5.05
Daughter of the Moon
Walking through the door, it is as if coming to the end of the plank at Lake Moultrie. You walk to the edge and look over the thirty foot drop. There is a quick sense of fear in your heart, but at the same time you feel the exhilaration of jumping. The brightness just envelops us as we walk through the threshold of the invisible door that is now hanging off a cut off tree stump.
Inside everything is bright white, the furniture, the walls, the floors, the ceiling, everything is white. I lift up my hand to cover my eyes as the brightness of the place blinds me. The echoes of our footstep ring through the place telling us that the Church of Massaponax is larger than we had thought. Lena stops walking and then as we let our eyes adjust to the light, I could hear the footsteps of another person.
It's too bright Ethan
I turn to her and as I fumble to grab her second hand, I can hear her breathing racing. Finally grabbing her second hand, I lower my head to touch hers.
Let your eyes adjust
After a couple more seconds I could see the outline of the church pews coming into focus. Lena's dark dress creates a wonderful resting place for my eyes to focus. As I look at our hands still holding I trace my eyes up her arms until I finally pull away from her. Her eyes still closed, I can see how amazingly beautiful see is.
You are definitely one beautiful girl
I can see the heat flash from under her neck and up her face. The rosy cheeks bring a smile to her face. Her eyes open and then as she looks at me, I can feel the warmth in my face rise.
"A love like that was a serious illness, an illness from which you never entirely recover."
"Ah young love," someone says. "Bukowski as well, such a spectacular mind, excellent choice."
Turning around we both see what we believe to be a man in a white cloak, his hood up covering part of his face. He looks about the height of Link, and the loose fitting cloak reminds me of monks from the documentaries that my mother would make me watch. It is troubling though, because the quote that I just told Lena, I didn't say out loud, how could he have heard me.
"Ah," he says. "Excellent question, yes...but a little difficult to explain. Though I can't answer your question right now, I have been waiting for both you, Daughter of Moon, Son of Earth, for years."
Lena looks at him and then at me.
"Daughter of Moon?" she repeats.
He turns around and starts to walk toward the front of the church. At first we are both a little hesitant. I mean how could this man know what I am thinking or kelting to Lena and what did he mean that he had been waiting for us for years? Daughter or Moon? Son of Earth? Lena starts to walk behind him.
"Excuse me Sir," I say. "But who are you and where are we?"
He doesn't talk but continues to walk towards what I believe is the altar. Looking ahead I see that there is a very large white book. His steps that were so loud now has disappeared, it is so still in the room, that I think my heart beating is the only sound that could be heard. Walking behind Lena, she doesn't seem at all concern who this person, but almost as if she feels comfortable here.
The way he walks, so silently, as if he is floating. The whole thing is so weird and so surreal, that looking around I don't understand where the light is coming from. The windows that are stained glass don't depict any scene but seems to change or shimmer as we walk.
"Now," he says resting his hand on the book. "To answer your first question, Son of Earth, a name does not decide who I am, because I have no name, I only have a purpose. And yes Daughter of Moon to your question, I do have a purpose. I am a Tabularius, or in your words, I am a sort of book keeper. But…it is not of any books that you would know or have read. The easiest way to explain it is as I turn the pages of a book, it is the space in between the pages, what holds everything together, the purpose of it, the purpose behind the words, or even the reason why the words exists. This leads us to the second question Son of Earth; we are in the space between the worlds, not in the living or in the other world."
"So, a Caster World," Lena says trying to find some sort of understanding to this craziness. It would make sense since it took a Caster to open the door, or to even find it. Looking around, it could be part of the Caster world, it is after all like the Lunae Libri.
"No," the Tabularius says turning the page. "The Caster World is in the land of the living. We are in the in between worlds. The Caster World and the Lunae Libri lends its ability from this place."
I lift my hands to rub my eyes. I must be dreaming, because this is too much. First I find out that there is a Caster World, light and dark, good and bad, and now this. I back up a little bit and sit down on the pew of what I believe is a Church.
"Wait," I say finally. "What the heck are you talking about? Worlds between, not light not dark, the space in between. I am sick and tired of people talking in riddles…can you answer it without the story without the philosophy? For one, you said you were waiting for us, how if we never met you."
He turns a couple of pages and then scans the book with his finger tip. Lena still standing in front of the guy still looks as if fascinated by all this.
