While Seanain's eyes recovered from the light there were no sounds of gunfire. He only knew where he was by the grip he had on the stone wall he had taken shelter behind. When he could see he dropped down to crawl to where he had last seen Sara. As he got close he saw another figure leaning over Sara's prone body and he jumped up to attack the assailant but when he got within arms reach he recognized Lasar.
He pulled Lasar to the ground. "What are you doing? You're a target here!"
Lasar replied "They are all gone - every one of the attackers is gone - as she commanded. Though I don't know where they've gone to."
They stood up and turned to look after Sara. "How is she?" Seanain asked.
Lasar shrugged. "She seems to be simply exhausted. I think she'll be fine in a few days, but until then we need to hide her somewhere."
As they discussed Sara, Edward joined them. "I can take her to a safe house where my mother can take care of her."
Seanain squashed that idea. "You have fought along side us and I am grateful, but I'm not trusting your motives here. We just fought off this rabble to keep her from becoming someone's weapon. You still qualify as suspect to me."
Edward shrugged. "As you will, my mother can still take care of her. I know she would want to. I'll send Mother to you and you can take her where Sara is."
As they gathered together to leave someone finally asked "Where's Ian?" They spread out to search but found no sign of him.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Sara woke up to find herself in bed in a strange room. Nearby John's mother, Niamh, was reading a newspaper, or had been reading. Her head had fallen to her chest and she appeared to be asleep. Sara stretched and started to think.
Her first thought was of the Witchblade. She was relieved to see it was still on her wrist. Then she looked at her other wrist expecting . . .
There was a bandage on her left wrist that she tore away. She expected to see an inflamed and ugly wound surrounded by a raw tattoo, but it wasn't like that. The jagged rune was now a clean scar. And the tattoo wasn't there.
Sara pressed on the rune expecting to feel the obsidian blade under her skin but she couldn't feel it's hard shape. Before she could doubt her sanity - was it all a dream? - she saw the shadow of the tattoo emerge from what looked like unblemished skin. The tattoo only showed when she touched it.
When she traced the shape of the tattoo she was returned to the making of it, back in the cavern.
Lasar first explained the feathers he had given her to hold.
"The feather in your right hand is of the raven. The raven is strong, clever, and tenacious, loud and confident, companion of the goddesses Badbh and Morrigan. The raven returns inland in the coldest month to presage warming weather. Ravens harass larger sea eagles to steal their food. The raven uses tools. It represents rebirth and healing. When the gods stole the sun and hid it in a box Raven found the box and returned the sun to the land of man."
"The feather in your left hand is a wild goose. Wild geese follow the seasons as they migrate ceaselessly. Geese herald the winter when they leave and spring with they return to the north. Geese raise wild children who will repeat the journey and always return to the same place, a circle over time. Wild geese are faithful to their family. The wild geese of Ireland, her sons and daughters, have flown around the globe. Someday they will return."
As Lasar tattooed her left wrist he explained that symbology to her.
"The innermost circle of the 3 concentric rings faces inward toward the true self. The outmost circle is the face that the outside world sees. The middle circle is the communicator, translating thought into deed, and physical experience into inner thought. It is the spiritual self that binds the whole together. The 3 rings also represent the 3 elements of air, sea, and land."
"The jagged line is the rune for Sowilo - the sun, the female aspect of the sun that warms cold lands, it is a symbol of life, fertility, and healing. The sun dies each night and is reborn every morning, another unending cycle. It also represents personal power, strength of will and conscious thought. It provides the strength and illumination to change. The First Blade and the Witchblade pass from wielder to wielder, the path changes but continues."
"Wait a minute. All of this stuff is important I suppose but I'm not going to remember half of it." Sara was exasperated.
Lasar paused to tell her "You will. Touch the tattoo with your other hand."
Sara did so and instantly relived the words that went with that section of tattoo. "Huh, so this is a memory device?"
"Right, the tattoo is an initiation and instruction. It records but also guides and shapes your thoughts."
"You mean it's messing with my head?"
"When you took algebra in school did it mess with your head? You are being exposed to new thought patterns. It's up to you to decide whether to be influenced by them."
"Algebra did mess with my head." Sara retorted.
