Wind in the Hands (29 page)

“What’s there in reality?” the Stranger became alerted.

“That is a lie. But there are victims. But you know what that is.”

“Can you help find the Hermit? I think he is in town.”

“Why do you avoid answering? You care about no one just as those fanatics? Are you happy that the ancient prophecies have come true?”

“OK. Our evil world will be destroyed and there will come a just world instead. But who will survive? Who will have the honor of entering the new world? A few thousands? The rest will burn? And you don’t care much? And who is the enemy of the mankind? Someone like me or someone like you?” pushed the Seer.

“I serve God,” the Stranger raised his voice. “And everything, you talked about, just are the consequences of ignoring the rules. Can one do evil deeds and prosper? Shed blood and enjoy the gifts? Haven’t we been warned that the mankind will pay for the evil deeds? Haven’t been pleaded to turn away from the evil? And what happened? The messengers, the prophets and the Prince had been killed. He risked his life because he preached the path of truth during tyranny and lawlessness. He could destroy the enemies but he showed an example of love and mercy. I don’t rejoice about disasters you know that, Seer. But our deeds and

desires have ruined the immunity, and now we are powerless in front of the Exterminators. How can we restore the immunity?”

The Seer came up to the window.

“This is a long and very difficult process. The level of ozone, the immunity of the planet, is easier to restore than to get rid of the vice. We are not as bad as it looks like. The humankind survives. A baby is fed with milk, then is given soft food and only after it grows up, he or she is fed with hard food. For the stomach of a baby is not adjusted to the hard foods: he can’t digest it, can’t swallow, he will choke on it. You don’t know the limits; you try to impose the world with rules that are difficult to understand. What you call the Cover is only a greenhouse for weak plants. Have you thought about why the Source let take more than is needed for today? Probably, it’s to save for the future, to use it tomorrow, for the future generations? Yes, you are right, the nations and civilizations have vanished. The societies that broke the laws of ethics, stopped in their spiritual development. Destruction is reserved for us as well. Is it possible to stop the upcoming disaster? I don’t know. If you put your fingers into the fire, you will get burned, but all that the mankind is doing is playing with the fire. And you are happy to put more wood into this fire.”

“What do you advise us to do?” the voice of the Stranger slightly trembled. “Hide the truth? Hide our inner world? Run away into the desert or mountains? And let the hypocrites, liars and just blind people twist the path of the Lord! They teach lies. They mix truth and lies so subtly that it’s impossible to distinguish one from the other.

Maybe, you don’t care about the truth and the questions that are important to us don’t bother you much. But who can we listen to? And whose interest shall we stand for God’s or human’s? The spirit’s or the flash’s? The prophets of this world take care of the body and the people of the knowledge take care of the soul.”

“What is the soul?” queried the Seer.

“Ask the Medium. You trust her more.”

The Seer looked in expectancy at the woman standing at the door.

“I saw the essences that have conscience and memory. You know that people have the desire to communicate with the dead relatives. The world of the dead is not less real than ours,” the Medium suddenly kept silent.

“Well, how is it there?” asked the Seer without any sarcasm.

“It is depressing. It’s dark there. Everyone is waiting for something, but they all know that it’s something important, something they didn’t want to know here,” the woman’s lips trembled. “I am sorry, I keep crying all the time.”

“I think that you are mistaking. Our conscience is given mere images that it wants to accept. Well, I don’t like talking about it…. What do you want to do?” he turned to the Stranger.

“I’ve been invited to the headquarters of the order ‘Power of the Light’. The preacher of this community knows something,” and the Stranger told about the meeting with the Mediator.

“I wouldn’t advise you to go there. It’s dangerous,” warned the Seer.

“Is it dangerous for me or the Soldier?”

“It’s dangerous for them.”

“Why?”

“There will be a situation, when the Power will show itself and you won’t be able to hold it back. I don’t take pity on these fanatics, but you will not be able to calm yourself down, you will run away, like a Hermit, into the desert. Still, your gift will come useful for a special thing.”

