Catharsis, Legend of the Lemurians (4 page)

“But Catharsians are in need of our help.
Can we bring them along to this blessed land?”

In response, Mu just silently shook her
head, her eyes soft and sorrowful. “You must make your decision
soon, Elder. Bring your people to the southern field at this hour
tomorrow, and I will take them to safety.” With these words, Mu
slowly dissolved into the bright column of golden light, which kept
diminishing until only a tiny spark remained. The spark flew up,
up, up… Everyone in the room followed it upwards with the longing
eyes…until it was gone.

“So be it,” said Alton, his eyes still
lingering on the spot where the spark used to be. “I don’t need
long to make my own decision. My wife and son will go, and I will
stay behind to try to help the unfortunate Catharsians. Someone has
to. And what say you, distinguished Elders?”

“I will stay, too,” said another Elder.

“And I.”

“And I.”

“Our people should go, especially the young.
And we, the Elders, should stay,” agreed Ulan, the Elder from
Morf’s native sector No. 5. Ulan came from Morf’s neighboring
village, and Sector No. 5 was Ulan’s territory.

All nine Elders were in consensus. They
should all stay and the rest of their people should go to the new
promised land with Mu.

“Wait!” exclaimed Morf, who had been so
quiet that everyone forgot he was still in the room. “You can’t all
stay! We need you! Remember, you are still our Elders!”

“Don’t worry, my son. The new Elders will
rise to the call when the time comes,” responded Alton. “This is
our planet and we know no other; we must stay to try and prevent
its destruction. Perhaps we can still spare many lives.”

“But Goddess Mu says they cannot be helped,”
objected Morf. “We must all go together and know happiness in the
new land. We’ll need your wisdom there.”

“The new happiness is for you and our other
children, my son. We have known great happiness here, on Catharsis.
And as to the wisdom, there is plenty of that to go around among
our people.”

The Elders all nodded in agreement, as Morf
tried to digest everything he just heard. Somehow, without anyone
noticing, Morf had become the tenth member of the Council, and the
Elders accepted him without any objection. Perhaps it happened
because to them, he represented the point of view of the young
generation, which in these extreme circumstances, they were
interested in hearing, or perhaps they already knew what was to
come. In any event, Elders accepted him as one of their own. The
discussion continued for a few more minutes, after which each Elder
went to his or her own sector to convey the news and to come to a
consensus as to what to do next. Each family, each village and each
sector was to make a decision as to who would go and who would
stay. After that, the Elders were to reconvene at Alton’s hut at
dawn to develop a plan of action.

I’d better go; the Elders obviously have a
lot on their plate, thought Morf, preparing to quietly leave.

“Morf!” Alton’s voice caught him at the
door. “You would be wise to stay with Ulan. And at dawn, come back
here.”

Morf nodded obediently, as the full meaning of what
Alton had just said penetrated his mind. The Supreme Elder was
asking him to become a member of the Elder Council!

He accompanied Elder Ulan to Sector No. 5,
still not fully believing the turn of events. On the way, the Elder
explained what was to be done. Like all other Elders, Ulan wore
around his neck a piece of the Lemurian Crystalline Engine as the
sign of his supreme power. The Elder Lemurian crystals were attuned
to the same frequency and were used to send direct telepathic
communications to each other. Each village Head in turn wore a
smaller peace of the Lemurian crystal. These smaller pieces were
chipped off the Elder crystals and were attuned to their energy.
These were used by Elders for telepathic communication with village
Heads.

When they reached Ulan’s hut, the Elder
touched his crystal and within minutes five village Heads appeared
at the door.

“I have very important news, which will
affect the future of our people,” Ulan addressed the village Heads,
adding in response to their curious glances, “Morf is here at the
request of the Supreme Elder Alton. He will participate in our
discussion.”

After that, Ulan relayed the whole story of
the appearance of the Sacred Goddess Mu, her offer to save the
Uglies, and the Elders’ decision to stay behind.

“I will stay, too,” said one of the village
Heads.

“Me too.”

