Part 1

Part 4

Atop the lonely peak he finds a pair of silver beams
Moulded at right angles, giving off a ghostly gleam.
This place’s eerie atmosphere has silenced all the birds,
He steps forward with trembling at the old man’s warning words.

Despite the growing protests of the beast, he reaches out,
Touches purest silver and then with a silent shout
The rage of all the ages flows through and out of him,
His knees begin to falter and his vision starts to swim.

He sees a man of purest good, defender of the weak
Who shames the mighty with the truth, heals those who cannot speak,
Who gives the cripple and the lame new strength to leap and dance,
And frees the tortured and oppressed from their dark hellish trance.

Daric feels pure envy surging up from deep within,
Unlike the sin the beast ‘revealed’, this comes from inside him.
This man shows Daric how far short he falls of what is right
Shame turns into anger and he rages at the light.

The powerful that hate that man rouse up a vicious mob,
Accusing him of every evil thing they could think of.
Daric finds his inner self concurring with the horde
Demanding blood to have his own self-righteousness restored.

The man is taken, beaten, scourged, then hung up on display,
So he can be taunted as his lifeblood drips away.
Black tendril clouds of evil all converge on his pinned form
As the guilt of ages swarms at him in a wrathstorm.

The skies turn black, the mountains shake,
Great idols fall, disintegrate.
Demons shout and celebrate
His death, and when the noise abates

Daric’s anger at the truth
Turns back to shame that saps his youth.
“That man did not deserve his fate
But pity now is far too late.

“I truly am a loathsome fiend
That should be kept and quarantined
From all that’s pure and clean and good
Until I am the jackals’ food.”

Then Daric’s bathed in radiant light
And treated to the joyful sight
Of that man back to life in power
At his own appointed hour.

Justice has been served and won;
Wrath is spent and guilt is gone.
He offers Daric his pierced hand,
Smiles warmly and then helps him stand.

Daric finds his beast is stilled,
His old corrupted self is killed.
A noble peace is in his heart;
He’s ready for a whole new start.

The man ascends into the sky
Leaving Daric misty-eyed.
Behind the cross he sees a door
In the rocky mountain floor.

Part 6