Friday, March 16, 2012

650 - Behold Arko, Our True Son.


I was cradled in a fiery hand and was not burned. What I’d felt as agony, had been mostly fear. Fear of sexuality.  Fear of passion. Fear of the Father.  I would have slumped in relief except I was held firmly.  I... was uninjured, unimpaled.  I... was not hard any longer.  If... I knew this.  If the God had wished me to come I would have.  But my lesson from Him was the threat of abusive sexuality that I lived with my whole life.

My father only abused me the once, with Chevenga as his surrogate but I realized now that I grew up under constant threat that he would hurt me, since there was no separate ‘me’ to feel anything.  If he’d felt good, that would have been sufficient for him and any sign I showed differently would have been ignored as not real or important.

I was held as if in the God’s own hair, like His Wife’s. It was like being hugged by someone who would forever see you as your own person, with your own feelings. A separate person with feelings and wishes and desires and impulses all my own.

“So You understand.”  His fiery voice is gentle now, as warm and soothing as a fire lit against the cold; the fire that would save you from both cold and death.

I rock in His lap, weeping, with my hands upstretched, shaken with sobbing. The flames wreath around me, clearing away every bit of dead skin, drying tears and mucus from my face with a brisk and firm hand, like a father wielding a linen handkerchief.

“Take a deep breath, let your fear go, child.”  He sounds just like a massive Arkan version of Zinchaer.

“Father, I will.”

The flames died down, leaving me sitting on the lap of the statue of Muunas, looking out at the crowd who were silent one long, long instant.  I slid down to stand between them and the God and the Temple said, in its massive, thunderous, bone-shaking voice. “BEHOLD, ARKO. OUR TRUE SON.”  

It spoke in modern Arkan, as it had before when Chevenga did his first and second Ten Tens.

The Temple choir and instruments sang the final, high, soaring chord and the crowd shrieked. “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, FOREVER!” “Ten of Ten!” “FOREVER!” “Ten of Ten!” “Yesterday!” “...Today! Tomorrow, FOREVER!” The sound of their voices pulled me to my knees and then there was only one thing I could do, my heart full.  I flung myself into a prostration to them all, stretching my hands toward my people.  “Yesterday, Minis!”  “Today, Minis!” “Ten of Ten!” “Forever, Minis!”

For a moment their chanting faltered then someone laughed in the middle of the chanting, singing crowd and someone else shouted “GEHIT, MINIS!” even as the Fenjitzas and Fenjitza on either side raised me up.

The Fenjitza released the circlet of glass that Mikas had put in my hair and I said... “May I be anointed at the doors?  Where everyone may see?”  My heart was so full I wanted to sing and shout and dance for joy, touch every hand that reached out to me.

It took several tries to make my request heard, the sound of drums and bells and the instruments and the crowd noise, but they took me to the doors. I kissed and touched gloves and even bare hands offered me all along the way.  There was nothing profane here in the Temple.

At the door, I raised my hands, Imperial seals shining cleaned by sweat and fire to the crowd outside.  The Fenjitzas raised the vials of sacred oil and finally, finally the crowd quieted.  I smiled at my family to one side and when he could be heard, the Fenjitzas raised the blessed glass circlet over his head.

The touch of oil on my forehead and eyelids and body was cool and sticky, “By the Ten!” the Fenjitzas declaimed. 

The crowd quieted, to hear him. “In the Names of the Ten Gods, I present to you, Minis Kurkas Joras Amitzas Aan, Imperator by Their will!” It was the most glorious, shining moment I had ever, ever hoped to feel, and I raised my voice beginning to sing praise of the Ten, praise of the vote, praise of my people.  I don't remember what I sang precisely.

As they raised the Imperial Robe over my naked, cleansed body I heard a yell of 'Minis, a DART, MOVE!" from Chevenga, off behind me somewhere, saw Idiesas begin to push past the Fenjitzae, felt a shock in my chest where the red vanes  of a lethal dart blooming in the right of my chest, even as I began to move.  

I froze where I stood and the Temple made this awful shrieking noise that I had never heard before, spiking through my suddenly ringing fading ears. I realized that I had, perhaps, a dozen heartbeats to live.

11 comments:

  1. AAAAaaaaaaiiiiiiiggghhhhhh!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. (Finally got caught back up)

    1 - I hope Grandpa has his kit with him, and
    2 - the Temple (and the Ten) are gonna be PISSED!

    Hugs to Ky, Gan and Fara - they don't need this shen! (Niku nods knowingly)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Heh, thanks Blue and Dave.

    Grandpa does not have his kit to a ritual event, unfortunately.

    Ain't I a stinka? (to quote Bugs...)

    ReplyDelete
  4. What we need now is a huge flahy boma fide miracle from the TEN themselves that shows everyone in the crowd and the world that Minis really is their chosen.

    Something along the lines of being lifted up towards the heavens while the dart is removed, and he is bathed in their light as he's healed, and those who simply plotted his death are struck blind and deaf. while those who actually shot him with the dart are turned to statues of salt that will melt to nothing over time with sun and rain.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Awwww you think so? You don't think it would be appropriate for Minis to have already gotten Ky pregnant and be taken out at the absolutely most glorious moment of his life?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In a word - NO !! As a fan and reader, I along with a lot of others would feel very cheated. Ili is not old enough to even campaing for the throne. I doubt that Ky would even try and campain for the throne. And the Ten seem to want Minis to honestly aid the nation in returning to a very healthy place. No country is ever a healthy place for decades after a political assination. And when It's a very popular leader who is killed, it tends to lead to a very nasty thing called a civil war. But you dear Vryka already know this and are enjoying the on going conversation.

      Delete
  6. Hmmm...

    The shooter would have to be close, probably in the crowd, so if he isn't smart enough to kill himself immediately there's a good chance he'll die with an unusually fine Motherstone lodged in his cranium. Otherwise, he better have his Peter Pan Getaway Boots (tm) on, 'cause unless he can fly, the crowd will reduce him to hamburger. If he does manage to stay Mahidden, he'll still have to dodge ALL the Dire Dyers, and every Faib player in the City, lead by the Mahid Women's team, who are now officially on "HUNT", with the very embodiment of Maternal Fury at their fore!

    Oh yeah, plus ALL the security at a very politicaly international event.

    Perhaps he didn't think this all the way through...

    Otter: I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!
    Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.
    - Animal House

    ReplyDelete
  7. Isn't this funny? I'm trying to opt out of Christian ads here but they don't seem to understand the words. I'm not Christian and don't want Christian ads on my site. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  8. @ Amy... well... dig toe into dirt, look down. I don't like being predictable but I'll certainly keep talking about it!

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Amy: Don’t be so sure! Shirley and I actually have had discussions about killing Minis off here as an option, and... well, nuff said.

    You forget some very, very capable people are right on hand. You wouldn’t know this but there’s a law saying the throne reverts back to the regent in the case of an elected Imperator being assassinated when the next in the line of succession is underage... this wasn’t in Arkan law before, Arkan law being rather more fluid depending on whims of Imperators, but Chevenga (who saw a similar thing happen in his own lifetime in Yeola-e) set it in stone based mostly on the existing Yeoli succession law.

    So then it's another election. Where it goes from there... well, if you think Chevenga wouldn't be in there like a dirty shirt trying to make sure a capable, reform-minded and totally democratic person lands on the throne, all behind the scenes of course, you don't know him. But Adamas has his ambitions and is not above mustering an army, even as Mil Torii Itzan parties on and Kin Kazien... well, I don't need to tell you what he's busy doing. A disaster is not inevitable but would need some tricky politicking to avert...

    ReplyDelete