* * *
“Welcome to the cooler!” A man with a big toothy grin waved his arm high as he gracefully backed away from the door. “We have your little girl on ice as I speak.”
Symeon grumped his sour-faced hellos as he passed through the copper-plated metal door, Hanna following close behind. Stopping inside, while the man closed and sealed the door, Symeon turned and addressed the fellow, a sour look still on his face. “Drorli, must you continue plaguing me with such morbid dialog? If you had any feelings at all, you would show the dead a little more respect.”
Hanna smiled, slipping a hand around Drorli’s arm, softly cooing, “The poor fellow’s been eating sour pills ever since you and Chess stopped by at breakfast the other morning. He’s been in a fidget to be delivered here.”
Lowering a jealous eyebrow, Symeon coldly responded, “I am not sour, just concerned for my little girl!” He reached out, pulling Hanna away from Drorli’s side. “You, my fine gentleman, remember your manners this day. We are not at one of your festivals, and I have no intention of losing this woman up to your arms again as happened the last time we were visited with your enchanting company.”
Drorli shrugged innocent, winking at Hanna. “Well, as I recall that evening hour…” He tapped his head as if searching to remember the moment. “As I recall that evening hour, you appeared to be quite taken with my sweet companion, Chasileah. Or was it the wine you so generously consumed that forced you to gather her up to the darkness and dance to love’s music until your girl and I found you embraced in deep slumber under a nearby mulberry tree?”
Symeon’s face reddened, embarrassed, feigning excuse. “I may have had a little too much of the brandy-wine, but it was for want of the company of my girl who you had secretly whisked away. Chasileah was understandingly sympathetic to my situation, seeing you had run off on her, too, and… and…”
“And what, my dear friend?” Drorli laughed. “And what…?”
Symeon swallowed hard, chancing a glance at Hanna who stood there smirking. “I… well…”
“Speak up, my friend, or has the tongue of truth gone to hiding?” Drorli laughed again. “Or was your evening spent with my companion a wasted one?”
Poor Symeon was in a spot. What could he say? Chasileah was a most beautiful woman, with her smooth, flawless brown skin and winter-white hair, laughing green eyes and a smile that could warm the coldest dawn, and she was truly a gentle and caring person. Nothing inappropriate could he say about such a wonderful woman.
Finely Symeon sputtered, disgusted, “I’ve not the mood to discuss such trivia on this most important day! I am here on official business that has kept me from the upcoming Prisoner Exchange. Now, then, let us be about that business.”
Hanna laughed, sliding an arm around Symeon’s back. “The poor fellow has been in such a tizzy since he was told about his child that he’s been impossible to live with! I’m surprised he even remembers Chasileah what with all that’s been spinning about in his mind. He won’t be himself again until this is all settled out, and he’s seen his girl.” She then tenderly kissed Symeon on the cheek.
Waving his hand high, Drorli invited Symeon and Hanna to follow along, he describing some of the particulars as they journeyed through the temple, in reality, a laboratory.
“Long ago, when my world was full of innocence and excitement, many days before I suckled upon my mother’s breasts, these chambers were part of one of the greatest temple complexes in the universe. It has been rumored that strange, fiery, manlike creatures worked these bellows and gages to bring life to every sort of winged and creeping beast that the mind could imagine.”
As they walked, Drorli pointed up toward a shining, metallic, sealed caldron some forty cubits high and three times in length. “From the largest to the smallest of life forms, it is said these manlike creatures – some of the oldest story-tellers call them ‘Cherubs’ – a fanciful name I guess, but one that works for now – these Cherubs toiled day and night for countless millennia to create the marvelous animals invented in the mind of the Maker of Worlds.”
Pointing toward the distant arched ceiling, Drorli exclaimed, “This is truly the cathedral of the gods! It has been told by some of the Ancients that this place was directly connected to the seven palace gardens of EdenEsonbar, the most wondrous of building marvels to have ever existed.”
He stopped and faced Hanna and Symeon, wearing a proud smile. “It has been whispered by some of the old and wise that the runes inscribed above the gated doors you passed through to enter here, when translated, say ‘Belly of the Universe’ or ‘Womb of all life’.
