The Reward of Stone – Part 1
Hard to believe that I’m now at 130 posts. It feels like yesterday that I sat down to write the first of the short stories on yon blogge: Dead in the Water.
I’d like to think I’ve come a long way since that time. It’s been 11 months since that entry, to the day. I have Temple in the Stars in publication, I have my novel chugging along, and I continue to post here on a semi-consistent basis. It’s hard to fathom, but I am actually doing this whole author thing. Most people quit a few months into their journey. I’ve not been free of my moments of weakness or desire to quit. I’ve persevered however, and I know I’ve become stronger for it. My wife is really proud that I keep getting back up and trying so hard at this.
Temple part two should be finished editing sometime this week. The hope is that I can have it released this Friday. We have a showing today that will last an entire hour, by an entirely new company which is bringing us several prospective buyers. My unemployment came through last week, and that’s brought in some much needed revenue.
I did a free trial of Temple over the weekend. It wasn’t anything massive, but I did move several volumes I wouldn’t have otherwise. It didn’t generate any reviews, but any chance to bring in new readers is appreciated and welcome. I only have so many chances to take a bite at that apple, but it was definitely worth a try. I still have a lot that needs doing on building a readership, so I can’t sit back and coast. Baby steps though, baby steps.
Another thing that I’ve begun noticing is how much I enjoy the process of opening up my mind to this creative process. You know where the changes have become most notable? My dreams. Always before I’ve had wildly imaginative dreams. Of late, I’ve had an extraordinary spike in both my ability to recall my dreams, and in how detailed they have become in both scope and world-building. I think today I’m going to take a stab at re-creating what I dreamt up yesterday. It was definitely a story worth telling.
Without further pondering…
The Reward of Stone
God. Yahweh. Allah. We gave her many names. In the end, when the mushroom clouds dominated the landscape, and Death came for so many of us, She could stand our actions no longer. So she sent the Angels down from Her throne on high.
The Angels tilled the land, removing all traces of the houses and cities humanity built. They breathed new life into the air, which our bombs had destroyed, repopulated the oceans we had contaminated in our final crescendo of violence. The last vestiges of humanities governments, unbowed by their failures and the destruction they had wrought, banded together for one final battle. They aimed the last of their weapons at Her messengers, but in the end were swept away in the wrath of Her judgement. Our governments were no more.
The Angels work would take centuries, and a hundredth of a hundredth of a hundredth of humanity were all that remained. So the Angels first duty was to create Eden. It had once been known as Iceland, and it had escaped most of the damage inflicted on Gaia by the final conflict. The Angels gathered us up in their arms, and delivered us from across the globe to our new home.
She had judged that the time of our agency was over. She had given us everything we needed to embrace the whole of the heavens, but we had squandered Her gifts. We worshiped wealth, and our greed had destroyed the very home She had worked so hard to craft for us. She would not make the same mistake again.
Since humanity could no longer be trusted with our own governance, and She had matters which required the whole of Her focus, she created the Council of Stone. Those who had struggled against the calamity which had claimed so many, those who had fought for the rights of all humans to live with dignity and respect, they were the ones venerated above all others. They were given the Sigils of Divinity, a mark of heavens blessing upon them. Humans who sought power were easily succumbed by it’s corrosive effect. To prevent any of that, those who bore her sigil were given a form of immortality. At the end of their lives, the leaders of humanity would receive the gift of stone.
Their flesh would harden, and their form elongate until they resembled a round obelisk twice the height of a man. The design of the Sigil of Divinity, an ouroboros entwined within a crown of thorns, shone from the stones in a soft teal light. We moved them, at the direction of an Angel, to the foot of Mount Hekla. There, as the years went by, we formed them into the Circle of the Elders.
The elders guided humanity for over two centuries, those bearing the Sigil coming to them for advice. They, eternal within their new form, existed for no other purpose than to help guide humanity, to free us from the demons of our previous existence. It was paradise. Humanity lived in harmony, finally united under one leader. One language. One vision.
One day, the hosts of heaven visited Eden as one. The sky was filled with their winged visages. She spoke then, through the Angels, Her voice filling the whole of Eden with their authority. She gave unto us but one commandment: Heed the words of the Elders, or She would complete the apocalypse we had started. We would have no second chances. She had a whole universe to attend to and She had given humanity everything they needed. An entire galaxy was ours to spend countless millennia exploring and growing in.
The Angels of heaven and God left us that day. She had saved us from ourselves, healed our planet, and given us eternal guidance to prevent us from the path that had nearly destroyed us all.
When the endless hosts of a united Humanity lay waste to the Heavens and toppled Her from Her throne, the look of horrified betrayal that She gave all of us tasked with leading Her children made me wish for eyes that I might rid myself of an ocean of bitter tears.
To be continued….
Stonefully,
Justin
