Afterwords

With an almighty crash Pine Needles felled the giant tree in front of him. Its girth was five times his size, and its height had reached way upwards into the morning mists.

Birds scattered from its dropped shoulders. Hastily he tore its branches from the core, until there was but one massive trunk, to which, as a miner might, he hacked a hole in one end and carved a lengthy tunnel throughout - until he reached the very end of it …

Needles momentarily seemed satisfied - but no! As though an afterthought, he then proceeded to bore holes in its uppermost part as he walked through - one, and then two ports, until there were twelve - whereupon the sunlight drained down into the trunk’s circular windows.

Down from the clouds reached a broad and horny hand - with warts as big as stepping stones, and callouses, bigger still. It clasped the carved tree trunk and raised it high.

Needles waited excitedly as the giant had snatched his handiwork from the ground. This huge fellow was of immense stature - being one of the last of the old world and one of the first of his own world to come - although he lived in the clouds, he frequented the under side of Faerie for tidbits and scrum.

Needles closed his eyes - squinted them quite tightly in anticipation - waiting, waiting for the sound …

And then it came: the tune from his musical pipe filled the air everywhere around him - its solemn melody flew the airs winding for miles, with one very long low note at the end.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Dramatis Personae

Main Characters: ~

Eve Piquet, Hannah-Mary: Psychic Detective, formerly twin sister to Murmur

Puck, Mr Black, Robin Hode: Father of Charlotte, Elvish Adept, Uncle to Francis, Jak to the Beanstalk

Mr Fabaceae, Goober, Peanut: Adopted Uncle to Charlotte, best friend and colleague to Puck

Granoldi, The Great Granoldi, Jupiter: White Fairy Bear, Young god

Needles, Einstein, Pine-Needles, Pine-tara: devoted companion to Eve, culinary Dwarf, maker of musical flutes

Tu, Stewart, Brogan, Richard: Former King, Sensei

Mercedes, Wife: fiancé to Romulus, formerly wife of Nathanius Tindle

Nathanius Tindle, Scrooge, Alex: keeper of the purse, partner to Romulus

Jonathon, Jon-Jon, Jon Smithy: son of Robertus: Companion to Zithia, Lover of Fatima, Husband to Isabelle

Fatima: Carer to the sick, and to Peter, Paul and Jon.

Husain: Slave trader, ship’s whipper

Isabelle: wife to Robertus, and later wife to Jon

Romulus, Marsden: Evil villain

Sylvia: Spirit of the Lake, recluse

Mother Earth, Grandmama: planetary spirit

The Azlan: the lion, Christos Spirit to all Humanity and the realms above and below.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

If we shadows have offended,

Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber’d here

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme,

No more yielding but a dream,

Gentles, do not reprehend:

if you pardon, we will mend:

And, as I am an honest Puck,

If we have unearned luck

Now to ‘scape the serpent’s tongue,

We will make amends ere long;

Else the Puck a liar call;

So, good night unto you all.

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And Robin shall restore amends.

-William Shakespeare (1594)

Afterthought about Chickens & Eggs

“There was a little egg, and it sat upon a mountain top - inside it, was one beating heart.

"Inconsolable, the life within pressed on - it would not stop.

"And although the shell and membranes too, cordoned and coddled it, withholding its new life from the world, the sheath of its sacred sac protected it also.

"All eggs are golden, and all life is sanctified: drenched within, with a momentum that will propel the soul into becoming - until expired and released once more, back into the universal gambit it loves so well.”

“So which came first … what do you think?" asked Puck to Pine-Needles.

“Why the chicken of course - because he wanted to get to the other side.”

“Exactly right,” said Puck, “'tis so… the chicken wanted to cross over - through to the other side of life.”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

The Lake Renewed

All water is magical - it taketh into its arms and body the soul of all things and gives it life to manifest.

Pure water is God the wise, God the noble, and God the beloved - such is life.

The harmonic doors resonate with the heart of the soul, and when it had come time for Eve to choose her destiny she did not go back into the Earthly world as one might imagine, but instead she took the path that would lead her once again up and into the lower heavens.

Eve found them as she had left them when she had been with the group. The scenery, once gracious, had darkened even further, and the familiar stench now greeted her again. It was just as sickening as before.

To her own surprise she was not frightened to be in that gloomy place standing there on her own, for this was the home of Jupiter, and from him she had understood the reverence for this once magnificent place. She was fond of it all because of him. The emotions that he had experienced in being there now came to her to experience.

Once upon a time, in an age and era earlier to this, she had been born as Hannah Mary, and had understood the world through her twin brother with such a clairvoyant connection that she had been reborn a mystic once again.

And, as Hannah, she had known for the better part of her life the great and grand Granoldi. They had shared each other’s company in the best of ways - in the quiet spaces - without needing conversation - they had shared a certain peace.

It is the finest freedom one can wish for to be able to feel the peace. Peace amongst the trees, and skies: the peace within, the peace without. The stillness where you can hear the inner voice. That spiritual reserve which speaks to eternal continuity, and the life which survives all of the fractured moments and brokenness. A sweet supplement for the aching soul.

And when one can experience a measure of this peace in the company of another, there becomes an unbreakable love for one another - in friendship and family, through this blessed state of quiet union.

And so her spirit was called back into his home place, and her desire was for it to become for him, and all that he loved, once again what it used to be. She wished for the heavens to be restored.

