Far more than a Cake & Bunghole

“I say to you: the poles and portals of Man are far more than a cake-and-bunghole.

“This principle of exchange applies to the breath, thoughts and words … to semen, saliva and sweat - to every biochemical transaction, every electrical transfiguration and reflex, to every word and perspiration - that which a man convexes within, and excretes without, has become deified - a splash and a glimmer of the god principle that all men hold within, in combining with the world without.

“And, what it is that they choose to do with this combining is of the most extreme importance.”

Puck looked across the room, finally pausing his talk - his eyes darted towards the door to the auditorium at the far back and then to the small crowd of white-coats in the front of him looking up.

“Any questions?” he added - to the stunned consolidation of pharma scientists who collaborated with the Johnstone Corporation over each and every bio-nutritional project. This was their ‘A’ team as they liked to call it.

Francis had a place sitting beside Robyn at the back - Charley was seated in the front row alongside Calvin who had sleepily introduced the presentation.

Calvin was still young enough to enjoy a new idea - and what he had just heard from the old man stirred his enthusiasm greatly - he almost believed it.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Chemical Marriage

Woloschina

“I have a chemist that will be joining us shortly - but in summary I would like to say that the composition of any substance ingested by a human being is transformed in such a way that not only is it biochemically exchanged, deranged and complex - it takes on a magical resource simply by the very transaction itself.

“The great Master Christ taught of this phenomenon in His example of the Communion bread and wine. This principle applies to all substances ingested and furthermore, not only do they hold an effect over the person who is taking them into themselves, but that human being evokes a change over that material also - transforming it ever after.

“This is the Chemical Marriage - this is the living transubstantiation - and although it appears to be just a physical transaction, its real persuasion lies upon the ethers casting forms - invoking new life - promoting more of the same - and morph-evolving into what will become the newer realm’s designs."


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS- Second Chances

The Simple Life

“Less prayer and more farm” said Tobias, who secretly looked forward to the prospect of beets and parsnips to come.

“Could we trade some of the fancy stuff for blankets?” Hannah-Mary joined in.

“No need - there are wools coming in the morning - this is only half the consignment allotted to you Franciscans”- somehow the name stopped them short.

“And what of this safe-chest?” was asked dolefully.

“To keep the gold that is inside it”, sighed Francis who could see through the wooden exterior.

The Cardinal continued: “We have the fealty of the sovereign Father - and this is, as they say, for the greater good.”

“Oh dear Lord”, breathed Father Intago, who was a goodly godly man with a strong inner compass for social equality. “I long for the simple life.”

“Yes, but this, my brother is not about your longings or your life, now is it? This is about your branding.”

Francis turned to Peter and asked: “What is branding?”

“It is when they take a hot iron to a calf to prove its ownership.”

“Oh then”, said Francis - “well Mother Church be damned.”

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Branding

Master of Hoogstraten 

“Francesco, we like your branding and sincerely hope you will oblige its necessary evolution.”

“His Holiness has also heard the word from God, and has been told that you will found a Community so broad and large that it will continue throughout the ages to come. Success, my boy, will be yours! … longevity and strength be to its holy endeavours.”

What was there to do? The troubled Brother looked around his twelve; he had asked them to come in from their toils with the plough, to see now the wealth laid before them.

“This is a turn for the worse I fear”, mumbled Joseph, who had been recently been begging in the town market square.

“The change is upon us - for if we have such holdings as these we can no longer collect as we done in the past.”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

The Goods

Francis stopped his digging and looked up at Peter.

“I have heard nothing, but was so fixed in prayer I may well have missed it. Shall we go together?”

A flutter of white moths landed in the trees above them, causing the dry leaves to crackle with the ascent.

“I have a foreboding”, said Peter.

“As do I.”

In the near distance there were now many noises to be heard, gathering all of a sudden. Many men and carts struggled for a place beside those at the front hacking their way through the forest - felling the medium trees in order that the path be made wider to accommodate their train. Amongst the cargo to be seen were mason’s blocks and carved statuary, robes, foods, candles and ledgers, belts and bobs, and luxurious resins.

“Brothers of poverty … I have authorisation from our most beloved Papa Grace to deliver to you all you might need.”

