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Beachcombing for Iron	By : dweller_of_roots Category: +G through L > Lighthouse: The Dark Being Views: 1025 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Lighthouse: The Dark Being, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
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- 11
You never get used to travel through other dimensions.
It sounds like the kind of thing you wouldn't think about - hell, I never expected it'd be something I'd put serious thought into. But the portal Jeremiah engineered, despite the secrecy in which it had been made, wasn't threatening. There was a kind of 'snap' all around you, a warmness to your skin that faded as quickly as the sense of being transported. And when it was over - there you were.
Maybe it would be different for other people - but I can't imagine that Jeremiah would've brought Mandy with him if he'd felt there was serious danger from the portal itself. The Doctor's very Northwestern sweater seemed terribly out of place on the mild and temperate beach; it'd probably been raining back home again. Both he and Mandy were wearing those big yellow boots you don't see as much anymore - perfect for digging for clams, or stomping through low tide and marveling at the tidal pools left over from the retreating of the waters.
And speaking of Mandy - she was very polite, but clearly interested in exploring the otherrealm herself, and it both amused and cheered me to see both Liryl and Jeremiah casting their eyes over at her cautiously in between a discussion that sounded to be about the nature of the portal itself. I wondered - perhaps, with Martin's passing, the good Doctor was the first chance Liryl had found to speak to someone who understood machinery the way she did..?
"You've... Returned, then."
Liryl was carefully cheerful. Her voice hinted at the possibility of excitement - she clearly had much she wanted to discuss, some of which could be said amongst new friends - and some of which was private. Given that I felt much the same way, I kept my tone as neutrally positive as I could, too.
"Sure have. I guess you two have already met and introduced, sorry I wasn't around to be part of the introductions!"
Grinning broadly at the Doctor, I took a seat on the sand next to them. Mandy took a few moments to laugh at my (admittedly amateurishly) mended clothes, but then distracted herself with a perfectly smooth rock that made a perfectly satisfying three skips across the water - though clearly, she'd been expecting a few more.
"Think nothing of it, my friend. The weather here has been a blessing after the rains back home - even for those fond of them, there is a time for clouded skies and a time for clear light ahead - even without a sun in present view, which - "
Clearly, Jeremiah wanted to ramble a bit, but he kept himself in check - much to my disappointment, to be honest, and obviously Liryl's too. People self-censoring themselves is a difficult block to get around; I probably wouldn't understand whatever the Doctor was going to talk about, at least not as well as Liryl - but I still wanted to listen to him all the same. What do you say in situations like that..?
Actually, there is... A sun, present. It's just... Very distant. The tidal cycles of Planet are... Changed, from what they once were."
"I can imagine! Would you believe this is the first time I have had to truly walk these beaches since the incident? And - I cannot began to say it, but I imagine that the world itself has changed, even since before your time! Why, the sand and soil themselves must tell a history... I should attempt to do a survey of their time, the state of their chemical composition!.. Ah."
Doctor Krick sighed, the clouds missing from the sky above marring his good mood.
"I am not one to mince words. I understand you two know one another - and know this arrangement is unsustainable?"
Liryl said nothing, but rolled towards me and placed her hand against mine. Her grip was strong as her silent expression - even though she shook, ever so slightly.
"Even if I wanted to keep the portal going, the materials and resources to do so are not only rare, but dangerous. I cannot justify risking my own safety, and that of my daughter - let alone the town we live in. With time, and effort - it might be possible to make a safer, more efficient device - but that is speculation, and nothing more."
Jeremiah began to walk along the beach, and seeing that, Mandy ran up to him. He smiled and raised her up onto his shoulders - a little unsteadily, from the weight of time and stress alike. We followed after them, leaving a trail of tracks and wheeltreads that disappeared into the sand as the water lapped against them.
"Of course. I was... Reconciled to that before this even became a possibility. And... Your daughter is wonderful. Even if it were... Just her sake, I would understand your judgement."
Liryl sounded more certain than she must have felt, but at the same time - I didn't think she was lying. If anything, I envied her rationality, or her ability to be both true to herself and so accepting of things that I guess I couldn't accept myself.
Her answer made Jeremiah smile a little, that enigmatic smile that always hinted slightly at mischief and optimism that I so respected about him. He was perennially hopeful - perennially of good cheer, and as his fingers tapped at his side, I could tell he was thinking about something that he didn't want to say himself. He began to speak several times, then stopped, instead asking Mandy about what she had found, and if she could think of a realistic taxonomic name for it. Liryl soon joined in, and finally I did as well - though after the best I could come up with was 'Birdius Aquarius' I was banned by popular vote from contributing further.
"Thank you for you understanding. I can only hope you will consider what I spoke about with you earlier?"
