Chapter 27

There’s a pain that can’t be spoken.

Ash vani stumbled as she pushed herself on weary and sleep deprived, up to the brow of the hill. As the sighing breeze ruffled the striations of her russet hair … It was a hindrance that Kalithia province had so many rolling hills and trenches, but at last she saw her destination. Beyond the old fort of aranmore, in the distance, it lay, near the long burgundy grass and between the fields of lavender wheat and then just a little further, lay Marin village.

The rays of the sun shone through the crisp edges of the fields. It was a cold morning, but finally the temperature began to rise as the mist hung above the lower ground like an eiderdown.

Away from the road she marched briskly, she wasn’t alone, as panic pursued, it was exhausting. She heard the bustle of Wild meerwolves in the dense thicket; they were stalking her, out of view, following her scent as if she were an injured animal. watching in the undergrowth for the convenience for an easy kill. One she would refuse to give them.

She bared down heavy upon an old stick she’d found by the wayside, using it as a crutch.
Her uniform was tattered and heavily soiled through walking cross-country, over briars and nettles. A scourge on the once perfectly tailored fabric that now stank of sweat and reminded her of the killing.

It had been necessary to detach an arm from her jacket. The scarlet materials that had once been a badge of much honour, was now reduced to mere rags for dressings, a bind for her wounds. Her Armor she’d unfastened miles back; She cast it off without a moment’s hesitation. Like an anchor, it was of little use as she travelled light and fast.

She walked on through the morning mist and the phantoms of the old fields.
She pressed on through the long grass as she felt its dampness through her boots. Like a beggar, her face was smeared with dust, makeup and the splatter of dried blood. As she thirsted more than anything, the wind rose to meet her , as she as plucked a handful of leaves and moistened her tongue with the condensation of the morning. It tasted of chlorophyll, but it was better than nothing thought vani.

On the highest hilltop. She sheltered her eyes from the sunrise. She saw two descant silhouettes approaching from the north-west a woman and a man. They appeared familiar the man called “hello there!” In a posh well-spoken but middle-class accent as he lugged a wicker picnic hamper, which he carried upon his shoulder.
The woman she presumed must be the one they sang about in the halls of inisfree at witchaven (they nicknamed her the red redeemer) as they walked along the picturesque river road towards her, she somehow was lacking to live up to her reputation.

A dry stonewall separated them as straw and wild poppies poked occasionally through the neglected stones that were unsymmetrical. As vani neared them.

“Hello stranger, you are far from the border of Mercia, and in some distress, I see!” Said Vee

“Have we met before your face is familiar to me!” Added ūna as she gazed upon it, Long and hard.

Vani wasn’t sure if she wanted to reveal her identity.
She decided appealing to their hospitality was the pragmatic thing to do as she felt more drunk in listlessness.
“Please Pa’mina I seek no harm but to warn you of a terrible folly – Mercia has fallen, to the shae in a single night, and they are coming here next. I beseech an audience, nay I must be permitted to speak, with the Grandmarshal or our Captain, if she is here that is?” She pleaded
“Aye. She is here, and quite safe!” Answered ūna
“I have seen no other refugees pass this way leftenant,” Vee Said interrupting the two women conversing.
“The knightmare … Primavera he left none alive and his general the ogre Lo Ki has …”
She could not bring herself to finish her sentence it was too painful as it filled her full of wrath and rage as she broadcast her emotion from the windows that were her eyes.

“what’s your name soldier!” Said ūna trying to reach out to her.
“Ash Vani of the Queens Guard my Pa’mina,”
“may I call you Vani? I need you to relinquish your weapon before I can take you to meet them Vani!”

Ash Vani was reluctant “I’ll trade with you good sir!” She Said As she pointed at Vee!”

“A drink for quarantine of my sword!”
However, she would not receive the drink as Vani’s legs buckled underneath her, she could no longer resist slipping into a state of unconsciousness as she sunk into the fields of hay and poppies,
overcome at last to fatigue.
She mumbled to herself “as surely I will need it soo.”

She rose again in eventide like a white sail on top of a stout ship.

Beautiful music hung in the air ever had it played in the halls and corridors of her childhood home. Her father was a constructor of musings and harmonics.
She awoke as if still in the dream, “that music it’s magnificent!” She exclaimed as she slowly opened her eyes to see Wi Sako the tall striking Georgian with pure white hair. “You!” She Said As she recognized the man, she fought just days ago.

