Tag #32 – What You Already Know
"A Goa'uld mothership has landed," Teal'c announced as he entered the temple. "As many as two thousand troops approach."
"Love to stay and chat," Jack said coldly and strode out, not even turning to see if Daniel was following.
"Wait, wait a minute!" Daniel protested. "What about..." He gave up as the others left the temple, and turned to look at the monk. He spun around in a full circle before he realized the monk was apparently gone, vanished as quickly as he had appeared.
An electric tingle of an approaching presence resonated down his spine, and his first instinct was to suspect Jaffa, but the protective aura of Kheb didn't waver a bit. He shivered and turned to face the presence, eyes widening as a beautiful light took shape near the ceiling. It gracefully swooped down to hover in front of him, ethereal tendrils waving gently as if in some unseen breeze.
"Welcome, Daniel."
The words weren't really words, and he wasn't quite sure how he understood their meaning, but it was somehow clear as a finely-cut diamond. It knows my name, he thought wonderingly.
The light shimmered, and somehow he knew it was smiling at him. Then it slowly drifted towards the wall in front of him, passing through it as easily as if it were air. "Trust," the not-words whispered again.
On a more rational level, he knew he shouldn't trust an unknown entity without any proof of friendliness. However, something even deeper told him there was absolutely nothing to fear from the mysterious presence, nor the approaching Jaffa.
He stepped up to the wall, unable to see anything to set it apart from the others, and reached out his hand. It passed through without even a hint of resistance, and he pulled it back in surprise. Wow. That explains a lot. Taking a deep breath, he swiftly stepped through to the other side.
The brightly glowing shape hovered next to a gold-shrouded form, and as he stepped closer, a huge weight slipped from his chest as he beheld Sha're's baby. "This is what you seek," the thought-words said.
Yes... Totally captivated by the tiny life in front of him, he gently picked the child up and merely stared at him for a few long moments. He finally managed to drag his eyes away to look up at the glowing shape, who had assumed the face of a woman. An eerie sense of familiarity nudged at him as he looked at her, but he couldn't quite pin down where he'd seen her before. When he tried, all he could remember was an overwhelming sense of peace and safety.
"Thank you," Daniel said gratefully, somehow getting the feeling she'd helped him before. "He'll be safe with me." He turned to leave, the infant held safely in his arms. But with every step towards the false wall, a sense of wrongness grew, and he turned to face the planet's guardian. She looked at him sadly, and then he knew.
"I didn't do any of it, did I?" She smiled at that, but remained silent. "It was you. I was wrong, I don't...I don't have any powers at all. You do. You were showing them to me."
"When an average person hears of the Great Path, he believes half of it, and doubts the other half." The thought came through as almost-words this time, not quite English but as familiar to him as breathing.
"That's how you communicate with us," he speculated, sensing her approving confirmation. "You were trying to tell me the boy's better off here with you, and I wasn't listening. I made a promise." He wanted so badly to just walk out with the boy, but a stronger sense of right compelled him to walk back over to the cradle and gently place the boy amongst the golden padding. A tiny fist clenched at his shirt as if in farewell, then let go. The guardian looked at him calmly, and he met her gaze. "I promised he would be safe."
"I have heard that those who celebrate life walk safely among the wild animals," the almost-words came to him again. "When they go into battle, they remain unharmed. The animals find no place to attack them and the weapons are unable to harm them. Why? Because they can find no place for death in them."
Five minutes later, Daniel merely took a step backwards as an entire battalion of Jaffa was incinerated in a massive lightning strike no more than ten feet from him. The massive bolt passed mere feet from his head, but he never felt a moment's fear that he would get hit.
"Well that was cool," Jack spoke up after a long moment of shocked silence. "Wow."
Daniel turned to face the temple again as he felt the guardian approaching again, and was only slightly startled to see the dead monk suddenly transform into the same bright light as the ancient guardian, leaving his robes behind. As the new light-like being disappeared from the courtyard, the woman-shape life form emerged through the doorway of the temple, carrying the baby in her ethereal arms.
He took a step closer to her. "You're leaving." She merely looked at him, and he understood. "You know that more of them will come as long as they know the boy is here," he added, looking down at the wide-eyed little baby.
"Changing the natural is against the way of the Great Path. Those who do it will come to an early end." She nodded reassuringly, and he believed her.
"I will see you both again someday, right?"
She reached out an otherworldly hand, and gently brushed it against his face. "All roads lead to the Great Path, just as the small streams and the largest rivers flow through valleys to the sea." With one final faint, knowing smile, she lost her human-like shape and vanished into the night.