I, under no circumstance will trade, barter or otherwise swap my own identity for that of another person and I protect the same right for those who've contributed their artwork to the various projects under my management at Shhhh! Digital Media, my own company, no matter the colour symbolism involved. These rights are protected by law under the Charter Of Rights And Freedoms under section 7.
Also, FYI, I don't reverse or alter the polarity or context of my expression (sometimes referred to as "blove" by some people). I say what I mean and mean what I say, and generally only joke or am sarcastic with people I really know very well.
I am Brian Joseph Johns, and I've never been to Nova Scotia in my life, I'm an Atheist that leans toward Buddhism and Taoism and I'm not a Jehovah's Witness or a member of Prince Hall and never have been, and never will be.
Unfinished Index
Here are the chapter titles as they are written...- Unfinished Prologue: Wounded Aerth (Finished December 23, 2024)
- Unfinished Stars (Finished December 24, 2024)
- Unfinished Romance (Finished December 24, 2024)
- Unfinished Republic (Finished December 24, 2024)
- Unfinished Penrose Imperium (Finished December 24, 2024)
- Unfinished Sanctum (Finished December 26, 2024)
- Unfinished Migration (Finished January 22, 2025)
- Unfinished Hairstyle (Finished January 23, 2025)
- Unfinished Warrior Queen (Finished January 23, 2025)
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I'd like to point out that it was the incredible Gary Sinese Foundation that brought the issue of Veteran's rights to my attention. I've always had little respect for those who'd forget the great contribution made by those who've risked life and limb to defend those values that so many of us espouse. Perhaps the true measure of one's principles are by that for which they'd risk their life.
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Because Barris told me to put it here. If I didn't, he said he'd walk. Geez. Stardom really gets to some people's heads. Maybe I could kill him and bury his heart beneath the floor boards! Or I could encase him in behind a brick and mortar wall, for shaming my family name of Amantillado!
Was that the words of Poe that just graced my ears?
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Donate your idle computer time to science! Join the World Community Grid by...Shhhh! Digital Media Presents: Tales Of The Sanctum - A Lady's Prerogative
Unfinished Bee's Wax
Unfinished Prologue: Wounded Aerth
"Ila... ila... ila... ila... ila.. ila." Barris' voice rang out through the air around her ears.
"Barris?" Mila suddenly arose from her drunken slumber, bent sideways against her easel.
When she was suddenly roused from her state, she began falling in the direction of her easel and down towards the floor amidst the numerous wine bottles that littered the space.
Her hair was long and unkempt, almost as much so as the hair which had grown in on her legs.
She was comfortable yet absent of her own self impression, for she'd been lost in the pursuit of the one true love of her life, and indeed lost without him.
The only true love she'd ever known and the the one who'd been taken from her.
She watched as her entire reality twisted and folded until she was on her feet again. Confident fully. Standing in front of her peers in the Midspace. In front of the Sanctum Seclorem as she stood down the threat that they'd just defeated, turning back Lorr and his siege upon their stronghold.
"...truth is it that you'd prefer is it?" Lorr's teeth gleaned with a tinge of brown, as if stained by some hideous ritual beyond tobacco.
"The truth of your defeat is enough. You are defeated Power Lord on this eve! We of the Sanctum Of The New have bested you and your plans! Alivale hath declared! Sharlesbury hath declared! Westview hath declared! The Aerth Mother Lyra hath declared. The Sanctum Of The New hath declared! Fall back and lay your terms for surrender or else fall and be held until which time you'll stand trial on our terms!" Yirfir declared against their most vile adversary.
"Is this what you truly want, Mila?" Lorr smirked first at Yirfir's words, and then looked to Mila, who suddenly understood the dark plan of the Power Lord.
He'd planned it all this way from the very beginning.
It was he who had been the Mannequins that had chased Mila through the main street of Alivale until she'd arrived at the river of cross roads.
He was the one who commanded the mannequins to destroy her before she crossed the river.
He was the one who felled Barris, and in her moment of need, it was Barris whose life he took, for Barris had fallen in their place, sparing her parents with the sacrifice of his own life.
"You remember that night, don't you?" Lorr's hideous smile glistened in the Midspace Moon as his diminished forces were challenged afore the front gates of the Sanctum Seclorem.
"No! You can't do this! We won! We faced and felled the worst of you. Fair as our souls..." Mila grasped her amulet, beginning to cry as she realized that the Power Lord had intended this from the very beginning.
"It would seem that your cry for the truth of my defeat, has undone the lie of the death of your parents!" Lorr challenged her.
"Whatever is he talking about? Your parents are... Mila? Tell me you didn't deal with this devil?!" Barris pleaded with her.
"There is no such deal at the hand of this treacherous swine! My parents are alive as is Barris!" Mila declared, the amulet suddenly growing so cold that she could no longer bear its touch in her hands.
"One or the other Mila. That was the deal you chose. To undo that which could n'yer be undone! That is the balance of the Aether. You know it as well do I!" Lorr declared.
Mila's knees buckled and she fell before Lorr, crying.
"Nooo... I can't bear it! Please, don't..." she pleaded with the Power Lord.
"You must make a choice Mila, to undo this lie. Which is it? Who shall pay with their lives? Your parents, our Barris?" Lorr pronounced.
Barris was suddenly confronted with his own mortality once again as he had been on that fateful night in Alivale.
Lorr, had bequeathed upon her the choice as to who should be allowed to live, given this travesty against the very bindings of reality: Bariis Windsor, or her parents.
Barris had known a life of loss up until the point he'd met Mila, and it was from this understanding of loss that he stepped forward to face the Power Lord:
"She chooses her parents. I choose her parents. They shall live, and I shall die, and you shall not hold her nor her parents to debt on this matter again!" Barris pronounced.
"Is this what you choose, Barris Windsor?" Lorr betrothed the heir of the unimaginable.
"Noooo! You can't Barris! You can't!" Mila screamed before the gates of the Sanctum.
"Stop him! Yirfir! Jasmer! Why can't you stop him! Please..." Mila pleaded with her allies.
"He is wielding truth Mila, and repatching a fold there within. We can sense it, and therefore the Sanctum cannot interfere... our most powerful magiks will do nye against..." Yirfir declared.
"Tis true. My heart is full of power unmeasured, and yet it is broken in this time to see this peril of my allies, my friends and peers, before me," Sir Manfred kneeled before them, leaning on his gleamingly magnificent long sword, his forehead pressed to its pommel as the guard spread across his forehead, very clearly his cross to bear.
Kensai struggled against the force that held his blade - his soul in its saya - and when he could not bring his Katana to bear upon their enemy, he bowed before Barris.
"You have the honour of a true warrior. One who fights his battles with the virtue of Ryu, perhaps not so much with sharpened blade, but with the sharpened words of your soul," Kensai looked to Barris, and then to Mishima Sato.
"It is as Kensai says, as dispicable as it might be!" Xushu hovered inverted above his sister's head, a hard smirk on his face as he spoke.
A tear slid down Xenshi's face, and as it lost purchase of her cheek it fell into her hand in the form of a diamond.
"I am already missing you Barris..." she said to him.
Sato looked around amongst his friends, until his eyes fell upon those of Barris.
Barris acknowledged Sato's gaze, realizing what he must do.
Xenshi and Xushu both fell to their knees, tears of the five elements falling from their eyes to the heaven of the earth beneath them as they both cried.
The three, Kensai, Sato and Barris all nodded to one another as their peers of the Sanctum faced the Power Lord Lorr.
When their heads rose to eye height, it was Barris who spoke.
"Then it shall be that Mila's parents will live, and I will be gone in their place..." Barris pronounced.
"Nooo! Can't we...? Can't I just... No... please don't take him... He isn't... I can't..." Mila pleaded with the Power Lord, but...
[Sarah Brightman - Dust In The Wind]
Mila's sleeping face slid along her canvas until it lost surface and she fell full force to the floor of her wine bottle littered basement studio.
There she lay upon the floor, the carpet around her slowly soaking up her tears as she cried.
