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42: Those Kindled Flames
The mystery of how Aurelia entered the palace unnoticed was never addressed. Instead finding her after her insane flight from the palace became the priority. None of Mossad could ever locate the woman, but they knew she still lived; evidences of her work were everywhere.
She began to spread ill-will towards Deun and Talonka and propagating her re-made religion – a reincarnation of the original followers of Guardiana. She secretly reinstated the making of the Guardiana amulets, spreading them over the planet – and throughout this galaxy and the next like a silver plague. Guardiana followers everywhere were now able to summon the dark power of Diana. Reports began to surface of instances of deaths involving demonic activity and fear began to rise in the hearts of the people.
Agents pursued Aurelia, but the possessed woman was slippery, never in the same place twice, and somehow every day she seemed to gather more and more support for herself.
But, even through all of this, Deun and Talonka somehow managed to retain their favorable place in the eyes of the majority of the public and there was relative – though uneasy – peace on Gamilon for seven and a half years.
During this respite, Talonka learned much from Eliora, and Raymond and Naomi Talan. Her three good friends were a constance source of encouragement to her when the weight of her mother's treacherous deeds settled heavily on her.
Talonka's dedication to Adonai increased as time went by, but try as she might, she could never convince her dear husband of the Truths of which she spoke. He was always polite in his refusal to listen, but his deaf ear was a constant source of sadness for her. She turned her concerns into prayer and her sadness was lifted through her times of solitude with her God.
Also during these years, Talonka began to distinguish herself in the field of strategy and military resource management. Her mind, though pitted against a dozen men twice her age, would always prevail against them in the skirmishes the troops engaged in, often in place of drills. She outdistanced the others so much that, to the veterans' dismay, young Talonka, before her twenty-eighth birthday, was appointed their teacher as well as overseer of the education of any new personel.
The queen's skill increased with time and she began to occasionally accompany military vessels on skirmishes with a new enemy – the Bolar Federation – who had begun to invade several of Gamilon's outer colony worlds in recent years. The battles were increasingly fierce, but this did not deter Talonka from doing her best to help her people defend their homes and families from the Bolar onslaughts and Gamilon saw victory after victory against this new foe.
During her time on-board ship, Queen Talonka began to make contacts within the Bolar government and she even penetrated so far into the infrastructure of command that she secreted her way into the security force on the enemy homeworld through one of her ever-growing number of "friends in high places."
The corruption in the Bolar government astonished Talonka. It had been surprisingly easy to weasel her way into a number of officials' confidences. Many of them would be willing to sell their own mothers to her if she offered them enough cash.
The ruler – who they titled "Premier" - was a middle-aged man named Pretorious Bemlayze with an oddly zig-zag shaped receding hairline. His obnoxious voice almost made Talonka want to cover her ears every time she heard it. The Premier had a dangerous look in his eyes – one that always reminded the queen of her mother.
But though she was thought of increasingly often, Aurelia Guardiana dropped into the background of Deun and Talonka's life. She seemingly disappeared entirely for a while. However, after these seven and a half years passed, the woman's scheming finally successfully brought grief to the royal house. The devious Guardiana, instead of trying simply to kill her daughter – which was what the Leader and his Queen excepted her to try- she stole the most precious thing in the world to Talonka and Deun... the one thing they could never replace.
The tale of what they lost is much too long and sad for this history, but it goes without saying that with their loss, both Leader and Queen were devastated. Talonka was able to deal with her grief better than her husband with the help of Adonai, but it was still a crippling blow to the crown.
Aurelia made good use of the time she gained by dealing her daughter and son-in-law the low blow she had cleverly and cruelly delivered. To complete her conspiracy, the Guardiana delivered her stolen treasure to another empire, instructing its eldest heir to guard and care for it until she returned to take it back. If he accomplished this one task, Aurelia promised him unbelievable power and that chance to rule the universe – an opportunity he craved.
The Guardiana then returned to Gamilon and began to secretly follow her daughter's every move, planning how to be rid of her. Even though Mossad was technically still looking for Aurelia, the agents tired of their fruitless search. After all, no one had been able to even catch a glimpse of the woman for almost eight years. Surely there was nothing more they could do to catch her now.
Eventually, one ambitious agent, Oren, the very one who had questioned Aurelia the day she killed her husband, stepped up to the task, volunteering to go in under cover, pretending to have become one of her followers.
Deun was in favor of Oren's venture and the agent left to start his covert mission. He reported back several times in the first month or two that he was gone, but after that, he was never heard from again. No one knew exactly what happened to him, whether he was killed by one of the Guardiana followers, actually joined the cult, or died of natural causes. His fate remains unknown to this day.
