Autumn's Heart

8/4/2019 Autumn's Heart

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Autumn's Heart

Part One: Shards of time, edge of places

Chapter one. Summers End.

I. Belonging.

Once, somewhere adrift in a distant island of time and dreams,there was a world wreathed with mysteries. A twilight placefilled with secrets, where dragons would sweep across thesunburnt sky in a joyous dance of flight; their manes flaming

silver in the wind as their skin glimmered in the dying embersof the sun. Magic lives here, as free and as indivisible from theland as the air we breathe.

This world has many names, mercurial and enigmatic; made upof transient continents, flickering countries and moving cities;vanishing inexplicably, appearing sometimes briefly. It wasalways changing with the regularity of shadows as the sun rode

across heaven in his golden chariot.

Here and now, we will know the land simply as Fei. In thisenchanted place, True Love can be found in a whisper of asmile, a reflection in a teardrop.

There was a young Domain on the east coast of a great inland

sea. Young as in only a couple of centuries young. The land wasbeautiful and lush, surrounded by untamed yet peaceful forest.The dangers within the dark forest were often quite discreetand thoughtful, hiding within the darkness.

The great inland sea was called Edenis; the land was namedJulitta.In this land lived a princess, the ruler of her domain after the

death of her mother. She carried within her heart the spirit ofher land and was much loved by her people. Her name was


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Octavia of the Winter Sky.

She had the most beautiful and most curious pair of eyes thatwould change colour with the changing of the days. As blue as afaultless summer sky on one then as green as a field of springgrass on another. Sometimes they were even a violet colour,which were said to have come from flowers; enraptured by herand had willingly surrendered their hues. Her hair was aflowing river of midnight. You could see fragments ofmoonlight on it's surface, caught in the glistening waves; thesmell of it remind you of your first lover.

Octavia had a smile that artists and poets would labour all theirlives to capture, her laughter came easily and never with maliceor mockery, for her beauty was matched only by her kindnessand wisdom that was beyond her years.

She was seventeen years of age.

Octavia had never known her father; the unsolvable mystery ofher young life. When her mother was still alive Octavia wouldask her endless questions about him; what was he like, whatcolour were his eyes, did he like me? Was he kind? Where didhe go?

Her mother would only smile and say,You were born to me of clay Octavia, earth and clay, and

flowers, moonlit rivers and the salt of my ocean. Your father isthe man on the moon, look above and you will see his smilingface shining down upon you.Mother, Im not a child anymore, I dont believe in Fairie tales.Tell me the truth.

But her mother would only kiss her forehead and sing a liltinglullaby about a frozen world and a little boy lost.

She died suddenly a few years later; she drowned within the


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waters of Edenis, stolen by the sea that didnt even leave a bodybehind for Octavia to mourn over.

That was ten years ago. Time will heal all wounds but scars willalways remain; strange flesh growing where innocence was lost....

As with the custom of this land, the princess had reached a timein her life when she was required to take a consort, mainly forreasons of power and territory, but without parents to enforcethis custom she was free to decide her own fate. The thought ofmarriage frightened her. In her heart she was a shy, private

person. She knew that her people thought of her, as a model ofperfection but only in her deepest wishes was this true. Her lifehad been spent in a castle filled only with court officials and shenever even had a close companion her own age until veryrecently. Her loneliness was something she couldn't name.

She simply could not fathom the very idea of belonging to astranger that would bind her to him until they left this mortal

coil. Yet...couldnt she hear the faint but insistent whispers oflonging, echoing deep in her heart? When the palace was emptyexcept for the spirit of sleep couldnt she feel the cold grasp ofloneliness in her soul? Aching to know another piece of itself;this gnawing, hungry well in the space near her heartbeat, inthe very centre of herself.

She must know this "love". She must taste it in her breath and

overthrow its sickly sweet hold on her waking thoughts anddreams....

Her ministers and advisors pestered her everyday about theCourtship Ceremony, within the great court where she workedto oversee the affairs of the state. She was working one day withone of her personal advisors, a dark-skinned girl with skin of

satin chocolate and caramel-brown hair falling in lustrousringlets and entwined with golden ribbons.


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Milady, it simply is time for you to find yourself a husband.'Her advisor said, after yet another long monolouge about hercurrent problems with a boy she liked but didn't like her back'that way', 'The land will then be complete, a King and Queen atits heart.Asante, said Octavia, what about love? Love is the glue thatbinds us all they say. How will I find Love In the eyes of astranger?Milady Love wears a million faces... once you think youveseen the true face of love, it will simply turn its head and a newface will appear before you.

Love, Asante sighed and looked out towards the darkening sky,cannot be easily put into words. It is as mercurial as the land ofFei itself. The boundaries shifts like tides and we can never becertain where the one ocean begins and the other ends.Then how will I know when I find thisLove?Milady, said Asante with a smile, it finds you

Silence as she signed a royal decree to preserve and restore a

beautiful, Elizabethan theatre house that grew; old andcrumbling out of the ground in a muddy valley three nights ago.

Tssk. She said as soon as she hopped back aboard her train ofthought, must everyone in this place talk in clichs?

Something like a thought but felt more like a breath fell acrossher. Love and emptiness, exhilaration, fear and romance filled

her. It was then she thought, all right, damn it, we will see, onceand for all.

And she relented to that overwhelming desire or curiosity. Shelet her advisors and officials persuade her to invite all the greatprinces and rulers of the many great domains to ask her for herhand in marriage.

Her heart raced with fear and anticipation as the news spreadthroughout her land and beyond like a forest fire. Like


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something alive and ravenous.

9/10/03by wraith

ViewII. Reaper.

It was a bright autumn day; dawn broke gently over the goldenleaves that rained down upon the carpeted ground. Harvesttime, this is the season to reap the fruit of the world; this is the

season of dying that allows a new world to emerge.

Octavia waded through the carpet of dead leaves with a childishglee, occasionally kicking up a shower of gold, brown and ochre.She walked amongst the river of people at the Harvest Market,no one recognised her for she wore a charm - a hard-wired spellto disguise herself. She walked the land undifferentiated fromthe normal lives of her people. In her disguise she had red

flaming hair to her shoulders and pale freckled skin. She oftenwent travelling like this, walking the land; touching theunknowing hands of humanity.

Shed always loved these simple moments, when she felt asthough she was now one of the players on the stage of the worldinstead of being in the audience - in the darkness separated,isolated in a luxurious boxed seat. A spectator of life as it

flashed across the screen of Time.


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Autumn Pears, Milady? They soothe the heart and their flesh isas sweet as the first kiss youve ever had said the fruit seller.

She blushed and shook her head.

No? What about these Winterberries from the land of Inertia?Its always Winter there you know. The taste is bitter butstrangely enough the memory of it is sweet. It makes you forgetyour troubles and aches, it calms the nerves and its a gentlesedative. Said the fruit seller, pointing to a tiny basket of whiteberries glittering with inexplicable frost.Thank you, no. She said. She took from his cart a wreath of

strawberries and paid him with a couple of bronzams - coins ofbronze and amythst.Enjoy, fair maiden! cried the fruit seller to her as she walkedaway, and may fortune and love find you and keep you!She smiled and waved back to him, her velvet cloak billowing inthe chilling breeze.

The town was excited and buzzing with the news that the

princesses have decided to look for a husband. She passed anelite section of the market, full of cafes and teahouses. Here therich and powerful mingle with the common people, the artisansand the poets. She sat down and ordered a glass of icedpeppermint tea, conversations buzzed around her like a cloudof flies.

She is most beautiful said the candle maker, a wealthy artisan

and owner of the finest candle shops in the land. His candlesare treasured through out the world of Fei. A single exquisitecandlestick dusted with gold and carved with meticulous carecan fetch a couple of hundred Diagold pieces diamond andgold coins. Her eyes contain the light of a million candles, Iwill carve for her a thousand candles set in a filigree of gold andcarved into a thousand flowers of a thousand different kind.She will love me for my skill at shaping such beauty from the

drabbest of materials; I am the carver of light. The master ofwax.


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Youre an old codger with a big nose! Proclaimed thesilversmith, Her laughter is like the breaking of sunlightthrough the muddiest of skies. I will fashion for her anornamental dress made of the lightest, softest moon silver. Itwill be a beautiful creation of intricate silver lace, in thedarkness she will shine in her own light.

Crap! She will love me for my cunningHah! She will love me for my teeth!She will love me for the pleasure I will bring to her loins!She will love me! She will have no choice, my love will hunt

down her heart and her body will be my trophy!

They all laughed and cried in unified discord, loud and ugly inthe teahouse. Octavia left the teahouse in a rush of disgust andforeboding. She ran from the market place; hands in her ears,tears in her eyes and cried softly with a terrible and fragiletension.

She sat at the edge of the water, sobbing into the sea. What thehell was she doing? How can these people teach her themeaning of love when they have not even an inkling ofmannersor genuine gentility?

Here, said a voice from behind her, would you like to dry your

eyes?Ahh! she shrieked, startled. There was a boy a young man,really, with strands of untidy black hair and gleaming olive skin crouching down next to her. He was offering her a raggedscarf.

Um she said looking at the frayed edges.Its clean, he said with a small smile, its not looking the best I

know. He looked down on the ground a little embarrassed.


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Then she was embarrassed for him, hesitating to accept hiskindness, what? Over a little dirt, maybe a douse of sweat?

Im sorry, she said with a little embarrassed smile of her own,youre very kind. She wiped away her tears and as anafterthought, blew her nose loud and wet, and then she folded itover and handed it back to him.Here She said, youre a gentlemanUm he said, taking it daintily back with the tips of hisfingers. She burst out laughing at the look on his face and hetoo broke into a laugh.Ill treasure it always! he said between giggles, Ill always

remember you for your snot.Their laughter rose to meet the sunset-streaked clouds asanother day became captive to the ever-scrolling screen ofhistory.

They sat a while to watch the sun fall into the vast Edenis Seaand as the moon rose huge and burning with phantom flames

he said, Ill take you back to your palace now Princess.

She was startled, what did you call me? She touched the amberjewel at her neck. It was tingling; that meant it was stillworking.Im not a princess she said with a smile.Octavia, your reflection in the water is not fooled by the charmyou wear. I saw who you were the minute we met.

She looked into the water and sure enough it was her true facethat looked back at her.

Dont you know that Edenis is an enchanted sea? It cant beswayed by simple spells

She was crossed with him; he knew the whole time that she was

the Princess and he had let her what? Actually, she didnt reallyknow what annoyed her most about him. He saw through her


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game; he had played with her; he had cheated.

He pause - won - exclamation mark.

Well, yes she said frostily, of course I knew that. Edenis wasborn from the tears of the lady of the sea, Eden Julietta. Shehad drowned here. Every school child knows this.She, said Octavia with a fierce stare, was murdered by herloverIt was said that she killed herself, countered the boy, when shebetrayed the man she loved.Yes well, only fools believed in that version. She said

haughtily.

He narrowed his eyes.

I think that it is getting too dark for spoiled princesses to be outnear the dark woods. They say that there be monsters within,he snapped, but your acid tongue should be enough protectionfrom the likes of them simple horrors

Octavia fumed, how dare thispeasant mock her! She glaredat him, her hands bunched up into fists.

Goodbye, peasant boy! she shouted and stomped away into thewoods.So long Princess Snot-avia! he shouted back stomping theother way.

When he saw her next, she was wrapped deep within the frostyarms of Death.

...


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9/10/03by wraith

ViewIII. Template.

This was the legend.

Across the sea of Edenis, there was a land called NoirRse. A

Gemini domain to Julitte; it was said that a thousand yearsago the two land had been one land; the two founders had beentwin brothers; Roland and Romulan. They were identical inevery physical aspect. Both were tall and dark with warmwinning smiles that came quickly and often. They dideverything together for they seemed to always like the samething. Being restless in their native world - a place called Troy -they went off on a ship of settlers towards a new world when a

storm found them and bullied them sea-soaked, battered andlost off the edge of the known world and into Terra Incognita.

In the wake of the storm, they found themselves strangelyenough floating amongst the calmest waters within a smalllake, surrounded by a gorgeous, unexplored land wreathed byBlue Mountains. They stood upon the wondrous land andshrieked in delight and fear as a huge beast sailed past their

heads on shimmering leather wings and roared like thunders.

Soon afterwards, the explorers met the native population of thisbrave new world - some of them exotic, some; angelic, othersare demonic (in appearance if not character) and some aresimply, indescribably, strange - who told them about this landof Fei; a quilted world of dreams and nightmares. And throughluck and fate they built themselves a small community that

became a great kingdom they named: MuLanis.


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MuLanis was in a terrible grip of a raging ice storm, razorsharp flakes of ice ripped through the kingdom, wind raged in atantrum fit and tore roofs away from houses and uprootedtrees. Death rode in on a skeletal horse made of ice and with hisscythe of razor winds took whole families away with him to theunderworld.

That was the night when Eden Julietta arrived at the palace ofthe twins. Wet and half-frozen; clutching an invisible shredfrom the cold cloak of Death's in her frostbitten hands; shetumbled into the palace.

They cared for her, nursed her back to health and as Springcame upon the land, she woke up to a risen world of glitteringsunlight, reflecting off the waters of the lake of MuLanis.

She was beautiful, they say, bewitchingly beautiful; raven-haired with coal black eyes and rosen lips, she was asenchanting as a star-filled sky and just as silent. She couldnt

utter a simple sound.

Nevertheless, the two brothers fell in love with her, and eachsought to possess her. She loved one and not the other butwhich one?

Roland had a birthmark the shape of an autumn leaf on his leftthigh. He was gentle and quiet. Introverted. He would spend all

his time in the library. He read her stories from his library andwrote poetry for her. He was as patient as mountains and asdependable as the sun.

Romulan was the heart of any party, extroverted and friendly,he knew many people and had lots of friends. He sangbeautifully and wrote songs for her. He was as elusive as thewind and as funny as a jester. He made her laugh until she

ached and begged him, soundlessly, to stop.


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On the day of The Eclipse, she was gathering flowers on thevery edge of the dark, untamed woods when she saw him. Thesun had faded away as if a giant wolf had swallowed it whole. Infear she clung to him. He laughed and sang to her in a softlylilting lullaby; the tale of an enchanted music box.

Through Jagged times of crystal fear/ Ill always be there towatch over you.And when your heart feels cold/ Ill always be there by yourside.

She was wrapped in the warmth of him, enraptured by his

voice. When the sun came out from the belly of the wolf, shekissed him and in the shadow of an ancient tree, they made lovebathed in the light of the phoenix sun.

When she woke up, she gazed in horror at his left thigh.

It wasnt him; it was the other.

She had made a horrible mistake. She ran into the woods intears; silent, voiceless tears and was found - days later - deadfrom some unknowable venom. They buried her in the lake,sailed her burning body out onto the calm waters and watchedwith tears as the water took her body down.

It rained for weeks after her funeral; it flooded the township,though the palace was safe nested on a high bit of land. It

rained for 29 days and when it stopped, there was a vast inlandsea where the lake had been, having eaten into a part of thedark forest. They named the sea Edenis. MuLanis was split intotwo kingdoms. Julitte to the East and the new kingdom namedNoirRse to the West.

The two brothers never spoke to each other again. Which ofthem had she loved?

Only the sea knows. And the sea, jealous lover of mysteries,


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always kept its secrets.

9/10/03by wraith

ViewIV. Wraith.

Octavia fumed through the labyrinthe of dark trees andstomped her way through the forest.

Stupid know-it-all gypsy boy, she said to no one.

The breeze caught her hair and whispered softly in her ear. Itspoke of nothing, of being alone with darkness and hungryghosts that fed on fear. She stopped and looked around her,suddenly aware of the infinite vastness of the dark.

The forest was still, frozen in bright moonlight riddled by theemptiest of shadows. She could see only the rough, scarred

limbs of trees, the suffocating serpentine vines that chokedthem. Once in a few heartbeats she would hear a nightbirdcalling out in the unknown nothing beyond the moonlit world.

Who? Who? asked the nightbird.

She kept walking, the darkness kept pace with her. Silencefollowed her every step, only the wind whispered constantly in

her ear, telling her the stories of silence and lonely fear. Thetrees loomed above her. Skeletal giants in a forest of shadows, a


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rustling in the bushes, a shadow silently streaked across herpath.

She imagined eyes upon her, countless eyes reflecting the starkmoonlight as hollow demonic light. A constellation ofemptiness, another rustling of leaves and then it was againswallowed by the silence.

Who? cried the disembodied voice of the night bird, Who?

She was afraid. Her heart beat faster and her breath left herbody with an urgency of hysteria. She ran. She ran as fast as she

could through the emptiness and uncertainty of her own fearsuntil she came upon a clearing where the ground was barrenand the trees would not grow, where life would not flow. It wasa circular patch of death. It was cold and still. There was noteven a sound to be heard here. The clouds have covered themoon and the world was that much more lightless.

She stopped, frozen in her tracks. Her breathing, hard and loud

in the stillness of the graveyard ground. She saw her breathcoming out of her in mists and the fear was tangible, squeezingat her heart.

A noise; a hand comes slithering out of the sterile ground twopaces in front from where she stood, it grasped at the air as itrose through the earth leaving the dirt unmarked by itsethereal substance. Two hands, white as moonlight, two arms

dressed in mists and the wraith grew slowly, oh so slowly, out ofthe barren dust.

Its hair the colour of sand, its eyes as empty as frosted glass, itsface white as paper and gaunt with shadows, its skin pockedand lumpy like damp plaster. Its lips are red, blood red, luciouswith the colour of wounds. It looked at Octavia and the lipsstretched into a gash-like smile; revealing darkness inside its

mouth, toothless and so very empty.


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Hhhello, it whispered, iiiit it it has been a while a while sinceweve seen people people.No one no one noone one comes to see us, no one one onedares, no one one one cares.

It swooped and swirled around her like a snake made of smoke.It looked as if it was smelling her, breathing in her scent. Itreached out one smoky hand and caressed her face; its touchsending gooseflesh rising on her arms and raising the hair atthe back of her neck. It looked into her eyes, its head cocked toone side as if it was listening to a sound from the clouds thatonly it could hear.

Whatwho are you? asked Octavia in a small, frightenedvoice.I I I Ii I I I am Roland, I I ii I i I am Romulan,I am Eden,I I ii I ii iii I am a thousand empty things, I am none of thesethings. We are deadWe we we we

We have no name but loss, our names names names wereshreded by the scythe of Death and all we that we were are nowsimply(echoes)echoes. I ii In Inn Incomplete. Alone. Hungry Please, she said, tears coming to her eyes, ( hungry) blurringthe night-clothed world,whoever you are, pleasehelp me.'- hungry.

there is there is is there is an emptiness inside us. Or we areemptinessemptinessemptiness Help meme me she whispers, whispering now.Echoes. Absence. Hunger.Im lost lost lost lost

So are we all. So are we all and hungry, so very hungry -Ann an ann and Im scared d d d d.


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- feed us let us eat your life.Ppp pleepleaseplease..s..s.sNnnn. Oh but we will. Yes. Oh yessSSSSSSSSSSSSsssss!

It exploded out of its shell, discarding the mask of loneliness forits true face; rage and hunger. It shrieked at her, its faceelongated as if stretched by the rage it was letting forth. It cameat her, wailing like a banshee. Its skeletal arms; stretched intotalons reached out and pushed through her breasts to her heart.

