The Dark Elves

It really never was about Mankind - as endearing as mortals are, they are but as the infant king - and do not know yet of their reach or their influence in the greater plan.

To possess the soul of a man is to take control of his spiritual aids (to some extent, though not entirely). The dark elves were obedient to a commanding force, separated from the mortal that they ordinarily walked through life beside.

Harnessed by a unique magnetism of the blood, a mutual key, the angelic elves were unquestioning, as their service was compelled now by Romulus and his dark intentions - they were not capable of reflection or conscious behaviour within this mortal sphere, or responsible for their deployment either.

Romulus, and others of the dark arts, do not care at all for human beings, they simply perceive them as a means to an end - to take possession of their spiritual powers by stealing their kindred beings with their mystical resources disenfranchised.

The dark elves driving the convoys, and those sitting atop guarding the pallets and the containers, had a mixed appearance of many tones, yet all had a shadow overall that denoted an absence of light - and, as though hypnotised, there was a deficit of divine thought or any recollection of a former self about them. They were well and truly enslaved to a stronger single mind now driving them all.

And being detached from the realm and the spirits they know and love, they were to be pitied and not decimated, Puck acknowledged to himself.

“This rescue is going to take more than I thought” Puck said to Goober packing up for the night …

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

Problem in Australia

“Did you sink em?”

“Nup” Puck shrugged his shoulders as if he could shake the question off - it had been a tiring few days.

“Did you take them into the another world?”

“Nup again” here Puck looked over his shoulder as though someone might be around them listening in. Goober was excited because he loved guessing games. 

“Now, what would I have done with a fleet of six thousand, three hundred and thirty six ships?” he asked out loud.

“And the cargo, which is kindof more important…” 

“A two-part mystery … hmm, yes! I see now!”

“Okay you got me - tell up!”


“Firstly, all I did was make the lot invisible - the entire cavalcade - imperceptible, I should say. It works for a time. But if you studied the waters you would still see movement and channels from the engines. I saw no reason to deter their progress.”


Goober nodded. It made perfect sense. “And you wanted to convince the evil one you had taken them?” 


“Yes quite. But we will get to that later.” Puck continued: “Australia is the perfect place to hide such a cohort, and this is where I need help … Romulus himself is due to reach the mainland in a few hours.”


"You might not have thought this through to the end I’m guessing.”

“You could say that”, said Puck thoughtfully, distracted by his own questions … “but then, who knew?”

“And the evil one - who is it this time?” Goober appeared uncomfortable when he asked this. Suddenly he was awash with a panic attack. 


“Marsden - bloody Marsden is at it again - he came back.”


The elderly elf was genuinely bewildered. He had thought that this heartless man had been dealt with and was doing time somewhere in community service working as a gondolier. 

“You can’t make this stuff up!” he said in exasperation trying to take it all in. The worry of it was: how on earth are they to contain this demon if the very courts of Hades could not do it.” 


Meanwhile, there was the problem in Australia…



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

Ships that Pass in the Night

As far as the eyes could see fleets of cargo ships and runway vessels crowded the Pacific Ocean’s thoroughfare. Thousands of newly forged warships accompanied the aquatic cluster.

And then, all at once, it was as though a Bermuda triangle had swallowed the entire cavalcade when it disappeared. Each and every one lost its radar signal and went dark, and once again the vast blanket of heaving seas lay empty.

However kept - whether whole or distilled - the cargo in each and every one of them was human. Australia offered the perfect land mass to store this mess of biology - for beneath its centre, concealed by the uninhabitable red desert, were ancient catacombs, vast and wide, that enveloped such huge underground spaces you could fill the entire state of Texas within their sprawling tunnels and still have room for beasts and men besides.

The ventilation there was masterful, providing oxygen and warmth, with solar light and power as well. Ghost gums shimmered above, rocks covered rocks, and boulders covered holes, holes that went to tunnels into dark and secured places, with city space covering city space; first created by the Atlantean pioneers of old.

A convoy of trucks lined the wharfs. Many were like steel trains having connecting parts where containers were hoisted onto their plates and stacked six deep, depending on their width.

The workers all went about their tasks in an eerie silence, save for a hypnotic humming of a uniform tune that came from the men wearing orange reflector vests and caps with the insignia of the company that owned them.

Puck had managed to bring the boats back into sight when they began docking, and after each were emptied he dematerialised the vessel and transported them one by one to a place that was safely far away and out of the control of their owner.

Romulus, he had discovered, had made a massive investment in these ships, vessels that doubled as mercenary naval assailants, and Puck had no intention of allowing him to make use of them again for this, or any other purpose again.

To the human eye the vehicles appeared ‘automated’, and many trucks were in a procession leading to and from the docks, nose to tail, for miles, trailing from the collection bay at port Darwin (ironically named) and then on their way into the underground Fort. There they were unloaded and refuelled, only to turn back and retrieve more cargo over a day later.

Puck stood keeping watch. He blended in wearing the usual country attire: a rabbit felt broad brim hat to shield the sun and a khaki shirt with sleeves rolled high - even at 6am the heat from the rocks was rising and the warmth was pervasive. He kept count as the vessels on the dock were decanted, and disassembled, and when each ship was out of the harbour he de-materialised its entire bulk - steel and all, and transported it far far away to a place that Romulus and the likes of Romulus could not get their hands on them again.

