The Realm of Possibility/Forever Never

Ar’tine’s Lament

Forever Never/The Dawn of the Dream

by Cheryl Pennington

copyright all content 2016

Realm of Possibility

“Why don’t you just let it go, Sister? You could end it all for them and bring their souls back. You could start over. Look at your other worlds and see how peacefully they live.” Mac felt his twin’s sorrow and frustration.

 

“There is something unique about the humans, Mac. They are a part of my first Creation. I must allow them the chance to evolve, to see how they bear the burden of choice, now that Darkness is alive upon Domhan.”

 

“And what of your precious children who lost their physical lives at the hand of my Son, dear Inion?” Inion was thoughtful for a moment.

 

“They are deep within the internal Realm, in the bosom of healing. They will, in time, be allowed to return to the physical realm if they so desire.” She hesitated and sighed. “That is, if anything remains of their world to be inhabited when all is done.” Inion turned to Mac with her own question. “What, brother, has become of Ar’tine?”

 

Mac was shamefully, sorrowfully silent.

 

On Domhan Eile Ar’tine was still raging; yet beneath the fury simmered a wicked delight as pride stretched its fingers to stroke his anger, rewarding his cruel intention. “How clever I am,” he thought. “And how foolish of the human female to open the portal again.”

 

It was, after all, her own fault that she lost the child. And that poor specimen of male creation, he whom she called Companion, needed to be disposed of long ago. Useless! They all deserved to be destroyed for what they did to him, and worse still what was done to his As’me when they were so close to reunion.  And now trapped! She was trapped within the body of Damanta.   But he would find a way to turn things around. He paced and flung his arms to the smoky skies above, screaming at the cold emptiness, “When I return to Domhan, they will see….”

 

 

“NO! Son of Sorrow. You will never return to Inion’s world.” It was Mor whose voice filled Artine’s head and echoed throughout the hollows of Domhan Eile, Great Spirit no longer able to ignore the path of this lost soul of Creation. “I have allowed you to indulge your loveless agenda long enough. Your Creators have failed to affect you, Our Love cannot transform or sustain you, and your own desires have driven you to inflict endless suffering on the lovely humans of Inion’s world. As’me is a soul, just as you are. She chose to enter your awful creation as a means to save you from your own darkness. She sacrificed her own physical happiness in the name of Unconditional Love; and you have returned that selfless love with hatred and destruction. You have disobeyed the only rule I gave to you.”

 

“Destroy me then!” Ar’tine was suddenly deflated, hysteria gripping his mind. Mor was the only force that could bring the immature god to his knees.  He shook and grabbed handfuls of black dust, flinging it at the unseen Supreme Creator.  “You can do it. Put us all out of our misery!” Ar’tine looked into the darkness that was his heaven as acidic tears rolled down his cheeks, burning his gray flesh. Overcome with exhaustion and confused pain, he wept bitterly in an instant of sincere humility and self loathing, and quietly begged. “Please… Mother.”

 

“No, you are my Son’s creation and he still knows a Creator’s love for you. If we give up on Unconditional Love within Eternity, then it will never manifest fully within Existence.” Mor was quiet for awhile before speaking Its own truth. “If I destroy all Existence, then Original Thought will find Itself alone once more-this is no longer possible in the face of all that We have become; yet for Us to continue to exist, there must be a place for this darkness. We must find a way for the Light and Dark to coexist, for balance rules Creation.  Know you this, my dark child. Because of your obsession with the pain of darkness, because you cannot obey a single rule, you will no longer be allowed to roam about the Eternal Realm as other souls do. Since you know only blind love for your decaying world and none other, so shall you be imprisoned on it always. Perhaps you will learn compassion by experiencing the loss of freedom that your daughter now suffers.”

 

Ar’tine’s rage returned, filling his soul with resentment as his emotions manifested themselves from every crack, crevice, hill and crater of his world. Fire and ash spewed up from every opening across its bleak, rocky surface as distant hills spat out tar and rock to rain down around him in thunderous torrents. He stood defiantly amidst the fury; and although he felt the fires and the searing pain, he remained stubbornly immovable. Mor was not impressed, neither was Great Spirit relenting.

 

“You enjoy the flames of hatred more than freedom? Well, I will tell you this, God of Self. If you try to leave your world in any kind of physical form ever again, that very form shall go up in flame searing your soul until it is consumed. So, I leave the end up to you. I will not destroy you now, but your own impatience and hunger may well do it for me.”
M’or was silent and withdrew from the world of Ar’tine, branding the vision of As’me into his mind, a vision of her suffering and lonely within the body of the beast. Ar’tine clutched his head in anguish and tried to tear it from his body, for it was almost more than he could stand. His overwhelming guilt and grief could not be contained and raged around him, an eternal flame which engulfed his soul, his form and his Essence. As long as he remained unrepentant, the fires of remorse and guilt would be his constant companions.

 

to be continued……