“I will, mom,” Randy said. Tears rolled down his face, and Milly squeezed his hand tight. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
“Harmony with the infinite,” Milly said, and her eyes fluttered closed, for good.
Chapter Forty
Year 2088, Respite
The Perpetual Flame was low and needed wood. Birds stirred, and the insects had gone to sleep. The peaceful quiet of the predawn hour was Randy’s favorite time of day. Randy and Hazel were on fire guard duty, and they’d been arguing, but he wouldn’t be deterred. They’d get by their bullshit or they wouldn’t, but tonight it would be over, one way or another.
“How much longer until we can go home?” Hazel said.
Randy could estimate the time without seeing the sun or moon. He had no idea how. Instinct, they called it in Foundation. “Two hours,” he said.
“Can I tell you something I’ve told no one?” Hazel said.
Randy nodded.
“I may have slightly overstated how much I hate you,” she said. He laughed. “Do you want another reason I want to leave Respite? Yes I want to see the gone world and the new, but I know you’ll never leave here and I want to get away from you.”
Randy’s heart sank and his entire body deflated.
“I want to get away from you because I’m done fighting back the feelings I have for you,” she said.
Randy’s head snapped up.
“If we’re apart, I’ll never have to figure any of this out,” Hazel said.
“Sometimes I wish the fellowship never left, and that things were like they were and we didn’t know about the new world order. Like things never changed,” Randy said.
“They did change. And we do know,” she said.
“And that will pull us apart.”
“Or bring us together,” she said.
“I’ll get you some water and prepare some tea,” Randy said. She smiled at him and his temperature rose. After all these years she still controlled him like a marionette. Nothing had changed since they were five.
Randy strolled across the Womb, got tea leaves and filled a cup and the boiling pot with water. He gave the cup to Hazel, put the water over the dying fire, and wandered off into the Foundation. He’d hidden Peter’s axe there, and it was time for it to be given to its rightful owner.
Hazel stood when he emerged with the axe, and she ran to him and yanked it from his grasp in her excitement. “Is this what I think it is?” Hazel asked.
“It is,” he said. “My mother carried it all the way from the armory so you could have it.”
“Why didn’t she give it to me as soon as she got back?”
“Because it was the only thing she had of your father’s, the only thing she could touch and remember him,” Randy said. “She loved him, though she admitted it to herself too late. I’ve been holding onto it and waiting for the right moment.”
“Shit don’t mean shit,” Hazel said. She was crying, and they both laughed.
“Turns out everything means shit,” Randy said. “Remember the guidestone? The planning it took, the commitment. The founders of Argartha believed. I’m not sure I can. What if we get there and I’m rejected?”
“Are you joking? I’d get rejected before you,” she said.
“And what do you base that on?”
Hazel said nothing.
“The first centurions of Argartha built the guidestones in secret decades before the fall, planning for a new world gathering. They knew,” Randy said. “They saw the fall but were powerless to stop it. ‘So we may remember the world that is gone, understand our purpose, and the world that may be again.’”
“Our purpose. I hope they don’t test us on that. I’d fail,” she said.
“We’re fire guards,” Randy said. For the first time he fully realized how pitiful that sounded.
“The fire is a way of providing purpose and keeping you focused until a time when the world is ready for you again,” Hazel said.
“Are we ready for the world?”
“I am,” Hazel said.
Randy sighed.
“Let go, Randy.”
“I can’t. But I’ll say this,” Randy said. Hazel had won and Randy didn’t care as long as he was with her. “I’ll gladly pay the price to go to the old world if it means we can be together.”
“Who will take care of Axe?” Hazel said.
“He’ll come with us. Even with me added to the list there are still twelve open slots on the boat,” Randy said.
“You’ve thought about this?” she said.
“Since you said you were leaving the island twenty-five years ago.”
Randy leaned in and pressed his mouth against hers and they kissed. Not like the playful pecks of their youth, but a deep, sexual tongue cyclone that left them panting. Randy pulled back and kissed Hazel on the forehead and went to get their tea. The fire was dying out, but the mound of embers and wood coals still gave off tremendous heat. He stared into the glow of the cinders, his life’s purpose fading before his eyes. He turned to Hazel, and she nodded.
Randy stirred the ashes of the Perpetual Flame and pushed the remaining wood to the side. Sparks flowed into the natural chimney, and thick smoke burned his eyes. The giant mound of ash and embers glowed, and a thin yellow flame floated above the coals. Randy stirred it more as Hazel watched, saying nothing. The flame persisted, and Randy gave up when the sound of footsteps and leaves rustling echoed across the Womb.
Frodo emerged from
