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 place filled with secrets, where dragons would sweep across the sunburnt sky in a joyous dance of flight; their manes flaming silver in the wind as their skin glimmered in the dying embers of the sun. Magic lives here, as free and as indivisible from the land as the air we breathe. This world has many names, mercurial and enigmatic; made up of transient continents, flickering countries and moving cities; vanishing inexplicably, appearing sometimes briefly. It was always 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 this enchanted place, True Love can be found in a whisper of a smile, 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 was beautiful and lush, surrounded by untamed yet peaceful forest. The dangers within the dark forest were often quite discreet and thoughtful, hiding within the darkness. The great inland sea was called Edenis; the land was named Julitta. In this land lived a princess, the ruler of her domain after the death of her mother. She carried within her heart the spirit of her land and was much loved by her people. Her name was

Octavia of the Winter Sky. She had the most beautiful and most curious pair of eyes that would change colour with the changing of the days. As blue as a faultless summer sky on one then as green as a field of spring grass on another. Sometimes they were even a violet colour, which were said to have come from flowers; enraptured by her and had willingly surrendered their hues. Her hair was a flowing river of midnight. You could see fragments of moonlight on it's surface, caught in the glistening waves; the smell of it remind you of your first lover. Octavia had a smile that artists and poets would labour all their lives to capture, her laughter came easily and never with malice or mockery, for her beauty was matched only by her kindness and wisdom that was beyond her years. She was seventeen years of age. Octavia had never known her father; the unsolvable mystery of her young life. When her mother was still alive Octavia would ask her endless questions about him; what was he like, what colour were his eyes, did he like me? Was he kind? Where did he 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 is the man on the moon, look above and you will see his smiling face 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 lilting lullaby about a frozen world and a little boy lost. She died suddenly a few years later; she drowned within the

waters of Edenis, stolen by the sea that didnt even leave a body behind for Octavia to mourn over. That was ten years ago. Time will heal all wounds but scars will always remain; strange flesh growing where innocence was lost. ... As with the custom of this land, the princess had reached a time in her life when she was required to take a consort, mainly for reasons of power and territory, but without parents to enforce this custom she was free to decide her own fate. The thought of marriage frightened her. In her heart she was a shy, private person. She knew that her people thought of her, as a model of perfection but only in her deepest wishes was this true. Her life had been spent in a castle filled only with court officials and she never even had a close companion her own age until very recently. Her loneliness was something she couldn't name. She simply could not fathom the very idea of belonging to a stranger that would bind her to him until they left this mortal coil. Yet...couldnt she hear the faint but insistent whispers of longing, echoing deep in her heart? When the palace was empty except for the spirit of sleep couldnt she feel the cold grasp of loneliness in her soul? Aching to know another piece of itself; this gnawing, hungry well in the space near her heartbeat, in the 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 and dreams. ... Her ministers and advisors pestered her everyday about the Courtship Ceremony, within the great court where she worked to oversee the affairs of the state. She was working one day with one of her personal advisors, a dark-skinned girl with skin of satin chocolate and caramel-brown hair falling in lustrous ringlets and entwined with golden ribbons.

Milady, it simply is time for you to find yourself a husband.' Her advisor said, after yet another long monolouge about her current problems with a boy she liked but didn't like her back 'that way', 'The land will then be complete, a King and Queen at its heart. Asante, said Octavia, what about love? Love is the glue that binds us all they say. How will I find Love In the eyes of a stranger? Milady Love wears a million faces... once you think youve seen the true face of love, it will simply turn its head and a new face 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 of Fei itself. The boundaries shifts like tides and we can never be certain 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 and crumbling out of the ground in a muddy valley three nights ago. Tssk. She said as soon as she hopped back aboard her train of thought, must everyone in this place talk in clichs? Something like a thought but felt more like a breath fell across her. Love and emptiness, exhilaration, fear and romance filled her. It was then she thought, all right, damn it, we will see, once and for all. And she relented to that overwhelming desire or curiosity. She let her advisors and officials persuade her to invite all the great princes and rulers of the many great domains to ask her for her hand in marriage. Her heart raced with fear and anticipation as the news spread throughout her land and beyond like a forest fire. Like

something alive and ravenous.

9/10/03 by wraith

View II. Reaper. It was a bright autumn day; dawn broke gently over the golden leaves that rained down upon the carpeted ground. Harvest time, 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 childish glee, 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 spell to disguise herself. She walked the land undifferentiated from the normal lives of her people. In her disguise she had red flaming hair to her shoulders and pale freckled skin. She often went travelling like this, walking the land; touching the unknowing hands of humanity. Shed always loved these simple moments, when she felt as though she was now one of the players on the stage of the world instead 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.

Autumn Pears, Milady? They soothe the heart and their flesh is as 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 but strangely enough the memory of it is sweet. It makes you forget your troubles and aches, it calms the nerves and its a gentle sedative. Said the fruit seller, pointing to a tiny basket of white berries 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 of bronze and amythst. Enjoy, fair maiden! cried the fruit seller to her as she walked away, and may fortune and love find you and keep you! She smiled and waved back to him, her velvet cloak billowing in the chilling breeze. The town was excited and buzzing with the news that the princesses have decided to look for a husband. She passed an elite section of the market, full of cafes and teahouses. Here the rich and powerful mingle with the common people, the artisans and the poets. She sat down and ordered a glass of iced peppermint tea, conversations buzzed around her like a cloud of flies. She is most beautiful said the candle maker, a wealthy artisan and owner of the finest candle shops in the land. His candles are treasured through out the world of Fei. A single exquisite candlestick dusted with gold and carved with meticulous care can fetch a couple of hundred Diagold pieces diamond and gold coins. Her eyes contain the light of a million candles, I will carve for her a thousand candles set in a filigree of gold and carved 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 of wax.

Youre an old codger with a big nose! Proclaimed the silversmith, Her laughter is like the breaking of sunlight through the muddiest of skies. I will fashion for her an ornamental dress made of the lightest, softest moon silver. It will be a beautiful creation of intricate silver lace, in the darkness she will shine in her own light. Crap! She will love me for my cunning Hah! 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 in the teahouse. Octavia left the teahouse in a rush of disgust and foreboding. She ran from the market place; hands in her ears, tears in her eyes and cried softly with a terrible and fragile tension. She sat at the edge of the water, sobbing into the sea. What the hell was she doing? How can these people teach her the meaning of love when they have not even an inkling of mannersor 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 ragged scarf. 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.

Then she was embarrassed for him, hesitating to accept his kindness, 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 an afterthought, blew her nose loud and wet, and then she folded it over and handed it back to him. Here She said, youre a gentleman Um he said, taking it daintily back with the tips of his fingers. She burst out laughing at the look on his face and he too 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 as another day became captive to the ever-scrolling screen of history. They sat a while to watch the sun fall into the vast Edenis Sea and 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 amber jewel at her neck. It was tingling; that meant it was still working. Im not a princess she said with a smile. Octavia, your reflection in the water is not fooled by the charm you wear. I saw who you were the minute we met. She looked into the water and sure enough it was her true face that looked back at her. Dont you know that Edenis is an enchanted sea? It cant be swayed 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 really know what annoyed her most about him. He saw through her

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 was born from the tears of the lady of the sea, Eden Julietta. She had drowned here. Every school child knows this. She, said Octavia with a fierce stare, was murdered by her lover It was said that she killed herself, countered the boy, when she betrayed 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 out near the dark woods. They say that there be monsters within, he snapped, but your acid tongue should be enough protection from the likes of them simple horrors Octavia fumed, how dare thispeasant mock her! She glared at him, her hands bunched up into fists. Goodbye, peasant boy! she shouted and stomped away into the woods. So long Princess Snot-avia! he shouted back stomping the other way. When he saw her next, she was wrapped deep within the frosty arms of Death.

...

9/10/03 by wraith

View III. 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 years ago the two land had been one land; the two founders had been twin brothers; Roland and Romulan. They were identical in every physical aspect. Both were tall and dark with warm winning smiles that came quickly and often. They did everything together for they seemed to always like the same thing. 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 and lost off the edge of the known world and into Terra Incognita. In the wake of the storm, they found themselves strangely enough floating amongst the calmest waters within a small lake, surrounded by a gorgeous, unexplored land wreathed by Blue Mountains. They stood upon the wondrous land and shrieked 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 this brave new world - some of them exotic, some; angelic, others are demonic (in appearance if not character) and some are simply, indescribably, strange - who told them about this land of Fei; a quilted world of dreams and nightmares. And through luck and fate they built themselves a small community that became a great kingdom they named: MuLanis.

MuLanis was in a terrible grip of a raging ice storm, razor sharp flakes of ice ripped through the kingdom, wind raged in a tantrum fit and tore roofs away from houses and uprooted trees. Death rode in on a skeletal horse made of ice and with his scythe of razor winds took whole families away with him to the underworld. That was the night when Eden Julietta arrived at the palace of the twins. Wet and half-frozen; clutching an invisible shred from the cold cloak of Death's in her frostbitten hands; she tumbled into the palace. They cared for her, nursed her back to health and as Spring came upon the land, she woke up to a risen world of glittering sunlight, reflecting off the waters of the lake of MuLanis. She was beautiful, they say, bewitchingly beautiful; ravenhaired with coal black eyes and rosen lips, she was as enchanting 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 each sought to possess her. She loved one and not the other but which one? Roland had a birthmark the shape of an autumn leaf on his left thigh. He was gentle and quiet. Introverted. He would spend all his time in the library. He read her stories from his library and wrote poetry for her. He was as patient as mountains and as dependable as the sun. Romulan was the heart of any party, extroverted and friendly, he knew many people and had lots of friends. He sang beautifully and wrote songs for her. He was as elusive as the wind and as funny as a jester. He made her laugh until she ached and begged him, soundlessly, to stop.

On the day of The Eclipse, she was gathering flowers on the very edge of the dark, untamed woods when she saw him. The sun had faded away as if a giant wolf had swallowed it whole. In fear she clung to him. He laughed and sang to her in a softly lilting lullaby; the tale of an enchanted music box. Through Jagged times of crystal fear/ Ill always be there to watch over you. And when your heart feels cold/ Ill always be there by your side. She was wrapped in the warmth of him, enraptured by his voice. When the sun came out from the belly of the wolf, she kissed him and in the shadow of an ancient tree, they made love bathed 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 in tears; silent, voiceless tears and was found - days later - dead from some unknowable venom. They buried her in the lake, sailed her burning body out onto the calm waters and watched with 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 inland sea where the lake had been, having eaten into a part of the dark forest. They named the sea Edenis. MuLanis was split into two kingdoms. Julitte to the East and the new kingdom named NoirRse to the West. The two brothers never spoke to each other again. Which of them had she loved? Only the sea knows. And the sea, jealous lover of mysteries,

always kept its secrets.

9/10/03 by wraith

View IV. Wraith. Octavia fumed through the labyrinthe of dark trees and stomped 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. It spoke of nothing, of being alone with darkness and hungry ghosts 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 the emptiest of shadows. She could see only the rough, scarred limbs of trees, the suffocating serpentine vines that choked them. Once in a few heartbeats she would hear a nightbird calling out in the unknown nothing beyond the moonlit world. Who? Who? asked the nightbird. She kept walking, the darkness kept pace with her. Silence followed her every step, only the wind whispered constantly in her ear, telling her the stories of silence and lonely fear. The trees loomed above her. Skeletal giants in a forest of shadows, a

rustling in the bushes, a shadow silently streaked across her path. She imagined eyes upon her, countless eyes reflecting the stark moonlight as hollow demonic light. A constellation of emptiness, another rustling of leaves and then it was again swallowed by the silence. Who? cried the disembodied voice of the night bird, Who? She was afraid. Her heart beat faster and her breath left her body with an urgency of hysteria. She ran. She ran as fast as she could through the emptiness and uncertainty of her own fears until she came upon a clearing where the ground was barren and the trees would not grow, where life would not flow. It was a circular patch of death. It was cold and still. There was not even a sound to be heard here. The clouds have covered the moon 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 breath coming out of her in mists and the fear was tangible, squeezing at her heart. A noise; a hand comes slithering out of the sterile ground two paces in front from where she stood, it grasped at the air as it rose through the earth leaving the dirt unmarked by its ethereal substance. Two hands, white as moonlight, two arms dressed in mists and the wraith grew slowly, oh so slowly, out of the barren dust. Its hair the colour of sand, its eyes as empty as frosted glass, its face white as paper and gaunt with shadows, its skin pocked and lumpy like damp plaster. Its lips are red, blood red, lucious with the colour of wounds. It looked at Octavia and the lips stretched into a gash-like smile; revealing darkness inside its mouth, toothless and so very empty.

Hhhello, it whispered, iiiit it it has been a while a while since weve seen people people. No one no one noone one comes to see us, no one one one dares, 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. It reached out one smoky hand and caressed her face; its touch sending gooseflesh rising on her arms and raising the hair at the back of her neck. It looked into her eyes, its head cocked to one side as if it was listening to a sound from the clouds that only it could hear. Whatwho are you? asked Octavia in a small, frightened voice. 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 these things. We are dead We we we we We have no name but loss, our names names names were shreded by the scythe of Death and all we that we were are now simply (echoes) echoes. I ii In Inn Incomplete. Alone. Hungry Please, she said, tears coming to her eyes, ( hungry) blurring the night-clothed world,whoever you are, pleasehelp me.' - hungry. there is there is is there is an emptiness inside us. Or we are emptiness emptiness emptiness 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.

