This is a world not unlike our own: people still struggle, sinners still need a Saviour, the Good Shepherd still reaches out to them…however, the gifts received upon salvation are different, although no less potent, than ours.

Scordatura

Her name was Ashley.  Or, at least it used to be.  She wasn’t quite sure; this was a new thing for her.  Well, at least some of it.  She’d been going to church for about as long as she could remember, but until recently, it had been something her family had done; she never really paid much attention, though.  She just kept to herself most of the time, walling herself in over the years.  Believing that no one could get to her, she left for a time, trying to break through her timidity on her own.  It didn’t work, though, and at the end of that time, she felt something, she could only describe it as a tug, pulling her back to church.  Almost out of desperation, she went back, and for the first time, she listened to His voice.  She made a commitment that day, and now it wasn’t just her family that wanted her to go, but her own choice, and her relationship.

Just being there wasn’t enough, though.  She needed to study this Book she’d ignored for so long.  There was a man in her church; his name was Paul, but he usually introduced himself as Odyssey.  He held a study every week for young people interested in studying the Bible, so Ashley asked if she could join.  He only smiled, and said he’d be delighted to have her come.  He even offered to pick her up and bring her the next time the group met.

That next time turned out to be a Friday night, and on the car ride to the meeting place, Ashley had conflicting emotions.  On the one hand, she was excited to meet other young people that wanted to know more about the Word of God, but on the other hand, nervous that they wouldn’t like her and reject her somehow.

Paul stopped the car in front of a little café in the middle of town.  Ashley froze. 

Here it is.  The Bible study.  The others will know much more than me; they’ll probably just laugh at me, or worse, stare and cast me out that way.  Maybe I should just have Paul take me home.

Odyssey didn’t have to hear her thoughts to know what was going on behind those frightened eyes, but he wouldn’t let her back away from this.  As if leading an animal held in captivity its whole life into its natural habitat, he half led, half carried Ashley out of the car and into the coffee shop.

Odyssey pointed to the table where they’d be, and Ashley saw the other members of the study.

There were only 2 of them today; one girl and one boy, and neither of them seemed to notice her yet, caught up in their own conversation.  Both of them seemed somehow…out of place with the other patrons of the café.  They seemed….at peace, but not like one would normally think.  Other people in the café were calm, sure, but these two had something that reached deeper than that, something that flowed from the center of their being rather than just a cover up or a temporary mood.

They weren’t entirely the same, though.  The girl had a warm, friendly air about her; a caring individual with a disarming smile.

The boy seemed kind and gentle as well, but there was also a desire to be strong behind that, a noble defender working its way out through his furrowed brow.

“Come on, Ashley,” Paul said, “Let’s go meet them.”

As they walked up to the table, the two already sitting finally noticed them.  They were obviously a little surprised at their new member, but both smiled at her.

“Serenity, Radiance, I’d like to introduce you to a new addition to our group,” Odyssey said as he gestured towards Ashley.  He then turned to her.

 “I’d introduce you by name, but I think it would be better if they heard your new name from you directly.”

The request caught Ashley off guard.  Her new name had just been revealed to her a few days before, and she herself was still getting used to it.

“It’s…umm….it’s Scordatura,” she managed to say, and continued with a small, nervous smile, “I don’t know what it means.”

“That’s perfectly all right, Scordatura,” Odyssey said, “You should probably look it up sometime, but for right now, let’s study.”

Today, Ashely had to borrow Paul’s Bible, but Serenity and Radiance had their own.  Serenity’s was fairly new, but she already seemed to know her way around inside it.  Radiance’s was still in good condition, but clearly showed signs of years of use.  They were looking at a passage in the book of Judges that day, about a young man named Gideon.  Ashley had heard this story many times before, but that was years ago in Sunday School, and then, it was little more than a bedtime story.  Now, though, it was real to her, and she felt a connection with this weakest son of a weakest family of a weakest clan.

After they finished and prayed, Paul quickly got up.

“I’m sorry, but I have somewhere else I need to be soon.  Radiance, Serenity, could you please walk Scordatura home?  It’s starting to get dark, and I certainly don’t want to send her back alone.”

“Of course,” Radiance said, “we’d be happy to.”

“Yeah!” Serenity agreed.

As they walked, Ashley had lots of questions for her new friends.

“So, are those your real names?  Radiance and Serenity?”

“Well, I was born with the name Summer,” the girl replied.

“And mine’s Brandon,” the boy chimed in.

