Dental Project

"I have only fifteen minutes before I have to go in”, Calvin said, a little nervously.

He was not looking forward to this: a dental appointment arranged by Symes, the chief chemist in cements/dentures.

Nerve death and tooth loss had been one of the priority projects his father had financed just before passing on.

Once upon a time Calvin never questioned the trials he would put himself through for the Company, but now it let loose of his reins, he began to feel very differently about it.

His jaw twinged - that damn needle had hurt more than it was worth, and with the numbing block kicking in, he felt like Moonface from the Faraway Tree.

“Just lie back Mr Johnstone” the male nurse had said authoritatively whilst tying a bib around his neck and clasping it uncomfortably tight. He then slid a pair of charcoal dark sunglasses onto the bridge of Calvin’s nose.

A clamp was placed in his mouth before he could say much, and the bright light above still managed to stream into his eyes. Calvin thought of all the places he would rather be right now.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Magic began the World

Not all magic is a perversion of the fixed and natural world. It was magic that began the World.

And it was a higher magic that brought the harp into the hands of the shepherd boy David, to play before the power of the modern world; of pure note, of pure thought, bringing the movement to change.

Saul listened because he understood the higher language.

The voice of the harp delivered a prophesy he had beseeched the heavens for, and as it foretold to his soul, it transcribed that which needed to be deciphered from within and above, and then he knew.

But how could a young, lowly boy, have been given this power?

It is where it is. It is where it is. He could not deny it.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Aeolian Harps

There have been many legends told of the Aeolian harps that sing with the voices of the other-worlds - some of gold, of some of bone, of some of gut, of some, enchantment.

Sages have long argued that it was never about the materials of the fantastical lyre, but its tuning that made it significant - the perfect note - and a succession of such perfect notes that could ripple out into the world in a concert like no other.

A concert, by definition, is of combining, where things come together. And this can be more than the tumble of melody, but when it is divinely worked, it is about how the melody combines with the ethers, and with the souls about, who are so moved that they become transported into realms of imagination and dream worlds that inspire them thereafter.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

The Behemoth

The behemoth’s leather tunic barely covered his groin - he constantly mopped his brow and peed in public unashamedly. He even peed on the children who watched nearby - the only act that indicated there might have been a sense of play or humor - it was hard to say. He did not laugh. He did not speak. He grunted and raged, he mumbled in an indefinable dialect, but never smiled, or if he did, the great beard did not show it.

His hairless legs were tattooed with scars. His hands were missing their finger nails, and the giant’s skin was so dry and cracked it looked like living parchment. His blue eyes watered, and his hair was tied back with a fox claw clasp.

On this day he was thundering through the market, with a cart forcibly acquired, filling it with meats and fruits, before retiring back to his fort which was secured just five miles from the city’s entrance.

On this journey he had not been alone. As he rattled through the countryside, a group of timid soldiers stalked his pathway, keeping a sly distance following to find the truth as to whether or not this Heathen camped alone.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

At Odds with the Gods of the Paradise Lands

The Northmen with their legs as long and wide as tree trunks, and their beards unkempt and wooly; had no mind for the gentler politics of a refined society. Their currency of religion (which looked back into Atlantean times) was at odds with the gods of these Paradise lands.

One such usurper had imposed himself upon the town of Antioch, where he had set up camp and terrorised the locals for an entire moon cycle.

Wits were frayed, for the giant would storm into the metropolis and make his demands.

He stood double the height of the average man. His colour was anaemic - so white was he that the villagers superstitiously thought him to be dead and yet still walking.

This added the fear that he might never be vanquished, being already deceased. When he angered his face would flush, and the change to red frightened them all the more.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Northern Giants

The giants from the North, had spilled over into the hills and caverns far from their homelands, into the paradise that was greater Egypt and Assyria.

The airs were temperate all year round there - a desirable climate, with a wash of fragrant winds, green landscapes, tropical trees and Mediterranean fruits - this was no desert, but rather a plump vital landmass whose energetic fields were swollen with prosperity.

God had graced these plains with a prosperous overflow - the trade routes leaked assay of the abundant treasures to be had there - as traders found their ways in, and wound their ways out, with cartage of dried fruits, teas and cordials, precious cheese and wine and sweets; jewels and linens; musks, oils and balms - and the surrounding world looked jealously on.

The marauders placed their hope in theft, being not natural born, and unsympathetic to common ownership.


- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

How it really went

“Very well”, said her dad, adding “do be careful who you show that to, won't you? It seems to have an uncanny effect on some.” he paused - and then added “like the time, it was said, when a small boy took on a Goliath after seeing his spirit in it and being encouraged thereby.“

“Oh really?” Charley taunted playfully - “and how do you know that? “

“Well, the small boy was me at the time.”

He wasn’t teasing, but looked very serious - almost important.

“It was Mother’s mirror you see.”

“Uncle did not tell me that.”

“I am guessing he did not get the chance …. she would have wanted you to have it you know.”

A flicker of melancholy passed over his face momentarily. He squeezed her hand.

“There is so much I don’t know about my family, isn’t there? So much that has gone on … will you tell me how it really went?”

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances