Maniac's Mirror

PART 3 The Timebook of Clocks 'Whispers on the wind'

  Ivanushka:

   

  As I talked to the wind of sacrifice and dedication

  It seemed amazed by the divine intervention.

  Who owns the trees

  Who runs the breeze

  Who owns the serpent

  Who rings the bell

  Who plants the bombs

  Who cries

  Who eats the slice

  What else do they fear besides faith

  Mouse wins the frog race

  I feel I am real

  Only when I am alone

   

  They talk to me in all the languages except the one I know, I don’t know whether they understand my language or not. They can come in any form, and each has a unique face but the master has no face, no identity, you only know when he is gone.

  Alyonushka:

   

  New blood joins this earth

  And quickly she's subdued

  Through constant pained disgrace

  The young girl learns their rules

  With time the child draws in

  Deprived of all her thoughts

  The young girl struggles on and on she's known

  A vow unto her own

  That never from this day

  Her will they'll take away

  Throughout her life the same

  She’s battled constantly

  This fight she cannot win

  A tired girl they see no longer cares

  You level me I'll level you

  So I dub thee unforgiven.

   

  Whenever a new soul enters universe an unknown power takes control over it and suppresses the primal nature of the soul. This unknown power may be sentient or it may be a machine driven by some mysterious energy, it may be good or evil. No one may ever know the story of the one who fought to free many souls like theirs from this unknown power but they know a name.

   

  Ivanushka:

   

  I do not know what to say, one thing I know I am anxious, troubled, restless, my heart is heavy, my body tense, my hands cold and sweaty, my speech is rushed, trying to say a hundred things at once. I do not know what I need... You do… In my anxious search, I fret and fume, running around in circles, while you fly silently nearby, infinitely patient, eager to help me, and wielding power beyond my needs. I feel like a barren wasteland, giving nothing getting nothing meaning nothing to anyone. I have dragged myself to mirage after mirage and yet I find myself rushing to the next false oasis. I seem a frustrating bundle of contradictions, I wonder if I will ever sort out the tangled threads of my life. I fear that others will not like me if I tell them what is really on my mind, my words sound foolish even to myself as I try to explain. I realize now that I am talking to someone who knows me through and through, you know my inmost secrets, my deepest desires and the very sources of my worry.

   

  Alyonushka:

  Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead, where there is no path and leave a trail. You should be true for there are those who trust you, pure for there are those who care, strong for there is much to suffer and brave for there is much to dare. And when you come to a meeting of many ways and do not know which to choose, do not choose at random but pause and reflect, breath with the trusting deep breaths you took when you first came into the world; let nothing distract you, be still and listen in silence to your heart, when it has spoken to you rise up and follow it.

   

  Ivanushka:  

   

  On a long and lonesome highway

  You can listen to the engines moaning out as one note song

  But your thoughts will soon be wandering

  The way they always do

  And you feel the eyes upon you

  As you’re shaking off the cold

  You pretend it doesn’t bother you

  But you just want to explode

  Most times you can’t hear ‘em talk

  Other times you can

  And you always seem outnumbered

  You don’t dare make a stand

  Make your stand

  Out there in the spotlight

  You’re a million miles away

  And here I am on the road again

  There I am - up on a stage

  Here I go - playing star again

  There I go - turn the page

  Life it seems will fade away

  Drifting further every day

  Getting lost within myself

  Nothing matters no one else

  I have lost the will to live

  Simply nothing more to give

  There is nothing more for me

  Need the end to set me free

  Things are not what they used to be

  Missing one inside of me

  Deathly lost, this can’t be real

  Cannot stand this hell I feel

  Emptiness is filling me

  To the point of agony

  Growing darkness taking dawn

  I was me, but now he’s gone

  No one but me can save myself, but it’s too late

  Now I can’t think, think why I should even try

  Yesterday seems as though it never existed

  Death greets me warm, now I will just say goodbye.