“I have no such ambition to grow this Community with a likeness to the holdings about. Our work and worth in this world is not measured by numbers - be them building or men. We are but a few whose life is simplified. We have denounced all of the burdens of ownership. Our aspiration need breathe only the vapours of Heaven.”


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Buy the Company

He looked over at Francis and Mr Black and realized just how alike they both looked. It was like a Gandalf convention. Now his mind really was playing tricks. He started picking at the food tray idly, drained his coffee, and was contemplating another one.

Charley rose to her feet taking his cup. She read him well.

A small lizard appeared to crawl out of Francis’s pocket and slip up his leg and onto the table, only to disappear under the tray.

This morning just keeps getting better, Calvin thought to himself, still trying to get over the images from the H*tler conversation.

“I wish to make you an offer to buy out your company” said Charley’s father matter-of-factly - plain as day - “I’ve come into a little money of late and would like to diversify.”

A little money? Calvin thought to himself. This guy was a joker. Not a bad chemist, with some far-reaching ideas that had proved to be invaluable, but now it seemed he had lost all sense of reality. There had been some talk of dementia …

“Mr Black - there are some portfolios that become available at the next general meeting - shareholders keep it in the family as such - but I am in no mind to part with any of mine. I thank you for your offer.”

He hesitated and then said - “and now if you will excuse me I really have to go … Lab 3 is running some controls I have to oversee …”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Bored Room

When Robyn returned with Charley, balancing an enormous rattling tray of glassware that was full of treats, they found the three men to be unusually quiet.

"Who died?" joked Robyn. This was a popular line in the Aussie vernacular.

Francis plucked a pickled onion from the tray and tossed it over to Chips.

Snap! His moistened jaw clamped shut over the missile - he squinted with the taste.

Puck took a breadstick and dangled it under the old dog’s nose.

Snap! Lascivious crunching was to follow.

Calvin winced. He hated to see good food going to waste with the dog being fed like that. He was forgetting entirely how he came to meet Chips in the first place.

He secretly wished that the men would leave and he could have a leisurely morning with girls instead.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Confectionary of Chemists

Puck continued: “He had all kinds of body parts ground down and extractions and fluids from babies and virile men, scholars and gymnasts, even the bones of saints - he ate it all, wanting the ‘virtue’ of their life-force as he called it.”

Now he had Calvin’s attention. Francis looked uncomfortable and stroked his beard contemplatively - this subject made him miserable.

“Well how? Where?” asked Calvin flipping open his phone to Google “Hitler Cannibal”.

“In his chocolate,” said Puck blandly, “the human extractions were in his chocolate.”

Calvin just read that the guy ate two pounds a day of the stuff. “Sheesh” he said sitting back, giving a pause for the thought.

“Of course he got absolutely nowhere with all of this, whatever he had hoped. You can’t consume virtue and make it your own like that. But what would a devil know? They get everything back to front.”


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Extractions

The girls had gone to organise lunch and the three had become sidetracked into a conversation about Hitler.

“Why does everything have to come back to Hitler?” Calvin asked himself - preferring the company of the women to the two old men in front of him.

Puck wanted his attention - and was trying to impress upon Calvin just how dangerous some human experiments can become.

“The Führer did not eat animal meat because it was his belief that he would take on the properties - the nature of that beast - were he to ingest it. But he was no vegetarian.”

“You just said that he did not eat animals?” said Calvin abruptly.

Charley’s father really bothered him at times, although he was not sure exactly why.

“No, no animals - just people. He ate people.”

If Francis was surprised at this he did not show it. Chips was sitting in between the men, and put his chin up on the table, blinking from one to another, watching on like an obvious spy.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Married to Another

Hannah-Mary had long been frightened that if she pushed him [Francis] into this very moment he would estrange himself from her, or worse still, send her far away.

Yet, she could not help herself.

“Why cannot we be married?” she said most pleadingly.

“Because I am already married to another” he said unapologetically. And that was that.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Love for Everyone & Everything

Hannah had felt a bond; and she had cared for him every moment whilst he had tended for others.

Although she was still connected by a clairvoyant mirror with her brother Murmur, she could also almost read the shining thoughts of Francis. She knew his prayers before he spoke them, she heard the music of his song, and thrilled to the core of her being, just to sit with him in silence.

