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To Sail a Sea of Stars
- To Sail a Sea of Stars -
Note: I originally wrote this story back in 2008, under the name Chaos_Theocrat.
(A mysterious and beautiful woman from another world, and a man from Arabia who is seeking knowledge, power, and wealth, embark together upon an epic quest that will unite their very fates and test the worth of worldly pursuits in the face of a truly cosmic revelation that will change both of their lives for the better… as well as for all eternity.)
Prologue: The Dark Wanderer
The day faded and it was a gray afternoon, as the light of the setting sun did cast the rolling hills beyond those ancient Arabian sands into an orange glow. The darkly hooded woman urged the camel she did ride upon, to hasten along the winding journey it was bound by its' mistress's command to finish. In one hand... she held the reins of the beast. Whilst in the other hand, she cradled some large tome about as ordinarily leather-bound as any other of its’ age and type. She seemed to be but a lonely scribe under a fading sun. A pilgrim: seeking after a holy place known only to her and to God on high. Perhaps it was for days she traveled... or perhaps it was a lifetime, instead. So many towns, and so many cities, she had seen! Amidst the camps of nomads, she had dwelled... and everyone, from the commoners to philosophers had availed themselves of her wisdom wherever she did journey. Yet, never could anyone be certain of her appearance. Some people believed, they had spoken with a more matronly woman in her middle years... whilst others swore they had met but a child. All were illusions designed by her, to protect their sanity from the glory of her true visage. Fast upon the horizon, she spied a misty line of date palms that were the last between this old land and the more familiar nations of Eastern Europe that were frequented by her in ages past. It was time, she mused, to return to that part of the world. She had found... what she had sought! And so, as she thought about the history of the world she was leaving behind. Of the mighty empires of old Babylon and Persia, now no more as Islam brought God to those Pagan nations and changed them forever. She was not a Muslim, nor was she Christian or even Pagan. No, she was something far older than any religions known to mankind. The wanderer knew her time was at an end, and so she had embarked upon one final quest… the one upon which she now journeyed. The old magic was fading, and so few remembered even the simplest of the songs that could pierce the ether and unite the human with the divine. She was singing those old songs as the camel bore her from the Middle East, and when night fell… the stars were glorious.
Chapter One: The Old Tome
Jafar Ashkat was born in a tiny village in Romania… although he was of the blood of a vastly older family from Turkey. His mother kept him in the ways of her people, but his father was a practical, if lazy, worker for some trading company that operated out of Greece before the prosperity of larger organizations drove it to close down. Jafar... was not at all like his father. He was determined to make his own fortune, not ever content to be given it by others. And so, he was determined to become a scholar and he made his way to a monastery whose monks were known for teaching the secrets of ancient lore to others... there, he was to learn from the wisest scholars in the land, or so he had been assured. If knowledge was truly power, and power was wealth, then Jafar deeply believed he was on the path to riches. The fact that the monastery was Christian rather than Muslim infuriated his father to no end, but his mother had been open minded and supportive of his decision. The monks were said to be Gnostic, and their lore frowned upon by the Catholic Church. They were said to be the Christian equivalent of Sufi mystics, and that was a noble thing indeed! However, in all of his thirty years, he had not made so much as one coin, and in that his father was gravely disappointed. Even thus, he was determined to try something different! It was during this time that he made the fair acquaintance of a most mysterious young woman from Arabia, who had arrived at the old Gnostic monastery upon the same day he did. It was an omen... and one that would bode strangely. 'Milady, may I help you with that tome? It seems to be a burden for you to carry.' Said Jafar, bowing low, politely to her. The woman clutched the book even tighter, hissing: 'It is not for anyone but I, to bear this burden!' and this made him a little bit uneasy. Even so, he accompanied her down the hall to see the Lore Master who was awaiting these newcomers in the Great Library. The old man heard their sandaled feet padding upon the marble floor even before they arrived at his desk. He so looked upon them as they opened wide the library doors... a young man, bearded, and perhaps a bit mature-looking for his age. Or is that look what they call careworn? The young man was Turkish, by his dress. Those black robes, and that turban made of red cloth. And, then, there was the young woman. Her hair was a very long mane of raven black, her eyes bright green. She wore baggy pantaloons and a rather ordinary peasant blouse, with a black cloak that billowed past her as she walked. All of her steps... they were delicate... but she seemed very labored by the tome she bore. And, a most familiar tome it was! The Lore Master never thought it would come to him.
