6 Solomon and Moses

Solomon and Moses

Sometimes fighting is the only way to restore peace and Transition is the only way to regain the lost paradise

Elisium. Year 5L 21/15

"I am Moses, not Solomon," said Moses in a slightly irritated tone.

"And I am George," replied the group leader, "and to answer your question, you people are in Elisium, or you can say Tenebra, that is what you call our planet in your world. Your captors had planned to send you not to this world, but some other world, directly to heaven I must say, but due to some miracle you survived the journey. We were surprised to see you guys emerge out of the water alive. But after seeing you, I am not surprised anymore. I must admit, that all those supposedly ridiculous stories and prophecies, which our elders used to bore us with, have suddenly started to make a little bit of sense."

"I am not understanding a word of what you are trying to tell." said Moses.

"It is a very long long story. But first we must leave this place. We don't want any of those looters to come back and find us here. If that happens you all will be thrown back into this river, and this time they will make sure that you all drown." George said to his men, "carry one one person with you on your horses. We should reach the Refuge before dawn."

All the survivors shared a horse with one of the group members. They didn't know who these people were, but they seemed friendly and they were their only hope of survival in this familiar yet unknown world.

They reached a large settlement just before dawn. Moses looked around this huge, chaotic, jumbled mess. It housed thousands of shanties, cabins and huts built in an utterly disorganized manner. It looked like people came to this place and built a shanty wherever they liked. After having spent all his life in Aurae, the intricately planned, beautifully designed and opulently built capital of Aden, Moses was a little nonplussed by this place. If anything, this settlement was the exact opposite of Aurae

Their caravan stopped in front of a very large shack. They all got down from their horses and entered the shack.

"I thought I must bring you all first to this place," said George, "there is a chance here you might find someone you know."

Inside the shack, some old men were seated around a large dining table. Joseph slowly walked towards an old man. It was hard to say to for sure whether it was him or not, because he had last seen this person two cycles ago, when he himself was just three years old. But he had seen his pictures. It was him. "Father" Joseph mumbled in a soft poignant tone, a lump forming in his throat

The old man looked at Joseph from top to bottom "Joseph," exclaimed Jacob, as he recognized his son, "I had lost all hopes of seeing you. I thought you might be among one of those who drowned in the last two cycles." Father and son embraced each other in a tight hug.

"I was able to hide from them for two cycles. But finally they caught me," said Joseph.

"Yes they never get tired of tracking us down," said Jacob with a wry smile "when they took me away you were a toddler. Now you have grown into a decent copy of me in my younger days."

"Your father's Drowning was the last instance in which the soldiers from your world did actually cut down the weights and brought the cage to the riverbanks" George said to Joseph.

"What do they do after bringing the prisoners ashore?" asked Moses.

"They just set them free," replied Jacob, "there are no human settlements anywhere around the Demon's Entrance, the spot where we emerge into this world. They expect the prisoners getting lost in the wilderness and ultimately being killed by wild beasts. That happened to most of the people who got Banished in the earlier cycles. Even if the prisoners somehow survive the wilderness there is no way they can go back to Aden, and that is their only major concern. What they don't know is that these lovely people of Elisium bring those survivors here and give them refuge in the Refuge."

"Yeah, people here now know that all those who are banished are just like ourselves," said George, "innocent people oppressed by the tyrants. Besides that bringing these people here has few other benefits," George added with a blush.

Moses gave George an incredulous look.

"He married a girl who was banished with me," said Jacob, "My cousin Cynthia. She was the first woman ever to be sentenced to banishment. She had fought the soldiers who had come to abduct her brother. Being a strong headed girl, she made pulp of a few soldiers before being arrested. The regime decided she was too dangerous to be kept in Aden. They charged her with treason and banished her here. She was merely fourteen when she was banished with me two cycles ago. Hearing about her courage and seeing her free spirit George instantly fell in love with her. Being a rebel himself he does have a penchant for rebellious people. He broke his previous engagement to marry Cynthia. They are the first, and so far the only, cross-world couple."

"I was not talking about that benefit," George interrupted, he was still blushing a little "What I meant was that by bringing in these survivors we get some useful information about the other world. Some of these survivors like Jacob and Nathan have been great help. But it seems that since the last two cycles the regime over there doesn't want to take any chances and hence have decided to finish off the prisoners by drowning them. Seems like the end of this Loop is getting to the nerves of the rulers. They don't want a repeat of what has happened at the turn of every other loop so far. They don't want the Transition to occur and the tables to be turned on them."

"What happens at the turn of loop?" Moses asked as curiosity begun to take over his other emotions.

"Have you ever heard about the Amulet of Transition?" asked Jacob. Moses inadvertently touched the amulet under his shirt, but chose not to reveal anything about it. "As per the stories that has passed down the generations, at the turn of every loop there is a Transition of power. Not from one person to another but from one world to another. The bright world starts to become dark, and the darker world starts to come out of the shadows. Everything within them begins to transform. From natural things, like the color of the trees or shades of the landscapes or the brightness of the daylight to the more subtle things, like the knowledge and the conscience of the people, everything starts to get affected. Things in the brighter developed world enter a period of hibernation, they kind of become stagnant, whereas everything in the darker underdeveloped world starts to climb the ladders of prosperity for one whole loop."

