by JB Penrose
The ministers and counselors began to group behind her, and Lara arrived to help Fairidai with the children. Rachel slipped momentarily into the Tribe’s nest of security and felt the boost of faith and trust that Fairidai projected to the children. Rachel smiled to the children and agreed, Everything tonight was wonderful. She redirected the thought outward to all of Delphi.
“I need to get them back to their families. Can I do anything for you, Spokesmon?” Lara asked her earnestly.
“I’d be happy to walk you back to your quarters,” the Master Healer joined them.
No! Her instant rejection came without reason and Aaron heard her response even if she had not intended to broadcast it. She put her hand on his arm and assured him. “No, I’m fine. I’ve had a wonderful evening and want for nothing.”
As soon as she turned toward her quarters, even if she pretended it was her destination, she knew it wasn’t where she wanted to be. She wanted a place to think in peace, a place that wuld insulate her thoughts from Delphi. It felt like time was already slipping away and maybe, if she could find some silence she could find some answers.
Her feet led her, even if her mind did not attach itself to any direction or focus. Each step removed her from the excitement of Delphi and she tried not to feel the guilt for her sudden desire of peace and quiet. She chose a path that took her higher without knowing where she was headed – only knowing it was quieter in the upper peri-strata.
When she finally stopped for a breath, she was almost eye-level height with the star Iscar presented earlier in the evening. Trishul. It was not an oracle, but it urged her to keep going. Distance wasn’t the factor, but putting her feet on a firm ledge brought her climbing skills into use. If she had known where she was going she might have used the cyto that comfortably wrapped her wrist after her promise to Iscar.
Only when she stood on flat and solid ground did she worry about her beautiful mantle, and with some surprise discovered the shimmering garment in perfect form.
It was the perfect place to stop; the radiance of her mantle illumined an opening within the stone walls, detectable only from the shadow created by the dim luminosity. Rachel slipped easily through the small crevice.
Inside the small cavern, hundreds of stalactites hung from the ceiling, more stalagmites rose from the floor, all dimly lit by the green shimmer of a small phosphorus drip pool in the center. She carefully threaded her way through the formations and took a seat at the pool’s edge, listening to the occasional drip echo around the cave.
She was grateful to find a quiet spot for meditation, and Rachel let her mind slip into the stillness, searching for answers to questions too unformulated to ask aloud. All she needed was some time to think.
The stillness was not restful. She tried to put out all thoughts of Delphi, of Peter, of Iscar or the Oracle, but even in the quiet, it was impossible to focus.
Delphi had turned out to be more than she bargained for. It was something she loved and almost wanted, desired to call home. Home was definitely, where the heart was and she hoped Peter would be arriving soon.
She also knew when Peter arrived things would get worse. She was not hopeful about the confrontation between Peter and Iscar, but maybe having the full roleau in Delphi could extend its peace.
She knew Delphi expected something of the Spokesmon; Rachel expected more from herself, but until Peter arrived, and she could read the Words of Thunder, she still felt incomplete.
“Oh Peter!” she sighed out loud.
Peter! Peter! The words doubled back like harp strings and rippled through the room.
“How delightful!” Delightful echoed back to her in harmonies. Each word doubled again and finally built into a solid note. The waves floated through her – banking against her with a confidence she desperately needed to find.
“Aum”. She sent forth the word again and again, letting waves of peace permeate the cavern with its echo. Aum.
There was a slight rustling sound and Rachel forced her eyes open, uncomfortable that she’d already been discovered in her hiding place.
The woman standing beside the pond seemed somewhat familiar. There was no thought, no indication of her presence. Delphi-born, Rachel surmised. “Were you looking for me?” she asked the stranger.
-looking for me? The words echoed back on themselves.
“Yes, but I knew where to find you.”
-find you. –find you.
The echo was almost a harmony but the words haunted her in the dim light. Something about the sound of the woman’s voice and the way she crooked her smile seemed very familiar. Rachel braced herself emotionally. In her experience – everything familiar had a way of changing.
