by Ava D. Dohn
* * *
It was mid-afternoon when the three found themselves standing along the side of a two-lane, paved highway. Lowenah had explained to them that no one could really see them and that, in reality, their bodies were not there. She pointed out that she transported them to this spot in some kind of a vision. They were in a real place and each was real to the other and could interact with the other person, but none of the inhabitants of the land were able to see them. “In some ways it’s like the day I sent Michael to the arena to assist you.” She pointed at Ishtar.
The girl started with a question but was cut off by strange popping noises far down the road. All craned their necks to see what it was. Over a rise came some strange box-like wheeled machine, popping and sputtering. Gray smoke drifted from under its hood and out of its windows. Suddenly there was one explosive bursting sound, sending huge clouds of acrid smoke bellowing into the air. A loud banging noise coming from the contraption stopped and the vehicle quietly drifted to the side of the road.
Doors flew open and three young men piled out of the machine. Ishtar expected to see them in a state of panic. Instead, the boys started laughing, pointing at the smoke while gesturing wildly. Eventually, one walked to the front of the autocar, lifting up a hood in its front. Sticking his head under the hood, he reached down and exclaimed, “Look at that! A rod came loose and blew a hole right through the side of the block!” He looked up at his friend who was standing nearby. “She ain’t gonna run no more. That’s for sure!”
The young man standing by asked. “What ‘a we gonna do now, Av? I got no way to get this home and I can’t leave it here. My mother is outta town and I can’t call her. Me and Socks are stuck.”
Av cheerfully replied, “We can push it home, Vern. It ain’t that far to my place. C’mon.” He motioned to Vern’s cousin. “C’mon, Socks, you and me will push this thing and Vern can steer.” Down the road went the three boys, Av and Socks pushing and Vern walking beside the autocar, his arm through the opened side window and his hand on the steering wheel.
Lowenah motioned for the others to follow along close enough to hear the ensuing conversations. For over two miles they watched, observed and listened to so many nonsensical stories, antics, and shenanigans, Ishtar was nearly beside herself with frustration. The last straw came when she saw Av motion to Socks to stop pushing the machine. They were on a flat section of roadway at the time. There the trio went on down the road, Av and Socks pretending to push, and poor Vern huffing and puffing to keep the machine moving. When he realized what was being done, he turned around and everyone broke into loud, silly laughter, followed by more silly comments.
Completely disgusted, Ishtar began fuming. “I’m supposed to watch that? Which one of those fools is my ward, or are you just making jest with me?” She eyed Lowenah suspiciously.
Lowenah glanced at Treston, who was standing behind Ishtar. He had such a grin on his face as to say the show brought back memories from his childhood. Then turning her attention to Ishtar, she warned, “Be careful, little one! There are those in great power and authority who might call you out if they heard you speak of your future king that way. Now do be a good girl and watch and learn.” She then pointed to the tall blonde-haired boy. “His name is ‘Av’, for short. His full name is ‘Av’a Dohn’. Now I want you to take special notice of him, understand?”
Ishtar quietly sputtered her complaints and let go a jab, citing how childish and reckless the boys acted. Lowenah politely reminded the girl concerning her desire to visit her old home. That silenced Ishtar for the moment. For the remainder of the day and well into the evening, the three watched the young men. Lowenah spent a great deal of that time describing the boy’s life and why she had chosen him for such a great future responsibility.
Later that evening, the three finally returned from their adventure. Ishtar was a difficult person to impress, and it appeared as though the day’s efforts to do so had been futile. Lowenah’s fiery servants delivered a delightful meal of steamed ocean greens and scallops smothered in a mildly spicy marinara sauce. Fresh baked bread sticks covered in melted butter, a variety of cheeses, and a huge bowl of cut melons finished the menu of scrumptious delights. After eating their fill, Lowenah invited the girl to go for a stroll.
A whispering breeze made a gentle rustling noise as it flowed up from a nearby lake, passing through the leaves on nearby magnolia trees. Its warm, soothing fingers on the women’s naked flesh was refreshing and invigorating. Looking to her left, Lowenah watched the reflection of the twin moons, Kanda and Istilla, dance across the salty waters where her fiery attendants had procured the ingredients for the evening’s meal. Both moons were waxing full, chasing away the midnight darkness, revealing the secrets of the night. It would be another twenty thousand years before Kanda and Istilla would share the same moment in brilliant glory. When they lit up the night sky again in such golden splendor, what would they see, Lowenah wondered.
It was this time of day that Lowenah enjoyed the most. Now a person could desist from earlier labors and reflect on successes or failures. If satisfied, there would be the peaceful rest of accomplishment. If dissatisfied, one could dream of ways to do better on the morrow. Lowenah was curious which one was to be hers this night. She patiently waited for the right moment to seek her answer.
