Christmas, or Dia De Festas, was more festive than in the past few years. Jonathan and Evelyn spent Christmas Eve with thousands of other locals on the beach. Most were dressed in the traditional colour of red, and music, giant bonfires, and celebrations ruled the day into the late evening.
Christmases were usually more sedate; many said they were
just there to have peace and nurse their hangovers. In the Devi world, any
Christmas event is typically a time to discuss Christmas, Hanukkah, or past
festive seasons.
There was heightened interest among the Devi in Recife, as they hoped Jonathan could and would honour them with new stories and adventures from his past.
Julia was there, now identifying herself with her pen name, Maria de Silva, along with JD and Patricia Scott, who had moved down from Los Angeles. About a dozen more Devi were also there.
He told them about visiting LaJade and following her advice to visit Qatar. He also recounted the meeting at the Diplomat’s Club and how he saved Muhammad Shams al-Din bin Hamzah's life. Then, in brief terms, Evelyn explained the procedure in the clinic, limiting it to the re-exchange of blood.
“After or, more correctly, before. Another after-memory
recall here is another earlier event. Before arriving in Sicily, I can recall being
in the Basque, and I was in Scotland, living in the Orkney Islands off the northern
tip of Scotland.
I was in the service, or a warrior captain for Henry Sinclair, who was later called "admiral of the seas.". At that time, it was said that he had sailed with twelve ships under his command into the Great Western Sea, and was thought to have visited Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland and Massachusetts. But I was not with him. I was sent a notice to return home to Norway.”
JD said, So, chronologically, you were in Norway in 1340,
Then you travelled to the Orkneys. You sailed for Sinclair but missed his
supposed discovery of North America a hundred years before Columbus because you
were in Norway again. Then lived in the Basque region, Sicily, and then were
with Mehmed?”
“Yes, it sounds confusing, but yes. And if it is confusing to you when I speak it, imagine the confusion in my head with sound and pictures.”
Patricia looked surprised. “Perhaps I knew you. I was in
Norway then, a seamstress for Jarls and noblemen.”
“Perhaps I did, milady, and if so, I thank you again. A
fine garment it was.”
Patricia laughed, miming sewing with her hands.”
“Back to my story. There was much interplay,
inter-marrying and warfare between the kingdoms of the British Isles, North
Europe and Scandinavia.
I was a tin trader from Wales, and it was in Wales that I saw the advantages of learning the sea trade. That would have been in the 1260s; it was an ongoing thing. Tin for furs was my business. I cast my lot in early with the King of Wales, although there was much conflict with England. Wales was nominally independent, and the taxes were lower in many ways.
This was all good as King Henry III accepted Llywelyn ap
Gruffudd as a de facto ruler of Wales and granted him the title of Prince of
Wales. It was strictly a ceremonial title, not a successor title, as with
Prince Charles today.
He died. Dafydd ap Gruffydd succeeded to the throne of Gwynedd as Prince of Wales. He was a malcontent, and that angered the English. I think Edward I invaded in 1283 and charged Dafydd with high treason. As the royal furrier, I had a price on my head, so I took my last load of tin to King Havald, along with about two man-weights of gold to buy, protect and keep my boat.”
“John, I am glad we finally found out where you got your
love of the sea. We lived in London and Philadelphia; they were a bit inland,
but both ports. Christchurch, Lisbon, Los Angeles, and Recife are all seaside
towns. Only Albury was inland, and that was just for a few years.
I cannot wait to hear more stories about all this as you
see things clearer. The doctors said he would recall the big stories first; you
will get the details. He said it was like drawing a picture and colouring in
the spaces later.”
“Colouring book? I am not that docile yet. I may be many times the age of being infirm, but I can still dance the night away.”
“Tea, biscuits, wine? Christmas cake. Does anyone want
anything? Anyone hungry?
“Sure, I will help you. If you put out any food, all
these people will dive in.”
While Eve and Patricia were in the kitchen, everyone else
was mingling and talking about John's words. Some asked him a few questions,
and some, like Patricia, thought they and John may have crossed paths.
