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Epilogue
Light. There was Light.
Everything was brilliant, as though it had been illuminated from its very inmost part. It was like nothing she had ever seen before.
And then, there was the voice that called from the Light. She hesitated. Was it calling her? Surely there was another more worthy than she to be called by that Voice.
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. "He calls you, child of the Light."
"Me?" she asked, still not able to fathom such a thing.
"Do you see anyone else here?" her encourager asked with a smile.
"I… suppose not." She said slowly finally feeling the unspeakable joy of the moment. She had been called by Shaddai Himself to enter His domain – the place where no despair could enter, no sin could fester, and no death could ever hope to live.
"Naomi Talan." her encourager said, "Go. For your LORD waits and He has prepared a special welcome for you."
The woman looked back at the one who had escorted her here. The angel was bigger than she would have thought, but his face held nothing but kindness. The servants of Shaddai – Adonai as she had called him throughout her mortal life – were a sight to behold, and as her dear husband and son had told her before, the literature of the past did not do them justice, for they were far more majestic and powerful than any of the tales had said.
Naomi nodded slowly to the celestial being then turned and took several steps forward. The path ahead seemed to glow with intense light, summoning her onward. The more she stared ahead, the more she felt pulled toward whatever lay in Shaddai's Realm – "Immanuel's Land" as Queen Talonka had always called it.
Suddenly something occurred to her. If this was Immanuel's Land, then… She quickened her pace, starting to walk faster and faster, finally breaking into a run. She felt herself breathing – if she could call it breathing in the traditional sense – faster as she came closer and closer.
Suddenly, she was there. Nothing was how she had imagined it. Gan Eden* was so much more than she could ever have known or described, but it was not the beauty of the place that enthralled her. Truthfully, the beauty was the least of it. There was something more… a sense of anticipation about the place. It was as though all of Heaven longed for the very same day that the mortal universe did every moment of its existence.
Then she realized that that was exactly what it was. The universe echoed the song of Heaven, awaiting the day when Shaddai would reclaim the world of mankind and Abaddon, the Destroyer would be forever cast into the darkness that awaited him and his followers.
But there was something else in that sense of anticipation, almost like the excitement of someone who hadn't seen a relative in a very long time.
Naomi's heart nearly burst with joy when, out of the brilliance before her stepped a woman.
"Eliora?" she finally managed, her eyes wide, a smile spreading across her face.
"Naomi! You have come as well." The other woman greeted her with a hug filled with gladness at the reunion. "Do not stand here idly. Come! There are others who wish to greet you." Eliora beckoned Naomi forward.
The newcomer followed her old friend into the Light and moments later was greeted by yet three more faces – though they had been changed by Shaddai's Realm, they were still unmistakable, and with them was a fourth whom Naomi had never seen before.
"Kara!" Naomi exclaimed, "Alexander!" the king and queen of Iscandar heartily welcomed the woman they had known for so long, through trials and heartache, as well as unspeakable joy. "And Sasha!" Naomi looked at the young woman she had seen only a handful of times since her birth. Though Sasha now appeared to be very much the same "age" as her parents.
"And who is this?" Naomi asked, referencing the fourth member of the Iscandarian party.
"Naomi, meet Tatara, our first daughter." Kara said, the gladness in her face outshining that of Naomi's own. "The one we only had a few days with before Shaddai brought her here."
"Tatara…" Naomi greeted the woman, "I am so glad to finally be able to meet you."
"And I you, Naomi Talan." Tatara replied. "Shaddai and Yeshua speak well of you and your family."
A thrill ran through Naomi at these words. The thought that God Himself would speak well of her; it was unfathomable.
"There is yet another who would greet you, Naomi." Eliora said, gently ending the conversation with Kara, Alexander, and their daughters, "Come, farther."
Naomi nodded and followed her friend, bidding the Iscandarians farewell for now. She felt a sense of anticipation at not knowing who might be the next one she would be reunited with. The moments seemed to drag on as she walked farther than she had to meet Eliora and the Iscandarians. Had she been back in the realm of men, Naomi knew she would have been anxious, but not here, not in Shaddai's Realm. Here she only felt excitement.
Then it occurred to her that there was something fundamentally different about this place. It was something she had expected, of course, but she hadn't thought it might be anything like this. There was no hint of the darkness that men in the mortal world carried with them. The very essence of sin itself had been utterly eradicated from this realm.
With that realization came the thrill of knowing that she too had been renewed.
Suddenly someone else appeared just ahead of her and her old friend. Overcome by something she couldn't place, Naomi did not look at the welcomer's face for a long moment until finally, the suspense overwhelmed her and she looked up to see a face she hadn't seen in over twenty long years.
"My queen!" Naomi exclaimed her eyes wide; she immediately knelt before the woman.
"No, no Naomi," the woman kneeled down before her and bid her to rise. "Here you and I are equals; here I am 'Talonka,' not 'Queen.'"
Naomi stood with Talonka and took a good look at the woman who had battled at her side against the forces of evil that had tried to overcome them back in the world of mortals – the world she was quickly coming to view as the World of Darkness, the Shadowlands.
"You – you look well." Naomi sputtered, feeling suddenly inadequate.
Talonka laughed and embraced Naomi, "You could say that, yes."
At this, Naomi's inhibitions fell away and she hugged her former queen in return, laughing as well, tears of joy running down her cheeks.
"You've finally come to Immanuel's Land." Talonka said happily, "as have these others, my old friends," she gestured back the way Naomi had come, towards Eliora, Kara, Alexander, Sasha, and Tatara who, Naomi realized, were now right behind her. "Come! There is something I want to show you." Talonka let go of the woman and turned to walk farther in the same direction Naomi had been travelling all along.
