There is a book that can be read,

That describes your burden to bear.

The book is bound with the hair of ancestors,

The paper a fine vellum of tattooed skin.

Each letter is meticulously written by a child,

Who can neither see nor hear,

Kept away in a temple that can only be seen

In the far north at the setting of the morning star.

A young women met a man who proposed marriage,

Fear took her so she sought the child

Holding possession of her book of burdens.

She went north and waited a long night

For the morning star to set.

The temple appeared as a gleaming golden tower,

With steps leading to a small door on its south face

And a grand gate on the east.

This young women approached the steps

And noticed a man standing to their right.

In a fatherly gesture he smiled warmly,

And slowly moved his right arm toward the stairs

Each step appeared as a block of blood red marble,

Each step appeared insurmountable.

“I am MASHEMIR, the sentinel of South Gate” the man said “What is your name?” He said in a familiar tone.

“How does one climb the stairs?” Asked the young women.

The mans face faltered then fell. “To those who have prepared the stairs don’t exist, however if you provide me your name, non the less you may enter”

“I am called ATSAMYAM, I need to know my burden.”

Again the mans face faltered then fell “I see, present your name and you may enter” said the man sadly.

The young women looked quizzically at the man, he looked knowingly at the young women.

“I know what you are called, I must know your name, it may be found only in the promise of love” he said just above a whisper “Go and and make a promise of love and return with your name carved in a stone”

He said no more but with his right hand he drew a black sword to cover the entrance to the stair. His left he extended, the hand cupped in anticipation.

The young women left in despair as night again approached. She took from her satchel 2 candles, one white and one black to provide meager light. Then the idea struck. She took the 2 candles an set them dripping over her dinner pan, and moved it slowly back and forth. “It has the look of marble” she said with glee. She added sand from the path she had followed, it glittered in the moonlight. “MASHEMIR will not know my lie, and I must know my burden.” She took her knife and carved into its surface the name SHAWAT, and shinned it with the edge of her dress.

She went north and waited the long night

for the morning star to set.

The temple appeared as a gleaming golden tower,

with steps leading to a small door on its south face,

and a grand gate on the east.

This young women approached the steps,

and noticed a man standing to their right.

He held a black sword covering

a blood marble stair case,

each stair larger than the last.

His left hand was extended in anticipation.

She stepped forward gleefully

and placed the foe marble name

into his outstretched hand.

He appraised it with a smirk.

“I find your name true for your current self, but the offering is insincere” He stated as he crushed the not stone in his hand. “Go and make a promise of love and return with your name carved in a stone…you may always return”

The young women ran as fast as she could east, round the base of the golden temple, crying as she went. She approached the grand gate and noticed, there were no stairs. There was no sentinel. The golden gate extended to the sky, beyond the clouds above. She approached it with apprehension, it shown with brilliant light in the morning sun. She placed a hand on the gate and pushed with the slightest touch. The gate swung open. The lumbering movement of the gate caused a wind making all clouds retreat, and knocked the young women to the ground. A sound of starting and faltering music was heard and then silence.

Beyond was a garden with a path leading to the towering temple. In the path a beautiful women sat staring directly at the sun and cursed it as it rose in the eastern sky.

“Damn you you fool, you chase away people seeking truth!”

She finished her curse and saw the young women, standing in stunned silence.

Quickly regaining her stature she approached the young women and called her “ATSAMYAM SHAWAT how pleased I am to see you, few make the wise choice to come to the east gate” She said kindly. “Come I will take you to the child documenting your burden.”

“The sentinel said I needed to give him my name to enter, to make a promise in love” Said the young women with hesitation.

“Ah…I obviously already know your name, as for a promise in love…I do not require this, a simple promise that you will read the entire book will suffice.” She said with a pleasant smile.

“I promise!” The young women yelled as she ran past the women.

She flew through garden without looking at any of its wonders, and passed on through the open door of the golden temple. She didn’t understand how but she knew where she must go. The young women ascended the grand staircase to the top of the tower. There was a door carved ornately with a scene of the Sentinel and the beautiful women, his sword through her heart.

Below read this.

Those who enter here will gain a certain knowledge of life.

Those who are prepared to enter need not.

Those who are ill prepared to enter should not.

Those who have prepared falsely to enter must not.

The young women in her excitement did not heed the warning.

In a brightly lite room,

With white walls on a red wood floor,

Stood a single desk made of gold at its center.

There sat a small child writing slowly in a book,

With a plume taken from a bird of white feathers.

On second view the plume appeared as a rainbow, then white again.

The young women approached the child, who continued slowly with each letter. The child’s eyes were milky white. She pulled the book slowly across the table, the child placed his plume in the ink well and sat quietly, staring intently but not seeing.