Why could he not show her the tenderness he most easily gave to the goat?

This was not to say that the elven monk had romantic encounters with the beasts that gathered around him - no, he was not like the herdsmen of the north who the villagers would complain of, saying that their wild children had hairy backs and were born in paddocks, later to be but mute simpletons digging and ploughing for their fathers.

No, Francis did not engage with his animals like the fancies of the Roman courts, whose zoos were salons of iniquity - parlours of coiffured creatures wearing their golden harnesses, brushed and fragranced, feasting on the tables, soiling the marbled floors with the Egyptian servants hastening after them.

No, Francesco had no fetish or inhuman lust - he quietly and simply bore love for everyone, and everything.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Tears splashed down her face

Hannah-Mary placed her hand gently onto Francis’s knee whilst he was deep in prayer. He kept his eyes half open, fixed down at the ground, as she held it there. Ever so slightly her fingers crawled towards his thigh, that was thinly covered only by the coarse wool of his tunic. His manhood sprang into being, and the prayers he had silently announced were swiftly truncated.

The angels looking on, were abandoned with their waiting arms now empty.

Mary found hope in this, when in fact there really was none. At nineteen she was still very simple in her perspectives about men and their core motivations.

His eyes searched for hers, wanting to reach out to her with great seriousness - knowing that this dialogue had been a long time coming.

Francis drew a breath and inched back, saying “Hannah dear, we cannot marry - and I will not take you as a concubine.”

Tears splashed down her face. It was far more than mere rejection that stung her - for she had loved Francis ever since he had delivered her from the attackers on the mountain that they now lived upon.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Processed Food

“Not everything is sinister Dad.”

Packet food turning common people into trolls? Well some might have said this was already pretty obvious, she thought to herself. There was a certain comfort to be found in private sarcasm.

“You know that the Fay world is not so distinctly separated from the physical world as you might think my dear daughter. We never have been. In point of fact - the world of the deeper Fay and the material are one and the same.”

“How so? Now you are definitely not making sense.”

“What you call reality is but a very persuasive magic - and what you call ethereal, is the beginning foundation and substance of this world. And there you have it!”

“And” he said slowly and deeply, “Your company here is contriving to separate men from the natural world, and (he looked weary here) it is serious - I would say deadly serious, but this is far more serious than death itself has ever been. Please listen to me Charley while there is time.”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Turning Men & Women into Trolls

When she visited her Elven home her ordinary eyesight saw elvish things, but back on terra-infirma she could only see the material life - the physical life as everyone else saw it. And, as for the spirits of the departed, she could not see them in either existence.

He put his arm around her - Puck dared not to speak his true mind.

“Charles, I have a prediction for you.” He perceived that he had her attention and continued: “It is simply this - that your pharmaceutical company is going to try to change the way the world views its food. It is going to create pharmanutrients that are prescriptive meals that will replace fresh food.”

“But isn't that concept already out there in the market? Weight loss - infant feeding - weight-lifting proteins etc. There’s nothing new in packaged enriched ‘foods’ is there? Is there really a point of difference? Apart from excellence of course?” she laughed a little defensively at his seriousness.

“Yes, yes there is”, he said determinedly. “For one thing they can turn ordinary men and women into trolls.”

“I wish you wouldn't say things like that Dad - someone might hear you.”

Now Charley was genuinely irritated - and added: “you always have to exaggerate.”

“I do not” he said emphatically - “not this time anyhow”.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Beyond her Reach

Kumar Alzhanov

“Why am I not surprised Father. What is it you are up to now? Keeping a check on me? Or is it the Company I work for that you are watching?”

“Both” he said ruefully. The pain of losing her mother still bit him from the inside out. He thought back to the one time he could not foresee the dangers within the mortal world. This whole place was unpredictable. It had the surrounding worlds in a spin, constantly changing and rearranging itself. There was more magic to be found on Earth than there ever was in its neighbouring planes of Faerie, he had found.

“He’s called Chips now… Anon - he's called Chips.”

Charley wanted to bring Puck back from his melancholy. Every time she saw him pained, she wanted to rescue her dad from his sadness.

