341 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
341 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
REC ON
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TRN ON
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ENC ON
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SYS GOOD
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Entry 6 -- Sister Hawwa
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My brothers and sisters-
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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The
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earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face
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of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of
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the waters.
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The Spirit hovers above the darkness again at the dawn of a new
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beginning. The Spirit spills from my sisters, overflowing. His
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will be done.
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And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God
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saw that the light was good.
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The light comes to this world, to the monsters made of fire and
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mist. They have dwelt in the darkness, in the deep, for too long.
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They hid from the light, hid from the flood, and found their prey
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among the Chosen. They have been judged.
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Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our
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likeness. And let them have dominion--"
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So God created man in his own image,
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in the image of God he created him;
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male and female he created them.
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I am Hawwa. My God has given me dominion over the Jinn, as with
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all creatures. He gave my people to the garden, and the garden to
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my people. It was my mother Eve, for whom I am named, that tasted
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of the Tree. It was her that the LORD said has become like one of
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us in knowing good and evil. That is my inheritance, the good and
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evil and the knowledge of it.
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With my sisters we judge the actions of the Jinn and know them to
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be evil. We are granted that knowledge with our sin and have paid
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for it with the birth of every child and the sweat of work in the
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fields. Out of dust we were taken and to it we return for all time
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until eschaton.
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From those first days in the garden we have been plagued by the
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serpents. They lie to us and lead us astray. They clothe
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themselves in the skin of my people. They wear the faces of our
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children and take young wives from their marital beds. They lure
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away the shepherds from their flocks and send their own tricksters
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to pose as our friends.
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The Jinn celebrate in their churches, dine at their tables,
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celebrate their weddings. They do these things that were given to
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men and women, the blessed and chosen of the LORD, in a mockery of
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creation. They, unburdened by the curse of the tree, have swelled
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beyond our numbers and our powers. They have taken their hidden
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nature into the stars and dwell in the darkness between.
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And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God
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saw that the light was good.
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They are animals, creatures of the ground. They are no different
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from the thorns and thistles our ancestors struggled with except
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in one thing. Unburdened by knowledge of good and evil and
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possessed of stolen grace, they have usurped the birthright of
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man. Their existence is hidden from God, wearing our skin.
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I am a daughter of Adam, of Seth, of Enosh, of Kenan, of
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Mahalalel, of Jared and Enoch, of Methuselah and Lamech, of Noah.
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I am a daughter of Eve and Alma, Adah and Zillah, Naamah. I call
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my mother Sarah and Iscah, Milcah and Hajar, who is now my sister.
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You are my sisters and brothers, my humans of the stars. I see
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your whispers in the darkness and calls for help to one another.
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We read your adventures and see the light of humanity reaching
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corners we never dreamed. You give us hope and it brightens the
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light we shine. We will survive. Our people will survive. No
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matter what the Jinn do to us, humanity has gone beyond their
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reach. For that we thank God and we thank you, sisters, no matter
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what form you may take. May his light follow you in the deep and
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lead you to safety.
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We are the Holy Sisters of the Desert Rose. Oleander is the name
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given our ship, and a fitting one it is. The poison of these
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leaves stains us. It poisons our hearts with a sin of vengeance
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that does not wash away. Every one of my sisters here feels it on
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her skin, under her tongue. We seek absolution and forgiveness for
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the rot in our hearts, but we accept our fates regardless. If we
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go to torment then we go with smiles knowing that our arrow will
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strike true. A true vendetta heart beats within us. And yet, we
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hope God will see the torment and forgive us where our own mercy
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fails. The Jinn are not men and the ways of the prophets do not
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call us to kinship with them. They are beasts, and a wild beast
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must be slaughtered.
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These Jinn have lived apart all their existence. Their lives are
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long. Some stories say that they tasted of the other tree in the
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garden before they were cast out as well. They tasted of life
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without knowledge, while we suffer with knowledge and without
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life. It is possible that there are some below us now who were in
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the garden with my mother Eve. I wonder if they will recognize her
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hand in what is to come.
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I will put enmity between you and the woman
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God set us at each other from the start. May it be that this wrath
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we feel is not sin, but justice divine?
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The magic of the Jinn has always been an unknown. Their ways of
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being apart from the world and yet in it have confounded
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generations. We fly through the stars, we split atoms, we shift
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gravity, we unlock man-made dimensionality, yet they are always
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apart. What is this mystery that surrounds them that gives them
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advantage over us. It has plagued us in more than just thought.
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They are the star eaters, the world breakers, the desert mirage,
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the elfin kingdoms. They are eternal mystery. Unknowable and
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indefatigable.
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Until Asiya.
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Until Hajar.
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Until Miriam and Sara.
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Until me.
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It began with Asiya's dream. They came in a dream that became
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a nightmare and which she can never wake. She is still there on
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Hazen, though with much prayer we have been able to give her
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glimpses through that darkness. The veil of dreams is parted not
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through medicines or machines, but through meditation and the
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manipulation of the mind. Our evolution as a species has been one
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of the mind. We have grown in complexity through biological
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changes until the greatest physical expression became a mental
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one. When we learned to use the first tools, when we harnessed
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fire, we did so by tempering our minds to a task. Our wrought
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history of violence and suffering has evolved that mind to grow
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many new powers.
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With one flex comes the sciences. Our observation and deduction
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give us understanding of the rules which bind us. Our knowing
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gives us induction and inspiration toward creation and
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exploration. Science is a beautiful gift of God.
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But we have greater gifts! A complex love that knows no equal.
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Where there are ten people, there are a hundred loves!
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And valor! What greater demonstration of the power of the mind
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over the body is there? And as it is taught
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There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down
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his life for the sake of his friends.
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When Hajar saw Uzāir at the well, the squinting in the sun, the
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tricks of light, and the sudden surprise of silence... What let
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that boy see the Jinn before the women gathered at the well? What
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put him between them? By what arcane power did Uzāir pierce the
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veil, do you think, my sisters?
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The veil is built of fear and nightmares. The Jinn move past eyes
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like those unseeing in the midst of a night terror. The terror
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blinds us to reality, but is not a terror of fear, rather the
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mysterium tremendum, the ineffable, the unknowable. It is the fear
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of the deep, unmade world. This is their shield and weapon. The
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Jinn's nature creates this veil of fear and with it we are all
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blind to their movement.
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And so Asiya's dream has taught us the rules of the Jinn, while
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Hajar's witness taught us the way through. Valor overcomes fear,
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even a spiritual one.
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These are the tools with which we practice our art. Our meditation
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and prayer are disciplines of that art. For an art it is we have
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here in this Istishhad. To part this terror requires the greatest
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of loves. It must draw from a place beyond fear, from the ecstasy
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of the unknowing beast in the awe of its creator. To part this
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terror requires abandonment of self into the void. This is the
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lesson of the Tree. Our knowledge came with a cost. Dust to dust,
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good and evil, but not life. Death.
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Death is the mystery which frees us all from fear.
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First Asiya.
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Then Hajar.
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And then me.
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My sisters have taught me so much of the Jinn and their ways. From
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their stories I recognize patterns and hints of truth. But it
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wasn't until I died that all became clear.
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When they came for my people, I had no Uzāir to fight them. I had
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nowhere to hide. And so, like so many through the ages, I was
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taken.
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The elfin world is like our own. In many ways it is our world, but
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as seen through the fog at night. The shadows that dance are not
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terrors for children but real beasts set to devour. The dark
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spaces hold endless hells. But let me back up a moment.
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I was a Dropka naval lieutenant until my forty-fourth year when my
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service contract was not renewed. My savings were comfortable and
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I thought to buy a cottage in the summer lands and live out my
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days in peace. My life had been war and the war didn't need me.
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So, sword-to-ploughshares it was. I think I might have made the
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transition, too, had things been different.
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Sister Asiya says it is the work of our Lord that brought me back.
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I say it was the devils.
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The destruction of the summer lands is well documented and I will
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not bore you with the details. Just know that I was in the first
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group taken, before the rising and quelling, and before the
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plagues began.
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Decades of battle had shown me war and brutality. I was prepared
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for these things, so much more-so than these others. When the
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first Jinn touched my skin that was all lost. It is the infinite
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fear of the creature before a predator, locked in place and
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terrified as stone. There is no rationality in it. It is magic.
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That fear did not leave me over the months that followed, as they
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used me for service and sport, as they toyed with my body for
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their own amusement. I lost myself quickly in that place. I had no
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name. I was not Hawwa then, but just a body. My pain was not my
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own. It was the pain of a body, somewhere. Do you understand? My
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mind hid and hid until there was nothing left to hide. I died in
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my mind long before they let my body cross over.
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It was winter in the shadow lands and soon Christmas would come.
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It always drove the Jinn to madness, and they would none of them
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sleep or rest for the full day. Songs, drinking, feasting, and
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every type of debauchery filled the hours. Manic, every last one.
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Finally the sun would creep up and they would scatter to their
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resting, wherever that was. I never saw a Jinn sleep in all my
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time in their hold.
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It was in that winter not yet Christmas and the one that kept me
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was named Grunni. Her face was like a troll, misshapen and
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twisted. When she became angry her mouth pulled back further and
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further until it encompassed the world. The vision haunts me
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still. And yet, when she wore the skin that same smile,
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primordial, became a thing of terrible beauty. She lured men and
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women with that face. I wanted to warn them, but I was just a body
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then.
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Then one day Grunni was gone. It was just before Christmas and
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I dared not move from her home for fear of being discovered. What
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terrible trick had she set for me? So I waited there, alone in
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a room of torture. I did not test the door. I don't believe
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I spoke a word. How can a body speak, after all?
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I cannot say how long I sat there before the end came. Without
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water it may have been only a day, surely not much more. I became
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too weak to stand and so I sat. Then I was too weak to sit, so
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I curled up beside the door. I wanted to call to Grunni then, to
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beg for water, but my voice had long since left me. There was
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nothing left but to betray myself again and again in hopes of
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being saved by a monster. None came. I found peace at least.
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The Jinn are magical creatures, or it seems so to a primitive like
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me. I wasn't surprised when I woke up again.
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I know what you're thinking. "How long was she dead? Was it just
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a few moments, before the mind wasted away?" No. I tell you they
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are magical creatures. My body lay curled on that spot in the room
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for two years, rotting and decomposing, before the Jinn brought me
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back.
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Grunni was gone and they wanted answers from me, answers I didn't
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have. The tortures renewed. I was torn to pieces and placed back
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together. They left me awake and forced my mind back into place.
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These animals wouldn't allow me insanity any longer as an escape.
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I tried so hard. I made up stories, told any fiction that
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I thought would bear me away or bring me death.
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The Jinn have an endless, cruel patience. I have borne witness
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again and again to schemes and plots of subtle horror destined to
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cause havoc in some future date. They revel in this cunning
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misery. I knew this. I knew my suffering would never end.
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And that is how I escaped.
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The power of the Jinn is immeasurable. Their veil and land of
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shadows protects them from every harm. They cross over to our
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world, to our stars and planets, when they hunger to take. I went
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with them through the ways. I saw the portals open. I saw the
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shroud lift. No mortal could possibly comprehend what they did.
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The paralyzing fear of them cripples the mind. The pain of their
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touch, the basilisk stare, they are perfect predators. But they
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played with me too long. They stole my life until I begged for
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death. Then, granted, they stole that too. When they stole my hope
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for anything, for any change, that is what broke me free.
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There was no hope left in me and nothing left to fear. I had
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reached the ultimate hell, as promised by the evangelical heresy.
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So I let it go and I began to see their truth. I saw the veil for
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what it was, and I saw how it works. It is not a place or a time,
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but something else entirely. It defies our logic because it exists
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outside of it. We cannot measure it because it is not there.
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What Miriam and Sara and all the rest teach us is true. They have
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a power, but we can overcome it. We can pierce the veil to their
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world. We can see them in their hiding places. We can see the
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places they hide their young. We can see how they move their
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ships. All it takes is dying utterly.
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We go now. The moment is at hand and all my sisters are prepared.
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Remember us, please. Remember what faith wrought here. It was the
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power of our will and valor that brought us here, not the
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machinations of science.
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Their nursery will burn. Their ships will burn. Their whole world
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will burn. But that is not the end of it. I see the veil and
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I will see it torn apart. The weapons we bring, each of us, will
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bring each of these things upon the Jinn.
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When you wake it will be to a world of tattered shadows full of
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beings of immense power fleeing for their lives. They will come to
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your worlds and try to herd you, to feed upon you in hopes of the
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strength it brings. But their fear will not hold you, for you will
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have the valor of Uzāir. The dream that held Asiya will end with
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her. Your faith will protect you.
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Do not fear, brothers and sisters. Never fear them again. Is it
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not enough that we will shred their worlds and steal their hiding
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places? No? Then take this also, the secret of the veil. What we
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destroy for them we create for you. Look in your hearts and you'll
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find it. It is like a prayer... but do not fear it, men of
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science. As a stranger give it welcome.
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You are all more than your sciences. You are more than the bones
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that carry you. For two years I died, and the Jinn had no
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understanding of where I had been. You do. Pray and you do.
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And God saw that the light was good.
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END FINAL TRANSMISSION
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