The Eye of the Beholder

The Second Writing Prize Winner –

SUMMER 2024

is C.V. Leifen

of San Jose, California – USA

 

THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

Hush, and bear with me for a second. I’m going to tell you a story because I don’t know how else to tell this particular truth. Some have said this is nothing but a fairy tale, others have said that time has finally driven me delusional. I maintain that this is the truth, nothing but the truth, and the whole truth. Whether you believe me is for you to decide.

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Long ago, in a little cove by the glittering blue sea, there lay an unassuming wooden chest. From the outside, it did not look very special, and indeed it blended in with the rocks and shipwrecked wood laying in the fine sand beside it. It was once said that a ship had borne a gift of the heavens down to this mortal world and was destroyed in a wrathful storm brought upon by forces of chaos, coming at last to eternal, battered rest on the shores of this very cove. The sealed wooden chest lay on the sand like an undying, hidden flower on the grave of a long-forgotten legend. But to a common outsider, not many cared to know what was inside, or even realized that within this humble little chest, there lay a great and priceless Treasure.

Inside the treasure chest lay an assortment of treasures acquired throughout the ages, some of which included a diamond with the light of the stars themselves captured within its facets; sapphires that crystallized from the first drops of the sea’s creation; a handwritten leather-bound book with pages of gold; a bottle of ink sourced from the liquid purple of the night sky; rubies that burned with the heat of a thousand fiery suns; and a single glossy oyster that was said to willingly reveal to a mortal its mysterious contents only once before clamping shut, as tight as any other oyster found in the sea.

I was the invisible and immortal guardian of this treasure chest. It was a gift to me by the skies above, and it was my charge to watch over it. I was bound by ancient law and by the vows I took as I assumed the responsibilities as Keeper of the Key and Guardian of the Treasure. I guarded the chest in its little cove day and night as a keen sentinel, on the watch for any worthy heroes who came to behold the Treasure with their own eyes.

I denied to most of the people who ventured into the cove the knowledge of the chest’s contents. But sometimes, there were some individuals who challenged my invisible presence for an opportunity to see the contents of the chest. Per the ancient rules, established even earlier than any of the treasures in the chest had been made, I was bound to give any challenger a fair fight.

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Many of these heroes fought valiantly. Yet only a handful recognized that I could never be defeated by force. These individuals would then spin lovely songs with their hands or voice and were thus able to soften my formidable strength and will. I might resist for a while, but as always in the end, I deemed that they were worthy of beholding the knowledge about to be granted to them. I then opened the sealed chest for their eyes to behold the Treasure and for their soul to understand.

In very rare cases, there were heroes not only worthy of the usual honor, but also holding, even if for a little while, the Key to the Treasure itself. I accepted their fair victory and gave to them a dainty key wrought of fine silver hanging from a chain around my neck. Though I could open and close the treasure chest as often as I pleased, a mortal who wished to do the same could only do so with the Key offered them by me. Such was a risky thing for me to do, but it was for good reason: every Key bearer always added a treasure of their own to the chest. Thus, the little collection grew over time, albeit very slowly. Once the heavens approved of my collection, I and my Treasure would leave this mortal world to spend our immortality rightfully amongst the unfading stars.

I guarded my Treasure carefully, vigilantly, zealously. Patiently amassing my entryway to the immortal realm. And my Key was reserved only for those I held truly worthy.

Until the day I was robbed.

There was once a stranger who stumbled across the cove of my treasure chest. I looked upon him and saw that he desired to see the inside of the chest. I waited for him to meet me, the unspoken and invisible challenge. Yet day and night, he only circled the edges of my little cove, not daring to further approach the treasure chest.

Finally, I grew impatient and was about to deny him any further entry to the cove when I looked at him more closely and, to my utmost surprise, saw that there was no malice in his heart. I saw that he had a promising future to one day become another Key bearer to my Treasure. I had never seen a Seeker like this before, and I laid down my weapons.

“Why hast thou comest in the cove where I stand guard of the Treasure, young Seeker?” I inquired from atop the rock near where the treasure chest lay.

The Seeker, who had believed for the past several days the cove to be empty save for him and the shipwreck, stumbled back in wonder. He warily scanned his surroundings but, of course, could not find to whom my voice belonged.

Recovering quickly, however, he then tentatively inquired about the contents of the treasure chest. Startled, I looked upon him with much displeasure, for to ask about the Treasure without proving his worth was taboo. “The contents of the chest are inordinately precious,” was all I replied. It was the truth, and the obvious truth that everyone who sought the Treasure already knew.

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But the curious Seeker did not relent in his questions despite my guarded answers. Having been tired of the interrogation at last, and to perhaps inspire him to request a fair challenge, I granted him a fleetingly—almost impossibly—brief glimpse into the chest.

I had already broken a sacred vow by committing this act, but all was not lost, for there was still a chance for him to earn his right to truly see the Treasure. I knew that in his eyes, there was a selfless desire to see the contents of the chest, and to one day add a priceless treasure of his own to it. And so I waited for his redemption.

But it was as I should have feared and the brief glimpse into the chest left him hungry for more. He inquired once more about the chest’s contents, this time emboldened by the sight of the Treasure, and I again responded, “the contents of this chest are inordinately precious.” It was the truth, and the obvious truth.

Yet he inquired about it so plaintively and earnestly, and I started to take pity. The challenge he must overcome was standing right before him, but my heart relented upon seeing such a promising Seeker wander about so lost. I knelt to the sand, as if in prayer. I clasped my hands together to my neck, and as I stood up again, I unfurled my fingers to reveal a single spindly key of silver.

