Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 450

The Magicks of the Witch of Endor talked about Priests and Priestesses, men and women granted the powers of Heaven to fight Warlocks and Demons. “So you need my help to exorcise my parents?” I asked, smiling. That would free mankind.

We could be a family again. “Thank you!” I smiled, tears misting my eyes. “This is perfect! It'll break their mind control and make them human again!”

Tina gave me a sad look. “I'm so sorry, child.”

I frowned. “Why? Exorcising won't harm my parents. Right?”

“Your parents are beyond exorcism. They've absorbed the powers of Lucifer, Molech, Lilith, and many other Powers. No Priestess has the strength to overcome that. Only a Priest's sword killing your parents would work, and...”

“And Father's immortal,” I whispered. Hope burst inside me, replaced by cold dread. I pushed down the panic. They mentioned the Rapha prayer. “That's what the new prayer is for, right? Stripping them of their powers?” Please, please, please, let that be true.

Tina's green, sad eyes peered at me.

“They have to die?” That couldn't be my voice; I hadn't sounded that young in years.

“I'm sorry,” Tina whispered.

I'm sorry. The words were a punch to my stomach. I stumbled back; the world seemed to spin about me as tears burned down my cheeks. This can't be happening! Not after all my searching. “I have to kill him?” My voice cracked, wavered. Oh, no. Father made himself immortal to everything except me. “Please, no! There has to be another way!”

Tina hugged me as I started weeping. “It's your choice, Prophetess. The World can remain their slaves, or you can set them free.”

No, no, no. I wanted to free mankind, not murder my parents. This couldn't be happening! I pushed away and ran. Tears stained my eyes, almost blinding me as I raced down a trail. I hated what my parents had done to mankind, but I loved them.

I couldn't kill them, right? And it wouldn't just be them, but all the people bound to them. The sluts, my half-siblings, the bodyguards and maids. My family for the World's freedom. How fair was that?

This would be so much easier if I could hate them!

I ran up the side of the mountain, scampering up the gentle slope, climbing higher and higher. I scrabbled over red boulders; my years of walking had given me great endurance. I paused only to drink from my water bottle, then kept climbing, ignoring the sun pounding on my back. The rocks turned black; I found myself at the summit.

I stared out at the expanse of the Arabian Desert. Brown and yellow leading off in all directions, with just a smear of blue in the distance, the Red Sea. Once, black-robed Bedouin had wandered this wasteland, eking out an existence in the harsh landscape. But they had been moved to cities along the coast, ostensibly for their own good.

We are Gods, Chase. That gives us all the right.

Whatever crushes individuality is despotism. The words from 'On Liberty' echoed in my mind. Could I kill my parents? Was the blood of the few hundred people—my family—worth freeing billions from bondage? Did I have to destroy my soul to save mankind?

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson had written those words when the American Colonies revolted against the British when they had no say in their own governance, no representatives in Parliament.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. Other words written by Jefferson.

Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

My parents had robbed the world of Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, leaving them only with their Lives. They may have meant well, but the results were monstrous. They had pruned all the character out mankind with their tyranny, leaving behind only stunted bushes shaped to my parents' desires. Mere automatons going through the motions of living.

There was a sci-fi movie my Father loved, and I remembered at the end as one of the characters was dying, having sacrificing himself for the ship, he had said, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

One last tear rolled down my cheek as the sun set, and the stars twinkled to life across the crystal clear sky above me.

The needs of the many.

I watched the stars wheel across the night sky, twinkling down on us. I envied them. They had no concerns, no torn emotions. They just burned brightly, happily fusing hydrogen into helium into lithium into iron, until finally they died, whether in fiery explosions or guttering out like a candle.

As dawn neared, blushing the horizon in pink, I heard footsteps behind me—Doug and Tina. He held a scroll and she held a black knife. I stood and faced them. I didn't know what to do, what was the right choice. Did the needs of the many outweigh the lives of my family? Were their needs more important than the wounds to my soul?

“Prophetess,” Tina greeted.

“I'm not your Prophetess,” I muttered. “I...I don't know what to do.”

“I understand, child,” she whispered. “I would take the burden from you if I could.”

Her eyes burned with conviction. I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what to do, so I just blurted out, “What is that scroll?”

