by Ava D. Dohn
*
The tumbling of the musical stream continued, singing relaxing refrains that tugged upon cords binding a troubled heart. It felt so good to have her head on this stranger’s shoulder. She closed her eyes, wishing the moment to linger on, but, alas, the woman’s mind refused to give her pause. At last, in a quiet, reserved voice she asked, “Zadar, is there time to take council?”
Zadar smiled, his reply courteous and reassuring. “Certainly, what does our captain wish to discuss?”
Lingering in her comfortable nest a moment longer, Trisha answered, “I do know why I have been delivered here and it causes me strife and concern.” She sat, pulling away and turning, looked into Zadar’s face. “My friend, if I may even call you that…”
Zadar nodded approvingly.
“Well, I am the precursor of the one who will gather himself to your people. I fear that hour, for I have seen it in visions and dreams. That is why I come now, to show your kind the way, to prepare you for the darkness that must arrive on all living things. I must prepare yours hearts for the Lord of Destruction.”
Trisha’s words puzzled Zadar, for she had uttered similar words earlier that night, their meaning still unclear. He chose, though, not to speak, encouraging Trisha to continue by remaining silent.
“Very well…” Trisha sighed, “Your people dream of a man who will take up the crown of this kingdom and return the world of peace to this land.” She shook her head. “I have come to teach your kind many truths - one, that by evil must evil be destroyed. Zadar, through visions I have see the Ending Days of rebellion. Your kind cannot comprehend the great and terrible things your coming king will deliver upon this world and the rabble host. Zadar, this man brings the midnight, and he will use all his evil knowledge to bring to a finish what I must start!”
She lowered her head in sadness. “Before the darkness passes, your people will curse the day of their birth, wishing instead for the Silent Tombs of their brothers.”
Trisha looked directly at Zadar, pointing at herself, “Zadar, I am a new creation, different from all other living beings that have come before, or should arrive after…at least that is how I understand it. There is a hidden power dwelling within my soul that, should I summon it, it would give me the strength of ten men, yet I do not summon it… cannot. My friend, I could tear you asunder this very moment if the mood should strike, but there is a greater power warring within my breast that holds it in check.”
“And yet…” Trisha sighed again. “the power of my mind, to take control of your people and lead them, push them beyond all sanity, that power I do have, and it is not restrained by any hidden force.”
She squeezed Zadar’s hand, exerting enough pressure to make the man wince in pain. Apologizing for having provided him a necessary lesson, Trisha added, “I also feel a strange and disquieting might and glory hidden behind these orbs. Should I wish, I could blind you with my gaze, burning away, forever, your two oceans of wondrous, intriguing beauty.”
Trisha blushed, that last statement slipping out of rebellious lips. She turned away, staring at the flowing stream. “I didn’t mean to hurt you… really, I do mean it. I only wanted you to see and understand me.” Again, a heart betrayed more than the woman wanted Zadar to witness of her soul.
Zadar smiled, rubbing his hand as he watched the red marks begin to fade. “You certainly do have a way of impressing lessons upon your captive students...” He reached out, taking Trisha by the chin and slowly turned her face toward his. Then, frowning so seriously, he queried, “So, if I should stare into your eyes with want and prurient desire, shall my fate be to behold a most beautiful creature as my final vision before having my eyes burned to vapor? Then it should not be such a bad thing...”
Trisha noted a whisper of tease in Zadar’s voice, along with other subtle innuendos. She attempted a teasing return of her own. “Prurient? Well, such an insolent act done with selfish intent might raise my ire and bring forth my anger. But…but if it were an honest act of a man speaking only what a wanton heart betrays… well… well…” She reached up, gently stroking Zadar’s soft beard. “I would so much hate to damage two beautiful spheres expressing so much curiosity and wonder.” She winked. “…that is, just yet...”
As quickly as the magic of Zadar’s flirting had lightened Trisha’s heart, a dark, foreboding, cloud swept over the woman’s soul, her eyes losing their flirtatious glow. She turned away, becoming sullen and quiet. Zadar said nothing.
At length, Trisha spoke, her voice subdued and reserved. “There is so little time to learn and prepare, the Dragon already being at your very door. Your brother will soon attack, in ways that your kind are not prepared for, and I speak not just of his wiles at the coming Prisoner Exchange. Satan’s army is greater than most imagine, consuming all the lost souls who follow him. He has become great and terrible. There stands but one Fate that checks his hand, and that is Time. He must wait for the right moment in order to bring the entire universe to nothing.”
Shaking her head, Trisha hinted at her hidden remorse. “I am come to force his hand. At whatever cost to your kind, it must be done. I must hurry him on so that his attack comes prematurely, so that his strike will only maim and not kill.”
Surprised, Zadar countered, “Surely we have the time… must have the time to set matters right… to bring down the beast!” Looking into troubled eyes, his countenance faltered as he asked haltingly, “Don’t we…?”
Trisha sadly disagreed. “The hour has already passed, this your mother has informed me. From her I have learned, as she told me through her own tears, that many of her children will needlessly come to naught because of their failure to heed her warning. Even your new king has hidden herself away in denial, wishing for Shiloh to deliver the cure. I am sorry, but it must be by the blood of all living things - your brothers and sisters - that the cure will be made manifest. Zadar, the rivers of blood your people witnessed tonight through vision were not your enemy’s alone, but need I say more?”
