Paradise Within…Happier Far
Chapter 23
Through time and space
Evolution of universe can't be stopped
Nature parries on some real events through her infinite power
No distinction between god and humans
They act in the story of evolution
Hour the wind of destiny carrying my light in the corridor of time
Our existence is a point on the line of eternity
Enter in the deep abyss of time
Never ending destiny
During their life, human being has known how to evolute in a special way
But universe is there and it can be changed simply with the acts of one character
The force which rules our endless world go from each part of it
Time has come for the complete change to become true
We're in a new bend, it's our fate
Never ending destiny
A new day rises for humanity
Time comes to make way for another life
Time changes in the law of evolution
We were satisfied with our old life but
some events have changed it
Now we study process of life evolution
through genetic experiences
Human destiny is in our hands
We'll be reborn from our ashes
NEVER ENDING DESTINY, Aggressor
After pulling both Achilles and Hector back from the brink, sewing their minds back together a thread at a time, Sookie slept. Eric felt the first stirrings through their bond and rushed to her bedside from the sword practice. He came to her bedside in soft leather pants and boots with no shirt. With his closeness, her eyes opened slightly and she barely smiled.
"Eric…" she whispered. "I'm hungry."
Eric laughed happily at that. "That is a very good sign lover. Would you like to take some of my blood first before you eat some broth?"
"Please." Before she took Eric's already torn wrist into her mouth, she asked, "How long have I been asleep? Tell me what has happened."
"Sookie, you have been asleep for three days in Avalon time.
Eric, Sookie, Hector, and Achilles joined Morgaine Le Fay for a light dinner fare in her open crystal quarters. The talk was light but distracted. The shadow of more serious topics lay heavy in the air. Finally there was silence as they all reached the point they were ready to move into the more serious conversation they knew waited them.
Morgaine rose gracefully from her place seated on the huge purple pillow and led the small group outside. The group walked and walked, over thistles and sharp rocks without a single scratch on their feet. Again Morgaine was using some sort of magic or charm to move them along the hazardous terrain to their destination. The group wasn't exactly floating like Sookie had before, but were just unaffected by the plants and rocks. She guessed that the painful ground was designed to keep others away. Sookie doubted any others would be able to make this passage without blood being shed.
The small group stopped as they came to what looked like a dead-end into the mountain side full of thistles and grape-vines and other injurious and poisonous plants. Morgaine waved a wand Sookie hadn't even known she was carrying and the bristles and overgrowth parted and inside was darkness. Sookie prayed to God that she was not going to be asked to go into the cave.
She felt nausea begin to overwhelm her at the thought of having to enter this cave. Eric put his arms around her in a protective gesture while Morgaine began her ritual. It seemed Sookie was going into the cave whether she wanted to or not.
Even as the leaves of the trees and breeze drifting through them were silenced, Morgaine's voice softly began to fill the space around them. Eric's arms wrapped tightly around Sookie's waist providing some comfort her to her and Sookie started to pay attention to the words Morgaine uttered. Morgaine turned slowly in place; her wand traced a glowing circle in the dirt. The circle incorporated the small group as well as the entrance up and around the cave. Morgaine uttered words that Sookie remembered from far in her memories:
"By the dragons light,
on this February night,
I call to thee to give me your might,
by the power of three
By earth,
By water,
By fire,
I conjure thee,
to protect all that,
surrounds me,
so mote it be,
so mote it be!!!"*
Morgaine finished her fiery glowing circle as she finished the last 'So mote it be.'" Chills ran up Sookie's arms and back, raising the hairs on her head. Achilles, Hector, and Eric all had very strange looks on their face, obviously affected by the spell as well. Their eyes were glassy and Hector even rubbed his arms shaking off the spider sense that surrounded them.
Morgaine breathed out creating a breeze outside the circle while the air inside the circle stayed absolutely still. She silently motioned for the small group to follow her through the cave entrance. They walked down and down and down again. Sookie found her fear completely relieved as if this was a place she had been her whole life. Eric walked in front of her, not nearly as relieved as Sookie, while Achilles and Hector took the back their body positioning stiff and prepared for fight. As they walked a lighted ball walked with them, but if one looked back it was darkness just as it was if one looked beyond the ball of light accompanying them.
They walked what felt like a mile down into the earth. The journey downward was covered in crystal walls with water trickling along the walls. It smelled mossy and wet, like mildew in an old house. Somewhere in the distance, Sookie heard a river running through the caverns, but without light she had no sense as to how far or how close the water was. Morgaine stopped and asked them to spread out along the pathway, while she took a still position along the wall in a sort of large sconce. She whispered a few words and the entire room lit up with an eerie glow showing a room full of huge differently colored crystals. There were seven different colored crystals filling the room, each crystal was a tall as a five story building and each one seemed to shimmer in the light. There was a yellow, orange, red, blue, violet, green, and indigo colored crystals. As she looked closer into each crystal she saw there was a different image buried within it.
