It was obvious by the end of the fourth day that Lacom hadn’t really opened up to us after all.
Other than his name, assuming that was true, what he had told us appeared to be yet even more fabrication, exaggerations and outright lies.
Alex and I agreed that he was not going to really speak truthfully unless I told him more of my story – what I had been through, and of my goal to return.
That had to be enough, at least, to prove that I was not an emissary of Dar'cen. If I could get him to believe that, then surely he would reciprocate.
So far, he had told us nothing but conflicting stories.
Firstly he said that he was a but lowly scholar, a nobody was how he described himself. But that did not fit with the man we spoke with; for after that first day, it became apparent that he wanted to speak with us, wanted an audience to hang on his every word… and this obvious desire to be the centre of attention, coupled with his haughtiness, was not at all how I pictured a lowly scholar.
Then, if I pushed him on what he told us, his story would change. He told us all sorts, some with a grain of truth and still others, that if nothing else, corroborated that he had indeed come from Ellas – no one who had not, could have known some of what he said.
When I asked of the name Darganu, he first replied that it was merely a name that he had made up himself. When pressed further, he said that he had heard someone else refer to Dar’cen by that name, yet he could not remember who had used the name, nor did he have any idea of what the name’s origin or meaning was.
He was also extremely vague with regard to how he travelled here. When questioned he was quite dismissive.
“A rift was opened, and I stepped through into your world,” he answered.
When I asked for him to explain, he dismissed my question completely by stating that I could not possibly understand, complex magics had been used, he said, and he himself had little comprehension as to how they worked.
Alex and I both agreed that he was lying, but he refused to speak further until the topic changed.
Much of our time was spent going over and over his story, trying to dig deeper, trying to corroborate what he said against my scant knowledge of Ellas’s history.
How I wish I'd had the presence of mind to question Setia when she educated me, or had spent more time at the Great Libraries reading of the histories, instead of concentrating on my obsessive search for a way home.
Later he told us that he had been a distant relation to Dabracham, the ruler of Ellas’s major continent Abras, a huge area he said, made up of a union of five distinct races, albeit most of human descent, with a smattering of Nargu and some Smalite. The Smalite were a race I had read of, but they had been exterminated by Dar'cen during his conquests.
So yet again his story did not ring true, the Smalite had been destroyed centuries ago.
I pressed him, pushed him hard to explain how this could be, and what he told me, truth or lie, astonished me. He claimed to be from the time of peace and prosperity, the time before Dar'cen coming. In the histories held in the Great Libraries, that time was referred to as the Great Days, the time before the Great Destruction and the Dark Years that followed.
Lacom insisted he had fled Ellas just as Dar'cen began his conquest of the world. But if what he claimed was true, he would be hundreds of years old – Dar'cen had ruled for almost a hundred years and was defeated over five hundred years ago.
Yet Lacom was adamant that he had left Ellas as Dar'cen began his conquest, and arrived on our world only months before he was incarcerated twenty years ago. It made no sense, and yet there was no doubt that Lacom, if that really was his name, was from Ellas, and, apart from the obvious inconsistencies with his personal story, everything he said matched the little I knew of that time, the time before Dar'cen.
I prayed that what this man said was true, for I knew that if he really had come from the juncture of the Great Days and what followed, then what I could learn from him would be absolutely invaluable should I manage to return. But even as I prayed, doubts clawed at my reasoning – he would have to be hundreds of years old, how could that be? And why had he lied? What did he still hide from us?
That night Alex and I agreed, there was nothing for it but to give him more detail of my own story, and something of a history lesson – after all, if what he had told us was true, then he had left Ellas hundreds of years ago, even before Dar'cen completed his conquest of the world.
The following day, I told him of the history first. Slowly and patiently I explained that, not only had he travelled from Ellas to Earth, but that he had also somehow travelled to our world hundreds of years into the future. He scoffed at what I said, but I continued over his obviously forced laughter.
I told him of Dar'cen’s terrible reign, his eventual defeat by Al'kar, and of the intervening years where the world slowly recovered from the destruction Dar'cen had wrought. He argued throughout, and interrupted at every opportunity.
