Euryce & Orphie ~ Past ~ The strings of a Lyre ~ part 2

The summoning ritual had been a success. Relief washed over me.

Honestly, I had been flying by the seat of my pants the whole time. Saving Howard was not a simple matter, and my idea had been extremely shoddy and haphazard at best. Relying in such an unreliable ritual as center piece to save him was the part I was the least satisfied about, right from the start.

But it worked, right?

When I heard the fourth chime I almost felt my legs give out under me from the relief. The only thing that kept me standing was knowing that I had to finish the ritual and greet the new sacrifice.

Then, horror was all I could feel as I looked into the altar.

In the altar, wrapped in a blanket, shining like no other but still unmistakable small, was a baby.

When I saw the light course through it I knew that it was ready to be sacrificed. There was no need for any training, which would have been impossible to do in the first place. Just by looking at it it was clear that there was nothing else that needed to be done except to enter it into the stream.

But it was a baby.

I felt like I wanted to throw up.

People were watching down from the pyramid, waiting for someone to come up, but it simply did not happen. It could not happen. At this point generally the sacrifice steps forward and gets presented to the people, but how could we do that?

The moment someone showed the baby, he would be now the new sacrifice for the city.

But at the same time, the baby shone so bright that even down below they all knew something was amiss.

In the end, Meofor went up the stairs when he intuited that something had gone awry, only to understand the situation as he found both of us paralized looking at the sleeping baby.

Meofor looked at it, doubting for a moment, but after looking at Euryce, he steeled himself.

He took a step forward, carefully grabbed the baby and then raised it in his arms so the entire crowd could see.

“A new sacrifice has arrived!” He announced.

What in all other occasions would have been received with a roaring ovation, now had been reduced to a hushed whisper as people spoke to each other in disbelief of what had come from the summoning.

Had this ever happened before?

Regardless of everyone’s bafflement, Meofor took the baby as he walked down the steps, reuniting with the rest of his guard, marking the end of that day summoning ritual.

The last summoning ritual that could be done before the stream fell once again.

Orphie, Howard and me all looked at each other in disbelief. None of us knew what to do.

For a moment, a moment of weakness that I’ll resent for the rest of my life, I felt that it should be done. That if I simply closed my eyes and turned my look away, everything would end up being fine.

Orphie was the one who woke me up from it, as he shook me from the shoulders, taking me out of my stupor.

“Eury, react already!” He said, just as shook as I was.

I finally released myself from him and took a couple steps back. I could see the people downstairs still whispering to each other. We needed to get out of there.

I got my bearings, gave a light slap to Howard’s face to wake him up from his daze too and soon we all walked down the pyramid in a line, returning to the main building before anyone could follow us.

“What do we do now?” Asked Howard, taking out his glasses and rubbing his eyes, as if trying to clean away the image of the baby in the altar. He still looked dazed by it all.

“Meofor took it away. He’s going to complete the ritual with it, no doubt.” said Orphie, looking to the ground.

“Is there any chance to convince him otherwise?” Asked Howard, with painful naivete.

“No, unless you volunteer to die instead.” Said Orphie, dismissing the idea right from the get go.

“Still, one thing is for sure, we can’t allow that to happen.” I said, conclusively.

They both nodded in agreement. For a moment I felt slightly better. At the very least, I was not alone.

“Howard and me will make a plan for the worst case scenario. I don’t think your father is going to give an inch, but I do agree you should go and try to talk with him.” I told Orphie.

His face soured horribly. I don’t like it, his brow is going to end up looking like rock if he keeps doing that.

“Really? Why waste my time talking to him?” He said, profoundly bothered just by thinking about it.

“Because it doesn’t hurt to try, and also, that way you’ll know where he’ll put the baby. After all, he can’t put it in the cell like with the others.” Said Howard, basically stealing the words from my mouth.

Word thief.

I laughed a little to myself when thinking that. My anxiety was slowly dripping away.

When I was with both of them, even this situation didn’t feel impossible anymore.

