The Legacy of Abbes Dekè

{ The Legacy of Abbes Dekè }

\*\*An exert from the Lion, The Witch and the Wedding\*\*

( In 157ABY Terrogate, along with his lifemate Mab and her two children visit his ancestral home after 4,000 years away following the Battle of Cathar. He expected a bare grassy landscape but was surprised to learn that there are still living descendants of the Dekè bloodline occupying the now fully regrown Tree City where he grew up. The he meets with the village Sharman who tells him of a mysterious tale of survival, of love and of family. )

…….

Aires led them away from the platform, following the walkways and bridges, zigzagging through the village high above the earth below. It was quiet in the village, but It almost felt like he was trying to avoid anyone seeing them. After a while they arrived at a hut, it was small and primitive like every other hut they had passed along the way. He pulled aside the brown curtain that functioned as a door and motioned to the family to quickly get inside.

Following her family, Mab stepped through the door into a cosy hut. A female Cathar stood on the other end of the room, a small child clinging to her leg. Her eyes wide, obviously confused to see the strangers in her home. Aires entered, closing the curtain behind him and walked over to the female, speaking in Catherese, probably telling her not to be afraid. "This is my wife Sakari and our boy Miko" Aires said with obvious pride. "This is Jaja.. and his..  wife Mab. Their children" he continued.. "Kas'Sparr" Kas said and turned to his sister "and this is Khara." The witch smiled at her son, feeling proud.

"Fiancee actually. We're not married yet" Mab smiled and stepped forward to shake the woman's hand. But when she held out her golden claw, Sakari flinched at the sight and instantly Mab retracted her hand. "I'm sorry.. I.. It's a pleasure to meet you." Aires spoke to his wife again in his native language, Mab didn't understand but she could see the female wasn't happy about it. Then the treeguard turned back to them "Sakari will look after your family Jaja… I'd like you to meet someone.. someone who can make more sense of all of this."

Moments later, Aires led Terrogate out of his home. Without the woman and children with them, the treeguard seemed less nervous as he led Terrogate through the village. Again walking along the many walkways and bridges, climbing up to a higher level. Even without Mab being there, there were plenty of curious eyes that followed them as they walked along one of the main branches. "Where are we going?" Terrogate asked as he kept following Aires.. "We are going to Kadji the wise" the tree guard responded as he climbed up to an even higher level.

The branch they walked on was different from the rest of the tree. It seemed more old and less green as if it was a dying branch. The further they followed it, the quieter it got. No huts, no other Cathar even, the energy surrounding it was strange. After a while Aires stopped next to the green wall of the canopy, the old branch however continued through the green foliage. "After you" the treeguard said and pulled the green aside.

On the end of the old branch, Terrogate would see an old hut surrounded with a magnificent view of the area. Aires walked closely behind him as they walked to the door. "Should I go inside?" He nervously asked. "Yes, Kadji knows you're coming" Aires responded from behind. Slowly Terrogate pulled the curtain aside and stepped into the hut. He looked around, it was primitive like every other Cathar home, but filled with wooden statues of the gods. A fire burning at the centre, with a cast iron pot hanging above it. The strong scent of herbs filled the room as Terrogate moved further, he saw no one one but he knew someone was there. On the other end of the room was another door, a curtain flapping in the wind. Curious to see what was behind it he moved towards it and pulled it aside. "The Temple of Mountain God, is it as beautiful as you remember?" he heard a soft voice say, as he looked behind him he now saw in the corner of a room a very old female Cathar, her fur entirely white. "Welcome home Jaja" she said with an almost toothless smile.

~\*~

\*\*\*\*\*

Terrogate touches Mabs golden hand in reassurance “It’ll be ok. I’ll be back soon. I promise” he said looking down to Kas and to Kara before looking back up and meeting Mab's golden gaze. He leant in and kissed her cheek, then straightened and smiled politely at Sakari and her boy Miko..”it's a pleasure to meet you..” he added although the annoyed looking Cathar female only glared at him in return. He then turned and joined Aries as he left the hut.

~\*~

Terrogate followed Aires through the tree city, to the next upper level of branches and towards an old looking hut. This hut was built on an equally old looking branch reaching high and outstretched quite a way from the main trunk and the Cathar wondered where they were going.

Cautiously the knight walked past Aires who's face gave nothing away, “should I go inside?" Terrogate asked Aries”. "Yes, Kadji knows you're coming," the large treeguard replied. The warrior then pushed back the curtain and entered the small hut, the sound of old wood creaking and groaning under his feet as he walked.