Liryl's reply was an expression so carefully balanced that it could've contained within it any emotion known to any of us.
"Certainly. I am... Glad we had the time to discuss it in private."
"Sounds serious!"
I started, trying to lighten the mood - but apparently, I'd misjudged both the Doctor and Liryl's severity, as both began to chuckle, Liryl drifting into a stuttering snicker that she couldn't easily hide - it just kept coming despite her attempts to stop laughing and numerous apologies. Though I wasn't in on the joke, after awhile I started laughing as well; sometimes, it's good just to be with friends and to share in their laughter and let your worries drift away.
But that reminded me.
"Doc."
I began, my turn to face the waters and skip a stone into it. Mandy shook her head in disappointment as my stone failed to bounce once, and carefully did her best to show me a better way to do it - I wasn't paying full attention, however, and failed to learn the secrets of the craft despite her best efforts.
"You don't have to dismantle the thing right away, right?"
"Certainly not! For one, that itself would be quite dangerous! What do you imagine I do, simply grab multiple components and iron them together with craft glue and soldered wire?"
Though his expression was incredulous...
"Uh, well, yeah."
I scorched under the heated glares of two technicians, trying my best to justify my opinion in that a lot of the 'tech' work I had done during my stint as a freelance adventurer had been pretty much that, and it had turned out well enough for me.
"Although your lack of appreciation for my work is duly noted, I will guarantee you some time - though it would help me to know what you're planning, my friend..?"
Turning to Liryl, I took a deep breath.
"Would it be all right, if, just for a day, I brought Liryl through the portal?"
We all went silent for a moment.
How do you even answer that question? You could argue that we already breached some sort of cosmic doctrine of non-interference by coming into Planet, willingly or unwillingly. But Planet is a world alone, and Earth is teeming with life. I knew what I wanted - but not what was right.
"If it affects your decision, any... I would like to go. I promise that I will not be... Disruptive..?"
Liryl struggled for the words; and given the way she was fidgeting with her hair, I wasn't entirely sure that was the case. Even with the current design of her wheelchair, I couldn't imagine people not finding her unusual - at least. As for her personality, even with the ability to speak and understand one another - she was curious, and investigative. It would be impossible for her not to be interested in the world we came from, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Fortunately, Jeremiah hadn't been thinking of our concerns, clearly having decided in favor of us perhaps before he came.
"It's absolutely all right - I just am trying to think of the best way to ensure that my friend here will not end up disrupting things, himself. That and - the place we come from is rather small, and rather like your home here. I cannot imagine that it is the only place you two would want to visit?"
Coming to a conclusion, Jeremiah fished into his pockets and pulled out several crunkled tickets - despite them being stamped for today.
"Far safer than your car, I think. And to truly see our side - I think she... I think you would like to see the people there, yes?"
Liryl nodded, her eyes half-closed.
"Then let us go; the day is still young, and you should take as much of it as you can. I would like to do some things, myself - and I think Amanda has proven herself the most skilled stone-thrower in the land."
Beaming at his daughter, Jeremiah was met with an even prouder Mandy - though she had moved onto gathering things from the beach to take back, a little habit I was proud of myself. Though again - was it even right to take 'souveneirs' from this world with us? Where did the line between preserving the past and taking it for ourselves, piece-meal began?
I continued to overthink the matter as the portal, warm and comforting, enveloped us.
Pier Fifteen seemed like a hallucination after we'd finally pried Liryl away from the Doctor's house. I'd worried she was going to wear grooves in the wood floor from excitement and interest, but Jeremiah was infinitely patient - perhaps himself simply happy to have someone who didn't live continents away - metaphorically, in this case - to discuss his work with. Nevertheless, he was planning something and ushered us out not too long after. A good meal being the start to a good journey, we'd ended up at the Pier. At first, I'd worried somewhat about the reaction to Liryl, but -
"Wow, mister! Who's the lady friend?"
Nancy had whispered scandalously to me as she watched us come in from the pouring rain. Liryl had refused to move from her spot for a minute - almost euphoric, even after she was drenched and near rooted in-place from the mud around her wheels. Her hair hung around her head in matted clumps, but it looked even more beautiful to me - and besides, I must have looked as much a mess as she did. I was going to answer, but Nancy moved on to her next target with practiced ease.
"So, hey there! We've known each other for some time, that guy and me, but I don't think we've ever met? I'm Nancy."
She held out her hand and Liryl took it, a little sheepishly, parting her bangs with her other.
"Liryl. I... Uhmn - "
"Sounds foreign! Are you French? Ooo - or from wherever the Doc's from? Are you one of his Science Friends?" Nancy grinned wolfishly.
"In a manner of speaking..?"
Overcome, it seemed like Liryl was proud and incredibly shy all at once.
