The Sea is Full of Stars

“Stop it! There will be enough anguish and tears in the tribulations to come! This is an evil as powerful as any god we know. This is an evil force so incredibly foul that it dreams of taking on the God of Gods itself!”

They all gasped. It was inconceivable to any of them that anyone would think they could take on and then win against the God of all Gods who lived in the center of the world.

“Can any such force exist that could actually do this?” Jaysu asked her, coming closer.

The old priestess nodded. “Yes, my child. Others have found a way into the Seat of the God who is behind all things, who sits at the center of the Well of Souls and decides all. Most have been thwarted by gods who appear to save us all in those times, but I feel no such god who can walk the entire world and commune with the God of Gods is here. There is an ancient legend of one party that entered, but discovered that even though they saw the whole of creation and its powerful linkages, they could not know what they were doing nor who they would destroy and were thus stopped. This one, though, does not care. This one would have no problems in blowing out the stars, in wiping out all life but its own and recreating all in its own foul image. It is here to destroy the very Well of Souls and proclaim itself the one true god. Whether it can do so is beside the point; it can make the whole of our race, not just our clan, less than a memory, and it can do the kind of evil that none but it could dream of.”

“But surely the most holy Grand Falcon and all the gods and spirits will combine against it!” another said, horrified. “Or the One Behind It All shall raise or summon a champion!”

“No! We have been given the task of dealing with this one ourselves! All that we have studied, believed, become, and all that any other races have become, is to this purpose. Our people who are now divided must unite. The Grand High Priestess knows this. Trust her counsel and her judgment. We must learn not to be clans, but to be a nation and one of many nations.”

They were shocked, stunned, and confused by all this, but they were at least listening.

“Jaysu?”

“Here, Mother!”

“You will remain with me. All others must leave. I have visions which concern Jaysu alone.”

“But Mother—” Gayna said, objecting.

“Do you not hear? Gayna, you must accept what the Grand Falcon has decided, just as I must also obey. If you do not, then your faith is nothing, your life is nothing, and all that you believe is hollow. Go!”

Gayna didn’t accept the logic and didn’t want to go, but with a sulking expression and with the others eyeing her, she had no choice but to leave. The others followed, leaving only the dying priestess and the new acolyte.

Jaysu knelt down and drew close to the wizened High Priestess, fighting to hold back tears. It was so awful to see her like this!

“Help me to a kneeling position facing you,” the High Priestess commanded. “Hurry, child!”

Jaysu helped the old woman up, then knelt facing her, almost nose-to-nose. The old woman reeked of sulfur and other chemicals, but it didn’t matter.

“Gayna believed that she was to be High Priestess after me,” the old one said, knowing that Jaysu already understood as much. “She will not take kindly that I pass the staff and authority to one who was not born and raised here.”

“Then do not give it to me!” Jaysu cried. “I do not want it! I would follow Gayna as I follow you!”

“But she would not follow you as she follows me, and that is why she is not worthy. The Grand Falcon allowed me the vision. It is her choice, not mine, that you succeed me. I can no more object or disobey than I can deny my own responsibilities and my life! Nor can you, precisely because you are worthy of the task. I had wondered why you were sent to us, and why as an empty vessel, a blank slate, but now I know. Your innate spirituality shines through. I am convinced that you were sent to us to save our people. Many of the visions, the nightmares, I am going to place as a stain on your soul will repulse you, but so, too, will I transfer the riddle and enigma that are entwined with hope. You must find the meaning, but I am certain they are meant for you.” She reached down into a basket near her bed without bothering to look, being unable to see it anyway, and brought out a vial with a waxy seal across it. “Is this vial red and violet in color?”

“Yes, Mother, it is.”

Wizened, clawed hands pried at the seal, then broke it and lifted it up, then tossed it aside. “I had wondered if this was a wise thing to do. Now I know it was what I was supposed to do.” She drank from the vial, shuddered, and held it out. “Drink what remains.”

Jaysu took the vial, hesitated a moment, then drank it. It was fiery on the way down, yet had a sweet aftertaste. Within a minute she could feel its effects flowing through her veins, giving her a sense of enormous well-being.

Ancient hands came out and grasped her head, and she found herself doing the same, until their mouths met in a near lover’s embrace. Their wings extended all the way out, until the muscles ached from being drawn so far forward that the wingtips of each touched.

Jaysu felt a jolt of electricity that stunned her, and then the whole world seemed to drop away and she had no thoughts, no control. She was in a dream of sorts, locked in an embrace that was all sensual, all emotional, with no thought on her part.

This culminated with a massive orgasm unlike anything she had imagined, and then there was a deep sleep filled with visions, some wonderful, some quite ordinary, some terrifying. But all these dreams and nightmares had in common someone, something, whispering something over and over again, and only to her.

The Avenger must strike the blow that is the reason for his existence. The Avenger can strike only when the five are one through the North, and when all are willing to break the bonds and pay the price…

When she awoke, she found the High Priestess was nothing more than a wizened corpse, almost mummified, looking grotesque in repose. A huge pile of feathers had fallen from her outstretched, stiffened wings, and it seemed there was no fluid in her tiny-looking body.

Jaysu felt incredibly saddened and humble all at once, yet realized that the sadness was because she would not be with the Mother again.

She was soon to discover, though, that this wasn’t precisely the case.

She walked out from the High Priestes’s chambers to see the others standing there, waiting worriedly. Gayna appeared less worried than resentful, but held it in.

“Our Mother has passed on and is carried by the Great Falcon to the Well of Souls,” Jaysu announced. “We must prepare her body for the public farewell. Zida, you will blow the great conch and announce this to the people. Someone else must travel to the Center and go to the Gathering Place and inform the other clans and the Grand High Priestess.”

Although they had all suspected it, there were still many tears and even sobs from the eleven priestesses who comprised the clergy of the clan.

“Who will go to the Gathering?” Jaysu asked them. “It must be done quickly, out of respect.”

“Why don’t you go?” Gayna asked curtly. “We have spent our lives devoted to her. You came from outside the clan and have been here but a year.”

She expected that. “Because the Holy Mother commanded me not to, and because I have other things I must do here. If you truly loved her and understood her teachings, you will not dishonor her now, particularly not now, with pettiness and infighting. Like you, I swore an oath of absolute obedience. I am carrying out that oath.”

A couple of the other priestesses didn’t seem to like Jaysu’s take-charge attitude, either; she had never been particularly popular, especially after the High Priestess took her in and so highly favored her over her old acolytes. Still, they looked at one another and then at the surly Gayna, and one of them, Azia, said, “In this she is correct. Let us ensure her proper return to the Well. Then we may speak of other things.”

It wasn’t the sentiment Gayna had in her heart, but it was not something she could fight. She nodded, postponing the clash between them.

Still, it was a difficult next day. The ceremonies, rituals, and sacrifices had to be carried out within one full day of a death, which required coordination among the priestesses, and somebody had to oversee it. Jaysu tried to accommodate the others by letting them do much of the work, particularly the wrapping of the body, but only one could lead the prayers and carry the staff to the great pit, and Jaysu made certain that she alone kept the staff in