- feed us let us eat your life. Ppp pleepleaseplease..s..s.s Nnnn. Oh but we will. Yes. Oh yessSSSSSSSSSSSSsssss! It exploded out of its shell, discarding the mask of loneliness for its true face; rage and hunger. It shrieked at her, its face elongated as if stretched by the rage it was letting forth. It came at her, wailing like a banshee. Its skeletal arms; stretched into talons 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 her own 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 the substance of the ghost like the quills of a porcupine and pierced her skin in a million places. Your life is my life, your warmth is my 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, she thought. She felt as though freezing water was being poured into her soul, her thoughts were becoming harder to form as though the phantom was pushing her mind out of her brain and settling its own thoughts there. Her vision darkening, she heard an anguished bellow and the last thing she saw was a dark blur rushing towards her and she saw the gypsy boys tormented face as he desperately reached towards her through the phantoms body. He likes me, she thought without rhyme, he really likes me. And with the thought came the smile she would leave this world with and a mute spark of joy within her heart as it stopped beating. She reluctantly closed her eyes upon the world, leaving him and

it for the darkness that claimed her sight. Letting go of her breath she fell into the sleeping arms of Death. ...

9/10/03 by wraith

View Chapter Two. Season of leaving. I. Solitude. In another life he was called Calin of the Black Rose, he was the prince of the land of NoirRse far away on the West coast of Edenis. His life was filled with riches beyond imaginings, luxuries and comfort that most people of his kingdom would see as paradise, yet he was unhappy. Within the great Domain of NoirRse; a thriving, industrial metropolis full of spires, scarred with streets of asphalt and bitumen, he spends his waking moments troubled by an unknown appetite. Like the rage of an inner flame that vexed his mind and scorched his heart. It came to him when the stars came 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 huge library 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

duplicate any environment he wanted, limited only to his imagination. And that was where he was happiest, living in his imagination. But the world would always intrude and after all the living he had lived within his fantasies; still the unknowable itch to touch something that defied shaping. What was it; this insatiable Desire? NoirRse was famous for its obsession for artifice. In the Royal Botanical Garden, everything was artificial. The flowers were made of a living clay, mined from the bottom of Edenis, shaped by a production line of craftspeople then glazed into mother-ofpearl rainbow hues, killing the living clay in order to preserve them. Every kind of exotic strains were brought back from far across the world then duplicated by the cunning hands of the court artificialists. Duplicated, refined, enhanced to an ingenious level of virtuality then mass produced. The trees were delicately detailed sculptures made of various kinds of metal. The finest; a giant Maple tree made of an alloy of Moonsilver, Arsenic and Terrasilver, Once believed to be a cancer upon the Fei MoonSilver. It was a crowning achievement for the articificialists. A living, shimmering tree that grew nourished by the light of the moon, to become the tallest structure in the city. A monolithic testament to human mimicry. The leaves would turn black in autumn and crumble to litter the garden with glowing dust. It also did double duty as the town clock. Animals were also duplicated; mechanical horses powerful and billowing steam from their noses, jewelled nightingales that sang popular tunes, clockwork cats perpetually playful and cute. He had a pet monkey that could speak French (he spoke no French) thatd spend its days and some portion of its nights telling him jokes and giggling to itself. Sculpted flowers, wooden fruits, imitation leather, faux-fur, dolls, miniature vehicles, plays, electric light. These were the things that found favour within the great city of NoirRse. When he left, the general populus were transfixed by a popular stage play that had actors pretending to be actors pretending to be

actors working on a popular stage play. It was faintly ridiculous. Prince Calin sat alone in his garden, surrounded by a million beautiful things. He stared at the stars above and melancholy descended on him. He was surrounded by three beautiful impossible princesses and he asked the first one of them Chia the youngest, a slender girl with bright pink hair and glittering rubies for eyes. Chia, do you love me? You are very handsome my prince and you have wealth beyond the 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 with platinum 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 me Merloise stared and smiled beautifully at him, he looked into her eyes and saw nothing but the world reflected back to him in hues of golden light and his own desperate face looking hungrily back at him. Then he finally turned to Seilan, sun-bronzed and delicately featured with chestnut-coloured eyes, lips and hair the colour of spoiled strawberries. Seilan, he said, you are the wisest of my advisors, the eldest of my concubines, youve known me the longest, weve spent almost everyday of my adult life together. Do you love me? Seilan closed her eyes and sighed, Calin, we were made to love you; love for us is not a matter of choice but rather an extension of living. You may as well ask us whether we love the air we breathe, or the gravity that glues us to this earth. We love you because we were 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 away tears. Deep within her mechanical heart, a vital cog slipped and

would no longer work. ...

