The Redemption of the Cowardly Immortal

It was the fifty ninth day of Tomryan’s immortality and the God of Life was still furious. Her golden orbs for eyes fixated on him as she moved in close, scowling so intensely that Tomryan thought that she might knock him backward with the force of her glare alone. For a split second, he contemplated dashing in the opposite direction, back out through the waterfall that concealed the entrance of the God’s magnificent chamber; but he stood his ground. ‘I assume you didn’t bring me here to lecture me on my choices again,’ He said with false bravery, trying to remain in eye contact. She sighed and retreated to a more comfortable distance. 

‘Despite your treacherous decision to take up immortality, there is, perhaps, a chance of redemption for you after all,’ she boomed as she straightened her back, nearly hitting her head on the ceiling of the chamber. ‘I need your help.’ 

Tomryan scoffed at the very thought of redemption, then quickly remembered that he was in the presence of a God and adjusted himself into a respectful posture with his usual blank expression.

Tomryan had met one other God before, and that God had deceived him by promising great strength and courage to defend his village from the threat of raiders. Instead of gaining such power, he gained only the ability to outlive them through immortality, which was useless in his eyes. Tomryan’s village was not wealthy enough to hire guards or pay off the raiders, so he did what he thought was necessary and felt that the God of Life was treating him unfairly; after all, he did not choose immortality himself. Tomryan was irritated and almost said something aloud that he would later regret, until the God spoke again. ‘There is a man below this very chamber, who seeks immortality,’ she said as the golden aura that surrounded her enormous body lessened and her shoulders rolled slowly into a slump. ‘Although I do not agree with what you have done, I do believe that you did it for the right reasons. This man cannot be trusted and I fear what will happen if a vial of immortality gets into the wrong hands. Life cannot be tampered with.’

Tomryan’s initial thought was that this was none of his concern and he was fed up with being in the company of Gods, but curiosity got the better of him. ‘A vial of immortality?’ he asked, sounding more shocked than he had intended. ‘You mean there are more of them?’ 

The God of Life nodded slowly with her dimmed eyes avoiding his gaze and her golden stone tendrils still embedded lifelessly into the chamber floor. ‘I need you to give me that vial and stop him from getting it. This is your path to redemption… my champion,’ she said as the golden aura started to brighten again with hope. 

As the God of Life continued to beg for Tomryan’s help, thoughts began racing through his mind and he couldn’t help but wonder who the man below was and why he wanted to be immortal. Maybe the God was wrong, and he really was similar to Tomryan in that he needed some kind of power to protect those that he loved; this wouldn't have been the first time that a God concealed the truth from him. Tomryan felt that he couldn’t trust the word of a God although he was too cowardly to express that out loud. But then, he thought about the good that could come from this quest. He thought about his village and all those people relying on him for their protection from the attacking raiders and he was confident that the God of Life would reward him in some way. Then he thought about the man and how immortality was a curse, not a blessing and that removing the vial from the man’s grasp could be seen as an act of mercy. Tomryan decided that there really was no good reason not to take on the quest, he had never been trusted with important village business but had already failed in one attempt to get help. He decided that he would not fail again, so before he had any second thoughts, he nervously descended down the rocky steps into the room below with his shortsword fastened tightly to his waist. When he finally reached the room, he pushed the wooden door open and found a man dressed in a scarlet velvet suit.

The man sharply turned around to the noise of Tomryan’s entrance, and revealed that he had a huge brown moustache that curled at its tips. His suit was immaculate, with not a hint of dirt. This was remarkable, given that he was standing in a dusty cave dimly lit with mounted lanterns that decorated the bare walls. Threatened by the visitor, he stood in an aggressive position and held his sturdy wooden cane as if it were a sword. ‘And who might you be?’ he questioned in a clean accent.

‘I… I was sent to aid you on your quest,’ Tomryan said, expecting the man to immediately see through his lie. With his sharp facial features that matched the silver owl head crafted on the end of the cane, the man unexpectedly lowered it. ‘Very well,’ he said and swung the cane over his head to rest on his shoulder, ‘Lead the way.’

‘Of course, Mr…’ Tomryan hesitated, realising that he didn’t know the man's name.

‘Carl Carshalton,’ he said proudly, gesturing for Tomryan to lead the way. ‘It’s this way!’ Tomryan shrieked enthusiastically.