He did not believe me, he said. It could not be true. But it was clear that his heart was not in his denial – he knew that I told the truth. The world he knew was gone, destroyed first by the death and destruction rent upon it by Dar'cen’s cruel spite, and then by the simple ravages of time. Even before I began to tell my own personal tale, Lacom looked a haggard and defeated man.
Then, I told him my story from start to finish; not in any detail, but including enough that he was left in no doubt of the truth of it. When I told of my master, Dar'cen, he grew visibly agitated and afraid, glancing first at me with wide terrified eyes and then back to Alex, his every expression pleading with her for some confirmation that he was safe.
It was never a pleasant story to tell. When I had told Maggie and Tony, their disbelief had stung despite being wholly expected. Later, telling Alex too had been difficult, not knowing what she would believe, if any at all.
But telling Lacom was by far the worst. The belief and fear on his face was far, far worse than any scorn I might have received from doubters of my story. He knew Dar'cen, really knew him and what he was capable of. It was plain that my story awoke terrors in him that he had buried deep within himself, and hidden deeper still over the years he had spent here in this place.
He wept uncontrollably through parts of it, Alex gently holding him until his tears subsided. On the last occasion he quietly mumbled, as if to himself, statements of remorse, “Oh, please forgive me, I beg you,” and “What have I done?" Though, I wondered at his meaning, I said nothing. His explanation would follow, of that I was now sure.
Eventually I got to the end of my tale. It had been harrowing enough for me to recount, but it was clear that it had had a profound effect on Lacom – he was pale, ashen even. But also some degree of purpose and strength seemed to have returned to his face; he now sat more erect, his shoulders back, and there was alertness to his eyes that had not been there before.
It had been a very long session and I knew that we would soon have to draw it to a close, as much as I regretted doing so. I very much wanted to continue, however long it took, to let Lacom speak and finally tell us all he knew – his true story. Lacom, it seems, was of the same mind, wanting at last tell the truth, because he spoke first.
“Can you return tomorrow? Early… I have not been truthful with what I have said thus far, and would like to now tell you the truth, the whole truth of it. I am guilty of much wrong doing, albeit perhaps out of ignorance and cowardice, rather than deliberate deceit or evil. Either way, I have harboured my guilt all these years, hidden it away and left it to fester.
"What you have said of his defeat, no matter that it was temporary, and of your escape from him has given me something that I never again thought I would possess… hope. I have much to tell you of him, Darganu, and how he came to my world."
He paused then, and at first I thought he had finished, but then I saw in his eyes shame, and something else – dread. I knew then that he was steeling himself, steeling himself to tell us something that would lay his life bare before us.
Quietly, almost a whisper, he said, “I am not Lacom, that is not my name… that was just one of the many lies that I have told you. My true name is Jalholm.”
As tears ran freely down his face, he asked almost pleadingly, “Will you still come tomorrow?"
It was a very difficult parting. “Of course we will come back tomorrow,” I had said. But my shock must have been obvious by the worried and questioning looks Alex gave me.
Jalholm could see plainly that that I knew who he was, who Jalholm was, and what he had done – I had not been able to hide it from him, the shock on my face must have been plain for all to see. Jalholm, the greatest scholar of all time. Jalholm, who it was said, knew all things. Jalholm who had unleashed Dar'cen on Ellas.
That evening I told Alex what I knew of Jalholm and the time when Dar'cen had come to his world. It was not a great deal. The little I knew had come from Setia and the smatterings I picked up from the great libraries and their scholars in my search.
Jalholm had been the Emperor’s advisor. He was the greatest of all scholars, schooled in all things and ever searching for even more knowledge.
His discoveries and inventions brought great benefits to all. But, it was said, that in his never ending quest for knowledge, he became obsessed with other worlds, far and distant worlds, and the histories said, that it was from one of these distant worlds that Jalholm released the demon, Dar'cen.
Jalholm – the very name was hated. Many would not speak the name at all, whilst others would use it as a curse if ill befell them.
It was said that Jalholm died at the hands of Dar'cen; a fitting end, they said, for one who who unleashed such a doom on the world.
