Just when Simon had transformed from a man set on finding answers to a willing servant dedicated to help, he wasn’t sure. All he knew was that DePraeco had the air of a good man trying to hold back evil with all his might.
“Please Sir, help me understand what this is all about. What are these stones? How can they do these things?”
“That my dear Simon, is to explain creation itself and existence and evil. It is a long tale. Come, make yourself comfortable.” He indicated another large and well-worn chair which Simon happily took.
“Have you ever asked yourself why there is evil in the world? Why bad things happen to good people? God, in His infinite wisdom, decreed that all things should have agency, the right to choose for themselves whether to obey His commands. There are many theories as to why He did this and that answer is not so very important to our discussion as you might think. The fact He did so however, means everything.”
DePraeco kindly remained silent while Simon thought carefully about these words. After a few moments he felt that he had a handle on them and the Priest continued.
“As you read in the Bible, a third of the Host of Heaven did indeed rebel and were cast out to follow Ha-Satan, The Accuser. We further read that the serpent played host to Satan and turned from God’s will when he tempted Eve with the apple and she in turn gave it to Adam. You see, God’s creations have been exercising their agency from the beginning, before the World was. This has continued right down to our time. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.”
Simon was listening with fascination. Religion had been important to him. When his daddy died Simon decided that God probably didn’t exist, or if He did then he didn’t care for Simon and his momma. Otherwise He wouldn’t have taken daddy. If He didn’t care about them, then Simon wasn’t going to care about Him.
“Everything has agency, right down to the rocks around us, the trees, and the chairs we are sitting upon. Tell me Simon, what do you know about the structure of matter?”
Here was something that Simon was ready to follow. He was sure he knew more about science than a Priest locked up in a dungeon for thirty years.
“I’m studying physics in school; Sub-atomics particles in particular.”
“Good, then you might understand. At the quark level we have reached the end of our empirical data. There are no machines powerful enough to look that far into the building blocks of creation. Yes, the collider at CERN is impressive but it only tells us what the particles do, not what they are. For now we are consigned to the theoretical search. It is in this field that I have worked for most of my life. I believe that String Theory holds the answers to regaining our lost knowledge.”
“Regaining knowledge? You mena people have known about this before? I’ve never heard about this agency idea dealing with matter.”
“That’s because some in the past did not want to face the very frightening possibility that the earth might turn against us. The ancients knew about String Theory. Oh, not in the terms we do. They ascribed it to magic or ethers. But they understood it and wrote about it. Read the Patrologia, Clement of Alexandria, and the Greeks. They all understood it to some degree. It even appears in the Bible, if you look closely enough.”
Simon and his mother read the Bible often. She had never lost her faith, even if it had cooled with her husband’s death.
“Do you remember the cursing of the fig tree? Christ was walking and saw a tree that should have had fruit on it. When they got close He saw it was barren and He cursed it for not obeying God’s will. Don’t you see? The organization of the tree, the atoms and molecules had used their agency and chosen to rebel against God. Christ judged them and pronounced sentence.”
Once again Simon was out of his depth but tried hard to follow the logic.
“Perhaps you remember the miracle of turning the water to wine then? The servants brought jugs of water to the Master who changed their molecular structure into that of wine. It would be a simple thing, if one had the power of command, to rearrange the protons, neutrons and electrons from H2O into fine wine. We can do this today though it would require much planning and an incredible amount of energy. He could do it in an instant because the strings were His creation and possessing an amount of intelligence they obeyed His will.”
Comprehension dawned on Simon’s face. He had read about a scientist who had changed lead into gold through atomic manipulation. And DePraeco was right, it cost far far more in materials, time and energy then would be practical to do often or on a large scale. This he understood and suddenly the Miracles of Jesus took on a less mystical but more believable aura.
“Of course”, he replied. “Why would He need to use some unknown, unknowable power when He had the right to just command the elements to reform themselves? If He made the universe in the first place then He would understand how everything worked together. And calming the storm and Peter walking on water, those are just more of the same. It makes perfect sense.”
Simon had climbed from the chair excitedly and walked around the room. His face lit up with each new insight to DePraeco’s ideas. This was every bit as fulfilling as the work he and Grosskopf had done but the priest offered so much more. Simon was stalking the next burst of knowledge when he stopped short at the far edge of the candle light.
“Good! Good, you do see the truth. The possibilities…”
Simon interrupted him harshly.
“What is that?!” he was pointing toward a large pile of blankets stacked on a low bed. It looked as if it were breathing.
DePraeco didn’t even turn his head before saying, “That is my brother, Antonio Leonardo DePraeco.”
Simon repeated the words from magician.org, “he is with family and enjoying the well-earned fruits of a very long and productive life.”
DePraeco laughed harshly. “My brother lived a very long life indeed. More than his share you might say. And he is now suffering the wrath of God for his insolence.”
There was no joy in the older man’s words, only the pain of love betrayed.
“What’s wrong with him?” Simon asked timidly.
“He has been struck down with leprosy. Poetic justice really. That disease is the ultimate expression of a body’s elements in rebellion. They refuse to remain in unity with each other. Fissures develop and sores until finally the body dissolves. I can only guess that God thought it just for him to suffer the pains which come from the powers he sought to unrightfully use.”
“But can’t they treat it now. Don’t they have vaccines?”
A pained look came over DePraeco’s face. “Science does not have all the answers and they will never be able to overcome the will and judgments of God.”
“So God is fierce and vengeful. He lets bad things happen for no good reason and then what, laughs?”
"Do NOT blaspheme here. God will not be mocked! He allows agency so that all things may be fairly judged. Justice would be frustrated if any had the slightest excuse. Unfortunately that often leads to painful results. Have you ever wondered about birth defects that have no medical cause? The matter which formed those bodies sought to do things its own way rather than that prescribed by God. All Life, all matter, has the agency to choose. The vast majority obey. Some go beyond, seeking more power over themselves and others. Everything obeys or rebels to some degree. The smallest particles are much like people. Most are simple and basically good. They obey God because He is God. Some are ‘dumb as a box of rocks.’"
Many of the stones rattled furiously like they were deeply insulted.
“So what I saw happen to Nachton, it was leprosy in fast-forward?”
“I do believe that is precisely what happened to him. When his stone combined with yours it was too powerful for him to control. It took him because the spirits which were within that body, those he had forced domination upon, were beginning to break free.”
Fear erupted in Simon’s heart. “Won’t it be too strong for me?”
“No. When the yellow stone combined with the blue it formed a new green one. Then it took the body and became Red. Every time a stone transforms, takes upon itself more intelligences, then they must struggle to determine which of them will dominate. That red one gave itself to you just as your blue one did in your youth. However, it has far more strength than you are prepared to deal with. If you do anything against it, the stone will surely kill you.”
Something in the back of his mind suddenly clicked, “The story! The old voice told me a story about a Wise Man who led his people away from a kingdom. They were then attacked by the former ruler.”
“Yes, my brother was very fond of that story. He used it to justify much of what he did. But you have heard it before then. We talked about it.”
Up until now the whole conversation had been an exercise in theoretical devices. How things might work together with no basis in reality. But if DePraeco was right, if all this was part of the eternal battle between good and evil, he would have to choose sides. Now.
“Why hasn’t it killed me already?”
“My guess is that you haven’t tried to get rid of it before. Or there are powerful forces surrounding you. Things trying to influence your life.”
Simon looked around the room desperately. He could see dozens of stones now, each carefully set into a crystal box of varying shapes. Some of them were vibrating as if trying to escape.
“How do I get rid of this thing then? What do I do?”
“Pray” said the priest mirthlessly. “The elements of that stone have attached themselves to you. They are as much a part of you as your heart or brain. There is continual movement between your body and the stone.”
He held it out between them.
“Reach your hand out to take it but do not touch. Be aware of what you feel.”
Simon followed the instructions and gasped when he found that his arm was drawn toward the red crystal in DePraeco’s hand. He had to consciously hold it back.
“Look closely. What do you see?”
Simon brought his face to within a few inches of the stone and saw a tiny strand, like smoke or the finest spider silk, running from it to the tip of his right forefinger.
“How do you feel? You have the urge to grab it don’t you? The elements present in both your hand and the stone, those which are of the same character, want to be together. The stone cares nothing for you. It simply wants to increase its power. It is a being with one sole purpose and will destroy you when you are no longer of use.”
“How, how does this work? Are those masses of electrons? What is it?”
“I’ve told you, they are the complimentary, symbiotic elements that are shared between you and this stone. The more often you use a stone, the more you control it, the more this exchange happens and the greater power it has over you.
"That's why you yelled at me when I asked about the stones." With a trembling hand he finally took back the red stone and held it tightly in his fist.
"Yes, I had to know if you were under the power of something...unrighteous. It has happened many times before. Even to the very wise and learned. Do you see these?" DePraeco pointed to a half-dozen crystal caskets, each bearing an iridescent stone at its center. “I have been able to induce obedient matter to encapsulate and control the evil. This has not been easy and required a certain amount of coercion on my own part.”
“How did you do that without…becoming evil?”
“Remember that the stone is only a collection of energies that have agreed to a single purpose. They can always change their will. As with gravity, all things exert a force on all others. It is how you kids say ‘peer pressure’. Only a very small number of those particles are truly rebellious and they draw their power from their followers. Alone they are nothing. Like any petty dictator. Like Satan himself. That stone is made of the same stuff as those devils that rebelled against God and were cast out of Heaven. It is a piece of Hell on Earth.
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