Page 13 (1/2)

When I co crucified There is pain ineon My ars of a bird, pinned to a dripping stone ith locks sie This metal is a special alloy that I ale with the binds and only end up exhausting myself further

Naturally, I can still see in the dark From head to foot, I am covered with blood, but I see that it is not

The knife has been removed from my spine and that wound has healed But there is no relief for s death by slow suffocation, and the position of s mimics that of the Roman style of execution My feet are also bound to the wall, but they are slightly above the floor so that all the pressure of the metal anklets is on my calf bones Remnants of Landulf s poisons continue to percolate in e amounts of my blood while I was unconscious

Yet I do not think so

How long I have been hanging there, I do not know But steadily in to cry quietly to myself Yes, even I, ancient Sita, who has faced the trials of four thousand years of life and survived, feel as if I have at last been defeated Each breath is an exercise in cruel labor; the air burns my chest as it is forced in, and each tith to squeeze in another lungful My cries turn to feeble screams, then moans that reverberate deep in my soul, like the solemn laminations of the dammed already sealed in hell I feel I have been forced beneath the earth, into a place of unceasing punishment Landulf s face swims in my mind and I wonder if I see a vision of Satan

Yet in e of final uncon?sciousness, soins to clear, and I remember Alanda and Suzama, Seymour and the child I see the stars and recall how I floated high above the Earth, and swore to do every?thing I could to protect my mother world I am five thousand years old, not four thousand I am from the future and I have returned in time to defeat Landulf And I will defeat him, I tell myself He will co on a little while longer

I reinus

I remember it from twentieth century Europe

In Austria, in the year 1927, in the capital city of Vienna, I saw Richard Wagner&039;s opera Parsival, which portrayed the adventures of King Arthur&039;s knights in search of the Holy Grail, in aHistorians claimed at that time that there was no historical basis for the events in the opera Still, Richard Wagner&039;s ic plot of how the knights struggled against the evil Klingsor, who obstructed them at every step froner&039;s use of the Spear of Longinus--which I had seen in sor

It ht have been Landulf

There could be historical accuracy in the opera, after all

After leaving the theater, I researched Wagner&039;s source material and read Wolfram von Eschenbach&039;s Parsival, upon which the opera was based I was intrigued to see that the spear played an even more central role in the actual tale, and was stunned to teaenerations after the tied to write a thrilling story even though he was supposedly an illiterate ileaned fronized--out of the thin air--the mystical tale

Even then, in the twentieth century in Austria, that fact had made me wonder if perhaps Eschenbach&039;s story was symbolic of deeper truths Because by the twentieth century, history had all but forgotten Landulf Yet even Eschenbach, a wandering Hoer, had named him the most evil man who had ever lived Who knew better than I why Eschenbach should condemn the duke so? Chilled by sor was indeed Landulf

In the story, Klingsor had been an archbishop who lived at Kalot Enbolot, in southwest Sicily, where he summoned demons and sent them forth to torment the world But sor&039;smark and the basis of his evil

Yet, in Landulf s dark prison, I cannot remember that mark

Frohts and lords approaching fro down to my black cell My torment is unbearable--for it to end, it see breath and steel myself to fulfill my promise to those who sent me back in tirace shall always be with ive th to save myself

The door opens and in strides Landulf

Alone His s a clean damp towel and wipes at the blood that has dried on my face Then he touches my cheek, and before I can react, leans forward and plants a kiss on my cracked lips I try to spit in his face, but there is not enough moisture in my mouth

Landulf stares at me with such compassion that I have to wonder if I have slipped into a dreaels and the future is already burned to ash by our ancestors&039; sins For moment I am in more than one time, but then Landulf slaps me hard on the cheek, even as he pretends to bemoan my torment, and then I am alone with him, only him

"Sita," he says with sympathy "Why do you do this to yourself?"

I strain to moisten my swollen throat "I could swear, my lord, that I did not climb into these chains while I was unconscious"

He enjoysI have offered you another way Why don&039;t you take it? What is the sacrifice for one such as you? We are already old partners in this war"