Redemptor Secret Origin

Chapter 5 - The Golden Chain

When Rene Naza opened his eyes, he found his eyes no longer hurt, his head no longer pounded, and that it was now the next morning. Ophiuchus was sitting on a low-hanging branch, with Nariah sitting on his leg, and they were swinging gently back and forth. They looked like a grandfather and granddaughter, there, just then. Ophiuchus was reading quietly to her from a large, old book. She looked entranced, intensely interested, in what she read in the book and heard whispered to her. "And did the Cactus Prince come back?" she asked the old man urgently. Rene smiled at her incredible beauty-she was healed. Herself, again. The color had returned to her cheeks, the light to her big eyes, and she seemed more enchanting than ever before.

"Daddy!" she shouted happily, spotting him. She hopped down from the medicine man and branch and ran to her father, throwing her arms around him in a huge hug. "I'm all better. Ophiuchus cured me. Just like you said he would."

"Better? All better?"

"Totally absolutely better."

Rene lifted her up in a dance and spinning her around and Nariah beamed and flipped her long brown hair out.

Rene came to a stop. "What's that?"

"Oh, this is my magic braid. Shinseon Ophiuchus gave these sylvan rainbow beads to me. See? Do you think they're pretty?"

"Very pretty indeed."

"There's seven of them. One bead for every color, every kind of sylva. And plus, they're magic, too."

"I bet they are," Rene said, hugging his daughter tight and looking over her shoulder at the old man, who smiled and gave a funny little bow.

"You're better, too, Daddy. See? The green's all gone from both of us. The boggis got took right out by Ophiuchus' fancy feathers. It's because our hearts are connected. It's very rare, but it's real. You see, sometimes, there's this invisible golden chain that goes between parent and child, from daddy-heart to daughter-heart, and no one can break it-not ever, no matter what. That's why I'm stuck to you."

"Don't I know it." Rene kissed the top of her head, ran gently his fingers through her hair, and felt an electric crackle to his fingertips off the rainbow braid of seven beads. He turned to Ophiuchus and bowed his head in respect and gratitude. "Shinseon, thank you."

"You two are quite welcome. Very, very much so.

You have quite the charming daughter, you know."

"I do know. I'm very proud of the good and strong little lady she is."

"Good and strong, indeed, 'tis true.

Enheartened, blessed. And powerful, too."

"He rhymes like that because he's a good guy," Nariah explained to her father. "Sylvas like rhymes. I like rhymes, too."

The old medicine man gave a little wink to Nariah who smoothed out the mottled rags of her dress, which she did when she was both happy and nervous. Holding Nariah's hand, Rene started to move slowly toward the door, saying, "He likes rhymes, you like rhymes, we all like rhymes. Great. We're very thankful, Ophiuchus, thank you. We'll remember you in our prayers."

With a whoosh of air and fluttering of a few black feathers, Rene found that Ophiuchus was suddenly standing in front of the door. In only a single sento, the shinseon had transported from the altar on the far other side of the room to right in front of them.

Nariah whispered loudly up to her father, "Don't be scared, Daddy. He did that with his robe. It's a magic robe, it's named Shadowslider. He can pass through shadows like that." She snapped her fingers. Rene kept his eyes on the looming wizard before them.

"And now, then," the old medicine man boomed, halting Rene in his stead. Ophiuchus folded his arms across his chest and robe of black feathers. The candles that hanged upside down from the tree branches all around seemed to flicker and dim.

"Remains only payment for us to discuss, pre-adieu."

"Payment?" Rene coughed. Nariah seemed confused and concerned, looking from her daddy to the medicine man and back again. Ophiuchus said to Rene,

"You would not want to swindle a shinseon, would you?"