* * *
Fearing a reuniting of friends if she returned to the Winter Gardens, a direct route to the Old Palace, Mihai rode the tramwaiter to a more distant exit, to the north and east of her destination. From there it was a mile’s walk to the Eastern Portal, the grand public entrance to the Old Palace, better known as the ‘Upper Palace’.
The path traversed a labyrinth of narrow streets and broadways, snaking through the artfully created mountains of tall, ornate buildings. Constructed during the Second Age, this new palace city, better known as the ‘Lower Palace’, eclipsed the Upper Palace from view, except for its central domed spire and the four guard towers at the corners of upper battlements. Few were the feet on the street this morning, the echo of Mihai’s footsteps often the only sound to be heard.
At the end of her walk through the city’s streets, Mihai entered a narrow, deep, tapering recess in the face of a high cliff. At a juncture where the two walls converged, she arrived at the Majestic - a wide, winding staircase inlaid in the diorite butte, crisscrossing its way up hundreds of feet to the palace proper. Each flight of hewn stairs ended in an immense grotto that spread out into a beautiful, enclosed balcony carved into the mountain itself. Giant windows had been cut from the outer wall, providing a breathtaking view for a pilgrim journeying to the palace.
Said to have been built by the Ones Who Came Before as a gift to the children of the First Age, these stairs, like the rest of the Upper Palace, never needed repair nor did they weather with the passage of time. The Ancients, many of the oldest children of the First Age, called this place ‘the Home of the Living Stones’.
A person needed to see this marvel of engineering to grasp the grandeur and beauty of the ‘Road to Heaven’, as it was often called. There were no visible construction marks, added building blocks or reinforcements, just one solid piece of finely polished obsidian, carved with intricate designs.
(Author’s note: I believe it worthy to mention here that the Upper Palace was named ‘Heaven’ by the oldest of the Ancients who first sojourned into the unknown beyond the outer walls. Out there, in the ‘Eres’, translated ‘Earth’ in our tongue, travelers had to fend for themselves or carry supplies enough with them for their journeys. The paved highway, beginning at the east wall and leading west toward what would later be called the ‘Majestic’, became known as the ‘road to Samayim’, translated ‘Heaven’ or ‘Heights’ in our tongue.
Both words, Eres and Samayim, are said to be phonetic pronunciations from the language of the Ones Who Came Before, as the oldest of the Ancients recalled from hearing the words spoken. Eres literally means ‘to go away from’, as in ‘going away from what is known’. Samayim has the understanding of ‘becoming satisfied’, as in ‘filled up with every good pleasure’.
So it was, when the first children of the First Age ventured into the wilderness, they spoke of going into the Eres. After a long and exhausting journey, often filled with sacrifice and privations, the Eastern Gate, where the paved highway began, meant they were close to the luxuries of home. Being on the road to Heaven symbolized being near one’s reward for having succeeded in accomplishing the return journey. Now the riches of home were no longer a dream or hope, but a reality.
As the children reached further into the wilderness, eventually leaving EdenEsonbar, the home planet, they carried the name ‘Eres’ with them to symbolize their going into the unknown. When the Second Realm or Second Universe was revealed to them as a place they would one day go, the name ‘Eres’ was given to it. Later, the sons of men on Earth were given that name for their home planet and, by the time of the Great Flood, were calling the land of the children’s dwelling place ‘Heaven’.)
Mihai remembered little more about this morning’s journey up the Majestic than the day so long ago when her companions carried her up these same steps. Those six millennia passed had not changed the sights, but she believed they would never impress her like they once did. Now these stairs were merely a conveyance used on her road to destiny, a means to an end. So little remained of the joy this world once basked in.
About one hundred fifty cubits above the Majestic’s threshold, the stairs made a sharp turn, tunneling into the butte as it rose toward the Upper Palace. It finally opened into a towering, vaulted chamber called ‘Raven’s End’. The chamber, like the Majestic, was built of polished obsidian, its finely chiseled pillars reaching thirty cubits to the shimmering black ceiling. Openings in the east wall allowed observers a panoramic view of the Lower Palace from twenty stories above the courtyard far below.
The sound of surging blood filled Mihai’s ears as she staggered up the last set of stairs before reaching the chamber. Her lungs ached, her heart pounding against her chest. Three times she had stopped on her ascent, a climb often jogged in her more carefree days. Wheezing, she stumbled forward, seeking a bench near one of the pillars.
After sitting, Mihai rested her head in her hands. A smell of hot, sticky sweat filled her nostrils, making her stomach churn even worse than her headache had managed to do. She needed to take her mind off her personal concerns. ‘Think girl, think!’
Looking around the empty expanse, she began to ponder its name. ‘Raven’s End? Raven’s End? Oh, yes! Now I remember. It was told me that when the world was new, when the Ancients were still little more than children, sojourners beyond the distant walls would take birds along with them to send messages back to the palace.’
She stared at the windows. All around them were hundreds of tiny nooks. ‘Pigeonholes! That’s what they are. They say that at one time this chamber harbored thousands of birds of all kinds.’
Mihai could see and hear the excitement of that time, multitudes of birds cooing and crying while others swooped to and fro through the air. What a sight it must have been!
Gentle footfall echoing across the empty expanse interrupted Mihai’s recollections of this place. She squinted, peering into the shadows. “Now who should be wandering out here at this time of day?” She muttered to herself.
