Ocean's Secret |on hold|

23 | Broken Darkness

Another long chapter! We get to see a bit more of the work Haemon and Co are doing in Tiritia :) And of course they meet up with a special someone ;)

The song above is 'Wheels Down' by Adam Young (you probably know by now how much I like his music ^^)
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The noon day sun was high, the crowds chattering in curious anticipation, and the scrawny seagulls peered down from overhead when Haemon sat on the stage and thumped his drum. Jace strummed the Cyrian guitar he had brought along with them, and Emily stood beside him. She nodded her head in time with the beat, and looked out over the gathering crowd as she sang the words, her sweet voice causing the hustle and bustle of the people to hush and quieten. Her voice wasn't as strong as Meredee's, but she'd been practicing the last few months in Sen Cyrus while Jace learnt the guitar. Together, they made a pretty good team, she smiled to herself and met her husband's sparkling eyes. He winked, and the small encouragement stilled the knot of fears in her stomach. This is what she'd always wanted to do; reach out to the lost nations of the world who hadn't heard of the one true God, and here in Tiritia was the perfect place to spread the love of Jesus and tell of His sacrifice for their sins. This land needed peace, and the people needed to see that Jesus was the answer. They needed to first see however, that they couldn't go on the way they had, that cruelty and prejudice towards the Cyrians was tearing their land apart. They needed to stop the long-held hating and fighting and realise that they needed to change.

The people responded to the worship songs openly, some frowning and hurrying away in disgust, while others watched with shining eyes, their hearts hungry for something more than the darkness that had held them in chains for as long as they could remember. They were beginning to wonder if something perhaps good lay beyond the horizon in the Land of Sen Cyrus, and maybe it wasn't to be feared. Maybe they could come to know and understand this Jehovah who offered forgiveness for hating Him all their lives. They had all heard the story of how Jace, a man not from their own universe, had lain down his life for Cyrus, and how their king Haemon had been so affected by the courageous act. Men and women, and children too, stopped in the marketplace to think, and ponder the notion of maybe loving the Cyrians, their creator, and their God Jehovah, instead of hating them.

It was a tense atmosphere, however, as here and there men narrowed their eyes at the lyrics of love that carried over the people and echoed back from the buildings. What right did these Cyrians have to come here and preach to them? What right did their king have of coming back and renouncing the laws of the land? Haemon watched them warily, but kept thumping the tall drum, his brown waves of hair bouncing on his shoulders as the singing came to an end.

"Friends," he stood and began speaking in a commanding tone. Jace caught his eyes and raised an eyebrow, and Haemon checked himself. He wasn't here to command; he was here to share the choices that now lay in front of his people. "We have been living with war and fighting for many years. We have built our nation on battles and conquests, and the thirst to wipe out the Cyrians. But what did we gain? Were we ever satisfied with the life of darkness and cruelty?" he watched them frown and shake their heads, hopefully agreeing with him. A face at the back of the crowd caught his attention. She looked familiar, but he couldn't place who she was at the moment. "During our last battle, we nearly succeeded. We nearly destroyed the Cyrians once and for all, killing many of them on the shores of their Great Lake, and just about ending the life of their creator, Cyrus."

A few murmurs reached his ears at the sound of that name. He ignored them and pushed on. "He is our creator, too, making this whole universe many years ago. I believe all the legends are true, that if we were to kill him, we would cease to exist. But I was too proud to listen to those stories. I just wanted to rule this entire land as well as those across the sea. Thankfully, this man stopped me before I could make a mess of everything," he looked at Jace who gave a half-grin. "Actually, it was Jehovah, the Father God, who was working through Jace to teach me an important lesson."