Early One Morning
Page 1
Early One Morning
Cover design © 2013 D.S. Ryelle
Copyright 2013, Dayanara S. Ryelle; all rights reserved. Published by DarkMoon Publishing, a division of DarkMoon International, in association with Amazon Publishing, Inc. DarkMoon and the DarkMoon logo are trademarks of DarkMoon International.
No part of this book may be reproduced, in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form, by any means: electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise; without written permission of the publisher.
Other Books by D.S. Ryelle
Ophelia
Barefoot on the Couch
~*~
As Catriona Cassidy
Broken Road
To Greg Hicks:
This is the path upon which I found you;
may you one day backtrace it,
and find that I left it much the same.
And to Bill Johnston:
The sun no longer rises
quite like it did when
you were here.
I love you
and miss you
and I thank you
for being one of the greatest influences
on my young life.
Table of Contents
Author’s Note
In Historia Populi
Sanctum Horarium
First Day of Saturn – I
First Day of Saturn – II
First Day of Saturn – III
Day of Sol – I
Day of Sol – II
Day of Luna
Day of Mars – I
Day of Mars – II
Day of Mars – III
Day of Mercury – I
Day of Mercury – II
Day of Mercury – III
Day of Mercury – IV
Day of Mercury – V
Day of Mercury – VI
Day of Jupiter – I
Day of Jupiter – II
Day of Jupiter – III
Day of Venus
Second Day of Saturn – I
Second Day of Saturn – II
Second Day of Saturn – III
Historical Notes
Yeshua ben Miriam
Diogo Morgado
Pontius Pilatus
Greg Hicks
Drusilla Claudia Tiberii
Louise Delamere
Caiaphas
Adrian Schiller
Mary Magdalene
Amber Rose Revah
The Not-So-Historical Notes
Aliyah
Aurelia
Claudia
Livia
Sabrina
Tatiana
Glossary
Acknowledgements
Author’s Note
If you’ve read my books before, you know I generally take care with the nuances of historical fiction. I may ignore the subtleties of language (who wants to read “thee” and “thou” in the twenty-first century, anyway, besides my beloved Shakespeare nerds?) but I’m always cautious to research whether cities existed, who ruled when and that sort of thing.
But this isn’t one of those books. Early One Morning is based on the concept behind The Testament of Mary. Knowing that Testament treated Mary of Nazareth as a normal woman who was suffering over the fact that her son was executed (never mind that he was “arrogant” and “more than a little crazy.”) I decided to take that moment in time and make it my own…my own language, my own characters, everything. If Colm Toibin had the temerity to have Mary laying praise at the foot of an Artemis statue, why couldn’t I throw in a little Paganism for myself? Add some of the literary concepts from Elizabeth Cunningham’s Maeve saga and the faces from the 2013 miniseries The Bible and I had an excellent foundation.
Enter Gaia Julia Gregorii, known as Julia Templa to her friends and fellow priestesses. At twenty-eight, she is the high priestess of the Temple of Isis, tucked away on the north wall of Jerusalem. The Romans have tolerated the temple for fifty years, as long as the inspectors can come by at any time to verify that the priestesses are burning incense to Emperor Tiberius. After holding the office for seven years, Julia—like the other residents of Jerusalem—feels the pull of Yeshua ben Miriam, and one holy week is all it takes for her life to change forever.
By the way, if you can understand Roman naming conventions, you’re a genius. I’ve read the instructions time and again and I’m still lost, so I invented my own.
I realized halfway through the first draft that I’m off a day on the execution schedule. By that point, I couldn’t be bothered to fix the whole slant of my story, so we’re calling it creative license.
Also, if anything seems anachronistic, bear in mind that it may not be the object as you’re used to thinking of it. For example, the “tea tray” in Day of Venus is a round, clay disk with clay cups and a clay pot filled with an infusion of jasmine. Think of things that could have been made with what was available, not as we currently know them.
Dayanara
August 2013
* historical figure
() deceased
In Historia Populi
Priestesses
Aliyah: (16 CE) the youngest of the priestesses, Aliyah ran away from home rather than have her bat mitzvah.[1] (17)
Aurelia: (11 BCE) the assistant healer, who hails from Egypt. (44)
Claudia: (9 BCE) one of the priestesses who has mixed Roman and Jewish blood. (24)
Hadas: (10 CE) chief healer; the only Gentile the Jews will see. (23)
Julia: (5 CE) High Priestess of the Temple of Isis, Jerusalem and a second generation Jerusalemite. (28)
Livia: (7 CE) the maiden; Julia’s second. Unlike Julia, Livia was born in Rome. (26)
Sabrina: (11 CE) one of the priestesses who has mixed Roman and Jewish blood. (22)
Tatiana: (12 CE) one of the priestesses who has mixed Roman and Jewish blood. (21)
Ziva: (6 CE) priestess who is best at interpreting dreams. (27)
Romans
*Pontius Pilatus: (15 BCE) a member of the Pontii clan, Pilatus was the Roman prefect in charge of Judea from 26 – 36 CE. (53)[2]
*Drusilla Claudia Tiberii: (9 BCE) his wife, a distant relation of Emperor Tiberius. (47)[3]
Mihalis: Claudia’s chamberlain.