Chapter Two: Two Bound by Fate
The Lore Master said, solemnly and gravely: 'So... you have arrived. Two, and dressed in black! Two, to be bound by fate.' Jafar looked at the old monk, and replied: 'I think you are mistaken, master, for I have only just so arrived this day, and I did not travel with the lady. Rather, she was right here when I arrived, having come hither on the same day as I but not ever in my company.' The old man looked on from Jafar unto the woman and back again. 'So it seems, but even so I have foreseen in a dream that you two share one fate together. My dreams come from the goddess Sophia, the Queen of all Wisdom... and they are rarely ever known to be wrong.' The woman rushed up to the big desk behind which the old man sat, and so slammed the old tome down upon it that she had been carrying; that she had, to this very moment, carried so far. 'In the land that was once mighty Persia...' She began, 'They still call this 'The Book of the Black Moon', and it is said that to read of those pages is to lose both mind and soul alike. Yet, I have looked oft upon them! I have seen the things that lie beyond this tiny world. Worlds, beyond worlds, indeed a whole multiverse we can scarcely imagine even in the dreams Sophia may be kind enough to send us. Once, even you old man had called me a blasphemer and a heretic. You: whom the Church had called those very same names! So, now I stand in contradiction to all your prejudice, and all theirs too! What is more, I have been between the worlds, and I have been changed by my experiences amongst the stars.' Then, the Lore Master went very pale and was frightened by the woman’s claims. 'Have you... proof?' he stammered. She showed him an odd parchment and then the old man was truly frightened. 'So... some of our gods are not truly unique to our world? They are worshipped on others! Then, how are our priests at all unique in the cosmic scheme of things...' With that, the woman approached Jafar. Long did she look into his blue eyes, before saying: 'He cannot grant you, the true knowledge that will bestow power... and wealth. Only I can give you that! Come with me, Jafar Ashkat, and I will show you wonders beyond anything this miserable world can offer you.' Jafar, without a hint of hesitation, replied: 'Our road is now one, lady. Lead me on the paths you have tread down and I will follow in faith.' She did not ask why his eyes were blue, an unusual trait for a Turkish man.
Chapter Three: The Forgotten Way
They stayed just to watch the Lore Master rather ceremoniously hiding away the tome and the parchment that he was given. Then... the mysterious woman led Jafar a long way out of the monastery, and so they had begun a journey to a remote monastery off in distant Tibet. 'The highest of all of the mountains in this world, lies in the Far East.' Said the woman one day, when Jafar did ask her of their destination. 'There... lies a secret from before mankind walked the soil of this world you call Earth. It is a ship, used by the gods when they arrived here in another time, a vessel they left behind, which man can use if he has the correct knowledge. I learned it within the pages of the Black Moon… and with it I will take you beyond all that you know.' As they made their way across the borders of nations, through paths rarely taken, and donned the garb of many locals... they became just two wanderers upon a forgotten road that so winded all throughout those 'upstart human nations' as the woman called all the lands of this world. 'Why do you say that they are upstarts, though? Humanity, I mean.' asked Jafar... and his companion replied: 'It is because, in truth, compared to other worlds, this one is old, ancient even... and venerable in the memory of those who sail the stars. Some have simply forgotten the way to get here. Others remember. But when they return, they see humanity reigning supreme where once other beings did in their stead. To them… to us… you humans are upstarts in the cosmic scheme of things. Children, claiming to be all grown up!' Much the same way that, as they journeyed on, Jafar was forgetting the way back, mused he. Eventually, and with an uncanny good fortune, they had arrived in the Far East with not any real difficulties and soon were on a rough track through a high and snowy range of mountains. 'The locals call this peak, the Mount of the Heavens... for their ancestors remembered what they have in truth lost the memory of. We will reach a cave at the end of this trail, and it will become a tunnel that, eventually, opens up into a chamber hollowed out in the ancient mountain's crown... which is a dome covered in ice.' Said the woman who was Jafar's guide for so long. So they took that way, and eventually to his shock and surprise, Jafar stood within that very chamber, filled with icicles and chilled by cold frost. But, it was not the cold that shocked him. It was what lay inside the center of the huge chamber: seemingly... a sailing vessel, but one the likes of which he had never known of. The woman looked at it familiarly. She had sailed on it before… and she would now sail upon it again.
