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