The Time that is Given to Us

"I wish it need not have happened in my time", said Frodo.

"So do I", said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times.
"But that is not for us to decide.

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

"There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."

~J. R. R. Tolkien, 'The Fellowship of the Ring'

The Ability to be made Invisible when Heated

Since time immemorial the Marshalls had governed over the barracks of Basingstoke. Deep in its soil was buried a mysterious substance there - a metal called Misery - that had not yet been identified or known to men, although it had been refined and crafted by Fey from ages past.

The whereabouts of this metal had been so well concealed that humanity had not yet the chance to know of its properties, or even its existence.

Misery had several characteristics unlike any other. Firstly its conductivity was superior - over a thousand times more conduit to that of the finest silver.

Secondly, it was more malleable than gold, with a tensile strength that was plant-like and fibrous in structure and capable of keeping memory within its internal weave.

Thirdly it bore the ability to be made invisible when heated and then to reappear when charged anew. This gave it many applications of usefulness - especially in armour for which it was impenetrable, and as a compass, impeccable.

To have a substance that could become invisible worked in many ways quite well. You could conceal items within a box made of the metal (or a wall for that matter), but be able to see into that space when needed - or conversely, one could wear a finely spun suit of it and be both hidden and shielded at the same time.

It was named 'Misery' - some said because of its endurance, or possibly because of the Miser's love for keeping it to themselves.

There were a few such oddities that the Fey had held secret from the World at large. Because of it they could hide practically anything in boulders, in the ocean or mountain's heart.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

The Scarecrows

The Scarecrows were inanimate figures, planted within the various levels of WAR, who could come to 'life' instantly, in the event of an outside attack that might threaten the game, sensing and repelling the intruders from the outset.

They were positioned into scenery and structures, and their purpose was to give an implied presence of security to the players. These guardians blended in so well they were hard to pick out - and players were awarded bonuses for finding them. With a double click and a simple keyboard entry, a scarecrow when found would light up and play music and distribute random prizes.

With the introduction to the newer version of WAR - WAR 2 Phoenix - came also celebrations in every major city. Promotions put actors who played scarecrows into shopping malls, and public places - with competitions for spotting them in amongst the ordinary everyday people all around.

This was a difficult task to win as the scarecrows did not have costumes and appeared as anyone else might do. For those playing the game, it was an immensely enjoyable sport, with stares and suspicions being exchanged on trains and in lavatories - everyone was guessing, and going up to complete strangers trying to tag them for a win.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

WAR Supreme

First there came the teasers sent by email, and then followed the viral videos to introduce the epic next generation of WAR Supreme.

Goober thought the name sounded more like pizza than a mythic adventure, but was still keen to get into it and see what they had come up with next.

Soon after came the mysterious electronic keys that arrived in the mail to every registered member. These could only be activated when the game was up and running, which helped to grow anticipation, with everyone keen to try theirs. Finally also were the ID strands sent, with upgraded encryptions to repel all foreign activity.

"Cut off its head and the serpent grows another" remarked Nervina over his coffee, staring at the homepage, which bore a digital clock pulsing out a countdown - 23 hours to go.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Agents of Hell

Henry Fuseli

Puck was having a troubled sleep. His rest had been blissful until the part when a dream had presented a vision to him of three shadowy figures breaking into Marley's room, and hovering above her bed menacingly.

They were agents of Hell - not of the custodial variety, who care for the destitute souls - but those demons - the hideous variety, that endeavour to draw the hapless and depressed, the barbed and sorely strung, into the abyss.

There are a few sorry souls who pitifully refuse their own salvation. The salve of salvation can only come to those who oscillate along the path of self betterment, and when this instinct has gone, the wretches fall into the company of those woeful dark demons, who, with an iron grip and wilful persuading deride all that is humanly good that's remained.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Crawled out from a Cold Dark Hole

Both the Angelic and the Faerie realm grew alongside the evolutionary path of Mankind, and with this kinship their experiences together blended. Such spiritual beings are faithful caretakers for the Animal and Mineral Kingdoms, they seek to please the Heavens, and serve Divinity with the respect to which such glory was entitled.

