Sparkabet - A is for Abodement
With the Year of the Spark finished the Sparky Army is moving onto other things. The alphabet is up first on the list of things to be sparked and I'm kicking it off with A.
Rating - PG
Summary - Abodement: An omen or foretelling. John and Elizabeth are given a warning about what is to come.
Abodement
By Hannah554
A is for Abodement - an omen, a foretelling.
It was as though he’d just stepped into a scene from a movie and the change was so sudden it caught him off guard. They’d gone from the serene looking village, wooden houses and thatch roofs into some medieval temple and the change had been as quick as walking through a door. The large room was dimly lit, benches lined up one after another like you would see in any church. The isle down the middle had a red carpet covering the stone floor and leading to the few steps that took them to the altar. The candle lights flickered slightly making the shadows they cast dance and giving the room an even more eerie feel than it already had. The altar itself was made of dark wood, with a dark red sheet laid over it and candles in two of the corners. There was a book in the middle, obviously an old one if the yellowing pages were anything to go by and thicker than anything John had ever read. The words were another language, one John didn’t recognise and from the puzzlement on Elizabeth’s face she didn’t know it either.
If John hadn’t been around these people for days already the alarm bells in his head would have been too intense to ignore. As it was he was fairly sure that these were good people, genuine in their wish to trade with Atlantis, they just had a creepy religion going on here and of course like any good religion it interfered with just about everything it came in contact with, including negotiations with outsiders. As a rule the Kintari would not make a deal with anyone until the leaders had been met with the approval of the overseer. He was not the head of the village, they had a council for that but he was the head of the religious order here and to gain approval from him was to gain it from their God.
“Please wait here,” Maria said as she walked out of the room through the small door beside the altar. Teyla had assured them that she had dealt with these people before, that meeting the Overseer was more of a formality than anything else, the worst that would happen is they would come out of here incredibly creeped out, a feeling John had already felt in abundance. Apparently it wasn’t going to get any better either, the Overseer was also some kind of psychic, a fortune teller but according Teyla it was more than just cheap tricks and broad guesses.
“I hope this doesn’t take long,” Elizabeth whispered as though she feared any loud sound might offend whatever deity it was they worshipped here, John wasn’t entirely sure why his voice too was quiet when he responded.
“Me too,” he replied watching her as she looked at the high ceiling, wooden beams placed strategically to ensure the building didn’t fall. Under normal circumstances Elizabeth would be enjoying the look she was getting into another culture, into such a big part of who they were but the creepiness of this place seemed to have dimmed her curiosity, he couldn’t say he blamed her.
The door to the side creaked open but it wasn’t Maria that came through, it was a man dressed in red robes, a hood casting shadows over his face and a tall staff in his hand, if this guy wasn’t the Overseer then he was pretty terrified to meet the guy who was. He stepped toward Elizabeth, closing the small distance that had been between them. The man stopped in front of the altar, his face still hidden from view but from what little John could see the man was old, probably very old.
“You come to seek the approval of the God,” the Overseer stated, his voice deep and unwavering.
“We do,” Elizabeth replied, her diplomat’s voice in play now, her own was probably a little shaky.
“Then step forward and be judged,” the man instructed and hesitantly John and Elizabeth stepped closer to the altar. “Hold out your hands,” he said and they both did as they were asked, the Overseer picked up a candle from the corner of the Altar tipping it to the side over Elizabeth’s hand until the wax ran onto it and Elizabeth recoiled slightly. John’s other hand twitched slightly in an unconscious effort not to reach for his gun, he was far too tense, instead he kept his palm still as the wax was poured onto his hand as well. “Light is the bringer of knowledge, without it we would not see the truth, for no one in the dark can truly see their path.”
There was some sense in that but that didn’t mean it crept him out any less, all the same John held his hand still as the Overseer examined it, examined the wax, his palm and his wrist. He did the same to Elizabeth and then stood up straight, his face was still hidden and John could honestly say he didn’t like that; he had no idea who he was dealing with here.
“Your purpose here is true, you have approval,” the Overseer told them “And now for your gift, a glimpse of what is to come.”
John stayed quiet, he wasn’t sure what that meant and he wasn’t sure he wanted to find out but if this was what they had to do to trade with these people then so be it. The Overseer examined their hands again, pouring more wax onto them, this time enough that it dripped to the altar.
“The light reveals the dark,” the Overseer informed them. “A darkness that approaches quickly and two paths you may take. One will lead you back to the light, the other to an eternal stay in the dark; there will be no turning back once the path has been chosen.”
“And what are those paths?” Elizabeth questioned quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Both lead to loss but one to more, a sacrifice may have to be made to protect the good,” the man stated. “May the Great God guide you.”
The Overseer left then and despite the urge to call him back and demand more information John let him go, he had a feeling that was the most he was going to get, he should have known it would be a riddle. Maria returned as the Overseer left, she smiled to them both and led them back out of the temple, back to daylight. The rest of the team were waiting for them there, talking quietly amongst themselves until they saw the two leaders approaching.
“Well?” Rodney questioned immediately.
“We got approval,” Elizabeth told him, her voice a little shaky now that the diplomat had gone away.
“And massively creeped out while we were at it,” John added with a glance at Teyla who smiled and nodded.
“I trust you were told of your future,” she said curiously.
“In a very scary sounding riddle,” John replied.
“You should take what you were told seriously, I have never met anyone who did not have what the Overseer says come true,” Teyla told them, something in her voice making John worry a little more about what the old man had said. He hadn’t liked the sound of it before and he liked it even less now but he wasn’t someone who would let a fortune teller run his life, he could be more wary but he wasn’t going to keep dwelling on it.
TBC