praise for Michael B. Koep’s
THE NEWIRTH MYTHOLOGY
“This author has a gift.”
—Books! Books! Books!
“Must read for the summer! It’s part adventure, part fantasy, a bit of mystery, and all fun.”
—Times Weekly
“Sure to be on the shelves with Tolkien, Gaiman and others for a very long time.”
—Paper Safari Reviews
“It is nice to have an author come up with a new concept when it comes to fiction. And Koep has done just that.”
—Reading Is A Way Of Life BLOG-USA
“If The Stand and the DaVinci Code had a baby. Smart and the language is beautiful. 12 out of 10 stars!”
“Not only does Koep have a beautiful writing style and a flare for language—the book resurrects the imponderables of youth, bringing them yet again into the forefront of thought. That is a very good thing, indeed.”
—Netgalley Reviews
“The most unique book I’ve read all year--wholly original.”
“Full of tricks, turns and slight of hand. A roller coaster ride right from the beginning.”
—Goodreads Reviews
“Pulse quickening, blockbuster perfection. Masterfully creative!”
—Nspire Magazine
“Wow, just WOW!”
“I can honestly say that the ending shocked me. I have not seen a twist like the one in this book since the movie The Sixth Sense. That alone makes this a 5 Star book for me.”
“I highly recommend this book to lovers of suspense, thrillers, and paranormal!”
“This book is totally WOW! A roller-coaster ride right from the beginning!”
“It’s almost difficult to put into words how strongly this book affected me. It is filled with surprises, turns, twists and honestly, the end blew me away.”
“If you enjoy a touch of the supernatural and art mysteries, then you will enjoy this. Great Read.”
“A remarkably inventive story told in an imaginative way. A story within a story. Looking forward to reading more in this series.”
—Netgalley Reviews
“Highly addictive! You will LOVE this book.”
—Roger Nichols, Cover to Cover
“This author has a gift.”
—Books! Books! Books!
FIVE STAR REVIEWS
from
Readers’ Favorite
“The writing is powerful, filled with descriptions that immerse the reader in the action, it offers clear and sweeping visuals, and allow the reader to easily get into the beautiful setting.”
“You will want to get in on the ground floor of this series because people are going to be talking about it.”
“This is the kind of book that one finishes and has to take a walk afterward, trying to feel the air, to touch things, to talk to the neighbor, just to ensure one isn’t still in a dream.”
“The fruit of genius, of rich imagination, and sheer madness. Readers will love every page of this engaging story.”
—Readers’ Favorite Reviews
The Newirth Mythology, Part Three, The Shape of Rain is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either used fictitiously, are products of the author’s imagination, or are brought on by an ancient muse (or all three). Any resemblance to actual events, persons, living or dead, gods, idols, immortals or other is entirely coincidental.
~ Tunow plecom cer ~
Copyright © 2018 by Michael B. Koep. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information contact:
Will Dreamly Arts Publishing.
[email protected]
www.WillDreamlyArts.com
www.MichaelBKoep.com
FIRST EDITION
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9976234-2-0
Hardcover ISBN: 978-09976234-3-7
Designed by Will Dreamly Arts Publishing.
Cover art, maps and text illustrations by Michael B. Koep
Author portraits by Brady Campbell
The Newirth Mythology, Part Three, The Shape of Rain
is also available in EBook formats.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
For Dad
Contents
Synopsis
Prologue
Pocket Diary Entry # l
The Hell Between
Astrid
The Water’s Eye #2
An Apology
Only Begotten Son
Tea
Eggs Benediction
The Lie In Belief
The Great Flood
The Lie In Belief #2
Pocket Diary Entry # 2
In the Laps of the Gods
Eyes and Ears
Montanha Do Pico
Validation
Pocket Diary Entry # 3
High Tea
Pyramids and Prophecies
Blindside
Tiris Avu
Pyramid G-1b
Translation
Menkaure
The Immortal’s Deathbed
Menkaure #2
God Save the Queen
Imaginings
The Risen Past
Pocket Diary Entry # 4
A Far Country
Assembly
The Army of God
The Shadows Between the Bookshelves
The Sport of Angels
Heart
Insulting the Sun God
Bird’s Eye
Water Rights
My Heart
Moirai
The Exchange
The Garden of Evil
Expressions
Hold Your Breath
When the Doors Shut
The Old Law
Doubling Back
The Impossibility of William Greenhame
Where It Leads
Othayr
A Dissertation: We Will Not Find Supernatural Trickery
Your Plan, Your Gift (A Dream)
Fireside Stories
The Planter
Ruler With the Spear
The Mask Maker
Fire Tending
Across the Canal
I Don’t Know
Fausto’s Web
The Shape of Rain
Masks On the Counter
The Mother of God
Covenant
The Trust of Helen Newirth
The Big Deep Heavy
Like the Book
Newirtheism
Pocket Diary Entry # 5
Templar and the Queen
Black Boat on the Water
Into the Avu
Can the Past Change?
A Day In Wyn Avuqua
The Message In The Stars
Pocket Diary Entry # 6
The Sun Room
Words From the East
The Artwork of Basil Fenn
Locked
A Bed and a Book
Silence. Flash. Goodbye.
The Art that Changes Us
The Death Mask: Ithicsazj
The Map To Heaven
The Seige of Wyn Avuqua
The Maze Of You and Me
To Dellithion Omvide
Don’t Die
The Space Between
Dedication
The Planter #2
The Walls We Place Behind Us
The Next Sentence
Champagne Breakfast
Wine Before a Duel
Sweet Sixteen
What Is Written there?
The Move on the Board
; Sigourney’s Line
The Move on the Board #2
The Stairs
The Poet and His Immortals
The Bane of Immortality
The Battle of the Masques
The Bridges
The Planter #3
The Shadows Between the Bookshelves #2
Going In With Them
The Hand of Yafarra
Where the Ink Bled
Epilogue
Afterword
Appendices
Appendix I. Characters of the Newirth Mythology
Appendix II. Itonalya Myth:
Appendix III. The Game of Shtan
Appendix IV. Miscellaneous Translations and Terms
Appendix V. Of Loche Newirth”s Poetry
Appendix VII. Elliqui
English to Elliqui
Elliqui to English
Acknowledgments
Synopsis
This is the third part of THE NEWIRTH MYTHOLOGY.
THE FIRST PART, of the Newirth Mythology, The Invasion of Heaven, tells of how Loche Newirth discovers that his mentor, criminal psychologist Marcus Rearden, is a murderer, and how Loche journals an imaginative and mythical story to capture him. It also tells of Loche’s terrifying and supernatural incident in writing the tale, and how his words have altered the very fabric of existence. Throughout his narrative, Loche raises the question, “This is really happening, isn’t it?”
The journal, left by Loche for Rearden to read, portrays Loche, and painter Basil Fenn, as brothers and artists with the ability, through their art, to open pathways between this life and the Hereafter. Basil’s paintings and Loche’s writings are of great interest to an ancient society of immortals called the Orathom Wis, whose mission is to guard the doors between this life and the next and prevent the crossing of spirits into our world. One of that Order, William Greenhame, had been keeping a secret watch over the two and protecting them since they were children.
Another immortal, Albion Ravistelle, succeeds in luring Loche, along with his wife Helen, and their young son, Edwin, and Basil to Italy and proposes that by sharing Basil’s paintings they could cure mental illness, and the darker elements of the human condition. The brothers discover that Albion’s intention is instead to contaminate the afterlife with human fallibility, sin and imperfection.
At the intimation of Loche, Basil takes his own life to stop the invasion of Heaven and protect the natural order of existence. His death begins a war between the Orathom Wis and Albion Ravistelle. The journal ends with Loche’s life falling further into the surreal when he learns that the immortal William Greenhame is his father. He also discovers that his wife, Helen, has betrayed him for the love of Albion Ravistelle.
Once Rearden completes reading the journal he tests the story’s validity by contacting a character within the narrative, the love of Loche Newirth, Julia Iris. When she joins Rearden on a journey to find Loche, she also reads the incredible events depicted in the journal. Convinced the afterlife exists, that an immortal order of men and women protect it, and that the fate of humankind hangs in the balance, both Rearden and Julia are enmeshed in Loche’s snare. During the final confrontation between Rearden and Loche, Julia is mortally wounded, Rearden’s crime is exposed and he is arrested. Soon after, Loche meets the real life characters from out of his imagination: William Greenhame, Samuel Lifeson and Corey Thomas, and he is forced to come to terms with the anomalous and supernatural quality of his writing. The Invasion of Heaven concludes with the discovery that Julia Iris is an immortal.
THE SECOND PART of the Newirth Mythology, Leaves of Fire, is comprised of four interwoven tales that take place over three different time periods.
THE FIRST TALE traces the early life of six year old William of Leaves (William Greenhame) in fourteenth century, England. After being mortally wounded while unsuccessfully trying to defend his mother from witch hunter, Stephen Gravesend, Bishop of London, and his group of Sentinel Monks, William and his father, Radulphus Grenehamer, escape into the English countryside with immortal, Albion Ravistelle. William miraculously recovers from his injury before his father’s eyes, and Albion promises Radulphus and the boy a chance at revenge.
Before the journey north to Stephen Gravesend’s house in Strotford, William sneaks away to the site where his mother was burned with the vain hope that she is still alive. There, growing around her ashes, is a luminous wreath of green leaves and stems. Before Radulphus and Albion pull the crying boy away and back to the road, William takes three leaves and plants them in a leather pouch full of soil.
On the journey north, Albion begins to instruct William in the ways of the Itonalya, the ancient Order of the Orathom Wis, and their solemn purpose to hunt and eliminate divine beings trespassing into the human, mortal world. According to the Order, all deities were to be dispatched; however, some would be allowed to live if their actions were deemed virtuous. William learns that his mother was indeed a god on earth, and Albion admits that he and the Order had been keeping an eye on her. Albion believes that the villainous Bishop Stephen Gravesend is indeed a bridging god and vows to both eliminate the crossing spirit and to provide William vengeance.