The destruction however was immense.

Eve realised that she was all alone, yet she did not feel sorry or frightened for herself at all. In fact she had no mind for herself, but was upset for the defilement that had taken place, and great sadness that filth could infiltrate a place of divinity, and reduce it to the sludge and waste it now was.

It only took one single tear to replenish the contaminated waste of the lake … one true drop from the pity that she felt, which formed a single prayer that then flew up into the reach of the higher powers. A single tear from Eve into the dried lake bed started the waters there to infill and flow once again, and the higher heavens responded to her asking by then pouring their grace back down into the landscape, recreating its beauty once again.

The light on the horizon was returning and the sullen mist that had hovered in dirty clusters was dissipating. As the air cleared further she could see a figure approaching in the distance with a smaller one walking beside.

* * * 

Jupiter’s hand crept over to Eve’s and his warmth infilled her from top to toe.

“By all that is great and good I swear this lake has grown even larger than before.” he said taking a deep breath, and grasping her hand just a little tighter.

Stars twinkled in its depths and spirits swam up and into its crystalline outskirts lit by the moons above. The souls who were waiting to incarnate, as though flying, darted hither and thither through the silver reeds, up from, and down into, the worlds beneath.

Once again the lake of the lower heavens became an open thoroughfare between life and the afterlife for the spirits ever journeying the eternal realms.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Back into the Bright Land of Faerie

Goober and Puck watched Tu as he paced up and down becoming a little more perturbed and agitated, fraught with indecision - feeling so very out of place. He could not intuit where he was meant to be. He could not feel anything.

“Do not be distressed - the right note will call to you.” Puck touched his arm and all at once Tu could see right through almost all of them. He could actually see the other sides. 

The rosy pink door however did not reveal itself, yet instead he realised ever so subtly that he was listening to a very high, almost imperceptible sound that brought a certain comfort to him. Tu closed his eyes and a moment later he also was gone, save for a little pile of fairy-dust spilled from his pocket on the ground where he had been standing. 

“Well that was exhausting” said Puck with a shake of his head - Goober smiled back at him. 

“I’m famished” he said picking up a scarf that Eve had left behind. “I wouldn’t mind a second visit to that outback cafe …”

“Fine by me” said Puck agreeably, “or we could just go home?”

With that he took his right hand and held it high in the air - tracing the outline of a doorway, and purely by magic (for the humour of it) he conjured up a sign above its top that simply read ‘EXIT’. And with that the two passed through and back into the bright land of Faerie.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series

Harmonic Doors

“Harmonic doors, that’s what they are.”

“It’s rather like a TV competition where you have to guess what is behind the purple or the green one.”

Seven great grand doors were there before them - each wore a vibrant colour emanating out from its metal, all emitting an individual solitary note which you could barely hear until you got close enough. The sound itself was beguiling.

“The notes themselves are the way through the doorway - these doors do not open any other way, they do not swing back and forth or gape - they give you the keynote and it enters you, and from this you can then find yourself on the other side in the world to which you belong.”

“This is goodbye then” said Goober to Puck.

“Suppose so old boy”.

The seven of them solemnly stood before the seven humming doors. Their resonance would determine who would pass through which one. Eve held tightly to Jupiter’s hand, not wanting to be parted from him. Needles clung on to Eve’s leg caught by the wonder of it, but also of the fear of losing her.

Puck knelt down to talk with him face to face and said: “Your door dear friend will take you back to your own kind again.”

Needles dropped a big watery tear, and yet loosened his grasp on Eve.

“But where will it take me?” asked Eve.

“Back into the stream of where you best belong - your people, your place, your circuit. What is it you desire most? Think of that, hold it in your heart and the right door will take you there.”

She had been edging closer to the yellow door. It was very tall - three times her size, and something about its colour seemed to call to her. Her hand left Jupiter’s and without thinking she was drawn to its comforting tone. She could perceive its presence becoming stronger within her now, filling her from the inside. She felt a longing and a purpose to be where it would take her …

“Just a little closer,” encouraged Puck - and a few seconds later Eve was gone. Vanished from sight.

“Who’s next?” Puck asked as he placed goat right before the green door - the little character went right through - pop - he too was now gone.

Jupiter looked pained, his lean face contorted with conflicting emotions. 

“Step up Brogan … er, Tu” Goober said brightly to the spirit that was by his side.

Tu walked the length of the doors stopping at each one, he paused at the end and said “but I hear nothing”. His voice quavered when he said this.

“Try once more” urged Puck gently but firmly, however Tu just faltered.

A moment later Needles made a running jump and seemed to fly through the yellow door energetically. He was no longer to be seen - vanished completely.

“I thought it was a different door for each of us? … you mean to say that more than one of us can pass through the same door?” asked Jupiter thoughtfully.

“Sure, if the door will take you.”

Jupiter went straight up to the yellow one he had watched Eve go through.

“Maybe try the violet? The gods usually pass through this one however …” interjected Puck.

He could not finish his sentence when Sylvia pushed past him, and went straight for the violet door, whereupon she instantly disappeared also.

Jupiter had hesitated at the yellow door and while he lingered his will and his wishing inwardly had called to Eve - and from this a sun-filled note calling to him; he was transported through the door to the same place where Needles and Eve had gone to. 

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Finding Self - Second Guesses- Azlander Series