The water from her eyes crept through the carpet, and eventually found the concrete beneath, seeping through even that barrier until it found the water table beneath.
From there, her pain and loss spread through, into the Aerth itself, and the sky became her pain and the ocean became her tears.
The same tears the world cries for any of us who've known such loss, for how could such a vast ocean exist without?
It is within the depth of water that can be found our deepest pain, and our darkest secrets, for water is the wine of the soul.
...
Unfinished Stars
It was the season of festivities, and certainly that time of year for which the term SAPCHOP had first been coined by Mila. The day was at its shortest throughout the year, meaning that every day beyond would be longer than the day before. Given this fact, the day was a rather special time for those whose pursuits found them as students of the Aether, and artisans of the great weave.
Most everyone was busy with activity, either preparing for their holidays or in the case of those in the field of thaumaturgy, they were busy with study or ritual. It was a significant day and certainly one that was full of potential and power.
It was eleven in the morning in Alivale, and thousands of kilometers away in Shepperton off the Thames, it was approaching four in afternoon.
Nelony was busy decorating the house with holiday lights with a little help from the neighbourhood squirrels, while a few blocks away and Shaela was preening one of her cats with a fine toothed comb.
A short bus trip from there, and Sato was busy tending to the customers that had flocked to his store for the day. In fact, it had been one of his busiest times since opening the knick knack shop fifteen years earlier.
He'd hired two students to help him manage things, and they'd do all of the odd jobs like keeping the shop tidy and well stocked with the treasures from Sato's basement, while Sato himself dealt with the customers, entertaining them with stories about how he'd acquired the items from his inventory, and each item had its own tale.
In both Alivale (in Canada) and London (in England), despite their distance apart, tiny flakes of snow drifted gently down from the sky, sprinkling both regions in a light covering, not quite deep enough to warrant a pair of boots, nor quite shallow enough to avert the need for shoveling the walk.
The streets of Alivale were crowded with shoppers, those who were out and about buying the last of their holiday gifts, most of them already laden with those they'd purchased for their loved ones. Many of those whose stores graced the main strip had stepped out front of their shops to clear the snow for their customers, some of them already having laid salt afore the front door.
At the corner of the intersection and taking a considerable piece of the real estate, was The Hot Cup And Cards, Alivale's most popular café. There within, every table was filled and no seats empty, as were the stools and bar area as well.
The aroma of fresh coffee, hot chocolate, cinnamon and latte permeated the air, punctuated by the scent of the in-house bakery. Bread, rolls and fresh cookies lined the counters, disappearing as quickly as they were made.
At one particular table sat three women. One of whom was well known in the region for her artwork, a few of the stores in Alivale selling her work on consignment, though she didn't need the money as much as she needed to constantly be busy in the act of creation, for her name was Mila Ren Dubel.
"Size matters..." Gwendolyn, an attractive woman in her mid thirties with a long and bold head of blonde hair, laughed as she sat beside her two best friends.
Mila suddenly broke out laughing at Gwendolyn's words. Something Mila had long admired about her best friend in the Alivale region. A woman who was unafraid to speak her mind, despite the discomfort it might cause others, but most often her challenging of the status quot would lead to progress, if not healthy debate and most often, hearty laughter. She reminded Mila of Shaela, though with a much softer and less scathing edge. Shaela without the piercing cynicism.
"Honey, we're talking about the size of this man's heart, and I'll tell you, he has a big one, so says the tarot..." Natalie examined the cards spread before her, struggling to contain herself over Gwendolyn's remark.
"I bet that's what you were talking about!" Gwendolyn responded, trying desperately to catch Natalie in a playful lie.
There was a moment of silence between the three, and when none could contain it no further, they, all of three of them burst out laughing, piercing the somber silence of the coffee establishment.
"This isn't quite downtown Toronto I'll have you know, and if it was, I'd bet their language would be at least on par with our worst, so could you kindly respect my tourists?" Wendell stepped over to their table of three, in the most fashionable cafe in Alivale as those seated at other tables (at least those who were paying attention) laughed along with Gwendolyn and her friends.
"They don't call this place The Hot Cup And Cards for nothing let me remind you!" Gwendolyn responded to Wendell's remark.
"And we don't usually let just any Tarot readers operate their snag here unless they're awful special to us," Wendell reminded them.
"Well it must be quite an honour for Natalie to be accepted under your roof, because I'm certainly very eager to get my reading... ahem..." Mila looked to Natalie.
"Oh don't you worry honey. You're next," Natalie replied, as Wendell returned to the counter to begin refreshing the coffee stations.
"Well don't keep me waiting honey. What do the heavens have in store for me?" Gwendolyn pressed Natalie.
Natalie shuffled the cards as Mila's cellular phone rang on the table beside her.
"Hi sweetie!" Mila smiled as she answered the phone.
"This wouldn't happen to be the most beautiful and sexy woman alive, would it?" asked Barris as she listened, immediately blushing at his words.
"I don't know. That depends. This wouldn't happen to be the most gorgeous hunk of a man in the world, would it?" Mila played along with Barris' little game.
"How could anyone hope to answer such a question modestly? You're swelling my head... not to mention some other parts as well..." Barris responded playfully.
"Ditto, though you don't have to hide the fact that its only your ego that's swelling..." Mila replied, talking quietly to keep her conversation from Natalie's and Gwendolyn's ears.
"I heard that!" Gwendolyn remarked to Mila, not actually having heard anything at all.
"And my imagination. What are you wearing today?" Barris asked her.
"My holiday skirt, which fits me perfectly today. My red and pink blouse..." Mila began.
"...the satin one? Ohhhh I like that one. Ever so slightly transparent... it just tickles my imagination..." Barris said to her as seductively as he could muster.
"...and those tights you really like..." Mila continued.
"I might just have to leave early today... chase everyone out of the museum and meet you at our favourite place..." Barris truly let his imagination run wild.
"Where? You mean that rental cottage...? And then what will you do next...?" Mila whispered her words.
"I'd..." Barris began, though his words were suddenly cut short as the museum workplace around him disappeared and he reappeared in the middle of an old marble court.
He quickly turned around to take in his surroundings, a group of men in white togas were seated as if in a meeting, a few of them wearing wreaths on their heads.
Unfinished Romance
"Barris?" Mila addressed her husband to be, but the line had gone dead.
She checked her phone for reception, and upon finding it to be alright, she then addressed her friends at the table.
"How's your phone reception? Are either of you two having any problems?" asked Mila of Gwendolyn and then Natalie.
"Mine's fine. WIFI too," Gwendolyn responded.
"Same here. Why? Did you lose him?" asked Natalie.
"He'll call back... It was getting a little hot..." Mila blushed to her friends, fanning herself with her hand.
Gwendolyn and Natalie both broke out laughing with Mila.
"If its that hot, he'll call back. What guy wouldn't..." Gwendolyn added.
"I'll call him," Mila immediately responded, dialing Barris' number but only getting his answering machine.
"One more try..." Mila waited barely ten seconds and then hit the speed dial to Barris' number once again.
"You two for crying out loud! Gag me with a shovel you're just sooo damned cute! You've been with him for almost six years and you two still behave like you only hooked up yesterday!" Gwendolyn smirked at Mila, a smile on her face contrasted her tone.
"I remember when Melvin and I first met. It was flowers every day, and romance every night... for about six months... until it all dried up at once... the fun bits at least... Ohhhh those were the days," Natalie recalled as she finished shuffling the next batch of cards for Gwendolyn's tarot spread.
"These two are like starstruck lovers! Stuck in a perpetual time loop like they're in they're still in their prime or something!" Gwendolyn said with a certainly level of disgust, though it was arguable as to whether it was more jealousy than anything.
"Wait 'til they get married. A few months in and all the best stuff will suddenly disappear in a drought, and they'll finally surrender to being like every other couple in the world. A few years beyond that, and they'll replace that nice queen sized bed of theirs for a pair of single beds on the opposite side of the room...!" Natalie started turning over cards.