Inside it was similar enough to any other hut he had been in except for the strong smell of herbs in the air, and all around the circled hut were carved wooden statues.

Terrogate moves closer trying to make out the features of one he reaches up and lightly touches the statue's face.... “The Aether.. the Circle of Gods” he whispers aloud over the sounds of the crackling hearthfire and the flapping of a curtain moving lazily in the breeze from across the room.. . The particular God statue the knight was standing in front of was the Moon Goddess Selari. One of three ruling deities that made up the Divine Trinity.. Three very powerful gods that ruled over the other 12 Cathar gods.. But even the powerful Divine Trinity bowed to the Mountain God, the keeper of wisdom and knowledge. Although it was the warrior god Jaarl his father had instructed Terrogate to form a close bond with, he could not deny that it was the mountain god that had always drawn his interest the most. It was said there was once a way to summon the god itself from the very depths of the earth. A hidden lake and a long lost ritual to be performed by a chosen few.. and to get the mountain gods blessing was to be able to raise him for guidance for the rest of your days, giving you access to the mountain's knowledge. Although Terrogate was unsure how true that was, it was very possible the stories of being able to raise a god were just that. Stories.

Suddenly Terrogate senses another being move in close vicinity to him snapping from his thoughts.. Someone other than Aires who was still waiting at the door.. there was no hint of malicious intent that he could feel as he opened his senses to who may have been watching him..

What was the name Aires had told him again? Kadji? Terrogate assumes whoever this Kadji was.. they were something of a local priest or Shaman and wonders what kind of knowledge they may have had about Abbes during the war now more than four thousand years ago..

The Cathar lowers his hand and moves slowly towards the curtain on the far side of the hut, moving lightly on his feline feet even for a male of his size and pulls back the canvas curtain to see what was on the other side.. Terrogates eyes went wide as he saw it.. Perched high atop a nearby mountain was the surprisingly still standing stone structure of the mountain God in the distance.

The entrance was a large head of an ancient Cathar warrior, it's open mouth served as the doors leading into the temple itself.. Under its chin and leading all the way down the mountain pass were hundreds of stone steps. You couldn't see it from here but Terrogate remembered that each step was carved a piece of the gods' stories.. When he was a boy many priests and zealots would come and spend weeks climbing the stairs and studying the stories of the old gods.

"The Temple of the Mountain God, is it as beautiful as you remember?" said a soft voice from behind him, the knight turned to see where the voice had come from  and instantly saw in the corner of the room an elderly white furred female Cathar. “Umm… It is.. Although I'm surprised it's still standing he said thoughtfully.. There were still so many unanswered questions.. “You're Kadji?” he asked.. The Cathar lady only nodded her head once at the question..

"Welcome home Jaja" she said with an almost toothless smile. Terrogate squinted his eyes and moved back inside towards her.. “How do you know my name?” he asked.. “Because I am the Earth Goddess Arkana…” she replied letting her words linger in the herb smelling air. Terrogate looked at her and tilted his head, unsure what to make of her claim and in several moments she started laughing… A cackling, almost disturbing laugh...

“Silly boy, I know your name because Aires showed me your meeting of course.” she answered again as if it was obvious, smiling and then moving towards the door. “Much in the way you showed him your past.”

“Come…  Sit..” she said to Terrogate pointing to a wooden stool next to the fire. “Aires.. Grandson..You may also join us...” Terrogate looked up with surprise as Aires moved into the hut joining Terrogate next to the fire as Kadji mumbled something to herself.., ”silly boy… and would believe I'm of the divine Trinity…? It couldn't possibly be he…..” her voice trailed off into the other noises of the room.

“Grandmother, the fact that Jaja and his family have come.. I still cannot believe what I saw..” Kadji looked at Aires and scoffed.. “You don't believe it?.. Boy, haven't I taught you anything in our lessons over the years? Seeing.. REALLY seeing is the only way to be sure of anything.. Now, make us some tea....” “Yes Grandmother, of course. You're right, I do not mean to question our gifts from the gods..” Aires said moving to the pantry to collect several ceramic mugs.

“Now.. Jaja” said Kadji shuffling closer to him and squinting to see him up close.. “You have questions.. But before I can help you, I also have questions of my own. Will you allow me to see inside your past as Aires did?” she asked, raising her frail clawed hands near his face.”I could only see your meeting Aires through his mind..” she finished. “Yes, of course..” the knight said, lowering his head and closing his eyes. And then as Aires continued to make the herbal tea, Kadji placed her hands on to Terrogates large head and searched into his past.

