Hi guys! I got a beta *squeals*! She's my friend from school, so we've been fangirling over David together :)
Catharsis
By Gold Sparrow
Chapter 6: Saul
There once was a child who looked at Saul with eyes that were bright and shiny and full of sky. She came up to him with intent, with purpose, with heart. It filled him with joy and happiness as he witnessed the world wrinkle around her, clutch her, protect her. He reaches out, full of love, and hugs the child to him.
"M-Mr. Gibeath?"
"Hello little one," He says, stroking the girl's hair. He pulls back, beaming down at the girl. "What brings you to me? Fate? Knowledge? Hope?"
The child pauses.
"Knowledge."
"Knowledge. Knowledge! How perfect, I can provide you with that." He places a hand over his heart, like a knight. "You have soul, little one. I can give you what you seek."
"...You'll teach me?"
He smiles widely.
"My name is Saul."
She smiles back, full of relief. Almost as if she had expected to be amongst the other potential pupils he's rejected without a so much as an explanation. But she's different, whether she knows it or not, and he's going to fill that head of hers with the knowledge she wants so badly.
Their soul shifts and twists around them, shimmering with passion.
"My name is Bathsheba."
And their journey begins.
"Is it such a mystery that all we've ever known is what we've been told? The world is larger than what one can imagine, it's bathed in the light of three glorious suns. There are hundreds of different species, possibly thousands. Carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, insects, reptiles, mammals. A variety unlike that of anything else in the universe, all placed on one world. Have we ever thought of any other reason for this other than that GOD placed them here?
People should have no reason to believe that we are special. Man was created lovingly by our LORD and blessed with magic, but there was a reason for that; GOD made us physically and mentally weak, and to counter it we received our magic. As a man, one should live a life that intensifies the values of our society: goodness, nobility, and sacrifice. It is the role of man to live our lives in such a way that does not express superiority, but rather an example of how to become closer to ILL ILLAH."
-An excerpt from Chapter 2 of The Role of Man, by Saul Gibeath.
The audience is waiting impatiently, chatting with one another. They mutter and whisper and outright shout to one another, giggling at jokes made. In the front row, amongst the fifty older students in the university classroom, a child is sitting quietly. Her presence there is strange, as she is merely twelve or so, but no one feels the need to bother the girl.
"Now, children!"
The yell resonates throughout the room, startling those who've never taken this particular teacher's course before. Those who know Professor Saul Gibeath aren't effected in the slightest, including the girl in the front row.
"Why are you here today?" A man sweeps in, plopping a knapsack on the desk. He sits next to it a top the desk, crossing his legs. He smiles goofily, looking only twenty, and claps his hands together. A few hesitant hands. He picks a man in the corner who avoids his gaze, trying to sink into his seat.
"YOU!" The man jolts, looking around him. He gulps and answers,
"To learn?"
"Hm, yeah, I guess," Saul yawns, unimpressed. "How about you, second row?"
"...To understand the complexity of the Gunuds."
"More specific, but not what I wanted. I like specific, however." The students quickly scribble this down for future reference. "So, children, no one can think of anything else?"
More hands, but Saul ignores them.
"Little Bath, what about you?"
The girl in the front row looks up with pretty blue eyes.
She sighs noticeably, knowing what he wants to hear.
"To feed our souls."
"To feed our souls!" Saul shouts happily, falling back on his desk. He lays there for a moment, laughing to himself, eyes locked on the ceiling. "Now, my real question is this: why must we feed our souls?"
There is a pregnant pause as the students take in the depth of the strangeness their professor possesses. They had heard the rumors about the renowned but psychotic Saul Gibeath, but none had predicted that it was true.
They're dead wrong.
Saul shifts to lay on his side, studying the expressions of his new students. He looks at them with different emotions running through his eyes.
Acceptance, resignation, dislike, like, crap-she's-pretty, interesting, he-looks-smart...
Then they land on Bathsheba, and warmth fills him.
She's special.
A brilliant child who wants knowledge.
Little Bath scribbles something in her notebook before saying,
"Because there is no other way to grow, right?"
"Yes, child." Saul curls up, staring at her. It's like they're the only two in the room, mentor and student. "Because there is no other way to grow."
Bathsheba looks pretty in her wedding dress.
It's long and snow white, stitched with gorgeous lace. She looks angelic, she looks like her soul's taking physical form against her skin. It almost makes Saul happy. But little Bath isn't marrying for love, and her soul shies away from her in sadness.
