Role

Chapter 19

Another thing the androsphinx told me was, If darkness should release its
inherent hold on your heart, you still may never truly attain the light. Do you
understand?

Weeks later I was again training and practicing when I needed to rest off the
wounds I had suffered. A most vivid dream ensued, I found myself surrounded by
the majesty of nature. Above, the sky was a deep and endless blue, and birds
swept through it, singing their praises to the dawn. A sound caught my
attention: a repetitive heaving and thud, along with a labored breath. I
followed the noise through a treeline which opened to a man standing almost
head high in a pit he was digging. He heaved a final shovel full of dirt and
hefted himself, shovel and all, out of the hole. He stood over a linen wrapped
bundle, no more than three feet long, with flowers lovingly twined around it.

As gently as he can, the man lifted the bundle and set it with care into the
grave he had just dug. Then blindness overtook me and I suddenly am aware of a
weight in my arms that I squeeze until I hear bones cracking.

The dream faded and I awoke, gasping for breath.