Chapter 16
In which the land is transfigured by the evening sun
TAMASHII
We cut south along the coast to try to get close to our destination, seeing land a lot less than normal. Dad and I weren't great navigators, so this seemed the best was of being certain we were traveling correctly. So anyway, several days of sailing, I was pretty tired and out of it. Day after day of eating preserved fruit, pickled vegetables, and fish. And more fish. Dumping our body waste off the ship since the commode was down, and Elias wasn't there to fix it. I stared out at the sea with a listless look. "Why don't you talk to your friends?" asked Nevras. But I was in a mood, and didn't want to burden them with my drama. I also was seasick, and didn't want to risk throwing up all over them. I wound up getting in a heated argument with my father, because at the time, the fact that they were my friends didn't matter, I just wanted to be left alone. Later though, my friends did kinda hang out with me. I eventually made up with my dad, talking it out and explaining calmly why I was so resistant in the first place. We hung out and I drank my first alcohol with my dad. I was only nine, but there were no laws against it. He wasn't a heavy drinker, but it was kind of a sign that today he saw me as an adult. I didn't get all sloppy, angry, or anything like that. The alcohol just made me pass out. Unfortunately, as a Soulfire, I shouldn't drink like ever, and nearly wrecked the ship with my powers. Thankfully, there were some systems to harness such energies, so the turbulent psionic storm didn't smash the thing apart outright.
The others woke me up after a very rough night. They were looking exhausted. "Hey kiddo," Lucy waved to me, "How about we stop on that island over there? If you're anything like me, you're bored out of your skull and wanting to get on dry land."
She had a point. All of us were nervous wrecks, and all of us had enough of the rocking of the boat for the time being. But that island represented a grim reminder of Ambrosia's quest and how it had ruined this family as far as I was concerned. Mysterious Island was where the portal to Belial's Castle had been, those years ago. If she hadn't gone on trips like this, Mom would never be in this mess. "Nuhhh," I said, "Mysterious Island sucks."
Unlike Nevras, Lucy didn't really argue. She didn't guilt trip me like Mom either. No, she did worse. She gave me huge puppy dog eyes, and told me, "But Mysterious Island was the portal to where Nevras and I had sex on the mountain. Without me finally merging with Ambrosia, she would never have been honest about her feelings, we wouldn't have had the best night ever, and you wouldn't have been born. So you see, Mysterious Island is a place filled with wonder."
Whoa, Other Mom, too much information! I sighed, powerless against the cute pet eyes, "Oh all right! We'll stop there and walk around at least." But she kept working on me until I had agreed to see the top of the mountain at dusk. Lucy wasn't exactly manipulative, though it sounds that way. She didn't really mind if I didn't, but typically her ideas tended to be fun or enriching. Though Ambrosia thought she was the worst part of her, in some ways she was the best, as she went ahead with impulsive decisions that were often based on personal growth. And let's be honest. Even though it was a hard climb up the mountain, it was good exercise, and the view was worth it.
And so, we headed up the mountain. Lucy got Nevras to dress in a red, green, and white plaid wool skirt with a fluffy green tone sleeveless sweater. To complete the look, Lucy gave Nevras some padding, a sports bra, some bike shorts, knee high leggings, and some comfortable sandals without heels. "I'm not done yet," Lucy said. Ambrosia and Nevras normally both applied fairly modest makeup. But Lucy plucked Nevras's eyebrows to a thin line, added mascara to define the eyelashes, and enhanced earlier Nevras's attempt at makeup with a little more lipstick and blush. "Mostly okay job," she said, "You don't look like a drag queen or anything. But I think you can be more confidence." Nevras normally used his own hair, which had grown out over the years, but Lucy pulled out a chestnut brown wig (more impulse shopping) and combed and tucked his hair into a wig cap, then fastened and clipped the wig. Lucy squealed at the look, something that would be way more of a reaction that Ambrosia would ever be caught doing. Mom at best gave a deep blush, and would say in a deadpan, "That looks great."
Originally, Nevras had made a big fuss about crossdressing, but after the whole macho bravado had worn off, and he stopped objecting had been outed. Ambrosia could get him to dress up fairly easily, though he still had trouble doing so on his own initiative, Nevras still had sensible taste, and tended not to wear things that were too goth or absurdly formal along the street. In any case, Nevras looked demure yet comfortable in this outfit. That is to say, if a random person saw Nevras, they would not be able to tell the difference between Nevras and a girl who had been raised from birth to be ladylike. But at the same time, Nevras was wearing clothes that suited the climb up the mountain.
We made it to the top, and looked at the view. I could see the clouds above, the sea for miles, and the next land hundreds of miles into the distance. The next island was the Divine Border, a land that led directly to the cloudy soil of Heaven. I saw the clouds floating low, then spiraling up like a staircase into a series of cloudy islands. I couldn't make out the buildings over there, but we got our bearings as to the next destination. The view was spectacular, but as we waited the dusk sun turned the landscape almost a brilliant golden color. The distant clouds refracted light like a prism, and the autumn leaves exploded in bright hues. While we couldn't see the buildings, we certainly could see the plants from over there. And then as the sun set, bioluminescent algae set the sea aglow. We walked down the mountain with the moon out brightly, and rested in the cabins of out boat.
RENA
We went up to a mountain with Jesus because he wanted to pray, when his entire shone with an intense inner light. All of a sudden, we saw him standing together with Moses and Elijah. He was chatting together with them, when I asked him "Why not set up booths for Moses and Elijah?" I was referring to the Sukkhot tradition where God dwelt in a booth. All at once, I heard a voice, This is my beloved son. Listen to him! And then Moses and Elijah were gone, and we came down from the mountain to deal with stupid shit.
In later texts of this event, I decided I didn't wanna take the credit, and since Peter was fond of doing stupid things, I shifted the hero of this story (Autumntwig still gives me a hard time for that). I had a good reason for claiming not to be there. I was branded as a traitor (some of this was actually my own doing), so in many cases I used my given name Mary Magdalene to distinguish myself from the traitor persona that had developed. To tell the truth, all of us had betrayed him at some point.
But it was not the only time that he appeared transformed. After... a certain event, I went with some other women to visit someone's tomb. But instead we saw Jesus in a form that we couldn't even recognize. I even thought he was a gardener. Around that same time, people were walking on a road mourning this famous person's death, and Jesus came in disguise and discussed it with them. They literally didn't recognize Jesus until he ate bread and drank wine with him.
