another excerpt

"Someday, look in Akbar's library for what i wrote for you. It's called The Manual of the Warrior of Light."

"Am I a warrior of light?" replied the boy.

"Do you know what my name is?" asked Elijah.

"Liberation."

"Sit here beside me," said Elijah, pointing to a rock. "I cannot forget my name. I must continue with my task, even if at this moment all I desire is to be at your side. That was why Akbar was rebuilt, to teach us that it is necessary to go onward, however difficult it may appear."

"You're going away."

"How do you know?" he asked, surprised.

"I wrote it on a tablet, last night. Something told me; it may have been my mother, or an angel. But I already felt it in my heart."

Elijah caressed the boy's head.

"You have learned to react to God's will," he said contentedly. "So there's nothing that I need to explain to you."

"What I read was the sadness in your eyes. It wasn't difficult. Other friends of mine noticed it too."

"This sadness you read in my eyes is a part of my story. Only a small part that will last but a few days. Tomorrow, when I depart for Jerusalem, it will not have the strength it had before, and little by little it will disappear. Sadness does not last forever when we walk in the direction that we always desired."

"Is it always necessary to leave?"

"It's always necessary to know when a stage of one's life has ended. If you cling on to it after the need has passed, you will lose the joy and the meaning of the rest. And you risk being shaken to your senses by God."

"The Lord is stern."

"Only with those He has chosen."

-- The Fifth Mountain
by Paulo Coelho