Finally, Hope reached the entrance. As she lifted her hand to knock, the massive door swung open, a gesturing night nymph welcoming her into the main hall with a nod. As the door shut, another nymph took her cloak and offered her some soft warm slippers. A third led her to a small nearby table with two surprisingly cozy chairs, set with refreshments. Relieved of her travel clothes, Hope felt a little bit of a chill, but otherwise the air in the room was comfortable. She was alone. Taking up one of the goblets, she sipped her wine and looked around.
And saw she was not alone.
A tall, robed figure was standing in a broad window bay. Its back was to her, dark folds of some thick fabric cascading to the floor. Starlight winked and sparkled as the figured stirred. The voice that spoke from within the hood was low, melodious. “I hope I did not startle you.” Hope took a deep, steady breath and set down her drink. She rose to her feet and bowed politely. “Phersu.” The ancient honorific came unbidden to her lips. Hope hesitated, then added, “Naggi Dredt is more beautiful than I ever imagined. Thank you for welcoming me.”
The figure turned, its face still hidden within the deep hood. “Most kind. I hope you will be comfortable during your stay. You are young Maj Hope. I have looked forward to meeting you, as well.” Hope tensed and waited, preparing for her first look at Morzul’s face. But the regal figure moved from the window bay without revealing its face and glided toward the table, pausing first to gesture casually to the volcanic rocks in the grate. Instantly, they began to glow, and Hope felt the air grow warmer. Morzul came to a halt in front of the companion chair. “Please, sit down.” As Hope sat again, Morzul took the other chair, hir robes settling easily, magically. They sat silently for a long moment. Gracefully, s/he reached a hand out for the other goblet. The sleeve fell back a little, just enough for Hope to catch her first glimpse of Morzul’s blue-black skin. Her breath caught in her throat. She willed herself to relax. Perhaps Morzul was giving her time to adjust.
“Why have you come to Naggi Dredt?”
Hope answered slowly, simply. “Every map I have looked at shows a path through your domain, or the domain of someone under your influence. Every path takes me through an experience of fear. I want to know more about my fear, about all fear. I believe that only you can guide me through the next part of my journey.”
Morzul nodded slowly, as if satisfied with Hope’s response. Then s/he asked, “Are you afraid of me?”
Hope answered honestly. “The stories about you, about this place, are fear-inspiring, yes. Before now, that was enough to keep me away.” She swallowed. “I don’t know if I am strong enough yet, but my desire to clear away the old ways of thinking and being is – strong.” She faltered a bit, at that. How strong could her desire be, if it could not conquer her fears? But then, that was why she had come, wasn’t it? And she had made it this far.
Morzul took a sip from hir goblet, and then set it down. “Many seek Naggi Dredt to conquer their fear of me. You seek to conquer your fear of fear itself.” S/he paused, and then Hope thought she heard a smile in Morzul’s voice. “You’ve come to the right place.”
“Hope, you really don’t know why you have come to Naggi Dredt. You think you do; you think it has something to do with facing up to me. That’s what Rhianna told you – or did she? How much of what you believe is based on what you know from your own experience, and how much of it is based on myths and legends about what happened in the past?”
“I have no experience of you before now, so what I’ve learned about you is what I’ve been told. By people I trust – “
“People you trust? You trust them because they raised you from birth, saw to it that you had the best possible education. You trust your life to them, yes. But what of your mind? Your destiny? What if I told you that what they’ve told you about me is itself based on fear – not of me, personally, but of what I represent…”
“Do you deny that you represent the forces of the Adversary?”
“The Adversary is a concept, my dear, not an entity. A nursery-school version of a force that is in truth too vast for most sentient beings to comprehend. Allow me to tell you my story myself…
I am an hermanthropomorph – Chiron and I are the only ones among the morofehu that carry both gender qualities in the expression of our, ah, attributes. There is a reason for that: the experiences of fear and of pain can be active or passive, assertive or complacent, aggressive or compliant. What they didn’t tell you (because they didn’t know) is that that is the reason that I wasn’t horribly disfigured by my experience with the mask. Instead of becoming terribly ugly, I became terribly beautiful. They cannot possible know that the two states are mirrors of each other…only a hermanthropomorph could have met the power of the mask and transmuted it…”
“Only one presumptuous enough to violate the protocols would have had to.”
