We Are Medina Lake

“I’ve got to be perfectly honest with you. If you had seen the things I have seen. Well… you would still be in disbelief. I know I have. The gift of foresight and knowing where I am now. The places I have been. The things I have done. It’s got to stop. You have to stop it.”

“How?”

“You have to die. Are you willing to accept your fate?” 

“What? No!”

“Then I will be the one to make it possible.”

I jumped over the table that separated us, as the Vagabond took several steps back. Still in my old age I was flexible. I had reserved every inch of my strength for this moment the Vagabond was going to die. 

“This is the moment you have been waiting for,” said the voice in my head that has been keeping me sane and safe for centuries. “The Vagabond is right in front of you, end it!” 

The Vagabond ran several feet away from me putting my couch in between me and it. I looked at it intently and it at me. 

“You’re nothing. You know that? The pain and suffering you give the world. You are the one to do it and I have to stop it. It needs to be delayed.”

“The things you’ve seen,” said the Vagabond, “I believe it. I have seen them too! It’s too late, it’s already begun. The gears are already in motion. The Reckoning is already upon us!”

“She speaks lies. It has never had contact with Terium. It does not know of the suffering you speak of,” said the voice.

I jumped over the couch and it knew it wasn’t getting out alive. It swatted at me as I attempted to choke its neck. I pushed it up against a chifforobe. It gasped for air and grabbed a ceramic pot that was on the table beside the chifforobe and hit me over the head. It stunned me for a second, but I was determined to end this. I used the weight I had and threw it on the ground, breaking a glass table being supported by a wood frame. The glass shattered and the wood splintered into many pieces. 

“This is it. You end today.” 

As I put pressure on the Vagabonds neck it reached up to my face trying to push me away. It went for my eyes nearly scratching them. I put my neck as far back as I could and felt the adrenaline rush through my brain and down my spine and through my fingertips. I closed my eyes as I shivered with excitement. At that very moment I saw the Vagabond’s past. The things it had done. The places it created. It had already begun the Reckoning. It was too late, but it could continue to do damage if it continued to draw breath.

“Yes. This is the moment we have dreamed about. Let this action turn to fruition,” said the voice. 

I opened my eyes and I lifted its neck as my grip grew stronger and I slammed its head against the floor a few times. Its arms went down from my face to my hands trying to break the grip I had on it. I closed my eyes to see its present. Its partner and the crimes they committed. There were many layers to the Vagabond and much I had not seen before. I had seen the events that would lead to our worlds demise but not its life. The layers continued to unfold as I continued to view everything about it. Where everything went wrong. I opened my eyes to see the Vagabond’s face turning from red to purple. It was almost done.

“It’s over. It’s done. The Vagabond will never see another face. It has been a long time coming and spending every minute with you was worth it,” said the voice.

Strangling is a timely process. The television always makes it looks it takes a minute. It doesn’t. Death by strangulation takes many minutes and only if you apply the enough pressure to the throat’s airways. It was enough time for me to see everything the Vagabond had to offer. The past, present and future. I closed my eyes one more time. I had to see the future. I expected darkness and I was comforted to see that. There was nothing left after the Vagabond’s death. It’s final chapter was here.

A fraction of a fraction of a second passed and just about when I opened my eyes a wave of new visions came to me. The Vagabond’s future if it did not die. What I saw…I could not explain nor would I. The Vagabond’s future if it did not die right here was to the least, redeeming. I watched the Vagabond’s eyes roll back into its skull and I knew this was a mistake. 

I let go of the Vagabond’s neck. It gasped for air as I got off of it. I took a few steps back and used the handkerchief in my front pocket to wipe the sweat off my brow. It felt its neck surprised that it was still alive, then it sat up and looked at me confused.

“Your future. All the pain and suffering. All is forgotten.” I said quietly. It looked at me relieved that this was not the end, but it wondered what I saw. “I cannot tell you your future. The timeline will not allow you knowing your potential. It is a secret that I will keep confidential till my last breath. It’s vital to the timeline.”

