Not since the years preceding his Transition - which he now, thankfully, remembered - had Methos needed time to recuperate from an injury. So the week that followed was hard for him.
He spent hours, every day, sitting with and talking to Cassandra. But this was no fairy tale, in which a lover's kiss could revive a sleeping beauty. He couldn't pretend there was any response.
More hours were spent in physical therapy, as he gradually regained the use of his limbs and learned to walk again. Once a day, doctors took him into a dimly lit room, and removed the bandages so they could check what they said was the slow improvement of his vision. He could see enough to be sure he wouldn't be blind.
In fact, he wondered whether they might be "keeping him in the dark" so he wouldn't demand access to a mirror, and learn what he really looked like.
Maybe they think that when I'm stronger, I'll be more able - psychologically - to cope with what I'll see?
I won't make an issue of it. But I would be able, even now, to accept however bad it is. I won't let anything stop me from making good use of the life my son tried so hard to save.
x
x
x
Other hours were spent with his family. And most of their conversations were about MacLeod.
He asked Nick, "So...way back, all those millions of years ago, when you 'guessed' his secret name, you really knew it was Ludovic? And that he was the original Ludovic?"
"It was more than a guess," Nick acknowledged. "But I wasn't sure, because I'd only seen his Chronicle for the first time that day, and couldn't trust my translation. I thought some passages in archaic French were saying Ludovic was able to make predictions about the future, not because he possessed a 'gift of prophecy,' but because he'd been there. Meaning he must, somehow, have traveled back in time...and he hadn't necessarily been born centuries before Darius.
"I'd always thought it was...curious...that Richie wasn't allowed to kill Mac when he believed he was Ahriman. As if, maybe, there was still some great destiny in Mac's future.
"And I also thought it was plausible that his mother might have wanted to name him for Darius, but figured it would be too obvious. So she picked a name that would have pleased Darius, even though he'd never know. Does that make sense to you?"
Methos had already been nodding. "Perfect sense. I remember having told Margaret about the holy man whose Quickening Darius had taken...the change it had made in him, all for the good. And I told her Darius had named his order for him, the Ludovician Friars.
"What I can't remember is whether 'Ludovic' was one of the names I thought of that day, when we were trying to hit on the secret name. Wouldn't have done any good, if I just threw it out there with a dozen others! But I can't remember whether I included it at all. Joe Dawson and I compared notes later, but I don't remember whether it was on his list, either."
Nick said, "Oh, that reminds me! Mac came to believe Joseph of Arimathea was a previous incarnation of Joe Dawson."
That brought startled outcries from both Methos and Richie, who'd known Dawson well.
After he'd had a moment to think, Methos asked, "What was MacLeod's connection with Joseph of Arimathea...and early Christianity? Did he really become a Christian again, some kind of priest? Hard to believe, after that intended hoax you told me about, that he managed to stop..."
"No," Nick said decisively, "I'm sure he didn't. He was a friend of Joseph of Arimathea - who was, you'll recall, a Watcher! But I don't know whether he ever saw him again after Joseph gave him that Cup.
"He genuinely admired Jesus. But he'd lived in a post-theistic culture too long for there to be any possibility of his believing in the Christian God again. And he never claimed to be a believer.
"As I understand his Chronicle, he came to be thought of as a 'holy man' and a 'priest,' and he finally gave up trying to deny being either. But he was never ordained, never celebrated Mass or administered sacraments.
"He started out, in the years after Jesus's death, by talking to proto-Christian groups. Telling them he'd known Jesus, though only for a short time, and had been present at the Last Supper.
"He said that as far as he knew, Jesus was a normal man. The Temple priests and the Romans had misunderstood his teachings and his intentions - wrongly believed he was a blasphemer, and a violent revolutionary. On the night of the Last Supper, he knew he was about to be arrested. And he could have escaped...but that would have resulted in reprisals against his followers and his kin. So he let himself be taken prisoner and crucified - sacrificed himself, to assure the safety of others. For that, he deserved to be honored and venerated!
"He said Jesus also deserved to be honored and venerated for his teachings. But the ones he stressed were Jesus's having viewed God as a loving father, not a harsh judge - and above all, his having urged empathy with and respect for all one's fellow humans. He was trying to combat dangerous ideas that were already taking hold - Gentile worshippers of Jesus blaming 'the Jews' for his death.
"Decades later, when it wasn't plausible that a mortal his apparent age could have known Jesus, he told his story only to Immortals who were converting or thinking of it. He never sought to convert anyone, or talk them out of it. He just tried to stress the positive aspects of Christianity, and steer them away from the harmful ones.
"In later centuries, there were always a few mortals among the Christian leadership who knew about Immortals, and revered Ludovic. Despite their not knowing exactly what he believed! And eventually, he became the guardian of Paris - a place he'd always loved. It was only then that he began displaying the Cup of the Last Supper.
"Displaying it, and using it as an aid in meditation. In that era, when he had more time to think and reflect, he realized that just as he'd sensed Joe Dawson in Joseph of Arimathea, he'd sensed someone else he'd known in the future in Jesus. His 'young' self had intuitively given the Cup to the right person: my old friend Liam Riley!"
"Whoa!" Even though he'd never been a Christian, Methos was finding this hard to process. Not least because he'd also known the Reverend Liam Riley - who'd respected what was then considered his "advanced age," and never tried to convert him. "Let me think for a minute."
After he'd mentally replayed what he'd just heard, he said slowly, "You received MacLeod's Chronicle through Darius. So...you're saying that during the centuries when they were both alive, Darius knew this other, younger Immortal priest was the reincarnation of Jesus? And knew Riley himself presumably didn't know it?"
"Right." This was another moment when Methos was sure Nick was smiling. "Or to be precise, Darius knew Ludovic believed that. But for him, that would have made it a near-certainty.
"Liam is still alive - a philosopher and teacher, who's done enormous good in the world. Or rather, 'Worlds.' He'd seemed to move away from formal religion rather easily, all those millions of years ago. I never dared ask him about it till recently. Then he told me the Cup had been a wondrous aid to him in meditation...helped him realize he was Yeshua, and brought back all his first-person memories of that life and death. He'd also learned the truth about the 'miracle.'
"But he'd never before confided in anyone. And while he said he felt undying gratitude to that strange Immortal Gershom, who'd claimed to be a time traveler, it was clear he'd never connected him with Duncan MacLeod.
"Getting back to Darius...he didn't understand the Chronicle exactly as I do because he really was a man of that era, several hundred years old when he had his encounter with Ludovic. It was natural for him to believe in some kind of God or gods, and it always would be. That was why, after the...enlightenment...he experienced through Ludovic's Quickening, he sought ordination as a priest.
"He'd previously been a Buddhist, so he'd believed in reincarnation even before he took that Quickening. And since he had access to Ludovic's memories, he didn't believe Jesus was divine, or had risen from the dead. But he convinced himself his beliefs could be reconciled with Christianity. And the Church was so eager for Immortal priests that they never questioned him too closely.
"The bottom line for us is that the MacLeod we knew had a wonderful conclusion to his life, a death he wouldn't have dared to hope for. He owed it all to you and Cassandra, Methos, and he knew it."
Methos said softly, "But I still wish he was here."