Caius: Claudia’s master of the wardrobe.
Calista: Claudia’s slave in charge of cosmetics.
Nadia: Claudia’s jeweler.
Melinda: Claudia’s hairstylist.
Mikel: administrator in the prefect’s absence.
Jacobus: centurion in the prefect’s personal guard.
Lucius: a scribe who works for Domus Pilatus.
Constantina: wife of Lucius.
Analenya: (1 CE) chief priestess of Jerusalem’s College of Vestals. (32)
Gaia Julia Gregorii: Julia’s full Roman name.
Gaia Minerva Claudii: (11 BCE – c. 33 CE) Julia’s mother. If Minerva is still alive, she has probably moved back to Rome. (49)
(Gaia Paulina Severide): (45 BCE – c. 7 CE) Julia’s grandmother, who got the format of her surname changed after rendering great services to the Old Republic. Paulina retired in Jerusalem at age 45. (83)
Jews
*Yeshua ben Miriam: (1 BCE – 33 CE) teacher and healer who stirs the interest of the Sanhedrin. (33)
*Caiaphas: (26 BCE) high priest and leader of the Sanhedrin. (64)
*Mary Magdalene: (10 CE) follower of Yeshua, sometimes known as the thirteenth disciple. (23)
Sanctum Horarium
6a First Hour of the Morning
7a Second Hour of the Morning
8a Third Hour of the Morning
9a Fourth Hour of the Morning
10a Fifth Hour of the Morning
11a Si
xth hour of the Morning
12p First Hour of the Afternoon
1p Second Hour of the Afternoon
2p Third Hour of the Afternoon
3p Fourth Hour of the Afternoon
4p Fifth Hour of the Afternoon
5p Sixth Hour of the Afternoon
6p First Hour of the Evening
7p Second Hour of the Evening
8p Third Hour of the Evening
9p Fourth Hour of the Evening
10p Fifth Hour of the Evening
11p Sixth Hour of the Evening
12a First Hour of the Night
1a Second Hour of the Night
2a Third Hour of the Night
3a Fourth Hour of the Night
4a Fifth Hour of the Night
5a Sixth Hour of the Night
First Day of Saturn – I
“My Lady, we must beg you not to go.”
“He angers everyone who hears him speak!”
“There could be a riot!”
“You could be trampled even if they’re calm.”
“He’s too popular for his own good!”
“Complaints won’t change my mind, ladies.” Julia examined her reflection in the bronze mirror Aliyah held and finally accepted the shawl Claudia had been offering for the last ten minutes. “If he truly is a prophet of the Hebrew god, it is my duty to welcome him to Jerusalem and to become familiar with the foundation of his teachings.”
She gave Hadas, Ziva and Aliyah pointed looks. “You, out of all the priestesses, should understand.”
“The Romans won’t like this,” Tatiana warned. “Pontius Pilatus will be furious if he hears you went anywhere near the Hebrew teacher.”
“Pilatus gets ‘furious’ about a lot of things,” the high priestess replied. “If I worried every time the prefect had a bad mood, I would have no life.
“Livia, you’re in charge.” Julia breezed out of the sanctuary, but Aurelia was waiting for her in the portico.
At forty-one, Aurelia was easily the oldest of the priestesses and occasionally used her age to play the role of mother. She did so now, placing her hands on Julia’s shoulders.
“Why are you so desperate to see this rabbi? This is Jerusalem. There are more than a hundred rabbis in this city. Why this one?”
“I hear the stories they tell. This Yeshua ben Miriam…he’s not like the others.”
“What you hear is what Aliyah repeats after sweeping out here. You’re twenty-eight and the high priestess…don’t you know better than to listen to the tales of little girls?”
Julia gently moved out of Aurelia’s grasp. “I’ll be back for evening prayers.”
First Day of Saturn – II
“They say he’s going to process into the city tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? Is he mad? Tomorrow’s the start of Passover week. Even if he doesn’t piss off any of the common rabble, he’ll still have to deal with the Sanhedrin.”
Julia was trying her best to listen to the rabbi’s teaching, but she couldn’t help overhearing the two men nearest her.
“On the purest, whitest donkey they can find,” the first continued. “I heard they’ve already rented a room for the holy days and only his closest disciples are invited.”
“Oh, poor me!” snapped the second. “I guess I’ll just celebrate Passover at home with my wife and kids and not risk my sorry ass!”
“Hush!” the high priestess commanded, pulling her shawl more closely around her. “I’m trying to hear the teacher.”
“Who are you to order me to be silent?” the second man demanded. “He teaches every damn day! What exactly do you think you’re missing?”
“Don’t bother her, David,” muttered the first. “She’s a woman. If anything, she needs the rabbi’s teachings the most.”
Julia rose to her fullest stature, the one every priestess learned when she was only a neophyte. Throwing her shawl aside, she intoned,
“I am Julia Templa, High Priestess of the Temple of Isis and I command you to BE QUIET!”
