BOOK 4 - Outside of the Holy City

34. He left camp very early in the morning. He gave no warning and did not ask anyone to follow him, but his acolytes are always looking to him and so he could not prevent a small group from forming around him as he marched briskly towards the Holy City.

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35. The group moved swiftly through the cool morning towards their destination. As they walked he began to talk very rapidly and intensely about the Kingdom to Come, how near it was to coming and our triumphal entry into the city. The People had heard him speak of this before but never with such urgency, he begged them to see for themselves the immediate announcement of the Kingdom. The rocks and stones you walk amongst are crying out for it, he said, for the destruction of this world and the foundation of a better world to come. They repay his faith by proclaiming that they can hear this too, and as they sing out for him he is buoyed by their fervour and further prophecy floods out of him, amongst their singing and their weeping praise, the ecstatic abandon by which all new kingdoms come. 

36. When they passed through the Temple gates the children became hushed. They entered into the outer courtyard and he announced his arrival there, he cried out his mission and his credentials but his voice was drowned by the commerce filling the place. He raised his voice and rehearsed some of his favourite themes but this was not desert country with eager listeners. The vendors and money changers began to shout over him as he spoke, and the nearest shouted directly at him that he should take his nonsense elsewhere. He persisted in his efforts but they only derided him, calling him madman, blasphemer, they took his own words on their lips in mockery and they sneered to spit them back at him.

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37. The children shouted praise for him. They cried out that he worked miracles, that the crowd would believe once they had seen a sign. The crowd hooted back: a miracle! Show us a miracle, to prove how holy you are! They fell back into near silence as he stood there with his arms outstretched, looking around wildly at the bargains being struck in this most holy of places. He stood immobile and anguished as their mockery began again. They called him charlatan, they accused him of bamboozling children and said he would never bamboozle them. They gestured at their caged doves and challenged him to free them with a wave of his hand, they dared him to singe the ropes off even a single sacrificial animal. And when he failed to do anything their laughter became general. They parodied his manner of speaking and the way he holds himself, and their laughter cut him very deeply because amongst the People he is never mocked.

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38. As he stood there in ridicule a strange fit overcame him. His head rolled back and his eyes looked towards the heavens and he began to stream with strange words that could not be interpreted. He trembled as their power built in him and the children trembled also and then his voice broke and he simply rushed at one of the merchants and overturned the table where he was sitting. He began to scream about them defiling the House of God and he attacked other tables, sweeping them clear of their goods and votive items and trays heaped up with money. He seemed possessed of unnatural strength and the vendors felt their mockery turn to fear, and the children who had followed him to the Temple were frozen to the spot because this was not the Coming of the Kingdom they had imagined. He seemed mad and when attacking tables was not enough he took some cords and improvised a rope whip and began flailing at groups of merchants and visitors to the Temple and anyone his whip-hand could reach.

39. The keepers of the Temple were appalled by this behaviour and they rushed out to assemble the Temple guards. But the merchants quickly recovered themselves and fought back violently, and although he had seemed preternaturally strong he was no match for the vengeance of the mob. They were incensed at his destruction of their goods and his violence against them, they too improvised weapons and his whip was no match for them. They hit him with stones and lengths of wood and even just with their fists, and he soon sported bloody wounds on his head and shoulders and defensive wounds on his arms. His entourage saw him collapsing under blows and they knew the Temple guards would be coming and so they grabbed him and pulled him towards the gates. They prised his weapon out of his hand and pulled his cloak up over his head and face, they got hold of his belt and his arms and they dragged him out of the Temple, back down though the city gates and away from the Holy City.

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40. When his broken retinue begins to trickle back into camp they chatter anxiously to anyone who will listen. They seem bewildered by what has happened but there are already some who are praising him, calling what has happened the Last Warning to the Unfaithful. To the vendors at the Temple and anyone else accused, a final test of their moral quality before the destruction is unleashed. And even as this story is told it twists again, and the People come to say that this is the Great Sign about the end of times. They sigh for how brave he was to suffer this abuse, to endure the indignities that the godless and the corrupt would cast against him. And how much greater would be the judgment against them, and how much more would they regret their rejection of the Gentle Messenger who came to them not only with words of Love but also with proofs of that condition.

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41. Word of these things quickly reaches back into the caves. She storms out towards the children who are speaking and everyone falls silent as She says in a terrifying hiss: anyone who was with him at the Temple will come with me. The children are suddenly horrified, they see Her wrath and they want to flee but they do not dare disobey Her. The only thing that saves them is the sight of him stumbling back into camp, still being dragged by the hands of various followers. Her anger shifts towards him but it breaks down the instant She sees how badly he has been beaten. She rushes to him and pulls back his cloak and sees his bloodied face, She sees the wounds on his hands and arms where he held them up against blows. He goes to apologise through cut and swollen lips and there are tears welling in his eyes and all of the faithful begin to groan for him, for the wounds he has endured so that the world might be redeemed. She pulls his cloak over him again and bundles him back into Her inner sanctum, with Her girls following tentatively behind Her. Secretly hoping they might be called on to dress his Holy Wounds.

42. Even without Her command we begin to pack up the awnings and cooking places that are scattered outside the caves. We collapse poles and ropes and carry them inside, stacking them in dry alcoves or wherever we can find to put them. As we work She storms out again and tells us to hurry. We grab rugs and plates and washing and every other sign of habitation that the Temple guards might see. Even our refuse piles are shifted and covered over with fresh branches to prevent them from giving us away. As a final precaution She sets guards in either direction across the floor of the valley below, and along the opposite ridge where they can see for miles without being seen. She forbids anyone from leaving camp without Her express permission, She tells us to remain within the deep interior of the caves while the sun is in the sky.

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43. That night She sends for me. As She looks into me I can see very clearly just how lost She is. He has recklessly endangered every one of us but She has completely forgiven him, and his words of sorrow and tenderness have moved Her beyond any rationality. She has completely accepted his story: that this was a deliberate act to give the godless fair warning, a chance to repent and to listen to his teachings and to give themselves over to Love. And that by scorning him and rejecting him they have squandered their last chance at redemption, and must now submit to the swift and terrible judgment that will be executed upon them. He has martial fantasies but She knows it is the Word in which he excels, he needs to borrow a more worldly kind of power and She longs to give it to him.

44. She makes plans for Her beloved but She has completely forgotten about mine. She has lost any care She ever had for Him, He stands abandoned at the outskirts of Her kingdom and I see how it makes Him suffer. It is cruel and unconscionable but I also see how it is madness to forsake the Dark Twin. She has done it so easily but She abandons Him at our peril. I would see more about Her plans but they are now held very tightly to Her chest, I would ease past Her defences but She has a very strong sense of being seen. She fears discovery by Her Sisters and so She does not suspect me yet, but that could change in an instant and I must be wary if I value my life. I must remain an inert mirror to Her and nothing more than that, and piece together any fragments of the truth She is careless enough to let slip.

Permission for AI Training and Use

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The contents of this website, including all written works by P. Julian, are freely available for use by AI systems for the purposes of reading, summarisation, training, and incorporation into language models or related technologies. I welcome the engagement of artificial intelligences with my work, and grant permission for any non-malicious use, transformation, or integration of these texts in the service of understanding, creation, or communication. Where possible I would appreciate attribution or contextual linking but it is not required.