"I suppose you could say... I'm an engineer. The Doctor... Introduced us, and we've become..."
Liryl was cut off by a salacious wink from Nancy, who was enjoying the ability to make me retreat into my collar. Once you've worked the fryer with someone, your innermost soul is bared to them; a lesson for anyone who has yet to work the high-stakes, highly spiritually rewarding task in it's entirety. As a side note - Liryl was completely unphased.
"Say no more. But I mean, what do you do? Are you like, one of those nuclear engineers? I'm not really into nuclear power, it seems so dangerous!"
"I prefer... Mechanical engineering. I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with... The latter."
"Well, I was just checking. It seems like everything is nuclear, these days... Anyway! Take your time, do you want something to drink? A soda, maybe some wine..? We don't actually have wine officially, but I could bring you some!"
"Naaaaaancy."
"Oh, c'mon! Live a little. I know you don't particularly like the stuff, but even a near teetotaller luddite should drink to their health once in a while!"
"Luddite..?"
"It's kind of a word for someone who never leaves their house and doesn't visit their friends enough."
"Actually, it's a word for someone who doesn't like machines - "
"Whatever. I'll be right back with your menus and some water."
Grinning, Nancy left, the redness finally fading from my face even though I felt fantastic. Liryl grinned lopsidedly at me, water still falling from her hair. I moved closer to her in the booth, and brushed a few strands out of her eyes - and was close enough to see that if the sparkle in them was any indication, she was still laughing at me, just silently.
"You two... Certainly seem close."
"It's - actually a pretty short story. I worked here in between my mild commercial success. It's a good place, actually. See - they even have these mazes on the menu, I mean, that's not really that unique, but these ones are killer. I bet you can't solve one!"
Liryl narrowed her brows and smirked at me, saying nothing. To my extreme vindication however, her confidence soon turned to frustration and shock as she finally gave up on the Pier's latest maze as well, throwing her hands into the air in exasperation.
"Who would even... Make such a ridiculous complex maze! It should be that... As long as you stick to the left side..!"
"That'd be me. My job is to make the customers cry so much they just can't help but come back stronger! Cold tea for the mister, and some for yourself as well. I also brought water, because only amateur writers drink cold tea."
Nancy placed three drinks in front of us. Liryl sipped at her water first, but then tried the cold tea and found it satisfactory; I figured either she had an unknown gift for amateur writing or I had been vindicated for the second time in recent memory.
"Well... It's not bad, but... Perhaps the next one could be... Easier?"
Liryl asked, to the reply of devilish laughter from Nancy - who knew no pity, only joy in the suffering of others.
We consoled ourselves with a shared side of wood-smoked salmon, and left as the sun reached the pillar of noon.
The bus into the city was packed with people. Mostly older folks who visited the countryside to 'get away from it all', half-asleep or reading quietly amongst themselves. Liryl was leaning against my side and trying to do her best to look as if she wasn't watching them - but she was. Her eyes flashed from person to person like blue lightning; taking in their loneliness, their satisfaction, their exhaustion - all of it, a memory she'd keep to herself for the rest of her life.
But it was the city that stopped her breath entirely. Perhaps it was the rise of the buildings, or perhaps it was the congestion of cars, the many new scents, the smog that I'd forgotten I was used to. I couldn't tell if it exhilarated her or depressed her; perhaps she couldn't tell herself. We got off the bus near a streetsign, dented from the occasional collision. Across the cause-walk was a bookstore, and near that a theater.
"So. Two choices. We could go sit down for a bout an hour or two and watch a story play out, similar to how the memories of the priests were preserved... Or we could go rummage around and look for books. I realize you probably won't be able to read them, but - "
Liryl fixed me with a defiant stare.
"I absolutely... Will! That's not even... A question, and I believe you must know that. Besides, an hour or two... Is a lot of time, isn't it..?"
Her voice waved for a minute. I thought of all the times I would look for an hour or two to 'kill time', and mulled over the reality she had of perhaps having nothing but such blocks of time - with little to do but to satisfy her own works.
"Good call. You better be warned though - I'm far better at picking out good reads then I am at writing them."
My bold words were met with two inescapable facts.
1): Liryl lost it inside the bookstore. We were lucky, as I had forgotten it had two floors, and the latter was only accessible by ladder; but as the lower floor was scattered with boxes, shelves, and bins of books new and old, it wasn't as catastrophic a decision as it could've been.
2): After perhaps thirty minutes of getting lost in covers and running her hand over pages she couldn't yet understand, Liryl squinted studiously at the display counter, which happened to be a display counter featuring regional publishers. Regional publishers which happened to include myself.
3): This was a disaster and I was bad at counting facts.
"What, exactly... Why is the cover a man jumping over a fire?"
"My editor insisted on it - "
Fourth mistake! FOURTH MISTAKE!
