Lucifer provided Troy a brief explanation, but without going into any great detail.
‘Who would conduct such an attack?’ asked Troy, liking the sound of Lucifer’s proposal, but still harbouring residual concern about the risks.
‘I have enlisted two who are willing to perform such acts, and have covenanted with me not to reveal us if caught.’
Troy wondered where and how Lucifer had come upon such trustworthy servants. He didn’t trouble himself too much however, due to his excitement that Kieran and his companion would be suitably punished for their arrogance.
He allowed his leader to depart alone in order to locate his assistants.
Finding his most devoted followers was generally an easy task as they were ordinarily to be found in the same worthless places doing the same useless things.
Upon locating them, Lucifer wasted no time in preparing his generals for battle.
‘Generals, your hour has arrived. Our cause is under threat and must be protected.’
You can imagine the delight that Anas and Silick felt when their dreary and wasted existence was suddenly given some purpose, a purpose that was entirely in keeping with the darkness within their souls.
‘Who would you have us attack, Lucifer?’ was the anxious reply of Anas.
‘Two worthless spirits who do not need to be named,’ answered their leader.
Not knowing their victims did nothing to dampen their excitement. They were briefed on the approximate whereabouts of the pair and speedily departed. They did so confident that they could identify the enemy in a crowd, but not caring too much if they happened to attack the wrong pair. As they flew they rejoiced together in the deed that they were about to perform. They each found the prospect of infusing two pure souls with all of the hate and filth that littered their minds very stimulating and not a little amusing.
Before long they came upon the common area in which the pair were last seen and found them still there. Kieran and Johan were leaving a group of spirits who were not interested in their message, and were moving to find others to teach.
The assailants didn’t wait until their victims were alone, in the middle of a crowded common area they launched straight into their targets. Having entered them, they first delivered all of the aggression, venom and hatred that they possessed, following which they attempted to unload a frightful combination of gore and filth into two of the purest minds in the Kingdom. The fact that they didn’t know the victims did not lessen their hatred. Both generals were brimming with venom, all they had lacked until now was a target.
Following an attack that lasted less than a minute, the generals left the scene as quickly as they had arrived, leaving the two victims lying on the ground. Their attack had been quick and no-one identified them. With the job done, they returned at speed to their leader so as to deliver their report.
27 the outcome
A female spirit in the vicinity was surprised to see two spirits fall to the ground and immediately ran to assist her fallen brothers, while others who cared less merely looked on.
‘Are you alright?’ she asked.
The length of time that she had to wait for a reply indicated that they weren’t.
‘W-what h-happened to us?’ Kieran asked eventually, clearly still in shock.
‘I’m not totally sure but as you fell I saw two spirits fly quickly away. This may sound strange but it appeared that they may have been inside you,’ she said, still trying to process what she had just witnessed.
‘Do you know who they were?’ asked Johan.
‘I’m sorry but I couldn’t tell. They left so quickly,’ replied their aide honestly.
‘May I ask your name?’ asked Kieran, gradually coming to his senses.
‘Cindy,’ was the reply.
Cindy was a kind soul. Almost all that she loved was good; however the company that she kept was starting to inhibit her growth. Her partner had been attending the rebel meetings, but she wasn’t interested. Although Cindy had received no vision or revelation upon meeting her love, she had become tired of waiting for ‘the one’ and had decided upon him. This decision was now putting her soul at risk.
Recently she had moved to the outer fringes to be near him, which meant that the company she now kept was generally of lower form. It also meant that the people she associated with most regularly were not interested in attending the classes that she had traditionally enjoyed, nor did they have any interest in the subject matter. All of this was beginning to have a suffocating effect on a choice soul.
‘What did they do to you?’ she asked the victims.
This was very difficult for the pair to describe, but they did so as best they could. For the first time they verbalised the feelings of hate that they had endured, but it was not easy to do so as that emotion was not part of the standard vocabulary of the Kingdom. Each of the two victims had been permitted to gaze into a small filtered window of the filth and ugliness that their attackers had attempted to infuse into their minds. Both kept this to themselves, it being too difficult to describe.
Cindy only partly comprehended their description and then asked a question that had been troubling her.
‘If you don’t mind me asking, what exactly are you doing here? You don’t appear to be of a type that would ordinarily spend time at this end of the Kingdom.’
Kieran was honest in reply. ‘We are here because we are concerned about some of the things that are being taught in this region. We have heard that some are speaking against our parents’ plan. We wish to defend it vigorously so that those listening are presented with truth at the same time that they are exposed to error. I suspect that it is for this reason that we have been attacked.’
‘I know of what you speak,’ Cindy confessed.
‘Then may I be so bold as to ask what you are doing here? You do not appear to belong either. Your countenance is far stronger than anyone else here,’ Kieran said, looking at the other spirits in that area and motioning with his hand in the direction of some of the dull looking individuals nearby.
