“Yes! I am!” Anna assured her.

Ruth laughed and lifted another fig. “Orpah,” she said, “became convinced that the growing influence of the male divinity foreshadowed a slow and painful suicide for life on earth. After all, she reasoned, to devalue the Mother was to disparage the source of life and, therefore, one’s own existence.”

Anna nodded.

“And so, in the deepest love and gratitude toward Creation, Orpah vowed to spend the time until her last breath renewing the memory—and influence—of The Way.”

Ruth went on to explain how, over the years, Orpah’s convictions grew more fiery and vocal. As a result, she had numerous conflicts with proponents of the new movement and its male god. And although she pitied them for their spiritual impoverishment, they hated her for the unshakeable strength of her beliefs. For years they plotted to kill her, but hung back for fear of retribution by the faithful crowds that attended her.

“Years later,” Ruth said, “a hired assassin found her alone in the woods, resting under a tree. It was he who slit her throat.”

Anna drew back in horror.

Ruth nodded. “When the daughters received word of Orpah’s death, they knew there were many seeking to destroy them. That was when they decided to go into hiding, to preserve the legacy passed down by their mother, and the many mothers before her.”

Anna’s forehead wrinkled. “But Zahra was living in my village,” she said. “And what about Maya?” she asked before she could stop herself. She then recalled Judas’s fury and Peter’s story about the murder of his kin.

No wonder he had been so profoundly traumatized!

“Never mind. I know what happened,” Anna confessed with a shudder.

Ruth nodded solemnly, then tipped her head. “Susana was the first of the three sisters to seek seclusion,” she said. “It was she who chose The Narrows. And she who found the caves. When she had secured the location, she asked Zahra to join her, but for reasons I do not know, Zahra stayed behind.” She took a breath. “I believe this separation was a source of great pain for Susana,” she said quietly. “As for Maya, she chose to wait until her daughter, Delilah, had reached an age where she, too, could make the journey.”

Anna drew back. She then asked, “Was Judas’s family killed because someone found out about their connection to The Way?”

Ruth shrugged. “It is possible.”

Saying this, Ruth leaned back and measured the sun’s position in the sky. “We have been talking a long time,” she said. “I had not planned on telling you so much, especially not all at once,” she said, chiding gently. She scooped up her empty cloth and began to push herself to her feet.