Chapter Four: Between the Worlds
She stood there at the helm like a mariner, all dressed in a loose pair of knickers and the blouse she was wearing when Jafar first met her. She chanted some sort of musical arcane spell... and she pulled two odd levers... which seemed to make the craft they were on float off of the ground itself, cracking the ice it was trapped in, and splintering the ice as it rose. Jafar was still wearing the heavy furs of the people of this far snowy region, and began to feel heat coming from within the hull of the vessel itself. He went into the cabin the woman had appointed for him and changed into his old robe, but did not wear his turban. The heat was too great for it. He emerged just in time, to witness the icy dome that was the top of the mountain melting to allow the airship to emerge into the night air. But it was more than just an airship! A vast bubble formed about it, and within it the air grew very cool... and breathable again. He glanced up in pure wonder, for they were sailing but not merely through the air, like unto the wizards of legend, but beyond the very air itself and soon through the stars themselves. Like the Prophet Mohammed ascending into Heaven, it was. And Jafar fought back an urge to fall to his knees before the glory of his own ascension! Looking down... Jafar saw the vast orb that was the world of his birth, as it was growing smaller and smaller until it was far-gone from his sight. He ran to the woman, the captain of this vessel, and said unto her, feverishly: 'Have I gone mad? Am I in a dream, good lady! Please, tell me if this is so.' Then, the woman started to sing an odd song that Jafar had never heard before, in a voice that moved him almost to tears by the beauty of it...
”Mad is the captain of Alpha Centauri! We must be out of our minds.
Still we are shipmates bound for tomorrow… And everyone here's flying blind!
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!
Mad is the crew bound for Alpha Centauri! Dreamers: and poets, and clowns.
Bold is the ship bound for Alpha Centauri! Nothing can turn it around.
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!”
And so... the woman's song went on and on for a long time, as the vessel journeyed deep into the starry unknown as if by magic. The rocking motion of the craft seemed to be in time to the swaying of the tune, and Jafar wondered indeed if he dreamed or if he was awake. He also began to wonder if it even mattered.
Chapter Five: Mad is The Captain
Jafar was looking longingly, and lovingly, at the captain as she steered them on through the darkness that lay between galaxies, where not any stars illuminated the way. She seemed to be the only light present, and like a moth he was drawn to her. 'What is the name of this lofty vessel, my lady?' he absently sighed. 'The Alpha Centauri... like in the song.' Said she. 'And, are you mad, my dear lady? Like the captain in the song...' inquired the young man. 'Perhaps...' smiled she, and in that smile it seemed that Jafar caught a glimpse of something which he equated with paradise. He sighed again, and like a little boy content just watching his first snowfall, he sat by the railing near the helm and he gazed deeply into the infinite, utter blackness. As if in some trance, he entered a reverie in which he found sleep. When his eyes opened, the Alpha Centauri had reached another world and was circling it in what the captain called an 'orbit'. She had sternly said: 'This is the world that is known as Mars. Here... the two moons themselves are on Earth oft given the names of gods, and the people had in age after age fought many great battles against the forces of darkness and evil. But that people are now long gone and long forgotten. Beyond this galaxy, lie many other planets just like Mars and Earth. Worlds such as Kobol still exist, far away and closest to what you would consider as Heaven... and time itself may even be overcome if you know the secret means of it! The place where I learned that song I sang to you earlier... was Earth, but of the far distant future.' Jafar nearly fainted at the sight of the very constellations all about him, and that strange dead world with even stranger landmasses beneath him. 'It is truly not meant for mortals to see many of these sights! This was meant for the gods alone to behold. I am truly overwhelmed!' He whispered. She then did caress his cheek and she whispered ever so softly into his ear: 'Perhaps one time... the gods you mortals revere were just men and women not unlike us, flying in crafts like this through the stars. Visiting distant worlds... even: colonizing them on occasion, only to be revered as creator deities for having done so.' Then, Jafar asked the woman her name, and she did reply: 'If I did tell you, you would not know it, for it is in the tongue of another world. But in the common talk of Earth… I am known as Selena.' Jafar recognized the name of the goddess of the moon, and fell to his knees before her. 'Impossible! Your light does shine, in the night sky above Earth every eve. How can you be there, and yet be standing here, at the same time?' He was serious about that. At these words of his, she laughed: 'Is that what people believe? Allow me to show you what the truth of my supposed light is!' and she piloted the craft back towards Earth once more, now smiling ever so slyly.