“And I.”

All five village Heads volunteered to stay
behind to help Catharsians, while letting their people go to the
new land of happiness.

Morf was starting to get really worried. If
ALL of them stayed, who would be guiding the Lemurians in time of
need?

“Wait,” he said, “you can’t all stay! You
are leaving us without any leadership. Who will be guiding us in
the new land?”

All five village Heads exchanged a glance
with Ulan, comprehension dawning in their eyes.

“Don’t worry, Morf,” said Enana, who was the
head of his native village, “it is time for new leadership, which
will appear soon.”

“New leadership? But who…”

“You’ll see,” murmured Ulan
mysteriously.

All five village Heads dispersed to their
respective villages to advise their people of the developments. It
was decided that they would reconvene at Ulan’s hut in two hours
with a final decision from each village on who would stay and who
would go. Morf had an urge to run back home in order to be with his
mother and father in this time of trial. He so wanted to hold his
mother’s hand, to reassure his parents, to tell them that they
could lean on him, that they didn’t need to worry about anything in
the unknown world they’d be heading to because he would provide for
them.

But he couldn’t. His orders were to stay
with Ulan, and besides, he was really curious to see what the Elder
would do next. Without realizing it, Morf became Ulan’s apprentice,
absorbing his moves, attitudes, even his thought process.

Ulan gave Morf an encouraging smile and sat
down in the hut’s corner to pray and meditate. Morf sat next to
him, but his thoughts wouldn’t let him concentrate on his prayer.
Who was this mysterious new leader the Elders kept talking about?
And where would he come from? Would Goddess Mu send them this new
leader? After all, she promised them salvation. And she was the
all-powerful Goddess. His thoughts began dissolving as he drifted
off to sleep.

Morf awoke with a start as Ulan got up, murmuring
under his breath, “Time to wake her up.” He paused by the small
room where his twelve-year-old daughter slept, and Morf noticed
that his lip trembled. But he shook off the momentary weakness and
proceeded to the bedroom to wake up his wife.

Morf sat, listening. First, he heard quiet
murmurs, then sobs, followed by silence. Next, he heard what seemed
like an argument between Ulan and his wife. This was odd. Normally,
the peaceful Uglies didn’t argue, on the contrary, they always
tried to understand another’s point of view. Ulan’s wife seemed to
be saying something, while Ulan objected. The woman’s voice
disagreed again, and Ulan countered with yet another argument.
Although Morf couldn’t hear the words, the couple’s voices were
becoming more and more agitated. Then, the voices stopped and
sobbing began anew.

Morf felt very uncomfortable—after all, he
was intruding on someone’s intensely private moment. He quietly got
up, deciding to wait outside. A few minutes later, when Ulan
emerged out of the bedroom together with his wife, Morf decided
that it was safe to go back inside.

Ulan was holding his wife’s hand, a smile of
total incredulity and bliss on his face. His wife’s face was tear
stained, but she was smiling, too.

“Teona decided to stay with me,” Ulan said
quietly.

“But what about your little daughter?”
exclaimed Morf.

A shadow passed through Teona’s face, as a
tear started making its track down her cheek. “She will leave with
the others. Mu will lead all of you to safety. But my decision is
to stay by my husband. Maybe we can still save our planet. And
maybe you, our children, will still be able to come back when it’s
safe again.”

“We must try…,” echoed Ulan, his eyes
dry.

Soon, the village Heads started appearing at
the door. When everyone was back, Ulan said, holding his wife’s
hand, “Teona and I decided that our daughter should go with Mu, but
we both will stay to try and save the planet. What say you,
esteemed village Heads?”

“Village No. 1 unanimously agreed that all
adults would stay and all the young would leave.”

“Village No. 2 unanimously agreed that
adults would stay and the young would leave.”

“Same for Village No. 3.”

“Village No. 4 decided the same.”

“Village No. 5’s decision,” said Enana, the
Head of Morf’s native village, “is that all adults will stay, and
all the young will go!”