9/10/03 by wraith

View II. Sister of Sleep. He broke the circuit the ghost made with Octavia as he stabbed the haunted ground with his blade of enchanted moon silver. Yelling out with an anguished pain he reached her in time to catch 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, pleasebreathe Breathe for me. He whispered in her ear his eyes clenched to shut 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 small trace of smile that lingered on her lips. Her flaming hair was a silken spill upon the cold dust. Enchanted death, he thought, not borne on karmic grounds. And enchantment can be broken. He said to her death-masked face. He reached for his knife still sheathed within the corrupted

patch of the earth - and dragged it widdershins into a closed circle. He pulled his knife out from the ground and the earth trembled. A sound - low and quiet at the beginning then becoming 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 earth and a violent wind rose and stirred up a cyclone. The dirt screamed around them, alive and angry. Everything smelled of rust and rotten fruit. Inside their dome of light, there is silence. The world outside the dome is violent and red. Anger hammered against the cage of their heart but could not worm its way in. Serenity is an island rising from the indivisibility between the fear of mortality and the urgency of the heart. A rough-drawn circle in the dust. Outside the dome of mirrored light, there was silence. The noise has died along with the wind and the dirt has again settled, though not completely still. It rested upon the air as a veil, a bank of dirty mist. The mirrored sheath withdrew from the dome and Calin looked out into the haze and saw a figure walking slowly towards them. A black shadow, its form wavering, the silhouette shifting into monsters imagined and then humans remembered until at last she stepped out of the shadow 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; a prisoner behind her smile. Tears welled up and fell to her lips still 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 tears with his own and in the silence they told each other of their grief. You know my people used to say, time is a needles eye in the heart of god. YouI I 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 meet him. The illusion of her glamour melted away and with her true eyes she looked to him. She held up a hand and a flash of glass texture hardened as she touched the invisible wall of the dome shield. He reached out and touched the glass that separated them. Hello boy, she whispered, crying. He swallowed and brushing his tears away, leaned forward to face her. Milady His eyes, inches away from hers. Her lips so close to his. Almost touching - then comes the glass between them and she breaks apart in an electrical discorporation phhhzzzt! zZz What 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. The rejected, said the wraith, materialising from the mist. We we we are the hatred of the unwanted. It coagulated completely where Octavia had been before, and stood facing him, a form made of white noise and featureless except for its full lips, painted white and dabbed by a bruisered patch like the petal of a Sakura blossom.

Once upon a witching hour, there was death here, a terrible death that bled into the land and spoiled its connection with the soul of the world. It became a fifteen-year-old girl with wavy locks; the colour of rust and dead leaves. Her eyes were empty pits of shadow. I loved her, she said, our love was forbidden, sheshe didnt love me backshe thought I was mad, that it wasnt natural. 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 closerand I couldnt he keptI couldnt close my eyes She looked at him, the fear evaporating replaced with something 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 slowly realised 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 truly happy in this world. Their life is either a continuous torment of hate and grief, or an existence defined by loneliness and regret. An atrocity has been committed on this ground, a disgusting act that had poisoned the spirit of the land. It fed on lives to sustain its 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 give you my life, freely and without anger or remorse. The mist disappeared. Outside the circle of dust, there was nothing 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. She sees the world birth it self into birdsong and dew. A breeze full of fragrances laughed and teased at her hair. There was a carpet of dead ochre and golden leaves beneath her naked feet. She grinned and kicked them away towards the blue sky the colour of her eyes. And giggling and laughing, she danced and kicked the 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 pattern of damp, green grass, drying in the sunlight.

9/10/03 by wraith

View Chapter Three: A Pattern of Goodbyes I. Wanting. She had no memory of that night in the woods, her last memory was that of running away from the teahouse full of anxiety about her suitors. She had a certainty that something had happened that night but it lingered always at the tip of her memories, unreachable. She had no idea that the wraith had lodged itself like a worm in her heart. A grand ritual of love and death will soon be played out for its benefit. A feast was being prepared for it, a banquet of exquisite loss, tender heartbreak and sweet despair. Meanwhile, the grand occasion that was the Pledge of Matrimony, 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, had reached far into the vast domains of Fei and they all came to her the nobles, the princes, the queens and presidents, the king with his shining 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.