However the alien beings that had found their way to incarnate into our home did not share the vision for Humanity's future interests - they simply sought to take the very life force from them for their own.

There was no way ordinary people could determine who was playing with them in their online adventures.

Neither did they question by what means members who held the highest positions there had earned them. All assumed that every player was human, and had all followed the exact same route they had gone.

Not one suspected that the moderators and game masters controlling were aliens to this world - demonic beings whose creation had fallen outside of our paradise: who had literally crawled out from a cold dark hole - a place where creatures ate one another for sport, lust and snack.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

An Anti-world

By ijur

The ambition of the game of WAR was not one for creating amusement, or commercial prosperity, or of gaining political sovereignty - it was rather to form an anti-world where the demons would be masters over mortals - meeting them with a mask of normalcy, within an inhuman neutral void.

There they would perform acts of violence repeatedly - shedding their energy, concentration and desire, into combat and fantasy - rewarded for killing, and excited to do so.

This was a venue where unsuspecting mortals interacted openly in communication with unseen aliens - never realising who they were connecting with in the cyberspace realm they played in.

These alien key players who controlled the game, did not belong in any way either to the kingdoms of our planet.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Adding a Few Comedic Features

It was twelve days since the team had penetrated their online foes and raised an army of more than thirty million Punks - crashing the game's servers indefinitely. At the web address was a short line of apology saying that they were undergoing maintenance and were soon to release WAR Version 2 - check back later for updates.....

Nervina and the technical crew were now working on the P2s (Punks version 2) enhancing their strengths and powers, modifying and improving their movements, as well as adding a few comedic features, in the hope that Puck would approve of when he finally woke up.

The social calamity in the material world was already growing due to the downtime. Prices and finances were dropping considerably, as the WAR currency was being traded for gold. Rumours were that people believed that the empire was finished. Everyone had seen the Punks take control - what else was there to know? ... Game over.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

The Invisible Vista

Lady Marthorn sat looking out of her window with her eyes fixed on the invisible vista that only she could see.

Her ghost bore no lament or unease - she was truly a soul 'at peace', and with a countenance that was as serene, as it was beautiful.

Kashmir blue sapphires littered her deep violet tunic, and a single pearl sat at her throat, haloed in gold.

She chose to stay in her home, to watch over the hills of Basingstoke - a task made all the more significant now with Puck's return.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Chapter 41, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Puck by hymnself. Puck falls in love with a mortal girl as she lay dying. He follows her soul into the Heavens and beyond.
-By Gabriel Brunsdon

Pageants of Facade

Eric Kincaid

The Fey could not understand why the mortal world puts so much faith and measure into exterior veneers and the pageants of facade.

However, the mind of the game-world is a place where Mortals invest and project much thought and energy into something that has no parent life behind its imaginations.

It is an activity that is shielded and concealing their inner works so effectively that it cannot be esoterically penetrated by the spiritual beings that look try to look in.

They view the images of the characters in the virtual games as discreetly separated, almost spectre-like, from the real people controlling them.

The membrane of the game veils the connection. The Fey cannot penetrate what lies behind the true and false realities of virtual life and this bothers them terribly - just as a ghost in our world frightens us when it lacks soul.

They are so perplexed and vexed by this 'hollow world' that the beings of the Plant Kingdom would ordinarily have nothing to do with the virtual world whatsoever. Their natures are dismissive of its activity and this therefore was a very rare occurrence for Puck and his team to have become involved at all.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Virtual Worlds & the Fey

The virtual world was entirely abstract to Puck and his kind. Interactions were nonsensical and incomprehensible to these reality-based beings.

For it is that they hold the vision to perceive things as they are, and meet with them according to the spirit within.

Although it is known that things are not always as they seem, their gift of perception esoterically can divine what something, or someone, is or isn't. In their eyes, appearance is life's artistry, and clothes the spirit within.

