The old souls’ chronicles 5 : grief’s stronghold 2 November 2025
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When Aron reaches his house, he feels that strange foreboding though laced with excitement. He had not spoken about the foreboding with Tony as they had only worked on the initial feelings of grief together but he could recognise it from the scriptures of it that he had got on the black market. Tony did not know it but he and Hegat were not the only ones who carried the forbidden feelings that were not to use with the youngsters. There were other old souls that did not abide by the rules because they lived in between the old and the new worlds. They did not go completely against the system like he had attempted to do by aging and actually resorting to real food. They just lived in between, got sustenance from the transformation of energy and slowing their aging process but without keeping the chancellor’s prescribed liquid in their veins to remain young forever.
Aron opened the door and once again the preternatural form of his wife came to greet him at the door. He took the pulse tube and shot the grief into his veins. The sorrow that ensued was unsurmountable, and he caved in like a wick abandoning its flame, dragged under by the liquid released by the candle. All life seemed to have escaped his body and there was no healing to come from Tony’s hands like when he had first administered grief to him through his hands, mind and heart. His eyes searing with pain, Aron looked around the room wondering where the ethereal form of his wife had gone. All of a sudden, it seemed like she was darting in and out all over the room, jumping from one place to another. Each time he saw her, it was like his heart was yanked out of his body and the tears were like flames dousing his cheeks, his throat and his heart just below.
He winced and tried clearing his eyesight each time but the searing was back every time he saw her. He tried to rise from where he had fallen but to no avail. It was like he did not have legs anymore but was just a mass of grief, flames and a jellylike body. He wished he had not given in to his folly of experimenting such a strong sensation on his own and what more in the house where his wife had died, as she no longer wanted to continue living. It was strange that his wife, such a young one who was much younger than him, had given in to the same troubles that Tony had been going through. She was no old soul so why had this nostalgia and desire to die befallen her? Aron had thought that through the knowledge of grief he could understand what she had gone through but it was all too debilitating for him. He felt his heart burn with the grief until he could stand it no more. I am going to die here all alone, he thought before he fainted….
Elixir part 7 – An equilibrium for Melancholy 18-19 October 2025
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As she exits Melancholy, she stomps under the Earth and accelerates through its porous texture, only emerging when she has moved beyond the field of Melancholy. On emerging, she realises that there are men watching her carefully and speaking into their cuffs. They must be men of General Stein, she thinks and hurries her pace. Once she is really out of the field of Melancholy, the Earth is less porous and it is more difficult to stomp into it and travel through it. The Elders had once told her that they had made the Earth porous within Melancholy so that they could quickly move underground and replicate their system there in case the Earth started to overheat again or in case there were acid rains like it happened many decades ago.
She braces herself for the impact and stomps underground again while activating the propulsors alongside her arms and legs. The Earth isn’t as porous as within Melancholy but soft enough for these to help her sail through the underground outside of Melancholy. Again bracing herself for the impact, she emerges several meters away from where she first saw General Stein’s men. All of a sudden, someone attempts to cut her path and she realises it is General Stein. How did he get to know where she is she thinks but does not have the time to dwell on that thought. She quickly takes out the blades she had arranged right behind her shoulders and attaches them hurriedly to her feet before skating away, escaping General Stein’s clutch. She leaves him baffled behind her as he did not realise she had acquired that technology. These skates have nothing to do with the skates their ancestors used and are like thin knives that are activated by crystals creating a neat cut within any material that the user is gliding upon.
As she is sailing away far from General Stein and his men, she thinks back to how the adults of Melancholy felt so desolate and inadequate as they could not give the older Melancholists enough years to rejuvenate them or at least sustain them. Her formula was first conceived to use the teenage Melancholist years and while she did not plan on taking it all away, it was their sheer enthusiasm that caused too many of the years to be siphoned into her funnel. She wondered how she could obtain a mix of both the adults and the teenagers’ years without fully depleting either of them. She had arrived at her temporary residence and looked all around before entering to make sure that nobody had followed her.
