The sounds of the wind in the trees, the lap of waves upon the lake…
The call of birds overhead and the honks of ducks on the water…
The chatter of families around, and the playing of children in the grass…
…And the roar of distant engines, the crunch of gravel underfoot. It all fell on deaf ears.
The two men sat in absolute silence, while Alban took in the park around him, remembering it from his childhood. Gale just sat there. His stance was open, inviting, yet he ignored it all. It all fell on ears that didn't want, nor care to hear them. The palette of colours was akin to a rainbow painted on the landscape, yet to him it was all grey. There was nothing of any interest anywhere in sight. It was Worthless.
It was Hopeless.
The only thing that filled him with gratitude was the air. It was crisp, it was fresh. So filled with life and promise, it flowed through him and around him. It tugged on him like the real world was trying to draw him in. Yet his mind was already there.
He didn't day dream, he took it all in. All of it. Yet still it meant nothing
Alban stretched beside him. Giving out a long yawn.
"Sorry, was a long day yesterday. R&D is trying to get an energetic research site up and running up north…" Alban trailed off, realising his Dad wasn't interested. "You're quiet, you ok Dad?" He asked as he still stretched. His father grunted. "Not enjoying yourself?"
"Why would I? It's meaningless." His voice was gravelly. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. "All of it."
Alban tried to have a look of surprise on his face as he watched his father light his cigarette, giving it a few gentle puffs.
"What do you mean?" He asked, Gale took the cigarette in between his fingers. "The fresh air, the birds in the trees? The colour? Don't you appreciate any of it?" He asked, gesticulating to the world around them.
"It means nothing to me, absolutely nothing." He responded, his voice cold, distant, and uncaring. Alban caught sight of Corona approaching from up the path. "What made you think I would enjoy this?"
"Because you're always inside." Alban responded immediately, but he then realised he didn't think his answer through.
"Why do you think that is?" The young man was left wordless as Corona came up to them.
"How are we doing today?" She asked, earning a grunt from Gale, and a speechless look from Alban. The man shook his head and got up off the bench.
"This is a waste of time, I should have been at a major meeting today. A battle and a half to get him out here, and what's it all worth." Alban spoke as if his father wasn't even there. Gale raised an eyebrow as the conversation carried on seemingly, once again, unaware of its subject's presence. "This all might as well not exist to him."
"We got him outside, that's a step in the right direction." Corona argued, Alban just shook his head.
"He doesn't care about himself, why would he care about those who love him?" Alban insisted, he shook his head, he pretended to check the time quickly, hiding his face. "I need to go, businesses don't run themselves. I cant keep helping him, It's bad enough I see him so often when he doesn't give a shit."
Alban swiftly donned a set of sunglasses. Not even saying goodbye as he left.
Corona watched the man walk away. His feet kicked up stones, his fists buried deep in his pockets. She rubbed her arms, suddenly feeling watched, then she noticed Gale looking at her rather than him.
"You make my job difficult, Gale." She said softly, sitting down beside him, she turned her body towards him. "You're going to push him away."
"Good." He responded.
"Don't say that you don't mean it." She said to him firmly. "It's one thing him hearing his dad loves him, but seeing is believing, Gale. He needs to see that love from you."
"He doesn't have time for me. Why should I give a shit?" He responded sharply.
"Because you don't give him time, Gale." Corona took a deep breath. "And technically he does come over whenever he can, to see you. You know the Mayfair Corporation isn't based here anymore don't you?"
Gale looked at Cory confused. He couldn't work it out. He couldn't work out why. She might have well spoken to him in Italian
"He always comes, sometimes hours out of his way to see you. Sometimes it takes him the whole day just to pop in to give you your drink and cigarettes. You're his father, and he's your son. You've been through a lot and you need each other. Show him some love, and he will too."
"How the hell would you know that?" He growled, his eyes grew fierce and dark... Like they were compensating.
"Because he told me so, and your reaction tells me you already know that." She stood up slowly, and held her hand out to him. "Let's get you home."
The walk back was definitely a scenic one, but it didn't matter. The marketplace hustled with a bustling crowd. It seemed fluid and organic. Like a well rehearsed dance. Yet it didn't matter, Gale shut it all out. More so than normal. His mind mulled over many things. time travelled very quickly.
The best thing he'd seen all morning was his front door. Gale fumbled with his keys. It felt like hours he was standing there. He frowned at each one. They all looked so unfamiliar. Someone had been playing with him surely. Someone had to have been.
