Heights

A glimpse of The Traveler

Baasim was older now, beginning the age of adolescence, and knowing that next time he visited a Stronghold, it would not entirely be to rest, regroup and restock. Instead being there for the traditional uses of a Stronghold, the next time he visited a one he would be made into a real Slayer and would set out into the world on his own, after spending his whole life thus far preparing for being independent. And now he was ready for that, although he still felt like something was holding him back from where he was today. He sat cross legged as he always seemed to have atop of a nice peak somewhere in the where the climate made it feel like it was always late spring time. His Mentor sat nearby and they just sat and watched the world beneath them, clouds drifting around the peak and obscuring some parts of the world below. Yet despite the continually warm climate, some malleably soft bits of ice clung to bits of the mountain top due to its high elevation.

They had sat in silence for a long time now, just breathing and watching until Baasim broke the silence. “It looks so peaceful from up here.”

“Yes, it does,” said the Mentor.

“This is why we do what we do, right?” Baasim asked, rubbing his face and feeling the immature hairs that had begun to come in already.

“Yes, moments like this one is why we persist.”

“Do you ever-” Baasim began to speak but then cut himself off abruptly, for fear of coming off as rude.

“It’s ok, Baasim. You can finish your sentence.”

“Do you ever wish you didn’t have to fight?” Baasim said, pushing out every word as if he had been wanting for them to leave his mouth and take flight for a while.

The Mentor was silent for a while, and just kept staring out across the world as if Baasim had never spoken at all, but Baasim knew that they were thinking about this deeply. “Maybe somedays,” they said. “I think that having us fight gives us purpose, but if we want to make the world as close to as it once was, I do sometimes find myself wondering if it will be worth it, or even if I will be a part of it.”

“I’ve always wondered from where I’d go once I’m done.”

“Like your death?” asked the Mentor.

“No, death is my duty to The Order. I wonder where I’d be now if the Great Merging never happened,” Baasim said.

“I don’t know where you’d be.”

“But wouldn’t it be better if it had never happened?”

“I don’t know.”

And then they sat in silence, watching the world look so peaceful from up high despite knowing what happened down below. But they didn’t care, they only wanted to relish and savor the moment for perhaps it was the last peaceful moment of their life that they’d ever share together or have individually.

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Author’s note

This piece was originally written for a flashback in my upcoming and debut novel The Traveler. While the book is still in an inprogress state. The novel combines the fantasy elements with a unique and gritty surrounding, filled with mystery Magic. It follows Baasim Qadir Asghar, a man born fifty years after a cataclysmic event known as The Great Merging, where Earth in the year 2035 became a part of the heavens, and has never been the same.