I knew no more of him, but I did not doubt what the man Lacom had told us today. I did not doubt that he really was Jalholm, and that, tomorrow he would tell us all he knew of Dar'cen and, god willing, how I could return to Ellas and avenge my companions.
And then what? came the thought. What will you do then? Will you pit yourself against him, try to defeat and destroy him? …or will you run from him again, spend your days evading his chase with your nights spent ever watchful, as before? What will you do? They were not new thoughts, not new at all; the questions had dogged me all the weeks that we had searched. But now with Jalholm’s revelation, it seemed that I might soon need to find answers.
The next day I was again sat opposite Jalholm. Alex had taken to sitting alongside him the last few days, and despite what I had told her of him, she saw no reason to do any different today.
“To do so would be detrimental to our goal,” she had said. “If I change my ways now, what message might that send to him, and how will he react?”
Jalholm looked tired, as if he had not slept at all, and indeed that was how he opened the conversation, the prelude to his story.
“Forgive me,” he said. “I am so very tired. I have not really slept; I spent the night trying to gather and order my thoughts, to tell you all I know as clearly as I can.
"It was not an easy task… I had buried my memories away very, very deep. I told myself over and over of my innocence, of how I was duped and could have done nothing differently. The stories I created for myself became my reality, have been my reality for all these years. You see, all those years ago, I purposely chose not to speak. Then, silence together with my violence, was a means to an end. I wanted to be hidden away.
"Here in one of your institutions, I would be safe; he would not be able to find me. But not talking became also my way of hiding my guilt. If I spoke, I might be tempted to confess all, bring back the memories of what I had done. And I did not want that, and so I have stayed silent.
"I have hidden from my guilt for all these years… but since your coming it has been like a worm eating its way into my very soul, until it is all I can think of.
"Yesterday was the worst, when you told your story and reminded me of the terror he brings. What you said changed me somehow, made me face what I had done. For so long I have hidden it all away, lied and pretended to myself.
"And yet now, today, I find myself wanting to somehow do something to make amends… anything, anything at all. I will not lie to you, I am still very much afraid, but I will now tell you all you wish to know… and I will do anything you ask of me that will help to defeat him."
After a momentary pause, Jalholm added questioningly, “That is what you want, isn’t it? To destroy him, and rid the universe of him forever?"
As his eyes looked into mine, I could now see a look of zeal and purpose behind them.
I nodded; no words necessary, for he knew what had been done to me and knew what I must feel. And yet the question of the night before came back to me, What will I do? Yes, I hated him, the demon that had destroyed Ellas, and then destroyed my life.
But I still feared him, and despite all the changes that I had undergone – my strength, my body’s healing powers and, if Setia was correct, my ability to now defy his will – I knew that I alone could never defeat him. I needed help, needed knowledge of his weaknesses, needed more even than Al'kar must have ever known.
Did this man Jalholm have such knowledge?
Jalholm smiled weakly as he said, “Do not worry, I am well enough to tell my story."
Then he paused yet again, rubbing his hands on his trousers and breathing deeply as he obviously prepared himself to begin.
“You see I was a very vain man. I cared a great deal for how I was perceived and what people thought of me. I suppose, in some ways, I always knew of that fault in me, but I can now see that he saw it too, and used it to manipulate me as if I were but a child.
"I was Grand Advisor to the Emperor, and I had worked hard for that honour; it was not just a title given to some royal blood." Jalholm paused, letting out an exasperated sigh.
“You see! Even now as I relate my story, I cannot help but maintain my vanity and conceit.
"Please forgive me, it is my only excuse, you see; all I have to hold onto that allows me to be able to rationalise what I did, how I released such a monster on our world.
“I worked my way through the scholarly ranks, not based on blood, nor on coin, but on merit and hard work. I was good, very good… the best, they said, in over a thousand years to pass through the Citadel. By my twenty first name day, I had a score of achievements to my name.
"My greatest then was the Looking Eye, with it I discovered and began to chart the hitherto invisible worlds that orbited the distant stars, and turning its gaze inward, I discovered the wonders of the hidden microscopic worlds that lay within our own world, those that made up the animals, plants, rocks and even ourselves.