Everyone turned and stared, but Julia didn’t flinch. She did, however, flush a little when Yeshua beckoned to her. Picking up her shawl, the high priestess shook it out, wrapped it back around her shoulders and made her way through the crowd to his side.
“Do you always cause a disturbance like that?”
Julia ducked her head. “I try not to, sir, but everyone habitually pays attention to a high priestess.”
Yeshua gave her a small smile and a quick, one-armed hug. “Try to keep it in and we’ll talk after.”
First Day of Saturn – III
“Everyone pays attention to a high priestess, hmm? Even when she covers herself demurely like a countrywoman?” He gestured for her to follow and they strolled away from the crowd. “We wouldn’t have noticed you if you hadn’t spoken out.”
“I apologize, Sir. I was trying to hear your teachings, but the men in front of me were carrying on about your plans for this week.” Julia chanced a look into his eyes. “Were they telling the truth? Do you really plan to come into the city tomorrow on a pure white donkey?”
“I’m afraid it’s unavoidable,” Yeshua said with a sigh. “Personally, I’d rather walk into town like everyone else, retire to my room and share a quiet Passover with my friends. It’s James and John who think I need to make a big entrance.” He made an amused noise. “My friend Maggie calls them the Thunder Brothers.”
“‘Maggie’? That’s an unusual name.”
“It’s short for Mary Magdalene. There are too many Marys in my life…my mother, Mary of Bethany, Mary of Magdala. One night when we were in the hills, I complained about that and she came up with Maggie.”
She chuckled. “I don’t have anything so…charming. Everyone from the eldest priestess to the youngest supplicant calls me ‘Lady Julia’.”
“You’re not of Roman stock?”
“Oh, I am, but it was my grandmother who came from Rome. My full name is Gaia Julia Gregorii, but I prefer Julia Templa…it’s softer and more inviting. The three name structure is just so…is intimidating the right word?”
He gave her his shy smile and the high priestess felt the color rising in her cheeks.
“I will happily call you Julia if you will call me…Josh.”
This time, Julia laughed so hard that she tripped over a rock. Even flat on her butt in the dust, she couldn’t help laughing.
“Josh? The great rabbi Yeshua ben Miriam wants me to call him Josh?” She let out one last chuckle and gratefully accepted a hand up. “Aren’t I supposed to call you something more dignified? Something like…I don’t know…Jesus?”
“You can call me Jesus if you like. I like Josh because it doesn’t sound like a sneeze. Every time I hear ‘Yeshua’, I want to say—” He said something in Hebrew that roughly translated to, “Bless you; and may you have a long life.”
“May the blessings be returned upon you sevenfold and triple,” she replied.
“You know Hebrew?” he asked, switching back to Aramaic.
“A little. Growing up, we spoke Aramaic at home, but I had to learn Latin to speak to my avia and my tutors taught me that it was important to know Greek in order to read the ‘greatest works ever written’. Any Hebrew I know, I learned from the priestesses. We have three of Jewish descent.”
They walked and chatted for a while about innocuous things—where Josh had grown up, how Julia came to be a priestess, their differences in ministry. Finally, they arrived at a copse that must have been a mile or more from the gathering site and Josh sat down on a fallen log.
“Why have you come to me? Surely you haven’t given up on your own faith.”
“The Goddess has been good to me,” Julia acknowledged. “But I cannot let you enter Jerusalem without knowing who you are. Before the sun rises tomorrow, the Sanhedrin and the Roman prefect will know you are here. If ‘Yeshua ben Miriam’ is not heard among the stalls in the marketplace, the gossipmongers are failing in their duties.”
/> “If Pontius Pilatus and Caiaphas don’t already know I’m here, they’re asleep.”
“I understand the desire—nay, the need—to spread the word of your god, but you’re earning a reputation as a rabblerouser. Surely this procession into the city is unnecessary.”
“There are deeper forces at work here than you or anyone knows,” Josh said quietly, after a moment. “There are things I understand that my disciples never will.”
“So you’re saying this procession is necessary.”
“I’m saying that when I’m executed at the end of the week, that is what is necessary.”
Julia’s eyes widened. “If your life is in danger, then why are you staying? Shouldn’t you be making haste for some other land, perhaps one that Rome has not touched?”
“You and I know that death is inevitable. If I run from my fate, then I will enter the afterlife elsewhere,” he replied. “If I don’t let Pontius Pilatus execute me, then what? I drown in Lake Gennesaret? I die during a robbery in Tiberias? No. Better to meet my end in the way my Lord ordained than to stumble into death unprepared.”
Julia pursed her lips and subtly shook her head. She understood leaving for Duat after a life well lived, but this stoic acceptance of a foretold execution was unnerving. Part of her had no wish to be left here crying, so she took advantage of the sudden silence.
“I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me, rabbi.” She returned the favor and offered him a hand to rise. “Please let me know if there is anything we can do for you…we’re on the north wall, tucked away in the corner.”