The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Sisters of the Bloodwind
Page 7
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Mihai slowly opened the door onto a porch of rainbow onyx and glittering diamonds, entrance to the most sacred of all chambers in the universe, ZoeStethos - literally, ‘The Breasts of Life Absolute’. Legend attributed the origin of the name to the Ones Who Came Before, otherwise known as the Cherubs. Indeed, Mihai had been told long ago that the Chief Cherub, RosMismar, oldest of all his race, gifted that name upon this place, and that the words ZoeStethos were but a poor rendition of the original phonetic pronunciation.
No one, not even the Firstborn, was allowed entrance into these chambers without permission of the One who dwelt within. This was the first visit Mihai had made here since taking up the staff of steward and field marshal over Mother’s armies. She wondered at the reason her mother requested they meet in this sanctuary, something so rarely done. It could only be for a very special reason, but what?
Surprisingly, the ZoeStethos was not as impressive as a visitor might imagine when compared with the remainder of the palace. True beauty abounded here… but it was of a humble nature. It was subdued, as if restrained, fearing for a person’s approval. One had to search for the beauty, from intricately carved, spindly pillars supporting the marble ceilings to ornate paintings and tapestries hanging from the walls, but it was well worth the effort.
If one studied these surroundings long enough, a plethora of exciting emotions would begin bubbling up in the person’s soul, filling his or her being with a rhapsodic rush, flooding their senses with sounds and sights of overwhelming proportions. But Mihai was in no mood to search and had no desire to experience such delights. She remained content to see these sights through simple eyes.
Glancing around, she spied one of the sparse furnishings, a red onyx bench affixed to a wall. With her simple eye, everything appeared cold and distant. Even the elegant octagonal sapphire table in the nearby room with its accompanying golden divan held no warmth. Shaking her head, Mihai quietly strode from the porch and toward an opened wall facing the courtyard with its enchanting gardens.
As she approached, a light breeze lifted silky curtains that hid the outer balcony from view. Beyond the billowing sheets, embroidered with mystical horses prancing in fields of gilded flowers, Mihai glimpsed green treetops reaching high above the garden hidden far below. The sunlight betrayed such astounding delights upon the woman’s senses that Mihai’s spirits were forced to rise.
Stopping to straighten her gown, she brushed back her hair while eyeing herself in a mirror on a distant wall. Satisfied, she stood erect, pushed her shoulders back and called out to her mother. There was no answer. After waiting a moment, Mihai cautiously stepped from the room through the curtains and onto the white marble balcony.
Off to her right, she spied the person she was seeking, slumped forward, hands on the balcony rail, gazing down on the garden far below. Before Mihai could speak again, a voice, sharp and accusing, disturbed her mind. “So… it has chosen your path today? And you permitted it? Little one, do you not yet understand? It is always seeking its master… always will… until you kill it. You must destroy it!”
At first stunned by her mother’s harshness, Mihai countered in telepathic response. “The hour was late and I needed to make haste. I chose to…”
Mother interrupted. “It chose your path today! I have felt its orgasmic excitement growing ever since you parted company with your Trisha companion. Do not enter the Dragon’s Lair again until Shiloh has cleansed that place of the evil lurking within! There are reasons it remains sealed down to this day. You put yourself at great risk taking that forbidden path.”
Mihai’s mother turned, her emerald green eyes piercing the sky blue oceans of her daughter and spoke aloud. “No other mortal has ascended to the glory of Chrusion. Even my children raised from the lower abyss are not yet a match for him. Child, the madness he abandoned to those caves beneath has greater power than you possess! I, alone, saved you this day. Do not trust to my loving kindness should you attempt that path again.”
Mihai stood silent as a mouse. Crestfallen, she cried out, “Your daughter is supposed to rule as Firstborn, but her very throne lies beyond her reach! Shall my demon always rule my flesh? Will it also take away my waking hours and deliver me up to the ever-madness that haunts the lost souls of the Jahouk? My power slips away as we speak…” She bowed her head, sobbing, “Oh, Ma-we, I don’t think I can…!” and fell into uncontrolled weeping.
The one Mihai called ‘Ma-we’ reached out to her daughter, as Mihai did for her mother. They embraced, Ma-we letting her daughter’s tears fall onto her shoulder and run down her ankle-length golden hair to the floor. Soon she stood in a puddle of tears that splashed upon her bare feet.
A groan came up from Ma-we’s heart. Here she stood with a child of the latter years, yet the most precious of all her sons and daughters, helpless to dispossess her of the monster growing within. Never was there a more beautiful person than this immortal of immortals but, for the moment, she felt tired, weak, bitter… and old. ‘What good is the Mother of Life if she cannot save one innocent child?!’
Ma-we kept her feelings secret, though. Everyone looked to her for rescue. She dared not let them know that she could not see the future clearly at this moment. Life and all that went with it dangled by the thread of uncertainty. The future was not guaranteed. How could she know the final outcome when this day was still cast in doubt? Should Mihai fail this day, there would be no future… and she could not even see the destiny of this coming hour.
Starting a little melody, Ma-we sang a soft and gentle lullaby to Mihai. Since the wars had begun, the tears of Ma-we’s daughters had run rivers on this balcony while, at the same time, the healing powers of Mother’s songs and the surrounding harmonics helped to draw out the poisons building within her children’s hearts. Today she sang for Mihai. Who would the ‘morrow bring to her doorstep?
(Author’s note: The name ‘Ma-we’ was secret, known to only Mihai, she having named her that when a young child, and it is used throughout these Chronicles to assist the present-day reader in maintaining continuity. Names given the Maker of Worlds are many, the ages having bestowed them upon her. Ma-we’s other names: Yehowah, Lowenah, Erithia and others help add flavor of understanding to my account. Authors may, at times, take poetic license with their works, as I have chosen to do here. The oldest of her names was given to her by the Ones Who Came Before, the first of her children. It was long kept a secret, being only divulged to the common children, the children of flesh, at the end of the last age. It was not until long after the King’s War that Mihai revealed her name for the Maker of Worlds, ‘Ma-we’, to her own children in her relating to them tales of her own life.
The author has chosen to include this name, Ma-we, to identify the Maker of Worlds throughout these Chronicles because it will continually draw the reader back to the person to whom all time and history owe their existence. Although told through the eyes of so many participants of these profound events, the account itself rises from the heart of but one person, Mihai. Had this child not presented herself upon the altar of love so many countless millennia ago – long before any rebellion – the worlds we take so for granted might not exist, the contrast between the evil of the oldest child and the self-sacrificing love of an innocent child never having been realized. Asotos likely would have become king over the universe, he taking up the scepter prepared for him. By the time his evil nature would have become fully manifest, it might well have been too late for anyone living, thus sending the entire universe into chaotic oblivion.
These Chronicles are about but one heart, one soul, and one mind. The strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures, joys and sorrows of this one woman must be judged as a mosaic of her life, one rich in emotion and love. Indeed, it was her love that lifted her to life’s pinnacle of achievements, but also sent her to depths of deepest despair. She risked all and sacrificed all for love, her name beco
ming synonymous with the very word. So easy can it be to see the flesh, and Mihai was a child of flesh - foolish, careless, impetuous to the point of arrogance, and often a victim of her own loyal misconceptions. Yet, I say these very weaknesses are what made so many fall in love with this woman. Few were the soldiers of these oft-forgotten wars who would hesitate to take up their sword and follow their beloved leader into certain death, even if that death might lead to no redemption.)