Solstice - The Goddess Awakens

The group began to disperse, but Lola was reluctant to leave the fort, she felt relaxed now and in some way closer to Arthur. The pyre that once held his earthly vessel was reduced to nothing more than a pile of smouldering embers. Walking over to it, Lola watched a few feathery flakes of ash as they floated towards the leafy canopy above.

A gentle hand touched her shoulder, and she turned to find Celeste standing by her side. Lola felt drawn to Celeste, she felt safe and calm beside her. Both women stood in silence, their thoughts with Arthur.

‘Celeste, Lola.’ Both women turned in unison towards the voice. ‘I’m awfully sorry, but I must dash, my flight leaves in an hour,’ offered Markus apologetically. ‘I hope you’ll forgive me, Lola, but there is much I need to do. I will try to get in touch with you. But, as you can imagine these are very troubling times and the Hell Fire Club’s reach goes far and wide. I will need to go away for a while. But I will contact you when the time is right.’

‘I understand, Markus, thank you for everything,’ said Lola, knowing that she would understand these events soon. Markus embraced her tightly as if it was the last time he might see her. He promised that he would be in touch soon, and then he left to catch his flight back to Glastonbury.

‘We have much to discuss, Lola,’ said Celeste, as she guided Lola out of the fort. ‘If you are half as inquisitive as Arthur said you were, then I’m sure you have a lot of questions,’ laughed Celeste. ‘You seem to be taking this all very well. It is a lot to accept,’ she added a look of disquiet on her face.

‘I can’t really explain it, Celeste,’ replied Lola. ‘It sounds crazy, but I’m not shocked or surprised. I mean, I know I should be. Any sane person would be running a mile from this. When I first spoke to Markus at the church today, I couldn’t bear the thought that Arthur had this secret life, that he was someone other than my Arthur. But I suppose, deep down, I always knew he was special. Not just to me, but….’ Lola trailed off, trying to find the right words. ‘I can’t really explain it.’

Lola felt quite ashamed at opening up to Celeste, but she couldn’t help it, she was so easy to talk to. Celeste was about to speak, but paused when she realised they had company. Lola instantly recognised the man that stood at the entrance waiting for them, a wide smile on his face. He had made Lola feel very uncomfortable throughout the entire ceremony. She wondered who he was and what he was doing here. A faint shiver touched her, but Celeste appeared oblivious to her discomfort, as she genially greeted the man at the end of the path.

‘Cyril, how are you? I’m sorry I didn’t get chance to speak to you earlier.’

‘Not at all, Celeste! Not at all. You have much on your mind in these very troubling times,’ replied Cyril, a sympathetic smile spreading across his face, though it never seemed to reach his eyes.

His voice was languid and a bit too high pitched for a man. And, even though he was speaking to Celeste, he never once took his black beady eyes off Lola. Celeste followed his gaze.

‘Oh how rude of me, Cyril, let me introduce you to Miss Lola Paige. Lola was a very close friend of Arthur’s.’

The man extended a slender hand towards Lola, and she reluctantly reciprocated. His hand shake was limp and his palms were cold and clammy, which only compounded her uneasiness.

‘Very nice to meet you, Lola! You are a most unusual girl,’ he was surveying her now, as if she was a prize cow. ‘You must have been very special to Arthur, very special indeed.’

Lola didn’t like the tone in his sickly voice, there was something quite menacing in it, as if he was contemplating something. Instinctively, she pulled her hand from his.

‘I’m not special at all, no more than anyone else,’ said Lola, unable to hide the fact that she didn’t like, nor trust this man.

‘You’re a feisty young lady, aren’t you?’ he replied, his cackling snigger irritating her even more than his voice. But before Lola could answer him, he had turned to speak to Celeste.

‘I just wanted to know if you needed a lift back to Belfast, Celeste?’ the same false smile returning to his face. ‘I have business in the city this evening.’

‘That’s very kind of you, Cyril, but I’ve got to stop at Arthur’s place and wouldn’t want to keep you back. I can make my own way home, but thanks for the offer.’

‘I’ve plenty of time, I can wait for you. Or go to Arthur’s with you, I really don’t mind,’ he pressed.

‘Okay, if you’re sure. How about I meet you in town? By the Town Hall, would that suit?’ Celeste didn’t seem unsettled by Cyril’s eagerness to give her a lift home, which frustrated Lola. She would say something, once they were on their own again. ‘I’ll travel into to town with Lola, and I’ll see you in about thirty minutes.’

‘Well if you’re sure,’ he spat, thinly disguising his disappointment at not being invited to join her at Arthur’s.

‘I’ll see you in town then,’ replied Celeste, as Cyril turned and left the clearing, before climbing into his car. Lola and Celeste followed, making the short journey back into town.