Sookie was drawn towards the huge orange crystal. As she touched the orange crystal the still figure within started to move. Inside was an image of a woman dressed in white holding an infant. She smiled as she thought of herself as a mother, but perhaps instead of her it was Idona? Then the face looked right at her, the eyes burrowing into her and she knew she was looking at herself and her own baby. As the figure moved to look at her, her surprise made her pull away and the figure completely froze again.
Instead of just one colored crystal, Eric was drawn to two different huge crystals, the red and the yellow one. In some ways it made sense since the mixture of the red and the yellow made the orange that pulled to Sookie so much. As he touched the red crystal he saw an image of him fighting a terrible black blankness, a red-handled dagger in his hand. He watched horrified as each thrust of his blade just caused the black blankness to spill like oil and then to fill in behind the wound. He felt his panic at protecting Sookie and his growing impotence and fear that he would not be able to. He never questioned his skill before but his mind seemed filled with a terror that was unknown to him, a fear that for once he would not be able to protect Sookie when she desperately needed him. Eric's breath became more rapid, bloody sweat oozing down his face and body. He quickly removed his hand and the image stopped moving. While he felt bloody tears falling down his face, the panic was completely gone replaced by his usual strength and confidence.
Wiping the tears from his eyes, Eric moved on to the yellow crystals that called to him. These images were much easier to watch. As he touched the crystal and the figures began to move, he saw himself as he knew he was. He was brave and his confidence in his leadership was unquestioned. He knew what he needed to do and how to do it. Perhaps he was destined to fight a terrible blackness, he would have a plan and he would have help to do it. His sweat and his tears disappeared with the confidence the yellow crystals gave him.
After watching Sookie and Eric bravely face the crystals that called out to them, Hector looked around the different crystals, pulled to the lapis colored blue. As he touched the blue crystals he could see himself speaking with others, convincing them to do his will. He was powerful enough through his liquid tongue to coerce others or to convince others of the rightness of what needed to be done. He sees himself speaking with a clear tongue. He faces an audience of people, not all of which are pleased with him or their cause, and begins to speak quietly while the unruly crowd stops to listen to his words. They begin to nod and shout their approval. He has convinced them, but of what? What was he saying? Whom was he speaking to?
Achilles slowly stepped forward to touch the clear, perfect emeralds that hung from the ceiling. After watching Eric's powerful response, as well as the others' he was brave and he reached out without fear to see what awaited him. He saw his war- prize-turned-lover Briseis holding him as he died. He saw his child from their short time together grow to be a great warrior as was his father before him. He watched his son die another useless death on the battle field. Tears flowed down Achilles' face as he watched the emotional traumas he faced through the years of being immortal, how war after war seemed to never end. But when he believed in something, in someone, he put his whole heart into the fight. He believed in Eric, and Sookie, and Hector and himself to meet whatever challenges they would face. He had no doubt they would face brutal and frightening challenges or else a man a brave as Eric would not have sweated and cried out as he saw the scene before him in his crystal.
But there were still two colored crystal that no one had been able to draw any movement of the figure inside. Trapped inside the two remaining colors, violet and indigo, were two small women. In the violet colored crystal, was a nymph or a fairy, Sookie wasn't sure. She had wings almost the size of her body, with jagged ends and then wrapped around each other at the top. Her ears were long and pointed through her white violet hair that hit just below her chin. The nymph's clothing was made up of a bodice pushing her ample breast up and coming to a point at her navel. She wore a belt of violet covered in diamonds with a sheer violet colored cloth covering her somewhat indecent leg covering. Her legging were held up with strappy violet garter belts and her stockings were alternatively violet and white in stripes all the way down to her very high heels. Over her heart was a tattoo of, what else, but a heart. But this heart had a triple circle designed within it. The circles were slightly elongated and intertwined within each other, crossing over the other, but none falling completely inside each other. She carried what looked like a scythe, a very sharp scythe out of a violet metal with a blood red handle.
The other creature fell into the realm of what might be called indigo blue, the color of dark denim. Different from blue, like what Hector's blue was, but more of an almost blackish-blue. Her outfit was much less provocative Sookie thought than the violet fairy. Her clothing was more of a hunter's outfit, although sliced off the side showing her long neck and shoulders and top of her arm. On her arm was again that heart shaped tattoo, along with the triple intertwined circles enclosed within the heart. Her hair was shaved on one side of her head down to the scalp, also tattooed with what were probably lost symbols of a Celtic world, including claw tattoos under her huge eyes. All her clothing and hair was colored in this almost black-blue of indigo. She carried a long wire-wrapped sword with a jagged edge. Knowing from Eric what little she knew of weapons, the jagged edge would surely do killing damage to anyone who was faced with it. When anyone of them touched the indigo crystals the image shimmered but again none of them were able to see anything other than that, and were certainly unable to release the creatures from within. Perhaps, as had the other images, the creatures were not within the crystals but were merely beings they would meet along their journey.
