Light

10. Fall, Part 2

I open my eyes. Archon is standing in front of me, pulling away as he lets go of my shoulder. He looks around. "Where are we...?" I ask, looking around with him. "Isn't it beautiful?" Archon asks. The view is beautiful. There's a few planets scattered around, still in space but visible from the planet we're on, the purple-ish blue-ish colors glowing beautifully together. "Yeah..." Archon looks at me then in another direction.

"This way. I want to show you the town," he begins to pull me in another direction by my hand, letting me go once he knows I'm fully following him. There's a couple flowers here, blue just like the one I gave Archon, just like the ones back at 186f. "Got your attention on those flowers, huh?" He looks at me, walking backwards now. "I planted them here. I always teleport in this area when I wanna come to this planet, so I decided to plant those flowers here."

I watch as Archon turns back around. "Are we almost there yet?" I ask. "Yeah." We begin to walk down a hill, where a town begins to come into view. "Wanna get dirty?" He smiles, sitting down, positioning himself sideways. "Roll down the hill?" I ask. "Yeah. I've done it before, don't worry. No bumps." He leans back, one arm to keep himself up. I look at him and then back at the hill, at the end of it. "Yeah... Yeah, let's do it," I smile, getting down with him.

"Three."

"Two."

"One."

We let our arms relax as we fall backwards, beginning to roll down the hill. We get faster after each full turn. "Is this fun?" Archon yells to me, a slight laugh coming with his voice. "Yeah!" I laugh with him, still plummeting down the hill with no intent of slowing. "We're reach- ah! pbht-" I can hear him spit something out. "You okay?" I ask. I hear him continuing to roll, so I continue with him. "Got grass in my mouth! Slow down!" He begins to slow down, and I do too. "And I got spit on my face too!" He laughs. I laugh at him.

We finally reach the end of the hill, standing up. "Got green stains all over me now," I sigh, a bit of a smile still on my face as I wipe myself down and chuckle quietly, "it was worth it though. That was fun." Archon nods, looking at me. I look at him, watching him wipe his face off with his sleeve. Our eyes linger on each other before Archon looks away. "Town's right here," he looks back at me, "You gonna stick with me or go explore? It's human friendly, so don't worry. I mean it's not just human friendly, but you understand," he begins to walk towards the entrance, slowly as he looks at me and awaits my answer. "I'll... I'll go alone. Should be safe."

Archon nods. "Stay safe, okay? Don't talk to strangers, don't get lost, d–" "Archon, I'll be fine. I'm a big boy, alright? You're worrying too much," I quietly chuckle, beginning to walk. "Wait! You'll need money," he reaches into his pocket and pulls out his wallet, or what looks like a wallet. It's more loose, like a bundle. He pulls out a few rectangular paper slips, all having different gradients. "Ten, thirteen, mm..." He pulls out another slip, "sixty-three. Here," he hands them to me. "In your pocket," he points to my pocket.

I nod, stuffing the slips in my left pocket, patting it to make sure it's flat. "Meet back here when you're done, okay?" I begin to walk backwards towards another entrance, watching him smile and nod. He looks at the town then at me, like he doesn't want me to leave. Or he doesn't want to leave me. I turn around to walk right, entering the town. It smells like vanilla. There's chattering all around, people walking in groups or alone. Most of them glow bright, some have some sort of barrier, and some are... Normal. "Hey!" Someone calls out to me. I look around and see someone, dressed as a guard. "You can't be here, where's your barrier?" They try to push me out. "No- wha? What's a barrier?" I try to stop him, pushing back. "It protects you from the light. Get out," he finally manages to get me out.

"I have light sickness. I don't need a barrier," I watch as he steps back, out of the way. "...Sorry for the misunderstanding, sir. Go on," he sighs. I shake my head, stepping back in. I begin to walk fast, trying to get away from him as quickly as possible to avoid his eyes on me. "Dang it, no- okay... Come get your potions of light here!" I hear from far away. They repeat themselves, making it easier for me as I walk through a small crowd to get to them, a booth with advertisements planted near it. 'Come get your light here!' it says. There isn't a big line, and I stand at the end of it.