   

  Cold was my soul

  Untold was the pain

  I prayed when you left me

  A rose in the rain

  So I swore to the razor

  That never, enchained

  Would your dark nails of faith

  Be pushed through my veins again

  Bared on your tomb

  I'm a prayer for your loneliness

  And would you ever soon

  Come above onto me

  For once upon a time

  On the binds of your loneliness

  I could always find the right slot for your sacred key

  Six feet deep is the incision

  In my heart,

  That barless prison

  Discolors all with tunnel vision

  Sick and weak from my condition

  This lust, this vampyric addiction

  To her alone in full submission

  Wicked with your charm

  I'm circled like prey

  Back in the forest

  Where whispers persuade

  More sugar trails

  More white lady laid

  The pillars of salt

  Fold to my arms

  Hold their mesmeric sway

  And dance out to the moon

  As we did in those golden days

  Glistening stars I remember the way

   

  Sorrow is my bread

  And tears I drink as wine

  Oblivion my happiness

  Ground under teeth of time

  For cold be the stone

  When frost devours the land

  Consolation is no gift for winter's icy hand

  Upon a crust of snow

  I'll lay my broken frame

  What steel and iron won't take

  I'll give in winter's name

  If only I could breathe

  To see the sun of may

  But still longer are the nights than days

  As I wither away.

  Reverend, is this some conspiracy

  Crucified for no sins

  No revenge beneath me

  Lost within my plans for life

  It all seems so unreal

  I'm a girl cut half in this world

  Left in my misery

  The reverend he turned to me

  Without a tear in his eyes

  It's nothing new for him to see

  I didn't ask him why

  Now I watch the falling rain

  All my mind can see now is your face

  Well I guess you took my youth

  And gave it all away

  Like the birth of a new-f
ound joy

  This love would end in rage

  I will unlock my door

  And pass the cemetery gates

  Sometimes when I'm alone

  I wonder aloud

  If you're watching over me

  Some place far abound

  I must reverse my life

  I can't live in the past

  Then set my soul free

  Belong to me at last

  Through all those complex years

  I thought I was alone

  I didn't care to look around

  And make this world my own

  And when he died

  I should have cried and spared myself some pain

  You left me incomplete

  All alone as the memories still remain

   

  Alyonushka:

   

  Lay beside me

  Tell me what they have done

  Speak the words I want to hear

  To make my demons run

  The door is locked now

  But it's open if you're true

  If you can understand the me

  Than I can understand the you

  Lay beside me under wicked sky

  Through black of day dark of night

  We share these bitter lies

  The door cracks open

  But there's no sun shining through

  Black heart scarring darker still

  What I've felt what I've known

  Turn the pages turn the stone

  Sick and tired I stand alone

  Could you be there?

  'Cause I'm the one who waits for you

  Or are you unforgiven too?

  She loves me not, she loves me still

  But she'll never love again.

   

  Ivanushka:

   

  I'll tell you a story where there were three worlds namely X,Y and Z. X can contact only Y,Y can contact only Z, Z can contact only X. Now you whisper something to X, X will say that to Y; Y cannot reply to X but Y will say what they heard from X to Z and Z will forward that information to X, and then X thinking of it as a new information will say the same thing again to Y and since they have no memory this way the same information will keep on circling for eternity, but if something goes wrong as any imperfection in receiving or transmitting information occurs in any one of the world the information will change. X is me when I’m time. Arizel whispers something in my brain. Y are the Shanurians. Z are the inhabitants of the planet I live in right now. I have understood that sentient beings in my universe Upnafed are of seven types:

  1.a) Those who don’t know anything about me.

  2.b) Those who can only watch my actions.

  3.c) Those who can only listen what I speak and noises around me.

  4.d) Those who are listening to my thoughts.

  5.e) Those who can do more than one of the above.

  6.f) Those who can even see my dreams and those who can alter them.

  My planet is filled with machine people who pretend to do their work but also keep total knowledge about me, they know even if I lost a single strand of my hair and they never let me know this fact. They carry on their works as if I was one like them. I pursued signs and the chain of events preceding them; I started to bring changes in my behavior and started acting out my plans, and they always did something to counter my attempts. Sometimes I feel they listen to my thoughts, or they are tampering my life because, I get such signs; I am never sure about anything; they want me to think that either I am a miracle or some organization’s science project. I have realized by now that there are many parallel universes whose people are trying to contact me. Sometimes, I hear someone nearby shouting my names I think maybe they can tell something about my origins, however, their voices are muffled; when I jump to the center of the source of the voice, I find a huge crowd there without an answer. Sometimes when I think something in my mind, and suddenly someone from far abound shouts the same thing that I was thinking. I run to find the source of the voice but couldn’t find anyone. I’ am not responding to the sound these people make. To make me trust them they enact plans because of which I start doubting them more. When will they understand it’s hard to trust anything when you have seen magic? It seems everyone I see are actors. Maybe they are forced by someone or they are robots or just illusion. Either I am making fool of the world (knowingly or unknowingly can’t tell), or the world is making fool of me. And family issues never end not in a rude sense.

