“The sun is gone. The stars shine bright. I seek revenge.”
Through the monster infested wastelands above the ever expanding caves of humanity, Lih alone searches for the Sunblighted. He is a false savior in Lih’s eyes, letting those who could actually bring change stay underground and refuse to take charge.
But as fate would have it, Lih finds himself carrying a greater burden: to save the world. He will trek across dangerous territories, travel through time and space, and fight those who have been deemed unkillable for a world that has never been by his side.
Will Lih stay true to his ideals? Or will he succumb to those who have destroyed the world?
I walk off the temple’s dusky cold stones, feeling strange. Lighter. Is this what it feels like to have purpose? I stretch my arms, touching the fences surrounding the bridge, feeling the cool air wash over me. Like waking up from a long dream?
As I cross the bridge I notice people whispering and pointing at the exposed mark on my neck. I pull my scarf back over the birthmark and shove my hands in my pockets, the heaviness returning to my shoulders. No, my purpose is still a burden.
I recall Sulumim and that feeling of wanting rest, a break from all that pressure put on one that is deemed responsible. I stare at the backs of Tev and the old man Vys. They are the ones that deserve that peace. For once. As a chill crawls down my spine, I look at my all-powerful swindler companion, expecting him to be stabbing his golden eyes straight into my own like a beast haunting a carcass. Instead, he was staring up at the sky, his hands splayed like a beggar waiting for a coin to fall into his palm. I look up at the sky and back at him, confused. Is he expecting something to happen?
“Gefrol?” Suddenly, his glaring golden eyes shift to mine. Better late than never. I let go of my breath, unaware I was holding it in.
“What!” He says sharply, letting his hands fall to his side, yet still glancing towards the sky. “What is it?”
Nevermind. I fumble my words for a moment before regaining my composure and blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “Are you looking for something?”
“What?” He turns to look at me, confusion on his face for a moment before raising a brow and cracking a grin, laughing in my face. “Uh, ah! Yes! I am preoccupied with finding our next pillar.” His grin immediately turns into a deep frown as he begins to whisper. “Now leave me alone. We will leave when you get your stuff back. No later than starfade. Meet me at the campfire. And also,” he says as he points to Tev, “make sure she stays here.” Without warning, he disappears with a SNAP, leaving me with Tev and Vys as they continue their enigmatic chatter.
I stay a pace behind them, letting them lead while I quietly ponder. What was he expecting? I copy the motion he was doing, feeling silly for doing something so pointless. But staring at the sky makes me wonder. Do the pillars come from the stars? They seemed to reach down from on high.
“Hey, Lih!” Tev calls, moving a step lower; closer, to me, while Vys stops and stares atop the path of steps. “What are you doing, checking for rain? Leaving so soon? And where did that good-for-nothing ‘god’ go?” She rapidly asks question after question, stepping closer and closer. “Oh! Maybe that ‘god’ gave up on you!” She blows a strand of hair from her eyes, slyly grinning. “Did he realize you were not cut out for this and left you for us to care for?” She says with a large dose of false sweetness and a twang of firmness.
“Tev!” Vys, thankfully, stops her. “You know he cannot leave his position.” His grey eyes squint at me, like an ankins as it slithers through the dirt. “It is his duty now. A great one at that.” He smiles warmly at me. In fact, he speaks warmly as well. My mental guard is up, but I cannot figure out why. “I would not be surprised if he was leaving soon! Those Shades are not going to banish themselves you know? Ho ho!” He laughs cheerfully, but I am still under his gaze. His mannerisms are all slow and aged, yet his eyes and mind are fast. Like he knows countless things about me I could never understand.
I grimace. “Yes, I wish to reclaim my stuff from the inn now,” I say, using too many words to fill up the space. Tev’s grin falls to a frown as Vys nods his head sagely. We walk towards the inn, letting the festival’s sounds and smells fill the silence. Tev holds her head low and drags her feet, but Vys walks gracefully with a hand on her shoulder, gently guiding her forward with each tap of his staff.