“Fine, only to figure out where the baby will be.” Orphie said, accepting the idea begrudgingly.

We went out separate ways, ready to do anything to save another life once again.

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I love Euryce, more than I can put into words. If I had to go through the darkest of veils for her, I would do so.

In a way, the fact that I’m going to face my father now is the biggest proof of it I can imagine. I don’t think even the darkest veil could equal the mental pain I feel just thinking about doing this.

I decided that the idea was shot from the start, useless, vain. I decided that it was not even worth trying, so I let myself go and didn’t make any effort in making it work.

I entered to his office without knocking nor announcing myself, simply invited myself in and found him standing there deep in thought. He had his back to the door, as if he hadn’t noticed that I entered. In any other situation, he would already be berating me for my lack of respect to his authority.

I closed the door behind me, in silence, surprised by his lack of reaction. When I got closer to him I noticed that he still was holding the baby in his arms. Only then he turned around to look at me, with a complicated expression that I had never seen in him.

“I… haven’t really held a baby in my arms in a long time. I think ever since you were one, Orphie.” He said, looking at the still shining baby with a stern look.

My eyes opened completely out of the surprise. He always kept his thoughts to himself, not sharing them even with me. What was going on?

“You came to tell me to not sacrifice the baby, didn’t you?” Meofor said, now directing his complicated look towards me.

I could not respond.

“That’s what I would do if I were you. In that sense you and I are very similar.” He said, with a dry laugh.

That one stung. I could not let such an idea fly by.

“Father, with all respect, you and I aren’t alike at all.” I said, trying to convey my thoughts in a way that wouldn’t get me punished later.

“You are. You simply don’t understand it yet.” Meofor said, letting the baby grab one of his fingers, while his stern look slowly devolved into tenderness.

“Father. I fear that I don’t remember the last time you and I ever agreed on something. Anything.” I repeated, feeling like I was talking to a wall.

“No, that’s where you are wrong. We do agree, in thoughts at least. What we don’t agree in is with our actions.”

“You are not making any sense” I sighed. Forgetting to show respect to save myself problems later.

Meofor looked at me with a face that almost stopped my heart. Not because he looked angry, but because he looked sad. It was a look I hadn’t seen ever since I had been a kid.

“I want you to tell me, honestly. Do you think I want to sacrifice this baby?” He asked.

I didn’t want to answer honestly. Not when he was looking at me with such sadness. I didn’t need to answer, as he already could intuit what I was thinking.

“I can’t blame you for that either.” He said, before falling into silence.

The only thing that now sounded in the office were the small sounds of the baby, who was slowly falling asleep.

“You know you don’t have to do it, right? That you do have an option?” I finally said.

For a moment, I did hold hope that maybe I would be able to convince him to stop.

“That’s the thing Orphie, I don’t” He said, still not looking away from the baby.

“You do, father. You are the chief. You are the one who can decide.”

“It’s the opposite, Orphie. It’s because I’m the chief that I have no option here.” He responded, calmly, looking back at me.

Before I could stop him, he continued.

“We have defied the Gods for too long. The light diminishing around the barrier, the light stones are now very few and between, we are losing the light.

Every thing that I have done I did because I thought it would be the best for my city. Cause that’s what my father taught me, and what I have been trying to teach you for so long. That we have a responsibility, and sometimes it entails going against what we believe or think.

I… went against my duties, and I can’t stop the feeling that doing so was a grievous mistake. When I saw you cry at Euryce’s side… I simply had to take any chance to save her. Now the city is divided, we have riots every time the stream falls and things only get worse and worse. I can’t allow any other problems to arise. Someone has to go into the stream, and it has to be now.”

He hugged the baby against him.

“Someone has to go in. That’s the only option. And even that… may not be enough…”

He held the baby with care, lulling him.

I was out of words. I turned around, unable to keep looking at that scene or hear another word from him.

When I left, I had the impression that my father was trying to console himself, not the baby.