The Girl and the Guardian

CHAPTER 8 When the days of preparation were complete in the Old Order of the Makers, the great Genesis Experiment began: to put forth all their powers to form out of a barren planet a world to be the hub of the Order, a new world containing all the best of all the other worlds, mingled in a creative harmony beyond anything yet seen. It was to be a place of joyful pilgrimage, of inspiration, and a powerhouse of the natural energy of beauty.

  And from this energy the Makers would create the Great Bubble, or Magisphere, which would be as a cosmic Womb for the growth of all beautiful forms of life within the borders of the Nine Worlds; or a great Tree whose branches were the paths of Beauty and whose flowering, leafy crowns the Worlds; or a great River whose tributaries were the Paths and whose confluences the Worlds.

  .So Emerglim brought the Tree to Aeden, and it was planted in the centre of the sacred Island, and also the Tree of Knowledge. Then air and fire, sweet water and good soil, were brought forth over the long centuries, and the World-tree of Aeden slowly grew, and the whole globe of that once-barren world was full of the power of beauty, and green things prospered over all its lands, and fish and birds and all kinds of beautiful creatures lived in peace upon its many islands. And the energy of beauty grew and spread through the regions of space where the other worlds turned about their own suns.

  So Aeden was formed, or gently guided into its evolution, by the Makers, as a twin Edartha, Gold to Edartha’s Silver, a place of culmination; and not only for Edartha but for the entire Order of Nine Worlds. And the Island realm of Aeden rose out of the deep seas in due course over the millennia, bearing shells and fossils innumerable, a sea-realm with white coral and quartz beaches, clear springs and streams flowing through limestone valleys and glittering caves to deep lakes. And springs began to flow out of the forested hills and mountains of red ochre and honey-coloured sandstones. – Of the origins of Aeden.

  THE THEFT OF THE JEWEL OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE FALL AND CLOSING OF KOR-EDARTHA. Also before the closing of Kor-Zürglim, the World of the Travellers, Rakmad was in Aeden and made alliance there with two of the Edarthan race, Athmad and Ewana, whose minds he darkened. They also were banished at this time back to Edartha and the Edarthan portal was closed, and a Guard of mighty warriors of the World of the Guardians, posted at the eastern portals with a flaming sword from the Fire World (now known as Arcratíne, Jewel Defender, the Sword of Korman, the Last Guardian of Aeden) which flew spinning through the Void to cut off and bar the way to Kor-Aedenya from Kor-Edartha and from Kor-Zürglim, which is now called Phangkor.

  As it is written in one of the earth legends of the Fall, ‘So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.’ (Genesis 3:24) But Athmad had also stolen the Jewel of Knowledge from its tree, though he failed to remove also the Jewel of the tree of Life, the Central Arcra which held all the others in harmony. And unknown to him, certain seeds of the thorn and thistle, and a clone spore of Rakmad himself, were hidden in the wrapping of the Jewel. These thorns and thistles became a scourge of much of the earth. Hence in one of the legends of Adam and Eve, Adam is cursed thus:

  ‘…cursed is the ground for thy sake;

  in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of your life;

  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee…’ (Genesis 3:17).

  And the spore of Rakmad grew awry in the earth’s sunlight and divided into a multitude of snakes that infested the earth, but one became a man-like creature, more like the original Travellers, and lived and bred among the peoples of earth. These became the evil counsellors of Atlantis and the other empires that were to come after, and Rakmad and his descendants were called Satan and his evil angels.

  OF THE SECRET HISTORY OF EDARTHA, THE SILVER WORLD -THE RISE AND FALL OF ATLANTIS. When Athmad and Ewana arrived back on Edartha, cut off from Aeden they began to use the jewel of knowledge to learn many secrets of the natural order, and of the Order of the Makers, but the secret of life itself they could not discover, as this was hidden in the apples of Aeden, and so they eventually died. But they prospered in every other art and so was built the great civilisation known in myth as Atlantis.

  OF THE TOWER OF BABEL Also in those days a Dark Traveller arose on Edartha to lead many humans astray in the false hope of building a tower like the Pillars of Crystal from his old world, whereby he might depart the Earth to seize the Jewel of Life from Aeden, promising them eternal life if they would but follow him.

  As it says in the ancient writings:

  ‘And they said, go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven.’ (Genesis 11:4)

  After many centuries Atlantis was overthrown and covered by the sea, by the aid of the whales who swim the hidden Paths of the Sea between Edartha and the Water World. Yet the survivors of Atlantis’s downfall carried some of the knowledge with them, though the Jewel of Knowledge was lost. Thence arose the western civilisation of Edartha.

  THE QUEST OF THE ATHMADITES FOR THE LOST PATHS TO AEDEN. Some of the survivors of the fall of Atlantis brought with them the secret knowledge of the ancient order and of Aeden and its Tree of life. They also knew something of the nature of the Great Paths between the worlds, and constantly strove to find them so as to reach the Garden of Aeden and take the Arcra of Life for themselves from the Tree, so they might live forever and rule the Nine planets and perhaps beyond. For they knew that the other planets, though wise and advanced in healing powers and organic skills, were not a technological civilisation as Edartha is, that is they did not smelt iron and make engines of destruction. Even the Travellers had not yet dared to take this path to power, and so, these descendants of Adam reasoned, were vulnerable to attack once the Arcra of Life was taken. But they were unable to find the way across, being not innocent and good but darkened in their hearts and minds.