"That isn't my fortune is it?" Mila asked as the phone rang on Barris' end as she waited for him to answer.
"No, Mila. It isn't your fortune. Its all of our fortunes, us poor women, when our Prince Charming finally retires to become Prince Rotund, complete with a sizeable inner-tube around his waist..." Natalie looked across the room admiringly at a younger couple, both of whom were trim and vivacious, full of passion for one another.
"Ho! Ho! Ho! I do believe my ears are ringing!" Melvin entered the café as if on cue, a large sack hoisted over his shoulders.
"Honey, we were just talking about you," Natalie said to her husband as he leaned over to lay an affectionate peck on her cheek.
"And I was just thinking about you three, and how a present for you each might change those pouty faces to a round of smiles!" Melvin lay the sack down on the floor and reached in, retrieving three gifts, one each for Gwendolyn, Mila and his wife Natalie.
"I thought those were for the kids?" asked Gwendolyn of the thirty-something year old man.
"The kids have been thoroughly serviced of their holiday gifts. They had a show earlier where you'll never guess who showed up and made sure that there were no children without presents this year..." Melvin stood poigniantly looking off into the distance, his left hand still holding the gift sack, his right hand rubbing the front of his rotund, inner-tube belly.
"...whew! I though I'd lost you..." Barris finally answered the phone.
"I guess we were disconnected. Is everything alright?" Mila asked him.
"Yes... but getting back to our earlier conversation, I couldn't help but think how spending the rest of the day at our secret place might be quite fitting given the season, and let me tell you, Mr. Ho! Ho! is ever so jolly to see you!" Barris responded, picking up where they'd left off from earlier.
Mila ran her finger seductivey up her leg to the hemline of her skirt, which just barely crested her shapely knees and her crossed legs.
"Mr. Ho! Ho! isn't the only one eager to enjoy the pleasures of the season..." Mila did her best to sound seductive, only finding herself suddenly blushing as she spoke.
"Honey. I'm so sorry that we had to delay the wedding. Its been bothering me silly thinking about it, but I didn't think that my parents would ever contact us, let alone request of us to delay the most important date of our lives..." Barris suddenly pleaded with Mila.
"Ohhhh honey. Its... done, and a summer wedding would have been my dream come true, but we can wait until the spring again, but you have to promise me that there will be no more delays or cancellations... And you also have to make sure that I'm well attended to every single day until that day arrives..." Mila continued again with the seduction, finally starting to feel comfortable enough to thoroughly enjoy herself.
"Honey, I'm just about ready to lock up here, and I'll be there to pick you up in about forty-five minues. Can Miss tinkle-berry wait until then?" Barris asked her.
"Only if Mr. Ho! Ho! can... oh wait! I almost forgot. I have an appointment shortly after Natalie here gives me my tarot reading... ahem!" Mila replied, cupping her hand over the phone to keep their conversation discrete, only raising her voice slightly when she mentioned Natalie and her tarot reading.
"Oh really? How long do you need?" Barris asked her.
"An extra forty five minutes. If you come earlier, just call me and I'll give you directions," Mila replied.
"Where to?" asked Barris.
"Its a surprise..." Mila smiled at her coy little plan.
"Alright. I'll dilly dally here for half hour before I leave, though Mr. Ho! Ho! is getting very impatient... Luv you!" Barris said to her.
"Love you too. See you soon..." Mila mimicked a kiss and then hung up, and Barris immediately began doing the rounds in the museum and preparing to locking up.
"Would you and Barris care to join us this evening for a bit of holiday cheer?" asked Melvin of Mila.
"You're welcome too if you'd like Gwendolyn," Natalie added.
"I was just going to ask you the same thing. We're having a few people over for the holidays and we expect to be enjoying ourselves late into the evening. We've got lots of space if you'd like to join us..." Mila offered.
Natalie looked over to Melvin, who nodded affirmatively.
"We could do that, but what about your friends?" Melvin asked Natalie.
"We're having company at our place, but if you have the room, we could all do the holiday cheer at your manor..." Natalie suggested.
"They're part of my club. A tarot group as it were..." Natalie added.
"I'd love to have you all over. We'll be starting at 7PM but you can show up any time thereafter," Mila said, checking her watch given her impromptu plans for romance with Barris.
"I'll call my beau and see if he's into that. I don't see why not. Besides, it would be nice to catch up some more, especially over a few bottles of that Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon you've been crafting," Gwendolyn got up from her seat.
"Thanks so much for the reading, Natalie. I guess it seems that it would be a good idea to take up Mila's offer then. You could say that it was in the cards..." Gwendolyn bid her friends farewell as she grabbed her bag of holiday shopping and made her way to the door.
"Alright Mila. Your turn... and let me tell you, this looks like your chart is going to be quite remarkable. We've got a Mercury retrograde, and a Venus rising... but who's this mysterious stranger that showing up in your chart...?" Natalie began setting up for Mila's fortune, having already retrieved her friend's astrological chart and was now shuffling the cards for her spread.
Unfinished Republic
"Do I know any of you?" asked Barris of the strange men that surrounded him in what appeared to be a Republic court of some ancient architecture.
Despite its having been built hastily since their occupation of Albion, it was quite remarkable that their supply lines and reach had been capable of transporting the valuable building material from quarries as far away as the Mediterranian, along what their Empire referred to as the red way. Regardless of its having been built in haste, it housed them and suited their purposes quite well. A taste of their distant home, for all roads of their vast empire truly led to Rome.
[Barris Windsor, have you lost your mind since last we spoke? I seem to recall that we made good progress with regard to our mutual learning of each others' language.]
"Barris Windsor, ex quo ultimo locuti sumus animum perdidisti? Meminisse videor nos bene profecisse quoad mutuam alterius linguae cognitionem." Ponderosus addressed Barris from the head of the court.
Barris heard the words, even recognizing that they were likely spoken in native Latin, but having no training in the language most often taught to Doctors for a career in Medicine, he was lost as to how to respond.
"Ummm... hocus pocus...? Hello-us? Hit my knee with a rubber hammer-us?" he responded, an intense migraine headache suddenly cropping up from within the innards of his skull.
"Oh my skull! Somebody please stop it!" he wailed, holding onto the sides of his head.
He grasped at his scalp, half expecting his head to split open and let forth a burst of trapped steam, but fortunately for him no such thing happened. Instead, the pain receded as quickly as it had arrived, and he suddenly had a grasp of the words they'd only just spoken to him.
[I'm sorry, but I don't know you or even remember speaking with you, let alone do I have any idea of how I ended up here...]
"Paenitet me, sed non novi te vel etiam tecum loqui memini, nedum mihi ideam habeo quomodo hic finierim..." Barris spoke, now well versed in the Latin.
[He knows of the rising rebellion amongst the people. He's clearly withholding such knowledge from us, and until we receive the reinforcements from Caesar, we're in a desperate situation with such hidden enemies amongst our midst here in Albion...]
"Seit rebellionem in populo. A nobis plane abstinet, donec auxilia a Caesare accipimus, cum tam occultis hostibus inter nostros hic in Albione desperatus sumus." Carbus Carnum stood, pounding his fist down upon a marble table as he spoke, his Roman armour gleaming in the sunlight.
[Oh? I remember this! This was all about you guys cracking your eggs on the little end, and your enemies cracking their eggs on the big end! Little Endians and Big Endians! Wait a minute, aren't you supposed to be tiny? Like really small compared to me?]
"Oh? Hoc memini! Haec omnia de vobis guys sunt ova in parvo fine crepuisse, et hostes ova eorum in magnum finem crepuisse! Parva Endians et Big Endians! Exspecta paulisper, nonne putaris esse pusillum? Velut vere parva comparatio mihi?" Barris struggled to piece together what these men of the Roman court were trying to ascertain, only coming up with a few shreds of a book he'd once read by Jonathan Swift.
[This man is very clearly a fool! A buffoon and jester, his words are infecting us with his folly, while the rebellion is gaining in strength and support amongst the people!]