She squeezed Zadar’s hand. “You… your kind must learn how to hate the wicked.”
“But why?” Zadar asked, his voice filling with uncertainty.
Trisha sat back, surprised. “Zadar! Of all people, I believed you would understand. Is your sister, Darla, the only one with any sense about her? Please… please listen and learn. You and I are not strangers to war. When you and I watch our enemy die, we think not of them as more than a cancer removed from a diseased body. Good riddance!” She waved her finger at him. “I know it’s so with you. I watched it in your eyes this very eve at the Council.”
Zadar nodded it was so.
Trisha placed an opened hand on her breast. “I… we… feel no remorse at such death. Indeed, we rejoice for, like a surgeon removing a cancerous tumor, we see a cleansing taking place. In fact, we hate them... hate them because we know what they have done to this world, our kindred, our God! It is what drives us through the blood, gore, the stink of battle. It keeps us ever willing to fight again, to go on fighting… the hatred, I mean. It keeps us going on to the finish.” She looked into Zadar’s eyes, asking, “Is that not what I’ve seen in you? Am I not right?”
Zadar replied, “I see my mother sitting on the stairs leading to the palace courtyard, weeping over the murder of two of her daughters near the Pishon River, not far from Eden. I was little more than a teen at the time, but the river of tears Mother shed at the report of their rape and torture turned all that was inside me into a boiling inferno of jealous rage…an anger that has little subsided down to this day. When it wakes within my soul, the world around me becomes red and my heart seeks the blood of those who hurt her.”
Trisha grinned. “You see! We fight for the same reasons! We hate! Hate the evil that lives and breathes in this land!” She frowned. “Few of your brothers fight for the same reason. Even your Euroaquilo, who is among the bravest of your kind, seeks reasonable soluti
ons in his heart, secretly hoping that peace will be found through wordy councils.”
“Well! Tonight I tried to shake the scales from their eyes, tried to help them see the need to put down the gall-tainted wine and sober up, wake up to the reality and dangers surrounding them. I think they did wake.” Trisha lowered her head, speaking remorsefully. “Now I must find a way to keep them awake, whatever the cost to them… or me.”
Trisha again took Zadar’s hand, gently caressing it. “If your people refuse to learn to hate the wicked - really hate them and all they stand for - their hearts will not be able to endure Shiloh’s onslaught. What he will demand from them… for he will cry out in all that is good and evil to bring down the Serpent’s house… he will demand that the blood kin become the avengers of blood in the ruining of that house.” She nodded sadly. “So, you see, they must learn to hate as you and I have, or their hearts will not survive the ordeal.”
As tears welled up in her eyes, Trisha pleaded, “Zadar, I am but a little shadow of the things to come, a rustling breeze preceding the great storm. I know. I have seen it in my waking visions. Zadar, Shiloh is the storm! Yes, the very savior that your brothers have yearned so long for is the very nightmare that your brothers have so greatly feared. He will fulfill all the words of all the prophets. He will laugh at war, deride the timid, and despise the weak.” She squeezed Zadar’s hand. “My friend, Zadar, Shiloh is the Destroyer!”
Zadar rubbed his bearded chin, pondering what Trisha’s revelations portended for his people. Suddenly his face lit up in questioning wonder as he asked, “Is Shiloh already come?! Does he live here or in the worlds below?”
Trisha closed her eyes, hiding growing tears.
Excited, Zadar pressed her for information. “Do you know who he is?!”
Giving a nod, Trisha hung her head as if in remorse, becoming glum and silent. Zadar said nothing, waiting upon the right moment when the woman’s heart would force words to come from her mouth.
Finally, but oh so sadly, Trisha answered, “He is still a child whose opinion is driven by the foolish winds surrounding him. His heart is held captive by a religion led by obstinate men filled with self-glory who seek not the truth, but mindless followers taught to do their personal bidding, binding the peoples’ souls by feeding them drops of truth concerning my God, while heaping buckets of drivel upon their starving hearts.”
“My heart… I say by witchery, but your mother says by my own desires… my heart is bound up with him, my head already in a tizzy over who this child will become. No other man has, of yet, moved my passions as this one has… and that only in my night visions of our loving togetherness… making me feel all the more lonely and empty of soul and heart.”
She looked into Zadar’s eyes, pleading, “Please tell no one about what I have spoken. Please!”
Zadar puzzled, asking, “Why all the secrecy? Falling in love is a common thing, especially with your kind.”
Trisha glared, eyes squinting, “I speak not of my feelings, though it might embarrass me should my personal feelings be bantered about in public. You should know better than that.”
Apologizing, Zadar confessed, “I am sorry, but it was your feelings I was considering. What other reason for secrecy?”
It was Trisha’s turn to apologize. Gripping Zadar’s wrist, Trisha explained, “It is Shiloh of whom I speak in secrecy. Now, you must promise me with an oath, even of life and death, to even that of ever telling Mihai your king, or anyone who-so-ever, upon your own soul you must confess to never speak of this again until the day of revealing, or I shall take my leave and talk of this no more.”
Zadar was taken aback, having never been asked such a thing before. Oaths his people did not take, at least this kind of oath, fealty and honesty being expected by just a word. Still, Trisha was not from this world, her former one being filled with deceit and lies. Was it such a big thing to assuage this woman’s fears? Besides, Zadar was filled to exploding with curiosity, needing to know more. He offered his oath in the way Trisha requested.