She could never really remember her mother, but there were times when she would sense her presence around her. Charley wished very often to have the second sight to actually see her, but try as she might, the invisible worlds remained just that - imperceptible and beyond her reach.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS, Second Chances 

Telepathy not Working

“For God’s sake Dad, get down from there! Someone will see you!”

Charley’s voice sounded more irritated than concerned, as she called out at the top of her voice. Her Father had climbed up onto the main water tank at the compound - which was an enormous container, as large as an olympic pool, and lay across the roof of the main building like a silver pancake. Puck had been eating his breakfast up there.

“I wish you would not visit me at work, do you know how embarrassing it is?”

Charley loved her Father - he was all the family she knew - but he made it almost impossible for her to live in the ordinary world - which was something she really enjoyed tremendously. It wasn't easy being half-elven. She sighed.

Puck was back on the ground standing in front of her in an instant. His hair had untidily wound its curly way onto his shoulders shining copper in the bright Arizona light.

“I have to talk with Francesco” he said distractedly - "he’s not answering my emails.”

“Why don't you just message him like we normally do?”

“Telepathy’s not working either. I wouldn't have sent him out here if I knew he would like it so much” he smiled.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Pontiff loses his Mind

“I will take him to trial. I will make him walk fire. He cannot have these powers without mischief - it is not possible. Let his piety prove his worth and save him from the scorn and scorch of the cleansing flames.”

And so saying he picked up a small dog that was absconding, and threw it into the fireplace with such a force the young creature did not have the opportunity to save itself. Its scream travelled all the way to Hell and back again. Several angels vacated the cathedral - and the ghosts of the former Popes looked on, shaking their heads with disgust.

The smoke from the burning fur filled the room and the old man began to cough. Several attendants rushed into the chamber bringing wines and concoctions of elderly salve.

“Who amongst you can be trusted?” he addressed the cages, looking not at the servants.

It was plain to see that not one of the animals understood what he was trying to convey, or wanted to. The Pontiff had officially lost his mind, and his envy of Francis had scorned what wits had remained.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Why do you not love me?

In the meanwhile the dark-skinned slaves were bustling through the building as instructed, hauling cages of emaciated animals contained within.

Those of the larger variety were wheeled in transports of small purpose built carts. The very little were carried and set down in Catacomb Three - a place the Pope would often frequent and attend to his private Mass.

“Why do you not love me?” The aged Pope shrilled condemningly.

Mute, the animals blankly stared back - with a twitch and a growl, and a whimper. They were wet from the rain, and bitterly cold sitting on the bare stone floor. The wooden cages were cramped and the smell of each other offended one another.

“Who amongst you will join me? Who will come to me adoringly?”

One by one he unlatched the locks, watching the creatures as they fled to the furtherest side of the great room. Not one stayed, not one would kiss his hand.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Doubting Authority

“Bring them to me - every one of them.”

“At this hour my Holiness?”

“Yes.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

“Perhaps if we were to escort you to the chambers where they are being held? In the morning?” here the priest hesitated - for the old Pope’s tone did not seem forgiving. He dug his nails into the knob of his walking cane, as he steadied himself.

He then rattled down the corridors noisily knocking on doors to the cells of his fellow priests - it was past midnight and they were all locked in for the night.

Father Penelope was up and at his side.

“He has gone crazy. The collection of this unholy zoo was one matter, but this gathering is quite bizarre to say the least.

“What if we simply do not comply? Is there anyone we can appeal to? Monsignor has left all bounds of reason and is beyond our call.”

Father Pious said nothing to answer this, he already felt the sting of unwanted doubt.

There was no higher authority, and they were caught by the very fractures within the Church itself: that, of an icy heart.

‘This is what you get with Divine authority” he said resolutely.

“Divinity does not have to make sense - never has, never will.”

Penelope did not believe this. He had always hoped for a modern world of betterment and rationality. Yet he kept quiet, again.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Hibernation

Lucy Campbell 

“Granoldi’s dying” whispered Murmur to Francis solemnly. “The old bear has been wistful - he just lays in the rock house and will not move unless I prod him. I made him broth and yet he refuses, I took him conserves, preserves, mallow and then sweetmeats - and he will take none. I think it is his time.”

