An Unearthing of Goddesses

An Unearthing of Goddesses Part 23

Anya led the group into the cave. They were blinded by the bright light, all entering with hands held, and breath held. After many steps, the light dimmed and they could make out a village before them, of simple thatched huts. The first house had a garden with a vegetable patch bursting with produce, and golden domed bee skeps. Bees buzzed all around the group, and Lhamo resisted swatting them. A tall man arrived then, wearing a white screened mask and holding a smoking iron, which Lhamo thought looked rather like one of Lha-sung's flour sifters. A trail of smoke emitted from its pointed tip.

Lhamo approached him. "Excuse us good man. Are you the keeper?"

He looked at Lhamo for a time. "I am. What is it that you wish?"

"We seek a woman. Keiko. She may go by the name of Tatsuta-Hine."

"That one. She has left." The beekeeper made a dismissive sweep of his hand, making the smoke swirl.

"How do you know this?" Gaia stepped to Lhamo's side.

"The bees know." The keeper swept his arm over the skeps. The bees buzzed.

"We must know where she is." Gaia pressed.

"She has returned to her time." The beekeeper shrugged.

"And what is her time?"

"Far from now. The bees know." The beekeeper turned to leave.

"Please. We must know where she is." Lhamo entreated as the keeper turned back.

Lhamo bowed deeply. "It is a matter of much importance. To the balance of the natural world, such as you have so carefully reproduced here."

The keeper considered him for a time, then nodded. "I will share a guide with you." He plucked out a single bee from where it sat on his sleeve. It buzzed over Lhamo's head. With effort, he kept still as it circled and landed on his bare arm, then turned.

"I am honored. May the Gods be with you." He sincerely hoped he did not get stung, but managed to effect a sincere bow.

"And with you." The beekeeper retreated. The bee rose from Lhamo's arm and buzzed ahead. The group followed.

They left the vegetable garden and entered the fields beyond. They walked through a field of tall grass, the golden sheaths waving in the breeze. Single file, they followed Lhamo through the path. Gaia brought up the rear, both arms stretched out catching the tops of the soft fronds as they billowed around them. The group walked through the grass with the bee leading the way, until they came to an opening, and they stepped into a perfectly circular clearing. The bee landed on Lhamo's arm again and Lhamo began to rise with him – he grabbed Anya's hand, and she grabbed her sisters and they all rose above the field, looking down on an arial view that at first looked like an alien crop circle, until Lhamo recognized something.

"The symbol!" He called out breathlessly. "It is the same!" In the field, the lost symbol was carved out into the grasses, the graceful strokes depicting harmonic energy. They floated back down into the circle.

"Show us who Keiko is?" he asked the bee guide. The bee started to buzz furiously, darting erratically about them and causing Anya to throw her arm over her face. It spiraled about them at breakneck speed, until the air was fuzzy and the grasses around them had faded to another scene.

They saw Keiko's life unfold in front of them then. First as a frail girl at an orphanage housed in a nunnery, then full of hope in an apprenticeship to a weaver, then as a young adult filled with the joy of first love and a baby, ending in a tragic marriage and a lost child. She had returned to the nunnery and spent her days there. She worshipped the Shinto gods, visited Inari's temple, and took Tatsuta-Hine as a protector, dedicating her weaving to the goddess. She became tragically obsessed with fortune telling and the occult, trying to contact the dead and find her daughter again. It was why she sought out Mount Osore, known as a place for the souls of dead children to cross the river to the underworld.