Holy Sisters

Talbot Hughes 

It was not unusual for babies to be born to the Holy Sisters themselves - but rather, it was common.

Many women, through abandonment or war, had lost their partner during childbearing and sought refuge in the protection of the holy arms.

Although the children were absorbed into the priory schools, they were given back into their mother’s keeping throughout the night, and in times of sickness. Thus Murmur, whose name now was Fatima, in this, his-her new life, was such a one, born to a convent Sister.

The ability to revive the dead was still very much present in her, as was also, the pure faith of one who has witnessed a multitude of miracles previously, as Fatima had done.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Pilgrimage

The chapter to follow of Murmur’s lifetimes within this world, saw him reborn amongst the pious he loved: this lifetime into a cloister of nuns.

Becoming a woman, instead of a man, was no hardship for this healer-soul - in fact, in many respects he preferred this gender to his former, finding it to be more peaceful and consolidated - and, less lustful than his former manly incarnation had been.

Added to this, he discovered that being born back into this spiritual community felt natural to this soul.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Universal Magnetism

“Have you noticed” … began Francis, “that wherever Murmur pops up, there also is Pietro?”

Black considered this. “I thought it was just a magnetic obedience", he said.

Magnetic obedience was the elvish term for a law of attraction that works amongst humans and immortals universally - where those who are familiar to one another, come into the sphere of each other when in proximity.

Most ordinary folk have experienced this in remarkable episodes where they have ‘bumped into’ someone known to them, in a crowded country, that defies the odds of their orbits ordinarily overlapping.

“I think it might be more than that. What if, let us say, that when Murmur was contracting his healings, a little bit of him went to seed the pearl, as it were?”

Puck caught this thought. It was slightly complicated but could work.

“You mean to say that their evolutions are literally interwined?”

“Yes, this is exactly my thought.”


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Can you be too Positive?

Black was relieved to hear Francis talk with some reflection. Generally, he thought him to be too accepting - and way too positive.

“Ah, can you ever be too positive?” Francis asked a little sadly, reading his thoughts.

“Well, yes, frankly … I think you can” Puck said ruefully in return.

“I know you have tried to unravel this issue of Pietro’s entrapment for some time - and the twine mats fast.” (This had been an expression from the days of the weavery.)

Privately Black felt that there was little of the world that he did not know - or at least had the means to discover the wherewithal, with a little investigation. But this enigma had stumped him. Pietro was earthbound and whatever they did seemed if anything, to make it worse.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Donkey Boys

“Do you remember the case of the donkey boys?”

“I do”, answered Black thoughtfully.

“Well, I am thinking that simply by association, men - or even children - can migrate into species … and species into men... and, it bothers me."

Francis continued, “Because I do not believe that the innocent animal makes for a better human once converted, and nor does the human, convert well into animal. There is a degradation of being occurring with the unnatural change, of this nature. I cannot quite name.”

Black thought back to the donkey-boy circus - travelling sex traffickers who were recruiting youth town to town, and then holding them in service, not allowing them to return home. It was young boys for the main.

A dark magic overtook this troupe, whereupon the children, in time, had morphed into a herd of donkeys, and because of this, the authorities could not make a case to save them. They could not even prove that they were once boys.

As time moved further on, it had been thought to be only allegory, but Francis and Hode had discovered this corruption and worked to free them, as it happened. It was a nasty business.

“And, what bothers me more so, is the corruption of species. The donkey boys were a prime example of evil working to destroy what was good about the children, and good about the beast - and it all became a mess. I think, a cautionary tale."


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Oscar's Clocca

A little bell chimed, and the two stared at the mechanical clock admiringly. 

"Oh I think you should give it back”, said Caspar earnestly, shaking his head, “this clearly was not meant to be given out by the Brothers of poverty. The bailiff will come and arrest you for possessing such a treasure. No, you cannot keep this, it is not safe.”

“What if I copy it first? I shall pull it apart, bit by bit, and make drawings of its works … and then return it back to Master Murmur on his weekly return.”

“This is a plan that is proper and acceptable, methinks.”

And so Oscar pulled the dainty contraption into pieces, and laid out its cogs and engine, so that he might trace around its little shapes; but when he came to reassembling the beating heart, he just could not get the ratchet to fly.

