The Last Beacon

XXII

Sascha awoke to Laurenz frantically shaking her shoulder.

She sat up straight with a start, worried that there was danger. She quickly pushed the thought of her nightmare to the depths of her mind and turned to Laurenz, sending him a questioning look.

"Are you alright, Sascha?"

She furrowed her eyebrows, confused. "I'm fine, what are you talking about?"

Laurenz looked at her, his face awash with concern. "You were screaming."

Realisation hit her, and she dropped her gaze. She recalled the nightmare that had visited her whilst she slept, and she longed to go back to the nights where the absence of the dream provided her a bit of peace. She had a fair idea that it was because Decius had been occupying her mind and keeping the bad dreams away, but he had been unusually quiet since he left her in Drowned Man's Pass.

"It was just a bad dream," she assured Laurenz, not wanting to relive it.

"As long as you're feeling alright," he said.

Sascha nodded, her mind elsewhere. She thought about how maybe Decius was genuinely angry at her, because it seemed so unlike him now to keep quiet.

"Do you want anything to eat?" Laurenz asked, trying to keep the conversation going.

Sascha shook her head; she felt too sick at the resurfaced nightmare. The cries of her family echoed in her ears like a constant ringing, and all she could see was the flames engulfing the only home she had ever known.

"I think we should go," she managed to say, standing up without letting him speak. He stuttered for a moment, trying to think of something to say, but he ended up sighing and standing up silently. He picked up his belongings and looked at Sascha once, before leading her onto the path once again.

She followed behind him, the words she wished to say remaining unspoken.

It was a few minutes after they began walking that Sascha realised how long she had slept. The sun was not far from setting, from what she could see. The light that peeked through the foliage of the trees had taken on a deep golden glow, one that only came when the skies ran the colour of tangerines and honey.

"Where do we go now, Laurenz?"

Laurenz thought for a moment. "Well, the next part of the prophecy is one thousand lights, if I recall correctly. If I'm honest, I really don't know what it could be. Stars, maybe?"

"Stars can be seen from everywhere, though," Sascha said, "so how will we know we're on the right track? Logically, it can't be stars."

"You're right," he agreed, "surely it won't be hard to spot a thousand lights once we come across it. I daresay we will know it when we see it."

The sky lost its glow quickly. The warm light melted away into a cold and unforgiving night, the crescent moon casting very little light to break up the shadow. Sascha shivered, rubbing her shoulders, regretting the choice to leave her jacket back at the waterfall.

She focused on her footsteps rather than the chill that gnawed at her, her eyes adjusting to the darkness that overcame the forest around them.

Despite having just rested, she still felt exhaustion weighing down on her. The absence of light seemed to envelop her, smothering her in the same way her nightmare had.

The trees seemed to get closer together, and their world bore no sound other than the crunching of their shoes against the dry dirt path.

Up ahead, Sascha could see an opening at the end of the path.

When they reached it, she recognised that it was the entrance to a large clearing. With the dim light of the moon, she could just make out the shape of two other paths on opposite sides of the glade. There was no indication of which way they should go next.

"Where do we go now?" She asked.

"I don't know," Laurenz confessed, "surely there must be some sign to tell us where to go. Something, anything."

Just when they thought things could not get any more difficult, the atmosphere changed, and like the flick of a light switch, the light of the moon was swallowed by the heavy black clouds, and the clearing was submerged in total darkness.

Until something happened, something that neither Laurenz or Sascha had expected.

It was barely noticeable at first, but the first few tiny lights began to blink into action. More seemed to come to life, until, only mere moments later, the entire perimeter of the clearing was littered with small golden lights. At once they began to float, moving inwards into the clearing, lighting up the area.

Sascha gasped as the lights gently floated around the clearing.

"What are they?" She asked, her tone full of wonder.

"Fireflies," Laurenz breathed, "they aren't usually out at this time of year. This must be it, this must be our sign."

"One thousand lights," Sascha mused, mesmerised, "it's so beautiful. I wish Lion could have seen this."

"I believe he is seeing it, in spirit. He'll always be with us, even if he's gone."

"It's like the whole world has gone dark and this light has come to guide us," she responded, "maybe this is Lion showing us the way."

They fell into silence as they took in the sight before them. The bright light seemed to drown out the dense shadows, and their glow contrasted against the blackness of the empty night sky.

"Do you think they'll point us in the right direction, by any chance?" Laurenz joked.

As if they were listening, and to the pair's surprise, the fireflies began to filter down the left path.

"Yep," she confirmed, chuckling.

"Then we'd better follow them, don't you think?" Laurenz said softly, an awestruck smile on his face.

Sascha started after them, Laurenz sticking by her side. They crossed the clearing and wandered onto the left path, following the trickle of fireflies.

The light began to diminish as the pair made their way further down the path, and the insects flew slowly back to the clearing, leaving Sascha and Laurenz alone with the moon that had resurfaced, lighting their way once again.

"That was amazing," Sascha said, "I've never seen anything like it."

"It really was, wasn't it?"

"Where to next, then?" She asked, any bad thought having been pushed to the back of her mind. Her mood had been significantly lifted from the firefly spectacle that she had just witnessed.

"Well, the last instruction of the prophecy to get to the Iron Mountain is hidden heights. I know for sure that it's the Shadow Tower. We just need to find it, and we'll be so close to getting the beacon."

"I still don't really understand what this beacon thing is," Sascha admitted.

"Well, beacons have the ability to summon power from every corner of the universe, and that power lasts long enough for the person to do what they need to. After that, the power must be summoned again. Nobody knows the limit of what beacons can do, and the one we're after is the very last one. We can't let Decius get his hands on it."

Sascha nodded, "so what are we waiting for? Let's get to the Shadow Tower and find that beacon."