   

  Sitting here in black Upnafed eating re fried beans

  We’re in all the magazines

  Gulping' down Thorazine

  We ain't got no friends

  Our troubles never end

  I'm friends with the President

  I'm friends with the Pope

  We’re all making a fortune selling coal

  Don’t remember where I was

  When I realized life was a game

  More seriously I took things

  The harder the rules became

  I had no idea what it’d cost

  My life passed before my eyes

  I found out how little I accomplished

  All my plans denied

  If my heart was still alive

  I know it would surely break

  And my memories left with you

  There’s nothing more to say.

   

  Now wherever I go, good Shanurians come to watch my back, they give me tight security in one form or the other from the bad Shanurians but they don’t reveal themselves to me. In one manner, I m not a prisoner I can do anything. These good Shanurians who are watching me are present in one form or the other wherever I roam in this universe may be they are thinking I do not know about them. Now which type of Shanurian I get to deal with that only Creator might know. In a long race, in a stadium when you are leading, and you complete one lap so fast that you leave others far behind then a point comes when you again come behind them, at that time those who have noticed you from the beginning will only know that it is your second lap, others who didn’t notice you from start or uninformed will think you are lagging.

   

  Feel no pain, but my life isn’t easy

  I know you are my best friend

  No one cares, but I'm so much stronger

  I'll fight until the end

  To escape from this true false world

  Undamaged destiny

  Can't get caught in the endless circle

  Ring of stupidity

  One with my mind, they just can't see

  No need to hear things that they say

  Life is for my own to live my own way

  Rape my mind and destroy my feelings

  Don't tell me what to do

  I don't care now, 'cause I'm on my side

  And I can see through you

  Feed my brain with your so called standards

  Who says that I ain't right

  I am the world that hides

  The universal secret of all time

  Destruction of the empty spaces

  Is my one and only crime

  I lived a thousand times

  I found out what it means to be believed

  Well, I know it hard for you

  To know the reason why

  And I know you'll understand

  When it's time to die

  I don't believe the knife you have

  Will be the only one

  You have to let your body weep

  To let your soul live on.

   

  Alyonushka:

   

  It makes me wonder

  Your head is humming and it won’t go

  In case you don’t know

  God is calling me to join him.

  You surprised me

  Seeing a me I never saw

  Thanks for meeting me

  Where it matters most to meet

  For opening my eyes

  To wha
t I could not see alone

  See me as your fellow pilgrim

  Not as your teacher

  For seer and seeker are we both.

   

  Ivanushka:

   

  Lay beside me tell me what I've done

  The door is closed so are your eyes

  But now I see the sun

  I know now that you are the only one

  I'm lucky to have met you

  I traveled through a tube and ended up in your infection

  With eyes so dilated I've become your pupil

  You've taught me everything without a poison apple.

   

  I’m doing what Alyonushka told me to do before he willingly sacrificed himself for my freedom. He once said ‘we all are the prisoners in the same but different worlds.’ All of us are alone in the darkness, but we have to save every soul. Alyonushka has bonded all of us. I am a person who floats with the current, never guiding myself according to higher principles, have no idol no convictions. I am a thing instead of living and moving being an echo not a voice. I bring justice and truth for us and vendetta for them.

   

  I set sail across the seas

  Of long past memories

  Fantasies end as I merge with reality

  Welcome to where time stands still

  No one leaves and no one will

  Moon is full, never seems to change

  Just labeled mentally deranged

  Dream the same thing every night

  I see our freedom in my sight

  No locked doors, No windows barred

  No things to make my brain seem scarred

  Sleep my friend and you will see

  That dream is my reality

  They keep me locked up in this cage

  Can't they see it's why my brain says rage?