Octavia gasped, shuddered as the icy hands found the centre of

her being, she was frozen by its touch, helpless bystander to herown murder. Her body convulsed at this paranormal violation,her heart beating a furious, spastic rhythm.

A million shards of icy cold needles bloomed violently from thesubstance of the ghost like the quills of a porcupine and piercedher skin in a million places. Your life is my life, your warmth ismy warmth and I will be the holder of your breath, its voice

rasped in her ear.

There was a scorching pain in her left arm. Im going to die, shethought. She felt as though freezing water was being pouredinto her soul, her thoughts were becoming harder to form asthough the phantom was pushing her mind out of her brain andsettling its own thoughts there. Her vision darkening, she heardan anguished bellow and the last thing she saw was a dark blur

rushing towards her and she saw the gypsy boys tormentedface as he desperately reached towards her through thephantoms body.

He likes me, she thought without rhyme, he really likes me. Andwith the thought came the smile she would leave this worldwith and a mute spark of joy within her heart as it stoppedbeating.

She reluctantly closed her eyes upon the world, leaving him and


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it for the darkness that claimed her sight.

Letting go of her breath she fell into the sleeping arms of Death.

...

9/10/03by wraith

ViewChapter Two. Season of leaving.

I. Solitude.

In another life he was called Calin of the Black Rose, he was theprince of the land of NoirRse far away on the West coast ofEdenis. His life was filled with riches beyond imaginings,luxuries and comfort that most people of his kingdom wouldsee as paradise, yet he was unhappy.

Within the great Domain of NoirRse; a thriving, industrialmetropolis full of spires, scarred with streets of asphalt and

bitumen, he spends his waking moments troubled by anunknown appetite. Like the rage of an inner flame that vexedhis mind and scorched his heart. It came to him when the starscame out and the moon was completely devoured by shadow.What it was, what it could be asking of him, he had no clue.

He had been given everything he had ever wanted, a hugelibrary of books full of blueprints and facts. Manuals filled with

useful information on the workings of magic, alchemy,chemistry, physics, metaphysics. An enchanted room that could


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duplicate any environment he wanted, limited only to hisimagination. And that was where he was happiest, living in hisimagination. But the world would always intrude and after allthe living he had lived within his fantasies; still the unknowableitch to touch something that defied shaping. What was it; thisinsatiable Desire?

NoirRse was famous for its obsession for artifice. In the RoyalBotanical Garden, everything was artificial. The flowers weremade of a living clay, mined from the bottom of Edenis, shapedby a production line of craftspeople then glazed into mother-of-

pearl rainbow hues, killing the living clay in order to preservethem. Every kind of exotic strains were brought back from faracross the world then duplicated by the cunning hands of thecourt artificialists. Duplicated, refined, enhanced to aningenious level of virtuality then mass produced.The trees were delicately detailed sculptures made of variouskinds of metal. The finest; a giant Maple tree made of an alloyof Moonsilver, Arsenic and Terrasilver, Once believed to be a

cancer upon the Fei MoonSilver. It was a crowning achievementfor the articificialists. A living, shimmering tree that grewnourished by the light of the moon, to become the talleststructure in the city. A monolithic testament to humanmimicry. The leaves would turn black in autumn and crumbleto litter the garden with glowing dust. It also did double duty asthe town clock.Animals were also duplicated; mechanical horses powerful and

billowing steam from their noses, jewelled nightingales thatsang popular tunes, clockwork cats perpetually playful andcute. He had a pet monkey that could speak French (he spokeno French) thatd spend its days and some portion of its nightstelling him jokes and giggling to itself.Sculpted flowers, wooden fruits, imitation leather, faux-fur,dolls, miniature vehicles, plays, electric light. These were thethings that found favour within the great city of NoirRse. When

he left, the general populus were transfixed by a popular stageplay that had actors pretending to be actors pretending to be


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actors working on a popular stage play. It was faintly ridiculous.

Prince Calin sat alone in his garden, surrounded by a millionbeautiful things. He stared at the stars above and melancholydescended on him. He was surrounded by three beautifulimpossible princesses and he asked the first one of them Chiathe youngest, a slender girl with bright pink hair and glitteringrubies for eyes.Chia, do you love me?You are very handsome my prince and you have wealth beyondthe reaches of most princes in the realm of Fei. I love you. Yes,

yes I do.Then he turned to the next princess, a tall, long legged girl withplatinum blonde hair and fair skin like snow, her eyes golden.Her name was Merloise.Merloise, tell me with your golden eyes, tell me you love meMerloise stared and smiled beautifully at him, he looked intoher eyes and saw nothing but the world reflected back to him inhues of golden light and his own desperate face looking

hungrily back at him.

Then he finally turned to Seilan, sun-bronzed and delicatelyfeatured with chestnut-coloured eyes, lips and hair the colour ofspoiled strawberries.Seilan, he said, you are the wisest of my advisors, the eldestof my concubines, youve known me the longest, weve spentalmost everyday of my adult life together. Do you love me?

Seilan closed her eyes and sighed, Calin, we were made to loveyou; love for us is not a matter of choice but rather an extensionof living.You may as well ask us whether we love the air we breathe, orthe gravity that glues us to this earth. We love you because wewere made to love you. She paused and looked into his eyes,you though, you were given choices, do you love us?

His silence answered her and she turned away, blinking awaytears. Deep within her mechanical heart, a vital cog slipped and


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would no longer work.

...

9/10/03by wraith

View

II. Sister of Sleep.

He broke the circuit the ghost made with Octavia as he stabbedthe haunted ground with his blade of enchanted moon silver.Yelling out with an anguished pain he reached her in time tocatch her fall, they crumbled together on the frozen ground.Her breath; gone; taken by the corrupted spirit. He tilted her

jaw back with careful urgency and gave her the kiss of life,breathing his breath into her.

Princess, pleasebreatheBreathe for me. He whispered in her ear his eyes clenched toshut out the world where she is lost.

He cursed the already cursed ground and looked on her

wrapped in the arms of Death, beautiful and serene with a smalltrace of smile that lingered on her lips. Her flaming hair was asilken spill upon the cold dust.

Enchanted death, he thought, not borne on karmic grounds.

And enchantment can be broken. He said to her death-maskedface.

He reached for his knife still sheathed within the corrupted


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patch of the earth - and dragged it widdershins into a closedcircle. He pulled his knife out from the ground and the earthtrembled. A sound - low and quiet at the beginning thenbecoming higher and higher and then louder than loud -bellowed and screeched in chorus into the darkened world.Lightning crackled and snaked through from the air to the earthand a violent wind rose and stirred up a cyclone. The dirtscreamed around them, alive and angry. Everything smelled ofrust and rotten fruit.