I feel like I did something wrong. My stomach begins to tighten like a string has wrapped around my insides. I turn to my surroundings as we reach the inn, hoping to find a distraction. Looking past the stands, less adolescents and adults are continuing to move around the higher streets and alleys, probably going to take care of their responsibilities. I, too, am doing the right thing. I shake off the tight feeling. I think.
As we reach the inn, Vys slows down from Tev’s side and moves beside mine, his staff tapping in step. “Look,” he says, lifting his staff towards a grassy pavilion between the town and the forest.
“The people are beginning to flow towards the Troupe of Tomorrow’s stage.” He brings his staff back down and gives me a knowing glance. “You should go see their performance. Might change your perspective. Ho ho!”
“Oh, that sounds perfect! You have time, right Lih?” Tev regains some of her vigor and jumps in between us. “I can get your gear, then you could leave immediately afterward, yeah?” She says with eyes sparkling with hope, running into the inn before I can respond. She is acting very differently than earlier. I recall her cold demeanor and her mischievous eyes, and yet she seems more child-like now. Whatever, it is not like I need to understand her.
I turn to Vys who is already looking at me. Can he stop acting like he knows me? “Tev mentioned them earlier, this Troupe,” I say as I squint, barely able to see the stage from here. “That they catalog the Sunblighted’s journey. What do they say?”
Vys chuckles and pats me on the back. “Go see for yourself.”
Tev comes running out of the inn with my items, but I shake my head, remembering Gefrol telling me we would leave when I have gathered my gear. “Thank you.” I say cautiously, that tight feeling returning to my stomach, but ebbing away with each piece of gear returned to my possession. My sickle and crystal torch fit snugly into their respective sheaths, and slipping my spear through the freshly oiled sling on my back makes me feel safe, returning to my natural weight. Like a part of my body has been returned. I reach into the bag of new supplies and pull out my knife; rusty but strong. I see my tired eyes in the dim reflection.
“It really does suit you,” Tev says, looking past my head. “Anyways, onwards to the Troupe!” She starts leading us down a straight forward path past homes now less adorned with makeshift fronts with streets emptied of people. A bell rings lightly and Tev starts to pick up the pace.
“We can get there faster through here,” She says as she shifts herself through skinny alleys between homes.
“Wait! I cannot fit!” I call, but she is gone.
“Find another way around then!” She shouts, her voice traveling further as she runs ahead.
How can she have this much energy? I grunt and follow the straightest path down the street proper towards the sound of the bell. After a handful of minutes, I turn left and head straight into the plain of grass that sits between the town and the forest. Outside of the walls of houses there is a large raised platform of wooden planks surrounded by thin black cloths stitched together, hanging down. A man with a bell the size of a large fist stands in front of the contraption, hitting it rhythmically with a small metal stick.
What is that sound? I begin to approach the man. How can I hear him from so far–
Suddenly, a man runs out of the swaths of black right past me and into the town behind me. Turning away from the source of the sound, I turn to this man, but all I see is a small green habit and a large wooden pole in his hand–
“Hey! Sil! Not now! Get the hell back here!” Another man around my height comes out the same way in a panic. “Damn it all! He just could not wait…” The man stomps his feet while pacing in circles. “No time to drag him back. And not like we can find someone of the same likeness …” he stops speaking and notices me walking in the opposite direction. “You!” he shouts, crushing the ground as he stomps in my direction and turns me around to face him.
Too close. Eyes wide and wild, hair standing on all ends, pockmarks all over his rounded face. This man is crazy. I go to move his hands, but they are as firm as a boulder on a beetle, pressing me down into the earth. He opens his mouth again, and slaps me on the back. I try to move but his hand is like a mountain pressed against my back. With no way of escaping, the man swiftly leads me up and through the black, blabbering all the way.
“You fit the role perfectly! I will compensate you of course. Get on stage when we say so. An adventurer, right? I used to be the same, you know? Oh and follow our commands, you know like when you battle a monster! We used to come up with so many codes. You do not need to say anything! Just act out the things we describe. Strong and silent, you know?” More people dressed in similarly thin clothes run around holding wooden masks, weapons, and random objects of varying sizes and colors while constantly shouting over each other.
Is this really the Troupe? I turn and stop someone from passing me. “Are we presenting the quest of the Sunblighted, uh…” I ask, looking to be more formal with this stranger in this strange situation. Why that is, I cannot understand.