"Bright world and the dark world, quite interesting" mused Moses "but what is the thing that brightens one world and pushes the other one into the darkness?"

"It is said that these all happens due to the effects of the cosmos" replied Jacob "At the change of every loop one of our twin solar systems comes out of the cosmic shadows while the other enters it. And this phenomenon affects their fortunes. It is a system devised by the Supreme Beings, who look after our worlds, to keep the two worlds in balance. This theory is known as the Dance of Two Sisters. Most people commonly refer to the Crossing as the Dance of Two Sisters, but actually it is this whole process of cycles, loops and Transition that is the actual Dance of Two Sisters. With the passing of every cycle, people gradually start to forget about this notion. Fact becomes a legend and legend becomes a fantasy. Many people think of this theory as some fiction, but many like us have their reasons to believe in it. Especially in this world, hopes of millions of people are attached to this Dance of Two Sisters. This has to be true, because there is no other hope for them."

"You mean to say Aden will now enter the shadows and Elisium will come out of it?" asked Joseph "and their fortunes will change with this so called Transition."

"Yes it seems so?" replied Jacob.

"What the Amulet of Transition has to do with this all?" Moses finally asked the question which was nibbling on his mind.

Jacob looked at Moses. He scanned him from top to bottom, as if trying to look beneath his flesh, and then gave him a peculiar smile, "from what I have heard this transition of power is triggered by the person who possesses the Amulet of Transition. Noah triggered this transition from the first loop to second, Abraham from second to third, David from third to fourth and Solomon from fourth to fifth. They all belonged to the lineage of Adam the First, who forged that amulet. It is said that using some mystical powers, which were provided to him by those Supreme Beings, he trapped the energies released by the cosmos during the Transition of the first loop, into that amulet. Now someone from the same lineage, our lineage, the lineage of Solomon, must trigger the Transition from fifth loop to the sixth."

"Wow, I never knew our family had such a great history," Joseph said with a hint of pride.

"Yes, and that is also the reason why they are hunting down each and every member of our lineage," said Jacob "As per the legends all these great men were born on the first day of darkness at the beginning of twenty first cycle in their respective loops."

"My daughter Jennifer was born on that exact day," George interrupted Jacob, "on the first day of adversity at the beginning of this cycle. She is also a descendant of Solomon, from her mother's side of course. Could she be the one?"

"No, because we are strictly talking about men here," replied Jacob, "there have been no female Transitioners. These legends also mention that these Transitioners, they all jumped into the whirlpool two cycles after their birth and arrived in the other world to kick start the chain of events for the Transition. If this all is true for this loop as well, then the person who must bring on this Transition should now be the age of this young man," Jacob pointed to Moses.

Everyone in the room stared at Moses. Before he can say anything Jacob asked Joseph, "tell me how did you survive the Drowning. Surviving that death trap is a miracle in itself."

Joseph looked apologetically towards Moses. He then told his father about how the jets of fire from the amulet melted their chains and how Moses broke the door open with a single kick.

Jacob went near Moses, "Though no one can be sure of that, but people do say that Noah was a reincarnation of Adam, the first. Abraham the reincarnation of Noah and so on. In that way you are the reincarnation of Solomon, the Conqueror."

"Do you know why I called you Solomon the first time I saw you?" George asked Moses, "my great grandfather was a skilled painter. Twenty one cycles ago, just a few days before his assassination, King Isaac had asked him to make a portrait of Solomon. Isaac wanted to gift Solomon this portrait on his fourteenth birthday. But as it turned out, King Isaac and his wife were murdered, whereas Solomon mysteriously disappeared on the morning of his fourteenth birthday. The portrait never reached the person it was meant for and it just carried down the generations in our family. Come have a look at that portrait."

George took Moses to a small room and pointed to a wall, "Now you see for yourself why I called you Solomon."

A life size portrait hung on the wall. Moses was confounded as he looked at a portrait of himself dressed in lavish royal robes. There weren't any similarities between them. They were exactly the same, like identical twins. From his broad shoulders to the texture of his skin, from the shape of his chin to the color of his eyes, even the mole on his left chin, from every single aspect Moses was a copy of Solomon. Moses was baffled. How was this even possible. He felt a little dizziness in his head and sunk in a nearby chair, "I am no Solomon. I wasn't even able to save myself from getting banished and you expect me to change fortunes of two worlds?"

"That amulet in your neck will give you the power to do that" said Jacob.

Moses removed the amulet and put it down on a table, "take this, do what you want with it. I don't want any of this. I just want to return back to my world, my home. I just want to see my mother, my family."

Jacob put a comforting hand around Moses' shoulder, "The only way back, my child, is through this amulet. Only by destroying your enemies can you return back to your home. Sometimes fighting is the only way to restore peace. Believe me son, this Transition is the only way to regain that lost paradise."