“Do you know what for?”

“The Hermit knows. Probably, he will explain it to you. And now you know,” the Seer said affirmatively.

“You too. I am not the one who should be talking about one whole information field,” smiled the Stranger.

“There words ‘Alien people’ are spinning in your mind. There are many creatures in our world, the ones we can see and the ones that we can’t. They all fight for their lives, the lives of their descendants. That is a biological program. Surviving is connected with capturing the territory. It’s quite natural to suppose that our resources attracted the interest of other forms of life. But I don’t understand what will be changed in this? Does it matter if your house will be captured by cockroaches with spiders, ominous viruses-mutants, cancer cells or something else? Does it matter what to die from?”

“That is all so, Seer. But if these creatures will destroy the mankind and there will be no one, not just in the City, but in the whole world?”

“I don’t believe in destroying the mankind. I do believe in the big shake-up, yes, but I can’t believe in the total destruction,” said the Seer with a push in his voice.

“The people have the weapon of mass destruction. Sooner or later, they will use it,” objected the Stranger.

“This weapon is the factor that restrains it.”

“You don’t believe in the human’s intellect, in their ability to control their emotions?”

“No, I don’t. I don’t know about those awful crimes against the mankind. I can see the mechanisms that regulate the historical processes.”

“If we don’t create the condition for a well-coordinated work of the mechanisms, if we don’t fulfill the tasks, there is an error in the system of the Creation of the World. And then through the chosen ones God…or human saving instinct, depends on those who believe in what…will show what needs to be done in order to be saved. But the society is blinded, that’s why they don’t want to listen to the holder of the Word. Probably, the humankind is inclined to suicide? Or someone is trying to use his subtle game to prevent the mankind from finishing the task, that’s why the error is getting worse.”

“Why does the powerful intellect try to destroy the mankind? What for?” disagreed the Seer.

“It’s not necessary to destroy it. This is a side effect. A man has something valuable: unique abilities and possibility to have eternal life,” continued the Stranger.

“This isn’t a new idea. I think that there is a program that aims to destroy the man. It needs to be found and erased. But this will bring to great consequences, the mankind is not ready to stay on this planet forever, that’s why the Cover restrains our development. You say, people do not follow the rule, they destroy the protection. Let’s suppose it is so, the lawless men will be punished, they are stupid. You can’t demand much of them. But any mind that has the knowledge of the universal laws has to understand that he will be responsible for breaking the rules,” the Seer used the Stranger’s language.

“This all is so, that’s why the Enemy plays subtle, without obvious interference. He uses his representatives in earthly guise. The Enemy creates situations, conceptions, false ideologies and religions: this is the Cover that doesn’t let to get through to the Source.”

“Do you believe in this system?” the Seer inquired.

“It’s all much more complicated. Our conscience is not ready to fit all the difficulty of the system, but even a simple mind is able to influence on the process in a certain way. For example, the weapon that is inside me is tuned in by the influence of my primitive thoughts and emotions.”

“Weapon… Will you fight…” the Seer stretched his thin lips in a smile.

“I don’t know. Right now, I am trying to grasp the destination. Someone is leading us…” the Stranger stopped short.

“I like this phrase. So, who is leading us?”

The Stranger pondered over it: he has responded to this question long time ago for himself, but he couldn’t say that was the messenger of the Prince.

“I will help you,” said the Seer. “You think that you do not fulfill the mission. Than I have a few questions for you. How do you know who you work for? You have heard the Voice. So what? There are lots of Voices but not all of them are from the Lord. Have you met with the heavenly representative? No? Even if you did, how do you know who that is? You told about subtle game. Aren’t you a part of this game? Have you been helped? Even I have done something for you. However, why did they help you? Do you have a weapon? Do you want to use it? I understand. But do you know its destination? Aren’t you afraid that during your experiments you will ruin, break human lives?”

The Stranger kept silent. The words of the Seer puzzled him.

“If he is the darkness, then who is the light?” a loud voice came from the yard of the house, this voice made the Seer trembled with his whole body.

