Chapter 4: Invictus Three

There are similarities in the moon and his face. The surface scars are what the world sees. What lies beneath is not your cup of tea.

              Trying to catch the moon sprinting west, he realized the spots on the moon and the dark shade on them is exactly like the scars of his face. The pits on his face were as many as the craters on the moon. He did love the moon. He didn't love his face. Everything in the world is in plenty. But not the Moon or the Sun. And yet, they benefit all of mankind everyday almost equally. These two lonely, ever working, co-traveling spheres of the earth had learned to become his friend. 

               Forced solitude had taught him acceptance of self and of the world. Mistakes, fear, guilt and grief had to be sent back. A new circle of influential friends from the galaxy was on the celestial horizon. While the lower emotions were packing bags to prepare for the return journey, the new mates were stretching muscles to get ready for the arrival of a millennia. 

                Through pain and only through pain was he able to let go of all that held him back. The weights were not yet off his shoulders, yet he could still feel lighter with every gaze towards sky, no matter how hard it eventually became to lift the loads of cause and action while not stopping the walk. His main goal was blurry. His aim had played treacherous trickery on him. His instincts misfired all the time. He was in shambles, in pieces, and yet he managed to keep himself whole. This was his strength. He often broke and found himself breaking down time and again, but he would never break entirely. 

               A small, no matter how microscopic, even if a granule of him survived, that small speck of him ensured he remained! Like a Phoenix rising from ashes, he rose and burned and rose and burned again and again and again. He was destroyed every time he was whole again. And he was whole again every time he was destroyed. This was his superpower! Tired but not done with battles, tonight was the time he felt the arrival of his reinforcements to his aid! 

              The waning moon made its alliance known. The moon was with him and in him, the sign of it were the scars on his face. The soon to arrive sun rose in leaps in it's last strides to reach him and his planet. His support would only make him the strongest man on this planet. The Sun was with him, and in him. The sign of it was his extreme sides, the fear inducing, bone rattling rage; and the perennial, ever flowing stream of love, charity and kindness. 

             He had fought alone and fought hard for thirty-three years. He couldn't give up. He had all the chances and thoughts to die to end the force feeding of pain that stretched his soul between two extreme corners of the universe. Tonight, as he looked at the sky, insomniac as always, he was glad he hadn't given up. For his reinforcements, his two buddies, the Sun and the Moon had finally arrived to his aid, cementing his eventual victory! 

           A human life is short for the celestial beings. But every second is like eternity for a sad earthly soul. 33 years seem like a whole life. From where the others saw a waste of life as they looked at him from a distance or in person, he saw that he was still a fighter, facing everything that came at him, fighting for survival. 

           Tonight, he thinks to himself, if his survival till date was difficult, then his life would really hold huge meaning, much more than anyone could ever guess. He knew it. While the act of defense might have made him forget his true purpose, the purpose would only exist if he survived. And his purpose until tonight had been to survive first. 

           He wondered, as he managed a smile between the last of the perennial tears, is the world ready to witness the confluence of the three - him in the center, rising sharp and high, with the Sun and the Moon by his sides. Is the world ready for the Invictus Three? 

Copyright Alkesh Varma

PC: Alkesh Varma