And when the grand day arrived, they gathered within the great hall of the WinterSky palace; an eager of mob of Desire in her one thousand and one veils. The Lioness of Equidaria came with pumas, with sleek liquidlike cats. Phanter-black and robed in gleaming fur, with sunlight from a distant land in her skin mrrreow she said, shaking the lustre in her hair. I am Dominique, I collect the souls of dead cats. I can shower you with the Sphinx-spice from hair to end. You will live forever in the Ninth Heaven with me, where warmth is always with you and we will admire each other all night long; for forever and a day. She held up a large cat shaped glass bottle filled with an effervescent mist of emerald and aquamarine, shifting with the fabric of stars. The Duke of Mearlian lived within a crystal matrix; a snowflake caught in a diamond prison. A boy of nine summers with the voice of ancient sage. His dusk coloured eyes spoke of the birth of galaxies and of loneliness before the dawn of Time. The Duke presented her with a burning basket of Phoenix eggs, more precious than the lives of kings. The eggs are bone-white with glimmering flecks of silver, wrapped in a weave of flames. Some say that the eggs are actually the immortal soul of the phoenix themselves, 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 live forever, 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 from enchantment. 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,

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 time alone, a stroll of the seaside, a brief lunch, a moment here and a brief time there and they were all such unique beings of foreign idiosyncrasy. For instance, the Duke of Nest hated to have people touch his hair, hed spend hours in front of the mirror, sculpting his quif to a state of artistic perfection, not a strand out of place. He spent his time with her in a room safe from the wind , oh the fiendish wind that he proclaims to be in a conspiracy with his enemies, to overthrow his regime and mess up his hair. He then paused to tell her how lovely her hair was and suggested she lightened it to make it more striking (she cut his interview twenty minutes early, feigning light-headedness). Then there was Alexandria Salt, a wealthy artist who could not stop staring at her shoes. She loved shoes, she had over one hundred thousand different kinds and spent her time with Octavia recalling each glorious moment when she found her favourite pairs. She declined all their offerings after these mercifully brief times. She saw in some a beauty that matched her own but in the depths of their eyes she saw a frightened, ravenous darkness wanting only to quench its own needs. A temple erected to a blind ego. Some benign and harmless. Some completely 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 the distant land of Distopic. Some people behind him sighed and shook their heads, Teenagers. they mumbled under their breath.

I have no wish to be a part of your collection of treasures and property. You've all taught me that love is a twisted shackle of desire, lust and shallow greed. I will not be a trophy to another person's vanity. Im sorry to have brought you all here to waste your time but my mind and heart is restless and I sense noresonance from within any of you. I find no answer from your hearts, to the question 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 they do? Those who privately entertained thoughts of simply taking her and Domain (after all in their mind she was just a foolish little girl that needed to be taught a lesson in respecting her superiors) warily eyed her loyal warrior-mages that had pledged their lifelong devotion to her father and his heirs. No, they were the mightiest army in the shifting realms but, Might fades, they thought and when it wanes, theyll be there to seize her land. As the many spectators and witnesses started to leave a 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 boy be. - A circuit is made. A buried moment flared in her chest and lungs, like a breath of cold flame. She studied the boy. Had she not seen him in the marketplace before? Dark soulful eyes, black as midnight and burning with a quality she had never seen before. - Not since that night, beneath the stars, with the winds of rage and hate blowing around them. The night of emptiness, with

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 a couple of places but had been neatly mended. He looked around cautiously at the guards and then looked directly into her eyes and again she saw that spark in his eyes, the one she could not read nor understand, except perhaps if she looked deep in her own soul for its reflection. Her heart marched to a furious rhythm for reasons she couldn't comprehend. Perhaps she was frightened. He spoke quietly but all in the room heard his voice, gentle and a 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 form of the black selfish hunger she saw in all the others. A poison was released into her heart, something bitter filled her mouth and her head throbbed. She had grown weary of this charade of devotion. She sneered then laughed at him. Her laughter echoed in the vast 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 halo of crushing light. So my little gypsy prince, she smiled with nothing of the warmth that usually accompanied its beauty, her heart racing with an exhiliration she had never felt before, and deep in her

