Chosen of the One: Chapter 4, Part 2

29 December 2025

From the context, both date and what I wrote, this post was originally shared on or near Thanksgiving, 2013. I chose this time to leave it, as the expression of gratitude is still relevant today. We again remind our readers to right-click on the Glossary link, open in a new tab or window, thus enabling the reader to learn what each of these new terms mean.

25 November 2013

As this week is our American celebration of Thanksgiving, I must pause and express my gratitude to all of my readers for continuing to read! Also, I must express my thanks to the Father of us all, who gave me this gift, enabled me to train it, in the process of which filled my mind with the best that has been thought and written, and then gave me the opportunity to spend my strength & time using this wonderful gift, and sharing it with all of you! Thank you all!

Now, when we last left Klaybear, he had encountered a disguised Lord of Evil, who marked Klaybear with his sign; this week, we will witness the consequences of that mark, and how it corrupts Klaybear’s vision of his life’s quest. In this section, I chose to use ‘stream of consciousness’ throughout his corrupted vision in order to express its corruption: the vision is ‘crushed together’, one image of the future smashed into the next, and the next, and so forth. The visions play and replay, forward and backward, confusing the future more than revealing it, which is the point. As I counsel readers in the Author’s Preface to this volume, just let these images flow over you as you read them, knowing that, like Klaybear, little meaning can be gleaned from them at this point in the narrative. However, the farther you read (in all 7 volumes of The Redemption series), more and more of them will make sense; in later chapters, Klaybear, with the help of his master and others, will try and make sense of them, realizing that there are two distinct visions, although smashed together, and that each of these shows different outcomes for future events. These corrupted visions have the entire narrative of this series as their scope, so most of them will not become clear until later. Read on, then return to this section as the story continues to unfold, and in the end, the reader will make sense of these visions, even as the characters of our story do so!

Chapter 4, Part 2

Klaybear inhabited a shadow-world. Almost the moment consciousness returned, from long habit, a magluku flashed overhead, but its light was wan and pale. He felt himself rolled onto his back and saw a shadow reaching toward his right hand. He flinched when it touched his palm and arched in pain as his palm burned. He tried to cry out in anguish but felt his air blocked, his voice mute. His limbs did not respond to any command his mind issued, his body limp, numb but for the burning. He felt the shadow release his hand and the burning became less sharp although it lingered. Another shadow, pulsing with blackness, moved toward his forehead; his voiceless shout to flee went unheeded by his body. The pulsing shadow stabbed into his head, a dagger of pure flame slicing into the center of his mind. He wanted to scream, howl at the darkness, but his air was stopped. He heard only a slight moan escape his mouth in spite of the violent contraction of his diaphragm. His forehead screamed with agony where the shadow touched, and he again tried to will his body move away, to flee this torture, but his limbs remained limp. The shadow pulled away from his forehead, but the pain increased within his head. As if across great distances of time and space, he heard words that slammed into him like boulders falling from great heights: Now your waking will be little better than the nightmare of your sleeping. Awake, the sign will mark your separation from those whom you would save. Asleep, the sign will open visions of your future, and the horror of your visions will leave you sleepless. Then, perhaps, you will truly taste the bitterness of being chosen. The shadows withdrew, and a point of light blinked on, racing suddenly forward and entering his mind through the wound he had just received. Images crashed into every corner of his thoughts, leaving him momentarily stunned by the speed and disorder with which they accosted his brain.

Young haggard older dead brother father crawling trailing blood fluid leaking staining sand wind beach tattered cloth jagged splinter blood red gushing arching agony sliding eyes open vacant red masses hair flying wet rain running gheli yellow grinning teeth curved steel flying slicing flesh rolling red hair trailing blood stopping body headless eyes vacant staring skyward black hair hanging muscles straining bonds sapling arched slicing cloth naked ponkola gyrating hips mounting bound figure clawing vainly shouts voiceless arched dagger plunging chest heaving heart dripping blood eyes vacant crackling blue-black hair fighting alone slain wethem fallen under puri steel biting flesh withering stream blood bubbling drinking potion bottled agony body shrunken aging seconds crackling blue-black hair falling bald beauty withering sweating blood eyes sunken vacant flesh rotting falling round face curly brown hair feet entangling webs shuddering struggling vainly voiceless shouts misshapen monstrous spider-shape puri face slicing skin limbs consuming eyes vacant staring empty sockets purgle robed black bony hand shooting fire red hair flaming brother flying flaming falling sword exploding bony cage robe withering purgle brother eyes open ashes falling vacant crumpling body naked swollen lying lashing red hair honey slicing belly blood klare face hollow eyes blood vacant empty staring unchild empty vacant staring eyes green blood red vacant spilling staining green trampling grass laughter echoeslaughterblood painlaughter staring vacanteyeslaughter bloodbloodblood laughterpain painpainpainpain. . . .

A soft voice, barely heard, called to Klaybear three times before he opened his eyes. He saw the tumbled altar with its new mark, a sign whose presence on the now fallen altar to the One stabbed his heart with fear. Every muscle ached. He pulled himself along the ground to the altar’s defaced top, grabbed a jagged piece of stone, and tried vainly to scratch out the sign still smoldering in the granite. He remembered the pain of his hand and forehead, recalled the fire still smoldering in palm and forehead, and again passed painfully into darkness.

Older brother lost staining red tattered rags carrying shadow light rain soaking grass lightning flashing massed red hair passing crystal wind gheli tripping rolling head yellow teeth headless grimace red hair maghi holding brother lost blinking out black hair kortexi straining sapling ponkola gyrating hips arrow piercing blood throat gushing death stumbling blue-black hair falling life waters kortexi black mist rising beauty webs entangling awemi struggling older brother curved swords ice raining misshapen monstrous spider-shape puri face falling kortexi blade glowing slicing webs falling black-robed purgle rising bony hand shooting fire red hair flaming brother lunging flying sword exploding bony cage robe withering purgle brother eyes open ashes falling vacant crumpled body naked swollen lying lashing red honey hair slicing belly blood klare face empty staring eyes hollow green staining staff rod sword flaring belly whole lashes green white gold fire smoothing searing flesh blood chest moving eyes filling voice calling smile wicked robed evil dagger arching chest plunging open dead god laughter echoes blood stops dagger vanishing closing wound healing breath returning whirling black door Void thrusting evil robe anguish crying beyond timespacefalling closingdrawnoutscreamsclosing silence. . . .

Kindly face white hair beard smiling eyes deep blue stars opening eternity mouth moving “thou art chosen art thou chosen chosen thou art art thou bitterness chosen thou art chosen bitterness” weeping mother rebel brother faithful world forming chaos oceans flowing mountains rising fountains trees plants fruits growing filling land grasses animals chewing swimming fish crawling mud insects flying people walking council voices dividing rebel brother falling inside rock confining light red sickly glowing tunneling rocks breaking surface taking children torturing purem bodies fires horns blackness red burning anger fighting brother kindly mouth “thou art chosen art thou chosen chosen thou art art thou bitterness chosen thou art chosen bitterness” interrupting bitter rupturing chaos staff rod sword shigmar melbarth karble kings seklesem evil rupturing order chaos opposition sustaining chaos order rupturing “bitterness chosen art thou bitterness thou art thou chosen thou art chosen art thou” kindly brother anger burning blackness horns trace bodies purem torturing children surface rocks glowing sickly falling rebel dividing council walking people flying insects swimming fish chewing animals grasses growing fruits plants trees fountains mountains oceans chaos world faithful rebel mother weeping “bitterness chosen bitterness thou chosen thou art chosen” eternity stars deep eyes smiling beard white face silence screams closing space time crying anguish evil void door whirling breath wound vanishing dagger blood echoes god dead open plunging dagger wicked smile voice eyes chest blood flesh fire belly sword rod staff hollow eyes staring empty face Klare blood belly slicing lashing swollen naked crumpled vacant falling ashes eyes brother purgle exploding sword flying brother flaming hair fire bony purgle falling webs face puri spider-shape monstrous raining ice sword curved brother older awemi webs beauty mist black kortexi waters hair stumbling death throat blood piercing arrow gyrating ponkola sapling kortexi black brother maghi headless rolling gheli wind crystal hair massed lightning grass rain light shadow rags red brother lost red rags carried. . . .

Klaybear wrenched himself awake, escaping for the moment the ebb and flow of his second vision. His right hand and forehead throbbed in time with the heavy beating of his heart. He again drew energy from the air around him, turning it upon the pain in his palm and head, trying to repair the damage suffered under the hand of the strange messenger. A deer fly buzzed past; the birds twittered above; the burning in palm and forehead cooled, charred flesh replaced by whole skin, but the mark remained, a black stain in the new pink skin of his palm. He altered the energy focused on his palm, using green kailu fire to erase the mark inscribed there. But the touch of his healing fire upon the mark only increased his pain, the wound widened, and blood flowed red across his palm and down his wrist. He moved like a three-legged dog to the stream, thrusting his hand into the water. The heat felt so intense that he expected steam to bubble out of his palm, but the clear, cold mountain stream merely washed the blood from his hand and arm. The mark shone darkly within his palm; he again turned the energy to healing, closing the wound, repairing the flesh. The crystal surface of the water calmed, giving him a sudden reflection of his face; the new pink skin highlighted the stain of the mark inscribed in his forehead. He turned his hand in the water, accidentally bringing the mark in his palm into the reflection of the mark on his forehead. When the reflection merged with the mark in his palm, red fire exploded from the water, striking the mark on his forehead, knocking him off his knees and onto his back, his head hitting one of the stones from the fallen altar.

