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Existence

The Light and Dark of Truth - Part I

By Rebecca A Hyde GonzalesPublished 12 months ago Updated 12 months ago 7 min read
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Created by Rebecca A Hyde Gonzales

Dedicated to

Dr. Paul Nolan Hyde

July 16, 1942 - August 1, 2021

“Tolkien's use of light and dark is so patently obvious in the text of his books that it is almost embarrassing to mention the subject. Anyone who is familiar with the volumes published by Christopher Tolkien after his father’s death is unavoidably aware of how profoundly the concept nourishes the overall creation of middle earth.”

- Dr. Paul Nolan Hyde , The Moral Myth Mythmaker: The Creative Theology of J. R. R. Tolkien (2002)

Paul Nolan Hyde is a Professor of Philosophy with an Emphasis in Linguistics. Introduced to J.R.R. Tolkien's works in 1966, Hyde has produced many essays on both the legendarium and the field of expertise of Tolkien, Old and Middle English. Hyde is probably best known for his column "Quenti Lambardillion" in Mythlore and several contributions to Vinyar Tengwar.

To my father,

Thank you for reading The Hobbit to me when I was a child and helping me to understand the Truth of Light and Dark found in the hearts and minds of all and amongst the stars of this great galaxy and the universe. And mostly for helping me to discover the truth of myself in all shades of light and dark.

Your loving daughter, Rebecca

Part III - Return

The Celebration

Galadriel braced herself against the rolling movement of the earth as her two young daughters peered up at her from under the oak dining table. The door frame creaked and moaned with each rippling shudder and sway. Arwen wrapped her left arm around the leg of the table as she pulled Margaery closer with her right. Almost nose to nose the azure eyes of the eight-year-old met the teary seafoam gaze of the younger. Movement subsided; gently moving Galadriel’s skirts like a summer breeze drifting through lush oak canopies.

It seemed that Arwen was always trying to pull her sister in close. Margaery, always resistant. Nowadays, their eyes rarely meet. The measure of their relationship - strained. Waking from the memory of the devastation eight years prior only reinforced their shattered sisterhood.

Arwen wasn't like any other girl her age. She had gifts, talents, and abilities that surpassed them all. Her mother spent many hours helping hone her abilities and helping her to understand the source. Her father moved the family out of the city and back to the family's estate to protect Arwen from the negative influences that would seek to exploit her abilities. As far as Arwen knew, she lived a beautiful life in a beautiful place without a care in the world. The protection of her soul seemed absolute and would remain so until her sixteenth birthday. On that day, the secret that her parents had kept would be shared and a new chapter would begin. She would be trained in the healing arts and diplomacy. She would be taught about the other nations and her responsibility to each of them. And most importantly, she would be given the keys to the Souljar. This meant that she would travel back to the city to reside at the institute - the place where it all began.

She knew that it was morning when she woke. The room was dark and the air was still. Dawn was not yet there and the birds had not started their welcoming invocation. She tried to wrap her mind around the images and the messages presented to her while she slept. It seemed familiar in its tenor, the details altered. Maybe it was just more.

The colour of the sky began to slowly fade from midnight blue to deep crimson, indicating that the sun was climbing steadily beyond the Eastern Ridge of the Wobath Range. The crisp air stirred for a moment reminding her that the ground outside was covered with snow.

Snow.

Snow.

Cold. Her mind still swirling through all that she dreamt. Was it a dream? Actually, what was it? It was familiar.

The first note of the daily invocations rang through the air and at that moment a real memory flashed through her mind. From so long ago. She was eight and it was her birthday. They lived somewhere else warmer and the air was always sweet with the fragrances of orange blossoms and lavender.

The first rays of morning flashed through the open windows and doors and she remembered...

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Arwen sat up and rolled out of bed; her bare feet touching the stone floor. This awakened her senses. Her mind sorted out the memory. As she walked across the room to find something to wear from her perfectly organized and colour-coded closet, she realised that she dreamt about the earthquake again. By her count, she had dreamt about the disaster every night for the past week. The significance was not apparent. Coincidently, the anniversary of the "Great Quake" fell on her birthday. The first and only time she had had a party was on her eighth birthday. The sky fell that day. Arwen pushed the thoughts back. She didn't want to think about that day. The day that changed everything...

Arwen stared out the arched window onto the orchard that spanned into the distance. The breeze carried the fragrance of apple blossoms into her room from the solarium where she grew miniature trees. She inhaled deeply, and closed her eyes, smiling contentedly. The world was at peace.

Her life was beautiful. She loved the life she was living. Opening her eyes, she noticed a nightjar roosting under the shelter of the footbridge leading from the house toward the orchard. She was curious: why could she only see one? - Its mate must be nearby. This one was female, indicated by the small white band along the outer edges of the tail.

[SEND]

“I don’t know if this is going to work…” Anna sighed deeply as she sent the beginnings of the next part to her publisher. Looking at Missy and Poh: “I know it isn’t writer’s block. It’s just that I don’t have the heart for it anymore.” She thought about the conflicts between winter and spring in her writings. She also considered that Arwen was capable of growing whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. Seasons really weren't a thing. Especially since Arwen's family estate was protected by a dome.

"Are you ready to go to bed? I am."

The four-legged fur babies blinked their crystalline eyes and wagged their tails as if to reassure their mom that everything was going to be okay. Anna slowly stood up from her desk and headed towards her room. Missy and Poh beat her to the room and sat patiently just inside the bedroom door; knowing that they would receive a peanut butter doggy treat. Tails began to wag as Anna reached into the cookie jar. Turning toward her loyal companions: "Good girls. Down. Wait."

The usual commands were followed by the two Siberian huskies stretched out across the floor staring at the peanut-shaped cookies laying on the floor between their paws. Missy, all white with the exception of her ears that looked like they had been dipped in red paint, along with a single red racing stripe down her spine, would glance up expectantly at Anna waiting for the all-clear. Missy's sister, Poh, dressed formally in a black fur tuxedo, switched between staring at her cookie and that of Missy's. "Okay." Both quickly snatched up their cookies, crunching away as Anna slowly undressed and climbed into her bed.

It wasn't really a bed. It was more like a cocoon or a sarcophagus. As she rested her head on the silk pillow, a glass cover rolled overhead, sealing Anna into an anti-gravity chamber. The familiar woosh of air signaled the completion of the hermetic seal and the introduction of an incapacitating agent containing the sweet fragrances of asutra lavender and chamomile. She would sleep weightlessly and painlessly for the next eight hours.

Thanks to Archimedes' discovery of buoyancy and experiments by the Russian physicist, Pyotr Kapitza, French physicists of the Twenty-First Century continued the study of buoyancy and vibration, discovering a new kind of buoyancy that they call "anti-gravity." Published September 2020, in the weekly British scientific journal Nature, these researchers reported that they could create a similar anti-gravity effect for buoyant objects by vibrating and levitating dense liquids in an enclosed glass chamber. This discovery, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, was instrumental in the development of the anti-gravity chamber. Truth be told, the work was so new, that when Anna was in the ICU at St. John's Regional Medical Centre, the pod was a prototype and Anna was to be its first guinea pig.

Continued: The Light and Dark of Truth - Part II

Short StoryFantasyfamily
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About the Creator

Rebecca A Hyde Gonzales

I started writing when I was about eight years old. I love to read and I also love to create. As a writer and an artist, I want to share the things that I have learned and experienced. Genres: Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and history.

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