William Tyree - The Fellowship

“Read the first chapter,” a man’s voice said.

Wolf looked around. He saw no one. “Father?” he asked. No one answered.

He turned to the first chapter. The text was not what he expected. It did not appear to be a science book. There were no formulas or diagrams. It was scripture, and yet it was not the scripture that he had been taught as a boy. He began to read.

I. And the LORD said, I am God, and I have made you in my likeness.

II. And the LORD asked all people to apply their hearts to seek and to search out all the wisdom on Earth.

III. For to know wisdom, said the LORD, is to bring truth to light, so that all people might know the essence of God.

IV. And so there were many who sought wisdom, collecting and deciphering all of the languages and solving all of the mathematics in the world, and charting all of the stars in the sky, and dissecting and reassembling every living creature, so that all of the knowledge in Heaven might be distributed on Earth.

V. And it came to pass that there were men who sought to keep knowledge for themselves. Would it not be better, they asked, if we alone had the means to communicate with Heaven? Would our communion with the Holy Spirit not be more pure if it were channeled through but a few learned men?

VI. And these men created a new language, which they themselves spoke, forbidding all others to learn or translate it.

VII. And it came to pass that these hoarders of knowledge let their hearts be filled with savagery, and they shamed all seekers of knowledge, and when they did not yield in pursuit of wisdom, slayed them without mercy.

VIII. And LORD sent his only son, Jesus, to teach men to open their hearts and love one another and become a wise people, knowledgeable about all that God has created.

IX. And many were touched in their hearts, including twelve Disciples. And the Disciples’ names were John, Peter, James, Matthew, Thomas, Bartholomew, Thaddeus, James the son of Alpheus, and Simon and Andrew and Phillip and Judas.

X. And as was his destiny, Judas betrayed Jesus.

XI. And Jesus let himself be captured so that he could sacrifice himself for the good of all people, and so that those who believed in the LORD might strengthen their beliefs.

XII. And the Roman soldiers did crucify him. And as Jesus died slowly upon the cross, He said to the most wicked, O you wretches; O you unfortunates; O you pretenders to the truth; O you sinners against the Spirit. Can you still bear to sleep, when you sleep on a bed of feathers, and the world lies upon rocks?

XIII. And as Jesus died slowly upon the cross, He said to his Disciples, guard the deposit entrusted to you. You will gather knowledge, and you will unravel the mysteries of the Earth, and also of the Kingdom of Heaven, and in doing so, you will be doing the work of the LORD.

XIV. And three days after Jesus died, he appeared first to Mary. And then to his tormentors. And then to his Disciples.

XV. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

XVI. And a wise man said, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

XVII. And you will learn all that is knowable about every star in the sky, and so too will you learn all that is knowable about every drop of blood in the dirt and every hair upon the head of a child.

XVIII. And you shall use your wisdom to feed the hungry, just as I have.

XIX. And you shall use wisdom to care for the poor, just as I have.

XX. And you shall learn wisdom to heal the sick, just as I have.

XXI. And you shall use wisdom to create life, just as I have, for I have made you in my likeness.

XXII. And you shall learn wisdom to unify all believers on Earth.

XXIII. Go and make wisdom in all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

XXIV. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh.

XXV. And there will be two great tyrants who will attempt to keep all that I have told you from the world.

XXVI. And there will be a Shepherd who walks among you who has seen into the hearts of the tyrants, because he was born among them and has lived among them. And his name will be Sebastian.

XXVII. And the Shepherd will devote himself to bringing all that is concealed into the light.

XXVIII. And the world’s great minds will join his flock in Fellowship.

XXIX. And so too will the world’s great leaders join the Shepherd in Fellowship, so that they may be in place when the time comes to usher in the new Rule of Light.

XXX. And when he has gathered all that is necessary to bring all that is dark into the light, you shall find a Virgin from the West, for all that has come to pass in the time of Jesus will come to pass again.

XXXI. And the One from the East will use her to make me anew, just as I have made you anew.

XXXII. And in turn, you will return my heart from stone to flesh, so that all men may share in the wisdom of the LORD. And the whole world shall rejoice.

XXXIII. And so it was in Bethlehem, it shall be again, through the prayer and toil and steadfastness of the learners of God’s wisdom.

XXXIV. And those afraid of the Rule of Light will search the Earth for me. As it was in the time of Herod, it will be again. Many innocents will die, though they will be welcomed as angels into the Kingdom of Heaven.

XXXV. And when I am reborn to the world, the knowledge hoarders shall be exposed as bearers of false idols.

XXXVI. And as I grow and walk among you, the Fellowship will protect me from those who will lay great waste upon the Earth to prevent the Rule of Light.

XXXVII. And a wise man said, if you believe with your heart that the burden of the second coming of the LORD is upon the people of the Earth, then you will be saved.

*

When Wolf awoke, he found himself in another new location. Although sparsely furnished, the room was more like a guest room than an infirmary. The bed linens were made of fine Egyptian cotton and the walls were completely covered in tapestries depicting the repelling of the Goths from Vatican City in the sixth century. His bed had been placed on a 45-degree incline, with the head propped up under a stack of bricks and plywood.

He strained his neck slightly forward and took in a view of several adjacent buildings, red-tiled and elegant in the fading winter light. He raised his hands and regarded the raw crimson wounds that were starting to scab over. They were shiny with oil. His skin was wet with perspiration, but his mouth was dry. He thought he might choke on his own tongue. He began coughing.

Dr. Enzo Marchesi was suddenly at his bedside with a spoon. As he had last night, the doctor slipped the spoon into his mouth before Wolf could resist the foul-smelling liquid. “I give you ancient hyssop oil for the cough,” he said. “Another something from biblical times. Bees like it.”

The oil immediately squelched Wolf’s cough, but the taste was unbearably powerful. A nurse was at his side now, holding a small white cup trimmed in gold. She raised it to Wolf’s lips. “You are a lucky man,” she said in a native Bavarian dialect. “This water has been blessed by His Holiness, Pope Pius XII.”

Wolf drank it eagerly. Only a few moments later did he pause. “The pope? Really?”

“Yes. His Holiness developed a certain fondness for Germans during his time there.”

He looked up, half-expecting to see the raven-haired librarian. The woman who had offered him holy water was not the librarian. She was not even a nurse. She was a nun in a broad, crisp habit that framed her face and shoulders. Golden eyebrows arched over blue eyes.