He grinned “I’m sorry mi ‘lady”
She felt awkward for many reasons but absurdly, the main reason was simply that anyone could think of her as a Lady, beneath her bravado, she secretly felt complimented.
Her skin was clean as she lay up in the Comfortable bed in a gown of immaculate whiteness as she peered up and enjoyed a moment of convalescence.

It was then she heard the voice of her Captain as she looked over to see her in good health, Weller than she had ever seen her before.
She smiled and was pleased for her. she wore the fine couture of the Kalithians.

“Captain!” Said Ash Vani as she sat up to attention as much as she was able too before her Commanding officer. “At ease Leftenant!” Said Min, “a little privacy please Wi Sako!” She asked as the tall Georgian put down his well-crafted lute and left the room.

She was happy to be reunited with her but there was a tinge of sorrow as she was reminded of her duty from her other life.
“What news have you bought me of Mercia city and its people, tell me about the fate of the Queen!”
“I’m sorry Captain!”
Li Min stood Grimm faced as she digested the information, as she covered her face in distress “the Prime Minister is dead, and our Queen … if she isn’t dead, then she’s horribly crippled.” The Captain let out a heavy sigh
“what of the people!”
“The Shae just slaughtered them indiscriminately Captain,”

“well then our enemy is not only the Shae, but time itself!”

“And the rest of the Guard, and the Household Cavalry?”

Ash Vani’s silence descended between them, “the few that remain went north to the Dark Woods with Leftenant Mir!”

“Then we are alone!”
Taking out a small bundle of clean clothing she gave them to Ash Vani also along with them was her sword in its scabbard. Li Min got up to leave “you’ll need those… Leftenant … there will be no surrender when they come!”
“Yes Captain, I’ll be ready for briefing ASAP!”
The Captain saluted her and left.

——
It was uncomfortable roaming through the deep subterranean channels walking to heal astride a giant spider. Besides obvious macabre reasons, what on Mars do you find to talk about?

There was just enough sound to hear how quiet it was, and just enough light to realise that it was incredibly dark.

So when at last , they spied a thin ray of starlight, like the thread of a spider slipping through a fissure, they breathed a sigh of relief and pressed on tookishly.

 Onward, they followed …Jn Joro the cuckoo bee spider up the winding spiral staircase that lead upwards to the higher ground and onwards toward a heavy iron portcullis type grate. It was hefty, damp and took all 3 of them to open it as they eventually made the immovable budge and heaved it open with a loud clank. It was yet night, that’s good she thought, there was still time. They filtrated into yet another empty courtyard like tiny ninjas; the courtyard sat adjacent a building of exquisite architectural majesty it had tall spires and arches of white silver that glistened in the nightlight.

The little sprite lingered contemplating her navel as her inner workings of her mind whirred, for some reason, unknown to her, she seemed to have a notion of Deja Vu, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she knew she had stood downwind on this actual spot, but not as a factor of reincarnation. She recalled standing on the steps surrounded by numerous strange faces looking back at her with genuine devotion as fireflower petals littered the sky in many colors and fell like confetti.
And her feet, her feet trod along a regal red carpet.

“Hey!” Nudged Elkie as she made her return to reality with a bump. “Are you ok!”
Brownie nodded
“you look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
“I. I’m ok, stop fussing!”
She said reorienting herself to her surroundings.

There was something else haunting her, a strange distant sound soothing like the sound of a solo violin playing a sad melody from afar. The Sprite looked toward Elkie “do you hear that?!” She asked as the young ghost strained her ear.
“No!” She replied on a cryptic note perhaps seeming a tad cruel.

“Is the sprite hearing things or merely recalling, in this place of resonance,” said Jn Joro pretentiously!

Meanwhile the clockwork doormouse, in finishing his work, scurried up the leg of Brownies Pantaloons, eventually he found her pocket, took a bow and silently without any fuss curled up and went back to sleep as the hiss of his winding key could be heard to wind itself down.

“We’re supposed to meet a friend here, Grozette said so!” She Said nasally and then paused “. However, I see no one else here,” she gazed over the empty courtyard, the sprite in her next breath said, “you don’t suppose that was them making the music.”
“I… heard nothing!” Stated Joro much to her annoyance.

“We’ll all right… let’s have a look, shall we?!” Said the Spider as she entertained Brownie’s whim, they walked up the steps passed the great double doors and then to a smaller tradesmen entrance.
There was a small almond-shaped viewing hole that was just big enough for one of Jn Joro’s legs. She poked it through cautiously
and felt around, “got it!” She Exclaimed As they overheard the lock opening from the other side.
The door pushed open as the innards of a fantastic Temple greeted them. Inside they saw, tall ivory columns reaching up to silver inlaid Murals of breathtaking art painted upon the ceiling and white marble flooring with what looked like seams of gold entwined into the marble.

There were banners and bows that hung decoratively,
it was almost as if the place had been perfectly preserved, for reasons unknown.

And was in waiting.

Brownie thought she could make out a choir of voices singing in harmony… it was sad and beautiful, it almost brought her to tears.

The song;
The Brownie sang to me, “My mother won’t mind
And the wind will not mock you for your lack of kind.”
As she walked in starlight and o’er waters wild and grey,

she passed by the meadows and gently slipped away”

She stepped away from me, and she moved through’ the night
And fondly I watched her move through candle Light.
And she made her way westward with one star awake.
As the breeze in the evening moved over the lake.

I dreamt, she came to me. She came softly in
So softly she came that her feet made no din,
And she laid her hand on me in the cold winters eve:
“The silk faery illusive, she tarries … I grieve.

She moved in the wheat field, and she moved by the trees,
she chatters and whispers, to those that can hear
On the hearth in the embers the first light of morn,
One day she’ll return, and a new day will dawn.

The Sprite looked at them “did you hear that?” Joro Answered “hear no, felt in mind, yes the last impression, the lament for the Brownie.” She Said As she nodded although it was impossible to read Jn Joros body language. The great Spider of Mars took leave of them prematurely, skulking off, walking about the walls as she scurried along towards the alter and out of sight.

Brownie & Elkie watched on beguiled by the exquisite regalness of the temple.
It was indeed a treasure in itself -the Psychic Temple of Marsly Knowledge

she returned after a moment’s absence, clutching a huge leaf that she unrolled like a contortionists Mat. It showed a single dot of black goo that she drank it down fervently.
“jinku. Yum!” She said putting a name to her poison

Jinku; from what Brownie could gather was apparently fermented spider venom, which allowed the spiders of mars to do certain things, normal arachnids which had not yet reached a second puberty could not.

Jn Joro drank the black liquid down. She recoiled as if drinking a potent brew “oh!” She Moaned in exquisite Ecstasy “that’s as sweet as blood sugar!” She Said As she visibly shook.

Like an elixir of Dr Jekyll, it allowed her to change her form to resemble a more humanoid shape!

However, post transformation … her appearance looked a little unnerving. Not that she was ugly, it was merely the fact that her musculoskeletal features moved about in a strange unnatural way.
“Gross!” Said Elkie tactlessly “if I could barf, I’d be on my third bucket by now!”

Her face now, was that of a woman with fierce black eyes, that were as dark as coal. She wore loose flowing silk garments of black and amber, which hid her real form beneath them.
She had slightly more humanoid looking limbs than previously but still they were insect like and 8 in number, nevertheless she covered these signs well beneath her long flowing shawl Cape.

“Joro! I have a dilemma!” Said Brownie as she tried her best at diplomacy to tackle a topic which she found irksome.
Looking into her humanoid face, which sat cold and still without a blink or a twitch. As Elkie huddled in around her as she too was interested in what she had to say.

Jn Joro acknowledged her as soft moonlight caught her hair, which was also strange because its colour was Prussian blue like the complexion of her skin.

“What is it sprite child!” She uttered in the fanciful whisper of a spider’s tone.
“I found a note a while back, and it said to take this key and find the keeper?!” She Said conflating that Jn Joro was a custodian of the temple.

She held the key aloft, and it sparkled in the starlight.
The spider smiled across her unusually frozen face, as her black eyes glimmered, and she hooked the lariat it hung on, and examined it more thoroughly “what did Grozette tell you about this key?”
“I can’t exactly remember, she said some stuff about it finding me, and it could take me to Whenever, wherever I wanted to go, and that it didn’t really open anything at all,” She Blurted out as if finally experiencing the relief of ejaculating the secret and feeling her spirit lighten. She was still thinking about anything she may have missed. “OH! she also said that it was very very rare indeed!”

The key glistened in the light of the stars as the painite-ruby inlaid into its head looked as vibrant as the first moment she had come across it at the underpass in Mārin village.

