The Chronicles of Heaven's War: Burning Phoenix (7 page)

Hanna stepped forward, smiling with sly
understanding. “My dear friend, short are my years of living, but
wisdom and understanding need not always belong to long life and
many years. You gave away too many of your secrets when you allowed
me entry into your mind. You speak in whispers and as if with
hinted rumors. Maybe so, maybe so...but you are also an Ancient and
a healer, and a very wise man. I feel you couch truth in children’s
tales, as does PalaHar, but he controlled his dreams better when
with me.”

Drorli grinned. “I gave to my wonderful mistress
exactly what I wanted to share with her. Still, much of the
universe abounds with rumor, for Mother is tight-lipped and full of
riddles. She makes her children guess at many things. Countless are
the theories about love and life that pervade these worlds. Truth
is not fact. As long as fact remains secreted in mystery and rumor,
then truth is little more than educated faith. Mother likes it that
way. Says it keeps her children on their toes, likes them to figure
it out on their own.”

Symeon stepped forward, asking, “Who’s the
Lady?”

Drorli frowned, saddened, “The Lady died that day,
at least her heart and soul died that day. She now resides in
darkness and gloom, seeking a rescuer who will return her soul to
her, but she languishes in doubt and despair. The ruin of Michael
was but one of Asotos’ many victories that day. Our age of
innocence perished in fire and smoke at that time too, destroying
so many hearts. It was said by the Ancients that countless years
past, at the beginning of life, the Lady and Chrusion – Asotos -
were of only one mind, heart, and soul, at least in spirit, Mother
making it so when the two first shared their dreams. But that all
changed long ago when Lagandow was consumed in flaming storm,
bringing a demise to the only truly innocent age for our kind.
Chrusion brought about that end by destroying the Lady’s heart with
the lifting up of another to replace her. For countless millennia,
the Lady clung to a wistful hope for a returning to the old
ways…that is until the day that
monster
ruined Michael.”

He sadly shook his head. “Then all hope she lost,
along with her will to live. If not for her love for Mother, she
would have cast her own flesh into the Deepening Pits to be
consumed by the forces of that universe.”

Symeon asked again. “So, who is the Lady, and what
are the Deepening Pits?”

Drorli glanced up at a giant timepiece hanging on a
distant wall, and then turned away, motioning the others to follow.
“We must hurry along, we’ve a ways to go and the hour is getting
late. There are still many wonderful things I wish to show and tell
you about.”

Journeying along the grand cathedral hall of this
immense temple complex, the trio passed countless darkened, quiet
chambers. They finally exited the hall and turned left, entering a
wide gallery filled with numerous buzzing and clicking machines
scattered about the room with seemingly endless banks of lights,
their array of gages radiating a rainbow of colors and dials strewn
along the walls.

Drorli rattled off names and operating properties of
one machine after another while Symeon and Hanna dumbly nodded as
if understanding the things he was saying. Finally he stopped,
sweeping his hand wide. “You see how all the levers and buttons are
designed to be worked by human hands? These machines existed long
before Chrusion’s birthing, though he did idle away many an hour
here.”

“Well!” He put his hands on his hips. “It has been
said by the Ancients that the Maker of Worlds chose to walk these
rooms in a body of flesh such as that of her coming children. She
designed this place so that she could share with her children the
joy of creation, a gift she gave first to Chrusion. Sadly, Chrusion
eventually turned the knowledge gained within these chambers into
making creations for the control of his siblings - creations he
used to infect Michael.”

He interrupted himself, quickly changing the
subject. “Here, come over here and see some of the marvelous
secrets of creation! Take a look-see through these lenses.”

Pressing their eyes against padded lens tubes,
Symeon and Hanna peered down upon the strangest of wiggling and
jumping animals they had ever seen. After listening awhile to their
excited remarks, Drorli explained, “
This is the secret of
secrets to the power of life!
What you are observing are not
animals, but the very essence of life that comes from the Web of
the Minds.”

“
No!
” Symeon exclaimed, he looking up from
the lenses and at Drorli.

“
Yes!
” answered Drorli. “Only through these
lenses, built by the Ones who Came Before can we, the children of
this universe, see into the world of the Web of the Minds.” Waving
his hands about in gesture, he added, “It is this essence that
binds all life together. All life, from the smallest of invisible,
tiny creatures to the greatest of sea monsters, depends on this
material to exist.”

He stepped back, pointing toward himself. “For you
and me, Mother bonded this essence with our other genetic structure
and then, through her magic, forged them together as one so, should
any of her children suffer a fate that delivered death to the
flesh, the essence of the Web would continue to live, it eventually
returning to the Source of Life to awake, a future rebirth in a
body of flesh or spirit.”

Not all of what Drorli was speaking about was
unknown to the others. Symeon asked, “So that is how Hanna, I and
the others were able to be delivered here, to the World of
Spirits?”

Drorli smiled. “To here, this place? Yes, but not to
World of Spirits. My friend, you and I are still both men of flesh,
only now you reside in my mortal world, but it’s still a mortal
world. The World of Spirits that I mention is the world in which
our Mother resided before gathering her spirit to us here. It is to
the World of the Immortals, the spirits, that some of us have been
promised a home, you two included. That is yet for a future day,
but by means of the essence shall we travel in soul and heart to
that place.”

Hanna was bewildered. “If this
essence
ever
bonds with ours, is there really such a thing as death, and should
that be the case, how do the wicked ones ever come to their end? Is
their living essence only locked away somewhere for all
eternity?”

Drorli grinned. “You open many doors that we, too,
asked our Mother after the Rebellion began. Her answer was so
simple that a child could understand it. For that reason, so many
of our wise ones have never grasped its reality. Even Asotos, the
greatest mortal mind of the ages, cannot understand this simple
truth. Without the bonding agent, the essence will not remain
intact, but will dissipate back to its original, misty composition.
For that reason, even your own prophets spoke of the spirit of man
and beast being the same, for a man without the bonding agent,
should he die, he will be no more.”

“So, what is this bonding agent?” Symeon asked.

Drorli smiled. “My friend, the hour is close and I
have need for haste. Allow this to suffice: when your precious,
darling girl died in the flesh so long ago – for you, at least –
her essence passed off into a deep sleep, it having no
interconnections to create feeling, emotion, or thought, all those
things being located within her body of flesh. So sleep your little
child did in what Mother calls the ‘Web of the Minds’. As I speak,
some of these wonderful machines, made so long ago, are gathering
the needed materials to rebuild those interconnections so that our
girl will wake up again.”

He departed for another room hidden away behind a
closed panel. “Follow along and you shall see what I am talking
about.”

The group now picked up the pace. Symeon and Hanna
were only beginning to realize the immensity of this most
magnificent of laboratories, and the amazing secrets contained
within. Rooms filled with ‘parts and pieces’- Drorli’s term for
them - of every form of living creature were to be found behind
sealed crystal.

“This place was not only a laboratory for making
life,” Drorli explained, “but it was also the most outstanding of
libraries or universities, as some of your kind might call it.”

He motioned them onward. “Long ago, our people came
to understand that the properties of nature… physics, harmonics,
and psycho-anatomy… were but an amalgam of all the sciences, and
that all sciences are built upon the core of
true
mathematics
. By the thousands, we children would gather
ourselves to this greatest of universities to study and expound
these theories, which we eventually came to call ‘EbenCeruboam’ –
the ‘Cherubs’ Greatest Stone’.”

“In time, our studies led to the discovery of the
portals in our universe and development of machines capable of
traversing those portals into the Middle and Lower Realms. Oh, and
that was only the beginning. It seemed the more we discovered in
our exploration of EbenCeruboam, the more expansive our universe
became, and… and the less, we realized, we really understood
regarding it. The incomprehensible depth of Mother’s wisdom and
knowledge gradually revealed itself to the point that even the most
ancient of my kindred admitted they were unable to fathom her
knowledge.”