Rachel also realized she couldn’t determine the woman’s name, and sat up with more attention. Finding Rachel in this location would not have been easy, either. “How could you know where to find me when I didn’t know where I was going?” Rachel asked.
-didn’t know where I was going. –where I was going.
Rachel heard the edge in her voice that the words conveyed.
Gracefully, the woman knelt to dip her finger in the water and stirred, undeterred by the water wetting the hem of her light garment. The stirring action rippled out into the pool and reflected against the cavern ceiling in the dim light.
“You might say it was in the stars,” she told Rachel.
There was no more echo in the cave.
The woman was beautiful; her long blond curls circled her face and her eyes were steel blue but soft, not piercing. She knelt at the edge of the water not caring about the delicateness of her golden-white robe and seemingly content not to rush into conversation.
Idly, with a flip of her slender wrist, the woman created a ball of light on her palm. Turning and twisting her hand, she rolled the ball of light between her fingers, over and under her palm, up and down the length of her arm.
“You still don’t remember, do you?” There was a sadness in her voice.
“Remember what?” Rachel asked, revealing more frustration than she intended to display.
“Hurry, Spokesmon, Remember.”
Rachel knew that voice! It had haunted her dreams for centuries, always urging to remember something; something that never quite focused in her mind. She bit her lip, unwilling to admit to the familiarity she felt.
“I’ve been doing this a long time.” The woman tossed the light toward the pool and it hovered above the water. She stared at Rachel. “I’ve been waiting for you to remember.”
Hurry Spokesmon, remember. Rachel recalled the urging in her mind. At least the voice in her dreams finally had a face. Rachel sat up straighter. “Who are you?” she asked again.
“Urica,” her accent softened the U sound of her name. “You called me Uri. Eu-re-ka, get it?” She sounded hopeful.
“U-ri-ka,” Rachel repeated. She didn’t get it. “Do I know you?”
Uri nodded. With a small underhand toss, she added another light to the one hovering over the pool. “Try it. Put a light out there right next to mine.”
“A light? I can’t do that. I’m not,” Rachel stammered, “Delphian. I don’t know what to do.”
“Sure you do,” Uri urged again. She waited, but Rachel didn’t move. Whatever Uri was watching for, she was still waiting for it to happen. “Alright, make it easy on yourself. Put the light in the palm of your hand.”
Uri opened her palm and another ball of light appeared. It was smaller and she blew it over the pool with a short puff of air. It sailed to the center and the phosphorous green of the cave brightened slightly.
“I don’t know who you are,” Rachel started, “or maybe you don’t know who I am, but I don’t have any practice at creating light. You Delphians, well, I admire your talent.”
“Oh, I’m not Delphian either.” Uri easily dismissed her compliment and skipped another ball of light over the pool like it was a stone toward its destination aside the other light.
“You can do it,” she told
Rachel. “I assure you. Just think about what you want and put it in the palm of your hand.”
Rachel wrinkled her brow. She had manifested things before – usually from necessity; not from choice. She’d never even thought about creating a light.
“You at least have to open you hand,” Uri chided. “You can’t put light into a fist.”
Rachel started to complain but curiousity got the better of her. Stranger things happened in Delphi. She opened her palm and waited.
“Don’t wait for it to happen. Concentrate – make it happen,” Uri instructed. “Form it in your mind not in a one-dimension form, but three-dimensional. What do you see when you really look at light?”
Rachel closed her eyes and tried to visualize a light. Uri made it look so simple; Rachel tried to ignore her own doubts about reproducing one of those balls of light hovering over the center of the pool.
“Now, Iscar,” Uri was telling her, “he can manifest a light! That star he presented tonight was the most beautiful thing he has ever produced. It truly came from his heart.” Uri sounded pleased. “You don’t think Iscar is capable of doing something the Spokesmon is not, do you?”