The ways in which the outer appearances can change and present differently, do not count as being important to the intrinsic reality at all. They expect variance, and read the unseen most naturally.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

The Crest of a Flaming Golden Tree

The plan was to infiltrate the game, implanting their own Avatars who could morph the Pukes into characters of their own. Very soon the Pukes became Punks and the millions cloned an army, overtaking the entire WAR format.

Marsden could not stop this advance, as each Punk was created with a slight variance to his own code, and as soon as a player hit one he regenerated two or more of the same, and this process repeated endlessly.

In no time at all the game of WAR was filled with the Elvish Avatars who wore a halo of light about them and the crest of a flaming golden tree upon their armoured breasts.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Nervina's Attachments

Puck's Chief designer and technician was Nervina, who came from two distinguished families - Sage and Valerian. He was the key player in writing the reformed script that was needed to work its way past the server, allowing now a direct feed for them into the WAR portal.

Nervina was incredibly proud of being on a first name basis with the Elvish muse Glok, who had personally worked the concept of the eye-phone ... (Glok's family tree was the Apple and there was no coincidence there in the naming).

It took thousands of generated attempts over several months, yet still security had blocked them from advancing further.

They could not yet infiltrate the identification markers for the game to accept new members, until Marvin (an associate Troll) devised a trojan that piggy-backed onto an existing member's identity during a currency exchange.

At the exact point where the system deferred out to the daily external currency rates, they could enter during that half-second pause completing the transaction.

And so when a player converted their WAR funds into Euros or Renminbi the adjustment add-on intercepted, making its way into the system without detection.

This meant now that the signature IDs could convey an agent of theirs, when passing through the server's main gateway. The whole sequence was slightly complex, causing screens to freeze and requiring reboots, however, Nervina's attachments were now making their way into the game by the thousands successfully.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Bribing these Guys was Easy

Puck had recruited thirty of the best tech-heads, geeks, elves and trolls to find a viable pathway into the cyber game-space where his alter ego was performing atrocities, and being fired at hourly.

Hacking into WAR's main server was no problem, as Puck’s crew already knew the Trolls that were in charge of the back-end operations controlling the site.

All electrically powered devices within the material world have beings that live on their host - they exchange energies within the electrical fields feeding on power that is used there.

Bribing these guys was easy. There was a small cargo of Illuminum (an electrically charged rock similar to Aluminium, and very popular in the Underworld) exchanged for a worm hole for the crew to enter in by.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

When Gnomes had Twilight Fairs

The spiritual planes are many, and with shifting vistas, that are not so easy a reality for the human mind to take in and keep - for men are made of a solid state matrix which prefers to be in one place at the one time, and they are not partial to the parallel realities.

Puck spoke of the age when zebras were all black; when children could see their Angels; when folk spoke the truth.

He told of an era of peace when the Earth herself was relaxed - when birds' feathers were luminescent and could light up the night sky in flight.

He talked of the time when Nature was responsive to thought, and you could walk to the water's edge and it would curl back its waves just for the asking. Of ages when there were unicorn races; and trade between kingdoms; when gnomes had twilight fairs, where fresh bread was nicer than cake.

Of times when the Wind actually talked - in the hollows of rocks and caves it could chatter and call, speak poetry and prophesize, and its songs would travel far over the mountains and teach the wild children of the north.

An age of oracles and far seeing vision - of artistry and intimacy - before the disease of disbelief had succoured the modernist minds.

His stories were all true - of spheres and planes and aeons lost - tales he kept safe within his own living memory, his testimony of what once was, now gone.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Humans Could Fly with the Ease of their Spirits

He had not spoken of his burdens to Marley for her spirit needed some comfort rather than distraction, and his graphic account of worldly calamity was too much for him in the present, let alone her.

Instead he told great stories of former times - when fruits would explode on the bough of giant trees and shower their seeds like fireworks; when humans could fly with the ease of their spirits, and horses wore silver shoes.