"You swap my keys?" Gale's voice was low. His voice was threatening.
"No. They're your keys." Cory replied. She had a concerned look.
"Has Alban swapped my keys?"
"Gale, these are your keys." She held her hand out, she tried to smile at the man, remind him she was a friend. "Can I try?"
He didn't give her a yes or a no. He just froze. Gale wanted to snap at her, wanted to tell her he was able, he could do it. Yet his heart cried, and it never stopped. She gently removed them from his hand. Immediately she was able to open the door.
Realisation hit him like a steam train, and that same realisation hit Cory as well.
"You haven't opened your door in a long time have you, Gale?" She asked softly. She could tell he was already feeling tired, for someone who does very little, anything can be alot. His strong walk was gone. He shuffled back into his flat. Cory put the keys back where they belonged. The hook had a rusted groove where they were always hung.
She found him in the radio room. He had sat down, his expression contorted in confusion. He looked ever so slightly lost. Cory plucked the case of meds from his desk, giving them a quick once over she held them out to him.
"I don't prescribe meds as a hobby, Gale. I gave you these to stop moments like this." She waited. It felt like a very long time. His eyes were empty.
He finally nodded. A slow one, barely noticeable. It was a twitch more than anything. Cory pressed them into his hand and rested her hand on his shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze and whispering a heartfelt goodbye.
Gale waited a minute. As the silence permeated the room only underlined by the faintest rumbles outside he came back to his senses. He let go of the meds, letting them drop to the floor and roll away somewhere.
Gale cursed himself. He let the anger take over. The frustration at life. The fury at the people around him. They were all lying to him, they had to be. About him as well! Swapping things over, how could they? How dare they invade his life every day, trying to stop him believing. How could they lie about the City to his face? How dare they.
He had let his frustration boil over as he began transmitting, he just let it fade away into nothing, it could have been done by a vicar to a silent congregation. Gale had felt the pull of the City even when he was transmitting. A long day for someone who does nothing is to do something. He could barely finish his transmission.
"You… You must return." He said, struggling. He took a deep breath. "Return to the City."
Gale really struggled shutting everything down. The order of operation was still clear in his mind like he was reading it straight from the manual, but his movements were slow. His actions sluggish, and it felt like doing a deadlift just raising his arms.
He could feel the solid floor beneath him even when he was stumbling to his room, the carpet at his feet gave at the gentle thud of boots on stone. He felt his body roar with pain as he crashed onto his bed. It was a pain that paralyzed. Never had he felt anything like it before. Gale let out held gasps and pained whines like an injured animal. His breath was short. His vision filled with black spots...
He panted as sleep claimed him.
He didn't go willingly this time...
----------------------------------------
He could feel the City around him, although at a distance, its ebbing call was drowned out by the song of the World Tree around him. In its notes he felt the gentle touch of peace. His pain began to fade, his breaths began to deepen. Although his heart still raced away, he smiled once more and opened his eyes once again.
This was his real home.
The single room was filled with memorabilia from his time in the city. From pictures of former inhabitants long parted, to shards of crystal of various purposes. He placed his fingers gently on one of the photos and at his touch the glass became clear, the picture gained its colour again, and the memories of that time returned to him. The crystal frame sparkled like a single piece of diamond. Its luster and brilliance scattered any light it caught, its surface was smooth and refined yet well worn. The man in it held a smile that screamed of happiness, the woman locked in his arms equally so…
And after a few minutes he found that surprisingly he did too. For a moment he was that man again, for a moment he could feel the excitement he felt. His blood pumped with his enthusiasm… His heart fluttered at his joy.
He thought he could feel… Her…
Yet the moment he reached for her she was gone again, and that man faded again into the recesses of memory. The smile faded, the excitement dwindled, the joy turned to misery and the enthusiasm became tedious.
"Tala…" He whispered sadly.
" Gale, help me."
He felt the usual pit in his heart reform. Slowly he plucked a pebble like stone from beside the photo, throwing it onto the ground. With a flash of brilliant light, it shattered into a dozen pieces. Each particle took a piece of that light with it as they floated back upwards. They hung in the air from the floor to just short of his eye level, and amongst the cloud she came.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
"Hello Gale." A voice spoke as the image of Tala appeared before him, coming to a whole from the glowing motes of dust. Her, long, dark brown hair flowed in an invisible breeze like water, random braids whipped like rope. Her face was thin, but still young, brilliant amber eyes locked straight into his. The image reached up and brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. Gale smiled back at her.
