Pamela D. Lloyd (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pameladlloyd) wrote2008-07-31 04:25 pm
pameladlloyd) wrote2008-07-31 04:25 pm
Entry tags:
[Locked - Friends Only] Home Again, But With Stuff Hanging Over My Head
Whew! What a night. And day. I’m exhausted, but I’ll do my best to bring you up to date.
We left Starbucks and headed over to Mission Hills Park, which is on the route between my parent’s home and my old elementary school.
We got to the park with a few minutes to spare, but WR was already there. He opened the gate, ducking through before us, muttering as usual about being late for something. He’s a really sweet guy, kind and a good listener, if you ever catch him when he doesn’t have somewhere else he’s supposed to be, but that doesn’t happen very often. P*** and I followed, and not without a qualm on my part. This was the first time I’d ever knowingly migrated from one dimension to another under, more-or-less, my own power. So, now, I really was an interdimensional criminal.
I don’t imagine it will come as any surprise to you that we landed in Tia’s bower. What surprised me, however, was that it was empty, except for Tia. Normally, the entire court of F*****, or what feels like the entire court, is flitting about and dancing attendance on her. The royalty thing and all. No privacy. I hadn’t even known she could get away from her attendants.
Here’s a picture of her, that Arthur Rackham drew, during one of his visits, showing her with some of her court. I think he captured her better than anyone, except that she looks far too innocent and harmless, but then, she never let him see her darker side. (I’m hoping that links to old picture books won’t draw the spiders’ attention.)
I ran over and gave her a hug, feeling like a kid again for a moment. But, then, reality set in and I couldn’t help but compare my aging body to her ever-young one. I backed up, then, and bowed, embarrassed.
"Oh, do stand up. There’s no need for formality between me and one of my changeling children. Come, I have a few things to show you." Funny, isn’t it, that the F** call those they take changelings, just like people in other dimensions call those they leave in their place. It makes a kind of kinship between us, that’s rarely ever mentioned.
Tia led me over to a moss-covered stump. The top of the stump was hollowed out into a perfectly hemispherical bowl, which was filled with the clearest water. She waved a hand over the water and it turned silver, reflecting us. I put my hand up to my face then, because not only didn’t I have an ass’s head in the reflection, but I looked twenty-something. I could still feel the long muzzle, though. Tia laughed.
"Your true form will always be reflected here, no matter your physical shape or age." She turned to P***. "Bring me a hazel wand." I winced, knowing from the last time she removed one of P***’s donkey heads from me how much it would hurt, but made no protest. She only used the hazel wand when she felt I needed it, since P*** could remove the spell as easily as he'd bespelled me.
P*** bowed, his dignity no less for the fact that he was now hovering perhaps ten feet in the air above our heads in his more familiar form as a gamin child. "I'll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes." He does love to quote the lines Shakespeare gave him, whenever he finds the opportunity. No matter that the line was supposed to be directed towards O, and not Tia.
"Try twenty," said Tia, dryly. P*** winked out, but not before smiling and winking.
Tia and I turned back to the stump, and Tia passed her hand over it again. I saw what looked like dark, shining, star-filled bubbles, floating peacefully in an ocean. For a time, all remained quiet. The bubbles drifted about on gentle currents, bumping into each other now and then. It sounds boring, I suppose, but I felt as if I could go on watching them forever. A shiver passed across the bubbles, distorting them, and then another. One popped and I cried out and started to reach toward it, feeling strangely forlorn. Tia caught my wrist before I could disturb the vision, her grip tight enough to hurt, though no sign of strain was visible on her dainty hand.
"There are forces at work that endanger all the worlds," she said. It was one of those clichéd lines that makes you think of laughing, but hearing it from her just made me want to shrivel up and hide under a leaf, the way I used to when I was a child in her court and caught getting into mischief. No, a leaf would not be substantial enough. Nothing would be substantial enough, if entire dimensions were popping as easily as that.