Raven’s End was cavernous and dark, its only light during the day coming from the windows and open exits. The Majestic’s final staircase spiraled its way up the last sixty cubits to the Upper Palace’s outer courtyard from the far end of the vaulted chamber, it offering little light for Mihai to observe who was coming.
The one approaching spoke first. “Mihai! What a wonderful surprise! I had no idea I would be seeing you before tonight.” A woman of slight stature, medium build and delightful appearance materialized from the shadows, hurrying over, taking Mihai’s hands, leaning down, giving her a gentle kiss.
Mihai grinned, asking, “Trisha?!” Then glancing at the woman’s light blue uniform, puzzled aloud, “General Trisha?! I thought you were commanding Hunter’s Brigade on Pilneser. What brings you here, I mean, so far away from your duties?”
Still gripping Mihai’s hands, Trisha smiled. “Oh, my Lord, I have been a busy, busy person. I was called away from my duties on Pilneser some months ago, being given a temporary assignment in the Second Realm. Then, just three weeks ago, I was summoned to Palace City. Been here ever since, waiting for tonight’s council…”
Mihai puzzled. “Who ordered you away from your post? I saw no request come across my desk.”
Trisha’s answer was upbeat and cheerful, but revealed little, as did her facial expressions. Her eyes, though, could not lie, twinkling in a way a child’s does when hiding a secret. “My Lord, the day is young, and many a breeze must blow before its end. Rest assured, the powers that brought me here have also delivered my Lord to this same destination. The journey is long and may be dark, but the wind ever blows us home.”
Mihai attempted to pry more information from Trisha, but the woman said nothing, which was very much part of her nature. If she chose to speak, all well and good, but no known force existed that could make her confess a word if that was her disposition. Mihai surrendered to what little s
he had been told, marveling at the woman’s solid constitution, finally shaking her head. “You’re hopeless. Just plain hopeless.”
“Thank you!” Trisha replied, grinning. “I’ll take that as a compliment. Better to look like a fool, I say, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
Mihai returned a toothy smile, nodding. “There’s a lot to you, General. Your youth confuses and intrigues me. I see eyes filled with wonder and excitement, but you speak with the wisdom of our councilors. The powers that delivered you to my world are wise and discerning.” Her statement stirred memories of this woman in her mind.
Trisha was not a child of this realm. She had grown up during an age of violence, when old ways and beliefs were being challenged, and new religions were forcing themselves into the lives of people around her. She had refused to compromise her values and beliefs, making the woman an outcast among her people. But that was all gone now. By the time she awoke from the Field of the Minds, her memories were all that remained of the world of that day.
Mihai marveled at this woman’s strength and lasting integrity, when suddenly recalling that this was the woman she had observed from her secret realms during those long-ago years. Trisha had suffered much back then, from the death of children to abandonment by her husband, and so much more. Those experiences had hardened her. Her years here had not removed that hardness. How could it? Mere months after her arrival found Trisha at CoblinPort, helping in its defense against Stasis Pirates.
Standing and gripping Trisha’s upper arms, Mihai commented, “The storm-winds have swept your world all too often. Many people would have become bitter over their fate had they suffered such grief. How is it that you still carry such love and tenderness within you as I have many times seen displayed? You are always doing for others.”
There was little change in Trisha’s expressionas she softly replied, “My Lord, I am but a servant girl. You have lived from before the founding of my world. I have seen fewer than eighty summers, all filled with grief and despair. I think a starving man appreciates a dry crust of bread more than a king with a banquet of exotic dainties.” She shook her head. “I do not have pity for my life. Hours of grief have taught me to cherish moments of pleasure. My heart reaches out to your kind, for the children of this world have not yet learned to find delight in one lonely star on a dark stormy night. Your kind cannot yet see that these times of distress will become a treasure of great worth. In future days, you will pity the children born in times of peace.”
Trisha lowered her head, speaking as if to the floor. “I am but a babe newly birthed, surrounded by souls older than the oceans, yet I feel as ancient as the distant mountains.” Staring into Mihai’s eyes, she quietly pleaded, “Forgive me, my Lord, for I do what must be done. I have little more choice in the matter than a worm growing into a winter moth. What must come shall come.”
“What are you talking about?!” Mihai was disturbed over Trisha’s riddling comment. This woman did not speak idly. Few who knew her dared question her insight, which was equal to most and better than many, even some of the Ancients.
Sadness grew in Trisha’s eyes as she took Mihai’s hand. “You have not climbed heaven’s stairs for no reason, my Lord. There are those who see beyond your secrets who have also ascended them with you this morning. Listen, if you can, to their voices. Remember, please, within the walls of this fortress no harm can come to you…” Her voice became grave, “unless you permit it.” She added nothing more.
Pulling on Mihai’s hand, Trisha offered to walk with her. “Come, my Lord, allow me the honor to accompany you for a little while. Ysuah’s Ladder is best appreciated when a person walks it with a companion. I have heard it said that those who climb this stairway together share a vision as they walk. Will you permit me the pleasure of seeing if it is so?”
If a vision occurred as they climbed the stairs, neither woman could tell for a certainty, but Mihai spoke of a deep sense of peace she felt, and that her gloom dropped away as they rose toward the courtyard. She thanked Trisha for her company. “If there truly is a vision’s song in those stones, I shall save it for debate at a later time, but I do believe your presence has lifted my spirits. Thank you for accompanying me here.”
Trisha did a curtsy bow while lifting Mihai’s hand and softly kissing it. She smiled sadly. “My Lady of the Court and lord of this land, the pleasure has been mine. Should you ask for my companionship to the edge of eternity, my heart would cry out with gladness. May we always remember this passing morning as one recalls the joy of first love.”