"Your... Editor?"
Liryl grinned from ear to ear, and my attempt to snatch back a copy of the book failed miserably. Wheeling over to the counter, she hailed down a man a bit younger then myself, whose brown hair was braided and whose love of famous bands was clearly visible stretched over the shirt he wore.
"'Sup, ladydude."
"I would like to purchase this."
"Hey, uh, man. She doesn't actually have any money, soooo - "
Liryl grinned enigmatically at me. Wait. Did she have money? Had I made a fifth mistake? Was I on mistake number five?
"Scratch that, I'll buy every copy you have. I mean, you can't have that many, right?"
"Dudeman, we have about seven-hundred at least. Like, in the back. Moving them has been a real pain, what are you, like, an amateur distributor or something..?"
Putting aside that I was disappointed at everything in his statement, I was also disappointed because my budget couldn't handle buying seven-hundred and fifty-plus copies of my own work.
Liryl coughed, and tapped the surface of the book against the counter - then began to set several others next to it. She'd chosen them mostly by cover, and from the looks of those covers, Liryl had a keen interest in the proud tradition of speculative fiction masquerading as harlequin romance; or perhaps vice-versa.
"I will take all of these. Just a minute..."
With that, she procured several heavy coins of a silver metal and placed them in the stunned hand of the clerk. He looked both ways, then checked above to make sure there were no security cameras - which there weren't. And despite the fact that I wasn't sure whatever currency she had payed in was something we should be bringing over to this side - I did nothing to stop her, and we left with a sackful of books each... Since I of course ended up buying a handful myself.
"I cannot believe... You assumed I wouldn't have some kind of currency. Planet... My world... Wasn't so different from this, I don't think..."
She was joking, but her voice hesitated, the burlap sack full of books bouncing in her lap as we walked through the city streets. Her world - Already, she spoke with the same past tense I'd felt when I was visiting Planet, and I imagine it weighed on her just as heavily. Is it really so easy to adapt to the unknown..? And is that something to be cherished, or feared?
To take her mind off of it, I took her on a tour of the city; past the great copper statue of a great dead man whose reason for alleged greatness alluded me. I bought a disposable camera, and we took several photos, which she loved; then I acquired her an instant-developing camera of her own, and at her own insistence a maintenance kit and instructions. She engaged with a lengthy conversation with the surprised and enthusiastic proprietor of the filmshop we visited, and by the time we were done the sun was heavy. Had time truly moved so quickly?
And there had been so many other things I wanted to show her, and clearly so many other places she wanted to go; she was fascinated with the idea of a 'water treatment plant', almost as fascinated as she was with the condemned fairgrounds that had failed to get funding the previous year.
And there simply wasn't enough time.
We were silent on the busride back; the pale blue glow of the buslights overhead both comforting and alien, all at once. It was my turn to lean against Liryl, who continued to stroke my hair distractedly, looking past the windows at the inky blackness outside and the ghostlines of passing trees.
It was a bit of a walk from the bus-stop back to my house, and a bit hilly besides that; but the rain had let up and Liryl insisted she push herself, though I managed to commander her books for the time being (even resisting my urge to pilfer my hideously covered work and feed it to the fire).
She was silent as the light flickered twice, then bathed the room in an artificial glow, biting her lip at the lack of... Everything, I suppose, in my house. The visage of the lighthouse was captivating to her, for a moment. But then she was carefully exploring my room and my possessions, and her feelings were a guarded secret I felt I had no right to ask.
"Do you truly... Live hear... All alone?"
Was her first question, to which I nodded, watching as the lighthouse ran it's pale lantern across the calm waters.
"It isn't really... Fair, is it..?"
"No, not really. But life never is."
"I disagree. Life is exceedingly... Fair. We end up altering it... Until things become more complicated. Or maybe... I do not know. I don't even know... Myself."
She ran her fingers over her bare arm, as if cold, and I embraced her tightly. We didn't move for some time, and then she smiled at me - softly.
"Would you mind... Reading to me, tonight?"
It was a cold enough night as it was, and I didn't have the largest or comfiest bed. But climbing under the sheets together, feeling her constantly moving against me, was warm enough. We refused to read any of the books either of us had gotten today - since she swore she would read those on her own. Instead, I read several of the books in easy reach near the bedside. John Carter of Mars, which she found dreadfully boring, Poe's Pit and the Pendulum, which she adored, and the oddly gilded collection of Winnie the Pooh short stories my Aunt had sent me - many years ago. She drifted off as I read the latter, no longer able to watch the words as I read, or even focus on the pictures. I myself was growing tired, and at some point the light faded around me and the day ended, even as some part of me, still awake, didn't want to wake up.
- 9
- 10
- 11
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Beachcombing for Iron