The Justiceers - Part Six: Chapter Fourteen
the next chapter in my forthcoming novel
The Justiceers
by Daphne Garrido
Part Three: The Will to Choose
Part Four: Prefinished Business
Part Six: Death Rides a Horse
6.14
Arthur was feeling disembodied in aftermath of the battle for Yemi, anger coursing through him, essence having become quite integrated with Illith in the time proceeding. He’d been processing the horror of what was happening most completely, and his survival against The Furies was a less than gratifying one. Gut seemed unhappy with the victory, despite it, his mind unknowing exactly where the dissatisfaction came from. They had been actions he’d taken direct part in, steered by his gut in the first place, which led things exactly where they’d ended.
Evil was dying, and even he was starting to admit that. Something clear in the way this final fall was taking everything with it, how that last vestige of the devil absorbed so much. It had been an alchemical doing of higher nature, most assuredly, despite the wickedness to it all.
Illith charted a path to Grammaton, cruising for some time, choosing not to skip-jump or return to the fold, allowing Arthur space to ground into those energies of change now vibrating through the universe. Much would need to be repaired, at least, as found in his reflections on gut’s tellings.
Arthur was proud of the way he’d held everything on his own. He’d every right to be.
Through all his life, never once since his youngest years — especially after the failures of his family to honor who he was — had he relied on another to see him through in whole. The tides of transformation now alchemizing the evil out of everything had been a most difficult notion to the unmoved glacier of self-protection which had long been erected around his heart.
These changing times spoke of vulnerability, visibility, the need to be seen as who he was on a larger scale. This scared him. Arthur was comfortable in his anonymity, the friendships he’d chosen, and the rhythms of the private life he’d designed for himself before all this began.
He was struggling with these conceptions in his heart — something most different from his usual experience of living, finding it more difficult than any form of mental processing known before — they made him feel woozy, uncomfortable. Yet, not like the discomfort which spoke so plainly of need to flee. Instead, that lack of ease made by stepping beyond the limits comfort, releasing into trust that something more than a mind could see one through.
Arthur’s chest hurt. So much had been done, seen, left unspoken, but mostly thought which now made him feel wrong. It broke his heart to know what he’d been capable of before this transformation of Grammaton had begun doing its work upon him. He’d not yet realized everyone was in this quite evenly. The darkness become of civilization in Yemi had made its way into every person. While the expressions of this evil were different for all, each designed to elicit the most hurt in its vessel once witnessed, providing that hardest challenge which many would use as motivation to give up, not one carried more than another in the end. Every soul would bear the same weight in their own way.
No one had anything to be sorry for, an ultimate lesson in all of this, the entire universe, to learn from greatest mistakes and forgive. This place had been created for purposes of ruthless self-discovery and the cultivation of most powerful love. It was meant for crafting opportunities to exist within the flow of time, a place of density for hardest truths to be uncovered, most difficult healings to be made, one where the gods would find leave to move on, making place for a rising generation of leaders; Justiceers.
Arthur would find himself healed in the end, discovering peace with Miriam most possible after all, knowing it would be on himself to mend the rift of distance created by their very different needs and journeys through this tumultuous time.
Miriam would understand why if he explained it. She’d never fail to forgive someone who was meeting her in good faith, with intents of healing, no matter the hardship endured by her own heart and mind beforehand. Especially Arthur, always him. It was about the energy behind it and nothing else. For her, ends justified the means.
Illith fed a single line into its creative space and shared it with Arthur.
Hold on.
Time melted around them, folding into the space Illith knew as its womb, Arthur having only felt these sensations before in briefest moments. They were floating here in full, the feeling around him at last, that very same Miriam had spoken of for so long.
Illith had been born here, a timeless pond of soulful manifestation. It could access this place quite easily, at any time. The sacrifice it made to constantly plunge into space-times of highest volatility was a great undertaking of purpose. It was a healer on a path prescribed by Admanium themself.
Through the trials of this war fought on Yemi’s behalf, those places it brought her light to alchemize by strangest means, Illith allowed itself to lose direct connection with this deepest place of peace quite consciously.
The fold was inside itself.
Presence and stillness granted through connection to Illith and its timeless womb of love would be the greatest gift Arthur could ever know. The man had always been in search of what he was; peace itself. Just as Miriam had sought the one thing which she’d held as an innate energy to channel; love.
Arthur could’ve just stayed here. Something about it felt like home to him, bubbling sensations of heartfulness rising in consciousness, sighting better ways of living for himself. His gut told him the time was coming before it had.
He’d taken one last breath in this place.
Illith hadn’t gone straight back. It wanted to show Arthur something.
Time-space after next had come and gone, he’d lost track, jumps to and from the fold at a rate he’d not be able to keep up with.
Arthur finally closed his eyes, taking himself back to the place of peace he’d been within the stillness of Illith’s embrace, allowing their flowing energy to overtake him at last.
It was changing Arthur to feel and see these places in time forgotten to his soul, planets and suns, great vistas of space, all now through the eyes of this most beautiful machine of soul.
He’d known what was happening when it finally came.
Unknowing the capability Illith had to ride atmosphere, Arthur was coursing with excitement as he witnessed Umega’s crashing waves beside the sprawling splendor of Kalkùa. Through gut-interpreted calculations and the vision of its scopes, he was getting a chance to see his soul’s home.
Illith had brought him to Peidirò.
There was a place here it knew to take him, one which would remain unvisited throughout time by another human soul.
It set down as gently as it could, half click back from the water’s edge, unwilling to damage the scenery of that special place with its thrusters, sacrificing the ability to see and a gentle radius of Kalkùa’s growth.
Miriam had beamed her writings everywhere, including those of this place and her journey with Arthur to witness it in dream. Along with tales of her visages through time, and all her distorted perceptions as everything came crashing back upon her.
Gary would carry them to the end of time, just as he’d done the first time around.
Illith had been born of programming meant to save these two. Designed by Admanium themself to have a most vicious and direct role to play in the transformation of this universe. Along with this greatest task; a gift for Arthur after all he’d come to witness on his journey.
This would be a singular experience for Arthur Katrinus, that had been a clearest awareness inside. It would not matter. This was a blessing he’d cherish forever. It had been done for him.
To stand with his bare feet in the waters of Umega, feeling her vibrations course such healing through his body, Arthur would never be the same.
Enius was most visible in the sunlight of this brightest day, her force of spirit one he would soon recognize in many forms. Arthur realized it deeply here, the single most healing notion he’d ever come to accept, one Miriam had written most pointedly in her words to him on many occasions, knowing exactly how much he’d needed to hear them, every last time.
He would never be alone.