There was no doubt in Mihai’s mind that Trisha was, and had been speaking in cryptic riddles. Her lilting words were beautiful, but their hidden message was one of pleading, singing out in her heart:
“Forgive please the pain I bring.
Remember my love and praise that I sing.
The hour soon comes, when the night I shall bring.
Remember please, this love song I sing.”
This woman hinted about things to come. Mihai believed the riddles came, not because Trisha wanted to hide things from her, but that the Maker of Riddles was busy about, doing things. Smiling, she nodded, “Your feet did not find me by chance. I detect the dabbling of One whose powers I do not understand. May I remember the wisdom hidden in your words. Thank you for being here to assist me.”
Again Trisha bowed. “May gentle winds deliver you to safe harbor. I will take my leave now, my Lord.” She looked around, observing, “A leisurely stroll through such beauty is medicine for the heart.” The two kissed softly on the lips, after which Trisha turned and hurried back down the stairs, disappearing into the shadows.
Mihai listened to the tap of Trisha’s feet echoing off the obsidian walls until the sounds drifted away. She drew in an intoxicating breath of the fresh morning air and stepped from the landing onto the rainbow-agate flagstone of the Palace’s terrace. Even though the shade of the tall eastern buildings still cast their shadow here, there was no mistaking the elegant design and exquisite beauty of this place. And this was only what the children called the ‘Outer Courtyard’.
As Mihai soaked in her surroundings of colossal jasper-marble walls and columns with finely engraved pictures and runes inlaid with precious metals and jewels, her thoughts returned to the days when she was a little girl, running naked over these very stones.
Mihai blinked in surprise as she suddenly found herself staring through the eyes of a wondering maiden, as a joyous world of long ago rose in greeting. There she stood, the carefree child, alone in a jungle of thousands of happy, partying adults reveling in merriment and celebration.
This way and that she ran, poking her face into this group of merry-makers and then another. Often, she would be scooped up by some burly giant who might toss her high above his head or wrap his arms around her and rub his curly beard on her naked belly. She’d squeal in laughter and cry to be let down. Off she’d run to assault another group lost in noisy conversation, hoping for more of the same.
Round and round the terrace the child would run, halting at the base of each corner battlement, planning her next assault. She would crouch behind the tower and, pressing her body against its blue marble surface, cautiously peek out in search of coming victims of her attacks. Spying a hapless foe, off she’d charge. One after another, they fell before her aggressive intrusions until she reached the far tower, a furlong’s distance away. There she would repeat her offensive, first spying out the land in search of other hapless targets.
Off she’d go, popping under the cool of the slate-roofed breezeways and then into the open, under the bright blue sky. The ruckus and cries her intrusions created made the girl giggle with delight. After covering that section of terrace, the girl would begin anew. Round and round the child would go until, tired and satisfied, she would curl up in some giant’s arms and drift off to sleep.
Mihai blinked. The vision was gone, yet the
silent grandeur of this place was still unchanged. Indeed, all was still the same as it had been those many days before, all except…except for the people, always crowds of people. Before the darkness of the Third Age, the Upper Palace was the center of the universe for socialites. There was always something going on. Winter, summer, day or night, this was the place to be.
As a young woman, newly come of age, Mihai remembered one of the Ancients, PalaHar, comment, “My dear one, should you stand near these stairs long enough, every soul in the universe will pass your way.”
Mihai waxed melancholy, smiling sadly. She wondered if PalaHar might be at the evening’s council. After all, he was one of the great councilors, ranked among the twelve older men. It would be so good to see him again, considering the many years since their last meeting. The woman turned to take a fleeting glance back toward Ysuah’s Ladder, half expecting to see PalaHar’s shadow dancing up them. But, no, only the echo of memories passed greeted her.
Glancing up at Gradian’s Laqah‘Et, Mihai sighed. She had hurried to get here, not wishing to be late for her appointment, only to see the hour was still early. Staring again at the giant clock, the woman pondered her own insignificance. It was said by the Ancients that a great Cherub, Gradian, built this colossus of a timepiece in honor of the first child born in this realm.
Floating high above the southern battlement, observers saw a miniature of the fourteen planets of this star system as they whirled about in their orbits. As the instrument zipped along, spinning at the rate of a day for a year, in comparison to real time, the hour and minutes would magically chime in the peoples’ ears.
When Mihai was but a child, she had asked her mother why the clock was called ‘Laqah‘Et’. Bending low, her mother picked up a handful of sand from one of the many rock gardens gracing the Upper Palace, smiling, letting the sand sift through her fingers. ‘Time, my Dear, is fleeting at best, even for those with never-ending life. The word ‘Laqah‘Et’ tells us to ‘take hold of time so it is not wasted’.’ She poked Mihai’s button nose. ‘There is never enough time for a person with a purpose…even for an immortal.’
Mihai recalled her mother sweeping her arm through the air as she explained time in words a child might understand. ‘We are forever chasing the seasons… that is, unless we forget time. Then the seasons are always chasing us. Forever we run to stay ahead, or to catch up. The sun blinds our eyes at its morning’s rise, shouting at us to ‘Wake, foolish one! Do not squander the hour.’ But all too quickly the moon creeps above the hills, calling, ‘To bed! To bed! Sleep for the morn.’’