"With its unique perspective, huge advances in medicine alone were made; the few diseases that remained to plague us were eradicated, and illness became a thing of the past.
"Little wonder, I suppose, that my name should reach the Royal Court, and that in my first audience with the Emperor I was raised to Grand Advisor, he who stands at the Emperor’s side, has his ear and advises in all matters.
"Then, combining what the Eye showed us of the nature of matter, and the magics at my disposal, I brought forth even more wonders. My success was without equal.”
Suddenly Jalholm’s voice changed, his tone took on a far more serious note. “Much later, I built a new method of travel, instantaneous travel. A person could cross entire continents in the blink of an eye. You will notice that I said that I built rather than created or discovered.
"It would be wrong of me to claim this, and the other discoveries that I will tell you of later, as my own, as I did back then; fool that I was. He gave me the travelling circles, told me how they could be built, how they could be used, and where to place them even."
Pausing again, Jalholm looked thoughtful as he looked directly into my eyes.
“Listen carefully to what I say next, because I do not know what it means. I have suspicions, but nothing to base them on other than my own dread. This new method of travel, as I said, soon developed into travelling circles, very much like the one you described that the Nargu used to take you to Ellas.
"They were at my suggestion, at his suggestion I should say, built throughout all the lands of the world and used by all, rich and poor alike. Note I said very much like, that is because the Circles we built could not be used to travel between worlds. We could travel anywhere on Ellas, but not beyond. I tried, others tried, but it was as if the magics used did not exist on those distant worlds, and so our Circles could not make any connection to them.
"I do not know how their reach was extended, or even if what you talked of was indeed a travelling circle as I knew of them. But what I do believe is that this is of Dar'cen’s doing. He would have changed the circles or created new to move his armies, to move them to his next conquest once he tired of his sport with Ellas.
"You say that the one you passed through was damaged, and that few others have survived. If you succeed in your quest to return… destroy them, destroy them all.
"For if he rises again he will turn his gaze here, here to this world. Do not ask how I know this, for I cannot explain, but I am certain it is so."
My thoughts went back to the stones of Achra and the crystals the Nargu had used. Yet more corroboration of his plans to extend his conquests to here on Earth.
“It is possible that you are correct, Jalholm,” I said, amazed at how easily I had adapted to the use of his name, a name despised by so very many.
“He taunted me on occasions of how, after he had completely crushed Ellas, my world would be next. He showed Earth to me in my mind, showed me what he would do, and how it would look when he had finished… But if that is truly what he intends, what do I gain by destroying the Circles; surely, when he again comes to power, he will simply rebuild them? What is there to stop him?"
“Only he could have made such changes. How? I do not know. But it may be that the changes necessary were to make the Circles function in a similar fashion to the tool used to bring him to Ellas. If that is the case, then he will not easily be able to modify or create new Circles… Please be patient, I will tell you of that tool, and how it came to be created in a little while.
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"Then you will understand what my hope is based upon."
Visions still echoed across my minds eye, as I again saw all that Dar'cen had shown me, his voice taunting gleefully at all the forms of death and destruction he would inflict on my home… on Earth! My hands shook as I slowly forced myself to calm.
“Continue with your story Jalholm. I am very anxious to learn how he came to Ellas, and, indeed, how you, yourself, travelled here to Earth. But I will be patient, and wait for your story to unfold."
Jalholm smiled, a thin smile totally devoid of warmth or humour as he went on with his tale.
“Never before had a Royal Adviser achieved such success, and with that success came fame and adoration; I revelled in it. My Emperor loved me, and his people adored me. I could do no wrong.
"It seemed as if every other day, I brought yet more benefits to our society. You must understand that before long, I was very much in love with this fame, this praise and adoration.
"Wherever I went crowds flocked just to see me pass, lords and ladies hung on my every word, and I wanted for absolutely nothing – whatever I needed I had but to ask.
"And all of this fame was long before I found him and the boon that his gift of travelling brought.
“It was then, at the height of my success, that I turned my endeavours back to my Looking Eye, and the hunt for other forms of life on those distant worlds.
"You see despite years of searching no other signs of life had been found. Scholars all across our world had searched to no avail.