  Build my fear of what's out there

  And cannot breathe the open air

  Whisper things into my brain

  Assuring me that I'm insane

  They think our heads are in their hands

  But violent use brings violent plans

  No more can they keep us in

  Listen, damn it, we will win

  Fear of living on

  Natives getting restless now

  Mutiny in the air

  Got some death to do

  Mirror stares back hard

  Kill it's such a friendly word

  Seems the only way

  For reaching out again

   

  Alyonushkas:

   

  Howling winds keep screaming round

  And the rain comes pouring down

  Doors are locked and bolted now

  As Ivanushka crawls into town

  Straight out of hell

  One of a kind

  Stalking her victims

  Don’t look behind you

  Sanctuary is being sought

  Whispered prayers a last resort

  Terror struck we know we are caught

  Beware the beast in black

  You know she’s coming back Ivanushka

  As night is falling

  The end is drawing near we hear

  Our last rites echo on the wind

  Huddled in the cellar

  Fear caught in their eyes

  Daring not to move or breathe

  As the she creature cries

  Fingernails start scratching

  On the outside wall

  Clawing at the windows

  Come to me it calls

  Atmospheres electric

  As Ivanushka now descend the stairs.

   

  Ivanushka:

   

  If you listen very hard

  The truth will come to you at last

  When all are one and one is all

  Evil eyes behind their smiles

  You swallow it up when sincerity lies

  Alert the press and address the states of emergency

  We the crew you love to hate

  First mistake, you were never ready

  Dance with the dead, better be ten times more deadly

  This is me, I'm always the same

  Virus in the system,

  Crash the mainframe

  Up rise, now fall in line

  Roll with the pack or get left behind

  "It's a Masterpiece Conspiracy"

  I'd rather hear it from you

  Than be lied to

  Deceived again

  Exposed by the light, true colors ascend

  Take down the regime, break the trend

  Deceived by your peers and your so-called friends

  Keep your people tight,

  Watch your enemies close

  Trust what you know,

  Soon enough they'll choke

  Where were you when we started this thing?

  You weren't around, this isn’t yours to claim

  You'll never take what's been given to us

  Wipe that smile off your face and that look of disgust

  Up rise, now fall in line Roll with the pack,

  Or get left behind.

   

  Now who are trapped how much deep they are, depends on their personal choices. Anyways whoever is right now trapped or who are going to be trapped they should know I have left many different clues and milestones in different worlds like this Timebook of Clocks, you’ll find them if you are true when you crawl your way out, but whether you’ll understand them it depends upon the factor that when you were free you were watching me or was there with me or didn’t knew me at all. Let this moment be x. Suppose after x, I spent my time doing quotidian work and died but if I couldn’t do what Shanurians wanted me to, then they would put me and my life again at x (they have to set everything around me as it was at the moment x) and from there Shanurians would try some other methods to achieve what they want. The residents of the planet are not aware of this, and they will never be, as Shanurians control their minds these Shanurians are immortal, and they manage to find me every time I run away, they want me to do something desperately. Shanurians have command over my life they can forward, rewind or pause my life anytime, but that doesn’t bother me; I can’t feel any difference just some sense of de javu or I see some visions while I’m awake. Now if any face that had come in my life after x I won’t be able to recognize it in the present life. I play hide and seek, and I’m the Dan I have to seek similar faces that are hiding from me in a crowded room. I now play the role that others choose for me as a scarecrow.

   

  Alyonushkas:

  The black and green scarecrow as everyone knows

  Stood with a bird on his hat and straw everywhere

  He didn't care

  His head did no thinking

  His arms didn't move except when the wind cut up Rough and mice ran around on the ground

  The black and green scarecrow is sadder than me

  But now he's resigned to his fate

  'Cause life's not unkind - he doesn't mind.

  He stood in a field where barley grows.

   

  Ivanushka:

   

  I met the leader (Alyonushka) today

  He is as good as dead

  But has showed me a way

  I have awaken dead people from their cemeteries

  Or I think they weren’t dead from the beginning

  Anyways they are not zombies,

  I’ am telling this because today I saw a ghost,

  Someone I thought was dead long ago.

  His name was Tarkone

  He was a famous person at his home.

  They are doing instant justice in our cases.

  Don’t always trust the sound.

  They usually hit when I’m nostalgic.

  I’m trapped I’m not.

  The restraint is stopping them from hitting me.

   

  There is this machine that Kilkanuks have built for the Shanurians
it is giving points based on your actions in the tests; I mean that you have to please a machine. Trust me on this and forfeit your nightmares. Sometimes I or my clones punish the Shanurians; sometimes they punish me and you. In this game there is only one outcome of your action that matters anyway (good or bad), you perform any action in any way the result will be the same. In this trial, consent of the subject has no link with the free will of the subject. I thought of writing a book but who will understand it. I have heard it said that you can write a book and publish it while you are in a solitary confinement but you know you can’t go out and see whether they have really published it or not or if they have altered the content of it. People like me are all in the same prison we all are undergoing the same punishment. I think I know what they want. There is only one way to escape out of the prison.

