Angel is, as an Angel does.

Hans Thoma 

Angels are embodied in many forms. One could say: that an Angel is, as an Angel does.

Were it not for the body of Angels, manifestation would not be possible.

Their living body consists of co-operative spirit - cohesive interplay - one that coerces magnificently an otherwise fractured system.

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

Bewitching Herb

“Yes, yes, he met with the girl right here”, he said pointing to the corner seats - “he would dip his spoon into her soup, and she seemed largely aggreived by it.

“It is possible”, he added under his breath, that this fancy Pelt Lord had added some bewitching herb - I say this to you because the maiden was drowsy when it came to her finding her feet to walk out of here. He had to hold her upright … we had just thought her tipsy with spirits - but in looking back, there was no whore’s demeanour about the child to begin with.

“Find that carriage I say,” he nodded knowingly, “and you will find her.”

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

Abductor

It was a fine sight to see the two companions walking together: with the size and height of Tindle beside Jonathon, who was all four heads shorter than his gentle friend. Jonathon was not a small man, it was just that Tindle was an oversized Welshman.

Their mirth was marred only with their concern for Fatima - who they had since learned had been taken away by a carriage that wore emblems of an eagle atop a winged silver serpent.

The townspeople who had seen Fatima leave were impressed with the rarity of the coach itself, as it was upholstered, on the outside, entirely in bear pelt.

“What can I tell you?” the proprietor of the broth cafe off-handedly asked … he continued: “The Eu-rope-eans take pleasure in a very different style.”

He grimaced thinking back to its famed passenger, who wore the same fur also as a cape.

The abductor was toothless, but for two canines that protruded when he spoke.

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

Twofers

Over the many centuries Puck had explored the Mortal world, and had developed affections for many of its inhabitants. His powerful nature could endure the very best, and the worst, of both the spiritual planes and the periods of the planet.

He was not without his own sadnesses. His heart was large (much bigger than most), and privately and broadly it synthesised the sorrow around him - meaning, that he could empathetically feel another’s pain with exact replication - and over time this hardship became incorporated into his own experience and being.

He knelt down to help a grasshopper who was labouring to walk, as a black beetle had attached itself to the creature’s hind leg. The weight of the beetle was proving too much to drag, and very soon she would be forced to stop, thereby becoming open prey to the wandering birds looking for snacks.

Puck absentmindedly shot a blue light into the clinging beetle and it exploded with a small ‘pop’ while the grasshopper hurried away.

Somewhere on the other side of the world a terrorist’s back-pack prematurely ignited - killing only the black clad conspirators holed up in an underground tunnel.

Puck smiled to himself - he enjoyed the simultaneous two-fers - where portents of a greater evil may be lambasted and thwarted through the remedy of the smaller. One of the many mysteries of life …

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

No Ordinary Elvish Man

Puck was no ordinary Elvish man - or manly Elf - he was, as the Elders would say, worlds apart from both the races he identified best with.

His origin predated both the Fay and the Mortals at a time when the vision of the Earthly Kingdoms was hermetically sealed, sleeping in the vault of the greater gods.

He had witnessed their Creation, and seen their realms unfurl exquisite life with its marvellous beings. In this respect he himself was very much one of a kind - for he had seen their long histories, and remembered them all.

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

Hindsight

Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach

The Azlan speaks: 

Without the heights and depths to travel,
Man would know neither up from down.

"Hindsight is a gift from the gods. Literally it is the ability to review times past and learn accordingly.

'The Mortals wrestle with hindsight perpetually, thereby referencing all knowledge up-to-date acquired. From eons to hours, this is the ability to look back, before proceeding forward.

"Balanced between remorse and continuum, this talent is to review what has past most thoughtfully, and glean a wisdom, or a gratitude; to recall how to do as was done, or whether best avoid it completely.

"This persistent review is strengthening to the soul. We all, ever momentarily, use hindsight as our guide to expectation.

"And also there is the comfort: perceiving the ever ceaseless heartbeat and the rising of the Sun. From hindsight we measure and predict that which is to come.

"To this also, we find our misdeeds and subsequent falls from Grace succour our inner divinity, putting reason to what might appear but random - that we might learn those actions that are convivial to Life, from those that would darken our familial hemisphere.

"The cynics contextualise hindsight as the mocking Spectre of an after-effect - saying wryly, that we may never know of something, ere it happens.

"And yet, this is - over aeons to moments - for our travelling souls - the very meaning of its talent that it affords us."

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

Needles Next Ride

6 am and Eve had a job interview - or at least that was what she liked to think of it as hopefully.

A one hour segment had become available in Community Programming at the Southport Radio Broadcasting where she had recorded six months earlier, with the winning proposal of a semi-scientific spiritual call-in chat show.

All this time later they just now had finally got back to her, needing to fill the 7 am spot that had become vacant with short notice.

“Must not be late” she emphatically reminded herself - setting two clocks and four alarms, to be certain of at least one actually working on time. The spirits were known for playing tricks with their settings - waking her at midnight, or cancelling them out entirely.

A strange unease came over Eve as she drove through the lane and out onto the open road. She dismissed this as simply being ‘nerves’ and rehearsed in her head what could be a great place to begin. Unbeknown to her, her passenger was back seated behind - Needles had waited all night expectantly for the next ride.

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