by Lucia Ashta
“As Swift Horse and Sky Elk grew up together, they began to resemble each other. Until one day they looked as if they’d shared our mother’s womb. They were twins destined from the skies, born into magic.”
Lena and Paolo were grateful for Sitting Bear’s unusual depth of detail. And he was surprised; he didn’t realized he remembered so much from his life as Thunder Gods until he spoke aloud.
With the enormity of it all vividly playing through their minds, the three light warriors stared into the sparking and sputtering fire until it faded into glowing embers. And even after the darkness swallowed the glow, they continued, hypnotized by the memory of the dancing flames that reminded them of the magic of this and other worlds.
Chapter 21
The light warriors traveled swiftly through the forest, driven forward by Master Kaanra’s imploring urgency.
With Kaanra acting as a beacon, Asara, Anak, and Thom reached him as the sun was going down. They found the aging master sitting cross-legged on his blanket. A squirrel had kept vigil with him, barely leaving Kaanra’s side in a display of rare squirrel behavior.
We are here, Thom sang out, announcing their arrival, but Kaanra didn’t turn to welcome them.
Asara and Anak, who knew the master well, noticed the subtle signs of emotion running through him. His back and shoulders, straight and strong all day, now slumped in uncharacteristic fashion. His effort at guiding the light warriors had been exhausting. For the fate of the world to rest on the shoulders of an old man, even one as wise and strong as Kaanra, was extremely demanding, and he was relieved his part was nearing completion.
When the light warriors were within a few body lengths of the master, they stopped, waiting a respectful distance behind him. The trio knew he was aware of their presence. Out of respect for the elder, they waited for him to be ready to greet them.
Master Kaanra composed himself. He smiled at the squirrel, companion for a day, and said his silent farewell. The squirrel left his perch on the blanket and scampered away, instantly engulfed by the woodland camouflage.
Kaanra uncrossed his legs and paused, stretching his numb and tingling legs out in front of him. He’d held the same position since morning. He witnessed his legs fall asleep, wake up, and then fall asleep again, this cycle repeating multiple times throughout the long day.
When his legs regained their normal blood flow and the pain subsided, he stood. His body creaked and crackled. Finally stable on his feet, he turned to face those who would play such an important role in the world’s fate.
Thom was startled to notice tears in Kaanra’s eyes. His heart leapt in response. Deprived of a caring paternal influence, Thom’s emotions became unsettled when confronted with Kaanra’s openness. He felt like crying without logical reason, and he suddenly found himself unsure of what to do next.
But Thom didn’t have to do anything. Master Kaanra read his heart and stepped forward. He stood before Thom and opened his arms. It was a simple, quiet action, but it meant everything to Thom, who found himself in the master’s embrace.
For the first time, Thom experienced what it was like for a father figure to care for him, and healing he hadn’t anticipated took place in an instant. He released years of yearning for paternal love on an exhale. A stout gust of wind picked up Thom’s laden breath and carried it further into the heart of the forest. There, the forest and its creatures would cradle these emotions of their beloved Thom and then send them on their way. Ultimately, years of hurt and longing would transform into pure light, returning to the origin of all things.
When Thom pulled away from Kaanra’s embrace, there was no awkwardness. Healing was part of the human experience. Creator designed humanity to be imperfect. The opportunity to evolve lay within the lessons gained from this imperfection.
Hello, my son, Kaanra said. It didn’t matter that he and Thom had just met in the flesh. Thom already felt like a son to Kaanra. Some connections didn’t need linear time to establish themselves; some things just are because that’s how they’re meant to be.
Thom stepped aside to allow the twins to greet the master, the one who was more like a father to them than their blood fathers had been able to be. Away from the structure of the Temple of Laresu’u Kal, Kaanra was openly enthusiastic at seeing the twins. He rushed toward them and held them both tightly.
The twins had seen their gentle master for only a few days after their previous absence from the temple, before he slipped away in the dim predawn on this mission. They’d missed him, and raw emotion bubbled with the intensity of everything that had happened—the attacks at the Temple of Laresu’u Kal resulting in Master Sina’s head injury and Master Tahn’s death, compounded with all the violence the twins had witnessed while they were gone from Arnaka. Asara and Anak clutched Kaanra fiercely.
When they finally disentangled from one another, Kaanra looked on the three youths humanity was unknowingly relying on for everything that truly mattered. They possessed the potential to revolutionize everything. They were light warriors, and the dark would fear what they could do.
With the moment of reunion properly enjoyed, it was now time for action.
Come, my children. We have much to do, and it will soon be dark. Let’s see if we can act now or if we have to wait until morning, the master said telepathically as he turned back toward the tree he’d watched all day, his long, mottled braid swinging behind him.
Kaanra touched the trunk. Then he leaned his cheek against its bark with tender gentleness. He closed his eyes. He breathed in deeply. This tree was a wise and ancient being.
Without moving from where he was, he called out to the light warriors, She is the one. In unison, the destined ones took a step toward the tree that held the secret to it all.
