Chapter 18-Finding Faith
Irgen turned around to
see the smiling face of Blackington. He
grinned sheepishly back at having been caught red handed. Anxious to hide his embarrassment he asked
“Who is she?”
“She,” He sighed, “is
Helen Leshore. She was with Reggie Brown
and Alex last night. They were assaulted
unsuspectingly by Tenebri, and she received a large gash in her side before
they could get her to safety. They had
to travel cautiously back and that is why they took so long to return
here. They arrived just in time to warn
us of the Tenebri attacking the fortress.”
“Wait! I thought you said this fortress was
impenetrable, nigh invincible, and at least invisible.”
“It is… impenetrable in a
sense. You see, within the walls you
cannot fight with magic. And it is
nearly invisible only if the defenders inside are stronger than the
attackers. You see a deep magic is woven
around these fortresses. Magic that was
decreed at a great council long ago. Magic
that was meant to leave weaknesses in these safe havens. It was built to be, however ironically,
friendly to war.
Let me explain-you two
came here looking for asylum and protection, and anyone who came looking for
You--could not find this fortress, because in their heart they were looking for
you, and not for the fortress. But, if
an army came looking for this fortress, they would find it because it wants to
be found. The fortress is built for war,
it wants to be used. It is trying to be
found. But even with it wanting a battle
near it, an attacking army cannot find it if the defenders are stronger,
whether in numbers or in mastery of their art.
We only had nine people here, so of course they found us without any
real trouble.” He looked at him
patiently, waiting for more questions.
“But once the fortress is
found, it wouldn’t be difficult to find again, would it?”
“Yes, if it were any
other fortress, but while some in the council wanted war, others wanted peace,
and in the end a compromise was settled on.
You see every time a fortress is found, it changes position. And however unfortunately, we are no longer
in the Austrian Alps.”
“And I was just beginning
to like them.” He added musingly.
Irgen blinked at the satisfactory
answer. “Well then!” He turned back towards Helen. “If this deep magic is so geared towards war,
then there must be a way to repair the damage done. I mean you are mages. Can’t you just snap your fingers and heal
people.”
“Ha! Now there you have stumbled upon the deepest
secret of our order. You see, to become
a mage you need a staff, before you get a staff you are only a conjurer… You see a mage is kind of a conjurer and a
wizard mixed together. Conjurers, like
yourself, use the elements to produce magic, while wizards can use words to obtain
the desired effect, but while conjuring is limited only by your own strength,
imagination, and the element within you.
Producing magic with words is limited by your knowledge of your own
magic. He paused, yet again at a loss
for words. “You see every mage and staff
create their own magical combination.
For example if you used my staff the same words would not produce the
same affect. Do you follow me?” He shook his head and smiled at Irgen’s
flabbergasted look.
“Let me explain. Every mage has their own different word to
create different magic. Most are words
that get mixed up into different languages.
These days a lot of mages find their combinations to be in the Romantic
Languages, but your combination could be from any language, and sometimes it is
just a random conjunction of letters.
For example, my word for fire is fuego
which is Spanish. But yours could very
well be Italian which would be fuoco. Of course, your element being fire kind of
defeats the purpose of you learning that word.”
He laughed heartily at his joke.
“Anyway” he continued, “healing
has long been a word sought for among mages, but according to my knowledge no
one...” He added extra emphasis “has
ever discovered it. Mages have been
searching fruitlessly for ages to find it.
I myself have tried countless combinations to discover the word, but
once again I have never succeeded. I
think I can be sure; however, that the word for heal is the same for every
mage. Otherwise someone would have found
it by now. But as far as I can tell it
isn’t the word heal.” He scratched his
chin thoughtfully.
“But if it’s so hard to
find out what your magical word is, how can you do magic by words at all?” Irgen asked contemplatively.
“Hmmm. Now that’s just it isn’t it.” Responded Thomas as he now scratched his
head. “You have heard part of the story
of Alecto. What was it that led him
along?”
“Well, I guess his
instincts, right?”
“Yes. And that is all we really know. You see, it is as though something speaks to
you and gives you these words. We call
it our instincts, but after many years of study I am beginning to think better
of that fact.” He put his hand back down
to his side. “I am beginning to believe
that there is something inside of you which is not you at all. It’s an interesting subject indeed…” His
words carried off-“Maybe I’ll tell you about it some other time.” He looked back at Helen. “But as for her, I am afraid we must
patiently wait, and hope for the best.”
His fist clenched into a white ball as he said this.
“First her parents, and
now her,” he said quietly to himself.
“If-only we had the Adamic Language.”
“Wait… What language?” Interjected Irgen, becoming highly
interested.
“Well, the Adamic… You know the one and only uncorrupted
language we have ever had. The one
language that Adam himself spoke.” He
looked appalled at having had to explain himself.
“Of course, but you said
Adam, and if you believe in Adam then you must believe ---”
“---In God… Yes, we do.
Well at least some of us do. You
didn’t really think we all worshipped pagan idols such as the Greek gods did
you?” He cast a wary glance at Irgen.
“Well, not really, but I
still didn’t know.” Irgen responded
naively.
“No, as your mother told
you, it is merely a legend. It is a very
well kept one too, but only the real founders knew the true story. And out of them only one still lives.”
“One of the brothers is
still alive.”
“No one can be completely
sure. Some say one lived, found his way
to immortality they say. But others are
skeptical and doubt. I myself say he
lives, but as to whom he is…” He cut his
pause short as Irgen’s mouth began to open for another question. “We’ll save that for another day.”
Irgen closed his mouth
and folded his arms looking like a cat that sneaks up on a bird, and at the
very moment he is ready to pounce, hears his name called by an unwary human,
and the cat watches in disbelief as his prey flies away to safety. “One more question, Thomas.”
“Shoot away.” He said slightly exasperated.
“Why is the Adamic
language important?”
“It is important…” He said slowly “because there is a way to say
everything in it. And you do not have to
be magic to work what would be considered magic with it. The language is magic in itself. If I knew the words right now, I could say
heal this woman’s flesh- or something to that affect, and she would be healed. And not healed from my power, but from the
very power that is in the words themselves.
Unfortunately for us though-” He sighed.
“-Many believe the
language was lost by a wicked generation who tried to build a tower up to the
very heavens. Which may seem absurd to
us with our knowledge of the heavens, but the sheer audacity of the attempt
upset God and brought his righteous vengeance on the people. If only our brothers of the past had been a
little wiser. Then we wouldn’t need
magic. And perhaps, we would still live
in peace.” He looked at Irgen one last
time before turning to go.
“Wait,
Thomas!” He smiled ashamedly as Thomas
flicked his head back and gave him a considering glance.
“I
thought that was the last question.”
“Well
it was, until,” he said hurriedly, “you spoke of the Tower of Babel. And since you spoke of that, does that make
us Christians?”
“Us??? Oh no, there is no us. We mages are as divided on the subject of
religion as Spartans are.” He laughed
with a hint of bitterness. “No we do not
claim to have one, universal religion.
Instead we each claim the right to worship how, where or what we
will. It has caused a great number of
problems with us in the past, but it is every man’s unalienable right.” He took a deep breath to calm himself. “As to your point of the fact that we must be
Christians because we believe in Adam and a confounding of an unaltered
language…Most religions do believe that the earth started with just two
people. Those two had sons and daughters
until the world became filled like it is today.
And why would you need another language so long as you could understand
what everyone else was saying with one?”
He smiled, and he was back to his genial self.
Irgen
peered at the ever-changing face of his new friend. Suddenly he had a recklessly brilliant
idea. “Thomas, if that’s the case then
do you believe in Christ?” Tom’s smile
disappeared as he was taken aback by this sudden question. Finally he answered somberly,
“Yes…
I do.”
“But
what about other religions, do they believe in him?” Thomas burst into laughter.
“Do
they believe in Christ?” He said in a
heavily ironic voice. “There is a reason
why Christians are separated from the rest of the world in religion, and it all
comes down, fundamentally, to our belief in Christ.”
“But
do they believe he existed, do they believe he held power and authority.” Thomas turned and looked deep into Irgen’s
bright green eyes.
“Hmmmm. Now that’s an interesting question. The Jews believe a man by the name of Jesus of
Nazareth existed. But they refused to
believe he was the very Messiah of whom the Old Testament prophets prophesied
would come to save them. So they
crucified him, and to this day they are still waiting for that same
Messiah. For thousands of years they
have waited patiently for this Immanuel who will come to save them. So referring back to your question, they
believe that he did exist, and secondly they cannot deny he had power and
authority although they attributed it to the power of the devil.”
“Now
on the other hand, Muslims do believe in Christ, although in a different sense
than Christians. They accept him as a
prophet who came to prepare the way for a greater man, their prophet Mohammed. Interestingly enough, they teach the same
basic morally strong concepts of kindness as Christians, but because of
divisions among them, some groups have misconstrued their religion, and now
preach war instead of peace. This in
turn has given them a bad name among Christian’s today, but once again coming
back to your question. They do believe
in Christ and they believe he had power and authority.
“And
finally, Buddhists, and Hindus are willing to accept just about any great
person as just another form of either Buddha, or Vishnu. So…I guess in your very general sense of do
they believe in him, then I guess, yes, they do.” He stopped, although he still kept his
unwavering eyes on Irgen.
“Well
then in that case-couldn’t Christ be considered the great healer by all
mages?” Tom’s eyes lit up excitedly as
he said this.
“Yes,
he could. Why didn’t I ever think of this? If whoever decided what the one, universal
word for mages would be, could peer into future history before him. He would definitely pick a word that had to
do with the greatest healer of them all.”
He paused.
“But
I’ve already tried healing in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, even Latin to no avail.”
“You
said it yourself, Thomas, the word isn’t heal.
The word just corresponds to what Christ used to heal--”
“Which
was?”
“I-I-I
am afraid I don’t know.” Irgen said
dejectedly.”
“Ahhhhh… Here we are, perhaps the closest any mage has
ever been to finding out how to heal, and we are blocked, once again, by our
lack of knowledge.” He turned on his heel,
looking around in frustration and saw to his surprise Jennifer standing
silently behind him with her arms crossed.
“You
may not have the knowledge, but perhaps I can help.” Both sets of eyes flew to watch
Jennifer. “It’s obvious isn’t it?” She said in her playful, casual way.
“Jennifer,
I’m afraid not to us.” She smiled before
saying.
“Christ
used faith to heal, or at least those who were healed by his hand, were healed
by their own faith.”
“Faith!!! That’s it.
You’re a genius Jen. But is it
faith in Greek, no it wouldn’t be, would it be Hebrew?”
“I
thought the language the Jews spoke at the time of Christ’s coming was
Aramaic.”
“Aramaic,
right you are Irgen. Except that in
itself presents a problem. I don’t know
many Aramaic words, and faith isn’t one of them. Do either of you know it?” There was a pause, before Jennifer said:
“Doesn’t
everyone?” Her maddeningly playful tone
rang out again.
“What
is it then?” Said Thomas as he crossed
his arms to hide his frustration.
“Why
it’s haimānuthā.”
“Haimānuthā
eh…And you just happen to know that?” He
asked doubtfully.
“Hmph,
you forget that I wasn’t raised here, I am an Earthen mage, and as such I was
taught different things. I ended up
being taught Aramaic, because many earth mages found that to be their magical
language.” Her playful tone was gone,
and she sounded ready for a fight. Thomas
put his hands down in a pushing down motion, and said:
“Alright-alright
I believe you. Let’s try it shall we?” He held out his hand and his staff
materialized in it. He walked to the
side of Helen’s bed, kneeling down beside her, and he held his hand over the
bandages and said “Haimānuthā.” Everyone
was silent for a time, as they sat and watched expectantly for some miraculous
change to occur, but nothing happened. Thomas
sighed as he withdrew his hand and placed it on his hip.
“Once
again-nothing,” he lay back sighing.
Jennifer
wore a look of sadness now as she gazed at the pitiful face of Helen. “Perhaps, healing in magic does not exist,
perhaps the founders wanted to leave fate to take its own course.” She too sighed.
“No! No-no-no-no!!!
I’ve got it.”
Irgen’s voice echoed through the room, taking the adults by surprise. “We have to show faith in order for it to
work. Thomas, remove the bandages, and
then do it.” Thomas gaped at Irgen.
“But
if we remove the bandages, we’ll start the bleeding again, and this time we may
not be able to stop it…”
“I
know,” Irgen cut in, “it’s a matter of trusting in the word. You have to believe it is going to work for
it to work. It sounds crazy, but what
if?”
“You
may just be right, Irgen. I have never
heard of such a thing, but for something as dear as healing and using a word
such as faith. It would explain why no
one has ever discovered it before. After
all, Aramaic wasn’t just discovered yesterday.
Someone must have tried the word before to heal, but without having
actual faith, without putting all their trust in this one great gamble…Maybe it
wouldn’t work. After all the ancient
deep magic is so difficult to control that maybe it is the only way. This daring plan may just work.” He turned to
Jennifer, “Jennifer, quick, go and get the others so we can take care of the
wounds if our plan doesn’t work.”
“No,
Mom, stay here! Don’t you see? We need to do it now, while we’re not
prepared. Only by showing true trust in
the word will our faith be made manifest.
It will take the combined faith of each of us, but something tells me
that this is the right way. I feel that
this is going to work.”
“Go
on Thomas; put your trust in the word.” Thomas
knelt there silently for a time, weighing the odds of their gamble. Finally he shrugged and said with a resigned
grimacing face:
“Well,
no gains without pains.” Suddenly he
reached for the bandages and began to pull each layer off. After agonizing moments of silence, he
reached the last layer. Cautiously he
pealed it off to reveal an enormous gaping wound in her side. As he peeled it off, the dried dark blood
came off leaving openings in the flesh, where blotches of new blood began to
appear in little pools.
“She’s
bleeding again, quick Thomas.” Jennifer
whispered in agony. Irgen watched as Thomas
placed his hand over the wound.
The word haimānuthā once again left his lips, but
this time something was different. There
was a conviction behind his words. It
was as though a plea was being offered to some unknown source.
As
he spoke his hand began to glow blue. A
blue haze formed between his hand and the wound. It descended until it fell on the wound, and
as they watched in amazement the blue haze transformed into a tan color. It grew more and more solid, growing less and
less transparent. Suddenly a light
flashed from the outsides of the wound. Thomas
withdrew his hand in amazement. In front
of him, where the large wound had been, was a large patch of new skin, which
was unintelligible from the skin around it.
It appeared as though nothing had ever happened, and the beautiful woman
before Irgen was only sleeping, soon to wake.
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