The Rite of Spring: The Incarnation

The Rite of Spring: Fragment 46

The Incarnation
Deus ex Machina

I contemplated my former incarnation. His had been a good body, and a good mind; in it I had managed well, these past thirty years, times which had not always been easy. I looked at my companions, so beautiful within as without, each in their own way reaching to the light. I felt overwhelmed with love for them.

Then my perception went beyond them. I felt a force of anger, of hatred, boiling up the stairs. It crested at the ridge, and flowed over onto the platform in dark masses. My companions sought to get in front of me, to protect me, as though it were needful, as though I could be harmed. I touched them each, gently, and put them behind me. A figure emerged to face me. It was not easy to make out. This body was not yet used to divine perception, so that the figure appeared to boil and shimmer with the emotions which emerged within it.

The figure said

"Which of you whores was Aonan a'Aonach?". He spoke in the speech of the Place, and badly. It did not matter. The God understands all things. I looked through Aonan's eyes and saw that they were those who had hurt her. I put into his mind, 'what do you want with my daughter Aonan?'. The figure - Aonan had known him as Dhomnuil - said

"she has brought shame on our line, shame on the Clan Rhiconaiach. We will wash out that shame in her blood."

I relied 'how has she brought shame on you?' The person called Dhomnuil moved forward, other shapes roiling and shimmering into a mass behind it. It said

"she is a whore, a woman of no morals. She has lain with many men."

The shapes were closing in. I could feel the fear building up in my companions. My former incarnation coughed. He said, gently,

"I think this would be a good moment to cause something dramatic to happen, before one of us gets hurt."

For a moment, my mind was blank; I could not see what to do. Then I called upon my winged children for their help. As dragon turds rained down upon the warriors, I opened the front gate, and took my companions home.

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