Satisfied, she breathing a sigh of relief at not having to leave Zadar because of her threat, Trisha revealed her secret. “Upon my arrival to this place, I was whisked away to the outer reaches of this Empire, a certain BruunTaciak being my mentor and companion.” She segued, as if thinking aloud. “More a mentor, I guess, I being cold and distant to men… still am, I guess. Bruun was a good fellow and let me have my way, giving me security without romance.”
Apologizing for wandering, Trisha returned to the subject. “I was not in this realm yet six months when - I believe I was on post at CharlaBaal, a small military compound south of the Trizentine - when my night visions began carrying me away to the strange worlds below to visit myself upon a young child, oh, such a foolish little boy. Night after night the visions would return, but not the same visions. It was as if I were watching a daily event, each a progressive day, one after the next.”
“In time, I mentioned my visions to Bruun. He, being a very patient and discerning man, told me to cherish them in my heart while waiting upon a visit from Lowenah, and that was but a very short wait. Three days hence she arrived at my lodging acting oh, so casual and chatting on about such unimportant matters. Finally I blurted out my constant night visions, asking her what they might be about.”
“Lowenah puzzled at first, the twinkle in her eyes telling me so much more. Finally she replied that watching young ones in the Lower Realms was good training for new arrivals to this place, helped to keep an overeager mind occupied and well behaved. At first I accepted her answer, me being too naive to understand your mother’s sense of humor and riddling. But as time went on, I became suspicious about this child, he being peculiar in so many ways.”
Trisha’s eyes searched the little stream as she went on. “It was queer for me to watch him, spooky, some might say. The little fellow was different in how he acted, I mean, in small and little noticed ways. The boy didn’t really fit in, always out of place, like a shadow on a cloudy day. He was different, on the inside, I mean.” Trisha pointed at her heart. “In here, right here.”
She slowly shook her head. “Strange fellow, indeed…! He’s grown up in a religion preaching peace and love, that is, until God strikes the world with plague and vengeance, but that is to be done at God’s hand. All those chosen, you know, all the good, saved, souls are not to get their hands dirty…sort a’ like having the reward without getting messy…they’ll just swoop in and take over the planet after all the bad people are killed off.”
“Well, this boy preached all this with his mouth when talking to others about what he believed, but he was one hellacious warmonger when left by himself. That’s all he ever was about, warring at this, fighting at that. He made little flags for himself and led imaginary armies on to great victories. Most of his toys became war machines, clay became soldiers and sticks became weapons. Yes sir, he talked peace and studied war… all the time he did, reading and watching about it… all the time.”
Trisha lifted her hand while extending a finger to make an added point. “I studied him in my dreams and came to believe it was not by chance the boy acted so odd in the way he did things, thought things. Lowenah, I came to feel, had been dabbling with this boy, weaving his chemistry while in his mother’s belly. Over time I found that others were paying more than the usual attention to this child. Your Gabrielle has spent more than her share of time investigating him.”
Zadar nodded with understanding, rubbing his beard in thought, finally commenting, “Gabrielle has long been absorbed in the lives of your kind. She is not one to idly wile away the hours on trivial matters. Her attention given to the boy betrays his importance to us… at least in some way.”
Trisha agreed, “I came to feel so out of place, my seeing the boy and all of these important people in my visions, and my visions being so real. Eventually Lowenah told me that my visions were real, that my mind was being transport
ed to my old world and what I saw happening, even playing a part in, was really happening as I saw it.”
“These visions have carried on down to this day. I have spent many years watching him. Not more than a week ago, I visited the boy. Oh, he’s like most boys his age, and at times quite ill-behaved… sneaky, if you know what I mean. But something in him, I think a love for Lowenah, a kind that’s rare among his people, I think even among your own… I believe that’s what draws me to him.”
Trisha cast her eyes away, embarrassed. “I took to dreaming about him, as a man, I mean, seeing him and me together, loving each other. It became so bad that I found myself waking in heated sweats, my heart pounding for his touch, his embrace. He was so gentle, always so gentle, in my dreams, I mean.” She looked back at Zadar. “Whether it was real or not, I found myself falling in love with the man I hoped he’d become, have fallen in love. When I confessed this all to Lowenah, she smiled and went to chatting about other very unimportant matters.”
She looked up and into Zadar’s face, her eyes welling with tears. “It was only this morning that your mother, my Lord and God, revealed her secrets to me concerning this boy.”
Zadar could not contain himself, blurting out, “What did she tell you?!” He quickly apologized for his intrusive brashness.
Smiling, Trisha answered, “I intended to tell you the rest, and shall. You are so strange in many ways, so ancient and so youthful, old and young, man and child. Do you understand what I mean?”
He replied he believed so.
“Well…” Trisha began. “allow me, please, to first digress. I must take us back to the days when your sister, Mihai, visited my world as a man, grown in power, glory, and wisdom, being the greatest of all Yehowah’s prophets to men. Well, the world that Mihai was born into was ruled over by kings whose bloodlines were considered of greater worth for rulership than other abilities. For that matter, the man who dictated law over her mother’s nation was an illegitimate king, having no right to rule a toadstool let alone a divine nation.”
“Mihai’s birth mother and adoptive father were both in the bloodlines of those having the rightful rule of your mother’s earthly nation. Thus, through the trickery of your mother, Mihai, being born a male, and being the firstborn of that bloodline, possessed the right to be king over that people, and any future people of that nation.”