“There’s a new voice. One that is talking about the countless futures that could happen. What is it?” She asked.

I reached for my mother’s trinket box to reveal a powder in the box. “I’ll show you. I’ll take you back. Back to the beginning.” 

It was the first contact event. Never before had a man, woman, or child seen her, only heard. She in all her glory. She was something with the lack of a better word. She was something out of my dreams. At first, I thought I was dreaming. I swear I had seen her face before, and I had. I first thought it was before. You know, from before we came here. The afterlife. Arcadia. She told us stories of how we were created. How we all had a greater purpose. We do but that’s not the point. 

She came to me. I was in the library. Reading on some old text from people who claimed to have talked to her. This was at the time when she spoke on occasion. To the devoted. She was in all white. Flowing. Brightness greater than the sun. I couldn’t see her face, but I knew it was perfect. It was her. Lady Manticore. Our God. 

I was speechless. She did not speak at first. In fact, she never spoke. Not out of her mouth. She spoke to my mind. She appealed to what I knew about her. She appealed to what she knew about me. She had been watching. Knowing of my pursuits. Knowing of my knowledge of her. She knew everything about me back when everything was…simple. She spoke to me and me alone. I swear. She spoke to me in this language. This language that we take for granted. Godspeech. Some people have heard it before, but it has never been universal. Not like it is now. You people now never knew what it was like when some speak a different language as you. To hear but not understand. She invented the tongue among other things. She invented everything. 

“There is another continent. Far away from here. To the West. This continent full of new places and things and people. There is something that was left from the beginning of time. The Godsmetal. The very thing that makes you like a kindred spirit like me. It will shape you into what you were meant to be. The next step to evolution. The beginning and the end simultaneously. Be like gods.”

She spoke in many voices. Many people at once and I understood. Like it was second nature. I tried to form the words to respond to her and I asked of the people. 

“Have the people in this land not heard your message? Why me? Why us on this other continent? Why now?”

“You have many questions and I understand. The people there have grown fearful of me. They misunderstand the Godsmetal and my intention. They do not understand that in order to take on such a blessing you must also take on a curse. There is no good without bad. There is no black without white. There is no sanity without madness.”

“Will we grow mad then? Mad with power? Mad with unlimited possibilities? To be like a god. It sounds a bit much. Why give us this? Why give us this opportunity?”

“There is a plan. Many machinations are in motion and this is just a steppingstone in the great plan. We must start but make haste. The Demagogues also plan to set a seed. To be there first. You must get to the Godsmetal first.”

“I am just a simple man.” I said. “How do you expect me to speak to my peers and have them believe me? Many have claimed to have spoken to you, yet have no proof of what you said was not some wild hallucination and grandiose thinking? How can I convince my fellow man that I speak the truth?”

“Speak my language. Those who have heard my tongue know that it is Godspeech. Those who know my language will also know my message. The same message I have given you. My language is not easy, and you have become fluent within the hour. Speak and they will listen.”

Within seconds she left me. I had not realized but when I was in her presence, all fear, all loathing had left my body. But instead of that void I had a nervous tick. A sort of after effect of her presence. I felt a crawling underneath my skin as if small creatures were trying to get out. The same tick others to have claimed to have felt. It doesn’t leave. It has never left. I knew then that I was in the presence of our God. 

The message was easy. Others had heard it and spoke of it in coming weeks. Lady Manticore had never shown her face until that day and it was not the last. Lady Manticore had several appearances. All telling of her teachings of love, to be wary of the Demagogues of the Otherside, and of the Godsmetal that lied just out of our reach. The people built boats in masses. People were anxious to be much like her. To speak like her. She was our everything. She was our God.

Soon everyone spoke her language. It became universal between every type of people on the planet no matter where you resided. She visited everyone who wished to speak with her, but she had a rule. An unforgivable action. Once you saw her, spoke to her even. You knew she existed but if you denied what she was, you would be condemned to the Otherside. To face eternal damnation for the rest of your existence? That was something never heard of. 

