Eternity Gate

by Traci Harding

  ‘Use me, Commander!’ Sariel picked up on my thought and appealed. ‘Neither my telepathy, not teleportation skill can be of further aid at this point.’

  ‘What you’re s-s-suggesting has n-n-never been at-t-tempted before,’ I advised.

  ‘Isn’t discovery the entire purpose of this journey?’ Sariel suggested, selflessly.

  ‘I can’t hold them —’ Sammael’s power over the horde loosened and all hell broke loose once more as he dropped like a stone onto the floor, exhausted.

  ‘C-c-coming, ready or not,’ I warned Sariel, as I moved my spirit form into alignment with his body, and Sariel’s spirit was cast out.

  ‘Welcome to the world of the disembodied,’ Araqiel greeted his brother.

  ‘It’s rather more peaceful here.’ Sariel observed Penemue shove one of the fallen right through his companion, and partially through himself, without disturbance.

  ‘I am finding it rather more pleasant,’ Araqiel replied, as they both watched me take Sariel’s body racing through the din towards Samyaza and Bael.

  The hazy barrier between my spirit body and the physical vanished as I was allied with the frequency of corporeal existence. The chill from the cryogenic state my other body was enduring also vanished, and I felt pleasantly strengthened and relieved. I did not wish to drain myself as Sammael had, and as the Grigori were outnumbering the Fallen three to one now, many were succeeding in containing their targets. I turned my attention to the ringleaders.

  ‘An opportunity to rip your pretty little throat out,’ Bael leaned over Sammael, to gloat. ‘There is a god!’ Wearing his triple form of Elohim-toad-cat, Bael opened wide his jaws to expose his razor-sharp teeth inset in an ugly amphibious face.

  Sammael grinned at the threat. ‘The creator is on our side.’

  Bael reared to attack and froze at my insistence.

  Samyaza hadn’t been worried when he’d spotted Sariel, our telepathic, coming towards them, for he was no threat in this instance. But seeing Bael constrained, he figured he’d underestimated the proceedings. ‘Either you have acquired a new talent, or Azazèl has found his way in there.’

  ‘Order your henchmen into their containment, or I shall have to sever parts to make them fit.’ From the authority in my tone the emperor knew who he was addressing.

  ‘You don’t have any weapons.’ Samyaza knew that for a fact.

  ‘I do not need any to make good my threat,’ I assured him.

  ‘All right,’ he agreed a little too easily for my liking. ‘We’ll go quietly.’ He gave the order for his Fallen to withdraw to their modules, and they complied as we continued to stare each other down. ‘Are you going to release Bael?’

  I used my psychokinesis to drag the creature away from Sammael and as I let it loose, Bael tumbled to a stop in front of his assigned module. Bael was quick to spring to his feet, and gave a resentful growl in my direction, before complying with the emperor’s command. ‘I’ll see you again.’ He assumed his regular appearance and forcing a grin, he entered stasis, and was locked inside and frozen by the closest Grigorian.

  ‘Your turn.’ I motioned Samyaza into the module containing his golden cast insignia.

  ‘Nice of you to see me off …’ he commented as he resumed his Elohim form and stepped inside. ‘Being that you are so pressed for time.’ He grinned broadly as the metal shackles secured him in place.

  ‘Well, I know how fond you are of formal farewells,’ I replied, unnerved by his grin.

  ‘If you want your own body back, we shall surely meet again,’ he said.

  ‘The dark universe will fill with light before I ever let that happen,’ I said, as I sealed the module closed, feeling a tremendous amount of satisfaction watching him snap frozen to a statue.

  ‘Thank heavens for that!’

  We looked up to see the grotesque three-headed form of Baleth floating overhead and, seeing the resentment on our faces, he urged, ‘Don’t hurt me!’ Gadriel assumed his regular form, and everyone drew a deep sigh of relief as our brother floated down to the floor.

  ‘I was about say,’ Bezaliel’s frown lifted, ‘I’ve never seen either of the ugly twins levitate!’

