The Last Of Us

Everything was ready for the ritual; Elijah got up early this morning to check and double check the preparations they made for this night. It was just after sundown when he woke her up. 

“ Are you sure about this?” He asks his wife. 

“ I’m positive ”

Miriam yawns, still waking up. She searches her husband’s expression in the failing candlelight and reaches up to caress his worried face. He responds by kissing her hand and then her forehead while pulling her into an embrace. 

“ I’m not... I’m not sure if it’s worth it. ”

He says, eyes glowing white with his confession as his wife pulls back to look at him. 

“ Save it, we’ll need all of our magic tonight.” 

She says, regarding his glowing eyes. Her expression softens while still looking at him. 

“ I am sure.” 

She begins, her hands going to her pregnant belly. 

“ We are the last two left, Elijah. Our time is up.”

He knows that she’s right, but the risk is too great. The strain that it puts on Miriam’s body and on their relationship… He wasn’t sure they would survive another heartbreak. Elijah helps Miriam to the bath he prepared with twelve gallons of moon water. Rose petals, lavender oil, and pink salt give the balmy liquid its fragrance and soothing properties. The couple worked to the light splashing of water as they bathed Miriam’s pregnant body. Her hair being scented with rose flower oil was the finishing touch of her bathing ritual. Elijah dried his wife’s body, starting from her feet; as she braided her locks up and off her shoulders. Flowers placed along the braid created a crown, adding to the regalness of her carriage. Bracelets made from strips of animal leather and seashells played the tambourine at her wrists and ankles. She wore two diamond shaped veils made from rows of beaded sea glass. Elijah escorts Miriam to the birthing site they prepared. A six-foot wide path marked on either side by twelve large stones, ending in a one foot deep trench, flagged by the sacred mirror. Next to the stones were two more shallow trenches filled with oil. Elijah leaves his wife to walk to the end of the path and lights the oil in the smaller trenches with a nearby torch. Brilliant blue and purple flames go racing towards his wife. When the flames reach her, Elijah takes his seat at the drum and plays.

‘Bum-ba-dum-bum-bum … Bum-ba-dum-bum-bum …’

With his eyes closed, he lends his voice to the night. Miriam locks eyes with her reflection in the mirror and begins her procession down the dirt path. Each step she takes is music; the beads and seashells clinking together with her movements. Before long, her voice cries out, joining her husband to set the tone for the atmosphere they are creating.

*********************************************************

Memories flash behind my fluttering eyelids … A day ago, I came upon Miriam in the meadow behind our house. She looked like Gaia herself, with the sun at her back and her feet dug into the earth, selecting flowers while speaking to the baby in her belly. I ducked down behind some tall grass to observe my love from a distance. Pride filled my heart as I watched… falling in love with her all over again. She broke my when she told the baby...

"This… might be the only way you get to know me. As the vessel that carried and nurtured and loved you until your arrival. I’m not a young woman anymore… haven’t been for quite some time. That’s why my pregnancies… You are different, I know it. You are special. If I don’t make it, it’s alright as long as you do. Your daddy loves you and he’ll take good care of you. He’ll miss me for a long time after I’m gone… Don’t give him too hard a time about it. He’ll do the best he can…”

I couldn’t listen anymore. My chest had seized up as hot tears slipped down my face at her confession. How could she say those things? Part of me knew she could be right; to hear her say it felt like she was speaking it into existence.

Elijah stopped himself from continuing that loop of doom. Miriam would not die, and neither would the baby. No matter what happened, everyone was going to survive!

***********************

Miriam had reached the birthing trench at the end of the path and Elijah’s drumming had stopped. Two tiny coffins carved out of psyche-tree wood held the remains of their stillborn daughters. Elijah sacrifices a lamb and a young goat, spilling their blood into a large wooden bowl. With his fingers dipped in crimson, he draws a rune on Miriam’s forehead, then on his own. He sets the bowl of blood in front of the polished, flat obsidian, and speaks over his wife as the two of them face the black mirror. 

