A Nighttime Vision

[Sander 3158]

A Nighttime Vision

 

It was pitch-dark in the room as Father Arnaud arose from his slumber. Thinking he had awoken in the middle of the night, he turned around to try to get back to sleep, only to suddenly see a soft glow reflected on the wall. He turned back around in his bed to find one of his prayer candles on the other side of the room had lit itself. Baffled, he stared at the small flickering light in the darkness. His eyes locked on the slight dance of the flame as he was lost in thoughts before suddenly finding he was not in his room anymore. As soon as he took his eyes off of the candle, it wasn't there anymore either. Instead he found himself in dark hall only lit by starlight which seemed to be coming from nowhere in particular.

While the flame of the candle was gone, and he was no longer under his bedsheets, a sudden warmth overtook him. At the far end of the hall, white light seeped and flowed into the space as if out of the walls and ceiling that remained obscured in darkness, and slowly the light pooled together and formed a fire absent of color like fresh solstice snow. And with the fire's luminance more was revealed; the place it had pooled was a large bowl atop an altar, and the fire seemed ethereal without the sound of burning. As Arnaud turned to look about the hall he heard a voice calmly calling his name as if a whisper on the wind - he did not know the voice but it seemed familiar somehow. "I came." He found himself uttering in response to the calling. "Sign the Cross before proceeding, for this is my tabernacle." The voice told him, and so Arnaud did as told, signing the Lorraine Cross before taking steps further down the great hall. And lo and behold, walls and a ceiling revealed themselves, covered in an aristry the likes of which the priest had never seen before. They were not life-like but living, as if the colours spoke with light, the portrayals moving and interacting with one another. "Whose tabernacle?" Arnaud asked in awe, to which the calm voice responded. "The tabernacle of Faith and Paradise, of Origin and Conclusion. Soul and Skies." Arnaud didn't wholly understand, nor did he dare to inquire further, observing the spectacle in silence as he signed the Lorraine two more times before coming upon a different place - or so he thought.

He had looped back to the other side of the white fire on the altar, unable to walk away from it. On this side there were six seats. "Sit, you know these Stations." And as Arnaud sat down in the seat that felt his', he was no longer alone for in the other seats he saw the visage of three fellow Cardinals; Antonios - he seemed normal, the 'Tonito' he knew, Josef - who appeared marred, obscured by gluttony and greed, and Teodosio - who worried him the most for he appeared thin and fading, as if his presence was still there but only fleeting. "Where is Armand?" "This is everyone, and your numbers will Wane before they Wax. Understand this and act on it." The voice came from the white fire,  it was clear - the light shining brighter as the voice spoke. When Arnaud looked away from the flame his fellow Cardinals, the seats, the grand hall, they had all disappeared. They were on a mountain without wind, the white fire's altar now a crude yet shaped rock. "You come from a River's waters, but names are deceiving. This one bears not life." And as Arnaud stared down into the vast valleys and glades below the mountain he saw the grandeur of the land. While the world was still obscured by the dark of the night, he could see the reflection starlight shown in the river as it twisted through dark mountains. "You know who made the River and the Mountains, but you also know Who had them corrupted. You long for Paradise and wish to be a shepherd that leads the astrayed flock to there? This can be Paradise." The voice said unto Arnaud, who lifted a long stick, holding it as a shepherd's staff. "I do. Can this be Paradise though? It seems neither worldly nor of the Skies." The landscape he saw was familiar, appearing like Aevos but off, a tad unfamiliar yet better. More beautiful. "It is not Paradise. No mortal eyes may yet bear to see such a sight save the fourth prophet." "So what is this?" "The world uncorrupted, without Iblees. You know this place. The River bears your name, you have walked these Mountains." And starlight revealed a mountain overlooking the river, topped with a singular grand rock at its peak, its roots reaching to the sea. "See here is the mountain crowned at its summit. But the rock that is the crown stands upon rocks of pride and vanity. The mountain is of sin. And the river is not from the springs of Gamesh, but a river of blood sprung from wrath. It is Iblees who sows the seeds but the children of Malin, Krug, Urguan and Horen that corrupt Creation." 

The white fire upon the rock disbundled, the streams of pure light evaporating into the sky and forming stars far above. "The appearance that was chosen is of Holy Light and Owyn's Flame, of Divine wonders and purification. You wish to be a shepherd? Then you must separate the wolves from the sheep, you must purify. It is the sons and daughters that are soldiers of God's Kingdom, it is the sons and daughters that dwell in Paradise, but it is the sons and daughters that fall to Iblees. It is the sons and daughters that corrupt Creation." And as the voice spoke of Creation being corrupted, the world Arnaud saw from atop the mountain changed and was made different. The rivers ran red with blood, the trees withered into empty shadows, the mountains fell at the sound of Aengulic clarion calls and the seas burst into flames. "Divine retribution. The Coming of the Lord... Either His will be done or we come to end of days." The priest muttered in awe of the sight he was seeing as the world crumbled and fell into ruin save for the mountain he stood on. "God is Mercy, but so too Almighty. You understand, Now Go." The voice spoke to Arnaud in one final command before suddenly the priest was nearly blown off his feet by the wind rushing into the world. And the flames of the sea merged together into a ball of fire that soon rose from the horizon as the dawn.

And the world had become familiar again as Arnaud now truly awoke from his slumber, stood atop a mountain overlooking Aevos.