It then struck her that all she had to do was put the teenagers in a state of peace or bliss so that their enthusiasm would not take over making them give all or almost all of their years instead of only a fraction of them. She still had two barrels of crystals of teenage years and one of adult years. She directed reiki towards the teenagers’ barrel and the crystals inside it started slowly transforming into liquid. She took two thirds of this liquid for one third of the liquid in the adults barrel and mixed these with her other ingredients. Sure enough, what she had thought of was indeed happening. She could see forming in front of her eyes a strong elixir, unique in its kind as it contained the joyous output of the teenagers heightened by the endurance and experience of the adults. She smiled to herself. The Elders were going to be very happy with what she had discovered…
Tales of the wretched: Ashok and his mother – Chapter four: Redemption flowing 7-8 October 2025
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Ashok slowly disengaged from Annie’s embrace attempting to put some distance between them and have a calm chat with her. His arms were still limp by his sides as he eased himself out of her clutch. He realised from her vice-like grip that it had been a long time since anyone had been kind to her. He thought about his mother again and how she had been helpless with nobody showing her any kindness while she struggled. This is how people were pushed into desperate actions because they felt completely disregarded by everyone around them. He sighed internally thinking that he had been too young to find a solution to their predicament and his mother had literally worked herself to death while reserving most of the food she could get her hands on to him. There had been no shelter when he was young, just places for single young pregnant women to go to until birth of their child.
He looked at Annie whose face seemed crestfallen as she wondered what to make of him pushing her away. He was not sure how to handle this as he had kept his feelings under wraps for the longest time ever, even while he was married, even when he was happy when dating his wife before he married her. He had always felt that if he gave in to his emotions it would be like a dam that might obliterate everything around him. He had hated his relatives for such a long time and with such passion that he was afraid of expressing any other emotion lest he get carried away and start expressing those feelings of hatred as well, be submerged by them and act only in line with what they released within him. At times he had felt that the hate was such that it would turn into a fire that would physically consume his heart.
- Annie, I just want to help you and your son but I have been a lonely man for such a long time that I do not know how to speak normally with people. - You did talk to me at the shelter - Well you see, that is different. At the shelter I have a role that I embraced and that is to help people in the shelter with food and blankets. I know the drill. It is unemotional, safe and almost always the same. I did feel sympathy for you because you reminded me of someone I knew a very long time ago but I usually interact with those who come to the shelter in a very mechanical way. There are no other emotions than perhaps a slight touch of pity. When I saw you at the shelter, it made something stir in me, something that I had thought I had let go a long time ago - So you don’t feel pity for me? - Not really. I am just overwhelmed by the need to keep you and your son safe.
After a long pause, he decided to tell her everything about his childhood, the desperate times when his mother could not sell what she had made, the resulting famine-filled days, how his mother had become so gaunt that she looked like a corpse, the absence of his relatives, their presence when she had died, his hatred of them, the orphanage that had saved him from the hatred that was eating him – at least for a while.
- Did you ever marry, she asked - I did, he answered - Did you love her? Did you have children? - I did love her but I guess the hatred inside did not allow me to love her properly. The love I had inside of me for her was like a shell, it was not bright and happy like she would have liked it to be. The hatred inside kept making a hole that neither my love for her, nor hers for me could ever fill and appease. Eventually she got tired of waiting for me to love her like she would have liked to be loved. Five years of a relationship that had the dull ache of unresolved hatred festering within it and she decided to move on. We never had children as she felt that I was broken and she thought that broken men should never become fathers. She had her own issues with her father who was never able to express love. It has been almost ten years since that day she decided to leave me. I guess it is best for broken men like me not to be in a relationship. - I don’t think you are broken. The man who left me with his child, that is a broken man. You don’t hurt someone you have loved unless you’re broken. Nobody who is whole would hurt another soul without reason. From what I have seen from you, you have only been kind to me and I did not see you hurt anyone else. You might have been badly hurt but you are not broken, not like what I would think of a broken man - Thank you Annie but I think she might have been right. There is this hole inside of me that never goes away, or at least not until that evening when I saw you feed your boy and something stirred inside of me, not until now when I saw how happy you were to be here. - Thank you for helping us. My boy had not had a good bath in so many months. They did not always allow us into the Bain des Paquis and I could not use them anyway during the winter months. I tried to stay under the radar so social services would not take him away - You can stay here as much as you want. You do not need to go to the shelter anymore, I will bring the food here.
