Hope

The young man resented the lack of recognition towards him. He observed daily the careless exploitation of people by people, and the loss of individuality. “This life is not fair”, he thought. In an attempt to relieve his resentment, he left the city and his family behind, and walked towards nature. There, he thought, he could live a self-sustaining, harmonious, and fair life. With time, he grew too attentive to the suffering of the animals he fed on. The move to vegetables lasted for a while, until he noticed their endeavour towards survival, which he deemed he had no right to hinder. “I understand now”, he thought, content, “life cannot be fair”. Just at the moment of his death, lying, exhausted, in a small unknown grove, his peaceful expression changed into one of despair. He remembered his family, and within the duration of the most painful teardrop, realized death too cannot be fair. Months later, in that same spot, a fawn ruminated the low-growing grass, carelessly, stomping several mallows; behind a tree, a wolf waited patiently.

She slowly opened her eyes, as if being born again. The place was perfectly and endlessly dark, to the point of dubious existence. She was surprised she could see her own body, clearly, even in the absence of a source of light.

As she stood up, she noticed the unity of the complete silence and the sense of cold. This was not a welcoming place.

Memories manifested in a sudden pain on her head. The soothing view from the riverside. The soundless approach of the person who pushed her into the river. The final glimpse of that long-brimmed hat.

She needed to set aside the worries of the past to face her present situation. Although everything was dark, she was obviously standing somewhere, so at least she could walk, and that is what she did.

After considerable time, the landscape remained pitch black. Was she going in circles? Was she even moving? She could not say. The sensation of despair did not have enough time to emerge before she heard the laugh of a boy in the distance.

She located the sound, and quickly ran towards it, as if finding an oasis in that formless desert. The laugh sounded nearer, almost too close for the boy not to be seen.

As she listened attentively, the boy materialized in front of her. He was placidly running across a vertical wall, easily defying gravity. He smiled at her expression of disbelief.

“Hi miss, what is your name?”, he said with unusual interest.

It was hard, but she decided to trust the kid who could run on the walls. “I am… Eurydice, what about you boy?”, she said.

The boy looked at her intently, ignoring her question. “Eurydice… Eurydice! Nice to meet you miss”, he said.

Eurydice tried another question. “Running on the wall… how can you do that?”, she asked.

The boy seemed surprised at the question. “Well, why miss? This is just how the world works”, he said.

Eurydice knew that was not true in the Confluence. But she also knew this was by far a different place, a place she wanted to leave. “I see… do you know how I can get back to the Confluence?”, she asked. The boy looked confused. “The river, the golden dust… do you know that place?”, she insisted.

The boy seemed to think hard. “Miss Eurydice, I have some memories of a similar place, from long, long ago. You see I have been living here for almost all my life, it is the greatest place in existence!”, he said, smiling.

Given the darkness and the cold, Eurydice doubted his proposition. “But there is nothing here… and it is cold”, she complained.

The boy quickly retorted. “Do not make that mistake miss. Because you cannot see it, it does not mean it does not exist!”, he said. “This world is wonderful, miss. You can do anything you want, like walking on walls, you just need to imagine it!”, he laughed.

She was taken aback. Materializing her thoughts? That was beyond her, but she could not refuse to give it a try. She imagined the temperature getting warmer. She thought intensely about it, but the cold would not go.

She looked at the kid. “Boy, are you mocking me?”, she said. “I cannot warm this place, even if I want to…”, she sighed.

The boy put on a mysterious visage. “You see miss Eurydice, you can do anything you want in this world, except changing the 3 constants: darkness, cold and the Carmen line”, he said.

Through her hope, she quickly thought a line could well be related to the boundary of this world, and possibly a way back to the Confluence. “Where is that line, boy?”, she asked interested.

The boy smiled. “Enjoy this world miss, I will see you around another time”, he said, as he started running from her.

“Wait boy! Where is the line?”, she asked desperately, but the boy dissapeared in the dark.

---

She was beginning to get used to it. Walking on walls and ceilings, jumping to fear-inducing heights, and other unnatural feats. She had also discovered, unfortunately, that she could not materialize life to aleviate her loneliness.

Her thought was interrupted by a commotion at a short distance. A persecution.