"Hic homo praeclare stultus! Scurra et ioculator, verba eius nos stultitiam inficiunt, dum rebellio in populo robur ac robur obtinet." Carbus Carnum once again offered a perspective on the basis of his military expertise.
[We don't even know who their leader is... and yet this man's name is mentioned prominently amidst the scribe's request for supplies in the form of heavy furs and iron ore! I tell you, he is working with them, perhaps as their secretive quartermaster?]
"Nescimus quidem quis eorum dux sit... et tamen hoc nomen hominis eminenter memoratur inter rogationem scribae commeatus in modum pellium gravium et ferri chalcitidis! Dico tibi, laborat cum illis fortasse secretivus eorum magister?" Carbus continued driving his point how to those present in attendance of his more serious session of Republic court.
[It is true. It seems that these supplies are of purpose only for one thing and one thing alone. They're building an army to rise against us.]
"Verum est. Ad septimum sic proceditur. Videtur quod ista suppeditatio non sit nisi ad unum et ad unum solum. Exercitum contra nos aedificant." Ponderosus backed Carbus Carnum, though slightly hesitantly, for he was not a warrior but a strategist and one of the finests of the Roman court.
One of the men of the court raised his hand.
[The court recognizes Selenus Maximus, Mathematician, Doctor and Astrologer.]
"Aula Selenum Maximum, Mathematicum, Doctorem et Astrologum agnoscit." one of the courtisans shouted at the top of his lungs.
[Stand and address your peers, Selenus Maximus.]
"Sta, et tuos alloque pares, Selene, Maxime." the man at the head of the room spoke confidently and asertively.
[There is one other possibility and we have seen that there is a foul mind, a crafty one of such wiles that they might be playing us one against the other, merely by the mention of this jester's name. Sewing the seeds of mistrust so that we call into question his words, and lose the advantage of his insight.]
"Est aliud possibilitas, et vidimus esse mentem impuram, callidam talium versutum, ut nos invicem luderent, solo nomine ioculatoris. Sutura diffidentiam, ut in dubium vocamus verba eius, et utilitatem perspiciamus." Selenus Maximus spoke suggestively, but yet with an air of humble reproach before the leadership.
[This man's words by themselves are enough to sew the seeds of any mistrust, for they are the rambling of a rampant fool...]
"Verba hominis haec sola satis sunt cuivis diffidentiae semina consuere, sunt enim stulte vagabundi." Carbus presented his statement with comedic folly and humour, rousing many of the Roman court to laugh in his support.
[And yet he has intimate knowledge of their most sacred shrine here in Albion. The Standing Stones...]
"Et tamen hic in Albione sacratissimae suae aediculae notitiam intimat. Lapides stantes..." Ponderosus reminded them of Barris importance.
[The Standing Stones are no more a dangerous weapon, than is a calendar or the sticks that Druids use to wytch the water to build their wells...]
"Lapides stantes non magis telum periculosum sunt quam calendarium aut ligna quae druidum aqua ad puteos suos faciendas utuntur." Carbus Carnum challenged Ponderosus' assumptions about Barris and the Standing Stones.
[Remember, with a calendar we are able to time the strength of our military to coincide with the wrath of nature. A formidable weapon far more in strength than even our strongest Phalanx.]
"Memento, cum fasti^ temporis vires militiae nostrae cum ira naturae congruere possimus. Telum formidabile longe viribus magis quam etiam fortissimum Phalanx." Ponderosus reminded the court why he was considered amongst the wisest of men in their ranks.
[Then lead the jester there, and if he can't utilize it to help us against our enemies, then perhaps we can sacrifice him the same way the Druids sacrifice their woodland friends in their rites?]
"Tum ioculatorem illuc duc, quo si uti non potest ut contra hostes adiuvet, num forte eodem modo ei possumus sacrificare druidibus suis silvestribus amicis suis ritibus immolare?" Carbus Carnum suggested, picking up his helmet from the table and tucking it under his arm.
[All in favour, say: aye.]
"Omnes in gratia, dicite: immo." the man at the head of the court addressed them.
There was a resounding response of aye, and their session was finished and Barris' fate had been decided.
[Uhhhhh... so how is it that Druids sacrifice their woodland friends? Just in the point of interest on my part?]
"Uhhhhh... so how is it that Druids sacrifice their woodland friends? Just in the point of interest on my part?" asked Barris as he was summarily surrounded by Carbus' own guards.
[They are prepared for immortality and to assist the heathen gods of Druids, by having their hearts cleaved from their bodies and their flesh offered on the altar.]
"Ad inmortalitatem praeparantur, diis gentilibus druidum, qui corpori adhaeserint, et in aris carnes adhaeserint." Ponderosus responded to Barris question.
[I see. Is there any way I could take a raincheck on this? Maybe come back another day? I could bribe you with this crystal...?]
"Video. Estne ulla via de hac raincheck potui accipere? Forsitan alio die redeo? Tibi hoc cristallum reddere potui...?" Barris opened his hand, and revealed a tiny gem of perfect crystalline clarity that had somehow found its way into his grasp between the museum, his conversation with Mila, and then his arrival in the Roman court.
Unfinished Penrose Imperium
Some seven billion lightyears away, on an unimaginably huge construct that encircled a black hole, harvesting the zero-point energy imbalance that arose from the event horizon and regular space, an alarm sounded, ringing through all hundred million kilometers of corridor that lined the construct, finally echoing into the offices of a large bipedal like man, whose armour was very similar to that of Carbus Carnum some seven billion lightyears away and a few hundred years breadth in time.
"Did somebody say crystal?!!!" he spoke in a language very similar to English, after which he began laughing a most sinister laughter that too echoed through the hundred million kilometers of corridor that lined the construct, before his wife yelled at him from the bedroom, where she happened to be knitting holiday stockings for that evening.
"Could you keep it down honey! I'm trying to finish the last of our holiday knitting you know!" she said to him from the other room.
All at once, a tremendous build up of steam seaped out through fissures in his ears, the pressure unbelievably powerful as his anger peaked.
"'Right dear. Sorry 'bout that. I'll try to keep it down..." he said quietly, as he closed the door to their bedroom and stepped out into his office and over to a holographic monitor.
"I want you to find me that source of crystal! Immediately!" he pounded his fist down upon his desk.
"Honey! Could you keep it down! My soap opera is just starting..." came his wife's voice from the bedroom.
"Sorry honey..." he said timidly, then turning to his second in command.
"I want you to gather every ship in our fleet! And then some! We're going on a little trip because as you know, this universe isn't for big enough for both crystals and black holes. There's only enough room for for black hole powered supercivilizations like us!" he ordered his second in command.
"And pick me up a double double coffee if you could at the nearest Timmy's?" he added.
"Very well Sir..." his second in command responded, about ready to activate his entanglement displacement device.
"Oh... and don't forget to leave the little stir stick in!" their leader added.
"Right away, Made!" his second in command responded.
"Wait a second. Did you just call me a Maid?" their leader responded.
"Yes Sir. You're our Mighty And Deadly Emperor, or MADE for short," the second in command neglected to inform the Emperor that he and his men were having a laugh at the Emperor's expense.
"Ahhh. Very clever of you and somewhat convenient I'd imagine..." the MADE responded.
"If that will be all Sir, I'll be off to Timmy's to get your coffee..." his second in command disappeared upon activation of his entanglement displacement device.
When the second in command was gone, the Emperor addressed the third in command:
"When he gets back, have him vapourized. After you get my coffee from him. Don't forget the stir stick either! From that point, you'll be promoted to my second in command," the Emperor's face grew contorted as a maniacal laughter erupted from him once again.
"Oh, how wonderful Sir," the third in command spoke with a horrid sense of dread.
And with that, the soon to be deceased second in command gathered the immensely vast fleet of the Emperor, and upon the retrieval of his double double coffee, they left on the hours long trip through a network of interconnected worm holes, one of which was cleverly concealed on the far side of our sun.