Her emphasis on the final question sent Rachel’s emotions into a tumble. Irritably, Rachel flicked her wrist and sent a ball of light sailing over the center of the pond.
“Eureka!” Uri’s voice broke her trance. “I knew you could do it.”
Rachel peeked through one eye to confirm her suspicions; her palm tickled with another flicker of light. She lifted her hand to examine it closer. All the colors, reflecting, refracting, combined into the whitest, brightest light she had seen. It felt freezing cold and burning hot on her palm at the same time.
“Easy, wasn’t it? Iscar had a much tougher time believing me.”
The colors blended at the white-fire core of the light. It danced, flashed, and glittered about; it was like watching a diamond grow. With a soft puff of breath, she sent it sailing to the group over the pond and immediately produced another ball of light as easily as turning over her hand, just as she’d seen Uri do. It was hard to believe a gesture so simple had been impossible to her five minutes ago.
“I didn’t know if I could do it again,” she confessed, and let the light add to the building candelabra. It was much brighter in the cave now and Rachel had a chance to closely study her visitor.
“Who are you, really? You would have to be a thousand years old to have taught Iscar how to create light,” Rachel said. “I never realized there were other immortals on Earth besides the Orygin’s crew.”
Uri produced a tiny flame at the tip of her finger, pursed her lips and blew. It dived into the pool and extinguished itself with a phat! “You just don’t remember, do you?”
Rachel tried to imagine who Uri could be. Urika, it sounded like they were friends. “You were at John’s party,” she recalled with certainty. “Why were you there? Why are you here now?” she asked. “Do you know what I’m supposed to do with Delphi?”
Uri shrugged. She produced another small flame on her fingertip and studied it closely. Her voice quieted. It lost the confidence and sureness of her previous words. “That’s a long answer. It has to do with what you need to remember.”
Rachel sensed how much was riding on whatever she needed to remember but that didn’t make the answers come any easier. She sat beside Uri at the pool’s edge to get a more familiar glimpse of her visitor.
“You’re Mother Star!” Rachel was sure she was right but Uri flinched at her words.
“I have many names,” Uri said quietly. “And I have many duties. I am Mother Star to the Delphians,” she admitted.
“I know you from my dreams,” Rachel confirmed. “That’s you, right? You’re always telling me to Remember.”
“I am a part of many dreams,” Uri told her. “I’m even a part of the gown you’re wearing.”
Rachel’s hands went to the mantle that covered her uwagi, remembering Sorath’s story of the single strand of angel hair it was woven from. “You are the Oracle! I mean, you are the inspiration that has guided everyone to Delphi. Why did you bring these people together?” Rachel asked. “And what am I supposed to do with them, for them? At least tell me that.”
Uri’s sigh extinguished the fingertip flame she’d been studying. “Can’t you remember anything?”
“Obviously not,” Rachel said impatiently. “Can’t you just tell me why I’m here? Anything could help.”
“It’s not what I can tell you that you need to be remembering. It’s more than that.”
“Tell me something!” Rachel begged.
“I am forbidden to involve myself directly; the Oracle was just my attempt at a clever plan.” She picked up a small pebble and squeezed it in her fist. “And it doesn’t seem to have worked at all.” She opened her hand to reveal a ruby gem, which she polished on her robes and presented to Rachel.
Uri tossed a few choice pebbles toward Rachel, who ignored the challenge and left them lying on the ground in front of her.
“Delphi has been quite a test for me,” Uri told her. “Like God and his worlds, I had to create it and then let it go. Although I planted the seed - Delphi developed according to Iscar’s dreams.”
Uri picked a stone, tossed it in the air and caught it tightly in her fist. “I thought if I used his dreams to give him a vision to work for,” she continued, “I could use his tasht as an oracle to bring everyone together through their dreams. And I used the Spokesmon as the ultimate goal.”