He looked over his work-bench in case he had left anything out. He tried several times with optimism and then defeat.

It lay dead in his hands. The clocca chimed no more.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Murmur’s Wagon of Charity

It so happened that Oscar was picking through Murmur’s wagon of charity, when he found the fine wooden box with the metal bell-ringing device inside.

His hands could feel its significance, and he was excited by the craftsmanship apparent in the ornate tooling with its intricate, miniature style.

“It rings bells randomly”, he explained to Caspar who was fondling this new treasure.

“I will manufacture these, and my business will prosper. See there - it has a little heart inside, and whirring wheels with teeth; so small - look, look closer!”


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Dog Love

“Everyone loved me with the dog head, yet they are indifferent with the human head. I'm going with what works.”

“But can’t you see this doesn’t work at all? For one thing, you won't be able to step outside of this compound, and what will happen when the workers return after the break? Oh, and what about Robyn - she wont be able to cope at all. Robyn is a zoologist….”

“She will love me again too”, he said flatly.

They all had to admit, he looked rather cute. Hearing him speak was a tad creepy however.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

A Dreaming Frame of Reference

“Can’t you just change back to the head you had an hour ago?” pleaded Charley.

She looked over to her father and Francesco to appeal to them for agreement. Calvin stepped forward - he felt oddly calm amongst this weirdness. It was as though he was in an unrelenting dream.

With some events, life can be like that. When life outruns your experience, or the unexpected happens right there before you, it can put the mind into a dreaming frame of reference - for in dreams we are used to the haphazard and the random, and are rarely surprised by anything. It is this part of our thinking that steps up to embrace the fantastic surprises that greet us.

“I’m staying with the dog head”, Chips said belligerently.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Reputation

It was plain to everyone that Bruce Lee-Chips could not continue to be seen as he was now, wearing this, his Weimaraner look.

His newly found physical body was quite small - he looked more like a tall child in an elaborate mask; however his nose was moist and his tongue hung out to one side, and his eyes were obviously, intelligently, real.

Although it is impossible to graft a dog’s head onto human shoulders, word would get out that this was exactly what Johnstone and Johnstone were now trying to do - and achieving.

Before long they would not only lose reputation for being family-friendly, they would probably be hauled away by some not-so family friendly government agency. This would not do at all.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

The Moral Compass

“By this one device we can trace the moments with order. In this quarter we have vespers, in that quarter we do chores, by that quarter there is supper, and with the final, there is prayer and rest.

"The Holy never stop praying - even in their sleep. And, when in the night we fumble through the dark awaiting sunrise, it can even predict that - it is the most valuable tool we have.”

“What call it?”

“The moral compass. It marks our duties and benedictions … this one Brother Francis is for you to take back to your Community. At present, it is only one of five, and so the honour I give is great.”

Francis nodded his head in a half bow, and after being instructed on its care and duties he carefully placed it in his knapsack, and started out for home.

.......

“Murmur - here’s one more for your charity pile” Francis said, tossing the box into the collection.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Thinking inside the Box

“This is a great moment Brother Francis.”

Francis felt himself to be at one of life’s crossroads, but did not know why.

This new Pope seemed genuine enough. He had been mightily understanding all told. He had kept to himself for the main part and allowed the Brotherhood to do as they may, without influence or interruption.

It was only a small box of polished oak, inlaid with lines of pearl. He lifted the lid to see what the artefact looked like.

“The dial goes around, and around, without stopping. And, it knows the rhythm of the day, with each day passing. It even marks its pace by the smallest of bells.”

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

His Head Morphed

“You can't be Sirius”, Puck chuckled when he saw what had happened.

Wildly, and most oddly, the Asian man now wore the velvety head of his former self, the Weimaraner. After he had started weeping, holding the magic mirror of Charley’s, the very shape of his head morphed back into Chips and stayed there.

“Was not sure what to call you - but now, Sirius it is” he laughed again - not unkindly.

“Dad this is not funny. You’ve got to get him to change back … he can’t be seen like this.”

But it was too late - Calvin had overheard and seen everything. He had been sitting up the back of the lab all of this time quietly and no one had noticed him, not one.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Crisis of Identity

“Come, come look there” - he pointed to her mirror, which Charlie still wanted to get back in the moment.