Cindy followed Kieran’s gesture with her eyes, observing the spirits to whom he was referring. She was a petite female with long dark hair, rich red lips and lovely blue eyes. It was her countenance, however, that truly accentuated her beauty. No other spirit in that area, save Kieran and Johan, had anything close to it, and consequently all others looked plain in comparison, at least to those with discerning eyes.
She took his point but paused before giving her reply.
‘My partner is here and I have moved from my former home to be closer to him,’ she replied, sounding a little defensive.
Kieran rose from the ground before looking her squarely in the eyes and asking, ‘Is he the one?’
Cindy paused, again wondering whether to answer the question. She ultimately decided to do so.
‘I think that I’ve given up believing in the one. I had been waiting so long. Then my current companion came along and took an interest in me. It was nice just to be wanted and he was kind,’ she sighed.
There was a hint of resignation in her sigh that caused Kieran to probe more deeply, where ordinarily he wouldn’t have.
‘Is he kind to you now?’ he asked.
The question clearly had an effect on Cindy, and this because her partner was becoming more detached, and less kindly, by the day. On this occasion she didn’t reply, however the question was to become one that would repeat itself in her mind.
‘Is there anything else I can do for you?’ Cindy asked, changing a difficult subject that she didn’t want to discuss with two whom she had just met.
The reply surprised her because she had expected the request to involve her serving or comforting them in some way. Rather, the request was directed at her own future.
‘Yes Cindy, there is one thing that you could do for us. Would you please request a special meeting with Mother to discuss with her your change in location?’ was Kieran’s request.
Again Cindy did not re
ply, but the request would have an effect upon her future.
28 limited success
Mother and Father were aware of the attack and had restricted its effectiveness. They had permitted Anas and Silick to inject the full measure of their hatred into Kieran and Johan, however the victims had only been permitted to gaze through a very small frosted window at the perversion that was intended for them. Whilst they were always protective of the principle of agency, each sphere of progression had defined boundaries placed upon the extent to which the agency of one soul could be exercised to the detriment of another. The earthly experience was to be the greatest test of all. It would be a time when agency would go largely unchecked in regards to the ability of one soul to positively or negatively impact upon another.
Life in the Kingdom had stricter boundaries so as to enable all inhabitants the opportunity to choose the course of their own preparation for earth. To have permitted Kieran and Johan to be infused with all of the filth that they had utilised their own free agency to avoid, would have been a fundamental breach of the bounds set within that preparatory Kingdom. For this reason the filth and gore had been very heavily filtered, and the victims were only permitted to peer very quickly at a small portion of the content, so as to reinforce to them the dangers of such material, and also to prepare them for that which was to come. Accordingly, the hatred of Silick and Anas had had the greatest effect.
29 the shallow victory
While waiting for his generals, Lucifer repeatedly congratulated himself for his foresight and wisdom. His parents were fools to think that he was not ready to be given supreme power by them. He had enough wisdom and to spare, it was they who were stupid. For him the earthly mission was entirely unnecessary, since he had found such opportunities for ‘progression’ within the bounds of the Kingdom. His vanity and pride were without equal. He was a mere speck of dust drifting in the immensity of space, but somehow he envisaged that he was the centrepiece of the universe, and that all things revolved around him in the same manner that the planets revolve around the sun.
At length, Anas and Silick arrived and were quizzed by their leader.
‘How did you go?’ he asked excitedly.
'Quite well thank you, Lucifer,’ replied Silick, trying to sound upbeat.
‘What do you mean, quite well?’ demanded his commander.
As they had returned to their leader, Anas and Silick had engaged in a vigorous debate as to whether it was wise to be absolutely truthful about the extent of their success. Both had to concede that the attack had only been partially successful. They each felt that they had inflicted all of their hatred upon the victims but that they had been unsuccessful in imparting the foul images.
Knowing the kindness, patience and general good nature of his esteemed leader, Anas was very keen to deliver the report that Lucifer would like to hear, in preference to a factual account. Silick, on the other hand, feared to deliver an honest account, but was even more frightened of delivering a fictitious report, only to be discovered. Silick’s desire to tell the truth was not founded upon any form of integrity. It was entirely based on rational self-interest, and a desire to protect himself by selecting the lesser of two evils.
Ultimately, Silick had prevailed by instilling in Anas a very healthy fear of being caught in a lie. As a consequence, they agreed to be completely candid with their noble president. Certainly though, just for a moment, both questioned the logic of this approach due to the anger and venom in Lucifer’s voice. Nonetheless, Silick continued to render a factual account.
‘Lucifer, we both felt that we were able to infuse our hatred into the souls of the two victims, but that we were unable to successfully inflict upon them all of the images.’
‘How could this happen?’ Lucifer screeched insanely.
