Pillars for Toddlers

JP with Voah and Gonyaul

Gonyaul normally exuded a sweet, quirky, and friendly vibe but at times, like this one in particular, he would say or do something that really turned her on. ‘Taken care of…’ Ooh she loved that confidence. ‘Okay… settle down.’ She shifted in her saddle.

“Nnn… Darling, let’s be sure to keep our senses on full alert. I know it is amazing out here, and so beautiful, but it’s full of dangers.”

She wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince him or herself to keep things grounded.

Living conditions in the outdoors sounded like it was under control, at least as far as comfort was concerned. However, it would be good to have more than one who could use a weapon. They would likely encounter wild predators so the best option might be to sacrifice the horses if it came to it, though she didn’t like the thought of that and travel would be much harder without mounts.

“All life is beautiful and dangerous. You get to decide how look at it. Make all difference.” He had met so many people that missed all the opportunities to enjoy because they were always so worried about what could be, usually framed through negative interpretation.

But to reassure her he was taking it seriously he added, “I keep attention though … nnn …No more Luger marks be nice.” He chuckled.

“You Pillars going to meet to help us on trip?”

He had picked up her Mizaran idiosyncrasy. It was cute. And she was willfully trying to take on his optimism, otherwise, she would have told him to stay behind with Alexis or Tarmen. But his talk of the Pillars turned the conversation to a more serious tone.

“Let us hope so… and if I can help it, my Pillars will also become your Pillars. Where we go, you especially will need them. Consider this journey a part of your formal spiritual education in faith.”

“I would like meet your friends very much. Have many questions for them to help me learn.” He still thought the Pillars were actual tangible persons.

“I have big job and need all counsel I get.”

“The Pillars are not like you and I. Not made of flesh and bone. We believe they exist on a different… realm? Do you understand?” she began, trying to explain it as if he was a toddler.

He paused and took in her words. Not flesh and blood? They exist on a different realm?

He arched a brow, “What made of then?”

She thought for a moment.

“Divinity? Spirit? You know how you can’t really see the wind without something to channel it? Like a kite or the leaves in a tree? But you can feel it… The Pillars, the Gods are like that. You cannot see them directly. They speak without sound. And they affect the world without hand. Sometimes you can feel them there, guiding and moving through you.”

She could begin to see the wheels turning behind his eyes as he was connecting the dots from her examples.

“So how you know it them and not wind?”

It seemed just vague enough that a person could, in error, assign their involvement whenever it suited them in order to explain how things just work naturally.

She didn’t like the feeling but she was growing impatient with him. She was a bit flustered and sighed.

“Not the wind itself, the idea is similar. You feel it… inside. Not cold or warm or something it’s… like love… it’s like a memory… like the warning your parent gives you to protect you…”

Agh… she should’ve been better at this. Like her mother. How would she convert the natives to her faith if she couldn’t explain it to someone who was already devoted to her? Yes she found herself still holding onto the thought of actually changing these people. Would that change when she met with the purger?

He either instantly forgave her slight agitation in tone, or was oblivious to it because he was trying to concentrate on this pretty abstract concept she was pitching.

“Like love and memory?” He whispered to himself. He made the leap away from the physical.

“They not exist in all things, but with all things. There but not there?” He looked to her to see if he was even remotely starting to go in the right direction. His understanding currently proceeding cautiously like it was walking on thin ice.

A breakthrough, “Yes! That’s starting to sound more like it.”

Pillars help me. This is what you want right? Spread the faith?

“I have told you about the main five and I will help you memorize them and important information about them. I don’t expect it to happen overnight. We are going to meet a very holy, very dangerous man. He’s an Arbiter, like me. But far more like the hateful woman in me that you met on that ship months ago. And he is certainly not merciful.”

There was an urgent fervor in her words now.