#the hermit and the seed4
Jean was on the path down to the valley. Those in the hamlet came out of their houses. The stranger was gone. What could he have learned with Gabriel? Curious, they hurried to find him.
There was no one in Gabriel's hut. The ashes were cold. On the edge of the fireplace there was a piece of paper written on it "Absent for the rest of eternity, do not look for me, where I am you can not go.
The locals knew that Gabriel was an original, and had always treated him that way. But there, he had exceeded the limits. Already they did not know where he was coming from, and as it flew away, he was evaporating in the air, without any explanation.
Gabriel would be forever the mystery of the village. He would become a legend. It was what he wanted forever ...
Jean followed a small stream that snaked between the rocks of the mountain. The water was singing, rumbling at times. She was as impatient as he was to reach his goal.
The descent to the valley was done without worries. Nature was lenient. After a long walk, he found himself on a promontory. In the distance, the valley stretched before him. The fog that covered her did not allow to see all that she could shelter. He searched for a clue. What direction should he take? As far as his eyes could see, there were still large mountains with inaccessible summits. A valley posed like a diamond in a case. Forests as far as the eye can see. Multicolored meadows, where freshly hatched dandelions gilded the soil. The slight breath of the wind sent him the scent of the new world. Short break before leaving. He took from his bag a piece of sausage that Gabriel had given him. As well as a piece of bread, at least what looked like bread, because that thing was hard as stone, a well deserved country snack after a long walk. The thickets around were quivering at the passage of the fauna. Familiar noises, happy songs, animals glorifying the spring. Time of rest and joy. Everything was possible.
Jean could not linger long. He had to be in the valley before the night fell. Obligation to camp. The snack quickly absorbed, he went on his way.
After a few hours of a long walk, crossing the meadows of the valley, he found himself in front of a hill which did not seem to him difficult to climb. Still, something stopped him ... An unexpected rumor was heard. While he had observed the valley from the top of his promontory, he had not seen anything that could emit such a rumor. More attentive, he saw that the sky did not have the same color. Less pure ...
He climbed the slope of the hill. Know what was behind. Arrived at the top, surprise ... A huge city was planted there in the middle of trees. Titanic walls emerged from the ground and rose almost to the roof of the sky. It seemed to him that this city must be very close. It was not so. It would take him a few more days to reach it. A few days to understand this wonder. She had appeared there, whereas he had not even seen her from the top of the mountain ...
The sun was already setting on the horizon of the mountains. He pitched his camp as he was used to. Once installed, he looked at the strange city. He was trying to imagine those she could shelter. Certainly they must be very fearful for having built a city so well defended. Still, what a wonderful civilization could conceive such a construction, and hide from the eyes of men from outside ...
Although defended in this way, Jean could not think for a moment that those who were in the city refused him hospitality. In any case, his route crossed this city. He could not do otherwise ...
He had lit a fire to warm up a little. It was spring, and the evening air was sharp. This fire he had lit must certainly be seen from inside the city. Those who were guarding it should see that something abnormal was happening on the hill. Perhaps they would come to meet him, like Gabriel. The stars were twinkling in a clear sky. The night was moving slowly and no soul to meet Jean. It only remained to sleep and see the next day what would happen ...
Even in his dreams, the eternal traveler he was did not stop. That night he was on his way back to those lands he did not know.
With Gabriel's teachings, he managed to navigate his dreams. A beautiful machine to travel, without constraint of time and space. The state of curiosity that the city had made him feel had not left him. Only the dream could allow him to penetrate inside, eliminating his defenses.
It was not the image of the city that presented itself in his dream, but that of a woman. He recognized her. She was even more beautiful than the last time he saw her. He had done everything so that his memory would not come to the surface. But she was there, more beautiful and sweeter than before. She congratulated him on getting on the path. Reassuring words that did not make sense since they had to be separated again for eternity. But the time was not to know when and how they would meet again, but that it gives him indications on the city. The information would still be so convoluted. The one who knows did not like the task to be easy.