Unfinished Sanctum
Space, despite its apparent simplicity, is actually a very complex thing, hence why so many human resources over years had been spent developing the technology of storage space. As George Carlin, a noteable historian and learned scholar in the science of comedy had once explained, the only real thing that we need in life is a place to put our stuff.
Over thousands of years, as humanity accumulated more and more stuff, we gave these storage spaces ever more elaborate and creative names. Initially, there was the cubby hole, a decidedly tiny space where ancient humanity would store their rocks and pepples (primitive tools at that time), and maybe a clean pair of porcupine hide underwear or two, which were the only human invention that was shorter lived than the 8-track tape.
There was the chest, a storage space that didn't need to be stored inside, as it was its self-contained inside, which was its greatest flaw. Soon after its invention, another crafty human came along and invented the hope chest, aptly named as such as a form of optimism that went along the lines: "I hope that someone doesn't simply come along and walk away with my chest".
Naturally, many people did walk away with them, often burying these chests and hope chests with immense hidden treasures, which led to the development of the inside of doors storage, as few people were capable of walking away with a two storey home.
Hence, at the end of many beds in said homes, one would find a hope chest, though the motive for its name had been reworked to: "I hope that nobody finds my sex toys in this chest". Little did they know that most other chests that had been stolen before the invention of the house, were often filled and buried with sex toys. Information that never quite made it to encyclopedias, upon the discovery of buried pirate treasure, instead often flooding the market for second-hand sex toys, which jump started Amazon three hundred years before the invention of the internet.
Soon, our storage spaces had wheels, in the form of the boot (or trunk as they call it in the new world) and the glove box (or glove compartment in the new world), and we could literally drive our stuff around. Ironically, despite the advances in technology, storage spaces still mostly contained sex toys. Ahhhh, what a thought, seeing her in her nice red lipstick and that plaid lingerie I got her for x-mas last year... Alright, enough about sex (in this paragraph).
All of the time human beings had been busy creating places to put their stuff, another group of people had been busy tampering with the aether in trying to find ways to weave reality (in mostly bizarre ways) until they accidentally happened across a space so hidden, that it actually occupied the space between our own time and space, in another dimension. This place, they would eventually come to call: the Midspace, but only because the name Timbuktu was already taken.
Using their aether weaving skills, these early crafters managed to carve out an immense keep within the Midspace, before a very angry and disgruntled man came and took it away from them. He lived in there for a very long time, though we'll never be so sure just how long, because time doesn't pass the same way in the Midspace as it does everywhere else, in much the same way that you could leave a tuna sandwich on the counter in the Midspace, and it would theoretically never, ever go bad.
As it turns out, this was entirely because the Midspace disobeyed the second-law of thermodynamics, hence Entropy did not exist in the Midspace as one of the universal markers, and as the arrow for the direction of the flow of time. This of course put a serious damper on the market for refridgerators and freezers in the Midspace, leading eventually to the people who lived there storing their ice cream in the cupboards, another deftly crafted storage space of human invention.
It was speculated that the biggest reason that angry fellow eventually left the giant keep they'd built in the Midspace, was simply because he couldn't keep his vast wine collection chilled, so he instead moved to a dark forest in the heart of France, where years later, a group of those meddling weavers of the aether would find him again, and foil his plans to bring refridgeration to the Midspace.
After he'd gained the support of the refridgeration industrial complex, he once again came back to the Midspace, with a tremendous army who pounded the walls of that great keep, until eventually the weavers of aether retaliated and obliterated the angry man's entire army.
He left, returning to France once again, even calming down considerably and making friends with his neighbours, but not before he took the life of the lover of one of those weavers of the aether. An artist of unreknowned ability named Mila Ren Dubel.
She became isolated and withdrawn, lost in her loneliness, eventually disappearing altogether as the spaces in reality began overlapping one another, and before long, she was happily reunited with her long lost love without ever realizing that he'd been gone.
And so, without ever knowing that their reality had been altered so drastically, the Midspace once again began to thrive, and these weavers of the aether, being ever so frisky and with much time on their hands, had many children who in turn eventually moved into the giant keep, and in the process securing the future of the Sanctum Seclorum of the Midspace. Albeit, a very, very crowded Sanctum.
Of course, with need being the mother of all invention, and the father of all procrastination, the women of the Sanctum went to work building plans for an addition to the Sanctum, which was really just their uinfinished basement, which needed a lot of renovation work so that their children could all move into the basement, like all children eventually did on the Aerth. Of course, after decades of procrastination, the men of the Sanctum eventually ran out of excuses and began renovating the Sanctum's basement, which was a vast system of caves that ran beneath their giant keep, though it is still largely debated as to whether the motivating factor to get the men moving on the project was actually when the women got together and cut-off all sex until the project was done.
The Sanctum itself took over a hundred years of Aerth time to construct, if measured in human lifespans, while the basement of the Sanctum took only two weekends, before the children were forced to move in, and the sex lives of the parents resumed.
Over the course of their occupation of the Sanctum's basement, it turned into its own entirely self contained village of over three thousand people, all the unemployed teenaged kids of the residents of the Sanctum. All of them skilled in the manipulation of the aether, not to mention other arts and crafts that had long been lost to history.
With the renewed vigour of these unemployed basement dwelling teenagers, the village thrived and became a tourist draw of the residents of the Sanctum, even becoming a vacation spot in addition to being a place where the residents of the Sanctum could buy knick knacks, like potions, scrolls and even crystal balls amidst the scenic market of the underground village, all of which was lit by the magical bioluminescent crystals of eternity. Oops, I've said too much and might have even revealed the MacGuffin behind this entire story.
There goes another. I'll just file the rest of this story under the same storage space I put: Tales Of The Sanctum: A Lady's Prerogative III: Singularity or Tales Of The Sanctum: A Lady's Prerogative - Crystals Are Forever and of course, my most recent failure: Tales Of The Sanctum: A Lady's Prerogative - Lost Riff.
Just kidding. Where was I? Oh yes, unemployed teenagers with far too much time on their hands, especially having finished Elden Ring several times already.
With all of that pent up energy, they built the first and only tourist village in the Midspace and the Sanctum Seclorum, and became one of the greatest successes since any children moved out of the upstairs and into their parents' basement, which was good, because on this particular day, there happened to be a delegation present in the Sanctum Seclorum, and they were on this particular moment (which would be impossible without entropy or time, but we'll use the term in reference to equivalent human lifespan), touring the Village of Eternity.
"In two weekends? Most impressive that you've achieved all of this in such a short time..." Merethal walked with two of his enjoys at his side, on his left were Yirfir Lacharme, temporary acting Matron Mistress Wytch of the Sanctum, and her husband Patron Of The Aether,Jasmer McCavanaugh.
"...it was all accomplished mostly over long weekends..." Yirfir responded to Merethal as they walked through the market square.
"...and very effectively motivated I might add..." Jasmer added to Yirfir's remark.
"Their market economy is self sustaining?" asked Merethal.
"Absolutely. Without any pressure from us, they seem to have all picked their own vocations, as if by some uncanny intuition of the future, although in the Midspace, future and past are both woven into one in ways that are difficult for most to grasp," Yirfir explained to Merethal.
"With or without know, one should always go with the flow," Merethal remarked, drawing upon a saying taught to him by his mentors of the Order Of The Life Well.
"We try to maintain a holistic awareness that spans both forwards and backwards in time, with regard to the Prime Plane of existence..." Yirfir replied.
"And yet you do this without any school of Temporality in this wondrous village? How do they go, if without the flow?" asked Merethal.
"Despite their being very successfully apt in their first endeavor away from home, we keep a close eye on them..." Jasmer began.
"Yes... only intervening when absolutely necessary..." Yirfir looked to Jasmer, perhaps a bit embarrassed to be speaking of such matters.
"It all seems too civil. You mean there've been times where you...?" Merethal was very diplomatic when speaking of personal matters.
"Yes... We have had to put our foot down occasionally, being the Sanctum's representation and all. We don't have any children of our own..." Jasmer responded.
"But Matron Thara Lansmore of the Order Of The Night Wytch has three. Two boys, her own and a daughter, adopted she is. Being ever so ambitious to meet up to the achievements of Matron Thara, they once aspired to have a party..." Yirfir explained to Merethal.
"It was more like a concert, really, and of course being sons of one of the most capable summoners in the Sanctum, they summoned an audience... in addition to the three thousand inhabitants of Eternity, for a total audience of nearly a hundred thousand. Three thousand Aerthlings, and ninety seven thousand Warriors Of The Shadow Rite. The only Idigenous homonid-like species in the Shadow-plane, and a very rowdy bunch... who immensely enjoy celebrations..." Jasmer explained.
"Even more so with a few pitchers of Shadowmead in their gullets..." Yirfir laughed uneasily upon recalling the situation.
"How did you tame so many concert goers without disaster or destruction? This village is absolutely pristeen!" Merethal nodded to the two envoys accompanying him.
"Well, it wasn't easy. Both Karas and Bavel certainly are very civil themselves and yet quite rambunctious when it comes to a good time... but their sister..." Jasmer paused, Yirfir suddenly cutting in.
"Domina. She can be very influential... and the bigger the crowd, the more ample her influence tends to be. She's a mind weaver, and a natural one at that. Thankfully she kept her sense about her, and was able to calm the entire crowd down before it turned into an incident. By the end of the concert, the Shadow Warriors returned to the Shadow Plane in an orderly fashion, while the residents of Eternity managed to sell quite a few t-shirts to them... Not without the influence of Domina of course... but we'll keep that secret ourselves..." Yirfir finished the story for Merethal.
"I believe that as one of the more aggressively political members of the Order Of The Life Well, that such situations could be better averted with the presence of an ample population of Seers. The Sanctum, if not Eternity seems to be shy of them..." Merethal suggested.
"Since the Battle of the Sanctum, we lost many of our Seers. The Watchers Of The Lore Of Stars suffered the greatest casualties of any of the Orders of the Sanctum, as they were a required presence as strategists and support troops for our Elementalists and Healers as you know. We've been unable to replenish their numbers, especially with so much energy in the Sanctum focused on rebuilding the Order Of The Aerth Mother. Nelony Ardbloem's current tasking and our highest priority," Yirfir told Merethal.
"Perhaps then this is an indication of just how important having good Seers is for the Sanctum. Upon the Aerth, good weather forecasters are the difference between safety and tragedy for many. Seers would undoubtedly benefit the effort to rebuild the Wytch's Order of the Aerth Mother, and replenish the focus on environmental health..." Merethal spoke confidently.
"Perhaps Merethal is right," Yirfir agreed.
"We're already stretched thin in the department of administrators. We're lacking the capacity to spread our focus so thin and in so many different directions, one of our great logistical challenges given the losses during the Battle of the Sanctum. Are you offering to assist us in this endeavor, Merethal?" asked Jasmer.
"I'm afraid not Jasmer. We too are stretched far too thin to be of any meaningful help other than our existing duties. Perhaps the best solution isn't the most obvious, but perchance the one so close to us that we fail to see it?" Merethal responded, both of his envoys nodding in approval.
Unfinished Migration
Barris began running his gifts between the Girtrude And Wilbert's Alivale Paradise Museum, and the back of his car, carrying them in stacks of three at a time. They were all gift wrapped by that time, and each of them had a tag directing them to the particular person who'd receive the gift at their dinner party that night.
As Barris carried another stack to the back of the car, a large fly suddenly buzzed by his ear, causing him to spin with the gifts to avoid the giant bug altogether. When he arrived at the back of his car, he carefully balanced the gifts as he looked around for the bug.
"Flies? At this time of year? Its a bit chilly for them..." he said to himself as he organized the gifts in the back of his car, not noticing that the large "fly" was actually a bee, and that it had landed on one of the gifts and had burrowed inside beneath the gift paper.
"There... that's better! Only six more to go and we're off to pick up my wonderful wife to be... for some afternoon nookie!" Barris smiled mischievously as he jogged back to the front door of the Museum to pick up another stack of three gifts.
Near the top of the door, a group of bees had gathered, and were in the middle of a rather convoluted conversation. One of them marched along the ceiling overhang over the porch, wiggling its tail every so often, then buzzing its wings loudly as the others listened. One of the bees nodded its head, and contemplated what the other be had just stated, before he replied.
As Barris walked out of the Museum with the next stack of gifts, the bee who'd jusr responded to the other one's conjecture, then flew off, following Barris as he continued towards the car, this time instead of buzzing his ear, the bee simply landed on the top of his toque, and waved frantically for the others to join him.
"Alright! Get the other two out there, and stay clear of his eyes and ears!" one of the other bees ordered another pair of them.
The two flew off, in a straight line and landed atop of Barris' toque beside the others, Barris completely oblivious about the whole affair, and did not in the least suspect that his toque was now being used by a group of hyper-intelligent bees as a staging area for their migration plans.
Barris fit the gifts into the back, one at a time, and while he was distracted between gifts, one of the bees would jump down onto the most recent gift, and hide inside of it beneath the gift paper.
This continued until Barris had finished bringing out all of the gifts, which by coincidence had lined up perfectly with the amount of bees who'd arranged to be ready for these migration plans. They were hyper-intelligent after all, so naturally their plans had worked out perfectly, if the gifts were actually going to be delivered to another location in the world.
However, in this case and much the the bees' lack of awareness, the gifts were only going to travel about fifty kilometers in total, where they'd end up on a gift table adorned with a decorated pine tree and various lights and doo-dads and doo-hickies where a bunch of half drunken adults previously stuffed with hors d'ouvres, would one by one open them, hence ending the bees' migration plans short of their original plan and forcing them to settle for a place at said party.
How you might ask, could a group of hyper-intelligent bees so horribly bungle such a devious plan?
As I stated earlier, they were hyper-intelligent, not hyper-scrutinizing, hence, none of them at all considered any changes to the initial plans once suggested by the first bee... because of the fact that they were not very good at scrutinizing and... this plot element is kind of lame... but that's how it happened. They were very smart, but not very scrutinizing, and so they quickly accepted the first plan thrown at them and I'm sticking with that, because I'm the author, dammit.
Barris returned to the Museum and armed the security alarm before closing and locking the door, after which he made his way to the car and got in. While singing a horrible rendition of Oasis' song Morning Glory, he started his car and began driving happily on his way to pick up his total babe of a wife to be for some <insert your favourite euphamism for afternoon sex at a secret location here>.
The bees, had for most of the trip, spent their time reading the packaging and if applicable the instructions on each of the gifts, and by the time Barris had arrived in Alivale to pickup Mila, they could have been considered experts at each of the respective gifts which they occupied, though at this point in the plot, that wasn't important at all but I just thought I'd throw that out there regardless.
Unfinished Hairstyle
Forty-five minutes later, and Barris was pulling the car up in front of the Hair Salon. He got out and paid for a parking spot and then proceeded into the salon, very sneakily.
The hairdresser immediately spotted Barris as he snuck in, but she feigned ignorance and played along wiith Barris' plans regardless as he found a spot in the waiting area, unseen by Mila.
"...and then you know Shaela and how she can be sometimes. She just walked right over to the creep who'd made that remark about Nelony, and scratched his chin flirtatiously. Of course, from the moment he saw her he was eating it all up as she fed it to him, and then she took her entire glass of wine and poured it into his lap..." both Mila and the hair dresser began laughing at Mila's story.
"So I take it Nelony left with the other man?" asked Tammy, the hair dresser.
"Yes. They did leave together, which was one of the happiest moments I've seen in recent years, poor Nelony having spent most of her time alone before that. From what I hear, they've been an item ever since..." Mila smiled as she thought about their previous yearly Halloween outting.
"...you've just got to find one for Shaela and we can all get together for a quadruple date!" Tammy added as she began removing the foil wrapped segments she'd used to dye Mila's hair.
"Now that's definitely a plan... I'm still looking for one for Shaela. She's a bit asocial... but as soon as you mention the term cat lady..." Mila rolled her eyes as she gossipped with Tammy.