Eliora hung back, standing with the Iscandarians, letting Talonka lead Naomi for the remainder of this journey.
"What is it?" Naomi asked.
"Oh no." Talonka shook her head, "That you will have to wait to see, but I will tell you that it is something more wonderful than you have ever beheld before." With that Talonka set off, looking back every so often to make sure Naomi was still following her.
"This is… an unbelievable place…" Naomi breathed as she walked past sights she had never even dreamed of.
"Of course it is." Talonka called back. "But you will have plenty of chances to look around. 'Time' has no meaning here after all."
"Yes! Yes, I had forgotten." Naomi replied.
"It's just ahead!" Talonka exclaimed, seeming to Naomi to be more excited than she had been when she'd greeted her upon her arrival.
Many steps later, Talonka suddenly halted, stopping just short of something Naomi couldn't identify.
"What is it…?" Naomi asked, seeing the woman who had once been her queen bow her head.
"I… have a question to ask you, Naomi – a question I have asked every one of my friends – save Tatara for she preceded me – upon their arrival here."
"Ask me anything, Talonka." Naomi replied, "I will answer as best as I know how."
"Thank you." Talonka nodded, "Now… How are my sons? My husband?"
"I…" Naomi faltered, "I cannot say what your son Deun's physical state is as I have not seen him for almost a year… but when I last saw him, he was physically well, though his soul was still as dark as it ever was… Your husband… he… Talonka he is gone…"
The former queen looked sharply at Naomi, "Surely you are mistaken." Talonka said.
Naomi hung her head, "I… do not think so…"
"No matter," Talonka waved off the subject surprisingly quickly, showing no more concern over her husband's demise than she might over a bent blade of grass.
Naomi looked at the woman, puzzled.
"What of Desslok?" Talonka prompted her eyes wide with anticipation.
Naomi hesitated again, then said, "He… he lives. That is the best that I can say. He is still as stubborn as he ever was, and he refuses Shaddai's rule."
Talonka's eyes turned to the ground and she nodded, her smile having left her at this news. "As I had thought… But there is something…" she suddenly brightened again and looked straight at Naomi, "Something is coming that will change the world we once knew, the world of my sons… and my daughter…"
"You have found her?" Naomi asked, feeling her joy rising once again.
"I have." Talonka nodded, "She is in… a difficult situation, but her story has yet to end. Yeshua told me this."
Naomi nodded, "May He watch over her, wherever her path has led."
"Yes. May it be so." Talonka replied, then her eyes lit up again, "But come, you must see this."
Naomi felt her hand suddenly encased in Talonka's tight grip. The two were almost instantly upon the sight that Naomi hadn't been able to identify from a distance. Up close it wasn't much better. Everything in Shaddai's Realm was so different from the Shadowlands.
"What… is it?" Naomi asked hesitantly.
"Why, they are books!" Talonka exclaimed.
"Books?" Naomi asked, looking every way she could think of at the object – objects – still unsure of how these could be dubbed "books."
Suddenly, one of the angels, tall and mightier than any of the ones that Naomi had ever seen or heard tell of, appeared.
"Talonka!" he greeted the woman, "Daughter of Shaddai, I see you have brought a friend to see the sight you so cherish." He laid a giant hand on what must have been the cover of one of the books. "Shall I show you both now?"
"Yes, thank you, Reuel." Talonka nodded to the being and he opened the book. The 'pages' turned, the sound of a thousand song-filled voices emanating from the book, singing a song Naomi had never heard before, but found that she understood perfectly. It was a hymn to the Slain Lamb.
The pages finally stopped turning and Talonka rushed up to the page, pointing animatedly at something on it.
Naomi stepped up closer to the book and peered at it inquisitively, wondering what kind of book might be so special as to elicit a song at its opening.
She gazed upon the pages and saw writing in a tongue she had never seen, nor known, but, just as the song, she found that she could read it without difficulty. The great pages were filled with… names?
"The Book of Life…" Naomi whispered. "The chronicle of the saints of the ages…"
Talonka did not reply as she was still pointing at one name in particular. "Look! Look, Naomi!"
Naomi saw the name and her eyes widened. "How…? When…? Where is he?" Naomi's eyes began roaming the area.
"He is not here." Talonka said, tears of joy in her eyes, "He lives in the Shadowlands still. That is why I questioned you before."
Naomi turned her eyes back to Talonka and stared at her, "I do not know how this can be, my friend, but I praise Shaddai for it."
"As do I." Talonka replied. "As you know, the passing of the ages is not the same here as it is in the world of mankind. We are above Time here. Sometimes years can pass in an instant, while other times, what might be perceived as 'years' in Shaddai's realm pass as moments in the universe below."
The sound of a trumpet suddenly sounded, echoed by a score of others, the sound resonating around everyone and everything, then a host of instruments and voices lifted a song to the heights of Gan Eden – the very song that the book had uttered upon its opening, the Song of the Lamb.
The being who had opened the book suddenly turned to another page and added his own voice to the song.
"Talonka! Look!" Naomi pointed in disbelief at the place in the book that the angel had turned to.
Talonka turned to see what the rejoicing was about and with a cry of joy she saw a name she had longed to see appear since her arrival. "Oh Shaddai…" she whispered, "Shaddai be praised…" she wept, her heart overwhelmed with thanksgiving. "And may all three of them soon come to be found in this Book, and not only one…"
End Book II
* Gan Eden – Heaven, the place where Adonai dwells
Disclaimer:Star Blazers, and all non-original characters are copyright Xebec, Inc, or Voyager Entertainment and all rights are reserved to the original creators. No infringing claims are intended.
All original characters and situations, however belong to me.