The Heir of King Meldh, Copyright 2004 by S.J.E. Brainerd
Kriki's Gift, Copyright 2013 by S.J.E. Brainerd

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Kriki's Gift, Chapter XXIX, Reading 16



With her instructions given, she focused her attentions to the task at hand and envisioned a sphere filled with the light and love of the Spirit.  The goodness of the Spirit was the ultimate antithesis of the Valkea's darkness.  Confined within the sphere, the Valkea wouldn't be able to press her attack for her dark powers would be neutralized just like a shadow vanishes when exposed to direct light.  Flindra used the recent experience she'd gained when she'd cut off the power of the Nameless Ones to rescue Heleena.  During that confrontation, she had sought to isolate the child from the control of the Enemy; now in very much the same manner, she would isolate the Valkea from the source of her powers.  It was perhaps a soft approach to a battle, but she expected it to be an effective one.
After she rescued Heleena, Ghesor had complimented her on her choice of an indirect approach in that contest with the Nameless Ones.  He had explained that there was great wisdom in setting the indirect to act directly and making adversity act as an advantage.  History showed that those who triumph in a confrontation knew beforehand how to analyze the indirect and the direct and to use it to their advantage.  It had taken her some thought to figure out the full import what he'd been saying, but now she understood his wisdom.  Acting contrary to what was expected in a battle, in and of itself, created an advantage.  It was a superior strategy to appear soft and indirect when an enemy anticipated the hard and straight, and unwaveringly direct when the opposite expectation held true.  She thought of Ghesor's lesson on strategy and focused her thoughts on the light of the Spirit to counter the darkness of the Nameless Ones in her indirect challenge of the Valkea.
Kalmar had an instinctive and keenly sharp sense of justice.  As the King, he was in fact the highest judge in the land and what the Valkea and her wild horde had done was a crime against all of his people.  She and her band needed to be neutralized so they couldn't carry out the evil designs of the Nameless Ones.  Revenge was not justice - in truth it fed into the Darkness - but it became necessary to isolate and destroy evil to prevent it from inflicting harm on the innocents of the land.  He tapped into the righteous fury he had felt when he'd learned of Blazina's ordeal and the infuriated outrage that had filled his heart at seeing the nightmare spawn of the Valkea's horde born to threaten and torment his people.  His anger was not hot and reckless; rather it was cool, patient and focused.  He fed this energy into his vision of inexorable justice.  Calling upon his anger to fuel his attack was akin to a taproot finding a deep well of water, which drew strength into the branches high above.  He had passed judgment on the Valkea and was now readying to carry out the sentence.  Knowing that the very concepts of truth and justice would be an anathema to her, he focused his thoughts on these things to fill his zone projected around her with an environment that would surely weaken her.

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