Lisle, a visiting brother from the Community of the Righteous, took it upon himself to interject. “It's wintertime” he said knowingly.

“That it is” said Murmur considerately, and then he continued talking to Francis, “I think we shall have to prepare. None of my powers will restore him.”

“He’s from the North isn’t he?” Lisle interrupted again.

“Yes, he is”, said Murmur looking at the sky.

Returning to Francis he continued, “I am coming to the last of our tonics and I am wondering if we should believe this to be malady whereupon I should go gather or purchase more medicinal draughts for the old boy, or accept it is age and let him be? In your considered opinion, what is to be done?”

“He is a bear, this Granoldi, isn’t he?” Lisle asked again.

Francis looked at Lisle and slapped him cordially on the back. “Too true fellow Lisle, too true!”

“It is but his Winter’s sleep,” Lisle explained.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

All Hallows

 Albert Chevallier Tayler 

There were streamers everywhere: axe-handle-thin strips of coloured fabric festively dangling from tree to tree. It was a special day for the Saints, and Barnabas had decided to decorate the forest.

“Cousin will not be pleased” Francis concluded after seeing the handiwork of the demented elderly monk. Barnabas had been one of the newer additions to his family and in his heart he sought to encourage him.

“That fabric took some persuasion to procure” he added addressing the tribe of animals that had been following Francis throughout his day. Barnabas had decorated them too. The larger ones had cloth clippings as well. One of the deer idled by with ribbons of pink and aqua strips knotted around his spiky crown.

Mirabella was contributing as well - Murmur’s own tunic was wasted in her small but capable hands as she sat pulling threads one by one. Hannah-Mary looked on and said nothing. She had given up trying to discipline the child a year ago now.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Lizard Stone

Francis started walking again and the other two followed behind. He stopped at a boulder and knelt down in the sand, placing his knapsack on the rocky shelf beside. There was a pile of thirty or so smaller pebbles - just like the Moon Flower she had seen just moments ago. He was sorting through them, but they all looked pretty much the same to her.

"Are you looking for another?" she asked timidly - it was almost as though she was frightened to interrupt his concentration.

He handed her an especially large pebble. She turned it over and over in her palm - it looked just like an ordinary stone. She showed it to Chips but this time he was not interested. Instead he went to the collection Francis had put to one side and sniffed the small mound. He barked and took two steps back.

Francis put his hand on the dog’s head, and leant forward staring at the ground. One of the rocks was exuding a mist - it was happening again - only this time it was a lizard that popped out from its crusty centre.

“I've been looking for you” he exclaimed.

She could have sworn she saw him then put the little creature into his pocket. That can’t be right she thought. This expedition was charmingly curious and curiouser …


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Little Flowers

He bent down and picked up a small rock from the ground and passed it to Robyn. It was smooth to the touch and held the heat of the sun.

Chips sniffed at her hand, expecting it to be a treat. She showed him, and he licked the pebble as Robyn offered it to him to inspect. With his wet nose he pushed it off her palm and onto the ground. Robyn laughed. As she bent to pick it up, Francis stopped her. He gently held her arm back, and pointed to the ground with his other.

The rock was moving, wriggling this way and that. A minute more and it seemed to have steam rising off it, and it began to wheeze, then cracked, and a bright pink cactus flower sprang up and out, right there before them.

“Whoa! Did you see that!” Robyn exclaimed with the delight of it.

“Yes”, said Francis - “I did. They are called Moon Flowers.”

“That can’t be right”, said Robyn, still mesmerised by the sun and her company and the pink flower that suddenly appeared.

“Well, what I mean to say is, well, it's not that time of the moon and it's not dark and …”

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

He smiled back at her

“Wait up!” called Robyn at the top of her voice.

She hurriedly pressed the shiny red button at the side of the electric gate and squeezed her way through the metal, in an effort to reach Francis before he had escaped the horizon.

With her handbag flapping behind her Robyn caught up to the two who were strolling slow along the dirt road.

Francis turned to see her running towards him - he stared quizzically.

Robyn could not find the words she wanted - out there in the sun - with so much empty space all around - her mind went quite blank.