Inside their dome of light, there is silence. The world outsidethe dome is violent and red. Anger hammered against the cage

of their heart but could not worm its way in. Serenity is anisland rising from the indivisibility between the fear ofmortality and the urgency of the heart.

A rough-drawn circle in the dust.

Outside the dome of mirrored light, there was silence. Thenoise has died along with the wind and the dirt has again

settled, though not completely still. It rested upon the air as aveil, a bank of dirty mist. The mirrored sheath withdrew fromthe dome and Calin looked out into the haze and saw a figurewalking slowly towards them. A black shadow, its formwavering, the silhouette shifting into monsters imagined andthen humans remembered until at last she stepped out of theshadow and sat down cross-legged, just outside of the circle.

It seems, she said, we are at a stale-mateAye, he said, so it seems

Then the light of her eyes changed and he saw her real self; aprisoner behind her smile. Tears welled up and fell to her lipsstill frozen into a smile.

They wont let me go, you know she said.

He set his jaw and answered her full of weight and loss, Iknow.


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I wish she said. I wish we could have more time.Yes he said softly. He raised his head and answered her tearswith his own and in the silence they told each other of theirgrief. You know my people used to say, time is a needles eye in theheart of god. YouII thinkyoure she swallowed, and then said in a smallvoice, bravekind, I dont know.

He walked to the edge of the circle and she stood up to meethim. The illusion of her glamour melted away and with her trueeyes she looked to him. She held up a hand and a flash of glass

texture hardened as she touched the invisible wall of the domeshield. He reached out and touched the glass that separatedthem.

Hello boy, she whispered, crying.He swallowed and brushing his tears away, leaned forward toface her.Milady

His eyes, inches away from hers. Her lips so close to his. Almosttouching - then comes the glass between them and she breaksapart in an electrical discorporation phhhzzzt!zZzWhat do you want? He screamed into the mist.zzt.Do you do you do you know what happened here upon upon

this ground?We we we we are the soul soul soul of the spurned. Therejected, said the wraith, materialising from the mist. We wewe are the hatred of the unwanted.

It coagulated completely where Octavia had been before, andstood facing him, a form made of white noise and featurelessexcept for its full lips, painted white and dabbed by a bruise-

red patch like the petal of a Sakura blossom.


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Once upon a witching hour, there was death here, a terribledeath that bled into the land and spoiled its connection withthe soul of the world.

It became a fifteen-year-old girl with wavy locks; the colour ofrust and dead leaves. Her eyes were empty pits of shadow.

I loved her, she said, our love was forbidden, sheshedidnt love me backshe thought I was mad, that it wasntnatural.My heart was broken naturally enough. She said quietly.She told her fatherhe took me into the woods and scooped

out my eyes. The eyes; full of sins light

Calin closed his eyes and drew a ragged breath.

I can still remember the knife inching closer and closerandI couldnt he keptI couldnt close my eyesShe looked at him, the fear evaporating replaced withsomething bitter and hard. I was raped and killed here to

save my heretic soul.Since then, she smiled, full of madness, Ive been busy.

Her form shifted and churned into a million different identities.There was an ugly noise that grated against the night, he slowlyrealised that it was laughing.

Let her go. He said. Ill give you anything you want.

I have had a million deathand perhaps a million more tocomewhat more do I want?

He was silent for a whilehe knew that no spirit could be trulyhappy in this world. Their life is either a continuous torment ofhate and grief, or an existence defined by loneliness and regret.An atrocity has been committed on this ground, a disgusting actthat had poisoned the spirit of the land. It fed on lives to sustain

its cursed existence, each murder poisoning the land more andtormented the spirit further with bitter sustenance.


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I will give you something far, far sweeter. He said. I will giveyou my life, freely and without anger or remorse.

The mist disappeared. Outside the circle of dust, there wasnothing but a cage of trees. It was still and silent.

He spoke it once more, my life for hersfreely given.

wwwe accept

accept

accept

...

III. Amnesia of the heart.

Octavia woke up as dawns light touched the lid of her eyes. Shesees the world birth it self into birdsong and dew. A breeze fullof fragrances laughed and teased at her hair. There was a carpetof dead ochre and golden leaves beneath her naked feet. Shegrinned and kicked them away towards the blue sky the colourof her eyes. And giggling and laughing, she danced and kickedthe leaves into a shower of orange and golden rain.

Then, when she was done, she skipped away from the circular


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patch of ground, away from the cage of trees, leaving a patternof damp, green grass, drying in the sunlight.

9/10/03by wraith

View

Chapter Three: A Pattern of Goodbyes

I. Wanting.

She had no memory of that night in the woods, her last memorywas that of running away from the teahouse full of anxietyabout her suitors. She had a certainty that something hadhappened that night but it lingered always at the tip of her

memories, unreachable. She had no idea that the wraith hadlodged itself like a worm in her heart. A grand ritual of love anddeath will soon be played out for its benefit. A feast was beingprepared for it, a banquet of exquisite loss, tender heartbreakand sweet despair.

Meanwhile, the grand occasion that was the Pledge ofMatrimony, rolled ever closer, blind and relentless, full of

glamour - like a royal juggernaught.

Stories of her beauty, as well as the beauty of her land, hadreached far intothe vast domains of Fei and they all came to her the nobles,the princes, the queens and presidents, the king with hisshining entourage, the sultan and his herd of white elephants they all came in hordes of lust and greed, eager to impress her

with their immeasurable wealth and power.


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And when the grand day arrived, they gathered within the greathall of the WinterSky palace; an eager of mob of Desire in herone thousand and one veils.

The Lioness of Equidaria came with pumas, with sleek liquid-like cats. Phanter-black and robed in gleaming fur, withsunlight from a distant land in her skin

mrrreow she said, shaking the lustre in her hair. I amDominique, I collect the souls of dead cats. I can shower youwith the Sphinx-spice from hair to end. You will live forever inthe Ninth Heaven with me, where warmth is always with you

and we will admire each other all night long; for forever and aday.

She held up a large cat shaped glass bottle filled with aneffervescent mist of emerald and aquamarine, shifting with thefabric of stars.

