The Cosmic Logos (36 page)

‘I understand,' Maelgwn said. ‘There was a place that passed in and out of physical existence in this way later in history; it was known as Avalon. Some people could find their way to it, others would get lost in the mist. And Shamballa is an illusory place to the dark of heart.'

‘I was advised by the spirits to lead my sisters to the Mount Duranki Plateau the moment the invasion commenced. I was assured that they would be rescued by members of the White Brotherhood and taken to a safe haven.'

‘And you did not go with them?' Maelgwn wondered why.

Electra shook her head and suppressed a non-amused smile. ‘I was not innocent. I had the guilt of my father's betrayal hanging over my head. Thus, I went to await my brother's justice at the grave of my father.'

 

By the time the attacking force had penetrated the inner island, Aegisthus and his sorcerers had retreated to their Dark Lodge which was fortified by a supernatural electromagnetic field that could not be penetrated by any living thing. The dark wizard had Clytemnestra
with him, although his adepts had been unable to locate the seven daughters of Agamemnon.

Electra found it hard to suppress a smile as she considered how irate the sorcerer would be to lose her services for, without Electra, Aegisthus had no link to the divine, no link to the truth. Now the sorcerer would have to rely on low-grade elementals for information, and they rarely bothered with little details like getting their facts straight … and due to the demented substance from which they were made, they were also compulsive liars. There were spells that could bind these spirits to tell the truth, but having limited knowledge of the physical world, and therefore no concept of history, space or time, elementals were known to get a bit confused when attempting to predict future events.

She knelt in prayer before the memorial to her father; Agamemnon had no grave, his person had been incinerated by a ritual spell of summons that Electra had concocted herself.

Her mother had come to her with a private request. Clytemnestra claimed that Aegisthus had been trying to seduce her in Agamemnon's absence and had threatened to seize the kingdom. Her mother had made it clear how desperate she was to be rid of the sorcerer's threats and begged Electra to use her knowledge of the spirit realm to find a spirit who would dispose of the sorcerer and rid them of his evil presence. Feeling that it was to the benefit of their people, Electra agreed to find such a spirit and to devise the ritual that would command the spirit to carry out any task that Clytemnestra asked of it.

Electra had been made aware long before, by her most trusted spiritual guide, Mikhail, of a group of spirits known as the Fallen Ones. Mikhail had described these Fallen Ones as more involved in the physical world than those of his ilk, and thus they were more readily available to be of service to humans. Electra had been given a silver ring to protect her from the glamour of the Fallen Ones, also known as the Lords of Darkness, should they ever appear to her and attempt to tempt her to their cause.

Using the ring for protection, Electra put out a psychic request to make contact with one of the fallen. Electra found herself confronted by a spirit who answered to the name of Power. Electra had imagined that a fallen angel would be as ugly as the divine spirits were beautiful, but to the contrary Power was very physically attractive and had an alluring energy. He agreed to help Electra and dictated to her the summons that Clytemnestra could recite to bring him forth for her instruction. Electra had asked Power what he required in return for his service and he'd insisted that such service brought its own rewards.

Only now did Electra realise the full implications of what Power had meant. When Clytemnestra instructed Power to dispose of Agamemnon instead of Aegisthus, chaos descended on the nation. Electra had lost her silver ring of protection to Aegisthus, who now also knew the ritual to call forth Power. Fortunately, Power was not as well disposed towards serving Aegisthus, as there was little point in corrupting the already corrupted; the dark spirit was not proving as useful an ally as the sorcerer had expected. The ring only
protected the wearer from the fallen — it didn't grant any power over them.

Electra and her sisters had placed the small memorial to their father inside the high temple walls, for the sorcerer wouldn't allow a public place of remembrance to be constructed. However, he allowed the daughters of Agamemnon a small shrine where they could privately grieve their loss.

Electra remained on her knees, but turned herself around to face the troops she heard entering the temple. Orestes was at the head of the force and was accompanied by the tall, handsome man from her visions.
He is you,
she recalled what Raziel had said of him.

Her brother drew his laser sword as he approached and extended the deadly blade. ‘Where are my sisters?' Orestes demanded to know, before making himself clearer. ‘The ones that remained faithful to our father?'

‘They have fled the impending crisis for a far off land,' Electra advised.

‘You know about the crisis?' Prometheus interrupted and Electra nodded.

‘Don't change the subject.' Orestes came up behind Electra, and placing his foot on her shoulder he urged her to lean forward in preparation to lose her head. ‘You have been found guilty of acting as an accomplice in the unholy murder of our father, the Shu Sar Agamemnon. Have you anything to say for yourself, before your head and body are parted?'

Electra and Orestes had always been very close. It killed her inside to know that he bore her so much malice, although she did not blame him.

As Prometheus observed Orestes raise his sword, he wondered how his friend could bring himself to end the life of such an angel. She knelt here, head bowed, accepting her fate.

‘I'll assume your silence is an admission of guilt,' Orestes warned her.

Electra was not listening. She was ready to leave this wretched existence and join her beautiful spirits in their realms.

From above Electra perceived a bright beam of light fall upon her. Mikhail, the Viceroy of the Logos, descended to protect her by enfolding her with his wings. Electra had never looked Mikhail in the face, but she knew him by his warrior-like metal armour.

‘May the Logos have mercy on your soul, Electra.' Orestes slashed downwards with the beam of his weapon, but the fatal strike was deflected by Prometheus's weapon. ‘Stay out of this, my friend,' Orestes cautioned, perturbed that his ally would interrupt. ‘This is none of your affair.'

‘Look at her.' Prometheus urged Orestes to open his eyes. ‘Can you not see the light radiating from her being? This is not the face of a traitor.' What Prometheus wasn't saying was how much of his wife he saw in this woman.

Orestes had never met Prometheus's wife, for Prometheus had been on a diplomatic errand with her at the same time as Orestes's request for asylum in Usiqua had reached him. Prometheus had granted the request from afar; the ruler's wife was murdered before they returned to their kingdom.

Orestes looked at his sister for the first time since he'd entered. She did look like an angel, and she had saved his life once. ‘Curses!' he snarled, as his will to kill her flew right out the door. ‘All right then,' he seethed, feeling it was Prometheus's fault that he'd lost the nerve to avenge his father. ‘I'll spare her life for you, Prometheus. But as I want nothing further to do with her, I make of her a gift to you, to do with as you see fit.'

Put on the spot, Prometheus was stupefied for a moment. ‘I feel sure Electra has an explanation for what happened. Perhaps if you'd hear her side of the story you will not be so eager to be rid of the only kindred you have left.'

Orestes looked to Electra, who had her eyes bowed reverently. ‘Well, dear sister, let us hear what you have to say,' he asked again, sounding exasperated with giving her a second chance.

Tell him you were deceived,
the spirit protecting Electra advised.

Usually, Electra always followed divine advice. ‘I used my knowledge for a dark purpose, and even though that purpose backfired on me it does not make my crime any less severe.'

‘See,' Orestes rounded on Prometheus. ‘She admits her guilt and is prepared to die for her crime.'

‘And she will soon enough, without you adding another soul to your conscience.' Prometheus reminded his friend of the disaster to come. ‘You have said that Electra holds sway with the spirit world. She might be our only chance to seek our justice before the universe wreaks its own.'

‘And what if Electra is working for Aegisthus, as our mother is?' Orestes argued. ‘We cannot risk it.'

‘The spirits claim that mother is under a spell that Aegisthus concocted.' Electra pleaded her mother's case. ‘None of her betrayal of her kindred was of her own choosing. She accepted a jewelled necklace from the sorcerer and from then on was bound to do his will.'

‘So you did not know you were aiding in the plan to kill your father when Clytemnestra asked you for a spell of summons?' Prometheus put forward.

