“I need you,” she said, “the HEART needs you to help me finish this. If we don’t, I’m sure we’ll all eventually perish.”
DraDevon took his hands off his face and hugged her, accepting the loving comfort she offered him. “Thank you.” He cleared his throat and continued. “So now you know what happened to me.
“If JorRobert did survive, he has my book with the images, and he can probably find us now because of the energy stamp on each of them.”
“That means we are out of time. If we’re going to find anything, we’d better do it now.” She stood up next to his chair. “Come on—show me the core drill.”
They walked out of the house together, and DraDevon reminded her that she was going to tell what happened when he was gone.
“It’s pretty simple. I locked up all the windows, pushed the HEART stone altar out the door and then blocked it with the kitchen table. I was cold and tired, so I went to bed and I fell asleep.
“Tatiana came to me as soon as I was asleep. She showed me how everything was the same everywhere and said how it shouldn’t be that way. She told me again that what we are looking for is in the ground. She said the core drill will work for what we’re doing. She then showed me something I had a hard time believing.” DraDonna stopped for a moment to collect her thoughts as they came to where DraDevon had dropped the core drill.
“Go on, DraDonna. What did she show you?” he asked, his curiosity piqued.
“She showed me… umm… fields and fields of lots of different kinds of plants. I guess that these are all the fruits and vegetables that we eat. She also showed me many different herds of beasts and flocks of birds. She told me the only one who knows this is here is the Ambassador.” She stopped again, but just for a moment. “Do you remember when you asked me if anyone knew where all our food comes from?”
“Yes. No one ever questions it. We all just accept that the HEART provides.”
“Tatiana told me that these fields and beasts provide food and other needs for all the people in the communities.”
“Amazing!” he exclaimed. “So no one but the Ambassadors has ever seen this?”
“Tatiana told me the Ambassadors know of it but have never actually seen it. She did tell me that from time to time a few unlucky people have stumbled on all it and were mind wiped.”
“That’s kind of scary. I wonder why all of this is such a big secret?”
“I don’t know, DraDevon.”
“What happened after that?” he asked.
“Not much,” she confessed. “She kind of kissed me on the forehead and then pushed me back into my body. It was then that I heard you knocking at the door.”
“Really odd,” he said, not knowing what to think. “So this is the core drill. What do you think?” he asked her as they both bent down to look closely at it.
“It looks great!” DraDonna said enthusiastically. “It looks just like the image from TynLexa’s book. How does it work?”
“I thought about it, and I think one of us will run the crank with the HEART energy and the other one will keep a hand on the HEART stone altar and channel a continuous stream of energy into the other person. I’m sure it will take a lot of energy and we don’t have the time to go back and forth.” DraDevon explained.
“Well in that case,” she said with a determined look on her face, “we’d better eat a lot of Traveler’s Joy so we can get to work.”
Communion
21
Ambassador Symon was very tired. It had been a long day. He had to visit all three of the communities because of the failed solace gathering. He also had his normal duties as a servant of the HEART.
Symon had to work very hard to minimize the damage that the unsuccessful solace gathering would do to the communities. He was certain that there would be a few people who would remember what the gathering this morning had really been for. Symon traveled to all three of the communities so he could find these people and do a gentle mind cleansing so he could be sure that they didn’t remember.
The couples’ solace was one tradition that he really didn’t want to have brought back. Not only did he think that it was not necessary for newly married couples to go out wasting time like that, but he also thought that if they did, then they were not being of service to their appointed communities.
More than fifty years ago Ambassador Lyda had done away with the couples’ solace when a couple decided that they never wanted to leave their cabin. This couple was there for half a year and refused to come back. The couple fought with the two councilors who had been sent to bring them back and one of the councilors got badly hurt. The offending couple had to be brought back by force to the courtyard and mind wiped for civil disobedience and violence against a servant of the HEART. And although he knew they deserved to be punished, Symon really didn’t like the mind wiping process.
Mind wiping meant everything that made a person who they were was wiped away publicly. Offenders were punished like this for two reasons. The first reason was that the offending person was made to be an example, so others would learn not to repeat the crime. The second reason is that the offending person’s energy would be taken out of their body and rerouted into the gathered people.
All energy was a gift of the HEART their MOTHER, and not to be wasted. This energy was even more of a special gift of the HEART. It felt different than what came from the HEART stones; it had a sensual euphoric feeling that the people always loved. Everyone wanted to be in the crowd on the receiving end of this special energy gathering.
The worst part of the mind wiping process was that everything the person had been was gone, the good with the bad. It was as if they were dead. The people in the communities had been told, and further they believed that the mind wiped people were energy mad, that they found rest in the HEART. But Symon knew those who have been mind wiped were taken off by the HEART.
The person who was mind wiped was given basic mental functions by the HEART and put to work with the herds of animals or in the crops. Symon was so happy that he didn’t have to deal with that side of a mind wipe. He always felt a sense of relief that the HEART took care of it. He really didn’t like to think about it too much.
