The Test of Faith Book Two of The Sanctuary Saga

The Test of Faith

By

O.G. Tomes

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2012 O.G. Tomes

Edited and Revised

3/31/2012

O. G. Tomes

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Author’s note:

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Acknowledgements

A special ‘Thank you’ to everyone for being so supportive while I have been wrapped in the joyous angst of my creative process. My family, friends and readers have all been so very wonderful! A simple ‘thank you’ does not fully express the gratitude with which I embrace you all:

My husband, Nathan, for giving me the freedoms that allow me to spread my wings and fly.... as only one who truly loves you can. I see you watching. I see your smile and it warms my heart so.

My children, all of you:

Grace, Catherine, Nathan, Floyd, Levi, Jane, Jessica, Kellie, Charlie, Andrew, Leslie, Heather, Kim, Mark, Alberto and Lance....

For always knowing that I could,

Though you waited patiently for the time when I would.

You give my dreams the wings they needed to fly.

You are my true works in this life.

And yet, these dreams are for you, too.

The ones who make me grand: Faith, Aaron, Miranda and Gabrielle, aka Lil ‘G.

‘My sons’ who love my daughters: Geoffrey and Scott.

Virginia McKevitt, for all the listening, understanding and humor we share as friends, authors and grandmonthers. Here, here! to the movies that play out scene by scene while we try to live each day and write. We are such a crowd by ourselves!

Harry Freedman, a new and yet very dear friend. You have helped me see myself through your eyes. You are a true blessing of your time.

Big Money, the true ‘Patrick’ in my life. Book 1 would still be just a note and Book 2 only an idea without you.

Karen Nelson, a sister of my heart. Your endearing comments and acts of support have shored the very foundation of my endeavor. Graciously, I thank you with all my heart for lending your wisdom to allay my fears of daring to dream.

Angels that watch over me, my grandmother Grace; my father James; my best friend and brother, Brian.....

My brothers, Eric and Charles who are constant muses just as they are.

Alas God, for blessing my life with such abundance.....

Truly, my cup runneth over!

Sincerely,

O. G.

Dragon’s blood

and a dragon tear,

never very far apart.

gemstones on the

hilt of a sword,

made from emotion,

never from fear,

for love is what fuels,

a dragons heart.

Lives to protect,

fights to win.

Using the strength of her heart

to eradicate sin.

Bejeweled

cautious

strength,

shifting

fluidly,

flying

with a

pure

soul,

lives

the

one

at

l

a

s

t

.

PROLOGUE

Walking into a room, though seeing the reality of that space, some of us see past the veil of reality in which most people are swaddled in. Have you ever felt the hair on the back of your neck rise or goose bumps rush up and down your arms? Have you ever felt the weight of a hand on your shoulder or hear a faint whisper in your ear where you actually feel the breath of the one speaking? Have you ever felt as if someone or something were watching you? You look but there is nothing to see. The feeling registers that maybe it is something outside the window.

When you feel this you acknowledge feeling the edge of a veil but at the same time you shrug off that there might really be something outside the window peering in. You should consider that whatever it is could very well be standing by the window inside with you. There is also that moment when you walk into a room and for a split second or two you experience another realm or the other alternative. Most people shake their heads and only acknowledge they have forgotten something because they do not have enough faith to admit what they were truly shaking off, is the feel of the veil itself. Forgetting why you went into the room you just entered is your mind’s way of helping itself deal with the experience.

You are watching television. Then you are standing in another room and you cannot remember why or when you entered it. Ask yourself, do you remember getting up and walking in there? Notice that the lapse will register in your mind but what happened during that time is missing? A lapse measured as a moment in your realm could very well be days in another. Your mind does not know how to explain this to you in this time and place, therefore letting you know the glitch, though unexplained, has occurred. You can shrug it off because you have no logical explanation for coping.

Have you ever shaken someone’s hand upon meeting them only to be bombarded with their essence? Some of these instances are like viewing a movie until you can tamp down on the rush of the feeling you experience while at times others feel as only a whisper brushing against your soul. Consider, that as the reality of the other realm or realms are being felt physically here, that this exposure can confuse you and lead you astray. Maybe the touch being felt is from another entity, from another realm or possibly even yourself reaching across from another plane.

