Ia and the Child

A young mother drew water from a well in a busy square one day as her child played nearby upon the ground. Dozens of men and women passed by, and Ia and his disciples were among them as they walked the city's streets. However, the woman stopped what she was doing and snatched up her child when Ia and his disciples drew near.

'Why do you rush to retrieve your child in this way?' Ia asked the woman as she held it to her breast protectively. 'It played well on its own.'

'I need not explain myself to you,' spat the woman. 'You are unwelcome, stranger, and I have heard of the false promises and honeyed lies your ilk leave strewn in the wake of your passage, like a serpent which dribbles venom from its slavering fangs. Leave me and my child be, and instead bother those who are more easily swayed by your filth so you may claim to put your time to better use.'

Ia's disciples bristled at the woman's blasphemous words, and some readied their weapons, but Ia raised a hand and calmed his followers. 'We shall do as this woman bids, for it is her choice to make and her belief to hold. She cannot be forced to accept those which she refuses, not without us becoming like those whom we stand against.' Ia then addressed the woman more directly, 'But this child shall grow beyond its swaddling clothes one day, and it, too, will be faced with choices in life. Should it decide to follow the true path and to surrender itself to the role Being has set before it, will your disdain for me and mine also lead you to reject your own child?'

'Leave my child out of your twisted sermonizing and vile prognostications,' replied the woman, whose refusal to acknowledge Ia's question marked her as one who could never be convinced of her wrongness.

Ia bowed his head and clasped his hands upon the center of his chest. 'This I cannot do, for the world is forever changed, I hope, and it will never return to the way it was before my coming. Even the unwilling are made part of the Wheel of Being. Curse and forget me as you will, but be glad that your child is born after my arrival, and that your child can never have a life untouched by the message I carry and which my followers spread.'

With that Ia turned aside and left the woman and her child to live out the rest of their days.