The Forgotten Light

Epilog

Kaelen sat down heavily at the top of the canyon and rubbed his tired eyes. He had managed to survive another incredibly absurd day. He thought that after meeting Fairlight, nothing or no one would be able to surprise him anymore, and here he was, he didn't even have to look - a deranged man with a strange circle in his hand had run upon them by himself.

He came there because he wanted to think normal thoughts for at least a moment, not the bizarre ones that had clung to him ever since he showed up in Sedona. He leaned back comfortably and tried not to think about anything but the colors of the setting sun.

He came up with a name for just three new colors in the sky when she appeared.

"I thought you didn't want to know me," he spoke up, without even looking at her. Instead, he turned his attention to a row of about ten pebbles.

"Because I don't, but you've stolen my favorite spot, so I have to kick you out of here." Ritael sat down nearby.

He looked at her, but she was looking at the setting sun. He turned his gaze away until it wasn't so difficult yet. They were sitting in silence for a few minutes, but there was nothing uncomfortable about it.

"It was the scariest day of my life," she spoke quietly, plucking at a twig. "The portal disappeared so suddenly, and you guys weren't here yet. Everyone started to panic that it was really a trap, that now, instead of one of us, they had two. I stayed up all night staring at the spot where you disappeared, convincing myself that nothing bad happened. This ignorance of what was happening to you was killing me."

He turned toward her, watching the nervous movements of her scarred fingers.

"And then, shortly after sunrise, the portal opened and suddenly the forest was filled with almost half a hundred people, none of whom were you. Do you know what I almost did then?" She caught his gaze. "I almost jumped into that tunnel. Harlyn stopped me in the last moment. Seconds later, the portal was gone again and didn't appear anymore. Instead of taking care of the newcomers, I ran away. I myself didn't know where I wanted to go, I don't even know where I was all this time. I was probably circling the canyon. And then... Then I saw this boy. He was so fast, I couldn't believe my own eyes. I followed him from a distance, trying to figure out where he was rushing. As it turned out, he ran straight at you, and what's more interesting, even before he saw you. I started screaming at the top of my lungs, praying that you would hear.

"I did," Kaelen confirmed as he stopped at the edge of the canyon. "That was the first time I have encountered something like this. That boy is a man of flesh and blood. I don't know what power possessed him that he survived in the desert for who knows how many days. Where did he get so much strength to run and then push me away as if I were made of air? We only know one thing - his goal was to give Fairlight that circle. As soon as she took it from him, he stopped resisting, the fog disappeared from his eyes, he suddenly fainted and dropped as if dead. When he wakes up, he will have quite a story to tell."

"Assuming he remembers anything."

"And how is Fairlight?"

"She hasn't woken up yet. Kaelen..."

Her voice made him look at her. She had already plucked the entire stick bare.

"What she looks like... What she had to go through there..."

"I know," he interrupted her gently. "I know, but she's with us now, she's safe."

"I saw you standing in front of her to defend her from that stranger. I didn't know you could be so fast. It was amazing."

He just ran as fast as he could, feeling the desperation growing in him that he had to run even faster, that he had to get in front of Fairlight before this freak did. He succeeded - he caught up with the boy and took all the impact with which the man ran into him.