“ La mieto she´ nah reolkajghe! There is no fear within the light! ” 

As he finishes those words, Miriam’s water breaks, spilling into the trench at her feet. Elijah helps his wife get into position, guiding her to the oar like appendages sticking up out of the ground on either side of the trench. He moves around in front so that he can deliver the baby and everything goes wrong! The baby is sideways and Elijah tries  to coax it into the right position, but it won’t budge. There is so much blood and he keeps flashing back to the previous failed deliveries. They were so similar to this that he cannot regain his composure. He sees himself covered in Miriam’s blood and hysteria begins. A pleading expression that becomes helplessness when he looks into his wife’s strained face. His movements are frantic and his speech is a jumble of whimpering gibberish. 

Bearing witness to her husband’s loss of sanity, Miriam grabs him by the collar of his shirt. She kisses him on his third eye, using her magic to make him sleep. As his body falls into the trench beside her, she begins a prayer.

“I call upon the Mirror Keepers of old! … The demigods of sacred spaces and the gatekeepers of secret passages. Deliver your child into this world! The seed that was sown in hope... our last keeper of the sacred mirror! Usher him in all of his cosmic glory as he is your child! Hear me ancestors and Lords of the universe! Deliver him!”

Miriam’s voice rings out with desperation… her child, like a warm stone in her womb, producing the fear of death. White light glows from her hands as she focuses her energy, sending magic into her belly. She chants the same words Elijah spoke before. 

“La mieto she´ nah reolkajghe! La mieto she´ nah reolkajghe! There is no fear within the light!”

Her womb contracts as a spill of crimson splats between her legs. Weak from losing too much blood, Miriam’s eyes roll to the back of her head and she passes out. Released from his wife’s magic, Elijah wakes up right at that moment. 

“ NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!” He yells.

Lightning flashes, thunder sounds, and rain pours as he scrambles to pick himself up off the wet and bloodied ground. The wind picks up as Elijah climbs out of the trench and walks against the gale forces towards the mirror. Witness to the gruesome scene of his wife’s unconscious body, laying in the mud; he sends his complaint to the heavens on a yell. Primal clarity takes over his mind as he grabs hold of the sacred objects and his entire body glows white! The mirror transforming into a rippling portal of time and space. A large crack of thunder close by punctuates the urgency of the situation. Over the whipping sound of wind through the branches, Elijah speaks to his child.

“ Yuriel, my son! There is no fear within the light because you are the light! The last of us… It is time for you to wake up! … Live!”

Elijah weeps into the last of his words, his voice breaking hoarse over the sound of the wind and the rain. Thunder cracks again and an arc of lightning surges through him, into the mirror, and into Miriam’s belly. Shocked back to consciousness, through half opened lids she can see white light pouring into her from the mirror and she can feel the baby move in her belly. He’s getting into the proper position! Trapped in place by the intense arc of lightning, Elijah holds onto the mirror. Miriam grabs hold of the oars on either side of the trench while she takes a deep breath and screams at the top of her lungs! Several pushes and she can feel the child is coming, but she needs help. For the first time since this began, sobs of fear claim her resolve. To regain composure, she searches for her reflection in the obsidian disk and discovers the eyes of her mother. More familiar faces emerge from the mirror’s portal, as a procession of ancestors comes streaming from the other side to aid their daughter. Ancient hands filled with skill and magic lay upon Miriam to guide their baby into this world. The intensity of the magic being spent combined with the lighting that was drawn to it; causes the mirror to dematerialize, being absorbed by the infant in Miriam’s womb. With the mirror gone, Elijah rushes to deliver his son. Loud, hiccuping cries replace the sounds of the storm in the night sky.

***********************

Relief washed over us… Elijah’s energy lifted as a smile full of tears spread across his face. My heart was full of love and gratefulness. After three-hundred years, we welcomed our son into this world.