MISSION

Excerpt from the book

“In the Gate of Light.”
“Where is that?”
“Part of that lives inside you, here.” She placed her hands over her children’s heart.
“Are we krilis?” came the logical question.
“Yes.”
“But I cannot see into Erik’s head,” complained the little girl annoyed.
“You’d better not!” her brother snapped.
“Everything is a bit more difficult for humans,” Sylvia joked bitterly.
“Why?” Johanna made a face.
“Hmm.” The woman managed to suppress a sad smile. “The charade is too believable. Our spirits are enveloped in fog. We have
lost the real truth, or as some say, the ancient knowledge.”
“But if it is within me, I can bring it up, right?” asked Erik with the next logical question.
“Yes. The tribe of the bear is the last one that can still keep this knowledge alive.”
“Father speaks a lot about the bear. He says bears are the bravest animals.”
“He is so right,” responded the woman pulling gently at her mouth.
“Isn’t the lion the king of the animals?” asked Johanna who was confused.
“Oh, right!” her brother said assertively. “The lion is the Sun, which blinds people, so the strongest animal, which is the bear,
cannot be seen. The Sun illuminates the Moon to protect and to conceal it. But the Moon exists, even though you are blinded by the dazzling light and cannot see clearly. You see the lion …”
“That’s right,” said the mother looking at her son with pride.
“Isn’t it just a bedtime story?” The girl was still confused.
“It’s more like a myth,” said the woman, correcting her.
“But the legends live with us.” the boy repeated, giving new interpretation to what he had learnt in school.
“Precisely,” Sylvia replied, “Your father and the elders of the tribe established the school to make sure that the legend lives on in your hearts. So when you need the knowledge, you will know your paths and what you should do.”
“And what is our path?” asked the boy with a hard ring to his voice.
No doubt. Erik’s true being had come to life. His questions, which belied his age, baffled his mother. She felt proud of her son and wanted to display him to the world so everybody could see what a great warrior he would make, and at the same time she wanted to hide him with all her might, the way the Sun protects the stars around the Moon. She knew they lived in an age of darkness. Her maternal heart could have settled for the magic of survival. “The fight is… ” Sylvia sighed from somewhere in another world.
“Who against?” There was no stopping Erik’s flow.
“Against the soldiers of darkness.”
A sad melody lingered in the room.
“Are we warriors of the light then?” Johanna asked, stepping behind her brother on the bumpy path of her fate.
Sylvia’s stomach was turning. She closed her eyes. She could feel the faint scent of blood she once allowed flow by her own hand. She could feel the cold surface of the chalice against her fingers. Two pairs of eyes flashed. They kept staring at her for a long time, then disappeared in the fog. Then she was staring again at her children.
“The light warriors receive training. Not just anyone can be a light warrior. It is the most noble mission for a krili!”
“A mission?”
“Yes,” she replied. Her soul was filled with dread. “The soul has a long journey to travel before one can become a warrior.”
“What journey?”
Erik’s heart was already alight for its destiny.
“Well, that will…” Sylvia looked straight ahead, letting flow all that once flowed in Ronald and Lorenzo, helping Sophya and Giulia. “It will split. The two sides of the soul, darkness and light, hell and heaven will be cleft in two. Temptation will be followed by sin, and sin will be followed by repentance. The half left on its own will fail. It may not have any other chance. Who knows? Perhaps failure is a condition for ascent. They say you have to get to know the monster before you can defeat it. You have to know your opponent! The light warrior knows the darkest side of his being.”
“So, you are saying that two halves will make up one? How do you do that?”
“Erik! This is illusion itself. The torment, the unrest, the hell.”
“I don’t understand this,” he replied.
“When a soul decides to walk on this path, there is no turning back. We have to walk down the path, come what may. The decision cannot be changed. Failure or victory will await. There is no other option. If they give up, they will fail forever.”
“We wouldn’t hesitate to walk all the way to the end!” clamoured both children trying to appear larger than life.
Somewhere deep inside her, Sylvia was overcome with a quiet rage.
“You don’t know what you are talking about!”
“Mother! The descendants of the bear are not afraid. They have the knowledge within them.”
“That is exactly why they are so dangerous for the other side,” she said looking sadly at her children, “and for themselves.”
“Perhaps this issue was decided a long while ago,” their father mused, leaning against the doorframe.
All three of them turned around. They were surprised, as they hadn’t heard him arrive.
“Perhaps we cast ourselves into the abyss when we put on a human form,” Björn continued, lost in his thoughts. “It is only
a matter of time before the spirit awakens, as only the spirit can triumph over the mad illusion of the soul’s solitude.”
“Father,” Erik said adopting a masculine air as he looked at the enormous man, “Teach me about this supernatural world.”