For such love there is neither time nor death nor space.
Akaza stole away in the dim light, murmuring softly:
“Although a separate entity, she personates the feminine principle dormant in himself. This is what the ideal always does. Through this he will learn to harmonize desire and knowledge, and in time he will see that the grinding out of animal propensities, represented by the ringed planet, has come to him in a form more beautiful than a poet’s dream. Kerœcia is the disillusionizer, the dweller on the threshold, the chastening rod. But the hand that smites will also bless him.”[[11]]
CHAPTER NINETEEN
AKAZA KEEPS HIS VOW AND IS FINALLY FREE
As he passed out of the temple, Akaza turned again to look at Yermah whose face was illumined, serene and calm. With his hands clasped before him, the Dorado stood as if in a dream, taking into the inner recesses of his heart the comforting assurance of immortality and of final union with the Divine, in which Kerœcia was a part.
“Farewell, beloved!” said the old man, as his eyes filled. “Thou hast passed the Gates of Light, and art come into thine own. Amenti, thou unknown, receive thy son! Amrah, King of the Brotherhood, give back my vow! I have kept the faith!”
He stood with bowed figure, and seemed to be communing with the Unseen. Presently he lifted his head, and the crowning white hair haloed a dazzling countenance. His lips were parted in a pleased expectancy.
“I am free to go hence,” he said, as he turned and walked out with renewed vigor.
Akaza bent his steps toward Ingharep, and when he reached the cave, he went in and made ready for a journey. The blurred, reddened and obscure sun shed but fitful light over the still agitated waters of the Pacific.
The hierophant went out on the rocks jutting into the sea, remnants of which are still visible below the Cliff House of to-day, where he sat gazing long into space. When his strength was fully regained, he hailed the officer on watch in the tower-house of the hill overlooking the point, and was soon swallowed up in the night.