"Twenty, here you go, go on." I take a step. "Just a vial? Alright. Ten. Here you go, go on." I take another step. "What do you want, sir?" He leans against the booth's counter. "What is a potion of light?" I ask him. "A potion of light... Okay, there's the long definition and the short one. I'll give you the short one since there's someone behind you. It... It allows you to basically become a luminary for a short period of time. Of course, you won't be as powerful as a luminary, but it works," he explains, placing three different sizes of potions on the booth's counter, "the smallest one is just a sample, it's free. The vial is about just three sips of it, it costs ten. And this big boy is twenty. About five-to-ten sips. Don't chug, just sip. Which one do you want to buy?"

I think for a few seconds before I point to the big one. I pull out one of the slips I have, the fifty, and I hand it to him. "Cash back?" I ask. He nods, giving me a thirty. "No tax," he says. "Here you go. Next!" He looks behind me and calls to another person. The next in line... "Onyx, give me that." I look behind me. "Archon–" He yanks it out of my hand, an angry expression on his face. "Give him a refund, now." He slams the potion onto the counter, almost enough force to shatter it. "Alright- uh- t-twenty. Twenty, here," he hands me a twenty and steps back.

A few people, all in some type of guard attire approach the booth. Archon pulls me back, far. I can barely hear them. "You're coming with us." "Why?" "Illegal activities, playing with nature. Playing god." "What the hell?" I watch as he gets pulled away. He tries to escape their grasp but to no avail. "C'mon," Archon begins to walk away. I look at the booth and back at him, then back at the booth before rushing to it and grabbing the potion, stuffing it in my pocket and rushing to him. "Should've known they'd be selling that garbage," he scoffs, walking to the exit. "We're leaving?" I ask him.

"Yeah. Let's just... Go to that beautiful view, okay?" He looks at me, a smile on his face like nothing happened. "Alright..." I watch him walk. He grabs my hand and suddenly, we're on another planet. "It's just this way, Onyx." "What is your problem with that stuff?" I ask him. He takes me to the edge of a cliff, sitting down with his legs hanging off the edge. He gestures to do the same. "Nothing." He leans back, his arms keeping him up.

He watches the view, silent. The view... It's like something I've never seen before. So many different colors mixing together, all vibrant with stars covering every little imperfection in the gradients. "Watch him." I hear. It's that voice from earlier. I look at Archon, who's tapping his knee, his fingers in a quick rhythm like he's impatient. "Onyx–" "Archon." We accidentally say each other's names at the same time. He looks at me, then down and away.

"It... Mm... Veil," he sighs, "it's because of Veil. He bought one of those." I look at him. "He bought... That. A sample. He thought it was permanent. He misunderstood," he looks back at the view, silent again. "Sorry," I look at my pocket, it bulging a bit with the potion inside of it. He closes his eyes, nodding. He looks into my eyes. "It's okay," he mumbles. I look into his eyes. He takes a couple deep breaths, and I look away. "Onyx, don't look away," he says as he grabs my chin, making me look back at him. "Tired of waiting for this..." He lifts his legs, getting back up onto the ground fully. I move one of my legs and he positions himself between them, kissing me as he lays on top of me. "Archon," I mumble into the kiss. "Mm... Shush," he mumbles with me. He moves his hand from my chin and places it on my cheek.

The ground shakes. "A-Archon, stop, there's–" He lifts himself up off of me, on his knees now. "I know... I f-feel it too," he tries to stand up, but the ground shakes intensely and he loses his balance. "O-Onyx!" He tries to grab onto me, and I reach for his hand. "Archon!" I miss his hand, and he falls. "Archon! No!" He turns around mid-air as he plummets. I'm not letting this happen. I stand up.

I dive.