“I’m impressed with the people you chose, and Iscar’s work of building the community.” Rachel covered the small stones Uri had tossed in front of her them with a handful of sand and patted them firmly as she spoke. “But I don’t think I understand Iscar.”
“Judas Iscariot has been greatly misunderstood in history,” Uri admitted. “He never had a choice about identifying Jesus; he was committed to the crew’s protection the night they crashed here.” She searched in the sand for another pebble but her hands only came up with more sand that poured out through her fingers. “After centuries of being persecuted everywhere he went, Iscar followed his dreams to find this mountain. Everything he knew to be logical was being rejected by the outside world; he went mad in the darkness.
“Finally,” she remembered sadly, “he let me show him the Light. Iscar needed his chance to express what good he wanted to do for the world in the name of Jesus. I tried hard to give him a vision.”
Uri opened her palm and revealed a clear and polished diamond. She held it against her ring finger to admire.
“Building Delphi was almost as much therapy for Iscar as it is now assistance for the Spokesmon. He’s done a glorious job; Delphi is a very special place.”
“I agree. Delphi goes beyond anything I ever dreamed could exist. But why did you do all of this?” Rachel pat, pat, pat the small mound of sand in front of her. “What do I need it for?”
Uri reached over to stop Rachel from her unconscious pats of the sand but she didn’t release her hands. Rachel followed her gaze downward. An orchid, small, delicate, slightly luminous had sprung from the dirt. Other small green starts pushed through the sand; Rachel could feel them reaching upward.
“Delphi is simply a well-trained group of people whom you can completely trust, and they completely trust you. They are totally dedicated to the protection of, in your case - the Spokesmon, ready at any moment to do as you instruct.”
“But why will I need them? I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.” Rachel heart sank at the thought that someone so powerful would think Rachel needed this much help. The task must be monumental she thought, and immediately Rachel felt she wasn’t up to it.
“I don’t know how you’ll use them, so I brought together a group of Delphians ready for anything. Well, I just led them here – Iscar has prepared them for anything.”
“Why was Iscar chosen to build Delphi?” Rachel wondered. “What about the other crew members?
“The other mem
bers have their mission as well, and it’s mostly on track. I have sworn an oath to protect all the crew and never allow harm in their Path. I’m their Guardian Angel so to speak.”
“You’ve done a good job of that,” Rachel told them. “But you’ve done a pretty poor job where I’m concerned.”
Suddenly old resentments flared. Rachel sent one-two-three light-balls quickly flying toward a group of stalactites. They rung the columns like horsehoes and sank to the ground with a clang.
“That was very nice,” Uri said quietly. “What else do you remember?”
Rachel slapped the ground between them and a small campfire sprung up. Uri reached out her hands to warm at the fire, undisturbed at Rachel’s emotional outburst.
“Technically, I’m not allowed to assist,” she informed Rachel. “Being human means you control your own free will.”
“Why then, would we need a Guardian Angel?” Rachel wanted to know.
“We have other assignments as well. For instance, I’m the one who gave your mother the roleau knowing it would be used as the Orygin’s power source. It was preprogrammed for this solar system and specifically timed for the birth of Jesus into this world.” She picked up a broken stalagmite and scratched it on the ground as though lighting a match. It glittered and glowed like a sparkler as she whimsically drew symbols in the air. They fused with fire for a second and then drifted off into smoke. “It would be so much easier if you could remember some of this.” She handed Rachel the stick and urged her to repeat the action. “Go on, try it.”
Rachel impatiently waved the natural wand in the air. Her half-hearted attempt failed; she was not interested with parlor tricks. Something continued to nag at her thoughts; what was so important for her to remember?
“You can do better than that,” Uri challenged with earnest. “You’ve got to try.”
Without creating a spark, Rachel drew a series of circles in the air before she punctuated them with a flourish. At the poke, the entire design flamed brightly. The colors were bright and lingered a bit longer than Uri’s before drifting away in a puff of smoke. Rachel sat back, somewhat startled at her own success.