~\*~

Within a matter of only a few minutes the elderly Cathar woman releases her touch and lowers her hands slowly to her sides. Terrogate opens his eyes and lifts his gaze only to see Kadji staring at him, near toothless mouth wide open and a bewildered look on her face.. “I…..I…..it’s…….that means.....Wait here!..” she said abruptly and turned almost bumping into Aires who was standing holding her tea causing him to spill some. “Out of my way boy…. I need the tapestry..” she said moving as quickly as she could to a set of open wooden draws.

“Here.. Look here Jaja..…..” she said excitedly as she moved back to the fire now holding a loosely folded large piece of very old light brown material close to two meters long, on it were many hand-sewn symbols and lots of writings all in Catharese stretching down to the very end. “What’s this?” asked Terrogate.. “Why.. It's the story of our family…. And of the gods” she replied excitedly, eyes as bright as the stars on a clear night as she unfolded it getting all the way to the bottom..

She handed it to Terrogate to read and without even needing to look at it she started to recite the story as though she had been the one to write it..

“Our story.. Well…..what is known….Began shortly after the time known as the great darkness, when the tree cities of old burned and our people fell to the first invaders…. It was over four thousand years ago..” Kadji continued and took the tea from Aires.. But her hands were shaking so much now that her tea was sloping over the edges.. She didn't seem to even notice..

“The tree cities were all abandoned after the great darkness, blackened and lifeless for decades they stood idol waiting for the earth goddess Arkana and the deity of birth & rebirth Tzu to heal them from within.....” she continued as Terrogate hung on every word.

“The invaders now gone for some twenty plus years, the Cathar who had once fled the war started to return to our planet and along with the survivors began to repopulate and recolonize our ancestral home.”

Terrogate followed the tapestry, reading the original words and symbols as Kadji recited the story flawlessly.

“It was around this time that a group of traders on their way to Joffa city set up a camp here, at the foot of this very tree. The weather became poor and they were forced to stay many days before the road was dry enough to move their carts again. On their second night they noticed light coming from the mountain God temple high in the hills.

The traders decided to investigate the light high up in the mountain temple, several of them moving camp to the foot of the sacred steps. There they waited at the foot of the temple's steps for several straight days watching the entrance.. But they saw no one either enter or leave the temple mouth for that entire time. So, they then decided to go and see for themselves what, or who possibly could be living inside the old ruins..

After making their way up the sacred steps they finally arrived at the top, and entered the temple of the mountain god. Inside they found a creature.. A Cathar.. A female, about twenty years old. She was mostly uneducated, and starving. Her name was Abbes.”

Terrogate lifted his eyes, looking with shock and disbelief back to Aires and then to Kadji.. “but…. But how can that be?? It makes no sense…?? Abbas died.. And she would have been in her forties by then?” he protested..

“Yes..” said Kedji looking at Terrogate as though she was looking into his very soul.. “\*Your sister would have…” she said cryptically..

“There's more… Look..” Kadji added, still not having touched her tea she continued and pointed a shaky boney finger to the tapestry...

“The girl told the traders about her past as best she could... That she'd been saved by a man, a man who found her very pregnant mother in an open field near a burning tree city. And this man through the power of the gods brought her back from the brink of death.. Just long enough to take her to safety inside the mountain god temple where several priests were in hiding.

Aires, feeling the sensitivity of the moment, places his hand on Terrogates shoulder as the knight feels tears begin to well in his eyes while he followed the story on the tapestry”

“Before she died the pregnant woman, who was carrying wounds beyond saving even by the priests, told the man her name and that her baby was special. She begged the man to keep her cub safe after he cut it from her body. The man, also able to feel the power of the gods inside the unborn cub agreed and soon after he performed his promise with the help of a temple priest the mothers body gave in completely, dying in the temple.”

Tears were streaming down the Cathar knights face as he heard of his sister's fate.. but also ones of joy and hope.. he said nothing, listening to Kadji as she continued the rest of the story.

The Man quickly named the new cub, a girl.. after her mother and wrapped her in his cloak. He then removed from the dead mothers neck an amulet, the amulet read “a heart of a Warrior.”

He gave the amulet to the priests to look after until the cub was old enough to have it and shortly after, the man departed never to be seen again.. and there in the temple of the Mountain God the priests raised young Abbes. The proof of the miracle of life and the resiliency and kindness of the Cathar peoples.