 “But Paul—Odyssey—wants to stress that we’re new creations now, so he only calls us by our new names.”

“And the new names,” Ashely continued, “Do they mean anything?”

“Yeah,” Brandon answered, “it usually has something to do with your spiritual gift.  Like in my case—”

Brandon stopped suddenly, both talking and walking, as if he heard someone calling him.  A second later Summer stopped as well.  Then, Ashley felt something, too: like a tugging at her spirit that told her to stop and listen.  Something was wrong, but at the same time, Ashley felt that she didn’t need to do anything…yet.

Brandon looked at Summer and her, but it wasn’t quite Brandon.  There was something new in him, something….radiant?

“Stay here.” Radiance said quietly, raising his hand to emphasize his words.

Ashley did as she was told, but looked at Summer, asking with her expression what was going on.  Summer, though, had gone through a transformation as well.  She was alert, just as Ashley was, but was also the very picture of composure, devoid of any worry at all.

“It’s fine,” Serenity told her.  “Let Radiance handle it.”

Now Ashley was really confused, but felt she could trust these two.

Radiance nodded at the girls, then shot off in a brilliant flash of light.  He went high into an apartment building across the street.  Ashley heard a few crashes in the room where Radiance disappeared, then suddenly, another form was thrown from that window clear across the street and landed in front of her and Serenity.  It was a person.

Ashley couldn’t believe that Radiance had beaten this guy so easily.  He was wearing some kind of armor; like something she’d imagine a futuristic soldier to wear.  It had a hawk emblazoned on the shoulder, above his rank, and also had a helmet with a visor.  Even worse, she knew who wore that armor.

Radiance was back in an instant, and stood over the soldier.

“Who are you?” Radiance asked, calm but forceful.

 “Ahhh….” The soldier groaned. “You hit hard…how’d you do that?”

“You haven’t answered my question,” Radiance reminded him.

“Fine,” the soldier said, getting up slowly.  He took off his helmet, revealing the face of a youth about the same age as Radiance.

“I’m Ryan.  Combat scout for the Hunters, assigned to observe you guys and see if any of you were….abnormal.”

“Observe?  Why the armor, then?

“In case you turned out to be Ferals.  And it’s not just regular armor.  Sure, it protects me, but check it out: the joints here aid my muscles, making me faster and stronger, the armor is modified for extreme heat, cold, and electrical shock, is completely bulletproof—”

“Yes, yes, it’s very nice,” Radiance interrupted, “But what do you mean when you say Ferals?”

 “Come on, I know you’ve seen them.  They can do impossible things just like you, but are a whole lot less…civil…than you, which is why I’m actually very happy you’re not one of them.”

“Demons,” Serenity whispered in Ashley’s ear.

“And if we were?” Radiance asked Ryan.

“Then I’d have to use this,” Ryan replied almost proudly.

He rather touched his right thigh lightly.  There was a harpoon gun attached to the armor there.

Serenity gasped a little and put her hand to her mouth in shock.  Ashley lowered her eyes.  Radiance frowned with his.

“Good stopping power, reusable bolts, and—”

Ryan was cut off by a sound coming from his helmet.  He put it on quickly, and while the others couldn’t hear, he was apparently receiving orders.  When he had gotten the message in full, he swore, got out his harpoon gun, and ran off.

“We need to follow him!  He’s going after demons!” Serenity cried, and ran after him.  Radiance followed, and Ashley, still confused and feeling out of the loop, brought up the rear.

“So why are we following Ryan?” She asked when she caught up to Radiance.

“We need to keep him from killing those people,” he replied.

“People?  I thought Summer said they were demons?”

“True, but they’re demons possessing people.  Ryan and his superiors probably think it’s a disease or some kind of mutation, but if they kill them, they’re only killing the people the demons are inhabiting.  We can’t allow that.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“I’ll explain when we get there.”

When they caught up to Ryan, they found him taking up a position near a long-closed factory.  He was naturally more than a little surprised to see the three of them join him.

“What are you guys doing?!” He whispered angrily.

“We’re here to help,” Radiance answered.

“Help?....Fine.  Alright, what can you guys do?  I know you have some kind of weird light energy that you control,” he said to Radiance, “but what about you?” he asked Serenity.

“I can take people’s anger away when I touch them.” She replied.

Ryan stared at her for a minute.

“Okaaaay….that’ll be useful.  What about—” He paused when he turned to Ashley, as if this was the first time he really noticed her.

“Ashley?”

“Hey, Ryan….” She said, and the others could tell she was starting to retreat into herself.

“Well, this is just GREAT!  You’ll be completely useless!  Do you know who this is?” Ryan asked Radiance and Serenity.  He hardly even waited for them to respond to continue his rant.

“She tried to join the Hunters a while back.  But she was weak; probably the biggest wimp I’ve ever seen in my life!  She’d turn into a quivering idiot if anything we told her to do required the least amount of risk!  She was a disgrace to the order, and now here she is again!”

He then directed his tirade at Ashley personally, even though they could all see that she’d taken a few emotional blows.

“Look, I don’t know why you came or what you’re trying to prove, but you’d do us all a favor and go back to your little corner to cry.  Spare us the burden of your weakness.”

“HEY!” Radiance shouted as Serenity went to Ashley to try and comfort her.

“What gives you the right to talk to her like that?” Radiance continued, “You may know who she was, but you don’t know who she is.”

“What’s the difference?!” Ryan retorted, “People don’t change!  She was weak then, and she’s weak now!”

“You’re wrong,” Radiance said, lowering his voice, “No one can be touched by God and remain unchanged.”

Ryan rolled his eyes.

“You know what?  I don’t want to get started on that.  You’ll do things your way, and I’ll do it my way, and we’ll just leave it at that.  As long as we achieve the same end, who cares how we get there?”

The two then fell silent.  Ryan turned away and seemed to continue to survey the situation, but Radiance’s gaze lingered on the soldier for a moment, an expression somewhere between frustration and compassion on his face.  He then got that listening look on his face again, and after a moment, turned to the girls.  He held out his hands as if holding a ball in each, and suddenly, it seemed like light gathered in his hands, and in a moment, he was holding two orbs of light, one of which he gave to Serenity, and the other to Ashley.

“When you need to be protected, break this on the ground, and you’ll be safe for a time,” he instructed.

This act didn’t escape Ryan, who couldn’t help but turn to Radiance with a snide remark.

“What about her not being weak?” he asked with a smirk.

“I was told to give them the orbs,” Radiance replied simply.

“Then why don’t I get one?”

Radiance shrugged.

“I wasn’t told to give one to you.”

Ryan rolled his eyes annoyedly, and decided that now was a good time to move forward.   He left the position and made his way toward the building, ducking between whatever cover he could find.  Radiance followed him from a short distance, ready to intervene if Ryan ran into a demon.  Serenity was about to go after the two of them, but when she glanced behind her to make sure Ashley was coming with her, she saw the girl frozen in place.

“Ashley, what’s wrong?”  She asked.

“I’m….it’s…Ryan’s right…I can’t do this; I’m just not strong enough…” Ashley replied haltingly.

“You don’t have to be,” Serenity said, her face and voice softening.  “In a way, your weakest is the best place you can be, so God can use it to show His strength.  Look at me: my gift wasn’t meant for fighting, but He’s calling me to help here.  Trust Him, and He’ll never let you down.  Now come on.”

Ashley was still deathly afraid, but Serenity’s words encouraged her, and the two ran after the others, who’d just about made it into the factory.

The girls caught up quickly, and all four cautiously entered the building together.  The building was dark, a condition only made worse by the growing night, so they could tell very little about what it looked like inside.  By the sound of the echoes any sounds made, though, it had to be huge.

They barely went in two steps, though, when suddenly, something immense fell behind them, barring the entrance and putting them in pitch-blackness.  Then, the lights snapped on, and the four saw where they were.  They stood in a condemned iron smelting plant, and one of the cauldrons hanging from the ceiling had been dropped to prevent their escape. 

They were not alone.  Two other people, or at least in appearance, also were there, all of them staring at the group.  One of them was a small in stature, and had a wicked grin on his face.  The other was a much larger, and stood with his arms folded, frowning at them with a face filled with hate.

Both of them had red eyes.

The thin demon didn’t waste time with words, but rather dashing towards them in a blur faster than should have been humanly possible.  As soon as he saw how fast the demon moved, though, Radiance responded by shooting towards the fiend in a brilliant blur of his own.  The two collided like pinballs, both of them flying off in different directions.  Neither of them stopped, though.  They kept at each other, colliding and reengaging each other like dueling comets.  For a moment, the others watched the spectacle in amazement, and Ryan asked incredulously

“How’s that other guy so fast?!”

The demon was instantly right behind Ryan, and whispered in his ear.