Her mother’s final words struck a chord deep within Mihai’s heart as she stared upward at the clock. ‘Time goes ever forward. Like a leopard on the chase, it will not falter or become distracted. You must remember that once you have given an act or a word to time, it shall brutally betray you for all the ages to come. What a person speaks in secret, time will broadcast to the universe. How will time judge you? Only you can decide that fate.’
Sighing in disappointment, Mihai cast her gaze down, shaking her head, muttering, “I’ve chosen the Road to Heaven to escape a duty I wish not to bear. Shall time call me wise, or will it declare me a shirker and coward for not living up to what was expected of me?”
Mihai’s face reddened with anger and she snorted, “Time be damned! You are no friend of mine! To me, you chide, ‘Oh, foolish one, how long do you dream of your innocence? And yet, I have stolen it away and there is no returning to it. Long will you wish for what you cannot have and your tears will mean nothing to me. Go! Be off from me, for you deserve nothing at all!’”
No wine can make merry a bitter heart, nor lilting songs bring joy to a maiden betrayed. Also, with Mihai, no amount of splendor could lift her gloom. And in this place, constructed by legend’s Immortals, in an age before ages, splendor was bountiful. Still shaking her head, Mihai began to wander the outer courtyard, contemplating the coming hour.
To the woman’s left rose a high battlement that separated the inner and outer courtyards. Where these walls adjoined, a slender tower, inlaid with onyx and chrysolite, reached hundreds of cubits into the sky. From the tops of these towers one could see over seventy leagues, as far as the giant snow-covered peaks of the Kaissal Mountain Range.
Just below the towers’ crowns, doors opened onto causeways that connected to each of the four towers. Like spidery webs, they grew from the spires’ sides, reaching ever outward, until gracefully gathering their wings to a like-searching web. Mihai had only once traversed those causeways, in the days of her servitude, after her coming of age. The man to whom she was given had allowed her entry there, to show her his kingdom.
Mihai glanced up at the walkway, so high above the courtyard. She could not help but remember the grand, spectacular view as seen through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old girl. It had been a day anxiously awaited, to be walking with the most ancient of her people, a man whose very birth began the First Age. Try as she might to ignore that day of innocence, now so long ago, her master’s tales of the palace’s history echoed in the woman’s mind. How well she remembered the things he told her.
Standing proud and majestic, Chrusion began, waving his arm to and fro as he revealed history’s past. ‘This is the oldest of all known structures in our universe. The Cherubs, themselves, revealed to me the hour of its very creation. All alone, upon this butte it sat, with only the sound of a dry, lifeless wind to keep it company.’
Chrusion stared down, beyond Lower Palace City, and out toward the distant wall that enclosed the district. ‘Eventually, for many leagues in every direction, the hills were flattened, preparing for the construction of the impressive marbled wall.’ He paused to reflect. ‘When I was a child, there existed six other enclosures beyond the wall, similar in design but smaller in stature. These were later removed when I felt need to have more farmland for my growing brotherhood.’
Sweeping his hand high above his head, Mihai’s mentor went on. ‘When finished with the wall, the Cherubs covered the entire district with a colossal dome that could become as transparent as clear crystal or as opaque as the black obsidian inlays in the courtyard towers. Inside the confines of this secluded world, monumental experiments were carried on in which every concept of life form was toyed with. From the tiniest of ants to the largest of sea monsters, all first saw life here.’
Chrusion drew Mihai close and began tenderly caressing her body, exciting new and still strange emotions within the child. He kissed her on the forehead, patting her long golden locks like one does a handsome dog. When he tired, he again took up his account. ‘Ocean-like waves once crashed upon what we now call the ‘Outer Courtyard’ and, after the waters dried up, arid deserts took over the lands between the palace and the walls.’
Chrusion nodded. ‘Yes, my mint of spicy delight, from jungles to swamps, to deserts and forest, even to the tundra of the frozen northlands, it has been told me by the Cherubs that all such things existed here first.’
Long did Chrusion stand there, telling Mihai tales of ages past. As they walked along what he called his ‘crown’, the man went on about his many deeds, from first exploring the then wild lands beyond the wall to the days he and his brothers first took to flight beyond the home planet, EdenEsonbar.
Mihai well remembered the man’s sensuous kisses as they hid in the shadows of the southwest tower. Just when her passions were crying out for love, a voice fell upon the child’s ears, calling for Chrusion. Anna innocently stepped from the landing, seeking an audience concerning a very important matter. She was an Ancient, ‘Consort Divine’ and ‘Maiden of Song’ at the festivals.
Going to her, Chrusion and Anna spent several minutes in quiet conversation, it concluding with Chrusion excusing himself and leaving Mihai to find her own way down through the tower to the courtyard below. It would be many lonely nights before her owner would find the time for escape, so that her desires might become
satisfied.
Mihai snorted in disgust. She drove away those memories by concentrating on the wonders of the Outer Courtyard itself. It was a place she usually found both peculiarly strange as well as fascinating. The walkway was some forty long cubits in width, filled with a scattering of rock gardens, ornamental pools, and raised terraces. Their very lack of symmetry betrayed them as an afterthought, suggesting a more utilitarian purpose in the Outer Courtyard’s design.
In a dark and cruel world, it becomes such a strong desire to return to more pleasant days. For Mihai, her childhood hours were enjoyable. It was so easy for her to escape these current times and wander yesterday’s paths. Mihai closed her eyes, trying to remember this place when she was still a maiden.