Chapter 22
Master of the isle will follow the stars to it. Master of the forest will cradle it, hidden in the womb of the earth. With the golden ones, it can open the pyramids to unknown worlds. But be wary of the dark crow. If he succeeds, the world will suffer the fury of sunless night.
With this eagerly anticipated information, the twins and Thom sat with the content of Dann’s final prophecy in silence. Since they first learned of its existence several days ago, they wondered what the prophecy could possibly entail. Now that they finally knew, they pondered what it all meant. These fifty-five words carried a depth they didn’t readily understand.
They sat in a circle beneath the canopy. They’d naturally gravitated toward the same position and sat uniformly with their legs crossed in front of them. Master Kaanra faced the tree. Thom sat with his back to it, nearly leaning against its trunk. Asara and Anak sat to either side of Kaanra and Thom. The light warriors were so close to each other that they could have held hands, but they didn’t. There was no need. They were already intrinsically connected to one another.
They looked at each other, at the tree, and up at the twilight sky. Whatever they needed to do with this magnificent tree—a crowning display of nature—couldn’t be rushed. Even with the insistent threat the dark side posed, it was more important to do the right thing than to do it fast. And so the warriors held their seats among the sprawling roots while the sky of sundown transitioned into night, aware that it might mean delaying any action until morning’s light.
Now that Master Kaanra had shared the content of Dann’s final prophecy with Thom and the twins, they became the only four people alive to carry this important knowledge. Had the final prophecy itself chosen the vehicles that would act on its content, it would have chosen these four people. In fact, it was the prophecy, alive in its own way, which had brought these people together.
Repeat the prophecy for us please, Master, Anak said.
Asara, Anak, and Thom focused their minds so they could commit the words to memory. They couldn’t be written. It was too dangerous. Should they fall into the wrong hands, disaster would ensue.
Master of the isle will follow the stars to it. Master of the forest will cradle it, hidden in the womb of
the earth. With the golden ones, it can open the pyramids to unknown worlds. But be wary of the dark crow. If he succeeds, the world will suffer the fury of sunless night.
Thom and the twins accepted Master Kaanra’s conclusion that he was the master of the isle without question. They didn’t even delve into all the reasons that suggested Kaanra was indeed the one to fulfill this role. In this group, this was the most important confirmation there could be, and they all honored Kaanra’s feelings of the heart. If it weren’t for the ability to listen to their guidance, not one of them would be sitting there now, feeling the dark of night descend upon them like a thick blanket.
It was curious that the final prophecy led to a tree. What could a tree hold that would be instrumental to humanity’s future wellbeing? Trees were powerful. A tree could hold almost anything, including the doman. Could it be that they would find the doman, protected and shrouded in mystery for centuries, so easily?
The twins were surprised to learn that, like them, Kaanra didn’t possess much information concerning the doman, except that it was some kind of object of power. Master Kaanra was also unaware if there was anyone left alive who knew exactly what the doman was. But he was certain that the doman was incredibly powerful. If it landed in the wrong hands, it would be devastating.
Now, it was Asara’s turn to share. She told of how Lena had reached across the blurred lines of time and space to deliver a message and describe the acorn-like object that was unlike any she’d ever seen. Lena’s words made perfect sense now, in the proximity of this tree that emanated a quiet, pulsing power. Asara repeated her words: The doman is a treasure of the forest. Look to the heart of the trees.
Everything was coming together. This message wasn’t part of the final prophecy, although its additional guidance was essential as well as timely. Kaanra’s eyes grew wide as he listened to Asara share knowledge he hadn’t anticipated.
When she finished, Asara looked up into the wide-spreading tree that tangled with the night just above them. The doman was a treasure of the forest. They could find it by looking to the heart of the trees.
But no, the prophecy didn’t say they should look. That role was reserved for Thom. Master of the forest will cradle it, hidden in the womb of the world. Thom was the obvious choice for master of the forest. With the connection Thom shared with the forest and its creatures, there was perhaps no better person to define this function.
In fact, although the light warriors didn’t yet know, there was no other who could fully meet the two conditions—one explicit, one implicit—for the master of the forest of the prophecy. That person must understand the ways and language of the woodlands, as well as be light and pure of heart. Thom satisfied both requirements. It was, in reality, crucial that it be Thom, and no one else, who retrieved the doman.
It must be Thom. It could be no other, and the trees watched Thom closely, knowing that he understood them better than any other human alive in that moment. The forest had great reason to hope.
Master of the forest will cradle it, hidden in the womb of the world.
The doman is a treasure of the forest. Look to the heart of the trees.
Thom worked through the words of Dann’s final prophecy and Lena’s message, searching for an understanding of what he was to do, and at the same time, he began to allow his awareness to merge with that of the woods that surrounded them. As Thom’s connection to the woodlands grew deeper, he felt the forest reach for him, reach within him, and he knew then he would be able to fulfill his destined purpose.
The energy embraced Thom, calming him, relaxing him, pulling him entirely out of a questioning mind. The answer wouldn’t come from thought or concern. An answer of this sort could only come from surrender and profound wisdom.