She is not living as she should.
She isn't.
It makes him feel hopeless, because if the child he knows, who was and is special, can give up her life like this, then what will everyone else do? There is no one who could ever take her place, who could be as bright and beautiful and brilliant. She is- possibly was- the prophet he was waiting for to change the world. And yet now she's marrying the one corrupting it.
Oh, oh, oh, if only there was a way to stop the harsh reality of fate and make the oceans still, so that she could stitch up the mistakes she's made. But she cannot, and Saul cannot, and David would never let them.
In the beautiful church, Saul is the only one not cheering for the new Queen.
But that night, he would cry for his precious pupil.
"Master!"
"It's Saul~"
He's on a ledge.
He stands high above the world, staring down at the ant-like people, illuminated by a full, cheese-like moon. He looks at that moon. He reaches out, wanting to grasp it in his hands, wanting to go to the place where the soul goes.
Heaven.
He doesn't believe in it. But he does believe that there's something more to this universe. Another miracle he hasn't seen, a magic so divine, so untouchable, so omniscient, that no human can grasp it. But God, as he can see in the distant flurry of blackbirds, is already being grasped.
"If only I could hear them," He moans quietly, spreading his hands apart. "I've been driven mad by that wish, you know. If only I could hear them."
The soul wraps around him more, white and pure and gentle. He can never hear them, though sometimes, when he's around Bathsheba, he can make out the echo of fluttering wings, and feel the soft touch of a ribbon-like feather. It's so enticing yet painful, because it leads him to wonder if she can hear what he cannot. It makes jealousy bloom like an ugly black flower trimmed with the green of envy in his heart.
"M-Master," Ah, that's right, Bathsheba. She's before him, her eyes concerned, her little fingers twitching with the desire to reach out and grab him before he falls. He tenderly smiles down at the child, so adorably innocent. He will not fall. Fate has dictated that he cannot, not yet.
So he dances.
Hopping, skipping, jumping. Twisting, turning, on the tips of his toes and the backs of his heels. He dances because he can't fall, he won't. Because he's protected by the soul dancing with him, in rhythm to a glorious music that he just can't hear.
He can't hear it. But he can dance to it all the same.
"I want to be free!" He yells, uncaring of the world around him. No one is watching. No one, except for the worried girl. "I want to see God, I want to ask him why he gave me this miserable life! I want people to see what I see, to know the truth!"
"There's nothing wrong with that," Bathsheba tells him, practically begging. "Please get down."
"No, I can't!" He wags his finger. "Because death is not waiting for me on the street below! He won't catch me tonight!"
"But…"
"Saul!" He screams, "Saul! Call me Saul!"
"Saul!" Bath finally complies, holding out her hand. "Please get down!"
Her voice is heart-wrenching and desperate, but he doesn't comply. He can't, because no matter how uncomfortable this is for his pupil, she needs to learn that even if you see death, that doesn't mean he can take you.
"Oh Bath," He closes his eyes, stilling on the railing. "I wish…"
He looks to the sky. Stained with an inky navy, littered with flecks of daunting silver. The moon is full and fat, the same as how it looked minutes before.
"I wish I was never born."
"No you don't," Bathsheba shakes her head. "You're lying."
"How would you know?"
She pauses, her lips pursed. She's thirteen. Budding, but not yet blossomed. Still yearning for the love of the parents and sibling she gave up for reasons that baffle even Saul. And yet, deep within her, an aged soul. A wise one. Something that has it's flaws but also it's unattainable perfections.
"I know." She points to him. "There's too much love for this world in your soul...Right?"
He sits on the railing, sighing an old sigh.
Even if he is mad, he's still a man.
"You're right. I really wish…" When he looks to the sky, he sees the path of souls moving in a line toward a far off, beautiful place. A place he cannot follow. A place which, for lack of better word, he's forced to call Heaven. "...That I didn't love living so much."
SAUL! AND SOUL!
Thanks for reading guys! I hope you like Saul. Next chappie we get a crash course in politics by Bath and Davie! And we meet new characters? One that is essential to the continuation of the plot? Exciting!
Got any questions or suggestions? Something wrong about the chapter? Grammatical errors, something you didn't like? PM me or leave it in the reviews, I will reply and see what I can do to make the story better/clearer for y'all to understand. ILY MY DARLING READERS!
BYE~~~~~~~