The Dreamer: The Book of Godspells

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

I saw Colik look around a few times, turning his head to the right and left. I wondered what he was looking for, but it was right at the edge of what Colik called the Glass Mountains, from the darkest corner of the Elphiates, when I heard it. It was some sort of music, but much darker, sadder. The song was beautiful, yet it sounded like it was emanating from a voice filled with despair. Of course, I didn't recognize the language, but then again, it didn't really sound like a language at all.

"What is that sound? It is as if someone is singing," I asked.

"You hear that?" Coliks asked quickly, his head turning to me.

"Yes... am I not supposed to?" I asked, again confused by it all. He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. I watched his shoulders tense up while I waited for him to address his thoughts. He did not look happy.

"That is a Siren's Song," he finally whispered.

"And why am I not supposed to hear that?"

"It is the crying call of the souls who have been heartbroken and separated to the Elphiates. It was Hades' punishment." He paused and looked at me up and down like he was trying to decipher me.

"Only those who have almost died can hear their cry," he added, and I felt a lump form in my throat. I didn't know what to say. Well, wasn't that pleasant.

"Hades kidnapped Persephone, and so the wicked, lustful call is a warning to those who try to come to hell. The Sirens are blackened souls who seduce any who try to get through hell. It is ingenious. You'd be surprised how many try, knowing... what it is. The cries of the Sirens mimic Persephone's cries when she was first kidnapped. They sit on the rocks by the sea on the farthest horizon of the Untold Brine that touches the Elphiates border, enchanting those who pass," Colik went on, clearly understanding what that meant as well.

"So, like a mermaid? You cannot tell me they are real too."

"Oh no, not sure what a mermaid is. That is a myth... but Sirens... they are very much real, at least in both the dream world and the gods' world."

"They sound miserable." My ears hurt as I listened closer to the Sirens sang.

"That they do... That they do," Colik responded, and I took that as the end of that.

I looked around, mesmerized by the way the Glass Mountains looked. It was as if the wind around us was coming in waves, contained between the mountains themselves, and whose reflections only mirrored the other. It was like a smoky, endless dream that I was bound to find the end of. Perhaps, even the edge of.

Maybe this was what it felt like when people feared the earth being flat all those centuries ago. I wondered if they were in constant fear that at some point, they would fall off the edge.

I mean, sometimes I feared like there was an edge to my own life and what would happen when I reached it. Who I would become...

"The Elphiates. What is it?" I asked, shaking my head, trying to get the crude thoughts out of my head. I waited until we couldn't see the Elphiates' highest tower before speaking again. I was scared it would somehow pull me back in.

"Hell's own enemy," Colik said.

"What makes this Elphiates worse than hell?"

"Hell has no place for disease, and humans are infected with the worst of them all. No offense," he explained. I tried to ignore the comment, wanting to trust that he really didn't think that way about humans, or at least not about me.

"What is worse for humans than disease?"

"Feelings. Emotions... Love."

"So, you can't love?"