The Spirit of Althimus Ch.01

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New friends lead to new experiences for Topaz.
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EmeliaBell
EmeliaBell
104 Followers

The young woman took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the old church hall. She could see through the glass panel that several people had turned to look at her, with the various conversations gradually slowing to a halt as more people stopped to look.

She smiled nervously, trying to seem approachable and friendly, but she was scared stiff and wished there was some way she could turn tail and leave.

Luckily, at that moment, a Good Samaritan stepped forward to welcome her.

"Topaz? You came! I'm so glad. I'm Matthew, we spoke on the phone. Let me introduce you to everyone."

Matthew was fairly young, in his mid-twenties perhaps, with long, very dark hair tied back in a low pony-tail, and strong, sharp features accentuated by the faint shadow of stubble along his jawline.

He wore loose clothes in earth colours, with a leather thong around his neck that had some kind of stone pendant on it.

His voice was deep and pleasant, with just a tinge of a regional accent that softened the consonants and flattened the vowels. When he smiled his eyes crinkled at the corners, turning his striking face into an attractive one.

He in turn admired the woman standing in front of him, twisting her long, woollen scarf about her fingers.

When she was born she had the most incredible shock of red-gold hair, exactly the colour of the stone after which she had been named. As she grew older the colour deepened slightly, but her name still suited her as much.

In contrast her eyebrows and eyelashes were a startling dark brown, making the navy blue of her eyes stand out against her pale, freckle-spattered skin.

She'd moved to this area four months ago, just after Midsummer and, with no friends or family near by, hadn't managed to make any new friends.

Everyone at her new job was quite a lot older than her, most of them married with lots of outside commitments already and she'd been so busy she hadn't had the chance to join any groups or clubs before now.

She'd settled into the job now and wasn't finding it such a struggle to keep on top of her duties and, for the past month, had been renewing her involvement in some online communities, including one for alternative religions and beliefs.

When she mentioned that she was lonely, recently, one of the other members had sent her a private message, suggesting she try this group. They'd described it as a meeting place for people who wanted to re-establish their connection with the Earth and Mother Nature.

It sounded a little cheesy to her at first, but when she thought about it she realised that that was what she was missing as much as companionship and was the reason she'd joined the forum in the first place.

She'd been brought up in the countryside, with long holidays at her grandmother's on the Scottish coast. All of her most precious childhood memories were tied up with being out of doors, enjoying the beauty of nature and weather.

She'd gone to university in London and spent much of the time feeling dissatisfied and depressed, without being able to figure out why. It was during that time she'd become interested in some of the theories classified as 'pagan.'

Now she was living in this dismal town near some ex-mining communities, spending every week day cooped up in a fluorescent-lit, temperature controlled concrete box and the weekends she was either doing chores or, too exhausted to do anything, listlessly watching TV and surfing the net.

As she moved through the twenty odd people present, being introduced to them by Matthew, she gradually became aware of a divide between them.

About half of them were ostentatiously dressed in showy, dark fabrics, large amounts of silver jewellery and odd make-up and hair dye. A large number of these, she felt sure, were students either rebelling or trying to find something meaningful to believe in and going about it the wrong way.

The remaining seven or eight were more like Matthew and to these people she sensed some kind of connection. She liked the simplicity with which they were dressed and the kindliness they showed her.

Occasionally she spotted a stone pendant, like that Matthew wore and one woman had a small tattoo in the same design on the inside of her wrist, entwined about a livid red birthmark.

The men and women of this group began to gather around Topaz, chatting quietly to her, exchanging jokes and asking her about herself.

One man asked her what had brought her along to this group, but at that point Matthew interrupted,

"Perhaps we should wait until the group discussion later to ask Topaz more about herself, Finn?"

Finn, an enormous man with a bright red, crinkled mane of hair and a darker beard smiled jovially and assented, suggesting that everyone move over to the seats set up on the other side of the hall.

The chairs were set out to allow everyone a view of the small stage on which a tall woman stood, swaying quietly from side to side and humming while she waited for everyone to seat themselves.