His eyes gleaming like a child holding back the greatest of secrets, Drorli went on in a hushed voice to explain, “It has been rumored that this place is the greatest of all portals, connecting to all the hidden temples within all the universes of all the realms, the place where everything began, that even your Eden was… is… part of this same complex. It is also rumored that the door of the portal was long ago shut when the Lady stole from Asotos the Key of Understanding and, along with her own key, torn from her very breast, cast them into the Sea of the Deepening Pits, there to forever remain until a holy knight who has the power and strength of heart and mind to take up the quest into that horrid world will retrieve them from unseen eyes and return them to mortal lands. A most dangerous place it is, to be sure.”
He placed a finger to his lips and spoke in a whisper. “The Aged Ones have hinted that those very same unseen eyes protect this secret world down to this day.”
He cast his gaze about the chamber. “You know how rumors are, bedtime stories to titillate a child’s heart, maybe. Many are the stories told by the Ancients. Oh well. What I can tell you for a certainty is this: the day Michael was tormented near to death, the sky grew ominously red and the ground began to tremble in a most fearsome way. Buildings, towers, and walls built in the ages before time tumbled down to ruin, and the spirit of light retreated from this world. Gradian’s Clock struck a foreboding chiming that refused to quiet for seven days and nights. Its radiant glow faded in that hour, too, and has not returned since. I know, for I was there.”
Hanna stepped forward, smiling with sly understanding. “My dear friend, short are my years of living, but wisdom and understanding need not always belong to long life and many years. You gave away too many of your secrets when you allowed me entry into your mind. You speak in whispers and as if with hinted rumors. Maybe so, maybe so...but you are also an Ancient and a healer, and a very wise man. I feel you couch truth in children’s tales, as does PalaHar, but he controlled his dreams better when with me.”
Drorli grinned. “I gave to my wonderful mistress exactly what I wanted to share with her. Still, much of the universe abounds with rumor, for Mother is tight-lipped and full of riddles. She makes her children guess at many things. Countless are the theories about love and life that pervade these worlds. Truth is not fact. As long as fact remains secreted in mystery and rumor, then truth is little more than educated faith. Mother likes it that way. Says it keeps her children on their toes, likes them to figure it out on their own.”
Symeon stepped forward, asking, “Who’s the Lady?”
Drorli frowned, saddened, “The Lady died that day, at least her heart and soul died that day. She now resides in darkness and gloom, seeking a rescuer who will return her soul to her, but she languishes in doubt and despair. The ruin of Michael was but one of Asotos’ many victories that day. Our age of innocence perished in fire and smoke at that time too, destroying so many hearts. It was said by the Ancients that countless years past, at the beginning of life, the Lady and Chrusion – Asotos - were of only one mind, heart, and soul, at least in spirit, Mother making it so when the two first shared their dreams. But that all changed long ago when Lagandow was consumed in flaming storm, bringing a demise to the only truly innocent age for our kind. Chrusion brought about that end by destroying the Lad
y’s heart with the lifting up of another to replace her. For countless millennia, the Lady clung to a wistful hope for a returning to the old ways…that is until the day that monster ruined Michael.”
He sadly shook his head. “Then all hope she lost, along with her will to live. If not for her love for Mother, she would have cast her own flesh into the Deepening Pits to be consumed by the forces of that universe.”
Symeon asked again. “So, who is the Lady, and what are the Deepening Pits?”
Drorli glanced up at a giant timepiece hanging on a distant wall, and then turned away, motioning the others to follow. “We must hurry along, we’ve a ways to go and the hour is getting late. There are still many wonderful things I wish to show and tell you about.”
Journeying along the grand cathedral hall of this immense temple complex, the trio passed countless darkened, quiet chambers. They finally exited the hall and turned left, entering a wide gallery filled with numerous buzzing and clicking machines scattered about the room with seemingly endless banks of lights, their array of gages radiating a rainbow of colors and dials strewn along the walls.
Drorli rattled off names and operating properties of one machine after another while Symeon and Hanna dumbly nodded as if understanding the things he was saying. Finally he stopped, sweeping his hand wide. “You see how all the levers and buttons are designed to be worked by human hands? These machines existed long before Chrusion’s birthing, though he did idle away many an hour here.”
“Well!” He put his hands on his hips. “It has been said by the Ancients that the Maker of Worlds chose to walk these rooms in a body of flesh such as that of her coming children. She designed this place so that she could share with her children the joy of creation, a gift she gave first to Chrusion. Sadly, Chrusion eventually turned the knowledge gained within these chambers into making creations for the control of his siblings - creations he used to infect Michael.”
He interrupted himself, quickly changing the subject. “Here, come over here and see some of the marvelous secrets of creation! Take a look-see through these lenses.”