One of my first followers was Emma. She was the closest thing to me since my mother passed. She was a childhood friend and followed me no matter where I was. She and I had the same interests. She was a holy woman like I was a holy man. We spoke frequently about the many blessings of the Lady. Although I enjoyed her as a friend, we had some sort of connection that developed throughout the years. We weren’t intimate, not yet, but seeing the Lady had only strengthened our connection. 

Before Lady Manticore went out and became the God we all wanted and loved, she never really had anyone be condemned to the Otherside to be judged by the Demagogues. She was a God of love. At the time everyone was practically invincible. The Otherside was something else. Some plain beyond our existence of intense heat and fire and brimstone. Many have claimed to feel the plane slipping into our existence when speaking with a Demagogue. They keep the Otherside working. They do the torture. They make you wish you had changed your ways before you got here. 

Before people saw Lady Manticore, the only way to be claimed by the Otherside was to do a Demagogues bidding. They had no real meddling in our world, but they could talk to us. Tell us to do whatever they wanted us to do. Promise you with riches and anything you wish to take. Some don’t have the ability to say no. Then your tongue gets tied and all you can say is yes. If Lady Manticore was a God, then the Demagogues were as well. While Lady Manticore stood for the righteous, the Demagogues stood for the sinners. 

The Demagogues were powerful, but I wasn’t sure to what extent. They could force people to do their bidding, but I wasn’t sure if they could leave their plane. Souls trapped in the Otherside could corrupt a man’s soul. To replace it with their own. Lady Manticore can heal all evil, but she couldn’t heal the Demagogues. I guess that’s why they are condemned to remain in the Otherside. To guide souls that have too been too corrupted for Lady Manticore. 

The boats have been made. Many of the newfound church of Lady Manticore believed her truth. We wished to be much like her. To have unlimited possibilities. Lady Manticore set us off. I resided on the Arcadia. Named after our paradise. Fellow colleagues also settled on my boat, but my boat could only house so many. Others had to go their own ways. To join the other captains on their pursuits to be to the newfound land first. It was like a race. Who could be godly first? Surely, we didn’t expect the long journey along the way, but we were optimistic. Lady Manticore visited the boats every day. She would multiply provisions and heal all ailments. Our God was truly a woman of wonder. The mother of the world but things cannot be good at all times. 

Emma was on another boat than me. She became a figurehead much like me and she taught the people much like I did. We had grown to love each other more as we were apart, and I realized that I missed her like a man would of his wife. We were inseparable up unto this point and when we embrace once again, I might ask her to be a part of me like the first humans to walk the planet. 

One day on our journey to the new land, Lady Manticore was in the middle of a lesson. Teaching us of the types of people that resided on the continent already and then she stopped talking. She could feel something crawl up her skin. The grace that surrounded her dwindled. We were being surrounded by darkness. It was day forty-six. The Demagogues had found our ships and they wished to inflict harm. Lady Manticore left and I didn’t know where she went. Our God. She left us. Why would she do that? 

Tunnels of smoke came out of the ocean. There were several. All tunnels of which infected several people on each boat. The men, previously followers of Lady Manticore had been forced to follow the Demagogues. Their eyes had red halos around their irises. A true sign that someone’s soul had been corrupted by the Demagogues. I was pushed back behind my men. I was a major piece in Lady Manticore’s plan, and I was not to be harmed but one by one, my men were killed, corrupted, or thrown overboard. Soon nothing was between me and these daemons. A dark aura penetrated the light around them as the halos around their eyes glowed a blood red. Lady Manticore spoke to me, as if she was in my mind. I could hear her, but I knew others could not. 

“I am within you. Touch the corruption of the Demagogue and the corruption will wither.” Looking down to my hands I wondered if these were holy hands. Hands to do God’s work and the holiness to follow would be her making. I was petrified I had my hands in front of me hoping that one of the men corrupted by a Demagogue would let me close enough to touch them. They all stood their distance. As I walked closer, they walked away but they still circled me leaving me surrounded by the presence of evil. 

