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   Daniel Daly - the angel Callodyn - came around that night.  He had been   
   invited over for dinner.  There was the other member of Haven from Canberra   
   with him, Aaron Goodsell.  Daniel Rothchild was away.  Daniel had been the one   
   to get her questioning her    
   witchcraft.  He and Mandy had been together for a while, and he had been soft   
   on them to start with, but eventually left Mandy because he didn't agree with   
   messing around with the powers of the Dark Magic.  And Mandy, while she was a   
   White Witch, had    
   questionable ethics at times.  But she was schizo-effective or schizophrenic   
   or something, and it was not always the heart of Mandy leading her to do what   
   she was doing.  But Daniel didn't really have the patience to endure that.    
   And, in the end, he let    
   Lucy Potter know that witchcraft, in whatever form it took, was not what he   
   wanted to involve himself in in life.  There was a dark power, and that power   
   gave out of itself not for the purposes of goodness, ultimately.  And while   
   white witchcraft came    
   from within, the knowledge of good and evil were ever inextricably linked, and   
   sometimes, even the best of hearts, strayed.  Even the best of them.   
      
   'Witchcraft, Lucy, is no big deal.  Not to me.  Most witches, as I have told   
   you a number of times, simply do what they do for their own thrills and   
   reasons, for they love the spell casting, but it is not for a regular person   
   who loves God's bible in the    
   way I love it.  It is about proper human beingness.  Proper human living.    
   That is how I understand Karaite Noahide faith.'   
   'We have liberties available to us, Daniel,' said Shelandragh.  'I have   
   started looking more into this faith.  This section you quote, genesis 1 to   
   11:9.  It doesn't, really, in the end say much on witchcraft.'   
   'You remember the Deueteronomy passage and its comment on the nations?'   
   responded Daniel.   
   'It doesn't come accross as law upon the nations.  As specific commands.  No   
   matter what you claim.'   
   Aaron spoke up.  'No, Shelandragh.  It doesn't.  God is not doing that.  He   
   wants to be subtle about it but, if you really want to get things right with   
   him, you are supposed to get the point.  He judges Israel and says don't do   
   what the heathens do on    
   these issues.  He doesn't specifically judge the gentiles, but he tells his   
   own not to practice those things.  It is subtle.  It is not commandments upon   
   us.  He has his own special community, but if you are non-jewish and want to   
   connect a bit more    
   closely to him, he asks you this much.  Get the point.  Argue, if you want   
   to.  He doesn't care.  Its your life.  He will still love you somewhat   
   anyway.  But, if you want his will.  IF you CHOOSE his ways, becausde you WANT   
   to.  If then.  Well, magic,    
   for a Noahide, is one of the first things we are supposed to consider letting   
   go of if we have it in our life.'   
   'Oh,' said Lucy.  'I see.  I see what you mean.  He isn't insisting.  It's up   
   to us.'   
   'I think he wants us to get the point,' said Daniel, 'but, yes.  He is not   
   being so Overlording that he will make absolute commands towards yourself.    
   His son, Israel, cops that.  The worldly flock of Noah, well.  Well we cop it   
   if we choose to.  And me    
   and Aaron pretty much choose to.  Ok.'   
   Shelandragh conceded the point.  The interpretation had been expressed.  The   
   obligation was her own, if she chose to act upon it.  It was her choice.  And,   
   for Lucy sitting there, it was clearer now also.   
      
   And she loved God.'   
   And she wanted to please him.   
   And she liked holiness concepts.   
      
   And while she really, really, really liked being a witch.   
      
   She wanted to obey the creator, even more than that.   
      
   *   *   *   *   *   
      
   'You and Daniel Rothchild.  Your brothers.  I can tell.  You look practically   
   identical.'   
   'A freak of nature,' responded Daniel Daly.  'But, one of the things I   
   sometimes think I see in nature, is in how people with the same name often at   
   times have similar features.  As if there is an archtype representative of our   
   names, perhaps the first    
   bearer, or the most famous one, and when the kid comes out the suitable name   
   is chosen.  By no means infallibly so, but sometimes I reckon there is a   
   higher power at work.'   
   'Interesting,' said Lucy.  'But I don't think so.  You and him.  Your   
   brothers.  Your mother must have played around.'   
   'Mary Daly is the last kind of lady who would play around,' responded Daniel   
   laughing.  'She is a strict old Catholic nun, in reality.  She wouldn't do   
   that kind of thing.'   
   'How much older is Daniel than you?  Or Matthew?'   
   'Uh, can't remember exactly.  Just a few years older than Matt I think.'   
   'So maybe it is possible,' said Lucy.   
   'Or, more likely, that there is a Baker or a Daly somewhere back in the family   
   tree of the Rothchild clan.  That is probably all it is.  Just a freak of   
   nature.  Of genetics.  These things happen all the time, Lucy.  Ok  Don't get   
   your knickers in a knot.   
   '   
   'Mmmm,' she said, but she wasn't convinced.   
      
   That afternoon Daniel was looking at a picture of Daniel Rothchild.  Really,   
   they were brothers.  In the most important way.  Building Haven Noahide   
   Fellowship and Haven Outreach, which young David, Daniel Rothchild's younger   
   brother, valued greatly.     
   But that was just like David.  To care for the disaffected in society.  To   
   show them love.  To show them concern.  To show them the grace of God.  To   
   give a damn.   
      
   The Rothchild's were now an important part of Daniel's life.  Alexander, David   
   and Daniel's father, was also a good friend of Daniel's, and his words of   
   wisdom often shaped Daniel's views on life, especially his devotion to God,   
   which was intense.  And,    
   it was strange.  It was like he had known him before.  And Daniel and David as   
   well.  Like, in another life, they had been the best of friends, and they had   
   all lived a similar destiny before.  Untrue, of course.  This was life - their   
   first time around -   
    it could never really have been any other way.  Could it?   
      
   He smiled at the picture of Daniel holding a fish he had caught in Tathra.  He   
   was a competitive soul, Daniel Rothchild, and while his sarcasm was strong,   
   somewhat like his own funnily enough, there was a strong caring heart in him   
   which he admired.  And    
   saw much in him that he valued himself.   
      
   Yes, they were brothers.  If not in name, then definitely in spirit.    
   Definitely in spirit.   
   '   
   He sat down at the table, Lucy in the other room, preparing the nightly meal.    
   She had invited him to stay for a while, just to chat.  Just to talk.  He put   
   the picture back into his satchel, back in the little pocketbook of   
   photographs he carried around    
   with him, and picked up the glass of wine.  He sipped on it.  It was semi   
   sweet, and red.  Almost perfect to his preferred taste, a taste he was still   
   looking for.  Perhaps he would end up having to grow his own grapes and make   
   his own wine to eventually    
   get the perfect taste.  Or bother to get around to trying them all.  Lucy came   
   in the room, as he sipped the final drop and sat down opposite him on the old,   
   familiar table.  It was one his family had had for generations, but when his   
   mother had passed    
   it had come to him.  He had given it to Lucy as a recent birthday present, and   
   it was like an old friend, familiar.  Part of him in many ways, a spark from   
   his childhood.   
   'Your looking at the table,' she said.   
   'Oh.  Yeh.  Just thinking.  Old memories.  Old, deep, memories.'   
   'You can have it back if you want to,' said the girl anxioiusly.   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)