There is Nothing New Under the Sun

She sat by the water. The rhythmic waves were dirty and mostly lifeless, but mesmerizing all the same. She sat alone, mourning, and lamenting; but for what, she didn’t even know.

Her ponderings were brashly interrupted by the powerful drum of a distant boom. She felt it to her core, and fear welled inside of her. Dust rose amidst the trampling of feet, as several people emerged from the dunes on her right, running away from the thunderous noise.

“RUN!” shouted a thin but sturdy man with feathered curls of amber and gold.

The young, yet worn face was adorned with peppered stubble, and sapphire eyes, that met hers as he ran toward her. His eyes stabbed her heart with electricity.

She gathered his sense of urgent alarm from his shout and intent gaze, as he clamored to her. However, she swore she saw a faint smile flash across his face.

“Come on!” He gasped as he hoisted her to her feet, and into a run; all with a single motion. “They are coming!”

They began running, but slightly perpendicular to the general direction of others in flight. She didn’t know where they were running to, but she hoped that they would make it in time.

Screams rose behind them.

The man tensed, one of his arms still around her back, assisting her clumsy attempt to run.

***

“Chamud! Chamud! You have done it again, dull boy!”

Chamud strained to quickly reclaim consciousness.

“I told you Oikia, this is normal for me!” he snapped, as he begrudgingly awoken.

Though this “dim” was tense and terrifying, he still enjoyed it. Chamud always felt different after the dim. Though slow at first, he always came out of it better than he was before.

“Did you see her in your dim-sights again?” asked Oikia.

“Yes” he said, as he sat more upright in his saddle.

“We hosts do not dim the mind, as you simple-ones do,” Oikia reminded.

Oikia was a host. The hosts were enhanced simple-ones from before. They did not need to dim the mind. They were stronger, faster, more intelligent, and immune from decay. Some could see in the dark, some didn’t need to eat, and some could understand a thousand possibilities all at once.

Due to the clear advantage of enhancement, the hosts quickly became the majority in the world, and developed their own governing society known as the “Order.” The Order considered simple-ones as inferior pests, and soon saw fit to exterminate them.

An irony of the simple-one’s elimination emerged when hosts learned that they could not procreate. However, they could be remade in the body of a simple-one; like a hermit crab taking on a new shell, after the previous occupant was removed. Due to the rarity of the few simple-ones left in the world, it was said that hosts developed ways of begetting new simple-ones by their blood.

Oikia did not belong to the Order, and saw fit to keep Chamud hidden from the Order. Though he appreciated her protection, he was not ignorant to the probability that it was likely due to the value of his blood.

“It is interesting that your dim-sights often depict the same woman,” said Oikia, as she leaned on her ability to perceive many possibilities. “Begottens produce offspring from their own essence, and it may be, these are distant memories that you see.”

“I don’t understand what I see, though there is a familiarity with it,” replied Chamud. “The feelings are so strange.”

“We hosts do not “feel”’ said Oikia. “We know, but we do not feel.”

“She is sad and longing,” he said, slouching atop his horse once again.

“Quiet now” interrupted Oikia. “This close to the capital, the Order may be hiding in the trees… I do envy the things you speak of,” added Oikia softly.

Chamud’s gaze drifted to the impressive white walls surrounding the capital, as he pondered the longing feeling he shared with the woman in his dim-sight.

***

Hidden deep beneath the rubble of their destroyed world, she sat leaning against the man with the sapphire eyes. They had been there several days, as the hosts combed the terrain above.

Her body convulsed with the approach of her baby. Though not even the father, the man whispered softly to her. He was completely at ease as she seized against him. She was overwhelmed and terrified, but her focus was taken by a small heart shaped locket that he held in front of her.

He whispered in her ear, and gently said, “This is my heart, and it belongs to you now. The engraving says ‘there is nothing new under the sun,’ and that means that my heart has always belonged to you, and it always will. When I saw you on the beach I hoped, but wasn’t sure. However, over these last few days, I have become certain.”

He placed the locket in her hand, and she felt the longing within her melt away.

Suddenly, the sound of debris crumbling under footsteps could be heard just outside their hiding place. She convulsed again. The man got up. He turned toward her and kneeled close. With a kiss he said “there is nothing new under the sun, and we will meet again.”

With that, he clamored out of the ruble cave to meet whatever approached. The blood curdling cry that followed deafened her like a bomb. The words “there is nothing new under the sun, and we will meet again,” echoed in her mind as she drifted away.

***

“Chamud!” exclaimed Oikia. “I swear your begotten had better control of the dim than you do.”

“My begotton?” shrieked Chamud.

“Quiet!” retorted Oikia.

“You knew my begotten?” he whispered harshly.

“Yes,” replied Oikia. “I found her soon after her begotten passed giving birth to her. I saw many possibilities for her. One of which wasn’t you.”

“Had Oikia sold my begotten for her blood?” Chamud wondered. “Was Oikia now coming to the capital to sell me? Or worse yet, to be turned into the Order for a reward?”

