Doorway


    "Just down here," Aylia said softly.  She tugged on the sleeve of her new
black robe as she walked down the stone corridor.
    The man following behind her chuckled.  "All that really isn't necessary."
    "I know," she said shortly.  "But I don't want to go back on this.  I want
some--thing.  Some confirmation that I..."  She sighed.  "I don't know."
    "I think I understand, actually.  There was a saying in my time, 'Clothes
make the man'.  Perhaps you should think about it sometime."
    She glanced back, annoyed.  "Then what does that make you?"
    Her companion glanced down at his featureless, soft gray shirt and
strangely close-fitting blue pants.  "Comfortable."  He laughed again.
    They walked on for a time.  "I don't even know your name," she said.
    "I have many times."
    Aylia glared back again.  "Is it always riddles with you?"
    "Of course."
    "I might have known," she muttered.  "But come on, I have to call you
something."
    He raised his eyebrows.  "So?"
    "So...I don't know."  She waved one hand vaguely.  "Pick one."
    "Ah, pick a name.  All right."  He sounded satisfied.  "Trevel."
    "Fine.  Here we are, Trevel."  They stopped where a long black stone,
perhaps obsidian, was embedded in the wall.  Trevel stepped up beside her,
folded his arms, and looked.  After a moment, she frowned.  "Well?"
    "Well what?"
    "Aren't you going to *do* anything?" she almost yelled.
    "After he leaves."
    "After who--huh?"  Aylia blinked as she heard footsteps approaching.
After several seconds, one of the researchers came into view, in one of the
stained white work suits that it seemed like they had to wear by law.  He
nodded to them and stepped up to the stone with a grin, apparently not
noticing their manner of dress.
    "Might have it this time."  The researcher took a deep breath, and then
let it out.  "All right.  Guardian of the Darkness, I call upon you to let me
pass!"
    Slowly the stone shifted and pulsed, humps and mounds protruding from its
surface.  Aylia shivered as she watched them form a vague human face.  She'd
seen it many times, but it still touched some core of fear inside her.
    "What is the darkness?" the face moaned softly.
    The researcher held up a scroll.  "The darkness is that which is inside
us but we never see!"  He looked up expectantly.
    "Where is the darkness?" the face continued.
    "Behind us, inside is, and around us," he replied.
    "Who is the darkness?"
    The researcher swallowed.  "The darkness is the universe itself which
surrounds us and holds us."
    The face moaned again.  Then, after a moment, its features began to lose
definition.  The stone smoothed out until it was blank once again.
    The researcher stared at it for a few moments.  Then he sagged, and turned
back the way he came.  Without even a backward glance at them or a word
goodbye, he left.
    Aylia looked at her companion, and saw a sad smile on his face.  "How
long have they been this close?" he asked.
    "Years," she replied.  "Maybe decades.  I forget exactly."
    "My, my.  So close, and yet so far, to use a cliche."  He stepped up to
the stone and ran his fingers along the surface, then turned back to smile at
her.  "Well?  Ready to look in the back of the book for the answers?"
    Aylia swallowed.  "I don't have any idea what you're talking about.  But
I'm ready."
    "Ah, of course.  My mistake."  Trevel turned back to the stone.  "Guardian
of the Darkness, let me pass," he said softly.
    The face formed again--more quickly this time?  "What is the darkness?"
    "That which we never see, but is always with us," he replied.
    "Where is the darkness?"
    "Deep within us, hiding from sight, yet everywhere we look."
    "Who is the darkness?"
    Trevel took a moment to look back at Aylia, and smiled as he spoke, eyes
shining.
    "I am the darkness."
    The face moaned again...but this time, its mouth opened wider.  And wider,
and wider still until it took up the whole face, and the stone rippled back
until there was just a hole in the wall.
    Aylia blinked.  "What?  You?"
    "Not just me.  Everyone."  He sighed, and shook his head.  "How could so
much have been lost?  I really just--it just sucks, you know?"
    "What?"
    "Never mind."  He stepped into the hole.  Alyia blinked as he immediately
vanished.  "Come on," his voice floated back.  "You want to learn it all,
don't you?"
    Alyia took a breath, shakily.  "Blood, heal me," she whispered.  She made
the sign across her forehead, and felt the power awakening, comforting her.
"Fear, change me."  The sign of wind drawn down to her chest, and the fear was
no longer compressing her from the outside, but she was one with it.  "Belief
will always save me..."  The old chant completed, her eyes opened once again.
    She believed, and stepped inside.


=====

Author's note

Well, it made sense to *me*.  Hopefully it wasn't *too* obscure that no one
else got it...^_^;

John Evans
jevans@alum.mit.edu


The Sunburst Project, Week 5
http://www.chaoseed.com/btr/sbp/
4/13/00