When someone from Faerie ever tells you something, you can see it - you can feel it - you believe it. For the true value of enchantment and its glamour, is in the imparting of a truth - by truth's own persuasion it makes itself real.

The strength of any magic lies within its fundamental realities, not within an empty falsehood as might be most commonly thought.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Born into the Moment's Reality

When Puck told a story it was always a good one.
When he described a scene it was as if you were actually there.

Puck could project what it was he saw in his mind's eye right before you, and with a holy-o-graphic imagination the vision would shimmer and transform itself into a living history, as though plucked from the Akashic archives, born into the moment's reality.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series 

Puck had Broken Several of his Own Rules

His eyes were smiling and he seemed to look right back at her as though she should recognize him - and for no reason known to her, she immediately felt at ease with this stranger.

Whether it was the faerie dust, or Puck's own charisma, or possibly the fact that he had genuinely loved her with long time affection -whatever the attraction- she pulled the chain from across the door and let him in.

In the morning she would remember nothing of his coming at all - the only thing she knew was that the day after felt incredibly cheerful and full of light.

Puck had broken several of his own rules, and a few of the Fey laws besides. Getting to know Marley like that, he told himself, was good for them both, or so he had hoped.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

A Snake that Bore a Head at Both Ends

He recollected the moments leading up to this sharp loss - the plain before him glittered magnificently with metal as far as he could see - with thousands of armoury that glanced and crashed all around him. Smoke and blood clogged the nostrils, madness seized the collective mind, and with thoughts no longer, this body of men were committing themselves into an empty and frenzied end.

Within the grace of the moment, time appeared to slow, and Red saw an arm raised above him - he waited tediously to feel the slice.

He had been distracted in a second by a curious image inscribed on the skin of that arm ... of a snake that bore a head at both ends, curled round with one head devouring the other.

The arm descended heavily and with that strike the helmet flipped back to reveal his attacker...

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

The Body of a Soul Does in Fact Breathe

It is often thought that spirits in the after-world do not breathe as we might do - and that in being dead, one does not require inhaling and exhaling anything.

Well, they do exchange ethers, and the body of a soul does in fact breathe, and talk, and sing – though not with oxygen, but a rarefied vitality. And just as a newborn, the very first impulse that comes when one crosses over to the other side passed the veils of death, is to inhale deeply - and then relax.

But Red had been so shocked by his own death, and fast escape from the bloody mess, he simply forgot to take in the airs of Heaven, as they were.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Brunswick House

Ghosts embedded the walls and halls of Brunswick House. Puck spent his days and nights in their company listening to their stories; which he endured with a kindly respect for the geriatric householders there who recanted them generously.

Apart from taking temporary residence Puck's main aim was fact-finding. He knew there was much to learn that could possibly assist him with Marsden - for during that brief meeting with Phillip he had recognised him as one of the blue bloods from the Brunswick association, and therefore implicated in their history. Background information could well be the key to this man's motivation and karma today.

There was one 'spook' that had serious intel to offer - Reginald – who, in early Roman times was born Reginus, but preferred to be called after a little known divinity today, entitled Rediculus (who suffered a very bad scorn, that perpetuated a joke for a century or so after). Puck preferred to call him Red for short. Red remembered all of it; every detail had imbibed itself throughout his spirit body.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

The Conspires of Fate

The true meaning of the phrase 'blue bloods' was never derogatory but given for those of the dead who chose to be born again into the very line of heraldry they had lived in before.

And within the earlier histories it was knowledge of this that brought the people to respect their reigning sovereigns as having an entitlement that predeceased them: they were accepted as actually being the original kings, who returned to yet a new body and a further generation - a kind of generational regeneration, so to say.

Some mortals retained their memories, of the conspires of fate that had carried them through the centuries ... of their lifetimes of living and dying, to then return once more.

It seemed that the recall was the strongest in those souls who kept to their lineage, rather than for those who ventured into a birth of relative obscurity.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Tulip Time in England

It was Tulip time in England and with the Spring came the tourists also. The pulse of London could be measured by its population.