‘That man gives me the creeps, Celeste! I can give you a lift back to Belfast if you want,’ offered Lola. That same maternal smile returned to Celeste’s face as she reassured Lola that she would be fine.

‘Oh Cyril is harmless enough, a bit peculiar, but he’s okay, Lola.’

‘What about the fort, all the chairs and stuff, aren’t you worried that someone might see it?’ asked Lola.

‘Oh, no one will see it, Lola,’ assured Celeste. ‘We have made sure of that, the fort will be as it was in just a few minutes, like we were never there.’

‘But how?’ asked Lola.

‘Well that’s easily answered, Lola, magick, of course,’ said Celeste, emphasising the ‘K’ sound at the end of the word.

Lola scoffed. ‘So where’s your magic wand then, Celeste?’ Lola burst out laughing, expecting her passenger to join in the joke, but much to Lola’s embarrassment she didn’t. Smiling at Lola in her usual temperate manner, Celeste answered, her tone very matter of fact.

‘Magick wands are things of fairy tale and fantasy, Lola, surely you know that. But magick isn’t. To answer your question, I use a crystal, rose quartz to be exact. In fact, I don’t really need an object to perform magick, but sometimes it helps me to direct and channel my energy.’

Lola’s mouth dropped open, all traces of jest gone. After what she had seen and heard today, was it so inconceivable that there was such a thing as real magick? In truth she wasn’t so sure that it was all stuff of legend and fantasy! Lola was lost for words.

Turning into the avenue that led to Brook Mill Manor, Celeste motioned for Lola to stop. Pulling up at the side of the road, she cut the ignition. Looking at the strange and beautiful woman beside her, Lola could find no traces of irritation. Instead, Celeste patiently continued. ‘Magick is certainly real, Lola, and it’s not something to be underestimated. In the wrong hands, or the wrong soul, it can be a very potent and destructive force. Arthur’s death is evidence of that.’ Celeste looked beseechingly at her, and for the first time Lola could see how anxious she was. ‘I was born into the craft; it has always been part of my life and part of who I am. At the age of twenty-one my sister and I were both inducted into the Ancient Order of the Golden Dawn, as our mother had been before us.’ Celeste thought of how happy she was then, how exciting it had all been for her and her sister Aurora.

Lifting her head she looked at Lola and felt pity for her. For the first time her faith in Arthur was wavering. Here was this young girl, alien to their world, their way of life and their rules, and yet their future depended on her. A nineteen-year-old girl with no concept of what was at stake. ‘Being initiated into the Order is the single greatest honour that could be bestowed on followers of the right-hand path, Lola,’ Celeste continued.

‘At that ceremony, in the fort, almost twenty-three years ago, I met Arthur Delphian for the first time. I had heard about him, but to meet him in person was something else. Aurora, my sister, hardly slept for a week, she was so excited.’ Celeste laughed to herself as she thought of her sister. ‘He was a very powerful druid and high priest, and the Order was extremely powerful, a shining beacon. We stood strong in the fight against the darkness, awaiting the return of the cosmic Age of Aquarius and the return of the mystical Tuatha Dé Danann, to their ancestral homeland.’ Lola listened, but struggled to recognise the Arthur that Celeste described; to her he was pipe and slippers, grey hair and grey beard, gentle and loving. It was still hard for her to think of him as something other than what he was to her. In some ways she felt hurt and cheated that he hadn’t confided in her. He could have at least given her some insight to this alternative lifestyle. Lola couldn’t bear to talk any more about Arthur, and so she changed the subject.

‘You have a sister? Aurora? What a beautiful name, was she at the ceremony today?’

Celeste’s face dropped at her sister’s name, the pain clearly visible. Lola cursed herself for being so tactless. How many times was she going to insult or upset Celeste today?

‘Don’t be silly, Lola dear, it’s fine,’ assured Celeste. ‘No she wasn’t at the ceremony today, but she would have loved to have been there. She would have been at Markus’s side instead of me. Aurora, lived up to her name, she really was like the Goddess of the Dawn, bringing light and love everywhere she went. She was much more talented than I was, but she saw the goodness in everyone, even in those souls where none existed.’ Lola just listened not wanting to break Celeste’s flowing words, clearly she was still in grief at the loss of her sister.

‘We were twins,’ Celeste continued, ‘and like twins, we had a unique and unbreakable bond. We shared everything and had no secrets from each other, that’s until she met the love of her life. He swept her off her feet and like her he practised magick. So she never had to hide who or what she was. But her love made her blind to him, to his true and vile nature.’ Lola was startled by the sudden anger and revulsion in Celeste’s voice, dropping to a faint whisper, tears welling up in her beautiful hazel eyes.

Reaching over Lola took her hand, squeezing it tightly. ‘I’m so sorry, Celeste, I didn’t mean to pry.’

‘Lola, you have nothing to apologise for, you are handling all this so well. I can’t imagine how hard this must be for you,’ replied Celeste, squeezing Lola’s hand in return. ‘You need to know all of this. About the Hell Fire Club, the Age of Aquarius and the legend of the Tuatha Dé Danann, but what we have taken a lifetime to learn, you are having to digest in days.’

Celeste took a deep breath, controlling her emotions, instantly returning back to her normal serene self. Lola had heard of the Tuatha Dé Danann, Arthur had told her all about their sagas in Irish mythology. They were said to be the most iconic and enlightened peoples ever to settle in Ireland, possessing great spiritual knowledge and powerful magick. She knew of an old song that referenced them.

‘The Age of Aquarius, is that not some cheesy song from a 1960s musical or something?’ asked Lola bewildered, her apathy instantly bringing a smile to Celeste’s face.

‘There’s much you still have to learn, Lola, and I’ll be happy to teach you all I can. It’s vital that we figure out what part you play in all of this. There is still much to talk about, but unfortunately now is not the time. It’s my daughter’s birthday, she turns twenty-one today, and of course it’s the Summer Solstice, which is a very important festival in our tradition, so I need to get back home.’

‘What exactly is so important about the summer solstice? I heard what Markus said earlier but I didn’t really understand,’ enquired Lola, as she started up the car again. She was genuinely interested, she had a million questions running through her head, and was a bit surprised that Celeste was just going to go, as if it was all perfectly normal.

‘Well, in our tradition and other earth religions, this midsummer festival celebrates the apex of light which is symbolised in the crowning of the Oak King, God of the waxing year. At his crowning, the Oak King falls to his darker aspect, the Holly King, God of the waning year. You see Arthur was like our Oak King, he was the apex of light to our organisation. The Hell Fire Club knew this, and they knew that by murdering him close to the Solstice the symbolism would not be lost on us.’

‘You must understand,’ continued Celeste sombrely. ‘Like everything in our wonderful universe, all material has an opposing side. This does not always mean that it is a negative aspect, but in this case I’m afraid it does. If there is light, Lola, there must also be darkness.’ Lola silently nodded her head in acknowledgement. She was beginning to comprehend the symbolism and the full impact of Arthur’s death. Until now she had only ever thought of her grief, her pain and her sense of loss, but looking at the angst on Celeste’s face, she recognised that there were more important issues at hand.

Driving back out onto the main road, heading for town, Lola was relieved that they didn’t go up to the manor; she wasn’t ready for that yet. Celeste gazed out of the window, silent as they made the journey. She was only too aware of the evil that dark magick could spread. She had seen from first-hand experience what it could do, having lost her sister at the hands of the Hell Fire Club, and now they’d taken Arthur, their leader. They were almost at the Town Hall when she finally broke the silence.

Shifting in her seat to look at Lola, Celeste began to speak, the melodic rhythm of her soothing voice captivating Lola once again. ‘You’ve an innate ability to see people as they truly are, Lola, to see deep into their souls. That’s a very powerful gift to have and I must warn you, that while you may be unaware of it, there are those that can and will detect it.’ Celeste reached out, gently tucking a few strands of loose hair behind Lola’s ear. ‘The warmth and light that radiates from you is very potent and those that may wish to harm you can see that. What you dismiss as mere hunches, or as gut feeling, is something much more. You must learn to trust your divine intuition and use it to find your way.’

There was urgency in her voice now, which worried Lola. ‘Arthur didn’t say too much about your role in all of this, because he wanted to protect you from the forces of darkness. They’re everywhere. I fear the Hell Fire Club have even infiltrated our most sacred Order.’ Celeste’s head dropped, the burden of the revelation seeming too much for her to bear. Pulling the car into an empty parking space, Lola could see a black Mercedes parked outside the town hall. The windows were blackened out, so she couldn’t see the driver, but she guessed it was Cyril inside. Celeste reached over and embraced Lola before getting out of the car. ‘Remember, what lies within, reflects without. There are those who will try and hide what they truly are, Lola, but if you have faith in yourself you will be able to see through them.’

With that Celeste was gone. Lola watched as she stepped into the waiting car, and then watched the car speed off. Lola drove out and turned towards home. The sun was still bright as she drove through the deserted town centre. Approaching a junction, Lola checked her rear view mirror, before breaking hard and bringing the car to a standstill. For a split second, she’d thought she’d seen a pair of steely blue eyes reflecting back at her, but when she looked again they were gone.

It was almost eight-thirty when she arrived home to find the house empty. The note on the kitchen table, in her mother’s handwriting, explained that they had gone to Arthur’s to feed the dog. Lola didn’t know if she would ever be able to set foot back in Brook Mill Manor again. Totally drained after what had been a long and emotional day, Lola climbed into bed and for the first time in weeks fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.