Kevin's Watch

Lord Casmir approaches Alina, moving slowly with his age. He is smiling in a friendly manner. As he gets closer, his eyes widen. In Yiddish, he says in a loud whisper, "Art thou knowing? Art thou wise in the ways of the other world? Dost thou follow the left-hand path?"

Alína watches her host approach, shocked not only at the language used, but at the familiarity implied. Her worry about refusing to offer obeisance forgotten, she bursts out in surprise, "!!איר רעדן ייִדיש, Eer raden Yiddish!!" (You speak Yiddish!!)

[Let's write it all in English, please. Flavor words are fine, but too much in another language gets confusing for thse of us who don't speak it.]

Casmir smiles. "Oh, yes. I spent some time studying with your people in Prague. The great Kabbalist mystics are quite amazing, I must say."

He leans in closer, almost too close, and whispers "Thou hast the look of one who kens the powers Thaumaturgical!"

The Jewess parrots the word back at him.

"Thaumaturgical?" she replies, shaking her head and backing away just a bit. He is a foreigner to our tongue, she thinks to herself. But that does not excuse his getting quite so close. I do not smell excessive drink on him neither, which might have given him minor leave to do so...

"I have done some studying of Kabbalah, mil-rd. But my focus is more on healing and natural remedies. Herbs, barks, berries; the magic within nature mixed with Shechina's blessings and rituals to draw them out. Perhaps this is what you sense, though I do not understand what it is about me tonight for you to have sensed it upon first sight."

Her gaze happens upon her own Lady talking in the alcove, and she relaxes just a little as realization dawns on her. "Oh, of course. As I was to be your guest this evening, you must have been told a little about me. The Countess Karantanija recognized me on sight, and had heard of my reputation for healing. I was invited to this dinner for some reason; is it to discuss and trade healing techniques with you? I would be most honored and gratified of the opportunity," she finishes with an expectant smile.

The warlock chuckles, "Why, it's nothing so mercenary. It pleases Lord Claudius to invite those of every caste, so that all may benefit from the mixed flavor. But, I find that my interest is piqued more to chat with a fellow practitioner."

"But tell me, what dost thou know of the black road? The forbidden arts? I can show thee the way."

Alína's eyes widen at her host's words, eagerness starting to shine through, then quickly repressed. "I have practiced what arts I do know in isolation since leaving Prague; to be offered a chance to study further with another is a cause for celebration," she breathes in excitement. "But though my people frown upon, nay some even claim halacha forbids, the road I have chosen to follow, I would not refer to it as a black road.

"My arts mainly focus on healing, and what insight and clarity of vision I may help bring to others who find themselves momentarily lost within hurts or despair. Shechina, the Mother of All, grants her blessings on those who know how to ask, or those who have a practitioner ask for them. In what ways could these be seen as Dark? Or part of a black road? They are a cause for joy, for dancing in the dark of the New Moon.

"But if you speak of furthering knowledge in those arts I practice, or of learning new ones which may be of service to others, I would gladly speak with you of these things."

Casmir chortles with mirth. "No, child. Those are not black arts at all, are they. I could teach you the arts of which I speak, if you are willing to learn."

He holds out his hand, palm up. "Here, take my hand then if you would learn of my arts."

Alína's jaw drops slightly.

He knows our language, but not our ways, she thinks to herself.

Putting her hands behind her back, she looks her host directly in the eye. "To touch one of the opposite gender who is not joined by law under the chuppah is forbidden, mil-rd."

The mirth quickly leaves his face. "So is practicing witchcraft, and yet here you are quibbling over which laws to break?"

His hand darts out to grab her forearm. When he touches her, she feels agony coursing through her entire body. It's as if every muscle in her body were having horrible cramps. She tries to scream, but her muscles are clenching so strongly, she can't get the breath. In a few moments, she collapses to the floor, and Casmir releases her arm.

Her body clenching in agony, the Jewess looks at the man standing above her, gazing at her as if waiting to gauge her response.

Her eyes remaining steadily locked on his, she waits out the spasms, then tries to breath slowly and deeply, willing her body to unclench. She does not try to rise right away; instead as soon as she can, she reaches up and grasps her upper lip between her thumb and index finger. Defiantly, she wiggles and massages her lip, allowing her breath to slow and deepen more and more. The pain relief is immediate, though the muscles resist relaxing. As she continues massaging her lip, she stays where she is, her eyes narrowing. "Worship of the feminine side of the duology of G-d is not forbidden. Celebrating Shechina's monthly cycle at Rosh Chodesh, the New Moon, is not forbidden. Using her gifts is not forbidden. Some claim halacha forbids making use of her gifts, but that ruling is not accepted everywhere. Judge me not!" she gasps out as her body continues to relax from the rigid state it was in.

Casmir spits onto the ground. "Judge? I? I judge no one. It is not my place to judge. I have broken all of these laws and more, and yet here I stand, unbowed by Hashem or king. Judgement is between thou and Hashem. But I do so abhor liars. Do not deny what thou art; admit that thou breakest tradition, whatever thy rationalizations, and I will teach thee something more of real thaumaturgy."

Once again, he holds out his hand to help her rise.

