Return to Jorgaldur Volume V: Reunion (2)

Stopped in time (II)

She had to go in, but all the entrances were closed. Besides, it was impossible to open them when time had stopped even for the hinges.

She started to walk around again. Menxilya didn't know what, but she did need to do something. She carefully observed the people outside, while looking for a clue, an inspiration, but there was nothing. The girl was starting to get desperate. Now that she needed it, her power wasn't activating.

Then, she arrived at a group of priestesses. Menxilya knew them all, as more than one had punished her at times, and indulged her at others. One of them was the one that caught her attention the most.

"Master, I don't know what to do..." she murmured, asking for help.

In any case, it was useless, because time had stopped for her too. It was impossible for her to answer. Although, there was something strange about her. They were all talking, but her teacher was looking beyond, in the distance.

It was stupid to think that that meant something, but the girl walked in the direction pointed by her teacher's gaze. Probably, because she couldn't think of anything else. Probably.

She came to a set of small, secluded structures. They were sacred places, where some rituals were performed. Children were forbidden to enter, and whenever they had sneaked in, they had found the doors firmly closed.

She climbed up the small wall with difficulty, and looked up at the structures. They were just as she remembered, except that everything was much quieter.

"Is it open?" she was surprised.

It was just a door in the ground, which the children had always found curious, so it had encouraged their imagination. They had invented thousands of stories about what was there. Perhaps, now she could find out.

She climbed down the wall and walked to the open door, inside which there were some stairs. Menxilya went down them carefully, but soon it began to get dark. Inside the city, there was light, even though it was inside the mountain. Menxilya didn't know why, but she hadn't asked it either, because it had always been that way. Now, however, she had a problem.

She didn't like the darkness, but continued down, slowly, leaning against the stone wall.

"Aaah!" she exclaimed, after slipping on a step.

The girl barely managed to keep her balance and not roll down. For some reason, they were very slippery. Maybe, they had always been like that, or maybe it was the effect of being frozen in time.

She stood for a few seconds, breathing deeply, trying to calm down. She even thought about going back, but she hadn't found anything more promising than those stairs.

Menxilya continued down in the dark, slowly, scared. She was alone in the silent darkness of an unknown place. It was terrifying for a child, although she was a somewhat special child.

For more than half an hour, she continued down, not knowing if it led anywhere, and she was starting to get anxious. The girl was also starting to get hungry, so she took one of the buns out of her backpack. Goldmi had prepared them for her, her favorites.

She devoured it, and drank some sweet juice. Eating had made her want more, but she was still anxious. Everyone depended on her. Therefore, she decided to continue down the endless staircase instead of eating more.

It was another five minutes before there was a change. The stairs were still the same, but beneath her shirt, a faint glow filtered through. She carefully pulled it out and let the necklace hang outside. The Heart of the Eternal Flame was glowing.

"It could've shone earlier, so I would've had light... Ah... Wait... Eldi said he would put one on my..." she remembered then.

She took out a small sphere, which shone when it was imbued with mana.

"Well, now it's no longer necessary... Well, maybe it's better with more light..." she felt a little embarrassed. She promised herself not to tell anyone.

It was easier to go down now that she had light, although the steps were still slippery. She ended up putting away the portable lamp that was floating in front of her, since her necklace were shining brighter and brighter.

Finally, the staircase ended in front of a wall. There was nothing else, just a stone wall.

The necklace shone brighter than ever, and the wall took on a unique texture, like liquid. It was strange, but she entered without hesitation, she felt the call.

Menxilya appeared in the center of the temple after having crossed the wall. A little further on, there was the altar where the Heart of the Eternal Flame had been. There was a gap where it had been waiting in the past for years. Around the gap, there was shape of a necklace that now matched the one the girl wore around her neck.

Her eyes were too busy to focus on that, though. There were tears in them, as she looked at the still figure of a woman.

"Mom... Mom... I'm here... It's me... Menxilya," she called out to her as she came closer.

Obviously, her mother didn't answer. Time had stopped for her, too.

It took Menxilya a while to regain control of her emotions, to walk away from the inert statue of her mother.

She walked to the altar. It was too high for her, but, as she had been taught in the past, there were steps on one side. She climbed them, and her gaze fell on the gaps whose shape was very familiar to her.

Carefully, she took the necklace off her neck and put it back in place. Little by little. Until each piece fit together.

It hadn't stopped increasing its brightness as it approached the altar, but it was nothing comparable to when the last piece was in place. Its energy began to flow, illuminating first the altar, and then the surrounding columns.

In fact, it wasn't exactly the altar or columns that were illuminated, but the drawings engraved there since time immemorial.

She stared at them in a daze. They were beautiful, and they spread across the floor, the ceiling, more columns, the walls, even the closed doors. It was an awesome spectacle, not only for the eyes, but in the circulation of mana.

She didn't come out of her stupor until a voice called her by name.

"Menxilya!"

She turned suddenly, and found a pair of eyes that looked at her fixedly, with tenderness, with much love. Without thinking about it, she ran towards her and jumped into her arms.

"Mom!" she exclaimed.

Her eyes filled with tears as she felt for the first time in almost a hundred years the sweet embrace that she had longed for so much. She felt incredibly happy.