Chapter Six: The Light of the Moon
It was just a moon, with dark craters from the rocky impacts of space debris. Not truly a living goddess... not even a divine being of any kind. It was only a moon, and nothing more. 'For all of my life, I believed the old Pagan legend that your radiance was the disc that shone in the heavens each evening.' Said Jafar to her, mournfully. 'Are you than, just a mortal like unto myself, and not truly the powerful goddess that we mortals have long thought you to be?' he did almost weep as he said. Selena so gathered him up into her arms like some child, and soothingly she said unto him: 'In this form... I am mortal. But liberated from this form I am divine and very much like unto the goddess you have worshipped.' Jafar looked into her gleaming green eyes and said: 'Selena, why have you brought me… above all other men… into the true knowledge of divine and sacred things such as this?' Selena drew her lips ever closer to his and said: 'Because, in all truth, your time had come and I could not allow you to perish… without a glimpse of all this celestial glory!' And when she kissed him with all of the warmth of Earth’s sun, he saw the hour of his own death. It had happened as he neared the monastery. He had slipped upon the rocks near unto the cliff edge that thusly bordered the path, which led up to that house of learning, and tragically... he had fallen. 'Then it was your own power that made me forget of my death. Your will that brought me back, to life...' said Jafar when the kiss was over. 'Yes, but at some cost.' She then explained... 'I could but bring you back to life for a brief time, and so in that time I have chosen to show you all that you ever had hungered for in all your breathing life... the knowledge that brings one power and riches.' Then Jafar at last understood his own foolishness. 'What good is any knowledge... if you have not anyone to share it with? Of what use are riches, when you need them not once fast beyond this life!' Then it was that Selena was proud, for she had taught this man the lesson he had needed to learn. 'In our journey together, Jafar, you have truly become the wisest man. Before... you were a good man, but not a wise one at all. I will make an exception and allow you to return to true life, but under a single condition... you must remain with this form of mine, for so long as you both shall live, and you must also travel these stars together, calling no world your home... but sharing as much wisdom as you can with those of other worlds who are always in a need for it.' Jafar agreed, and suddenly the woman was just as she had been, before the startling revelation that she was, in fact, Selena. She and Jafar embraced as if they had met after long years apart, and she said sweetly unto him: 'Oh beloved, for so you have become to me... let us embark once more upon a long journey. It will be the journey of our lifetimes... and we will make it together.' Jafar held her close to him, and they kissed once more as all around them billions of stars glistened, and a world turned... beneath the deck of the old vessel known as the Alpha Centauri. Selena wept then, tears of joy. And for the first time in ages... a wise mortal was there to help her wipe them away. She never asked him why his eyes were blue, and to her that did not matter.
Epilogue: The Cosmic Scholars
It is said, that love can transcend all barriers and boundaries… race, religion, politics, society… even morality! But what Jafar Ashkat learned when he passed beyond life itself, was that love can also transcend death. What his celestial companion learned, she never said. It was enough, that they learned their lessons as one, and as one they transcended beyond them to the heights of glories as previously unknown to them.
There are many legends that try to relate how the knowledge of one single world, could so often be found on others. Some have told of old gates or portals that could take one between... whilst others say it was because of the gods. But for two souls bound by one divine will, it was the sacred duty of their lives to be the messengers that brought cosmic knowledge to one world after another. Soon, they became known as the 'Cosmic Scholars', and every world had a story or a myth that told how they came down to enlighten mankind in its' greatest hour of need. Over a long series of years... the scholars amassed a large crew that accompanied them on their great voyages through space and time. However, it came to pass that they all were taken into Selena’s greater glory just before they were to go to their final destination: the Earth, but of modern times. And following these events, a lonely ship pulled into port at the bustling city of London, on the Earth of the Victorian era. The name of the strange ship was the Alpha Centauri, a name as alien upon the world in that time as it was upon countless others in any other eras of recorded history. She was even still captained, some say, by a certain lady and her gentleman… and she held a sizeable crew of, mostly, poets, dreamers, and bards who by their odd looks were, a number of them, not at all from Earth. However, when any of them did step to disembark, they just disappeared... and the vessel vanished, along with all of them. And in these very modern times that the Alpha Centauri had sought to arrive in… the crew can still be seen, they and their ship, on certain years, whenever the light of the moon is fully visible in the autumn. And, who can say that the occasional ghost ship is not, perhaps, the Alpha Centauri... with its’ beautiful captain still attempting even beyond life itself, to deliver her knowledge to wherever it is needed. The wisest scholars cannot say. All we have to go by: is a certain song. You may make of that, whatsoever you wish.
Note: I originally wrote this story back in 2008, under the name Chaos_Theocrat.
(A mysterious and beautiful woman from another world, and a man from Arabia who is seeking knowledge, power, and wealth, embark together upon an epic quest that will unite their very fates and test the worth of worldly pursuits in the face of a truly cosmic revelation that will change both of their lives for the better… as well as for all eternity.)