“Name is Bes. And yeah,” she says. “Pik is still working on a new story, so we have to use an older tale.” Without pause, Bes catches a wooden sword just as it falls from another person’s hands and starts talking again like nothing happened. “Make sure not to be too harsh on him. He does a lot for us.” Bes pats me on the back as she moves past me. “If he thinks you should play the lead, you do it.”
“What do you mean?” I ask. “What about the Troupe’s new tales of the Sunblighted?”
“Huh.” Bes pauses before speaking again. “Did not know there were still believers our age. There are no more new stories to tell … whoever you are,” she says, a slight hollowness grows in her words with each breath. “The Sunblighted has not been seen for countless years,” Bes sighs. “We barely have any old stories to tell in the first place.”
I stare in shock before I find my words. “You lie to the people?!” I shout, causing heads to turn and Bes to take a step back. “You tell the people the Sunblighted is out there, doing whatever you say, and yet you forgot the truth!—”
The man, Pik, walks up to me fast, and I brace myself for another unbreakable grip, but when he places his hands on my shoulders, it is a gentle yet firm hold. He speaks without vigor, and even though I just met him, I feel that tightness around my gut return. “I am desperate enough to take you for one night, young man.” Pik says, pausing to take a shaky breath. “But I will not take these insults to my life’s work.”
I stare into Pik’s frustrated eyes and in a flash I am back in the sky, staring at a pillar of silver, now just a stump of dull metal among a forest of others also cut down. Then it dawns on me.
The silver pillars do not come from the stars. I turn around, avoiding him seeing my watery eyes. They come from the people’s hope. My breath catches in my throat. Gefrol lied.
Suddenly, the bell starts to change its rhythm, and everyone begins to move faster. “No distractions, everyone get a move on!” Pik speaks up as the ringing bell dies down. I can feel his eyes locked on the back of my head, hard and focused. “Just follow what you hear. No need to speak. Just act.” He slaps me on the shoulder and goes out through the front folds.
The bell begins to ring again, but this time it takes on a slower tone.
Gong.
Gong.
Gong.
And suddenly, Pik’s voice silences the crowd—no, the world.
“Today, as the stars begin to stay longer in the night sky, we craft new lives in a world protected by the forces around us …” He speaks with such breath and volume. I am drawn into his speech, but someone taps me over my shoulder, releasing me from my trance.
“What?” I ask and turn to see Bes putting a finger in front of her mouth, glaring. “What!?” I raise an eyebrow and she rolls her eyes. “Quiet, adventurer, and follow his instruction,” she whispers.
I take a look outside the folds, and my heart feels like it has fallen out. Dozens of people; young and old, men and women, all sitting against the hillside, are looking down from on high or straight as an arrow at us. The string returns to tighten my stomach and a cold sweat starts to impart weakness.
He is able to speak so well. I think, feeling the most out of place I’ve felt on my journey. They do not need me. None of this is real. This is a waste of time. Despite the tale they might weave ensnaring the people, it is nothing but lies.
“You do not know me.” I spit out the familiar words. “What did he tell me to do? Act, do not speak?” Pent up spite slashes my mouth open, and my sour grin is revealed for all to see. Bes takes a step back, and I cannot help but feel that this is what I deserve. “If those are his instructions, then I will follow them with my whole being.” I fling open the black folds and walk off the side of the platform, back the way I came.
End of Chapter 11
Author’s note: Welcome back to another year of the Hoot, and in turn, Sunblighted! I know we got some freshmen here, and they might be completely lost! That’s why I added a blurb now! No summary though, sorry about that (-_-;). Well you can catch up on previous chapters, all available on the “Tales from the Empty Notebook” page at brandeishoot.com/author/mgmail-com/. If you want to ask any questions, please use the QR code here to submit to the Q&A, then (if there are enough questions to answer) I’ll go through and answer them here! Thanks to my editor, who works through the hard times, my friend @mo_sketchesstuff on Instagram who made the baller piece of art used online, and to all of you for sticking around, if you’re still out there. See you next time!
-TEN
Photo credit: @mo_sketchesstuff on Instagram