The Duke of Mearlian lived within a crystal matrix; a snowflake

caught in a diamond prison. A boy of nine summers with thevoice of ancient sage. His dusk coloured eyes spoke of the birthof galaxies and of loneliness before the dawn of Time. The Dukepresented her with a burning basket of Phoenix eggs, moreprecious than the lives of kings. The eggs are bone-white withglimmering flecks of silver, wrapped in a weave of flames. Somesay that the eggs are actually the immortal soul of the phoenixthemselves, found in the ashes of their dead. To eat the soul of

the phoenix is to live for seven lifetimes, to eat two is to liveforever, to eat more than two is to stop being mortal.

The candle-maker and his thousand candles of wax and jewels.Too valuable to be lit.The hunter and his albino Griffin, muzzled and docile fromenchantment.The dressmaker and his suit of lights, hanging like ghosts in the

palace court.The prince of Inertia with an exquisite heart carved of ice,


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blizzard in each of his arms.A martyr of fear and denial.

She saw each of them in the course of seven days. A small timealone, a stroll of the seaside, a brief lunch, a moment here and abrief time there and they were all such unique beings of foreignidiosyncrasy.

For instance, the Duke of Nest hated to have people touch hishair, hed spend hours in front of the mirror, sculpting his quifto a state of artistic perfection, not a strand out of place. Hespent his time with her in a room safe from the wind , oh the

fiendish wind that he proclaims to be in a conspiracy with hisenemies, to overthrow his regime and mess up his hair. He thenpaused to tell her how lovely her hair was and suggested shelightened it to make it more striking (she cut his interviewtwenty minutes early, feigning light-headedness).

Then there was Alexandria Salt, a wealthy artist who could notstop staring at her shoes. She loved shoes, she had over one

hundred thousand different kinds and spent her time withOctavia recalling each glorious moment when she found herfavourite pairs.

She declined all their offerings after these mercifully brieftimes. She saw in some a beauty that matched her own but inthe depths of their eyes she saw a frightened, ravenousdarkness wanting only to quench its own needs. A temple

erected to a blind ego. Some benign and harmless. Somecompletely destructive and cancerous.

"Gentles," she said to them,

Ah! Her voice is a symphony of breath, composed by angels.muttered the latest heir to the line of Light Surgeons from thedistant land of Distopic. Some people behind him sighed and

shook their heads, Teenagers. they mumbled under theirbreath.


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I have no wish to be a part of your collection of treasures andproperty. You've all taught me that love is a twisted shackle ofdesire, lust and shallow greed. I will not be a trophy to anotherperson's vanity.Im sorry to have brought you all here to waste your time butmy mind and heart is restless and I sense noresonance fromwithin any of you. I find no answer from your hearts, to thequestion mine is asking.Im sorry. She said. Please enjoy your stay within my land.

There was a few disgruntled mutterings, and not a small

number of disappointments and disbelief, but what could theydo? Those who privately entertained thoughts of simply takingher and Domain (after all in their mind she was just a foolishlittle girl that needed to be taught a lesson in respecting hersuperiors) warily eyed her loyal warrior-mages that hadpledged their lifelong devotion to her father and his heirs. No,they were the mightiest army in the shifting realms but, Mightfades, they thought and when it wanes, theyll be there to seize

her land. As the many spectators and witnesses started to leavea young lad, barely older than her, broke through the guards,shouting out to her.

Milady! Please hear me.

She motioned for the guards to stand down and leave the boybe.

- A circuit is made. A buried moment flared in her chest andlungs, like a breath of cold flame.

She studied the boy. Had she not seen him in the marketplacebefore? Dark soulful eyes, black as midnight and burning with aquality she had never seen before.

- Not since that night, beneath the stars, with the winds of rageand hate blowing around them. The night of emptiness, with


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only echoes of hunger and refractions of regret.

Untidy strands of black hair oulining his thin face, a fine,sculpted nose and a soft mouth that looked prone to smiling.He was dressed like those of the gyspy, his shirt was torn in acouple of places but had been neatly mended. He looked aroundcautiously at the guards and then looked directly into her eyesand again she saw that spark in his eyes, the one she could notread nor understand, except perhaps if she looked deep in herown soul for its reflection. Her heart marched to a furiousrhythm for reasons she couldn't comprehend.

Perhaps she was frightened.

He spoke quietly but all in the room heard his voice, gentle anda little shaken with fear.

Milady...I have also come to ask for your hand in marriage.

Everyone in the room laughed. At that the moment, Octavia

knew that that which burned in his eyes was just another formof the black selfish hunger she saw in all the others. A poisonwas released into her heart, something bitter filled her mouthand her head throbbed. She had grown weary of this charade ofdevotion.

She sneered then laughed at him. Her laughter echoed in thevast room of the palace, full of arrogance and hate as well as a

sublimely forgotten sadness as if it knew the inevitable,indelicate hands of fate.

She laughed while light blazed from the windows behind her,casting her face into a sillouhette, and around her head a haloof crushing light.

So my little gypsy prince, she smiled with nothing of the

warmth that usually accompanied its beauty, her heart racingwith an exhiliration she had never felt before, and deep in her


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eyes the blind, and black, and ignorant beast that she saw andfelt within all her suitors roared with laughter. The worm in theapple of her eyes.You also seek to buy my beauty, to own my soul. What can youpossibly offer me that all these other 'Great' men can not?

Perhaps how to sleep on dirt?

The room erupted with fresh laughter. She shook her head andcoughed into her hand She looked deep into his eyes and as shewatched a single teardrop escaped their dark pools.

O Prince of Shit. She laughed into his face full of sorrow.

- The teardrop ran down his face and collected at the corner ofhis mouth. It became all the world she knew. In this world therelived only her. There are shadows everywhere except fordirectly in front of her. There exists the droplet of water from arare well. A mirrored drop.

She saw reflected in them the darkness that triumphantlylaughed with a mockery of her face. She sees the hate ragingfrom the mask of her cruel smile. Madness behind the mockery.Something inside both of them broke a little then, perhapssomething insignificantly small, perhaps the price of theirwaking world. A deal had been struck and the mechanism ofvengance started once more for a final time.

In an instant she remembered everything.

No. she breathed.

The lad took out a plain hunting knife and without a word andbefore any ofthe guards could reach him, he ripped open his shirt and hecarved a strange symbol on his chest; first a semi-circle then a

circle inside the semi-circle drawn anti-clockward on his chestthen finally a straight line through the centre. The knife


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trembled a little. At once, dark raging tears of blood started toflow. The room gasped with horror.

Before the princess could do anything the markings on his chestbegan to glow. Brighter and brighter until all in the room had toavert their eyes.