"Touché. But at the time, that presumption was based on my own experience, not legends or myths, or runic passages in a book. Like you, I have always felt a certain amount of skepticism about practices from the past. Oh yes, I know quite well that you have embarked on this journey because you felt obliged to do so. Because your Map said you should. Because Rhianna and D’Arlenn said that you must. Because tradition says that you cannot proceed with your life until you do. As a matter of fact, you and I have more in common than you realize. And that, my dear, is the real reason why you are here.”
"I don’t understand.”
“You, too, can see more than most beings can see. You have the potential to be the instrument of an oracle, as I was. In fact, you have the potential to construct your own oracle. And you can be corrupted by that potential. That is what you must conquer. You must conquer your corruptibility.”
“Insight, foresight, even hindsight are aspects of the basic sense of sight. All sentient beings possess these additional aspects in latency. In you, these aspects are already fully active. You are learning to use them, but you must be trained properly in order to use them well. But even more, you must learn discipline. The ego can be a powerful ally. It is because of the ego that one’s gifts can be recognized and developed. It is through the ego that one can be corrupted.
“I petitioned to be allowed to come to Gaia because I had seen that there was a strong need for my services here…”
“Your services? As the instrument of an oracle?”
“I misinterpreted what I saw as a call to leadership. When I was (here Morzul hesitated ever so slightly) punished by the Phersu, I realized that the need was still a real one, but that it must be met in a different way. My leadership here must take the form of mastery training.
“I no longer need an oracle. Neither do you. What we are able to see on our own extends far beyond what the others are capable of seeing, with or without an oracle. I am the only one who can help you develop your full potential.”
“You?”
“Rhianna cannot help you. She is encumbered by history. Her sight is clouded by her memories, her experience, of what was. Sidus? He is encumbered by impatience. Stillwater? By his visions. Galateon? He has seen so much for so long he is encumbered by possibility.”
“What about Chiron, your brother?”
Morzul is silent for a moment. “My brother is encumbered by…pain.”
“Pain he endures because he acted to save you! It is your pain he endures now.”
“Another myth, grown from another legend, which grew out of a version of history written by others.”
“You are cloaked in that myth. A cloak that enabled you to survive the fury of the mask. His blindness is no myth!”
“Perhaps you should speak directly with Chiron about why he suffers a loss of sight. In fact, I invite you to ask all of them about what I have said to you.” A pause. “And pay close attention to what they say. And what they don’t say.” And then Morzul was up, gliding away up the short flight of steps to the window bay. “A willing student is a good student. You are welcome at Naggi Dredt. Come again, anytime.”
“May I ask you a question?” Hope came to her feet. Morzul turned around, and the voluminous robes swirled open. “Yes?”
The blackness within those robes was complete. Hope’s vision was lost in that black fullness – she was enveloped by it, but she pressed on with her question. “What about the Eye? Is it true, what is said? That you will be destroyed if it is ever found and opened?”
The blackness began to fade, to melt into the walls and the draperies that were now visible through the vision. Morzul’s voice was a whisper, yet it seemed to Hope that it filled the room. “Let me ask you a question. What if you really are the only one that can open the Eye? Are you prepared for the consequences of heroic action? I thought I was. And you see what happened to me. What you choose to do will forever direct your path. I offer the wisdom of experience, my dear. Step carefully.”
Hope’s eyes searched the place where the hood had been. Starlight began to sparkle faintly, and the outline of the trees through the windows began to take shape. Hope moved toward the apparition, opening to the Sight, deepening her perception. Just one glimpse, please.
She felt a swooping sensation, and then Morzul’s eyes were looking directly at her. For less than half a heartbeat, Hope saw that terrible, beautiful face.
And then she woke up.
© 2009 by Audysseon Publications. All rights strictly reserved.