“Be warned, Seeker,” I said with a certain inexplicable dread in my heart, for I did not know exactly what would happen if I did what I have intended. “No one has won the Key without proving themselves first. But because I see that there is no malice in your heart, and that you wish to place a treasure of your own in my chest, I will allow you the Key that opens to all my treasures.”

Eyes lighting up, he then reached for the Key hovering in midair, for he could not see my invisible being, but I hesitated. I drew my hand with the Key back, and I continued. “My one request is that you do not ask about the contents of the chest after you have unlocked it with your own hand and beheld the Treasure with your own eyes.”

I did not think of mentioning the other unspoken rules associated with this most sacrilegious of acts, for they were more obvious than the obvious truths I had already stated. Indeed, my request itself was already self-explanatory, for questions about the chest after the Seeker has viewed its contents were not necessary: beholders of the Treasure, after all, were souls who understood the sight before them. It followed, of course, that in order to glimpse the Treasure again, asking for my Key was akin to treason against the natural order of life, for the only way to glimpse it again was to coax it out of me, or prove the Seeker’s worthiness through a fair trial and obtain the Key by natural right. And, of course, such a large deed as the one I was about to endow was not to remain unsettled. The Seeker would have to place a treasure unlike any other I had had so far into the chest in order to repay the critical debt of bypassing the challenge and receiving the Key so freely.

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Such was the unspoken but understood natural law. They could not be broken. The oaths I took to become the Guardian of the Treasure, however, could be. And these were the very oaths I broke to freely offer this Seeker my Key.

The Seeker gave me his Word, and I gave him my precious Key in return. I watched as he unlocked the treasure chest and saw the contents inside. His eyes moved across the diamonds of light, the sapphires of the deep, the golden pages sprawled with purple ink, the fiery rubies, and the treasures gifted by noble heroes of the past. I saw him tenderly pick up the little oyster and noticed with a start that it opened before him, emanating a breathtakingly beautiful, pearlescent light around the cove. The light was almost too bright to gaze upon directly, but it did not seem to bother the Seeker in the slightest. He looked straight into the oyster, though the light by this time overpowered even my own sight. I held my breath, for I realized that no one had held the little oyster before. True to its legend, the oyster slowly closed until the last light ray within could no longer escape. After a while, the Seeker closed the chest and turned around to me, astonishment and selfless curiosity in his eyes.

“What is a common oyster doing in such a splendid treasure chest?” he asked in wonder.

Angered, I stood in all my terrible might and glory before him, for he had broken his Word to me and had asked about the contents of the treasure chest. The Key in his hands dissolved into silver dust, and a cruel, cold wind gusted into the cove and swept the ashy remains of the Key with it, to be dissipated across the sea. “A Fool!” I cried to myself. “I am a Fool!” For though he had the potential to place a great treasure in my chest, I saw then that he did not have a soul that understood. I realized this too late, and I wept at my own foolishness and at his, and at the loss of my one and only Key to my treasure chest.

The Seeker did not seem to understand that the Key had dissipated, and with it, my heart. “May I have the Key again so that I can open your treasure chest once more?” he inquired.

“Seeker,” I said with icy fury, “you have violated all laws of my treasure chest and have not once tried to prove your worthiness to behold the Treasure. You will not win the challenge now, for your sin is too great for redemption.”

This last part was not exactly true, for if the Seeker had simply called for a quest to right all wrongs, he would have been granted one, per the ancient laws. He would forge another Key like the one that dissolved in his hands, and return it to me, and then prove his worth through the one and true way to gain access to the Treasure. Of course, I was forbidden to speak of this implicit rule and therefore could not put him on the path that lay right before his unseeing eyes.

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The Seeker said instead, deeply saddened, “Very well. I thank you for this adventure, for it was quite the learning experience.” I never forgot the moment when the wonder left his eyes, and how quickly that a dull defeat had settled in the place of it.

I watched him leave the cove, silently imploring him to take up our last hope and challenge.

But he never once looked back. And I did not ever see him again.

That was long ago. Now I stand here in my cove, guarding my treasure chest and armed with no Key. To date, no one else, asides from me, has ever seen the inside of the single oyster, not even those who had coaxed me into opening the treasure chest for them, or those who once opened the chest with the Key. I can only hope that this Soul Who Did Not Understand also did not see—truly see—what the little oyster contained, for its contents were the most precious out of all my Treasure.

I still guard my treasure chest, but more carefully, vigilantly, and zealously than I ever did before. There are still some who can win a glimpse of the treasure chest with their song, but I cannot offer anyone a Key to the treasure chest now. At night, when the cove is truly empty, I wistfully open my treasure chest, and I wonder if another mortal will ever open it again to put a treasure of their own inside.

Hardly anyone glimpses my Treasure now, for I am quick to turn away all who linger in the cove and do not challenge me. Of the ones who do, I put forth a bitter fight that surprises even me. Only the very sweetest and most ardent of heroes’ melodies can thaw my frigid resolve to guard the chest, and the remaining Treasure I have with me.

I spend my days praying that someday, another Seeker will come and offer me the one and only treasure I have ever desired and now desire most: the precious Key reforged.

But until that day, I will wait here and guard my Treasure. Or fade into time doing so, forever exiled from the stars.

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~By C.V. Leifen~

About the author:

C.V. Leifen’s writing largely draws inspiration from the night sky and an everlasting appreciation for the divine, however, one may choose to define it. Leifen spends a lot of time thinking and even longer deciding whether to express those thoughts aloud. Leifen’s works are ultimately a reflection of said thoughts, truths, and identity.