DAY NINE

I am the taste of water.

I am the light of the Sun and the Moon.

I am the original fragrance of the Earth.

I am the heat in fire.

I am the life of all that lives.

Of lights I am the radiant Sun.

Among stars I am the Moon.

Of bodies of water I am the ocean.

Of immovable things I am the Himalayas.

Of trees I am the banyan-tree.

Of weapons I am the thunderbolt.

Among beasts I am the lion.

Of purifiers I am the wind.

Of fishes I am the shark.

Of flowing rivers I am the Ganges.

Of seasons I am flier-bearing spring.

Of secret things I am silence.

Know that all opulent, beautiful and

Glorious creations spring from but a spark of my splendour.

Bhagavad Gita

24

BAPTISM

FRIDAY 25 DECEMBER 2012 - 04H44

MAIDEN

Fikile and I saw Eleanor and Kei off at first light. People in Beijing aren’t taking the day off to spend with their families. Why should Eleanor Grace? I was okay. Fikile held me close.

“Merry Christmas, Arche,” said Kei quietly as he got into the car.

“Merry Christmas, Kei,” I said. “Until we meet again.”

Eleanor was oblivious since she was, as usual, prattling orders to someone on the other side of the world. Will appeared next to me, wiping sleep out of his eyes. He shuddered as we watched the car drive away.

“Sunrise?” he asked.

“Sunrise,” I said, raising my fist for a bump.

MAIDEN - MOTHER - CRONE

Tata, Will, Jesus, Amber, Artemis, Lu, the Phusis, the Ecclesia, The Quantums, the Ancestors, the Ancients, and who knew who else were present for my Assumption on the beach. Quite a turnout for a girl who had no friends nine days ago. We knew that Amber would never forgive us if she missed it. She was thrilled to tell us that Sinead already dreamed about it.

"She had no cooking clue what she was talking about, did she, Lu?” She nudged him with her elbow.

“No clue,” he affirmed as he beamed and gushed about my colours, "Regan. Wow! Just wow!” I suspected that Lu saw everything in colours, like I saw everything in code.

Tata brought drums, and with lively enthusiasm, everyone took up their instruments. Tata set a steady beat, and the string celestial instruments that are the soundtrack for my life sang into the Quantum Field as my oscillations increased.

Three crows landed in the mangrove trees. Butterflies trailed behind Lu. A herd of cows came trundling down and settled themselves on the sand. And a cat. Ala took a step closer to me. I wanted to wrap myself in her dark, silken folds and nestle there forever. She reached her generous arms out to me and offered the hug I had only imagined. I fell into the arms of Life Herself and snuggled there. She held me as only a mother could. And only Fikile ever had.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“May you never lose your Wonder, Little Bird," she said. Sophia reached out and touched my forehead, right between my eyebrows, and Ala palmed my heart. My eyes flashed soft silvery code. The light was golden and not of this realm. The ocean waxed and waned. I was faintly aware of my heartbeat.

There was timelessness.

I was the air inside Their lungs, being inhaled and exhaled.

Then I was the wave crashing on the beach, getting pulled to shore. It felt good to be water. I felt sacred and holy. I felt pure and innocent. I felt things draining out of me. I washed up onto the sand in long, languid strokes. I shuddered with bliss. The centre of my being rose towards something. No, Someone. I felt my brain trying to process what I was experiencing, but I knew that was pointless. I just watched the water. My fingers trailed on the sand. I took a long, expansive breath. There was timelessness.

Welcome to the Wyrd, Regan Grace. Truth's voice came from inside me.

What's the Wyrd? I asked. The golden thread spun around me for eternity. As far as my eyes could see. I was a point of light in the glittering web of creation: the Wyrd.

I followed it and discovered a life, a person, and a story in every twinkling light. I saw Sinead along the way. I saw her communing with the Phusis in the garden. I saw Mr Peaceman, unknowingly following their promptings as he tended to his rose bushes. I saw his heart longing for Wonder and Innocence. They all did. From my point in the glittering Wyrd, the web of life, everyone in my realm, even children, was lost and lonely.

We had suffered a worse pandemic than any virus, the loss of Wonder. Hearts aching, brains breaking, overwhelmed and anxious, longing for just a little Wonder and a lot of human connection. I saw it all. I felt every agonising moment of it!

I heard Tata's drumming calling me. My heart syncopated as the threads around it wove themselves together. I may be the Game Changer, but I knew now more than ever that I could not, nor did I want to, change this game alone. I inhaled, and my lungs expanded out behind me like a skydiving chute. I perceived myself both in my First Casing or meat sack, as Gran would say, and from somewhere far away in the Wyrd. I looked down. I hovered about two or three meters above the beach.

“Regan Grace,” said Sophia with a glint in her eye. "Maiden, Mother and Crone!" My code danced in response as she named my Quantum selves. Ala swung her hips from side to side. "Arche of the Ten Known Realms!" She sang as she carved a circle in the sand with her toes. I knew those symbols, and they knew me. My code pulsed, flashing feverishly across my sun-kissed skin. Light as a feather, I landed back on the damp sand.

“All is one?” I asked.

“All is one.” Blue beamed. He smiled, and I felt it in my bones.

FRIDAY, 1 JANUARY 2013

MAIDEN

Each new custodian starts their relationship with it by leaving one blank page. So here I am! It feels appropriate to begin on the first day of the new year.

The book continues to thrill and amaze me! Get this: there is a demon across the estuary! Gran’s been trying to make peace with it for years, but apparently, there are some across-realm politics and cultural appropriation issues! Sometimes I swear I hear Gran. But I'm not admitting that I hear my dead Grandmother talking to me. Not yet, anyway! Despite losing her, before I got to know her, this has been the best summer holiday of my life! By Boxing Day, I was learning Utterances and manipulating weather conditions! Lu's been doing this since he was a baby, so he's a pro. Truth is often tangible when he teaches us.

Fikile, may the Divine Mothers Bless her, thinks we are still working on our project, which we have finally streamlined our topic for. We are doing our project on Food Forests and Their Potential to end World Hunger. We tend to the Trust early every morning and do Arche training on the beach until lunch.

“What is a food forest, Amber?” asked Tata.“It’s imitating forest-like structures to increase biodiversity, efficiency, and sustainability of food production systems.” She answered, pleased with herself. Blue appointed her as our meditation instructor because the Peaceman family has an existing meditation practice. To say she was thrilled is an understatement. She is efficient and only marginally bossy. Will and I find it very amusing when, between her and Tata, they can’t decide whether they want our eyes open or closed! Blue says meditation is necessary to master the casings. He says there’s more than one kind, but eyes closed is the best place to start.

My experience up to this point leads me to believe that absolutely nothing about the universe and how it works is what we think it is. Gran believed that energy didn’t die, it just changed shape, and now more than ever, I agreed with her. I'm convinced that there are adventures to be had by an Intrepid Horteculturalist in the Ten Known Realms. She might even be finding a way to conquer the tenth. After all, governance is up for grabs! I will find out soon enough. The second I'm back online, it's game on! I have no intention of waiting for the Scarab and the W.A.R.S to find me. I have a bone to pick with them about collateral damage and a few million lost souls.

I am going home to a woman under the control of an interdimensional terrorist and a world under threat. Neither of these things terrifies me as much as playing something called beach cricket. But it's okay because a) my friends are very patient with my lack of beach game knowledge, and b) I’m the Game Changer, bitch.

Now, who wants to go and see a man about a demon?

This is not the end.