Stigmata
Page 79
“Rose?”
I nod as the room spins, I’m not sure if the room is spinning because I’m nodding or I’m still high as shit.
“The Raja likes his anal at least twice a day.”
“Ahh yes… well it is the Ha’mara.”
“He wants the both of us tonight, I am under orders to get something for the rose.”
He chuckles, “Of course brother.”
“You’re an all-around nice guy, Saabir – have I ever told you that?”
“No you haven’t, but I appreciate the sentiment.”
“Well you are,” I nod, “you don’t make me feel like I don’t belong here… you’re my only friend.”
He chuckles as he turns away to go and pour me a glass of water.
“You have your Raja and your Kandaka… you have friends.”
“They don’t count. They’re my husband and wife… but I don’t have any friends here… even Jae hit it right off with Nyrobi, and Lucien has Nassor and I have no one.”
He brings back the glass of water, “Well you have me now.”
I nod and sniff, filled with emotion suddenly, “See… you are a good man. Why couldn’t the vampires be more like you… why do we have to be the cursed ones?” And I look to him as a son to a father searching for the meaning of life and he… he may know the answer because his eyes fill with thought and wisdom.
“What if you didn’t have to be?”
My forehead wrinkles with confusion, his features are serious, I don’t think he’s taken to jesting with me…. But I am high as a fucking kite.
“You know how to get rid of the curse?” I whisper, hope filling my voice.
He only exhales and urges me to drink the cool water he’s given me. “Let’s clear your system first, then we shall talk.”
Saabir makes me drink so much water I feel I will burst; I have to drink and use the chamber pot three times before he stops forcing water down my throat. Then I have to drink a tea with herbal leaves to replenish my good humors… energies… what humans call electrolytes.
“I made a fool of myself,” I groan sitting in a chair at the table, remembering everything I said when I was under the influence.
“Not at all,” Saabir smiles at me over his shoulder and then turns back to his shelves, pulling a few more books down from them.
I huff, not believing him at all. But even if I did make a fool of myself, I get the feeling he won’t judge me for it… and that’s just nice. He is a son of Isis; this is who and what he is, and he seems so at peace with it.
“You don’t…” I start.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t… feel weak because you are a son of Isis – have a submissive energy?”
He turns from his bookshelf and goes back to his table with his jars of medicine.
“I have never been ashamed of being a giver. It is easy to be a taker, easy to swallow up everything the world has to offer and give nothing in return. But to give everything of yourself, this is hard, this takes true strength – few can walk the path of Keb.”
“Keb?” I ask confused.
“Father Earth…”
“I thought you worshipped Mother Earth… through the Goddess Isis.”
“Mother… Father… Female… Male – the divine ones are not bound to one form.”
“You mean, the earth was once male energy?”
“I say brother, that all of divinity is within the balance – the positive and the negative – I say earth is male and female joined.”
“But…”
“You feel ashamed that you are a giver – but why?”
“Because… I… I was taught there are ways a man is supposed to behave and sometimes the things I enjoy…”
He turns sharply and looks at me, brown gold eyes crackling with green magic. “And when will you learn that your destiny is your own and all the world may judge you – but it is your life that you must live, your path that you must walk. I say live it and walk it with wild pride in your heart. Live with the heart of Isis and the cock of Keb. I say let the ones who believe they can sit in judgment of you die with the bitterness of your joy on their tongues.”
I nod, not able to really say anything… why do I care so fucking much about what other people may say or think about me? Haven’t I lived enough of my life in fear and shame? Haven’t I lived that life long enough?
He turns away, calming down, and bundles together a stack of books and a few covered jars of this and that in a cloth bag. He hands it to me, “For the bruises, the rose, and the heart.”
I take the bag from him, smiling.
“Come, brother,” he puts a hand on my shoulder, “You must see of Isis and Keb in all that they are.”
He leads me further into his chambers, through the rear door. We step into another vine covered ante room that has a set of stairs to one side. I follow the wise man down the stairs and with every step I feel something shift, in the world or within myself, I cannot be sure.
The deeper we go, the more the magic changes, it smells differently. Like moss and evening dew droplets on a rose petal. The light also changes, instead of the bright greens from the sun refracting through tinted glass, the stairs fill with the silver moonlight of Neoma. We walk into the shadows of power… a power I know very well.
“I haven’t felt Neoma since getting here,” I whisper as we step down into a room made of a midnight garden.
“She was never far, brother,” he whispers and leads me further into this wondrous place. Explaining the power of Isis, without the sun… when she becomes Keb, a he, a man of the night and of death.
In the center of the large chamber is another glass ceiling, but instead of seeing the sun – I see the moon, heavy and full. Neoma’s silver light refracted by the glass. I’m surrounded by blue and purple hues that are mesmerizing, the fact that almost all of this plant life not only lives without the sun… but thrives without it is simply… “Amazing.” I whisper.
