Asharlyn’s mind slowly lifted from the fog of sleep. She realized she was warm, covered with a soft silken blanket and furs to provide comfort. She now remembered, she had collapsed after entering the temple or whatever this place was. She laid there thinking then she thought a voice called out to her, She thought to herself, “Did someone say something to me, where am I? The last thing I remember was…”
“Daughter, arise, we need to speak, you need to have nourishment, then some quiet time to restore your health and mental wellbeing for…the voice stopped.” Asharlyn slit her eyes open letting herself adjust to light being thrown off by the embers of coals in a nearby fireplace. Then she grumbled, “For what? What makes you believe you have the right to determine my future?” No response came. She thought to herself, “so were back to this again…”
Asharlyn rose up to a standing position, she stood there dressed in her torn, soiled clothing and then looked around the room. She noticed that above her there was a round ceiling with crystal like fine glass with sunlight sparkling through its facets down into the room. She then saw paintings, she mused, “they appear to be very old and are they moving, changing?” She paused in contemplation then asked aloud, “What is this place? Hello, are you going to answer me? What is it that I am witnessing upon the paintings along the panels of the rotunda overhead?”
Silence, then Asharlyn insisted, “If you continue with this silence in response to my questions I am going to crawl back under the covers and refuse to move from this spot.” Suddenly, “Daughter, all of this and more will be given to you. However, you must first get some nourishment. We have also prepared a warm bath waiting for you after your morning meal. Come you need to restore yourself after your long journey.”
A slip of air passed from her mouth in resignation, then she began to walk towards a double set of doors. She opened them and there was a room with a table full of fresh fruits, nuts, vegetables, and something hot steaming in a cup. As she stepped into the room she saw the large fireplace roaring spewing forth warmth into the room.
She walked to the table and sat down. She quietly began to eat the various foods and sip at the hot steaming drink. Then tears began to roll down her cheek. “Daughter, why do you cry? Did we not provide the right food and drink?” She said in response with sniffles in between her words, “No, it’s just that it has been such a long time since I had anything that even resemble food. Not since I was taken prisoner anyway.”
The soft-spoken voice responded, “We know you have suffered and in response we have prepared a warm bath for you in the next room. A fresh set of clean clothes are there too. Please, you must be ready for…” Asharlyn interrupted, “Be ready for what? Or is it a who? Why is it so important to you? What is it you want of me?” A reply, “Come, prepare and all will be revealed soon.”
She rose and went through the only other door connected to this room. Inside was a marble bath surrounded by candles and incense, warm colors and scents of flowers rose from its steaming waters. She looked around then, “Daughter, do not be embarrassed! We know of what they did to you.”
Asharlyn said nothing in response. She slowly peeled off her clothes and as she stepped into the warm inviting waters holding herself in embarrassed modesty she heard, “Sil Munax Al Do Kul!” Asharlyn stopped, “What! Tell me the meaning of those words?” An angry reply came, “They mean, ‘Heartless, Cruel, Destroyers of Good’” Asharlyn hugged herself in shame, she lowered her head as tears flowed over her cheeks to drop from her chin into the warm inviting waters. She slowly sat herself down, laid her head back and sunk into a restful meditation.
She came out of her quiet meditation and thought to herself, “The waters are still just as warm as when I first stepped into them! How is that possible?” She stayed in the waters warm embraced, then slipped beneath its waters to allow its oils, scents and soap to dissolved the weeks of caked dirt in her hair and on her face and head.
She then rose once again holding herself in her modesty, looked around the room and found a warm set of towels that she used to dry herself off. The voice spoke, “There on the chair are your clothes. please someone is waiting for you.” She found a beautiful set of silken clothing, dressed and then slipped the warm cape around her shoulders and buckled the clasp.
She sat down at a dressing bench with a mirror in front of her. On the table was a set of silver handled combs and brushes. She picked up one of the brushes and ran her fingers across it. The bristles were soft as rose petals. She lifted the brush and slowly began to brush out her long wavy hair. The brush glided through her hair as if there were no tangles at all and it began to fall around her laid out in beautiful waves like a field of autumn grain blowing in the breezes.
She stared at her reflection and there she saw a mature beautiful girl but with scars where they had beaten her and her face looked weathered and aged in places. Then she heard the voice say, “In time the evidence of what they had done to you will fade and the beauty of what you are within will shine true.”
Asharlyn picked up one of the combs and began to draw out her hair and part it to split and fall to either side. She then asked, “What do you mean the beauty of what you are within will shine true? What does that mean?”
A reply came, “In time the power of who and what you are will heal the scars of those years of horrible treatment under their watchful gaze. They wanted to destroy you to turn you into something dark and unrecognizable. A tool that they could use to their own ends.”
Asharlyn did not respond this time. She had sensed the truth of those words and continued to finish her preparation. It was like a healing force that restored her soul to spend time here with herself in the comfort of what they had provided for her.
Asharlyn’s thoughts trailed off to a question, “I wonder who or what awaits for me in the adjoining room?” She rose from the dressing table set the comb down carefully on the table, then turned and stepped through the double doors into ‘The Hall of Songs’.
She stood there in the great room. She waited then another voice was heard, different this time, “Is this her, she who’s prophecy is written in the songs of this hall?” Asharlyn calmed her inner self, listened then, “Yes, she is the singer, the story writer, the one first spoke of at the spark of creation?” The other voice then spoke in response, “teach her!”
“Teach her, you say that as if she is even capable of such a thing! How do you know that she has not been tainted so much by her keepers all these years that she is no longer capable of hearing the songs that exist within her?” A pause then the other voice replied, “She is the singer, she is our daughter, she is one with the voice of creation.”
Asharlyn tired of listening to these two entities speak about her as if she was not even there cried out with a firm voice, “Enough! I am here! Who are you? Where are you and why won’t you face me?” Her words echoed around this great hall then a reply from the new voice, “This one is defiant, let us see how well she learns!”
Asharlyn felt a shift of her grasp of reality at that moment, there was something coming awake within her. It rose from some hidden place within her soul. It wrapped its essence with her blood and a power that had not been felt since the first spark ignited. Life exploded out of her as she cried, “Oblaan Daar, Zu’u Lost Aus Fin Bah Do Oblaan Faaz, Zu’u Fent Ni Kreh Wah Hin Paar!”
The great hall rumbled, and pieces of its ancient halls began to break apart from its force. The results of her speaking those words began to create new stories upon the ceiling above. The whole room had come alive with sparkling-colored lights resembling fairies of old that were being burnt into colored flames that began to form new paintings on the murals of the rotunda.
Then in chorus she heard both voices say in her mind, “Yes daughter, we shall end this, as you have said, “You have suffered the wrath of endless pain. We will not suffer you to bend to our will! You have proved your place in this house, you have shown your right to stand before us, before all who came before, whose stories are written in this temple.”
Asharlyn cried out to both, “Be clear on your meaning! Who are they whose stories are written in this temple? If you are to teach me then help me to understand your meaning and stop speaking in riddles so I may come to know what you clearly understand, and I do not!”
There was silence and then the new voice said, “Who does she think she is to demand of us as if we were children. We existed long before she who stands before us.” The other voice replied softly and said, “No you are wrong, she or at least her essence was created before our spark was ever conceived. She is the seed from which all other life came. You will see.”