The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix (8 page)

He looked at Hanna, smiling. “There are those in
unseen places who have taken a shine to you, my dear one. For you,
they opened the doors wide this day so that you might see into
their world. In time you, too, will walk among those Unseen Ones,
they waiting to reveal many of their secrets to you.”

Drorli looked into Hanna’s eyes. “Yes, though
numberless the people who will one day attain the world of the
immortals are, for you, my visions have spoken of a special place
reserved for you there, and many eager hearts awaiting to be made
one with yours.”

Hanna could only nod mutely, her head spinning,
recalling so many of the visions that had poured into her mind
during her dream-share with Drorli. Symeon, though, was becoming
anxious. He was not happy to think they had only been on a tour of
an empty
building
.

Looking around dismayed, he sputtered, “You mean to
say that we have been dragged all over this hopeless place just to
be shown a few lonesome chambers and forgotten rooms?! I thought we
were supposed to see the returning of my little girl.”

Drorli frowned, but well understood Symeon’s
impatience. “My friend, many are the roads that lead the aimless
sojourners to journey’s end, but only one will carry the penitent
onward into absolution.”

He stopped and faced Symeon. “My kind seeks
absolution, for we allowed wickedness to enter this world when
power had long ago been delivered into our hands to prevent it.
Your kind shall lead us upon the road to absolution, but through
fire and blood must we travel to attain it.”

Drorli pointed at an astonished Hanna, addressing
Symeon. “And this holy child has delivered up to us the hope for
our salvation, for by her seed does the coming of all things
happen. She will pronounce upon us the blessing or the malediction,
the gift or the curse. And she, herself, shall in the ending hour
lift up the ‘stone’ to bring life…or death to us. It has been for
this reason that we have journeyed here this day. This woman must
find the road for us all, or my kind shall come to nothing in our
shame.”

He apologized to Symeon for taking him down a
winding path, “My friend, my brother, I have not led you in a
roundabout this day for no good reason, but delivered you two here
early in order to show to you and speak to you about these wondrous
things secreted in these chambers. Few of your kind have ever
visited these Realms of the gods that were hidden away from even my
kind since the Rebellion began. There has been an awakening in this
universe that my bones have not felt since before the burning of
Lagandow. It both refreshes and chills my soul, for I know only the
road it places us upon and not its final destination.”

“By my own hands have I delivered so many of your
kind into this world. Your Garlocks, Copelands, and Trishas I have
watched turn from the elements of this planet into houses of flesh
for their minds to reside in. With the excitement of a father
watching his child born, I have witnessed the spirit of rebirth
take hold of that flesh and return a living being to us.”

He pointed a finger into the air, slowly shaking it.
“Yet I have known that to return life to these people only hastens
our own demise, our way of life, culture, and very souls. This
child whom you call ‘daughter’ is a most dangerous person. Her
sword will make these holy lands run red with the blood of both the
wicked and innocent. I fear her, for the girl will deliver us all
to the very gates of Hell. She is a Monster Divine, as are her two
sister swords.”

He sighed. “My very own hands have cursed my people.
I am the bringer of destruction, for I have delivered these Sister
Dragons to us. My heart wishes only to destroy the flesh of your
kindred so that their minds cannot gather their power to our world,
but my mind knows it must be done. Those who dwell in unseen places
desire your kind to gather to us, and I will obey them.”

Drorli placed a hand on Symeon’s shoulder. “I
celebrate when one of your kind is reborn here, but I do not
rejoice. I both love my new brethren and hate them - love them
because I know they will bring us to victory, hate them because
they will rip away our masks of false piety and will destroy
everything we hold so dear. The flesh of your girl is of greater
beauty than even many of my sister kindred. She is a wonder to
behold, a goddess, yet to me her flesh is an abhorrent sight, for I
have seen the destruction she and all her kind will bring upon
us.”

Turning to a very confused Hanna, Drorli took one of
her hands, holding it so tenderly and looked back at Symeon. “This
woman is a healer - a healer of hearts and souls. She and those
others like her shall save us from the malediction we so much
deserve.
Holy angels be damned!
Those stories told about us
to your kind by Mother were given to encourage you and give you
hope. We failed our mother in her darkest hour, when hope for our
world still remained. No, we failed, and our mother’s heart broke.
Now your kind must fix it no matter the cost to us.”

Drorli turned away, looking off into the darkness.
“There!”
He spoke as his voice cracked in sadness. “My
reason for bringing you here has been accomplished. These things I
have told you must remain here in the land of the Watchers. They
will protect them from other ears. Hanna, my dear love, you needed
to know - they wanted you to know. Do not ask me to explain,
because I do not have the words to do so.”

After wiping a hand across his face, Drorli turned
around, forcing a smile. “I have done what I could to prepare you
for the coming days. A gray mist hides from me what the future will
be, and I do not see what part I shall play in it. So take my
council and do what you will with it. I will do all that is in my
power to assist your girl’s safe delivery into our world, and then
my work here will be done. She is the last to come for many days,
the gates through which you passed to be sealed closed until the
Watchers choose to open them again.”

Sucking in a breath, Drorli composed himself and
then laughed. “Well, well, I so much want you to see the
magnificence of the ProsPhoneo. It is a wonder of technological
achievement. Come along, we still have some time before we visit
your little one.”

Symeon and Hanna silently obeyed, following Drorli.
They were both too deeply absorbed in thought concerning his
troubling revelations to do otherwise.

*

The ProsPhoneo was a marvelous place, located on a
raised, circular platform at the very center of the Rotunda,
commanding a three hundred and sixty degree view of the entire
theater. Control panels allowed use of special lighting and
projection systems that could turn the entire domed area into one
gigantic motion picture screen. Drorli lit up the dome with images
of the starry night sky as it appeared over Palace City throughout
its four-season progression. He also explained that through the
marvel of design, a speaker on the ProsPhoneo could easily be heard
in the farthest reaches of the auditorium without the use of
mechanical amplifying equipment, and do this without creating any
echo.

