Rise of the Mystics Read online

  “I suppose it would be like a blissful haven. Impossible, of course.”

  “But if you could see the world in this way? Even for a moment?”

  “It’s not possible.”

  “But if you could, Scab! If you could.”

  Strong words for a strong man, but they were meant as much for me.

  “Then I would have found peace without fear,” Jacob said.

  “You would be abiding in love,” Talya said. “And in joy. These are the fruits of the tree of life rather than the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which you cling to as a god of your own making. Judgment of yourself and others—I am naked, naked is bad, she is cruel, he is Horde—casts you out of the garden, blinded to the tree of life. Eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is judgment rather than love, is the fall of mankind and the source of all suffering.”

  For a while Jacob only stared at the sinkhole, lost in thought, and I with him, recalling my own experience of seeing. When Jacob finally spoke, his voice had softened.

  “Love without judgment isn’t possible. But if it were—”

  “It is possible,” Talya said, and the authority in his voice seemed to shake the air. “In fact, it is crucial, as written by the ancient Mystic.”1

  “Who?”

  “Paulus.”

  “Paulus.” Jacob looked at me. “The Elyonites claim his writings to be heresy.”

  “Because it was he who wrote that any confession of belief, any loyalty to correct doctrine and knowledge, gains one nothing without a love that makes no account of wrong.2 To make no record of wrong is to see the light in the darkness. The Elyonites don’t know this kind of love. They can’t imagine that without it, their drowning means nothing, so they call Paulus’s teachings on the matter heresy. They do the same with his teaching that we’re glorified beings.”3

  Jacob frowned.

  “Tell him, 49th.”

  I glanced at Talya. His eyes remained fixed on the sinkhole.

  “He speaks of seeing the way of Justin,” I said. “Perception is the lamp that determines your experience of life in this body. If your perception is clear, you’ll experience light and love, not darkness and fear. If your perception is unclear, you’ll see a world of darkness and fear. Judgment is making record of wrong. The choice is ours: to release grievance and see light, or to judge and walk in darkness.”4

  Hearing myself say it, I realized that I was speaking more to myself than to Jacob. Was I seeing in this way? Only at times. I suddenly felt overwhelmed.

  The Elyonites believed that Elyon did hold record of wrong and that Paulus’s writing, which claimed love held no such record, was therefore heretical. Believing that Elyon held record of wrong, Elyonites also held record of wrong and called it love. But it was a false love that was weak and useless. What kind of love was I extending to myself and the world?

  “Thus we come to the crux of the matter, son of Qurong,” Talya said, speaking as much to me. “We journey through this life to see with a new mind rather than with the eyes of the earthen vessel, which are prone to see with judgment. Seeing with a new mind, we see the kingdom of heaven, now at hand and within. To believe in Inchristi is to hold no record of wrong. This is eternal life, which isn’t a destination in some future, but a dimension now. Lift your eyes, change your perception, and you’ll see that the kingdom of heaven is already here.”5

  “What of the next life?” I asked, thinking about all those sermons back in Eden. “And what about other people in the next life?”

  “The next life will show you more than your human brain can possibly imagine. There is no language for it on Earth, only metaphors that have led many who don’t understand metaphor back into the law.”

  He stepped closer to the cliff and looked down, holding himself steady with his staff. Then he turned back at me.

  “As for the fate of others, this is their Father’s business, not yours. Trust him. To say that he knows what he’s doing is a vast understatement. Your path is to abide in the vine of love that holds no record of wrong.”

  I wasn’t sure I knew how to do that.

  “But you will know how,” he said. “The question is, will you do it? Seeing with a new mind is your prerogative, chosen every moment during this life. So tell me, what mind are you seeing with right now, 49th?” He nodded at the huge sinkhole behind him. “Tell me what you see.”

  I looked. “A wasteland.”

  “Really? It’s not what I see. You must be blind.”

  Jacob took a step forward and peered down. “You really mean to say that we’re blind and don’t know it?”

  Talya dropped his staff and spit in the palm of one hand, ignoring Jacob.