Zadar acknowledged, already being fully aware of those events, but what Trisha said next was surprising and chilling.
“There was trickery afoot long before that day, trickery that Asotos believed remained hidden from the eyes of Lowenah - but that was not really so. Long ago there was a woman, a Moabitess, already a Hormaxian full-blood child, her mother being a child of rape by that cult and then she - Ruth’s mother - herself, having produced Ruth by similar means. This woman, Ruth, the very person who became ancestress to Mary, Mihai’s birth mother, was, herself, impregnated by a man filled with Hormaxian blood.”
“For it was not Boaz who made Ruth pregnant with child but so-and-so who, through trickery, seducing Ruth into believing he had taken her as wife, took her and had relations with her and then, the following day, rejected her publicly in the city gate, when he realized that he was to produce a seed - a child through brother-in-law marriage for another man - and that he would not receive the landed inheritance he had expected.”
“Boaz, later learning of the matter, chose to remain silent and took Ruth’s child for his own, telling no one the reality. And so your mother, my God, she keeping the truth even from the prophets of that people, allowed Asotos to believe he had contaminated the bloodline of the promised seed that was to bring to ruin his rebellious world.”
Trisha slowly shook her head. “It was on a pretense that Asotos led the Babylonian wise men to king Herod, he wanting Lowenah to believe he truly desired to kill Mary’s son, thus hiding the fact that he was preparing the child to become his own agent to do his eventual bidding. It wasn’t until Asotos fully realized that Mary’s firstborn was not a child of the earth, but born from the heavens and was Mihai, herself, in a man’s form, that Asotos, in his anger, brought the child up to death before Pilate, he having no idea that his scheming ways were never secret to your mother, she using his treachery to her own advantage.”
“When Mihai, as a man, was murdered by Asotos’ agents, because she died having produced no heir, the right of kingly rulership passed on to Mary’s next oldest son, James. Thus, by law, Mihai lost the right of being king over the Second Realm.”
“What?!” Zadar’s excited voice carried a tone of confusion. “That’s not so! For all of Mihai’s brothers and sisters have been in wait of her kingly power, which she presented to us this eve, to remove forever wickedness and establish an everlasting kingdom.”
Trisha smiled to herself. So, the information she was privy to was secret to Lowenah’s children. She savored the moment, basking in the thought of being so favored by the Maker of all things. “My friend, it is true what I have said, but you must hear me out and listen to all of your mother’s riddling before you will understand the great deception she has heaped upon the Wicked One’s head. Now please pay attention.”
She patted Zadar’s hand, breaking into a toothy smile. “Tonight, Mihai received a legal kingship over a tribe, not over a nation. In doing this, your mother has given Mihai power and glory over her brothers and sisters, but she has not received the majesty of Firstborn, could not unless she changed the very nature of her being and returned to the likeness of her former flesh when in the Lower Realms. And even then she would have no right to claim an ancestral connection to Shiloh and his kingdom either, except… except for…” Trisha’s voice trailed away, she being reluctant to reveal further secrets.
Zadar refused to be put off... not now, not after all his tingling ears had so far discovered. “Sister! Now is not the time to play games with me. It is not fair on your part to string this fellow along to only leave him hanging high in the breeze. Be a good soldier and tell your brother the rest of you tale.”
Trisha replied, shocked, “You called me sister!” She thought about it for a moment, finally smiling. “Thank you. What I have to speak about is secret to all but your mother and… and a woman from my world who resides even now in the shadows of this one, for she is hidden from all but Lowenah and now me. Yes, from her very mouth has the truth about your sister, Mihai, and her adventures in my world been fully revealed. Even Gabrielle has no knowledge of this, Lowenah blinding the eyes of her children until the coming hour.”
“Please… er… my brother.” Trisha grinned, it feeling good to call someone by such a family name. “Mihai, born of flesh as a man, perfect in the flesh as a human man, born from the genetic makeup of her mother, allowed her, as a man, to legally repurchase the sons of Adam for the wickedness of that man, the first man. Still, it did not give her the right of kingly power over Abraham’s children or any other men. That must come through the bloodline of the seed, as promised by Gabrielle in the Garden so many ages ago.”
“James, Mihai’s younger brother in the flesh…you know James. He walks with us in these realms. Well, James received legal right to carry the line of kingship through his children and did so, his family’s bloodline mixing with that of mankind. Your mother… er, my mother…” Trisha grinned again. “Mother? …mother, whisking her seed away from Asotos so that he could never threaten it again. So, from James, will… has come Shiloh, the promised king. Well, almost…”
Zadar squirmed with impatience, Trisha laughing, delighted at seeing his childish antics. When he had settled down, she continued. “Mother was not satisfied with this. She wanted Mihai to have legal right to the throne of her brother, that is, if she really wanted it. To do that, Shiloh must also be of her legal descent, her human bloodline. Now here is where wisdom extraordinaire comes in, for nothing is impossible with Yehowah. Isn’t that the very reason for her children to gift that name upon her?”
Zadar nodded.
“Yes.” Trisha went on. “As I said, Shiloh must have Mihai’s blood, but how? Here is the truth, a secret told to me by the one who was carried along by spirit to become the very Sacred Secret of my God. You see, as I recall it being written by our friend, Paul, who spoke of Mihai in the flesh, saying that she… he… after he had been made perfect, became responsible for everlasting salvation. He, Mihai in her human, male flesh first needed to become like Adam, fully perfect.”
“Now Mihai, in the flesh of a man, but with the knowledge of her heavenly flesh, took, by the command of our mother, a woman of clay and celebrated with her the rite - just as Adam did with Eve in the Garden on the day the woman was brought to him - thus making Mihai complete…perfect… in the sense that she now fully understood the makeup and emotions of a man, thus making her a priest to all mankind. Here is where the promise given to Rahab in a dream became fulfilled. ‘The harlot will give a blessing to all mankind’.”
“So it was, the following day, when Mary, the sister of Lazarus, oiled the head of her Messiah, she, for her part, was celebrating the marriage of flesh between her and the man she anointed. This one final act, the manly act of taking a woman and sharing in her love is what made Mihai perfect in all ways, her womanly and manly qualities fulfilled to the full measure. But it did more, and that is what is the greatest of all secrets…”
“Shortly after the death of Mihai in the flesh of man, her younger brother, led by spirit, took Mary for a wife, he never knowing the reality of the matters. In due course, she bore him a daughter, she naming her ‘ShiloShani’, meaning ‘bloodline to peace’. But truly, the daughter – as Mother will attest to – was not Jude’s but Mihai’s from her manly flesh, something she does not yet know down to this day. Mother was responsible for this, using the girl’s bloodline to mix with James’ in order to give Mihai the legal right to being Firstborn.”
Zadar was completely taken aback, his head swirling with confusion and insight. He exclaimed, “Do you say that one of us, my kind, have children of flesh?!”
Trisha looked surprised, she never contemplating that only her kind made children and… and that Lowenah’s children had any real desires to produce their own. “Why… why yes, several are Mihai’s descendants, mostly women, because only from Mihai’s birthing mother did Lowenah take the genetics to make Mihai in the flesh. But what is most important is that Mother could now physically mix the blood of her most loved child with that of Shiloh’s ancestors, giving her an eternal gift and legal authority to take up the crown of the Firstborn.”
“And…” Trisha poked Zadar’s arm with her finger. “And this very day Mihai declined the crown, so this evening she legally became king not as Firstborn, but king over a new and different people, another tribe, so to speak. That tribe is of my kind.” She pointed toward herself. “There are many thousands like me, destined for immortality and incorruptibility. Some, like me, are already here, living in this world, some still reside in the worlds below, and others yet rest in the Field of the Minds. One day we shall all be gathered together in the last hour to unleash our vengeance upon the wicked Snake and bring to a finish all evil in a great final war.”
“By Mother handing over to Mihai the king’s Sword, she has given her daughter authority to rule over everything that will become Shiloh’s, at least as a great steward for him. Yet the common understanding is that Mihai is king over all things, Gabrielle, a most loved and trusted confederate, being the only one of Lowenah’s children knowing differently.”
Pausing, Trisha took a breath, sighing with satisfaction at having shared such a powerful secret, she hoping that Mother would understand. “You see, it is the coming great warrior, Shiloh, one yet to arrive here, who is the very person intended for the crown of Firstborn. Now that Mihai has rejected it, he stands next in line to possess it. He is the one who will sit Mother’s throne, ‘Yehowahboam’ – ‘the man who sits in the seat of God’. This is he, the very heir to that throne, this Shiloh, whom I have been watching these many years.”
A puzzled look crossed Zadar’s face, he blurting out, “Wait a minute! You were at the palace this morning, you told me so yourself, and Mihai… this I know… was at the palace later in the day…Darla and I returning her to her apartment later. So how is it that you know what she did regarding the crown?”
Trisha frowned, taking her fist and lightly tapping Zadar’s head with her knuckles. “Block of wood! Are all your kind this dense or are you, alone, made of marble-teak? I arrived only minutes after you left the palace, I being summoned back there. That’s the reason your pursuit of the new game hen was futile, at least until the late day luncheon when you attempted to impress me with your manly… boyish charms. You are quite a charmer when you’re on the hunt.”
Puffing his chest out and huffing in his manly pride, Zadar responded, “Well! At least your day didn’t turn out a complete waste, then.”
Fire erupted in Trisha’s eyes, they boring into Zadar’s as she leaned away. Zadar could not tell his fate, watching her double up a fist while preparing to strike him a blow. With a soft punch to his midriff, Trisha let out a laugh, a real, deep laugh, an act that was as surprising to her as it was to Zadar. In the freedom of the moment, she leaned close and kissed Zadar on the cheek, hugging his arm.
Nose to nose, Trisha looked up and into Zadar’s twinkling eyes. Laughter melted from her face followed by embarrassing shades of red that crept up to her ears. Releasing Zadar’s arm, she sat back while sliding away to a more respectable distance from the man, but her eyes continued to betray the woman’s inner feelings, she repeatedly glancing over at Zadar to see what his reaction was. It felt good to do something spontaneous and fun, especially with someone who allowed her those feelings. She sat silent for a long time, savoring those moments.
Finally, in the most authoritative voice she could muster, Trisha admonished, “Zadar please, no more clowning. The hour is late and I have more to tell.”
Zadar could feel Trisha’s body language and her continual glances belied her tenor. She was having a good time, relaxing in the company of a man, enjoying his presence, something, he believed, the woman had not done in many long years. It made him feel good to think he could do that, but at the same moment he puzzled about himself. Something stirred within him that he was not at all familiar with. So odd… Later! There were currently more important matters to discuss. Smiling, Zadar promised he would behave.
“Thank you.” Trisha returned his smile and then went on. “That right to kingship over a people and, in reality, the right of Firstborn, has passed on from father to son, along with a little mixing of Mihai’s blood from the daughters’ side, down to this very day, for two thousand years. And it was accomplished right under Asotos’ nose, why even with his help, and he never caught on.”
Zadar wrinkled up his face, wondering aloud, “How?”
“Easy!” Trisha exclaimed. “Like you and the others, your brother was searching a race of people to deliver the seed, the same race your kind paid way too much attention to even after your…our mother warned you, through Paul, that the seed was being delivered into the nations. But unlike you, Asotos continued to purge that race, which were even my distant kindred, bringing one pogrom after another in hopes of slaughtering them off. Down to this day he has sought their murder, hoping to thwart Mother’s ambition for a coming seed.”
Zadar began to ask another question. Trisha hushed him. “Please! Allow me a breath without you butting in. The children of Mihai’s half-brothers, James and Jude, all married outside their race, seeking gentiles of common mind and belief. From those of Roman stock to that of the Gauls, Franks, Celts and… and all the other wild and unfettered lovers of freedom and war that my world could conjure up. Even some from the Isle of Meric were chosen by Mother to add their gene stock to James’ lineage.”
“All the while, your brother is off butchering a people to
o foolish to realize that they no longer even have a kingly line to look to salvation for. Their own arrogance in thinking that their savior is yet to come has led to so much untimely destruction, Asotos believing them to still be chosen in some way.” Trisha laughed bitterly. “And he need look no farther than the end of his nose to find the real heir, the future king who will take his crown, glory and title. Not only is the heir under his nose, but the child is being guarded and protected by his very might and strength.”
Zadar exclaimed in question, “Why would Asotos want to protect Mother’s seed, especially when that seed will bring all that is his to a finish?! This I don’t understand at all!”
“Oh, that’s easy to explain.” Trisha grinned. “The fool is so full of himself he refuses to believe the obvious. Stick an onion under his nose and he will declare its sweet fragrance. Place a rose before him and he will cry out, because of the thorns, that he has been made a victim of an evil and wicked plot to destroy his house….that is, if the mood is upon him to do so. He thinks so much of his own wisdom he forgets that of others, just like your kind who search so deep so as to be blinded by the obvious.”
“Your wicked brother has tried to discover Mother’s secrets, especially concerning her kingdom and its day and hour. But Mother is not unaware of Asotos’ intentions, and his blind pride. She set up a people not so long ago… About the time of your own Great War, as you know, there was one raging in the Realms Below, too, whose leader of these people declared a period when this war was supposed to begin, and Mother helped that come about, doing so to trick your brother.”
“As time went on, Asotos began to believe that Mother was moving these people along by her spirit whereas, in reality, they were just bumbling their way along in their arrogant pride. But the ruse worked, to the point of Asotos delivering his own seed into those people’s company, eventually taking over the leadership of that brotherhood with his own chosen Hormaxian followers. After years of searching in the most intimate corners of that order, he could discover no specific person or group that appeared to be chosen or set aside for a special purpose.”
“To top it all off, after the Great War ended, those same leaders got so full of themselves that they screwed up every prophecy they interpreted, they aggrandizing their ignorance to the point of deifying their personal opinions while persecuting anyone with a different view. This was too much for Asotos, he not being able to understand how a chosen people could act so… so… stupid unless Mother wasn’t really helping them. Disgusted at feeling tricked, he abandoned his search there and returned to the original promised seed, reserving that order to serve him in other devious ways, one of which was to bring his own seed to full maturity.”
Zadar could not suppress asking, “But the seed still remains within that order, one abandoned by Mother? How can that be so?”
Trisha countered, “I did not say the order was abandoned. Even though many among its leaders have fallen into darkness long ago - their gentle, loving words and actions only covers for evil and wicked deeds - the common folk, those who give heart and soul to what they have been taught about our mother and her promises, they are good stock, worth our mother’s time and consideration. It is the common folk who influence the boy the most, persons of little wealth but having big hearts and a love for truth, which, sad to say, they get little enough of.”
“Anyway, despite the order’s leadership, Mother keeps sprinkling little truths into the garble distributed among the common folk, giving them more to digest than most of the poor souls in that retched realm. This also keeps them different from the other orders, odd you can say, what with all their proselytizing and refusing to celebrate and participate with other orders and groups in what most consider appropriate behavior. All this helps keep the boy in a constant state of confusion, his mind desiring one thing and his heart tearing at his soul to act differently. An odd duck is an easy thing to hide in plain sight.”
Zadar was truly intrigued, but he wondered, “Why the odd duck, now I mean? Why all the secrecy concerning the boy? The time must be close for his revealing, at least I’d think. And…and wouldn’t it be good for us to know so we could aid in his protection and guidance?”
Trisha shook her head. “Honest, caring people may make mistakes. The wrong word might prove disastrous. Also, any undue attention might make Asotos curious about the boy. That’s why I and the others have only visited him through the visions in our minds, so our presence wouldn’t be felt. But…but there’s even more important reasons to keep the child hidden.”
At that, Trisha stood, stretching her arms high as she tensed her body to squeeze out the tired blood from her muscles, making room for new, oxygen-rich blood to replace it.
