Christian allegory Archives - Kristen Anne Glover

{29} Beyond Rescuing

Beyond Rescuing: Day 29 of 31 Days

For Day 1, click on the image above

Jewel fell back on her knees and stared at the box before her. Dust and ashes, ashes and dust. She could not understand it—she knew there was treasure here before.

“Didn’t find what you were looking for?” a voice said in her ear.

She fell down, terrified, and looked up. It was the Enchanter, looking calm and collected next to her dirty, frazzled body.

“I don’t understand,” Jewel stammered. “It was here. I left it here. I buried treasure in this box, but when I opened it, well, look!” She shoved the box at the Enchanter, who clucked his tongue and shook his head.

“He should have told you this would happen.”

“What do you mean? Who should have told me what?”

“Your prince. It’s a trick of his, you know. Once you see his treasure, your treasure is like dust. You can never come back to it and be satisfied.”

“You mean it just disappeared?”

“I mean, you never had it to begin with.“

Jewel looked at the box in disbelief. “But I did! I…I saved it myself.”

“You stole it. Or at the very least, you did all sorts of things to earn it that would make a good princess blush. You know it, and I know it. That is not treasure, Jewel, it’s plunder. Blood money. It’s no good in his kingdom.” He came a little closer to her and whispered, “If your prince knew where you got it, he would turn away from you in disgust.”

“How dare you, you who sold me first! How dare you accuse me!”

“How dare you pretend I’m not justified in doing so,” the Enchanter laughed. “Oh, Obscurity! Do you really think you can erase your past, just because you put on new clothes and a crown?”

“My name is Jewel.”

“Ironic. You do not look very much like a Jewel now.”

Jewel looked down. She was covered in filth. Blood oozed from scrapes and scratches, and she realized that one of her fingernails had been torn off completely. Worse, her dress was ripped beyond repair. She had worn her oldest dress, the very first dress the prince had ever given her.

It was her wedding dress.

“You know,” the Enchanter cooed, “I have more riches than I know what to do with. If it’s treasure you seek, I can make you rich beyond imagination.”

“I don’t want to be rich,” Jewel said. “I came because I wanted to do something for him.”

“Of course you do. He’s done so much for you, after all.”

“Yes.” The thought of it made her wretched.

“Although, I can’t help but feel he got the better of me when he took you from me. I’m not sure I’m ready to forgive him for that.”

“Please, if you have anything you can spare, anything at all. I’ve come all this way, and I have nothing. How can I go back like this?”

“How indeed,” the Enchanter said, looking her over with slitted eyes. “I would not want to go in your place. I can just imagine the look on his face.”

Beyond Rescuing

Jewel buried her head in her dirty hands and sobbed. “What can I do?”

“Well,” the Enchanter’s smooth voice curled around her like smoke. “There is one thing.”

“What? Anything!”

His beautiful face contorted so quickly, Jewel gasped in surprise. He grabbed her by the throat and hissed, “Bow down and beg for it.”

Her eyes were wide and frantic. He was fierce and ugly, like the dragons that swooped over his land. Ugly like she had never seen him before. Jewel clawed at him, expecting any moment for him to release her. He was a friend!

“You see, Jewel, I have not forgotten your betrayal. I have not forgotten how you traded me in at the first chance you had to become the bride of the one I hate.” He spat the words at her like a viper. “Do you really think we could be friends after that? Do you really think I will help you?”

He was her friend! He had said so himself. But now there was no air! Was she to die at his hand?

“No, Jewel, I will not help you, but you have certainly helped me! You have led your people right out the gates and into my kingdom.”

He laughed then and released his grip just enough for Jewel to gasp for breath and feel the weight of his words. It was true.

“Do you know, Jewel, there is one thing I love almost as much as having my own kingdom. Do you know what that is? It’s having the prince’s people serve me when they think they’re serving him. They wander farther and farther away from him every day and they don’t even know it. In fact, they think they are more enlightened than ever before! It’s almost too easy!

“What kind of pathetic prince can’t keep his people from traipsing over to the enemy just as soon as the gates are open? Your prince, Jewel, that’s who. He talks a big talk, but he has no power over the desires of men. I do.”

The Enchanter looked into her eyes and scoffed. “And you—you’re the worst offender. ‘Jewel: bride of the prince.’ You came calling so quickly, I’m almost amazed the prince didn’t recognize you sooner for the harlot you are.”

“Let me go,” she begged, her voice hoarse and raspy.