No! She cried. She wanted to scream at him, wanted to run tohim but she stood frozen and soon after, speechless. She was inthe arms of death, She had never left that circle of trees. She

existed there still. Her, her brave, stupid prince and Death. Thelight was piercing, shattering into the minds and heart of everyperson there. In the light they could feel a cold touch of death.A frozen lingering kiss.

Then as suddenly as it began, the light vanished leavingeveryone to blink away their eyes' memory of its presence.There, in the centre of the room, knelt Calin, his wounds had

closed and there was a glowing presence that surrounded him -the shimmering, remainder of the magical light before.

He held in his hands his still-beating heart.

...

...

9/10/03by wraith

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II. Touching.

There was a communal intake of breath. A whispered denialhere, there - a stunned prayer to Divine energies forintervention, and everywhere; a chorus of disbelief.Calin stood up on shaky knees. He looked at her and smiledsadly.

'Milady... the world we touch is... harsh... sometimes it feels asif everything hurts; it hurts to touch; it hurts to care. I...I'm notmaking sense...am I?'A long time ago... we saw how cruel the world can be... the

senseless way it seems to just take every precious things away,like cutting a flower before it blooms. I don't know if youremember our brief time... our precious little bud.'You and I... in the darkness. You were so far away.'If I had words that could take the darkness away... if my lovefor your sweet, precious heart was somehow a magical spell thatcould take us far away into another time... a time where youand I could be one... if only...

He smiled. His eyes misted over with tears and his breath shookas it left his lungs. He struggled to find words. Words; themercurial, inaccurate language of emotions. He grasped atthem as if he would drown without them. She stood as iffrozen?enchanted within a cage of time.

'I love you Octavia... I... do not desire to own any piece of you.

Love is not taking, not enslaving.'It is giving... I had renounced my throne a long time ago... Ihad nothing to give to that darkness, that wraith that had stolenyour life. I had nothing that it could want, no wealth, norenchantments, nor treasures. All I had was my life...''No, boy,' she whispered, slowly regaining her freedom ofmoments, tears coming to her eyes, 'don't do this, please.'Screwing up her eyes, squeezing more grief out from them. She

shook her head and her heart was now full of loss and regret.One more moment... please just one more moment together.


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Let me go, please, she thought.'Let me go!' she shouted and the light released her.

She walked down the steps, tears in her eyes, a strange weightin her chest, like a block of wood, like the weight of time.

He faltered and looked as if he was about to collapse, the aurasurrounding him flickered and threatened to extinguish. He felldown to his knees. Tears were streaming down her own face asshe knelt in front of him.He looked up at her and strengthened his resolve, the aurasurrounding his body brightened once more. Thunderclouds

bloomed outside, as suddenly as the arrival of memory.

In a borrowed moment it started to rain.

The courtyard was carpeted by grass and above them, thecircular leadlight dome opened out like a flower to receive therain. Rain fell on the flowers that surrounded them, red andwhite with flecks of gold. Calin smelled the damp grass and said

goodbye to the rain, goodbye to the earth. Rain fell on his heartand streaked tears down its side to fall to the grass. He lookedto her.

'It was all I could think of doing. It, she... they ...they wanted asacrifice... before they could let you go... something...' hepaused with a look, she was surprised to see, a certain anger,maybe, of being used or manipulated, 'public, dramatic,

humiliating.'Heart-breaking... I had to agree... I...'

She took his hands, holding his heart in her own hands, andthere they knelt. Mirror images joined with a heartbeat andbound in tears. She leaned forward breathing heavily. Time hasfrozen and in this still, silent time, she kissed him.

Tasting his tears on her tongue, breathing in his breath, fillingher being with all that he was.


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She kissed him and he breathed in her breath and tasted herlove of him and divine fireworks exploded in the centre of hisbeing. The hollow place where his heart used to beat.

'I love you,' She whispered to him, 'I love this heart of yours, mybrave stupid boy... my love...'They smiled together, a small private smile quickly washedaway by the tide of the present.

- 'I love you.' We say when we were the Lovers, lost anddislocated by stories.

His hands fell away from her, dropping his heart with a wet slapon the marble floor. The aura surrounding him flickerederratically and he fell like a discarded marionette.

'No!' Octavia cried. 'It can't end like this!' She looked aroundthe room frantically and all she could see were stunned facesand horrified eyes, wet with pity. 'Summon the Healers!

Somebody do something!'

'The boy have lost his heart, milady' one of the Healers spoke.'We have no cure for a heart which is torn and broken.''- Nor can we break this enchantment, my Lady' said the Mages,'It is strong and self-inflicted.''Then try harder!' She screamed, crying and sobbing loudly.'Don't. Octavia.. No.' he reached out to touch her lips, 'it is

freely given. My life... so that you can breathe the morning airof tomorrow, and the morning after and the morning after that.Do that for me?'

She nodded, unable to speak. She cradled his body close tohers, his breathing was ragged and strained, the aura aroundhis body dimmed until it burned only in his eyes. He looked upat her and smiled.

'A brief moment...that's where love is, in the silence between a


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heartbeat in a moment of utter completeness.'

'Don't die... I don't... please...please... hold on.' she cried inbetween sobs of sorrow. She held him close, pressing his bodyas hard as she could against her, perhaps hoping to lend himher life. But she could not, nor would she ever be able to getclose enough.

'Please...don't leave me.'

He looked at her and smiled. Their eyes met and in a final,fleeting, fragile moment they were united in a glance.

'No... never. I will never leave...'

He closed his eyes as if to sleep. His last breath carried his finalwords to her face, bringing a smell of autumn. The smell of rainand loss. He opened his eyes and frantically found hers then thelight faded away as he gazed towards the unseen land. He died.

No one spoke. The silence was like an enormous glass globe,held by the most delicate of strings. Outside the rain hadstopped, bringing sunlight back into the world, painting theheavens with broad strokes of gold. The only sound you couldhear was the sound of birds, oblivious to the affairs of two lostsouls finding each other in an already fading moment.And the sobbing cries of the princess. Cradling her lover.Howling at the rain.

End Part I

Autumn's Heart

The Story So Far: Princess Octavia, was the beautiful ruler of anenchanting Domain called Julitte - set in a beguiling and


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fragmented world that we will call Fei - has reached an agewhere she is required to take a consort. Reluctant andfrightened as she was at the prospect of marriage, she wasnevertheless curious and eager to learn about the nature of'Love'. Whilst touring her land in disguise, she began toseriously doubt her decision when she was confronted by thevulgar and lewd behaviour of some of her possible suitors in anupmarket Tea and Coffee House. Love was a trophy. A prize tobe worn as a merit of status, or as sex object. Hollowprojections of ego lust and fantasy.