  ‘So what do we do with them all now?’ Penemue looked to Sariel, as he seemed to have assumed command.

  ‘Best that we return this vessel to base and swap —’

  ‘Ah, Commander,’ I heard Sariel say, and looked about to note his disembodied spirit shaking its head. ‘I think it might be a little late for that. But if you would kindly return my body, I will see what I can do.’

  I nodded to give him leave to boot me out, and before I knew it I was back to being disembodied.

  Sariel gave a sigh of relief upon being reunited with his body and then collapsed in a heap, just as Sammael had.

  ‘Damn, our pilot and our co-pilot down.’ I realised my error. ‘I should have thought that through better.’

  ‘We’ve never attempted possessing the body of another before,’ Araqiel stated kindly. ‘You could not have foreseen that the feat would drain Sariel to such an extent.’

  ‘What the hell is going on with you?’ Penemue reached down to help Sariel up, but the co-pilot gripped hold of the scholar behind the neck to make him listen.

  ‘Get to the control deck and stop this vessel going through the gate,’ he instructed. ‘We must not take the emperor and his army through with us!’

  In the control room Penemue found Sacha and a very much depleted Armaros both looking perplexed.

  ‘We were wondering where everyone had got to, being that we are about to pass through the gate.’ Sacha motioned to the exterior monitor, which was displaying nothing more than a mass of light — the control room window shields had been activated to block out the blinding emanation.

  ‘No, we must not!’ Penemue panicked as he ran to the controls, and activated the soft screen to look it over. ‘We need to throw the thrusters into reverse!’

  ‘What’s this “we” shit?’ Sacha objected. ‘I don’t know how to do that!’

  ‘Well, I don’t either.’ Penemue eyed over the data laid out before him on the pilot’s screen, and the controls on the desk before him. ‘But we had better figure it out pretty damn quick!’

  ‘Out of the way!’ Sammael demanded as he was carried forth by Gadriel and Bezaliel and dumped in the pilot’s seat. Penemue stood aside to watch, so as not to be so ignorant in future.

  As the reverse mechanism was locked into place, the ship began to vibrate violently.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Sacha demanded, his voice wavering with the violent shudders of their craft. ‘Are we being destroyed?’

  ‘Goddamn it all!’ Sammael shut off the engine entirely, and the violent shaking ceased. ‘We’re being drawn into the gate, we can’t stop it.’

  ‘But we must! We cannot take the Fallen with us!’ Penemue voiced my own fears. ‘And we cannot teleport them elsewhere, even if we had more time!’

  Sammael closed his eyes to focus his psychokinesis on the task, but again the ship began to violently rattle. ‘It’s beyond my control!’ Sammael threw his hands up. ‘If we try to resist, this craft will be torn apart! Better to perish in the attempt, than to perish trying to abort.’

  Sammael was right, although I was reluctant to concede defeat.

  I had failed my brothers; our termination at the hands of the creator for defying his will would be on my head. Even if we did make it through the gate intact, smuggling the greatest evil out of the old universe was also on me. The guilt and remorse devoured my soul as surely as a mind-eater would, and my eyes turned to my brother in spirit form beside me.

  ‘Fear not, my friend,’ Araqiel said. ‘All is exactly as it should be.’

  ‘I w-w-wish I could b-b-be as cert-t-tain,’ I replied, chilled to the core once again.

  ‘You are,’ he concluded. ‘You just don’t remember … but you will.’

  ‘You are g-g-guessing again.’

  His face lit up with a glowi
ng expression that I had never before witnessed — it was like a grin but more enthused — and just observing it made me feel calmed and pleased. Araqiel was also shaking his head to reject my assumption. ‘At the moment of my death, I saw what is to come, and it is breathtaking … beyond anything you can imagine.’

  Naturally I wanted to know more about the paradox, but the Leviathan entered the Eternity Gate. This was either the beginning of a new life, or the end of a very old one; I willed with all my being for the latter as I was absorbed by the light-field of consciousness eternal.