There have been instances of contact instigated by other realms and these documented forms of communications are increasing. Whether it is exampled as a no data call on your phone, the EVP captured in an investigation of paranormal activity, the glimpses caught in your peripheral vision or the entities documented when you snip still frames from videos taken of areas with activity, most people will explain it away in denial. Occurrences of strange visual activity on a television that is turned off, a vocal message coming over the radio no matter how you change the tuning or a cell phone working without a battery, all of these, are proof the veils have been worn to almost being nonexistent.

Entities from other realms can manipulate within this realm. Widespread knowledge of their ever increasing activity permeates the media. Observing the ghastly stories on vicious child abuse in the news do you ask yourself how anyone could be so sick? Should you not be asking yourself if this is yet another example of demonic minions at work in our current time? How do you explain the mutilations, murder, ghastly acts of discipline, rape, drug abuse, ritualistic killings and serial killings? There must be some catalyst that fuels these individual’s actions. Most of these examples are termed as inhumane acts meaning that what is not human in the individual acted. Hearing this type of report daily, completely commonplace in this time, on an ever increasing level, means you should heed the warning presented to you. You ask how? You ask why but do you ever really search out the answer?

Does the mirror image of your reality scare you? Many times people on the right side of a veil do not appreciate their position in this world. They do not realize that they should be factoring in the mere chance alternative of accidentally slipping through a veil in its shredded state. Centuries have passed with the same unanswered question living on through time. What is on the other side? More so, they should consider what is slipping through from the other side. Take note: It is not always a matter of chance that lets you see or pulls you through a veil allowing you to see and experience the other side, but one part of a greater plan. It is not always a choice to see but an acquired ability either gifted at birth or acquired by the circumstances of certain individuals. They don’t choose to see for if they had a choice they would choose not to.

There are many layers to disburse when seeing past the current ordinary here on this side. There are many instances of manifestation that make one hold their breath upon seeing the alternative to what most others see. When meeting an individual for the first time it can be overwhelming to see them awash with a color representing their true self. The self, they strive to keep hidden from others, which is usually made up of pain or worse darkness.

Seeing the flashes of another, as if it were a movie, flickering as the knowledge is projected into your awareness takes varied adjustments to reach a level of coping. What appears to most people as an ordinary person can be seen by some as their true benevolence or their manipulated essence resulting from evil. Looking into the eyes of a child and seeing the dark being festering inside of them is frightening. The other side brings hope for there are those that are inherently good and are seen as almost angelic.

Seeing and feeling another person on that level can wear your strength down making it possible for the darkness to attack because your gift is like a beacon they are drawn to for the purpose of destroying it. The constant need to hide, cope, guard or block this awareness is draining on a soul to say the very least. Society as a whole does not accept this ability as being a gift as exampled by the efforts toward the suppression of it over the ages which has weakened humankind’s defenses by burying the knowledge of its existence.

Imagine the complete opposite of your current reality. Light, dark. Good, bad. Faith, faithless. Understand the actual veil between the realms of good and evil is that of our earthly realm, a dimensional space of reality in this time, of this time and by this time. The veil that holds our reality is disintegrating allowing the uncoordinated meshing of the past, present, future and other realm’s actual realities. Though this occurs naturally over time, now that the Devil’s paradox is causing the self destruction of hell and it is no longer unnoticed but grandly being shoved at us, as exampled by the increasing reports of demonic possession, paranormal activity and the increase in transitional beings optioning out. Adaptation to these changes is the only way to maintain a sanctum of our current life as the apocalyptic blight takes hold.

Surviving mentally during this era is fast becoming a major issue among new transitioners. The unwittingly gifted ones struggle with all that society and its prevailing secrecy have pervaded by keeping things hidden or unknown completely. Guarding against those who cannot handle their gifts has become a major concern for those already inducted into the Light. The true example of strength in this era will be those examples of faith set forth by the transitioners as they elude the pull of darkness and became true warriors. Just a very chosen few have seen past the mental anguish and they are the ones that will carry forth to ensure humankind has a chance to reach its goal. That goal being to pass the Test of Faith, see beyond the veil and acknowledge the darkness exists while also protecting our kind from the tentacles of darkness still reaching out and slithering toward the collection of any and all souls.

The paralyzing fear you feel when you realize that you stand face to face in the same room with an evil so overwhelming that it can fade the walls of a happy home, incarcerate the members of a family by disjointing them and are forced to acknowledge it has been established with no recourse available in an all out attack to distract a gifted one from accepting the changes in their transition is debilitating as it pervades.

You cannot see the light without seeing the darkness. During transition it is like the final choice of your will is tested. Your faith is tested. Confusion ensues, for the soul is overwhelmed with seeing both the light and the darkness at the same time. Some allow the fear of darkness to dim the lighted path causing them to stumble back and trip wrapped in fear right into the very thing they truly want to avoid.

The Devil is an opportunistic, wily, bastard full of trickery and deceit. Be warned for he will be there waiting to utilize the last chance he may have to sway you toward darkness. Be wary for whether by deceit or physical actions he will be there lurking, waiting on you to fall, to lower your guard or to just not know. Therefore, upon transition, a gifted one will feel a bone chilling depth of evil so intense that they fear the very natural act of taking a breath. This is so intensely dangerous a risk that it usually takes most that experience it over the edge into darkness. It is recommended to be brave and defiantly breathe showing your faith is intact. Sometimes the simplest act can show so much more of the truth, which mirrors your inner self, than a complicated one that digresses away from the simplified point.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death I will fear no evil.....

Some, only because of their inner strength of faith, stand tall in defiance to become Warriors of the Light. These transitions are not for the masses, selfish or weak willed. The transitions, of a chosen few, those having the mental strength to face the apocalypse while accepting their transition, are those that will prevail. Reaching out for the knowledge that at times can inundate their minds risking sanity is the only safety toward which they can swim. The transitioner must also travail to study to further reach toward an understanding which in turn shores their inner strength. This is about faith and the strength to carry its weight upon your shoulders while rising above the commonality of just wanting to carry the sword because it is cool. Knowledge becomes wisdom. Wisdom becomes strength. Strength becomes faith and with faith you can overcome anything.

This ‘faith’ will be tested, repeatedly. You might doubt yourself and maybe you ought to doubt your fellow man but do not have doubt for which path you choose in this life. Follow the light even when the darkness surrounds you. Faith in your self, faith in the light and faith in God are an example of the three fold law which also governs the realm of the Light.

Some people do not find God until they have struggled and crawled upon on their knees. There are also those that can’t find God because for them the path has been hidden by society. Therefore, leaving them genetically struggling, through their life here on earth, confused and searching for that which they do not know but hope to find. I reach out in complete empathy for those who struggle in their search for their Creator. Their faith. Their selves. I feel their pain and fear but most of all I feel their need to find their way down the lighted path. I long to draw the transitioners toward the light that washes over the wisdom, accumulated by humankind, in their time spent here in this realm.

You must state the truth. They turn. They turn on the love you offer. The caring you have given and then just when you begin to think it’s going to be okay, they turn even more twisted. This is yet another test of faith. Even more twisted is the heartache they have caused you and yet one that you have hidden from them and yet still they turn. Wanting you to choose when you stand there weighing the heftiness of all you have experienced because of them, for them and with them you begin to realize their baggage is their own. Sometimes the pull of darkness, though unwittingly, is an overbearing dark cloud that hangs over the head of a transitioner. This is a sure sign of the actual testing by the Light. Note: You must have the fortitude to resist even your genetics when it comes to the darkness. The transitioners who turn, though gifted, cannot handle their fate when tested. Some want to stand basking in the light without having the responsibility of their assigned purpose which is chosen by fate, woven with the thread of life which carries the weight of the granting of wisdom that comes from The Transition.

Here ye! Here ye! Choose, ye each, a path in this life. Light or dark. Tis yours to choose….

This echoed throughout the heavens languishing over the opened entrance to hell as the warriors gathered to welcome one of their own back to this time and this place. This scene will come to be commonplace for these missions are detrimental in combating the Devil’s paradox and for the survival of humankind.