Saabir smiles and gives me a knowing look, “Time moves differently in this chamber. Majic from our Raja. But it will not last much longer. I am glad for you to see this before it is gone from our world.”
“It won’t last much longer? Why?”
“Apedemak does not belong here,” Saabir whispers sadly. “All of what you see lives on stolen time.”
“He was supposed to go to Ra’suá with the others.”
Saabir nods.
“Then how… or why hasn’t he?”
“He is afraid to leave without a scion to carry on the mantle, he is afraid of what will become of the people without a Raja.”
“Lucien…” I pause, “but if Lucien takes on the mantle, ascends fully… he will get pulled to the sunstone as well – he will get trapped in the sands of time and turned to living stone.”
“And no mother would wish this,” he leads gently, and I understand why Lucien’s mother, Zahra, sent Lucien to the future.
We have to go back. I can’t even be sure Jae is safe here. How long before the pull to Ra’suá begins working on her?
“But for this moment, enjoy the God Keb and learn of his ways.”
I drag my thoughts away from my worry to enjoy the sight of the dark garden, “It is amazing that so much blossoms in moonlight.”
Saabir nods, “There are others that only bloom in the moonlight, and yet feed on the sun. Nothing in life is all one way or another, we all have a bit of all within us. Yes, brother – you are a cursed son, but no less a son of Isis – no less at all.”
He guides me over to a little cove with a seating area. The entire wall is covered in plant life with a planter section that juts out of the garden wall, about waist high, it’s filled with dark rich earth. I can actually feel the power in the soil.
Saabir pulls down a set of teacups from a small shelf above. The man likes his tea… I’m finding I like it as well – never thought of myself as a tea man; but there are a lot of things I’m learning about myself.
He sits
down and sets the small cups in front of the kettle and whispers a word of power, heating the kettle.
“You can use the power of Ra?”
He chuckles low, “Still you do not understand brother?” picks up one of the cups and I watch as the dark clay is covered in frost.
“And the power of Neoma?”
I look into his eyes confused, they glow blue and settle back into their normal golden brown.
“Our only limitations are the ones we place on ourselves. Both Ra and Neoma love Isis… in their own ways.”
“And they give you favor?”
He nods towards my hands, “And they give you favor as well, brother.”
I look back down at the table and see a black snake slither from the planter, not overly large, the same thickness as my forearm. Its scales shimmer in the moonlight, blackened royal blues. A black tongue flittering from its mouth, tasting the air as its muscled body pushes it from the shrubbery and towards me.
My heart seems to stop, “The forked tongues. Liars… deceitful… evil.”
“A symbol of rejuvenation and eternity, an endless cycle of beginnings and endings. Duality, both good and evil – life, resurrection, wisdom, power, cunning, death, darkness, evil, and corruption. Your symbol King of Blood, the symbol of the nosferatu.”
I look back at him in question and he smiles.
“The power of Isis is not all life; it is also death. Death is as natural as life and the ending can be just as beautiful as the beginning.”
Act 3 – Rise of the Blood Moon
127
Jack – Sepa
The snake leaves after seeming to welcome me home, and Saabir lets me pour the tea to help settle my nerves. “Where do the cursed ones live? Are they in the city?” Now more curious than ever to learn more.
“They visit us, but their home is north, they live very far to north of us. I hear tales that their lands are beautiful. Stark, but beautiful none the less.”
“You’ve never visited?”
He takes a sip of his tea and hums with appreciation. “No, but… I did first meet a woman from lands of Enoch some years ago.”
“Enoch? Cain’s son? You know these names?”
“Oh aye, we know of the names to come. It is foretold that they will build a city as great as the city of Atum, still with a call in their hearts to be the chosen sons.”
“I know the stories that were told to me when I was a child, by my grandfather – that Eve was companion to Adam and would bloom with one son named Cain and another named Able, but Cain was not of Adam’s blood… in time the blood shone through, and Cain killed Able and so he was cursed by god.”
“Such are the tales of brothers,” Saabir nods, “always at war, neither willing to bend.”
I sigh nodding, “Lucien and I… we both have a stubbornness to us.”
“But you bent…”
“He did too,” I smile.
“Then this is good, the powers between the sun, the moon, and the earth must always be evenly yoked.”
I nod thinking of how much better the three of us work when we’re actually getting along. Blood King, but it is a lot of work not just with one another, but within ourselves.
“You are the most complicated between you three?”
I chuckle shaking my head no, “Maybe, but they give me a run for my money.”
Saabir smiles, “Complication means the mix is good, yes?”
“Mix?”
He nods, “Our Raja is not all sun… he also comes from a daughter of Isis who worshipped the Goddess Nuit and was a time dweller…”
My eyes widen appreciatively, “He got the seal of time because of his mother, not his father.”
Saabir nods, “And your Kandaka, a powerful daughter of Ishtar, but worships both sides of the moon and dances with the wolves within the bounty of Isis?”
“How did you know?” I look at him smiling.
