Chapter 8

* The Cosmic Guardian *

Oyooh! Oyo-oooh!

What makes the Eolis of Aeoliah so joyful that they are oblivious even from singing to the sunrise?

Oyoooh! Oyo-oooh! Yeepeeeh!

Let it be said: In the mauve sky of dawn, shines a pearl of gold. The Cosmic Guardians are back! Surely it is for Nellio. For twelve centuries they are waiting for this moment!

A slight violet mist blurs the neighbouring trees, the sky turns pink, then to gold, then to blue. The wonderful cosmic vessel is now nothing more than a small mother-of-pearl, which finally disappears in the splendour of the star of the day. It must be very high, well above the air. And huge.

The planet Aeoliah and its Eolis inhabitants remained the same. Still the birds are performing their pure and miraculous prayer at sunrise, and their song are still resonating in the crystalline air, wonderfully invigorating at this moment. How beautiful it is! How the Eolis are happy! Here they come out with their tall dew brushes, a tuft of hair on a long stem of grass. Always active, always happy, always subtly leaping, they are busy singing, responding to birds, greeting each other from one house to another. What fresh feelings!

Now they eat, or go to visit the compost. At this time we speak softly, because the grass is still wet. Shh! Put on your big hat-flower, nice Eoline, and trot to the pretty garden. Here is Sir caterpillar, who unrolls and feels the nascent lukewarmness of the Sun. There, next to the big cactus, without thorns of course, grow the kind pomminis, and near Ellonorée's squash-house pink boudzinias are flowering (This is because they are shy). Quick, spread these dead leaves at the foot of the big Mielorhodon: it is full of ripe fruits, yum yum, a good meal in perspective! And do not forget: kiss madly your sweet lover, every five minutes at least. No, every three minutes.

Aeoliah is still the Pure, the grandiosely Beautiful, the superbly Free and Virgin, the Vivifying, the accomplice, inviolate and mysterious, whimsical and funny, fairy and poetic. It is like this since its creation, and it will remain so until the end of this Sun.

The source can sing proudly in the exuberant greenery, and the fairies drink there without a shadow of a fear: here a «property developer», that does not exist. The Eolis do not see the grey. Their happiness is always integral and unalterable. Seen from here, no harm, even minimal, no pain, no greyness, not even routine or habit, ever dims the flame in their eyes. Impossible. «Utopian». Beliefs, as say the Sirs on Earth. The Eolis do not know the very existence of it, they are even not capable of imagining that one can be so sick as to want to destroy such a splendour. They only know to love, to be happy and merry, and they do it very well. Only the devoted Souls Gardeners have an idea of the non-good things, but they do not talk of these to the others. Even among the Earthling souls they have adopted, the last traces of evil, of grey, end dissolving in the warm Sun of Love, of Joy, of the breathtaking Beauty of their marvellous planet.

On Earth, there are many beauties, as many as on Aeoliah in fact. But rude souls have the terrible power of passing in front of them without being moved, without leaving their larval thoughts of profit or power. On Aeoliah even that is not thinkable. Beauty captivates you, grabs you and transports you: no escape from Happiness, the heart gets mad, and flow tears of joy. In our present life on Earth, Happiness is sometimes so fleeting that we notice it only when it leaves us; on Aeoliah it is a vivid emotion, which at any time of the day can overwhelm you for your greatest joy!

Why so many privileges for the natives of this wonderful planet? Unfair facetiousness of an arbitrary Creator? Heroic psychological conquest? No, not even. Simply, Aeoliah is in the normal universe. Where are born and live all those who really do not want evil. Where Earth will join them too, as soon as we do not want it either.

 

Nellio's village has changed. With time, it moved a little further up the rocks, a little closer to Nellio's platform, next to his pyramid where he is still living. Just a bit more, and this place could be used for the common meals. But they are still eating on the other platform, at the top of the hill, near the pink cistus arbours.

Nellio's pyramid is now framed by two beautiful trees, which in the afternoon cast their shadow on the grass. Besides, the whole neighbourhood is now wooded, and even some ancient fields. How it is beautiful, these clear and smooth rocks, on a background of clear moss, with these simple trees, large trunks and balls of leaves.

The platform remained available, according to the instructions given to Nellio twelve centuries earlier. To maintain a place without having to work, the Eolis do not bother: they put alflor moss. It grows so much, that nothing else can take root, and it can keep its own moisture in its compact leaves. It is so thick that one sinks completely: you have to fly to get out. On the other hand, to invite a Cosmic Guardian to sit down, it is ideal.

The Cosmic Guardians are not hurried people, as we saw. They work with time. The ship does not come back the next day or the following days. No matter: its appearance is already a message. And nice, otherwise it would not show up in the dawn.

 

So let us wait.

The inhabitants of the village are for most of them still the same, except for the Souls First Aid, scattered a bit everywhere in the other villages on the plateau. The place left by their departure never was really filled, so the village remained quite small. And quiet.

Nellio's friends are still there, and in fact they are now forming, along with some others, the core of the new village. It is all about Nellio, without it being said.

Adenankar and Liouna preferred that the Earth's souls they supported took birth a little further on the plateau: more than fifty now. No more than two or three per village: they know, and the ancient Earthlings soon realized too, that an excessive grouping tends to resurrect the legacies of the past. Let us erase them first! But they still need some contact with each other, because they can support each other. The plateau with its two hundred villages is the ideal place for such an organization.

Algenio and Liouna settled near the meals place, where the pink cistus arbours are now enclosed by tall trees. Liouna presides over the maintenance of this place, with the help of others in the village.

Anthelm and Elnadjine no longer have a home of their own, because they often travel for long months. Anthelm undertook the study of the great Aeolian Wisdom... When, after a long stay in a distant centre or school of the spirit, they reappear, on the back of some big exotic bird, with Elnadjine's immense hair, clear signal noticeable from far, it is always a joy for the village!

Adenankar and his ethereal companion Milareva still have their base in the trees behind the village. This surprisingly solid construction was able to withstand all this time, although the trunk supporting it had grown twice its initial girth. It was designed for! The pieces of wood are mounted in a way to adapt their angles. This corner of the forest only changed little: the cathedral of greenery and light is still beautiful, with its impressive pillars, its vines covered with flowers, its wonderful birds, its carpet of leaves. Some trees had fallen, creating as many small clearings full of thickets and light, where future great trees are being prepared. From beneath the shaded sylve, you can see a haze of insects, dancing in circles of luminous stars...

Milareva finally become accustomed to live near the village, at least for periods. She is always discreet, but she comes and goes, speaks to the one or to the other, sings with the birds, takes them on her knees, sometimes stays on one of the places to sort cotton or to prepare meals, but she never stay to eat. At times, she becomes again the ghost, as in the past, and for twenty or thirty years we only get at times a glimpse of her white silhouette in the night.

Her main activity is to take care of the ancient Earthlings, with whom her feminine presence is often irreplaceable. She does herself their mother of the souls. One must always check, listen, comfort, with those souls who suffered, and whose bad folds can still come out again long after. It takes a lot of Happiness and light to erase everything! In spite of that, things are finally better than in their hopes: they had difficulties, but no real failure to deplore until now. The merit is especially to the power of Aeoliah, the strength of Its plan, (of its egregore, it would be said) its energy, the unalterable joy of living of its inhabitants, their Enthusiasm, their incessant activity...

How happy they are, these ancient Earthlings among the Eolis! Not only they have an Eoli body, but also the heart, Enthusiasm, kindness, and vitality of Eolis... In fact, after only a few years of Aeolian life, they are hard to distinguish from the other Eolis. The older ones, like Algenio, are Eolis in their own right, living their lives without any reference to Adenankar or Milareva. Algenio is now master piper and he holds his place among the others in the band, and in the village's festivals. Does he remember only? In any case he never speaks about it anymore.