Annie rushed and hugged him again and he let her hold him fiercely this time. His arms were still limp by his side but he started feeling like a stirring in his shoulders and arms which slowly twitched and his arms then rose to hold her around the shoulders, softly pressing her onto his chest. Her tears fell freely again on his coat and he sighed as he felt a stirring in his heart while he could see behind his closed eyes a slow glow that seemed to fill his chest. All the sadness of not having been able to help his mother seemed to soar from his heart to his eyes which brimmed with tears. As his tears mingled with Annie’s tears, he felt like a wall had crumbled within his chest. All the years of self reproach on his lack of initiative to help his mother flowed with the mingled tears, washing both their hearts from sadness and pain. It was as if redemption flowed within his heart and he smiled with gratitude for being able to help Annie and her boy.
Soul Fillet 20 September 2025 (translation of a short story called “Filet de soul” written in French on 8th March 2011 – See the original here or copy and follow this link https://geethabalvannanathan.com/2011/03/15/filet-de-soul/)
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She struggled, but it seemed useless, as the net enclosed her on all sides, fitting her body like a glove. The antimatter of its braiding was of the same ilk as her own immaterial body, and so she was unable to go through it. She watched helpless the ectoplasms of the ghost ship slowly hoist her towards them. She remembered the advice of her grandparents, who had been her guardians since her parents' death, and told herself she should have listened to them and not ventured so far from her sweet native soulitude.
It was all the fault of that cursed spring, of that nutty unicorn illusion, and of her tightrope-walker nature, which never resisted the urge to swing in the air between two equally deep chasms. The black holes of the fiery soular system she had entered by mistake or stubbornness—she no longer remembered—and which had finally disembodied her after a burn a thousand times more intense than unicorn fever had struck her down.
Yet all the signs had been there: the panicked looks of those who had just learned the rite of passage from the customs officer, the biting cold escaping through the only window to the other world—placed so high that it was impossible to look through the glass, the smell of sulfur that accompanied each explosion of the beings passing through the door, of which only a pyrography remained, each aligned alongside the others made before it. In short, a spectacle that would have dampened the fantasies of even the most ardent pioneer, but she had carried on, drawn by the idea of this stellar discovery.
The snub-nosed customs officer who sat counting his money at the edge of the two worlds had kept making her fill out so much paperwork that she almost ended up with the wrong papers. "What are all these delaying tactics?" she had exclaimed, exasperated, to which he replied that this was the price—yes, one always had to come back to the price in this world—of passage to the other world. They had to think carefully, and these weren't so much delaying tactics as preparatory tactics for a decision that would be final.
As a good intermediary for the overlord of this world who transmitted his orders to him through the hollow horn of a unicorn of other times, he took it upon himself to tire out those determined to pass into the other world so that only those who could no longer be malleable puppets would finally take the plunge. In any case thought the lord, looking at his navel, which needed a lot of vassal care to keep it from detaching itself from his body, this kind of people would be of no use to him because they would not be obedient vassals. For it took blindly obedient beings to caress the motionless body of the lord, which was becoming more and more flaccid and incapable of containing this quivering bit of flesh in the middle. The massage had to be done in concentric circles starting from the extremity of the body and in tighter circles to get closer to this purplish navel and the task became not only more exhausting but also more repugnant. Indeed, through immobility the lord became an enormous fatty mass whose deadly effluvia were exacerbated by the arrival of spring and reaching the extremities to attempt to execute at least one circle became an increasingly impossible task during the lifetime of each vassal. Suffice to say that the overlord was very difficult for any being to grasp, and she told herself that any other fate would be better than being condemned to grasp this monster, especially since spring was fast approaching.