  8

  EXTRICATION

  Infused with a resonance that I had never thought to feel again, I enjoyed a warmth and peace that I had forgotten I had ever experienced so intimately.

  In this, my purest resonance, the guilt of my shortcomings, feelings of isolation, fear, abandonment and repression were burned away. Such inferior concepts and emotions could not stand in the great primordial light of the creator — more revitalising, expansive and magnificent than the light-fields of Lux. It was now clear to me that Lux was just an etheric space between universes — a buffer between one phase of evolution and the next.

  As the haze of my ignorance lifted, the great plan unfolded within my consciousness. It was clear that I had accomplished all I had set out to do. When I say ‘I’, I refer to all the Grigori, for we are one soul-mind sent to save both the collective consciousness of the Fallen Elohim and the soul-mind of humanity; for the Grigori had once been in the unique position of being partial to both.

  We were to protect these two diverse energies from one another and aid them to a harmonious understanding across the four universes and the numerous states of consciousness of our Sovereign Integral’s design — and there were countless other universal schemes beyond ours, even more splendid and intricate. This feud of opposing energies would play out through the course of our evolution back to source; for in each universe a certain level of conscious understanding had to be reached in order to progress to the next. Only through cooperation could we all return to source, for the harmonic unity of these varying consciousnesses of being would ensure that there was peace in heaven henceforth.

  The entity of Azazèl was no more responsible for the escape of the Fallen than for their existence, or the existence of the Grigori, or the mind-eater lying dormant within his form. And yet, as all are one in the greater scheme of things, I was the creator, I was the Satan and was in every way responsible, for in reality there was no self, no I. Everything that had happened had been meant. Although from Azazèl’s perspective, I was acting of my own free will, Azazèl had been operating from a limited understanding and despite this obstacle, my true will and purpose had still manifested in accordance with the plan. Only in this place of all-seeing non-judgement was that now apparent.

  All the life forms on board the Leviathan had a role to play in the evolution of the next universe of light and shadow, cause and effect, and karma. The Sovereign Integral had not turned its back on Samyaza and his company, any more than it would abandon humankind, the Grigori, or any of the other species that had begun their evolution from the depths of the dark universe. Every living being, both conscious and unconscious, were part of the Sovereign Integral and willing participants in the grand scheme of co-creation.

  It was known to me that just as the Fallen had been the adversaries of the human species in the last universe, so would they be in the next. And just as the Grigori had inadvertently saved many souls from both these opposing forces in that universe, we would again; but in this instance we must do so with conscious intent. For our Fallen brothers had highly developed mental bodies, but were emotionally barren, hence their puzzlement and lack of patience with the highly sensitive emotional bodies of humankind. We Grigori had developed both these subtle bodies and, working together, these granted us our extraordinary abilities. Our Fallen brethren had the intellect to perfect the physical bodies of humanity to enable them to further develop their mental bodies. Eventually, humans — through the love and compassion inherent in them — could in turn save their Fallen Elohim oppressors, by aiding development of the emotional bodies they would require to move on in the great evolutionary scheme. We Grigori were to facilitate and mediate this process.

  As for the mind-eater and its wealth of destructive knowledge: it was destined to be the great antagonist, for without temptation, without choice, there could be no free will. And without free will there were no means by which to learn the lessons required to evolve and no point to this harmonising exercise. For although Samyaza and his minions were to progress to the next level of consciousness, time in the dark universe operated differently to that above. Time was an illusion — all events in the four universes were playing out at once. Every breakaway consciousness taking part in the scheme was residing within all evolutions and every plane of existence at once.

  Thus Samyaza and his minions would always exist in the dark universe to be summoned by the unrighteous, and would continue to weed out those who would willingly follow the opposing cause, and defile the evolution of the creator.

  The opposer was most integral in the grand scheme of evolution, for only through an opposing aspect could a whole spectrum of frequencies form in the chasm between darkness and the source of divine light. This awarded the varying forms of consciousness within the scheme the means to learn from a great spectrum of experience and, in turn, go on to instruct others in cosmic law. This was the ultimate mentor system and the cosmic equivalent of reproduction.

  The lesson underlying the paradigm that needed to be comprehended was that ‘All are One’. Elohim, Grigori, human, animal, vegetable, mineral, molecule — all One and all equally vital to the others. In this moment I grasped that premise fully, for I remembered being at one with all these states of being.

  But no sooner had this been made clear to me than my expansive sense of being began to narrow and the haze of my ignorant individualised manifestation closed in on me once again.

  The light-field around me exploded with colours, more varied and vibrant than any I had perceived in the dark universe, and this dazzling spectrum wove into a tunnel and drew my consciousness forth.

  The speed of my descent was exhilarating and awe inspiring, yet my growing amnesia was anything but. By the time the gamut of colour again fused into white light, I had completely forgotten my knowledge of the plan, but at the same time I had a sense that I was exactly where I needed to be.

  My spirit attuned to a frequency that was in resonance with it and I came to focus on something that was a great wonder to behold.

  It was a pillar, not of stone, or metal, or mineral, but of illumined mist that swirled from its base and around an invisible pole up its centre, then spread out to support a ceiling that was equally intangible and light-filled. This organic column was one of many in this grand ethereal chamber. I was hesitant to look down, but in so doing I was pleased to find a polished marble floor that appeared as solid as I did.

  Welcome back, Azazèl.

  There was a being addressing me who appeared not unlike my vision of future humanity, but this human was not shapely and comely as the paragon had been, but more like one of the Grigori, only smaller in stature. His eyes were more slanted than any Azazèl had seen before, and the armour he wore appeared soft and flowing.

  ‘Are you Grigori?’ I ventured to ask.

  Sometimes, he replied, serving me the same pleasing grin as Araqiel had right before we entered the Eternity Gate. It’s called a smile, you should try it, feels good, he advised, without a word leaving his mouth.

  ‘Are we —’

  Conversing telepathically? Yes, he confirmed.

  ‘But I am not telepathic.’

  You are here.

  ‘And where is — Sorry.’ I ceased moving my mouth. Where is here?

  The antechamber of the Great Council of the Watchers, he said.

  So you are a Watcher? I assumed, having no memory of this place.

  He nodded. Som
etimes.

  Then what are you the rest of the time?

  Everything else. He grinned.

  I was just about to ask what I was doing here, when he motioned me to a corridor.

  Right this way. He moved off, urging me to accompany him.

  Where are the rest of the Grigori? Why am I the only one here?

  Again he urged me to move with him. You and your brothers are one, and you speak on behalf of the whole at this council. So in spirit your brothers are with you now, but in form they are still passing through the Eternity Gate.

  Even Araqiel?

  No.

  I was concerned about his omission, but my guide spoke up before I could protest.

  He has chosen a different path to the rest of the Grigori.

  How so? Why? Araqiel was the brother I relied on most heavily for guidance.

  Oh, don’t worry, he will still serve as a guide to you.

  I was not reassured. Why should I trust your word on that?

  Because he is me. The being transformed into Araqiel, although I thought he looked rather ridiculous wearing the flimsy robes the human had been attired in.

  My expression clearly conveyed my shock, awe and doubt.

  Believe it, my friend, he read my thoughts again. I have lived through countless lifetimes, species, and states of consciousness in this universe to be here to greet you today, but here I am. And if I can do that, so can you all. For I have laid the pathway for you.

  How is that possible? I was struggling to absorb his claim.

  Causality, he concluded, knowing I had no idea what he was talking about.

  Beyond the dark universe, the principles that govern existence are very different and full of infinite possibility. You have to open your mind now, Grigori, for whatever you imagine, for better or worse, you can make manifest. Like attracts like to your cause, which influences the ongoing effect that your desires have on creation. And as your stay in this universe will be a rather extended one, you’d best learn to create wisely.