"You, Ethan Lawson Wate, son of Mitchell Wate, grandson of Deacon Wate, great grandson of Clayton Wate, great great grandson of Wilson Jefferson Wate, great great great grandson of Ellis Wate, shall I continue?" the Tabularius says. "I know who you were named after, and know that just outside this place was where Ethan Carter Wate decided something that changed the path that he was destined for."
Looking at him, I cannot believe it, it is as if he knows my entire family tree. The way he says it, it is as if he had been watching my family tree for years.
"Yes, I have been watching your line after Ethan Carter Water, because on that day the Wayward of this Decade began that day," the Tabularius continues. "Because Ethan Carter Wate, gave a slave from Georgia, a compass. Even though Thomas Easton had already died on the field of Massaponax, the compass allowed his soul to find his way home."
The compass. It was what Genevieve had given him as a way for him to make it home.
"You see Ethan," the Tabularius says. "This place is one of few spots where what fated to happen didn't."
"What was supposed to happen," Lena says.
"Daughter of the Moon," he says. "You were always my favorite. The questions you would ask when no one was listening, they were always my favorites. Even now the one question that you ask, is the one I do not know the answer to."
He slowly traces the pages of the book as if he was caressing it. He grabs the edge of the book and then closes it with a smile.
"The door to this place, could only be opened by one pair of people and no one else, it is one of purpose," the Tabularius says. "My purpose was to wait here for the time when a Natural and a Wayward would find the door. There hasn't been a Natural in over two hundred year, while there have been many Cataclyst but very few Naturals and even a longer time for a Wayward to appear, to guide you. The odds of a relationship or even an encounter is close to impossible."
"So what is our purpose?" Lena says.
"No one but Fate would know," the Tabularius says. "With the New Order, things are not the way they should."
Yeah, you are telling me. The storms that come and go with Lena unable to notice that she is causing it. Can't even go to sleep without being invading by some girl with red hair causing me to burn everything.
"Wait, Son of Earth" the Tabularius says. "A girl who invaded your dream? Caused you to Cast? Are you certain?"
Turning around and looking at what seems to be a man confused. It was probably the first time that someone has actually surprised even him.
"You know it is plain bad manners to spy in on people's thoughts," I say. "But if you must know then yes, I am quite certain, have the burn marks to prove it, not to mention the fire fighters that we passed on our getaway sure as hell can confirm it."
He turns and places the book on what seems to be a bookshelf. His finger touches each of the books until he reaches one that he pulls out. Placing it on the table it begins to glow a soft orange glow. His hand then goes to open the cover which causes the books intensity to grow, until the pages seem to be as bright as the sun. Lena covers her eyes and I grab her by the hand. The coolness of the atmosphere has suddenly changed and now it is as if the temperature has heated up about twenty degrees.
"An Astral," the Tabularius says stopping on something in the book. "Where there is an Astral, there is a possibility of an Changling."
He closes the book and looks up at us smiling.
"It seems that our time has come to an end," the Tabularius says. "I really did enjoy meeting you both. Daughter of the Caster World, and Son of the Mortal World, you both have been my favorites."
Lena turns and looks at him.
"Wait," she says. "What are we suppose to do?"
The room begins to glow bright. Everything seems to be like it was when we first entered in here. I call out Lena's name, who has already placed her hands on her eyes trying to shield her eyes. The flash doesn't lessen but grows until it overtakes us and...
I look around and see the same sign where the car died. Turning around, I look and see Lena still with her eyes shielded right next to the car. The Crow is nowhere to be seen, and even the sign doesn't point towards the Cemetery of Massaponax, in fact there isn't anything that way but fields of cotton.
See the things that are not, people that hide in plain sight
It wasn't Lena's voice, and it wasn't mines, it was the Bookkeeper. It did happen, and what we just experienced wasn't a dream but definitely up there in the weird category. Looking at my hands the burns that Lena had done, are gone, and it looks as if whatever happened in the field where Thomas Easton died, didn't really happen.
"What just happened?" I say to Lena.
"You mean, did we just go to a field where we saw a vision of Ethan Carter Wate and the battle that kills Thomas Easton," she starts. "And then we find a door that grows out of cut tree stump, not to mention a white room with a guy that just spoke to us in our minds?"
"Yeah that," I say.
She ducks back into the car and turns on the car. Lena beeps the horn and walking over to the car, I wonder what that all was. If Exu was told to come over, told by who, and for what reason, to meet a man that read our thoughts, to tell us that we are basically an glitch in the time line?
