“Yes, and it’s not that I don’t believe, Meeshe, it’s more that I'm not sure,” Holly tried to explain.
“Excellent.” Meeshe smiled broadly. “Questioning is a very good first step. Well then, you have a mother—it was from Carly’s body that you came forth, as we came forth from the Great Tree, but Carly was not the beginning. She also had a mother and father, and they had mothers and fathers, and so on, back to the beginning. We say that the beginning is Rah, and therefore, He is the father of all. Rah created the Great Tree, gave it life, made it special, and from it we were formed. So we are children of the Great Tree, but first and foremost, we are all children of Rah. Does that explain it?”
Tabitha was already nodding before Meeshe had finished speaking. It seemed so very simple when she explained it that way. As a matter of fact, the Maj position seemed weaker. If everything had to come from something, where did the first people come from, if not from Rah? Perhaps some would argue they'd come from a beam of light, or a wave on the sea, or a breath of wind, but if that was the case, where did those things come from?
With Rah, the Etrafarians said that He always was and always would be. It certainly seemed at least as likely as the Maj beliefs. More so if she were being honest.
“I know there are different gods,” Holly said. “Like Brin has Tolah, and the Breken serve some ancient gods, but we Maj have no one, really. Yet, you often speak about Rah having a plan for all of us. Why would He care if He isn’t our God?”
“Holly, if you and your mother had a falling out, and you said you were never speaking to her again, would she stop being your mother? And if you had children, and they had children, and they had children, is it not likely they would no longer remember the name Carly because it had not been spoken in so long? And yet, Carly would still be their kin.
"Rah created all, not only the Etrafarians, though many of my people do not like to be reminded of that. As far as the other gods go, even they were created by Rah. They are gods because men have made them so, but they are not the One God. If a butterfly could reason and think, would you not appear as a god to it? And if you could speak to the butterfly and share some of your knowledge and your power, would not the butterfly soon be praying to you, its god, for help in all manner of things? After a time, all butterflies would revere you, fear you, love you.”
“Why would Rah allow that, Meeshe? Why doesn’t He make Himself known to everyone, so they'll all follow Him, if He's so powerful? Why not appear before us, and speak directly to us? Why let the lesser gods rule at all? Why—”
“Slow down, Holly.” Meeshe made patting gestures with her hands in the air. “I will answer all of your questions, but they need to come one at a time. Rah allows it, because he wants us to have a choice. Do you obey your father out of fear, or out of respect and love? Probably a little of all three, but I will bet it is the love and respect that have the greatest impact. Fear can be effective, but the bonds of loyalty are tenuous when that is all there is. As far as speaking directly to us, we believe He does, but His words are spoken to our hearts, and not our ears. Truth, light, love, and faith, are best heard and felt through the heart. Ears can deceive. Cifera taught us that lesson. She said what we wanted to hear. She spoke all the right words to our ancestors, and they believed her when they only listened with their ears, but those who listened with their hearts, and weighed her words against what Rah taught, well, her words rang hollow to them, and the golden promises from her lips revealed themselves to be tarnished, cheap copies of Rah's real love.”
Tabitha didn’t say anything, but Meeshe’s words had a profound impact on her. It was as though someone had suddenly removed a blindfold she didn’t even know she’d been wearing. The light of that knowledge was almost painfully bright, and the notion of God and her existence in a world with Him in it set her mind spinning. She had simply never given it much thought, but now her mind tried to come to grips with the possibility that there was more—more to the world, more to life, more to her. And once she started contemplating it, it started to come at her almost too quickly. Didn’t her own people believe in an afterlife? When someone died, they didn’t simply burn the body, brush off their hands, and move on. No, they remembered the life, and spoke of the next place. If there was no God, what next place would there be?
So, in essence, they believed, without naming what it was they believed in. All the stories Brin had told her about himself, her mother, the Etrafarians—they all seemed too fantastic to be true, but if there was a God, His hand could easily have nudged certain events into motion. Then there was all that talk of choice. The Etrafarians believed Rah would guide them, but it was ultimately up to them to choose whether they followed the path or not, but if He already knew the choice they would make, was it really still a choice? Tabitha felt as though her whole world had been tilted onto its side.
“Tabitha, are you all right?” Logan put his arm about her waist, supporting her while she clutched, wordlessly, to his tunic.
“What is it, child?” Meeshe asked, rushing to her side, and gently patting her hand.
“Grandmother, do something! She is pale as snow!”
“No,” Tabitha whispered, and then a little stronger, “No, I'm okay. It’s just that…just that…Rah—He’s real! It’s the only thing that makes sense! Anything else is almost laughable.” And then Tabitha did laugh.
“What has gotten into you?” Holly asked, looking at Tabitha as though she'd suddenly grown two heads.
“I don’t know!” Tabitha said, smiling broadly as laugher continued to bubble out of her like water from a spring. “I feel so, so…free! There’s a reason for things! I don’t understand those reasons, but they’re there, and it’s because of Him. It’s because of Rah.” Tabitha’s laughter ebbed to a slow stop, and she looked between Holly, Meeshe, and Logan, silently seeking their acceptance. She knew she was behaving in a bizarre manner, but it had all come to her in such a rush of light and understanding. Not to say she really understood much at all, but she felt like she'd wrapped her fingers around a rare and precious gem, and now she was compelled to share her discovery with them.
