Dating : The Kingdom of Roses (Chapter 6)

The Kingdom of Roses (Chapter 6)

Chapter 6: Joseph and Jacobus

The King’s Speech

The elite special forces were assembling near the castle gate at Bragghelm to pack their equipment and fetch their horses. The drawbridge was lowered and the trumpets blared to announce the arrival of a distinguished guest. Together with an entourage of horses mounted by angelic riders, King Solaris approached the castle from the grassy plain upon a glorious white horse. Crossing the bridge into the estate, the king’s horse brought him to the group of elite soldiers.

King Solaris, with a beaming smile and penetrating eyes, looked upon his assembled army with great love. He addressed them with a strong voice as he trotted back and forth on his horse before the ranks.

“Honored children of my kingdom, I see a whole army of my people, here in the defense of true freedom. Your hearts are free. And you have found the courage to follow your hearts, to follow them into the service of your brothers and sisters of the kingdom. You have come to fight Abaddon’s forces as free men and women. And free men and women you are.”

“Go….go in my name, and in my love. Go in the will of the Spirit of the kingdom. You have been instructed here at Bragghelm about the will of the Spirit, yet not even the most learned of my servants know all there is to be known about this force. It is so far beyond one’s limited understanding that one can only surrender to its mystery.”

Nevertheless, with great faith and confidence, in the midst of the battle, use this force. Follow the will of the Spirit, and I will be with you as you do so, wherever you go. The Spirit will surround you and penetrate you. It is what binds my kingdom together.”

“Go in peace, and know that my face shines upon you always with great love and strength.”

Then, raising his sword, the king, with a dramatic pause, looked back and forth over his ranks, and shouted, “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!”

The army immediately responded in thunderous unison, “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!”

A joyful applause rumbled from the ranks. The king and his entourage passed through the midst of them, casting over the army a mystical dust, composed of crushed dried mystical roses. The dust endowed the soldiers with special graces to carry out the mission that had been set before them.

Jacobus the Soldier

Once the king had completed his visit and had departed from the castle, the elite forces finished their packing and prepared to mount their horses. Joseph approached one of the young soldiers who had been training in the archery range under his supervision. The soldier’s name was Jacobus, the younger brother of Esaured, the common foot soldier who lived in Salvadoria.

Joseph said to Jacobus, “Nice shooting today, my friend. It’s clear that in training you had already anticipated the great advice of our beloved king, which he just shared with us.”

“When you employ your military skill in service of the kingdom, it is evident that you are following the will of the Spirit, and drawing upon its strength. That benevolent force has brought you out of Salvadoria and into these special ranks, and it will be that force that assists you in the ministry of the medicinal arrows.”

Jacobus replied, “Thank you very much, Sir Joseph. I am honored to be counted among the good king’s special forces.”

Joseph, placing his hand on the shoulder of Jacobus, said, “I will be accompanying you on this mission. I am here to guide you and to fight by your side, and I shall answer any questions that occur to you on the way. Feel at liberty to call me Joseph, for I do not call you a servant, but a friend.”

Sir Franco

Joseph, noticing the arrival of a special guest, said to Jacobus, “Jacobus, I would like to introduce you to someone who was observing you on the practice range today. He was most impressed with your skill, and especially with the heart you showed. Jacobus, meet one of the finest elite soldiers this kingdom has ever seen, an expert in the art of spiritual combat — Sir Franco.”

Approaching Jacobus with a cheerful smile, Sir Franco extended a handshake to Jacobus, and said, “My brother, welcome to these special forces. You have proven to be exceptionally in tune with the Spirit of the kingdom. Stay focused on this, and this alone, and you will honor the king greatly with your service.”

Then, turning to a fellow soldier standing behind him, Sir Franco received a shield decorated with a bleeding rose painted on a grey background. Sir Franco handed the shield to Jacobus, and said, “My brother, take this special shield with you. It is reserved for soldiers who have the gift of fighting with a single mind and an unrelenting focus.”

