CHAPTER XVI
Time was gone and so was motion. Weightless. Haldora floated to nowhere from no place. She closed her eyes and opened them and found nothing to look at. All she had were her thoughts and her dreams.
She could hear the voices of those past that told her their stories. She wanted to leave, but the calmness was such as to make it impossible for her to go. She could not turn away from any spirit. Good bad she was connected to them and could feel all they felt. She could hurt when they hurt and fell her sanity slipping away from her as they did. She could not fight her own feelings. Her dreams ran wild. She could not control. Her mind would race to the anger she felt inside towards all those who had judged her. Her thoughts would show the atrocities she could inflict on them, fueled by the atrocities she would receive from the many spirits. Torture, Murder and Hate.
Haldora fought to leave, but all the fighting took place inside her. She was trapped in her won body, powerless to reverse the game. Her anger still boiled her blood and now she thought Hella had sent her there because she was jealous. Haldora thought of herself as a living goddess. She could see herself being waited on by mortals. Living forever and receiving the same honors she herself had given the gods of before. She was sure Hella would never let her leave, afraid Haldora would replace her.
The desire to leave subsided after a time, undetermined to Haldora. She knew much time had passed by the stories told to her, but how much was a mystery. She was near giving up. Her strength was over. She could not control her thoughts, nor her meditation. She felt as if she would explode from her insides and so resigned herself to fight no more and let Hella win. Before her last breath was drawn she felt herself being invaded by a new kind of light, warm like the sun and cold like the moon, shinning more brightly than the stars, involving like velvet and embracing like a mothers hug. Haldora felt herself being pulled away.
When her eyes were opened she laid on a petal of a flower. She felt the pollen clinging to her body and sniffed the sent. She could move once more.
- Hello, Haldora. – A voice of pure softness greeted.
Haldora turned her head to see and a woman descended step by step down another petal of the same flower.
- I know you are wandering why you are here. -, she said anticipating Haldora’s thoughts. – Let me introduce myself first. You have known me since long but never knew me. I am the one you pray to on Sabbats and Esbats. I am the one you call the Tripple Godess. You may call me Morrigan, for short.
Haldora was astonished. She prostrated herself in front of her Godess, Morrigan smiled and stroked her hair.
- Rise, my girl. We need to talk.
Haldora rouse and sat on the petal.
- You have given me much honor in the past. You have stayed faithful throughout all this time and that has touched my heart. You made a mistake. No one should be made to pay for all eternity for one mistake, although it usually happens. I want to release you from this place. But you must perform a task. Before you say you will, what I ask is not easy.
Haldora nodded her head.
- I would do anything for you my Lady.
- What I ask is not for myself. It’s for you.
- My Lady?
- I haven’t liked your thoughts lately, thoughts of destruction and hate. You must cease all hate in your heart. You must harbor no hate towards Man. They will always be what they always were. Nobody knows this better then you.
- My Lady, I do not think I can stop hating Man. I left their company and I still was persecuted. I searched solace. I received hatred and fear. I gave it back.
Morrigan set her hand on Haldora’s hand and looked her straight in the eyes.
- I can still see the woman who took care of that man. I can still see that woman, who was too shy to speak. I can see her. I can see her sharpening his weapons as he slept, sewing his clothes at the fickle light of a candle. I can see her pocking the fire to keep it alive, cooking soup to feed him, leaving it at his door. I see her leaving medicine for his shoulder. I see that good woman and I can’t recognize this new person in front of me. The woman that gave me grace is not the woman who lived without time. You need to be that good woman again.
Haldora cried at the remembrance of what she used to be and all that had happened in her life.
- Do not cry, my child. I know all you’ve been through and that’s why I am here. You need to change and grow, but not like this. I would never ask something I knew you could not perform.
Haldora knelt down again.
- My Lady I will do what you ask.
- The choice is yours. I will give you freedom. I will retrieve you back to the world of Man and in return you will commit to being the Keeper Knowledge, to maintain my memory and the memory of those in the past alive. I could not think of anyone more suitable. You know the past and the future is yours. The choice is always yours.
Haldora got up from the petal and took a few steps to think of what was asked of her.
- If you can live without hate and keeping what I ask of you. One day, when the time is right, I will grant you a wish. Anything you want. Anything you chose.
Haldora, still with her back turned to Morrigan, had a stream of ideas running through her head. She was hearing a Goddess ask something of her but she had the power of choice. A power she had never used before. Her brain dwelled on the question as Morrigan remained undisturbed on her petal. Haldora turned to give her answer, but before she could utter any word, she saw her body turn into a bright light of purple. She felt her body breaking into a million pieces, like broken glass.
The mirror unbroken…. A figure fainted out…. The clock strikes…
