sparkled with an earthly sweetness as she savored a succulent apple and a juicy peach. Afterward, thanking the host with a bow, she left the Dining Hall.
Walking across the beautiful isle was serene in itself, but Lythina felt a nagging thought tug at the back of her mind. What was she doing here, really? Was she planning on gardening for the rest of her life, at least while she lived on the isle? The opportunity to live among this exquisite land with these generous people was greater than anything she could have ever dreamed; it was like Heaven on earth. But everyone here had already progressed to a higher level of spirituality than her; that’s why they found the isle without difficulty. They were finished with Hyrendell.
But she wasn’t; she felt it in her soul. Besides, she almost didn’t make it to the isle at all. God had cradled her back to life so she could experience the peace of this land, like a glimpse of the divine realm. And though she wanted to stay on the isle, to soak in the tranquility forever, it was an unrealistic thought. She couldn’t just let the people of Hyrendell suffer, not after hearing the disheartening prophecy from the Oracle. A legendary king from the past was to return, and her destiny was intertwined with his. No matter how hard she tried to refuse it, she was going to be part of the revolution.
“That’s it! That’s why you sent me here, isn’t it,” she said to the sky. “I admit that I didn’t want to change, God, but that tyrant king must be stopped. If a just king is supposed to return, then I’ll help him. But I am nothing without You. Only through you, God, can any peace return to Hyrendell.”
But if she was going to revolt against the tyrannical king, she would need a set of skills beyond the normal villager. Back at home, she’d had sword training with some of the men who lived near her. They’d shown her proper stances and parries and disabling cuts, and she’d quickly excelled at disarming the boys her age. Yet, it would take more than mere swordplay to fight against the kings military. Besides, most of the people in Hyrendell Village didn’t know how to battle at all; it would be a slaughter.
“I need something more,” she concluded.
She found a marble bench to sit upon while she gathered her thoughts. When she was younger, there had been times during heightened emotion that she’d seen a bluish glow flash from her body, but she presumed it was nothing more than an ancient inheritance; some kind of old magick that lingered inside her blood. Yet, as she grew into her own faith, she dismissed her family’s natural religion and fell more in line with God as a single deity. Therefore, magick was irrelevant because she’d come to believe that the gospel held more power.
Although, her grandmother had told her how God created other spiritual beings to help Him around the earth. And she had learned through her own studies that magick was a natural force. What if God created magick to unify nature? That would mean that all of God’s creation is magical, right?
Her head began to throb. She sighed, feeling her mind relax itself and her breathing subside. She had to rest, but she didn’t want to sleep, so she sank slowly into a subtle meditation, reaching toward the ether that lay just beyond her consciousness. Focusing on soft, quiet breaths, she succumbed to the whisper of the wind along the grassland, and the distant chirps of the birds. Her thoughts meshed into a blur of feeling. Inside her mind, she started to see the infinite Universe, countless stars twinkling in the depths of darkness. Her awareness of her skin, and her hands, and her toes began to expand. She let the Universe take her to become the bench she was sitting on, the blades of grass around her feet, the bees and ladybugs crawling over the plants beside her.
Lightly, she pushed her mind away from the Universe inside her head, escaping the confines of her corporeal body. Instantly, her consciousness could perceive everything around her simultaneously, observe the island crater with perfect clarity; she became the wind that gently combed through her hair and the sunlight that nourished the flora. And after a short while, she gently pulled her consciousness back into her body. Her awareness shrank to include only herself, and she slowly opened her eyes.
“Wow.”
She glanced around to see if anyone had noticed her, but only a few inhabitants were walking far off in the distance. She’d never had a meditation that deep, and she wondered if that happened to everyone here. Fortunately, she knew where to find the answer.
She crossed the crater at a steady pace, each step landing with precision, until she reached Residence One. Inside, the main desk was empty. For the first time, there was no one waiting for her. It was slightly depressing. But she had to find Radna; that girl knew everything. There could be a number of places that she might’ve gone. Lythina didn’t know where she lived, but she remembered how Radna had told her that some friends of hers lived above the Librarium. Instantly, she was out the front entranceway.
But something stopped Lythina in her tracks. She didn’t know which of the numerous buildings she hadn’t visited was the Librarium. Her intuition sparkled inside her, pointing toward a columned structure to the left. It glimmered in the sun, and the daylight reflected off the marble supports of a domed atrium. She headed for it at once. When she reached the building’s colonnade deck, she sprang up the steps and paced through the entrance.
An inhabitant sitting behind the crescent entryway desk greeted her at once. “Good afternoon. Welcome to the Librarium.”
“Hello,” Lythina smiled with a bow, which was becoming increasingly instinctive, “I’m looking for someone. Do you know where I might find Radna?”
“Oh, certainly,” the inhabitant replied. “She’s up on the rooftop. Please, take the spiral stairs. They’ll lead you straight up. I’m sure she’ll be delighted to see you.”
With another grateful bow, Lythina moved past the desk to a grand spire staircase set in the middle of the lobby. Its circumference was absolutely daunting. Leaning in toward it, she gazed up its massive length until she found daylight breaking through the rungs. A jolt of anxiety punched her stomach, but an unusual sense of exploration pushed her on. Before she knew it, her feet were climbing themselves up the stairs, and she watched as the Librarium floors drifted past. Wide-eyed and nervous, she finally reached floor five at the end of the spire.
It opened up into the center of an enormous atrium filled with flourishing plant life. She noticed five separate pathways leading from the staircase, and gazed around at the vibrant colors of flowers. Mixed among them were sporadic bushes and trees, some almost reaching the distant arched rooflines. The immensity of it all made her dizzy.
Concentrating on the steady marble floor, she stepped from the stairs and chose the path straight ahead of her. She glided down it, listening to a few birds chime away inside a nearby birch tree. The end of the pathway, framed by two of the massive columns that shaped the atrium’s dome, opened out onto the roof of the Librarium. And from her left came the sounds of conversational laughter, which she headed for at once.
The height above the landscape made Lythina nervous to walk along the rooftop. She could see over the ringed hills, impossibly far out to sea, and the entire view made her footsteps unsteady. She walked with her hands out to her sides, as if she was about to tip over.
“Lythina!” Radna’s cheerful voice shouted. She was sitting at a collection of benches with some other inhabitants. “Over here. Come join us!”
“Hi, Radna! I’ve been looking for you,” she replied. When she reached the benches, she quickly found one and sat down, as if it was going to float away.
“Lythina, this is Jonas, Riley and Emma.” She motioned to the other benches, where a man and two ladies were sitting. “Everyone, this is Lythina.”
“It’s nice to have you here,” Emma said. She
