...the Temple again. Emmeline has been here before. Many times. It is as familiar to her as her own room. But it definately has no 19th-century trappings.Just what century this is,would be somewhat difficult to ascertain.
...Always the sound of the fountain, of water, water everywhere...The fountain pools outward into a pond surrounding the temple like a moat. The landscape seen in the distance through the open vistas is one of hills and trees, and a waterfall cascades down from a high peak where some snow is still visible on it's regal dome.
Inside the temple, slender columns of pale pink marble encircle the fountain. A wide marble stairway leads down into a conservatory. Here, columns of lapis lazuli and malachite are studded amidst a profusion of green;ferns, palms, creepers, bromeliads, splendid in nature's bountiful effusion. Em wanders through here slowly as always, enchanted with the the comforting verdant atmosphere and imbibing the delicate brush of ferns on her skin, the fountain's gentle splashing, the soft sounds of birdsong in the distance as though it was an elixer of the very stuff of life, something she desperately needed, and had long lacked.
'It is our Anara, retuned at last!'
Emmeline turns and finds her mentor, standing behind a large palm. She smiles, glad to see her teacher after so long an absence from this healing place.
'I hope my propinquity is more welcome than startling. It has been long and long since you have paid us a visit, Mermaid!'her sensei smiles and holds out her slender arms in greeting.
'O, Thelene! How good it is to see you again, at long last!' Em eagerly clasps her beloved mentor in a close embrace and rests her head on Thelene's shoulder.'You don't know how I have missed you! How I've missed this gentle place, and how I wish never to have to leave here again!'
Her tall teacher rests her chin on her petite student's head. 'Mermaid, believe me I know of your heartache. If I could take this burden from you, I would.' She holds Anara at arm's lenth and studies her face. 'You look well. Although I sense that you are troubled, more so than usual. Come, walk with me. Let us not waste the precious time that we have here now.'
Together student and teacher leave the atrium and descend several stairways onto a promontory overlooking a natural cove where the sea laps gently onto the shallow steps. Em, now Anara, is barefoot and wearing a knee-length gown of a somewhat Grecian style which allows her to wade into the sea-water where she pauses, and stares out across the bay, breathing deeply of the clean ocean air.She then turns
to Thelene who is seated above on a low ebony bench beside the stairs.
'I am troubled, greatly, Thelene. I do not know know how much more I can survive.'
She turns again and gazes into the blue distance. 'It is like being in prison, and
made to endure an ever-increasing torture.'Anara lets her head drop. 'I feel I am failing.Failing in body, in spirit, in mind, and in my mission.'
Thelene studies her young apprentice. 'Come to me, Mermaid. I know you long to swim away and join your sisters and brothers and forget the pain you endure.' Thelene reaches into a straw bag she has brought with her. 'Join me in a cup of forgetfulness, little fish.'
Anara sighs, and a small smile steals upon her as she ascends the stairs, joining her teacher on the bench. 'Oh, to forget. To truly forget, all of it...'
'You will forget, enough. Enough to endure for another day. Pas a pas, remember?
One step at a time! Do not despair, my treasure. I once carried the burden myself and I survived, as you see.'Thelene took a stoppered bottle from her bag and uncorking it, poured a cup to the brim and handed it to Anara. A small token measure she took for herself.'This will give you strength, and forgetfulness. And healing, I can tell that is what you most need.' Anara took the cup given her.
'"and unless this cup be taken from me..."'she quoted, looking into her sensei's
dark eyes.'Thelene, I would have expired from sheer despair without this; without these healing retreats, without this respite from, what I can only feel is hell on earth.' She bent to drink and closed her eyes letting the clear, cold liquid refresh her throat with a clean taste redolent with hints of fruit, green chlorophyl perhaps, and some fresh mountain spring. 'You have long endured my juvenile repining...I know what I must do, and why. It is a hard thing sometimes.'
She handed Thelene her empty cup.
'Sleep now, little fish. Leave all worlds behind. We will meet again soon. Return to your mission now. You volunteered and were chosen for a reason. Soon, you will know. Soon...soon...'her teacher's voice seemed to fade into the waves as they
cascaded onshore, ever rhythmic, never-ceasing, like mother ocean, calming her,
soothing her into a tender dream, someplace far away...such a distant shore, yet familiar somehow...Emmeline sighed in her dream, and seemed to be floating in a sea. 'The Sea of Tranquility' she thought, and seemed to be hearing waves crashing, and a sortof music behind it, like kettledrums...no, not drums, like thunder! Thunder!
A booming thunderclap suddenly sounded in the night sky. Emmeline woke and sat up, heart pounding, bewildered. She could see through her second storey window the once clear night panorama now showed storm-clouds gathered in a particular area of the sky. It seemed to be off to the east, in the direction of Crowley House.
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