The 'Earth' group, as Topaz had called them to herself, settled near the front quietly and without fuss, whilst the 'Students' giggled and chatted, fidgeting around until Matthew called for their attention.

"Thank you," he said as a hush fell, "we're going to have a proper 'getting-to-know-you' meeting later, but can I just extend a welcome to all the new people who've come along this evening, we hope you'll enjoy yourselves."

Topaz shifted nervously in her seat, before realising that many of the students were doing the same thing. Obviously she wasn't the only newcomer tonight and she was a little relieved that the 'Earth' people were the more usual type of member.

She turned her attention back to what Matthew was saying,

"As we have so many newbies here this evening, it seems like a propitious time to run a speech about one of the basic skills necessary for a pagan lifestyle and for modern living generally.

"I am, of course, talking about meditation."

There was an impatient sigh from somewhere amongst the students. Topaz smiled as she remembered the impatient teenage feeling of knowing it all and being unable to learn anything that could help you from anyone.

Matthew paused to raise an eyebrow in Topaz's direction. She smiled at him as he continued his introductory speech.

"With us tonight is Shula Sutton from our sister group up North. Shula is an expert in meditation and hypnotherapy and has very kindly agreed to tell us a bit more about how to meditate and what uses it can have. Please save any questions you might have until the end.

Shula...?"

Shula stepped forward. She was a magnificent woman: almost six foot tall, with long, braided hair, amber-coloured eyes and skin the reddish tint of Mahogany. She was very striking, with many attractive features, but Topaz's eye was immediately drawn to Shula's very long, elegant fingers.

They danced in front of her body as she talked, moving them as if she was signing to her audience as well as speaking.

She was talking about how meditation could be used not only to refresh your body and act as a refuge for the mind in the stressful business of day to day life, but actually allow you to expand your psychic and intuitive abilities.

"Meditation is essentially a form of self-hypnosis." She stated in her rich, mellifluous voice.

"When we meditate, if we do it properly, we are allowing our Self to ascend onto another plane from which we can communicate with others of the physical plane or, if we are dedicated and very lucky, beings of the astral plane."

There were some snickers from the students, but others of them were starting to look more interested, even transfixed. Shula ignored all audience reactions and calmly carried on speaking.

"I understand we have some newcomers here tonight? If I could have a volunteer, preferably someone who has never really tried meditation, then perhaps I could demonstrate more efficaciously the immense power of the mind."

Without even thinking about it properly Topaz rose from her chair and walked up to the stage, ignoring those few students who had raised their hands tentatively in hopes of being selected.

Shula smiled warmly at her, extending her hand to help the girl onto the stage.

Sitting her down on a plastic chair Shula looked Topaz in the eyes and started to speak.

"I want you to imagine yourself in a garden. Picture the trees and flowers, the lawn and a path leading to the other side. Walk slowly along this path until you reach some steps leading down.

"Imagine the stairs very carefully. As I count I want you to take one step down for each number. When you reach the bottom you will fall into a peaceful state from which you will rouse when I start counting back up again.

"Ok. Ten...

"Nine...

"Eight...

"Seven..."

Topaz fell asleep.

"Seven...

"Eight...

"Nine...

"Ten."

She became aware of an awed hush made by dozens of people all holding their breath together. As she raised her head and blinked, dazzled by the lights, several people started to clap enthusiastically.

Shula raised her hand for silence, which fell instantly.

"Do not clap! What just happened here was not a party trick for entertainment, but a very real demonstration of how powerful a tool meditation can be. The state this girl just reached can be achieved by any of you who has the dedication to keep trying even when you're alone and nothing seems to be happening.

"Meditation and hypnosis are not to be played with. Approach them seriously, cautiously and with dedication, though, and you will find them incredibly rewarding. Thank you."

There were no questions after Shula had finished speaking, everyone was a little shell shocked from the very serious approach Shula had taken and there was just an awkward silence.