The trio stops to resupply at Albion’s house in London. There they meet Albion’s steward, Alice of Bath. They also learn about one of Albion’s vocations as a known apothecary.
As they set out to Strotford, both father and son struggle with the task before them, weighing vengeance against love. Through Albion’s influence, as well as accepting the supernatural reality of their plight, the killing of Gravesend proves to be a necessary choice, and it is decided that William will poison the Bishop.
The attempt to poison Gravesend at his house fails and the assassins are revealed. A fight ensues. William learns, along with Albion, that the true bridging deity is not the bishop, but instead, one of the Sentinel Monks, Father Cyrus. It also comes to light that William’s father, Radulphus, is a god on earth. Bishop Gravesend claims that Cyrus is behind the killings and burnings, and names the monk as the Devil himself. The fray leaves Albion incapacitated, the other monks dead and Radulphus pitted against Satan. The dying bishop presses a dagger into the boy’s hand and opens a secret escape passage through the wall. Before William runs, his father is killed by Cyrus.
The young boy is chased by Cyrus through a long, underground tunnel. In despair, William loses courage and decides there is no escape from the terror that pursues him. He lies down in the shadowed mouth of the tunnel. As a final, desperate gesture, William raises the dagger and directs its point back into the tunnel. The dagger slices into Cyrus’ abdomen as he rushes over the unseen boy. Filled with confusion, William plucks one of his mother’s leaves and presses it to the Devil’s mortal wound, and Cyrus revives. The Devil then rises up and stares into the eyes of the boy. Before Cyrus can reconcile the nature of William’s actions, Albion Ravistelle deals the monk a killing blow.
From that day on, William’s leaves are of great interest to Albion Ravistelle.
THE SECOND TALE examines the early life, training and development of the immortal, Helen Storm (later, the wife of Loche Newirth, Helen Newirth).
Helen discovers her immortality in the early summer of 1972. While attempting to gain the favor of the rock star Jimmy Page, she accidentally falls from the fourteenth story of a Los Angeles hotel rooftop. She not only survives but emerges completely unscathed from the event. The serendipitous supernatural occurrence prompts Page to contact his friend (whom Page knows to have a keen interest in such matters), Albion Ravistelle.
Helen’s love affair with Albion begins on the first day of their meeting. But Helen feels wholly inadequate to be the companion of the sophisticated and centuries old Ravistelle.
Albion removes Helen from her abusive, alcoholic step father, her poverty and her hopeless future on the Sunset Strip. Before long, Helen is living in Venice, Italy, longing to become the object of Albion’s affection.
To achieve his love, Helen determines that
she must learn the ways of her kind. She devours the opportunity. Albion provides education, experience and travel. Helen becomes the most dangerous and cold-hearted assassin the Orathom Wis has ever produced.
Over two decades, Albion is purposefully absent in her life while Helen pines for him. It isn’t until Helen meets Nicolas Cythe (the resurrected Cyrus—the Devil, himself), that Albion reappears. He explains to Helen that before he will take her hand in marriage there is one final trial she must complete.
Albion explains the importance of an ancient prophecy: the coming of two brothers, painter, Basil Fenn and poet, Loche Newirth. She must infiltrate their lives, become their muse and inspire the art that will open the door to the Hereafter.
This account of Helen ends the day she meets Basil Fenn in 1988 in a high school class room.
THE THIRD AND FOURTH TALES take place in present day after the events told in The Invasion of Heaven.
In Padua, Italy, William Greenhame assists Loche Newirth and Julia Iris to realize how Loche’s journal has changed the course of history. Julia is violently kidnapped by Helen Newirth and taken to Albion Ravistelle. Helen contacts Loche and proposes a trade: Julia for their son, Edwin. William Greenhame suggests that he himself will confront Albion and return with both Julia and Helen. Greenhame then insists that Loche travel to the Orathom Wis stronghold, Mel Tiris, and enter into Basil Fenn’s paintings to learn how to stop what Albion has begun. With great hesitancy, Loche agrees.
Leonaie Echelle is a 95 year-old resident at the Greenhaven’s Community Home in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. She suffers from Alzheimer’s. She and the immortal, Samuel Lifeson, have been lovers for well over half a century.
When Samuel arrives to escort her to Europe for a new treatment that will reverse her aging process and infuse her blood with immortal qualities, a procedure that has been developed by Albion Ravistelle and secretly arranged through Corey Thomas who is still deep within Albion’s trust, the son of Emil Wishfeill attempts to assassinate the couple. He fails, but before he escapes he vows to kill Samuel.
While a prisoner, Julia Iris is educated by Albion Ravistelle on her immortal condition. Albion shares his reasons for the war he’s started against the Orathom Wis as well as the Divinities. Through the art of Basil Fenn he plans to defeat the gods; through the experiments using William’s leaves he has discovered a way to give the gift of immortality to humankind. Albion intends to create a heaven on earth populated by immortals.
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