Soon her mind heard the soft pat of bare feet on the cool stones. They were those of Terey, one of her mentors. As the two walked together, Terey took Mihai’s hand and, pointing with her other, directed the girl’s attention toward some of the courtyard’s wonders.
She went on to tell Mihai, ‘When I was a little girl, this was not a safe place for a child to play. Giant machines in various states of disrepair littered what is now the courtyard, and long cables lay curled up, or hung limply from tall derricks into deep caverns below. It wasn’t pretty here, like it is now.” She winked, “I wasn’t a good little girl. Since this was such a dangerous place to be, it was also the most fun place for a naughty child to play.”
Mihai nodded, smiling, as she recalled that interchange so long ago. While still a youngster she, too, had been a naughty child, extensively exploring the still hidden and abandoned lower chambers in the palace complex. She had discovered viaducts plunging deep into the bowels of the earth. Huge hewn halls, hidden in the lower cellars, once housed large machines, maybe pumps or bellows, which were now little more than unrecognizable piles of rust and corrosion.
She discovered other cathedral-sized chambers that appeared to have once been used as corrals or aquariums. Openings in some of these rooms tunneled back and down for miles. Mihai recalled struggling her way for many hours along one tunnel that was some four cubits high and three wide. The child eventually came to a fathomless, black abyss when, after pitching a stone into the darkness, she had counted to twelve before hearing a distant splash.
The woman smiled to herself as she recalled the sound tongue-lashing given her by one of the older children, Medeba, warning her never to go a wandering off alone again, ‘or else!’ Then, after sending the child off to bed early, she came in to ask the girl about her adventure. With twinkling eyes, she listened to Mihai’s adventure unfold. Thinking about it now, Mihai concluded that there must have been many, many naughty children throughout the ages of this realm.
Chimes echoed from the peaks of the four battlements as Gradian’s Clock drummed out the eleventh hour. Mihai cursed under her breath, “Does the old sorcerer wish the raise the dead before their day?! Or is his dream only to make all living souls deaf?!” Off she went in a huff, seeing that she would now be late for her appointment.
Shaking her head in disgust, Mihai hurried toward a set of double doors hidden deep in the shadows of the outer wall, holding up her left hand, pointing it toward the sealed opening. The ring on her finger sent a tingling wave of heat up her arm and into her head as words that she did not even understand rushed from the woman’s mouth. “Karak Contie Kontendee!”
The doors groaned as if now fighting against ages of neglected use. ‘Crack!’ Springing outward, their sudden opening stirred up a cloud of ancient dust rushing out to greet Mihai. Waving her hand in a futile attempt to fan away the choking cloud, she lowered her head and entered the musty blackness. The woman hurried away, paying no heed to the doors silently closing behind her, but the hot pulsing on her finger she could not ignore.
It troubled Mihai to think that she wore the one very special ring that could open this gate as well as other certain entrances sequestered within the Upper Palace. She mumbled, quoting her mother, “Only the Smaragdos, (lit. – emerald, translated:‘ Son of God’ or ‘Firstborn’) can reveal the secrets hidden within these walls. And only has one person ever been given it as a possession.”
Mihai looked down at her hand, the pulsing glow fading in the darkness, sourly sputtering, “And now I am only the second to carry this dreadful thing!”
A wistful sadness swept the woman as she recalled the first ring her finger claimed. It was made of shiny black onyx and simply designed, with no markings. ‘Teknion, the little child’, was its name, and she had received it the day of her coming of age. Her mother had told her that very day, ‘No longer does my little girl run without restraint upon this temple mount, for she has become a woman this day. To you it is granted the secrets Teknion allows.’
She kissed her daughter on the forehead and then went on to describe the many other kinds of rings, including the one previously mentioned. ‘Many are the rings my children have been gifted with and more varied still are the powers they give to each wearer. Yours is simple, to teach you the secret of the rings. One day, when you have grown in wisdom, you shall be gifted another, and still others will come to you… if you become truly wise.’
She took her daughter’s hand. ‘There are brown, red, gray, and even green onyx rings. And then there are rings of gold, silver, and ruby-jade, to name a few. Each has its own living power, that can guide your paths to success, but only if you listen to its music. These rings are my personal gift to my children, so that they may never be found truly alone…’ She paused in thought before finishing, sadness filling her eyes. ‘…and become lonely.’
Mihai was much older before she learned the true magic of the rings. The child’s curiosity and insatiable thirst for knowledge, even at risk to life and limb, did not wane after her years blurred into ages. Along with many of her kindred, she eventually became absorbed with what was known at that time as the study of EbenCeruboam, literally meaning, ‘The Cherubs’ Greatest Stone’. It was an amalgam of the sciences of what we today call physics, mathematics, mechanics, and harmonics, in conjunction with psycho-anatomy.
Through experimentation, mentoring, and extensive research, Mihai gradually came to a limited understanding of the basic building blocks or stones of the physical universe and their connection with all living bodies. The keys to life and sense were simple in number, but beyond comprehension in scope.
Her quest for wisdom eventually delivered her to the doorsteps of one JabethHull, a true eccentric, still unchanged from the beginning days of the First Age. Named after one of the mythical sorcerers, the Cherubs, he was wild and controversial, a loner with the patience of a thunderstorm, but one of the most knowledgeable scientists of that day regarding EbenCeruboam. Why he ever put up with a chatty, spoiled and often very opinionated know-it-all, Mihai never was able to understand.
