Loyalter's Curse

The pendent hung from his neck, an upside down heart made of black glass. It cast a swinging shadow on his chest. It was difficult to fathom the power it held. I watched the sand inside of it swirl as if it were alive. Which it was…sort of. That is if you count the catatonic state of floating around as a grain of sand in a creepy magic locket as being alive.

“Hessia I can feel you staring at it” his voice broke the silence.

I jolted at the sound of my brother’s voice, as he hadn't spoken in several weeks.

“I’m sorry.” I said sheepishly. “I still get wrapped up in it. It’s a lot to come to terms with”

He tsked “It’s been three years maybe you ought to stop trying to understand things beyond your realm of comprehension”

He hadn’t said it to be slighting; although the remark stung, he was right.

Alto was the Loyalter. A being chosen centuries before his birth by his predecessor and believed by most of the world to be nothing but a fable. I could never forget the legends I was told growing up. I could still hear them like storybooks in my dad’s voice… “The Loyalter holds great powers that you and I will never understand. Powers of knowledge unlike any other. The Loyalter cannot lie, deceive or trick. He is born blind, with no irises and no pupils, he sees with a vision of pure white. His purpose is to be but a bearer of a painful encumbrance and that burden is simply pain in of itself. The pain of the mind of man. His existence is to sustain the most complex of the world’s mental anguishes. He is connected to each being and suppresses each’s soul's pain for if he didn’t every mind would slowly consume itself in its own turmoil”.

Sadly the only difference between the stories and Altos reality was that no one ever wrote of the locket of souls. Maybe that was because no one ever thought the world would reach a point where a Loyalter would have to use it. But here we were. Me and my brother, me and the Loyalter, me and this magical being that held the power to pause the world, me and the man who used that power because the world gave him no choice.

We spent most days of the last three years doing nothing. Alto would lay in the dirt, face towards the sky, clutching the locket of souls as if he were warming the people trapped inside it. He would lay for hours on end, unmoving.

I asked him once, a year back after we had been arguing, why he kept me out of the locket. He simply said, ‘Despite what you have been told I am aloud a weakness’ he didn’t say anything else on the matter and at first I thought it was my being his sister that sparked some sort of protective nature. Maybe he didn’t want me to suffer whatever fate the inside of that locket held but after mulling it over I realized what he had meant. Alto’s weakness was being alone.

“I’m going to gather some kindling..” He rose off the log he was sitting on and made his way towards the exit of the cave.

“Is that all?”

“I’m sorry, did you need anything else?”

“Alto you haven’t spoken in a month and all you have to say is ‘stop staring at the locket and I’m going to go get some sticks?’”

“What were you hoping for?”

“I don’t know some epiphany concerning the fate of humanity, a hey how are you…something.”

“I have made a decision about the former. But you’re not going to like it.”

“Whatever it is I’m sure it’s the right decision and it's better than living in limbo”

He placed his hand on the wall of the cave right before he stepped into the sunlight and without looking back he answered. “We have to start over”

I cocked my head in confusion. “You and me?”

“Humanity” and with that one heart-stopping word, he left.

I spent the next 30 minutes looking a lot like my brother, laying on my back in the dirt. What did that mean? Humanity had to start over. He said it as if it was as simple as restarting a card game.

“I know what you’re thinking.” I heard his voice as he rounded the bend of the cave. I had no Idea how he knew I was out there. If I hadn’t heard him flat out say the sentence ‘Hessia I am blind,’ on numerous occasions growing up I would have never believed the impairment. The physical inability to lie must really get in the way sometimes.

“What am I thinking?”

“You’re contemplating the fate of the species. you need to stop, it will only consume you.”

“What do you mean though? Are you just going to extinguish everyone? Is that something you can do?” I looked at him in bewilderment and to my own surprise, anger.

“If you’re asking if it’s within my power. Then yes. If you’re asking if it’s my intent then no. Not everyone needs to perish” I stared, blinking

“You’re awfully quiet Hessia”

“Well you’re very nonchalant about the whole situation” I was getting more and more exasperated at his lack of interest on the matter

“I wouldn’t consider myself nonchalant about it. I’ve simply had longer to process the decision. It’s one I’ve always considered coming to fruition.”

“You thought you might have to end the species Before you used the locket?!”

“You’re being dramatic Hessia I’m not ending the species I said not everyone would perish. But yes. Before the locket. I have never spoken of this to you before because it was not pertinent that you knew the details.”

“Well what makes it pertinent now?”

“It's time. And you’re part of the plan. If you choose to accept your role that is”

I stood up from my spot in the dirt in a huff. “What role?! I hardly understand anything that’s going on and now I have some role?! Alto this is insane”

“ No. Hessia this is reality and if you gain control of your emotions and realize there is something bigger going on here then I will explain. I will be completely transparent.”

I took a deep breath. “I request the night to myself. Can we discuss it all in the morning?”

“Very well. I will meet you Creekside at first light.”

I slept in the cave that night and Alto out by the fire. I was thankful for the separation. I had no idea what he was going to bestow upon me tomorrow. All I knew is that I needed one more night as close to normal as I could get.

The morning came bringing a refreshing crispness to the air and it took a moment for the reality of the day to set in. I felt a sense of dutifulness, like I had to play my part. I would face it, whatever ‘it’ was. I made my way out to the creek with my head held high but an undeniable lump in my throat.

Alto was already waiting by the creek, a stoic ambience around him like there always was. I sat quietly beside him in the grass.

“The world is pain , Hessia. I know because I am IT. A baby is ripped from the arms of its mother and murdered. And yes I feel the pain of the mother but I feel the pain of the child and that is complicated... to feel the pain of something that does not understand what it's feeling. People are tortured because others are bored. or because they want to see the extent of their imaginations. I will spare you the gorier details but we have surpassed the point of redemption and I need you to acknowledge this.” I stayed silent and waited for him to continue. “I will select 99,999 people between the ages of ten and twenty that have the purest souls. They will be the ones to live on”

“WHAT!? Why? why an age range that's millions of children that will die”

“It's the logical choice for survival. A balance of self sufficiency and mendable minds”

“Why that number? Why 99,999?”

“That is how many pieces I will be able to split my own soul into. 100,000 pieces. 99,9999 of them will go to the people in the locket” he played with it between his fingers “and the last will go to you” there were several heart-sinking moments of silence. “Hessia I can feel your question in the air. Ask me.”

I swallowed “Will that kill you?”

“Yes it will”

“What are our other options?”

“We could carry on while you live out the rest of your natural life at which point I would take my own and mankind will end entirely”

Tears filled my eyes.

“I can make my death not hurt”

“NO.” I said sharply “I want your death to hurt Alto. It should hurt”

“Very well”

“There won’t be a Loyalter” I said quizzically

“Another will be born”

“So this is the reckoning?”

“No. Because I am not a God. I am a guy that can give humanity the second chance that it doesn't deserve.” I said nothing. so he continued “And you’re the one that is going to be its best chance at success”

“Why me?”

“The world will become my soul. You are the one who knows my soul best and therefore will the know the world”

We spent one more day together. One day as brother and sister. It was blissful and easy. The next morning Alto awoke me with a peace on his face that I had never seen.

“Hessia I need you to meet someone”

“Meet someone? I don't understand. Who?” I rose rubbing my eyes.

He led me to the vast clearing behind the cave. “Your disciples”

These were them. He had done it while I slept. I stared out at a sea of 99,999 people.

I turned to him quickly “Alto you were supposed to tell me I…”

“Shh. It doesn't matter”

“Hessia? Alto?” Alto smiled at the girl's familiar voice. I turned in disbelief.

“Antisa?!” I knelt down, hugging the child.

Antisa was me and Altos' youngest niece. She would have just turned 10 five days ago and was the purest soul I had ever had the pleasure of knowing.

“It's time.” Alto said and a heavy sadness blanketed me.

He took the locket of souls off his neck and placed it on the ground.

“You know what to do ” He then did something he had never done before. He hugged me. “It has been an honor sister” I couldn't help the tears that fell down my face. “Close your eyes Hessia” I did so. And I felt it. I felt him leave, or rather I felt the absence of him and I opened my eyes to stare down at the locket.

He had told me what to do. He made sure I understood as soon as he entered the locket himself I was to destroy it. It was powerful but it was glass and would break as such. I grabbed a rock and knelt before it. Surprising even myself with my lack of hesitation I brought the rock down with the full force of my arm. I saw darkness and light simultaneously. The glass screamed as it shattered, and then it fell silent.

I waited in stillness for several moments, hands clenched, eyes closed tight. Eventually I rose and turned to face Antisa who was still standing beside me. she gasped as I looked at her. Well as I tried to look at her. I knew I was facing her, but I couldn't see her. I couldn't see anything.

“Hessia?!” she said in shock “Your eyes. They look like Uncle Altos.”