   

   I’ am sorry you could not escape but I did for a while somehow to another universe where nobody knew me and which was normal, they called it Arindhara but I came back for you. If anyone would have told me about the way to figure out the password then I would not have been able to escape, it’s the way it works if you are following the way to escape by establishing it on your own then you will escape but if you are following the rules of escaping by learning it from somewhere else, then I can’t say where it will lead you, that is the reason your allies on your planet (Alyonushka’s friends) will never tell you directly what you should do they will not even reveal that they are your allies they may do opposite .This theory that the foreknowledge of the way will eliminate any hope of escape is being tested as I write this or is already tested and implemented somewhere as a law. Just remember in the game in which you are trapped you are one of a kind nobody knows what you can do, so no one can tell you what to do. Other are also trapped in the same game in the same time but you won’t know, in a way no one except you is trapped in this snare built by Kilkanuks for Shanurians. All about whom you care their souls are trapped somewhere else, not around you what you see is a strange illusion. You will always be wondering who is friend and who is enemy because of the signs you’ll receive. These signs about which others have no idea maybe significant maybe not, I haven’t learned what I have learned. I have no enemy no friend once you come out of this maze you’ll know who was your friend; the enemy is same for all of us, you’ll know about him. I had a dream when I came out; I was welcomed by my friends who I thought were trapped but there were few who were still enslaved. Kilkanuks are controlling the free will of you and all the sentient beings around you so stop blaming anyone for their actions, as you will make your way to the exit your free will would become stronger. You’ll think they are hiding things from you because they think you are hiding things from them. I know it’s not your doing, you are innocent keep in mind that you can’t do anything about it they’ll take you to the top one time they will ditch you another time don’t waste your time thinking why, just don’t bother you have to keep going on with one thing in mind that you must to escape. Every sentient thing in your world has knowledge about you, false or true does not matter, you have to trust that there is something you know that only you and nobody in your world knows, this something will give you your key to liberty. Although I have been through all that I have, I do not regret the many hardships I met, because it was they who brought me to the place I wished to reach. I was the one who chose to walk this path. Now I live because I am a warrior and because I wish one day to be in the company of him (your master Alyonushka) for whom I have fought so hard. I do not know I did it knowingly or not, what I know is I’m destroying the bars that enslave you. True courage is not the brutal force of vulgar heroes, but the firm resolves of virtue and reason. Now those whom I send to the Toolshed they are nostalgic. They are forced by the creator to help me. Division is judas inside my Toolshed, in your place its survival and somewhere its glory. I bring my prisoners their dead. I have strict masters. Wherever I may go, in heaven or in hell I have to pay them for the thing that should not be. Master, I have tried getting this uniform off but failed. Master you can come in any guise. When I catch the masters of the unknown powers in their trick I gain or lose something that I haven’t yet fully understood. No one can imagine what powers I have for example I can have any history I want. My wishes have been terminated as now it was easy for the Kilkanuks to track all the information about me. Either you are losing points or you are gaining points nothing else is happening. All you receive may be a trap or a key password. Alyonushka’s secret tells us that when you have a wish or a dream to fulfill first you have to choose yourself a small god (who is bodily present in your world). When you chase your dream you will face countless obstructions, you have to keep on fighting without giving up, but soon a point will come when you will start breaking and in the end you will give up, do not think all your efforts have gone in vain, you will be rewarded for your efforts and will be sent to some other world with a new life and sometimes new history but you may or may not remember your previous life. Now you may want to know what kind of reward you will get, it may be the same thing for which you fought or something better but you will have to share the prize with others who have fought for the same reasons as yours because the prize is only one for one lot and the one who has struggled hardest gets the biggest share of the prize. Your life is one big test which was made only for you to give, everybody plays the same game but they don’t know. When you clear one level of this game you will get the reward and there will be addition of qualities which were not present inside you as you move on to next level. Today I was given a chance to escape and I jumped to a place as beautiful as paradise but I don’t know why I came back that’s when I heard a voice say ‘KAYLE’. Maybe I came back to save you.

