Cradle: Part II

I walked slowly back along the forest path, the trees bowing as I passed, their branches swaying in the gentle breeze. I pondered Grandfather's words, and the fleeting vision they had evoked of myself and Armand, defiant and alone in a dark world sourced by a strange power. What did it mean ? I knew of no such place, though admittedly my training in the Powers had barely begun. That the vision was a true one I had no doubt; I had had similar before, but never with such stinging clarity. But why had there been such a sense of being so utterly alone ? Even at the worst of our family squabbles there had never been such a sense of desolation and abandonment. And the place we had been in - the power I had felt, raw and dark and twisted into shapes I had not seen before. I had felt the skeins of power spun by our family, and they were as different to that dark power as day was to night. An awareness kindled .... day and night, opposite - complementary. Duality as One, each necessary to the other, balancing each other, for the Whole. Day and Night .... Light and Dark .... Anabolism, Catabolism .... Growth and Decay .... Positive and Negative .... Male and Female ... Sun and Moon ..... Day and Night ...
...... Light and Dark ......

See the Light and the Dark ( Who are you ??)

Light and Dark .... spinning down into each other through endless time ... but where does the Light end and the Dark begin, little one ? ......

.......... Is there Darkness without the Light ? (an elusive memory sparks ...)

........What is Light without the Darkness ? Tell me - will you walk the Path or the Cracks, little one ? Will you cleave to the harsh of the Light, or revel in the sweet power of the Dark ? Which will you choose ? (Who are you ? I know your voice ! ..... are you .... me ?)

Light and Dark, spinning down together, inseparable and apart. Whispers gather, insistent, pushing ....

Sweet little one, what will you Choose ? The Path or the Cracks ? The Light or the Dark ? Which shall it be ?

My thoughts shatter. Down, down I fall .... tendrils and skeins of power beckon and tease ... dark and light ...

........... growth and decay ...

...... the Path or the Cracks between ? They flirt and caress ......

A voice screams in agony - is it mine ? I teeter on the edge, and plunge down into the void .....


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I wake. A stench assails my nostrils, burns my lungs. For a moment I think I stand again with Grandfather upon the slopes of Mount Atlas, as she shatters and rains sulphurous fire upon the doomed inhabitants at her feet. But I know this is not the shadow earth I have visited in my youth. There is some other threat here ... and a strange sense of - welcome ? I gather my willpower, and prise unwilling lids open. Immediately they stream tears in the noxious air. I wait for them to adjust, then look carefully about me. A barren, sere landscape. Diseased lightning flares soundlessly. The reek of ozone echoes the lingering storm. At my feet, and all around, pools of foetid liquid ooze and belch from gashes raw in the earth. It is a nightmare vision of twisted, stunted tree-lets and glowing red demon-eyes lurking in the dark. I wonder how I have come here, and how I can seek a way out. I startle as a hand is lain on my arm - I turn, and see my brother offering comfort to me. His face, his form, is horribly warped and vilely elongated, but it is my brother nonetheless. Wordlessly, he places one arm gently about my waist. He gestures broadly with the other arm, to encompass the desolate scene. His face is set in a grim smile, and he radiates a desolate, desperate satisfaction. We did not choose to come here, he says, but here we are nonetheless. It was our punishment, our prison, the place where we could not rise to challenge his feeble superiority. We did not choose this fate - but we chose to make it our strength, our power - and the instrument of his final destiny ! All this I have made mine !
I caress his cheek, sallow and sere like the land we dwell in. My heart mourns the loss of the handsome shell he had once carelessly worn. But I know my brother is within, and love the inner being, not concerned with the outer shell. I see myself reflected in his eyes, and know that to him I am still the beloved sister, despite the alien form I now bear. We did not choose to come here, I reply, but we are here, and we are together. Together we grow and strengthen in our power, against the time when it is meet that we would wield it.. Though he tried to force us to his ways, he has failed. We make our own Wyrd !
Wordlessly, we exult as one in the fate that was imposed to subdue and subject, but which we have made our own. Brother and sister cleave together as the shattered land twists and screams, and the dark mist swirls about them ...

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My feet tread the forest path instinctively, over this log, past that rivulet. The scent of pine and sun-warmed humus reaches me, and at the blackbird's cry I lift my head. Above me the sheltering forest glows golden green with the westering sun. (When had it grown so late ?) Somehow I have wandered from the homeward path, and come deeper into the Forest, into the oldest stands of oak and beech, thorn and ash. (How did I come here ?). I am close by the Grove of the Unicorn, sacred place of a sacred and holy creature. I know I am accepted in the Forest, but the Grove is a place apart, not to be approached lightly by any. I cannot fathom how I have come here. I feel a deep unease and fear, as though a great danger has brushed by. I shudder, and a feeling of dread fills me. I am lost ! I am alone, and no-one hears my cries for help. I spin around in fear ... and a pale flicker of movement catches my eye, a bright horn flashes, and vanishes deep into the trees. I stop abruptly, sending my senses outward, trying to find where it has gone. An echo of hoofbeats ? The forest offers no hint, sweetly innocent to my mind's touch. Yet there is a fleeting undercurrent, a ripple of .... something, that vanishes even as I try to grasp it. Try as I might, it is gone, leaving only a sense of strength and reassurance. I know She would only be seen if She wished it, and even a glimpse was a rare honour. I want to only to sink to the green earth and hug the memory to myself, but am mindful of Grandfather's injunction to return swiftly. I strike out from the deep forest path towards the homeward track. Only once safely back upon it do I allow my mind to wonder why the Unicorn has permitted me to glimpse her .....
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