They laughed and they taunted. Told me things that only I would know like my mother’s last words to me before she died from disease. They told me those last words were lies. They knew about my feelings for Emma. I had not spoken about her to anyone other than professionally in context of our religion. They tried to get a rise out of me, but I wasn’t quick to anger like most men my age. I was a holy man and not just a recent one like these others. I knew to turn the cheek and to not lash out in anger. Lady Manticore taught many teachings before she first showed her face and it all was on love. Love your neighbor. Love your children. Love your significant others but if someone threatens your family, your holy family with hate or death, you are well within your right to show the hate back. An eye for an eye. A lash for a lash. Equal punishment to the creature that brought hate into your home but not their families. Never their families. Only sinners are punished for their sins. One of the few times we holy men are allowed to do what we can to protect what is ours. Same for women and children of all walks of life. If one wishes to do harm to you, you too are enlisted in the Lady’s work. 

I wasn’t a fighter. I more or less kept to myself in the old world. If I was wronged, I let it slide. I was a pushover with no family to avenge. No woman has looked my way and saw my value, no other than Emma. Emma saw my potential and not until Lady Manticore appeared to me. I was just one of the many lunatics who have listened for her teachings but her glory! That glory that is brighter than the sun that feeds the crops and the minds of men. The sun’s flame could be extinguished, and her presence would be enough to keep the people living for a new dawn. A new place that we can call home. 

I tripped over a barrel that was full of barley or ale. I did not watch the placement of my feet but those corrupted by the Demagogues still watched cautiously. One touch would expel them from this place, but I longed to see Emma one last time before I passed. They would have to crawl out from the Otherside again which is no easy task I’m told. None of them got close enough to me. They were scared, and they should be. Our world was a much nicer place than the Otherside I’m told. They wished to continue to feel the sun on their faces. To breathe our pristine air. They did not belong here, and they knew it. 

“The Demagogues belong in their realm. Not the realm of men. This shouldn’t be explained.” I yelled while keeping an eye on every creature that surrounded me. There were six of them and their faces mutated my fellow men’s faces. Making them into something they didn’t wish to become. Not in this life, not in another. One Demagogue infected man walked out from the crowd of the corrupted.

“Believe me. We are not the enemies. The Lady is.” He said while pointing at me, knowing full well that her spirit resided within me at the very moment. “She tells you what you want to believe. Love, joy? There is no darkness without the light. We are here because Lady Manticore needs us here. She is the villain. She orchestrated everything. We will not bow to the Lady no more we will no longer cull the weak. Nobody will believe what we have told you, you will regrettably be the only survivor. The Lady controls our movements but not our words.” It was strange. The voice of one of the Demagogue’s and the body language. It was much like my mother’s. They could have just been playing a trick on me, but something seemed vaguely familiar. Like a past life. Just then the pillars of smoke left the bodies out of every orifice they could. Burning out the eyes, mouth and ears. My men were dead, but what of Lady Manticore? She spoke to me softly. Knew that the Demagogue tampering with my mind would only make me distrust everything she has said and done. I knew that the Demagogue’s were liars, but I felt a truth in the speech that was spoken to me. A kernel of truth in an otherwise conversation of lies. I knew I was to continue on the path of the Lady but to what point? 

Lady Manticore asked if I was really taking their word seriously? I said I wasn’t, but I had to do some investigating. If I were to be untruthful to her would she know? To lie directly to the Lady, how would she know? She has made it clear to me that she was not omnipotent at all times. There were guises or filters that blocked her omnipotence in an area. Something that infected the air around us when a Demagogue was near. Some kind of stain that needed to be washed out. I examined the bodies of my fellow men. They were dead and a thick powder covered their orifices. Something the Demagogues left behind. I touched a little bit of it, and it rubbed off on my finger.