“Don’t you know how quickly lies and deception spreads?”

The demon of deception started to snicker, but was interrupted by a shining bolt blindsiding him, and they resumed their battle royale.

The demon’s large friend had seen enough of this, and decided it was his turn.  With a monstrous bellow, he hefted one of the enormous cauldrons and launched it at Ryan.  It was huge and intimidating, but slow, so Ryan managed to roll out of the way, and started to draw a bead on the demon of rage with his harpoon gun.  Radiance saw him do this, though, and just as Ryan was about to fire, Radiance threw a shaft of light at the gun, knocking it from Ryan’s hands.

Radiance breathed a sigh of relief, and his momentary vulnerability wasn’t lost on the demon of deception.  Before the disciple could even react, the demon rushed forward, grabbed him, and with the help of his near-supersonic momentum, threw Radiance against a wall.  He hit the wall headfirst, and fell to the ground, unconscious.

Ryan suffered from the loss of his focus as well.  Seeing him without a weapon, the demon of rage came at him like a wild bull.  The two then were locked in a titanic wrestling match of Ryan’s technological muscle amplification and the demon’s unreal strength.  It only lasted until the demon landed a solid punch on Ryan’s face, which sent him flying and left him in the same state as Radiance.

The demons then turned to the girls.  As the demon of deception flew towards Serenity and the demon of rage charged Ashley, both of them dashed their orbs to the ground, and when they did, the fragments formed barriers of light around each of them which neither of the demons was able to penetrate.

This didn’t stop them from trying, though.  Like an angry hornet, the demon of deception tried again and again to pierce Serenity’s barrier, and the demon of rage delivered one crushing blow after another to Ashely’s, causing the very earth nearby to tremble.

As she sat curled in a ball of terror, Ashley felt a tugging at her spirit, a call from the Most High for her to truly receive her gift.  Ashley ignored the call, though, consumed by her fear and her helplessness in her situation.

Serenity also her a call, but it was not a call to use her gift.  Rather, she felt the King’s invitation to Ashley.

“Ashley!  Accept His gift!” Serenity called desperately, for Ashley’s sake as well as her own.

A hairline fracture appeared on her barrier.

“I can’t!” Ashley cried back, “I can’t do it!  I won’t be strong enough to use it!”

Ashley’s barrier was starting to look like safety glass hit by a bowling ball.

“You don’t have to!” Serenity shouted, “Trust Him, and let Him move through you!”

In that moment, Ashley finally understood what she had to do, and let go of all her fears and insecurities, surrendering her will to the Almighty.

As her barrier shattered, Scordatura opened her mouth as if to sing, but the song that passed her lips could never be sung by a human voice.

It started with a low tone, deep and strong, like one would expect mountains to sound like if they could sing.    Next, a playful, gentle melody like a tropical breeze joined in, dancing around the mountains’ chord.  A beat came in next, steady and wild like the Serengeti.  Thousands of small, clear voices like the innumerable stars joined in next, and was followed by what seemed the whole of nature, a mighty choir lifting its voice in praise of its master Artisan.  It grieved its fall and longed for the day in which it would be cleansed, but sang in resounding adoration nonetheless.  It was the chorus of nature, the grand orchestra of everything that is.

It was the Song of Creation.

The demon of deception couldn’t bear the sound, and covered its ears, writhing and wailing in anguish.  The demon of rage was slowed, but was all the more determined to silence the Disciple before him.

He never got the chance.

First, Serenity waved her arms towards the demon, and, empowered by the song and the Spirit moving in her, sent a gust of air filled with her gift at the demon, and as it hit him, steam flew from its body, along with its beastly strength.  It did little to cool its demonic anger, but as it resumed its course, it stopped suddenly.  The demon looked down, and saw a shining blade protruding from its belly.

Radiance raised the blade and sent the demon in the form of a cloud into the air, and quickly disbursed as he did the demon of fear.

As Scordatura continued to sing, Radiance and Serenity turned to where the demon of deception was, but failed to find him.  He had mustered the strength to escape.  That was of little consequence, though.  It couldn't escape its fate forever.

                Ryan had seen the whole thing since Scordatura started singing, and stood in shock at who he thought he knew, but was now a completely new and different person.

                Scordatura ceased, and for a moment was amazed at what she herself had just done.  She was then filled with gratitude, though, remembering who it was that had lent her His Strength, and dropped to her knees with tears in her eyes, filled with a silent praise of her own for her Rock and her Salvation.