Chapter 5

2076 a.d. – Winter

The Writ of Stone

The Goddess of the Land stood in front of her temple with her arms raised to the night sky. She was wearing a white ceremonial robe that she and Elaine had designed. It was open in the front exposing her unscarred belly to reveal that the gods had healed her wounds.

Various passers-by, noticing an obviously religious rite being performed by their goddess, stopped to see what was happening. Word spread quickly and a large crowd gathered around her in a very short time.

The goddess was chanting a simple prayer in Sumarian, a dead language she was certain no one around her would understand. It was the chanting that was important, not the understanding. The understanding would come later. Where she stood was important to the understanding. Before her was the blackened lamppost where the Lady Sarah had been executed.

'Are you ready, Chief?' Princess Béla asked, projecting her thoughts up to the Bridge Officer of the great ship, high above.

'Almost, Princess, ' the Chief replied. 'The carrier is less than ten ... what you call kilometers from your position. It carries the project you requested. You realize the carrier won't have enough power to get back... '

'Park it in my back yard... ' Béla replied. 'We will be happy to care for your pilot until the northern sun returns.'

Béla patiently chanted her Sumarian prayer several more times. Appropriately, it was a simple prayer for a good harvest. She finally heard the carrier's noisy propellers as the craft approached. She and Elaine were mind-linked together, Elaine standing opposite Béla, one of them on each side of the lamppost.

'Ready, Darling?' Béla sent to her sister.

The two of them had spent several exciting hours designing this little ritual. They also had been practicing for several days on objects close to the size of the project they needed to teleport. Elaine, excited that she was helping create a real, live miracle, glowed her anticipation and readiness. This was the first time she'd ever been on the 'inside' of one of Béla's little miracles. This was also the single most important thing she had ever done. They were attempting to change a world.

'You may fire when ready, Chief, ' Béla informed the Bridge Officer.

She began to chant louder.

'Firing in five seconds! Four! Three! Two!'

'Are you ready, Darling?' Béla asked her sister again, unnecessarily.

Elaine was ready and had never felt this special sharpness in her mind before. They both concentrated on the project in the carrier as it set down behind the goddess' manor, several buildings away from their current location.

The goddess made a final plea to the heavens and was answered by her father, the Storm God.

A brilliant flash of lightning blasted out of the clear night sky and blew a perfectly round hole three feet in diameter, vaporizing the fire-blackened lamppost.

When the onlookers could see again, there was a marble slab four feet high and three feet thick where the Lady Sarah had been executed for attempting to assassinate a goddess.

Béla and Elaine looked across the slab at each other, trying not to shriek with their glee. The ceremony had gone off without a hitch. There would be no more killing in the name of justice.

It was Elaine's turn, now. Béla dropped to her knees before the marble slab, feigning exhaustion from her religious trance. Elaine helped her sister goddess to her feet and helped support her as they retired to the manor.

This act made their escape from the surrounding crowd easy. They wouldn't have to answer questions. The slab was self-explanatory, the same message etched on both sides. The Great Bard Geoffrey could take it from here.

As the goddesses slowly departed, they could hear the Great Bard beginning to speak as he read the inscription: