Diamond in a Bottle

“Well riddle me this:” asked Puck loudly, “how did the diamond get inside this bottle just now?” 

Puck held up the empty flagon of turnip juice Goober had given to him earlier. A green glint appeared in the side of the Dragon’s eye. 

“Bottle? what bottle?” he said in a very cunning voice. He was almost mesmerised by the idea of the diamond itself - after all, it was of his own kindred creation. 

“This bottle.” Puck hollered up to him for dramatic effect waving it in the air before him.  

And sure as x is x, he had managed to teletransport the huge diamond into the bottle where it was trapped rolling around, making a clinking sound trying to escape. 

The astoundingly large beast took his head down to where Puck was holding the bottle before him and the stone inside started playing with the light mesmerisingly, enticingly, performing its best. 

“Come closer” said Puck, “that you may see for yourself.” 

He had almost expected that the creature would go to knock the bottle from his hand, however he did not. Instead Romulus-Marsden was so drawn to the gem, he did get in closer - and then vaporised himself down in size, and flew towards it, right through the neck and into the bottle itself.

Pop! Puck put a cork in it. 

And around the cork he then plastered some red sealing wax. And around the wax he placed a little string tie. And there it was - Romulus-Marsden the Dragon was captured within - in miniature. 

“I don’t know how you do it” said Goober admiringly.

“Me either” said Puck who now was very pleased with himself and greatly relieved. He was also quietly determining that the two of them should deliver the bottle to the tribunal as quickly as they could …

“Do you think that he meant what he said about never being baffled by anything? Surely now … ”

“I think he did mean exactly what he said - and that is the very problem with reptilian thinking. There is so much he does not know or recognise, and he does not know that he does not know: awe, majesty, mystery, fun, humour, frivolity - he never gets to sense the unmarked futures yet to be, or the reverence for it all. He only knows himself. “

“Given that, he’s probably quite content in there with the company of himself … and his diamond.”

“No idea dear Peanut. I’ve no idea.”

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

You Cannot Crush a Soul When it Remembers Beautiful Things

“Driftwood is beautiful” Goober said. 

“Say what?” said Marsden annoyed, his eyes flashing green.

“Driftwood old boy, and pies - everyone loves pies.” 

“I prefer cake” said Needles, eagerly.

“You see you cannot crush a soul when it remembers beautiful things - those things it loves - it’s in the impossible. Christmas lights, hot cocoa, sunlight on the sea, soft grass beneath your feet, jasmine on a warm day … these are my favourite things …” with the latter part Goober broke into a recognisable show-tune. 

“You get the point.”

It was obvious Marsden did not. It flew over his shoulder and out into the corridor. 

Goober continued, “Dew drops on roses and whiskers on kittens, brown paper packages tied up with ribbons.”

And then it happened.

Goober had been turning the diamond over in his pocket and it fell out. (Or, considering its mischievous history, it may well have leapt out - impossible to say). Its influence threw its sparks around the room, and one went into the eye of Marsden, and in that instant his appearance changed quite dramatically. A moment later there was no longer a man in front of them, but unmistakably a dragon. 

This dragon was eighteen feet high with his head reaching towards them in turn, lurching down menacingly. Now they could understand very plainly who he was. Seeing this creature’s true nature would go a long way for being able to curtail him.

Goober swerved away from the gigantic head that shot heat via its fetid breath. The diamond rolled towards Puck.

“Got a mind of its own” Goober said apologetically. 

The dragon elongated its neck to bite at it, but Puck snatched it up from the ground.

“Well I am baffled” he said stepping backwards as he said this.

“You are what?” hissed the Dragon, still looking over the floor for the stone.

“Baffled. Baffled.”

The dragon replied haughtily: “Well, the likes of you may be baffled, but I am never, ever confused.”

“I’m not confused so much as I’m baffled,” said Puck.

And Goober joined in, “yes, you could say that, I’m baffled too”.

“Well then clearly I’ve won, the dragon snarled, for I am never baffled. It is simple: the path is always logical, it is either destruction or order: the order that I create, or the destruction that I can cause, and you must conform. I like to think of it as my world, formed by my ideas - for they are supreme.”

“Are you saying then”, said Puck, relieved that the fire breathing had stopped momentarily, “that you are never baffled?” 

“Me? no, no, no there is nothing ever to be baffled about.” 

“And yet life itself is a mystery?” 

“Not when you dictate how it goes, there is no room for mystery when I already know.” The huge beast was engaged with his own superiority, and somewhat subdued by it. 

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

Blanket of Psychic Dread

Needles pressed his face up against one of the glass tanks, looking in at a half developed infant within.

“It’s not alive” he said to Goober who had joined to see what he was looking at. “It’s not alive” he repeated shaking his head. “Not got a soul” he explained.

Dwarves have a premium sense for what has a living energy and to that which has a dying one. It is their specialty when tending to gardens and minerals and the like. His observation proved correct. Although the child appeared to be a growing human, it was simply flesh in the form of a person, and there was no real life within.

They began to go from one pod to the next to find that each was the same, regardless of what stage of growth it had come to.

“Do you think Marsden knows?” Goober asked Puck.

“Do you think he cares?” responded Puck, recoiling from the hideous warehouse they were in.