Prologue: The Dark Wanderer
The day faded and it was a gray afternoon, as the light of the setting sun did cast the rolling hills beyond those ancient Arabian sands into an orange glow. The darkly hooded woman urged the camel she did ride upon, to hasten along the winding journey it was bound by its' mistress's command to finish. In one hand... she held the reins of the beast. Whilst in the other hand, she cradled some large tome about as ordinarily leather-bound as any other of its’ age and type. She seemed to be but a lonely scribe under a fading sun. A pilgrim: seeking after a holy place known only to her and to God on high. Perhaps it was for days she traveled... or perhaps it was a lifetime, instead. So many towns, and so many cities, she had seen! Amidst the camps of nomads, she had dwelled... and everyone, from the commoners to philosophers had availed themselves of her wisdom wherever she did journey. Yet, never could anyone be certain of her appearance. Some people believed, they had spoken with a more matronly woman in her middle years... whilst others swore they had met but a child. All were illusions designed by her, to protect their sanity from the glory of her true visage. Fast upon the horizon, she spied a misty line of date palms that were the last between this old land and the more familiar nations of Eastern Europe that were frequented by her in ages past. It was time, she mused, to return to that part of the world. She had found... what she had sought! And so, as she thought about the history of the world she was leaving behind. Of the mighty empires of old Babylon and Persia, now no more as Islam brought God to those Pagan nations and changed them forever. She was not a Muslim, nor was she Christian or even Pagan. No, she was something far older than any religions known to mankind. The wanderer knew her time was at an end, and so she had embarked upon one final quest… the one upon which she now journeyed. The old magic was fading, and so few remembered even the simplest of the songs that could pierce the ether and unite the human with the divine. She was singing those old songs as the camel bore her from the Middle East, and when night fell… the stars were glorious.
Chapter One: The Old Tome
Jafar Ashkat was born in a tiny village in Romania… although he was of the blood of a vastly older family from Turkey. His mother kept him in the ways of her people, but his father was a practical, if lazy, worker for some trading company that operated out of Greece before the prosperity of larger organizations drove it to close down. Jafar... was not at all like his father. He was determined to make his own fortune, not ever content to be given it by others. And so, he was determined to become a scholar and he made his way to a monastery whose monks were known for teaching the secrets of ancient lore to others... there, he was to learn from the wisest scholars in the land, or so he had been assured. If knowledge was truly power, and power was wealth, then Jafar deeply believed he was on the path to riches. The fact that the monastery was Christian rather than Muslim infuriated his father to no end, but his mother had been open minded and supportive of his decision. The monks were said to be Gnostic, and their lore frowned upon by the Catholic Church. They were said to be the Christian equivalent of Sufi mystics, and that was a noble thing indeed! However, in all of his thirty years, he had not made so much as one coin, and in that his father was gravely disappointed. Even thus, he was determined to try something different! It was during this time that he made the fair acquaintance of a most mysterious young woman from Arabia, who had arrived at the old Gnostic monastery upon the same day he did. It was an omen... and one that would bode strangely. 'Milady, may I help you with that tome? It seems to be a burden for you to carry.' Said Jafar, bowing low, politely to her. The woman clutched the book even tighter, hissing: 'It is not for anyone but I, to bear this burden!' and this made him a little bit uneasy. Even so, he accompanied her down the hall to see the Lore Master who was awaiting these newcomers in the Great Library. The old man heard their sandaled feet padding upon the marble floor even before they arrived at his desk. He so looked upon them as they opened wide the library doors... a young man, bearded, and perhaps a bit mature-looking for his age. Or is that look what they call careworn? The young man was Turkish, by his dress. Those black robes, and that turban made of red cloth. And, then, there was the young woman. Her hair was a very long mane of raven black, her eyes bright green. She wore baggy pantaloons and a rather ordinary peasant blouse, with a black cloak that billowed past her as she walked. All of her steps... they were delicate... but she seemed very labored by the tome she bore. And, a most familiar tome it was! The Lore Master never thought it would come to him.