Puck had settled into a large home in Knightsbridge, which was familiar to him, as he had lived in exactly the same residence some four hundred years before. He missed the folk who had moved on and recognised the dear souls who had rebirthed their way back. Many had returned to their familiar family and location as before.

The Peerage comprised of those mortal spirits who did not venture away from their own race, kin or kind but preferred to continuously reincarnate into the same family over and over again.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Holy Sanctuary in Puerco

The window's portal at Goober's apartment had delivered all three into a holy sanctuary in Puerco, a small town in the South Americas - where people prayed to the spirits beyond, and the spirits of Biff, Bart and Jobe would answer them daily.

At first all three had assumed that Puck would arrive sometime to collect them, but after the first year when he had not appeared, they just settled into their new environment quite comfortably.

As spirits, they found the atmosphere of the Temple soothing to be in. They could smell the incense, see the flickering flames from candles lit there, and feel the flowers shine with their glowing auras of opulent color. They could even taste the feasts that were left out on the altar in dedication to them.

It was a particularly nice place to be, especially after going through Hell - and, they thought it way more preferable to the cramped conditions of Goober's place, though they did miss their friends there considerably.

Every now and then one of the worshippers would actually see into the ethers and catch sight of the men looking back at them. These visions brought greater numbers to the chapel, and on holy days the congregants spilled outside, praying on the grass.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Baby Cactus

Puck looked over to where Goober and Pepper sat playing with a baby cactus that skittled backwards and forwards across the living room floor.

As cute as it was, it would crawl up into a ball and roll really fast, somersault upwards a foot or so off the ground, and then bounce down harder again. Playing to the attention this gave, this spiky little fellow was moving faster and faster, rolling over to where Puck sat.

With one rambunctious leap he flew up onto Puck's lap and speared him in the groin.

"What the fk!" he yelled jumping up and pulling it off his pants, startling the baby into tears.

Minutes later the infant was cheerful again and aiming for the other two. Puck had awakened from his malaise and felt ready to get back into his work again. He was back.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Thoughts Alone are Potent Writs of Becoming

Puck had always looked to the goodness of Men and believed, as he had seen, that it almost always shone through when given the chance.

But with so many gamers attacking his persona, all he could take in was the intention of insult coming his way and this was derisive to his optimism and demeaning to his courage.

Thoughts alone are potent writs of becoming.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

The Mood was Grim

Puck's hair had slowed its growing, the distress had worn him down. Even though he was ageless, his energy was very low. Partly this was due to a depleted morale, yet mostly because of the effect the thousands of gamers had on his vitality, disturbing his psyche by targeting him daily and blasting him with their virtual weapons. Puck was sensitive to the thoughts of others and this attention was powerfully destructive.

Pepper's own hair had blanched to a strawberry blonde in empathy for her brother. Her days were filled with working on deliveries for the farm and helping out where she could. She was hopeful for a holiday some time soon.

The mood was grim. Puck saw the human world through only dark glasses and he was horrified. Demons were everywhere riding on the backs of men - literally these invisible wraiths suckled the vitality of desires, feeding from the demise of the mortals that bore them. Scrawny ghouls fixed themselves to the unaware souls, who behaved in turn, very badly. Manners and morals faded from importance. Power and standing became supreme.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Three out of Four Citizens

Goober was managing the seed bank and had difficulty in recent days with the Opiate Goonies - a family of dark beings who were standing over him continuously, urging the farm to distribute their stock. Both Puck and Goober agreed that they did not want this association - but the Opiates were too far gone to hear their refusal.

The Empire of WAR had tripled its holdings and now  everywhere were registered members. WAR had become increasingly accepted and identification stringers had replaced passports, making citizenship global.

The World Parliament began from a consolidation of countries that took fiscal responsibility to decide refugee migrations, resource allocations, and debt. However, the humanitarian concerns were traded for commercial profits, when WAR management bought their way into the system and the moral high ground sank quickly, alongside those lands sodden with flood.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series