Storytelling | The Copper Mines
In Chapter 9, The Copper Mines, David is transformed from a desert rat into a boy king!
The Copper Mines represent Davids’ darkest hour. He is kidnapped from the caravan and taken off into the desert only to be sold to a slave trader. The slave trader, however, is not who we expect him to be, and as mentioned before, nothing is as it seems.
The boys’ adventure has turned into something sinister yet also leads to a larger world.
Excerpt from the Leper Messiah:
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The old Egyptian nurse felt the boys’ limbs and put his rough hands on a shrunken stomach. He bent forward to catch a whiff of breath and looked curiously at the boy.
“Do I say a prayer for the dead?”
He smiled, “perhaps not.”
In this chapter, the world of magic and geopolitics merge and we see David move from an unconscious state to the image of an Egyptian sun god.
Once again the image of the scorpion is brought back, and we are introduced to an Egyptian face painter and all the magic she holds.
Excerpt from the Leper Messiah:
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The face painter spent another two hours working on Davids’ broken body and face, carefully and methodically changing the desert rat into a boy king.
He was silent. His red hair cut short and angled back from his face, his lips were full, his eyes beautiful, and a smile was painted on him that filled the small stone apothecary.
Magic takes hold but also at play is the historical geopolitical fact that David does not live in a vacuum. He is at best a bit player in the shadows of the great Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures which have been warring with each other and are both at a low ebb.
David is allowed free rein due to this ongoing battle between these great rivals.
David is much like Prince Henry in Shakespears’ King Henry IV:
“I understand all of you. For now, I’ll put on the rowdy behavior of your good-for-nothing ways. But in this way, I’ll be like the sun, who allows the vulgar, corrupting clouds to hide his beauty from the world. Then, when the sun wants to be himself again, he breaks through the foul mists and vapors that seemed to be strangling him.”
Quotation taken from William Shakespeare, King Henry IV, Part 1.
David needs to be cleansed, purified, and born anew before he can take the mantle of power!
The Copper mines are the place for such a re-birth.
Robert