Next Lasar took up the obsidian blade. He poured a drop of water on each side of it and passed it through the smoke of the fire three times. He chanted for a minute - something Sara didn't recognize and the Witchblade did not interpret. Then he sliced her skin following the tattoo of the rune, laid a skin flap open, and placed the blade under the skin. Finally he put a gauze pad over her wrist and wrapped it tightly.
The pain was like molten lead poured on her arm. It took over her whole being. She couldn't avoid it, ignore it. The only way to deal with it was to embrace it, feel it totally without reservation. The only way to end the pain was to be consumed by it.
From a distance she could hear Lasar as he continued her instruction.
"As for the Witchblade, the large red stone is the male aspect of the sun - violent and deadly. The smaller blue stone is the moon. It influences the sun in subtle ways that can not be measured. "
"The power of the Witchblade is male violence, suns in nova, train wrecks. It is raw, inevitable power."
"The power of the First Blade is female violence; the goddess Kali, born of pain, bearing pain, inflicting pain, chooses which of her children will die."
"Just as the three concentric rings require the middle one to hold them together, the Witchblade and the First Blade are linked by this." Lasar took the copper ring from Sara's finger. He held it in front of her so she could look through it. She saw John smiling at her once again.
"The task of this ring is to link the right and the left, the day and the night, the light and the dark, the male and the female aspects. The meaning and use of this ring are for you to discover."
Now things got strange.
Sara noticed that Lasar was sitting on a rug, a tapestry of many colors with no apparent pattern. The colors ranged from burgundy to lavender, from aquamarine to seafoam green, from Prussian blue to sky blue. Some threads looked like wool, some silk, some cotton. There was a clear, jagged crystal woven into the rug. All the threads that ran near it turned white. Lasar pulled the rug up and showed it to Sara.
"This is woven of the spirits of all the wielders. You can not see a pattern because it is only a fragment of a larger pattern. This is your thread." He pointed out a crimson thread that looked like linen. "You are part of the whole."
He threw the rug in the air and Sara's thread stretched out before her. She followed it until she found herself in a bright white room with black and white chessboard tiles on the floor. On the floor was the briefcase that Ian had passed to her mind - black aluminum with no seams and pulsing blue lock.
A toy pistol lay next to the briefcase.
~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N The canadian geese returned to Anchorage, Alaska, 5 days ago.
He pulled Lasar to the ground. "What are you doing? You're a target here!"
Lasar replied "They are all gone - every one of the attackers is gone - as she commanded. Though I don't know where they've gone to."
They stood up and turned to look after Sara. "How is she?" Seanain asked.
Lasar shrugged. "She seems to be simply exhausted. I think she'll be fine in a few days, but until then we need to hide her somewhere."
As they discussed Sara, Edward joined them. "I can take her to a safe house where my mother can take care of her."
Seanain squashed that idea. "You have fought along side us and I am grateful, but I'm not trusting your motives here. We just fought off this rabble to keep her from becoming someone's weapon. You still qualify as suspect to me."
Edward shrugged. "As you will, my mother can still take care of her. I know she would want to. I'll send Mother to you and you can take her where Sara is."
As they gathered together to leave someone finally asked "Where's Ian?" They spread out to search but found no sign of him.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Sara woke up to find herself in bed in a strange room. Nearby John's mother, Niamh, was reading a newspaper, or had been reading. Her head had fallen to her chest and she appeared to be asleep. Sara stretched and started to think.
Her first thought was of the Witchblade. She was relieved to see it was still on her wrist. Then she looked at her other wrist expecting . . .
There was a bandage on her left wrist that she tore away. She expected to see an inflamed and ugly wound surrounded by a raw tattoo, but it wasn't like that. The jagged rune was now a clean scar. And the tattoo wasn't there.
Sara pressed on the rune expecting to feel the obsidian blade under her skin but she couldn't feel it's hard shape. Before she could doubt her sanity - was it all a dream? - she saw the shadow of the tattoo emerge from what looked like unblemished skin. The tattoo only showed when she touched it.
When she traced the shape of the tattoo she was returned to the making of it, back in the cavern.
Lasar first explained the feathers he had given her to hold.