“The Demagogues come from a place that is full of volcanic ash. It covers their souls and they leave it behind. Anything from the Otherside can potentially block my sight, I know you loved these men, but they have to be thrown overboard or else my sight will be limited till we reach the new land.”

“Why did the one Demagogue sound like my mother? Was that a trick?” I asked. The Lady was quiet for a minute and didn’t respond. “I will need help. Their remains are all over the deck. We will need more than just me to get all remnants of the Demagogues from off this ship.” I said. Lady Manticore thought for a minute. Still not addressing my mother.

“The others must have seen the struggle. I’ll go tell them to send a skeleton crew.” I felt Lady Manticore leave my presence and saw her glory on another boat many miles out. She wasn’t near me and if I was to get to the bottom of what the Demagogues meant, I had to begin to be untruthful and to do that, I needed this residue. 

I began to scrape off the residue on all the men and into a trinket box that my late mother had given me. I threw out the old trinkets out into the ocean, if anyone was to ask, I was to throw out my worldly possessions to become a godly man. It seemed fitting that I would do anything to see my mother once again. If that was what it was. To choose the Demagogues over the Lady? Emma would think that was blasphemy, but my mother was the most important woman in my life. Not Emma, Not Lady Manticore. My mother. I filled the box to the brim of this powder and there was much more all over the deck. She would never suspect me. We can just claim that there was too much powder on the boat. It got through the cracks. The ship must be dismantled once we hit land. 

I could now see the freighters coming my way. They were to send me men. Men that could sail this ship, cook the meals, keep everyone onboard fed. They were to send the best of their best. Even though I was the best thing for the people I did not have their interests best within me. Is it right to mistrust a God? Knowing that all creatures, even higher beings, have a motive. What was it?

The journey was long and rough. Lady Manticore prepared us for the travel but none of us expected the extent of finding the new land. It was across a massive ocean. With nothing between where we lived and where we will live. The Demagogues first attacked after a few weeks of sailing. It has now been near two months since we first left our homeland.

I’ve grown to know the new crew in great detail. There was John Smith. He was a navigator like the father before him. He has talked to Lady Manticore about intimate details on how far we must go. He brought along his wife and several children, but they resided on another freighter designed for carrying family members. Our freighter led the expedition as the others followed. Our freighter was designed with speed in mind rather than size. The bunks were tight even where I resided near the captain’s cabin. 

The captain of the ship was named William. I forget his last name because he insists that we remain on a first name basis. We meet every morning to discuss what will happen on landfall. He seems very optimistic regardless of the Demagogues or the native people who inhabit the new land. He was actually fairly new to being a captain. We never expected an attack from the Demagogue’s, so we didn’t have excess of captains. He had led only a few expeditions before this one and none of them were as important as the one he had now. None of the other captains were willing to give up the helm of their ships but we were fortunate enough to have William. He was young and driven and we will only succeed as long as he is in good health. 

I also got to know the cook of the ship. Mason was his name but all I know about him is that he was born in the same city as me. He doesn’t speak much but I think that’s why he gave such an impression to me. He cooks our local dishes just like my mother with such finesse that it would put her to shame, may the Lady calm her soul. He sometimes gives me an extra ration to keep me quiet about what I know about him—which isn’t much. He was a private man and I could only wish for the best for him once we land in this new land. 

Lady Manticore had made a point to meet with every woman, man, and child on the expedition so everyone knew about her glory. She doesn’t stick too long on our ship anymore. Probably out of fear about what she cannot see. If she resides on our ship, then she cannot see the dangers that are approaching. She tells us that we are nearly there. William doubts it. He finds it very hard to believe that there is any type of land that hasn’t been already settled by those who resided on the homeland. 

“How have we not known about it for so long? Why is the Lady mentioning it now?” He asks. I didn’t have an answer, but he suspects something just like I do. Facts are falling through the cracks and over time they will either be explained in detail or will make the crack a chasm. 

