Chapter I
The Second Time
Emmet lived on an island. He wasn't quite happy on the island, but he dwelled less on the fact. Unfortunately, he couldn't stay. So, one sad day, he got in his boat and sailed back to the mainland.
There, a beautiful woman named Kalina picked him up in a big black car with flames painted on the hood.
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Chapter II
The Digestive Track
Kalina drove Emmet to a hole in the desert and told him to climb in. He was scared but the woman was pretty, so he did as she asked.
By the time Emmet realized that he might have made a mistake, it was too late. Kalina had friends in the hole... lots and lots of friends.
Emmet was about to learn a very valuable lesson.
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Chapter III
Karelia
Kalina introduces Emmet to new places, new people and a new snack. The people are dead. The places are in remote wilderness. And the snack is inedible.
Bewildered by his circumstances, Emmet struggles to understand how he landed here and why; but most of all he struggles to get a straight answer out of Kalina.
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Chapter IV
Beer, Branch and Knot
Who doesn't love a destination wedding! Well... Emmet knows no one. He is underdressed. His ride is the best friend of the groom, the former fiance of the bride... and the entertainment, who, by the way, refuses to sing. Finally, Emmet must go stag because that same ride has commandeered his date, about whom he woke up fantasizing. There is little left for Emmet but to get blindingly intoxicated.
After Emmet succumbs to a surfeit of alcohol, Kalina confides her plans to her friends.
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Chapter V
Ultimate Rejection
The morning after. Emmet wakes early with a splitting head and learns that he has attained a degree of celebrity status among the wedding guests. Before he can enjoy it, however, Kalina has him bound for their next destination, where she will meet with the lord of that realm. While she is engaged, Emmet contemplates his tenuous hold on life and remains confounded regarding Kalina's true nature.
Upon returning from her meeting, Kalina is crying. Emmet notices, for the first time, feelings for her beyond the physical.
It is a long, quiet boat ride to their next stop down the river.
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Chapter VI
The Trader and The Prostitutes
They pull ashore on a dusty river bank and proceed up a small incline to a walled city, where a major festival is in full crescendo.
In spite of (or perhaps because of) Emmet's deepening attraction to Kalina, he is drawn into the celebration and quickly separated from his new companion, who has taken the opportunity to mend an old wound of a bitter rival.
In Kalina's absence, Emmet encounters three prostitutes and determines to play the cards that he has been dealt.
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Chapter VII
An Audience With the King
Everything changes.
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"What is Truth?"
This, perhaps most famous of all questions, posed by Pilate to Jesus in John's gospel, goes unanswered by the messiah.
. . .
But what if Jesus had answered? What might he have said?
The word has been dissected and redefined ad infinitum since long before that morning in the praetorium, and the inquiry promises to continue indefinitely.
Indeed, it sometimes seems that we are getting further away from understanding the concept. The word and its meaning have been butchered, hamstringed, and misappropriated for centuries.
Most recently, we've delegated the problem to silicon. Let software have a go. The rise of AI has been hailed by some as the true Messiah and derided and condemned by others as a herald of the false prophet.
I'm sorry. I've got sidetracked. The question was, "How might Jesus have answered the question?"
Well... as it happens, that is how the story is framed in
LAMPS OF EARTH, WIND & WATER.
"Truth," Jesus begins, "is a woman."
This is Kalina's story.
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