"The feather in your right hand is of the raven. The raven is strong, clever, and tenacious, loud and confident, companion of the goddesses Badbh and Morrigan. The raven returns inland in the coldest month to presage warming weather. Ravens harass larger sea eagles to steal their food. The raven uses tools. It represents rebirth and healing. When the gods stole the sun and hid it in a box Raven found the box and returned the sun to the land of man."
"The feather in your left hand is a wild goose. Wild geese follow the seasons as they migrate ceaselessly. Geese herald the winter when they leave and spring with they return to the north. Geese raise wild children who will repeat the journey and always return to the same place, a circle over time. Wild geese are faithful to their family. The wild geese of Ireland, her sons and daughters, have flown around the globe. Someday they will return."
As Lasar tattooed her left wrist he explained that symbology to her.
"The innermost circle of the 3 concentric rings faces inward toward the true self. The outmost circle is the face that the outside world sees. The middle circle is the communicator, translating thought into deed, and physical experience into inner thought. It is the spiritual self that binds the whole together. The 3 rings also represent the 3 elements of air, sea, and land."
"The jagged line is the rune for Sowilo - the sun, the female aspect of the sun that warms cold lands, it is a symbol of life, fertility, and healing. The sun dies each night and is reborn every morning, another unending cycle. It also represents personal power, strength of will and conscious thought. It provides the strength and illumination to change. The First Blade and the Witchblade pass from wielder to wielder, the path changes but continues."
"Wait a minute. All of this stuff is important I suppose but I'm not going to remember half of it." Sara was exasperated.
Lasar paused to tell her "You will. Touch the tattoo with your other hand."
Sara did so and instantly relived the words that went with that section of tattoo. "Huh, so this is a memory device?"
"Right, the tattoo is an initiation and instruction. It records but also guides and shapes your thoughts."
"You mean it's messing with my head?"
"When you took algebra in school did it mess with your head? You are being exposed to new thought patterns. It's up to you to decide whether to be influenced by them."
"Algebra did mess with my head." Sara retorted.
Next Lasar took up the obsidian blade. He poured a drop of water on each side of it and passed it through the smoke of the fire three times. He chanted for a minute - something Sara didn't recognize and the Witchblade did not interpret. Then he sliced her skin following the tattoo of the rune, laid a skin flap open, and placed the blade under the skin. Finally he put a gauze pad over her wrist and wrapped it tightly.
The pain was like molten lead poured on her arm. It took over her whole being. She couldn't avoid it, ignore it. The only way to deal with it was to embrace it, feel it totally without reservation. The only way to end the pain was to be consumed by it.
From a distance she could hear Lasar as he continued her instruction.
"As for the Witchblade, the large red stone is the male aspect of the sun - violent and deadly. The smaller blue stone is the moon. It influences the sun in subtle ways that can not be measured. "
"The power of the Witchblade is male violence, suns in nova, train wrecks. It is raw, inevitable power."
"The power of the First Blade is female violence; the goddess Kali, born of pain, bearing pain, inflicting pain, chooses which of her children will die."
"Just as the three concentric rings require the middle one to hold them together, the Witchblade and the First Blade are linked by this." Lasar took the copper ring from Sara's finger. He held it in front of her so she could look through it. She saw John smiling at her once again.
"The task of this ring is to link the right and the left, the day and the night, the light and the dark, the male and the female aspects. The meaning and use of this ring are for you to discover."
Now things got strange.
Sara noticed that Lasar was sitting on a rug, a tapestry of many colors with no apparent pattern. The colors ranged from burgundy to lavender, from aquamarine to seafoam green, from Prussian blue to sky blue. Some threads looked like wool, some silk, some cotton. There was a clear, jagged crystal woven into the rug. All the threads that ran near it turned white. Lasar pulled the rug up and showed it to Sara.
"This is woven of the spirits of all the wielders. You can not see a pattern because it is only a fragment of a larger pattern. This is your thread." He pointed out a crimson thread that looked like linen. "You are part of the whole."
He threw the rug in the air and Sara's thread stretched out before her. She followed it until she found herself in a bright white room with black and white chessboard tiles on the floor. On the floor was the briefcase that Ian had passed to her mind - black aluminum with no seams and pulsing blue lock.
A toy pistol lay next to the briefcase.
~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N The canadian geese returned to Anchorage, Alaska, 5 days ago.