Radiance 31 - He set the heavens in place

    In a time beyond time, Asher is suspended beyond all things. In no space at all, he floats in infinite blackness, the only substance in an eternal nothing.
    And Emma is there, smiling at her son, proud and full of joy, rare laughter creasing her face. They embrace, and laugh, and cry.
    “Mum,” says Asher, “I’ve messed everything up.”
    “No, no,” she answers, stroking his hair as she did when he was young, “everything is going to be okay.”
    “The Leviathan is free, my friends are dying, and it’s my fault.”
    “We only do our best,” she answers him, “but now you must set it right.”
    “How?” he asks, trembling in the black.
    “You already know,” she answers, “the father creates the mother, the mother crowns the daughter.”
    “Yes,” he says, “I do know.”
    And he does.
    His song still whispers in his ears, whirling around the cosmic emptiness all around, and deep within he finds the spark, the trace of holiness that burns within him.
    And just as the turning of the key creates the lock, and the door, and the palace, the seed creates the womb.
    In the palm of his hand, the shards of crystal begin to hum and vibrate, glowing with the inner light that is starting to shine in a time beyond time. As the fractal goes down and down without ending, so too the crystal shards contain the spark of all there is, each fragment has the DNA of the whole, and now Asher pours the energy of life through it.
    Radiance, emanating all around. A spark engraved in a ring of no colour at all, and the Palace of Understanding begins to be reborn. Crystal sprouts like grass, bursting all around and spreading and not spreading to the ends of all things.

Radiance 21 - Judgement on all flesh

Better late than never, I suppose. I'm finding it hard to get these chapters written at the moment but knowing that there are people out there waiting for the next one is really keeping me going. Let me know what you think of the latest chapter, as things go from bad to worse for the Seven.

    “The days of the Seven are almost over -  for among them lurks a traitor. When the depths rise, when the Bound One wakes, then this world shall come to an end and Asher son of Eliav will die.”
    Rahko stopped speaking, the blue glare gradually faded from his eyes, leaving them to return to their normal grey glitter.
    Asher looked around at the other faces standing around the crystal fountain at the heart of the Palace of Understanding - Rahko hung his head under the woollen cowl of his hood and breathed deeply, saying nothing. Li’s eyes were darting to each of their faces, burning hot and angry, red hair coiling and twisting about her. Virgo seemed deep in thought, brow furrowed, tossing the Staff of Moses from hand to hand.
    “This is impossible, Rahko,” Virgo said, not looking anyone in the eye. “We have averted this prophecy - Asher is powerful, he embodies Malchut, these words cannot be true.”
    “And yet they are, my friend,” Rahko said softly, shaking his head, “I am so sorry. It seems that our friend Eliav gave his life for nothing.”
    “Really,” said Li testily, eyes now blazing towards Asher, “at least now I know I was right.”
    “What do you mean?” Virgo asked.
    “Asher is the traitor,” Li declared, sparks beginning to burn from her fingertips.

Radiance 20 - Anger with fury

15 See, the Lord will come with fire,
    And with His chariots like a whirlwind;
He will bring down his anger with fury,
    and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For with fire and with His sword
    the Lord will execute judgement on all flesh,
    and those slain by the Lord shall be many.
    -Isaiah 66

Today begins the 6th section of Radiance - Gevurah/Strength - and its time for some revelations about Virgo and Asher's past.

    Even in the deep glow of the palace of understanding, Asher could feel that it was getting dark - an indefinable energy was beginning to depart, like coming down from an adrenaline high.
    He lay naked in bed, covered to the waist by a silk sheet, resting on a soft red pillow. It had all happened rather suddenly - and where the bed had come from Asher could not quite say, only that it had been there when desired. Somehow, in this place, at this time, it had all felt right.
    Virgo was already up and getting dressed, pulling on crimson trousers and a black top embroidered with gold lions - she was certainly beautiful. A bit hard-edged certainly, but she moved so smoothly. Virgo pulled a mirror from a nearby cupboard and began to carefully brush her long black hair. They seemed to have moved to some kind of bedroom, with plush carpets and large mahogany wardrobes, though Asher did not recall ever leaving the beit midrash.
    “You should get dressed,” Virgo said, continuing to go through her hair.
    Asher hummed absently, agreeing to the general sentiment but feeling lethargic.
    “That was nice, wasn’t it?” he said, not really looking at Virgo.
    “Yes,” she agreed, a little absently.
    “I saw my father, you know,” Asher said, staring wistfully at the crystal ceiling.
    “Really,” Virgo said, and it was barely a question.
    “The day he died. The dybbuk was there, when he entered my mind, somehow I entered his - I watched the whole thing from the nameless one’s eyes.”
    Virgo stopped brushing though she did not turn around, and continued to look into her handheld mirror.
    “Anything you want to tell me?” Asher said at last.

Radiance 18 - On high for evermore

A slightly shorter chapter this week that I found pretty difficult to write. I just don't know if the emotion here is working right, if I'm giving the right depth to the moment - certainly I'm not sure if this chapter has had enough support in previous parts. Any thoughts?

From http://daroz.deviantart.com

    “Okay, I know that you aren’t exactly feeling yourself at the moment, so given the circumstances I’m prepared to forgive you. It will be like this whole morning never happened,” said Virgo, sitting herself down on a small white chair in the beit midrash, the study hall, of the Palace of Understanding.
    Like the rest of the Palace any sense of dimensions was practically useless - the diamond walls seemed to stretch to infinity yet could be crossed rapidly if one so desired. And even by the standards of this unearthly place, the beit midrash was one of the strangest. Even after many visits, staying here too long made Asher feel vaguely nauseous. The walls were lined with endless bookshelves, full to bursting with leather bound, musty volumes of Jewish texts. If you watched closely, sometimes you could see new volumes spontaneously appearing on the shelves, with the space on the shelf miraculously warping to accommodate them, as new books were written and composed by the great thinkers of the Jewish people. It was a disconcerting experience.
    Yet the whole room, the entire palace in fact, was suffused with a faint but distinct glow, that seemed to emanate from all places at once - a light that Asher found to be gently soothing, almost like being held by a loved one. Today however, Asher hardly noticed it.
    “Excuse me?” said Asher, his hands still shaking from their encounter with the demons but his fury hardly dimmed at all. “You’ll forgive me?”
    “Absolutely,” nodded Virgo, turning to get a book off the shelf. “Since you defeated the nameless one I know you haven’t been at full strength - certain… weaknesses are to be expected and are best forgotten.”

Radiance 7 - Blessings of heaven above

From Arthur Koopmans -
http://arthurk87.deviantart.com/

    “Wow,” was all Asher could say, reduced to near-meaninglessness in the face of what he could not comprehend.
    “Wow?” Virgo said, raising an eyebrow and twitching a faint smile.
    “Definitely. Wow.”
    “Well if you’ve wowed yourself out, perhaps you’d like me to show you around.”
    Virgo gestured down the crystal hall and up the spiralling staircases that snaked around the walls.
    “So where are we exactly?”
    “Further up, deeper in,” Virgo answered. “The Palace of Understanding isn’t really a place, not in any normal sense of the word, but it is a space, a safe space for the Seven to meet, recoup and plan our next steps. Once you are one of us, you too will be able to bring yourself here, as I did.”
    “Uh huh,” Asher nodded, barely listening as he tried to absorb the wonders around him. The castle seemed to have been designed by M. C. Escher in one of his more psychedelic moods, all shining light and twisting stairways.
    “This represents the third of the ten sefirot, the realm of Binah, pure understanding. The light that shines is the light of Chochmah, wisdom itself, shedding its impenetrable sparks on reality.”