Covenant: Exodus

Chapter 43

Isaiah, Gema, and Erich sat across an ornately carved table from the old man. Mitchell and Paulus stood behind them, Rock and Graham leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the room, and the twins sat on the floor by the doorway. As they had entered the room, he had asked a man standing by the doorway to go and get his guests some food and water and then had shown them their seats. He was lighting a long ivory pipe as the three of them all sat staring at him. Everyone looked silently at one another until Rock spoke slowly, "So...you speak English?" he asked.

Suddenly, it was if the old man realized what was going on and he began to speak in a voice that creaked with age, "Yes, yes, of course, I speak English, I speak many languages. I am so sorry for my rudeness...I have not even introduced myself yet. My name is Jikar... I have been waiting for over 10,000 years for this day, this joyous day."

"10,000 years?" Erich said flatly, "You mean that your people have been waiting that long I assume..."

"Yes, yes, of course, they have been waiting that long for this," running his hand through his beard, "but as I said, so have I. There is much to explain, and I fear very little time so let me speak and ask questions of me when I am done. I am the last remaining survivor of a group of people from a land called Atla. We fled a great catastrophe many years ago, so many, in fact, that I have lost count. As you may someday find, years lose meaning the more of them you live through. At any rate, I have been living here in this jungle for all of this time, awaiting the arrival of the one. You see, shortly after coming to rest here and completing the building of the machines that will make the Gods' Noise, our high priest Noahim left and embarked on a journey to find his wife, who had been kidnapped by a man named Jakon. Jakon sought the key to limitless power, a key that Noah refused to give him, and so Jakon took Noah's love. Noah, his son Rashan, and my son Amare took forty men and went to find his wife and destroy Jakon. The day they left was the last day that I saw them. So, I stayed here, trying to protect our order; preparing for the day that the machines would need to be activated. I continued on in this same way for almost one thousand years but by that time, my health started failing me. After all, I am not invincible...not in the slightest. I began to have trouble moving up and down throughout the temple, so I had my things brought inside where I could simply stay and continue my teaching, and then a wondrous thing happened. The temple itself amplified my gift, when I was inside the temple I could feel the power being strengthened, I felt like a much younger man." Jikar paused momentarily while he coughed several times loudly, "Alas, I know not how much time we have as the Ra'Naset has once again opened, I will leave history to history and focus on what I must tell you...what is your name child?"

"My name is Isaiah," he said quietly, holding Jikar's gaze.

"Isaiah, what a beautifully perfect name for you, wisdom indeed..." Jikar said, seemingly lost in his own thoughts momentarily before coming back to reality with a shake of his head. "Well Isaiah, you are a very special boy. I was told of what you did in the jungle, about the power emanating from your body...I wish that I could have seen it with my own eyes, do you think you could do it again now?"

"I...I don't know how I did it, I just knew that I wanted to save...my dad...and that I didn't want anyone else to get hurt and it just happened. It felt amazing, like I could feel every living thing, does that make sense to you?" Isaiah asked.

"It does indeed make sense to me. I have never been able to harness that type of energy, I am not sure that anyone ever has before, although I know that Noahim once felt that power, but when he tried to touch it, he said that it dissipated. I think there is something very special about you indeed, Isaiah." Jikar said with a smile. Isaiah simply looked at the floor and smiled awkwardly to himself, "Well moving on then, I am sure that you are the one that our prophecies spoke of. You are the one that can turn on the machines that will make the Gods' Noise. You must, or the earth will be destroyed yet again..."