The manoeuvres continued for quite some time, and the bitter retorts from both sides almost put her in the bad books of the customs officer with the snub-nosed face and the dead eyes, but in the end she managed to finalize her efforts. All that remained, the customs officer had told her at the end, was to get rid of the rest of the sinful confessions in order to complete the rite of passage. Turning to him to ask what that meant, she saw a sadistic glint finally rekindle the dead fish gaze of the customs officer who told her with a grim smile that she was going to be burned with a blowtorch so that the sinful and the flesh would detach from her and she would return ethereal to the other world leaving her remains as an ornament on the wall of the "lament asians". She had a moment of panic but it was too late, it was the price to pay she told herself, resigned, and moved forward towards the door made of blowtorches.
She remembered an unbearable burning sensation accompanied by a deafening explosion, and the next moment she was floating weightlessly in a hushed space whose silence and thick darkness were broken only here and there by gentle lapping and rays of intense luminosity that strangely illuminated nothing but themselves, leaving the rest of the space in darkness. She barely had time to feel, or even see, other immaterial beings floating near her before a mass of ropes had been thrown over her and she was being pulled inexorably toward the ghost ship. Once hoisted aboard, she was roughly lifted, and what was her surprise to come face to face with a now-familiar face—a rhinopithecus, she thought, before losing consciousness.
When she came to, an ectoplasmic version of the overlord stood limp before her and beside her the ectoplasm of the customs officer was slowly and deliberately rubbing a huge blade against a black hole. As she stared at him, dumbfounded, he turned to the overlord and asked him.
Sim City 9: Omega’s split and the start of the Great Rebellion 26 August 2024
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Sim City 9: Omega’s split and the start of the Great Rebellion 26 August 2024
Omega slipped silently out of the room as Aiga was busy with her tribe, giving them instructions on how they would set up the trap for the earlier animals before they could go to Prime Creator’s home. She shut the toilet door behind her and slipped into Theta mode like she used to inside the Sim. While she did so, she focused deeply on the process of Parthenogenesis and she could feel a slight pull at her sides as the skin stretched and parted at the sides. In a few minutes, there was a large amount of flesh on the ground that kept moving and evolving slowly into different shapes until it rippled outward more and more, extending into a body very akin to hers. She watched in both excitement as well as a bit of unrest at this incredible potential of multiplying.
Omega left her newly made clone in the toilet after silent instructions to it so that it would multiply itself until there were enough clones of her. She knew that it would take more than one attempt to be able to overcome Prime Creator and his bodyguards. She was not sure yet whether she would kill him and his progeny or whether she should just imprison him like he had imprisoned her. It was not clear to her whether Prime Creator’s consciousness could be introduced into the Sim and whether it would be a viable option for him as so many in the Sim wished to exact revenge against him for his trials to blow up the Sim with all of them inside it. She did, however, favour this type of revenge over a mere killing of Prime Creator.
Omega reached out to Aiga, taking her hand to guide her towards a secluded spot where nobody could listen. She imparted her newly made decision telepathically so that the other clones would not be frightened. Aiga thought it was a good plan too. They would hold Prime Creator’s consciousness in the Sim and be able to live in peace as they could make him command the guards not to open fire on them or otherwise hinder their progress. Aiga connected with her tribe to initiate the run towards the clearing outside the woods so that they could move in on the animals that had started besieging Antares’s home outside the woods. Omega could hear the mighty paws of the earlier creatures thudding against the wall. Each thud sounded like thunder and they realized that every creature must be almost half the size of the city they were in. Would they be able to survive these before launching their attack on Prime Creator?
The old souls chronicles 4 : pulsing grief 29 April 2024
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Tony wonders whether Aron is aware that he has now fully become a different being from the other youngsters and young adults. Aron sees in his searching eyes the unspoken interrogation.
- I always was different and even wondered if I was a freak because I had these stronger feelings that were considered as undesirable within my community.
