As she did so she noticed how the day seemed to change, the weather became brighter and more gentle in a way that she could not describe, just standing inside the blue mist seemed to lift life off her shoulders and she felt open to possibilities that she would not even have considered a few millimetres ago.
Together they walked to the big house but in the hallway Icarayus took his leave and she stood alone for a while listening, looking and smelling to see what opportunities presented themselves. She caught a glimpse of the big book in the corner and it seemed to be open at a page which had at its centre a picture of a very old woman, dressed in white like a nurse. Around her head shone this pale pink aura. Isabella wanted to move closer and read more about her, but something stopped her and so she started to walk towards the cathedral steps. She felt her expectations rise as she tiptoed down the stairs.
When the cathedral opened up before her it was lit with candlelight and full of people all quietly chanting. There was the smell of incense in the air. The scent of sandalwood and cedar wood was all pervading, but without the catch in her throat that she gets from the incense at home, this scent was pure but still heady.
She stood at the doorway and watched. In the centre Jonathan stood in gold and purple robes with his hands raised above the cross and she saw that the circle was turning clockwise. As it turned a spiral of light spun out from it and filled the room. The centre of the spiral was blue and gold but as it spun it captured more colours, almost as if it gathered up the essence of each person present and added their colour until it was a rainbow of colours spiralling towards the ceiling. The whole spectacle took her breath away and she just stood and looked at all the different people that were gathered there.
Every race on the planet was represented and every time in history seemed to be present too. There was one woman who was particularly striking in her blue and green robes, she was diaphanous in her appearance, not quite woman, more etheric wraith. There were ordinary people too, people who worked on the land and lived had hard lives, sitting next to scholars and leaders in their robes with their headgear that made them stand out from the crowd. For crowd it was indeed.
Icarayus was standing at the edge of the room, arms folded, wearing robes of red and gold and leaning on a golden rod that had at its tip a glowing crystal. He gave no sign that he noticed her arrival, indeed it appeared that his eyes were closed and yet she could tell he was listening with every fibre of his being.
One creature that caught her eye was not quite human, but not animal either. He had the energy of a gentle white rabbit and his face and ears were rabbit like. Isabella noticed him because of his large sad eyes which caught her gaze and she felt such a gentleness emanate from him that she wanted to go and touch him, but dared not move. He however did move once the chanting had stopped and left his seat, which was a tall and upholstered with wings at each side. He moved quietly and quickly through the concentric rings of people and headed out of the cathedral without making a sound. She watched him go and then turned her attention back to his empty seat. To her amazement it transformed into a chair just like the one in her living room, the leather was the same and the cushions had exactly the same pattern on them as the ones at home. How inviting that seat now looked.
To its right sat Raven, a broad smile on his face and to its left sat Rachel, also smiling. Isabella moved quietly and quickly to the seat and sat down rather subconsciously, but not before noticing that Raven’s chair matched hers, but Rachel’s was much older and much cruder. Thankfully no one was interested in her as they were watching an old woman being helped to the front of the circle, next to the lectern that Jonathan was now standing behind.
First came Icarayus holding his crystal aloft and singing the most pure notes Isabella had ever heard, they rose and fell across the congregation and they responded in kind with lower responses to the phrases he had sung. It was beautiful.
Then came the two angels either side of the old woman who seemed to be gliding, rather than walking, and was strangely translucent. She seemed to have no substance except a beautiful pink colour with green and gold woven within it. She was guided towards a chair that could double as a throne, so intricate was its design. It was made of clear crystal and carved in the shape of a butterfly. High on the back sat the most beautiful Specta that Isabella had ever seen.
As the woman floated gently into position the chair reflected back her lovely soft pink and then flickered with different colours as if it were reflecting her emotions as she settled down and looked around the room. At first the chair radiated carnelian red and her face appeared nervous, but as she settled back the colours changed to a soft pink and green and her face relaxed, it was a face that had seen a lot of life. She had an air of expectation about her and her blue eyes sparkled with life as she searched the auditorium, as if searching for someone in particular.
Icarayus bowed before her and moved back to a seat at the edge of the auditorium, his crystal shining in front of him. The two angels took up their positions behind the chair with their wings outstretched creating a beautiful backdrop. Jonathan started reading from a large book on the lectern and there was complete silence in the room. The language he used Isabella could not understand, but the book he was reading from was one of the illustrated books that Isabella had seen before. The woman seemed to be the subject of his reading as from time to time he would stop and nod to her and she add some words of her own.
There were times when the story seemed to darken and become sticky and then the woman would hang her head, or wipe tears from her face. On more than one occasion when this happened another person in the room would stand up and say something, which always seemed to lift the mood and made the old woman smile, or nod her thanks.