Pressing their eyes against padded lens tubes, Symeon and Hanna peered down upon the strangest of wiggling and jumping animals they had ever seen. After listening awhile to their excited remarks, Drorli explained, “This is the secret of secrets to the power of life! What you are observing are not animals, but the very essence of life that comes from the Web of the Minds.”
“No!” Symeon exclaimed, he looking up from the lenses and at Drorli.
“Yes!” answered Drorli. “Only through these lenses, built by the Ones who Came Before can we, the children of this universe, see into the world of the Web of the Minds.” Waving his hands about in gesture, he added, “It is this essence that binds all life together. All life, from the smallest of invisible, tiny creatures to the greatest of sea monsters, depends on this material to exist.”
He stepped back, pointing toward himself. “For you and me, Mother bonded this essence with our other genetic structure and then, through her magic, forged them together as one so, should any of her children suffer a fate that delivered death to the flesh, the essence of the Web would continue to live, it eventually returning to the Source of Life to awake, a future rebirth in a body of flesh or spirit.”
Not all of what Drorli was speaking about was unknown to the others. Symeon asked, “So that is how Hanna, I and the others were able to be delivered here, to the World of Spirits?”
Drorli smiled. “To here, this place? Yes, but not to World of Spirits. My friend, you and I are still both men of flesh, only now you reside in my mortal world, but it’s still a mortal world. The World of Spirits that I mention is the world in which our Mother resided before gathering her spirit to us here. It is to the World of the Immortals, the spirits, that some of us have been promised a home, you two included. That is yet for a future day, but by means of the essence shall we travel in soul and heart to that place.”
Hanna was bewildered. “If this essence ever bonds with ours, is there really such a thing as death, and should that be the case, how do the wicked ones ever come to their end? Is their living essence only locked away somewhere for all eternity?”
Drorli grinned. “You open many doors that we, too, asked our Mother after the Rebellion began. Her answer was so simple that a child could understand it. For that reason, so many of our wise ones have never grasped its reality. Even Asotos, the greatest mortal mind of the ages, cannot understand this simple truth. Without the bonding agent, the essence will not remain intact, but will dissipate back to its original, misty composition. For that reason, even your own prophets spoke of the spirit of man and beast being the same, for a man without the bonding agent, should he die, he will be no more.”
“So, what is this bonding agent?” Symeon asked.
Drorli smiled. “My friend, the hour is close and I have need for haste. Allow this to suffice: when your precious, darling girl died in the flesh so long ago – for you, at least – her essence passed off into a deep sleep, it having no interconnections to create feeling, emotion, or thought, all those things being located within her body of flesh. So sleep your little child did in what Mother calls the ‘Web of the Minds’. As I speak, some of these wonderful machines, made so long ago, are gathering the needed materials to rebuild those interconnections so that our girl will wake up again.”
He departed for another room hidden away behind a closed panel. “Follow along and you shall see what I am talking about.”
The group now picked up the pace. Symeon and Hanna were only beginning to realize the immensity of this most magnificent of laboratories, and the amazing secrets contained within. Rooms filled with ‘parts and pieces’- Drorli’s term for them - of every form of living creature were to be found behind sealed crystal.
“This place was not only a laboratory for making life,” Drorli explained, “but it was also the most outstanding of libraries or universities, as some of your kind might call it.”
He motioned them onward. “Long ago, our people came to understand that the properties of nature… physics, harmonics, and psycho-anatomy… were but an amalgam of all the sciences, and that all sciences are built upon the core of true mathematics. By the thousands, we children would gather ourselves to this greatest of universities to study and expound these theories, which we eventually came to call ‘EbenCeruboam’ – the ‘Cherubs’ Greatest Stone’.”
“In time, our studies led to the discovery of the portals in our universe and development of machines capable of traversing those portals into the Middle and Lower Realms. Oh, and that was only the beginning. It seemed the more we discovered in our exploration of EbenCeruboam, the more expansive our universe became, and… and the less, we realized, we really understood regarding it. The incomprehensible depth of Mother’s wisdom and knowledge gradually revealed itself to the point that even the most ancient of my kindred admitted they were unable to fathom her knowledge.”
Drorli stepped up his pace, raising a hand in gesture. “This did not stop us from attempting to learn all of Mother’s secrets, and she, being the tease that she is, continued to encourage us forward. I believe that Mother wants us to learn all her secrets, but she expects us to do it on our own… with just a little help from her.”