- You are not a freak, Aron. You feel more than others although nothing as near to what we old timers felt, the feelings that all of the world had before strong negative emotions were frowned upon. We never imagined that things would go as far as to stop us even from grieving the death of our loved ones. Now we are just relegated to the role of donors of “funny feels”, “happy feels”, “quirky feels”. In brief anything that is more on the happiness scale and nothing that can touch the extreme sadness scale
- I know what you mean. I have been studying you and your wife for some time now before you went rogue and disappeared. It was a godsend when I learnt of your presence in that restaurant. What an opportunity to finally meet you and make the request for the deeper emotions.
- Why did you want to access this range of emotions?
- Ever since my wife died, I have been having this strange bubbling of emotions that felt like nothing I ever experienced before. Sometimes it’s like a rock was laid on my chest while I was sleeping. I could barely breathe and felt like a pit in my stomach but nothing near what I felt when you gave me the pulse.
- We normally don’t give that range of emotions to youngsters like you because they have a very strong effect on your psyche. With the seclusion of the deeper range of sad emotions, there aren’t many psychologists left so it is difficult to get regular appointments with one.
- I don’t need a psychologist. I can handle my emotions
- Very well. Here is the pulse tube which I have filled with the energetic imprint of the grief I pulsed through to you. Make sure nobody else puts their hands on it and call me if you are in too much pain. I will come as quickly as I can to grant you the solace.
Aron takes the tube containing the precious pulse and bids Tony farewell before leaving the library. As he is on his way back to his home, he thinks about his wife that he might see again in her preternatural form. He decides that he will let himself feel the full extent of the grief as experienced with the help of Tony. This time, he would be using the pulser and would not have Tony’s rapid intervention with soothing solace but he knows he needs to do this for his own sanity. No more half-lived emotions dragging him into a recurring downward spiral. It is now the time to experience it fully within his own house, while looking upon the ethereal form of his wife and put this behind him forever.
The Cleopatra Tales 9: Receiving all Knowledge and Everlasting Life
19 February 2023
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Reading of the blessing/incantation:
Translation of the blessing/incantation
Thy body is the body of Geetha this. Thy flesh is the flesh of Geetha this.
Thy bones are the bones of Geetha this. Thy passage is the passage of Geetha this.
The passage of Geetha this is thy passage.
Let not be shut in my soul, let not be fettered my shadow, let be opened the way
for my soul and for my shadow, may it see the great god.
May I look upon my soul and my shadow
Preserve me behind thee, O Tmu, from decay such as that which thou workest
for god every, and goddess every, for animals all, for reptiles all
I am the keeper of my Akashic records, of all which is, and which shall be. Eternity it is and Everlastingness. Oh Three Paths and Two Pillars Open your Portals
Hail Geetha not hast thou gone, behold, [as] one dead, thou hast gone [as] one living
to sit upon the throne of Hathor
O Ra-Turn, cometh to thee thy daughter, cometh to thee Geetha . . . . . thy daughter is this of thy body for ever
O Turn, thy daughter is this Hathor; thou hast given her sustenance and she liveth; she liveth,
and liveth Geetha this; not dieth she, not dieth Geetha this.
Setteth Geetha in life in Amenta.
She hath eaten the knowledge of god every, [her] existence is for all eternity
and to everlasting in her sah this; what she willeth she doeth, [what] she hateth
not doth she do.
Live life, not shalt thou die.[1]
Hail to thee Nut! Oh daughter of Heaven, mistress of the sky, thou gift of Toth, thou mistress of the interdimensional ladders-
Open a way to Geetha let Geetha pass.
Hail to thee oh thou King of eternity, hail to thee oh thou bull of four horns, who hath one horn to the west, one to the east, one to the north and one to the south, let Het Heru pass.
Hail Geetha. Thou hast received the form of God, thou hast become great therewith before the gods.
Hath placed thy mother Nut thee to be as God to thine enemy in thy name of God.
