The Stone by the Stream (Part 22)

Light filtered into the Temple through obscuring clouds of dust and incense smoke. Still wrapped in the Priestess’s embrace as they sat on the stony bench, Cynthia did her best to think on the Goddess with love — yet how to love a being so alien and terrifying?

Worship was one thing. To join with the group and give praise to the Goddess in her loveable aspect as the Mistress of the Moon. To let herself become absorbed in hypnotic prayer that at once dulled and sharpened her awareness, making her acutely aware of the way each visible object came to her sight enframed by its background — the sun surrounded by the blue of the sky, surrounded by the Temple window, surrounded by the wall of the Temple, surrounded by roof, ceiling, and adjoining walls, surrounded by…

Surrounded by what? Cynthia’s field of vision must appear against the backdrop of some background — it certainly wasn’t limitless! If it were limitless, she would be able to see directly behind her. Yet when she looked for the limits of her field of vision — up toward the roof, down at the floor, right toward the altar, left toward the Priestess — she found none.

But then of course she couldn’t see the limits of her visual field — if she could see them, they wouldn’t be limits!

Still.

Something of the mystery of the Goddess haunted her in this thought, as if she were everywhere present just out of sight.

“Priestess?” Cynthia asked.

“Yes, Cynthia?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“I was told that Sofia believed this world wasn’t real — that the real world was somewhere else, and we’re just trapped here for some reason.”

“Sofia said many things, Cynthia. That doesn’t mean she was right. But what is your question?”

“I just wonder what made her think that.”

“Who knows? She said a lot of things after she went to encounter the Goddess… too early.”

“You’ve never thought about what she meant?”

“You have no idea how I’ve thought about it, Cynthia. She was my friend — I was only a few years older than her, so I tried to help her while she was an Initiate. Later on… later on, I tried to keep her from sharing her visions with the Priestesses. It was all too much — the dam breaking, the gods flooding the land in fire and water, the Temple crumbling, and all this world of matter dissolving like foam in the waves. I told her prophesies like that would be too much for the Priestesses… and I was right. So much more right than I would have liked.”

“So they were false prophesies?”

“Of course they were false prophesies! Sofia hadn’t completed the Temple’s training before she made them, so they’re worthless as prophesies. And anyway, the Temple has been working tirelessly to make sure they don’t come true.”

“I’m not sure I understand why they’re false prophesies. If Sofia was possessed by the Huntress, wouldn’t that make her prophesies all the more credible?”

“Cynthia… she was saying the gods wanted to destroy the material world because they decided it was a mistake to create it in the first place.”

“And you’re saying she was wrong?”

“Of course she was wrong!”

“But what if the gods really do want to destroy the material world? What if this world really does only exist by mistake?”

“This is precisely why you need to be Initiated as soon as possible. A few years of Temple discipline and you’ll know the answer to that question perfectly well.”

“Why can’t you tell me right now?”

“I’m telling you that you need to join the Temple because otherwise there’s no telling what you’ll do when you meet the Goddess.”

“You’re telling me you think the Goddess wants the world to be destroyed and you’re trying to stand in the way of that!”

“Think of what you’re saying, Cynthia! You’re talking about bringing the world to an end!”

“And if that’s the will of the Goddess, what right do we have to stand in the way? Does this Temple serve the Goddess or its own interests?”

The Priestess sat stiff upright, eyeing Cynthia with a frown of disgust.

“Sometimes I think our ancestors made a mistake when they built that dam and revealed the stone,” the Priestess said. “It’s brought nothing but trouble on this Temple for generations.”

“Why was it built in the first place?”

“To irrigate crops upstream. To make space for homes and pastures downstream. But mostly because one of our oracles said it was the will of the Goddess.”

“There were oracles before the stone?”

“Of course there were. It was harder for them to commune with her in those days, of course. But there have always been methods for joining with the Goddess.”

“Did they do it here?”

“At the Temple? No, back in those days they did it at another place, near where the dam was built, actually.”

“Can I visit it?”

The Priestess’s eyes twinkled. “Of course, Cynthia. We’ll go visit the place together this afternoon.”