Drorli stepped up his pace, raising a hand in
gesture. “This did not stop us from attempting to learn all of
Mother’s secrets, and she, being the tease that she is, continued
to encourage us forward. I believe that Mother wants us to learn
all her secrets, but she expects us to do it on our own… with just
a little help from her.”

He stopped, looking at the others. “Sorry, I do get
carried away at times. Now back to my point. We shall soon be
leaving these chambers and entering the Court Colossus, one of
seven concourses that lead to the heart of the center of learning,
the Rotunda.”

In a few minutes, the three passed through two
ornately carved winged doors and into a vaulted court nearly half a
furlong from wall to wall, it being as tall as wide, and its
distance in either direction nearly a mile.

Symeon exclaimed in wonder, “How magnificent! What a
grand convention of people this palace could hold!”

Shaking his head, Drorli informed him, “No, my
friend, this is not the palace, or as we children call it, the
‘Rotunda’. This is the Court Colossus, one of seven concourses that
open onto the main level of the Rotunda. Follow me and we shall
soon enter that wondrous chamber.”

Turning to the right, the trio walked toward a
large, dark opening in the far distance, quiet shadows adding to
the concourse’s immensity.

At length, they came to a high, arched antechamber
that narrowed their passage to about a hundred cubits. Exiting on
the other side delivered them to a domed, circular theater nearly a
mile across, the dome’s center rising over eight hundred cubits
above the floor. While marvelous to behold, the true grandeur of
the place was hidden in shadows, the lighting dimmed like evening,
as was the Court Colossus.

Drorli stepped forward, extending his arms as he
turned to face the others. “Welcome to the Rotunda. I know, I know,
such a simple name for such an immense structure. It sleeps at the
moment, has since the beginning of this current age. But allow my
words to awake it for you the way it used to be.”

Drorli commenced a recital of melodious stories
describing the tapestry, carvings, and ornamentation surrounding
them. Symeon and Hanna followed Drorli toward the center of the
Rotunda listening to his whimsical stories, the sharp sounds of
hard soles on a pink crystal floor sinking away into nothingness as
if there were no steps taken at all. Even Drorli’s voice was heard
as if in a hush, it falling away in silence.

Glancing back at his companions from time to time,
Drorli also told a little of the history of the theater complex. “I
can liken this place somewhat to your Greek Acropolis, a gathering
center for the great minds of your day. Mother delights in learned
knowledge, and realizes that in the multitude of councilors one may
gain wisdom quickly. She wanted all her children to grow in wisdom,
so she constructed this splendid learning institution.”

He pointed toward the circular outer walls of the
Rotunda. “Besides the seven spoke-like concourses that extend out
from here, there are many hundreds of chambers and auditoriums to
be found hiding beyond those walls. Why, some of those theaters
alone have seating for thousands. During the Second Age, the
numbers of children filling these chambers at times could number
millions, the Rotunda able to hold as many as one million alone. We
would gather here to listen to our wisest and most knowledgeable
philosophers and teachers as they shared new theories and
discoveries with the multitudes assembled.”

“Opportunity was offered to any child who desired an
audience concerning a new theory or discovery he or she wished to
present. Oh, it might take years upon years to attain the
ProsPhoneo, the center podium of the Rotunda, but every thought and
idea could find a listening ear somewhere in one of the countless
auditoriums surrounding it. There were times, I remember, when I
might spend several months squirreled away here, it being a place
that never slept, always astir with excitement.”

His face saddened. “The Unseen Eyes cast darkness on
this cathedral on the day Asotos lifted his hand up against all
things good. Few now are the children who dare passage into this
world, the Unseen Eyes resentful at being disturbed by inquisitive
sojourners.”

“Do you mean to say these Unseen Eyes are to be
feared by the very children of Lowenah?” Symeon asked, puzzled.

“Well…” Drorli sighed, “It is said by the Ancients
that those who came before are very protective of Mother. Many
believe that those same ones who came before feel the children
failed their mother, and until we redeem ourselves, the gifts they
built for our enjoyment are not deserved to be used. It has been
said if not for the delivery of your kind and the healing of our
brave warriors, we would not be permitted access to these chambers
at all.”