Looking into it at his reflection she could see the image of the grey dog … and then it changed to a face that she did not recognize, and then to another, and another. It was reflecting back the subtle images he had worn of his former selves.

“I don’t really know what has changed in that regard - I am sorry if somehow I misled you. Everybody said they loved you at the time.”

“And now they don’t”, he said mournfully. He went very quiet.

Crisis of identity - that’s what this is, she thought to herself. He’ll get used to his new self soon enough.

“Please, can I have my mirror back now? - it was my mother’s. Anyway, how did you know it would do that?”

“I didn’t” he shrugged, “I just guessed after seeing you with it and Master Black”.

“Oh”, said Charley who had not yet fully reconciled herself to talking to a dog.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Unloved

“Why don’t you love me now?” he asked, with a soft toned sophisticated English accent.

“Now?” Charley asked in genuine surprise, wondering if there was ever a before.

“When I was a Weimaraner you would greet me with a smile - you had kind things to say - you would whisper in my ear and stroke my fur. You told me you loved me.”

“Yes, but … you were a dog then.” Charley could hear the harshness of her own words as she said this.

“Yes” said Chips-Bruce Lee.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Meddling with her Stuff

"What are you doing?” Charley called to Bruce Lee-Chips-Peter, as she caught him going through her handbag noisily.

He kept going, ignoring her being there, and plucked out a satin purse that held her precious mirror inside - the one that her uncle had bestowed her from the sleepy grove.

“Hey!” she was in plain sight now, and startled by this old guy’s rudeness. “Put that down!” she commanded. But he had now taken the mirror out from its casing and was holding it up, looking hard into its window.

“Let me give you another one instead,” she said, grabbing her bag and trying to find her make-up mirror to replace the one he had in his hand.

“Here, you take this one,” she pressed emphatically - “it is much better,” Charley was trying to hide her annoyance at this little man who had no business meddling with her stuff.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Healing through God

“Healing through God is spontaneous and unpredictable … it is higher than magic or pharmacy, it is higher than manipulation or remedy, and its timeliness cannot be anticipated."

-The Great Lion


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Life & Hope

“Life has the substance to endure of its own. It is the ‘Force’ of the Jedi, the ‘Spirit’ of the Trinity, and the divinity of the Divine.

“Hope is spontaneous, and godly: it is something which is not predictable - it is not based on anything predictable or reasonable …

“Hope is a gift, from the heart of the highest charity - from the love of God: it comes from the immortal pool of spirit - wherein we all come and go.

“Yes! it is unreasonable many times to expect the happiest of outcomes, and yet it will be hope that delivers this news before its reckoning.”

-the Great Lion 


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

No Magic can compare with Life

“To the novice magic can appear marvellous, because it is assumed to have that spontaneous unpredictability. But of course, it is, if conducted well, completely predictable.

“Any persuasion of the natural order is magic. Some is with illusion, some deception, some with grandeur. No magic can compare with Life.

“Life lives, despite the predictable malaise of living.

“Life continues and thrives, often stronger when met with resistance.

“Life has goodness at its heart and driver … for it is of spiritual worth, and not just show.

“No my Dear, magic cannot compare - it is limited, and for all of its glamour - it is at best, a fantastic reality."

-The Great Lion 

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Life Mysteries

“Magic is as magic does, but Life? … now that is spontaneous.

“We can contrive, we can predict, however, original Life with all of its mysteries, is truly open ended.

“Strange coming from a fatalist - from a seer - from a clairvoyant who can pierce the portents to come - yet truth be known, the contrivance of magic is just another engineering of predictability - whether natural or metaphysical, it is dead before it begins."

-The Great Lion

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Mixed Evolutions

There are many who live with mixed evolutions - exhibiting experience and attributes that cross over and correlate outside their ordinary realm.

What people do not know is that there are those also, who are half human and half demon as well.

And, there are men walking the earth who are half gods.

And those who are not yet human.

And those who are but half beast.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Halflings

Francis and Charley had more in common than they ever knew. For one thing they shared the same heritage of being halflings. Of course this was merely an expression, as no one is really half of anything at all.

But what was really implied and meant by this, was that they were not purely of mortal origin and understanding.

Nor did they have a full comprehension of the magical talents that lay within each of them.