The allegory he could see had little in it. It was a cube, transparent and green in color. The cube emitted a sort of indefinable radiance. It was in the center of a room made of twelve sections of wall, which were pierced by three windows, and each window was of three colors: red, blue, yellow.
Vision as strange as the others, and also incomprehensible. Could not she give him the keys that would save her time?
He was in front of the cube and looked for what could be around. A door had opened in the wall. Invitation to follow the exit? He burst into it. Outside, he recognized the walls of the great city. But he was inside. Silence, unbearable silence, as if the city were deserted, dead. Iris reappeared, smiling, as the place smelled of death.
"Do not fear these images. Those inside do not know who you are. Yet there will be one of them who will recognize you when the time comes. When you arrive at the edge of the city, do not be afraid of what you will discover. What you will see is the image of the fears of these men who think they are ready to mount the assault on the walls. They had not been initiated for that. The opening of the doors is reserved only for a short time. The only way is through the bronze doors."
Having said these words, she gave him a last look and kissed him on the cheek. He tried to hold her back, to regain her love, to lose everything for herself, even to climb the mountain of knowledge ... But no, she evaporated again, remaining elusive. He remained alone in front of the walls he would have to face. The images faded. The dream stopped and he had no solution. The night went on without being disturbed by other strange dreams.
The next morning, when he woke up, he remembered the whole of his dream perfectly. He felt that the key was there somewhere. The only thing he was sure of was that the guys who guarded this city had to do it for a reason. It had to contain an inestimable treasure. But Jean did not care. For a long time he had rejected the idea of being rich. He did not come for this hidden treasure but because his way had to go through the city.
He resumed his way, decidedly. He knew he had the sesame that would open the bronze doors.
On the way to the city, he saw a strange inscription:
"HEOLAGAMPA. May he who does not have the law in him turn away from me!"
This warning in front of a city so guarded seemed very derisory. Jean thought that those who built it should not fear anything from foreign aggression. But it was so; an additional defense, not for those of the city, but for those who come to storm it. Discourage potential laypersons ...
Jean did not feel like a layman. Moreover he did not come to fight the city, but thought he would be invited. Beyond the warning, he entered the road, which was getting wider and wider. On each side, the ground had kept the stigma of many fights. The inhabitants of Heolagampa left them there as proof of their superiority.
Mutilated bodies were piled on top of each other, mixed with the earth blackened by successive fires. Petrified expressions of certain faces mummified by time as if the attackers had seen a gorgon or the devil. More trace of a human expression. Only the image of a terrifying end of the world before the machine of war with the great walls ...
Who was not sure that he had the keys of the city could only be appalled by this apocalyptic spectacle! Jean felt the anguish of those whole peoples who, wanting to conquer the city, failed, not wanting to recognize his greatness. They had not been prepared for this kind of fight. What had lost them was their desire to access power brutally.
They did not know that to obtain the revelation of a secret, nothing serves to brutalize its owner. Nor to tempt him with vague palaver. As the invective on the panel specified, they had to have the force of the law in them.
This law was to be a universal law and not one of those which men know how to promulgate but not to keep. John knew he had nothing to fear from this people.
The ease, the speed without discernment, all this goes against the law of Heolagampa. As a result, those who work in this way face forever in front of their closed doors. Men have in them this desire to conquer by force or cunning what in essence can not be. A single stone torn from the building is a victory. Victory in the bitter taste of blood shed for a stone that will have no foundation. Back in their worlds, they will say that this stone is the expression of the truth. Truth without base, exotic truth, eradicated from a whole, it loses value outside its original home. But they do not admit it and say, "We have found the truth, we have the law and now we have the light." On this rock they raised the edifice of wisdom. Wind stone, for a windmill ...
Those people who had not known how to dominate their instincts, were annihilated by the wind they had sown. For Jean there was no doubt. If he had to reach the center of the building, only the one who knows could give him the key. He would only give it to him if he was worthy to receive it.