The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix (4 page)

Reaching down and placing her hand over Ardon’s,
Lowenah whispered, “Those were good times, my lovely one. I had
almost forgotten those good times.”

Nodding, Ardon lamented, “Now I have lost Mihai. She
hates me, wants nothing to do with me again, ever.”

“Mihai? No! Son, that’s not true.” Lowenah replied
reassuringly.

He turned toward her, tears streaming down his face.
“Yes, she does! And it’s all over that Darla creature! I understand
now that I was out of line with proper protocol, but such an
indiscretion should be understood by these…these military people.
I’m not a military person. I don’t know these things.”

Lowenah inquired, “But what of Rachel? I have heard
that you assaulted the child when she was only doing her duty.”

Ardon vehemently disagreed. “I did not assault her!
She had that nasty weapon, and pointed it at me! Oh, yes! I did
overreact a bit, but the
creature
needed to understand that
I was unfamiliar with procedures regarding ships and captains and
all that military stuff. I had the welfare of my people in mind, no
more than that.”

In anguished remorse, he cried, “I have pondered
that morning these several days since and I still do not understand
all the fuss. How could a trivial event become so blown out of
proportion? No one told me you had assigned the person to captain
the Shikkeron, only to tidy it up a bit. I didn’t even know Bedan
wasn’t on board yet. I believe that Euroaquilo and Mihai are so
smitten with their
little darling
that they don’t see the
possible danger that exists within. It’s there! I’ve witnessed it!
Even at the space port, I witnessed it!”

Lowenah leaned back, gently rubbing Ardon’s
shoulders as he slumped forward with folded arms resting on his
legs. “Hmmm… My, my, it does sound so… so wearisome.” After some
reflection, she kindly offered, “My wonderful little child, it is
not the helmsman, alone, who safely navigates murky shoals on a
dark and moonless night, but the sounder who casts for deep waters,
and the lookout high on the mast who ever searches the horizon for
hints of shadow or light. The mind, my dear, always pilots our ship
of understanding however dark the night might be, but without the
heart sounding the true depth of matters, and our eyes perceiving
those same matters with great insight, we may never reach our goal,
but flounder upon the rocky shoals of life’s misfortunes.”

Not understanding Lowenah’s little proverb, Ardon
fussed, defensive. “It is all well and good to wrap oneself in the
guidance of many councilors when issues complex and ominous lurk in
the surging tempest, but those councilors must be wise to the
dangers hiding beneath. A person must use intellect with wisdom
gained to see beyond the surface to find the deeper things. A good
councilor will not allow blind emotions to muddy the waters
further.”

Lowenah kindly chided Ardon, “Listen and learn
something. I do not speak of many councilors, but of one body using
all that it possesses - a heart, mind, and soul… love, knowledge,
and wisdom. There is but one ship, one person, but many are the
crew, and many are the parts making up the person. All the crew is
necessary for the survival of the ship, and all the parts of the
person are essential should that person desire to avoid calamity.
Wise intellect alone will lead to disaster when strange waters and
fearsome winds seek the vessel’s destruction.”

She looked Ardon in the face, explaining, “A blind
man may hear the sound of roaring winds, but not understand that it
is a twisting tempest bearing down on him. A man knowing deep
matters may well come to ruin, because he has not seen the raging
storm on the horizon. And an insightful man may well rent his ship
asunder, because the rip current throws his ship upon the
rocks.”

Waving a finger as she spoke, Lowenah admonished,
“You must learn to use a reasoning heart and insightful eyes along
with all your knowledge and intellect if you wish to see success
and gain understanding into why Euroaquilo and Mihai protect your
sister -
yes
,
your
little sister. She is not a
creature to be pitied, like a sick puppy. Empathy is found in an
understanding heart, something, my lovely one, I do not think you
have yet chosen to discover within yourself.”

Ardon answered, confused, “I do not know what to
look for within myself, for I have lacked for nothing all these
many days from the founding of my time. Discoveries, I find, must
be searched for, anticipated by applying knowledge with the spirit
of sound reasoning that something more must also exist. Otherwise,
one merely stumbles aimlessly through life, crashing into every
little obstacle that comes along, never discovering the meaning of
the universe.”

