Chapter 20: Chapter Twenty – The Blue Stone

One after another, each young adult stepped forward and thrust their hand into the bag. There was a stirring sound, and a white stone was withdrawn. Then, he or she who chose it, held it high above their heads so that all could bare record. After a few seconds, the stone was dropped back into the bag, and the next person stepped forward. This continued, over and over, and soon Alacritous stepped forward and drew a white stone as well.

Propitious was behind her niece in the line, and so her turn came next. With a shudder of uneasiness, she took a deep breath, steadied herself, and then thrust her delicate hand into the old bag. She felt the cool smooth stones counting them as she stirred. Absently, she noticed that there were thirteen rocks enclosed within the bag.

“Twelve white stones, and one blue,” she figured, and then with a quick snatch, she drew out the lot that her unseeing hand had chosen. Without looking, she held up the stone and showed it to all the people.

It was only after she saw the faces of those gathered and heard their whispers of approval that she realized she had drawn the sapphire-colored stone. Dumbly, she gazed at the rock within her palm.

The ancient lady laid her large delicate hand upon the head of Propitious. “You must keep the stone as a token of your office, and someday, you must let another pull that same stone from a bag and thus take your place.” When she had explained this, Vitalitous turned to the Gathering and cried aloud. “The High-King has chosen His Seer! Praise be the King of Heaven!”

In response, the whole assembly answered. “Praise be the Prince of Life!”

After the crowd became quiet again, the great-mother spoke once more with a troubled tone. “A time of great darkness is now before us, and for this cause, the Seer will have desperate need of both guidance and understanding. However, there is but one way that this can be accomplished: She must eat from the Tree-Glimmering. In fact, the test that lies before her is so terrible that if she does not partake of the sacred fruit, she will be overcome by the dreadful shadows that will surround her on every side.”

Yet again, hushed murmurs drifted through the small crowd. The oldest among them knew that there was only one way that the charred tree could produce even a single piece of fruit.

Suddenly, Solicitous stepped forward. His silvery-white coat and mane shimmered in the sunlight. “I will give my life so that my dearest of all friends can eat from the Tree.” He declared with only the tiniest hint of fear.

Propitious blinked as the slow realization of what he was proposing settled in upon her confused mind. Then abruptly, like a flash of lightning across her heart, she understood it all with utter clarity.

“No!” she gasped with horror.

The indigo eyes of Vitalitous darkened. “Only the blood from a pure heart can awaken the charred tree from its death-sleep.”

“No… Why?!?” Propitious refused and questioned all at the same time.

The great-mother laid a gentle hand upon the shoulder of the young woman and gazed at her with deep sadness.

“The Tree is dead,” she explained with a single tear running down her lovely pale cheek. “And only life can give life.”

Propitious shook her head with a tiny movement that was barely perceptible as a shuttered breath escaped her lips. It felt as though a shadow of despair was whispering a shout of hopelessness in her ears.

Solicitous came to her and gently laid his head upon her delicate shoulder, and in this action, he attempted to breathe his peace into her heart a second time, but Propitious stubbornly refused to take it into her lungs, for she would not have peace concerning what he was asking her to do.

Seeing she would not receive his peace, Solicitous tried to reason with his friend. “I came with you because a still small voice told me that you would have need of me, and now the King of Heaven has chosen you. Is it not He that we all serve?”

A tear ran down the cheek of Propitious as she thought of the Unicorn and how they had grown up as playmates within their small safe forested valley. They had even been born in the very same month.

The Unicorn continued. “I love you far too much to let you go into this time of trouble without the help of the Fruit-Glimmering. Let me do this thing for you lest I perish!”

Playful recollections flooded into the mind of Propitious. She recalled the games they enjoyed. She remembered splashing together in the cool water of the great spring. With all these lovely memories filling her thoughts, she could never imagine her life without the cheerful Unicorn.

“Take this gift from me.” Solicitous whispered and then added a desperate, “Please!”

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A second tear wet her cheek as someone nearby quietly placed a stone knife into her trembling hand, but more tears waited to flow, and these blurred her vision so that she could not tell who had given her the knife.

The young Unicorn placed his neck upon its razor-sharp blade.

“Please!” he begged again. “My heart will break if you do not let me give you this gift, for I could not live if anything dreadful happened to you. Especially if I knew, all the while, that my life could have kept you from such a horrible fate. Alas! That alone will kill me!”

 “No, no, no.” She stammered and slowly shook her head unable to speak further for the feeling of an immense weight pressing upon her heart. The strain grew too great. There was only one way to find a release from all this, but the idea of what had to be done was too terrible. She took a deep shuttering breath, and then whispered with sobbing words, “I … love … you!”

“I love you too,” he replied tenderly. “That is why you must take my life quickly.”

 “No, that is why I cannot,” she gasped as her tears began to fall like the rains of a thunderstorm.

“Please,” the Unicorn begged. “I cannot bear the thought of you slipping into darkness!”

“Do not make me do this,” Propitious cried.

You must do it. You must do it…” he continued in the speech of men, but then, he suddenly trumpeted in the language of the Unicorns. “Noooow!”

Propitious flinched in response to his unexpected bugle, and with that startled movement, the razor-sharp stone knife cut deep. The Unicorn stiffened from the pain and then slowly relaxed. As his blood ebbed, it stained her undyed swathe scarlet.

Then, as his beautiful muzzle limply slipped off her shoulder, the distraught young woman dropped the knife as if it had burned her hand and then moved to catch his head.

“No! No! No!” Propitious screamed frantically while clasping her small hands over the gushing wound. “Someone, please help me!”

The whole crowd stood in stunned silence. Great tears wet every cheek. Every person in the gathering felt their heart was crushed at the sight, but there was nothing any could do.

As the Unicorn toppled over, the young woman crumbled down to her knees while cradling his head in her trembling bloodied hands. Thus, she sat in the cool grass that grew around the base of the blackened tree, and so his blood gushed out, pooled around the Tree and wet its lifeless roots.

After this, the day passed very slowly for everyone, and in all that time, Propitious sobbed over the dead body of her dearest friend while the assembled Ancients watched her with heartbroken gazes and silent tears.

As Vitalitous beheld Propitious sobbing uncontrollably, she felt that the sorrow of the scene would break her aged heart, but then she remembered back to when another noble Unicorn gave himself for her healing. With this new memory, she could take no more. She staggered away and came to stand upon the brink of the mountain-forest overlooking the land of Serenity.

“Such is the price of my sins.” Vitalitous whispered breathlessly. “So much death and suffering because I ate what I should not, and if I could have known…” Her voice trailed off, for she had been told of the danger, but she did not fully grasp the warning until it was too late.

 As she continued to gaze out upon the dying land, she slowly sank to her knees and began to sing a mournful and wordless song while she wept.

Hearing her tearful singing, the King of Heaven looked down from His shining throne. His great heart was moved with sorrow, and so He took her song and caused it to ceaselessly echo upon the breeze that sweeps over the endless dunes of the Sea of Fire.

Thus, it shall ever be heard upon the winds of the Weepingwaste until the day when Serenity is returned to its former glory and this world of sorrow is wholly healed.

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