Invincible

Chapter 5 - Renaissance

    Everything at this part of my memory is beginning to blend together. I remember hearing about kings being assassinated a few times throughout the years, and the village evolved a lot. They started wearing fancier clothes and having grander architecture.

This was around the 1300s. They call this age the Renaissance, or Rebirth. This was a time where lots of interesting art was being made, and everything was new. I met many interesting people. It didn't actually really get started until after this...

In the year 1340, I heard news of a plague spreading through Europe. This was perhaps one of the greatest tragedies I've ever witnessed. The Black Plague, Black Death, Bubonic Plague, all are names it's known by. It doesn't matter what it's called. I remember people dying before it was their time. People getting sick, so many people, so many of my friends, dying.

Sure, I'd witnessed sickness before, but never on this scale. No wonder this plague went down in history.

Of course, I never got infected due to my immortality, so I stayed with some of my friends who fell ill in their time of dying. I remembered the burial services my tribe had had thousands of years ago, and I felt comfort in the fact that maybe those people were just passing on to another world. Maybe.

The fact is, I hadn't really thought much about where people went after death until then. Only because it's not really something I've ever had to worry about. But that plague really got me thinking about it.

When the plague gradually became less of a problem, I was proud of how humanity sprang back from it. There's a reason Renaissance means Rebirth. They started making beautiful art, creating amazing architecture, and enjoying fashion and life in general.

In the 1400s, I started traveling more. I wanted to see the rest of Europe, the rest of the world. So I left that place I'd called home for so many thousands of years.

During my travels, I met an interesting man. His name was Leonardo da Vinci. He later became a famous artist, but he was a nice person too.

There was another girl I met who seemed to be about the age I was when I became immortal. Her name was Edith. She was an eccentric person. She was a genius. My wisdom paired with her intelligence, and we could do great things.

I met her one day when I was in town. I was outside a shop, listening in to a passing conversation between Edith and one of her friends.

"But, I think it could actually work!" said Edith.

"Even if it did work, who would ever use it?" she argued.

"People who want to study the stars, obviously..."

"Why would people want that, though? We can see them perfectly fine in the sky as it is. Well, I have to go." The friend left abruptly, leaving Edith looking discouraged.

Intrigued, I approached her. "Hey, what's your name?" I asked her.

Surprised, she looked up. "Uh, Edith..."

"My name is Aiyana. What were you talking about with your friend?"

"Oh, um, I was telling her about this idea I had..."

"What idea?"

Edith, in disbelief, asked me, "Really? You want to know?" I nodded.

She described to me, in detail, her idea for a new invention called a telescope. How it would help people see not only stars, but other far away things.

"That's brilliant," I said after she was done.

"I don't know..."

"It is. I think it would be useful."

"Well, no matter how useful it may be, I wouldn't be able to make it."

"Why not?"

"Oh, well...I can't really afford materials."

"That's all? I can easily get materials for you."

"You can?"

"What do you need?"

She gave me a list of materials.

The funny thing is, since I've never needed food or a house but I still earned money from working jobs around the continent, I had a lot of money. I paid for all the materials Edith needed, then I brought them to her in her house that she'd given me directions to.

She thanked me, and I asked if I could help her.

As time went on, the telescope started to really come together. After a while, it was finished! We tested it, and it really worked.

"Hahaha, we did it!" Edith cheered, doing a little dance around the room. I laughed.

That night, we tested it on the stars.

Looking through the telescope, I gasped. I'd never seen them so close before. I remembered that night, so many thousands of years ago, that I'd thought of the calm feeling that washed over me whenever I saw the stars. And I remembered the betrayal I'd felt from the stars almost every night after that.

I felt that calmness now, and it was like experiencing a novelty mixed with an old friend. It was impossible to describe. Even though I was probably the oldest thing in this world, looking through the telescope made me realize I definitely wasn't the oldest thing in the universe. It made me feel so small, and insignificant—which was a feeling I hadn't experienced in a long, long time.

It was good. I was tired of being important, of being a freak of nature. I just wanted to blend in with the universe. I could be a star, a galaxy, maybe even the universe itself—and I'd be happy. Just to be a part of this place, this glorious place we call a universe where nothing matters and everything changes, I was happy.

"My turn," said Edith, interrupting my train of thought. I moved away to let her look through the telescope.

"Wow!" she said in utter awe. With just that one word, I understood her completely.

I never forgot that night, because it made me start to feel the same way about stars again.

Unfortunately, when we tried to introduce the telescope to the public, they took it about as well as Edith's friend from earlier. Partially because she was a girl, partially because it seemed useless to them.

The telescope wouldn't have really taken off for another few hundred years. I didn't know that at the time.

Disappointed, Edith got rid of the telescope and its design.

I wished she hadn't done this because I still believed it had great potential. She didn't.