Sermon 27

Then did Ayem and her student, Nerevar, leave the Devil-Tiger's presence. Ayem stood upon the edge of the east, Kalabhaksa raised.

"Let time take us where it wills."

She cast Kalabhaksa high, and its light was unto a guiding star. Ayem and Nerevar followed the star into the west, to the Black Lands. Here dwelt the singers whose swords could split the Universe's thought-substance. At a left-handed temple, Ayem encountered the Void Ghost, wearing the skin of a warrior-maiden.

"Do you not fear the consequences of sundering the earth-bones?" said Ayem.

And the warrior-maiden replied, "No, for our children are ungrateful things, and we make of their inheritance ash."

And Nerevar, whose third eye was only half-blind said, "Warrior-maiden, you stand with feet in two rivers, why?"

And the warrior-maiden who was the Void Ghost laughed. "You have cast your soul into the biting ice-water of unknowing, brave one. I give you a boon."

And Nerevar, who walked in the Mother of Mercy's path, said, "Withhold your knowledge from these people, thus sparing them."

And the warrior-maiden bowed to the five directions, sealing this fate. Her vanishing left a world-wound from which doubt-demons issued forth.

Ayem said, "Nerever-named-Hortator, you offer the mercy of ignorance, but it shall not be enough."

Thus did Ayem go to an incense-bathed queen of the east, saying, "Take your ships and leave this land. Soon comes the cleansing fire, pure and naked in its hatred of life."

And the queen, who saw wisdom, agreed. Thus did the Sunset People come to live among us, through the guidance of Ayem, who is Mother of Mercy.

Before leaving the Black Land, Ayem offered Nerevar one more fragment of truth's mosaic. She travelled to the court of a lion-throned emperor fond of riddles.

"I have here a question," said the emperor.

And Ayem said nothing.

"Answer me this: How does one live a good life?"

And Ayem smiled, but said nothing.

"Tell me!" cried the emperor. "I beseech you!"

And Ayem said, "I shall not share wisdom with one so excitable."

And the emperor settled back, thought for a span.

"Very well, I care not if you tell me."

And Ayem said, "Such apathy is unbecoming in a truth-seeker."

The emperor thought for a span more, folded his arms, saying nothing.

And Ayem said, "I have nought to offer those who cannot make up their minds."

Saying thus, she left. This became a celebrated incident, and many in the Black Land found romance in it. And Nerevar, who pitied the emperor, wrote down his own guide to happiness, which he gave to a serving girl. Covetous, she did not share this wisdom, instead using it remake herself into a cloud-walking ascetic, but this is a separate tale.

Ayem and Nerevar, her student, travelled on, under the light of Kalabhaksa. It led to the sea-peopled south. The veil rose, and Ayem and Nerevar came to the mist-made isle of the PSJJJ. The dream-robed adepts assembled to dissect Ayem and her disciple.

"It is an egg," said one.

"No," said another. "It is a man."

"Fools and worse than fools," said a third. "It is a graven image charged with misdirection."

And Nerevar, who listened well, drew his sword, cutting away the adepts lest their shackling-speech define Ayem, limiting her. The PSJJJ disciples brought arms to bear, bristling with logic, but Nerevar burnt them with the fire of irrational faith.

"We must misinterpret this miracle," said a PSJJJ disciple.

And before they could recalibrate, Ayem gathered up Nerevar, tearing through the Celestial Dome. The PSJJJ disciples watched this ascent, and as their palace collapsed about them one cried:

"Ah! It was an untethered city!"

Ayem and Nerevar travelled on, farther than even lying admirals, following Kalabhaksa's wake. They came to its resting place, and beyond lay haze-hued plains and mountains. Nerevar reached for this, his progress halted by a wall of invisible light.

He ran, yet remained rooted in place.

"Mistress," he said. "How do I continue?"

And Ayem said, "You struggle against the spirit of limitation."

And Nerevar said, "I can see the space clearly! Why does it taunt me so?"

And Ayem said, "Leave this land for explorers yet to come. A world without mystery is a sad place."

And with this Nerevar was enlightened.

Kalabhaksa fell into the sea, and from the ripples arose an angel. Its wings were the tattered scriptures of lesser ways, 118 eyes blinked from its blue body.

"I greet you," she said, and her voice was green.

"What is this beauty?" asked Nerevar.

"I am wisdom, God's masterpiece."

And Nerevar, who walked the spiral said, "This is false, God's masterpiece is chaos in motion."

"This is my secret name."

And the angel lowered her wings, till they brushed, feather-soft, against Nerevar's lips. Their kiss was the roar of thunder, and the perfect mind. The angel dissolved into a patina of stars, and Ayem set these sky-diamonds upon Nerevar's brow, so all might see him crowned in glory.

He turned from the wall of invisible light.

"Does nothing lie north, Mother?"

Retrieving Kalabhaksa from the abyss, Ayem made of it a mirror of revelation.

Nerevar glimpsed ash-rain falling upon the steel skeletons of toppled towers, and city-craters which glowed green in the night.

"They sought to reach heaven through violence," he said.

And Ayem bowed.

"Then let us return home. I have seen enough of the world. Hence forth, I travel the geography of my spirit."

And Ayem said nothing, for this was good enough.

The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.