Birth

"Magic attracts magic. He is destined to live apart from ordinary people. He will discover his own abnormality, and none of this will be within his control." The Sorcerer Supreme gazed at the bright star on the eastern horizon and spoke to her disciples. "His talent far surpasses yours. That may not be a good thing. The strange things you have never encountered, he will encounter throughout his life. There is no need to envy him, Mordo, Kaecilius. I will place upon him responsibilities that do not belong to him. He will suffer."

Jezebel's stomach hurt unbearably—she had been abandoned, or rather, she had abandoned herself.

In this vast New York City, she had no family or friends.

When she fled her country to escape the marriage arranged by her father, she had carried only a few U.S. dollars. By now, all of it had been paid to the human smugglers. If not for the little hammer she had picked up on the ship, she might not have been able to protect her chastity.

Yet she did not regret it. Even though the cramped space aboard the smuggling ship had barely allowed everyone to stand, even relieving oneself had been difficult, and people had constantly fallen ill, developed fevers, and been thrown overboard, she had never regretted fleeing that country.

She did not want to marry old Kola next door. He was already bald. Ever since she was ten, Jezebel had trembled whenever old Kola's greasy gaze slid over her body. But when she turned nineteen and old Kola offered her father one hundred thousand new shekels for her hand, her father agreed without hesitation.

It was not merely because Jezebel's brother, who had never served in the military, would need a sufficiently large marital home someday. Her many younger siblings also needed money, and a pilgrimage to Jerusalem would cost a great deal as well.

She had wanted to scream—there were few Haredi families as poor as hers, yet everyone in their neighborhood was poor. The men in the household did nothing but nod and recite scripture, while all income came from women. Her family could not even afford to let her study mathematics and natural sciences.

Jezebel did not want a future like those women who stood blankly in dusty streets with children in their arms. She had seen them before; they only came alive on the day government subsidies arrived. Jezebel could imagine that if she married old Kola, she would become just like them—a lifeless puppet.

It was not that she had never resisted, but all it brought her was beatings from her father and doubled workloads. Her father wanted her to become an obedient wife someday, at the very least... a wife who could make old Kola pay.

During that time, she endlessly recited Jehovah's holy name, hoping that a Prophetess would take her away from that place—then one day, the water from the tap turned to blood. It continued for seven days, but her father said it was merely rusted pipes and paid it no mind.

Having studied only the Five Books of Moses, Jezebel was overjoyed. She believed it to be a revelation, just as Moses had persuaded the Pharaoh. So she stole the U.S. dollars her mother had earned through work, fled, and came to this country that proclaimed democracy and freedom, this land said to flow with milk and honey, hoping for a new life.

But how could a girl with only basic religious education and no other skills find work? No matter how diligent her hands were, without identification, she could not sign any contract with anyone.

Jezebel could only scrape by on meager day wages. To do so, she even had to disguise herself as a heathen, covering her pale beauty with a headscarf to avoid harassment from street thugs. But one day, she suddenly felt nauseous—a fellow illegal immigrant who worked alongside her told her that she was pregnant.

She could hardly believe her ears. She was still a girl!

The more she thought about it, the more panicked she became. After examining her body, she confirmed that she was still chaste. Yet as her belly swelled day by day, she began dreaming of a figure bathed in light telling her, "Give birth to him, and you shall be sanctified."

It frightened her, because this was a god from heathen tales. Even if this god were real, she did not believe she could receive divine grace. She was not Mary, and Jezebel did not know whether it was an illusion or a real Holy Spirit.

But she truly felt reluctant. This child was destined to have no father, and she would not hastily marry some Joseph. In any case, doctrine did not permit her to have an abortion, so she gave up on seeking a doctor's help.

Thus, Jezebel dragged her burdened body through diligent work. But her meager wages could not provide enough nutrition for herself and the fetus. She grew thinner by the day, her limbs weak, until she could barely work. Losing her job also cost her shelter. Fortunately, after hearing her story, a priest took her in out of sympathy, though he did not believe her account. During the day, she could wipe down the pews in exchange for a little flatbread and wine left over from Communion. She could also stay in the parking lot behind the church, where the priest provided bedding and hot water.