“The original copy of the Magicks of the Witch of Endor,” Doug said, handing me the scroll. “I have kept it safe for forty years, waiting for the day you'd arrive. The prayer of Rapha is contained at the end of the scroll. Perhaps it will help with your decision.”

I unfurled the scroll. It contained square Hebrew letters and was written in Aramaic. It was familiar. The memory of Sam's lessons in Semitic Languages from my childhood came back, and I recognized passages from her translation. I read the final prayer, frowning. This wasn't in the copy my parents possessed.

My parents had definitely never seen this prayer. If they had, I would never have been allowed to roam free. “And the Creator knew, in his infinite Wisdom,” it read, “that a time would come when his Priest and Priestess would fall against the forces of the Adversary. Darkness would cover the world, and again the Gifts of the Spirit would be needed, spread by the words of the chosen Prophet, one born of the union of two Warlocks, bound by the Zimmah ritual, and used as the focus of the Eylowm ritual. Only the Prophet can restore the Gift to mankind upon the summit of Mount Sinai. The Prophet must...”

I looked up at Doug and Tina in horror as comprehension flooded my exhausted mind. “The Eylowm ritual is a trap?” My hand trembled. “My parents were manipulated into their own downfall?”

“Why else is it so powerful?” asked Tina. “Immortality? No weapon, no force, no illness can harm your father, let alone kill him. It's almost too good to be true, isn't it?”

“That's monstrous!”

“Your parents made the choice of their own free will,” Doug softly answered. “They made their pacts with the Adversary, gained power in exchange for their souls. They declared themselves false gods, and unleashed the demonic hordes upon mankind. Choices have consequences, Chasity, and the Creator is always ready to turn those consequences to his advantage.”

“If He's so powerful, why didn't He stop my parents!” I shouted. “Why do I have to do this? Why?”

“You do not have to do this,” Tina smiled. “It's your choice. Free will is the most important thing in all of creation; He would never take that away from you. That's why He didn't interfere with your parents. They had to be free to choose, or there's no choice at all. Without choice, then we're just mindless puppets, slaves, and that's not what He wants.”

Slaves. My parents' had enslaved mankind; the most monstrous thing imaginable. They had made their choice, and denied all the world of theirs. It wasn't right. The needs of the many have to come before the needs of the few. That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. John Stuart Mills was right; my parents had harmed, were harming, all of mankind, and therefore it was only right that power should be exercised against them. A strange calm filled me. I had made my decision.

“I will be your Prophetess,” I answered; my chin held high.

Doug nodded.

“This is a Mispachs. One of three forged by Cain from the metal of a falling star,” Tina said, handing it to me. “Nick the blade, and your blood will bind it to you. Anyone wounded with this blade will die. Only your lifeblood will save them.”

I nodded; Lilith had almost killed Mother with one. I took the ugly, black-iron blade, stared at it, then I pricked my thumb. A drop of dark blood beaded on my tan flesh. I smeared it on the blade. The dagger turned red for a moment, drinking in my blood, then went back to ugly black. I was connected to the damned thing; it felt like an open wound throbbing on my forehead. Tina handed me a sheath, and I put the dagger into my pack.

I reread the scroll again, committing the Prayer of Rapha to memory, and turned to face the rising sun. “This is Mount Sinai?” That was the only place in the world the spell could be cast. “I thought that was up on the Sinai Peninsula, not in the middle of Arabia.”

Doug nodded. “Much has been lost in the thousands of years since the last Prophet stood here and gave the Third Gift to mankind.”

I raised my arms to the rising sun. “The Highest One, hear the prayers of your Children! Deliver us from evil, and send your Spirit to Gift us with your Blessing, to Gird us with Belief, and Arm us with Faith!”

Power flowed into me, golden, beautiful, pure. It flowed from Doug, from Tina, it flowed from my parents half the world away. More power flowed from the spirits of the dead, the men and women who had died unable to pass their Gift on: Isabella, Agnes, John, Gregory, Eustace, Isolde, Tristram, and more. So many more. One hundred and forty-four souls gave up their Gifts, until they were all contained within me.

I was the Prophetess, the Vessel, and I shared the Gift, giving a part to each of the one hundred and forty-four gathered—the two atop the mountain, and the one-hundred and forty-two at the base, the new Priests and Priestesses, the new Monks and Nuns—to save the world from the evils of my parents.

To be concluded...