"Hello Angel. It's been a long time." He said as he leaned back against the room's wall. Her eyes followed his.
"You're looking well." She spoke, looking him up and down. Gale chuckled, he gave himself a look up and down. "Abit bedraggled but still good. You need to cut your hair, or atleast comb it."
"You say that every time." He said back practically laughing at this point. "I've got good news."
"I hope you have been keeping well, I really do. It has been far too long." She spoke almost on autopilot. To an outsider she was ignoring him. "But I hope you still understand why, has anything happened? Is Alban ok?"
"It's been two weeks, and Alban's still a brat with a god complex." A hint of sadness was in his voice, he craved for here to hear him. "Can I tell you the news?"
"I see, tell him, his Mother loves him, and to take care of you. I know what you can be like." Tala spoke almost from a script. "Don't think I don't love you, It's not that reason I'm gone Gale, I just… It never was quite home."
"There's another here, someone has returned to the City." He practically pleaded for her to respond to it. Tala smiled, but Gale knew it wasn't about that. "I'm so close."
"I have no regret's Gale. I never wish away what we had, no matter how hard it got and I hope we can have far more in the future. You were brilliant, and Alban deserves you. You're a better parent than I ever was." She said, she tried to keep that smile on her face the whole time. She had to try even harder to stop her eyes watering. It was a struggle Gale felt aswell.
"Don't say that. Ever." Gale said quite firmly, it wasn't how he'd scold Alban, it wasn't the way he'd say it at all. It was the way he used to…
Tala looked around, as if she was seeing a sight only she could see.
"It'll be nice if we could see this place how it was one day, we could find ourselves all here. A paradise of our own. Maybe… maybe this was what we were missing in the end." She whispered those last words. She didn't realise the camera had heard it.
"Gale I want you to be strong, don't ever stop-"
"I love you." Gale spoke over her, he held his hand out, the lights faded and the shards flew towards his hand, forming back into the pebble mid flight. They plopped softly into his hand as one entity. He thumbed its surface gently, he had not wished to hear what was next. His eyes took in its surface, it felt like he was still looking at her. his eyes prickled slightly. "Why didn't you wake up?"
"Am I intruding?" Carola asked from the threshold. Her hand rested on the doorway gently whilst her other gripped her flightboard.
"No… Not in any way." Gale responded with a feigned smile, he placed the stone in its place on the shelf. He turned to her, it was hard to discern what was on her mind.
"What was that yesterday?" She asked, pointing out at what looked like a distant golden nebula dominating the sky…
The headstone of something beyond conceiving…
"I don't know." Gale said simply. He turned the stone over in his hands.
"It's not happened before?" She asked. Gale had to think for a moment.
"Never. Not as far as I know. There was never anything like that on any tapestries or carvings. Its new." He moved to get a better look through one of the stone windows.. The nebula was flowing and undulating, like an aurora. Even now it still moved, it continued to blow against the city very gently. It added its song to the City's own. Its chords were alien, its sounded ethereal. "I don't think it will harm us. It probably did some damage, well a lot."
"What do you mean damage?" Carola asked, looking a bit concerned now. Gale Leaned on the stone windowframe. He could feel its surface beneath his skin, nice and cold.
"As in damage, Y'know damage?" He mimed something breaking apart. "Smashed, broken, people screaming? Damage."
"I'm not an idiot Gale." Carola said in a very monotone voice, she was not amused. "Get to the point."
"Whatever it was doesn't really matter at this point, neither does it matter why. We can spend all our nights pondering what it was. However, I'm worried about the City itself, not what's in it. Don't matter how strong your walls are if your foundation's shit, if you know what I mean."
"You think this is what's going to end all this?"
"Certainly hasn't done it any good. We need this place, more than ever." Gal looked at the distant skyline. "I mean look what we can build. Look what we have built before the modern age came about. And I don't just mean in here. Look at the wonders of the ancient world. The marvels of the industrial revolution. People dreamed, and they made wonderous things all because of this. What do we have nowadays? Nothing even worth mentioning."
Carola looked at him, for a moment he seemed older, a lot older. There was wisdom in his words, like he had experienced some of those marvel's first hand.