Jezebel was deeply grateful for the priest's help. As the child in her womb grew, moving became increasingly difficult, but she still forced herself to eat, all so the child could be born healthy.

She sensed that her child would be born on this cold night beneath bright stars, but her body had already been ruined by long-term malnutrition. The child in her womb was like a parasite, greedily drawing nourishment from its mother without end.

When Master Gu Yi, dressed in yellow robes, appeared before her, all Jezebel could do was weep, barely prop herself half upright, and plead in a weak voice for the Sorcerer Supreme to save her child.

"I followed the stars here." Master Gu Yi crouched beside Jezebel, pointing at the star overhead with one hand. She told Jezebel, "Your child is about to be born, and he will become my disciple."

The Venerable One opened the box in her hands and placed the gold, frankincense, and myrrh beside Jezebel, using magic to sustain Jezebel's life force, which flickered like a candle in the wind. When the child was born, Master Gu Yi saw that each of the crying infant's ten fingers bore a ring-shaped wound, red light flowing from them. Jezebel did not see it.

"I can no longer save you. Your life during pregnancy was far too harsh." In the Sorcerer Supreme's eyes, a soft white glow surrounded Jezebel. It was this white light that had stabilized her body when it should have collapsed, but once this unusual child was born, the Positive Energy dispersed with it. Even the Venerable One's magic could no longer keep Jezebel's body going. At death's door, she closed her eyes in tears.

"Salomon," she said.

"Salomon Damonet. He will be one who creates miracles," Master Gu Yi said. Jezebel nodded with the last of her strength.

"Your soul shall return to Heaven."

Then a massive beam of white light shot into the sky, and an inaudible hymn resounded across the heavens. Jezebel closed her eyes. The Sorcerer Supreme wrapped the child in the red Holy Shroud, and the wounds on the infant's fingers immediately healed, leaving behind only ten ring-shaped marks. The Venerable One opened a portal and took Jezebel's lifeless body and her newborn child back to Kamar-Taj.

When the church priest was awakened by the enormous beam of light and came to the parking lot, all he saw was the gold, frankincense, and myrrh left on Jezebel's bed. The young woman had vanished without a trace.

After the Sorcerer Supreme returned to Kamar-Taj, the young disciples immediately gathered around her. They had already sensed the city's anomaly. But the Venerable One stopped their questions, handed the child over to them, and then buried Jezebel in a tomb near Kamar-Taj.

On the night Salomon Damonet was born, the number of Abyss creatures invading Earth suddenly increased. Though it was merely the spontaneous behavior of low-level demons, it was enough to keep Kamar-Taj's sorcerers scrambling for quite some time. In the end, the Sorcerer Supreme had to personally make a trip to the Abyss and visit several Abyss Lords before this disturbance came to an end.

As for the wounds on Salomon Damonet's fingers, the Sorcerer Supreme called them Holy Marks. Master Gu Yi used the Holy Shroud to stop the bleeding, then used magic to hasten their recovery, and the Holy Marks disappeared. Salomon Damonet himself, however, was trapped amid layers upon layers of memories. After being brought back to Kamar-Taj, he had been entrusted to several female sorcerers experienced in childcare. Yet when he opened his eyes, he no longer cried or fussed, instead revealing a confused expression.

His mind held many different memories. Sometimes, he was an Otaku who spent all day shut inside his room, living an ordinary and utterly dull life. Sometimes, he was a sorcerer favored by a god, who later descended into madness through obsession, was reduced to ash by another god, endured another three hundred years, became a lich, and was eventually slain by twelve Paladins. Sometimes, he held the memories of a great mage from Golarion who became a lackey of the Great Old Ones.

Not only that, after the Sorcerer Supreme departed, the Holy Marks on his ten fingers flickered unpredictably. But before his soul could finally fall into madness, every Holy Mark went dark.

Salomon Damonet could finally sleep peacefully.

I wonder whether anyone caught the Annunciation reference. Tilda, who played Master Gu Yi, also played Gabriel... having the Sorcerer Supreme deliver the announcement really could not have been more fitting.