I nodded and after a moment she released me. I pulled my hand back and held it stiffly at my side, restraining myself from rubbing my wrist. Tia, for all her sweetness, is not someone you ever want to annoy.
About then, P*** returned. Tia passed her hand over the pooled water and it was just water again, with the mossy bowl of the stump visible through it. P*** handed her the hazel switch and she turned to me. I stood before her, holding my head up and looking straight into her eyes, as best I could with my donkey's eyes. Funny how I'd never consciously noticed the difference in my vision until I was facing her in that way. Formally, she struck me three times across the face. It stung, each lash burning as if poisoned, but when she was through, I had my own head and face again. I bowed, thanking her for the boon, and the pain faded away.
She handed me the hazel switch. I looked at her quizzically. She gestured toward P***. "You have my permission to chastise my servant. He has transgressed. You were not his to punish in this business."
I looked at P*** and back at her. I had no desire to strike him, but wasn't certain how she'd take it, if I refused. I knelt, and laid the twig at her feet. "Please forgive me, your majesty. He is my friend and I would do him no harm." I looked up then, and over at P***, who was grinning unrepentantly. I couldn't help but grin back at him. "Although, he does deserve it, from time to time."
Tia nodded. "You have always shown too much mercy to your tormentors. But, I will leave you your choice in this matter, and your consequences."
That little bit over, we returned to more important concerns, although something about that last exchange left me feeling unsettled, as if there was something I was missing. It wasn't like Tia to permit any one of her servants to punish another, and she had never chastised P*** for one of his jokes before, no matter how pointed or unprovoked. At least, not in all the years I'd been part of her court. And, I wasn't at all certain that I hadn't deserved the ass's head; at least it had been better than being caught by the I**.
This is getting much longer than I'd meant it to be. I'm going to gloss over the next bit, as much as I can. Tia sent P*** away and then explained to me that certain, uhm, beings, whose names and natures I won't even hint at, have been working to eliminate magic from the multiverse. They seem to either not know, or not care, that none of the dimensions can exist without magic. It's not that the people in a dimension have to believe in magic, magic is too ingrained into the fabric of each universe for that. But, magic can be drained, sometimes by concentrating it and distilling it into one dimension from another, and magic can be destroyed. Unlike energy, there is no conservation of magic, or at least, none that the best scientific and magical minds have been able to discover. So, once the magic is gone, that's it. It's gone. And, once the magic has been removed from a dimension, that dimension dies. Pops. Disappears. Just as I'd witnessed.
When Tia had finished telling me all this, our talk drifted off into other things. We talked all night and through the morning and early afternoon and I got caught up on nearly four decades of gossip about my old childhood friends, and told Tia about my life, and how I'd finally found love, and how now I was stuck in my old dimension, with no way back and the I** watching to make sure I didn't stray; not that she didn't know all this already, but she understood that I needed a chance to talk about it. She promised she'd fix it. WR led me back home, to my real home, with Karl and our boys, and P*** has already put a changeling in my place, in the dimension where the I** think they've trapped me. The changeling isn't one of the live ones; Tia didn't want even a volunteer to have to face the dangers of that particular situation, so it's just be a stock, that'll seem to sicken and die, shortly. Meantime, I'm home and there's a glamour over me to make me less noticeable to the I**.
So, I'm home now. I'll be logging off and sleeping; hopefully, through the night, as I'm not used to being up for over thirty hours, straight. But, I didn't want to go to bed without letting you know I was home, and thanking you for all your support during all this.
Oh, there's one thing bothering me. Somehow, I forgot to ask Tia why all this had happened to me and what my role in this is. I know she enjoys having children around, and the changelings compensate for the slow birth rate of the F**, but I'm convinced there's more to this than she's let on. I can't believe that she'd have gone to all that trouble, and even with all her power, heck, especially with all her power, which is more than just magical--she's got responsibilities, I just don't think she'd have rescued me if she didn't have future plans for me.
We left Starbucks and headed over to Mission Hills Park, which is on the route between my parent’s home and my old elementary school.
