Redemption of Light (The Light Trilogy) by Kathleen M. O'Neal

Author:Kathleen M. O'Neal [O'Neal, Kathleen M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-02-15T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 29

In order that the mind of Darkness, which is the eye of the bitterness of evil, might not be destroyed, I took off my garment of light. I put on another garment of fire. I went down to chaos to save the whole light from it.

The Paraphrase of Shem (VII, 1)

350 A.D. Arcane document presumed to be from the original Nag Hammadi Library of Old Earth. Discovered in archaeological excavation on Aurea Catena in the year 5065.

Aktariel stood on the crest of a ridge overlooking a valley of tan rolling hills. The scent of thyme wafted on the warm breezes, bathing his face in ancient memories—memories of a time when the scattered ruins below had housed thousands, and voices shouting “Hosannah!” had sundered the azure heavens. Now, only the marmots and birds frolicked amid the desolation, perching on the ragged teeth of tumbled walls.

He braced a shoulder against the sandstone ledge beside him and studied Rachel. She knelt at the crumbled entrance of the Valley Gate, her long black hair fluttering in the wind; but her eyes focused on the silted-in city beyond, as though she could see past the dross of centuries to the resplendent fortress of old. And watching her, Aktariel, too, could almost hear the plaintive calls of the milk and date vendors, the baaing of goats and joyous laughter of the children who’d raced so freely through the narrow winding streets once-upon-a-time, millennia ago.

It had taken him days of searching to track Rachel down. But despite how frantic he’d been, when he had, he couldn’t bear to disturb her. He’d been watching her since long before sunrise, seeing her erect the Kingdom of God stone by stone in her soul, not out of mourning songs and the wails of the bereaved—as he himself did—but the way she longed to see it, out of sunshine and laughter, light and warmth.

“Oh, Rachel. How can faith still lurk in your heart after the horrors you’ve seen?”

He bowed his head and shook it uneasily. This quest was undoubtedly tied to her meanderings through the multiple universes, but how? What did it have to do with Nathan? He had to find out.

He started down the hill, maneuvering his sandaled feet around rocks and spiny bushes. His plum-colored robe whipped in the wind until his billowing sleeves belled. How long had she searched the voids to find this place? She must have hunted for a long, long time, for this vein of the future existed in only two arteries out of the billions upon billions. What had she hoped to find? Truth? A clue which would reveal a different path than the brutal one they currently followed?

“Don’t you think I’ve searched for another way, Rachel? If I couldn’t find it in billions of years, how could you expect to in twelve?”

He tramped quietly to stand behind her. The wind flattened her jade robe across her breasts and stomach. Her waist-length black hair fluttered over her back. She tensed ever so slightly and lifted her head to gaze up at him.

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