Morgaine finally moved from her place in the sconce and motioned for them to each sit. Her whispered voice filled the cave, causing the crystals to vibrate slightly and the sound of the water Sookie heard previously threatening to became a pouring river.
"We are as deep under the earth as one can get without meeting the most dangerous of gods and demons. The river you hear close by now is called the river Styx. Some say that crossing the river Styx on the ferry paid for by two coins will take you into hell. As you can see around you, we are not in hell, but this is as close to destiny as one can get. Let me start to explain what you have found, what you have seen."
Morgaine continued, "Hector, what did you see when you touched the blue crystals?"
Hector answered reverentially given the place they were. "I saw myself able to convince people to do what I asked of them. Sometimes it was by compulsion and sometimes it was by a simple request."
Morgaine spoke, "Your gift is the ability to express truth through the spoken word. You will be able to get the group out of several challenges by using your golden tongue. I present you with a dagger made from hardened blue lapis on the handle with a fire-melded blade."
Hector took the blade in his hand, feeling the perfect weight of the blade to his hand. It was as if it had been made for his very hand, which knowing Morgaine it had been. The hilt of the blade was a representation of a golden and lapis Siren with flying hair. He thought it only seemed appropriate since Sirens were known to lead men to their deaths with their songs and their words. Hector nodded his head to Morgaine and looked back to the blade.
Morgaine continued, "Achilles, tell us what you saw when you touched the green crystals?"
Achilles cleared his throat since the memory was such a raw one. "I saw myself with Briseis and our love, the love child we had and how I watched him grow from afar. I watched him die a meaningless death on a battlefield of no meaning. I saw myself fighting in countless battles that also held no meaning for me. But then I realized as I watched the images fly by that what was meaningful for me were those who needed protection with all my heart and all my soul. The two are intertwined and I no longer I consider myself separate from the two, but see how the soul is intertwined in the heart."
"Achilles, your strength is your dedication to those who you love. You are tied to them enough to sacrifice even your immortality for them. Yes, Achilles and Hector, even you can be killed. You could not be until now, and I am not given the gift of sight as to how or when it will come, but ultimately this mission, this destiny may bring your immortality to an end."
Morgaine handed Achilles another dagger, this one made from a hard form of green crystals, the hilt carved from this crystal while the blade was sharp and elaborately made with grooves and whirls and was very very sharp. "You will need this as you go forward, Achilles."
Morgaine turned to Eric who sat in dread of telling what he had seen. "Eric?" Sookie reached her hand out to soothe him as she felt his terror through the bond.
Eric slowly closed his eyes and then opened them again trying to center himself against the visions. "When I touched the red crystal, I saw myself fighting a black blankness. Every stroke that landed healed immediately and then it moved again to parry with me again. It was like nothing I did could defeat it. I felt panic and fear, terror really for the safety of Sookie and a feeling of loss that I would fail at our mission. Then as I broke away from the red crystal and embraced the yellow one, I felt that I could conquer this evil: that is the only word I can think of to describe it. That I would lead this group of people, have a plan, and that ultimately whatever the sacrifice would be required I would be ready for."
Morgaine sighed and opened her eyes as Eric finished his description. "You Eric are perhaps met with the biggest challenge and may have to face the biggest sacrifice. The red crystal you saw represented the grounded forces around you to your body. But you will be forced to face the ultimate evil in the face of the ultimate good. The group here, along with the small creatures you see in the crystals, will protect the ultimate good. It is your destiny. But you will not go alone. I give you perhaps the most dangerous weapon to be had. This dagger has been forged in dragon's breath. The blade is the hardest thing on earth, even harder than diamonds. The blood red handled shaped as dragon wings have been blessed by every god there is…the ancient gods that have created immortality for Hector and Achilles, the Norse gods that saved you from certain death, the Celtic gods and goddess who myself and my priestesses still worship, and the Christian God that Sookie worships. It can fight any evil that man can bring forth. But it does not mean the task will be easy or without risk to yourself or others you love."
Eric nodded as he accepted the blade handed to him with Morgaine's small hands. She then turned to Sookie. "You Sookie have perhaps the biggest challenge and are the one thing that this group must fight for. What did you see?"
Sookie started to cry tears running down her face. She gulped for air deep in the caverns feeling them begin to close in on her. "I saw myself with a small child. I watched that child grow up. I saw that child bring peace to the world."