"You really believe that dont you?" She asked. Gale only nodded, remaining silent. Even he didn't know the thoughts that rushed through his mind. Like threads of twine unraveling and intertwining one by one. Something was coming to fruition
Carola continued to watch him. Gale's eyes had narrowed, his fingers were drawing strange symbols on the window frame. He continued on like that for quite a while, completely unaware she was still there. Eventually he stopped, but just kept looking out at the vast skyline. It was like he was waiting…
For something.
"What is this place?" She finally asked, Gale noticed she still hadn't fully entered, even after all this time.
"This is my home, here anyway. Closest to a proper home I've had in years." He responded simply. He noticed her quirk an eyebrow. "It used to be a shrine."
"To what?" She asked, gesturing if she could come in. Gale gave a quick nod.
"Life." He answered as she entered, she leaned her flightboard against the wall quietly. "It's the one thing we all have in common… That we are alive… And that we're human, but that would be boring and graphic. Why celebrate differences that some people can't fathom when we can celebrate what we all have in common."
Carola nodded slowly. They were silent for a while, Gale felt the need to address the elephant in the room.
"Why'd you find me?" He asked. It wasn't like he minded.
"It's a vast empty City, stuff like this can make anyone feel uneasy." She responded. Gale chuckled before she could continue, earning a faint scowl. "Only so many times you can find another abandoned room in another abandoned tower before you wonder whether there was a reason people felt the need to leave, or if it was too beautiful for people to stay…"
"The City never wanted to harm anyone." He said, he sat on a carved root of the World Tree. The carved wood was comfier than any seat in the real world. "You shoulda' seen it in its prime!" He laughed. Her eyebrow quirked at him again. Gale's face turned serious once more. "Would you like to see it?"
Carola only nodded, Gale silently raised his hand. With just the slightest of thoughts another stone flew from the shelf, this one far more worn, the only item still cast in the decay even after landing in his palm. Wear and tear could not be undone. Just like the previous stone he cast it on the floor.
The image it produced was far clearer than the one that showed Tala. Like the camera was on the wings of a bird it flew through a city adorned with spires so pure and untouched, their surfaces were an almost dazzling array of colours. Each tower was perfect in form. They all glowed with a graceful light, scattering their radiance from one to the next, they all worked together for the better whole. The skyways and causeways cast between them danced with all the colours imaginable, like they contained rainbows that flowed from building to building, running through the causeways that glistened like diamonds. Layers and layers of intricacies and details would appear and fade into one another as the camera made its way through the city. Banners of unique patterns and symbols hung almost sprinkled across the cityscape. Metal arches rose, flanking the many clean streets, Shardships skimmed the pathways between them, moving like cars across the land.
Countless black dots moved around the city, flying between the spires, walking the causeways, even riding flightboards or ShardShips. They met with one another, they huddled together, they passed each other. There was no hostility, there was no ignorance. Everyone moved with purpose, and they welcomed those that did too.
The camera swooped in, flying between the arches of viaducts, weaving around the causeways, down boulevards of clear carved crystal racing the flowing spectrums of light. Facets covered all the floors like paving tiles, glimmering and glistening like a giant geode, their surfaces were engraved with beautiful images and moments caught from time. People walked upon the memories of their ancestors. The flowing light made them seem to live and animate.
Causeways rose up from the City's boulevard of giants and rose high, clinging upon the walls of the great canyons. They too were gilded with patterns and providence, and seemed too to live, snaking their way between the spires like they had purpose. They shone with a vibrance unparalleled as they were gifted by the City's own light. Skyways spanned even higher above, hanging delicately between each spire, they hung almost on the air itself. Occasional columns rose from below, pulsating with the City's light to let it flow high above. Monuments rose to become like great obelisks along the causeways and skyways. Each varied in colours across the spectrum, each capped with a glowing crystal that flared brightly like living fire, scattered more light throughout the city.
The light, and the colours it brought, moved and traversed the surfaces of the towers like it was alive...
Trees grown from marble or metal rose and grew with budding flowers that twinkled in the dawning light. People waved at them as they flew by, adorned in FlightSuits or regular clothes of all designs and colours, ranging from smart suits to elegant kimonos and decorated burkas. The City was filled with a world's worth of culture and people.
Suddenly the camera tilted upwards towards the dawn sky, its hues were magnitudes more vivid...