Matthew got up on stage and said thank you, kissing Shula warmly on each cheek before ushering her back to the seats.

"I had been going to suggest a 'getting to know you' session now, but we've actually run on a bit and we need to be out of the hall before 9. For those of you who'd like to ask some questions on a one to one basis, or just aren't ready to go home yet, some of us are going to go to the Three Trolls, the pub on the corner, and you're more than welcome to join us.

Everyone did clap now and people started getting up, shaking out stiff legs and chattering with the kind of hyperactivity common after a long speech.

Matthew turned to Topaz, still sitting quietly on the stage and knelt down so he was at her level.

"You Ok?" He asked, with a look of concern.

"I'm fine. I actually feel really good, but I'm confused, how come we have to go already, it can't be that late?"

"Well, that's the thing," he replied, "you've been under hypnosis for nearly an hour."

"What? It didn't feel that long."

Shula had come up to join them now and also knelt in front of the puzzled looking girl.

"Hypnosis and meditation can affect one's sense of time passing," she said gently, "and you went very deep, very quickly. Would you mind telling me what you were aware of as you sat there?"

Topaz thought for a moment, then began to speak.

"I was aware of your voice and the things you were saying, I suppose I could even repeat some of them back to you word for word," she admitted as, exploring the past hour in her mind, she realised she recalled a great deal of the information.

"At the same time, though, I was in a place... like a garden, but everything seemed more real: more beautiful. It wasn't somewhere I knew, but it seemed very familiar and there was the scent of honey and... a man."

She faltered as she said this last part. She hadn't been aware, until that moment, of the man's presence in her trance, but now she was absolutely certain.

Matthew and Shula looked at each other meaningfully, then Matthew spoke to Topaz as Shula went off to have a quiet word with some of the 'Earth' people who were waiting around with their coats on.

"Are you going to come and join us at the pub, Topaz? We'd really like to have you and there's something I'd like to talk to you about."

She nodded slowly, conscious that there was something big happening or about to happen that Matthew didn't want to talk about here.

She got up and gathered together her things noting, as she did, that all but one of the students had melted away and this one looked about to run at any moment, hanging around by the door, moving to join the group chattering around Shula, then gravitating back to the door.

Together the group walked down the road to the pub, Matthew putting his arm around the gawky youth to stop him vanishing.

"He doesn't exactly fit in with this group," thought Topaz aloud, but the girl walking near her overheard and thought the comment was directed at her.

"No, he's one of the students come down from the university. Most of them bugger off back to campus after one or two meetings, but the odd one stays. They generally cast off the gothic clothing after a while, don't they Jim?"

She turned and grinned at the tall blonde man walking next to her. He grinned back and winked at Topaz.

"Sure do, and I think this look suits us better, don't you?"

Topaz looked again and realised that both of them were probably a little younger than her and the girl had the traces of black hair dye at the ends of her hair.

"Us hard-core pagans generally get weeded out in the long run. Once you become part of the life of this group you don't want to go back. I've never made such good friends or had such a good time."

Topaz thought about this as she took off her coat and settled down on the stained red velour banquette in the smoky pub. The closeness of the members had been something she'd noticed early on, they were almost like family to each other.

If she could become part of the life of this group, she thought she'd be very happy indeed.

Someone went to get some drinks in and she had a pint of local ale like most of the others. When she tuned back into the conversation she realised that she was the main topic of conversation. Well, her incredible trance during the meeting.

"I've never seen someone go so deep on their first go, have you Shula?"

"Yes," the dark woman said thoughtfully, "but not often. It is a rare ability and one that marks someone out as having a very special gift."

Others round the table nodded and some looked at Topaz in a considering way, but she wasn't ready to join in the conversation yet, so turned to the boy next to her, the one who looked so ill at ease in his dark clothes and heavy boots.

"Hi," she said kindly, "I'm Topaz. Is this your first meeting too?"

"Yeah," he said in a strong, soft Somerset accent that sat greatly at odds with his Vampirical clothing, "I'm Eddy."