After Oren's disappearance, Deun became like a man possessed. He ordered the security agents to renew their search for the elusive woman. For two full years the best of the best hunted the Guardiana without rest. And one by one, they disappeared... just as Oren had... leaving behind not a single trace.
The distress over the diminishment of Mossad's ranks was somewhat abated by the birth of twin sons to Deun and Talonka, though the anxiety over the missing agents returned with a vengeance when Deun realized that it was now imperative that he find Aurelia, for the sake of his children. It seemed to Deun that the woman was bent on doing everything she could to his family, and he was determined to meet her every attack with an equally potent defense.
Deun's fiery resolve received a good stoking when three years passed with no word of success in regards to the apprehension of Aurelia Guardiana.
Within those three years, the seemingly invisible Aurelia partially resurrected the fame and distinction of the Guardiana. As a result, the people of Gamilon became divided.
Things erupted a year later when Aurelia led an attack on the palace itself. It was the perfect time to strike. A major security system upgrade was in mid-swing and areas of the palace were unmonitored. It was simple enough to get in, but once they were inside the walls of the tower, things became more difficult for the Guardiana followers to fulfill their goal of spiriting away the heirs of the empire.
They swarmed through the palace, but Aurelia had again underestimated her daughter. Talonka's strategic skill placed newly trained Mossad agents at key places within the fortress's walls. This handful of loyal men and women decimated the invaders easily. Most of the time, the Guardiana followers - "zealots" as they had begun to be known – never even saw the cause of their death.
Aurelia and her terrible forces were driven from the palace with the help of Raymond and Naomi Talan and Eliora, the former servant. They fought off the shêdim that the zealots summoned, letting Talonka deal with her mother and the spirit that possessed her.
Even though the Spirit of Adonai prevailed over Diana once again, Aurelia escaped with her life one more time.
The personal appearance of the Guardiana gave Deun pause. Aurelia's involvement in the attempted invasion was a cause for hope. It meant that the woman was getting desperate enough to take matters into her own hands again. Even though she could successfully remain hidden, when the time came to strike a blow, she had failed.
After that disastrous raid Aurelia went back into hiding. The infuriating cat and mouse game they were forced to play with her drove Mossad mad, but Deun found a bit of comfort in it, knowing that they had bested her once and that they could do it again if the need arose.
Four more years rolled by with no positive sighting of Aurelia Guardiana. At the time of the making of this chronicle, her whereabouts remain unknown.
The effects of the Guardiana on the world of Gamilon were not short-lived. Aurelia had planted seeds of doubt and distrust in many minds as to the competency of Deun as Leader, and though the people did not express their growing doubts at that time, it has yet to be seen whether or not they will act upon their misgivings in the future.
Another factor that Aurelia introduced into the political climate of Gamilon was the presence of something that had previously been unheard of on the planet – the establishment of a cult. Before that time, no religions aside from the Torah-based worship of Adonai, and Christianity had been given a significant presence on the world. The existence of a faith like the Guardiana cult - so contrary to the two main theological views of the people – began to shake the foundation of Gamilon society.
Traditions and holy days continued to be observed, but a number of the citizens who followed the Torah began to flag in their devotion to the customs and beliefs of their ancestors. They discovered that the object of their faith had become a system of theology rather than a person. This was what protected the Christians from falling prey to the Guardiana cult – their Faith in Yeshua.
To this very day, there are countless thousands of Torah-followers who have begun to doubt the very basis of their faith, the words and existence of Adonai. They have strayed further and further from the teachings of God and have become lost in the darkness that Aurelia Guardiana has helped to conjure. But there were others – others who saw that through the Torah, Adonai revealed to them their sin and their true need for ha Mashiach. In these ones a fire was ignited and they sought their Mashiach with all their hearts, finding Him in Yeshua.
The darkness that Gamilon now finds itself in, was brought about by the workings of Abaddon himself through Aurelia Guardiana and her loyal followers. The only sure defense against them is Adonai Himself. The guiding Light of His Holy Spirit is the one thing that can dispel the darkness of the Guardiana and bring hope once again to every living being in the universe. Even now tiny flames of light are growing in number throughout the universe, chasing away the blackness bit by bit. The Talans and Eliora are merely a few of those kindled flames.
And now I must leave with you a final warning. Beware of the zealots. Join them and they will corrupt you. Kill them and they will hunt you. Betray them and they will revenge themselves upon you. Trust them and they will destroy you. Do not give yourself over to them for any reason. But more deadly than the zealots is the Spirit of Guardiana itself. This shêd has followed our family for almost two millenia. It knows our weaknesses, our fears, our desires, and it will take every advantage it can.
Place your hope in Adonai, and He will guide you in the days to come, wherever you may find yourself.