. . . shadow rain grass lightning massed red hair crystal wind gheli rolling headless grimace maghi holding brother black kortexi sapling ponkola gyrating arrow blood throat death hair life waters kortexi black mist webs awemi curved blades ice glowing kortexi stabbing monstrous spider-shape puri face falling webs purgle bony hand fire red flaming brother sword exploding purgle brother eyes ashes vacant crumpled body naked swollen lashing red honey hair slicing belly blood klare face staring hollow green staff rod sword belly whole fire searing flesh blood chest eyes voice smile wicked dagger chest open dead god laughter echoes blood dagger wound breath whirling black door void evil anguish beyond timespacescreamsclosingsilence. . . .

Young older brother father blood fluid sand wind beach cloth jagged splinter blood agony eyes vacant red hair wet rain gheli grinning teeth steel flesh rolling hair blood body headless eyes vacant skyward black hair muscles bonds sapling slicing cloth naked ponkola gyrating mounting bound clawing voiceless dagger chest heart blood eyes vacant crackling hair alone slain comrades purem steel flesh stream blood potion agony body aging crackling blue-black bald blood eyes vacant flesh round face curly hair feet webs voiceless misshapen monstrous spider-shape puri face skin limbs eyes vacant staring empty robe black bony fire green red brother flaming sword exploding robe purgle brother eyes ashes vacant crumpled body naked swollen hair honey slicing belly blood Klare face hollow eyes blood vacant staring unchild empty staring eyes blood vacant green grass laughter echoeslaughterbloodpainlaughterstaringvacanteyes laughterbloodbloodbloodlaughterpainpainpainpainpain. . . .

Kindly face white beard smiling eyes blue stars eternity mouth moving “thou art chosen art thou chosen thou art thou bitterness chosen thou art bitterness” weeping mother rebel faithful world chaos oceans mountains fountains trees plants fruits land grasses animals chewing fish swimming insects flying people walking council rebel falling rock light sickly glowing rocks surface children torturing purem bodies fires horns burning anger brother mouth “thou art chosen art thou chosen thou art thou bitterness chosen thou art bitterness” evil order chaos staff rod sword shigmar melbarth karble kings seklesem rupturing chaos order chaos order “bitterness chosen thou chosen bitterness thou art thou chosen thou art chosen art thou” mouth brother anger burning blackness horns fires trace bodies purem children surface rocks glowing sickly light rock inside rebel voices council walking people flying insects swimming fish chewing animals grasses growing fruits plants trees fountains mountains oceans chaos forming world faithful rebel mother weeping “bitterness art thou chosen bitterness thou art chosen thou art chosen art thou” mouth eternity stars deep eyes smiling beard hair face kindly silence screams closing space time crying anguish robe void door black whirling breath healing wound dagger blood echoes laughter god dead chest dagger wicked smile voice eyes chest blood flesh fire gold white green lashes whole belly sword rod staff green hollow eyes staring empty face Klare blood belly slicing hair honey red lashing lying swollen naked body vacant ashes open eyes brother purgle robe bony sword brother flaming red green fire hand bony purgle robed-black webs face puri spider-shape monstrous misshapen older brother curved ice raining awemi webs beauty mist black kortexi waters life hair black-blue death throat blood arrow gyrating ponkola sapling kortexi black lost brother maghi red grimace headless teeth head gheli wind crystal red massed lightning grass rain light shadow rags red lost brother older lost. . . .

Klaybear groaned as he rolled onto his stomach, levering himself onto hands and knees. He crawled slowly, painfully to the stream, putting his face close to the water, drinking deeply. The crisp liquid cooled his parched throat, filled the emptiness, refreshed his soul. He rolled carefully onto his back, looking at the cedars towering above, slowly replenishing his energy. His palm and forehead burned as he drew energy to himself, but long before he could refill his empty reserves, the pain and burning rose to a fever pitch. He stopped the flow, still feeling weak, unable even to ward off the simplest elemental attack.

“My Lord!” he moaned. “It’s not supposed to be like this.” Tears welled in his eyes, flowed hot down his cheeks and into his ears. He sobbed. “It isn’t suppose to happen this way! How could I be chosen, marked as I am with the sign of thy rebel son? Who will believe me? Who will allow me to help?” He sobbed again. “Of what use am I with the sign of thy enemy emblazoned in my right palm and forehead? My Lord!” He rolled onto his side, cradling his aching head in his forearm. Tears flowed and sobs wracked the young wethi robed in green–a kailu of Shigmar, servant of Elos, loyal son of the One, marked with the sign of Gar, the One’s rebel son. . . .

Next time we will return to Blakstar and his ascent of the kortexi Mountain of Vision, the final step to becoming a full kortexi. If, however, you cannot wait until next week, the entire first book of The Redemption series, Chosen of the One, is available from Smashwords for free.