She asked him about his course and how he was finding university and they chatted quietly, not wanting to intrude on the lively discussion being held further down the table.

When Topaz asked Eddy what he had thought of the meeting he paused for a moment before replying. A couple of the others had heard her question and there was a temporary hush as everyone waited to see what he'd say.

"Well, it was really interesting to find out more about meditation, I never really knew how vital it was before."

"But what were your impressions?" prompted Jim's girlfriend, Ally, "not just intellectually, but on a more instinctive level."

Eddy coughed nervously, aware that most of the group was listening now.

"Well... I know it sounds really weird, but could anybody else smell honey?"

There was a complete hush on their table now. Several people looked at Topaz who'd gone pale and gripped onto the table to steady herself, as the memory of that fragrance drifted back to her.

"In fact," Eddy continued, "I'm sure I can still smell it. He leaned towards Topaz to see if she was Ok, then recoiled suddenly.

"It's you. You smell of honey really strongly. What did you do? Bathe in it?"

His confidence had grown as he became more comfortable with the group and realised no-one was laughing at him, which was why he had risked a little joke. Unfortunately, there was still nobody laughing, though now it was a bad thing.

His voice petered out and he shrank back into the banquette again as everyone started talking excitedly amongst themselves.

Topaz and Eddy looked at each other and shrugged slightly. They were beginning to wonder whether this was such a good idea after all.

Finn, the red-haired giant of a man saw how uncomfortable they looked and pulled up a chair at their end of the table.

Matthew may have been the main spokes-person, but Topaz realised now that Finn was the unofficial, undisputed leader of this group.

He leant forward and spoke gently to them.

"I'm sorry everyone seems so excitable this evening, but something fairly remarkable has happened and it concerns you two.

"Our group contains a diverse mixture of people with equally diverse beliefs, but the longer we are together, the more we've noticed the... how shall I put this? the patronage of certain beings, possibly even deities.

"None of us believe in one, all-powerful God, such as the God of Abraham, but it has become clear that we, as a group, have particular Deities and spirits who are allied to us.

"We have come across one of these, Althimus a she calls himself, through various methods of divination. At first it was when we weren't looking for him. One or two of us have even had dreams where he has appeared in some form to them.

"Over time we've learned how to reach him and come to recognise signs that mean he is near, the clearest of which is the presence of honey. That you, Eddy, smelt honey means that he must recognise something in you that makes you worthy of joining our group and I'm glad you stayed after the meeting or we wouldn't have found this out.

"You, Topaz, have been singled out with a very great honour. I will tell you now that only myself and Shula have seen him. Shula went into a very deep trance when she was meditating and, though she does not remember much she woke with the taste of honey on her lips and a strong sense of positivity that enabled her to change the things in her life that made her unhappy.

"My own experience was very different. I know I have been referring to Althimus in the masculine, but he actually takes either form, seeming to prefer one that is sexually attractive to the person to whom he appears.

"I had a dream where a woman appeared to me. She was the essence of Nature personified and when I coupled with her, it was as if I became one with all of nature – every living thing and that changed my life forever.

"Trust me," he said with a blush and a deprecating grin, "I know that this sounds like some new age bullshit, but it's the only way I can explain it.

"Either way the appearance of Althimus signifies a great change in your life; something powerful and something great.

"Now neither of you have any obligation to remain with this group. If you've had enough of me rambling on and you want to run away and never see us again, then that's fine.

"If, however, you feel there is some truth in what I've said, or you don't believe me, but like the group and think we're just a bunch of harmless idiots then we'd really love it if you would come along to a few more meetings and consider joining us on a retreat we're organising in a month.

"It's being held in conjunction with Shula's group, up north, and another group might be coming along as well, so it should be a really good crowd and these things are always a lot of fun.

It'll be five or six days living out in Nature, doing activities and celebrating Samhain together. Just let Matthew know if you do decide to join us – he's Mr. Organised and he's sorting this whole thing out."

EmeliaBell
EmeliaBell
104 Followers
12