“My dear child!” Lowenah raised an eyebrow. “When a
captain sees only the mystic light on the horizon, believing that
to be the sole point of discovery, his ship may well sail headlong
into a hidden obstacle that will bring him and his ship ruin.
Constantly must he be searching for what he does not know exists.
Often it will be those unknowns that will determine a person’s
fate, for good or ill.”

Ardon smiled, approvingly. “All the better to be
focused on what one is searching for!”

Lowenah fumed, “
Child
,
don’t tell me you’re that daft!
Do not council me according
to my wisdom! I do not speak with empty prattle, but seek the level
of understanding of the one I am talking to. You may think yourself
a great and wise councilor, but far greater was AsreHalom’s
knowledge and insight, to the point of achieving the immortal
realms through self-induced visions and dreams. Yet he fell into
eternal darkness for refusing to see hidden realities. Little
difference do I see between him and you, except your heart is
innocent and true to me. Do not think, though, that your logic has
preserved your soul alive down to this day. If logic and
understanding gave life, then AsreHalom and Chrusion would long ago
have gained, in reality, to the worlds of the Immortals.
Now
listen and learn!
”

Lowenah leaned back, frowning. “I will now speak to
you at
your
level of understanding. You do not know a
thing
about the heart! You are stubbornly resistant to
believing in, or, at best, indifferent to its power and strength,
not understanding that the universe itself is built upon the
outpourings of the heart…
my
heart. Yes! It was through my
tears and desire for love that I built these worlds that you search
for your understanding. I wanted someone to love… and to love
me
…not someone built by nature to love me, but to love me by
one’s own will after discovering that part of my soul within
them.”

Lowenah’s mood was up now. She was not going to
allow Ardon to escape, thinking he knew all about himself.
“
Yes!
I tore from
my very soul
the power of life and
cast it to the winds, having faith that I could create others like
myself who would gather the power of that essence to themselves and
return it to me through their like love. Sadly, there were none -
not even my darling Tolohe or my child PalaHar, they both
understanding the depth of universal web - who chose to understand
me. You I loved, but out of dismay, for you could see only the
power of my glory as seen through simple eyes.”

She cast her gaze toward the floor. “It was not
until my very own daughter, Michael, gave to me her love that I was
rewarded with a child who understood me, could feel my soul with
hers. That child has set the universe ablaze, changing it for good
or ill forever. I say ‘for good or ill’ because of those who resist
its power there eventually rises a hatred for it within their
hearts until they cast away its very essence, they becoming little
better than beasts for the slaughter, using up what precious life
they possess until Fate’s arrow extinguishes their flame.”

Ardon piped in. “Well have I witnessed the child’s
love and affection, and hold it very dear to my heart. That’s why I
am so saddened over her severe anger regarding such a
little
issue. If it pleases her, I will go to this
Darla creature
and make public apology for my seeming improprieties.”

Lowenah’s anger rose up in her heart, indignant, her
nostrils flaring. Just as quickly, she forced those feelings back
down, knowing it does no good to punish a dog when it cannot
understand the bad it has done. She sighed, repressing her
lingering frustration. Ardon was a good man, as good leastwise as
most of her children. Darla was silently viewed by so many of them
as little more than a deformed, twisted creature to be pitied, yet
to also be politely avoided.

Ardon was just more outspoken than the others, he
being one of the standing council members of the Twenty Four, and
he having, long ago, taken upon himself to be the protector of the
Empire. Another fault that left the man stunted to understanding
his own heart and that of others was his arrogance concerning
things he did not know about. Of what importance must it really be
if he didn’t know about it or hadn’t thought about it?

Lowenah sighed again, resting a hand on Ardon’s
shoulder, looking him in the face, cautioning, “
Do not
underestimate the danger you are in!
A tricksy heart will
deceive itself into believing wrong and crooked things. Many are
the sons of Damnation who once showed more wisdom and understood
better the power of a heart’s love, yet the spirit of life has
already fled their souls, and Fate’s archer awaits at their door to
send them to the Abyss of Nothingness.”

