The Witch of Portobello Page 0,92

more powerful than anything and shows itself in many ways.'

'I'm not strong enough for this. Such abstractions only leave me feeling more depressed and alone than ever.'

'I'm not strong enough either. I need someone by my side too. But one day, our eyes will open, the different forms of Love will be made manifest, and then suffering will disappear from the face of the Earth. It won't be long now, I think. Many of us are returning from a long journey during which we were forced to search for things that were of no interest to us. Now we realise that they were false. But this return cannot be made without pain, because we have been away for a long time and feel that we are strangers in our own land. It will take some time to find the friends who also left, and the places where our roots and our treasures lie. But this will happen.'

For some reason, what she said touched me. And that drove me on.

'I want to continue talking about love,' I said.

'We are talking. That has always been the aim of everything I've looked for in my life allowing love to manifest itself in me without barriers, letting it fill up my blank spaces, making me dance, smile, justify my life, protect my son, get in touch with the heavens, with men and women, with all those who were placed on my path. I tried to control my feelings, saying such things as he deserves my love or he doesn't. Until, that is, I understood my fate, when I saw that I might lose the most important thing in my life.'

'Your son.'

'Exactly. He is the most complete manifestation of love. When the possibility arose that he might be taken away from me, then I found myself and realised that I could never have anything or lose anything. I understood this after crying for many hours. It was only after intense suffering that the part of me I call Hagia Sofia said: What nonsense! Love always stays, even though, sooner or later, your son will leave.'

I was beginning to understand.

'Love is not a habit, a commitment, or a debt. It isn't what romantic songs tell us it is love simply is. That is the testament of Athena or Sherine or Hagia Sofia love is. No definitions. Love and don't ask too many questions. Just love.'

'That's difficult.'

'Are you recording?'

'You asked me to turn the machine off.'

'Well, turn it on again.'

I did as she asked. Athena went on:

'It's difficult for me too. That's why I'm not going back home. I'm going into hiding. The police might protect me from madmen, but not from human justice. I had a mission to fulfil and it took me so far that I even risked the custody of my son. Not that I regret it. I fulfilled my destiny.'

'What was your mission?'

'You know what it was. You were there from the start. Preparing the way for the Mother. Continuing a tradition that has been suppressed for centuries, but which is now beginning to experience a resurgence.'

'Perhaps '

I stopped, but she didn't say a word until I'd finished my sentence.

' perhaps you came too early, and people aren't yet ready.'

Athena laughed.

'Of course they're not. That's why there were all those confrontations, all that aggression and obscurantism. Because the forces of darkness are dying, and they are thrown back on such things as a last resort. They seem very strong, as animals do before they die, but afterwards, they're too exhausted to get to their feet. I sowed the seed in many hearts, and each one will reveal the Renaissance in its own way, but one of those hearts will follow the full Tradition Andrea.'

Andrea.

Who hated her, who blamed her for the collapse of our relationship, who said to anyone who would listen that Athena had been taken over by egotism and vanity, and had destroyed something that had been very hard to create.

Athena got to her feet and picked up her bag Hagia Sofia was still with her.

'I can see your aura. It's being healed of some needless suffering.'

'You know, of course, that Andrea doesn't like you.'

'Naturally. But we've been speaking for nearly half an hour about love. Liking has nothing to do with it. Andrea is perfectly capable of fulfilling her mission. She has more experience and more charisma than I do. She learned from my mistakes; she knows that she must be prudent because in an age in which the wild

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