Their footsteps echoed through the cave as they walked deeper into the cave. The sound of Carl’s spotless leather shoes was made up of a mixture of squeaks and thumps whereas a pitter-patter was what followed the footsteps of Tomryan. The lanterns on the walls never dimmed, and the light from the candles never flickered. As they advanced, the amount of lanterns began to decrease and the darkness thickened until it was impossible to see. ‘What now?’ Tomryan asked, surveying the cave in search of an answer. But before he could come up with a solution, Carl had already decided what he would do; he ripped a lantern off the wall with a cloud of chipped stone raining down. Once it was free, he placed his cane through one of the rings that miraculously stayed intact and held it in place like a makeshift torch, guiding them through the darkness.

After taking a few wrong turns, Carl and Tomryan eventually came across a small room brightly lit with a chandelier dangling from the ceiling. The chandelier was made up of twenty lanterns from the cave, their metal frames clustered around like the branches of a willow tree. Stepping into the room first, Carl noticed the room was filled with junk. A suit of armour, wooden crates, old weapons and cloth all scattered in every direction of the room partially covered in a huge blanket of sand on the floor. ‘Look!’ Carl yelped enthusiastically, as he stepped forward pointing at a rectangular frame attached to the wall. Loosely placed in the centre of the frame, which was made of metal that had rusted over time, was a solid stone tablet with the word ‘Kill’ engraved into it. Tomryan slowly followed and he noticed a tablet that said the word ‘Forever’ on it in the corner of the room. Then he shifted his gaze towards the frame and back at the tablet. ‘I think it’s a puzzle,’ Tomryan said as he cautiously stepped over the junk, reached for the tablet and placed it next to the tablet already in the frame that Carl was examining thoroughly. 

‘Kill forever?’ Carl muttered under his breath. ‘What do you think that means?’ 

‘I’m not sure,’ Tomryan replied as he took a step back. ‘It looks like there is enough space for another tablet,’ 

‘So there must be one somewhere in this room,’ Carl eventually said after a long pause and lifting a large cloth to look underneath. As he picked it up, an avalanche of sand trickled onto his shoes revealing a third tablet covered in a layer of sand underneath where the cloth once lay. Tomryan scurried to pick up the tablet that was almost identical to the other two aside from the huge crack that festered in the bottom right corner. The sand that still remained on the tablet made it impossible to read so with a quick swipe with his sleeve, Tomryan revealed the word that was hidden.

'Live,' he read aloud carefully making his way to the frame to avoid all the clutter that had gathered on the floor. Carl discarded the dirty cloth, letting it fall back to the ground releasing a cloud of sand into the air. He sputtered and then snatched the tablet from Tomryan, slid the two tablets already in the frame to one side and put the newly found one into an empty space. When he read them from left to right it said, ‘Live, forever kill!’

Tomryan suddenly sprinted towards the frame. ‘No, no, no, I think it goes like this!’ He smiled proudly as he adjusted the order of the tablets. Tomryan thought that the phrase should have read as: ‘kill, live forever!’

‘So you have to kill, to live forever?’ Tomryan questioned, still staring at the three tablets. ‘Kill what?’ 

‘I think you know what must be done,’ Carl approached Tomryan menacingly.

‘I don’t think I understand,’ Tomryan replied.

‘There was a reason you were sent down here with me, isn’t there? It’s obvious. Kill, live forever. You were sent down here as a sacrifice!’ Carl quickly removed a wooden cap from the bottom of his cane to reveal a sharp blade on the end. He swung it in the direction of Tomryan who was lucky to dodge and launch himself away, crashing into some already opened crates. ‘What are you doing? I’m not a sacrifice!’ Tomryan yelled, stumbling to his feet and drawing his shortsword with his shaking arms. 

Carl ignored Tomryan’s plea and prepared himself to attack. He was unaware of Tomryan’s immortality and Tomryan was unaware of if he would still survive having his head chopped off and he wasn’t prepared to find out. 

Carl waved his cane left and right trying to land a hit with each move, but Tomryan evaded each one awkwardly. Carl raised his cane into the air and went for a vertical chop but again, Tomryan was too quick. He dodged out of the way and Carl hit the suit of armour which fell with a loud crash and a rattle, revealing a skeleton that was dormant inside. Among the skeleton, a rectangular tablet with curved edges dropped next to Tomryan who was lying on the floor with his short sword pointing up at Carl. His eyes red with determination, Carl did not notice that the tablet, facing up at him by his feet, had the word 'Death' written on it. ‘Wait, wait!’ Tomryan pleaded, realising that he was one slash away from finding out if immortality also applies to headless beings. 