Emma came along to visit to comfort me one day. I spoke of my issues with the Lady, but she shrugged them off as if they were not important. She had a different agenda and I could tell she missed me as much as I had missed her. We were alone in the captain’s cabin. Talking about our past then she sprang up the question.

“Do you love me?” She asked while looking into my eyes. I looked away in astonishment knowing full well what would happen if I said yes but the Lady did not forbid it. In fact, she hinted it on numerous occasions as if this was supposed to happen. 

“Well…yes. We have known each other for so long and Emma?” I said while holding her hand. “I know the Lady has wished for this to happen so let’s do it.” She smiled at me and I smiled back. There was no doubt that the Lady has posed such a task of her. To be a mother. And I was to be a father. 

Emma left that morning to teach the people about her findings on this boat. There are a lot of things that haven’t been explained but Lady Manticore mentions we are not ready to know the full extent of her godliness. I couldn’t imagine a world without a God telling you what is right and what is wrong. I couldn’t imagine a world in which our creation was in the unknown. To think of the tribulations of the meaning of life is only something I could imagine in a fairytale. We know for a fact about what happens after we die and where we go. To be uncertain, to me, is a fate worse than death and that’s why it pains me so to doubt our Lady. She will not give the intimate details about what’s to come, how we will live our lives, or what to expect. She tells us that it would ruin the experience of life, but I just see it as another crack. Doubting her and believing the Demagogue’s. I would be condemned to the Otherside if she knew and that’s why my mother’s trinket box full of ash doesn’t leave my side. 

I heard John yelling this morning he must have spotted something. I quickly got up out of my bunk and noticed that most of the people were already on deck. I got up to where the captain stood as he looked through his spyglass, a recent technology through the wisdom of Lady Manticore. He could see something and John, who was on top of the sails with his own spyglass definitely could see something. He squealed with excitement until the captain yelled at him stating he could now see it as well. John started coming down and the captain handed me the spyglass. 

“What is it captain?” 

“It’s William, you know that.”

“If you want these boys to respect you, they need to acknowledge your position. Respectively. Captain.”

“Right. What do you see?” 

“I see…ocean.” 

“Beyond that. Look at the horizon where the sky and ocean meet.” I looked harder and it looked like something, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

“Is that land?” I asked, simply using deductive reasoning. 

“Yes!” He laughed. “You see it?”

“Yes,” I lied. “I’ll want to look again once we get closer.”

“Oh, you will,” he said. I looked behind us and it looked the other boats were further away than us. They probably couldn’t see this land. I motioned to one of the crew to sound the horn which would alert the other ships that we saw something. He did and seconds later we heard horns coming back. They received the message. The men on the boat were ecstatic and joyful that the long journey was just about over but something was off. Lady Manticore was nowhere on our boat, nor could we see her glory on the other boats. She was gone. She left us and there would only be one reason why that was so. I took the spyglass and ran it along the horizon. I could see her glory along the horizon much like a setting sun, but the sun was just rising. She was there on the land and before I could say anything to the captain, Lady Manticore appeared on the boat right in front of the spyglass nearly blinding me. I closed my eyes as I saw spots of amplified intense light that shone through my retinas. I was blind for the moment, but I was sure she would mend my wounds.

“There are wicked men on the beach.” She said. I’m sure she pointed where, but I couldn’t see. “We need to sail up the coast. That’s where the Godsmetal is. We must get there. Before them. I felt a quick turn of the boat as I fell to my knees. 

“Do you think they saw us?” A crew member asked.

“They saw me on the beach, they know we are close. Keep your distance but keep the shoreline in view when you see a large opening in the land where a bay resides, go there. There will be a small island just outside the opening. The Godsmetal would be close. Wait for me there.” Lady Manticore surely left because I could not feel her warm glow on my skin. A crew member then lifted me off the ground and put his fingers near my eyes as if he was looking into them.

“Can you see me?” He asked.

“No, I can’t see anything other than spots of light that engrained themselves into my brain.” I said. He chuckled for a minute