  “It’s only a two-degree shift, daughter. Like a radio dial. You’re tuned to a station that offers you the static of polarity. Adjust your tuning only two degrees, and you will find beautiful music. This is how you hear if you have ears to hear, and see what is otherwise unseen.”

  “A radio dial?” Jacob looked confused.

  Talya’s analogy struck a chord deep within me because I knew that the human brain could only pick up a fraction of what was in the air, both in sound and in vision. I held Talya’s eyes, too caught up to give Jacob an explanation.

  “Metanoia,” I whispered. “Change your cognitive perception.”6

  “See with the mind of Christ.”

  “How do I turn the dial?”

  “You surrender the old station of static in order to hear the new.”

  “Surrender?”

  “Yes.” He spit in his other hand. The air prickled my skin. “You let go of the old mind to see the kingdom of heaven with the new mind.” He stepped up to us. “You have the power. But today, I offer a hand.”

  The breeze fell off. Silence settled over us.

  He winked at Jacob. “Would you like to see what is unseen?”

  “Yes,” Jacob said without a second thought. And before I had a chance to speak, Talya reached for our faces and flattened his palms over our eyes.

  “May Justin give sight to the blind.”

  A hot wind hit me full in the face, carrying on it the distant sound of children giggling. Talya’s hand darkened my sight, but new sounds filled my ears. Falling water, like a distant downpour. Faint music . . . A high-pitched tone, pure and light.

  I’d been here before! On the cliff when I’d first seen beyond this world.

  The tone grew and expanded, as if angels were singing in long, unbroken notes that vibrated through my body. My bones resonated in perfect alignment, like a tuning fork that vibrated in perfect pitch.

  A nearly irresistible urge to join in that song pulled at me like an ancient memory begging to be re-membered.

  Talya’s hand fell from my eyes, and a flash of light blinded me to one world and opened my eyes to another.

  The sinkhole beneath us, only moments earlier a desolate wasteland, now brimmed with forests and green meadows sprinkled with brilliant patches of red and yellow and blue flowers. Once again I saw the village nestled at the center. Once more, the tall Thrall that was its prized jewel.

  All of this I saw in a single glance. But again it was the color of the houses and the trees that pulled my focus. A colored forest, enchanted with wonder and beauty, the same one I’d seen the last time. A dozen large white birds soared through the air far below us. Not birds as such, though. Roush, like Gabil and Michal.

  My eyes were drawn to the large waterfall on the far cliff, cascading down the sheer rock face like oil that shone in colored hues as the light reflected off its surface. At the bottom of that waterfall: a lake with a sandy white shore.

  Even more than before, I knew I had been in those waters. I had come from this valley.

  This was the Realm of Mystics!

  Talya pressed his hands together and dipped his head at me. “Welcome home, dear daughter.”

  My body felt electrified.

  Jacob was on his knees, staring aghast.

&n
bsp; “If this amazes you,” Talya said, “you should see the upper lake that feeds the waterfall.”

  “It’s . . . It’s been here all along?”

  “Hidden to blind eyes,” Talya said. “One day all may see it everywhere on this plane. A new millennium. For now, others can only see it when you’re here.”

  WAKING FROM a dead sleep, Samuel of Hunter had rushed to the cave to find it vacant save the remains of their fire. Fearful that he’d allowed them to escape, he’d run along the cliff wall, searching for signs.

  They wouldn’t have gone back down the cliff—that would make no sense. Nor could they scale the wall here without tackle.

  A tall tree half a mile north had been his salvation. He’d scaled its dead branches and made the precarious leap to the cliff’s lip, only just managing a grip on the edge. Hauling himself up, he’d run back the way he’d come, scanning the large sinkhole beyond the cliffs. No sign of them. Nothing but this wasteland.

  Maybe they hadn’t gone over the cliff.

  He was about to double back when he saw the lion looking down at a wide meadow above the sinkhole.

  The old man’s lion!