Chapter Two: Two Bound by Fate
The Lore Master said, solemnly and gravely: 'So... you have arrived. Two, and dressed in black! Two, to be bound by fate.' Jafar looked at the old monk, and replied: 'I think you are mistaken, master, for I have only just so arrived this day, and I did not travel with the lady. Rather, she was right here when I arrived, having come hither on the same day as I but not ever in my company.' The old man looked on from Jafar unto the woman and back again. 'So it seems, but even so I have foreseen in a dream that you two share one fate together. My dreams come from the goddess Sophia, the Queen of all Wisdom... and they are rarely ever known to be wrong.' The woman rushed up to the big desk behind which the old man sat, and so slammed the old tome down upon it that she had been carrying; that she had, to this very moment, carried so far. 'In the land that was once mighty Persia...' She began, 'They still call this 'The Book of the Black Moon', and it is said that to read of those pages is to lose both mind and soul alike. Yet, I have looked oft upon them! I have seen the things that lie beyond this tiny world. Worlds, beyond worlds, indeed a whole multiverse we can scarcely imagine even in the dreams Sophia may be kind enough to send us. Once, even you old man had called me a blasphemer and a heretic. You: whom the Church had called those very same names! So, now I stand in contradiction to all your prejudice, and all theirs too! What is more, I have been between the worlds, and I have been changed by my experiences amongst the stars.' Then, the Lore Master went very pale and was frightened by the woman’s claims. 'Have you... proof?' he stammered. She showed him an odd parchment and then the old man was truly frightened. 'So... some of our gods are not truly unique to our world? They are worshipped on others! Then, how are our priests at all unique in the cosmic scheme of things...' With that, the woman approached Jafar. Long did she look into his blue eyes, before saying: 'He cannot grant you, the true knowledge that will bestow power... and wealth. Only I can give you that! Come with me, Jafar Ashkat, and I will show you wonders beyond anything this miserable world can offer you.' Jafar, without a hint of hesitation, replied: 'Our road is now one, lady. Lead me on the paths you have tread down and I will follow in faith.' She did not ask why his eyes were blue, an unusual trait for a Turkish man.
Chapter Three: The Forgotten Way
They stayed just to watch the Lore Master rather ceremoniously hiding away the tome and the parchment that he was given. Then... the mysterious woman led Jafar a long way out of the monastery, and so they had begun a journey to a remote monastery off in distant Tibet. 'The highest of all of the mountains in this world, lies in the Far East.' Said the woman one day, when Jafar did ask her of their destination. 'There... lies a secret from before mankind walked the soil of this world you call Earth. It is a ship, used by the gods when they arrived here in another time, a vessel they left behind, which man can use if he has the correct knowledge. I learned it within the pages of the Black Moon… and with it I will take you beyond all that you know.' As they made their way across the borders of nations, through paths rarely taken, and donned the garb of many locals... they became just two wanderers upon a forgotten road that so winded all throughout those 'upstart human nations' as the woman called all the lands of this world. 'Why do you say that they are upstarts, though? Humanity, I mean.' asked Jafar... and his companion replied: 'It is because, in truth, compared to other worlds, this one is old, ancient even... and venerable in the memory of those who sail the stars. Some have simply forgotten the way to get here. Others remember. But when they return, they see humanity reigning supreme where once other beings did in their stead. To them… to us… you humans are upstarts in the cosmic scheme of things. Children, claiming to be all grown up!' Much the same way that, as they journeyed on, Jafar was forgetting the way back, mused he. Eventually, and with an uncanny good fortune, they had arrived in the Far East with not any real difficulties and soon were on a rough track through a high and snowy range of mountains. 'The locals call this peak, the Mount of the Heavens... for their ancestors remembered what they have in truth lost the memory of. We will reach a cave at the end of this trail, and it will become a tunnel that, eventually, opens up into a chamber hollowed out in the ancient mountain's crown... which is a dome covered in ice.' Said the woman who was Jafar's guide for so long. So they took that way, and eventually to his shock and surprise, Jafar stood within that very chamber, filled with icicles and chilled by cold frost. But, it was not the cold that shocked him. It was what lay inside the center of the huge chamber: seemingly... a sailing vessel, but one the likes of which he had never known of. The woman looked at it familiarly. She had sailed on it before… and she would now sail upon it again.
Chapter Four: Between the Worlds
She stood there at the helm like a mariner, all dressed in a loose pair of knickers and the blouse she was wearing when Jafar first met her. She chanted some sort of musical arcane spell... and she pulled two odd levers... which seemed to make the craft they were on float off of the ground itself, cracking the ice it was trapped in, and splintering the ice as it rose. Jafar was still wearing the heavy furs of the people of this far snowy region, and began to feel heat coming from within the hull of the vessel itself. He went into the cabin the woman had appointed for him and changed into his old robe, but did not wear his turban. The heat was too great for it. He emerged just in time, to witness the icy dome that was the top of the mountain melting to allow the airship to emerge into the night air. But it was more than just an airship! A vast bubble formed about it, and within it the air grew very cool... and breathable again. He glanced up in pure wonder, for they were sailing but not merely through the air, like unto the wizards of legend, but beyond the very air itself and soon through the stars themselves. Like the Prophet Mohammed ascending into Heaven, it was. And Jafar fought back an urge to fall to his knees before the glory of his own ascension! Looking down... Jafar saw the vast orb that was the world of his birth, as it was growing smaller and smaller until it was far-gone from his sight. He ran to the woman, the captain of this vessel, and said unto her, feverishly: 'Have I gone mad? Am I in a dream, good lady! Please, tell me if this is so.' Then, the woman started to sing an odd song that Jafar had never heard before, in a voice that moved him almost to tears by the beauty of it...