When Tammy had the last piece of foil out of Mila's hair, she applied a conditioning finish to her hair from a mist-spray bottle and then grabbed the hair dryer and began shaping her new hairstyle as Barris snuck up behind them from the waiting area.
When Barris grabbed Mila's shoulders from behind, she nearly jumped out of her chair, as Tammy stepped backwards laughing at Mila's reaction.
Mila spun her chair around to confront Barris, who had a very devious look on his face, but when he saw Mila's new hair and style, his look changed to one of utter awe.
"Awwwww!!!? You cut off all of your long hair!" Barris responded as she looked to him.
The hair dryer suddenly stopped. and there was a moment of utter silence, Tammy cringing, and Mila looking back at Barris, her eyes having grown larger as tears quickly filled her bottom eyelids.
"You don't like it?" Mila asked him, still looking to him in shock.
Barris suddenly found himself on the spot, one of his feet already all the way in his mouth, his other foot waiting on standby as he searched for the right words to undo the damage he'd clearly done thus far by his remark about Mila's new hairstyle.
"Its..." Barris blurted out, very clearly stalling for time as his other foot readied itself to jump full force into his mouth beside his first foot.
Tammy crossed her fingers as Barris struggled to find his words.
"Nice...! Really... really... nice!" he finished, even trying to elevate the pitch of the end of his sentence, hoping that it would be enough to repair a situation which had recently gone critical.
"You don't like it?" Mila responded.
"No...! No... of course not! It looks... very nice!" Barris' other foot now all the way in his mouth too, several other parts of his body suddenly interested in seeing if they could fit in as well, his hands already attempting to dive in.
Mila turned around in her chair, giving Barris her back as she looked in the mirror at Tammy's masterpiece of hair dressing.
Mila turned her head to this side, and then that side, and a smile slowly grew back in place of the frown Barris had so carelessly planted there moments earlier.
"Its... shorter... but I like it..." Mila's smile grew that much more, despite Barris' initial remark.
"It really brings out the pretty features on your face and jaw-line... without overpowering them from the background..." Tammy spoke up in defense of her vision of Mila's ideal framing presentation.
"Are you listening to her Barris? Are you learning anything about women yet?" Mila said to him, the bottom of his stomach falling out as the severity of the situation finally became apparent to him.
"Uhhhh... precisely! That's exactly what I was going to say..." historians would, years later say that it was clearly a low moment for team Barris, using the: you took the words right out of my mouth line, first coined by Meatloaf in the late 1970s.
Historians would further go on to remark that it was a bad play, and that he instead should have remained silent and listened to the two women as they expertly repaired a difficult minefield of a situation into which Barris had stumbled, for it had initially begged the thought in Mila's head: What would make Barris better for me? What don't I like about him?
At that moment, the dynamic that every couple dreads was brought to fruition. The nagging things that bothered them about each other and the things that they thought if they changed about them would make them better, that neither had the courage to bring up with the other, until that very moment when Barris stumbled with the ball regarding Mila's new hairstyle.
That was when Mila first had the thought: What is nagging me so much about Barris?
Mila paid Tammy for her artistic work in creating the masterpiece that now crowned Mila's head, and the two had a good laugh despite the earlier dynamics Barris had introduced into their afternoon, while he only considered how romantic a fellow he was to be picking up his fiancé to take her to a secret love nest of theirs for a romantic quickie.
It even lost its lustre as he rolled it around in his head, after he'd so selfishly blurted out exactly what he'd thought about Mila's new hairstyle.
Awwwww!!!? You cut off all of your long hair!
The words echoed through the empty chasms in Barris' head.
When she turned away from Tammy and began heading towards the door, there was a moment that stood in slow motion as he really looked at her as if for the first time again. And at that moment, he saw her in all of her glory, the wonderful shape of her cheeks rounded perfectly and framed against the borders of her eyes, all underlined by her luscious red lips, and as Tammy had stated, her hair perfectly in the background, like the perfect frame for a masterpiece of a painting.
All at once Barris saw her and took her in.
Mila noticed, and knew that something was different, but she was already hurt and had in the short time speaking with Tammy, gotten over it. She wasn't thinking about their romantic secret love nest at all. She was thinking about the things she'd change about him to suit her needs, and most selfishly so, for she'd never in all their time together, put herself first. It was always about him and what his fantasies were.
He quickly grabbed the door for her as she waved goodbye with her fingers to Tammy, walking by Barris as if she wasn''t showing him off to everyone else, but as if she suddenly realized that she was and had been the best thing about them, because for the entire time they'd been together, she never put herself first and that was going to change.
Unfinished Warrior Queen
The Phalanx marched perfectly in rhythm and form, a giant red box against the luscious green fields as eight columns of men moved on towards the great monument of the Druids: Stonehenge.
Ponderosus walked alongside Barris, whose hands were now bound behind his back while a length of the best Roman rope fastened him to two nearby Guards in Carbus Carnum's own unit, Carbus behind the two men as they marched forward, Stonehenge now visible atop the plateau and their destination.
[If you care to relieve yourself now of your knowledge of this place, it would be a most beneficial time for you to do so.]
"Si tibi nunc huius loci notitiae curas levare, commodissimum tempus tibi id facere futurum esse." Ponderosus spoke with the calm of a scholarly man and one who kept matters of war and savagery at arm's length.
[You heard this blathering fool's drool earlier, Ponderosus. He is just a fool from admidst a people obviously much more well informed than he, who has fallen into a dangerous situation, impersonating the worldliness of one who knows. I prefer to think that this whelp of a man knows nothing! He'll grovel at your feet and say anything he believes you want to hear, just to spare his life a few moments more.]
"Audisti hoc stultorum blaterantes prius nugae, Ponderose. Stultus est ab intimo homine multo manifestius instructior quam ille, qui in periculosas res incidit, munditiam cognoscentis personans. Malo putare quod hic catulus hominis nihil scit! Ad pedes tuos noet, et quicquid audieris credit dicturus est, vitae modo parcat paulo plus." Carbus Carnum spat at the back of Barris feet after addressing his superior.
[It seems that you're lacking the support of the brutes, my dear friend and I can only do so much to stave their blood-thirsty nature, for their respect of me is purely on the grounds of duty and out of respect for their superiors. The moment I stepped out of line, they'd be at my throat just as readily as they are at yours. If there's one thing I've learned in this world my friend, its that the appetite of wolves is peaked by the appearance of weakness. Fret not though I know it to be difficult, for real strength lies not in the fiber of one's muscle, but in the mettle of their heart's thumos. If you allow these men to trounce you with words, then you're failing us both. Be unafraid to share your knowledge of this ancient device with me, for if you do, I will see to it that these wolves grovel at your feet rather than either of us at theirs.]
"Brutorum auxilio tibi cares, amice carissime, nec tantum possum tantum sanguineum sitientem occidere, est enim respectus mei pure ex officio et ob reverentiam praelatorum. . Ut iam egrederetur, aeque facile in gutture meo forent quam apud te sunt. Si hoc unum est, amice didici in hoc mundo, quod luporum appetitus specie infirmitatis spectetur. Ne contendas, etsi difficile esse scio, verae enim vires non in fibra musculi, sed in cordis thumo consistit. Hos si permiseris verbis te jactare, tum ambos deficis. Non metuas tui huius priscae notae communicare mecum, nam si facias, curabo ut lupi ad pedes tuos potius quam alterutro nostro volent." Ponderosus appealed to Barris' sense of camaraderie that had formed over the time of their acquaintance.
Ponderosus knew that they were both cerebral more so than savage. That their fortunes depended not upon how many different ways they could bludgeon a man in combat, but in their ability to inspire others to think beyond the shadows of the forest and their own dark fears, most of which were founded in ignorance.
Ponderosus knew that for ignorance to win, it only required good men (and women) to give up thinking, to remain silent when their voice was needed, and to do nothing when action was called for.