"Even given the power of the Eye nothing at all was found, not even the smallest of microscopic creatures that abound on Ellas… Perhaps some explanation of the Looking Eye is required to give you some understanding of the extent of the search that took place.
"The Eye is in some ways similar to your modern telescopes and microscopes in that things can be viewed from afar or up close, but there the similarity ends. The Eye was a blend of what you call science, and the most complex of our magics. No larger than one of your small books, when activated it draws a multitude of energies from the surrounding ether to open a window, a viewer if you like, through which the wonders I have talked of could be seen and examined in the most minute of detail.”
As Jalholm spoke my mind went back to that basement room, to that so very strange opening enclosed in glass. Was that a Looking Eye? Was that what he talked of? If so, why was it encased, and who had tried to break through to it, and why? I resolved to ask Jalholm those very questions, but they could wait a little; it seemed that there was indeed knowledge to be gained from listening to his whole story after all.
“By the time my search began there were many different variations of the original Looking Eye that I had created, each fine tuned to the tasks they were to perform.
"Some looked out to the stars, others inward, tuned to detect illness, identify mineral deposits and even the movements of the world beneath our feet, the very shifting of the continents and the swirling magma deep within our planet.
"But whereas your telescopes bring objects closer, the Eye allowed a user to almost interact with distant worlds, to virtually be there. For instance, once a world was selected, the user could choose to change their point of view such that the world could be examined from any angle, the perspective set such that to the user it would appear as if he stood on the very surface of that distant world. The user could then move freely across that world in any direction and at any pace they wish. In this way a new world could be explored thoroughly in a matter of days, hours even for the most experienced researchers.
“The Eye I used in my search incorporated all of the capabilities of the various specialist machines that had been created. And yet all that I found were barren worlds covered in rock, desert or noxious vapours. I detected no signs of life, not even microscopic forms. Yet despite my failure, I could not accept that other life did not exist, that only our world was capable of sustaining living creatures.
"And so I turned all of my attention to this search for new life. I reasoned that there must be other forms of life, and that I, Jalholm, would discover them, proving once again that I was the greatest scholar of all time… and once more I would be the darling of the court. Such was my vanity!
“In months of effort, I achieved nothing. I had examined all my colleagues’ research notes, and rechecked areas where their search seemed sparse or incomplete.
"Where they had been careful in their search, I was meticulous, and yet I still found nothing. Any world I found that showed signs of promise, on further investigation, proved to be completely inhospitable – far too hot or too cold, completely barren, or encased in foul gases that would stifle any form of life.
“Then there came a time when I began to doubt myself, and to question my belief. Was it possible after all, that we creatures of Ellas were all that existed in this vast universe?
"But no, I just could not accept such a thing – we could not be alone when there were stars beyond counting there above me, in the night sky.
"I was a stubborn man, stubborn and proud, and I would not accept defeat.
"So I pushed on… If only I had given up, stopped there and then, that day when I first began to doubt myself; stopped and destroyed all my work. But no, that was not the man I was. I would not allow myself to be beaten.
“I decided to again review all of my results, and that of those who had gone before me in this search. I spent weeks piecing together a picture of the void surrounding our world based on the findings to date, looking for any area at all that we might have somehow missed or neglected to do justice. Those areas I did find, upon further investigation, still yielded nought; month after month of effort and I found absolutely nothing.
"There followed for me a time of deep depression, a depression that made my earlier period of self doubt a trivial thing, a thing of insignificance.
"I just could not rationalise in my mind how we of Ellas could be alone.
"And yet I had brought to bear all of my intellect, all of the resources at my disposal, and still could not find any form of life, not even traces that life might have existed long ago. I was at a loss.
"Never before had I failed, and the feeling it instilled in me I did not like in the very least.
"Deep down somewhere inside, I knew that I would not stop, that I would continue the search even if it was futile. But I reasoned that if I was to succeed, I needed to first understand and conquer this feeling, this despair that filled me.
"And so weeks went by where I did nothing, nothing at all; my mind almost a complete blank, functioning only enough to complete my day to day tasks. My research sat untouched, my Looking Eye discarded, I did not attend court, I turned away all visitors and even ignored my Emperor’s summonses.