   

   I disappeared from where I was to back in time when everything started, the day I felt the essence of Alyonushka the first time, but before it I went to a place where whatever I wished happened and nobody knew me there. I was sent back where I belonged on the same day but different time. I think someone killed me in the past but succeeded only for a short time. The day I first teleported without my own effort, whatever I wished would started appearing by itself. I can take form of any sentient being that I know. At each level I had to find my God and then please him or destroy him or whatever I needed to do to save myself as well as the universe, as I reached the end of a stage my master came and taught me survival in the land of Kilkanuks and in the end I had to please the master of Kilkanuks. This master seemed weird or mad but it was a disguise. In the pre final stage all the Kilkanuks assembled together and asked for only one thing the times I failed they annihilated one of my worlds. Somehow I managed to kill them all then I became 'time'. My powers were gone and I stayed in original self my mind only did the work and I wasn’t aware of my body. Before the final stage all the other stages came again and again randomly I first identified it and then acted accordingly. When I found my old and lost things back I realized I was switching between stages. Then one day I found that the master I chose as I told you earlier and the Kilkanuks I faced all were dummies as soon as I realized this I became one like the masters of the unknown powers.

   

  Somebody somewhere has killed me in the past you can’t even imagine the resplendent universes I have been into (the inhabitants of the planets were same, those I’ve known), this universe in which I’m trapped is nothing compared to them I only hope to meet those times again. The master gives one world to all. It doesn’t matter how one comes by the truth so long as one grasps it and lives by it.

   

  It's time to wield the blade 

  For now you have got some company 

  The beast is drawing nearer 

  On the metal wheels he ride

  He has come to take your lives

  On through the dead of night 

  With Ivanushka ride 

  Or choose your fate and die 

  You have been dying since the day 

  You were born 

/>   You know it has all been planned 

  The quartet of deliverance rides

  A sinner once a sinner twice 

  No need for confession now 

  Cause now you have got the fight of your life 

  Time 

  Has taken its toll on you

  The lines that crack your face 

  Famine 

  Your body it has torn through 

  Withered in every place 

  Pestilence 

  For what you have had to endure 

  And what you have put others through 

  Death 

  Deliverance for you for sure 

  There is nothing you can do 

  So gather round young warriors now 

  And saddle up your steeds 

  Killing scores with demon swords 

  Now is the death of doers of wrong 

  Swing the judgment hammer down 

  Safely inside armor blood guts and sweat 

   

  Last message of Ivanushka:

   

  Half of them think I’m biggest, half think I’m smallest. The machine is being made and then destroyed, got to break this cycle I have to reach a conclusion. I am sending the cheaters to the Toolshed. I am cutting the chord now like Alyonushka. I could not possibly know where it would lead, but I knew it had to be done.

   

  Arizel wanted sacrifice the bond is tainted now but sometimes I kill the lion and moreso this darkness is shrouding madness. I wake up, but I can’t sleep. The frequency of the attack is getting more than the blink of an eye when the demolition of the oblivion starts, and when I’m in the temple of the machine23.0, I am trying to catch the shadow of the deity of the oblivious treasure, each time I manage to see it, I get more time to live. I am in this temple by Arizel’s wish to build the contraption that will take the controls of the machines from Rakhtavar, the temple gives knowledge and gifts but I am waiting.

   

  When a man lies

  He murders some part of the world

  These are the pale deaths

  Which men miscall their lives

  All this I cannot bear to witness any longer

  Cannot the kingdom of Salvation take me home?

   

  āakāśhvāni:

   

  An archangel in bondage

  Bedimmed and sold

  Abandoned by heaven to the dead, dark and past

  Cast her dispersions on life's brittle glass

  And though her eyes still held fire

  As stonewalls caged the beast

  'Gainst the lassitudes of death

  She fought but fell to greet

  And midst lies in collusion

  She was martyred to teach

  Divinity and Lust are forever forbidden to meet

  But he swore that they would

  Before the veil could part their embrace

  Her cold silent lips he kissed

  And promised his religion in flames

  Gravid with madness

  Like a feculent dirge

  That obsesses the heart

  He is convened by words

  To avenge her

  And surrender

  His soul to the dead to achieve

  Prophecies of libidinous scourge

  Horripilation braying o'er carious herds

  Vexing nightmares

  And their weak prayers

  To a no one there

  To hinder her decree

  To clear the world of their disease

  A gallant queen

  In sunshine and in shadow

  Had journeyed long

  Singing a song

  In search of freedom

  But she grew old

  This queen so bold

  An o’er her heart a shadow fell,

  As she found

  No spot of ground

  That was not enchained

  And as her strength failed her at length

  She met a pilgrim shadow

  ‘Shadow’ said she ‘where can it be, the land which is free?’

