Mantle of Allergy

The end of the world is not a time, but a place …

-from the book of Faerie

In all of his immortal years Goober had had suffered the problem of not being taken seriously. Up until now he had accepted his role in paradise, in the garden, and in the world, as being secondary to everything else.

He would always be the support act to his best friend Puck, and his humble concerns would but shadow the greats around him. He was content to be a bystander, never an instigator, in fact, up until now, he thought himself to be content with just about everything.

Small creatures might nibble at his toes or scuffle around his feet, because they felt safe around this gentle soul. He was Puck’s confidante, uncle to many, but father to none.

Now he had taken this time for himself at the retreat, and the mantle of allergy had lifted off and was then disposed of by one of the Brothers. It had happened during a blessing at the burial of one of their elderly residents. Just prior to cremation one of the Masters approached Goober where he sat and lifted the parasitic shroud from his etheric person, and then proceeded to place it onto the deceased only minutes before his body was ignited. The crusty armour was now completely dissipated, and the relief for Goober was instantaneous.

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

Catching Up

Enid now appeared in her forties - her creases and lines had all disappeared - and her vitality with its own special signature shone through. She was unmistakably Granny Smith, but with the beauty of a fairy grandmother, her soul was astoundingly gracious, vibrant and tensile.

If Eve could have had any wish on that day it would have been to see Enid again. She clutched her coffee cup, lest it fall, and said out loud, “I am so happy that you have come to see me”.

“I would have come sooner, but my review took me far away for a time - and there were so many people to catch up with, and oh, how the time goes. I always felt you by me dear, and longed for this time also. Your grandfather is doing well, now that he has awakened to his eternal self - but it took awhile for him to find it, and be comfortable with his acquired spirit sight…”

Eve started to cry. The distance between herself and her grandmother was oscillating between being incredibly close and impossibly distant - within a breath and a heart beat, as intimate as spirit can be - but yet she could not hold her hand or feel her warmth, and the division between the ethereal world and where she sat on the couch in the present, immeasurably wide and lonely. And then, in a whisper, the vision of Enid withdrew, leaving Eve to herself once more alone.

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

Granny Appears

Eve picked up her knitting to settle into an orderly distraction. Needlework was another legacy of Granny Smith’s, and although she was young for the hobby, Eve was proud of her cables and intricate stitches … working on a coat for Caspar, the terrier next door who suffered from the cold and palsy.

With a mug of cinnamon coffee and her ‘cable tv’ she settled in for the lonely hours ahead. Although it had been several years since Granny Smith had passed away, she had never, not once, in spirit, dropped by. This mystified Eve sadly to ponder, as to why this wonderfully strong woman had disappeared from her life as she did. Still, Eve liked to believe that Granny was around her and caring, even if she could not directly sense her presence …

And then, as though in answer to her sadness, a light appeared in the corner of the room, and for the first time, in a very long time, she saw the face she loved so much.

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

Moral Cornerstone

She waited, and she waited, but Puck did not show. It was May day - a day that was meant to be full of love and frolicking, but instead it was yet another let down in her calendar of non-events. Even her invisible community of friends and associates had cleared off for the day - probably gone to do their celebrating elsewhere, repelled by the shadow of her disenchantment.

Eve would have poured herself some wine if she drank it - however, as her wise and very clairvoyant grandmother used to say: “you canna see the Spirits if you partake in the spirits”. Granny Smith (yes, really) was a stickler for sobriety - and the moral cornerstone of her family … Granny’s virtue was unchallenged.


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

Soul from Former Times

One vivid presentation that came to her [Eve] was of simply sitting on the step of the cottage playing with a tendril of ivy, winding it slowly through her fingers, soaking in the warmth of the morning sun. A strange set of visions showed her, of all things, a large bear - to wit she could make no sense of what this could mean. Could he be a symbol of something? And who was this sad spirit?

It was more than a womanly kinship that she shared with this soul from former times - much more. Eve thought that these pictures and feelings came from yet another soul whose suffering impregnated the ethers for times to come: but no, this woman, whose name was Hannah Mary, was herself, and these memories were hers. But amongst the catalogue of forlorn stories, of emotions and struggles and characters of being, she had not the wherewithal to find her former self amidst their clairaudient noise.

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

Reoccurring Visions

Back on the road travelling home, Eve’s red ‘Noddy car’ wound its way through the country lanes - this time taking the back streets running parallel to where she had come to grief a few months before.

She was hurrying back, hoping that Puck would be waiting for her - he had promised to return on this day - the first of May - and she had believed him.

Meeting this other-worldly ‘Adonis’ had been just the distraction she had needed. Her mind had been full of personalities that kept presenting in a procession wanting to be heard. The spirits who would frequent her consciousness sought her attention repeatedly and with the pressing insistence of one ignored.

Added to this were the reoccurring visions that came to her: snapshots of another time that Eve experienced. Ever since she had visited the cottage where a tragedy with an infant had taken place … she had seemed to have been seeing through the eyes of another woman.

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

Somewhere between Faerie & this World

N. Mills Price

The Hode - Robin - had managed to accomodate a good many strangers in their treed Community - it was estimated at times to be numbered beyond five hundred dwelling there all at once. This was far from the depiction of them being but a ‘band of merry men’ - who were of course the brothers of poverty that he travelled with also.

To properly frame this picture one must first know of Robin’s Elven heritage and how it was that he could effect the many magical happenings around him. Robin had created a space that was not exactly part of the land of Faerie, nor was it of this World - it lay somewhere in between - where both mortal and immortal could co-dwell. 

This space was not infinitely abounding - in truth, it would have measured only two hundred acres or less - yet it was large enough to conceal and keep his darling community. For the main part, those that were offered a place there seldom left, for the rain was sweet and the sun was a comfort, and food grew in abundance for all. 

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