The Dragonfly in the Tower

EPILOGUE

At first, nothing happened.

Sharon and Ilya stood in silence.

Then –

Like an earthquake reaching a distant city far from its epicenter, tremors in the ground. Vibrations, shaking the floor and now Sharon’s legs.

Their knees buckled and Sharon heard the swift revolutions of blades, blades spinning like six silver knives, blades lifting them from the disc of earth carved out centuries ago when the tower was built, and which they were slowly, every so slowly, rising out from.

The massive slabs of granite rose, then fell, rose then fell. Tons and tons of kilograms, underneath which was a fan, an unused but swiftly turning fan nonetheless. The sheer sharpness of the metal even after the eons rang with one note in the tower.

Ilya, always faint, always pale, was fading before Sharon’s eyes. Like he was simply turning invisible, first his feet disappeared, and then his calves…

He smiled and crinkles came to his eyes.

Their foreheads touched, but then as Sharon reached for his red sleeve the fabric wasn’t there anymore. She expected a whoosh as the sleeve swung out of reach but the vanishing was so quick and so silent.

Right at the end, Sharon heard Ilya whisper, “Thank you for our time together. They were some of the best times of my life,” and then Ilya was gone.

Now as the tower gently steadied itself mid-air, the fans decelerated and their humming gradually faded.

That lovely, faint heartbeat against hers was gone.

Ilya, you who brought me so much joy, rest in peace.

And even though it felt like a piece of her was torn out, like she had lost her right hand, she walked out of the corridor, past the lair with the bodies and the studies, through the hallway and down the tunnel to the red door.

She placed her hand on the brass knob and turned it to see the rolling green hills for the first time outside the tower.

Sharon felt the warmth first before her eyes registered it.

Sunlight…

She felt the air coalesce around her and swoop away.

Wind…

She took another step and looked up.

Sky.

Never before had she been presented with blue, just blue, depthless and borderless blue, since she had only seen the sky enclosed in her windows.

She looked down.

Her feet felt a new texture, one that made her a little more wobbly, but one that changed interestingly with each step.

Stone .

“Sharon,” Rainer was smiling at her and she looked up. She was dazzled momentarily by how he looked in the sun.

“Everything worked out, and I know you’ll be OK.” He paused briefly, looked away, and then looked back. “This is our goodbye.”

What are you to me? Will I ever have the chance to find out?

He was waiting, just like before, for Sharon to say something. In the space of the moment Sharon saw his eyes’ real color.

They’re not grey. They’re green…

The green of the sea at daybreak, dark waters caught by the sunlight…

Holding her gaze, Rainer said, “Goodbye, Sharon.”

Goodbye, Rainer , Sharon wanted to say, but somehow the words got stuck in her throat.

Rainer smiled briefly, then vanished. The spicy but warm aroma of burnt sandalwood reached Sharon.

She never did see Rainer again.

She took another step, then another, then another, and started running freely. The hills and the end of the path were waiting for her.

Previous Chapter: -Director's Cut: The Secret of the Tower-

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