The pyramidal room was filled with tapestries, strange tapestries that depicted figures that were beautiful angels one moment, and malevolent demons the next. The walls were formed out of reddish stone bricks. In the center was a dais formed of platinum.
And on the dais. . .
A crystal.
The crystal. The Crystal of Power!
It was a tetrahedron in shape, with a turquoise tint, standing upright.
Stanin approached slowly, breathlessly. He couldn't believe that this moment was finally upon him! Cautiously, he reached out his hand and touched the Crystal. Slowly, gently, caressingly, he picked it up with a lover's touch, and held it cupped in his hands.
He had the activating spell memorized - had had it memorized for centuries. He began chanting.
"Stars in the sky,
Stars in the soul,
Stars in the ground,
Stars in the whole:
Obey my command;
Bend to my will
As I shout out-"
With the last words, his voice reverberated with the eternal
thrum of the cosmos, unlocking the power of the Crystal for himself!
STARS
STAND
STI-
Stanin stopped. Dead in his tracks. He was suddenly overwhelmed by this tiny, nagging voice that was now screaming in his head.
There was a sense of something wrong, inherently wrong, TERRIBLY wrong.
But what was it? He couldn't figure it out.
You don't have to have all the answers. Just believe. . .
The voice murmuring in his mind was faith. And to listen to it would take a LEAP of faith.
But could he jump it?
-----
Ebon Skull, having taken the form of a fly, watched from a corner of the room as Stanin was involved in his own internal battle. What was this crystal? It couldn't be important, or else the Eternal Powers would know of it. Undoubtedly some magic artifact. Perhaps a powerful one, but mere mortal magic nonetheless, to be sure.
-----
Stanin thought of Melantha, he thought of the girl -
my daughter - and he thought of One in Whom all trust was to be placed. . .
He let go of the Crystal.
Faith was the answer, he believed. He had faith in Melantha, in the girl, in God Himself that ultimate power was not for him, nor for any mere mortal - but only for God.
But the Crystal did not fall. It hovered in the air, glowing its turquoise glow.
Stanin stared at it with detached interest.
Suddenly a brilliant light appeared above the dais; yet it did not blind him. In the light was a diamond, pristine white, roughly the shape of a sphere, only with many facets. But it had a hole in it. A hole in the shape of-
My son. . .
Startled, Stanin glanced around. Nothing.
My son. . . This is the Gem of Reality. . .
And Stanin knew Who the voice belonged to. And he knew what to do. He grabbed ahold of the Crystal of Power and inserted it into the hole in the Gem.
The whole universe lay spread out before him, the whole of reality. Power was not all there was; there were also love, faith, hope, joy, peace, purpose, and truth. Wholeness. The true wholeness that only God bestowed.
Sights, sounds, and smells assailed him as the vision showed him segments of the life of a man, a man who had lived a millennium ago.
He saw the man striving in his mission to rid the world of evil. He saw him fighting against terrorists who plagued the earth. He saw him mourn his wife's tragic death in a terrorist attack. He saw him swear revenge. And he saw the revenge that accidentally took the life of the man's only child. Stanin saw the man wail and cry out to the Lord, demanding ultimate power so that he could right all wrongs.
And the Lord cursed the man for his pride, by cursing him with ultimate power.
For what was the curse of ultimate power? It manifested all aspects of the person to whom it belonged. In God's case, all the aspects were good. But in the man's case, there were many negative aspects. And the world was filled with his nightmares made real. In despair, the man cast away his memory, praying that redemption might come to him, and became the Pariah Excelsior.
Stanin eth Calenb.
He, Stanin, was that man. He was Joshua Vandercroft!
God had allowed him this chance for redemption. So Joshua took it. He used his powers to forget that he had ultimate power and put it in the form of a crystal, save for a small bit of it, which manifested itself as the ability to channel pure magic, as a means to aid and abet his wanderings.
And so Stanin - or Joshua - had wandered, seeking out the crystal. And Joshua's hope from the very beginning had been that he would, in his second chance at life, come to see the light of God's wisdom.
Now, by casting away trust in himself and coming to believe in the wisdom of God, Stanin had been redeemed.
And he saw. . . Ultimate power was not the whole of man.
Depending on God was the whole of mankind.
He had depended on God, trusted in God, and had been redeemed, made whole!
Stanin could not contain his joy any longer. "Praise the Lord Most High!" he cried, uplifting his arms to the ceiling. His powers stripped, his memory returned, and his soul restored, he was whole.
Tears streamed down his face. At long last. . . he was whole!
-----
Ebon Skull watched the proceedings curiously. He did not see the Gem of Reality or the bright light, but only saw the Crystal vanish, and the expressions on Stanin's face change. He did not see Stanin's revelation. Nor did he care.
Roaring, he shifted form from that of a fly to his true demonic form.
Stanin stared up at him with a peaceful look on his face. Nothing could touch him.
Ebon Skull telepathically ripped into the man's mind, and extracted the information he so desperately sought: the location of the matrix of Volsang.
Laughing maniacally, the disgraced demon vanished.
Stanin smiled. He was whole. Nothing on heaven, on earth, or down below could alter that. He whispered, "Birds still dance. . ."
-----
Morning
Praise the morning
Sunrise in heaven
Fills me
Mine is the new day that breaks
God's in His heaven and everything's right in His world!
Nature rejoice
Yes, and the birds still dance!
Singing
With elation
Voices in chorus
Are winging
Sweetness is filling the air
Joy overflowing just knowing that God is still there!
Nature rejoice
Yes, and the birds still dance!
Sweetness is filling the air
Joy overflowing just knowing that God is still there
Lord of all Creation
Take my life
And give me the freedom to mount up with eagles and dance
Whisper
My devotion
Father, Creator
Mine is the new day that breaks
Yours is the power and glory, Amen!
Peace in my soul
Yes, and the birds still dance!
Peace in my soul
Yes, and the birds still
Birds still dance!
-"Birds Still Dance" performed by Sandi Patty
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