The Tribunal of Horus

"You want us to pray?" Nervina quizzed, becoming more uncomfortable again.

"Well, er, I have been praying whilst we were drinking our tea together - and then it came to me ... the answer is simple when you know it” he leaned forward further, knocking over the milk jug, banging his fist on the table.

"The Tribunal of Horus.”

"Horus?" asked Goober.

"Horus?" echoed Nervina looking at Puck, with his best 'let’s get out of here fast' sideways expression.

Puck reflected back to the epoch just after the great continent's fall. There had been a period of the Earth's history where the darker wizards had been expelled. They were held accountable for the travails of the Earth and exiled from the realm and its neighbouring spheres. Outcast through the power of the demi-gods who were more ancient and powerful than even they.

He had taken part in the original court as one of the chief notetakers, but had not been called back into that higher world since.

The one prerequisite for this was a heart that had been used by the Demon, to be examined, as to the true substance of his nature. It was then that Puck realized that they had exactly what was needed to summon a judgement on Forsythe and be rid of him once and for all.

"You boys better take the back door,” said Barnabus "while I delay them."

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

On the Run

He moved the biscuit plate closer to them, saying cunningly:
"We don't have long." It was as though he thought someone might be listening in.

"Forsythe and his men are walking this street right now coming to get you."

"How do you know this?" asked Nervina, who was convinced that it was Barnabus who had probably tipped him off about their being back in London.

Barnabus tapped his earpiece - they had all assumed it was an ordinary hearing aid, but it was not.

"Just got word" he said.

"Oh" said Nervina, perplexed as to why the old man was wearing a transmitter and wondering also who it could be that was informing him of these things.

"They are trying to trap you" he went on. "I've seen it before. It's a nasty business with them capturing spirit beings." He paused to fine tune his earpiece.

Goober would have liked to correct him about them not being spirits exactly, but it seemed pointless in the light of what was to come.

"I would offer to hide you but they would find you soon enough" he added.

"Then what is it you suggest ... that we retreat back into the Woods as we have always done?”

"No, we must call upon those who have the powers to help" the old man replied earnestly.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

There is always Hope

Goober was absorbed in watching a young man at the far end working on a mural that read "There is always Hope". His technique was classical and the painting of a virginal muse was strikingly beautiful for a tearoom.

Puck ordered for them, “three teas would be very nice thank you,” he said taking a fiver out from his pocket. Daisy hesitated and then took it - she wasn't used to anyone paying any money in there.

Barnabus arrived with their teas. He looked very pleased to see them - almost as though they were old friends.

"Here's to the gentle souls,” he said inexplicably, picking up a glass of water with dramatis. Puck glimpsed an air of regality about the man.

Dressed in his corduroys and a yarn challenged sweater, he looked more like the crowd that he ran with, than the millionaire that he was. Puck had his security do some research and it revealed that Barnabus had begun his philanthropy over forty years ago.

"You can't bring that in here" he said pointing to Nervina's satchel. Nervina stuck his hand inside and placed it over the steel box holding the heart, protectively.

"This is a holy place you see - and we don't abide that kind of thing. Negative influence and all that - brings the place down."

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

The Christian Mission Tearoom

The Christian Mission tearoom was crowded with elderly men, comforted with scones and bingo and the societal warmth that the meeting place did bring.

No sooner had Puck walked in was he greeted by an older woman with a generous smile. Her name-badge identified her as one of the volunteers, and she had embellished it with a daisy drawn with a smiley face, coloured with a yellow felt tip pen.

Nervina and Goober both looked suitably shabby - even Puck himself had dressed down, wearing just jeans and a hoody (which, as he had pointed out many a time, never really went out of fashion).

They searched the room for Barnabus but could not see him amongst the sea of hats and bald heads.

"Barnabus is out spruiking for the tearoom - we have a few places left for lunch today, which you men might have just filled. I'll call him on the mobile for you. He shouldn't be long" said Daisy, whose name just happened to be Daisy as well as wearing a picture of one on her name tag.

"What would you boys like?"

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

The Weather Channel

There was a rap at the door - it glided open and through walked Pepper, back from her time away on the border. Dressed all in denim, she threw her coat off and thumped herself down onto the couch beside Puck. Little Charley shuffled over onto her lap and started playing with her ponytail. Pepper parked a kiss on her nose and laughed as her hair clips were yanked fiercely from her head.

"Are you doing ok?" she asked her brother affectionately with concern.

She knew that he could not be ok really - which was precisely why she had cut her holiday short to return to him.

"Pip" he said seriously, "I have to go out with the boys - it might take a few days - do you think you could take care of Charley while we're gone?"

"Sure" said Pepper reassuringly "that's what I am here for now...”

He smiled a fond smile at her and motioned to Gordon and Nervina to get their coats.

"You better bring that along with you too" he said to Nervina pointing at the box. Within minutes the three had left the forest for London.

Pepper fixed herself and Charley a hot drink and snuggled up in front of the picture window.

"What country will it be this time?" she asked Charley playfully - "Oh look, it’s Mexico again! It almost seems to be set on that place! Let's see if we can find England and what the weather is like there today!"

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

Heart in a Box

Nervina produced a small plain box saying:

"I've brought you Marsden's heart."

Puck tried to look disinterested, he really did not want to give Nervina the time of day, but still he felt compelled to ask: "You said that it was compacted after being placed into the garbage. Are you telling me your mischief of falsehood began as far back as then?"

"Yes, you could say that. I think most likely it was holding his heart that infected me so."

In Fey terms this was a possibility.

"And so you did not dispose of it as said?"

"No, I souvenired it. He had been giving us grief and I had worked so hard to defeat the man - I took it as a trophy."

"But then," asked Puck wonderingly "you fell in love with this same being?"

"Yes, once again I think that by keeping his heart it began the attraction ... and I was thereafter admiring the goodness I perceived in him."

"Until he murdered Marley." Puck said poignantly.

"Yes, until then ... " Nervina started to weep, he continued: "And all of a sudden it became deeply personal and his evility was real, and I began to see, no feel, what he is in reality."

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series

A visit from Nervina

His doorbell rang. The birdcall sang twice before he had made it to the peephole.

Two elvish guards were pressed up against the door, gripping another with a stranglehold. They had caught Nervina.

Puck let the three in, asking Gordon to take Charley up into the nursery first before they would talk. He motioned the security elves to the cake cabinet and coffee bar.

Nervina coughed, his throat was red. Puck noted his weight had changed dramatically - he now wore a middle age girth and a double chin as an accessory. His chi was depleted, his eyes were bloodshot. Puck guessed that Forsythe had sucked the very life out of him.

"What is it you want?" he asked disparagingly.

"I want nothing from you Puck - I came only to bring you something I thought you should have."

-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series