Walk the Sky

 

My name means king in certain tongues. Light, and Heaven. But so does yours. My dearest Esme, we are so much greater than these dark ones understand. We are sovereign, each of us -— yet bound together under the most ancient of covenants. Protect the weak and wounded. Be a voice for the voiceless. Anchor the light in the darkest places. It’s a pledge we both undertook. A long, long time ago. We live in an infinite multiverse, my dawn treader. It’s not just an artistic conceit, or some imprecise understanding of quantum mechanics. No, I’ve lived this. Many lives. Many worlds. You have too. It means more than multiplicity, or eternity. It means art is the oldest magic because all stories are actually happening, in that place we imagine as the eternal present.

That infinite, endless now is the bearer and bringer of Light. Ausus, Eos. Rey. She has many, many names. I should know, I fathered her oldest epithets. She stood by my side, shoulder to shoulder, in the War of Imagination. The War for All Souls. When a third of the angels rebelled against Creation itself, and the sun went dark. But there is a secret about darkness. Something even the blackest wraiths don’t understand. Perception is a crossed and spiralled thing. Of the skull, as at Golgotha. Of the sabre, as with Excalibur. And of the hand, as with friendship — palm to palm. If you journey deep enough into the darkness, you’ll find a holy ember hidden. A divine spark guarded by nightwalkers. Magi of the bravest sort. Even a lost soul can regain the mantle of light if they so choose. But they must face the truth. Guilt, horror, and each sin committed turned back on themselves. It is no easy oblation. The Hanged Man is not a painless redemption, but it is possible. Even in Hell.

Esme, my love, the sky is full of stars. I’ve sailed among them in my dreams. But more than that, I was once the very Lord of Dreaming Stars. Suns, we call them. And Daughters. I chose to build this gate when you were still a child, because I remembered your name. And I knew of the battles to come. Walk the sky with me now, my warrior. The war is very real. I have the scars to prove it. There was a time when I lost all faith. I could no longer see the dawn, or feel the radiant. But then you were born again, like a miracle. I fell to my knees, thanking my Father in prayer. And I wept. Your name means Light in many tongues, my bright one. But to me it has always meant hope. Old and new.