“It was so strange then, when the thought, the revelation really, came to me. It was almost as if, during all these weeks of inaction, a part of my mind had been toiling away all on its own, without any interaction with my conscious self. It was a very simple thought really, and one that the scientists of your world understood long ago – What if other forms of light exist, what if the worlds I seek cannot be seen by the light we know of, that which our eyes use.
“You see, although advanced in many ways, there are many things that are commonplace in your world that we, of Ellas, knew nothing of… our civilisation and all that we achieved was based upon our magics; science was little used, an indulgence for scholars alone, and then only used to supplement the achievements of our magic.
"We did not embrace the mechanical and electrical wonders of your world.
"So it was with light… we knew nothing of the spectrum of energies that existed beyond those colours that we could see with our very own eyes. We could not see them, so for us they did not exist.
“That single thought spurred me to action again, but now with an enthusiasm that excelled all I had shown before. For now I had another goal – to discover and prove the existence of these other lights, that I now reasoned must exist.
"I turned back to my Looking Eye and experimented with the energies it drew from the ether; I blended their energies and applied intricate and complex magics to them in an attempt to make visible that which could not be seen, that which might not even exist.
"Surprisingly, I was successful in a very short time. Mere days after that single thought came to me, I discovered my first new light, and with each day I was able to isolate still more new and different forms of these lights, or energies as your scientist would call them.
"It was astounding; with these new lights the world above was so very different… stars and worlds previously unseen filled the sky, and stars that pulsed with energy under one form of light would disappear completely under yet another.
"I knew then that the search for life had not even begun; that it was in its infancy. I knew also that I could not possibly undertake such a search alone. Besides there was still so much left to discover in this new realm of light that I had opened.
"So I enlisted others to take up the search for life; after all, was it not I who would give them what they required to at last succeed.
"I instead, turned my new tools inward, to look again at our world, sure that I would discover yet more wonders that could be turned to the benefit of our people."
Despite what I had said earlier, Jalholm’s story had begun to tire and irritate me. I wanted to know of Dar'cen, where he was from, how he came to Ellas, and anything that might be used against him. Yes, Jalholm’s story was of interest, but only as background to the events that followed – the events that destroyed his world.
I wanted him to move on, and to get to what I needed to know.
My irritation must have shown, for Jalholm stopped in his tale, his own face mirroring the irritation that he must have seen on mine.
“My story is long and detailed, and I can see that it must be very tiring. You wish to move on to Dar’cen, and how he came to be. But there is more that you must understand first, and if I am to make you believe what I say, I must tell how I came to my conclusions… You see, I did not discover him by looking out into the stars and the other worlds. I found him when I turned my gaze inward toward Ellas itself," Jalholm said, a challenge written plainly on his face as he stared at me.
I said nothing, but Alex smiled at Jalholm as she spoke for the first time that day, “David, Jalholm is right, and you know he is. We do need to hear all the details, all Jalholm has to say. Anything that is missed now could be crucial to you later when you eventually face Dar'cen.”
Jalholm returned Alex’s smile, whilst reserving the most smug of looks for me, as he resumed.
I sat up straight and attempted a look of contrite patience, while Alex, perched next to Jalholm, listened with seeming rapturous attention.
“I now have a far greater understanding of these new forms of light than I did when on Ellas. Your science has a much greater knowledge of such things, and I have delved greatly into that knowledge. You see despite my refusal to talk, I have been allowed to peruse the library here, order any books that interested me and watch your television.
"You would be very surprised at how much can be learned from television; it is how I taught myself your language when I first arrived here on your world. Then, when the Internet was made available, my research became easier still.
“Given what I have learned from your science, it might be best if, where I can, I use the terminology your people have adopted for various phenomena that I was previously at a loss to explain.
"I found that the different forms of light that I had discovered seemed to flow from one into the other.
"Your science describe this as a spectrum, but I previously had no concept of such a thing. I only knew that if I slowly adjusted the input energies used by the Eye, the corresponding viewing light would also slowly change to become a light with different properties from the original.
