicker and burn forever, and for a few hours, I did; such was the luxury of eternity with no way to spend it.

  Finally, though, I decided to head over to Jo’s, as an idea had occurred to me. I called out just as I had before, and Jo flew out and landed before me just as unamused.

  “What is it this time, Autumn?” Jo said, glaring.

  “Well first, here’s your book back.” I held the book out to her.

  She took it but looked very confused. “Wait, you’re not already done with it, are you?” she asked skeptically.

  “Yep. But I wanted to ask you something. Do you-” I started but was cut off.

  “You WHAT? That thing is massive. How are you done with it already? God you may be crazy, but you’re a super-fast reader,” Jo said in disbelief.

  “Yep… Anyway, like I was saying-”

  “I mean seriously, that’s ridiculous. Like, how? Maybe your brain is really powerful since it isn’t held back by all those memories,” she joked.

  “Jo! Do you want to go to Seletos with me? It’ll give us somewhere to find our kills.” I said excitedly, grabbing her by the shoulders.

  “Go where with who now?” she asked, shocked.

  “To Seletos. With me.” I said pointedly.

  “The city?” Jo’s voice cracked.

  I nodded happily in response while Jo looked like she was about to faint.

  “You can’t be serious.” Jo paused to see my reaction, but when I nodded, she turned around away from me. Mumbling, she ranted to herself for a few moments, too low for me to make out. “Ok,” Jo said as she whipped around. “Sure, why not. My kill deadline is in two weeks anyway, so I guess it’ll be good to journey out. But if I die, we are not friends when I get back,” she agreed, but sounded perturbed by it all.

  I ignored the tone of her voice, though, and gave her a quick, tight hug in my glee. “Great! Can we leave now?” I leaned back far enough to look at her.

  Jo looked back at me exasperatedly. “Right now, right now?” her voice cracked. I giggled and nodded, and Jo sighed and stepped away from me. “Yeah, sure. Right now. Why wouldn’t it be right now? Screw my life, I’ve got nothing else going on anyway.” Jo threw her arms around dramatically as she grumbled and flew into her flower. A few moments later, she returned, looking even more uncomfortable than she did before, satchel on her shoulder, and a brown jacket on. “Well, Seletos is about two weeks of flying that way, so let’s get this over with.”

  “Yay! Let’s go!” I cheered.

  “Yay,” Jo mimicked, much less enthusiastically.

  “So why Seletos?” Jo asked as we flew.

  “Because it’s the closest big city to here,” I answered matter-of-factly.

  “How do you- You know what, never mind. I have a feeling your answer is going to be ‘I don’t know.’” Jo sighed heavily. “And we should unshrink, we’ll go faster if we aren’t tiny.”

  I nodded and paused in my flying for a moment to grow in size. Jo did the same, and we were back on course. As we left the city, I turned back for a moment to watch the distant glow one last time before we flew over a hill and out of sight.

  Chapter 3

  Journeying throughout the night was surprisingly easy, and I found Jo’s statement that we didn’t get tired to be accurate. For a majority of our time we flew silently, but as the sun rose over the hills to our right I couldn’t help but realize that I was bored. Jo seemed distant and unapproachable in her mood though, so starting up a conversation didn’t seem like a viable option. I was in the middle of strategizing a way to talk to her when Jo instead turned to me as we floated along.

  “Shame you didn’t get to see the sunrise from Huna’Arda. It looks gorgeous with the pinks and oranges in the morning fog.” Jo said absentmindedly as she stared at the sunrise. I couldn’t contain my smile as I heard the words, and soon Jo noticed me grinning at her. “Wipe that off your face, I was just making conversation,” Jo grumbled.

  “It’s sweet of you to bring up. And cute,” I insisted, giving her a playful nudge.

  Jo rolled her eyes and shook her head, and soon we both fell back into silence.

  The further we flew in the glow of the morning sun, the more awkward the silence seemed, though. Before the sun had fully risen, I asked, “So how long have you been an Ellylldan?”

  Jo raised an eyebrow at me, and looked annoyed at first, but instead she sighed. “About two hundred years now,” she answered shortly.

  I breathed in a little too sharply in my surprise and fell into a coughing fit. “Two hundred?!” I choked out as the coughing was coming to an end.

  Jo raised an eyebrow at me once more, and I noticed the hint of a smile upon her lips. “Do me a favor and don’t die before we even get started,” she teased. “It’s honestly not very many. There are plenty of us that have been around for two thousand years, twenty thousand years, and even two hundred thousand years. Once we’re here, we’re here for eternity. Unless you pass on, but that happens so rarely.”

  “Wow,” was all I could manage. “So, if you do a kill every three months, that’s eight hundred kills. No wonder your flower is so full of stuff.”

  Jo quickly grew uncomfortable and fiddled with the strap of her satchel. “Yeah, I don’t like to think about it too much,” she said, clearing her throat.

  “What is ‘passing on’ by the way?” I asked.

  “It’s when you learn to forgive yourself fo
r your past, and your body dissolves into light so your soul can finally go to the underworld. As I said, it almost never happens. I for one am probably going to be stuck here forever,” Jo trailed off, and a silence hung in the air between us once more.

  I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, but I also wanted to know more about her, so I pressed on. “What were you in your past life?”

  “What do you mean? Like my race?” Jo asked, to my surprise, and I nodded. “I was an Angel. From Adar, actually.” Adar was a rich country that had the second largest population of angels in the world. This meant that Adar benefited from the beautiful Angelic architecture but suffered under the hand of slavery, as the Angels engaged in widespread enslavement of Harpies.

  “Oh… did you own any Harpies?”

  Jo nodded awkwardly. “Yes. I’d love to blame it all on my wife, but I was just as guilty of it. It took me a long time back then before I realized that what I had been raised to believe in was actually a horrific and disgusting practice,” she admitted, her voice full of shame.