“Did you and John hear anything else about the Devi or
where we are heading in the future as a people? Did you learn anything about
anything or the Authentic?”
Eve flinched for a moment. “No, nothing.”
“Are you sure? I felt something there, sister.”
Evelyn looked at Patricia, who was staring back with cold,
accusatory eyes. “I think you did, and whatever it is bothering you.”
The exchange ended when JD entered the kitchen and asked where the next bottle of white wine was hiding.
After their guests departed, “I don’t know, John; she seemed
like she knew the Arabs told us something was not on the square with the
Authentic, and given that according to what LaJade said, she was lying to
us. Something does not add up.”
“I think you are right, my dear; I think you are right.”
Most of the attendees from the Christmas party showed up again at New Year's, as they said, “to find out what was old with Jonathan.”
In 1250, I was a
weapon smith for the Kingdom of Aragon when King James began expanding to
the South by conquering and incorporating Majorca, Ibiza, and a good
share of the Kingdom of Valencia into the Crown.
The wars ended with the Capetians being recognized as
heirs of the Carolingian dynasty, and the Capetian king Louis
IX renounced any historical claim over Catalonia.
There were small wars, and some regions changed hands.
The Kingdom of Majorca, including the Balearic Islands, the counties
of Cerdanya and Roussillon-Vallespir , and the city
of Montpellier, were all independent, conquered, and free again.
Some saw me as a liability, and I fell out of favour with the King, so I travelled north to Wales. That journey, made on foot, may have been why I embraced ships during my Welsh time.
Before ending up in Aragon, I was an armourer for Louis VIII and Louis IX. More wars with the Kingdom of France, the County of Anjou, the early Plantagenets and all the minor local rulers. That would have been back to at least the early 1220s.”
Patricia interrupted John to ask a question. “You were an
armourer and a swordsmith. How did you get those skills?”
“I am still not sure. But in New Zealand around 1900, I
had a gold assaying office, and when I met Eve in 1837, I had a gold and silver
exchange, so I guess I always was a bit of a metalhead.”
“No, more of goth,” JD added.
“I would say a Visigoth,” said Eve, winking at John.
“It took me almost ten years to get to Anjou and France
from what I was before… Terra Marianna, or the Land of Mary.”
Everyone had a quizzical look on their face and asked. “Where?”
“Livonia, modern Lithuania, and the Baltic Staes region. It was a Holy Roman principality state. It was
created in 1207, and then in 1215, Pope Innocent III claimed it as his and made
it part of the Holy See.
So, for those without a scorecard, I was in Livonia for
eight years, ten years of which were spent crossing the various German states.
With my Livonian credentials, I was a travelling Monk and was occasionally
asked to be a priest by the locals.
So, I am at least 800 years old, 840 if you account for
my apparent age.
And how I ended up as a monk in Livonia was likely because of my, somewhat, if I can remember it correctly, or more correctly soon, I was somehow associated with the Cather movement in Languedoc. Now rightly or wrongly called a heresy, in the 1160 period.”
“Why don’t you all come back around St Valentine’s Day? Maybe I can claw back another few hundred years and surprise everyone with “I am Spartacus.”
They continually entertained people, Devi and Standards
alike. They hosted or attended dinner parties at least three times a week.
After only eight years, they had become the “need-to-add” to any function's
guest list.
Eve commented on how things had changed from avoiding social connections to diving in head first.
They had quiet days to reminisce, talk and love.
“John, do you have any inkling of a start date or vision
of strange and wonderful things?”
“Yes, and strangely, the only wonderful thing that
happened to me was meeting you in the spring of 1837. That is why I have that
pencil sketch of Waterloo Bridge in my study,”
“I thought as much, and when I am not thinking of a
bridge, I also think of you. I meant to say, do you have any thought flashes of
Roman galleys, Socrates, Aristotle, or the pyramids?”
“No, nothing grandiose, other than a basket of loaves and
fishes.”
“WHAT!”
“Joking.”
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