He stopped, looking at the others. “Sorry, I do get carried away at times. Now back to my point. We shall soon be leaving these chambers and entering the Court Colossus, one of seven concourses that lead to the heart of the center of learning, the Rotunda.”
In a few minutes, the three passed through two ornately carved winged doors and into a vaulted court nearly half a furlong from wall to wall, it being as tall as wide, and its distance in either direction nearly a mile.
Symeon exclaimed in wonder, “How magnificent! What a grand convention of people this palace could hold!”
Shaking his head, Drorli informed him, “No, my friend, this is not the palace, or as w
e children call it, the ‘Rotunda’. This is the Court Colossus, one of seven concourses that open onto the main level of the Rotunda. Follow me and we shall soon enter that wondrous chamber.”
Turning to the right, the trio walked toward a large, dark opening in the far distance, quiet shadows adding to the concourse’s immensity.
At length, they came to a high, arched antechamber that narrowed their passage to about a hundred cubits. Exiting on the other side delivered them to a domed, circular theater nearly a mile across, the dome’s center rising over eight hundred cubits above the floor. While marvelous to behold, the true grandeur of the place was hidden in shadows, the lighting dimmed like evening, as was the Court Colossus.
Drorli stepped forward, extending his arms as he turned to face the others. “Welcome to the Rotunda. I know, I know, such a simple name for such an immense structure. It sleeps at the moment, has since the beginning of this current age. But allow my words to awake it for you the way it used to be.”
Drorli commenced a recital of melodious stories describing the tapestry, carvings, and ornamentation surrounding them. Symeon and Hanna followed Drorli toward the center of the Rotunda listening to his whimsical stories, the sharp sounds of hard soles on a pink crystal floor sinking away into nothingness as if there were no steps taken at all. Even Drorli’s voice was heard as if in a hush, it falling away in silence.
Glancing back at his companions from time to time, Drorli also told a little of the history of the theater complex. “I can liken this place somewhat to your Greek Acropolis, a gathering center for the great minds of your day. Mother delights in learned knowledge, and realizes that in the multitude of councilors one may gain wisdom quickly. She wanted all her children to grow in wisdom, so she constructed this splendid learning institution.”
He pointed toward the circular outer walls of the Rotunda. “Besides the seven spoke-like concourses that extend out from here, there are many hundreds of chambers and auditoriums to be found hiding beyond those walls. Why, some of those theaters alone have seating for thousands. During the Second Age, the numbers of children filling these chambers at times could number millions, the Rotunda able to hold as many as one million alone. We would gather here to listen to our wisest and most knowledgeable philosophers and teachers as they shared new theories and discoveries with the multitudes assembled.”
“Opportunity was offered to any child who desired an audience concerning a new theory or discovery he or she wished to present. Oh, it might take years upon years to attain the ProsPhoneo, the center podium of the Rotunda, but every thought and idea could find a listening ear somewhere in one of the countless auditoriums surrounding it. There were times, I remember, when I might spend several months squirreled away here, it being a place that never slept, always astir with excitement.”
His face saddened. “The Unseen Eyes cast darkness on this cathedral on the day Asotos lifted his hand up against all things good. Few now are the children who dare passage into this world, the Unseen Eyes resentful at being disturbed by inquisitive sojourners.”
“Do you mean to say these Unseen Eyes are to be feared by the very children of Lowenah?” Symeon asked, puzzled.
“Well…” Drorli sighed, “It is said by the Ancients that those who came before are very protective of Mother. Many believe that those same ones who came before feel the children failed their mother, and until we redeem ourselves, the gifts they built for our enjoyment are not deserved to be used. It has been said if not for the delivery of your kind and the healing of our brave warriors, we would not be permitted access to these chambers at all.”
He looked at Hanna, smiling. “There are those in unseen places who have taken a shine to you, my dear one. For you, they opened the doors wide this day so that you might see into their world. In time you, too, will walk among those Unseen Ones, they waiting to reveal many of their secrets to you.”
Drorli looked into Hanna’s eyes. “Yes, though numberless the people who will one day attain the world of the immortals are, for you, my visions have spoken of a special place reserved for you there, and many eager hearts awaiting to be made one with yours.”
Hanna could only nod mutely, her head spinning, recalling so many of the visions that had poured into her mind during her dream-share with Drorli. Symeon, though, was becoming anxious. He was not happy to think they had only been on a tour of an empty building.
Looking around dismayed, he sputtered, “You mean to say that we have been dragged all over this hopeless place just to be shown a few lonesome chambers and forgotten rooms?! I thought we were supposed to see the returning of my little girl.”
Drorli frowned, but well understood Symeon’s impatience. “My friend, many are the roads that lead the aimless sojourners to journey’s end, but only one will carry the penitent onward into absolution.”
He stopped and faced Symeon. “My kind seeks absolution, for we allowed wickedness to enter this world when power had long ago been delivered into our hands to prevent it. Your kind shall lead us upon the road to absolution, but through fire and blood must we travel to attain it.”
Drorli pointed at an astonished Hanna, addressing Symeon. “And this holy child has delivered up to us the hope for our salvation, for by her seed does the coming of all things happen. She will pronounce upon us the blessing or the malediction, the gift or the curse. And she, herself, shall in the ending hour lift up the ‘stone’ to bring life…or death to us. It has been for this reason that we have journeyed here this day. This woman must find the road for us all, or my kind shall come to nothing in our shame.”
He apologized to Symeon for taking him down a winding path, “My friend, my brother, I have not led you in a roundabout this day for no good reason, but delivered you two here early in order to show to you and speak to you about these wondrous things secreted in these chambers. Few of your kind have ever visited these Realms of the gods that were hidden away from even my kind since the Rebellion began. There has been an awakening in this universe that my bones have not felt since before the burning of Lagandow. It both refreshes and chills my soul, for I know only the road it places us upon and not its final destination.”
“By my own hands have I delivered so many of your kind into this world. Your Garlocks, Copelands, and Trishas I have watched turn from the elements of this planet into houses of flesh for their minds to reside in. With the excitement of a father watching his child born, I have witnessed the spirit of rebirth take hold of that flesh and return a living being to us.”
He pointed a finger into the air, slowly shaking it. “Yet I have known that to return life to these people only hastens our own demise, our way of life, culture, and very souls. This child whom you call ‘daughter’ is a most dangerous person. Her sword will make these holy lands run red with the blood of both the wicked and innocent. I fear her, for the girl will deliver us all to the very gates of Hell. She is a Monster Divine, as are her two sister swords.”
He sighed. “My very own hands have cursed my people. I am the bringer of destruction, for I have delivered these Sister Dragons to us. My heart wishes only to destroy the flesh of your kindred so that their minds cannot gather their power to our world, but my mind knows it must be done. Those who dwell in unseen places desire your kind to gather to us, and I will obey them.”
Drorli placed a hand on Symeon’s shoulder. “I celebrate when one of your kind is reborn here, but I do not rejoice. I both love my new brethren and hate them - love them because I know they will bring us to victory, hate them because they will rip away our masks of false piety and will destroy everything we hold so dear. The flesh of your girl is of greater beauty than even many of my sister kindred. She is a wonder to behold, a goddess, yet to me her flesh is an abhorrent sight, for I have seen the destruction she and all her kind will bring upon us.”
Turning to a very confused Hanna, Drorli took one of her hands, holding it so tenderly and looked back at Symeon.
“This woman is a healer - a healer of hearts and souls. She and those others like her shall save us from the malediction we so much deserve. Holy angels be damned! Those stories told about us to your kind by Mother were given to encourage you and give you hope. We failed our mother in her darkest hour, when hope for our world still remained. No, we failed, and our mother’s heart broke. Now your kind must fix it no matter the cost to us.”
Drorli turned away, looking off into the darkness. “There!” He spoke as his voice cracked in sadness. “My reason for bringing you here has been accomplished. These things I have told you must remain here in the land of the Watchers. They will protect them from other ears. Hanna, my dear love, you needed to know - they wanted you to know. Do not ask me to explain, because I do not have the words to do so.”
After wiping a hand across his face, Drorli turned around, forcing a smile. “I have done what I could to prepare you for the coming days. A gray mist hides from me what the future will be, and I do not see what part I shall play in it. So take my council and do what you will with it. I will do all that is in my power to assist your girl’s safe delivery into our world, and then my work here will be done. She is the last to come for many days, the gates through which you passed to be sealed closed until the Watchers choose to open them again.”
Sucking in a breath, Drorli composed himself and then laughed. “Well, well, I so much want you to see the magnificence of the ProsPhoneo. It is a wonder of technological achievement. Come along, we still have some time before we visit your little one.”
Symeon and Hanna silently obeyed, following Drorli. They were both too deeply absorbed in thought concerning his troubling revelations to do otherwise.