‘S-sorry Lucifer, b-but it felt l-like the images were being blocked in some way,’ Anas stammered.
‘Only Father or Mother could have done this! To filter the images that we were trying to inflict upon those worthless cretins is a fundamental breach of our agency!' Lucifer yelled.
No one could have reasoned with him at this time and, as is often the case with the evil, his anger against good escalated. He took some small solace in the fact that hatred could be conveyed in full, and that it may have weakened the unfortunate pair, however it was the saturation of filthy images that he was relying upon to do the most damage. Indeed, he had been very hopeful that it would be damage from which the victims would never recover.
On this point he did have some clarity. For pure and innocent souls to suddenly be bombarded with the very worst of earthly depravity would have had a permanent effect. Like humans, spirits learn a piece at a time. Even Lucifer was shocked initially by the study of earths and commenced his tuition by viewing milder wickedness, before graduating to complete filth and gore. He was also cunning enough to lead his followers carefully and slowly down that same path.
In the case of the intended attack on Kieran and Johan, the pair would not have been given this benefit. They would have been infused with the worst of the worst, without warning, and without ever having graduated in such learning. Thus Lucifer was correct in his assessment that this could, and most likely would, have done permanent damage to their souls. The fact that his generals could not achieve this outcome was most frustrating. After a combination of furious pacing, yelling and cursing, Lucifer dismissed his generals without any recognition of their faithfulness and moved into his quarters to seek comfort from the type of sleaze that provides no comfort.
Ultimately, once he had calmed down a little, Lucifer would deduce that the spiritual attacks may yet be effective, if they attacked in far greater numbers.
30 victim’s report
Still in shock, Kieran and Johan gradually made their way back from the outer regions. Initially they didn’t have the strength to fly, so they walked. As they did so, they were strengthened by the beauty that they passed on their journey, which acted as balm to their soul. Despite their suffering, they remained full of gratitude for all that they had been given. Thus, in spite of their trial, their souls could still take peace from the majesty that surrounded them.
Within the forests that they passed through there was harmony and great peace. The tiger did not need to seek meat. The snake did not have poison. All beasts were gentle and had not yet fallen to their temporary carnal state. The playfulness of the tiger cubs gave them renewed vigour. The steadiness of the elephants gave them resolve. The knowing look of the owl possessed them with new wisdom. The snow white purity of the dove cleansed them from the slither of evil that they had been permitted to see. The brilliance of a view over the forests reminded them of the magnitude of the Kingdom, and that they were but a small component of a great whole. In this manner they regained strength, and flushed out evil, and gradually they gathered the strength to fly.
By the time they had arrived back in their region of the Kingdom, they were calm and could recount their experience with clarity. Others of their friends had also been dispatched to the southern areas of the Kingdom on a similar mission and they had agreed upon a time and place at which they should meet to debrief on the success of their respective endeavours. Kieran and Johan were horribly late for this meeting, but thankfully their friends were still gathered in the same place enjoying one another’s company. Although they felt much better, it was still clear as Kieran and Johan approached, that something was amiss.
Rachel expressed the collective feeling of the group and asked: ‘Are you two alright?’
‘We are now, but we have just endured something that we would rather not have,’ answered Johan quietly.
‘What has happened?’ Michael asked, becoming concerned.
‘We were just attacked,’ said Johan.
‘What?’ exclaimed Michael in disbelief, rising instantly to his feet.
Johan and Kieran then explained precisely what had occurred.
Michael was furious. As their superior he felt an almost parent
-like responsibility for his spirit brothers and sisters, and particularly for those with whom he was closest.
Rachel also felt a new emotion, fear. Within the safety of the Kingdom she had never felt threatened in any way. For the first time, but not the last, she felt as though there was a force other than that which she had previously experienced. Sarah felt this same emotion, but unlike Rachel she had felt it before, whilst exposed to the regular visitor to her library. She had almost forgotten the feeling and did not appreciate its return.
Samuel was shocked and concerned. He was an inherently placid character who would be slow to anger on earth, but this did not mean that he was incapable of it. For now though, he was saddened by this new development and was concerned about what it would mean for their attempts to have a positive influence on the dimmer regions of the Kingdom. If they were unable to patrol these areas, and speak against Anas and his followers, then the evil in those regions was sure to intensify and spread.
Each of the others in that small group felt something along that same spectrum of emotions.
‘Is there anything that we can do for you?’ asked Samuel.
‘No, I think that we are alright now thank you Samuel. We took a long slow walk as part of our journey home and we seem to have recovered,’ replied Kieran.
Michael, having gathered himself, spoke next. ‘I think we should discuss this with our parents as soon as possible. This is a very serious matter and hopefully it will require immediate discipline for the perpetrators,’ he said, his anger bubbling furiously just below the surface.
This was broadly agreed upon, and a delegation consisting of both victims, Michael and Samuel set out for their parents’ abode.
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