For six hundred years, she journeyed with JabethHull and his ‘one true companion’ – his reference to NhosetHebel - beyond the edges of the universe, the uncharted territories of that day. Needless to say, Mihai learned patience while in company with Jabeth. His moods would range all the way from casually ignoring her existence to outright resentment for permitting this creature’s invasion into his private world. It took Mihai many years to understand that Jabeth and Nhoset talked mostly through their minds. Mihai’s constant gabbing was often an intrusion into the couple’s conversations.
But Jabeth’s rare moments of genuine cordiality were worth all the waiting as far as Mihai was concerned. He could also be very affectionate, caring for all of Mihai’s needs on their long sojourn through the lonely voids of space. But it was Nhoset who could put succinctly the lengthy explanations of her companion, Jabeth. That woman’s simple interpretations of EbenCeruboam law stuck in Mihai’s mind to this day.
So typical of her teaching style was an evening on some unknown planet where they had surfaced to make needed repairs to their ship. Nhoset and Mihai were gathering wood to make a fire w
hen she took the girl’s hand and sat down by a bubbling stream. The woman began to play with Mihai’s opened palm, gently rubbing it with her fingers.
Staring off into the gathering darkness, Nhoset started to softly croon, ‘My little darling of sweet repose, do you feel love when the southern wind blows soft, and does your soul become lonely on a dark winter night? Have you ever wondered why you turn to spy the tree just before the limb falls from it? Or have you pondered the reason your lover is able to finish the sentence you have started?’
She turned to search Mihai’s face. ‘You see me only after the reflected light from my face has reached your eyes and you hear my voice only after the disturbed air has reached your ears, but all these things are mere effects created by unseen causes. I speak because I think. You hear because you think. We think because we are alive. We live because the hidden universe surrounding us does not rest.’
‘You see the moon above us and say it hangs upon nothing, and you are correct to say it is so. Yet it does not hang upon nothing, but is cradled within the swaddling bands of a very powerful living force that dictates its destiny. It is this force that gives us life and breath, for without it there would be nothing mortal at all. For one must be immortal to reach beyond the web that swaddles us all, and it belongs to the Immortals to keep it safe.’
Mihai spoke openly her confusion of the discussion.
Smiling, Nhoset continued, ‘The Web of the Universe is made up of countless harmonic particles, each with an intelligence of sorts that think and react. Into them has been planted all the building blocks that keep our universe alive. We have come to call those building blocks ‘laws’ or ‘Cherubs’ Stones’.’
Nhoset looked down at the leaves fallen to the ground. ‘Left to themselves, these… these particles…’ Glancing into the night breeze as she searched for a word to define the particles, the woman noticed a cluster of tiny insects tumbling about in their never-ending search for a moist home to lay fertile eggs. ‘These midges, you might say, would all come to rest and nothing would ever again move.’ She lifted a hand and snapped her fingers. ‘But the Immortals do not permit that happening.’
‘Energy, my dear one, energy! That is the secret of the universe that is so little understood. It is so common, we think, yet it is so elusive. Energy is the catalyst of heat and light, and movement requires energy, but,’ She made a fist. ‘if I could squeeze out the space from the energy found in this entire universe, I would be able to hold all the energy within my hand.’
‘Midges are cold by nature. They are lazy, sleepy little fellows who would rather snooze the time away. They become very upset when energy touches them and desperately try to push it away. One very small speck of energy can ignite a flurry of activity amongst the midges, which effects can be felt for long distances away. The heat you feel on your skin on a bright summer day does not come from the sun. It is the result of the midges angrily reacting to energy welling up within the star.’
‘Unlike a star that discharges energy through nuclear-chemical processes that yet remain hidden in secrecy, living matter such as plants, animals, and even we, ourselves, gathers energy. All the time, the midges are resisting living organisms. That is why plants and animals die. And we would, too, if Mother had not placed in us an undying mind. But that is information worthy of another discussion.’
Nhoset went on at length explaining how all matter is stored up energy and that the midges were constantly at work, attempting to escape from it by passing it on to other midges. ‘The crumbling of a granite boulder is the reaction of the midges and energy. The boulder can gather very little energy, so it loses it at a faster rate than it can gather it. As the rock turns to dust, the midges begin to quiet, for the closer to its basic atomic structure that matter becomes, the less energy it possesses. A piece of dust can store very little energy within itself.’
Laughing, Nhoset added, ‘It is the very desire of the midges to chase away energy from themselves that gives us gravity. The stronger ones push energy onto the weaker who are already burdened down with too much of it, weakening them still further. As the number of energy-laden midges increases, they become a repository for even more energy that the other midges are throwing off. This process continues until the weakened midges become powerless to resist the continual onslaught. At this stage, we say the midges are now in a dormant state.’
‘The process where the midges seek to throw off energy now reverses. In an effort to dispel that ever-growing field of energy, they reach out to gather even more, attempting to create an overload where this energy, itself, will become unstable and dissipate, usually in a very violent, reactionary way.’
She smiled, pointing in the direction of the ship. ‘Our ability to understand this principle helped the children develop the powerful engines that drive us across the universe.’
‘It is this dormancy within the midges, when they are no longer fighting with the energy, that creates what we call gravity. So, as you have already come to learn that magnetism is caused by a reaction between energy and the Web of the Universe, you can now see that gravity is just another reaction between these same two elements.’
Lifting the child’s hand, Nhoset toyed with NithStar, the ring Mihai possessed at that time of her life. “Sweet Lilly, golden flower of mist imbued, the heart of a woman-child is filled with passion, but it is the power of the midges that makes it explode in one’s lovemaking. Your mind is who you truly are. It is your soul and all that is in it. But you cannot feel a thing in this world without the midges, for the midges move the energy that creates your feelings.’