Letting go of her lip, and gingerly stretching each muscle before attempting to move in any other way, the Jewess continues to gaze back and challenges him in reply, "And if I refuse your 'offer?' Will you again attack me, until my diaphragm locks in such an intense spasm my breath refuses to sustain me?"

If he gives justification for Pikuach nefesh, I may yet get through this without further injury, she thinks to herself.

"Attack thee? Thou insultest me, surely. I but reinforced a lesson, as would I with any stubborn child. And thou noticeth that thou'rt completely unharmed."

"To answer thy question, en thou refuseth mine offer, I would..." he smiles, almost kindly, "teach thou of the Dark Arts another way."

He crouches down next to her, hand still outheld. "Wouldst learn in full awareness of what thou learnest, or lying to thyself all the while?"

"Only a tzadik comes close to keeping all 613, bahershn," Alína replied. "The rest of us keep as best we can for the glory of Hashem. I choose to keep the genders separate physically, unless needed for the application of my skills or," her gaze glances away momentarily, "unless another to take the place of my Danek should enter my life one day..."

Her stare returns to the warlock, as she reaches behind to push herself upright to a sitting position, waving off the proffered hand. "But that is neither here nor there. What needs answering now, if you will, is the question of why?" Her eyes narrow slightly as she regards the man offering to teach her dark arts. "You barely know of me, much less anything about me. Why would you teach me of "the Dark Arts another way," even should I refuse? Why?"

"My reasons are mine own." he snaps, taking his hand away.

"And wouldst thou deny thyself the knowledge of greater power, thus limiting the 'application of thy skills' forever?"

"No matter. You have made your choice."

Casmir's shape changes, and now Danek stands before the seated Alina. The appearance is exact in every detail that Alina can see. Danek looks around quickly, a surprised look on his face. "Wife? What has happened to me?"

Her legs bent to her side in preparation to stand, Alína stops still in shock. Danek??? "Oh, Danek!!" she cries out, ready to rise and run in to his embrace. Then stops herself, and stares intently at him. "But, you were murdered in Prague," she mumbles to herself. "You would be there, not here..."

As she continues to stare and attempts to see her husband, she pales and her hands tremble slightly. "Beloved, either you are being brought forth from the afterlife by a dark magic, or this is an imager's trick designed to fool me. In neither case should you be afraid. If it is really you, you are beyond any true touch of he who has summoned your shade. If it is just a trick, I am sorely disappointed in he who has attempted this deception. In either case, it seems at the moment I can not see to tell the difference, as you know I should be able to do..."

Danek's eyes are wide with fright. "Alina? I know not how... I was in Gehinnom, I saw all I had done, and I came to know that by allowing thee to continue thy sinful magic, I was sinning as well. Sinning so much that I will never move on to Gan Eden."

"Who is't thou speakest of, who summoned me? Was it not thee who summoned me with thy unclean rites? Hast not done enough to ruin me, wife? That thou now bringest me back and tormentest me further?"

"No Danek, it was not me. Thou wert called here by a warlock of dark arts. I am not even sure if thou'rt not him, in trickery; my sight has left me," she trembles slightly.

"Thou surely knowst one is not judged in Olam Ha-Ba for the actions and sins of another; thy support of my gifts will not cast thee as utterly wicked. Why thou beest still in Gehenna beyond your yahrzeit, I do not know. But unless all our teachings are wrong, it has nothing to do with thy support of my gifts while in this life.

"I miss thee, Danek. I miss our life in Prague. I needed to tell thee that, even if thou'rt a trick of he who is seemingly testing me tonight."

Rising slowly, she addresses the shade of her deceased husband with longing in her eyes, yet she keeps far enough back to avoid touching the shade. "Are thee not proud of the eyniklekh?" she asks, beaming with pride. "The littlest one, Danekeh, is the spitting image of thee, is he not?"

"Alina, our ways were wrong. Christ was the moshiach, and we ignored him. His teachings say that 'we are our brother's keepers' and suggest that by allowing wickedness to continue, we are agents of that wickedness." He almost cries.

"Oh, wife..." Just then, Danek's shape shifts back to that of Casmir. He is laughing, deeply.

In a bad impersonation of Danek, he says, "Oh wife... ah hah ha! Now knowest thou what power I offer thee, girl. The power to pluck thyself and thy beloved from the cycle of life and death, and to protect yourselves from the consequences of thy actions."

Just then, a scream can be heard from another room. It sounds like that of a young girl, perhaps Sabine's age.

Alína stares at the shade of her husband, as he waxes on about the dogma of some misguided fools. "The rabbi of Galilee who is idolized as divine by that misled sect of Jews? Look around thee, Danek. He has met none of of the prophesies of the messianic age; and if the tales are remotely true, has had over a thousand years to bring them about. Nay, he is as false as the others who claim to be moshiach in troubled times..."

As Danek's image morphs back in to Casmir, Alína draws in her breath and regards him steadily. "Your power is trickery and deceit, bahershn. Pain as well, as the clenching of my muscles showed, as well as the reawakened pain now in my heart. A dark road, as you already admitted.

"My arts are neither, regardless of what others may think the TANACH teaches. I use them to help, not harm..."

Turning sharply away as if to dismiss her dinner companion, a child's scream is suddenly heard from a side room. Clutching her evening satchel in which she had a few emergency stores, Alína runs towards the source of the scream.