The Chamber

You fall against the wall of the chamber, and softly roll two meters to the floor. It is of the same hard-packed red clay that is ubiquitous on your journey so far. You roll to a cross-legged sitting position. It takes a moment for you to get your bearings.

When you do you realize that you are in a candle-lit room much the same as the Well beneath the Fountain. Except this room has two full-size tunnels leading out from it -- and two people standing before you!

A woman and a man.

They are dressed alike in a simple cotton robe. The robes are colorful and have designs hinting of rainbows and spiderwebs, rainclouds and lightning, butterflys and turtleshells.

They look at you.

Words.

"Goddess has given birth."

Was it one, or the other? No matter. They both come to you, take you gently by the elbows and raise you to your feet.

You are quite unsteady. They hold you up and lead you slowly off to the left hand tunnel.

Entering another room you see it well lit and feel it warm. A large porcelain bathtub filled with steaming, fragrant, oiled water awaits you in the center. The Caretakers help you in, attend to your needs. There is no hurry, but they answer no questions. They ask you to relax and wait. They tell you that enlightenment arrives at its own time. They tell you that you will be given the opportunity to see some of the many forms of Goddess.

But that comes next.

Now is the Bath,

Hot, wet, fragrant.

All the tension flows from your muscles.

You relax.

You enjoy.

Heat renews every tired muscle.

Aromatic scents float you to a moment out of time.

While you bathe, the Caretakers cross to the other side of the room, and seated facing away from you for your privacy, take up instruments. One takes up a lyre, the other a lute. They play hauntingly magickal music that echoes marvelously within the tunnel complex.

When you are done, you call them and they come with absorbant terry-cloth towels to dry you off. They provide a simple, yet elegantly cut, white cotton robe for you to wear.

The three of you exit the Bath Chamber to the chamber you entered through the tunnel. you find out that it is named The Birth Chamber.

They lead you to the other tunnel exiting this chamber.

"This is where your path leads."

They stay behind. You enter the passage and quickly come to a large wooden door with bands and joints of bronze. You feel the thick, cold bronze handle in your grasp as you swing open the door and step inside.