‘The thought processes of your mind trigger energy reactions in your brain, troubling the midges within their sphere of influence. Your thinking processes create various angles of energy. These various angles cause the midges to react in different ways. Some of their reactions feel good to us, while others feel bad. Through personality development, you have learned to adapt and change the angles of energy released from your brain, changing the way the midges cause you to feel.’
Nhoset softly caressed Mihai’s lower thigh, her fingers ever so lightly touching the tiny hairs on the girl’s skin. Mihai groaned in delight.
‘There!’ Nhoset slapped Mihai’s leg. ‘Your brain is sending a signal to the midges that makes them react in a way that brings you pleasure. But if you had thought a spider was creating those very same sensations, what would you have felt? The same pleasure…?’
Mihai frowned. Just the idea of a spider crawling along her leg troubled her, she having long remembered the nasty bite from one when she was little more than a babe.
‘See!’ Nhoset wagged her finger. ‘The angle of energy you send to the midges is very important as to how they will make you feel.’
Then Nhoset gave warning to Mihai, a warning she regretted not giving greater heed to. ‘Do not be seduced by sweet words that you hear come from the mouth, and do not become beguiled over an entrancing eye or sensuous touch. These are but the reactions of the midges upon your heart as you wish to interpret them. Learn to use your powers of reasoning that can see beyond the reactive creations of this universe and into the very depth of the mind as it drives the brain to speak.’
Again drawing Mihai’s attention to NithStar, Nhoset cautioned, ‘This ring will never lie, but you must learn to read it properly and must come to trust it. It may well speak bad to you when your heart seeks to hear only good. You see, NithStar enhances your ability to feel and even see the harmonics - the angles of energy - around you. It will help you peer into the mind of those drawing close to you. This ring will give you insight and wisdom, but you must choose to use that insight.’
(For a lengthy, in-depth explanation of the rings given to the children, the book, The Ostrich Never Flies, by NhosetHebel is a must- read.)
Leaning over, Nhoset kissed Mihai every so softly on the lips as her fingers wandered across the woman’s skin. She finally sat ba
ck and then stood. ‘Let us deliver our wood and then I shall prepare the meal. Tonight I will teach you about other matters that press upon your heart.’
Recalling that night, and many others while in the company of these two Ancients brought a smile to Mihai’s face.
In an instant, her smile vanished. JabethHull and NhosetHebel died in the First Megiddo War, innocent victims of the confusion of battle. Their smoky-gray ship, Aeriona, was mistaken for the enemy as it glided through what are now called the ‘Kalahnit Straits’. It was only later, when the crew of the howker, GyHook, explored the debris field, the sad truth was realized.
Mihai shook her head. “At least they didn’t suffer!” She pushed the memory from her mind and hurried on toward her own hidden destiny.
Making her way along a labyrinth of dimly lit corridors interrupted by dark tunnels opening into voids long silent from disuse, Mihai finally came to another set of hewn stone steps leading up to a musty antechamber, exiting onto a great hall. With a loud ‘clack!’ and some effort, she pushed back the rusted tumblers, releasing the locked door.
Stale air rushed in as the door finally yielded to Mihai’s determined push, the breeze whipping up a cloud of ancient dust from the great hall’s floor. Sunlight streamed in from hidden windows high above illuminated tiny particles swirling in the air, limiting her view, but Mihai remembered well the majesty veiled. Few had been the steps upon these marble floors during this current age. Little had changed in this room since the hour of violence had been heralded here.
Mihai exited the anteroom, seeking the double doors at the far end of the hall. She quietly walked past banquet dishes filled with ashes of the last feast held here. Breads and pastries not eaten or carried off by hungry mice littered tables abandoned by the merrymakers when news of the Rebellion reached their ears. Everything remained as it was that day, some six millennia ago. No one had ever returned long enough to exorcise the anguished memories still haunting this place.
Looking to her left, Mihai spied the clear obsidian ballroom floor. Long ago there were lights buried deep within the stone. When lit, those standing there would appear to be floating in a multicolored sky of brilliant hues, their feet suspended as though upon nothing. It was said that Mother stood on it when the children heard her scream in pain, clutch her head and collapse to the floor. For days she did not stir from the bed she was carried to, not even giving forth a breath.
Mihai hurried on, trying to fill her mind with more pleasant thoughts, but it was a futile attempt. Her steps brought the woman past the head table, a place of honor set up by the host of hosts for special guests. It was Mihai’s place of honor that day, her decaying shawl still draped across a chair where she had cast it when her kingly host whisked her away to share with her his special gift prepared for her on her very special day.
Mihai spewed a torrent of foul oaths better left to the imagination, storming off toward the exit. Before the Rebellion, expletives were rarely if ever used, but now it was quite common. Like some kind of a pressure valve, the very fragrance of coloured language seemed to ease the stress a person was under. Although used by her only on occasion, Mihai was willing to unleash her share when conditions were ripe for it.
After bursting through doors that screeched as if in agony, Mihai stormed along a darkened corridor and then another, kicking up clouds of dust that swirled around behind her. At long last she came to a spiral staircase, its steps descending deep into the bowels of the palace, and also ascending all the way to the most secluded of all enclaves, the Inner Chambers. Without hesitating, she bounded up the stairs.
The air seemed to freshen as Mihai climbed, leaving the world of darkness behind her. She now carried the ring representing the palatine powers granted her, but this was the first time she had journeyed uninvited into that realm belonging to the Firstborn. Indeed, it appeared to her that she was the only one who had braved the evil that had long remained hidden there.
“It is my right!” She cried. “My right…! I will decide the fate of this place from now on!”
The mouth may shout brave words while the heart quails in trepidation. So with Mihai… She felt sick to her stomach, secretly wishing to never visit herself upon that sanctum again. But it was now her right. In reality, it was her obligation, she believed, one that she had put off for close to two millennia. Destiny would no longer be denied. Every step she climbed brought Mihai closer to its ending hour.
The realm of the Firstborn encompassed a large portion of the Upper Palace. Originally this area consisted of a few rooms that overlooked an immense garden courtyard hidden from all eyes outside the Inner Chamber. Over time, Chrusion expanded his domain to include a much larger portion of the Upper Palace. When he had managed to obtain all the space Mother permitted of the Inner Chamber, he reached out and down within the old palace, eventually mining huge excavations in the diorite butte.
Banquet halls, guest rooms, studies, laboratories, game rooms and more were multiplied seemingly beyond number. If the fancy struck him, Chrusion might build a second or even third or fourth chamber for the same purpose, each more extravagant than the one before. Few of the children, including Mihai, had ever seen his entire lair, it being a labyrinth of countless rooms and passages. No one entered his world without his permission. Even Mother kept her distance, unless invited. And Chrusion protected his domain with a jealous passion.
Mihai cringed at the thought of exploring this inner sanctum of despair, but there was nothing else for it. The world that Chrusion created before the Rebellion was now as much a part of the universe as those creations of Mihai’s mother. As she had once told her, ‘One turning evil does not negate all the work done before the evil arrives. Indeed, many evil men have created great works that I will not bring to ruin just because the ones building them were wicked.’
As she neared the top landing of the staircase, Mihai pondered the reason she had chosen this trail of despair. Not to save time, as she had excused earlier. If anything, it might well have consumed more of it but, then, why?
At that moment she felt it, the nagging in her heart. It was as if something - or someone - put it in her to search out the past. Was it important in helping her define her future? Destiny was calling her ever forward, yet coming decisions - she knew not which - would force the woman to stare into the past, for wisdom is a gift earned, not given.
Passing up the final section of the staircase, Mihai entered another antechamber. Stepping onto the landing, she looked around the brightly lit room.
To this side and that were several doors, all secured with Cherub locks. There were no rings made with the power to open these doors. It was said that to each is the ability given or denied. Most of the doors had remained ever locked, Mihai knowing of no child using them.
She remembered, as a little girl, being caught in the attempt of struggling to pry one open. With twinkling emerald green eyes and a loving grin, Mother had picked up the curious child, shaking her head. ‘Not today, little one, not today… someday… yes… maybe someday.’
To her left, Mihai spied another door. Above it were inscribed the words, ‘CherbadrecDieukEdon’ – Eden’s Path. This was a once secret door known only to a few of Mother’s children. Mihai had known, for sure, of only two people who had ever taken it. It now led nowhere, Tolohe having destroyed the passage on her return. Mihai shook her head, wishing to drive the memories of that day from her mind.
Directly in front of the landing was a locked doorway that opened to the main corridor leading to the EhpriemEtSamayim – ‘Heaven’s Door’, ‘Journey’s End’, ‘The Lord’s Manor’ - at least those were the different interpretations for the word given to Mihai over the ages. There were probably more. Which if any were correct, the woman did not know. For her, this day, it was the end of her journey… or was it the beginning?
Calling out, again using the power of the ring, Mihai ordered the door open. She stepped into t
he cool serenity of the long corridor.
To call this place a corridor was the same as calling the Majestic a staircase. The vaulted sky-blue ceiling was some thirty long cubits high and its width some forty. Furniture of emerald and jade, inlaid with gold, sapphires and chrysolite complemented a holographic menagerie covering the walls. As one walked along, it appeared as if an entire jungle full of strange and exotic creatures journeyed with them toward their final destiny. Mihai never tired of this adventure.
Opened were the doors exiting the corridor. Mihai was expected. She passed beyond the reception hall and along a passageway that led to an opened portico, giving her a glimpse of the hidden courtyard and gardens within. She stood on tiptoes to get a better view.
Here was the one place in the universe unaffected by the Rebellion. The breathtaking plants and creatures cloistered within those walls cared not for the world outside. Not only were they beautiful beyond description, pleasing the eye and lifting the heart, the garden had the power to hold back the ever-present darkness that covered this universe. In some way, Mother had created a world of living harmonics that no form of evil discord could penetrate. Truly, this was the most tranquil place in the universe.
Suddenly, with a rush, a cool, refreshing storm raced through Mihai’s back. It surrounded her heart in a spinning vortex of energy that pulled away all trepidation and fear. Mihai’s nauseous sickness faded away while an overpowering sense of peace filled her chest. For but a breath, her head spun into a fuzzy darkness of glowing tingles. When she had returned to the waking world, all her previous unease had vanished.
Realizing the lateness of the hour, Mihai hurried from the portico, down a narrow hallway to a white marble alcove. To her left was a huge oaken door, a giant golden knocker affixed to its face. Reaching up, she took hold of the hinged weight, lifted and let it drop.
As she was reaching for it a second time, a voice some distance beyond the door called out, “Please enter…”