Aside: I wasn’t supposed to be walking home alone from school when I was in second grade, but I was a bit, uhm, more independent than was really good for me, at that point in my life. One day I’d managed to leave my lunch in the car when my mom dropped me off at school, so Icoulddecided to walk home for lunch. I never made it home, as I met WR in the park and he introduced me to (well, my nickname for her when I was little was Tia, which means aunt in Spanish, and I think that will do here) who led me into (that place I’ve mentioned before) after WR opened the way. Okay, back to the main story. Oh, and I learned, years later when I got back, that they’d left a changeling in my place, but that’s her story, not mine. Now, back to the main story.
We got to the park with a few minutes to spare, but WR was already there. He opened the gate, ducking through before us, muttering as usual about being late for something. He’s a really sweet guy, kind and a good listener, if you ever catch him when he doesn’t have somewhere else he’s supposed to be, but that doesn’t happen very often. P*** and I followed, and not without a qualm on my part. This was the first time I’d ever knowingly migrated from one dimension to another under, more-or-less, my own power. So, now, I really was an interdimensional criminal.
I don’t imagine it will come as any surprise to you that we landed in Tia’s bower. What surprised me, however, was that it was empty, except for Tia. Normally, the entire court of F*****, or what feels like the entire court, is flitting about and dancing attendance on her. The royalty thing and all. No privacy. I hadn’t even known she could get away from her attendants.
Here’s a picture of her, that Arthur Rackham drew, during one of his visits, showing her with some of her court. I think he captured her better than anyone, except that she looks far too innocent and harmless, but then, she never let him see her darker side. (I’m hoping that links to old picture books won’t draw the spiders’ attention.)
I ran over and gave her a hug, feeling like a kid again for a moment. But, then, reality set in and I couldn’t help but compare my aging body to her ever-young one. I backed up, then, and bowed, embarrassed.
"Oh, do stand up. There’s no need for formality between me and one of my changeling children. Come, I have a few things to show you." Funny, isn’t it, that the F** call those they take changelings, just like people in other dimensions call those they leave in their place. It makes a kind of kinship between us, that’s rarely ever mentioned.
Tia led me over to a moss-covered stump. The top of the stump was hollowed out into a perfectly hemispherical bowl, which was filled with the clearest water. She waved a hand over the water and it turned silver, reflecting us. I put my hand up to my face then, because not only didn’t I have an ass’s head in the reflection, but I looked twenty-something. I could still feel the long muzzle, though. Tia laughed.
"Your true form will always be reflected here, no matter your physical shape or age." She turned to P***. "Bring me a hazel wand." I winced, knowing from the last time she removed one of P***’s donkey heads from me how much it would hurt, but made no protest. She only used the hazel wand when she felt I needed it, since P*** could remove the spell as easily as he'd bespelled me.
P*** bowed, his dignity no less for the fact that he was now hovering perhaps ten feet in the air above our heads in his more familiar form as a gamin child. "I'll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes." He does love to quote the lines Shakespeare gave him, whenever he finds the opportunity. No matter that the line was supposed to be directed towards O, and not Tia.
"Try twenty," said Tia, dryly. P*** winked out, but not before smiling and winking.
Tia and I turned back to the stump, and Tia passed her hand over it again. I saw what looked like dark, shining, star-filled bubbles, floating peacefully in an ocean. For a time, all remained quiet. The bubbles drifted about on gentle currents, bumping into each other now and then. It sounds boring, I suppose, but I felt as if I could go on watching them forever. A shiver passed across the bubbles, distorting them, and then another. One popped and I cried out and started to reach toward it, feeling strangely forlorn. Tia caught my wrist before I could disturb the vision, her grip tight enough to hurt, though no sign of strain was visible on her dainty hand.
"There are forces at work that endanger all the worlds," she said. It was one of those clichéd lines that makes you think of laughing, but hearing it from her just made me want to shrivel up and hide under a leaf, the way I used to when I was a child in her court and caught getting into mischief. No, a leaf would not be substantial enough. Nothing would be substantial enough, if entire dimensions were popping as easily as that.
