#50.7, Weds., Nov. 15, 2023

Historical Setting, 610 C.E. Besançon Fortress

         Now I’m groping my way through the tunnel. The darknesses I prefer, like the dark of night, always seem to glow from something – the moon, the stars, the first rays of sun — but this dark is the nearly a suffocating intensity of death’s dark, even without the weight of earth on me. It is nothingness. I could be walking on the ceiling here for all I know. And I wonder if bats are on this ceiling?  I don’t really feel alone here – maybe it’s bats. Maybe it’s spirit. It is a silent presence. 

         My fingers walk the damp wall ahead of my steps, since I choose not to commit a full-handed touch to feel my way along.  May I reach the end of this while the sun still shines.

         Now my fingers touch a dark ending to this wall. Is it another tunnel, or just a random corner?

         It’s a juncture in the tunnel. Maybe it is two tunnels that meet and one will lead to the place beyond the walls where the others wait. I’ve lost my sense of direction. This seems to be a smaller path off in another direction. Exploring these edges, I find no arch or supporting beam, at least nothing that can be found with touch. So, I choose only to follow the wider tunnel forward.

         The darkness goes on, for how long? I’m moving so slowly I have no idea of distance. And I fear I’m losing my belief in light. Is light simply a belief shared by those who see? What is light that darkness isn’t? Maybe it is an idea, or a hope, or something imagined. It is a mystical reality. As one who has seen it, I know that it exists at least for those who see.

         But now there is a shadow, a shine on the wall ahead. And now the full light of day is an oddly shaped exit overhead with the fresh scent of air pouring in. All around, under this opening are burnt branches once use as torches. Did the young soldiers not need torches to return back through the tunnel? Or are they still at the alehouse? Maybe they came alone, and went back in groups. I would leave my torch here, had I a torch. Here is a stone for a step to make an easy climb out through the hole.

 (Continues tomorrow)