The door closes to our room leaving Jabez and I alone for the first time since we entered the temple. A table with various fruit and drinks is waiting for us in case we were hungry. I take a seat at the table, but don’t eat or drink. I just wait for Jabez to start talking, but he doesn’t say anything. He takes a seat on one of the beds and stretches out as if he’s tired after a long day of work. It’s as if he has no intentions of explaining what happened or why I need to get prepared for a fight that I didn’t know was coming.

“Explain everything, from the start,” I break the silence.

“Which start,” he asks staring down at his mask.

“The start.”

“There’s more than one start to this story.

“Then start at the first one,” I’m growing irritated with him. “You pick now of all times to start telling jokes.”

“Sorry, just nerves.”

“Now you’re nervous?”

“My whole life has been leading up this moment, I’m beyond nervous.”

“Now you see how I feel when you just do crazy stuff, except, this is because you did something crazy.”

“I’m sorry. I’ve just been so focused on one thing for so long.”

“Are you going to tell me why you’re the taker of light despite being the same age as me?”

“Alright, this is a lot.”

“Well, I’d like to hear a good story before I die.”

“We’re not going to die.”

I throw my hands in the air, “just tell the story.”

“Alright, remember how I told you the sorcerers had their own little city on the mountain?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Well, it’s governed by a coven of seven sorcerers and a queen.”

“The seven we met earlier.”

“That’s right. Anyway, the queen is my mother. One of my mothers,” he gently taps his fist on his chin for a moment. “Well, she was ruling the city, and then I was born. It really was a painful birth, three days of labor for a young queen. I never knew my father. From what I learned later, someone had him killed. Doesn’t matter. It was a pretty normal childhood and I learned to use my magic. I’m good now, but back then, I had reached the rank of sorcerer before twenty-five. I was called the chosen one, the one that would bring the greatest era to the world.”

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“If you were 25 when the sun was around, why are you so much younger now?”

“I’m getting to that,” I just signal for him to keep going. “By the time I was 40 my mother had begun to get sick. I was studying dark magic, trying to heal her anyway that I could. I discovered a procedure that would save her. I just need an energy source.”

“The sun.”

“The sun, and it worked. For maybe fifteen years, she didn’t age, but the sun grew duller and duller. She was taking all the suns energy. That little bit of light cast out into the world is all she can do to rectify the situation. Eventually, the she learned what I had done. She did the right thing, had me excommunicated.”

“That doesn’t explain everything.”

“I’m getting there. On the night I was to be excommunicated, the seven decided it would be best if I was just murdered. They chose Rosa to do the job, she was an expert with hand-to-hand combat and assassination. She claimed she had been an assassin before learning about her magic. Her magic was actually time. She faked my murder, but I didn’t get off free. I was aged back, way back.”

“A baby.”

“A baby. I didn’t remember any of what I just told you. Rosa took me away from here, raised me as her own. She didn’t tell me what happened until they started trying to kill us when I was around thirteen. She started teaching me to fight, use my magic. Around 15 they killed her, and I managed to flee. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I have a very distinct look. That’s why I always wear the mask, because I never know who’s watching. After Rosa died, I spent the next 3 years learning to fight harder, and plotting my revenge. Then you showed up in my life.”

“That night in the alley, I was going to ask you to help me. I realized I spent so long on my own, I never knew how to really speak to other people. So, we ended up fighting. Your friend Levi, he told me what you were doing in the city. While you were passed out, he agreed to watch my apartment while we went off. He said you didn’t think things through so it’d be easy to get you to come.”

“You played me.”

“Yeah, and I’m sorry about that. I should have just asked you to come with me, but I didn’t know how. I actually do view you as a friend, my first real friend. Hell, my only friend,” he stands up and turns his back to me.

I believe him. It sounds crazy as any other story I’ve heard about the light; the sun and what sorcerers do up here. But as he moves his arms to wipe his face, his story is a little more real than the others. It’s more than the something he made up like the story earlier. I don’t want to fight, but he is a friend. A lying and manipulating friend, but a friend.

“Can you stop crying? It’s freaking me out.”

“I’ve never done this before, I don’t know why I can’t stop,” he laughs through the tears.

“Do you want, a, hug,” I don’t know how to comfort people.

“Sure.”

I meet him halfway for a hug, we embrace, and instantly burst into laughter. “I guess we don’t have that kind of friendship,” I punch him in the shoulder.

“I stopped crying, so I guess it worked. I really am sorry about dragging you into all of this.”

“I chose to go on this little adventure of mine with no real direction. I knew something crazy had to happen.”

“Well, we’re about to do something even crazier.”