It was then she met a boy, dressed as a gypsy, who appeared out

of nowhere and offered her a small comfort and a measure ofkindness. They parted company harshly when she found outthat he had known all along that she was the Princess, havingseen her reflection in the enchanted waters of Edenis, the vastinland sea that separated twin Domains, schismed a long timeago when the two founders fell in love with the same girl,ending the legend with a mysterious tragedy. Feeling that shehad been played as a fool, Octavia stormed off into the dark

woods towards her palace when she was met by a hungry ghost,a wraith, a vampire spirit that threatened to eat her life andsoul.

The Gypsy Boy, who turned out to be a prince in his own rightfrom the land on the other side of the sea named Noir'Rse, amagnificent metropolis obsessed with artifice, managed tointervene. But was he too late to save her life?

The story continues.

Chapter Two: Season of Leaving.

II. Sister of Sleep.

He broke the circuit the ghost made with Octavia as he stabbedthe haunted ground with his blade of enchanted moon silver.


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Yelling out with an anguished pain he reached her in time tocatch her fall, they crumbled together on the frozen ground.Her breath; gone; taken by the corrupted spirit. He tilted herjaw back with careful urgency and gave her the kiss of life,breathing his breath into her.

Princess, pleasebreatheBreathe for me. He whispered in her ear his eyes clenched toshut out the world where she is lost.

He cursed the already cursed ground and looked on herwrapped in the arms of Death, beautiful and serene with a small

trace of smile that lingered on her lips. Her flaming hair was asilken spill upon the cold dust.

Enchanted death, he thought, not borne on karmic grounds.

And enchantment can be broken. He said to her death-maskedface.

He reached for his knife still sheathed within the corruptedpatch of the earth - and dragged it widdershins into a closedcircle. He pulled his knife out from the ground and the earthtrembled. A sound - low and quiet at the beginning thenbecoming higher and higher and then louder than loud -bellowed and screeched in chorus into the darkened world.Lightning crackled and snaked through from the air to the earthand a violent wind rose and stirred up a cyclone. The dirt

screamed around them, alive and angry. Everything smelled ofrust and rotten fruit.

Inside their dome of light, there is silence. The world outsidethe dome is violent and red. Anger hammered against the cageof their heart but could not worm its way in. Serenity is anisland rising from the indivisibility between the fear ofmortality and the urgency of the heart.

A rough-drawn circle in the dust.


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Outside the dome of mirrored light, there was silence. Thenoise has died along with the wind and the dirt has againsettled, though not completely still. It rested upon the air as aveil, a bank of dirty mist. The mirrored sheath withdrew fromthe dome and Calin looked out into the haze and saw a figurewalking slowly towards them. A black shadow, its formwavering, the silhouette shifting into monsters imagined andthen humans remembered until at last she stepped out of theshadow and sat down cross-legged, just outside of the circle.

It seems, she said, we are at a stale-mate

Aye, he said, so it seems

Then the light of her eyes changed and he saw her real self; aprisoner behind her smile. Tears welled up and fell to her lipsstill frozen into a smile.

They wont let me go, you know she said.He set his jaw and answered her full of weight and loss, I

know.I wish she said. I wish we could have more time.Yes he said softly. He raised his head and answered her tearswith his own and in the silence they told each other of theirgrief. You know my people used to say, time is a needles eye in theheart of god. YouII thinkyoure she swallowed, and then said in a small

voice, bravekind, I dont know.

He walked to the edge of the circle and she stood up to meethim. The illusion of her glamour melted away and with her trueeyes she looked to him. She held up a hand and a flash of glasstexture hardened as she touched the invisible wall of the domeshield. He reached out and touched the glass that separatedthem.

Hello boy, she whispered, crying.


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He swallowed and brushing his tears away, leaned forward toface her.Milady

His eyes, inches away from hers. Her lips so close to his. Almosttouching - then comes the glass between them and she breaksapart in an electrical discorporation phhhzzzt!zZzWhat do you want? He screamed into the mist.zzt.Do you do you do you know what happened here upon uponthis ground?

We we we we are the soul soul soul of the spurned. Therejected, said the wraith, materialising from the mist. We wewe are the hatred of the unwanted.

It coagulated completely where Octavia had been before, andstood facing him, a form made of white noise and featurelessexcept for its full lips, painted white and dabbed by a bruise-red patch like the petal of a Sakura blossom.

Once upon a witching hour, there was death here, a terribledeath that bled into the land and spoiled its connection withthe soul of the world.

It became a fifteen-year-old girl with wavy locks; the colour ofrust and dead leaves. Her eyes were empty pits of shadow.

I loved her, she said, our love was forbidden, sheshedidnt love me backshe thought I was mad, that it wasntnatural.My heart was broken naturally enough. She said quietly.She told her fatherhe took me into the woods and scoopedout my eyes. The eyes; full of sins light

Calin closed his eyes and drew a ragged breath.

I can still remember the knife inching closer and closerand


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I couldnt he keptI couldnt close my eyesShe looked at him, the fear evaporating replaced withsomething bitter and hard. I was raped and killed here tosave my heretic soul.Since then, she smiled, full of madness, Ive been busy.

Her form shifted and churned into a million different identities.There was an ugly noise that grated against the night, he slowlyrealised that it was laughing.

Let her go. He said. Ill give you anything you want.I have had a million deathand perhaps a million more to

comewhat more do I want?

He was silent for a whilehe knew that no spirit could be trulyhappy in this world. Their life is either a continuous torment ofhate and grief, or an existence defined by loneliness and regret.An atrocity has been committed on this ground, a disgusting actthat had poisoned the spirit of the land. It fed on lives to sustainits cursed existence, each murder poisoning the land more and

tormented the spirit further with bitter sustenance.

I will give you something far, far sweeter. He said. I will giveyou my life, freely and without anger or remorse.

The mist disappeared. Outside the circle of dust, there wasnothing but a cage of trees. It was still and silent.

He spoke it once more, my life for hersfreely given.

wwwe accept

accept


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accept

...

III. Amnesia of the heart.

Octavia woke up as dawns light touched the lid of her eyes. Shesees the world birth it self into birdsong and dew. A breeze fullof fragrances laughed and teased at her hair. There was a carpetof dead ochre and golden leaves beneath her naked feet. Shegrinned and kicked them away towards the blue sky the colourof her eyes. And giggling and laughing, she danced and kickedthe leaves into a shower of orange and golden rain.Then, when she was done, she skipped away from the circular

patch of ground, away from the cage of trees, leaving a patternof damp, green grass, drying in the sunlight.

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Autumn's Heart