At one point a small child got up from her seat and went and sat on the woman’s lap and they cuddled one another and cried, but as Jonathan read on the child returned to her seat and the woman made no attempt to hold on to her.
There were moments when Isabella felt the energy rise and a flutter of movement, or excitement, seemed to pass around the room, almost like silent applause. The old woman just smiled to herself when this happened, sometimes wiping away another tear, this time of joy.
Then it seemed as if Jonathan was coming towards the end. There was seriousness within his words and the energy felt very dark again, but this darkness seemed to be more to do with pain than with problems. Isabella also noticed that the woman’s face bore all the lines of age upon it again and yet, when the child had sat on her lap, her face had looked much younger. Isabella wondered if her face had been changing all the time to reflect the different stages of her life as Jonathan had read them out. For now her face was etched with pain and her body was bent double, but earlier she had been sitting upright and had much more fluidity in her movements.
As Isabella continued to watch a transformation took place that she did not understand, but which was beautiful and peaceful to watch. The colours around the woman darkened and became opaque and then, in an instant, they lightened, became translucent and her body was straight and her face beautiful. The original colours of pink and green and gold shone out again and Isabella noticed the pink halo around her head. 'The woman in the manuscript in the hall?' she wondered.
As Jonathan finished Raven reached over and took her right hand and Rachel her left and as they did so a chant started echoing around the room that filled the place with sound and light. She saw the spiral spin faster and more and more light, especially a soft gentle gold, filled the space and she felt transported to heaven, or at least any description of heaven that she had ever read. It was beautiful almost indescribable and the woman at the centre of it all shone like a beacon.
As the chanting ended everything fell silent again and a peace settled. She felt she had been allowed to observe something quite precious and unique and her heart burst with love for the woman who was surrounded at this very moment by a clutch of angels wings. As Jonathan turned the last page as if to say, 'the end' the lectern moved before her very eyes. It was not carved from wood at all, but it was a living bird who was now, without a sound, without one flap of his wings, carrying the manuscript majestically up the stairs.
As the bird rose so did the Specta, the pink and the gold more brilliant now. It circled to room three times and then followed in the slipstream of the bird carrying the book of life.
When the ceremony, for she was sure that’s what it was, was over everybody moved from their seats with the lightness of air, even herself. Raven and Rachel continued to hold her hands as they walked together towards the blue mist and she felt her palms tingle as she walked. No one said anything, she had a hundred questions to ask but none of them seemed appropriate.
When they reached the gardens Raven explained that it was the way in which souls were welcomed home.
“Everybody,” he explained, “gathers to hear the highlights of their lives, because everybody wants to learn from their lessons. We applaud their successes and commiserate with their failures.” He said.
To hear this sparked real sadness in Isabella for she imagined Raven doing that, handing his life over to them in a way, a life which had been so short and which she so badly wanted to figure in. She felt that pang of loss again, that pang that never left her completely. He explained that the woman she had just seen had been a healer who had worked with hundreds of people.
“She lost her child, you see, the child you saw appear and that loss opened her eyes to the world of Arcania. In fact you could say Arcania saved her life for she had sunk into such a deep depression that she was barely alive. She was one of the lucky ones, most people simply dismiss the visions they receive at times of great sadness or pain. These visions are sent to open their minds to spirit, to hope and to purpose, but to most people if they cannot touch it is not real.”
Isabella did not reply she was caught up in missing Raven, even though he was standing right next to her. He was right, of course, she no longer thought of Raven as dead, more in another dimension, a dimension that she was beginning to enjoy.
Then she heard that bell, the bell she had heard before and Raven and Rachel turned towards the house and said they must go.
“The bell means we have been summoned,” Raven explained.
“By whom?”
“Our Masters of Light.”
“What is a Master of Light?” asked Isabella.
“There are many layers in our world,” Raven explained, “and a Master of Light is someone who passed over many thousands of years ago having led an exemplarily life and who has continued to learn in Arcania. You have to be chosen to be a Master of Light and it takes many thousands of years to become one. So when they call we must answer.” And with that they were gone and the blue mist was now behind Isabella, not that she was aware of walking through it, and the iron gates were open before her.
She thought back to what she had seen, to an ordinary life so celebrated, by so many. To an old, frail woman being treated with such respect and glowing brightly as a result. She thought of how the old people were treated in her community. How they faded from view, how no one, including her, showed any interest in their lives and how their lives contracted into menial tasks and misery towards the end.
She felt a sadness surround her as she quietly closed the gates and there, as she had come to expect, centre stage was a new figure, a woman with a cross on her chest and a child on her right shoulder. Around her head was a tiara of the smallest pink crystals and on her face the broadest smile. Isabella smiled and stroked the woman before heading home feeling warm and filled with the love that had been so apparent that afternoon