As Morf listened to this, a new thought hit
him: his parents were staying! He had a desperate urge to jump to
his feet and run as fast as he could to see them immediately…

“Very well,” said Ulan gravely, getting up
to his feet. “I thank you for your service, esteemed Heads! I shall
deliver the citizens’ decision to the Council. Morf and I shall be
making our way back without delay.”

As the village Heads solemnly filed out of
Ulan’s hut, Morf surreptitiously wiped a treacherous tear, which
was about to make its way down his cheek. He couldn’t go to his
parents now. He had to stick with Ulan—that was the Elders’ wish.
Besides, he was extremely interested to know what the decision of
the remaining four sectors would be. He got up to his feet and
followed Ulan. There would be time to hug his parents after the
Council meeting.

The red dawn was upon them as they
approached Alton’s hut. The other seven Elders were already
there.

“Sector No. 1,” announced first Elder, “has
unanimously decided that all adults should stay and help save our
planet Catharsis, as well as alleviate the pain of the Catharsians,
while all of our children should leave to safety.”

“Sector No. 2 decided the same.”

“Sector No. 3 made the same decision.”

“Sector No. 4—same.”

“Sector No. 5,” echoed Ulan, “fully agrees
with this decision.”

“Sector No. 6 also agrees.”

“Sector No. 7 decided that adults would stay
and the young would leave the planet.”

“Sector No. 8 agrees with the rest.”

Complete silence followed the eight
announcements. After that, the Elders and Morf followed Alton to
the Temple of Mu, where in the center of the Great Hall was the
sacred Lemurian Mother Crystal. The Elders, together with the young
Runner, sat around the crystal, holding hands, swaying and singing
their prayer. They sang about the ancient race of the Lemurians,
their struggles and their love for the red planet; about the
impending disaster and having to say goodbye to their families; and
about Goddess Mu who would keep their children from harm.

After the prayer was over, the Elders got up
and went back to their respective sectors to offer comfort and to
organize things.

Morf followed Ulan to Sector No. 5, and
having said goodbye to the Elder, finally headed back to his
parents’ hut. He walked past other huts, where the final
preparations for the young Uglies’ departure were underway. Fathers
and mothers were taking stock of the few things their children
could take with them on the journey, here and there you could see
families holding hands and crying together, or having their last
breakfast at the modest family table.

As Morf reached his hut, his mother ran out
the door to hug him tight, tears streaming down her face. Father
limped up to them and joined the hug. They remained like this, in
one tight embrace for a long time. They finally broke apart and
went inside, where they sat down holding hands for what would be
their last family talk. After that, they started preparations for
Morf’s departure.

In the afternoon, village Heads came by to
announce that all parents were summoned for a meeting. Morf stayed
behind, waiting, until his sleepless night got the best of him and
he dozed off. He woke up when his parents returned from the
meeting. He didn’t ask what the meeting was about—they’d tell him
if they could. But he noticed that the expressions on their faces
were different. They looked serene and dignified, as if they saw
the whole picture, as if the worry about their son had gone away,
as if now they were confident he would be all right.

Morf wondered what caused such change, but
didn’t ask that either. He wanted to remember his parents like
this, with these wonderful expressions on their faces. They sat
down to the last family supper. Departure time was quickly
approaching.

Meanwhile, the unusual activity and behavior
of the Uglies did not escape the Catharsians’ attention. Sure, the
Uglies were warned to be as discrete with their preparations as
possible, but how do you hide your emotions when your only child is
about to leave to unknown lands and you’ll probably never see him
or her again? How do you hide your sorrow, your desire to protect
and hold that child for as long as possible?

Since among themselves the Uglies spoke
their ancient Lemurian language, Catharsians couldn’t understand
what was going on, but they started suspecting that something was
up.

It was late, and the final hour was fast
approaching. Although most Catharsians were asleep, none of the
Uglies slept that night. When the time came, the Uglies started
moving to the agreed upon field just outside Sector No. 8. Families
walked together holding hands, whispering the last words of love
and encouragement to each other.