“As you bear this shield in battle, its mystical graces will empower you and help you to stay acutely focused on the will of the Spirit while you are in the thick of the fight. God be with you, my brother, and may you serve with honor.”

Jacobus was speechless. Beaming with gratitude, he said, “Thank you, Sir Franco. I will do my very best to honor your heritage and the heritage of this shield, and to bring glory to our king.”

After a hearty embrace, Sir Franco bade farewell to Jacobus, and offered the same to Joseph.

Joseph turned to Jacobus as Sir Franco walked away. “Nice shield,” Joseph quipped with a smile and a wink, as he placed his bag on the saddle of his horse.

Jacobus laughed as he admired the mysterious aura of the gift. “Yeah…I made out pretty well today, I guess.”

Princess Little Rose and Princess Joana

Just then, a beautiful young virgin princess approached Joseph with one of her companions. Both dressed for battle, the women were also preparing to embark on the mission. The princess, Therusia by name, was one of the fairest maidens in the entire kingdom. She had been so thoroughly transformed by the beautifying power of the mystical roses, that she was known by all as Little Rose.

“Princess Little Rose! My sister, good day,” Joseph said, as he reached for her hand. And turning to her companion, he said, “Princess Joana, greetings.”

Looking at Jacobus, Joseph said, “Jacobus, my friend, how fortunate you are today. First a visit from Sir Franco, and now, we are graced by the company of two of the finest warrior princesses this kingdom has ever known: my very own sister, Therusia, and our friend, Joana, from the district of Archus.”

After exchanging greetings, Therusia leaned over to her brother Joseph and kissed him on the cheek. She placed a most brilliant, luminescent mystical rose in his hand, and presented one to Jacobus as well. The roses glowed with warmth and electric energy, and emitted a heavenly fragrance.

Joseph replied, “My dear sister, surely with the gift of one of your special Warrior Roses, I will fare well today in helping bring success to the king’s cause. As always, you shower me with your kindness and benevolence, and indeed your gracious gift will bring me tremendous comfort in this most difficult struggle. I love you, dear flesh of my flesh. May you and Joana shine in battle today, as always!”

“Dei Gloriam,” said Therusia. Then she and Joana smiled, turned, and departed to fetch their horses.

As the ravishing princesses walked away, Jacobus stared as if in a trance, his mouth gaping with astonishment.

“Hey,” Joseph said with a smile, as he nudged Jacobus on the arm. “Don’t get any ideas, my friend. They’re taken, you know.”

“Uh, yeah….of course,” Jacobus replied, rolling his eyes as if to dismiss the idea. Catching each other’s eyes as they mounted their horses, Joseph and Jacobus laughed heartily.

The Journey Through Redempta

The train of male and female warriors strode on horseback over the bridge at Bragghelm and onto the grassy plain. The sky was illuminated with the glorious colors of the setting sun. Riding side by side, Joseph and Jacobus discussed many mysteries of the kingdom and secrets of spiritual combat along the way.

Passing through a small district called Redempta, Joseph and Jacobus rode by a string of houses with lamps burning in the lattices. Jacobus noticed however that the lamps at some of the houses were extinguished.

As night descended on Redempta, the royal army reached the edge of town and found a place in the meadows to set up camp for the night. The soldiers dismounted their horses and erected tents under the cover of a grove of spruce trees.

A clear stream flowed near the campsite, and several soldiers ignited fires along the banks of the stream. Groups of soldiers sat around the fires to eat, and they shared stories long into the night about King Solaris and the mysteries of his realm.

As Joseph and Jacobus ate near the fire, someone emerged from the darkness behind Joseph and reached her hands around his face, covering his eyes.

“Guess who?” she said.

Joseph replied, “Well, if it isn’t my old friend, Princess Maristella!”

And turning his head around quickly, Joseph saw his companion from Salvadoria standing behind him. She feigned a look of disappointment, since he had guessed her identity so quickly.

