“Hello, David.” Jonah floated to the same spot he’d sat on before. “I promised that I would come back, and here I am.”
“Thank you. I’ve prayed for the opportunity to talk to you ever since you died.”
“I know.” Jonah put a hand on his chest. “I wanted to come, but I wasn’t allowed.”
“Why are you allowed now? Is it because I’m unconscious?”
“That makes it easier. But I’ve been aided by unexpected allies who need my help.”
“Who are they?”
Jonah smiled. “I can’t tell you that, but you can guess.”
A lightbulb flicked on in David’s head. “The Fates. Were you the one who whispered in Kalugal’s ear to bring me to Sari?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny.”
This was frustrating. “What are you allowed to talk about? The weather?”
Jonah chuckled. “Unless it’s about the existing weather conditions, that’s forbidden as well. I can’t impart any information about the future.”
“Do you know what will happen?”
“Some of it. Most of the future hasn’t been written yet.”
“Can you talk about the past?”
Jonah nodded. “Only a small portion of it. There are specific things I got permission for.”
“How about our past lives? You said that we have reincarnated many times, and you made it sound as if we were brothers in other lives as well.”
“Not always. Sometimes we were best friends, and sometimes we were father and son.”
David smiled. “I just hope that we have never been a couple. That would have been awkward.”
“I agree. We were always reincarnated as males, which is not how it usually works, but there was a good reason for that.”
“What?”
“The things we needed to work out over many lives were gender-specific—brotherly rivalry, anger, aggression, lack of compassion, vengefulness, pride, and so on. But mainly the brotherly stuff. We always loved each other fiercely, but we also couldn’t stand each other. We are very different individuals.”
David grimaced. “If I was Gudbrand, then you must have been Olek, and out of the two, Olek was the better man.”
Jonah lifted a brow. “You are right about that, but Olek killed Gudbrand, not the other way around, and he carried the anger and guilt for it over many cycles.”
“He was overtaken with grief and not thinking straight. Gudbrand had failed him. Olek loved his wife and was dedicated to his clan, while Gudbrand only thought about himself.”
A wide grin spread over Jonah’s face, and he soundlessly clapped his ghostly hands. “Bravo, brother. Finally, you realize that it was Gudbrand’s failing and not Olek’s. It has only taken nearly fifty cycles for you to arrive at that conclusion.”
“I don’t understand. Did I think differently before? Did my other incarnations dream about Gudbrand’s life as well?”
“Sometimes. Most often, you dreamt about Olek’s life, though.”
“Why?”
“Because you were Olek, not Gudbrand, and you blamed yourself for your wife’s and my death.”
Stunned, David didn’t respond for a long moment. How was it possible that he’d been Olek if he had dreamt of being Gudbrand?
“In this last reincarnation, we were twins, and we had a special connection,” Jonah said. “We swapped dreams as well. It was intentional. Over the many cycles, you managed to work out the anger but not the guilt. You needed to get a better understanding of Gudbrand to let go of it as well. As Olek, you idolized him.”
“But what about my dreams of Annani? Were they your dreams?”
Jonah chuckled. “She haunted me throughout all my cycles. As Gudbrand, I was obsessed with her, and the impact she left on me followed to subsequent incarnations. I hope that this was the last time, and that I can finally let go and be free of her. Seeing Ania as a mother, heading a clan dedicated to helping humanity, cast her in a different light for me. I just hope to take this knowledge with me into the next round.”
“What about Ayesha? You were never big on reading fiction, so it’s unlikely that you read the same book I did. Have you seen the movie?”
“I didn’t. The Ayesha spin was all yours.” Jonah leaned forward. “Do you remember how we used to complete each other’s sentences as kids?”
“We did it as adults as well.”
“Apparently, we also did that with dreams. One started and the other completed it.”
“I should feel relieved, but I’m not.” David sighed. “As Gudbrand, I was arrogant and selfish, but I wasn’t a murderer.”
“You weren’t as Olek either. The goddess took control of your mind and commanded you to defend her from me.” Jonah smirked. “You were always so easily influenced.”
“And you were always so damn hardheaded. Were you really going to kill her?”
Jonah nodded. “Gudbrand couldn’t understand his obsession with her. Ania made him feel out of control, and he wasn’t the type who took the blame for anything. He thought that she’d enchanted him with magic, or that she was a demoness who had enthralled him so she could suck up his vitality.” He smiled sheepishly. “Sex with a goddess can exhaust the strongest, most vital man. Part of it was true, though. She thralled him not to see her glowing eyes and skin, but when Olek burst into her tent and Gudbrand was startled out of the thrall, he saw her in all her magnificently glowing nudity, and his suspicions got confirmed.”
“She is my future mother-in-law. I would appreciate it if you didn’t mention intimate details.”
“Understandable.”
“So, he wanted to kill her because she glowed?”
“No, not only because of that. Gudbrand felt guilty for failing Olek, but instead of taking the blame upon himself, he blamed Ania, aka Annani. I owe her an apology for that, but since I can’t communicate with her, you will have to convey it for me. Annani has carried the guilt for Gudbrand’s death for long enough, and she needs to know that if you hadn’t stopped me, I would have ended her life. Losing me only affected my family and my clan, but her death would have affected all of humanity. The world would have been a miserable place without her positive influence.”
“Annani is not going to believe me. She thinks that I was Gudbrand.”
“You’ll have to convince her.”
40
Sari
Sari leaned over the bed and stroked David’s blond hair. “I have to go, but I won’t be gone long.” She kissed his stubbled cheek. “My mother is going to give you a blessing, and I’m going to lead a prayer for your successful transition at the same time. Whether you believe in the power of prayer or not, all that positive energy has to help.”
As usual, there was no response, not even a twitch, and the only sounds in the room were made by the medical equipment keeping David alive.
“One more kiss.” She leaned and pecked his cheek before forcing her legs to carry her out of the room.
She left the door open and smiled at her mother. “I’m leaving David in your capable hands. Are you going to stay with him until I return?”