“I can see you know nothing of witches. They are like the white waters crashing hard on the tidal barricades in the tempest, all bluster!,” she smiled a disturbing smile and continued with a clearer approach.
Giving herself a backhanded compliment she said, “never let it be said that I am a false widow!”

“Mmmmmm…. She’s gotten about 90% of that right, but not all of it … no, not all!She said talking to herself “this key is an Ascension key. They are truly very very rare. However, this key is even more coveted. It’s probably the only one in existence… why? You may ask, well I’ll tell you! This key is a Royal key, and indeed unlocks something, something in this very building.”
“I’ll show you!” She urged them to follow her, which excitingly they did whilst conjuring notions in their psyche as to what it may unlock, Elkie asked lightheartedly “are we getting warmer?” Tittering to herself in a state of hyperactivity as she found the whole fiasco mildly amusing “surely we must be about to burst into flames!” As they stopped short and now faced a very plain wall that was uninspiring to say the least.

“There!” she said pointing with one of her appendages.
Brownie looked at the wall and then back at Joro “but there’s no key hole!”
“Are you quite sure…. look again!” She prompted her. She held the key aloft in front of the wall. It was then a distant chink of starlight hit the painite Ruby and illuminated the wall with an infrared luminosity. A memory of starlight in water as it candescently showed the faint suggestion of something that had been drawn out with invisible chalk.
She pushed the key into the keyhole it met the wall and entered into the wall like a nail penetrating a piece of wood, the odd thing was, there was no resistance. Slowly, she turned the key, there was a low rumbling noise like the sound of distant thunder, as Elkie held her breath.

Elkie “shouted wait where are you going?” As she found her arm and hung on to it
“I need to find out what’s in there Elkie!”
“How do you know it’s safe!!!”
“I think it’s something she has to do my little ghost!” Said Joro condescendingly.
“That’s not helping!” She snapped
against Brownies protestations
“I have to go Elkie!”
“Well, I’m coming with you then!”
“The moon goddess said don’t you go letting her stray into no harm Li Elkie, and I don’t mean to!” She said more in a whisper to herself as if it were a san kalpa tearfully clutching on to failure as she said futilely “I don’t mean to!”

Brownie and Elkie disappeared into the darkness of the room as Jn Joro stood at the doorway “I’ll wait for you here little ones,” as the two of them were gone and there were no signs they had ever been there.

Before long, the pair of them found themselves in a forest as they could see the plumes of the Aurora Feya closely in the mist of what appeared to be morning, they followed it through the coppices of trees until they settled themselves in straying into a magical clearing as a silver waterfall trickled into a slow running stream. They saw a shadow of a man his attention was turned away from them as he was looking into the far distance, yet he spoke to them in the masculine velvet tones of a man, “hello your eminence, hello mi lady welcome!”
Brownie went to go closer to the stranger as he turned revealing a Martian with rams’ horns and golden eyes. He had an athletic build which he shrouded in a cloak of meerwolves fur. a single red braid was tied into his soft jet-black hair. Be careful sprite!” said Elkie the little Brownie replied in a calm state of tranquility, “it’s all right Elkie… I think it meant us to always come here; we’re the lost girls!” As she acknowledged her companions’ fears.

The man responded “indeed. You were, lost girls no, no… just absent”
“I’m Brownie …!” She declared hoping he would divulge his identity.

“I know who you are my child!” He said as nature encircled them and could be felt and embraced all about them. creatures seen, and unseen rustled amongst the undergrowth, the heave of the water flowing into the channels, the murmur of the trees and the restlessness of the wind as the breeze stroked the long red prairie gently.
The music of nature, life, followed all about them like a pulse, a heart that beats like a drum.

They almost didn’t want to know his name.
But Elkie asked anyhow,” Begging your pardon, but who are you?” As her curiosity got the better of her.
“Li Elkie … you are indeed a rare flower and altogether fearless I might add.” he said as if she was known to him.

“I’ve had so many names, old names, that even the river and the trees have forgotten in their old age. Names that perhaps only the wind could pronounce. And only the stars in their heavens could understand. I am the mountain, the forest and the earth.”

There was something Brownie recalled about this man she felt connected to him in her blood as it sang out to her
“ I’m pleased to meet you once again your eminence!”

As he folded himself over and bowed to the young sprite.

“My daughter,”