TE17 Mysterious Montenegro

Aleksandar Bečanović

uncovered, from a surge of enthusiasm, met the eyes that beheld her now, expecting mercy, probing past and future destiny, comparing what had been learned and what had been felt. And he cast himself at her blessed feet with the devotion of a pilgrim, as desperate as a poor soul after a shipwreck. After that sight, there came a sound that rebounded off the walls, a whisper grew in the vibrating voice: everything before this had seemed a great, inexcusable pause. Lady Laure spoke distinctly through the black shroud, disregarding the centuries that had passed in vain: absolution, reconciliation, and deliverance. Her voice descended gently from above, “Why do you suffer so much in this world?” she spoke, “Come with me, return to me, let us be together again. In the same world, without pain, without sorrow, without worry; and there is my home, imperishable and vaulted by the heavens,” she said, “only you must have courage, especially when we both cross the infinite space.” “O my mother,” the captive managed to say, and the lady in black stretched out her hand toward him. And she said, “When I was in this world, which you despise with the zeal of a believer, when I walked among the people, whomyour penwill never spare, never surprise with pity or edify with care, it was my pleasure to turn my gaze toward the future. I saw my descendents, all the way down to you, and I stopped, because I never imagined I would find you unhappy like this, in conflict with everyone, rejected and persecuted, a child far too whimsical to be able to endure the certainty of suffering.” Her hand was still outstretched, but there was no longer any strength in it. And she said, “When I wanted to see further and deeper, my eyes were fixed on you, as if everything there was fracturing, the picture was breaking into thousands of 92