SWNOVELS Chapter 31: Prophecy in Stone
Ten minutes later, Hanna rushed into the main room to see Enoch, Kida, Emma, Nathanael, and Electra sitting at the table, looking at the prophecy stones and the crystal cylinders. Enoch heard something and before he could turn, Hanna was standing next to him. “Little sister...you’ve recovered!” he exclaimed with delight.
Hanna ignored him as she reached out, taking one of the crystal cylinders, examining it intensely. “Hanna?” Enoch asked, touching Hanna on the shoulder as he noticed the intense look on her face. “Are you all right?”
Hanna turned to him, replying after a lengthy pause, “Yes. I’m good, though I fear our time is rapidly running out.” She clenched the cylindrical crystal container in her hand and asked, “You wanted to show me something. What is it?”
Enoch pointed to the stones and said, “Read what is on the stones here on the table. I meant for you to read them in the crypt, but you never got the chance so I had them brought here.”
Hanna laid the cylinder down and leaned over the table, looking at the stones, reading the inscription that was a combination of Atlantean and the Stone Language. She read the first, and then the second, followed by the third until she had read the whole set of stones. As she read them, her countenance became visibly shaken to such a point that she had to sit down after reading the last stone.
“What is it?” Nathanael asked, his tone betraying his concern at Hanna’s reaction to the stones.
Hanna looked at Nathanael and asked bluntly, “Do you remember the prophecy Nicodemus told us about?” Nathanael nodded and Hanna continued, saying, “Well, there’s much more to them than what Nicodemus told us. On these stones is the complete set of prophecies, which Nicodemus told us a part of.” She paled as if she’d seen a ghost, adding, “Our coming wasn’t the only thing that was foretold.” Hanna paused, trying to gain some composure.
“Well?” Nathanael asked.
“It states in precise detail everything that has happened to me since I came here, including my mutation,” Hanna murmured, stunned by the revelation.
“You’re kidding?” Nathanael replied with astonishment.
“I wish I were,” Hanna whispered, tears beginning to drip as she felt an icy fear grip her soul. “Everything up until now has been foretold, even my torture and mutation.”
“Does it say whether you will reverse the mutation?” Nathanael asked.
“It does,” Hanna said with a troubled smile. “I won’t be a woman for the rest of my life if what these stones say is true. It says the very thing that mutated me in the first place will restore me, but that’s not what really bothering me. There’s something here I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around. It’s so insane it has to be something to it.”
“What is it?” Nathanael asked softly.
“These stones tell of an incredible upheaval that’s coming. If I am reading this right, Amacia will rise again,” Hanna stated with a tremor in her voice.
“Well, it sure has risen again,” Nathanael stated, referring to the military might and power of the Emperor.
“No, you don’t understand, Nathanael. The land of Amacia is going to literally rise again to the surface physically,” Hanna clarified, dumbfounding Nathanael. “The whole of the caverns are going to somehow be opened up and rise to the surface and see the sun and sky for the first time since the Flood. The miles of solid rock between the surface and us are going to crumble as this whole land is pulled to the surface by a force I can’t comprehend. It’s literally going to reshape the geography of the surface just like it did when the Lord buried this land. Listen to the words of the stones that describe it. First, it gives a detailed description of the Last Caverias and the Eleven that come with him from the surface, details that are so accurate it shakes my soul.” Hanna read the inscriptions about the Eleven aloud, stunning Nathanael. It described everyone who followed Hannibal into the caverns, including Nathanael and Selina in uncanny detail making it clear who they were.
“Now if you think that is much, just listen to this,” Hanna continued. “It says here that the descendant of Thoth Caverias and Ariel would arise on the surface in the end of days and return to claim the throne of Amacia and destroy the Emperor forever. He would come from the ends of the Earth with the power of the Ancient of Days guiding him.” Hanna paused as Nathanael’s expression showed stupefaction and puzzlement.
“How could the descendant of Thoth come from the surface when you yourself said that Noah and his family were the only ones to survive the Flood on the surface?” Nathanael asked in puzzlement.
“A very reasonable question to be sure,” Hanna returned as she glanced at Enoch. “Let me see if I can remember what the Teacher taught me. The lineage of Thoth and Ariel made it to the surface because Japheth, Noah’s son, married one of their daughters...a daughter called Cleo. As I remember, the union was not thought of very highly because she was a princess and Japheth was, well, the son of a lunatic prophet who was building a ship on top of a mountain and saying the Lord was going to destroy everything in a cataclysmic flood. Cleo was outcast because of it. The only one who would have anything to do with her was Ariel. Ariel would secretly visit her, Japheth, Noah, and his family as they built the ark, even helping with it at times. They tried to warn her about the impending doom and she believed to a point. However, Ariel’s loyalty was to Thoth so when the day of the Kragonar exploded, Cleo was on the ark while Thoth and Ariel went down with Amacia. Therefore, Cleo is my link to the line. Genetically, she was ninety-eight percent human with two percent Lynxian. Cleo just happened to be born with that particular mix of genetic material so no one could really tell that she had Lynxian DNA from the way she looked. For all practical purposes, she was human just like me, and like me, she has Thoth and Ariel’s code buried deep in her DNA. Does that answer your question?”
Nathanael nodded and said, “Yes, but what about Amacia rising? Does it give any details?”
“Not really,” Hanna said as she leaned back in the chair. “All it said was that when the descendant of Thoth returns to the lands of Amacia, the Hammers of the Gods would be unleashed to raise the land from its grave and punish humanity for its sin. It also said something about the Emperor being involved somehow in it. I don’t understand it fully. It’s like all prophecy: it has to be revealed. As of now, I have no insight on what or how that will occur but you can be sure of one thing, my friend. These stones show an almost verbatim timeline of us being here, including details of my capture, torture, mutation, rescue, and our journey to this place. It’s right down eerie and I must admit, it’s seriously shaken my monkey cage. The Lord has planned this from the very beginning, which brings me to the point. We have to go back to Acheron. Something bad has happened there; I know it.”
“What do you mean?” Enoch asked sharply. “What have you seen?”
Hanna turned to Enoch saying, “I had a dream while the healer worked on me. I was in my old house on the surface, the one I had to abandon because the masters of the universe were moving against us. I was lying on the sofa taking a nap initially and there was this strange painting roughly seven feet by four feet on the living room wall. It showed a great fortress that rivals the citadel in Acheron out in the middle of the desert pushed up against a mountain. I recognized the fortress because I have dreamed it before. The Emperor tried to kill Selina and me at this same fortress in our dreams. Well, anyway, I got up to look at the painting and the closer I came to it the more real it looked. When I was but two steps away from it, it was as if I were looking through a window. I saw people on the fortress and, as strange as it sounds, I saw the people moving and milling about in a frenzy like they were expecting an attack or something. They were literally moving in the picture. Then my attention was drawn to the base of the picture and I saw the Old Ones laying siege to the fortress.” Enoch frowned deeply, his face betraying his worry as Hanna continued. “Then they turned around, looked at me, and then all of them and roared,” she reported. “It so startled me that I back away from the picture, stumbling over a footstool, and landing on the sofa. In an instant, the picture changed and became a massive black edifice of a fortress surrounded by rivers of molten rock and beings in red armor flying around on giant draken-like lizards. I saw at least eight of them. Then from behind the fortress, the Black Prince rose and reached out the painting to take me, saying that I was his. Needless to say, I was petrified. Fortunately, my special angelic guardian, Caverias, appeared and stopped him by slicing off his hand and then destroying the painting.”
Kida gasped as did Emma. Electra looked at Hanna with sober seriousness because she could sense that Hanna’s mind was troubled greatly by the dream. Enoch’s face lit up with astonishment as he asked, “Did you say Caverias?”
Hanna nodded, saying, “Yes. I did: the angel Caverias...who was the guardian of Thoth and Ariel in the 1st Age. He’s the one who has helped me endure this mutation and understand why it had to be. He said the dream was Ahriaman trying to divine my location using Selina as a conduit. According to Caverias, if the image of the Black Prince had touched me, he would have known where I am and where this place is. He warned me that the Emperor must never find this place because of the machinery here. With it, the Emperor could take everything. He also told me that the Rakshasar raided Acheron and took Nicodemus. At that point, he woke me. We have to get back to Acheron.”
Enoch leaned back in his chair with a stunned look. “Well now doesn’t that just beat all,” he said with a growing smile. “My little sister is guarded by the angel Caverias. This is truly a marvel. No one has spoken of the angelic guardians of the 1st Age since the Kragonar.”
Suddenly, Hanna became aware of an alien presence nearby and her head shot around to the main exit from the room. Everyone else sensed it too and looked in the same direction. Hanna rose from her seat, turning toward the doorway, clenching her fists in anticipation. Enoch rose and everyone else did likewise as Hanna moved deliberately toward the intrusive presence.