Added to this she was very much surprised to find that Francis was not at all the age she had taken him to be when she first caught sight from afar. She had presumed that he was more or less elderly - when from the window of her room she had watched him feeding the birds in the early mornings - it was ‘quaint’ — his hippy clothes hid his large physic - his glossy black hair contrasted pale blue eyes - and, he smelt of musk. This man was in his late thirties, if that. Why did she believe him to be aged? Francis is gorgeous, she thought musingly to herself!

He smiled back at her. She was still at a loss for words.

“Would you like to join us”? he asked naturally - his tone was mellow, his voice was deep, his presence was calming. Robyn was intoxicated with interest.

“Yes please” she said excitedly.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Finding Francis

“Who is that man?” asked Robyn to Calvin - seeing a tall lanky figure on the camera leave briskly through the gate. She watched the scruffy dog slip out also, following him closely behind.

“That’s Francis - he’s our groundsman … caretaker - you know - that sort of thing” he smiled gently as he said this.

“Dad gave him a job just before he died and I haven’t had the heart to let him go. Frankly I am not quite sure what he is meant to be doing here.”

Calvin looked down at the ground as he said this. “I know I should haven taken the time to get to know the fellow but somehow he reminds me of those terrible months - and I guess I’ve been hoping he might just up and leave.”

“Where does he go to when he disappears like that? I thought it was only desert out there with nothing else around? Is there a shopping mall I have been missing out on?”

“True to say it's a mystery” - agreed Calvin. “He does it quite a bit - takes Chips for a walk and then a few hours later he returns. I don't suppose you might take some time with him and report back what you think? It might help me make my mind up about the guy.”

“I’d be flattered to” said Robyn importantly. She felt genuinely pleased to be asked for a contribution. Life at the complex had been turning into something of a holiday.

“And Charley .. is she due back any time soon?”

“Yes”, said Calvin absentmindedly as he was tweaking the coffee machine with a new filter he had designed. “She’ll be back some time tomorrow.”

“Upstate?”

“Dunno really. Her pa’s place. She jokingly describes it as his ‘treehouse’.”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Colours of the Rainbow

“Eh Franco!” shouted a familiar call.

He turned to see his second cousin, Gregor, mounting the hill, waving rapidly with excitement as though he might not have heard him.

Gregor was a man of the cloth - only this was a cloth of a different kind.

His flamboyant colours were known all about town, and his signature style may have perhaps bettered a woman more than a man - or so it was said.

His novelty saved him, and made his business exceedingly successful, as well did his generosity of spirit and of coin.

Francis embraced him heartily with a tap on the back and kiss on the cheek.

“I have brought you some wools!” Gregor exclaimed, well pleased with himself.

“I had been hoping that you might. The Brothers keep giving all their clothing and blankets away.”

Francis sighed as he pried open the lid of the basket. The cloth was extremely fine - but to his disappointment it was dyed all the colours of the rainbow.

Gregor read his cousin’s expression. “Franco - these are the off-cuts - and modesty grey is not the fashion these days.”

“I know, I know. Do not think me unthankful, you have been most kind.”

A few weeks later when Hannah-Mary had fashioned her best, the people of the town had yet one more sly observation about Francis and his fellows.

“Reformation of the Church is it? Wearing such colours! What will it be next? This garish crazed sect will never become popular!” they exclaimed with contempt and imposing righteousness.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

All Sagittarius with too little Pisces

De Sphaera' by Cristoforo De Predis.

The swirling mists smelt saltily of the sea, with their creamy foams settling snugly, seeping into the sheeps’ woolly backs, as they slept in the hills, with drooping heads, drowsing upright on the dew sodden ground.

The vapours of morning cloud infiltrated the birds’ puffy folds of their shawl-like wings. The invisible clock was marking this night, whilst the planets moved swiftly into their respective places. The march of dawn was fast proceeding.

It was all Sagittarius with too little Pisces … the wafer-thin moon, now transparent by the coming light, dangled, quite perfectly, in the blue ethers.

Farmers with their loaded carts lined the roads leading up to the market … their lanterns twinkling, swinging from their poles, in a convoy carrying assorted household goods, livestock, armoury, spices and farming tools.