  He ducked behind some boulders, heart pounding, then saw what the lion saw. The old wizard with Jacob and Rachelle, staring into the wasteland.

  But that wasteland had now changed into a colored forest with a lake.

  He blinked to clear his vision, but the sight remained fixed. They’d found the Realm of Mystics!

  But how . . . how could this be, that something could appear as if by magic? It was sorcery of some kind. Witchery that drew him with its power.

  The Horde beast was on his knees.

  Confusion tore at Samuel’s mind. That this was the Realm of Mystics was certain. That Mystics were indeed heretics who practiced sorcery, nearly as certain.

  Why, then, was he so drawn to the sight?

  Samuel settled to one knee behind the boulder and tried to understand.

  13

  JACOB WAS STILL on his knees, rocking now, muttering under his breath. Tears streamed down his cheeks. The sight divided my mind—half on the sight below me, half wondering at the undoing of such a powerful warrior as Jacob.

  A person might look at him and think he was in pain, but I knew better. His mind and body just didn’t know what to do with such a stunning and jarring reversal of perception. Talya had already told me how Paulus first saw the light. The experience left him blind for three days, then he went into an Arabian desert for many years, where he was caught up in seeing far more. Talya had known Paulus in that desert as a boy, a long story he would tell me one day.

  “They know me?” I asked, staring at the village.

  “They wait for you.”

  I could see tiny figures walking in the village now, and I wanted to rush down to meet those I’d known. “How do we get down?”

  “We don’t. Not now.”

  And then I understood.

  He nodded. “As the 49th, you, my dear, are a thin place. As long as you’re here, any Horde or Albino who comes will see what we see. Once they know where it is, they will bring their armies. If they destroy it before you have all five seals, all will be lost in this plane.”

  “But . . . I was here before, right? Why didn’t anyone find it when I was here then?”

  “You weren’t the 49th until you came of age a few weeks ago while captive of the Horde. Before then, the Realm could only be seen by those who’ve awakened to their true identity. Mystics. The Leedhan knows you’re the key to finding the Realm and has prepared. Even now, eyes see.”

  Leedhan—Vlad.

  “Do you know what’s happened to me in ancient Earth? They’ve made a mess of me. I can’t remember who I am there, and Vlad’s back. What if he gets to me before I find the seals? I don’t even know what I’m doing there anymore!”

  “Now you understand why he was sent.”

  My heart was pounding. “You have to help me find the last two seals!”

  “Is that what you want, 49th? To know the Fourth and Fifth Seals?”

  “I’m running out of time!”

  “Is that what you really want? To awaken to that stunning power?”

  “Yes. Of course, yes.”

  “Will you count the cost, 49th? Will you surrender all that you think you know for the Fourth Seal?”

  Jacob suddenly staggered to his feet, staring at the village below, hands clenched into fists. Uttering a sob, he turned back the way we’d come.

  “Jacob?”

  Talya held up a hand to stop me.

  Jacob lurched forward, then began to run, sobbing in great heaves. Veering to his left. Sprinting toward the grove at the far side of the meadow.

  I was already moving. “Jacob!” Tearing across the meadow behind him. I wasn’t sure what his intention was, what pushed him at such a breakneck pace.

  “Jacob!”

  He was halfway to the grove when he began to strip off his clothing, first his shirt, then his boots, then his pants, stumbling as he ran.

  He was going to bathe in the cleansing pool.

  I pulled up halfway, breathing hard. I knew I’d drowned, but I couldn’t remember the experience. What if it didn’t work for him? What if in his frenzied emotional state he only threw his life away? There had to be some protocol or teaching that went with it.

  “Jacob, wait!” I began to run again, frantic. “Wait!”

  He did not wait. Silent now, he ran like a world-class sprinter, head down, arms pumping, oblivious to all but the water. Hooves sounded on the ground behind me. Talya had mounted and was coming.

  I was only thirty paces from the shimmering red waters when Jacob reached the shore, planted his right foot on a fallen log, and dove headlong into the air.

