The Justiceers - Part Five: Chapter Ten
the next chapter in my forthcoming novel
The Justiceers
by Daphne Garrido
Part Three: The Will to Choose
Part Four: Prefinished Business
Part Five: Chrysalis
5.10
Time-space had materialized for The Artimus in most concrete terms, Yemi now in nearest reach, one skip-jump or a half-cycle burn away.
Staring down this force of evil so present in Yemi and bearing upon Grammaton, feeling much pour in from her history and extensions of herself with the system, a melancholy was falling upon Miriam Halafax.
She’d seen Miriam Lightfoot’s death most clearly, a horrendous vision to witness in such a visceral way, in fact, one of the most traumatizing things her heart would ever endure. Feeling into the sorrow of that woman, and the heart buried inside her so lost to it all, especially her soul’s scream so felt at the end, then heard clearly at last.
That moment had lived within every Scribe’s lifetime, these people so manifested from the soul of The Goddess throughout this universe, and equally within the gut of every Judge.
Miriam was always an alchemist, a changer and maker, grafter of new lines of light — this was the single defining characteristic of The Goddess’ love, its ability to heal towards positive change, and alter the structures of divinity — traits of purpose and ability shared by every Scribe. This facet of Miriam so bound to soul’s great army of heaven would not shy from a challenge, never turning away from sights which might hurt, or shy away from admitting her own failures.
She knew better than that. You look at that shit, and you look hard, because that’s where the healing comes from. People throughout The Periphery — in fact, the entire history of the cosmos — were often mightily confused by what it felt like to take care of yourself and heal.
Healing sucks ass. Like, the whole way if you’re doing it right.
It’s the hardest thing you’ll ever do if you’re like Miriam, born to a planet which twists you up inside and turns you against yourself. The reason is because it makes you look at all the things you haven’t allowed yourself to see, lifting the veil of self-deception, confronting you with all those things you wish you weren’t.
Whatever’s hidden must be faced, at least, if you wish to become the one who’s not afraid to be honest with yourself, then freedoms yours.
That is, after you cry a lot. Like, a lot a lot.
Miriam’s own father had stumbled upon distorted sources of wisdom regarding The Great Light, when she’d still known him, by strictest happenstance, taking their half-hearted realizations as proof-of-fact, finding a belief in the eternal existence of his soul. Like so many others who take that first step on the path, he’d called it good right there.
He chose to become the very thing which prevented Miriam from exploring her calling throughout the whole of her life. You see, despite how ridiculous it may seem from the perspective of someone reading her writings now, she’d thought religion and spirituality were for fools, stuck for most of her life in this headspace because of the way people would so often use it to bypass reality in front of them. She found that disgusting, rightfully.
Miriam remembers times on her home planet where there were so many ridiculous people doing this same thing, bringing shame to the very notion of spirituality. She’d even seen people pipe-up to those experiencing great physical pain which blatantly required medical treatment and telling them it was their fault for the way they were ‘unaligned with themselves.’
These people would blame folks who were stuck under the boot of civilization for not having the right mindset to ‘attract abundance.’ Disgusting things to do for a person of mind who is clearly lost to seeing true reflections of themself.
The problem here — is both things are true. When people are out of touch with what they really need, as is almost every person in one of those most backwards planets like Miriam’s home world, physical conditions truly do manifest from the anxiety and stressed borne inside. That doesn’t mean you ignore reality, nor belittle the struggles of the people who are navigating them, and it certainly doesn’t mean it’s their fault.
That’s some backwards ass bullshit.
When Miriam finally found her spirituality, and a calling to explore the beyond, feeling drawn to understand and help others to see it too — it made sense why she’d started where she did, and how much she hated the wrongness of the way people were wielding their faith — because she was meant to discover and teach people a better way.
It wasn’t until she met Arthur, where that made sense to her, and she began to find the pieces she’d been missing to ground everything she’d discovered about spirit into practical care for those she loved.
His spirit had inspired her, long before they found each other again, she was changed. She was herself, doing things she’d seen him do which had reflected taught her a better way. Simplest things, giving money to people on the street without thought of her own struggles, talking to them, sharing compassion with those who don’t get it from the blind. Standing up for the people she worked with, becoming a beacon for righteousness in the face of misogyny, feeling awfully fucking great to realize the way she wanted to wield her gift and seeing it come to be. Sensing people touched by the way she’d stand up for them when they weren’t feeling empowered to do so themselves, those tears in their eyes because no one had ever done that kind of thing for them before.
Arthur had changed her to the core, and taught her who she was, bringing Miriam home in more ways than she would ever be able to explain. Yet the one which mattered most was that change in the way she cared for others, and the tearing down of boundaries she’d emplaced to not see things for the sake of her own discomfort.
That is the peace Arthur offered Miriam’s love to be reborn within was the peace of justice.
Miriam Halafax’s original lifetime, so far away through of distance of time, though now so close in space, was very much the foundation of this Goddess who was returning to Yemi after lifetimes of becoming more than she’d been as a woman alone.
There was realization which came upon her, feeling the presence of everything so near, when she finally figured out at longest last that she’d never left in the first place.
Miriam of The Artimus knew immediately after this realization, and it brought her to a strangest peace, despite the fact she knew it meant there wouldn’t be a reconciliation in the way she’d always wanted, that Arthur was already with the woman he’d chosen so long ago, and she would have to let him go.
She was sad, sure, but all Miriam Halafax was only ever hoping to see him again — helping Grammaton to heal and change — working beside him to make justice in The Periphery, and be his friend.
That’s all she’d ever wanted with Arthur Katrinus.