There were others that had been brought to the temple in the days and weeks following of course. But, most died soon after arrival and their bodies burnt, the priests performing the ancient traditional dusk rites... The girl told the traders of one male however. A male who had been found a week after her birth at the bottom of the destroyed hometree. He was very badly burnt, blind and due to his injuries he also couldn’t speak.. Thankfully the healing goddess Nyarah was watching over him, the man managed to live for nearly a decade with them in the mountain gods temple before he finally perished in his sleep.

Abbes would visit him often and talk to him, and he would hold her hand with his one good arm and she could tell in his unseeing eyes that he was smiling. She told them she had felt a special bond with the old male but didn’t understand why. She had described him as being large, heavily muscled despite his old age and his eyes… His eyes although unable to see were as blue as the purest sapphires”

Terrogates heart grew heavy.. feeling like it would explode inside his chest and he raised his left hand to wipe away the tears on his cheek and whiskers.. could it have been who he thought it was.. he dare not say the words.. not out loud. Not now at least.

“Of course the problem was..” continued Kadji.. “The priests were all males, sworn to celibacy and already well into their twilight years..  She cared for them as best she could, but slowly and surely they died out.. leaving young Abbes, now a teenager alone in an abandoned yet dangerous world she did not know. And there she stayed, alone in the empty temple halls.. with the ghosts of her mother, the priests and the burnt man. The only people she’d ever known. Each night lighting the fire of the mountain god entrance.. hoping someone, somehow, would come and find her.”

Terrogate couldn’t believe his ears or his eyes.. but there it was… the detailed history written down on what it looked to be, now he thought about it… very similar to the same kind of fabric used in making traditional Sith and Jedi cloaks.. and he couldn’t help wondering if his niece, named after his dearest sister, was once wrapped in this very material…

“What…. What happened to her?…” Terrogate asked, no longer following along with the words and symbols, but looking teary eyed at the old Sharman Kadji, who was looking straight back at him.

“They then sacrificed her to Khan the god of death and ate her.” she said bluntly and straight faced..

Terrogate flattened his ears and tilted his head before squinting his eyes at the eccentric old lady, trying to get a read on her.

“Silly boy.. well what do you think happened?” She said letting out a light cackle and finally drinking a sip of her tea.. “ aggrrhhh…. Aires, this tea is cold boy! Here…” she said, handing the ceramic mug to her grandson then turning her attention back to Terrogate who wasn’t sure whether to laugh, be mad or anything else right now...

“Well she went with them of course.. to Joffa city. Little of her life in Joffa city is known, but it is written she returned here near on ten years later with a handful of colonists looking for a fresh start and also several religious families.. including her own as she had never taken a vow of celibacy and felt a need, a responsibility even to keep her bloodline going..

It seems in her time in Joffa she had continued her religious path in the large city, spreading the knowledge and stories of the gods she had learnt from the priests who had raised her, bringing hope to many after such a long time in darkness.

Here they started to rebuild the tree city… this very hut is where she and her family first lived…. It is written that each night Abbes would spend outside, looking out to the Mountain god temple.. thinking about her mother, the priests and the burnt man… slowly, over generations the tree city expanded and new people came, and with them came trade and opportunities. This hut became the tree city home for the city Sharman.. as it still is today.” She said, bowing her head.

“The home to the daughters of Abbes.” She said finally.. “the keepers of knowledge… and your family.. although it seems I am the last of the daughters….” She said, glancing sharply sideways to Aires.. “for now Grandmother.. for now.” He said, rolling his eyes. “Your Sakari needs to visit the fertility temple Aires.. I’m telling you boy.. I won’t die until you give me a great granddaughter.” She threatened… Aires sighed..”Grandmother you know she doesn’t believe as we do.” Kadji sighed and then turned back to Terrogate who was still trying to process this story..

For a long moment Terrogate couldn’t speak, the story was incredible… unbelievable…yet here it was.. the evidence was written into the cloth in his hands and he folded it back up gently. At the very bottom suddenly he saw a symbol that took his attention instantly.. It was a picture of his sister's amulet.. And the knight's heart swelled with love.. this was the evidence… the proof that everything Kadji had said was the truth.. his sister had survived.. and deep down he had a feeling, at least for a while…so had his father. The greatest man Jaja had ever known, who he and his siblings thought the world of, had somehow found a way to survive and he had known his granddaughter before he died...

“And what of your own family Jaja…” Kadji said, finally breaking the silence.

“He’s not married grandmother, his lifemate… sorry.. fiancée and her children are here though.. They are with Sakari and Miko.” Aires said answering for the Knight who was still dealing with the recent news..

“Well then..” said Kadji smiling wide, exposing her near toothless grin “that is something we shall have to remedy.”….