She showed me her truth and her light, which will forever be mine.
It was my first jump across time. Waves of matter and light flowed through my body as I travelled through the wormholes - they could have been entire lifetimes, eras and civilisations. I could have skipped past the extinction of my own planet, or entered the time of its birth. Asteroids forming one rock and back apart into dust. The end of the tunnel seemed endless. My body would have to reach the destination before I do alive. I couldn't stop the clock from ticking inside me, death had plenty to wait before it would run out. I couldn't feel whether I aged quicker or slower in this portal, but it all stopped the moment I arrived at the beach.
The landscape around me was beyond Earth. There were two suns shining brightly in the almost white sky, accompanied by nearby stars that moved across the sky to compete for the same light. The beach they shone on was even more eccentric - there were glitters of silver and gold among the sands being both washed and replenished by the pale-blue tides; trees of varying branch length showered the inland with glowing dust; droplets of sweet, pure water fell either from the rain clouds dotting the sky or the bottom of floating islands surrounding me. Up ahead laid one of the most beautiful castles I've seen.
Through the embroidered marble gates, I let myself be seized by the locals. They spat at me, calling me the names foreigner, trespasser and alien.
I was taken into a dark courtroom filled with the howls of the angry inhabitants. Fire blazed from the columns, but it was not warm enough to thaw the cold I felt in this strange world. Much like those of Earth, this room was meant for conducting a verdict on the sins committed here. The only difference was that a beautiful lady judged by observing a gold scale she held, and brandishing a scabbardless sword, choosing whether to grant immediate freedom or instant death. I was forced to kneel towards her and gaze into the fire of her eyes. At times she alternated the view between my own and her scale, firmly gripping the deadly sword all the while. As she gazed at me, I felt there was something unusual about her stance.
She became uneasy of my case. She began shaking though minute to the audience who observed us behind. She trembled whenever her eyes met mine, so she quickly flashed back at the scale that seemed to have continuously caused her doubt. Between us, the same tiny specks of golden dust accumulated and gently weighed themselves on the scale, but her eyes told me that it must be wrong. The truth, they told me, was never wrong on the scale, but was I an exception? I came from another timeline, another era, another world, and what was certain was that she struggled to decide.
After seemingly a long time, she recovered fearless and rigid as before and declared me, "Not guilty."
The audience exploded with outrage. Several decorated guards caught her off gaurd and confiscated the sword away. The gaurds beat her almost fatally with spiked maces, until both received projectiles of what looked like telescopes, knives and torches. Soon everyone began tearing their own clothes off shouting out, "Liar! Traitor! Outcast!" Among all the tyranny, I was surprised not to have received any of the blows while kneeling, but was more surprised when I noticed the woman did not weep or cry out in guilt or pain. She took every physical blow targeted at her, but inside I could feel she could not stop the emotion I shot at her. My simple presence sacked her, made her betray her duty and left her to rot in detention.
I walked into the depths of court into the chamber of the Judge, humbly greeted by the guards. Telling them to leave us, I greeted her silently, hoping my presence would alarm her again. It did, and she suddenly wept tears. She confided to me that I was a man who didn't deserve death in spite of the dust that told her I trespassed in their land. She had lied to grant me a false freedom. She had given away her life to save mine. I answered back to her and exclaimed she must redeem herself by proving to the people once more she was an honest, faithful Judge. With one kiss on the cheek, she thanked me. In the darkest dungeon of the land, I explained a plan that could bring her back into light.
She ordered the assembly of the disgruntled people once more to the courtroom as a retrial for my sin. I kneeled as before, but instead I gazed into the new white cloth that shrouded her biased vision. Brave and still, she held out the scale and her sword firmly. This time, I did not fear death, but what I did fear now was her losing concentration over my eminent departure. She observed the scale silently. Golden dust settled on one side of the scale, tilting her hand slightly in one direction and uplifting her sword gradually. I could feel the audience shaking with as much anticipation and nervousness as I did.
She faced down at me one more time, and suddenly exclaimed with a proud voice, "This man has committed a more grievous sin beyond our righteous Laws. He deserves a death worth erasing him out of existence forever. With the enhanced powers of the sword, I declare this man guilty of treachery on our world," and swung the sword at me.
At the moment the blade kissed my cheek, I travelled through time. My body must have exploded into specks of dust in their eyes, thanks to the dedication of her sword. Behind me, I could hear applause and triumphant laughter through the ages of her planet. The white sky faded into the many colours forming the same vortex of light I tunnelled through before our meeting. I was, however, scarred by that kiss. I will miss her, knowing I was forbidden to enter her time again.
I entered once more a few millenia after the execution in curiosity. Before me laid a better court I could ever imagine. It was a statue of her, blindfolded, holding the model of the same sword she struck me with, and holding courthouses that rested on a massive scale behind her. The statue was more radiant than the white sky above. She showed me her truth and her light, which will forever be mine.
雷达卡
发表于 2015-6-29 21:39:04
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