eyes the blind, and black, and ignorant beast that she saw and felt within all her suitors roared with laughter. The worm in the apple of her eyes. You also seek to buy my beauty, to own my soul. What can you possibly 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 and coughed into her hand She looked deep into his eyes and as she watched 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 of his mouth. It became all the world she knew. In this world there lived only her. There are shadows everywhere except for directly in front of her. There exists the droplet of water from a rare well. A mirrored drop. She saw reflected in them the darkness that triumphantly laughed with a mockery of her face. She sees the hate raging from the mask of her cruel smile. Madness behind the mockery. Something inside both of them broke a little then, perhaps something insignificantly small, perhaps the price of their waking world. A deal had been struck and the mechanism of vengance 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 and before any of the guards could reach him, he ripped open his shirt and he carved a strange symbol on his chest; first a semi-circle then a circle inside the semi-circle drawn anti-clockward on his chest then finally a straight line through the centre. The knife

trembled a little. At once, dark raging tears of blood started to flow. The room gasped with horror. Before the princess could do anything the markings on his chest began to glow. Brighter and brighter until all in the room had to avert their eyes. No! She cried. She wanted to scream at him, wanted to run to him but she stood frozen and soon after, speechless. She was in the arms of death, She had never left that circle of trees. She existed there still. Her, her brave, stupid prince and Death. The light was piercing, shattering into the minds and heart of every person 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 leaving everyone 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. ... ...

9/10/03 by wraith

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II. Touching. There was a communal intake of breath. A whispered denial here, there - a stunned prayer to Divine energies for intervention, and everywhere; a chorus of disbelief. Calin stood up on shaky knees. He looked at her and smiled sadly. 'Milady... the world we touch is... harsh... sometimes it feels as if everything hurts; it hurts to touch; it hurts to care. I...I'm not making 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 you remember 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 love for your sweet, precious heart was somehow a magical spell that could take us far away into another time... a time where you and I could be one... if only... He smiled. His eyes misted over with tears and his breath shook as it left his lungs. He struggled to find words. Words; the mercurial, inaccurate language of emotions. He grasped at them as if he would drown without them. She stood as if frozen?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... I had nothing to give to that darkness, that wraith that had stolen your life. I had nothing that it could want, no wealth, nor enchantments, nor treasures. All I had was my life...' 'No, boy,' she whispered, slowly regaining her freedom of moments, 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.

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 weight in her chest, like a block of wood, like the weight of time. He faltered and looked as if he was about to collapse, the aura surrounding him flickered and threatened to extinguish. He fell down to his knees. Tears were streaming down her own face as she knelt in front of him. He looked up at her and strengthened his resolve, the aura surrounding 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, the circular leadlight dome opened out like a flower to receive the rain. Rain fell on the flowers that surrounded them, red and white with flecks of gold. Calin smelled the damp grass and said goodbye to the rain, goodbye to the earth. Rain fell on his heart and streaked tears down its side to fall to the grass. He looked to her. 'It was all I could think of doing. It, she... they ...they wanted a sacrifice... before they could let you go... something...' he paused 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, and there they knelt. Mirror images joined with a heartbeat and bound in tears. She leaned forward breathing heavily. Time has frozen and in this still, silent time, she kissed him. Tasting his tears on her tongue, breathing in his breath, filling her being with all that he was.

She kissed him and he breathed in her breath and tasted her love of him and divine fireworks exploded in the centre of his being. The hollow place where his heart used to beat. 'I love you,' She whispered to him, 'I love this heart of yours, my brave stupid boy... my love...' They smiled together, a small private smile quickly washed away by the tide of the present. - 'I love you.' We say when we were the Lovers, lost and dislocated by stories. His hands fell away from her, dropping his heart with a wet slap on the marble floor. The aura surrounding him flickered erratically and he fell like a discarded marionette. 'No!' Octavia cried. 'It can't end like this!' She looked around the room frantically and all she could see were stunned faces and 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 air of tomorrow, and the morning after and the morning after that. Do that for me?' She nodded, unable to speak. She cradled his body close to hers, his breathing was ragged and strained, the aura around his body dimmed until it burned only in his eyes. He looked up at her and smiled. 'A brief moment...that's where love is, in the silence between a

heartbeat in a moment of utter completeness.' 'Don't die... I don't... please...please... hold on.' she cried in between sobs of sorrow. She held him close, pressing his body as hard as she could against her, perhaps hoping to lend him her life. But she could not, nor would she ever be able to get close 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 final words to her face, bringing a smell of autumn. The smell of rain and loss. He opened his eyes and frantically found hers then the light 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 had stopped, bringing sunlight back into the world, painting the heavens with broad strokes of gold. The only sound you could hear was the sound of birds, oblivious to the affairs of two lost souls 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 an enchanting Domain called Julitte - set in a beguiling and

