The stars are shining, billions strong in the pure black night sky. No fires are lit, no candles light the path to the sacred place this night; tonight is full of prayer and magic. Seven women stand clustered together, wrapped in white linen, bare feet in the thick green grass. They are silent, gaze upon the skies, each reciting the timeless mantra in their own minds, over and over, perfectly synchronized in each syllable, breath and heartbeat.

On this moonless night, like countless before, energies moved over the land, calling out to the energy locked within these human bodies, and waiting to be heard. From the land of Twilight they came forward, as gods, faeries and nightmares alike, formed and broken by the humans who bowed to them. Tonight, the energy that had once been called king and god was listening and gaining strength.

The linen wrapped woman in the center of the group dropped to her knees, closed her eyes and smiled. He was close now, he had heard them and came from the other side.

Thunder-Father, Rain God, Life-Bringer; these names and others, since before humans walked the Earth, he had been called. He could will the rains to fall and the fields to bring forth a rich bounty, but was nothing unless remembered now. Manipulating matter was mere thought for him, but gaining form was something beyond his grasp without the intentions of those who believed.

“Thunder-Father, we call to you this night. Mother Moon hides her eyes and now is your time. Come to us and step upon the lands once more,” she said looking into the skies above.

A glow fills the small valley, like the soft luminescence of a giant firefly, and then; a nameless one walks back into our reality.

Memories stir. Her name, lost to the ages, echoes to her like a mantra. The voice that quietly, reverently, says her name over and over, is so familiar, so right, that it soothes her awake. Her heart had last beat an eon ago, but now the time is right, she needs to finish this task once and for all. Thoughtless, timeless and formless; adrift in the void, without recognition, she was at peace. Like the Phoenix, rising into the first rays of sunlight, she became aware of herself once again, and with each thought and intention her form became solid. The smallest bits of matter, pulled from space, borrowed from sand, and tree, and stream began to take shape. Moments passed and then her eyes opened.

I am Kali.

Kali stood and looked into the night sky. Her raven hair covering her back, she is almost as dark as the night itself. Kneeling before her in the darkness are three forms; a man in the rear and two nude women close to her. Kali walks past them without recognition of their presence, out of the ashen circle and looks up into the moon.

“Children, why have you called to me?” the Goddess demands.