Radiance 28 - Proclaim Liberty

    By the time Emma finally reached the inner sanctuary, the court was already in session. Angels lined the viewing gallery, standing raised above the ground, hovering on wings upon wings. Scrolls and leather-bound volumes were strewn across marble floors and wooden tables, with parchment and paper coloured by age and long use. Candles over ten feet tall stood haphazardly around the room, shedding flickering but brilliant light and dripping golden wax. On the left, at the front of the court, an angel dressed in black stood at a lectern, consulting a dozen tomes, his face contorted deep in thought, while on the right an identical lectern was dark and empty. In the middle sat a divine being, neither angel, nor mortal, upon a chair of inlaid wood, a half-smile upon his shining face, while behind him, far at the front and wreathed in shadows, a colossal throne glittered dully, overseeing the entire court. And seated upon the throne, impossible to make out in the gloom, seemed to be something like a human figure, crowned and enthroned.
    As Emma timidly strode into the chamber, the room was bursting with song, snatches of Hebrew verse and prayer, but as she walked down the central aisle and approached the centre of the court, a hush fell on the angelic host. Myriad eyes followed her footsteps across the marble.
    How long she had been walking, Emma could not say. She had long since forgotten the taste of food, the feel of breath entering the lungs, all washed away in a haze of fire and ice. But it was the eyes that burned in her mind, all the angels she had passed with their near-unpronounceable names and roles, whose gaze had burrowed through her skin and to the very depths of herself. It seemed that she had not always been alone but could not trawl the memories from her mind. Amid the heat and the cold, something had been lost forever, and Emma could not even say what it had been.

Radiance 27 - Sound the horn

by Zeeksie, http://beloved-creature.deviantart.com/

8] Count seven sabbath years – seven times seven years – so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9] Then sound the trumpet everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10] Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11] The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12] For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
13] In this year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own possession.
    -Leviticus 25

    The George Washington Bridge loomed large above their heads as Asher found himself blinking furiously in the sudden bright sunshine.
    “We have to move,” Virgo said, taking him by the hand a starting to pull him down the road.
    “I can barely stand,” Asher said, supporting himself on a nearby handrail. “Anyway, Rahko’s half a world a way right now.”
    “After all this time, he still doesn’t get it,” said Li, her lip curling.
    “Asher, the Leviathan isn’t a big fish or a whale,” Virgo said, looking impatiently at Asher, “its the personification of chaos, more an aspect of creation that a creature of flesh and blood. It was imprisoned beneath the centre of the world but not physically - did you really think God actually went hand-to-hand with the Loch Ness Monster?”
    “But we were in Jerusalem,” he protested.
    “The physical and the spiritual are overlaid one on the other,” Virgo continued hurriedly, “but the point is that the Leviathan could rise anywhere and everywhere - and Rahko almost certainly tracked us here.”
    And just as Virgo finished speaking, a crash of waves could be heard above the constant hum of people and cars. Tyres screeched, car horns blared and people began to scream.
    “The Hudson!” shouted Li, and ran down to the footpath that ran along the river with Virgo in swift pursuit and Asher limping behind.
    And then he saw it, and for just a moment, Asher forgot to breathe.

Radiance 25 - Iniquity, Transgression and Sin

Two hours later, the last three of the Seven were standing outside the excavations, watching the last tourists slink through the gates and wander off through the old city. And somewhere, deep under the earth, under rock and stone, lurked the Leviathan, the primordial chaos, waiting to rise and submerge the earth once more.    “You know,” Asher said conversationally, “that we’re about to break into the Western Wall.”
    “Uh-huh,” Virgo said with a nod and a small smile.
    “The holiest site in Judaism.”
    “That’s right,” said Rahko.
    “Just checking,” said Asher. “I suppose we should get on with it. A little cover, perhaps?”
    Virgo nodded, “They all come for violence,” she chanted. “Their hordes advance like the east wind, gather prisoners like sand.”
    As the verse reached its end Asher felt the wind picking up, carrying the sand around the old city like mist. The effect was far from total but it ought to hide their movements from the more casual observer.
    “Damn,” Virgo said, “that verse should have worked better.”
    “I think none of us are quite feeling ourselves,” Rahko said. “Without the Palace to support us, I feel my power waning.”
    “All the more reason to get on with it,” said Asher, “let’s go.”

Radiance 2 - My beloved is knocking

Chapter 2 of my kabbalistic fantasy novel, 'Radiance'. I'd love to hear comments on how to improve the music/song-writing of this chapter.

Two years earlier...

27 Tishrei 5773
    Things were beginning to look up.
    Asher had his own place and a new job. It was all starting to come together.
    He smiled and sipped at his still hot coffee, fresh from the filter. And best of all he could work from home, for the hours that suited him best. Layla was calling to him from her stand in the corner. He picked her up and strummed a few chords. This was really going to be great, and no stupid arguments with his parents were going to change his mind. This was the future - no commute, no cubical, no bosses spying on him - and between calls he could do whatever he wanted. It was perfect.
    The phone rang.
    His parents were wrong. This job was fantastic.
    He set down Layla and answered the call as quickly possible.
    “Midnight Astrological Hotline, what is your name and star sign?”
    “Virgo,” answered a deep woman’s voice.