One, IV

A boy cannot gaze upon a Woman,

in all of her spectral glory.

But Al-Dhikir was a Man.

Essera’s heterochromatic aura did not blind him.

Her skin was diamond,

her eyes were spheres of silver fire.

Her hair, tresses black and white, fell across her shoulder in a braided duet.

Her body was a river, and in its reflection he saw her soul:

a swan in graceful repose.

Here beneath trees of crystalline Light,

he knew the meaning of her Name.

And in the knowing of it, the speaking of it became yet truer.

They called one another with silent kisses,

their lips moved in sacred converse,

and their tongues exchanged syllables of the First Language.

In the arboreal cathedral of the Beyond, they created a new Pattern —

She to him and he to her.

Man to Woman,

Prince to Princess,

Action to Essence.

This is the Pattern of the Prime:

After two have died,

by love, through sacrifice,

they shall be elevated into life-

no longer separate, but unified.