Carl's face softened when he saw the tablet and he slowly lowered the cane, his eyes seemingly reverting back to their original sharp hazel hue. Tomryan took a few seconds to catch his breath, stood up and brushed himself down, freeing himself from the blanket of sand that wrapped around his clothes. Carl didn’t apologise, instead he picked up the tablet and fiddled with the frame to squeeze in the fourth and final word. There was a brief silence. ‘Kill death, live forever,’ he said. Tomryan repeated the same words in awe at the now complete frame. 

‘What do you think it means?’ Tomryan asked, having naively forgiven Carl already. Tomryan had to think about his priorities and he was convinced that the quest would reward him. Almost reading his mind, Carl put his hand on Tomryan’s shoulder. ‘Find me that vial, I will give you all the riches that your heart desires,’ he said, still out of breath. Carl thought that Tomryan's reaction was unexpected. Instead of joy or excitement, Tomryan’s eyes widened and his face grew pale. Carl was confused, so he turned around to see what had made Tomryans face freeze with fear.

The skeleton, that fell from the suit of armour, rose from the ground, its joints clanging against each other. It was too scrawny for the suit of armour without its flesh and muscle, so as it stood, all but the helmet slipped off onto the floor. In its right hand it was wielding a huge iron mace that emerged from the sand as it stood. Looking at both men now gawping at it, the skeleton let out a high pitched screech causing them to throw their hands over their ears. 

‘Kill death, live forever,’ Tomryan repeated as the skeleton’s scream came to an abrupt end.

Using the same cane that could have ended Tomryan’s short immortality, Carl quickly blocked a sudden attack from the skeleton. It was incredibly fast and it caught Tomryan completely off guard. 

‘I have an idea. Keep him busy!’ Tomryan said as he recovered from shock and ran to the other side of the room. Carl nodded in agreement and blocked another hit from the skeleton. 

‘Quickly!’ He yelled over his shoulder.

With all the strength that his body could muster, Tomryan nudged one of the large crates into the centre of the room and hastily climbed on top. On the tip of his toes he reached out with his sword and cut the iron wire that held the chandelier of lanterns in place with a one swift swing. 

‘Look out!’ Tomryan yelled as the chandelier dropped to the ground. Heeding his advice, Carl nudged the skeleton before sliding backwards avoiding the impact of the chandelier which flattened the skeleton, crushing its skull.

As the skeleton’s skull was shattered into multiple pieces underneath the chandelier, the tablets fell to the ground revealing a wall full of compartments, all unlocked. Carl was the first to dive onto his knees and started opening the compartments from left to right. He discarded each opened compartment, desperately searching for the vial of immortality. On each unsuccessful attempt, Carl threw the contents onto the pile of junk behind him. Coins, idols and candlesticks were worthless in the eyes of Carl, who only had one thing that he desired from the treasure. Tomryan also got on his knees and began searching through from the middle compartments. They were running out of compartments to check, when Tomryan opened one that had a dirty rag inside. He carefully lifted the rag out of the compartment and saw it. 

The vial of immortality was glowing green and was just like the one that he had drunk before. Excitement began to build inside of him as he thought about the wonderful things he could do with the money that Carl had promised to give him. He thought about the old windmill that needed urgent repair and the inn that needed refurbishment. He thought about hiring an army to defend his village until the end of days. He would be a hero. But a thought suddenly occurred to him. He didn’t know what Carl wanted to do with the vial. He didn't care at first but once he was holding such power in his hands, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of responsibility. Without asking what Carl intended, he decided that he would take the vial and return it to the God of Life, just like he promised. But then again, the God’s were not always truthful to him, so he questioned whether handing them the power of immortality was wise too. He couldn't trust either. Tomryan’s mind was racing and he knew he had no more time left to decide.

‘Damn, nothing here!’ Carl huffed in anger. He looked over at Tomryan who was hunched over in the corner, his back facing Carl. Tomryan quickly covered the vial of immortality with sand on the floor, turned around and threw the empty rag on the ground. ‘Nothing here, either,’ he said looking dejected in order to deceive Carl. In a blind rage, Carl threw his cane across the room and yelled a number of profanities that made Tomryan flinch. He then stormed out of the room and Tomryan followed, leaving the vial behind, hidden.

Tomryan never found out why Carl Carshalton sought immortality, but he was happy that the vial remained hidden. It was not quite the redemption that the God of Life had planned; but it was redemption, nonetheless.