In the Ancient Mirror

Charley was left alone in the room once more. She had cried out the eyelash and felt crushed with herself. Of all the things she could have said, her accusative negativity had driven away the one who she had longed to see the most. Would she see her mother again? It had been a bitter sweet vision, but one she would cherish.

“Mum,”she said quietly to a seemingly empty room,

“I know you can hear me now, and I just wanted to say, that I am so glad you came by and that you are near me.”

She tried another peek tentatively into the ancient mirror once more but just caught her swollen eyes from crying staring back at her. She shuddered. “Pick yourself up girl”, she said to herself, putting it safely back into her red leather bag.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

The Spirit Retracted

“He’s a good man … your father” the woman said.

Looking more closely as she was, Charley could see a girl in her early thirties perhaps, with bleached blonde hair and shining skin, dressed in just a tshirt and jeans.

Charley knew all at once who she was. She wanted her to be sad - sad as she had been for all of her years mourning for her mum … but the spirit in the room was radiant and full of happiness.

“Why haven’t you come before?”

Charley broke down and started to cry. She was ashamed to be seen to be like this, but the mirror had invoked an honesty from within her. The child inside, that had always wanted her mother close by, was speaking now.

The spirit retracted and its presence dissolved.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Vision in the Mirror

Charley had a pesky lash irritating her eye. She reached into her handbag to find her mirror, and pulled out the magic one that had been gifted to her awhile ago, she had forgotten about until now.

As she held it up to find the light’s direction, she saw, looking in the corner over her shoulder, a figure watching her. It was a woman.

She was not startled, just curious.

My god, she thought to herself, this woman looks a lot like me.

She put the mirror down and turned around.

- Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

A Tear Fell from her Aqua Eye

The Phoenix’s partner, the Almighty Dragon, had been subdued for far too long. Puck had sought to go to the source and take her head on. He then noticed that her golden feathers were turning brown at the edges.

Suddenly a tear fell from her aqua eye.

“I am old” she said, as if that somehow became an excuse for infecting the whole of Humanity with her malaise.

“I too wish for rebirth” she sighed.

He perceived a way out that would please them both.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Phoenix & Dragon

Bob Eggleton 

The Phoenix glared at Puck - she was a proud creature and did not appreciate being denied.

He rubbed his forehead in an agitated manner … the stress of late had really got to him - nonetheless Puck refused to give into it.

“It can’t be done” he said as plainly as he might.

She menacingly stamped her foot and bowed down her head to face his gaze directly.

Telepathically he winced.

“Yes, life is about renewal, but no, not more of the same - that would be a living death by any definition.

"I realize you want me to keep the Pharma work going, and that you have invested a lot (and here he emphasised "a lot") of time and energy doing just this - but, I say to you respectfully: you are wrong.”

The influence from Asia had been one of copying, duplicating forgeries with repetition. Tradition was also just that: an affection for the past that stifled any prospect for change.


- Gabriel Brunsdon AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

Dark Nights Accumulated

Theo’s aspirations were both complex and mundane.

He had been content within the confines and routine of his dutiful work, peppered with salutations and self-admonishments - however, he did find himself throughout the night, wishing for the soft company of a woman. In the midnight hours Theo desired desperately to replace his cold monastic life with the comfort of a warm and wanting wife.

Try as he might, Theo was restless and confused. The dark nights accumulated, and, on the eve of his fortieth birthday, this middle aged Monk took himself out to the uppermost ledge of the enclave and wrapped his stringy belt around his neck.

Murmur, on his nightly rounds had found him dangling in a hapless way.

-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances

In a Prior Life

Pietro was not the only one to whom Murmur had ‘healed’ and had subsequently made landlocked, earthbound, shut out from passing through the gates of the Heavens as one would normally do after death.

The starry gates were closed also to Vlad - who, in a prior life had worked as a civil servant of the Church: seeking obeisance, piety and personal accord. His name known by the order was Theo, like the great physician who was yet to be born.


-Gabriel Brunsdon, AZLANDER: NEVER ENDINGS: Second Chances