“Okaaaaay, well, that’s great, Tabitha,” Holly said, but her expression was not one of happiness, but more like she was attempting to humor someone who had completely come unhinged.
Tabitha was feeling a bit self-conscious, and some of her enthusiasm had already begun to wane.
Meeshe grinned at her. “Will Rah’s wonders never cease?” she said to no one in particular. “Here I was, trying to convince Holly, and Rah chooses to call to your heart instead.” Meeshe laughed aloud. “Come, child. We should be moving on, or all of the best spots will be taken.”
Tabitha looked to see Logan offering her a warm and encouraging smile, and she allowed him to hook her arm and steer her toward the Great Tree once more.
“I’m pretty sure she can walk without help,” Holly grumbled from beside them, and Logan quickly released Tabitha’s arm. “So what does this mean? You’re going to be all interested in Rah, now?”
“I don’t know,” Tabitha admitted, and she stopped walking. “Do I have to do something special, now that I believe?” she asked Logan.
“Not unless you want to. It is not like a secret society with a password, or anything,” he said, placing his hand on the small of her back in order to get her moving again. “If you know Rah, then you just…know Him. I think you will like Him, and as with anyone you like, you will want to get to know Him better. That is about all there is to it, except that it always seems that the more you get to know Him, the more you get to know yourself, as well. That is not always a pleasant thing, but in the end, it is always worth it.”
“I’m interested in Rah, too,” Holly said.
“That is wonderful, Holly. I am sure Grandmother would be happy to talk to you about it as much as you would like, maybe more than you would like.”
Logan sounded sincere enough, but he didn’t even turn to look at her when he spoke, and s
he brushed by them in a huff. Tabby didn’t care. She was too caught up in her newfound discovery to let anything bother her now.
Chapter 10
Brint wasn’t sure where Aesri was taking him, but he hadn’t bothered to ask, either. He thought that maybe living with the secretive fairy would open up more dialog between them, especially as it regarded what she'd told them after the kraken attack, but if anything, she was even more closed-mouthed than before. Any attempt to broach the subject had, so far, been met with an artful dodge and weave, enough to make any dancer envious of her fast footwork and graceful sidestep.
When the beach came into view, Brint could tell this was not where he'd first come ashore, but a secluded patch of sand located in a quiet cove, instead. Aesri floated upward to make her way to a rocky outcropping a small distance from shore, while Brint was forced to hop from rock to rock as best he could to keep up with her.
“Sit,” she commanded, and he did as he was told, lowering himself onto a spot that was relatively dry.
She brought her hands up, and a sphere formed between them. To Brint it looked part bubble and part water. Aesri held the diaphanous globe to her lips, whispered something too quietly for him to hear, and thrust the ball into the water, whereupon it seemed to shoot from her hands into the depths.
“Now we wait,” she said, sitting beside him.
“Wait for what?”
“You will see.”
“Aunt Aesri, has anyone ever told you that you can be a little bit cryptic?”
“I may have heard something like that from time to time, yes, but I always imagined it was because people were not listening closely enough. I always say exactly what I mean.”
“Whatever you say,” Brint said, looking out at the water around him. “Am I here for a reason, or were you simply lonely?”
“Oh, you are here for a most definite reason.”
“Is it too much to ask that I be informed? I understand if you don’t want to tell me, or more accurately, I'm used to it if you don’t want to tell me.”
Aesri gave him a sidelong look before returning her eyes to the sea. “You, young Darach Croi, are here because you are incredibly handsome, and that is exactly what I require.”
His eyes opened wide. Of all the things she could have said to him, that wasn’t even on his mental list of possibilities. “I beg your pardon?”
“Do not worry about it,” she soothed. “Wait and see. If I tried explaining it, you would not believe me anyway. This you will have to see for yourself. Just sit there, look attractive, and try not to speak when they get here. Believe me, you do not want to get sucked into their twisted conversations. There is little logic, not much sense, and more than enough silliness without you adding fuel to the fire.”
“They? They who?” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Aunt Aesri, I hate to say it, but my mother is right about you—you really are the most elusive woman ever born.”
Aesri shook with laughter. “Your mother would know, I suppose, but that is a discussion for another time. Right now, I need information, and you are going to help me get it.”
Brint sighed, but decided not to bother probing further. It was an exercise in futility, anyway.
“How are you enjoying your stay so far?” Aesri asked him.
“Very, very well. It’s a truly wondrous place. I think I could happily stay here a long time and never get bored. There are a lot of men who seem to have taken an interest in the sword I carry, and we've constructed a rudimentary forge. There isn’t much in the way of steel to be melted down, but they’ve been able to find a bit, and we've had some success in making blades to practice with. I don’t know how they'd hold up in a real fight as I don’t have that much skill in the making of weapons, but as the fairies are more likely to fight with magic than swords, they suffice for our purposes. Wooden practice blades would be better, but they were appalled that I would even suggest we use wood in that way, so I gave that idea up as a lost cause pretty quickly. “
“I am not sure I approve of that. The last thing we need to do is to find new ways to kill. Life is precious.”