At length, they left the Rotunda, exiting onto a
different concourse that Drorli did not name, gradually making
their way back to the gated door where Symeon and Hanna originally
met up with him earlier that day. By that time, they were all in a
cheery mood, Drorli entertaining them with humorous tales of his
life growing up in the old days of Palace City long ago. After
enjoying some refreshments that had been prepared for them, they
were off to pay a visit upon the soon to arrive child.

*

In a series of small side chambers leading to the
main temple where the girl was being prepared, many hands were busy
turning dials and operating strange-looking machines of sorts.
Drorli explained, “I assume that Mother could have made things much
easier for her children had she wanted to, but she is known to make
us work hard for our reward. The reason, I believe, is that she
feels we will appreciate the end result more if we have struggled a
bit to make it succeed. So it is with these rejuvenating machines.
Many are the helpers needed to maintain a constant vigil over the
operation or things may go awry, and we would have to start over
again.”

He grinned, watching a troubled frown grow on
Symeon’s face. “Don’t worry, my friend. Your little girl is in
right fine shape… well… at least this time round.” He chuckled to
watch Symeon wince at this last statement.

Over a dozen temple assistants busied themselves
with various duties. Symeon was overwhelmed with wonderment. “Why
all these machines to rebuild such a small body?” He asked Drorli.
“When I walked in the world of men, the miracles I witnessed were
instantaneous. Why all the people and machines?”

Drorli smiled. “A reasonable question, my friend,
and there are several reasonable answers to it. When the repairs or
what you call ‘miracles’ were made to your kind, often Mother and
the Lady were directing them, and with our Mihai, the very powers
of the Immortals were funneled through her, so that even a touch of
Mihai’s clothing was enough to heal some people. Plus, in most
cases, the mind need not have been returned to the dead flesh, it
not yet being truly dead, so there was merely the rebuilding of the
body that was done.”

“You see,” Drorli went on to explain, “the mind that
is beyond the flesh gathers around itself some of the hidden energy
of the universe. That energy becomes what some call the person’s
‘aura’, meaning ‘invisible self’. This aura slowly ebbs and flows
in power and force. The more content and comfortable we are, the
weaker the force, thus allowing or even desiring the aura of a
trusted companion to draw nearer to it, to us. When someone
willingly shares his or her dreams, it is the energy of the auras
that create the feeling of being drawn into each other. Without the
power of the aura, there could be no dream share.”

Drorli stepped back, looking around the room. “There
is so much more I could tell you about this energy or aura, but
time does not permit. There are entire volumes of our scientific
journals filled with aura theory and study. There have been
millennia of research and philosophical thought given to the
subject, and still much of what we believe concerning it is
conjecture and assumption on our part.”

“We do understand a few things about it, though.
This energy field, aura, dissipates gradually in death. We feel it
is designed in this way to prevent the mind from escaping
prematurely should someone become severely damaged in the flesh,
thus giving the powers of the flesh time to correctly communicate
with the mind as to its fate, helping the mind decide whether it
should remain and wait to see if the flesh of the person will
survive.”

An attendant called out to Drorli with a question.
He excused himself to check on the attendant’s needs. In a moment
the man returned, making brief comment concerning what was
currently happening, and then he continued.

“Depending upon the circumstances, and there are too
many to discuss here, the aura may encourage the mind to linger
long after the body has given up on life, many hours possibly, or
even a day or two under extreme conditions. We, the children don’t
consider a person truly deceased until we feel his mind completely
departed the flesh, until we feel it gone from the body.”

“It is for this reason, we believe, that the aura
may long hold the mind to a nonliving body. That you witnessed with
your teacher’s decisive actions regarding Lazarus’ death and return
to life. By waiting three days, time for the man’s body to be
stinking, it could be proved to all in the realms above and below
that Mother could return life to the truly dead. Though Asotos
chose to at first publicly deny that event, charging it to be a
‘mere trick,’ he was later forced to recant his accusation because
so many of his followers did accept the event as fact, he then
changing his story to claim that power to return life lay hidden
within the Palace, the man unwilling to give any of that credit to
Mother.”

“It is for the reason that the aura is a power of
energy unto itself, drawing its strength from other sources beyond
this universe, so that it may long linger even after the flesh has
been removed to another place. If a person’s death is unexpected -
violent, let’s say - life being ripped from the flesh, possibly
thus shocking the entire energy system, the aura may long hold the
mind in suspension, for some time… possibly years, wrapping its
energy force around the mind and retarding its return to the Web.”
Drorli raised a finger, gesturing. “This may also happen at times
with animals… in a little different way, but that is another
theorem for another time.”

“So it may be, when someone dies unexpectedly,
violently, or when the flesh surrenders itself of the mind too
quickly, the mind and aura may linger in the vicinity for some time
before the aura’s energy weakens and dissipates. Those who are
sensitive to their own auras may well feel the presence of the
lingering minds, thus come to believe that the person still lives
in some way. This feeling is common on the old battlefields, even
in this world, and it is often the reason why so many soldiers
desire to return to their old haunts.”

Symeon piped in. “This is interesting information,
and happy will I be to sit in rapt silence beside a warm fire while
you’re contented to spend the evening extolling these secrets to
me. But I would like to know what this has to do at all with my
little girl?”

Drorli smiled, apologizing. “I am very good at
explaining in many words what could be said in a few. I didn’t
intend to turn this into a dissertation. My reason for discussing
this was to answer you former question, ‘why all the attendants and
machines to bring back only one person?’”