'He’s been with us all along’.
It took them all a moment to realize who Hëna was talking about, Daniel a bit longer.
‘Me?’ he asked, not sure if she was joking, or the grief over her brother’s death was playing tricks with her mind.
‘He is the Great Lord?’ Nathaniel seconded the question, disbelief evident in his voice.
Nemo seemed to have fallen into deep thoughts, which was something you didn’t see very often. Coming out of it, a smile began forming on his young face, as he appeared to be realizing something.
‘You’re a Visitor,’ he finally said. ‘It makes sense; the Great Lord was the first ever Visitor to come to this place.’
‘That doesn’t prove anything,’ Nathaniel argued, ‘there have been many Visitors before him; that alone doesn’t qualify him for being the Great Lord.’
‘No, but other things do; like the fact that Lightning allowed him to be his rider, when he’s never let anyone else ride him.’
‘He let you ride him, and he carried me all the way to Dard'h.’
‘Yes, but only because of him. But, wait, there’s more. How do you explain the fact that all the animals in the kingdom are drawn to him? I’ve never seen that happen with anyone, Visitor or not. What about the Golden Throne lighting up exactly when he sat on it; was that coincidence? His bracelet also fell open at that very same moment and he is no longer bound by its magic. Who else except for the Great Lord has the power to overcome the Council’s authority?’
‘Maybe the bracelet stopped working because the Council no longer exists,’ Nathaniel continued to argue.
‘Maybe,’ Nemo granted, ‘but that’s not all. Daniel can take things between his world and ours, when none of the other Visitors have been known to do that; that can’t be just another coincidence. This must be why Winter’s been trying to capture him all this time; he knows. I’m telling you, man, these are the signs the oracle spoke of; he is the Great Lord.’
‘Nemo is right,’ a man’s voice behind them echoed through the hall. Surprised, they turned around to see the oracle standing at the doors.
Looking at the huge hall before him with a nostalgic look on his face, he walked in, heading towards them.
‘It’s brighter here than I remember.’
‘You knew about this place?’ Everyone turned to look at Daniel, who had kept quiet until then. He was confused. If the oracle knew where the castle was all along, then why wouldn’t he just tell them? Anger began building up inside him now, as he realized that the oracle knew much more than he had let on.
‘What do you mean, ‘Nemo is right’? Nathaniel asked. ‘Daniel really is the Great Lord?’
The oracle approached them and put a hand on Lightning’s neck, stroking him with affection.
‘Hello again, old friend; you did a great job, thank you.’
He then turned to them, smiling.
‘It’s good to see you again, my friends.’
Happy as he was to see him, Daniel could not understand why he hadn’t told them the truth in the first place.
‘You knew the whole time, didn’t you? You knew about Lightning, about this castle; you knew and did not say a thing. Why? Heli might still be alive if you had told us.’
Hëna raised her eyes towards him as he mentioned her brother, her expression indecipherable. Yet, she continued to remain silent. Nemo and Nathaniel lowered their heads and held their tongues. Daniel’s tone of voice revealed the anger behind his words.
The oracle’s face grew somber as his eyes met Hëna’s. They appeared hollow and lost, as if the life had been sucked out of them. For a moment nobody spoke and then the oracle turned to him.
‘It is with a heavy heart that I come before you again. My soul weeps for Heli like it has not done so in a very long time. Believe me, I wish I had known what would happen, but I didn’t. Just like I didn’t know about you; I suspected, I hoped, but I couldn’t tell you that, and I couldn’t help you any more than I did. I told you only what you needed to know and hear Daniel; this was your journey and you had to find out for yourself who you are.’
Daniel looked at him, grief and anger denying him the implication behind the oracle’s words. From the moment Heli closed his eyes in his arms, he had tried to hold back his tears, hoping, believing that it hadn’t really happened, that he wasn’t really gone. But now that he’d said it out loud, all of a sudden it all became real, and he felt the full impact of his friend’s death. He felt a strong grip around his chest and found that he could no longer breathe. He was unable to say anything else and the only thing he wanted to do was scream, scream until his lungs gave out.
He turned his back on them and walked out of the hall and outside the cave, stopping only when he found himself in the snow covered field, overlooking the rest of Endërland. Nemo made to follow, but Nathaniel held him back. The oracle hung his head in sadness, while before him, Hëna hid her face in the cup of her hands, sinking back once again in her own pain and anguish.
Once outside the cave and away from everyone, Daniel allowed himself to cry out loud like he hadn’t done for a very long time.