  ‘Over the mountains of the moon

  Down the valley of shadow,

  Ride boldly ride’

  The shade replied ‘if you seek for El Dorado’

   

  Alyonushkas:

   

  Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow?

  And did you know

  Your stairway lies on the whispering wind

  And as we wind on down the road

  Your shadow is taller than our souls

  There walks a lady we all know

  Who shines white light and wants to show

  How everything still turns to gold.

   

  -----------XXX------------

   

  Epilogue

  This story took place in The Toolshed universe created by the First Kayle reborn. The Toolshed was created to enslave Rakhtavar the Lion and his minions. The narrator of this story is Shrusim who is beguiled by the first Kayle reborn and Arizel into believing that she is a Kayle of Teargar.

   

  To know more about Shrusim, Arindhara and the Toolshed universe, Sysandrians, the first Kayle and Rakhtavar’s origins, and about Arizel and Kilkanuks, read- ''THE TOOLSHED- Daunting Shadows Untouched Silence''.

   

   

  Stories from the eventide

  Raju and the seven fairies

   

  Many years ago, in a small village called Shudhur, there lived a young boy named Raju. His father had passed away when he was little; his mother used to make wicker baskets to raise money so that she could get them two meals a day. They lived in a small mud house, in the village outskirts.

  One day Raju realized that he should do some work to earn money so that her mother could get good food and proper clothing. He was skillful in making kites, so he decided to go to Kannauj, the capital city of northern India (Northern India was ruled by the emperor Harsha at that time). Raju wanted to work in a kite shop, in the city and had planned to return home after collecting five gold coins. When he told his idea to his mother she hesitated, but when Raju assured her that he will be safe, and he is old enough to take care of himself, she gave her consent.

  Next day early in the morning, Raju packed his stuff in a simple cloth bag, took his mother’s blessings and began his journey. Raju’s mother had put seven loaves of bread in a bundle for Raju to eat on the way. It took two days to reach Kannauj, on foot. There lay two small towns between his village and the city, one needed to cross the Ganga River to go from one town to another. Raju was very eager to see the capital city, so he walked speedily. He reached the first town in the afternoon; he was surprised he wasn’t feeling hungry at all, may be due to excitement, he thought. He didn’t take respite in the town but kept walking ahead, within an hour or two he reached the bank of the Ganga River, crossed the River on a rowboat and paid one copper coin as the fare to the oarsman. When the sun was about to set, he got tired and searched for a good place to relax. As he moved around, he saw an old stone well which looked deserted. He noticed a nice patch of grass near the well, and hurriedly he slumped against the broken wall of the well. He took out his bundle of bread and opened it, counting the loaves he muttered, ‘shall I eat one… or two… or three… or all the seven’, since he couldn’t decide, he repeated, ‘shall I eat one… or two… or three… or all the seven’. As soon as he finished the sentence, seven fairies appeared in front of him shouting, ‘Please don’t eat us… Please don’t eat us’. Raju couldn’t believe his eyes, seven beautiful fairies dressed in shining gowns stood in front of him. Each fairy wore a differently coloured gown, as the seven colours of the rainbow, and each had a sparkling wand. They all looked very scared; Raju wouldn’t understand what was happening, but he remained quiet and then the Red fairy spoke to him, ‘If you won’t eat us we promise that we will give you a magical gift’. Raju slowly came to his
senses and thought, ‘Oh…When I was thinking aloud about eating the seven loaves of bread, these seven fairies must have thought I’m planning to eat them’. As he was witty, he answered, ‘I will not eat you on one condition, if you can prove what you are saying’. Hearing this Red fairy waved her wand and a goat appeared out of nowhere, it looked like any ordinary goat. Raju enquired, ‘What’s so special about this goat’. The Blue fairy answered, “When you say ‘goat goat… open your mouth’, a gold coin comes out of her mouth”. Raju did what she had said, and a gold coin fell from the goat’s mouth on the ground. Looking at this spectacle, he danced with joy. He thanked the fairies and happily turned towards his home taking the goat with him; he kept thinking that now mother would never have to work.

