A shadow separated from the darkness of the corner of the room and became clearer as it came into the dim light of the candle and was revealed as a beautiful woman. She carried herself with grace and dignity, which was hard to imagine in a place like this. She was resplendently dressed in a scarlet colored gown that echoed the temple’s opulent embellishments. Her choice of clothing, while provocative, was not what I had expected of a high temple priestess. She was more covered up rather than less, which puzzled me considering the attire or lack of it by the other women I had seen so far. I was puzzled, until I gazed into her eyes and face.Her face was evenly proportioned, with clean straight lines and skin that showed no signs of wrinkling or the effects of a hard life spent surviving in the elements. Deep blue, intelligent eyes gleamed like faceted sapphires from her face. It was her eyes that hinted at what made this woman more formidable than any other woman in the place. I felt th

*****The darkness of the cell started to glow slightly. Like a warm wave it washed over Jasperrepeatedly as he slept, and it kept at bay the dark memories and insecurities that wanted to intrude into his sleeping mind all through the night.“Jasper.”“Yes, mother?”“Time for your study of the Holy Words.”“Mother, can’t we do that later?”“Jasper, you will find out that in life you can’t always put things off to a later time and have everything still work out right.”“Then maybe we can skip study time for a third time and that will be once and for all! Ouch! Alright, I’m ready!”“Sit down over there, Jasper. As I’ve told you before, we only have remnants of the Book that the Creator wrote, but those remnants that we do still have can help us to live a righteous and pleasing life. A life that honors our Creator and that serves His purposes.”“It always seems like we have to do everything for the Creator. What does He do for us?”“He did everything for us, Jasper. When Adam and Eve sinn

“We will do all as you have said brother!” replied Seth, as the rest nodded their heads in agreement.And with that I wished them well and walked towards the horses that Rolf had saddled.Quietly I walked down the dimly lit dungeon corridor. Everything had proceeded better than I could ever have even hoped. After we had slipped into the city on the back end of a late night caravan, we had made our way to the citadel without being stopped. Using uniforms supplied by Rolf, who had adeptly procured them from two permanently resting soldiers outside the citadel, we had made our way into the inner workings of the citadel with comparative ease. Rolf was back up at the other end of the hall waiting in concealment in case, as he put it, ‘Any more throats needed slit’.He was really a peculiarly gifted individual in the art of killing and more than once I was grateful that I had never faced him in a death match in the arena. Unwelcome memories rose up to overwhelm me, as I remembered the friend

“Jasper.”I watched a spark of recognition pass across her eyes for a moment and then it was gone and she turned to the girl and said, “Dorie, get the soup for Jasper, if you would please and make sure to bring some of the bread that I made this morning too.”A big man stepped into the room. He had to be over six and a half feet tall if he was an inch, but it wasn’t his height that was solely impressive. The man was built like a bull with corded, bunched up muscles that stretched out the seams of his shirt. His voice sounded like the rush of a blacksmith’s bellows when he spoke, “My name is Eliak. This is my wife Samantha, my daughter Dorie, and my sons Elim, Jash, and Niall.”Besides the little boy I had seen before, I saw two older and stalwart looking boys standing out in the hallway beyond their father.“Eliak, this is Jasper,” Samantha said.When she said my name a similar look of recognition also passed across his features, which caused me to wonder what they knew about me. Had t

Hearing the murmur of voices coming from behind me, I turned as best as I could within the tight confines of my suspended prison, still not comprehending the situation well. A cold liquid sensation engulfed me from my head down as I saw a figure off to my right throw something at me. Coming to a full realization, I looked around me as water dripped off my face.A large group of angry people were gathered along a narrow bench in the lee side of the hill that overlooked the Kurt’s family farm in the valley below. Near the edge of the gorge, surrounded by Zoarinian guards, stood the Kurt family. Gripping the bars of my cage with white knuckled fingers I tried to call out to them, but was stopped by a voice off to my right.“It won’t do you any good to cry out to them, Jasper. Besides, haven’t you caused them enough trouble already?”I turned my attention to the voice’s owner and saw the robed figure from the citadel, who had tortured Treorna. Every fiber in my being united in that instant