Luria watched as Arianwen vanished, and for a moment she studied the imprint of her legs in the snow. Then slowly, the smooth expression on her face unchanging, she headed back inside, footsteps so light over the ground she left behind no footprints.
Inside, she filled a bowl with water, and placed it on the table in front of her. She leaned forward, and breathed upon the surface of the water, and murmured something inaudible with barely moving lips.
The water rippled, gently from the middle and out into a series of circles, than lay still for a while, reflecting back a sliver of her face and nothing more.
"Jahn, answer me you bastard." Sh
The night had turned to early morning, and Jahn sat alone at Luria's table, watching the pendulum clock swing back and forth on its chain. It had unobtrusively thrummed out twice only moments ago, and now his head sat slightly tilted on his shoulders, as if trying to eke out the last of the echoes.
"Still here?" Jahn turned to see Luria standing in the doorway, her elegant frame silhouetted by the light in the next room. He shook his head a little and turned his gaze to his hands, studying the way the shadows formed purple bruises between his fingers, the black beneath his arm where it rested on the table. Luria came and shifted a chair besi
Jahn lay on his stomach on the four posted bed, feet on the pillow and head in a book. The volume was newly copied, bright white and crisp pages slippery to the touch, the soft leather binding resting against his hands. He had completed the copying of the final pages the previous night, and left it out to dry in the musty air of the room. Now he returned to the beginning, reading the words as if they were new to him, unknown and unfamiliar.
The book was titled Origins, in spiky black letters on the first page that had taken Jahn nearly an hour to recreate from the worn, crumbling thing he had originally found. A poem of sorts succeeded the t
Luria looked up from the mirror to meet Arianwen's questioning gaze, and quickly ran a hand over the bowl of water that had served as her mirror, the distorted image of Jahn's face disappearing from its surface.
"Will he come?" Arianwen asked softly. Luria shook her head a little.
"He is a long way away from here, and has his own work to do." Then she looked up, and there was a glint to her eyes, a fragment of possibility in the set of her features. "Arianwen I won't say I understand what you see when you vanish, but if there is a chance you can help with something, then Jahn may come sooner than he otherwise would. Tell me, if someon
The boy was having a nightmare. His golden curls were slicked with sweat and stuck to his satin pillow. Jahn pressed one bronze-hued hand to the boy's cheek, then took his limp arm and felt its pulse.
"The prince is so much worse today." The man hovering over his shoulder said nervously, "Can't you do something?" Jahn grimaced, and didn't look up.
"Yes. Get out." He waited without moving for the sound of footsteps, and of the door closing. Then he pushed the damp hair off the boy's face, studying the gaunt features with pity in his dark eyes. Jahn reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small vial of red-tinted liquid, sealed tight with
"I'm going to tell you a story, one that I've only told once before." Arianwen said softly. "And if you believe me, then it will be a revelation." Luria looked at her, and her lips curved slowly.
"I am always prepared to listen." Arianwen took a breath, licked her lips and folded her hands in her lap.
"A very long time ago, a six year old girl lived on a farm with her father and mother, and she was a wild thing, always running off to explore. One day, in autumn when the frost was thick on the land, she entered a deep cave off the border of her parents' land, and got lost among the caverns. She spent hours there, wandering about and crying
Someone had placed a blanket over her, and set a mug of something steaming near her, close enough to the fire to keep it warm. She sat up, lifted the mug gingerly and sniffed at its contents. Hot milk, the steam rising against her eyes and making her blink. Arianwen sipped at it, ignoring the pain as it scalded her tongue and the roof of her mouth, forming molten lines as the heat spilled into her throat. She stood, turned around, froze at the gaze of a man sitting on a chair and watching her with haunted eyes.
"What are you doing here, girl?" Arianwen shrugged. "Where are your parents?" she shook her head. The man sighed, and reached a hand
Snow Globes Part 1
The vanishing girl clutched at the sleeve of Danton's cloak, thin white fingers wound into the rough brown weave. His hands were cold as ice and blue-tipped, a dusky twilight blue, but his face was flushed and burning with fever. The vanishing girl laid her cheek against his chest, listening for the beating of a heart, for the sound of life receding from his body. Star-kissed, he used to call her, when the moon shone in the depth of night and wove silver streams in her midnight hair. Star-kissed, and vanishing girl, and a wonder.
The footsteps blurred with the sound of the wind outside their window, and only Danton lay in
Because of the weather, I stay inside and sip lukewarm coffee at the kitchen table. The coffee mug seems slippery to the touch, and I grip it tightly and lean over the table to prevent it from dropping. The windows are cement gray, the rain streaming across their surface against the black sky, so the glass panes become a wall of color and noise pounding away at my house. Before long I have a headache, either from the rain or the coffee, since I'm not sure I have ever had coffee before. I'm hungry, too, but there isn't any food and I don't want to go out.
The fire is out. I notice the silvery ash and am suddenly aware of music. For a moment,
The End of the World by Nymeria13shades, literature
Literature
The End of the World
The End of the World
Death, War, and Fate are sitting around a table with a map out, covered in game pieces, rolling dice. Death has a scythe and black cloak, War is wearing a red tunic and roman-style armor with a small ax, and Fate is dressed like a gypsy and has an hourglass in front of her. Death rearranges his pieces, then hands a pair of dice to War.
Fate: I bet...three heroes it's a six.
War: I thought we agreed you weren't allowed to bet any more.
Fate: I told you, War, I don't cheat.
War (sarcastically): You? Cheat? Of course not. Nope. Fate doesn't cheat.
Death: Oh, leave her alone.
Fate: Well Death, what's you're bet?
Death
I've been on DA for about two years and this is my first journal so...random I know. Just saying I'm totally revamping my account so it has some good stuff on it (hopefully)