Francis counted over forty more merchants this month that he did not before recognise. The seasonal drift combined counties - some through needs, and some, supply.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

The Fountain of Youth

Hans Zatska 

“The Company is getting close to finalising its premium product” - she said with an air of conspiracy.

“Ah, the flagship sails!” Puck stopped walking for a moment and turned to face her.

“Charley,” he said soberly, “this will bring the world of men so much closer to the immortals. I have to believe that it is right - even though it defies their heritage and so much that defines them.”

Puck was speaking of the healing agent - the same product that Charley had shared with Robyn when she had sliced her finger and it had healed instantaneously. The point of it was that this re-agent had the power to keep human tissue alive - its etheric properties were literally from the very fountain of youth, that mythical font, that the mystics and the sages have sought for over time itself. And now, they had discovered the ways and means to contain it.

“Do you think he understands what he has in that formula?” Puck asked searching her eyes for the truth.

“No Father, I do not.”

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Teleportation Misconnection

Charley grimaced mockingly, and then flashed a knowing smile directed at her father walking beside her. They were strolling down a corridor of silver elms on the pathway that led to his country estate.

“You simply cannot show up like that at my place of work” she said shaking her head.

“And, most of all, do you have any idea how embarrassing it was to have you found in her bed?”

He smiled and shrugged his shoulders. The pair looked a picture of ease making their way through the woods as they were. The sun was always warm there, and the leaves hummed their usual soft woodwind song; thoughts were calm - there was peace all around.

Puck no longer appeared elderly as he had when Robyn had discovered him. In fact, by appearances, he did not seem far from Charley’s age on this day to look at him. Although he stood over a full two heads taller than her, there was no mistaking the two as being related - they shared the same elvish features, and that long curly hair.

“It was a simple misconnection with my teleportation … I always land myself into the guest bed - how was I to know you would have a visitor there?”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Turning a Blind Eye

“A groat for the Chapel and four pennies for my dogs." The six Dalmatians were sitting beside Francis, each one leaning in, right up close. One was with the milk eye, and another had a canker bulging from his fur. Overall the group appeared to be kept very poorly.

The men looked at one another. Francis knew they had no groats to give. Murmur shuffled his feet with the numbness crawling in - he wanted to go home.

Granoldi groaned deeply out from the trench, as he was still lying in its slump, attached to the cart and corpse.

“Your hounds have the weevils” said Francis, inspecting the top of the largest one’s head. His tone was respectful. The dialogue was naturally coming to an end, as none of the men were enjoying the cold.

“I’ll return in the morning and bring balms for your spotted friends and fix what I can with their pox also. And bring you three new pennies.”

Tobias leapt down into the grave and drew out the ties from the white bear’s harness. 

Granoldi wriggled out from the leathers and scrambled up onto the dirt standing full height beside them. His imposing frame seemed more obvious in the moonlight.

“Very well” the old priest conceded. “Let us conclude our transactions with agreement, and depart. You can just leave her where she is and I will see to it that the digger covers her over in the morrow.”

“We had some prayers prepared” objected Murmur. Meanwhile the hounds were bristling at the sight of Granoldi. They shivered and growled, cowering to the protection of the men.

“Best be going then” they conceded, believing him at his word that she would still be in the plot by morning.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Sacred Ground

"You cannot be burying her here. Not in this plot, not in my land, not of this sacred ground.” His voice trembled with the emphasis.

He continued: “This sinner has no place here to rest, and you must take this witch away right now. She’ll be offending the good spirits, not to mention the children who are buried here. There'll be no coming back to collect her in the morning, do you hear?"

The old Priest admonished the three as though they were schoolboys taking part in a prank. He went on:

"You’re wearing some clothes now I see" he jibed with a sarcastic drawl staring at Francis. He then went on to recite the canticle in full Latin.

"But Father" Tobias began ...

"But nothing my son! There'll be no excuses or explanations! Be away with you lads - we've had much too much intercourse with the dark arts in this area as it is. They slime all the surfaces, and invite demons to hover over the outer walls. I have to walk through a crowd of the undead every night when returning home, and I care not for their ways at all.” he said shaking his head.

"How much will it take?" asked Francis knowing the Canon's dance with words - that his meanings would toss the truth every which way, until settling.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances