Anathema

[hand_de_la_doom]

Long ago, deep in the black woods of Ashdown Forest, there was a boy named Matthæus. He had been banished several years earlier. He lived in the abandoned ancient citadel in a large tunnel leading into town. Every night he would sneak into town and climb to the top of Lewes Castle and play countless arpeggios on his guitar with extreme virtuosity. The townsfolk always saw him, but none alerted the castle guards, as they too gazed in awe. Many claimed that these were the "lost arpeggios" that were heard during Lucifer's war against God; the tempation of Adam and Eve; the Toba, Thera, and Vesuvius volcanic eruptions; the crucifixion of Christ; the Rhodes earthquake; the Grote Mandrenke storm tide; and most recently in the lightning as the "devil's fingerprints" were left at the Holy Trinity Church in Blythburgh. He would play the "lost arpeggios" until the sun rose and Venus shone in the sky.

One day, he stopped going. The townspeople wondered what could have happened to him. The bravest man in town, Bartholomew, went into the forest to discover the truth. As we wandered deeper and deeper, he began to feel a strange sensation. He saw the great citadel and then all went blank.

He awoke to find himself in a chamber of blinding light. He looked around frantically to find a way out. He found nothing. But then he closed his eyes. When he opened them he was once again in the forest; this time he was face to face with Matthæus. He asked Matthæus "Where is this place that I have just been?"
Matthæus said to him "Paradise."
The brave man was confused at this."Do you mean...heaven?"
"No."
"I don't understand."
"When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything in him, so that God may be in all."

Now the brave man understood why Matthæus had been banished, why he played those arpeggios, and why he stopped doing so.