For ten minutes, the two strolled on in silence. Lowenah reached out, taking Ishtar’s hand, asking, “My daughter, I presented before you today a young man. Many things I revealed about him. You had time to observe and judge what you saw. Tell me, please, and do be fully honest with your speech, what did you think of him?”
Ishtar thought a moment, and then casually offered, “He seems like a nice boy...”
Lowenah stopped and turned the girl toward her. The moon hid the child’s face in shadow, trying to make secret her innermost thoughts. But shadow was no match for the reader of hearts. “Do you think me like the foolish women of your city, who wished only for answers that tickled their ears? I do not look for succor or to have my spirit salved. Shall I search you out with my own powers, or will you be honest in your words?”
Ishtar started with a shock. The past days spent in company with the very Maker of worlds had lulled the child into forgetting who this person standing beside her was - an easy thing to do. Lowenah was never demanding. She had doted on the girl even more than Ishtar’s mother had done. Never once did she pronounce her dignity and glory with pomp and ceremony. Now the child was being reminded that there was but one God and, when necessary, she was willing to announce that fact.
Ishtar’s head sank, hiding her face deeper in the moons’ shadow, this time as though to hide from Lowenah’s piercing gaze. In a subdued voice, she whispered, “I’m sorry...”
Lowenah said nothing. She continued to peer into the shadows hiding the girl’s face, watching the child’s eyes, which could not be hidden from the woman’s sight.
Finally, the child began, “I don’t like him! He’s loud and rude! I watched the way he treated the others with him - kind one moment and a cruel trickster the next. He takes his home and grandmother for granted. Oh sure, the other boys with him act the same, and I believe it is as you have said, ‘that they are acting like boys do at this age.’ Still, you say he is someone special, a man I will have to one day bend a knee to. Ishtar lifted her head, revealing a troubled face to the bright light of the moons. “Lowenah, how can I ever submit my soul to someone I feel is a fool?”
Lowenah smiled and cupped her hands around the child’s face. “Do you know why you have journeyed through trial and death to stand with me in this very place, this very night?”
The girl answered, bewildered, “Wasn’t it for the reward for doing the right things?”
Lowenah laughed, shaking her head. “My dear child, if people attained to this place as a reward, would that mean the others who one day attain life elsewhere did lesser right thin
gs? No... No... One’s destiny is not based on such silliness. Every one of your kind who ascend to the Worlds Above is delivered here for a purpose…My purpose!”
She gripped Ishtar’s hand. “Come! Let us walk.”
As they passed further into the forest, now accented with juniper, ash, mahogany, and other majestic monarchs of this ancient world, Lowenah began to explain the purpose of the child’s destiny. “You have been told much of the history of the Rebellion. Humor me if I should repeat some information.”
“As you already know, I was preparing my oldest son, ‘Asotos’, as he is known today, to become leader over all my universes attached to this Middle Realm. In order to accomplish that feat, he was to become immortal, like me. I would then be free to fulfill my personal desires, which I can tell you are far, far from being a ruler. For countless millennia I prepped him, giving him power, wisdom, and insight while revealing my most intimate secrets to him. He was to have all the knowledge of the universe at his disposal.” She sighed. “Throughout the ages, I tested my son out as to fitness, to make sure I was choosing a person who would care for my children in loving and unselfish ways, the same way as I have. I found the man a most worthy candidate, often proving himself beyond my expectations until…”
Lowenah allowed for a moment of silent suspense to pass. “…until the day I offered him oversight of your home planet. That was long before Michael - your king, Mihai - was born, or your home planet was even a ball of fire. Two things surprised and concerned me: He became quite demanding at times as to the how the basic structure of life was to develop. That’s why you see that much life there has one common framework and is mostly carbon based - I will explain what carbon is at another time. The other, more disturbing thing was how he wanted the females of your kind made.”
“You see, in this world, women were created with equal status to the men. It’s true, they gain special pleasure in satisfying their brothers and making them happy. So, my daughters willingly and voluntarily surrender their hearts up to the desires of their male siblings. But Asotos did not want such giving to be voluntary among the daughters of your world. He continually urged me to build into my daughters a need or craving for the men so that they would, by nature, submit themselves to the males as an orderly course of things.”
“I resisted Asotos down to the end, that is, until your ancestress foolishly rejected her own wisdom. After she departed from me, I changed her heart to have a passionate need for her husband so that all mankind could see the folly of such an act. And Adam did become a tyrant - something not lost on his sons. Your womankind inherited some of that trait from her, as a witness, proving that no man should have such power over another. You have even come to see how cruelly men have dominated women down to this day.”