Zadar studied the woman with rapt attention. Her sheer blouse did little other than shade Trisha’s olive-brown skin, so distinctive a color for people of her race, and the woman’s shapely form burst through her raiment like the sun on a cloudy morning. The man feasted on the moment with a growing passion and desire, dogged by a strange and disconcerting fear, one he had never before experienced, a fear that should he speak the wrong word or make a misguided gesture, the moment would be lost forever, his aching heart filled with lonely bitterness. What was wrong with his head?
Trisha turned and stepped in front of Zadar. She bent forward, resting her hands on his knees, her face only inches from his. “Well?” She asked. “What do you think?”
“Think?! About what?!” Zadar’s body erupted with emotion of a magnitude he had long forgotten existed. Even Gabrielle, on their first nights of loving, had not moved the man’s explosive ardor to greater heights than he was experiencing at this moment. He struggled with every fiber of his strength to keep his arms in check, they seeking to tear themselves from their shoulder sockets so that wanting hands could explore and fondle the boundless beauty presented to them. Beads of sweat formed on Zadar’s forehead as he fought with all his might to keep his eyes on hers and not stare at the two swaying spheres of sensual intoxication singing their hypnotic, impassioned lullaby.
Zadar forced his attention upon Trisha’s face, searching the woman’s eyes. Was she teasing him, flirting with his senses? No, the woman’s eyes betrayed the innocence of a little maiden. She did not see herself as beautiful, so how was it possible others did? Her question had been honest and not related to her appearance or romantic charms. There was more. He could see a sadness buried deep within those eyes, a loneliness sown by years of toil and grief, those scars still open and raw.
All these things Zadar found hiding behind Trisha’s obsidian orbs made his heart ache in a terrible and wonderful way, both beautiful and terrifying feelings tearing through him at the same moment. Trisha was special, precious - a rare treasure to be won or lost upon a breath, a word, or the tiniest misstep. Hard as granite mountains but fragile as the finest porcelain, that was this woman. The man shuddered with concern realizing how perilous the moment was. One false step and Trisha would turn away and walk out of his life, and that thought set a fire in Zadar’s heart so intense he nearly cried aloud.
Though his eyes continued to peer into Trisha’s, Zadar’s mind drifted into other worlds of thought. He wished he could make time stand still, the two of them frozen forever as they were, becoming statues eternally placed here for the whole world to see, to admire. Happy would he be to leave for the Forgotten Lands having shared but this one moment with this woman. A sigh of contentment secreted his mouth as he pondered what had become of his heart and why it so troubled him.
“Well?” Zadar was jolted back to reality by Trisha’s question. It took a moment to sink in. Shaking his head to clear the fog, he apologized, feigning some lame excuse for his actions. After mildly chiding him, Trisha asked, “I know the night has been long, and we could conclude matters another day, that is, if you wish, or…”
Zadar bolted upright, taking hold of Trisha’s arms as he did. “Oh! No! No! Please go o
n. Your were discussing… reasons… reasons for…”
“Reasons why the boy must remain hidden, at least for the moment, the most important of reasons...” Trisha looked into Zadar’s face, seeing his fleeting confusion slowly retreating. “Do you want me to tell you?”
“Please!” Zadar nearly shouted, catching himself before he did.
Trisha smiled, her own heart stirring with long-forgotten feelings. “Zadar, this war is a blood feud, a brother war. Feelings get all mixed up, are all mixed up, and few are the numbers of your kind who have been fully tested out to loyalty and trust for this cause. Indeed, Mother warned me to keep a wary eye out for possible traitors among us.”
Disbelief filled Zadar’s face, he blurting out, “Impossible! Impossible! It can’t be! Not now. Not since the Great War that…”
“That did nothing except get millions of your kind killed. Nothing...” Trisha shook her head. “The Great War was a travesty, solving nothing and accomplishing little other than giving your people a stay before the next and greater war - one that must now be fought as certainly as the Second Great War that was recently waged in the Realms Below. And, oh yes, treason did play a major role in your Great War. From the Day of Tears to the slaughter at Memphis, treasonous voices brought about ruin and devastation.”
Trisha stood, glancing at the bubbling waters, “Not all who allied themselves with your wicked brother have fallen into eternal darkness, not yet. This, our Mother did tell me. She said that a wicked act might not betray a wicked heart, for it is not the heart that tears life from the soul, but spirit that is born of the mind. A heart might well seduce the soul into wicked acts, but the mind must surrender fully to the machinations of the heart before the spirit will consume all hope and goodness, casting the soul into eternal darkness.”
She frowned. “Do I not repeat what you have long come to already know?”
Zadar agreed, adding, “True, but you have woven your words with an understanding found only among our most wise and exalted Ancients. Their clarity is beyond the peal of a bell on a crystal night.” He wrinkled up his face in question. “Why, then, do you trust me with such secrets…me, a stranger so newly introduced to you?”
Trisha thought a moment before answering. “There are many reasons, few tangible, most emotional. First and foremost, I have listened to your mother’s heart when she speaks about you. Oh yes, many have been the times when your name has drifted into our conversations, your mother being extremely fond of her youngest child. I feel her trust in you. I trust her feelings. And then there’s the sweet music, harmonics, I feel when I’m near you, the same as I felt when Darla stood close to me. Strange how such melodious refrains can come from hearts so torn and twisted by bloodshed and violence.”
“And… and I feel no discord when I’m around you. Oh yes, my friend, you have not hidden well your passion for my flesh. I can smell your desire for it.”
