Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series

by Tony C. Skye

  She has begun making first contacts with Network personnel outside of her state of Louisiana, outside of the continental U.S., and around the world. Not so much in an attempt to become involved with the politics of it all, but rather, to become familiarized with the inner-workings of those trained to be both asset and protector. According to her grandfather, she is doing the right thing in case she ever needs to set up shop outside of her comfort-zone – home.

  Just recently, she has learned of the Network’s AWOL list. It is a comprehensive list of detailed information involving the whereabouts of Network employees who have decided to leave their life and duty without formal permission. Runners, they are called.

  These runners are all assigned a watcher’s team. The teams are constructed of Network personnel who embed themselves into the runner’s life unawares. If the runner ever poses a threat to the bloodline or the Network, it’s a very bad ending for them. It might seem brutal from afar, but as Julianna has come to understand the nuances, it is more than necessary. The runners know how it works. They know or they wouldn’t run in the first place. It is simple. Keep the protection of the Network and of the bloodline above anything else, and live your life as you see fit. Of course, no runner is afforded the protection they once had within the Network one self-removed – physical or financial.

  The true reason this AWOL list caught Julianna’s attention was the fact that she has seen familiar names within its pages. These names are recognizable from both the texts within the Collection and those written into the Lilith wall. Not only that, but these names have BL written next to them in bright red – an obvious reference to the term bloodline.

  As a member of the bloodline, there is no one more trustworthy than those that live by the motto: blood is thicker than water. On the other side of this two-edged sword, however, the dangers are all too real from the perspective of the knowledge known by these family members. Runners of this caliber could cause a lot of damage if they ever decided to. Sadly, this is the reason why most of them have a red line through their name. Julianna understands the necessity, but finds the loss of family undesirable. It doesn’t matter that she actually knew them or not. They were all of her blood.

  A few of these bloodline runners have actually led full lives without any negative interference from the Network. They grow old, have children and grandchildren. The further apart the generations become, the safer they are. If there is no one to teach them of their lineage, then they live clueless. This is the only foolproof way – never teach the children of where they are from, who they are, or what their family’s purpose is of.

  Julianna can see the significance of what the runners are hoping to accomplish. In fact, she believes they have the right to choose how they should live their short lives. Her problem lies within the realm of the children. The descendants of those who have run have not been given the same opportunity to choose. She would not have any issue with a choice to stay clear of the bloodline and Network if it came from each individual member. Nor, would she consider uprooting lives from those too young to understand. Let the children be children.

  Her concern lies with the descendants who have never been given their opportunity to choose after reaching an age of understanding. They are shielded and protected from their own heritage as though having any knowledge would be cataclysmic to their very existence. Maybe it would or maybe it wouldn’t be. But at the end of the day, it should be their choice to make – not living in the bliss of ignorance set by their parents.

  Choice. It is the main reason Julianna has approached Lilith with the idea of pursuing her lost long relatives. The woman of many braids is not so keen on the idea. She believes Julianna to be the fulfillment of the main prophecy. All other current family members are a waste of time.

  Julianna understands the woman’s reluctance to pursue such matters. Lilith is tired and understandably so; although, she would not admit such things. This persona created by Lilith doesn’t have Julianna fooled. The younger woman knows that Lilith has been at this for a time beyond that which one could consider as being a long time. To state that Lilith has endured this madness for too long is a major understatement.

  Unlike Lilith, Julianna is just beginning her own journey. She hasn’t had the time to become tired of it all, as it were. Maybe she has the set of fresh eyes this family needs right now. But then again, she can hardly ignore the strongest of points that Lilith made to her concerning this matter: Why? What is the point to it all?

  Lilith is right. There are no real reasons to do something like this. There is no purpose other than Julianna wasting her life away attempting to receive a ‘yes’ here and a ‘no’ there. And if she did receive the valuable ‘yes’, then what is supposed to happen after that? Would she move them all in to her massive castle estate to live happily ever after like some twisted version of a smurf farm?

  Their loyalty would be unquestionable for they will have made their decision based on all of the facts. But would they act like family or servants? Julianna doesn’t need servants. There are already way too many of those for her liking. There are enough servants for two-hundred lifetimes. She would rather share her life with friends and family. Not order them around like employees.

  Out of all of these, however, the biggest question is: Why would anyone want to give up the only life they know in order to become part of a family in whom they have never even heard of? The sobering answer is that they wouldn’t. No one would; unless, they were mentally unstable on some level. Or at least, this is how Julianna perceives the obvious answer to be. Maybe she is reading too far into it. Maybe it is much simpler than this.

  Lilith’s reasoning on the matter might be different than Julianna’s own, but the woman with bronze skin cannot have her wisdom denied. As much as Julianna doesn’t want to let the topic go, she understands her mentor is one-hundred percent correct. There are just no good reasons to support the required efforts of interfering with these people’s lives, family or not. It is what it is. That’s the plain truth of it all.