Washed is thy ka, sitteth thy ka, it eateth bread with thee unceasingly forever
Hail Geetha Thou art pure, thy ka is pure, thy soul is pure, thy form is pure
Heaven hath thy soul, Earth hath thy body
Thou shalt exist for millions of millions of years, a period of millions of years
Note: For any women interested in applying these incantations to themselves, I can provide you with the written transcript of the Egyptian wording and you would just need to replace Geetha by your own name.
For men, some changes would be required in the wording as it is the female version which is read here.
Across the Sands of Time – Diane Arkenstone
Am I a cheap bastard my Angel, he said smiling with that beautiful smile that made her heart beat faster.
Of course, not she answered while throwing herself into his arms. How are you, she whispered her head buried against his collarbones.
I am well and so happy to see you in a single piece, he said.
She found out that he had been informed about Abdelkader’s visit and his intention to see her and scare her off. She also found out that the Head of Boko Haram in Nigeria had asked both Abdelkader and Manas to step up the operations in the UK. It would seem that they wanted to have a significant event on the 5th of May at Westminster to mark their stronghold in the UK. The earlier bombing had not been significant enough and they had received confirmation that the bombing had not been strong enough to completely destroy the tracks and Transport for London would be repairing everything in a matter of weeks. They had hoped to cause more damage than that and that is why the Boko Haram cell in Nigeria was connecting with the followers in London to inflict more damage, especially at that date as the next day would see the crowning of the new King. They wanted to make sure those plans were thwarted.
- Why are you telling me this, she said
- I am telling you so that you do not take the tube that day and the day after as more attacks may follow above ground.
- What if I told the ATU or the local authorities
- If you tell them then we will both be dead. There are several Muslim policemen and a few of them are followers of Boko Haram although you would not know this by looking at them. The information is bound to come back to them and if they identify you then this would lead them straight to me and they would report me to the cell in Cameroon or Nigeria.
- I can imagine I would be dead but why you`? Aren’t you their leader in Cameroon?
- My credibility took a blow when you informed the authorities about the projected bombing of Westminster after I had informed you. This time I will not be able to escape suspicion as most of the cell members know that you are my girlfriend. They will be sure that it was me who informed you.
- Why do you not forego this life my love. I am sure that if you gave it up the ATU might actually be able to use your skills to catch other terrorists. You are an incredibly intelligent man and I know you have the physical capacity to keep up with ATU members
- I cannot do that my Angel. This is the life I have chosen for myself because our countries have suffered under the colons and Muslims have been repressed for so long. In Cameroon the situation flares up sometimes and we have to make ourselves heard. We have to be a force to reckon with so that the West may listen to our demands.
- I thought it was all about killing kafireen and increasing the number of Muslims
- That too, my Angel but also letting the countries that do not allow Muslims to practice their faith properly know that they may not continue what they do.
- But the UK is not one of those countries.
- The UK has another purpose. It is an important financial center. Our purpose is to cripple the most financial centers the West has and then put at the forefront those centers that Muslims are backing. This is also why I was in Dubai. It was possible to assess how far Dubai could go. I also went to Malaysia to assess whether they could take over parts of the operations.
She fell silent. She simply could not understand how a man as intelligent and loving as Manas was could be a terrorist and align with the dogma taught by them. She understood in part the anti-colonial aspect as she too came from two countries where colonialism had left deep scars in the countries and the looting by colons had impoverished them. Yet she could not see herself as capable of being a terrorist. Then again, if she kept quiet about the projected bombings, was that not terrorism by absence of communication to the authorities. If she did mention something, though, she would not even know if she was mentioning it to one of the followers of Boko Haram who had infiltrated the police. It could also be Al Shabab followers. Should she risk her own life in order to save people she had never met? Would it be possible for her to live life without any regrets if she did not mention it at all and attempt to stop it?
Manas could see she was torn between different decisions so he took her by the shoulders and told her that it would not change a thing as they would just change the date and both of them would be dead for nothing. He tried to make her see that it would all just be pointless and their families would also suffer from the fact that they would no longer be alive.