“I am a time dweller…”
“You can see the future?”
He nods, “At times, glimpses. As if I peer through a window and see a reflection of the future on the surface of still waters. Everything must be perfect to get a clear picture. Yet still, most of everything is distorted.”
“Did you know Lucien would return?”
He nods his head.
“Do you know what happens next?”
He shakes his head no, “We approach an Apex.”
“Apex?”
“A moment set in stone – some call them moments of Kairos. I cannot see past the beginning of this moment.” He looks away towards the stairs, “But I can see our very next.”
He stands up and goes over to the stairs as someone steps down into the room. “May I present Ankhsepuntepet, the lady of Royal Blood,” Saabir whispers gently ushering her forward.
I stand almost starstruck as the vision of beauty and innocence bows before me and rolls her large doe eyes up to look at me. Her skin the color of tawny cocoa butter, hair long and dark, bone straight. She reminds me of someone that comes from what is known as Arabia in my time. Her eyes large and expressive…. Swimming in silver, a Blood Lady? Is that possible? Her slender body is covered from head to toe in a red dress, only her face and hands free of the cloth. On her wrist a golden bracelet in the shape of a snake.
I look at her and I know her, I know that have some connection, some kinship. No, she isn’t a vampire, she isn’t a dead thing… what is she?
“Hello,” I say for a lack of anything better to say.
Saabir chuckles, “Don’t mind him, my lady; he’s still a bit in shock.”
“Saabir,” the young woman chuckles and I catch the hint of her fangs. I knew when I laid eyes on her that she was one of the cursed children – but now it is confirmed… she may not be a vampire, but she is an ancestor of the vampires… a living vampire – not vamprissa, something more, something much, much more.
She glances at me and then bows her head, “My King.”
I glance at Saabir, “No… no… my name is Jack,” she looks at me with a bit of shock in her pretty features, “…you can call me that, or Capaneus – I can’t seem to escape that name,” I give her a smile hoping to ease the mood.
“Then you must call me Sepa.”
“Sepa,” I nod.
She is beautiful, there is no denying that… but what has me mesmerized is the absence of sin; a cleanness to her spirit I don’t think I’ve ever known a vampire to possess. Is it because she’s a living vampire?
Saabir urges us both to sit at his small table as he prepares more tea for us. He serves me first and then Sepa and finally himself… taking pleasure in the giving.
Have I really found my people in this place? People like me, even if not exactly.
I soon find that Sepa is a very intelligent woman, she is also the Queen of the cursed ones, or more accurate something like a steward, or representative.
Only a being with god power can rule a land in absolution and the nosferatu have not had a god-king since Anubis.
“Anubis? Descendant of the fallen one?” I whisper in shock.
Sepa glances at Saabir, “He was a god, my king, a good one at that.” She leans on the table, staring at me intently. “He would ride the night winds with the god-king Apedemak on his boat Meseket as they hunted the things of before… the things that hunted the children still…”
I sit mesmerized as Sepa paints this story, this story of love between two warriors. Because that is what they were… lovers – until they weren’t. Apedemak wore the mantle of lion, Anubis the mantle of the jackal as they rode into battle… but like most things, time changed them, and Zahra was the biggest change of them all.
Apedemak and Zahra’s love was something of legend and Zahra could give Apedemak something he’d never had before – a child, a scion… a son to carry his legacy and take his spirit into its next incarnation.
Anubis fled to the underworld to nurse his broken heart, but not before giving Apedemak a token of his love…
“Portals?” I ask and she nods.
“The worlds are separated by time, yes, but also by the veil between the material world and the immaterial.”
“Noncorporeal plane, the purgatory of the children of Set is one of those places…” I put it together.
She nods, “The few gates the Kindred built travel through that veil, with majic taught to them by Sekhmet and Apedemak using the power of time and soul the join the material and immaterial worlds – traveling through the crossings of the two.”
“Was the gate Henenu sent Lucien through to the future one of those gates?”
“Yes,” she nods.
She goes on to explain, that after the accord was struck and Ra’suá made, natural portals grew up from the depths of the heart of Gaia. Massive pillars of black obsidian, or massive slabs of gray stone, and caves that went down, down, down into the earth.
“The mass exodus had begun,” Saabir whispers low.
I see through her eyes as the supernaturals were herded under the watchful eyes of the all-powerful therians, herded into a world that was not their own. Separated from what they had loved, their lands and yes, their human brethren.
Some supernaturals escaped the eye of the therians, ones who could blend with mankind the best… but not many species could, not many other than the lycanthrope species… and our kind – the children of Set.
The Therians went into the secret places of the fae kings and queens, gathering the mighty and the low all alike – from redcaps to pixies and everything between. If they had to, they herded them at the tips of their blades… but they would go.
My heart pounds in my chest as she describes the slaughter of the dragons, for they were the ones who refused to go and had almost enough strength to see it done… but in time they too fell.
It would be Anubis that slaughtered the last ice dragon of earth.