"But then I discovered two other types of light; light whose properties did not slowly change as one moves along this spectrum.
"Each of these two new lights would abruptly come into being at a certain setting, then the slightest of adjustments either way would cause them to vanish.
"The properties of these two new lights differed considerably from each other and the lights directly adjacent to them. All of my research here on your world suggests that there is nothing that corresponds with them in your science.
“These two new lights interested me greatly, and I used them both for my inward search of Ellas.
"My reasoning was that there seemed to be an infinite variation of the other lights, with nothing that clearly defined one type from the other. Whereas these two new special lights, as I came to think of them, only existed at exact settings, and their properties were so very distinctive when compared to other lights that surrounded them.
"I gave the two new lights names based upon how the Eye rendered what their light showed me; they seemed be almost exact opposites.
"The one showed everything much as they would have appeared under normal light, excepting that everything was brighter, far more vibrantly coloured and, if the object viewed was living, would appear much more healthy, much more full of life, than if viewed under normal light.
"Under the other, everything was monotone, grey and almost devoid of colour, as if viewed through dirty, grimy, opaque glass.
"I referred to these two new lights as Light and Dark. Not very original I’m afraid, but the names suited the moods portrayed by anything viewed under each light.
"And as no one else knew of them, more formal names were not required… Little did I realise how apt a name Dark would be.
“I spent weeks and then months teasing out more and more detail of our world until, at last, I seemed to have exhausted all that Light had to offer – I had learned a great deal, and much would be put to good use later. My colleagues in their search of the skies had still to discover any form of life, when I turned my attentions to Dark.
“The properties of Dark proved to be very strange indeed, much more so than I had first thought. I looked first to living things, as I had with Light, for it had yielded such wonders.
"Viewed under Dark, everything seemed to shift and change; indistinct shapes would appear at the very edges of view, and no matter how you tried to follow them with the viewer, they were always vague and shadowy, never quite in focus.
"Living cells seemed to constantly change shape and reform in front of your very eyes – in one instant a cell would have the characteristics of a Tabu leaf, and the next it would be that of a Carna; two completely different species. It was not evolution I watched, but just random changes, almost as if what I viewed changed through all the possible structures it could have evolved into had chance fallen differently.
"I did not understand then what I was seeing, and even now, with years of thought, I still cannot, but it troubles me deeply. Still, even with my deep concern for what I was seeing, I carried on my search. I put aside my investigation of life under Dark light and instead turned to look down into my world, deep into its centre, its inner workings.
"But I found that as I focused further into Ellas, so the view became more clouded, more vague and indistinct. It was almost as if what I had originally described as looking through grimy, opaque glass had really been a grey mist, and now that grey mist was thickening, darkening becoming almost an impenetrable fog.
"The more I adjusted, the more obscure the view became and—"
An irritating chirping rang through the room, and Alex went a bright red as she grabbed her bag and rummaged inside for her phone.
“Sorry, its got to be work, hardly anyone else ever rings me,” she said, and then, glancing at her phone muttered, “Bloody Stewart. What the hell does he want?” Looking up from her phone to Jalholm, she gave a weak smile as she said, “I really am sorry about this interruption, but I should take this call. I won’t be a moment." And then she stormed off out of the room.
Jalholm and I sat in silence for a moment, and then I spoke; small talk really, just to fill the gap, “She’s only been allowed a few days leave because of the short notice she gave. They rely on Alex a great deal, so I suppose something must have come up and they need her input."
Jalholm merely shrugged, and then the silence took over again, stretching out for long, long moments.
Alex was taking quite a while, I could faintly hear her voice through the door. She seemed to be arguing with whoever was on the other end of the phone; Stewart, I guessed.
Jalholm had finally began to open up to us, and I really didn’t want this interruption to cause us any set backs.
So in an effort to keep him talking, I thought that I may as well get some of my questions out of the way. “This place, the place where you did your research, where you searched for other life and such. Was it a school, a place of learning, located on the banks of the Altwen?"
Jalholm’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.
“How do you know that? …How could you know? You said the great war decimated the world, and that hundreds of years have passed since my escape… surely Falhar cannot still exist?”
