"Light´s Sacrifice" by Leigh *Shwin* Erickson

“Pure Light, I fear, is a promise frail

Of late I question its claim to truth

For it seems all our endeavors fail

And darkness claims those still in their youth

“There is no hope, not for our fair race

Dark absorbs light like the earth does blood

Its greed strikes fear into ev’ry face

and nothing can withstand its death flood”

His face is weary, his hope is gone

I see it clearly this final day

In response the star I do not don

And with softest voice to the light pray

I look upon his faded cursed arm

And ask to touch it, remove the curse

My request is met with deep alarm

With life, the dark, I will reimburse

My fingers brush his freezing pale skin

And with power drawn from Light itself

I send in the pure light and begin

to break the curse with the light’s great wealth

At last his arm no longer faded

but glowing with a strong, healthy light

I pull the cursed band, by light aided,

from his now bright hand and from his sight

His face is filled with awe and wonder

“How did you do this thing my dear son?

How did you the dark with light sunder

How was this grim, hopeless battle won?”

Yet now it is I who feel weary

As if with the band I took his pain

An instant and the world is dreary

And I question what, by this, I’ll gain

“My son?” His voice is lined with worry

I know I must answer him... yet still...

The finest of my vision’s blurry

And for the first time I feel death’s chill

“You know the prophecies, my father

You knew this very moment would come

Why do you, with your questions bother?

You know the source sacrifice is from”

My voice is strained so I fall silent

And look to the surrounding trees

So calm it seems, yet raw and violent

Full of dark shadows I must appease

I stand, “Father, now I am leaving

To go through the forest to the dark

Do not follow or waste time grieving”
I say now, my message cold and stark

His face is pained, I ache to see it

He knows to what end this curse must come

I bow and walk away “So be it,

I will face dark’s pandemonium”

Before I can embark to my fate

One final thing exists yet undone

I must pass on before it’s too late

pure light’s star of no comparison

I lift the circlet high above me

“Return to the light” my voice is soft

The circlet fades into memory

The star, to my father, flies aloft

I walk in silence on this journey

Aware of what my fate is to be

The bright stars above guide and show me

My path and of the dark’s mockery

I come to a grove ‘round a clearing

I know this place, it haunts all my dreams

I see once more the time is nearing

when it will be filled with my pained screams

For here my father stood before I

Ever breathed the cool air of this earth

Here my mother gave her last pained cry

And here the pure darkness had its birth

Here my father took his curse in vain

And here I will lift it, pay the debt

Here faded black blood screams of a fell pain

And here light was ensnared in dark’s net

I stand in its entrance fear embracing

My will and heart for I know too well

The pow’r and anger I am facing

And the anguish that transcends all Hell

Long minutes pass and still no motion

Yet I feel the darkness circling round

With anger halting all emotion

I cast the cursed band to the ground

The dark then comes into the center

Black tendrils clinging to the pale dirt

Until from them springs my tormentor

Her dark presence deeming Light inert

She moves with confidence unfitting

For gloom seemingly dispersed by pale light

But her bonds ensnare, unremitting

And are the cause of harsh death and fright

She sends towards me a cloud of sable

I walk through unharmed and meet her eyes

Their ebon depths make hope unstable

In them so many met their demise

“Who are you that my cloud passes o’er

your body without drawing your light?

Are you one born of the time before?

Before you no one has dared to fight.”

Her voice like glass cuts into my skin

I answer, defiance in my voice

“Light’s son they call me, you will not win

My life to you I hand at my choice”

For one brief second her eyes quavered

in one crucial moment fear revealed

for the breadth of one sigh she wavered

and in that moment bright hope was healed

Anger guilds her already harsh voice

As with hot rage she meets my pale eyes

“I would not yet, son of light, rejoice

not when my dark still covers the skies”

“You have no power o’re my spirit

my submission will be on my terms”

My voice, it shakes, she doesn’t hear it

Her wide eyes my dying hope affirms

“Now I give myself willing to you”

My clear voice is strong as I remove

my outer robe of a silver hue

With this I my bold defiance prove

She smiles slyly with this motion

takes my shining hands in hers of black

quenches my light with her dark ocean

And the searing pain takes me aback

She weaves a chain wrought of black velvet

shadows and binds me as darkened hands

touch once my face with ebon to let

it engulf the pure light it demands

I strain against the bonds that hold me

So far I seem and yet still so deep

Iced chains of shadow cut into me

Their black inducing eternal sleep

Yet what is freedom if it’s madness?

My life would be crushing regret

Sunlight alone can capture gladness

And only Light’s Son can pay this debt

Alone I yearn again for light’s touch

yet these cursed chains hold me from that peace

The pain is searing in pure dark’s clutch

But I fear beyond my soul’s release

I see the eyes of the dark sorceress

Her glee is plain and grates my soul

As she with pleasure gives dark’s caress

to me, a curse to hinder my goal

For I will free them from the darkness

I who will stay their grim fears at last

I who with the pure light’s bright starkness

Will declare it’s reign of terror past

Can Light win now without sacrifice?

Will darkness fall by will forlorn?

No, not unless it claims with its ice

The son of the star of the bright morn

I see this now and feel the fading

of my dimming limbs and chest and heart

My breath, it stops, my heart degrading

This was my role to play from the start

I accept it now and peace descends

to me as light fades from my dim eyes

By this my life all reason transcends

And will be the cause of dark’s demise