She just wanted to know. It was a simple question. And I overthought it.
“I am…”
I feel it rising in me. Not a definition, not a title, not a role, or a use, or even a name. Just something simpler. The truth.
"I am…I am…” I close my eyes, searching, grasping, feeling,thinking.“…whoever I think I am.” My eyes fly open. “I am whoever I think I am.”
Silence, deep as oblivion.
A rumble, deep in the earth.
Then the voice.
It comes from everywhere, nowhere, inside my skull and outside my body. Infinite, deep, genderless, resounding, holy. And the whole earth shines forth with a blinding white light.
FEAR NOT: FOR I HAVE REDEEMED THEE
The ground beneath us splits, ruptures apart. Violently flinging me back as a fissure—10, 20, 50 feet deep—pulls into the earth. And the Brothers fall, screaming in surprise. Shattered flagstones raining down.
I HAVE CALLED THEE BY THY NAME; THOU ART MINE
A torrent of fire hails from the sky in a blazing column, reducing more of them to ash.
WHEN THOU PASSEST THROUGH THE WATERS, I WILL BE WITH THEE
To the left, light pours through the smoke.
AND THROUGH THE RIVERS, THEY SHALL NOT OVERFLOW THEE
A murmuring sound builds to a crescendo, crashing, rolling. A thunderous wave of water shoots from the lake into the sky and pours down in front of the chapel, cracking stones, knocking Brothers off their feet, sweeping them away in a violent flood that misses me, misses all of us, bending away as if sluicing off glass.
WHEN THOU WALKEST THROUGH THE FIRE, THOU SHALT NOT BE BURNED
The water ebbs and dries and then the smoke clears, sucked out of the atmosphere and leaving nothing but air. And I cansee. I can see the chapel. See the massive chasm that's now cracked through the steps. See the scorch marks of the fire. And see them—Kingston, Kai, Callahan, and Lanz. Standing. Alive.
NEITHER SHALL THE FLAME KINDLE UPON THEE
Kingston doesn't wait. He rushes forward, leaps, strikes at the Prior with his blade. Kai staggers behind him, bleeding, and when the Prior stumbles, he snaps his sword hand up, blocking any retreat with his blade.
FOR I AM THE LORD THY GOD
THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL
THY SAVIOUR
Another rumble, another crack. The steps of the church fully split away from the building as the earth yawns and takes in the rest of the Brothers.
YE ARE MY WITNESSES AND MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN
Something fizzles on the front of me. I step back, startled, as the yellow crosses burn away, disappear in a tiny burst of sparks, and there is nothing left beneath them, the fabric unharmed.
BEFORE ME THERE WAS NO GOD FORMED
NEITHER SHALL THERE BE AFTER ME
I, EVEN I, AM THE LORD
AND BESIDE ME THERE IS NO SAVIOUR