”Mad is the captain of Alpha Centauri! We must be out of our minds.
Still we are shipmates bound for tomorrow… And everyone here's flying blind!
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!
Mad is the crew bound for Alpha Centauri! Dreamers: and poets, and clowns.
Bold is the ship bound for Alpha Centauri! Nothing can turn it around.
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-la-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
La-da-da-da-da-da-da
Oh, we must believe in magic… We must believe in the guiding hand.
If you believe in magic… You'll have the universe at your command!”
And so... the woman's song went on and on for a long time, as the vessel journeyed deep into the starry unknown as if by magic. The rocking motion of the craft seemed to be in time to the swaying of the tune, and Jafar wondered indeed if he dreamed or if he was awake. He also began to wonder if it even mattered.
Chapter Five: Mad is The Captain
Jafar was looking longingly, and lovingly, at the captain as she steered them on through the darkness that lay between galaxies, where not any stars illuminated the way. She seemed to be the only light present, and like a moth he was drawn to her. 'What is the name of this lofty vessel, my lady?' he absently sighed. 'The Alpha Centauri... like in the song.' Said she. 'And, are you mad, my dear lady? Like the captain in the song...' inquired the young man. 'Perhaps...' smiled she, and in that smile it seemed that Jafar caught a glimpse of something which he equated with paradise. He sighed again, and like a little boy content just watching his first snowfall, he sat by the railing near the helm and he gazed deeply into the infinite, utter blackness. As if in some trance, he entered a reverie in which he found sleep. When his eyes opened, the Alpha Centauri had reached another world and was circling it in what the captain called an 'orbit'. She had sternly said: 'This is the world that is known as Mars. Here... the two moons themselves are on Earth oft given the names of gods, and the people had in age after age fought many great battles against the forces of darkness and evil. But that people are now long gone and long forgotten. Beyond this galaxy, lie many other planets just like Mars and Earth. Worlds such as Kobol still exist, far away and closest to what you would consider as Heaven... and time itself may even be overcome if you know the secret means of it! The place where I learned that song I sang to you earlier... was Earth, but of the far distant future.' Jafar nearly fainted at the sight of the very constellations all about him, and that strange dead world with even stranger landmasses beneath him. 'It is truly not meant for mortals to see many of these sights! This was meant for the gods alone to behold. I am truly overwhelmed!' He whispered. She then did caress his cheek and she whispered ever so softly into his ear: 'Perhaps one time... the gods you mortals revere were just men and women not unlike us, flying in crafts like this through the stars. Visiting distant worlds... even: colonizing them on occasion, only to be revered as creator deities for having done so.' Then, Jafar asked the woman her name, and she did reply: 'If I did tell you, you would not know it, for it is in the tongue of another world. But in the common talk of Earth… I am known as Selena.' Jafar recognized the name of the goddess of the moon, and fell to his knees before her. 'Impossible! Your light does shine, in the night sky above Earth every eve. How can you be there, and yet be standing here, at the same time?' He was serious about that. At these words of his, she laughed: 'Is that what people believe? Allow me to show you what the truth of my supposed light is!' and she piloted the craft back towards Earth once more, now smiling ever so slyly.
