Jo and the meaning of eternity

Jo landed heavily on the ground. She scrambled up onto her feet and started sprinting back up the stairs.

“Find the Blade and bring it back to me, only then will I order the doors to be reopened.” Lord Creighton shouted to her as the heavy doors slammed shut, casting Jo into an impenetrable darkness.

In this life Jo had experienced some horrendously awful things but she had never been scared before. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been this petrified of anything. Slowly she sunk down against the doors, she sat cowering, waiting for her night vision to kick in.

The din of the battle above her had faded away, it was quiet enough for her to hear the blood flowing around her ears. At least that was how she was explaining the rhythmic thumping she could faintly hear.

It definitely wasn’t a voice repeating the word “come” over and over.

She was deep under the ground here, far below the long lost temple, in a chamber scratched from every record. This was where the Blade was said to rest, a sword which graced its wielder with invulnerability during battle.

Jo sat and thought about her actions which had led to this point. Did she deserve this fate she wondered? She couldn’t claim that her hands were clean of blood, far from it. She was the one that had led the uprising against Lord Creighton, mistakes had been made, revenge for decades of involuntary servitude had run too hotly and innocents had lost their lives.

Her conscious was what had brought her into her current status. She should never have trusted Lord Creighton, the peace talks had all been a ruse. She had been captured and forced into witnessing him suppress and massacre town after town to set an example.

The rebellion hadn’t died though, it lived on without her. That was something she had become good at, inspiring people to throw their lives away in the meat grinder of war. She was tired and Lord Creighton had promised her peace in return for the Blade.

Jo could faintly see the floor below her, carefully she stood up and made her way down the steps. As she did the air temperature dropped. By the time she reached the floor she was shivering.

In front of her was a small dais and on it sat a sword, it was simply known as the Blade. In the dim light Jo examined the sword, it looked so ordinary for something so powerful.

“Pick me up, I will grant you everything you want” The voice was authoritative and rang straight into Jo’s skull. “I can see your heart; you seek vengeance for the wrongs against you and your people. I can aid you in that.”

Jo didn’t move.

“You lost your brother, another betrayed you”

This statement took Jo by surprise, how did the Blade know about that. No one on this planet knew about that.

“How did you know?...”

“I can see into your very soul. I know who you are. You think about redemption but you seek vengeance. You and I are alike, my brother betrayed me. He trapped my soul in this blade and used me to kill his enemies. He slaughtered his way to greatness using my power. Then one day his wrist twisted awkwardly while parring a thrust from a child with a stick, my edge bit into him and I imprisoned him in here with all the other souls. They torture him still to this day and will continue to until eternity. Doesn’t your brother deserve to be in here too? Doesn’t Lord Creighton?”

“Perhaps” Jo spoke, as her hand wavered

“Then pick me up. I will break open the doors entrapping us in here, then we will get your justified revenge.”

Jo’s hand hovered above the hilt of the sword; she felt the heat in her hand being sucked into it. “Do you know how long eternity is? Do you realise what it actually means?” Jo asked.

“It is the sentence that our betrayers deserve.”

“No. This is what eternity is.” Jo picked up the sword and let the being inside of it see a glimpse of all the lives she had led, the pain, the happiness, the guilt, the loss, the joy, everything. How eternity is nothing compared to her.

The blade burst with a blinding flash of light. The room went dark and stayed dark, Jo’s retinas were destroyed. She sat down on the cold floor, clumsily she leant back against the stone podium and sighed. This hadn’t been her plan for this world. She had planned to free everyone from one of the most repressive rulers of this galaxy and do it without her powers. That hadn’t worked. She could have taken the Blade and killed Lord Creighton but she knew that she would only create a power vacuum and someone else would rise up to replace him, who she would then have to kill, then there would be another and then another and then she would be the new Lord Creighton. She had seen it over and over.

The best thing she could have done after being thrown in this pit was to destroy the one weapon that would have cemented Lord Creighton into power for centuries to come. Perhaps the rebellion would now win. Perhaps not.

Jo closed her eyes, the metal dust of the sword slipped through her fingers. There was no edge left, she was stuck in this place until Death came to pick her up.

The Blade, before it was destroyed by Jo, obviously.