  Julianna is pursuing the red books with the greatest of resolve in order to counter the void being built by this unknown factor involving the runners. She finds herself in them day and night. She has already decided to finish out her senior year with her grams as a teacher. This will allow her to get more time inside of the library. And as difficult as this particular set of books is proving to be, Julianna needs all the time she can possibly get.

  The books themselves are directly scribed from Lilith’s own lips. The woman has explained to Julianna the reasons and necessities for such actions. One of which, is that Lilith is the only one who has ever seen the wall in its entirety.

  Every woman who has been blessed enough to visit Lilith – except Julianna – has done so by appearing in front of the wall where their story begins. These women have all been able to walk in any direction of the wall. But as time steadily increases, so does the wall’s growing nature. For someone like Julianna, if she were to attempt to walk the wall’s left, her physical body would grow old and die before she could read the stories of the past in their entirety.

  Lilith faced two serious problems whenever she first came to know the wall and its purpose. Firstly, no one knew of its existence. Secondly, even if they did, no one had the means to write fast enough. During her time, cave drawings were as good as it gets. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but those words might be way off. In fact, abstract was the norm verses a drawing with a detailed actual meaning. And even though Lilith’s immediate descendants could speak her tongue, engraving words into a cave’s wall could never work. Time erases within the physical realm.

  Lilith’s only answer was to embrace her punishment. She memorized each individual prophecy and sub-prophecy word for word. As each generation passed, it became harder and harder to pass on her knowledge. But then again, when she would have trouble remembering the small details, the general concepts were constantly still being seared into her conscientiousness by Him.


  Whenever stone tablet writing first surfaced, Lilith had an epiphany. The stone would never work, it is far too heavy. But with Lilith’s warrior nature, she instructed one of her descendants to create the very first book. She didn’t call it a book, however. Instead, she gave her creation the name: iaéibhn.

  Pronounced as ee-aw-ay-ee-bhn, the name simply means Collection. This book was a first of its kind. It was a marvel by the standards of those days when men would think themselves great for carving into tablets. Iaéibhn would be made from flesh – the covering and all of its pages. It would be light and easy to write in. It could be moved with ease and hidden just as easily. And the best part is that Lilith could finally unload the wall’s secrets from her heavily burdened mind.

  Julianna nearly vomited whenever she learned the truth behind the red books. She had a habit of licking her fingers to turn pages. Each time she was doing so with a red book, she was licking off the remains of human flesh. Needless to say, Julianna has easily overcome that habit.

  The humans used were enemies of the Lilith tribe. Whenever her family would war with the neighboring tribes, the bodies of the fallen would be skinned, stretched, and turned into the next page or covering for the iaéibhn. The inks used to write were made from various plants and animal feces. The bloodline during those times ruled with absolute authority within their region. No one could stand against them. But as the generations passed, the world changed – as did the bloodline’s ability to survive. They had to adapt. Through this adaptation, the Network was born – created from necessity.

  As the Network matured, iaéibhn had grown considerably. Iaéibhn needed a design change in order to keep the mass amounts of information from becoming confusing. Thankfully, mankind discovered how to create paper from wood at this point. The women of the bloodline would write what they had witnessed and learned from their visits with Lilith. Those of the Network would then use this information to help guide the survival of the Lilith bloodline. But this in itself created a security problem.

  To combat this, the women of the bloodline would marry male scholars. In this way, there would not be any worry of an information leak outside of the Network – for the Network scholars would be married to those of the bloodline. Until death do they part were the vows they adhered to...literally.

  With the protection of the bloodline above all else, divorce meant death. This was the way it was in the early stages of the symbiotic relationship between Network and bloodline. Today, however, the bloodline and Network are nearly completely separate from one another. Their tasks have not changed, but have evolved. With the practice of color coding entire sets of books, there is no reason to spread the knowledge outside of the bloodline. Members of the bloodline only need to know those things which directly involve their lives within the realm of the main prophecy. This, also, applies to the Network.

  Cradling, feeding, and clothing an infant could be considered the description for iaéibhn in its early stages with a youthful Network as its nursemaid. Today, the relationship between the two no longer requires this kind of intimacy. The bloodline takes care of iaéibhn as it grows. The Network takes care of the bloodline as it moves through the generations. And iaéibhn works to record those events that are occurring in the present. In essence, although time has changed things, those very things have not truly changed; they are, but an evolution of those entities created by Lilith in the first place. The company has grown, per se.

  In the beginning, Lilith was forced to memorize every word and detail of the wall’s writings. Once these words were founded into the iaéibhn, this practice was no longer required. Lilith knows the beginning. The prophecy is of her. She now knows the ending belongs to Julianna. The women in the middle have become blurry like a fog creeping across a lake after dusk – only showing glimpses of fishing boats upon its surface. Some stand out, but most do not.