I nodded and after a moment she released me. I pulled my hand back and held it stiffly at my side, restraining myself from rubbing my wrist. Tia, for all her sweetness, is not someone you ever want to annoy.
About then, P*** returned. Tia passed her hand over the pooled water and it was just water again, with the mossy bowl of the stump visible through it. P*** handed her the hazel switch and she turned to me. I stood before her, holding my head up and looking straight into her eyes, as best I could with my donkey's eyes. Funny how I'd never consciously noticed the difference in my vision until I was facing her in that way. Formally, she struck me three times across the face. It stung, each lash burning as if poisoned, but when she was through, I had my own head and face again. I bowed, thanking her for the boon, and the pain faded away.
She handed me the hazel switch. I looked at her quizzically. She gestured toward P***. "You have my permission to chastise my servant. He has transgressed. You were not his to punish in this business."
I looked at P*** and back at her. I had no desire to strike him, but wasn't certain how she'd take it, if I refused. I knelt, and laid the twig at her feet. "Please forgive me, your majesty. He is my friend and I would do him no harm." I looked up then, and over at P***, who was grinning unrepentantly. I couldn't help but grin back at him. "Although, he does deserve it, from time to time."
Tia nodded. "You have always shown too much mercy to your tormentors. But, I will leave you your choice in this matter, and your consequences."
That little bit over, we returned to more important concerns, although something about that last exchange left me feeling unsettled, as if there was something I was missing. It wasn't like Tia to permit any one of her servants to punish another, and she had never chastised P*** for one of his jokes before, no matter how pointed or unprovoked. At least, not in all the years I'd been part of her court. And, I wasn't at all certain that I hadn't deserved the ass's head; at least it had been better than being caught by the I**.
This is getting much longer than I'd meant it to be. I'm going to gloss over the next bit, as much as I can. Tia sent P*** away and then explained to me that certain, uhm, beings, whose names and natures I won't even hint at, have been working to eliminate magic from the multiverse. They seem to either not know, or not care, that none of the dimensions can exist without magic. It's not that the people in a dimension have to believe in magic, magic is too ingrained into the fabric of each universe for that. But, magic can be drained, sometimes by concentrating it and distilling it into one dimension from another, and magic can be destroyed. Unlike energy, there is no conservation of magic, or at least, none that the best scientific and magical minds have been able to discover. So, once the magic is gone, that's it. It's gone. And, once the magic has been removed from a dimension, that dimension dies. Pops. Disappears. Just as I'd witnessed.
When Tia had finished telling me all this, our talk drifted off into other things. We talked all night and through the morning and early afternoon and I got caught up on nearly four decades of gossip about my old childhood friends, and told Tia about my life, and how I'd finally found love, and how now I was stuck in my old dimension, with no way back and the I** watching to make sure I didn't stray; not that she didn't know all this already, but she understood that I needed a chance to talk about it. She promised she'd fix it. WR led me back home, to my real home, with Karl and our boys, and P*** has already put a changeling in my place, in the dimension where the I** think they've trapped me. The changeling isn't one of the live ones; Tia didn't want even a volunteer to have to face the dangers of that particular situation, so it's just be a stock, that'll seem to sicken and die, shortly. Meantime, I'm home and there's a glamour over me to make me less noticeable to the I**.
So, I'm home now. I'll be logging off and sleeping; hopefully, through the night, as I'm not used to being up for over thirty hours, straight. But, I didn't want to go to bed without letting you know I was home, and thanking you for all your support during all this.
Oh, there's one thing bothering me. Somehow, I forgot to ask Tia why all this had happened to me and what my role in this is. I know she enjoys having children around, and the changelings compensate for the slow birth rate of the F**, but I'm convinced there's more to this than she's let on. I can't believe that she'd have gone to all that trouble, and even with all her power, heck, especially with all her power, which is more than just magical--she's got responsibilities, I just don't think she'd have rescued me if she didn't have future plans for me.