He thought of the woman in his dim-sight.

“At least she met the man with the sapphire eyes before she died. Even if it was brief,” he jealously pondered.

The thought weighed heavy in Chamud’s heart. It seemed incomplete, and this bothered him.

“Empty your mind and sit straight! We are here,” barked Oikia.

Between being lost in his thoughts, and the dense canopy overhead, Chamud had not even noticed that the wall of the capital now towered hundreds of heights over them. The gate that they now approached was one of the smallest and least traveled into the city, yet it stood high overhead in a pointed arch.

As they passed the gate guards, Chamud did his best to appear neutral. Having made it into the city, Chamud breathed a sigh of relief, followed by a sharp inhale. He wasn’t sure if he had breathed at all while passing through the gate.

Chamud scowled within himself, “What did it matter, he was as good as dead now anyways. Except that Oikia might not get her reward if he were found-out prematurely.”

They trod through a twisting maze of streets, bridges, alleys, and buildings. The city would have been awe-strikingly beautiful if it didn’t feel like a death march to Chamud. They turned down a narrow alley. Oikia dismounted her horse, and retrieved a lantern from her saddle pouch.

“Bring your bag,” said Oikia dryly.

Chamud’s heart contorted. Bringing his bag meant that he would not be returning with Oikia, but it also suggested that he may not be immediately exterminated.

Chamud followed Oikia as she entered a small doorway to a dark stairwell. The stairs descended to a subterranean canal with a narrow walk that ran along its side.

After carefully following Oikia down the walk for some time, they came upon a canoe, tethered to the wall. One end of the canoe rose in a decorative spiral, to which Oikia secured the lantern.

She turned to Chamud and said, “Take the boat until the canal spills into a deep chasm. Get out there, and climb down next to the falling water. At ten body lengths from the top there will be a space behind the falling water. There you must stand and state that you are Chamud, a simple-one, and your way is paid. Do you understand?”

“I don’t,” hitched Chamud in bewilderment. “How is my ‘way paid’ if you are selling me?”

“Oh Chamud. I am not selling you,” replied Oikia evenly. “I am setting you free.”

Chamud staggered back half a step.

“I will be uniting with the Order,” Oikia said lowly. “They would have me exterminate you.”

A tear slid down Chamud’s cheek. Oikia showed nothing.

“Hurry now. There isn’t much time,” whispered Oikia in the softest tone she had ever used. And with that she turned and began back the way they had come.

Feeling small and empty, Chamud stepped into the canoe, loosed the rope tethering it, and sat hugging himself.

He followed Oikia’s directions precisely, though, while climbing down next to the falling water, his hand slipped once, and he nearly fell into what seemed like infinite darkness. Sure enough there was an opening, concealed behind the water. Standing in the mouth of the secret tunnel, there was only thick darkness, and the rush of the water behind him.

At first attempt his voice eluded him. He regained his courage and spoke. Then came a grating sound, as light began to pour in from the opening at the end of the tunnel. Squinting at the blatant contrast, Chamud took slow steps forward, half wondering if he had actually fallen to his death when his hand slipped.

Staggering into a warm morning on the outside of the city wall, three people stood waiting for him in a forest clearing.

One of them was a burly man, who beamed at him with small wrinkles at the sides of his eyes. Another of them was a thin woman with straight grey hair, and eyes as sapphire blue as the man in Chamud’s dim-sights. Just behind them stood a young man about his own height, with frustrated brown hair, and eyes of brazen amber.

They stood for a moment, before the young man stepped forward and said “Hello Chamud, my name is Aheb.”

Around his neck, a pendant gleamed in the sunlight. It was the locket from Chamud’s dim-sight!

“There is nothing new under the sun,” Chamud whispered in disbelief.

Aheb blushed.

“You know what my locket says?” he asked in a shy but flattered way.

“I… I’ve seen it, in a dim-sight” confessed Chamud.

With a voice like a song, the woman said “You will certainly have to tell us about it on the way. My name is Chokmah.” She gestured toward the brawny man, and said “Nahal and I are Aheb’s begottens.”

“I’ve never met another simple-one before,” chimed Chamud. “I thought I might be the only one left.”

Nahal laughed thunderously. He beckoned the little group with a wide wave and boomed, “You are in for quite a surprise Chamud. There are many of us!”

They followed Nahal into the brush, and Aheb lagged a few paces behind his begottens, assuming a position next to Chamud.

Chamud felt the hairs stand up on his arms as electricity rippled across his body.

Aheb removed the locket from his neck and placed it in Chamud’s hand.

Chamud felt his soul open like water being let go from a damn. Something within him connected.

“I don’t even know you,” sputtered Chamud.

“Chokmah was begotten by the blood of a simple-one from before. The locket belongs to the blood,” explained Aheb. “And if my dim-sights speak true, then you and I will be counted as the same blood.”

Chamud’s heart fluttered.

“Besides, if ‘there is nothing new under the sun,’ then we have always known each other,” said Aheb with an jestful and enduring smile.