Prologue
On 10 July 1995
Myriam watches the port of Quiberon move away. Her cheeks are being caressed by the sea breeze. Dimitri’s idea to organize this outing, their first as a family, was fantastic. She bends her head towards the improbable canoe, an invention of the brand-new dad determined to protect her child and observes her 4-month-old daughter. Lulled by the ocean, the baby sleeps peacefully. Myriam displays a smile, touched, and proud to have given birth to a child she find exceptional. A healthy baby. She expresses his gratitude to life for giving her this opportunity for happiness.
Then she joins Dimitri at the helm. The same level of pride and happiness is evident in his eyes. Myriam embraces him when she reaches Dimitri, both are lulled by the moment. She remembers everything that has changed in her life over the past 15 months, and their chance encounter.
Myriam escaped during a clear night in April 1994. She fled the family home near Gwezenn-Ouessant, a small island, during the night, the next day after celebrating her 20th birthday. Martha, the mother of Myriam, had announced the beginning of her initiation. Her destiny was sealed. However, Myriam has the desire to flourish more, to live adventures and to reveal herself before. She was suffocating at the mansion, so she foiled security, stole a boat and crossed the ocean. Arriving in Lampaul at the first light of dawn, a village in Finistère, she had walked to the station. From there, she took the first train to Brest, then she continued her journey by taking a new train to Lorient. The end of the morning had arrived. She was conscious of the fact that her disappearance would be revealed from now on. The rest of his plan involved going to a gas station on National 165 and finding a truck to drive her as far as possible. She aspired to travel and explore new horizons.She introduced herself as an adventurer to a Spanish driver. The guy had approved his request, but once she sat beside him, he had asked her for a sexual treat as a price. Myriam had struggled, and that’s when Dimitri came into her life. Dimitri had parked his car after refuelling because he needed windshield washer fluid, but a cry from Myriam made him turn his head. In general, he never gets involved in other people’s affairs, but this little "brunette" had already caught his attention while he was filling his car. He pulled her out of the truck and simply offered to Myriam a coffee. They don't speak much. Dimitri quickly realized that she was on the run, just as he was several year before. Then there were the smiles, and already, without him being aware of it, this obvious connection between them. There are obvious things in life that cannot be ignored. The same day, she came to take refuge in his home, ashamed to turn back and afraid of a new attack. A week later, they shared the same bed, and since, they have not be separated. A week for her to fall in love with this tall blond, rainy-eyed guy. Her escape ended in his arms, her first. In less than a week, he also fell in love with this little brunette with hazel eyes and a smile that he finds dazzling. In hindsight, love at first sight had already occurred at the gas station.
From Myriam’s past, Dimitri knows her name and a few words here and there that she scratches according to memories evoked. He doesn’t know her last name. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. She took his, just before their daughter was born. It was not easy, but thanks to the brother-in-law of a colleague first deputy in a town hall, the impossible was made possible. He’s not mad at her. Dimitri identity papers are fake. His real name was never Gorski. Myriam will tell him one day, he knows it, because he too will tell her his story. However, they still needed to heal together, to move away from their past, to grow each other, before opening their Pandora’s box. Dimitri puts her in front of him, wrapping her body with his strong arms. These last 15 months have completely changed his life. He also left home by making believe his death. He had planned, at the age of only 28, to spend the rest of his life alone, atoning for the faults he thinks he is carrying.
Myriam has no regrets, even if she feels guilty of making her family suffer her disappearance, and she fears being found and discovered by the Fox Group. Dimitri thinks to save her from a disastrous past, while she has just decided to refuse her inheritance, the inheritance of the earth. Since becoming a mother, she feels the need to transmit, the need for roots and the acceptance of the powers of the tree. Its call is becoming more and more noticeable. Martha, the current guardian, has been gifted with the ability to read people’s emotions. She clearly develops a gift with plants. Since life began to grow in her, she can foster the growth and fulfilment of all that the earth wishes to make fruitful. In a short time, the tree will lead her family to her. At that time, would she lose him and her daughter? Would they dare to take her family from her
Every day, she postpones her decision to tell him everything. Every day, the situation becomes increasingly difficult. She’s so anxious to risk losing him. That Dimitri don’t believe her. That he thinks she’s crazy, have her intern in an hospital, take her daughter. How could one believe in the incredible without having seen, felt, experienced?
In addition, there is the fear of the reaction of her parents. How will they react to her return with a man who has not been ennobled, chosen by the tree and approved by her mother? What would they think of her daughter? Would they accept her? Would she be condemned to the same fate? Would they force her to abandon him? she and he? No, she cannot conceive this. Her parents are loving, demanding, rigid, but loving people. There would be a solution.
However, it is not her family’s reaction that scares her the most, but Dimitri reaction. She’s going to impose her life, and if he doesn’t want it... No, she can’t imagine it. She cannot leave him, and she cannot take her daughter away from him. Her heart belongs to him. There is no turning back in their history. They belong together. Her terror makes her shiver. Dimitri tightens his arms around her, wanting to keep her from where her thoughts make her slide. He gives her a kiss on the top of her head. He is his rock.
Her thoughts continue to drift before an ocean covered with silver glitter, their heartbeats in osmosis. She leans a little more on him, in this man who, today, with their daughter, represents what is most beautiful, most wonderful. Dimitri is also silent; it holds its secrets.
Myriam is aware that his past has been difficult, she reads it in him or hears it in some of these nightmares at night. If he didn’t want to discuss it, who was she to judge him? Before they met, he lived alone with his routine, his factory job and his love for fishing. An existence without history, hidden from the rest of the world. The bright smile and sparkling eyes of this little brunette woke him up, gave birth to him at the world, gave him hope in a better life. She practically got pregnant when they first discovered the pleasures of fleshly ecstasy. This positive pregnancy test, while they only knew each other for 2 months, instead of discouraging them, filled them with happiness. Myriam simply regrets that her parents were not present during the birth. She misses her mother’s presence, even if she asks too much. She misses them terribly, both of them.
So now, how can she explain to Dimitri, how to make him understand that the original tree of life really exists. It’s not just a visual representation. It’s in a cave hidden under the island of Gwezenn. An island north of Ouessant where she and her family have always lived, generation after generation.
This tree has a direct link with Gaia. With it and his connection to the guardian depends the natural balance of life on earth, cycles... That it is her family that has the privilege or curse, according to her own point of view, to protect the tree and the earth. To protect the balance of all things, and thus to allow living beings to continue to pursue their ways as best they can. Maintain balance despite the madness of men. In addition, protect it from the Fox brotherhood. A brotherhood as old as the world, whose ennobled members are very powerful individuals, who rule the capitalist world. The only thing they lack is this connection with the powers of the tree and the earth, so that they can bend them on their will.
In fact, every time the Fox tried to take that power, it resulted in the greatest climatic cataclysms. But also, to the greatest killings of all time: the Luschan revolt, the Mongolian conquests, the Taiping revolt, the Dougane revolt, the Congo war, the Russian revolt and of course closer to our time the last two world wars, millions upon millions of people dead and nature ravaged.
How to make him understand that the power of the guardians is transmitted from mother to daughter since as far as the history of man began? Explain to Dimitri that when she becomes a guardian, her life will no longer belong to her. She will have to be constantly protected because of the Fox and will be subject to the needs of the balance of the world. Myriam will have to fight tirelessly so that some continue to live and destroy, while these nights will also be filled with nightmares. She left because she no longer believes in the earth and the human being. She refuses to sacrifice herself. What good is saving «that can’t be save». That human beings and all living beings go to hell? But, since she is a mother, if only for her daughter, she must answer the call and maintain the balance. She cannot abandon the world, if only for her. That is her destiny, her legacy. That is why she was born. She has to go home. As much as she can afford to run a danger for herself, getting Dimitri to run is hard enough, but she can’t keep exposing her daughter. If the Foxs find out she’s unprotected and has a child, it’s their insured deaths and the end of this world. My God, is she so blind and crazy for taking these risks? Her heart is pounding strongly in this image. The anguish rises, the arms of her beloved tighten even more. She raises her head towards him and kisses him. A passionate kiss capable of calming her heart, but not yet enough courage. If only he knew… She must tell him.
Myriam takes a deep breath and looks at her daughter, still peacefully asleep. A rainbow moonstone sparkles around her neck. She is surrounded by a white gold pendant that symbolizes the tree of life. A kind of protective talisman she had made at her birth.
Myriam is filled, anxious, but free. A freedom she never thought she had the chance to know. Dimitri slows down the engine, it’s the perfect place. The ocean is oil. The sky is blue, nothing on the horizon, a small cove just for them. She promises to tell him everything soon, tomorrow, but not today, not now. She does not want to risk wasting this moment. Their eyes cross, they kiss. Their kiss becomes more and more passionate, recalling the first, their hands more adventurous. A cry comes out of the basket, accompanied by tears of unparalleled power for such a small being. They laugh. Their daughter has the gift of timing. With one glance, they commit to continue later. For now, it is time to prepare the bottle.
After a torrid nap, they take the way back and leave almost with regret this place that they protected them from glances and was their paradise for a few hours.
Suddenly, heavy clouds coming, too quickly. The weather that Dimitri looked at before leaving did not predict anything. However, the swell is getting stronger, the wind is raging, and thunder is rumbling. The sky is adorned with a purple colour that only gray clouds come to interrupt. Lightning illuminates. A violent storm falls near the wild coast of Quiberon, taking even the most experienced. Dimitri is caught off guard by a rock behind a wave that he can only see at the last moment, their boat hits him violently. They are both thrown against the granite and killed instantly. The invention of the protective father allowed their daughter to be miraculously spared. This boat ran aground on a thin moor of sand.
******
Sister Hélène is walking along the Wild Coast Trail. The rain has stopped. She is alone on the trail. A walk to dispel the uncertainties of his heart. She made the sudden decision to return to the Abbey of Saint-Anne d’Auray to join the order of the Sisters of Saint-Michel de Kergouan. A headache following a tragic accident of which she is the only survivor, at least physically. The sea calms down after this frightening summer storm. Inside it, it is the opposite. Everything is plagued by a terrible tsunami, a terrible despair. The guilt of being alive, while around her, in her, everything is dead. She emerges from her dark thoughts as she hears baby crying. She looks closely around but doesn’t notice. Her chest tightens. She puts her hands on her stomach, which contracts. A few months ago, a life was there. A life that ended after the accident where she lost everything. The crying intensifies, her heart accelerates. She looks around again. The noise comes from below. Leaning over a small creek, she sees a funny boat, with an infant in the middle. She rolls up her skirts and, with a thousand precautions, with the help of the rock, she descends.
She discovers this baby screaming, shivering, wet. She is a girl, she is only a few months old. As soon as she takes her in her arms, the child stops crying and smiles at her. Hélène’s gaze is drawn to the sea, where two bodies float on their bellies at the mercy of the lifeless waves. She takes care of hanging the baby on her, takes the bag, climbs quickly and heads just as quickly to her car.
Once she was upstairs, she should have rushed to the first phone booth and called 911. Yes, she should have. Yet she won’t. What if it was the child she lost, and God gave her back. She looks at this innocent being looking at her with blue-gray eyes. A medallion is around her neck. On the back of it, a first name: Deneia. A date of birth: March 10, 1995, 4 months, the age that should have been his own daughter. It’s definitely a sign.
That evening, Sister Hélène left the order with a single word: “This is not for me.” She then headed southwest. She is certain that she will find someone there who will not be able to refuse to help her, especially after what he did to her.
