Disappear: Into Shadow

- CHAPTER TWENTY -

Once again, Michael was sitting on the red sofa in the shadowed study. The Librarian poured tea from a steaming vessel until his crystal glass was full. Offering Michael some, he was politely refused. Leaning back into the wingback chair, the Librarian sipped from his glass and said through the steam, "Azrael fears that your amnesia may be evidence of someone's interference with the moment when Creation tallies the souls in each realm to discover how the exploration has fared so far."

"The balancing," Azrael said.

"The end of days," the Librarian's voice was firm.

"The world's going to end?"

"Yes, but I forget, your friends have already been told this and you have not. In forty seven years the world will end." The Librarian nodded his head, sinking even deeper into his chair. One of the chair's wings shadowed half of his face. The light from the rollicking flames of the hearth licked the other.

Michael could only muster one simple question. "Can't we stop it?"

"Some things are meant to be and cannot be changed, no matter how we feel."

"This may sound stupid, but what would I have to do with the end of the world? What would interfering with my memory accomplish?"

"That is what we shall find out." The Librarian said.

Michael could see excitement written across the old man's face and in his every action.

"Aside from the Balancing," the old man said, "The alarming fact is: oaths are tricky things. Souls are meant to evolve not by external judgment, but by assessing themselves based on their actions, what they learned over their lives." The Librarian took a long sip of tea. "Something hidden from you and others in spirit is a dangerous thing. However, on the world, veils, deceit, lies and half-truths are tools. They are camouflage, a necessary evil. Humanity cannot function knowing everything. Illusion is required, otherwise the exploration of life would be pointless."

"How so?" Michael said.

"A soul is a piece of love, a part of life and Creation itself. Therefore it is free to move where it will. If souls refused to swear oaths you would be popping in and out of your bodies whenever you felt like it. You would be living in spirit without purpose." He answered. "Every soul takes an oath before incarnating into their bodies to believe that time and space exist. In order to align with this belief structure, they swear to forget they have ever taken an oath in the first place."

"An oath of amnesia," Michael said.

"Exactly, taking that oath is a choice to forget their true nature of being. If someone is interfering with your memories, your record of lives and your truth, they impede your evolution and your experience." The Librarian said. "This alarms me because it removes your purpose for being here. Something that happened during your lives is being concealed."

Azrael stretched on the sofa. Her toes brushed against Michael again. Her eyes gleamed at him, drawing his full attention.

"I don't see how that affects the end of the world," Michael answered.

The Librarian replied, "The world exists in cycles. At the end of each cycle whichever realm holds the greatest amount of souls determines how the balance in life should shift. That realm will decide whatever nuances will be changed. I have seen this all happen before."