Hindsight

History is humor thrown down on the timeline of human existence.

Sitting in the ruins as I gaze upon the final breaths of those around me, I find myself wishing that we'd kept the history books in a safer place. The truth of the matter is that we never know the right decision until the worst possible outcome has already occurred. The cinged pages of our history lay in the ashes at my feet while the pages still turned in my mind. A yearning desire to rewrite the pages fills my soul, to create the phoenix from the ashes from my own history. For this, I must start at the very beginning. The first days of my people’s own civil war laid its waste during the same time your own lands were in the midst of their own battles.

I am a third generation protector of the barrier between my world and yours. I knew the history of the world from the moment my life began, the pages implanted in my own mind so as to not repeat the mistakes of the generations that came before me. Failure was destined, an inescapable fate... but I believed that I would be the one to change the destructive generational cycle ever plaguing our land. I believed in my heart that without her I would be stronger, that I would be better on my own. I thought that I could only change my own destiny if I vowed to never let anyone in. How cruel are those words I wrote to myself… Now, I am alone in my own realm of existence and she is a realm away from me, only to be remembered in the pages of my own mind...

I hope that I can do well to record everything I can remember. All I ask is that you protect these stories better than we protected our own.

-Dhara

I stood in the ruins of what used to be my home, our home. Embers from the flames of the apocalypse are still visible in the ashes of the world around me. I only stand here alive now because I was able to make it to the shelters. I did not stop nor take anyone with me, because my need for survival was my greatest sin. However, my instinct for self-preservation was the only thing that kept me alive. Now it is up to me to prepare the world for the next generation that the gods send down upon the earth.

I ran over to her, my sister, my twin as she laid among the history books taking her last solemn breaths. I placed my hand over her eyes and gave her back to the gods from which she came. Could I have been more to her? If only I had not been so convinced that I could keep us away from this day on my own.... She was so much smarter than I. If I had simply gone to her then maybe we could have prevented this day together, I thought as I took the knife from my black riding boot and made a cut behind my sister’s right ear. This is where it would be. The final words that my sister left for me. I used the knife to lift the skin and took out her chip, though I was not ready yet to hear what those words might be. I slipped the chip into the pocket of my skirt and stood up. It was time to bury the dead and relieve them of their suffering in the final way that I could.

As I arose I caught the light that hit my sister’s heart-shaped locket. I carefully removed it from her neck and opened it to find a photo of us from when we were young and inseparable. I took her chip out of my pocket and put it inside the locket that I clasped around my neck. The heaviness of the locket weighed against my chest. This constant reminder of the sister that I had turned away, and the protector of her final words for me, now rested over my own heart until I was ready to hear them. I had to take the time to release my sister from her body now that her life was complete. I knelt down and took my sister into my arms.

Carrying her through the wreckage that was once our home, I made my way to where our former library once stood. This was Aloquia’s favorite place to spend her life and I knew this was the one place her life would end peacefully. I laid my sister on the library chair while I swept the glowing embers together. This would be where the soul was separated from the body for my sister, the one thing in a life of wrongs that I would be certain to do right. I carefully lifted her again in my arms and laid her cold body across the warm embers.

Kneeling next to her, I blew on the embers until the smoke rose around her body, and began to say the prayer of our people for the gods to accept her soul.

“To those who have lost their lives,

Those who have taken their final breaths,

To you, my dear sister,

Our love travels with you,

To the place of the gods you will travel,

Where you will rest for all of your days,

Where the ancestors shall greet you,

In the warmth of their open arms,

Go in peace sister with my blessings.”

I sat while the tears of closure ran down my face, watching the smoke rise and carry my sister’s soul with it. I stayed by her side until the smoke fell away and my sister was no longer. I stood and brushed the soot off of my lap, wiping the final tears from my face. Survival now needed to be my only end. I must find survivors and continue the line of this world. It was our destiny that we all would fall, so I needed to make my survival count. If I had survived, there might be more survivors to find. I took one final look at the ruins of my childhood home and made my way to see what I would find in the world ahead.

Looking out into the world, I saw more smoke rising. Was someone else putting their dead to rest? The smoke looked maybe three miles away but I had to make it if I had any chance of continuing my family line. Out in the distance I heard the comforting sounds, “Neigh.” Could it be possible? Did one of our horses survive the fires? I ran to where our stables once stood to find two of them only grazed by fire as though a gift from the gods.

“Praise Cernunnos.” I shouted as I saw before me at the end of the stables my sister’s own horse, Artemis. The final gift she would bestow upon me at the end of her life. I felt her warmth leading me and her determination flowing through my veins. Grabbing the reins from the untouched area of the stables, I climbed onto Artemis ready to start my journey to find the other survivors. Clutching the locket hanging over my chest, I rode with speed and determination.

The smoke was getting closer and closer. When I could finally get a look for myself, I dismounted and walked to a safe spot where I could get a glimpse of whomever had survived. I kneeled behind a fallen wall and watched yet another kneel before his loved ones as their souls rose. I waited until the end of his prayer before I stood again. The passing of the dead’s souls should be honored. As the man rose, his standing looked familiar before me. The dark brazen red of his head and the clasp that held his boot.

“Elgin!” I nearly shrieked as I threw myself over the remains of the wall between us realizing that my childhood friend stood before me alive.

“Dhara!” Elgin ran towards me throwing ourselves in embrace. A solace comfort from all the disaster that we had witnessed.

I felt a comfort that I did not feel I deserved when everyone else was surrounding us laid to waste.

“Was it your father and mother that you were praying over, my dear Elgin?”

“Yes, I found them among the wreckage. I have no idea how I survived. I thought I was completely alone.”

“Did you receive their last words?”

“Yes, I took them before the prayers but I have no way of hearing them without the readers.”

“I have my sister’s last words as well.” I showed him my locket and he put his parent’s chips within it as well.

“We must find a way to hear what these hold.”

“Maybe we could travel to the city holdings and see if any of the technology survived.”

“Dhara, did any of your horses survive?”

“Yes, Artemis is just outside. Do you have any way of travel or should we share the ride?”

“I believe that from now on, we must ride together in everything.”

So, we rode. We rode all the way to the city holding buildings. When we arrived the ruin surrounded the one building that was nearly still standing after all of the destruction. All else had fallen before the entrance to the building. Elgin and I dismounted and made our way towards the building. There was no getting through the main entrance, so we made our way to a broken window on the lower level. The smoke had damaged nearly everything inside the building. We nearly lost hope until I saw one player still together under one of the desks. I ran towards it.

“Elgin! It is working! You must come at once.”

I placed Elgin’s fathers message first and before us the hologram of his father appeared speaking to us. “Elgin, I am sorry for the events that have taken place. You have been protected. In the beginning of our reign on this timeline, only two could be chosen to be saved. You and Dhara must stay together and you will begin a new world. Up north you will find a place untouched by the fires where you may begin your life. Good luck my son. I love you in this life and the next.”

Elgin and I stood still, looking at one another. What did he mean, that we had been chosen?

“Dhara, play your sister’s chip. Maybe she has more information.”

I took my sister’s chip out of the locket and placed it in the player. I felt myself gasp as her hologram stood before me. “Dhara, I do not have much time to make this recording. The fires have already begun. I believe with all my heart that you will find Elgin. I must tell you though that you are not the only two that will survive. I have put our brother, our triplet, into hiding since his birth. You must go to him now!”

I had a brother. How did I not know? Was this the missing piece that I had felt all of my life?

“Elgin, we must go now to the north. We will find him there. We must!”

To be continued…..