The Beast of Ten

by Beth Brower

“But life does not always offer understanding; it offers a road to continue traveling,”

“Do you see how this tree’s roots have grown around and around in circles, more concerned with itself than with stretching out into the earth? That is why it could not survive the storm.”

“There is much light in this world, Ember. It can be found in many places. It can be found in the pages of a book.” “What do you mean?” I’d asked. She smiled and simply said, “Look for that light which illuminates the soul.”

But no matter what’s inside you, no matter what you’re meant for, if you take counsel from the dark, there it is that you will be led.”

“All things have substance. It is only that we cannot often see this with our mortal eyes. A greater understanding of such things has to come through a Bestowal of some kind.

“But I do know that these lanterns wouldn’t be half so remarkable were they not set in darkness. Dispelling darkness is the province of light.”

“Light is the only thing that grows stronger when darkness deepens,” he continues as he goes back to his work. “It is the way of things.”

All things that are to be, come to pass, notwithstanding the sphere of your existence.

“You can’t rip yourself into little pieces and give them away. You must learn to remain whole and let the Lights work through you. Some tasks do mean giving of yourself, but in a way that doesn’t make you unable to finish them.”

“I don’t have the answer for the difficulty of this, but I can’t help but question, what is to challenge hope if not despair? Can we claim the first without battling and dispelling the second?”

“There was a life stripped from you that perhaps you will find on the road ahead.” “That seems the case for all of us,” Sylvain answers. “Enough so that I no longer believe our lives aren’t meant to be more of a circle rather than a line: the beginning and the end tied together in some cosmic way we can’t understand.”