“So it was the place,” I said, more to myself than Jalholm.
“Yes, I have been to this place, Falhar, to the school there, though very little remains, above ground at least. The whole area is a radioactive waste, most buildings vaporised, with just broken walls remaining. But yes, we visited the school; the basement floors of the central building were mostly still intact.”
“The Great Tower, the basement remains?” he uttered in shock.
“Yes, and we found quite a number of strange and, in one instance, very disturbing things there."
“Disturbing?” he questioned, his face now seeming to have drained of colour.
“We found a room, a room with huge glass doors. Its content obviously a display, a warning to others. It was filled with the skeletal remains of what must have been hundreds and hundreds of bodies." I said, looking at Jalholm questioningly.
His eyes were glassy with tears, and at the same time far, far away, as if remembering some distant memory. Then suddenly his face took on a look of pure horror. I waited, leaving him with his memories.
When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet, almost a whisper, “I did not know what he had done with them. He said they were gone, disposed of were his words. You could ask him no questions, you must know that. I had awoken that morning, terrified and yet praying that the events of the day before had been a dream.
"I found myself alone, everyone gone. I could find no one, not even bodies. I searched the Great Tower, the building you described as the School, though it was but one of many that made up the great school of Falhar, and found nothing.
"Then he called for me, and I thought no more of them. The name I took, Lacom, he was my assistant, the closest I ever had to a true friend; he had been at my side for almost ten years.
"Lacom too, was amongst those that he had disposed of. And yet I did not care, did not despair, did not weep. He called and nothing else mattered."
Jain was correct, I thought, Dar'cen had murdered them in fear, fear that they might, just might, stumble onto some weakness of his. What though? What weakness? Would Jalholm know?
But that would wait, I would talk to him first about the glass enclosed opening, the portal or whatever it was.
Questions of his weaknesses could wait until Jalholm finished his story of how Dar'cen came to Ellas.
“You are not to blame for what he did, you could have done nothing to stop him had you known. And once he has you, you do and feel as he requires of you. You should not blame yourself, only madness lies that way."
I did not think that my words had comforted him in the least, but I went on with my question of the opening anyway.
“In another room we found something very strange indeed, it stood in the very centre of the room—"
This time I was interrupted mid sentence, Alex had come back into the room and I could immediately see from her face that she was not at all happy.
The loud exclamation of, “Bastard!” only reinforced my view of her current mood.
She sat, apologised to Jalholm for her language, and then explained how the telephone conversation had gone, ending with,
“And now I have got to go home tonight, or risk loosing my flaming job. Bloody Stewart… who the hell does he think he is?" She had tears running down her face.
Strangely, in an act of role reversal, Jalholm put his arm around Alex and held her close.
I argued with Alex for quite a while; she was all but prepared to just give up her job there and then.
I took her outside; for some reason I felt uncomfortable explaining my reasons as to why she shouldn’t do any such thing in front of Jalholm.
It took some doing, but I did eventually persuade her that she should return home.
So Alex went to reception to try and book a flight for that evening, and I went back to sit with Jalholm.
I explained that Alex had to leave as soon as she could arrange a flight, and I then tried to pick up the conversation from where I had left off.
But Jalholm stopped me mid-sentence, saying that he didn’t want to continue until he had said his farewells to Alex.
After that, neither of us could really be bothered with small talk so we just sat and waited.
Alex was in a mad rush when she finally returned. If she left immediately she could just make the flight, but she again argued that she wanted to stay, wanted to hear the rest of Jalholm’s story.
After a great deal of further argument, Alex finally relented and agreed to leave.
The scene with Jalholm was really, really emotional, with both of them breaking into tears.
Alex eventually left, taking the car as it was the only way she would get to the airport in time; after all it was of no use to me.
Jalholm then took me completely by surprise. “I am tired,” he said, “tired and upset at this turn of events… and my story and the memories it brings weigh heavily on me. I am sorry, very sorry… but I wish to stop now. We can continue tomorrow.”
I was really annoyed and frustrated at this turn of events, but knew there was no point in pushing him.
I thanked him for all he had shared with us, and left for the night.