When Sam opened her eyes, she found herself tucked safe under a blanket, next to a fireplace that was giving out more heat than she seemed to bear. The first thing on her mind was Daniel, and for a heartbeat she panicked, thinking she had lost him. But as she turned her head to her left, she saw him laid down on the other side of the fireplace, tucked under a blanket much like she was. He looked as peaceful as always and seemed to be fine, though she wouldn’t relax until she checked on him herself.
The room where they had been brought was simple and humble, old, with even older furniture and decorations all around. It reminded her of their little house back in Sotira. As her thoughts took her back there, she immediately tried to think of something else; it hurt too much.
They must have been in this house for quite a while, because Sam felt completely dry, even though she could not be sure whether she had landed into water or not. She was about to get up, when the wooden door creaked open, and a man seemingly in his late fifties walked in, carrying firewood. Sam’s hand instinctively went for the gun stacked on the back of her jeans, but the gun wasn’t there. To her surprise though, it had been placed by her head, to her right. Taking a moment to think, she decided the man obviously wasn’t a threat, so she did not touch the gun.
Seeing her awake, the man smiled as he dropped the wood in front of the fireplace. He said something in Albanian, which she of course did not understand. She smiled back apologetically and said:
‘Sorry, English only I’m afraid.’
‘Oh,’ the man smiled even more, ‘I speak English. I used to be English teacher in my village. You American?’
‘Yes.’
‘And him?’
‘He is my brother, Johnny. I’m Alyssa.’
‘My name is Selim,’ the man said, extending his rough hand to meet hers. ‘It is nice to meet you. Are you feeling ok?’
‘I have a very strong headache, but other than that I’m fine,’ she said, sitting up and leaning against the wall. ‘Did you bring us here?’
‘Yes, I and my son, Eddie. We were coming back from a wedding in the other village across the river when we found you. We always cross where the river is shallow, and that is where you both were lying like fish out of water. How did you end there?’
Sam had a flashback of everything that happened ever since the alarm went off on her laptop.
‘It’s a very long and complicated story,’ she said, ‘and I wouldn’t even know where to start. But I am very grateful to you and your son for your help.’
‘You are welcome!’
‘How long have we been here?’
‘Since we found you last night; you’re the first to wake up. Your brother doesn’t seem to be hurt, but he’s been sleeping all this time.’
Sam did not comment on that.
‘It’s past noon; I sent my son to the shop to buy things so we can have
a nice meal; hopefully he will wake up until then.’
I wouldn’t keep my hopes up, Sam thought to herself, but to Selim she said: ‘that’s very kind, thank you! I am feeling rather hungry.’
The man smiled again as he finished meddling with the fire, and then his eyes went to the gun. His smile instantly gave way to a grim expression on his face. Sam noticed and instinctively hid the gun from view.
‘Like I said, it’s a…’
‘A long story,’ Selim finished the sentence for her. ‘Yes, you said so. These are difficult times we live in, yes, but the worst thing that could have happened to us, was getting our hands on those guns.’
His face grew dark and a shadow of sadness fell upon him, obviously brought on by some painful memory.
‘Did you lose someone?’ Sam asked, not sure she should.
Selim looked at her, undecided, but then compelled by some reason unknown to her, he answered.
‘My wife. She … uh, killed herself less than a year ago. When our country left behind the communist regime, and the people began immigrating everywhere they could, our village was left almost empty. There was no need for a school anymore, so they decided to close it. I could not get a job anywhere after that. We were very poor, neither of us working, so there was never enough. It was a difficult time and we fought a lot. But I never thought for one minute that she would give up the way she did. I have never let a gun into the house since then; until today.’
Sam felt bad about the man. It dawned on her that there were people out there who had more right to complain about life than she did.
‘I’m very sorry,’ she said. ‘Believe me, I have come to hate guns myself, and I wish I didn’t have to carry it around with me. But you see, there are some very bad men after my brother, and it’s the only thing I have to protect him with, if they catch us.’
Selim looked at her with compassion and smiled again. It surprised her to see such a smile on a man who had so little and had gone through so much.
‘It’s alright,’ he said. ‘Let’s not speak of such things anymore. You are safe here, and you can stay as long as you want.’
‘Thank you!’ Sam said and watched him as he left the room again.
She took the opportunity to get up and check on Daniel. He was fine, still lost in his dreamworld, while his body weakened bit by bit. There were already signs of it, his face had lost its color and had grown pale white, while his lips were getting dry. Without nourishment, she knew he wouldn’t last long. Yet, as long as he was alive, there was still hope that he would eventually come back to this world, to her.