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 forgotten 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.”
It was all too much for me.
The pool’s surface was like glass. Jacob had been under for several minutes.
“Meanwhile, here you should know that the Horde army is only a day’s march from the Great Divide. The Circle has already gathered at the Marrudo plateau. The Eramites have agreed to join the Horde’s campaign. A war unlike any seen gathers. All but a few despise the 49th and her Mystics. Jacob’s drowning will make matters worse.” He smiled.
“This isn’t good news! Why is everything getting worse? It’s too much . . .”
Talya turned to me and gently took my face in his large hands. “How else are you going to learn that bad news is only misperception, dear daughter?” His eyes searched mine. “Do you feel the fear?”
I swallowed. “Yes.”
“Think of the shadow as an evil man. Do you feel that evil man coming against you?”
“Yes.”
“As written, do not resist the evil man who comes against you.1 In resisting, you only give the shadow authority by honoring it as a threat against you. Don’t honor what has no true power except that which you give it.”
He held my gaze.
“Do you feel the fear?”
“Yes.”
“Do not resist. Enter that fear with love, which casts it out. Work out your salvation from the storm through that fear. It’s the only way to finally see fear for what it is, a shadow.”2
I felt like such a failure. The moment understanding came to me, it slipped from my grasp.
“No need to condemn yourself, daughter. Condemnation is only your earthen vessel’s way of operating in polarity. Instead of condemnation, offer your earthen vessel love. A love that holds no record of wrong is the only form of resistance that casts out fear. Only then will it flee.”
A calm settled over me in those warm hands.
“When Jacob rises, I will take both of you to meet the Horde. You’ll understand why when we do. Yes?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
He lowered his hands. “Tonight, you will dream. When you awake in the other world, you won’t remember any of this. You’ll operate only out of what you do know, as all do. In the end, you will be given a choice, and I believe the pupil I see before me will rise to her glory.”
My eyes were misted, but those tears were now from gratitude, not sorrow. Talya was a master with me. I loved him.
He smiled. “You are doing well, daughter of Elyon. Justin’s heart soars with pride. To the extent you can in this world, re-member. Always re-member.”
I swallowed the knot in my throat.
The lake began to boil with light, bubbling up as if a fountain deep within had broken loose. Jacob’s head broke the surface first. His eyes were closed as the water streamed over his face.
I watched in stunned fascination as what had died in the bowels of that pool came to life before me. His chest and his arms, bound in muscle, cleansed of the scabbing disease. His skin was bronzed, as new and as smooth as a child’s.
The sight took my breath away. But more, the cry of elation that shattered the air as the fountain of water propelled him from the deep and summarily dropped his body facedown on the shore. His torso landed on the sand with his legs still submerged in the shallows.
Jacob did not rise. He did not look at us. He lay with his arms by his head, trembling in the ecstasy of his encounter with Justin.
And then he began to sob.
Talya dropped the clothing by Jacob’s head and winked at me.
“Follow your heart,” he said. “We ride in an hour.”
I dropped to my knees beside Jacob’s body and began to weep.
IT WAS THE drowning that broke Samuel. The sight of the beast running for the pool. Of him stripping naked to defile the air with his disease, then diving headlong into the red waters. He spat to one side, cursing, begging Elyon to take the life of this one infidel, regretting that he hadn’t done it himself already.
All of this crossed his mind before he thought to ask himself why he was so disturbed. Wasn’t the conversion of Horde to Albino the hope of the Circle? Wasn’t this Justin’s charge to them?
Samuel sat back against the boulder, listening to the distant, indistinguishable murmur of their voices, confused by his rage. The wizard had conspired against him, first by snatching Rachelle from his grasp, now by turning the enemy who’d slaughtered his bride into an Albino. Nothing would protect Rachelle from the beast now.
He caught himself again, aware of his obsession with her.
But no . . . This wasn’t about his love for her. Yes, he was drawn, but there was far more at stake. The Leedhan had made the case plain.
The Horde were marching and would be joined by the Eramites. Albinos faced extermination. He’d come intent on rescuing Rachelle from Jacob, but what if his role was far more important than he’d imagined? Thomas had always warned him of his impetuous nature, rushing here and there in search of himself. Like a fox chasing its tail, he’d once said.
So here he was, far from home, a fool or a savior—which was it?
What if the Elyonites were right in their fear of the Mystics? Hadn’t the magic he’d seen proven that? What if the prophecy was true, meaning the lamb would surrender to the lion Horde?
It would make the 49th the most dangerous human alive. And he the one who could stop her.
He stared at the horizon, lost in a stupor, grappling with conflicting thoughts, powerless to stop them.
When he heard the distant splash of water, he knew the beast had emerged and he couldn’t bring himself to look. But he couldn’t not look, so he peered around the boulder, hoping the Scab had failed to drown.
Jacob lay facedown, smooth skin glistening in the sunlight. And there, Rachelle kneeling by his side, weeping over him.
The deeper bitterness came then, like hot tar from deep in Samuel’s bowels. He could feel it rising, feel it heating his face, feel it hardening his mind, and he felt powerless to do anything but surrender to it.
She’d made her choice. Samuel had found what he’d come for. The Realm of Mystics was here.
Aaron waited.