“Let you go? Tell me, Jewel, where would you go? Do you think I am so kind as to take traitors back into my house? I would sooner destroy you. And if you think he will take you back when you have betrayed him like this then you do not know his holy fierceness like you ought. It would be a kindness for me to kill you outright rather than to leave you to his justice.”

He was choking her again, but she was dying with the thought that she might be beyond rescuing by her prince. Of course the Enchanter was right. Why would her prince take her back? She had been so foolish.

“You have been defeated, Jewel. Admit it, and I might let you live long enough to see the embarrassment on your prince’s face.”

The darkness of that night became even darker. The whole world spun and she felt her arms go numb. Jewel could not breathe. She could only exhale one last breath. “Help me,” she whispered just before everything went black.

*Join us tomorrow for the exciting Day 30!

{28} The Plan

The Plan: Day 28 of 31 Days

For Day 1, click on the photo above

Jewel crept along the wall. Thick darkness clung to her. She couldn’t see a thing. Stumbling and tripping, she made her way to a tall tree that stretched up over the wall. Children played there during the day, swinging in the branches and eating the fruit.

It was a beautiful climbing tree, in the light. Now, the branches snatched at her and shredded her clothes. Chastising, they smacked against her cheeks until angry tears ran down her face.

When she planned this quest, a moonless night seemed to her advantage. Now, she wondered why she hadn’t just walked right out the gate at midday. No one would have questioned her. She was the queen, or so she had been calling herself ever since the Enchanter’s visit.

Besides, the kingdom was enjoying an unprecedented time of peace because of her. Slowly, people began to explore the land outside the gates, not just when they had to go there on the prince’s business. Now, they were brought out by curiosity and a new-found sense of security. Some were reviled by what they saw. But most looked longer than they needed and ventured farther than they should.

They even prided themselves on how cultured they were becoming. Their eyes had been opened to the things only the prince had known about that dark land, and they felt they were better for the education.

The Enchanter welcomed them with open arms. “See?” he said with an enchanting smile. “We’re not that different after all.”

It was easy to see he was right when their kingdoms were at peace.

Jewel knew she could slip right out the gates and no one would care, not anymore. But she did not want to be followed as far as she intended to go. She was going back to the place that knew all her secrets, the parts that only the prince and the Enchanter knew.

the plan

She swung her legs over the wall and dropped down on the other side, feeling the sting of ground against her feet like the sting of doubt that pierced her heart.

What if it was all a lie?

It couldn’t be. Jewel thought back over all the things the Enchanter had said to her that night in her chamber, and it all seemed so good. It all made so much sense.

That’s when the plan started to form. She remembered a certain box she had kept in an unnoticed corner of the yard where she once lived with a man who did not love her. It was buried under loose dirt and dying flowers. Every so often, when the man was drunk or occupied with someone more interesting, she dug it up.

It was her security. She had saved and stolen and sold herself for every bit of treasure in that box. When her body was broken and her fingers raw from scraping an existence out of the fire-burned rock, she went to it and lovingly fingered each broken chain and silver trinket. There was even a bit of a gem she had chipped out of ring her mother had cherished more than her own daughter.

Jewel needed to find that box. It consumed her mind from the moment she remembered it. She was going to dig it up and take it back and show the prince and his adviser that she was not so wholly dependent as they imagined. She had something to offer. She had something to give.

The yard was just as dark as the night. It was surrounded on every side by mean barbed wire and sharp, broken glass. A shabby, shamble of a house stood guard in the middle. The windows, which had never been cleaned, revealed no light inside.

Jewel had forgotten how she had fought and scraped for just that bit of earth and that bit of covering for her nakedness. How pathetic it all looked to her now. She was the bride of a prince! She, the woman who had once huddled under a kitchen table rather than share a bed with the man who beat her, had nearly forgotten what it was like to live in the Enchanter’s kingdom.

A sudden fear struck her. He was not her friend. No one who subjected his people to this kind of misery could be her friend, no matter how fine he talked and how smoothly he smiled.

Panicked, she ran to the far end of the property where a wild hedge grew. The fence was lower there, she remembered, because the branches weighed heavy on it.

Jewel could barely see. The wire tore at her flesh like greedy claws and the shards of glass pierced her feet. What have I done? she cried. What have I done?

She managed to pull herself free, falling face-down in the dirt with the effort. Jewel scrambled to the hidden corner of the yard and dug furiously with her fingers like an animal. Finally, she hit upon something hard.

Just get it and go, Jewel, she panted to herself.

She drew the box out from the ground. The lock was green and corroded. Jewel was relieved to see that it hadn’t been opened in a very long time. Her treasure had not been touched. It was all still there, just as she left it.

Using a rock, she pounded until the lock burst open. Her fingers bleeding and her heart racing, Jewel slowly opened the lid, anxious to see her prize, her security, her worth.

The lid creaked in protest but soon gave up its secret. Jewel stared in disbelief. She shook her head and began to scream, “No! No! How can this be?”

Even in the dark of the night she could see. The box held nothing but ashes and dust.

{24} A Visitor

A Visitor: Day 24 of 31 Days.

For Day 1, click on the image above.

The Enchanter slipped in almost without notice. Jewel, the bride of the prince, the upholder of the standards of the kingdom, had made a fatal mistake: she had forgotten to close the gate.

In her righteous busyness, in the rush of skewed priorities, she had neglected to do the simple and inglorious things that needed doing in the kingdom. More important to her in the moment were the jobs that would be noticed when they were completed and rewarded with praise.

No one noticed a door slightly ajar. No one, that is, except the one who had been waiting for just such an opportunity.

“My, how beautiful you have become,” he said to Jewel when he found her standing vulnerable in her chamber.

She spun around. “What are you doing here? Get out!” she demanded.

In the corner, her Advocate’s face seized with pain. Only one man belonged in the bride’s chamber, and the Enchanter was not that man. She should never have even spoken to the intruder. Jewel should have screamed! She should have run to her Advocate and hidden, appalled by the intrusion of this uninvited guest, and her Advocate would have doled out an appropriate punishment, sure and swift.

But Jewel did not. So taken was she with her own beauty that she mistook it for strength and power, and she decided, in that moment, to protect and defend herself.

A visitor

“I underestimated you, Obscurity—but that is not your name anymore, is it?” the Enchanter asked with silken words that slipped around Jewel so seamlessly, she hardly knew what was happening.

“I am Jewel,” she said, raising her chin and looking down at him as best she could, though he was taller than she.

“How fitting,” he smiled, easy and relaxed. Jewel could not help notice how perfect he looked, and not at all terrifying like she remembered.

“I do not know another woman who could have adapted so easily to being the queen of her own kingdom.”

She was not the queen, and it was not her kingdom, but she did not correct him. Even though she stood ridged and wary, she was pleased by the words.

“You don’t need to worry,” he continued, sprawling himself across her couch and looking at her with a grin. “I’m not here to bring you back. I can see that you belong here, and I came to congratulate you. You’ve done well, Jewel. Very, very well.”

She was suspicious, but it was kind of him to notice. No one understood her prior life quite as well as the Enchanter, so no one would appreciate the transformation as much as he.

“In fact, I am astonished by how well you resemble the prince.”

Jewel’s ears pricked up. “Do you think so? Do you really?”

“It’s uncanny.” He let the words roll off his lips slowly, like honey.

“It’s nice of you to say. I’ve worked hard at it.” She didn’t mind taking the credit for the effort because it had been slow and agonizing and she deserved to be noticed for it.

“I can tell. It’s a good thing your people have you as such a fine example to look to. Your prince has been away for quite some time now, hasn’t he?”

“Yes, he has.” In some ways, it felt like the prince had just left. In other ways, it felt like an eternity.

“Are you planning anything special for him when he returns?”

“Well, you see, I don’t really know when he’ll be coming back.”

“Oh?” The Enchanter looked surprised. “I wonder how he could leave such a beautiful bride with no plans to return?”

“He’ll be back,” she said, but Jewel suddenly felt very foolish, like a child who doesn’t yet realize she’s been abandoned.

“I’m sure he will. I certainly would not leave you alone for long.” His smile was easy and charming.

Jewel stood awkwardly in the middle of the floor, listening to the Enchanter’s words and feeling very, very alone. “You should go,” she said hoarsely.

“Yes. But thank you, Jewel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the prince as clearly as when I look at you. Why, if I had seen what the prince saw in you, I would have taken you for a queen myself. Keep this up, and the prince won’t recognize you when he gets home!”

“You are very kind,” Jewel mumbled, but her mind was confused. The words seemed disingenuous, but she could not work out why.

“In fact, perhaps we can have of truce,” he continued. “It’s a bother to be at war all the time.” The Enchanter yawned a slow yawn. “Of course, I will give you all the credit. The prince will be so pleased to find that because of you, we are now friends.”

Just like that, her unexpected visitor left, quietly as he came. Jewel was left standing in her room, back to the mirror, alone.

In the mirror