  His hands parted the water and his body followed. Scarcely a splash disturbed the surface as the red pool swallowed Jacob, son of Qurong.

  And then he was gone, into the depths of those red waters.

  I slid to a stop on the shore, staring at the ripples that spread across the pond’s surface.

  My first thought was to dive in after him. But I didn’t even know if I could swim. I spun back to Talya, who was dropping to the ground.

  “He’s gone in!”

  “I can see that.” He strode up to me, staff in one hand, a bundle of clothing in the other, eyes twinkling like stars.

  “It’s okay?”

  “I suppose that depends on one’s perspective.”

  “I mean . . . he’ll live, right?”

  “Of that there’s no question. Assuming he drowns, that is. The waters will heal his body and invite him to see the kingdom of heaven as it is, within and at hand. Like all Albinos, however, he may continue to embrace judgment and grievance. If he does, that law will blind him once more to the true nature of love.”

  The water had stilled. No sign of life.

  “How long does it take? What if he hit his head on the bottom? Are you sure he’s okay?”

  Talya was chuckling. “So many questions, 49th. These are things you once knew like you know how to breathe. It takes as long as he lingers in the beauty past death. And he didn’t hit his head because the red pools have no bottom.” He winked at me. “Would you like to join him?”

  But I’d already drowned.

  “True. And yet you walk in darkness most of the time. You cannot experience Justin and come away the same. Love awakens to replace the law, but the cares and concerns of the world often choke out that love. Fear smothers love. As you’ve seen, the Elyonites have reverted to the law of fear. We Mystics have taken a journey of abiding in true love. Jacob will chose his own journey.”

  Judah had sauntered up to the pool and was tentatively lapping at the water.

  “He’ll become a Mystic,” I said. “I’m certain of it.”

  “You must always remember, 49th, even knowing the truth, you will remain powerless if you don’t follow the way into that truth. You are re-learning what you have forgotten. The f
orgotten way. In that way, the first two seals are those simple truths of who the Father is and who you are, but they cannot save you in the storms of this life unless you follow the way of experiencing those truths yourself.”

  “And the other seals?”

  “The Third and Fourth Seals are the way to experience the eternal dimension in this temporal life. As it is written, no one can experience the Father except Inchristi. We call the way ‘seeing with new eyes.’ Water walking. Being saved from fear in the storms of life.”

  “Salvation in the storm,” I said. “Unless one is reborn he can’t see the kingdom that’s here. Yeshua taught this. But I already have the Third Seal: seeing. I can see who I am.”

  “Can you?”

  Jacob was still under.

  “Sometimes.”

  “To find salvation in the storms of this life, you will need the Fourth Seal. Each struggle that comes your way is simply an opportunity to experience who you truly are, or to remain in darkness. Think of each of those troubles as opportunities for salvation. You have many such opportunities ahead of you in both worlds.”

  The wonder I’d felt back at the cliff was nearly gone. The path ahead of me suddenly felt impossible. In the other world, I didn’t even know who I was.

  “And you will need to find the Fourth Seal there, in that other world. Discovering it will require far more than the first three. And then the end will come, because the Fifth Seal is immediately bound to the Fourth.”

  I faced him. “There? You don’t understand—”

  “But I do. And it will get worse. They are erasing your mind now, using Leedhan blood. It’s why Vlad returned. When you next awaken there, you will know far less than what you know now.”

  I stepped back. “They . . . The MEP is going to work?”

  “You won’t have a clue who you are. Neither will you dream of this world, which means you’ll be completely separate from each other.” He arched his brow. “Didn’t the shadow promise to blind you again and again?”

  “Yes, but I defeated him in Eden when—”

  “No,” Talya interrupted, finger raised. “Justin did that a long time ago. Can a human defeat a shadow? Can you sweep a shadow from a room? No, you simply light the room and the shadow is gone. In the same way, you don’t defeat the shadow; you awaken to who you are as the light. As you awaken, you will witness the light in which there is no darkness. To witness means to see. So see. Become a witness. You will show them Justin’s way by witnessing the light in and as yourself.”