“Please, tell me your story, do not leave me alone!”, the persecutor cried. “If you want me to talk, I will also talk, I will do anything you want”, he continued.

“I cannot do this, I am sorry but I just cannot”, the persecuted apologised. “I do not know you, how do I talk to you, I just do not know! Please leave me alone…”, he begged.

Eurydice took some distance. While the persecutor did not look dangerous, he looked desperate. She knew any desperate man can be dangerous.

The commotion receded, and she continued walking. She was alone with her thoughts, and her memories of the Confluence, the fineness of which he had not realized before arriving at this place.

Like a projection of her memories, the darkness unfolded, irregularly, to offer her a bird’s-eye view of the Confluence. She could see the long and majestic river of light, and what seemed like a lake in the centre of it. Was that the real Confluence, or was it an image of her memories?

A masculine voice sprang forth from the crevice.

“You whose power alone, dissimilars can join, and from the equality of truth combine…”, the voice sang, while the crevice dissolved towards a single line. A silver lining in a cloud of darkness. The ends of the line extended towards the confines of that terrible place.

“The Carmen line…”, she quickly realized. She run towards that seam of light, losing her despair as if it was a too-heavy armor. She put her hands on the seam, and pulled hard, trying to make an opening.

The Confluence was not behind those curtains of blackness anymore. A freezing breeze came in through the opening and forced her to hold tight to them. Once the breeze receded, she could take a glimpse.

She had never seen a place of such immensity before. Tens of thousands of spheres, differently sized, covered in white clouds, floated and populated a dark ocean. She could understand the magnitude of the scene by estimating their distance to her.

It was too cold, but she was convinced she could confront it with the warmth of her desire to go back to her origin. She stepped inside, with the feeling that she owned her destiny.

She was compelled to go towards one of those mysterious spheres. Rubbing her arms, she walked, observing how it became larger and larger, at a faster rate than she imagined.

Suddenly, a hand clasped her arm. It was the kid.

“Hi miss Eurydice, mummy says you cannot go there, it is too dangerous”, he said. “Come with me, I will show you the way”, he continued, and started pulling from her arm.

She was too cold to think clearly, and besides, the presence of the kid was a welcomed gift given her loneliness.

From the dark ocean, a small, illuminated grove started to emerge. It was beautiful, almost divine within those circumstances. Was this her deus ex machina or her diabolus ex machina? They stepped into the grove, into a scene she would never forget.

“Mama!”, the kid started running towards a young woman sitted on a stump at the other end of the grove. Rosy patches were quietly interspersed with her crystalline skin. She distilled an aura of purity, surrounding her clean body and her two heads.

One of the heads looked endearingly at her child, while the other smiled cunningly. The kid started feeding on her breasts. It was too clear for Eurydice that kid was already too old for that.

An white-bearded old man sitted on another stump, just to the right of Eurydice. He held an oversized crook.

The old man smiled to her. “Come in, my dear one, we have been expecting you”, he said. “Do not worry, this has all already played out, countless times”, he clarified.

On the left side of the grove, there was a fair lady, elegant, standing with her eyes closed. She held a pristine golden scale.

On the centre of the grove, an anthropomorphic shadow sat on a wooden throne, expressionless and soundless.

In spite of Eurydice’s perplexity at the scene, she managed to notice the beckoning of the fair lady. Eurydice approached her, cautious of her and the other figures.

The lady opened her eyelids, revealing her emerald eyes. “My poor child…”, she whispered. “Even if we know how it all ends, we must not lose hope until the last moment”, she said kindly to Eurydice, as she handed her the scale.

The masculine voice sang again. “Come, all-propitious, and your suppliant hear, when Fate’s predestined, final hour draws near”.

As he finished singing that line, Eurydice was absorbed by an inexplicable force.

---

The group of travellers was awestruck by the distant view of the Mirror. The river originated in it, and parted in opposite directions.

Sonia looked at them, calmly. “Now I will show you the Truth of this world”, she said.

When she turned towards the Mirror again, she suddenly stopped on her feet. The travellers noticed it, but could not see the shock on her face, they could not see the only time Sonia had completely lost her composure.

In the distance, she had noticed a woman holding a scale, standing by the Mirror, looking at it.