“I became cautious and my heart filled with questions concerning Asotos’ motive. So I put my oldest to another test, hoping he would understand what I was doing. He did not. In the days after I brought forth your ancestress to her husband and gave the earth to them, a great festival was carried on in the Palace City. My children had traveled from many distant places to celebrate this wonderful day, one that introduced procreation to all my children. Many now saw a future purpose in the way they were made. It certainly didn’t escape my son.”
“He could see himself as lord over unnumbered crowds of servants, bending to his will and answering to his every whim. I watched the desire growing in him for some time - a near lust to control others. He tried to keep it secret, but I knew him too well. The time had come to force the issue. That was the reason I set the tree in the garden I made for your ancestors and personally warned the man to leave it be. I wander from my point, though. Let me go on.”
“At the festival, I gave your planet and all that was in it over to my daughter Michael, to be chief steward, seeing to the affairs of the world of men. Anger erupted in my oldest son. Although I hoped he would settle down after awhile - and he did appear to do so - I saw need to change my view of immortality and what it would actually be. But that’s another story for another day. Allow me to jump ahead in time.”
“The Rebellion did not change my desire to have someone other than myself oversee the well-being of these universes. I decided to use a person from your world to serve the purpose, in part, because I could use the procreative powers of your people to eventually make the kind of person I wanted. He would be just right for the job.”
Lowenah stopped and, turning toward Ishtar, also took hold of her other hand. “He was not the only one I fiddled with.” She winked.
Ishtar gasped. “Did you fiddle with me?”
Lowenah chuckled aloud. “Did I? Did I ever...the same way I fiddled with so many others who now stand with you in the First Realm, and all of it done right under the nose of my insolent son!” She explained that by bringing different people together over the centuries and sorting the tiny sperm and eggs, people with the desired qualities were born into existence. “So you see, not every marriage or even every sexual union was random and coincidental.” She gently poked the child. “You were conceived at the base of a blossoming tamarisk tree on a night very much like this one. And, yes, your mother wasn’t married to your father. In fact, she knew little more than his name, but was so smitten by his handsome beauty, she ran off with him for an evening’s pleasure. It served my purpose and I took advantage of the hour.”
Ishtar was aghast. “I’m a bastard child?!”
“No!” Lowenah kindly scolded. “You were a holy child, made by my own hand.” She smiled. “Yes, a child conceived outside of marriage by the laws of men, but one born into it under those same laws. Yet man’s laws mean little to me, the Inventor of law.” Lowenah allowed little time for the girl to collect her thoughts.
“From the day Cain took his sister, I was preparing you and that foolish boy. Through times of hunger and slaughter, through the age of the Fellers and on past the darkness of cold, gray waters, I protected the works of my hands. Shem’s seed I secured and finally mixed with the blood of all men - the Cushites, Canaanites, Moabites, Syrians, Persians, and also the Macedonians, of which your father was also one. All these, along with many other nations, I mixed with your ancestor’s - the man I had record the history of the founding of your world. You and that boy both share much of that heritage.”
Lowenah reached up and took the child by the arms. “You are my agent, a weapon I have created to bring destruction. That boy is the one who will wield that weapon in the final hour. In his strength, you will crush nations. The blood of warriors flows in your veins and I shall temper you with that blood so that you become a master in war. That boy will also be trained for his part. He’s being trained at this very moment. He will grow, just as you will also.”
Lowenah released the child. Turning her head, she scanned the scenic view of the lake then reached over to touch the girl’s arm. “I chose you to be a companion to the boy. He will one day come to love you and, by his own mouth give you glory above all your siblings, here and in the Realms Below. You will not call him ‘foolish’ in that day, nor will you think him cruel or uncaring.”
She looked at the child, her eyes betraying the seriousness on her mind. “You must grow up! There is no time remaining for your childhood. Tomorrow you and Treston shall visit your old home. You will learn many things you wished not to. After we return, you will leave my house and join with Treston, a man delivered to this place for this very purpose. He will instruct you in all the ways of war. You will obey him and do as he tells you. If not, I give him permission to do with you as he sees fit. He will become as a god to you, and you - you shall do all the things he tells you!”
Ishtar was too shocked for making comment. She had not expected such a command and had given no thought to the reason Treston had accompanied them to this place. There were many feelings rushing through her at the moment, from crying to laughing, to explosive anger. But Ishtar w
as a good girl. She was made of ‘good stuff’, like Lowenah had once said. The girl remained silent. That night the child started to become a woman.
