Everything Is Eternal (Book Two)

I

Nothing is eternal, and everything is eternal.

Sometimes Will forgot that saying came from the sacred Eternal texts. The first half of the proverb was well-known to heretics and opponents of the Eternal Light. It became a rallying cry against the Eternal.

They conveniently forgot the last part.

Will never understood the first part of the saying. Nothing was synonymous with the emptiness of the Dark and the Eternal Light could banish the Dark. Therefore, 'nothing' was clearly not eternal.

His best friend Shin's opinion was that, like much of the sacred texts, it was simply nonsensical.

"Probably written by someone driven mad by staring into the damn Eternal Light," Shin had said with a sneer.

Will's wife Kate had expressed that was that there was no real meaning.

"It's poetic. Half of that garbage is metaphorical and symbolic to distract people from the fact the sacred texts offer no real explanation. It likely is trying to say that all that exists or doesn't exist is on account of the Eternal Light," Kate had offered.

Their mutual friend Matthew had a slightly different way of seeing things. Matthew wasn't a questioner or a philosopher, but was a reader. Eventually Will had coaxed his analysis.

"Kate's right. A lot of the sacred texts are allegoric or symbolic," Matthew had conceded. "But I think this might be a message; a truth. The Dark has never completely gone away. In some ways, it's just as eternal as the Eternal Light. The 'everything' would be the Light that illuminates everything in this world. But both parts can be read in a different way. The Eternal Light is supposed to be eternal, but it's clearly not. It can fade, it can disappear. The Dark that takes everything? That is eternal. That has never gone away."

"You think the saying is subversive?" Will had asked in surprise.

Matthew shrugged. "I don't know. How could I know? I'm interpreting it as an outsider. It would be interesting to know what a believer thought."

Will never had the opportunity to find out. Now he was surrounded by believers and couldn't ask.

He probably wouldn't have asked if given the chance, because he had too many other questions to ask. It had been an almost eternal journey on the train, despite the fact that the train was obviously a Sacred State express train. The Sacred State had private, faster transport than was allowed to the public. Will had assumed they were bound for the capital—back to Sister Celine's sanctuary.

It was hard to pay attention within the endless blur of shadows. It didn't help that pain distracted him. His chest throbbed from a burn that he couldn't understand. A burn that shouldn't exist.

His glimpse of nothingness behind the Dark also haunted him, as well as his fear that it had all been a lie. Will couldn't help but remember that before he entered the Dark, the Eternal Light had stopped him. He knew one of the more mysterious qualities of the Light was its ability to generate hallucinations.

Will had been sure that no servant of the Eternal had summoned the Light. He had been sure that he saw a dead world behind the veil of Dark. But now he was back in a world he understood, a world of a speeding, warm, stuffy train. A tangible world.

Back in a world he understood, he was no longer sure of anything.

When the train stopped, he knew they hadn't reached the capital. The city was too alive with noise, smells, and light, while the capital overflowed with light. Even locked in a small, shuttered train car, he knew it was too dark to be the capital.

Relief trickled inside when some guards arrived to escort him out of the train car, but his heart sank when he saw the area. Dark and foggy, it put Will in mind of the Edges. The only true beacon of light came from a fairly large sanctuary. The illumination from the building beamed into the black cloudy sky, giving an appearance of the Eternal Light keeping the Dark from swallowing everything.