“The God particle,” Ocean said.
“Oh.” He shrugged. “Is that all? And where do you suggest I look?”
“The thymus gland.”
“God is in the thymus gland?” he asked dryly.
“Not in the literal sense, but yes.”
“The thymus gland shrinks in adolescence,” he said. “It really serves no function after that.”
“As far as you know,” Ocean said. “Has the thymus gland of highly spiritual people been studied?”
“I don’t know. I’d have to look that up.”
“Do that,” she said. “And then study them. Or, to save time, use this crystal and study yourself or anyone else you might have lying around.”
“Science already uses light for many experiments,” he said.
“Yes, but it’s the wrong kind of light. This is pure love light from pure source energy. This crystal is blinding because of its purity. It hasn’t been corrupted by the density of earth. Healthy cells turn sickly from a weakened, magnetic pull of light. Over time, this fosters disease.”
“You want me to announce that disease is caused by lack of light?” he scoffed.
“It’s more than that,” she said. “By a lot. It’s also magnetics. Push and pull is what runs the human race. The sun and moon, man and woman, positive and negative charge, they’re all the same concepts, wrapped in different packages. The balance of action and receptivity is what promotes well-being. So much can be explained by being out of balance. But now, at this time in history, as I’ve said so many times before, our world is changing from an electric push to a magnetic pull. Nothing can remain the same, nothing. Fear held the old world in place. As humanity moves out of fear, it will step into its sovereignty and create a new, better world, one based on love and compassion.”
“I have no idea what you want me do,” he said. “Am I reporting scientific facts or writing poetry? There is no room in science for love and compassion.”
“You’ll only learn from experience.” Ocean threw a blue velvet bag over the cylinder, extinguishing the blinding light, and Joel was able to remove his glasses. “Take this home and work with it. Ask it what it wants you to know. It will show you.”
He exhaled loudly. “Fine, but I’m keeping these glasses.”
“They come as a set.” Ocean smiled.
“How is Mica settling in to her new post?” Rachel asked once the microscope was tucked away. “Is she someone we can call on to help us get Skylar back?”
“I haven’t tried with all that’s on her plate right now,” Ocean said. “Besides, she enjoys putting me way down in the mystical pecking order. The Great Mother she answers to is much older than I am.”
Rachel looked to the black tree. A vision of a great beast—half woman, half sea creature—appeared in the ethers before her. The Vodou mother appeared in her vision, the one who was cursed with the darkness when time began. She was so completely shunned by the world of light, she could only find love and beauty in the one place that remained: within her own soul. Those of the light were ignorant to the truth they had unintentionally bestowed upon her. Instead of shame, she found love of self and love of others that are thought of as worthless in the world. This discovery of the greatest hidden truth of the soul gave her the ultimate power over the world of light. She would never fear total annihilation; she knew that only beauty would emerge from the ashes.
“Yemaya,” Rachel whispered in awe.
“Yup,” Ocean said, knocking back her third whiskey before ten. It wasn’t a record. “She makes the rest of us look like house cats. Mica may be the president of the United States, but she serves at the pleasure of Yemaya. Goddess help us all.”
“But we’re all fighting for the same result. We all want the old paradigm out. Surely she’ll help.”
“You’d think,” Ocean said. “But Vivienne was justified in her disapproval of Milicent’s actions. Devlin we could manage. Mica Noxx is a wild card we’ll have to work around. The good news for us is that she will be heavily scrutinized and stuck in political inertia.”
Rachel walked around the patio and picked up the red book on the table. She shuddered. “Devlin was a part of this darkness?”
“Yes,” Ocean said.
“I’m not surprised. Milicent is pure evil. It’s no accident they were tethered together.”
“I would call Milicent misguided more than anything,” Ocean said. “She used the losses in her life to fuel her victimhood and excuse her immature behavior. Only lately have I seen any maturity surface. And Devlin was the puppet of a clever master. We need to take down Magus.”
Rachel looked back at the book, still uneasy. “How much of this is accurate?”
“All of it,” Ocean said.
“But it’s so scornful against the feminine,” Rachel said. “How can it be accurate?”
“There are great lies in fear, but there is also great truth. Their fear of the feminine energy reveals how powerful we truly are. They covet what they can never possess, and siphon off its energy through fear—the original vampires, dressed in robes of every color. It has always burned my ass that the church uses Jesus as a control mechanism. If sins were taken away by one man, why is the world in the state it’s in? I’m sorry, but the state of the world doesn’t look saved to me. It’s worse than ever. Did Jesus’s good deed have an expiration date? Taking the power away from the individual and putting it in the church was the original sin.” Ocean picked up Devlin’s book and wagged it in their faces. “This mindset has locked humanity in chains for thousands of years, but the Divine Mother has returned to set us free.”
“Why do you include yourself in humanity?” Joel asked accusingly. “You aren’t one of us.”
“That hurts,” Ocean said drolly. “I’ve lived on the planet long enough to deserve at least squatters’ rights. But apparently it’s time to integrate the worthwhile parts of this thing.” She waved the book in the air. “People are on the planet for different reasons, and now we are all coming together for a common purpose. Some are passing through on a vacation from another solar system. These are your Sagittariuses. They love a good party. But some are very old souls that have seen civilization end more than once. And they are back to make sure it doesn’t happen again. This is Skylar. Her memory of Lemuria will return to her soon. It’s been rising to the surface of her consciousness for weeks now. It got slowed down by the sheer volume of memories she acquired by drinking from the Mnemosyne. But we seem to have fixed that problem.”
“Lemuria?” Joel sighed with exasperation.
Rachel studied him for a long minute, then looked out at the backyard at Skylar’s tree, tears glazing her eyes. She shook them off and walked to Joel’s side. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I got you into this all those years ago.”
“Huh?” he asked, dumbfounded.
“This life … this crazy life.” She gestured around her—to Ocean, and to the whole magical world he’d resisted for decades, partially due to his limitations, partially due to his desire, or lack thereof, to see the world in a different way. “I knew her destiny all those years ago and here it is, playing out before us. It sat on our timeline, just waiting for us to come to it. You’ve been a good dad to Skylar, Joel, giving her the stability she needed to grow into an incredible young woman. Thank you for giving her that … for giving me that.”