The heart of the trees is the womb of the world. The doman is a treasure of the forest, and I will cradle it. I’ll respect it as it deserves to be honored. The doman is an essence of pure light, Thom said more to himself than to his companions as he stood. He was already in a place where words and actions barely mattered. He walked as if entranced.
Thom sensed the dark crow, master of illusions, circling above, desperately searching for the slightest sign of the doman. The illusionist knew the window for his interference was closing. Master Kaanra tilted his face up to the skies. It was too dark to see the crow, but Kaanra projected his protective light and intentions around Thom as he took his short walk toward destiny.
Asara and Anak trained their focus on Thom and the tree he was walking toward, further protecting him from the threatening presence lurking above. Their light enveloped Thom in a cloak of its own as he advanced.
His moving body blurred; the straight and curved lines of the forest absorbed him, rendering him invisible to foreign eyes.
Thom reached the tree that represented the womb of the world, the seed of creation. It was so precious that it could nurture one of the world’s treasures within. It could hold a purity of light that humanity rarely saw.
But today, four human beings would witness this purity in awe. Whether a fifth one of dark heart would or not was still to be determined and depended largely on whether Kaanra and the twins could maintain their disguising illusions that thwarted the crow’s intentions. The crow felt fear of failure twist and rise within him, choking him with the burning of bile in his throat.
Thom caressed the tree with the grace of an experienced lover. He felt the knobs and cracks in her bark as if he’d known them all along. He felt her history and her ancient strength. He felt her enthusiasm for life.
He bowed his head in reverence. And just like that, the tree opened her womb and birthed the most magnificent child she’d ever gifted the world.
Thom reached his hand into the trunk. What had been solid only moments before transformed in a blur of undefined matter and space. The tree was both concrete and ethereal at once.
To the three witnesses to Thom’s actions, this moment revealed what a true illusion all of matter was. What appeared to be unyielding to the ordinary human eye bent for Thom. Love proved to be the strongest power.
From within the glowing, liquid-like insides of the mother tree, Thom retrieved what looked like a gargantuan acorn, so much like the typical acorns that covered the forest floor, yet unlike them in critical ways. Thom cradled the acorn against his chest, where it could feel the beating of his heart, replacement to the soothing rhythms of the mother tree. Thom cared for the acorn as if it were a true infant.
With the transfer of her child complete, the tree’s innards, liquid and gooey like the blood and placenta of animal mothers, transformed once more. The tree core hardened and regained the illusion of solidity. It sealed up for the outsider to walk by without a second glance.
The dark crow was now frantic, but he didn’t see what he would have sacrificed almost anything to witness. Because he was unwilling to forfeit the most crucial impediment, the darkness within his heart, the doman was kept from the dark crow. The protective shield concealed the doman within it.
Thom tucked the doman within his cloak, nestling the object among its folds, next to his beating heart. The comforted child settled into its new home, and Thom retook his seat next to his companions.
For the time being, the treasure was safe. The forest and the light warriors joined in a communal exhale of relief as the sun completed its final descent behind the stoic trees.
Chapter 23
The sun rose late for them that day. They made camp at the base of the pyramid, and it shaded them until the sun climbed past the pyramid’s cusp. Lena, Paolo, and even Sitting Bear, who’d risen at dawn every day of his life, slept in, unaware that the day had started without them.
They were emotionally exhausted from the intensity of yesterday’s experience, when they’d connected with the pyramid and accessed another time and dimension. None of them spoke. They felt too raw to interact much. They needed time to process what happened. They might not reach complete understanding, but they could at least allow the e
vent to settle within them.
Despite the urgency of the ongoing war between light and dark, they honored their need for integration. They couldn’t evolve further without adjusting to the growth that had already taken place. Important things shouldn’t be hurried.
From this moment forward the lives of Asara and Lena, two women from two different times, would become inextricably interlaced. Their lives, thoughts, and experiences would mingle.
In a precise, shared moment, Lena and Asara allowed their eyelids to flutter closed over their bright yellow eyes. Each flashed to the life of the other. It would no longer only be Lena who could see into Asara’s world. Now Asara would also glimpse Lena’s world. The two of them would glide by each other like the ghost ships of distant times—there but not quite there—passing each other in the fog of predawn.
Each woman sat in the dark of night; one sat in the moonlit shadow of a special pyramid, the other in the moonlit shadow of an exceptional tree. When they opened their eyes again, they stared into the same moonlight. They both smiled a smile no one else witnessed—Lena because she knew that Asara and her companions had found the doman, and Asara because she knew Lena sat at the base of a pyramid. It was only a matter of time before Lena remembered how to use it.
The day began lazily, and it continued that way. By the time nightfall fully enveloped the pyramid, lining its crevices with cloying, dark shadows, Lena, Paolo, and Sitting Bear sat before a fire, staring into its depths as if it were a necessary ritual. The familiarity of night wrapped them in the comfort of her cloak.
And while they watched the flames, probing eyes monitored them. The fixed stare of a dark heart was upon them.
Chapter 24
The light warriors decided to rest for the night. They’d accomplished enough for today. Already they’d completed the first two parts of Dann’s final prophecy.