fragmented world that we will call Fei - has reached an age where she is required to take a consort. Reluctant and frightened as she was at the prospect of marriage, she was nevertheless curious and eager to learn about the nature of 'Love'. Whilst touring her land in disguise, she began to seriously doubt her decision when she was confronted by the vulgar and lewd behaviour of some of her possible suitors in an upmarket Tea and Coffee House. Love was a trophy. A prize to be worn as a merit of status, or as sex object. Hollow projections 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 of kindness. They parted company harshly when she found out that he had known all along that she was the Princess, having seen her reflection in the enchanted waters of Edenis, the vast inland sea that separated twin Domains, schismed a long time ago when the two founders fell in love with the same girl, ending the legend with a mysterious tragedy. Feeling that she had 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 and soul. The Gypsy Boy, who turned out to be a prince in his own right from the land on the other side of the sea named Noir'Rse, a magnificent metropolis obsessed with artifice, managed to intervene. 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 stabbed the haunted ground with his blade of enchanted moon silver.

Yelling out with an anguished pain he reached her in time to catch 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, pleasebreathe Breathe for me. He whispered in her ear his eyes clenched to shut 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 small trace of smile that lingered on her lips. Her flaming hair was a silken spill upon the cold dust. Enchanted death, he thought, not borne on karmic grounds. And enchantment can be broken. He said to her death-masked face. He reached for his knife still sheathed within the corrupted patch of the earth - and dragged it widdershins into a closed circle. He pulled his knife out from the ground and the earth trembled. A sound - low and quiet at the beginning then becoming 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 earth and a violent wind rose and stirred up a cyclone. The dirt screamed around them, alive and angry. Everything smelled of rust and rotten fruit. Inside their dome of light, there is silence. The world outside the dome is violent and red. Anger hammered against the cage of their heart but could not worm its way in. Serenity is an island rising from the indivisibility between the fear of mortality and the urgency of the heart. A rough-drawn circle in the dust.

Outside the dome of mirrored light, there was silence. The noise has died along with the wind and the dirt has again settled, though not completely still. It rested upon the air as a veil, a bank of dirty mist. The mirrored sheath withdrew from the dome and Calin looked out into the haze and saw a figure walking slowly towards them. A black shadow, its form wavering, the silhouette shifting into monsters imagined and then humans remembered until at last she stepped out of the shadow 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; a prisoner behind her smile. Tears welled up and fell to her lips still 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 tears with his own and in the silence they told each other of their grief. You know my people used to say, time is a needles eye in the heart of god. YouI I 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 meet him. The illusion of her glamour melted away and with her true eyes she looked to him. She held up a hand and a flash of glass texture hardened as she touched the invisible wall of the dome shield. He reached out and touched the glass that separated them. Hello boy, she whispered, crying.

He swallowed and brushing his tears away, leaned forward to face her. Milady His eyes, inches away from hers. Her lips so close to his. Almost touching - then comes the glass between them and she breaks apart in an electrical discorporation phhhzzzt! zZz What 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. The rejected, said the wraith, materialising from the mist. We we we are the hatred of the unwanted. It coagulated completely where Octavia had been before, and stood facing him, a form made of white noise and featureless except for its full lips, painted white and dabbed by a bruisered patch like the petal of a Sakura blossom. Once upon a witching hour, there was death here, a terrible death that bled into the land and spoiled its connection with the soul of the world. It became a fifteen-year-old girl with wavy locks; the colour of rust and dead leaves. Her eyes were empty pits of shadow. I loved her, she said, our love was forbidden, sheshe didnt love me backshe thought I was mad, that it wasnt natural. 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 closerand

I couldnt he keptI couldnt close my eyes She looked at him, the fear evaporating replaced with something 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 slowly realised 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 truly happy in this world. Their life is either a continuous torment of hate and grief, or an existence defined by loneliness and regret. An atrocity has been committed on this ground, a disgusting act that had poisoned the spirit of the land. It fed on lives to sustain its 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 give you my life, freely and without anger or remorse. The mist disappeared. Outside the circle of dust, there was nothing 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. She sees the world birth it self into birdsong and dew. A breeze full of fragrances laughed and teased at her hair. There was a carpet of dead ochre and golden leaves beneath her naked feet. She grinned and kicked them away towards the blue sky the colour of her eyes. And giggling and laughing, she danced and kicked the 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 pattern of damp, green grass, drying in the sunlight.