House of Glass

The house itself was not made of sugar, but of glass. Bricks of glass that had once live insects and small rodents inanimate, suspended within. It gave an eerie appearance to the hut from the outside, to see so many glassy eyes staring out from the glassy bricks; and trails of creatures seemingly crawling up the sides, yet suspended in their thick glassy containment.
Asquith loved to shock the world. At least that is how he saw it. He was a performer that ever sought out a terror-struck audience, one that would feed him the energetic rapture coming from that great surprise. Yet he took it further than most, drawing from those close enough to enter into his curved orbit, a measure of upset that they would carry away, whilst he retained greedily what happiness he had stole from them.

This is how most magicians of the evil variety work. They are vampires who trade the light for the darkness, compelling their audience to believe that they are far grander than they really are - exceptional to creation - all the while their facade magically covers their devilishly corrupted and failing interior.

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

The Magician

“The Magician", the fat man continued, “knows every evil sod from here to Hades”. He laughed. “That fur coach sounds to me a real easy association - he will know. Only my advice is, take him something. He won't warm to you if you go empty handed. It is important to trade. Oh, and be respectful."

“How do we find him?”

“Well, er, he looks like a child but is as old as my grandfather. He wears an emblem around his neck of a hawk eating a rabbit. His house is made of taffy sugar. Asquith is the name he goes by.

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

Green Dust

“There is a magician in the hills that can help you”, the fat man explained.

The fat man, was actually the name that this merchant of cheeses went by - and he wore this title proudly. This had become his signature, and in his own way he felt substantial within the world by it. While emaciated beggars and their thinned offspring fossicked though the nobility’s cast offs, he, with his factory of dairy fat was an emblem of prosperity and good health. Yay, the King himself was portly, he would say boastingly, to his five stout children. And this was so.

Jonathon and Tindle watched him as he spoke - the man never stopped sampling his own creations. They hoped he would offer them to taste also, but he did not. Jonathon relented, handing one fake coin to the cheesemaker in exchange for a cloth bag of hard remnant pieces.

“Just score the green from the sides like so,” he said showing his expertise at shaving mold. He continued, “keep it at the bottom, and it will encourage more of the same … and should you ever fever, the green dust makes an excellent tonic mixed with a little liquid that will revive you. It can cure all manner of malady.”

Jon knew this to be wise advice. He had seen his Ma use the very same - although from bread - when his Pa had stuck himself with a horse shoe tack that seeded pus in a wound that would not heal. The green dust medicine had sure made it all right again.

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

A Sprig of Violets

She poured two cups, then added cream and sugar onto the tray - then placed four slices of buttered cinnamon toast and a bowl of blackberries.

On the way back into her bedroom she tripped and fell head first onto the carpet before her. The tray and its contents went sailing clattering with the fall.

Embarrassed, Eve picked herself up and wiped the cream from her face, took the courage to look over to the bed and found that her new lover was missing - and immediately her first thought was that he may not have seen her fall at all - which was very fortunate all things considered.

Hers was an optimistic nature. She turned to go find him and knocked lightly on the bathroom door, pushed it open to find he was not inside there either - nor was he in the kitchen or the dining room - and then it dawned on Eve that he had simply gone. She went back to the bedroom and saw waiting for her the tray with the food as before - with one difference - there was a crystal vase upon it with a sprig of violets inside.

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

Feeling Lighter than Ever

Joseph Paton

Eve awoke to find herself enveloped in the broad arms of a man she could not recognize. She shimmied and wriggled sideways to the end of the bed and drew back, looking once again through foggy eyes … staring at the sleeping figure who seemed so very familiar.

He was still very much asleep.

Long, very long, curly hair draped over his pillow … well, it was her pillow - with his head on it. His skin had a sheen that was hard to describe … it did not look pitted and pored like an ordinary body - it actually did not look real at all and a feint aura of light seemed to emit from it - she squinted to try to clear her eyes and refocus - she could not determine his age, only that he was very tall and with the body of a god.

Eve slowly withdrew from the sheets and slyly huddled into a nearby silk robe, leaving to make coffee. Although she should have felt alarmed the truth was she felt lighter than ever, in fact, she felt better than she could recall ever feeling. Happiness travelled the whole length of her body.


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

At the End of the Tunnel

There was a tunnel, and a light and at the end of the tunnel, and through this light, was another tunnel and a brighter light. In the middle of this brighter light was a little box. Inside the box was a key to its lock. 

Mr Dickens arrived just in time to see the white rabbit abscond with the box, right before he could claim it for his own. He thought he heard the rabbit mutter something about being very late, dropping a pocket clock as he left. Mr Dickens picked up the small clock and saw its hands moving backwards.

Years later he related this story to a friend whose name was also Charles.

“You know how clocks keep step with the time in the present?” he began.

“Yes yes,” nodded the cleric, packing his already stuffed pipe.

"Well it appears that my pocket automata dictates time itself - it leads the dance, so to speak."

“How so?" asked Charles to Charles. He was not disconsiderate - in point of fact, he seriously admired his colleague and loved him for his great fascination of the world. Anything that Dickens said he sincerely believed.

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

Dragon Energy

The people often spoke of ‘dragon energy’ - not knowing exactly where it came from, or what it was.

When, as a little boy, Nathanius Tindle had placed his hand around the diamond cough drop, whereupon something of the energetic force was imparted, thus it was that he went on to grow to such an unusual gigantic height.

This was not its only gift, for his mind had accelerated also - and he took great pleasure prescribing mathematical solutions to configuring complex formulas, and geometrical understandings of geometry and the wonders of astronomy.

He knew that the principle of ‘as above, so below’ was in deed a primal fact: and that all forms within the material world had their essential patents elsewhere in the universe - that life was constantly repeated through these heavenly guidelines - forming and un-forming Creation.

It was probably just as well that Nathanius had lost the diamond, for its powers would have soon become too much for him, too great, too bold, for any one man, to know.

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