“How did you know?” she said.

“I don’t know…I used the will of the Spirit, I suppose.”

The three of them laughed.

The two friends embraced, and Maristella and Jacobus exchanged introductory greetings. The princess then explained that she had been assigned to this mission by her husband, Prince Salvador, as a special consultant to the warrior princesses. The female warriors would have a special role to play in the strategy against Abaddon and his forces, but Princess Maristella was not at liberty to share the details of the plan just yet.

After Princess Maristella and most of the other soldiers had retired to their tents for the night, Jacobus and Joseph continued to converse around the fire. Jacobus asked his mentor, “Joseph, when we were passing through Redempta, I noticed that five of the houses had lamps that were burning, and five had lamps that were not. Why is it that some lamps are lit and others are not?”

“Because,” Joseph answered, “the way the world is and how our hearts are conditioned, sometimes it is very difficult for a person to sustain interest in the benevolent invitation of a prince. To keep the lamp aflame, one must become wise.”

“One becomes wise by paying attention to the longing in one’s heart for the surpassing beauty of the mystical roses, and for the exceeding worth of the prince’s love and friendship. It is the prince’s love that makes women of our kingdom truly beautiful, and it is the prince’s love that imparts a royal dignity and benevolence to men who are selected to his special service.”

“Why is it so rare to see an exceptionally beautiful common maiden in the towns?” asked Jacobus. “I have seen not one whose beauty even gets close to the magnificence of the virgin princesses.”

Joseph replied, “It is the reception of love that makes a woman truly beautiful — for love is the power of the mystical roses. Common soldiers who marry women of the towns — even the best of these men — fail frequently in giving love. This inadequacy in their ability to love fully leaves the women longing for more, a pure love that only the prince can provide.”

“The prince’s love is present in the mystical roses, and also in the wild roses that grow throughout the kingdom. When townsfolk smell the fragrance of these roses, they experience a small dose of the beautifying effects. But, due to the thorns attached to the roses, the effects are temporary, and must be retained diligently in the memory of the one who desires a higher love.”

“Those who take the time to store the effects of the roses in their minds and hearts fare better than those who quickly forget their effects. Unfortunately, most people in the towns, due to the demands of their daily routine, do not exert the effort to retain a memory of the beautifying effects of the roses.”

“And yet,” Joseph continued, “when a wise maiden accepts the marriage proposal of a prince, she leaves behind the wild roses of her district, and follows the trail of mystical roses straight to their source — the prince himself. Many women who are invited by a prince to this more blessed state, however, allow their lamps to fail, either because they believe that the temporary effects of the wild roses are all they can ever know, or because they become entangled in various desires and cares about town.”

“To avoid such foolishness, a maiden must train herself to remain detached from the lesser good, and fix her heart on the source of love, full of hope that someday she may attain it.”

“And finally,” Joseph concluded, “from time to time, Abaddon stirs up trouble in the kingdom, infiltrating certain districts with misleading promises and doctrines. These aberrations of the truth of the kingdom further impede the ability of maidens and young men to sustain a desire for the prince’s pure love in their hearts. And thus, it is for the hearts of young men and maidens of Salvadoria that we have been commissioned to fight at present.”

The fire had now faded to a faint orange glow of embers, and Joseph and Jacobus retired to their tents for the night.

The Fair Maiden Soledad

When dawn broke, the company of soldiers departed the campsite and embarked on the final leg of their journey. Reaching the outskirts of Salvadoria by sunset, Joseph and Jacobus rode past a solitary house poised on the bank of a river on the edge of town. Flanked on three sides by beds of glorious sunflowers, the quaint cottage radiated with a distinct warmth and charm.

A fair maiden of Salvadoria named Soledad was making her way up to the cottage from the river bank. She had been practicing shooting arrows at a target near the river. Picking a few sunflowers, she walked to the edge of the road where the horses were passing by.