“Now listen and learn so that you may live! Do not,
ever
, demean my Rachel by calling her a c
reature
again, or I will give you a thrashing you will long remember! For I
will humiliate you in the public square and throw you out of my
house, giving your high position to the child you hate!
Do you
understand me?!
”

Ardon was taken aback, but he knew well enough to
leave Mother be when her dander was up, even if he did not
understand why. He nodded, saying he would try.

“
Good!”
Lowenah exclaimed. “I will tell you
this: If you had residing within you the monsters that dwell in my
little child, you would have long ago turned to the world of evil,
becoming far worse in wicked deeds than the acts committed by
AsreHalom! Even Michael does not comprehend the evil my Rachel
carries within her breast, for, as a babe, my little child was cast
into the furnaces of Hell, and I, the only one capable of stopping
the scourge tearing her mind apart, did nothing because my own
selfish heart pined for its love lost.”

“All alone my child suffered the demons as they
sought to consume her soul, but she did not let them, has not! It,
Son, was not, is not willpower and strength of mind that saved my
child from such a terrible fate. No! It is the
love
welling
up in her heart that saved her, all of my children, from the
damnation that may yet consume your worlds should my purpose fail
me at this upcoming Prisoner Exchange.”

Ardon began to interrupt.

Lowenah hushed him. “I will tell you, my little
child, Rachel, has within her heart, gathered more of the power of
my love than all my other children put together! By her selfless
acts of courage and devotion, she has saved more of my children
than have all our foolish councils from the beginning of this
rebellion! Deformed and twisted my child is. Should all my children
be so blessed as she, for her love preserves her very being,
protected by the powers that are keeping her alive until a cure is
manifested.”

Again taking Ardon’s hand, looking down, while
playing her fingers upon it, Lowenah counseled, “It was not out of
pity or delight that I have delivered Rachel up to this Prisoner
Exchange. The future of the universe rests upon decisions made
there, and my little child must stand beside me at that fateful
time. I must cast her soul into the fires of the damned, for I have
been challenged by the demon host, himself, to deliver to him the
greatest of all my warriors to do battle with him.”

Ardon frowned, shaking his head. “She has not the
might to do contest with that monster! Why, he has power over even
the elements! Gabrielle alone might possibly have the strength,
possibly...”

“Son…” Lowenah looked into Ardon’s eyes. “War is
waged on many levels. This battle is not one of flesh against
flesh, but spirit against spirit. I believe Rachel is the greatest
of my warriors. I believe this so much that I have put the future
hope of all my children upon the table of Fate. Across that table,
I have cast the dice. I now wait upon the numbers revealed.”

Ardon was shocked. He now realized his mother was
serious. She was playing a very deadly game, and she trusted the
future of the universe to a broken, deranged urchin who was most
unpredictable. But the look on Mother’s face convinced him that the
matter was settled and there was nothing he could do to change her
mind, that it would be showing wisdom to remain silent about his
feelings.

Lowenah patted Ardon’s hand. “Now please speak to no
one about this. I warn you to keep this secret, for there are other
ears that would find this too great a treasure to carry alone
within their bosom! Your brother believes I am delivering Michael
up to him for this contest, he thinking her to be my valiant
warrior. I will fool him completely. I tell you this: my darling
son, Michael will fail me at this upcoming Prisoner Exchange
because she does not accept my counsel, but chooses a more
dangerous path. Her soul will not come to ruin, though, because I
have given her a savior who will pull her from the flames just in
the nick of time.”

She then further warned, “
Do
not interfere
at this upcoming Prisoner Exchange!
Leave my Rachel be to the
Fates. Watch yourself that day, or I shall feed your flesh to the
crow and the snake if that needs be done to save my Rachel alive!
You I allowed to speak up at the council because secrets I did not
want revealed, but to you I say, ‘leave matters be.’ The fate of
the universe rests upon the outcome, and I will put you down if you
become a risk! I trust Rachel, but I don’t trust you! Not in this
matter…”