Zadar started to apologize. Trisha placed a finger on his lips, hushing him. “I did not speak of it in disdain, only in passing. Little do I yet know if and when I could accept such overt suggestions, but I believe them to be honest and filled with restraint, your heart seeking my good and not your own. I guess that’s also part of the reason I trust you. Few men from my world, even good and honest men, would have been able to control their manly passions had those passions been hurled upon them as yours were upon you. I am sorry. My actions were innocent, but still I should have been more careful, me knowing full well that you are not a god but only a man.”
Trisha stepped away, facing the little stream. “It is quite difficult for innocent persons to discern wicked discord in its early stages.” She faced Zadar. “My friend, neither you nor I are any longer innocent.”
“How so?” Zadar asked, he being more absorbed with her earlier statement.
Noticing, Trisha admonished him to pay closer attention to the moment. “You and I are so different than most I have met in this world. We become suspicious and wary when confronted with new situations. We question things when others see no reason to. My heart has been twisted by the old evil that still lives in my former world, and I believe you also have a heart twisted to those same harmonics. Though not evil ourselves, we feel evil in all its convoluted ways. I cannot hide those evil harmonics, it being one reason, I fear, for having acquired so few friends in this place.”
“You project the same harmonics, but the people like you, trust you, so they disregard the evil they feel, eventually forgetting it is there. And that’s the danger. Others carry similar evil vibrations within their own hearts, I think for more dubious reasons, but the people ignore them also, thus allowing the traitor easy access to the secrets hidden in their minds and hearts. I know this as fact, for I felt it tonight at the Council. Evil resides among us, the room echoing its warning, but none, not even Mihai will listen to their own hearts and accept its presence…that is, except for your poor sister, Darla.”
“What do you imply?” Zadar asked, confused.
“This…” Trisha waved her hand as she spoke. “Your harmonic fingerprint rang clear for me because of your close proximity to me and length of time I was given to study your scent so to speak. I felt the scent of others but could not trace them, they being smothered out by Darla’s, which is almost overpowering. Whatever evil resides within her is so grave and venomous, even a dullard can sense it, making many people think the woman is cracked, if you know what I mean.”
Zadar nodded.
Trisha sadly shook her head. “I don’t believe that to be the case. Darla is badly damaged, partly from the evil - I have heard some say demons - but also from the way she has been made to feel the outcast. The woman lives, I believe, a waking nightmare, constantly battling something within her mind that seeks her enslavement or destruction. Still, I feel a sweet music flowing through her, from her, and I see that those who also feel it, as you do, draw ever closer to her in strange and lasting bonds.”
She looked Zadar in the eyes. “I have been told that there exists a love-bond between her comrades at arms and herself, a bond of blood and loyalty. It is the leadership, the wise and Ancients among your kind who resist the woman’s advances for companionship. They treat her with polite disdain, grudgingly indulging her company – at Mother’s request, of course – while carefully avoiding the creature’s contaminating touch. Like a leper from my old world who is loved and hated she is, loved for pity’s sake, her siblings wishing to see no one suffer as she, and hated out of fear of contamination, that somehow they will catch their sister’s disease.”
Shaking her head in wonder, Trisha confessed, “I don’t understand your kind, so confusing they are to me. How can they consign a child to such emotional tribulation and still be the very sons who men like John and Abraham held in such esteem? Darla is a sweet, caring woman, she being willing to sacrifice her own life for anyone in that room tonight, even Ardon. I know her spirit that well, can feel it. I trust her with all my heart, the same as I find myself trusting you.”
Reaching out and taking Zadar’s hand, Trisha added, concerned, “There were other evils there this night, evils of malice and deceit, evils unrestrained by loving and caring hearts. Such malcontents can cloak their evil behind benevolent faces and kindly posturing while lying in wait to strike, like an adder on a shaded path. That, my friend, is why the secrets I have told you this eve must remain that… secrets. Should word of this boy leak out before the coming hour, all that Mother has worked for may be in jeopardy. It must remain our secret.”
Zadar was still full of questions. He was about to ask another when he saw Trisha yawn drowsily. She raised her hand. “Please, my friend, I feel the sands of sleep descending upon me. This has been a long and draining day for me on both my mind and heart. We will pick up our discussion at another hour.”
No sooner had her words been spoken than a sudden wave of exhaustion swept over her. Sitting to avoid stumbling and
possibly falling into the chill waters, Trisha let out a sigh, closing her eyes. “Dear one…” she offered groggily, “give me a moment and then we shall return to the Council.”
Drifting off to sleep, Trisha leaned into Zadar’s shoulder, snuggling her face against his chest. As the rhythm of the woman’s breathing turned into the melody of a sleeping song, Zadar wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her tight.
He smiled, pleased with the moment, no desire to return to the others, no desire to ever leave this place, never, not as long as this woman remained here. Never before in his long life did he the man feel as content and satisfied as he did now, and he wanted to savor this time for as long as possible.
The little stream bubbled and blurped along its merry way, its crystal clear waters eventually cascading into the blackness far below. Tirelessly, continuously, the tiny tempest sang its sweet, merry song to the tired sojourners sleeping upon the stone bench hiding in the shadows of the narrow draw.
‘Sleep on. Sleep on.
Tomorrow is soon enough to wake.
Sleep on. Sleep on.
Find peace in a troubled world.’
