Within this city of false equality, there is one famous building that attracts many pilgrims from both Day and Night, the Winged Chapel. Its name comes from the large sculpted feather that surrounds the two facade towers, giving the impression of wings. The building has been closed to the public for some time as it is under constant repair.
Eclissi looked at the building with concern. I tried asking if there was something wrong, yet he remained silent.
He walked towards the entrance, a large oak wooden door finely engraved with gold. After placing a strange key into the lock, the doors slowly opened inwards revealing an endlessly empty and devoid world.
Eclissi muttered something underneath his breath that Mort was unable to hear. They were words of prayer to a deity that was watching over him, waiting to see the results of this courageous adventure.
My saviour entered through, telling me to follow closely behind. This was the first time that the Dark Knight had taken such precaution. Were his words of worry real?
This whole world was strange, almost as if it was perfect. Eclissi noticed my wonder and told me the truth of this dimension. "This is the Patterned World, made by a Conjurer whose name was erased from history. She was an individual obsessed with nature and perfection. This is what she conjured."
I noticed that each word his spoke became visible, very faintly. The more I looked arround, the more unnatural it looked. For a place built on the basis of perfection…it looked faulty. This place looked more like a child's impression of what perfection was, not that of an adult.
Above my head, the sky was arranged in the shape of a web. Stars formed the web, mimicking a spider's delicate silk, while orbiting one larger star. Touching the endless night sky were the circular tops placed on large cylinders. Superficial trees were placed on manufactured land structured out of hexagons to form a honeycomb.
The more I looked at this world, and the more I focused on the miniature details, the more clear it became that this wasn't perfection. It was a facade. But that wasn't all! The trees bore fruit made of glass that looked unripe and unappealing; the breeze of this land was obsolete, nonexistent; and the colour palette of this world…it was a mess.
As Mort analysed the world with more suspicion, Eclissi could feel his doubt. But before he could stop Mort from doubting this false world, a large roar erupted from above.
"Who dares criticise perfection?!" Shouting as loud as cannons firing nearly burst my eardrums. "Who who who who who who?" I looked up and could see a shapeless face forming up high above, beyond the star-web cage.
"Eclissi what is that!" There was an unusual excitement in my voice, which was probably from the fake bravery I showed.
"That's, that's the Conjurer. First name Cherahlee, last name not sure. Mort this is dangerous. From now on, refrain from mentioning anything about this world's principles."
The once mist figure now formed their own body, that of a woman in her late 30s. "You come unannounced into my home and ridicule my creation. Speak inferior mortals before I boil you alive in a vast salt sea." Her very words terraformed this land. Cracks began forming below my feet, perfect cracks of 90° angles.
"I beg you to take pity on me and my student. He is still young and yet to come to appreciate beauty when he sees it." Eclissi had knelt on one knee, placing his immense weapon aside.
"Why?" This ethereal goddess swirled around, making us feel like caged birds. "What's in it for me?" Although she no longer looked like one, the spirit of a Conjurer burned brightly in her.
"I can only offer-"
"We can offer perfection." Before Eclissi could finish talking, I blurted out a white lie.
"Oh? And what would a child know about this concept? Do tell, young one, I'm intrigued."
I gulped. What could I tell her that would spare us. I shifted my eyes, but all around me were the same trees and unchanging land. Unchanging? "You should consider adding biomes to create a perfect ecosystem."
Eclissi tugged at my shirt and whispered to me. "What are you doing?" I answered by shrugging.
"Biomes? What is your reasoning?" Cherahlee played with the web, tugging at it and creating a pleasing resonating sound, while focusing on me.
"Biomes are present everywhere in nature, be it in the dark abyss of the ocean or a dense forest."
The woman seemed pleased with that answer and even spun around with joy. "Good idea, Good idea kid. For such a good idea I just have to reward you. What would you like?"
What did I want? The Eyes of a Conjurer, but would it be fine to simply ask her that?
"The boy wishes for your awakened eyes madam." Eclissi spoke on my behalf and made my blunt request.
"Those old things? Sure." From the snap of her fingers, a fresh corpse preserved in amber rose from the ground. Time had been kind to this body as it still resembled a person and showed no aging. "The eyes, was it?" Chelahree made a small wax figure of herself which walked up to the body and plucked the two round objects with ease.
She handed the fresh pupils to Eclissi, who wrapped them in a strange piece of fabric. "Thank you." Chelahree dispersed the wax doll and her gas body too. "Mort let's go. We might get trapped forever if we stay here any longer."
We ran fast, trying to reach the warmth of the wooden door we had come from. The land behind slowly disappeared and decayed. Ecissi had to grab my arm and pull me as the ground underneath my feet fell too.
"Now, time to somehow graft those eyes into my skull."
Eclissi stopped all movement. "Mort, you shouldn't have said that…"
I was confused. "Why?" Eclissi pointed back to the wooden doors that were yet to be fully closed. Chelahree trying to push her body out of the doors. The knight barged into the door.
"Graft? Graft! Life giver! I need it!" The shrills of the insane individual were unbearable.
"Mort lock the door now!" Eclissi passed me the key and I rushed. I locked the door and all the banging stopped, as if the space beyond didn't exist anymore.
"Did we really have to go through all that trouble? Couldn't we have just bought a pair from some shady backalley?"
Eclissi chuckled at my question. "You're still young so you don't know, and probably wouldn't know even if you were an adult. You don't just die if you're a Conjurer. Your body gets pilfered for any useful material and sold or used in experiments. Those sold parts are then tracked and so on. What we needed was untraceable eyes," he said as he pointed to the fabric.
****
Eclissi and I were sat down at the table we met last time, staring down at the package. "Now what?" I asked.
"Not sure, I haven't thought about the actuall grafting process. You might want to practice on a rodent or a fish first, to not blind yourself." You'd think the idea of having someone else's eyes would feel taboo, but I already had that vial full of souls. Compared to that, this was somewhat normal.
"So…I just need to take out a rat's eyes and place them back in…right?"
"No, first you need to insert your elemental energy into the rat then do the process."
"Wait so my body really possesses Death Energy?" I was surprised. Could I really have taken the life of my friends if I let my anger free.
"You can call it that I guess, but it's more complicated. At this moment in time, the energy within you is linked with death and surviving," Eclissi saw my confused face and sighed, "While yes, it can be used to kill someone, it can also stop someone from dying if they were at that point. The amount of time they would survive depends on how much of the energy you input."
"So to graft these eyes, I would need to approach death, stop death for some time, and then do the procedure…You know, this sounds impossible."
"Not even approaching death, I just used that as an example. You would stop your body from experiencing death, even if it was momentarily."
"Like invincibility?"
Eclissi smiled at that question. "Yes, like invincibility. For that small amount of time your body would use the energy to regenerate any damages. And that is what we will be relying on for this." he said as he pointed to the eyes.
I pondered for a few minutes. "Give me a few days to try and practice this. Then we'll do the transplant. What would happen to my original eyes?"
"They have their own important role to play, which they can fulfil only if we succeed in this." The knight bid his farewells and left, leaving the pair of supposedly awakened eyes. To stop death…how on earth do I do that?
It was school break so I had time to practice. I first started by trying to visualise this energy, trying to give it physical properties. "Dead people go underground…but brown wouldn't be that intimidating. Grass grows on the piles of dirt, green could work…"
This was impossible. It was now the second day and I still had no visual representation, not even a mental image. If I keep doing this I'm never going to use this mystical energy. I needed to try a different approach. What if instead of visualising it, I needed to try and actually use it to understand it.
I went outside and searched for any bug or small creature that would be unfortunate enough to partake in my experiments. I found an assortment of mollusks and ants. As I placed the first subject on the table, I placed my index finger on the ant and wished it death. Agitated, the insect started to move haphazardly, until it froze up and stopped moving.
Within moments, the bug died as I commanded. I was terrified. Sure this was only a bug, but I wished it would die and it did. No sole human should be in possession of such power. But then I got excited. This was thriffling. That same taboo power made me feel finally important. I chose my next subject.
This time it was a snail. I placed it in a prison of salt and touched its shell and wished for its death. Although it was a gentle press, it was still an efficient kill. It took it slightly longer to die, probably due to not enough energy and its larger body. But then I had an idea. Could I 'contain' the killing to a singular point. The snail was dead, but so was the shell.
My 3rd subject was another snail, this time with a large and beautiful shell. This time, I invoked some words too. I said 'Kill' under my breath, while still touching the snail, but only wishing for the slimy body to die, not the shell. It seemed perfect at first, but as I inspected the shell, I saw cracks had formed. This was a dud, for now.
My last subject was a slug, around 10cm long. I did the same as before, but as I could still see signs of despair, I placed my finger again and told it to stop. The results of this experiment gave me some hope. The snail's condition improved rapidly, and the ill spots that appeared on it disappeared. I had saved this small and insignificant creature from death…that was caused by me.
I released it back into the wild, while placing the dead insects in my yard for other bugs and predators to feast on them. The next subject I'd need would be something that could see to get the best results. A flock of pigeons flew past my window and I found my next target. The problem? Catching it.
Over the course of several hours, I tried to catch one of these flying pests only to end in failure. But then I saw a different bird, a lone chicken. I grabbed the bag of bread crumbs I had and tempted the flightless bird, eventually to the point of catching it. The issue now was getting the bird home. Maybe not, it would make too much of a mess.
I made my way to the forest on the outskirts of the city, and found a little secluded area surrounded by vegetation. Making my way here was embarrassing because of the chicken. I tied its legs with rope and placed it on the ground. Getting to this point I felt fine, but now, seeing the creature on the ground thrashing, I started feeling terrible.
"Now or never." I whispered to myself as I place my finger on it and imbued my energy. "Stop death." I gave the simple command and rapidly gouged the creature's eye out. It didn't react, and was rather docile. I waved my finger and it followed it using its other eye. Next, I placed the eye back into place and hoped for the best.
It took a minute, but the eye connected back the nerves and was securely in place. I did the finger test again, and the chicken used its implanted eye to look at it. Success!
"Well done test subject 5. You're free." I let the chicken go. This was enough testing for now, the next part was visualising the energy. Before I was trying to assign its properties, now I'll try to find its natural characteristics. For this, I'd need the help of the Soul Vial.
My plan was simple. I wanted to surround myself with the souls to be close to beings associated with the dead. Maybe this would be the catalyst to understanding this energy.
My parents seemed concerned for the long spans of time I would disappear, but I reassured them I was fine. My new brother showed the most concern, even though I had no recollection of him. I pushed all doubts aside. Those indescribable feelings were undesired at this moment as I was about to attempt something probably stupid.
At midnight, I made my way outside and decided to go back to the same secluded area in the forest. The Night citizens were out interacting with one another and when they saw me, they thought I was one of them. People would salute me when I walked past them.
I made it to the forest without issue and started preparing. I cleared any sticks or stones and sat down on the ground. I placed the vial in front of me and some candles around me to try and improve the mood. I would have lit them, but all the matches I had failed and was unable to light them.
I took the vial and removed the top. Many spirits rushed out and surrounded me, yelling cries of many emotions, some cried from pain and others cried for revenge. The noise was hard to ignore. I tried to but it was always there in the background.
"How could you have so much energy when you're dead!" And that's when it clicked for me. Death was only a concept to humans and mostly always represented as the end of everything. Nature contradicts that. In front of my eyes were countless souls still kicking after going through that process.
What if…what if Death wasn't just an end, but the beginning of life too? If it was really the end, then how could spirits exist? How could animals eat one another and reproduce?
My understanding of this concept had given me the ability to see it- to see the energy of Death. It was a light gray, reminiscent of ash. Not a pure black that devoured positivity and not pure white that would only fill a person with lucid positivity. It was a neutral mix of the two.