"I think it is just a small detour," she says putting the car in drive. Turning the car around, she starts to make it to the main road.
"Just like that?" I say. "Don't you find what we just experienced as something a little bit more significant? Like for instance don't you remember that the roads are blocked until the dumb reenactments are done?"
Lena taps the screen on the Fastback.
"One of the good things about this car is that it has a date stamp when you turn it on," she says. "I don't know how this is possible, but if you look at the date."
Looking at the numbers, it feels as if it is wrong.
'May 07'
"We have been stuck in that place for two days?" I say. "How is that even..."
"Possible?" she says. "Well I don't know, but if I know one thing, is that things that happen to us, are always not possible, like you coming back from the dead, like me claiming both light and dark."
I put my hand on hers.
"Like us finding each other?" I say remembering what the Bookkeeper had told us. That it would have been nearly impossible for us to even have found each other. "You know the memories of everything that happened in the Other World, have begun to fade and as much as I would like to hold onto them, it is like waking up from a dream. The details at first are so vivid, but as time passes, it is harder. One of the things that I haven't forgotten, was the feeling that I had to get back to you. It wasn't impossible, it was going to happen."
You always know what to say
You were always my...
"Compass," I say coming to realize something. It is then as I see a sign saying, now leaving Spotsylvania. It was what Genevieve gave Ethan Carter Wate, to help him find his way home. "Don't you see, the note that Genevieve gave was specific, 'When you find that you are lost and cannot find your way, remember to point it towards home and you will find me there waiting.'"
She looks at the road and then again at me. For the first time I know what we have to do, but doing it is going to be a little bit difficult.
"The Bookkeeper said that when Ethan gave Thomas the compass, it allowed his soul to find his way home," I say. "There was probably a cast on it, like the locket, so that if Ethan died, he would find his way back to Genevieve."
"We have to find the compass," Lena say. "Now the question is where, or how will we find it."
All these questions, it is as if, the more we unravel the more we realize that it is deeper. If the date is correct, Liv will be already getting to the Lunae Libri in New York. It seems that she would be the best person to help us.
Taking the bag from the back seat I open it to see if I can find the pouch where the compass was. Inside a note has been placed on top of a bag.
I look at it and let out a laugh as I open the bag.
"Seems we have our breakfast," I say handing Lena a honey bun.
"How, where...," she says smiling.
"What?" I ask.
"It was the first time I was in Savannah. It was a couple of days before valentines," she says not stopping for me to answer. "It was umm...my birthday and my Gramma saw me on the porch sitting there. I mean I knew why no one could come, but it still hurts when you see that your entire family is separated."
It was hard for her to remember this part of her life, so I know the importance of this.
"Well if I had gotten an invitation," I say. "I would have hitchhiked to Savannah."
Well that would have been a little weird seeing how I didn't know you.
Yeah, a little snag in the plan.
"It was what my Gramma gave me that night," she continues. "A honey bun from the corner store."
I hand her the note.
"I think it is for you," I say.
I can still remember the note. Written in very careful handwriting, it was a simple statement, just like the way he spoke. The meanings behind each word, the way he said that everything had a purpose.
"Kind of hard for me to read it while I am driving," she says. "Unless you want me to pull over. Mind if you read it to me?"
'The question you asked that day on the porch was one of my favorite.'
"What was the question," I ask.
"Umm, does it matter," she says trying to avoid the answer.
"Well no but I would love to know," I say.
"I asked, something about if I was alone in this world," she tries to say as low as possible so that I wouldn't be able to hear it.
"Oh," I say. "I guess that is why he wrote something else on the back of the note."
"Wait," she says looking over jerking the wheel, which of course caused us to quickly swerve into the shoulder. Turning it back, we move back into the lane. "What else did it say?"
'The answer sits next to you. Seems that the dreams may have started that day.'
Her face begins to turn a bright red, which of course is more self evident because of Lena's fair complexion. She has to clear her throat a couple of times. Who would have thought, that one of the questions she asked may have been the reason why the dreams started. The question that are we alone in this world? We were both alone, and then things changed.
She rips off half of the honey bun and hands it to me.
"For the breakfast we missed," she says.
"For the last two days," I say taking a bite into the sweet bread. It was after all one of the greatest breakfast I have had in a while. The open road doesn't seem too scary anymore. We know where we are going and although we may not know what to do when we get there, we know that as long as we have each other, that is all that matters.