She began to read, page one, two, three. She read the burdens she had passed in her young life with exacting detail and pain. She read in horror as she recounted the death of her mother, a thought she had buried deeply, an emotion she had crushed. She threw the book down on the table and saw along its binding, her mothers hair, tying individual vellum pages to its leather back. She sobbed.

Then the child spoke with Fervor! “Your life is not one of burden, not yet anyway”

His eyes were now a blue green, and he had appeared to grow several inches.

“I have been following you from here for your entire life, before that eons had passed as we waited”

He sad this as a matter of fact, like a mother tells her child a fire is hot. “Why do you read the book?”

“I am to be married, I became fearful and I wanted to know my burdens”

“To what end?”

“So I may changed them!”

“To what end?”

”So I may save myself the pain!”

“You will only trade pain for pain, and the trade may not be fair” he said with slight hesitation.

“I see now” his right eye had become a bright red, the left a shimmering yellow.

“Before I just recorded but now I see.” He said with a firm certainty “I know your burden and while I cannot stop you I implore you to leave this place and return when you are prepared, then you will not need to read.”

“I don’t understand”

“A vision I may give you as you have sought this far in earnest, beautiful children, kind children, wondrous and loving children will be yours if you leave now.” He said almost pleading.

“If not no child shall be yours and your posterity will fail” he said almost sobbing

“You will fall never to arise” the last word was almost a shout.

She looked fearfully about the room and considered the child’s words, well he was no longer a child, a young man.

“I am scared to read, but I dread not reading!” She said staring into his eye “now that I have come so far how can I turn back?!

“Take a single step, and thus it will be as you wander your life, and experience your burden” He now appeared middle aged, he eyes were such a dark blue they were almost black. “Go now, run from here, and return when you have completed your name, but I give you my promise in love EYM that we shall meet again and in true joy. LEAVE NOW!”

EYM ran from the room, as she did she saw the now young man pick up the book and return to his seat, becoming again a child, and writing with his quill of all color he began again illuminate her life one letter at a time.

At the door of the temple the beautiful women sat perplexed.

“None who have gone so far have returned here” she said almost astonished “What did the book tell you?”

“My pain, my past burden”

“And your future?”

“I broke our promise, but it was not a promise made in love. I see that now” and she ran through the garden, the beautiful women sat with her head in hear hand a wept openly and staring at the now noon sun and cursed.

“Damn you I shall break this solitude!”

The young women ran through the gate and traveled west whence she came. She married the young man, not knowing her future, not knowing her burden. But she realized as time passed that having foreknowledge of her burden would have been larger than the burden itself. With time the promised children came. With time so did the pain.

The young man, never became a man and fretted with childish endeavors. He taunted and hurt his wife.

Her burden was heavy. But with time all things pass and the never man left their lives, 2 children in tow this women set out on her own journey. Through many paths she wandered, slowly to the east and north, not knowing the path before hand.

There at a crossroad by chance she met a man who was walking the opposite direction.

She stopped to trade pleasantries “I am” she began but he stopped her.

“I need not know what you are called, because these thing do not reflect full truth. I traveled long ago to the golden temple, I nearly met my end their, though it be a wonderful place.

The women looked at him in wonder “I have not met another who had taken a chance to know their burden and walked back from the edge of the cliff”

“Nor I” He said, with a rye smile “Shall we travel together a while? I simply wander, although I have goals and duties to attend they are not THE goal”

“We should enjoy the company” she said pointing to the children.

They walked a mile, then another, discussing their experience with the golden temple. Miles turned into months, months turned into a companionship of intimate knowledge and love. They found a small village and were wed in the company of new friends.

“True Father of my children and friend I give you this in a promise of love” She produced a stone from her pocket of bright red marble, perfectly square, with the name MARIKHAN engraved upon each side of the square. He looked at her joyous and they continued the journey.

They wandered in Joy and burden for years to come, another child came into their lives. This journey continued until the women was frail and old.

They walked by the northern route at the setting of the morning star

The temple appeared as a gleaming golden tower,

With a small door on its south face

And a grand gate on the east.

The family approached the door

And noticed a man standing to its right.

In a fatherly gesture he smiled warmly.

The women approached the sentinel who looked at her with a joyous expression. The man looked at his wife and back toward his children and said “Eternal mother and friend your name is YETSANEYM” He produced from his pocket a perfect smooth spherical stone with the same carved on it “I give this to you in our promise of love”

YETSANEYM took the stone and handed it to the sentinel. He opened the door and bade her enter.

Her husband produced his own stone and followed behind. Their children looked on with Joy. Curious thing, youngest had eyes of blue green, the middle had unique combination of one eye almost red and the other a light yellow, and the oldest child had eyes of such dark blue they were almost black. They turned to continue on their journey. A scream could be heard from the garden beyond the magnificent gate, the beautiful women wept and cursed in her perpetual solitude. All was well.