Sookie looked nervously at Eric. He had the obvious question on his bent brow. "But humans and vampires cannot have children…"
"Apparently they can this time, Eric." A thought suddenly occurred to her and she turned sharply to Morgaine. "It would be Eric's baby...?"
Morgaine laughed slightly. "Like Eric would let another man near you my child. Yes the child is Eric's. And the child, if she survives, will ultimately bring peace to this world bent on destroying itself. But there will be many trying to kill her, trying to kill you. And her blood, her precious blood will be required to bring forth the evil that will bring down the blessed angels from above and bring up the cursed angels from below to fight the ultimate fight for good and evil, the very fight for men's souls. This must not ever be allowed to pass."
Morgaine continued. "Sookie to you I pass an amulet whose symbol embraces all of those gods and goddesses and their blessings upon you. It will protect you and that child that you already carry within your womb." Morgaine handed her a small amulet about 2 inches around with three circles intertwined, tied on a leather thong. It was the same symbol inside the red hearts on the nymphs' tattoos. Each circle was made of the most powerful of crystal, Quartz. Sookie could smell the scents that the amulet was infused with Myrhh, Frankincense, and Lily of the Valley. The scent was powerful and it drew all the men to her before she had even put the amulet on her. Her own scent had changed to one of a combination of the common scent of the amulet. Whatever it was, every man present was affected in one way or another.
"In addition to the amulet, I suggest that these three fine fighters teach you to protect yourself and your unborn child. You must be able to protect yourself. Wear leather, which I will give you before you leave to provide an extra level of protection, but you must never be left alone and you must know how to fight. Evil will come at you from all sides. Even those who you consider to be your friends will be changed by this evil so you, all of you, must keep this journey and destiny to yourself. Find your way alone, trusting no one but each other."
Ever the practical leader, Eric asked the question that was on everyone's mind. "And these fairies? How do we find them? They seem to be an important part of our party."
"The fairies will present themselves in their own time. Do not worry. They will accompany you. Let love of god/God and the goddess, and the love of each other guide your way. After all, no matter what God or prophet you may worship or believe in, God is love and love for each other is ultimately all you have to fall back on and I believe it will get you through."
Morgaine began her way back up the cave path, and apparently the meeting was over. Each person followed her deep in thought as they considered their own personal role in the fate that faced them.
Sookie found herself tossing and turning into the night, ultimately speaking once she woke in a voice that was not hers. It was a deep male voice, determined and without doubt. Eric, woken by Sookie's cries as well as Hector and Achilles who flew into the Eric and Sookie's home with swords drawn. Her voice was frightening and so different from her own cheerful voice. This voice went on to chillingly communicate through Sookie.
He lurks and waits for his time to harvest innocent souls
Far beyond the horizons without reach of human eyes
Never seen by man, destined never to be seen by mortals
Waiting to attack with neither mercy nor sanity
Grim mist comes with the night
No light- beautiful darkness to be stalked
Darkness unfolds, in the mist only death awaits
Strange sounds in the night, haunting growls
As the scythe of Death falls, you will hear no more
Uncovered might - Infernal power
As the scythe of Death falls, you will never see again
Uncovered might - Infernal power
As you dream your beautiful dreams
He is the one who turns them to nightmares:
Shadow of his minatory being
Haunts you like a never-ending fear of dying
He is all there ever will be in the end
He is pain yet still desirable
As you dream your beautiful dreams
He is the one who turns them to nightmares:
He is all there ever will be in the end
He is pain yet still desirable
He travels with cold winds - he rides the fiery storms
Speaks with the tongues of the dead (dead, dead)
His laughter sounds as the thunder roars (roars, roars)
Your heart will beat no more as he lets his scythe fall upon you
As the scythe of Death falls, you will hear no more
Uncovered might - Infernal power
As the scythe of Death falls, you will never see again
Uncovered might - Infernal power
As the scythe of Death falls, you will speak no more
Uncovered might - Infernal power
As the scythe of Death falls, you will never feel again
Uncovered might - Infernal power**
Sookie fell away from Eric's arms, quiet now. Her body drenched in sweat but relaxed. Each man there felt a cold chill covering their bodies, having no doubt that they had just received a message. One that fortunately it did not appear that Sookie would remember.
A/N: This finishes Book One of Paradise Within…Happier Far. Thanks for waiting for so long for me to bring this Book to completion. There will be a total of two or three books I think. The next one will be very dark indeed. Thank you for hanging with me through my extended break. And I appreciate the help of my beta, my dh, on this chapter. It really would not have been the same without him. Don't forget! Reviews feed the muse. And I still have everything except reviews turned off. You can still reach me through email. Renee
*dancast84_aol_com
** Scythe of Death, Lord Belial