‘I should never have relinquished such power to a novice.' Electra insisted on accepting blame. ‘In allowing mother to shield me from any part in a murder, I shirked my responsibility to the Logos and thus my own throat was destined to be cut.'

‘Your will is my command.' Orestes raised his weapon once again.

Prometheus raised a hand to again stop the execution. ‘Do you know how the Dark Lodge can be destroyed, Electra?'

‘I understand it will be destroyed without any aid from us,' she replied.

How odd it was that this stranger was so determined to defend her. But when Electra remembered what Raziel had said about Prometheus, she realised that on a cosmic level he was trying to save his own skin. Still, it would not serve him. If she died now, she would amend for the life she aided to take and leave this world a pure soul totally devoted to the Logos. The tall, handsome stranger's defence of her was deeply stirring to her blood and she feared being distracted from her devotion to
the Logos if she was granted the opportunity to know him better.

‘Kill me, Orestes,' she requested calmly, although there was an underlying panic in her voice. ‘My life is owed.'
Please, Mikhail, withdraw my protection, and greet my soul upon death's release.
She knew the spirit was the cause of her brother's procrastination.

Time stood still. Every movement, every sound, was suspended, but only Electra perceived what had happened. Mikhail floated back to where Electra might view him.

Look at me, Electra,
the spirit requested.
Behold my face.

The oracle raised her eyes to view the face of the free floating entity addressing her and gasped as she noted the resemblance between the tall handsome stranger and the divine spirit. ‘You are Prometheus?' She frowned, as she further considered what Raziel had said about him. ‘You are me?'

The essential spiritual essence behind your soul-mind was carried down into evolution by my fallen counterpart,
Mikhail confirmed.
Thus, within you lies the potential for my evolution and the evolution of all our forms on every level of awareness between my home plane of demonstration and yours.

‘Is Power our fallen counterpart?' Electra assumed this was why the fallen spirit had answered her summons, and yet Power had not borne the same physical resemblance that Mikhail shared with Prometheus.

No,
he responded simply, not wanting to get off track.
Death would be the easy way out for you at this time,
the spirit advised.
The Logos still has services for you to
perform in his name. As horrendous as your life has been of late, this is nothing compared to what lies in store for you, Electra … there is much darkness ahead.

‘Darkness?' Electra recalled what she had recently learned about the subject. ‘I cannot know the divine without having experienced both polarities,' she said, a little hesitantly.

What you are being offered is a speedy path to spiritual advancement via extreme torment. Should you choose to die now your soul will evolve as it otherwise would have, but your greatest aspiration, to serve the Logos at a subjective level, will be much slower in coming to fruition.

‘Am I to open myself to the dark path or resist it?' Electra begged for more information, on the verge of tears, for she knew this trial was the will of the Logos.

You will be subject to it. Whether you become its victim, ally or master, will be completely up to you. But polarity demands your understanding of the darkness if you aspire to higher spiritual work.

‘You understand darkness thus?' Electra wondered what the point to all this was.

No,
Mikhail conceded humbly.
Only my fallen aspect understands darkness, and it understands the void very well. At the end of this great round of evolution my fallen aspect shall return to me and I shall understand all that it has learned in its travels.

‘Merciful heavens,' Electra sobbed. ‘I dare not refuse this gift and yet I fear acceptance.' Her life as a holy oracle had been a very sheltered one and she suspected that her protection was about to be removed. ‘This is goodbye then, Mikhail?' Her voice nearly fled her.

The beautiful being nodded.
The only spirit of high order who may answer your call henceforth shall be Uriel.

‘It is he who holds the key to the pit of Abaddon.' Electra found the strength to accept her place in the divine plan. ‘I am the humble servant of the Logos.' She stood and walked away from her brother's glowing blade and then turned to bow to Mikhail. ‘I will the divine will.'

Mikhail smiled, proud of her.
Thy will be done.

The spirit vanished and Electra's world came to life once more.