This process took an enormous concentration and after six days he just wanted to rest.

Of course it would have been far easier to sink the lot in the deepest parts of the ocean on their way to the port, but that would never do because even he could not have retrieved the passengers and their bloods once they had dispersed into the dark salt waters, drifting fathoms in every direction, contaminating the vital cells and what was left of their living connections. No, this had to be managed properly, and this time he had to keep strong until the very last vessel had been safely secured.

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

Secret Collection

The garden hose was caught around Needle’s feet as he hurriedly leapt forward to contain its powerful spray … like a serpent spewing a hard and fast jet of high pressure water the wet nozzle had slipped his grasp and taken on a life of its own. 

The floor was made of malachite - a stone that Dwarves favoured for decorated patios and halls; and a combination of sprayed water with a grinding paste made from cumquat kernels and ground corundum kept the polish on it quite perfectly.

“It's a mystery and a delight just how nicely you keep this place,” said Tu admiringly. Eve was staring into a glass display case littered with dead insects pinned to a back-board. Some of them had rainbow wings and blue iridescent bodies. She thought she saw the leg move on one and heard a click-click from another. 

Eve still could not quite find her bearings having come down the invisible ladder into the house of a Dwarf whose name Puck said was ‘Pine-tara’ … but everyone else called ‘Needles’. Must be because he sticks them through insects she thought sourly. 

He also owned an extensive butterfly collection, which he liked to keep secretly upstairs. Many of the Fay eat insects and he was not going to take any chances with his special boxed sets.

The ladder had delivered them right into Needle’s own home. 

“Breakfast? Lunch? Supper anyone?” he asked obligingly. And then the bustling dwarf commenced to create a generous spread, just like he had for Eve all of those mornings when she had not seen him, or known of his affectionate dedication to serving her. 

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

Jacob’s Ladder

“All of us will have to take the ladder - it’s the only way open to us right now.”

Jacob’s Ladder was a thoroughfare, an older route for travelling into the Globe - usually avoided because the trip itself wasn’t at all speedy, and too often it could become very unreliable these days … the connection was still there between the heavenly spaces and the Earthly realm, however, the outcome could be random, and the landing a very bumpy one. Also it could only carry just a few at a time.

“We’ll just have to take our chances, it worked perfectly fine for me and Needles earlier” said Puck - and then: “Goober, how did you find it?”

“The ladder was more of a staircase with banisters of solid light forming a foaming water slide half way down, I didn’t mind it at all.” he replied thoughtfully.

It was really a marvel, with mother-of-pearl swirls of pooling pastel vapours that shone both sides - in the mortal landscape its end appears simply as a rainbow touching the ground.

“Stuff Hogwarts” said Eve out loud, a little surprised at herself after saying it. This came from her realising in an instant that real magic was way more impressive than anything she had ever read of in books. Real magic was powerfully beautiful. Her hopefulness had returned - and she felt so good, it was almost like being in love.

She was also relieved at the thought of leaving the subdued heavens, as the stench seemed to be getting thicker and the strange purple light had darkened to a muddy ominous puce. It looked like the horizon was bleeding.

Needles stood waiting behind her.

Jupiter faltered, leaving the others to go before him …

Looking up and back to Jupiter the group could see the scenery behind him was curdling into darkness. Tu gently tapped Eve on the shoulder, the goat nudged her forward and she quickly slipped and slid onto the pearly stairs with Needles following fast behind.

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

Familiar Angels

Souls were beginning to encircle the globe: if you looked up high enough and had the spiritual eyes to see, they were there at cloud level, hovering in the spaces above, moving in and throughout the azure ethers. 

The angels drifted up there also alongside them, and much like a congested highway, all of the beings, self-lit and ethereal, remained in the upper channel; as each death could no longer proceed forth, for they were compelled to follow the bandwidth of the earthen realm, forced to remain up there, unable to go further.

Fortunately most of the men, women and children were so preoccupied when first leaving their lives they had not a care as yet, being swept up with a feeling of release and infinite expression, whelmed by the beauty and light of the unveiled realm: and now content to be able to see their own familiar angels who had been alongside their days and their nights: those beings of light perhaps once thought to be their intuition; these gentle companions, with a calming presence that were ever protecting them, come what may.


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

 

Good Samaritan

A passing fisherman found Tindle prostrate in a bed of froth and broken shells. Fragments had cut his cheek and his blood trickled onto the sand.

The sea was fast approaching and would soon fill the inlet in a rush and a flurry. The good samaritan hurriedly fetched his woven net to place over Tindle, and secured him tightly - then, with the aid of a makeshift pulley he dragged the lifeless body all the way to a higher sandbank.

The sunlight was dwindling, and the foxes were prowling the beach. Not another soul was to be found.

“Aye, you are quite the weight son, and I can haul thee no farther” he said, almost out of breath speaking to the unconscious man. The night airs were circling them both. He collected up the bits and pieces of driftwood and bracken and built a little fire. He hummed to himself, and covered Tindle’s body.

The two slept soundly until morning.

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