She pulled away from him. She felt all at once exasperated with his convictions and so drawn to him that she only wanted to be back against him again. She told him she was not sure she could just leave things as they were even though she risked being killed. She could not let him be killed though and she knew for having undergone it how horrible their methods were when punishing someone. They would no doubt punish him much more than they had punished her as he would have been the cause for their plans to fail. She threw her arms around him and cried against his chest. I know it is difficult for you he said and held her closer.
Wael Kfoury ... Kifik Ya Wajaai
A terrorist to love – part 10
12 February 2023
The driver grabbed her by the arm and took her to the cab. He lowered her head before pushing her into the cab. It was so symptomatic of how policemen put their prisoners into their police car that she wondered if he was a policeman on an errand for Boko Haram. She looked up at him after he had sat behind the wheel again. She could see in his eyes a flutter of recognition of what she was thinking. At the same time there passed in his eyes like a shadow of guilt and that persuaded her that he was indeed a policeman but perhaps also a hired gun for Boko Haram. He lowered his eyes so that she could not decipher anything in them.
- You are an English cop, right, she said
- I am in no mood for your mind games, he answered
- No mind games at all. I would just like to understand
- There is nothing to understand. I am a devout Muslim and am doing my part to cleanse the world of the kafireen (non believers). We will soon prevail. Our numbers are growing and we have struck into the heart of the financial system in the UK. The same will happen also in the US and other western countries who do not respect our religious beliefs.
- How can you kill people who are also God’s creatures. Is Allah not merciful and desirous of preserving the creatures he created?
- You know not what you say. Shut up you poor excuse for a Muslim. You have no right to speak of Allah and what Allah wishes for humanity. I know all about you and your involvement with the ATU. I also know how you bewitched Manas and weakened him first in Cameroon and then now in the UK. My superiors may not think much of your prowess, but I can see how you are bringing down a great man and an excellent strategist for our Jihad. If I were to have my way, you would not last long and Manas would then be fully occupied by our Sabil (way) to the higher realms.
She chose to keep quiet as she realized that the driver was a zealot and he might kill her if she went too far. He visibly had no respect for the Boko Haram hierarchy and was only drawn to the cause in order to be able to kill the most kafireen as he could. She had seen countless times men like him, so devout to the cause that they would take matters into their own hand regardless of whom they were supposed to answer to. Their leaders were of course unable to punish them overtly as they would then be questioned on their motives and might also lose a large part of their following if it were known that they had castigated a devout follower because he had killed a kafir. There were fine lines within Boko Haram just as there were in the ATU. In reality, the two organisations had quite a lot in common although they were working on opposing sides.
Her mind drifted back to her time at the ATU when she was charged with finding Manas and either bringing him to justice or making sure he died. It had been at a wedding of one of Manas’s cousins and she had yet gotten the order to take him down regardless of who else died with him. She had realised at that time that she would not be capable of doing that and hurting several people who were very likely innocent. There had not been any intel, indeed, on the cousin who was getting married and in all likelihood he had nothing to do with Boko Haram and most of the marriage party were but innocent bystanders. She remembered her boss’s anger at the fact that she had not planted a trigger and left but there was no way she could have done such a thing. She had killed many people but it had been during face-to-face confrontations with terrorists and other armed followers.