And, separate and in conjunction to this was of course the spirit within - the God spark. This they shared, and no matter what kind their designation was - what costume clothed the spirit in talent and foresight, in intelligence and ego - they were first and foremostly spirits endowed with attributes that belonged, in this case, to both races at the one time.

This did not of itself, solely explain their attraction for one another. If anything it confused them all the more.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

What the Hode Saw

Patten Wilson 

Nets engorged with decaying fish and putrid octopuses slumped on the slippery top deck.

It was clear to Hode that it could not have been hunger that had taken them, but something else. He checked, and fresh water was still casked, as well as the usual ale-ments of mead.

He walked the well-oiled platform amongst the ghostly scene. A crow in a wire cage screeched and clawed the bars as it climbed.

The bird was an ancient form of GPS - were the boat to lose direction they would let it loose and know by its flight path the way back home. Crows seek out food, and the mainland is, as the crow flies.

He heard a voice calling to him in the distance:

“Robin, come back - and tell me Brother what do ye see?”


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

A Ghostly Voyage

Stripped of its masts, and void of its oars, the twenty fathom vessel creaked and groaned upon the rippling dark waters it bobbed upon.

Twelve of the thirteen men appeared to be intoxicated. Hode noticed them flaccid on the deck, barely conversational, seemingly half awake.

Around them was a spray of mist, rancid, with a dubious air to it … a noxious odor, in contrast to the ordinary brine that licks the air sharply.

The thick-necked weed that had captured the boat, floated, covering the entire surface surrounding, stretching for one hundred feet. It appeared dead and gaseous, with bubbles forming around its rubbery mesh.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

The Record of their Love had Vanished

When Charlotte’s mother had died, Puck would often revisit the moments they shared by stepping back into the akashic … it was like diving into a watery wall that ran sideways - her spectre would be on the other side. She was sitting on their bed in the flat they had in London - she had been waiting for him to return.

He felt like more of a man then - striding into that building, and up into that apartment, into her waiting embrace. She would laugh lightly - genuinely - because she was intoxicated by his presence. He could see himself through her eyes, as it were - as though he was a man - a mortal man.

To look back, and look in, was as though she was speaking to no one. His actual form and the record of their love had vanished from sight. But he still loved to revisit those moments nonetheless.

He felt the shame of it. Had he won her love unfairly. Yes. And, how could she have died on his watch?

And now, did she forget him entirely? This living memory was fraught with something intangible - he made a quick exit back into the present day reminding himself, that she was once again with another now. And, thank the Heavens, Marley was content without him.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

No Akashic Marking

The one thing he could not do, much to his ongoing regret, was visit the times and lives of his own kind.

The Elves could not impress the akashic imprints with their presence. Now and then there might be a light here and there, but no words, no image, of their ever having been there was apparent.

And, in other words, this also meant, that his passage throughout time left no such marking either.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Revisiting the Past

Hode considered an entire boatload of undead to be a particularly significant resurrection to take place.

He reasoned that Murmur’s gift of restoration had something to do with going back in time perhaps … and he wanted to compare the former bodies with those of the new.

The masterly Elvish are quite capable of navigating the Akashic Archives. One could say it was a recreational pastime of sorts, visiting the histories of men throughout the ages.

By this Hode had managed to pick up a firsthand experience of many of those episodes that helped to form the times to follow.

He could not pivot or change the future, by being witness to the past, for it was a living record, plastic to its time, and locked in this animated archive. It was as real as any video, and exact to every detail on its own plane.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Bless the Sick

Once a week Murmur would take a party of the brethren into the township to distribute the latest goods the Vatican had delivered.

This was observed to snub Rome, but being not their intention, the Brotherhood did as they had promised - and lived the frugal sparing life - exchanging the exotic offerings for only simple produce. Most of what they took into the village was onsold by the people, with small incomes now being made from these imported gifts from the Franciscans.

Frequently, on their weekly trips out, villagers would be standing in their doorways waiting - calling for Murmur to come pray for a family member recently deceased, hoping that he could revive them.

More often than not, the miracle would happen.

And it was rarely spoken of thereafter because the townspeople did not want their beloved to have the stigma of being one of the now undead.

Murmur would be called in to bless the ‘sick’, only to find them decomposing on the bed. It seemed to make no difference to the healing however. Time after time there would be a full recovery.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances