3.14 Gold Hard Shell

While the Party Crashers were seducing the aribu in Atlan, preparations for the Solstice Celebration were in full swing. Nel and Zara were enjoying Lemuria more and more each day, the excitement around them was so energizing, the music never stopped playing, it was as if the party had already started.

         It wasn't just the party excitement stimulating Zara, either, she was beginning to feel lush atound Nahash, his affectionate gestures were accumulating, were they directed at her, personally? He wasn't paying all this sort of attention to any other goddess, was he? Did he have feelings for her?

         She had to question her feelings objectively, perhaps it was the wine? He didn't even compare to the likes of Nolan. He was handsome, but in a different way, he wasn’t the classic tabloid model.

         "Were you a dissenter too?" She finally dared ask, wondering what his role in the Great Revolt was.

         "Yes" he replied. "Most of us older folks were."

         She could tell it was a bittersweet subject, how a cloud came down over his mood, as if his energy changed when asked about it.

         "We were devastated…" he expanded. "We love you all so much. You're the children we left behind."

         They love us? Zara and Nel were equally shocked to hear such a statement. Nel picked up the Tower tile still laying on the table, the symbolic image had taken on a new meaning. Like Zara, she too had faced the threat of Aquillan incineration as she died from her old life that day. She tilted the tile into the candle light, the reflections off the carved flames seemed to bring them to life.

         "This story twisting… It has something to do with these flames…"

         'Yes" Nulu replied, noticing her understanding of the emerald tiles was a natural talent, waiting to be tapped. "Do you know the story of the Phoenix and the Golden Egg?"

         Nel couldn't answer, it was as if Nulu had just read her mind.

         "I do!" Zara was happy to know the same story as the Lemurians for once. "The Phoenix made a nest of twigs" she began "It burned to the ground, leaving a Golden Egg!"

         Nel felt the temperature raising in her cheeks as the wretched story arose in conversation, what were the chances? Now the lies had followed her to Lemuria, she didn't know what to say.

         "That's it?" Nulu pressed for more.

         "Poisoned twigs..." Zara suddenly drew a blank, she could feel the whole table looking at her, waiting for more…

         Nulu passed her the goblet. For a moment Zara could only stare at it… Feeling bold she reached for it… Closed her eyes, and for a moment felt a little ridiculous, when suddenly it all came back, like words, printed in her mind, all she had to do was read them…

         "...The Phoenix built a great nest on Gaia. But the twigs were gathered from a poisoned tree, so poisonous the tree burned to the ground leaving only a mountain of ash and embers in it’s place. From the glowing embers all that was left was a Golden Egg. With the Phoenix gone, the world was shrouded in darkness...."

         The rush of success she felt inside as the words returned was amazing, word for word was coming back as if the text book was right in front of her, this was real magic… "Many moons passed while the egg lay all alone. When The Time arrived, the sun rekindled the embers, still glowing beneath the Golden Egg. As the embers grew hotter, they began to melt the shell, until the egg erupted in flames and the Phoenix arose once more.

         The Phoenix rebuilt the nest with twigs from the cinnamon tree, which were sweet, and beauty blossomed forth. Once again the Phoenix rose to the skies, to reign over the universe with Love and Light, to bring sweetness and joy to the lives on Gaia, so they could be free and joyful as life was intended to be…"

         "Other way around" Nulu corrected. "The Original Nest was built of cinnamon twigs and while the Golden Egg was incubating, it was replaced by a nest of Poisonous twigs and inhabited by Archons. It wasn't the Phoenix who rose to the skies, it was the Archons."

         "WHAT?"

         "I’m afraid so" Nulu was serious. "This is how your history was twisted. When the real Time arrived, the Golden Egg hatched in flames and the Phoenix arose once more, yes. He rebuilt the nest with twigs from the cinnamon tree and returned to the height of the skies, to reign over the universe, banishing the Archons to the outer limits they had come from, bringing Light and Love, abundance of life to Gaia once more, yes. But it is still just prophecy."

         Nel was exploding inside as Nulu vindicated her divinations, she knew in her gut that was the right version. Why had Atalon changed the story, saying he was the Phoenix? And why did so many Oracles have to be sacrificed over it? The Phoenix and the Golden Egg story was the reason she was here! Had the god of Death not saved her she would have really perished in the flames!

         "Salvation from Darkness comes from the Power of the Phoenix, the Flame of Eternal Knowledge" Nulu summarized.

         Zara was beginning to see the allegories all around her now. It was the pursuit of this so-called Phoenix Love that had led her into the tunnel to Hellias, that gave her the strength to face the flames. It was the pursuit of this Phoenix Knowledge as to where that Love had gone, that she had been given the strength to overcome her fearr. And it was true, in spite of the anger and rage that had begun to blaze inside, she was feeling salvation, she had been feeling better lately, better than she had ever felt before.

         "Why is the egg gold?"

         To Nel the connection was obvious, now that she understood the Phoenix Flame concept the Lemurians taught, now that she could see how history had been twisted and emotions manipulated accordingly.

         "We were trapped inside a Golden Egg were we not?" she offered. "It’s an allegory too! The gold was our cage! We needed the gold to survive because we didn't know how to grow our own food, we only knew how to get the gold to buy the food! The pursuit of gold kept us chained within the walls of affluence, walls that only the Phoenix Flame could melt away! Our thoughts, our spirits... Look at the lemurians! They are rich with life, love and happiness, they aren't trapped in an infrastructure office or a panther den, they don't sleep alone! We were trapped inside an illusory gold hard shell!"

         Zara was getting it now. "A psychological gold, hard shell..." She ran her finger up the wavy flames on the tile, opening her mind… "Only flames can melt the gold, hard shell…"