Igelfeld Family/ Journeys through Zumaland: The Vision and the Sin
Distance. There is nothing but separation now.
I feel without change my time is growing short.
Long has it been since last the Daimon spoke
with me, and for longer I have felt the blessing
fading as my exile continues. I stare into the
brook and stare, yet no matter how long I stare
I cannot be certain whether the third eye staring
back is my imagination or mine eyes. My
pilgrimage has come to naught, and my
failures are scaling, and without end the steady
fade of death ebbs ever closer. I am desperate.
I need something. Things cannot go on this
way. I must try the last resort.
Dropping his pen beside his travel worn journal, Moritz wipes away the non-existent sweat and slumps into the leather chair housing his deep melancholy. Fear fighting fear deadlocks Moritz; fear of stagnation against fear of the only alternative his mind could contemplate. “death is a possibility” he says to an empty room, “but my life is headed towards the meaningless.” He looks at the blood filled bowl and discarded finger tempting him with power and wisdom, gathered from the willing hand of his Zuma companion. “The flesh and the blood. The house of transformation...”
Bowing his head, Moritz whispers a quick prayer then calls for Kimwa to enter and the ceremony begins. The finger is cut, the other attached, the blood is drank, and Kimwa chants Zuma incantations. Ceremony concluded, Moritz stands and looks at the immediate change a middle finger a third longer than it had previously been. He stretches it out and a searing pain erupts from his Zuma Mark. With a cry of excruciating pain Moritz collapses onto the floor of his room...
… Eyelids raging like the ocean in a storm and a fever turning skin bright red, Moritz thrashes about murmuring words now unattainable as his fitful sleep turns more troubled. Opening the slits of his eyes slowly as the crushing pain of his head demands that he keeps them closed, Moritz struggles to speak while still dazed in a exhausted stupor. “Where am I?”
“It be like dis, ya be in da Barca place, an ya gone been out of it a day now.” Kimwa said while rushing to his side.
Westley comes alongside Moritz holding a cup of greenish gray. “My friend drink this.”
Confusion emanating as he sips from the cup, “I am... I am back in Dwilight?”
“Did you leave?”
Like a climber wet with exhaustion, Moritz's raises himself from the bed. “For generations... I have traveled beyond this world, seen the city of cities and the progress of time. I have scene beauty and know.”
Although his concern focuses on his masters rest, curiosity forces Westley's hand, “Do you feel well enough? Might you explain what you saw?”
“You know our cities, our jewels in a dark and mysterious world. They are guarded by high walls holding out the wilds and beasts. To enter these cities one must enter through the gates, the reward for which is shelter from the overwhelming forests and seas, the merciless and taxing expanse of greens, whites and blues – wild and free – that stop at the city walls.
“There is a city where the walls disappeared and were replaced by barriers, subtler than stone, that gird the city like a crown and hold in its spirit. To enter the city we must pass through the new gates, far more difficult to find than their solid predecessors. These gates are tests, mechanisms, and implementations of Justice. There once was a map, now long gone, one of the ancient charts upon which colorful animals sleep or rage. Those who saw it said that in its illuminations were figures and symbols of the gates. The east gate was that of acceptance of responsibility, the south that of the desire to explore, west that of devotion to beauty, and the north that of selfless love. But they were not believed. It was said that a city with entryways like these could not exist, because it would be too wonderful. Those who decide such things decided that whoever had seen the map had only imagined it, and the entire matter was forgotten, treated as if it were a dream and ignored. This, of course, frees it to live forever.”