It seemed so harsh, but he believed the HEART knew what was best for all of her children. He preferred to try to take care of things as gently as possible, first with mental cleansing and then energy withdraw if need be.
“No more couples’ solace; it’s not good for the communities,” he thought, trying unsuccessfully to convince himself this was why he didn’t want the couples’ solace tradition to resume; but the real reason was very painful—it caused him great shame. He was jealous. He shamefully admitted to himself this was why he had been so rude to DraDonna and DraDevon. He was jealous of the happiness of their union.
Symon yearned deep in his soul to be able to marry Jude, to go on a couples’ solace with her; but he and Jude were servants of the HEART. They were not supposed to love anyone like that. Symon did find joy in his service to the children of the HEART. He felt bad because of the terse way that he had always spoken to DraDonna. He was supposed to love her as a daughter of the HEART and he did, but he could not help loving Jude more than anyone. He had tried so hard not to love her. What made it even harder was that he knew she loved him, too.
All he wanted now was to have peaceful communion with the HEART; his soul felt heavily burdened. His meditation with the HEART had always given him so much comfort. He needed so much to commune with her, to cast his burden on the HEART of the world.
Symon knew that his own selfish needs would have to wait though. He had a sad duty to perform here in First Councilor Jude’s community. There had been another stillborn baby. This was the third time for this couple. The first two babies were boys, but this time it was a girl. The mother was beside herself with grief. The love and compassion that he felt for this poor woman helped him to forget his own troubles for a time as he quickened his pace to her home.
Standing outsid
e the door to this couple’s home, he felt their pain through his gift of the HEART. He raised his hand and knocked softly. SayChris, a stocky man with sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, in his late twenties, opened the door with a look of anguish on his face.
“HEART’s greeting.” Ambassador Symon hailed SayChris.
“HEART’s greeting; please come in, Ambassador Symon,” he said with as much grace as was possible for him in his grief.
“Is First Councilor Jude here?” Ambassador Symon asked.
“No, I haven’t seen her since… since…” He could not finish the sentence because of the tears that gathered in his voice, making it impossible to speak.
“Are your PNL people still here?”
Clearing his throat, SayChris answered, “No, they just left with the body.”
“Where is your wife?” Ambassador Symon asked with great tenderness.
“She’s in bed. What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to help her forget her pain. I could do this for you too, if you want,” he offered gently.
“Will we forget her?” he asked, his voice filled with pain.
“I can erase all memory of her if you like.”
“No. We want to remember her, just like the other two babies. They are still a part of us… even if the HEART cursed us so they would not live,” the poor man said, looking down at his trembling hands to hide the raw emotion in his eyes.
“I will not take your memory of her, then. I will just ease your pain.” He placed a hand on the grieving man’s shoulder. “But SayChris, you must know the HEART loves all her children and does not curse them. Ever,” Ambassador Symon corrected him. “Let’s go see your wife.”
The two men walked into the dark bedroom. Ambassador Symon could just barely see the small weeping woman on the bed lying with her back to them. SayChris walked in first and sat in a chair next to the bed, motioning for the young Ambassador to come in.
“SayTasha, Ambassador Symon is here to see you.” SayChris said as brightly as he could, but SayTasha was so consumed by her grief she did not say a word.
“HEART’s greeting, SayTasha,” Ambassador Symon said as he approached her and gathered his black robes so he could sit on the edge of her bed. “I have come to offer you some relief from your pain.”
Still she did not speak. The only sound that came from her was soul wrenching sobs.
“Please turn toward me, SayTasha, so I can help you,” he said gently.
Obediently she turned toward him, all the while keeping her face covered with her hands, not wanting to share her grief.
“Take comfort,” he told them kindly. “I bring you my love as well of the love of the HEART.” He closed his eyes to draw directly upon the HEART s energy.
Ambassadors were uniquely gifted in their use of the HEART’s energy. Unlike the rest of the HEART’s children who only had tiny grains of the HEART stone implanted in their wrists, he was the only one who had an actual piece of the HEART stone implanted in his brain. With it he could directly channel large amounts of the energy without having to place his hand on a HEART stone.
With a little bit of mental focus he could use or split the energy in any way that was needed for him to do his duty as the Ambassador for the HEART’s children. In this case he would use mostly the gentle positive side of the energy, with just the smallest amount of the negative, only removing the memory of the pain and loss, allowing them to remember the baby girl who could not live.
He tenderly placed a hand on each of their heads. With his eyes closed, he opened up his soul for just a moment to their pain, letting it be his own, causing him to weep for them. Then, drawing up the HEART’s energy and letting it gather in his chest, Symon channeled the energy out to his hands.
He carefully controlled the flow of the two different sides of the energy. He only let the energy gently seek out the deep pain, lifting it out of their souls and drawing it into his own. He was leaving the couple with a small gift from his soul, a gift of hope. He placed in each of them the hope that they could try again to have a baby. Even though Ambassador Symon still felt the sorrow that he absorbed from the mourning husband and wife, he knew they were no longer feeling it.
He opened his eyes and lifted his hands from their heads. He wiped the tears from his eyes he had shed for them. He felt the pain they had endured for the third time.
SayTasha rolled back over to the other side of the bed with a look of sleepy contentment instead of tortured pain.
Ambassador Symon looked at SayChris and said, “Perhaps you should lay down with her and get some sleep.
Standing up, he then began to leave the Say’s so they could sleep and recover from their pain. Stepping outside of their home, he no longer felt their pain, instead being plagued again by his own troubles— the longing for the woman he loved, yet feeling crushed under the weight of shame for falling in love with a woman that he should not love.
Thinking about this made him wonder why she had not been at the Say home today to offer them comfort. It was not like her to shirk her duties as First Councilor. Ambassador Symon had a bad feeling about what was wrong with Jude.
“I should not have kissed her again,” he thought as he remembered with an odd mixture of shame and longing. It was just yesterday. Jude had energy traveled into his office, walking into his private room.
“Symon, I need to talk to you.” Jude had said, surprising him.
“What are you doing in my private rooms?” he questioned her coldly.
“I really need to talk to you,” she told him, sounding hurt.
“You could have sent me a HEART stone message.”
“I need… I need to talk to you about us,” she said as tears slid from her eyes, hurt by the unfeeling tone in his voice. “You’ve been so cold to me but I need to tell you something important.”
Feeling bad about how he had been acting toward her, he took the few steps to the doorway and put his arms around her. “I’m sorry Jude. I don’t mean to hurt you. It’s so hard for me to be around you. I do love you but you know we can’t do this.”
“I just wanted to see you and tell you about something I’ve been working on,” as she looked up into his mesmerizing hazel eyes. “Oh, Symon! You’re so beautiful; I love you so much and… and I think I have found a way for us to be together.”
Feeling her warmth next to him, her words were lost on him. “I love you too, my exquisite Jude.” He was captivated by her lovely face. Knowing it was wrong, but not caring, he placed one hand on the side of her sweet face, gently tracing the contours of her soft lips with the other. Needing to be closer to the woman whom he felt owned a piece of his soul, he bent his head down and softly teased her lips with his.
Jude wrapped her arms around the man she loved, pressing close to him, and kissed him back with all the pent up passion she had held within her for nearly a year.
Feeling her passionately kiss him back sparked a fire within him. He slid his hand down from her face to her shoulder, then down to the small of her back, pulling her small warm frame closer to him. He wanted so much for her to be his wife so they could fully express their love for each other, but their sweet forbidden interlude was interrupted by a knock at the office door. The sound of the knocking brought him back to his senses and reminded him of his duty as Ambassador.
Breaking away from her warm lips, trying to catch his breath, he had said, “Stay here. We’ll talk when I get back.”
Ambassador Symon added this guilt filled memory to his burdens now. Not only was it bad that he did it the first time, that she had followed him into the temple, and that she saw things that could get her mind wiped, but yesterday he had done it a second time. Only this time, he let it get way out of hand, and to make matters worse, he grew cold on her again when she tried to tell him about her plan for them to be together.
“I should have listened to her. I should not have pushed her away like I did. If Jude has done anything because of some mad plan she has, it will b
e on me.” He ran over in his mind as he quickened his step toward her small office where she also had her own private room. “But I did what I thought was right, for the good of the communities. I can’t be the one to let it all fall apart. Oh HEART, I sure have made a mess of things,” Ambassador Symon silently scolded himself as he came up to First Councilor Jude’s office door. He hesitated at first wondering if he should knock, but dismissing the thought, he walked in to find a quiet and empty office.
Everything looked as it should in her tiny office…..the HEART stone altar against the back wall, a desk to the left and a door to the right that led to her private bedroom. This office was just like his own office and private rooms. He wondered if he should check her bedroom to see if she was in there. “That probably would be a bad idea,” he thought to himself, knowing all the feelings it would stir up for him as well as the trouble it would cause if she was in there.
Walking instead to the HEART stone altar, he placed his right hand on the stone. Since he did not need a travel stone because of the HEART stone in his head, all he had to do was think of where he wanted to travel, and with a flash of the familiar blue light, he was gone.
He didn’t know when he left First Councilor Jude’s office that there was indeed someone in the private room. She was lying on the bed feeling dizzy and nauseous again because of the baby she had growing inside of her.
Work
22
DraDonna and her husband took a few precious moments to eat a great quantity of Traveler’s Joy. “DraDevon,” she said between mouthfuls of the plant. “You’re right…..we can’t take the time to go back and forth to power up with the energy. I was thinking that I should be the one to run the crank.”
“Well, not that I am disagreeing with you, but why do you think so?” he asked her.
“It’s because you can channel energy to your left hand and I can’t,” she explained.
“I can’t do anything with it in my left like a Councilor can. I can only channel it there and then release it,” DraDevon explained, not seeing her point.
H.E.A.R.T. Saga: The Children Page 14