It rushed past skyways and causeways, flashing past overhangs and turrets leaning from the spires. It rose into the highest reaches, the tips of a thousand steeples fell away. The view tilted down to an expansive City, far larger present, glistening in the sunlight, stretching to the fogbound horizon in one direction, and to the great ocean in the other and beyond. The City's heart sat ever proud, ever glowing, rising like a crown upon this palace, only dwarfed by a massive mountain beyond, untouched by the City scape, it rose like a dormant monolith hewn from solid crystal. Massive shardcraft of stone and crystal rose from the DreamYard on the ocean's shore, flying amongst their brethren around the City…
And far in the distance, across the ocean a tall tower of light rose. It shone like a beacon from the distant world tree. Its flowers and leaves scattered the light from the sun, catching it and lifting it high into the sky, deep into the roofs of the fog high above. They twinkled like a thousand gems, and through its roots, they fed the City with every colour imaginable.
In the distance eight beams of lesser light pulsed across the City, high above each and every spire. They delved deep into the fogbank, marking the way for all to find the City. In the deepest depths they found something.
Flashes of light echoed far across the ocean, the Heart's vanguard tower led the way across the ocean for everyone.
The display of true life and grace caught their breaths. Something was glorious about this place, seeing it made the knowledge of the City's decay even sadder. The colours had been muted. The light had faded to darkness. The towers had fallen, skyways collapsed…
The districts had gone, the trees had died, even the mountain had fallen into the abyss below.
The City of today was now near death...
The image faded from around them.
Gale stood up. His mind had continued to wonder.
"You see what I mean?" He said with sorrow rich in his voice.
"Yeah. I do now." Carola said meekly, her eyes were glazed over, she had been put under a spell and she too felt that same sorrow he did, she felt the anger as well. It was fury. Who could let something like this die?
Who would dare to betray our guiding hand?
Then she answered her own question.
We all could…
Gale reached his arm out, twisting his hand around anticlockwise as he did so. The image reappeared, backtracking through a time long past. He had seen something.
Gale stopped turning his hand.
He had a theory… Now he needed evidence.
He looked at his companion here in the City. He didn't know if he could trust her with the theories he had unravelling in his mind. He didn't know if she could make the hard decisions when the time came, or if she even truly felt the City was worth saving.
But she had believed in it, she had returned to it when no one else did. Carola had shown an interest in the City, and now she had shown mourning for its dying state.
He didn't trust her…
But he had to try...
Gale reached for the stone, it called forth its component parts as he plucked it carefully from the air. It was a memory, it was a record of what once was. It was valuable beyond anything. He held it out to the young woman. Her eye still glazed over from the experience.
"Why are you giving it to me?" She eventually asked, finally noticing the world around her again.
"Because most of my life that was the City I dreamt of…" He spoke warmly, almost at peace. She reached her hand out. "You never experienced it, or if you did it was long ago."
"I don't know if I want to see it like that in a projection…" She spoke quietly as she turned his gift over in her hand. She looked back at him. "Is there a way to get it back to that state?"
Gale smiled as she handed it back to him. He clenched his fist around the delicate stone. He nodded as he reached forward and placed it on her flightsuit, it stuck immediately like a magnet. He didn't give her a choice.
"I've had an idea of how we could achieve it... But I'm doubtful if it would work." He said, this would be the easy part… "But we must do something first."
The plan unravelled in his head faster and faster. He walked slowly to a large slab embedded in the wall. Its surface was covered with a large ornate diagram. The City hung in the middle, suspended in a ring of clouds, with eight smaller rings scattered apparently meaninglessly around it. The earth turned majestically above it, the marble itself flowed with ancient landmasses. He pointed at it, he took a moment to find the words.
"We need to find a way to make enough people at once see the city. Seeing is believing. When it's there, in plain sight, anyone who isn't an idiot would believe in it. That might be enough to save it. Buy it time, a year maybe more. Then with each generation the story of it will trickle down like it used to. With a generation of believers we might just guarantee Humanity's continued survival." Now for the hard part.
He turned back around, eyeing up the young woman who stood in front of him. He could see it in her eyes, the drive he held in the real world. Though like many things, he doubted if it would be strong enough to understand what truly had to be done.
But he had to try...
"And how do we do that?"
"You have to trust me first, it won't be easy."
"When is anything?" She said with an almost crafty smile. "Where do we start?"
"We find each other in the real world as a start…"