“Aunt Aesri, it’s only a bit of harmless fun. Besides, swords can be used for defense as much as for offense. You have to admit, it would have been nice to have had more options than we did when we faced the kraken. A half-dozen Etrafarians, skilled with a blade, could have helped.”
“Against that thing? I think not,” she said, shaking her head.
“It couldn’t have hurt,” Brint said, defending his position.
“We will leave it at that, since there is no way to know which of us is right, but I ask that you are judicious when choosing whom to teach and how much. Some of my brothers and sisters can get carried away, especially as it concerns new knowledge and new skills.”
Brint nodded his head in agreement. He'd already had a taste of what Aesri was referring to. Kellen, the Etrafarian man who had the run-in with Tabitha, had shown himself to be the overly enthusiastic sort. He wasn’t happy unless every opponent he faced was on their back in the dirt before him. It wasn’t enough that he should outmaneuver them, he had to dominate them as well.
“Now, on to other matters. What are you planning to do about your little problem?” Aesri asked, and now she did turn her attention from the sea to look directly into his questioning eyes. “Come, come, do not be coy.”
Did anything ever escape this woman’s notice? Brint wondered to himself. “I don’t know what you mean,” he evaded. Part of him was caught off guard by her question, and another part, probably the larger part, wanted to give her a healthy dose of her own medicine.
“Liar,” she said with a scowl. “Do not think to put me off with your innocent expressions and your faint attempts at ignorance. I feel that, as your temporary guardian, it falls to me to see you do not find yourself with no one to speak to.”
“Aunt Aesri, really, there’s nothing to worry about. These things have a way of working themselves out one way or another, and I—”
“Yes, yes, yes, but what are you going to do about it?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? What kind of answer is that? You are in love with her, correct?”
“Yes, but—”
“But nothing. You should tell her, or at the very least, show her.”
“She wouldn’t see,” Brint said in a quiet, brooding voice.
“Probably not, but only because she is looking in the wrong direction. You must make her see. I am telling you, this way can only lead to trouble, misunderstanding, and heartache. At least give her the chance to know how you feel.”
Brint remained quiet as he thought over Aesri’s advice. It seemed sound, but he wasn’t sure if he even knew where to start. How did you tell someone you loved them? That you had always loved them?
“We will have to save the rest of our conversation for another time,” Aesri said. “They are here.” She stood up and motioned for him to do the same.
The water rippled and bubbled, and two faces appeared, breaking through the surface. One had hair the color of burgundy wine, and the other’s was a deep, rich brown. Both of them wore their hair short, which Brint thought was very practical, as he couldn’t imagine how they'd be able to see where they were going if their hair was forever drifting into their lines of sight. He had never seen a mermaid before, but there was little doubt that was precisely what these two spritely maidens were. He'd heard of them, but they didn't match the descriptions much at all. First off, they didn't wear tops made of shells. They wore no tops at all, in fact, and as much as his mother had raised him to be a gentleman, he was finding it difficult to maintain eye contact with them. Also, he'd heard their bottom half was like that of a fish, but from what he could see, that had been inaccurate as well. Instead, they had two perfectly normal and very shapely legs, but instead of feet, they had long feathery fins, which were visible when they flipped and tumbled over one another as they swam around the rock on which he was perched. Thankfull
y, their lower halves were modestly covered. He saw that they wore snug-fitting pants that went to their knees. He had no idea what they could be made of, but they shimmered like the scales of a fish when the young women moved.
“So handsome!” said one, continuing to swim in circles.
“I saw him first,” responded the other, diving below her companion and upending her in the next moment.
The dark-haired maid came up spitting water, latched her fingers into the other girl’s hair, and started to pull. “You did not! Besides, Aesri brought him for me!”
Brint opened his mouth to speak, intending to say something that would put an end to what looked like some exceptionally painful hair pulling, but Aesri held her hand up to stop him, and she shook her head slightly from side to side.
“Brint, allow me to introduce you,” Aesri said.
The two immediately stopped their squabbling. The dark-haired mermaid tried to smooth her wet and tussled locks, while the red-haired one batted her eyelashes at him.
“This,” she said, gesturing to the one with dark hair, “is Cara, and this, “she continued with a wave at the other girl, “is Chy.”
They swam closer to the rock, placed their elbows on the stone, cupped their chins in their hands, and stared up at him in adoration.
Cara moved her elbow slyly, just enough to push Chy’s elbow off the rock. Her chin slipped from her hands and dropped to the stone, making a sound that caused Brint to wince in sympathy.
“You did that on purpose!” Chy screamed, slapping the water in Cara’s direction.
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
“And this, ladies, is Darach Croi,” Aesri continued, completely ignoring the shrieks they were making.
With one hand still pressing into Cara’s face, Chy said, “Oak Heart? What a masculine name!”
The two of them stopped fighting and swam closer to the rock again.
“Where have you been hiding him, Aesri?” Cara asked. She floated on her back before them.
Prophecy (The Destiny Series Book 4) Page 8