She lifted her eyes again and caught the driver looking at her. She looked away, not wishing to ignite again his fury against her and his anger at the thought that he was not allowed to kill her. She could see from the corner of her eye that he was still looking at her seemingly ruminating murderous thoughts about her but she chose to steadfastly look away waiting for them to pull up to her building. Soon enough she found herself next to the building and the driver came out, opened her door and tugged her out of the car unceremoniously. She let herself be hauled out and quickly started walking towards the building hoping that he was not following her. She heard the car start before pulling away and sighed a sigh of relief. When she reached her flat, she could see that someone had got in. The rocks that she put in front of the door to check whether someone had got in were moved about. She opened gingerly the door and looked into the room. She did not have any weapon with her. She decided that if anybody would have wanted to kill her it would have already been done by Abdelkader, Younes or one of their followers. She went right into the flat yelling come out now you cheap bastards. Her heart skipped a beat as Manas emerged slowly from between the plants on the balcony…
Sweet Blasphemy – Dhafer Youssef
Elixir part 5 – A new generation of Melancholists29 January 2023
Courtesy pinterest.com
The Supreme Guard of the Melancholists reached out to Amelia in the early hours of the next night saying they would escort her from her home to Melancholy, ensuring that she would not be bothered by General Stein or his men. Although this seemed like a great solution for her safety, she also realized it would mean her giving up the secret of her second home to the Supreme Guard and she would then be either under surveillance or easily taken out of her home with no possibility to react in time as they would have the knowledge of exactly where she lived.
She phoned them back saying she would meet them in front of the second exit of Melancholy to the back with all the vials she had made. In the end, they had to accept her conditions as she was the one who held the solution to the chronic problem of dying teenagers in Melancholy. Amelia took all the vials of Elixir and put them in a couple of plastic bags which she placed carefully in her sling bag. She headed out of her apartment from the window of the 1st floor which gave directly on a straight ledge and slowly lowered herself to the ground from the pipe that was tapered to the wall leading down from the ledge. She looked around but could see neither the General nor his men. It was true that she had only rented this home a fortnight ago so nobody would know about her whereabouts yet.
As soon as her feet had taken the first step outside of the security of her home, she quickened her pace almost breaking into a run. She walked hurriedly along the early risers in her town who were mostly farmers bringing in their crops from far away, bakers hurrying towards the making of the daily bread and beggars eager to catch a loaf of free bread or some groceries which were left over from the night or brought in by farmers. At the end of the street, she could see some people who looked like neither of these usual early risers; they looked like trained mercenaries. While it was mainly General Stein and his men who pursued her for the Elixir, she realized that there could be others who wanted to just steal some vials from her and sell them on the black market.
She rushed on, heading to Melancholy that stretched beyond, shining dazzling gold and green, sometimes rainbow colour as it shone on. She could now see the backs of General Stein’s men. She stomped on the Earth, trying to make as little noise as possible while she sunk into it. She counted several hundred meters before she emerged again, all the while alerting the Supreme Guard that she was penetrating the grounds of Melancholy. She always had to notify them that she would be stomping through as she would otherwise be electrocuted by the energy field they surrounded Melancholy with in the air and within the ground. They did not want anyone to sneak into Melancholy without them knowing it. As she emerged, she could see the Supreme Guard on one side and on the other side the Melancholists both young and old. She realized that these were only the Elders of Melancholy and their young teenagers.
Amelia rounded up the Melancholists present and told them to stay around her in a circle within the grounds of commemoration where a slab indicated yearly the sacrifices of the Melancholists. She asked them to open up their noses and mouths and to also press on their sides, concentrating on their hearts. She mentioned that it was necessary to do all of this at the same time to maximise the effect of the Elixir. She arranged the Elders to one side in a semi-circle and the teenagers to the other also in a semi-circle. They all silently did as they were told and waited around her with abated breath.
She took out of her bag three vials of the compounded Elixir and put them on a slab of stone in front of her. She prayed slowly the prayer of cosmic healing and broke the first vial. She could feel the Melancholists take in a sharp breath of the Elixir. She broke the second vial and could feel all the Melancholists chests dilate while their minds seemed to break into a humming of contentedness. She prayed again and broke the third vial of Elixir and could feel a pulse heave through the Melancholists before a wave of energy shot through the crowd of Melancholists and seemed to implode into their ranks then breaking through their ranks lending all their bodies a shiver. She looked around her at the Melancholists and all she could see was youth and beauty everywhere. She smiled and the Melancholists smiled back at her. This was now a new generation of Melancholists. Her potion was much more potent than she ever thought it could be…
Lisa Gerrard & Marcello De Francisci — 'Until We Meet Again' (Official Video)
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