Those we saw taking birth at the beginning of the first book «The Gardens of Aeoliah», are no longer young Eolis! We knew them shy, going it secret to see Adenankar. Now we find them blooming and standing proudly among the elders of the village. There were births, and even Liouna and Algenio had a child, with the slightly strange name of Aron. He hardly talks about himself, and he always dresses in dark blue like his mother, with a very small hat of the same colour. He does not have a beard, which is quite rare for Eolis with brown hairs. He seems to have no memory of any former life, probably he never living in a material world before Aeoliah. Although he is a perfectly regular Eoli, a sense of mystery hovers around him. He does not smile, as if he was always immersed in some very deep meditation. He made himself a flute in an unknown mode, of which he plays strange melodies. Does this have anything to do with the Souls First Aid? Is he a sage? Even Adenankar cannot say. If you want to know, fellow readers, come back in four or five hundred years. Aron probably wants to live his happiness like all the other Eolis children, before revealing his secret.

And Nellio? He is still Nellio. Discreet, speaking little, cultivating his garden. He is still affectionately surrounded by his friends, and pampered by Milareva. He managed to remove from his mind any reference to his lost love so far, and does not suffer. He is even happy. Not so much as others, but a little.

Curiously he is the only one not to see the great cosmic ship. He is getting up late. He goes to bed early, too, and he spends the night sleeping without interruption. What is he doing for all this time? Does he dream? Does he join his Aurora in some limbo? Is he praying for her? Or is he just unconscious?

Note that at this time, Adenankar and the sages of Irizdar have no recent news from Aurora. They just know that the soul who hurt her so long ago is still refusing to go back into incarnation to solve this problem with her, and thus allow her to free herself. They know that in the meantime Aurora had many lives on Earth where she learned a lot.

 

Finally, one month after the arrival of the great ship, here is the Cosmic Guardian. The Eolis normally never see the Cosmic Guardians, for them they are like mythological beings, with whom they never have any business anyway. Then his coming is a very strange event, as if on Earth suddenly appeared some Messiah, of whom one would sometimes speak, without thinking of ever seeing him. And then, it is for Nellio: What a joy! What Enthusiasm! What a Hope is born in the good little heart of the Eolis!

The Cosmic Guardian appeared at dawn, like the ship, as sometimes do travellers of the night or the Eolis of the mountain. They found him sitting in lotus on Nellio's lawn. Just like the Eolis, in his meditation he listened to the wonderful song of the birds and admired the sunrise, hieratic figure in the golden mist, his nostril quivering, the eyes lost in the marvellous landscape, or smiling at the Eolis who were arriving one by one to sit at his feet. No one has seen him coming, and the first-comers say that he already was like that at the cool hours, before any gleam in the east.

Nellio woke up well before usual. He is in the Guardian's hand. Because remember, the Cosmic Guardian is our human size, while the Eolis, they are winged imps small as tits. What a contrast! He is like one of those immense Buddha statues adored in India, with the same ineffable smile, but alive. What a marvellous seeing, this man with so sweet features, whose passionate look seems turned toward the Infinite! Sitting on his delicious moss seat, he is surrounded by the merry crowd of the Eolis and Eolines, collected and silent. The Sun has dispelled the fine haze of the morning, and now it radiates its joy in a crystalline, wonderfully transparent air, where the grass and the trees have put their freshest and most dapper greens.

The time to go to the garden in dew finds the Cosmic Guardian still sitting on his moss lawn, Nellio in his hand, surrounded by a wider and wider circle of Eolis, silently retaining their joy and curiosity: this imposing and important being inspires them a kind of deference and intimidated silence. Still others arrive, from the bottom of the village and from the surrounding woods, where lonely houses are nesting.

The Cosmic Guardian has sky-blue skin, like some Eolis of the distant continents. Although unquestionably masculine, he does not wear a beard, and even not hair: his skull is smooth and regular, barely bigger than ours. Only his eyes are bigger. He is ageless, subtly marrying the Enthusiasm and spontaneity of youth with the depth and quiet radiance of middle age. He is dressed in a simple tunic with short sleeves, which goes down to the calves, in a somewhat rough fabric, more blue than his skin, devoid of any insignia or distinctive mark of his rank.

He now smiles at the Eolis, occasionally passing Nellio from one hand to the other. The latter stares at him without saying anything, but we guess the storm in him...

No courtesies, no greetings, nothing to start the discussion, neither on one side nor the other. It is the supreme delicacy: these two different universes admire each other, take time to feel each other, to be penetrated by each other's vibrations, as when one smells a good fruit before taking a fist bite in it.

Because they are two worlds which almost everything opposes. Eolis live from garden and fruits, among birds and flowers; the Guardians ride lightning fast ships in the infinite Silence of the sidereal immensities. The Eolis are rather sedentary, while the Guardians have no fixed base. The Eolis and the Eolines live in nature, from what it offers them; the Guardians live in artificial vessel-citadels of the cosmos, though of a far more beautiful technology than ours. The Eolis, small, modest and discreet beings, have for sole ambition to enchant a small planet lost in a corner of the vast universe, while the Guardians are prestigious paladins with formidable powers, at the exclusive service of the noblest possible cause: life. The Eolis, at last, only feel positive and pleasurable emotions, while the Guardians know to cry before injustice and ugliness, and to fully feel Compassion for suffering beings. In their immense goodness, they accepted this servitude, this noble and beautiful sacrifice, in order to better fulfil their role of Justice. For they know that Compassion precisely points at where Innocence is, and the need for Reparation. Ah, friends readers, if one day you become a Cosmic Guardian, know that this is not always easy!

Yet, in spite of this inconceivable distance between their respective universes, the communication is immediately established between the Guardian and the Eolis, before a single word is uttered, with the greatest ease. The Guardian has a circular glance at the audience, with his big purple eyes, and slowly raises Nellio, still sitting in his hand, at the level of his huge face. The tiny assembly shudders with an impatient swell. Some murmurs begin to bloom.

How do these so different beings, who so little know each other, feel in confidence, friends, and even in intimate communion from the first minute? It is that both love and live the same universal laws: love, beauty, mutual help. Their common silence similarly aims at enjoying the same poetry in this so warm landscape. They are there with the same love for Nellio and his missing companion, ready to do anything to reunite them. This same Love of the Universal Laws guarantees them the same Harmony with the Creation and all its occupants, the same Peace, conditions of the same absolute Trust. So, whatever the differences in colour, size, culture, and even spirit, they know that they are all Brothers, and all Sons of the same Universe. So everything is simple. And everything is possible!

 

At last arrive the ones everybody was waiting for: Adenankar, Milareva and two Irizdar scholars who were in their home. They sit right in front of the Guardian, where some place was left for them.

Another ten minutes of delicious Silence... Someone in the assembly, no longer patient, screams «Aurora!» And this is the signal of a mythological hubbub among the Eolis! The Guardian laughs sweetly, then announces, without preamble, with a harmonious slightly grave voice: «Good news from Aurora».

As he does not continue, it is Adenankar who asks: «We do not known for so long. Did the soul who hurt her finally accepted to reincarnate to repair what it broke?» Even the Gardener of the Souls speaks with a great respect to this august creature!

«Yes, he accepted. (Thrill of joy)

- Still, him and Aurora must grow up and meet.

- All that is ready, Eolis friends. They just found themselves on planet Earth, in very good conditions. Aurora performed perfectly well, and progressed much faster than we thought. She wants to get by and she has everything to succeed. So it is just a matter of some years now.»

With these news, joy finally explodes among the Eolis! They did not expected anything for centuries or even millennia... Only few suspected a nearer term, but avoided to say anything, especially not to Nellio, not to risk giving him false hopes. If the Guardian is now so affirmative, it is certainly that the situation is almost solved.

The Eolis dance, kiss, sing, fly and flutter around the still sitting Guardian, almost touching him. If Adenankar wants to continue the conversation, he now has to take refuge... on one of the Guardian's knees, immediately imitated by Milareva next to him. From there to see the Guardian submerged by the whole village in jubilation, there is not very far.

At this moment, Nellio, suddenly emerging from his reserve, asks the Guardian some touching questions, far too intimate for us to report, but the latter responds nicely. The village cheerfully approves, while Nellio resumes, in the large and soft hand, his position of silent adoration.

We must understand the Eolis: after so many centuries of this lame condition, this unnatural knot, it is a huge relief when things return in their place! What a joy to see their friend soon again, whom a drama of the Souls First Aid deprived them for so long! Seemingly taken in fault in the strange folds of the distant Earth world, the Universal Laws finally triumphed!

«Eolis friends, we must still tell you that not everything is won yet. I would prefer to wait until Aurora actually returned, rather than taking the risk of disappointing you. But the planet Earth itself is in grave danger at the moment, to the point that all life could even be destroyed there. So, if it fails now, it would be much harder to save Aurora later. It must absolutely be done now. And for that we need your help.»

The Eolis, despite their lack of feelings such as anger or sadness, are still deeply touched, to know the Earth is in danger. And still they do not imagine that it is because of the humans themselves, no doubt they think of some natural disaster. Quick! We must do everything to save it! What a moving Compassion, coming from these beings yet so far from us! They who, on their ideal planet, experience only positive emotions and beautiful feelings, are not insensitive or indifferent to the distress of others; simply at the sight of injustice or evil, neither anger nor fear obscures their judgment or paralyses their hand. They can thus put all their energy and their spirit to defend the Good, to protect the life. And they do not restrain themselves to do it, since they organized the Souls First Aid, to help the beings of the planets where evil rages, like Earth. In the Eolis's world, there never are accidents, so the drama which deprived Nellio of his companion could only occur during a Souls First Aid session on the distant Earth...

The Guardian explains to the villagers what help he needs. These are peculiar forms of meditation, which are difficult to describe. If any of you readers practised spiritual help, you will get an idea of them, but only vague, because, as you can imagine, the science of the Guardians is infinitely more refined and precise than ours, which is still stammering. Where we content ourselves with a laudable but vague show of Love, they know exactly the precise nuances of the work which needs to be done. And for explaining it, they take advantage of the simple yet subtle language of the Eolis, so rich in variations and vibrations, and which can be understood in more than twelve different modes. Although it has not been designed for Soul medicine, it lends itself quite well to it, whereas no current Earth language easily allows for it.

Little by little, the Eolis throw away their timidity, and now we have more than twenty on the knees of the still smiling Guardian, and even on his shoulders. Fortunately his perfect body can feel neither ankylosis nor itching: definitively not the time to sneeze! In order to avoid endangering one or the other of the Eolis who run and flutter around him, he only turns his head, when he answers to one or to the other, always with good grace.

The indications for helping Aurora ended with a very strange allusion: «For the moment, these meditations will be enough. But at the critical moment we may need to intervene more directly. And here too your help will be needed». But the Guardian refuses to give more details. «To intervene directly»... To go on Earth, in astral, as do the Souls First Aid? «Shhht», the Guardian replies with a smile. Ah! But what does he mean? He somehow changes of topic, but the Eolis clearly feel that this is related:

«Earth is currently in an exceptional situation, where anything can happen, the best as the most non-good. (The language of the Eolis has no words to speak of evil) It may be necessary to use means accordingly, to help the Earthlings to discover the right choice, or to eliminate some anti-good forces. Earth is nearing the stage where it could have a planetary leadership of Sages, and one of our roles will be to favour it, perhaps to impose it. Our group in the Aeoliah galaxy is far from Earth, but yet we will be there. For your part, it would be useful to prepare yourself to receive animal souls in quantity, in case things turn out too badly on Earth. Your help can be valuable».

 

These serious subjects exhausted, the happy good mood of the Eolis takes over:

«We must show him around the village!

- We must make him taste the murlines!

- No, the chupas first!

- Hi Guardian, look at my two-storey pumpkin house!»

And here is the serious and important character running through the village, with great precautions as we imagine, on tiptoe, because nothing is prepared here for supporting such an imposing individual. Each step is a complicated adventure to put the foot between the plants not to crush while maintaining a minimum of balance. What a laugh! What playfulness! Here is Antonnafachto, it is him of course, sitting in lotus on... the top of his skull! But the cosmic knight has nothing to do with such a panache, and he sends the joker out with a friendly but unanswerable nod. He will still have to accept the hat-flower, tiny on this vast smooth head!

Around him fly the Eolis and the Eolines, like little birds or butterflies. He must stoop to smell the flowers, listen to the songs, the music, and take everyone in his hands, each in turn. No, but what kids they are, those Eolis.

Finally, he sings. What a wonderful baritone voice, sweet and full, powerful and warm! All are flabbergasted by its perfection, the absolute control, the suave and moving melody...

Then, the paladin means that the time of the game has passed, in his way: his radiation becomes serious and dignified, and all the Eolis, again intimidated, take again some distance. A smile, a pirouette, and, with the lightness of a ballerina, without bruising a single lave, he quickly take in the opposite direction all the path so laboriously travelled, followed at a distance by the astonished Eolis...

 

The Sun now gives its full good warmth and light to the fresh foliage; the dew is now completely dried; the heady perfumes of flowers supplanted the ones of dawn; the birds flutter and call each other happily. The Eolis, all dizzy with a marvellous enjoyment of life, feel at this hour a sensual desire for gardening and movement. So only a few continue to follow the Guardian.

With the simplicity of a high school student who repairs his bicycle, he sits again on the lawn, Nellio standing at his feet, in front of the small orange pyramid which serves as Nellio's home since the accident. And he... opens the pyramid, like a lid, which he lays in the grass next to him.

The few curious Eolis see for the first time the inside of the strange machine. From the entrance, a short tube leads to an ovoid container, which is none other than Nellio's bedroom. But the rest is occupied by a series of tubules and interlocking spheres, gently pulsating with a superb iridescent light. Nothing related with anything you know, friends readers: it is a living machine, immaterial... Some parts even change shape, animated by some inconceivable breathing.

The Guardian, relaxed, without paying more attention to the Eolis, immerses himself in this strange metamechanics, probably to change some setting. He remains a moment in meditation, asks Nellio to enter his room, and to come out again. As he works, the machine, deprived of its radiation shield, has very curious effects on the surroundings. The flowers open or close. The birds gather in the two trees, suddenly chirping in chorus. The caterpillars stop eating, astonished. The Eolis are overwhelm with delicious shivers, voluptuous feelings, but totally unknown. Flashes of light inside the head! Strange and marvellous sounds, as if the music of the spheres was tuning its instruments, the landscape capsizes suddenly, fantastic acceleration in a vertiginous cosmic slide! It's really a funny thing they invented us there, those Guardians.

Finally he puts the envelope back in place, and everything comes back in order. The Eolis return to their gardens and to their loves, their crystalline voices and their bell-laughter spreading in the neighbourhood.

The Guardian takes Nellio in one hand, stands up, makes a friendly hello from the other hand to the Eolis who are still there, then suddenly he runs, almost flies with an incredible vitality to the pretty forest, still Nellio in his hand, and we shall not see them again for the whole day.

When the next day, Nellio wakes up again, he is in better shape, and finally, after so long, he smiles. But he does not say much about what he has been doing with the Guardian. Just the Eolis learn that he received care by laying on of hands, that they talked about Aurora, of course, and also that they talked for a moment with Adenankar.

Gradually, it is a new Nellio that the Eolis will discover, that they had not imagined: more confident, enterprising and responsible, an active and indispensable member of their small community. But... wait for more.