  When Raju reached the town it was already dark with stars shining brightly in the night sky, feeling the gold coin in his pocket he thought, ‘I am rich now, I should spend the night in some comfortable inn’, so he went to an inn that displayed a board ‘Honesty is the best policy’. He called the innkeeper; a fat potbellied man was called ‘Laalu’ by the townsmen. Laalu looking at him spoke rudely, ‘It will cost 20 copper coins for boarding and lodging at my inn, can you pay?’ Raju’s hand went into his pocket and he tossed a golden coin toward Laalu. Laalu stared at the gold coin for some time and then he said smiling, ‘Dinner and a hot bath is ready sir, I’ll take the goat to feed’, Raju replied, ‘Thanks…no need… goat will stay with me; I’ll feed her myself’.’ The innkeeper didn’t say a word and left. After dinner, Raju entered inside his room taking the goat and closed the door, after making sure that no one was watching he said softly, ‘Goat goat…open your mouth’ and a gold coin fell on the floor, he happily picked it up and kept it safely in his cloth bag. Raju wasn’t aware that all this time Laalu had been watching him hiding behind the window outside. Raju tied his goat to one of the legs of his bed and fell asleep soon. At the stroke of midnight, Laalu entered Raju’s room through a secret passage and after replacing the goat with an ordinary one, he left without making any sound.

  Raju woke up early in the morning and got ready quickly, taking his belongings and the fake goat he went to the innkeeper’s desk. The innkeeper returned him 80 copper coins and with a wicked grin said, ‘Please come back again’. After biding Laalu goodbye, Raju started moving towards his village with the fake goat. On his way, he kept thinking ‘Mother will be very happy’. When he reached his home, mother was surprised to see him. Raju told her about the fairies and everything that happened to him. To show the magic to his mother, he spoke loudly, ‘Goat goat…open your mouth’, but nothing happened. Raju shouted the words again and again, but in vain. Raju became very angry and thought he was fooled by the fairies, taking the goat he went back to the stone well and there he shouted angrily, ‘shall I eat one… or two… or three… or all the seven’. The Fairies appeared, and Raju blamed them that they have tricked him, seeing him so angry the fairies became very scared and gave Raju another magical gift, which was a magical pot. The Blue fairy told Raju, “when you say ‘pot pot…give me something hot’ it will be filled with delicious food”. Raju accepted the gift and after warning the fairies that he would surely eat them if the pot doesn’t work in front of his mother, he left. He went back again to the same inn to spend the night; this time didn’t order any food and told innkeeper Laalu that he was very tired, he rented a room and gave Laalu 20 copper coins. Laalu gave Raju the same room and to see what happens this time, he waited behind the window quietly. After Raju went inside the room he mumbled, ‘pot pot…give me something hot’ and he saw that the pot got filled with many delicious food items. He ate till he couldn’t eat anymore and keeping the pot near his pillow, soon fell into deep sleep. Laalu watched all this and again at the stroke of midnight; he performed the same cunning deed; he switched the magical pot with an ordinary one. Poor Raju, not knowing about what happened at night, left the inn next morning with the ordinary pot. When Raju reached home he again became furious when the pot didn’t give food. He went back to the fairies again. The fairies grew suspicious this time and asked him, ‘Do you stop at any place before you reach home’. Raju tells them that he spends his night at an inn in the town. Listening to this, fairies gave Raju a thick wooden stick and a rope, and told him when you meet the innkeeper this time just say, ‘Rope rope…tie the dope’ and then say, ‘Stick stick… do it quick’. Taking the stick and the rope Raju went to the inn and seeing the innkeeper he did what fairies had told him. Raju said, ‘Rope rope…tie the dope’ the rope itself gripped the innkeeper tightly and then he said, ‘Stick stick… do it quick’, the stick started beating the innkeeper. Getting beat, Laalu cried out of pain, ‘Please forgive me, I’ll give all your magical things back to you’. The stick stopped, and the rope untied him and he gave the magical goat and the pot to Raju. Taking the four magical items, Raju returned to his mother happily, telling her everything that actually happened he showed her the magic of the goat and the pot, seeing the magic, Raju’s mother was filled with joy and hugged him tightly.

  Since then, Raju is living happily with his mother.