As Princess Maristella rode by, Soledad handed her a sunflower. Maristella thanked her, and Soledad similarly offered flowers to Princess Joana and Princess Therusia as they trotted by. Therusia reached into her pouch and pulled out a yellow mystical rose, marked with a lining of burnt orange along the edges of the petals. She gave it to Soledad, and with a smile said to her, “Keep following your heart.”

As Joseph passed by, Soledad’s eyes met his, and with smiles betraying some previous acquaintance, the two greeted each other with a nod of their heads.

Joseph and Jacobus watched as the maiden Soledad walked away and entered her cottage. A moment later, the lamp on her lattice was aflame, shining like gold as dusk fell over the cottage.

“Who was that?” Jacobus asked.

“A young woman named Soledad,” Joseph answered. “Believe it or not, Jacobus, you are related to her. She is the twin sister of your brother’s wife, Marisol.”

“I thought she looked familiar!” Jacobus replied. “Tell me about her.”

“Soledad is one of those wise maidens I was telling you about,” said Joseph. “Because of her beauty, she is very popular among the common foot soldiers of town. She used to live in the center of town, and many men would approach her with wild roses and romantic overtures.”

“While she humored them and often joined them in their diversions about town, she never lost sight of her dream of becoming a virgin princess and a warrior in the king’s special forces.”

“And so,” Joseph continued, “one day, in order to keep her heart more exclusively focused on her goal, she built this cottage on the edge of town to maintain a bit more privacy as she awaits.”

Jacobus said, “With the king sending more princes to the castle of Salvadoria, her chances of receiving a marriage proposal from a prince are that much greater, are they not?”

Fixing his grasp on his horse’s reigns, Joseph looked down at his right hand and noticed the special ring that the queen of the kingdom had given him as a gift. Looking up into the darkening dusk sky, Joseph noticed the moon beginning to appear. With a slight smile, Joseph replied, “Yes, her chances are very great. Soledad is quite special, and she seems to be destined for great honor in the kingdom.”

The Home of Marisol

It wasn’t long before the army reached the heart of town. As they came upon it, the young woman Marisol was outside her home hanging her family’s clothes of animal skins upon the clothesline. She walked over to a large kettle set upon some burning logs, where she was cooking lentil stew for her husband.

With a weary look, she stirred the stew with a large stick as her two small children ran to tell her about the royal train of horses drawing near. Noticeably pregnant, Marisol wiped her hands on the apron over her protruding womb, and watched as the army passed by on the road.

She watched with astonishment as virgin princesses, clad in luxurious armored attire, strode past on stunning Spanish Arabian horses. It was the same sense of wonderment she had when she first saw the virgin princesses visit her town square on a benevolent mission years earlier. Marisol’s eyes met the splendid eyes of Princess Therusia, and the loving glance of the warrior princess made Marisol feel young again, if even for just a moment.

As Jacobus passed, he recognized his sister-in-law Marisol right away, and he waved his hand at her. She responded with a smile and a wave of her hand. Her two children stood by her side, clinging to her dress and waving to Jacobus as well.

When Joseph rode by, he nodded at Marisol, and she returned the greeting. Just then, Marisol’s dog ran toward the train of horses, playfully barking as he approached the hooves of Joseph’s horse. Joseph reached into his pouch for a few crumbs, and threw them to the dog, who snatched them up from the path.

The Path Ahead

Once the procession had passed the house, Jacobus said, “That reminds me. I wonder how my brother Esaured is doing these days. I haven’t talked to him in months.”

Joseph turned to Jacobus, and with a serious tone said, “Jacobus, I have something important to report. Your brother Esaured is one of the townsfolk whose heart has been compromised by Abaddon’s campaign. He is in need of the ministry of the medicinal arrows. You might, in fact, be the one called upon to administer the remedy to him. Are you prepared to do that?”

After a brief pause, Jacobus said soberly, with his eyes fixed on Joseph, “I am.” And, turning his gaze to the road ahead, Jacobus repeated, “I am.”