  As for any sub-prophecies, Lilith has learned to push them from her mind. They are irrelevant in the overall scheme of things. She has learned that the main prophecy will always be fulfilled in one way or another. The prophecy was created by Him – by the One who has seen both the beginning and the ending. The wall is her punishment inside of her punishment. It is a curse she must endure to the end. And finally, she can see the light at the end of this ever-growing wall of torturous writing. That light has a name. And her name is Julianna Cora Atwood – Mother of Darkwaters.

  As for Julianna, she has found many sub-prophecies referring to the Mother of Darkwaters. Most of these particular prophecies, she understands completely. After all, they have already occurred. The rest of them, however, she does not understand like she would like to. And furthermore, there are many more prophecies in which she has yet to discover.

  Lilith is no help. The breath-taking woman of the ages is stubborn about speaking on future branches concerning the Prophecy of Lilith. The woman of many braids believes it leads to splitting the main line as a means to punishing her into a lengthier sentence. It seems that every time she has attempted to help a family member within this regard, the line has always split.

  Julianna has a different take on the matter. She believes that this splitting off the main prophecy has nothing to do with punishing Lilith. Instead, the splits are only related to the misinterpretations and actions based off of those false-interpretations. Basically, the splits are related to human error and nothing to do with punishment.

  At the short end of the stick, Julianna is left on her own whenever it comes to future prophetic lines. At the long end, however, she has gained a lot of insight from Lilith about the prophecies which have already occurred. She can use the long end to help guide and gauge the short end. But this measuring stick of sorts is of minimal help. The problem she truly faces is within the intricate nuances of the language itself.

  For example, her family mantra – Gariatu Estidium Merné – means: ‘To the God of Heaven be damned’. But the meaning only applies when the words are placed within this specific order. This is not at all their meaning when separated. Gariatu is kingdom, Estidium is liaress or a woman who lies, and Merné means god. Nonetheless, it is this odd behavior which complicates deciphering the language with ease.

  She is not concerned with the main prophecy. It is like her grams and Lilith keeps telling her, that she is the Mother of Darkwaters. As such, her free will is what fulfills the prophecy. There are no reasons to try to make something happen; whenever, it is going to happen anyway. It happens because you are who you are. It happens because every choice you make causes it to be. There is no sound reasoning in making choices in order to fulfill a prophecy which is fulfilled by any choice you can make. Her free will fulfills the main prophecy.

  The sub-prophecies about her, on the other hand, never have to be fulfilled. They are all of the possible mathematical solutions to her free will’s choice. Sub-prophecies are akin to many branches within a single tree. The tree is nothing more than a single choice of free will. The branches of that tree are all of the possible choices that can be made. Once the choice is made, the other branches become obsolete. The tree is still there. The free will of choice has been adhered to. But anything related to the obsolete branches have now become obsolete. Therefore, the leaves of those obsolete branches will never drop seed in order to grow the next tree. The only seed that can be given is the seed from the branch of leaves which has been chosen.

  If this were not complicated enough for Julianna, the sub-prophecy overall design makes it much worse. To wrap her mind around a single tree is one thing. But what of the forest of trees in which it stands? How about the entirety of the sister forests born from the seeds of each branch of leaves chosen? This would mean that some forests might have a few trees; whereas, others would be as far as the eye could see.

  The prophecy concept can become quite overwhelming. But Julianna has five secret weapons at her disposal. She has Lilith, the Network, the wall, the Collection, and herself. Although her current sub-prophecy search is mainly out of curio
sity and enjoyment, she would like to have the best branch, from the best tree, from the best forest. And if she were to have anything to say about this matter, then she will have those very things – the best choices for the short life in which she has been given.

  * * *

  Chapter 16

  Stones

  “Hi,” Martha quietly greets her granddaughter as she reaches the bottom of the stairs leading into the bedroom. Julianna glances over her right shoulder and rolls her eyes.

  “I didn’t mean to disturb you,” Martha quietly responds. She points towards the first hallway on the left, “Feel like some hot breakfast for a change?”

  Julianna grabs a fluffy blue hair tie from the top drawer of her desk and ponytails her hair. She pushes a notepad over to the right edge of the desk.

  “It’s translated,” the frustrated teen explains, “But I can’t make any sense of it. Why don’t you try?”

  Martha grins. This is a game they have been playing for a few weeks now. Julianna hands over a cryptic sub-prophecy, Martha reads it, shrugs her shoulders, and hands it back.

  The woman with red hair has it weaved into a single braid which runs the length of her back. It is her way of honoring Lilith and she enjoys doing it from time to time. She walks over and picks up the notepad. She reads:

  “Do not worry O’ Mother.

  Thy sanctuary is a refuge for thy stone.

  Thy sanctuary is a shield unto thy stone.

  For by thine own hands,

  Thou hast taken special care of thy stone.

  Thou hast built thy foundation with each one.

  Thy sanctuary is a foundation of thy stone.

  Thy stone’s number is the mark of thy name and of thee.