“Give me two reasons why I shouldn’t end it all for you now” hollered Marsden - suddenly appearing as if out from nowhere. He had returned after escorting the baby buyer to the upper level. He then of course saw firsthand the damage done to the entrance of his property and had come looking for them immediately. He was seething.

Enraged, Romulus-Marsden threw a blanket of psychic dread over the entire level where they were standing. It was a stifling, chocking experience, suppressing the three in thoughts and blocking their ability to become unseen again.

“Why does evil have a smell to it?” asked Goober, genuinely wondering. He also was trying to deflect from the dawning truth that they could be in serious trouble coming up against Romulus deep down in this deathly place - afterall, they were not invulnerable. Even immortal beings can be held captive and injured when they are far away from their natural home.

Puck realised also the danger the three were in, and that was part of his courageousness which led him into situations that other beings would rather ignore, or avoid altogether.

He called out to Romulus who was striding across the floor towards them: “Even if you were to expel the souls from this world, each and every one of them, demon-hood cannot take over. Aliens cannot thrive here either, life here is all about the Mortals … it, this, is, their home. AI will never be self realising. It has neither karma or an angel to guide it.”

Romulus was not a man of reason however, even though everything he did was calculated - it still departed reason. Perhaps in his own world, within his own logic, all of this had meaning - had weight - but it didn’t have reason, and nor was it reasonable.

What did make sense to Puck was when he realised that this was indeed Marsden whom he had encountered not so long ago - and that he is no ordinary being, for he literally had no heart anymore.

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

Living Tomb

On the fifth level down there were acres underground of babies being sustained within capsules inside artificial wombs, fed with transfused blood via conduits designed to go in and to go out. There was an odour in the air that was hard to define amongst the bright lights and collective whir of reparative inducers and electronic pumps. The mechanical noise was almost deafening.

“It’s the next generation” Romulus explained - he was speaking to a large man in a suit, perhaps a dignitary, who was clearly out of his depth and appearing extremely flushed and flustered.

This was literally a baby factory, with glass and steel and hundreds of little bodies captured within. There were no mobiles or fluffy animals - the entire floor was stark and sterile, and it was hard to imagine any child emerging from such a cold space as this.

“We’ll make to order a boy or girl, or an ambiguous if you like … intersex is popular these days” he said as casually as though he was speaking about new cars. Romulus pointed to a wall of photographs with numbers beneath them. He then continued: “we can share your DNA no questions asked, or use someone of your choosing …the prodigy will be yours within the definition of the law”.

Goober glanced over to Puck who heard this also. They remained still now standing in a supply closet with the door ajar. The shelving there was packed with saline packs and transport cribs.

Yes! thought Goober to himself - that is what this middle-aged man had come for - a child of his own.

“Ah, er, - how long?” he stuttered.

“Well assuming you keep up your end of the bargain I’d say seven months turnaround - seven to twelve. You can start choosing names and I am happy even to give you two for the price of one.”

The man in the suit appeared nervously excited hearing this - clearly he had achieved what he had come for. They watched him go to take something from his wallet.

Romulus raised his hand to stop him saying “That won’t be necessary. We have contracts with terms - you will need to go through our Neonatal Department to formalise our agreement. Just understand - if you ever tell anyone anyone about our plant downunder we will not hesitate to put you, your wife and your children into our very own tissue bank. We can recycle these days - eco friendly and all that”

He had said this threateningly and then finished with a casual laugh saying “but then you know that already Parker”. For one brief moment Romulus’s eyes turned crimson, and then green, and shot sparks from them.

The air suddenly got colder, and the man in the suit wet himself. It did not appear he was used to being threatened, and pee saturated his trouser leg all the way to his sock. Perhaps the environment underground had proved too much for his nerves.

“I hear you” he said belligerently, looking away from Romulus and towards the exit. He could not bear those eyes. He mumbled something else that Puck and Goober could not hear and the two departed leaving Puck, Goober and Needles in the laboratory alone.

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

Salt Line

There is a morning tide within the Earth
whereupon the land, will rise and fall.
This heave and pull is governed by the Sun,
an orbital cannula prospecting the light without.

“Salt of the Earth” said Goober absentmindedly as he repositioned the salt shaker now bulging in his back pocket (one the two shakers he had sequestered from the diner during lunch). “Quick, empty it here! Make a line, one that no madman can cross, no witch nor warlock, or they who are unruly may pass beyond.”

It was an attempt at humour to break up the mood of trepidation fast setting in.

Now that they they had made their way through the fallen steel doors to the ground floor lobby, they came to a hallway of lifts such as you might see in any contemporary building - except that instead of going up all floors went down.

“Not much good is found under the ground - least not deep down like this” whispered Goober.

Instinctively Needles, who had just joined them, briefly held Goober’s hand as they entered into the first lift that opened. He had far more experience with the forces beneath the ground, being familiar to all things mining as his kind are, and did not much like the surprises often found there.

“Which floor?” asked Goober.

“Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up”, answered Puck, who was already finding the atmosphere inside the lift as constricting. The lift descended and bumped at the bottom. Needles was idling from one foot to the other, and Puck put his hand upon his shoulder, gently motioning to be quiet. Invisibility was a power they all had, but it was only ever short lived within the physical world - they could maintain it for five minutes at a time, but anything more than that was almost impossible.

“Here goes” he said, jumping out ahead of them.

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