Mother of Darkwaters: Book one of the Vessel series

by Tony C. Skye

  The diamond is supposedly an item reserved only for the Mother of Darkwaters. And although Martha can be quite playful at times, when it comes to family business, the older woman does not joke…at all. But while some may view her grams as eccentric in this area, Julianna has come to understand over this past year the seriousness of this library. Martha isn't eccentric. She understands when to play and when to be grown up. A valuable lesson Julianna learned at the Lady Lanecia's house; whenever, a simple cleansing ritual turned deadly.

  Julianna picks a branch and places the Lilith diamond's necklace over one of the ending sprouts. She studies the markings with her eyes. The three converging lines is thought by the gem's creators to represent the balancing powers which keep the living from tearing away the spiritual veil of the black sea. In other words, the three lines are believed to represent the God of Heaven. His power prevents the living from witnessing the realm of the dead.

  The balancing part of this act allows the dead to view the living. And at times, they interact. But as Julianna sees it, this is no more than a sick and perverted punishment against those who have passed on, but refused to bow to Him. They are forced to watch while their family members live out their physical lives. Lives wrought with pain, regret, sadness, and grief. And the few brief moments of joy – any life can expect to experience – can never tip the unbalanced scales of His creation.

  The creators of this diamond may have thought these converging lines represented the God of Heaven, but Julianna understands this isn't entirely true. The creators' philosophy is correct, but not within the lines themselves. These lines have nothing to do with Him. The proof is in the gem itself. It is the Lilith diamond. Not the God diamond. The converging lines are nothing more than the rules of prophecy governing the Mother of Darkwaters' arrival.

  One of the first things Julianna did upon her return from the disastrous cleansing ritual was to buckle down on the Lilith language. After quickly finding out that it would take time to learn such a vast language, she decided to work on it in between her studies of the color-tagged books.

  Her mother's nursery rhyme did point to the next key. But the one, two part of the princess finding her key wasn't about the first two books in the white series. The nursery rhyme was talking about the twelfth book. It frustrated her a little bit, but she learned to never assume anything. So it wasn't a complete loss. Since then, however, Julianna has made it through the white, yellow, green, and is currently on the blue series. Granted, she reads faster than her brain is able to remember. So technically, she must still go back to the other colors with quite a bit of frequency.

  As tough as it can be to read through these books, they can't hold a candle to the Lilith Language. It is older than any other language on the planet and is only kept alive through the library. The general rule about the Collection – as Lilith refers to it – is that no one outside of Lilith's descendants can ever see any of its contents. Those that can see aren't able to pass on their knowledge outside of writing into a book. Therefore, she can't exactly look anything up on the internet to gain outside help. Nor, is she able to visit some elaborate university specializing in Lilith's language.

  Verbal teaching is frowned upon because it can lead someone into manipulating another with their views on the subject matter. Julianna can ask her grams for help on something she has already read or is currently studying, but if the answer is capable of influencing her, then Martha refuses to respond. If she does, it is something to the effect of 'Keep reading Julia' or 'You will find it soon enough. Hang in there.'

  This frustrates her to no end. But there is a bright side to it as well. It is an understanding that any and all of her decisions are hers and hers alone to make. She doesn't have to please anyone by doing this or doing that. She only must study, learn, and decide for herself what she will make of the library's contents. There's no pressure. None at all. And this is what makes the library so great. So much mystery and knowledge to be had without the pressures of someone else forcing her to learn their own understandings. Her findings are her own. As are her views.

  The only jump starts allowed come from the tradition created by the first ever diary writer. That specific teenager had been tasked with writing Lilith's story. But its format served as a guide for those who would follow over the years to come. A diary would be passed down to the first born daughter of the one who had written it. And as the years progressed, the general rule expanded to the only surviving daughter, or the one daughter chosen by her mother.

  Anything written inside of each respective diary can never be spoken of to anyone else. Only the reader can view its contents. The information passed on by the writer can prove to be invaluable for the person wielding it. And one of the more neat things about the inability to speak on what she has found within her mother's diary, Julianna can write about what she's learned and discovered within the form of another book. Possibly an entire new series could be born.

  In essence, if her mother's diary contains information that is found to be helpful and complete within its truth, but cannot be found in the library's contents anywhere else; then, Julianna has the honored right to add her mother's findings to the Collection. She, herself, would be the witness to her mother's truths. And this is how the Collection came into existence. It is alive. It grows. It is a living, breathing entity unto its own. It exists with the knowledge of both the dead and living.

  The obvious downside to the library is all the secrecy. It makes learning the Lilith language a slow and painstaking process at best. Even though the library is mainly written in Latin, Old English, and modern English, Julianna assumes that the really good books are still in Lilith's native language. Julianna isn't sure how she's come to this understanding, but it is a gut feeling which refuses to shake itself from her.

  The more she learns within the realm of Lilith's language, the more she becomes fluent within the dead language of Latin. It seems as though Latin is some sort of spin off of Lilith's original tongue. That is, Latin was used to begin the integration process from a native tongue to a modern one.

  Latin itself is easily transcribed due to the Latin to English dictionaries readily available. But Lilith's tongue is an unknown language altogether. Her symbols, insignias, and writings have been lost to the world. Julianna suspects it is part of the punishment dished out by Him.

  The Sumerian language is somewhat closer to Lilith's own as far as the symbols and insignias are concerned. But it, too, is drawn from the original language and has been altered. So learning the Sumerian language would be as useless as learning Latin.

  Prophecy has been no kinder to Julianna. Especially, since the prophecy continually changes upon a wall in which Julianna has only seen a few times. And even if she could see it at will, the wall is written in Lilith's native tongue. But all of these setbacks combined have not prevented Julianna from figuring out the diamond's meaning.

  The three converging lines relate to a piece of the Prophecy of Lilith which has been previously transcribed by an earlier relative. It is the part which announces the Mother of Darkwaters’ arrival. Ironically, Julianna found the information in a type general book entitled: Mother of Darkwaters. She was quite amused by the simplicity of it all. But then again, there's no reason to hide anything within the library. No one sees its content anyway. No one that isn’t supposed to, anyway.

  Julianna hangs the necklace with the colored keys upon one of the white branches. She grabs a book from the top of her desk and walks over to her bed. Sitting on the bed's edge, Julianna opens the book and begins reading.

  Tis' be the season of the coming of our Mother of Darkwaters. Her glorious feet will reside in the sea of Black. From her mouth pours the blackness of Death himself. Not once, not twice, but thrice shall be our Mother's sign. All of her numbers shall equal the number of her Darkwaters.

  At first whence tis' be our Mother's arrival, thine shall be birthed as two. Thou shall be devoured and divided into one. The first shall be life. The secon
d – the nameless one – shall pay thy price to Death himself. Thine hair shall flame within the fires of righteous fury. And the sky shall shine through thine eyes.

  At second whence tis' be our Mother's arrival, thou shall be reborn of fire. Its heat shall scorch thine hair's beauty black. The sky shall shine through thine eyes. And thou shall flee from thy destiny's sacred laws.

  At thrice whence tis' be our Mother's arrival, thine shall be reborn of both Death and of righteous fire. Every living green thing fills thine eyes. The sky before the storm shines brightly within them. Thine mane shall bring beasts to bow before thee. And only the king of Death shall be placed above thee. For Death himself must bow with the beasts.

  Thou will be blessed by the king of Death. Thy blessing shall cause parasites to flee and drown by the sea's shore. Thou shall find comfort among the trees and branches. When thine hands know them, they tremble before thee. Their branches broken fills thine heart with delight. And thine delight fills them with life though they are found to be among the dead.

  Even thy greatest Mother – thy first Mother – shall cry out within thine heart's delight. Thy first Mother will care for thine night's body upon her shores. Thy first Mother shall smile upon thee.

  Tis' be the season of our Mother of Darkwaters.

  Prophecy of Lilith: sub-prophecy – Arrival.

  With a slight grin, Julianna closes the book. The first part of the prophecy is rather self-explanatory. She drank down a hallucinogenic and appeared on Lilith's beach in the water's shore. Ignorantly, she decided to gargle the sea's water in an attempt to rinse her mouth clean from the vomit taste she had. And after that all hell broke loose.

  The second paragraph of the prophecy speaks of her grams. Julianna found a passage in one of the white tag books detailing her family lineage. Martha had been born as a twin. She entered the world first. Her sister followed, but died after her first and only breath. She was never given a name. The last part of the paragraph describes Martha's red hair and blue eyes.

  In the third paragraph, Julianna's mother is described as having black hair and blue eyes – a very true description of her mom. To her surprise, however, Julianna read in her mother's diary her desire to abandon the family responsibilities concerning the Collection.

  Julianna gets up from the edge of her bed and walk over to her desk. She picks up her mother's unlocked diary and opens it. The girl thumbs through the pages and stops. She quietly reads its words,

  “Dear Diary,

  Today's my seventeenth birthday. I'm not writing to you. This is for my daughter. A daughter who I have never met.

  I don't know your name, but I want you to know I love you already. And should the day ever come, you must know what happened. You need to know why I did what I did.

  I'm choosing to leave our family's calling. The thoughts of what you must endure if these prophecies are true is more than I can bear. As long as I have breath you will never know your grandmother beyond short social visits. I would never deprive you of knowing her, or her to know you. She is a great mother. But my mom is at peace with these things. I'm not. I'll be damned I willingly place you into harm’s way.

  I apologize daughter. For I am weak. My desire to see you live a full life is all consuming. A life of being a normal everyday girl is all I can imagine for you. This is why I'm leaving.

  I am telling you this because I understand how the prophecy operates. Sometimes it splits into parallel lines. This is what I hope to accomplish. But even when it does so, it always restarts again. My hope is that this will occur thousands of years from now and the line I place you on ends with a life any other normal child would experience. But if you are reading this, I failed.

  I'm sorry. I tried my best.

  Please forgive me my lovely daughter.

  Theresa.”

  Julianna closes the diary and gently runs her fingers over the cover's facing.

  “I do,” she whispers. Her tears are no more. She had the distinct honor of hearing her mother's apology in person whenever she gargled from the waters of the black sea. Now she is filled with the pleasant memories of seeing her mother after so long. Truth is, if Julianna had known earlier, she would have done the cleansing ritual years ago.

  The prophecy's final part is of course about Julianna. It describes her black hair having side-bangs of red tinge. She doesn't quite understand the section explaining about the beast who bow or the king of Death being the only one above her. She assumes it must be the God of Heaven, but has also learned valuable lessons in the area of assuming. In addition, the idea of being blessed by the God of Heaven doesn't sound correct.

  The living green things are the color of her eyes. She believes the sky before the storm is in reference to the sky before the hail drops prior to an approaching tornado. It, too, is green.

  After speaking with the Lady Lanecia and her grams, Julianna understands her parasite was some kind of spirit-soul attaching itself to her. But naturally, they never uttered a single word of it until she brought it up first. And she had to speak of the details concerning the strange happenings and their vacancy before the two of them would back up her suspicions with facts. She, herself, had to read about it within the prophecy before she understood what she was experiencing. A spirit-soul attaching itself to her never crossed her mind. But she had enough information to get the blanks filled in by the voodoo priestess and her stubborn grams.

  The part of the prophecy concerning the trees still puzzles Julianna. She racks her brain with the odd picturesque symbols. Yet, nothing comes to mind. The section regarding a mathematical formula, however, Julianna is quite proud of the fact she figured this out.

  Not once, not twice, but thrice shall be our Mother's sign. All of her numbers shall equal the number of her Darkwaters.

  Her grams was born July, 24th, her mom – July, 15th, and she was born July, 27th. Whenever she aligned them on top of one another, the awaiting revelation jumped off of the page at her. Things, then, started becoming real serious very quickly.

  All of their birth months are in the sixth month of the modern day calendar system. This makes sense; since, they all live within this era. Anyone living prior to a twelve month calendar would have never understood this part of the prophecy. But then again, this part is about her. Not them.

  When Julianna added the days of each of their births, the result she received was sixty-six. The completed number on the page she had was 666. The only reference she has to such a number is from her time within the Christian church. They teach of this number. They say it is the number of a man. And this man is an abomination to the God of Heaven.

  This man represents everything that the God of Heaven doesn't. If this is true, then Julianna is all in. She hates that self-serving, sick and twisted sorry excuse for a god. Anyone who would demand a woman to lie down upon her back and accept a life of rape is disgusting and cruel. She will never devote her life to something as evil as this. And if she, herself, can be lucky enough to help bring the opposite of that nasty thing into this world, then she's all in.

  Julianna places her mother's diary back upon the desk. She smiles.

  “Gariatu Estidium Merné,” Julianna speaks.

  “Someone's starting to sound like a pro around here,” Martha interrupts.

  Julianna jerks and spins around, “You trying to kill me? I thought you left?”

  Martha stands at the bottom of the staircase leading up to the library. Her long red hair drapes over her shoulders. Her right hand cradles her hip to support her sassy smile.

  “I'd ask you if you were having friends over this Saturday,” Martha teases, “But a hermit's house is too small for anyone else.”

  “I know, grams,” Julianna responds, “So you keep reminding me.”

  “And I'm going to keep saying it until I see you're making some friends,” Martha lovingly criticizes. She looks upward guiltily, “Or if I see you're getting some action.”

  “Grams!”, Julianna scolds lightly, “You'r
e being so terrible today.”

  Martha places her left hand on her hip, “Well, I'm pretty sure your generation would have referred to your old grams as a slut whenever I was your age.”

  Julianna's nose crinkles, “Please stop.”

  Martha's arms relax to each side as she chuckles.

  “You need to know that having control of the library doesn't include turning into some self-righteous nun.”

  “I know,” Julianna concedes, “I don't plan on it.”

  Martha turns to ascend the stairs once more, “Leave all of that ridiculousness for the bitchy penguins.”

  Julianna grins as she watches Martha making her way upstairs.

  “Promise to work on my social life,” Julianna declares, “But don't expect me to give you any pictures.”

  Martha stops her ascension while looking upward into the dim lighting within the first floor's auto-detect system.

  “Now that's just plain nasty, dear,” Martha begins her climb again.

  Julianna laughs, “Serves you right.”

  The woman with red hair grins while she clears the stairs, exits the two large double-doors, and enters into the hallway of candelabras.

  * * *

  After Julianna takes her shower and eats, she finds her place back at her desk and opens up a personal dictionary she has been creating from the language of Lilith.

  “Shry-uh-vet,” Julianna pronounces the word Shriavet.

  “Welcome,” she confirms its meaning.

  “Ooh-tay,” she pronounces the word Uté.

  “To,” she speaks its meaning.

  Julianna puts the words together, “Shriavet uté.”

  She smiles confidently. She's beginning to speak Lilith's own native tongue.