Lazarus Rising

2.1 Ends and Beginings

It was night. They had gathered together on the beach overlooking the torpid surface of the lake. Above the sprawling kaleidoscope of stars that littered the sky seemed to turn into the reflective water giving the impression they were standing on a solitary moon surrounded by the infinite reaches of space. It was if they had been transported to an eerie, otherworldly place held apart from reality. In many ways it befitted the occasion.

Beside Cheyenne in a heavy fur lined metro issue coat stood Jamek. The flaming torch he held lit up the swollen skin and patchwork of bruises across his face, one eye still so blown he could hardly open it. He turned to her, pulled a drawn smile and in the darkness his hand found hers. She did not resist, gratefully taking it and squeezing it hard, reveling in its warmth.

Lazarus was talking; an elegy to Haydens that drifted across to them over the heads of the crowd, and the hundreds of flaming touches. She could pick up the occasional word ...unique ...extraordinary. ... mystical... She did not care to hear anyone else's thoughts while she was lost in her own. This was the final goodbye to the man she'd trusted for so long, the man who had taken her in after her aunt had thrown her out for becoming was she naturally was, a Lylac. He'd provided her with everything she needed, elevated her above so many more deserving staff at the Sanatorium, placed her under the tutelage of the recalcitrant Moah and given her a trusted place, undeservedly she felt, in his inner circle of confidential aides.

There was a pause. The crowd shifted in expectation. Goodbye dear friend. Lazarus's voice floated up into the still air.

They waited expectantly and then it appeared. A long wooden boat, piled high with an interlaced lattice of wood, glided out onto the water. On the top, tightly swathed in white cloth, lay Hayden's body. For a moment the vessel appeared to slow and turn back on itself, the initial inertia lost, leaving it close to shore. Then a sudden breeze sprang up, spun it back to face the center of the lake and pushed it on its way, its progression sending out a white crested bow wave as it moved away from them. Watching it go, across the glittering surface strung with the reflective image of thousands of distant stars left Cheyenne with the strange feeling she was watching a ship traveling out to the planets, the beginning of a trip into the sea of space, a journey into the cosmic unknown.

Then, across the sky in a long arc, flew a solitary ball of fire that clattered onto the boat's deck in a shower of sparks. Instantly the sky was lit up with a hundred flaming wooden brands skipping across the lake's surface. The ghostly rain of fire brands seemed to hang in the air for a moment before descending, some disappearing into the lake with an angry hissing of steam, some clattering onto the boat's deck and scattering in a fury of burning embers. Cheyenne was the last to throw her own torch. It flew low over the lake and landed in now what was an inferno of flames.

The crowd stood for a while in respectful silence then led by Lazarus and Rovin, made their way back up the beach to the bright lights and warmth of the building behind them. Cheyenne stayed, until just she and Jamek stood alone watching the craft drift away, the bright cinders drifting up into the night sky. Then sluggishly it tipped sideways, slipped under the water leaving in its wake the blackness of the night. For a few seconds she imagined she could see its fiery form moving away from them under the surface. Jamek pulled her hand, she felt him shiver. "Come on," he said. "He's gone, let's go."

A solitary figure was waiting for them on the edge of the woods, dark cloak flapping about its legs. As they passed it turned and looped its arm into Cheyenne's.

"It's been confirmed," Charisa said as they took the candle lit path leading up to the Sanatorium. "Lazarus is to take Haydens place with Rovin as his number two. Lazarus has been told to eliminate the threat from Mars. It is the only hope for the Litost, it must be there always to provide a place of safe haven. At the moment no one can go there. Now it is Earth that goes to war and Mars is the enemy."