Chapter Twenty-Two
The next morning The Voice opened Sweet Blossom's
door and found her weeping. He sat down beside her and she laid
her head on his lap.
2 "Lord," she wept, "we don't know what it is
to be afraid. Can you imagine to fear the sunrise, to avoid
laughter, to flee from anyone that has The Lords Power, to live in the
shadows feeding on fear and hate, and the last energy of dying
things? How can anything endure like that, how can anything
exist?"
3 "The desperate need to exist," comforted The
Voice, "will drive some to acts others wouldn't even consider. I
have promised I will not interfere, but there is something I must know.
You must tell me exactly what you have promised this thing, what it
intends to do, and what it has already done."
4 "The girl was dying, Lord," Sweet Blossom
explained. "Those parts of her that made her a woman would have
died with her. The demon took my useless ones out of me, and put
them in the girl. She took her working ones out of her and put them in
me."
5 "How?" demanded The Voice.
6 "I don't know," Sweet Blossom continued,
"I'm not sure SHE knows, but she did it. I can feel it
inside. Where there was emptiness now there's fullness.
Where there was Darkness now there's Light.
7 In exchange for what she's done I must
willingly keep her with me for twenty-five days. To do what she
did took all she had. She's now helpless. At the end of the
twenty-five days I must conceive and bear her, then, raise her and
teach her in The Ways of The Lords, have her live a good life, that
when she dies she may enter The Spirit World and live.
8 That is the bargain I have made, the promise
I must keep. If she can live a good life, make up for the things
she did before, then she can survive the Transition and become like any
other Soul. She can live in the Light, not dwell in The
Darkness. Do you think it is an improper bargain? Do you
think I have done wrong?"
9 "With her within you," explained The Voice,
"you know if she lies or speaks the truth. Is she really as
helpless as she claims?"
10 "When I'm awake," answered Sweet Blossom,
"she can barely hold onto me. I could push her away any time I
wanted, and I know what is in her heart. She wants to walk in the
sunshine, to hold a flower, to know a man and hold her children. Lord,
in the beginning she was like me. You knew what I was
becoming. Only in seeing her can I understand what you feared.
11 We must fight....we have to FIGHT, but I
was fighting for the wrong reasons. I did not kill to protect, I killed
to cause pain, to hurt, to make others suffer as I suffered.
12 Lord, it hurts so much to see yourself as
you really are, to have no protection, no lies, nothing to shield you
from The Truth. Now I understand what The lords meant when They said
'In those bodies that are corrupt we cannot know Truth.' Good
Lords, how I understand!"
13 The Voice sat her up and put his arms
around her. "Rest for awhile," he instructed. "I will hold
her in for an hour or so, give you time to rest. You will not
betray her. She is safe with me."
14 Sweet Blossom laid her head against him,
and for several hours The Voice held the demon within her Light.
He felt its terror at every movement, and he felt what awaited it
outside the house if it lost for even a moment the flesh that protected
it. So he held it in.
15 "You'd best be about your duties," Sweet
Blossom demanded after a time. "It's getting easier. Your faith, your
belief that what we're doing is right, gives us both strength. She's
not afraid of you any more."
16 The Voice rose. As he left the room he
found Knowing Fox outside the door. "How are they?" he inquired.
17 "You know?" asked The Voice.
18 "I knew there were two Spirits in her Light
when she came home last night. I still don't know the how and the
why. She wouldn't tell me."
19 The Voice told him everything.
20 "Good Lord!" he gasped. "How can she stand it?"
21 "I don't know," answered The Voice, "but
she's determined to hold on. She won't break her word. I
can help her sometimes. Maybe after a few days it will be easier. Maybe
Great Bear can help, too."
22 "I appreciate that," acknowledged Knowing
Fox, "I don't know how to use The Power so I can't help. I'll
just keep her company when no one else can."
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