Chapter Six: The Light of the Moon
It was just a moon, with dark craters from the rocky impacts of space debris. Not truly a living goddess... not even a divine being of any kind. It was only a moon, and nothing more. 'For all of my life, I believed the old Pagan legend that your radiance was the disc that shone in the heavens each evening.' Said Jafar to her, mournfully. 'Are you than, just a mortal like unto myself, and not truly the powerful goddess that we mortals have long thought you to be?' he did almost weep as he said. Selena so gathered him up into her arms like some child, and soothingly she said unto him: 'In this form... I am mortal. But liberated from this form I am divine and very much like unto the goddess you have worshipped.' Jafar looked into her gleaming green eyes and said: 'Selena, why have you brought me… above all other men… into the true knowledge of divine and sacred things such as this?' Selena drew her lips ever closer to his and said: 'Because, in all truth, your time had come and I could not allow you to perish… without a glimpse of all this celestial glory!' And when she kissed him with all of the warmth of Earth’s sun, he saw the hour of his own death. It had happened as he neared the monastery. He had slipped upon the rocks near unto the cliff edge that thusly bordered the path, which led up to that house of learning, and tragically... he had fallen. 'Then it was your own power that made me forget of my death. Your will that brought me back, to life...' said Jafar when the kiss was over. 'Yes, but at some cost.' She then explained... 'I could but bring you back to life for a brief time, and so in that time I have chosen to show you all that you ever had hungered for in all your breathing life... the knowledge that brings one power and riches.' Then Jafar at last understood his own foolishness. 'What good is any knowledge... if you have not anyone to share it with? Of what use are riches, when you need them not once fast beyond this life!' Then it was that Selena was proud, for she had taught this man the lesson he had needed to learn. 'In our journey together, Jafar, you have truly become the wisest man. Before... you were a good man, but not a wise one at all. I will make an exception and allow you to return to true life, but under a single condition... you must remain with this form of mine, for so long as you both shall live, and you must also travel these stars together, calling no world your home... but sharing as much wisdom as you can with those of other worlds who are always in a need for it.' Jafar agreed, and suddenly the woman was just as she had been, before the startling revelation that she was, in fact, Selena. She and Jafar embraced as if they had met after long years apart, and she said sweetly unto him: 'Oh beloved, for so you have become to me... let us embark once more upon a long journey. It will be the journey of our lifetimes... and we will make it together.' Jafar held her close to him, and they kissed once more as all around them billions of stars glistened, and a world turned... beneath the deck of the old vessel known as the Alpha Centauri. Selena wept then, tears of joy. And for the first time in ages... a wise mortal was there to help her wipe them away. She never asked him why his eyes were blue, and to her that did not matter.
Epilogue: The Cosmic Scholars
It is said, that love can transcend all barriers and boundaries… race, religion, politics, society… even morality! But what Jafar Ashkat learned when he passed beyond life itself, was that love can also transcend death. What his celestial companion learned, she never said. It was enough, that they learned their lessons as one, and as one they transcended beyond them to the heights of glories as previously unknown to them.
There are many legends that try to relate how the knowledge of one single world, could so often be found on others. Some have told of old gates or portals that could take one between... whilst others say it was because of the gods. But for two souls bound by one divine will, it was the sacred duty of their lives to be the messengers that brought cosmic knowledge to one world after another. Soon, they became known as the 'Cosmic Scholars', and every world had a story or a myth that told how they came down to enlighten mankind in its' greatest hour of need. Over a long series of years... the scholars amassed a large crew that accompanied them on their great voyages through space and time. However, it came to pass that they all were taken into Selena’s greater glory just before they were to go to their final destination: the Earth, but of modern times. And following these events, a lonely ship pulled into port at the bustling city of London, on the Earth of the Victorian era. The name of the strange ship was the Alpha Centauri, a name as alien upon the world in that time as it was upon countless others in any other eras of recorded history. She was even still captained, some say, by a certain lady and her gentleman… and she held a sizeable crew of, mostly, poets, dreamers, and bards who by their odd looks were, a number of them, not at all from Earth. However, when any of them did step to disembark, they just disappeared... and the vessel vanished, along with all of them. And in these very modern times that the Alpha Centauri had sought to arrive in… the crew can still be seen, they and their ship, on certain years, whenever the light of the moon is fully visible in the autumn. And, who can say that the occasional ghost ship is not, perhaps, the Alpha Centauri... with its’ beautiful captain still attempting even beyond life itself, to deliver her knowledge to wherever it is needed. The wisest scholars cannot say. All we have to go by: is a certain song. You may make of that, whatsoever you wish.
Published 13th Jan 2016
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13th Jan 2016 7:21am
It was a lovely story to write! I wanted to really create a myth and a legend with this one, write something in the style of the myths and legends of times past and infusing it with echoes and hints of various things at the same time. The song that is at the center of this story is actually a real song, and one of my favorites in fact - "We Must Believe in Magic" by Crystal Gayle. I saw an episode of the Muppet Show when I was little and she was singing that song on it whilst dressed in a beautiful long white gown and standing on a set that was made to look like a haunted sailing ship. As she sang, they had all these Muppet ghosts and spirits surround her and fly about her and the set, and that whole performance really stayed with me. It just had a certain magic and power to it, at the very least to fire a child's imagination. So when I was writing this story, I thought back to that and when I was trying to come up with an appropriate song to be sung at that one point in my tale... that was the first one that popped into my mind, and the most appropriate given the way I was having the story go. I am delighted that you enjoyed reading the finished product here, and am overjoyed that you found it a beautiful read too! Reading your comment was a delight in and of itself.