“The Hermit,” the Stranger whispered and ran out to meet him. They hugged.

“I will not come up into this house,” the Hermit said. “And you shouldn’t stay there. The crowd wants to find those who are guilty and they are going to cleanse the City from the sinners. But that is not the most terrible thing…”

“Why do the people die?”

“The citizens believe that this is the punishment of God for their sins. The people are driven crazy. The fear gets into the soul and starts capturing it.”

“So what shall I do?” asked the Stranger.

“Search and find the reason. Haven’t you understood that already?” the old man grasped for some air.

“Speak distinctly, I plead you,” the Stranger grabbed his shoulders.

A crowd armed with knives, bats and even weapons came from behind the corner. They were shouting angry tirades against those who are guilty in the coming disaster. The Medium was one of the first in the list.

“I will be back” the Stranger ran back into the house. “There is a mob here! We have to leave!”

The Soldier looked out of the window, his teeth greeting. The Medium was trembling. The Bird looked sides in astonishment. Only the Seer was calm. He came out into the street, saw the Hermit and made a guilt gesture with his hands:

“I am sorry, I didn’t live up to your expectations.”

“I loved you like a real son,” uttered the old man. “Who did you serve? The world? Look at its face. This is the real face of the world,” he pointed to the crowd of people.

“This is not my world, Hermit. Will you help?”

The Hermit kept quiet.

“Then do not interfere,” The Seer was confident in his force and felt that he could govern the crowd.

“I am with you,” said the Stranger. “I will not let the people dear to me be destroyed. Hermit, haven’t you come here for my sake?”

“No. Leave. Find the reason why you are here. This,” he pointed to the crowd, “isn’t the reason. Come with me.”

The Stranger shook his head. The Hermit looked at the sky and slowly walked away.

The crowd was coming closer. The Seer drew a net in his mind that seized the conscience of the enraged people, and unseen net seizing the crowd. The people were too stirred up, and the Seer decided not to put them to sleep. He impressed them with a vision of a great growing fire. The crowd shrank back and ran away with loud screams of horror.

Large sweat drops trickled down the Seer’s forehead, but his face was shining with a smile of a proud winner. Still, his younger fellow didn’t express any joy for some reason; more over it was vice versa. The Stranger was looking at one spot with a focused sullen look. The Seer came up to him.

“We won. Calm down,” he said mildly.

“Go home. This is not your entrance,” said the Stranger indistinctly, making a step forward. A strong Wind enveloped his whole body and pierced his head with sharp needles. The air became thick.

The Seer couldn’t understand a thing, but after he looked closer, he saw something looking like a human’s silhouette. He started tuning on this image when suddenly went pale, made one step back, gathered his strength, looked back again. Now he saw this silhouette more clearly. Fear. His breathe was squeezed, he became weak in his knees.

The Seer wheezed, staggered and collapsed oddly onto the foot path.

The Stranger didn’t even give a look in his direction. He remembered the words of the Soldier: ‘First put out the weapon emplacements. And then…’

The Wind grew stronger.

“Go away! You have no power over me! Go away!” roared the Stranger.

It seemed to him that his hair stood on his head and he will fly up into the air

any moment. He stretched his hands upfront, as if trying to hold some sort of pressure.

The Stranger felt surprise, coming from that disembodied essence.

“The Prince is alive. Be afraid and come around his friends!”

The Stranger set on the ground and cried without a sound. He didn’t feel like a winner. Nobody fought against him, he understood that well enough. He had been watched, probably with certain surprise, though he wasn’t touched for some reason.

The Bird came up to him and started kissing his wet face. The Soldier saw the Seer lying on the ground, picked him up and carried him into the house in his hands.

The Medium tried to bring the Seer back to his senses. The Stranger listened to his pulse, asked for a needle, burned it in the fire and abruptly pierced it between the fingers, and pulled it back. The Seer’s eyelids batted, he screwed up his face with pain.

“It’s all right, Seer. You have chased everyone. Now get some rest,” the Stranger patted his hand.