Radiance

Chapter Five

Through intricate motions ran

Stream and gliding sun

And all my heart seemed gay:

Some stupid thing that I had done

Made my attention stray.

       Stream and Sun At Glendalough by W.B.Yeats

“We’re just not wholly sure what to do.” Evalynis explained to Tamar as the three of them strolled onto the grassy meadow behind the house. “The legend is not specific in who we are waiting for or how they will come. Yet it tells of how the Innocent will truly be of neither Sept, under a rule of their own, as if of another world. ‘From a kingdom not of this world, the innocent one will come to take away the Fall of us all.’ You can see how this applies to you. ‘Here will come the servant, who is upheld, the chosen one. They will bring justice to all nations.’ They are meant to be the One who could end all things as they are, but a choice on your part must be made. The Fallens believe with the Innocent blood they would spill they would have the control they long for. Domination.” Tamar stopped walking and looked bleakly from one to the other.

“Surely it’s not me?” Tamar asked, staggering for words. “How could it possibly be me? You don’t even know where I’m from! There must be a mistake. I don’t want to go yet but I don’t want to cause trouble. I don‘t understand any of this.”

Abednego sighed and smiled. “Calm Tamar. You are welcome to stay. It is just… foolishly we never thought this would happen in our lifetimes. It has been awaited so long. We gave no thought to a -a - protocol for this situation. No one has ever appeared like you.”

He sat down in the dewy grass and the girls did the same.

“Let us explain a little more to you.” he said and Tamar made herself comfortable beneath the stars before the tale was told.

“The origin of both Lands is a mystery to many but we know the Truth of The Noble. They say he wrote the very book of Truth that speaks of your coming. His presence is rippled through times gone by, ever-lasting and all-knowing; a fear to the Fallens but a hope to the Clarities. His importance has slipped in and out of our history. It is He, they say, who set the laws of the transfer from each Land. However, very few make it into the Radiance Lands unless they were born here, and even then, to Fall is so tempting. Those few who do enter our Sept’s narrow gate are unable to tell us fully how they did so. It seems that unless you experience this yourself, there are no words.” He paused to check Tamar was following. “You, however, seem to be the exception to this rule as you are not truly of any Sept. But now you see why everyone is so fascinated by you none the less, it has been quite some time since anyone new walked through the Clarity gate.”

“We Clarity people are like the stars to the Noble’s sunlight,” Evalynis continued, “we shine in the darkness and glorify his works. But the moon insists on fighting to be brighter than us all. Like the Fallens, the moon forgets the source of his ability to shine, to breathe. The Ebony Sept groups together to fight a cause they do not fully understand, craving the sunlight for their own. We glow brightly each to his own but paint the night skies in grandeur as a family of stars, something the moon could never accomplish. Our strength outweighs theirs ten-fold, but it is easy to forget when their numbers appear increased, like the moons apparently obvious dominion over the stars. The Fallens have everything we have, if not more. But our prosperity comes from blessing, the fruitfulness of hard work – theirs from greed and deceit.” Evalynis ended with sadness in her voice, compassion for those so misled.

“The Fallens dwell in the Ebony Lands, past the meadows and across the river.” Abednego pointed just to the right of the way Tamar and Evalynis had walked only hours before. “Stay this side of the Belljune Bridge and you should be safe. This side of the gate is the safest place.” “They wish to tempt as many of us as they can to increase their numbers, I believe deep down they are scared to be the minority.”