Even the great warrior General and Emperor Caesar was bound between these two eidos of the omni. A warrior's heart and leader's mind. The savage and the cerebellum in constant flux, while the man pray n'yer that either grew too far in strength that much above the other, for history had demonstrated that when one was absent, that it would soon be needed the most. The fall of every great empire that preceded theirs was beset by this very fact. The cerebellum and the savage were the saviours of the empire, so long as they remained in balance, but never in harmony.
Each had the means to undo the other easily, but when they worked together, they could move mountains to valleys and oceans to seas.
Their columns of Phalanx arrived, encircling the Stonehenge protectively as Ponderosus, Carbus Carnum and Barris Windsor approached its center.
...
On the top of a nearby hill, and within the tree and brush that covered it and spanned nearly a semi-circle of the distance around the Stonehenge, an army lay in wait.
There, against a tree, covered in war paint, a tall woman of fiery hair and flairingly toned musculature who somehow graced it all with the power of femininity, she stood there watching the Roman Phalanx, its leader Carbus Carnum, a man of state known as Ponderosus according to her intelligence, and finally, the chosen one: the man who would complete her and together re-establish the Albion Of The Welsh and the Druids and the Albion Of The People: Barris Windsor.
[Boudicca! I ye beg naught we on this day and in this light challenge their Phalanx... We are without armour... and these are men who practice war every single day of their lives! They be as they are... the best that the Romans have to offer to defend their interests here... even this far from their home... I beg of you Boudicca, do not face them on this day!]
"Ystyr geiriau: Boudicca! Yr wyf yn erfyn dim ar y diwrnod hwn ac yn y goleuni hwn herio eu Phalanx... Rydym heb arfwisgoedd... a dyma ddynion sy'n ymarfer rhyfel bob dydd o'u bywydau! Maen nhw fel ag y maen nhw... y gorau sydd gan y Rhufeiniaid i'w gynnig i amddiffyn eu buddiannau yma... hyd yn oed mor bell â hyn o'u cartref... Rwy'n erfyn arnoch chi Boudicca, peidiwch â'u hwynebu ar y diwrnod hwn!" Marlin of Eire pleaded to Boudicca, who up until no more than a year before, had been the mother of two daughters, and the wife of their head of state.
A peaceful woman who'd kept their family and their people together since the arrival of the first Romans to set foot upon the shores of Albion.
When hope had abandoned them, their people as they realized that they were no match for Roman furnaces and forges, or for their formations and tactics, it was Boudicca's firey red hair and her piercing eyes so determined and full of promise, that kept them and their people together.
When the Romans arrived to meet with her husband, and negotiated the first allegiance between the Welsh between the sea and the hills, between the lush and the druids, her people looked to her, knowing that she'd never allow her husband to sell them off, to be annexed by a Roman conqueror who were known for annexing their enemies and integrating them into state.
The Greeks and Macedons had become part and parcel of their empire. There was no longer Zeus, Aries or Aphrodite, they had become Jupiter, Mars and Venus. Hermes had become Mercury, the Mercurial trickster of the gods. As more and more were consumed into the ranks of the Roman empire, so too was their culture and history, annexed. The people of a new name, living under gods of a lost people.
The idea of cerebellum and savagery helped to sell this spread to the people, for the Romans were the cerebellum, the light of civilization, keeping at bay the darkness of savagery. Of all that opposed order. All that opposed Rome. All that opposed the one road leading there.
When the Welsh people, the old and true Albion were faced with annexation, it was Boudicca who stood and defied Rome.
When they killed her husband and took her to the square outside of her home, and raped her two daughters in front of her, as they pronounced her as being a false prophecy of the people.
She was no Warrior Queen, for she'd stood idle as her own two daughters were raped by her conquerors and as her people, the people of a prophecized the coming of a Warrior Queen, watched their heroes, their gods crushed one by one by the conquerors. Their hope was trampled under foot as her daughters cried for mercy, their clothes stripped from them as they were laid bare for all to see.
It was from this darkness that Boudicca arose, and it was from the hilltop overlooking the Stonehenge, the greatest wonder of their world, and one built by the Druids for purposes known only to them, that she weighed her enemy, and the risk of freeing the one from their grasp.
[What are you that claim the ancestry of a Celt, of an Eirish Magi, allegedly descended from the line of the Druid, who cannot wield their magiks to assist us in this time that our ancestors call us forth to thwart our greatest enemy? Would you watch more of our daughters soiled by these filth?! If it is your name and people... EIRE! Anger! The fire of the soul! Then bring it forth to power Druid magiks! Or hold your tongue you filthy bastard while I fight them!!!]
"Beth wyt ti sy'n hawlio llinach Celt, o Lygad Eirish, yr honnir ei fod yn disgyn o linach y Derwyddon, na allant ddefnyddio eu swynion i'n cynorthwyo yn yr amser hwn y mae ein hynafiaid yn ein galw allan i rwystro ein gelyn pennaf? A fyddech chi'n gwylio mwy o'n merched yn cael eu baeddu gan y budreddi hyn?! Os mai dyma'ch enw a phobl... EIRE! Dicter! Tân yr enaid! Yna dod ag ef allan i rym derwyddon Derwyddon! Neu dal eich tafod chi bastard budr tra byddaf yn ymladd nhw!!!" Boudicca's eyes flared as she spat her words at the great Eirish magician Marlin.
The man she'd addressed seemed to have given up. Somewhere within him he was simply a little child fleeing in search of his leviathan, the one that every person who'd given up their own power came to believe would save them against the forces that thwarted them. An unseen saviour of unquestionable power that would in any instance step in on their behalf, no matter if they were just or dire in need.
Her men were divided roughly along this same crime of the soul, when a people gave up on themselves and instead turned to the invisible leviathan to right their wrongs and to shore up the inequities visited upon them by consquences, invaders, monsters or savages cum forth from the wild.
She looked at him, disgusted that the legendary Marlin had become this. That he would give himself to some unseen protector, rather than find that strength within himself to stand beside the people and the land, and serve it for their right to thrive upon it, go forth, multiply and be fruitful unto humanity and the life of nature and the Aerth Mother alike.
[Magi like you wrought that Stonehenge aeons ago, and yet you give up, knowing that no man alive could have carried stone of that size and shape from the quarries on the other side of this land to erect that which ye see before you! Therein lies the secret to the power of the magi and of you and your kind Marlin of the Eire! Find it, or fall on this day. I command thee that you and your Magi will take the first line in our assault. Ye are committed to finding the secrets of Druid magi before their blades find your bare skin and ours. You might fall a coward today, but know it that I will give all the fight I have to make sure that none of us fall!]
"Bu Magi fel chi yn gwneud Côr y Cewri yn ôl, ac eto rydych chi'n rhoi'r gorau iddi, gan wybod na allai unrhyw ddyn yn fyw fod wedi cario cerrig o'r maint a'r siâp hwnnw o'r chwareli yr ochr arall i'r wlad hon i godi'r hyn a welwch o'ch blaen! Yno y gorwedd y gyfrinach i rym y hud a lledrith a chi a'ch caredig Marlin yr Eire! Dod o hyd iddo, neu syrthio ar y diwrnod hwn. Dw i'n gorchymyn i ti a'th Lydaw gymryd y llinell gyntaf yn ein hymosodiad. Yr ydych wedi ymrwymo i ddod o hyd i gyfrinachau hud a lledrith Derwydd cyn i'w llafnau ddod o hyd i'ch croen noeth a'n croen ni. Efallai y byddwch chi'n cwympo llwfrgi heddiw, ond yn gwybod y byddaf yn rhoi'r holl frwydr sydd gennyf i wneud yn siŵr nad oes yr un ohonom yn cwympo!" Boudicca's voice rose in volume, echoing behind the hills so that every Welsh soldier could hear it, but the trees kept her voice from reaching or alerting the Romans.
Marlin listened as she spoke, and noticed that her voice spread far into every ear, and yet the Romans did not hear a word of it at all.
He then realized that the trees had kept it from them, for the trees were both alchemy and alchemists. They could both carry and obscure sound to whom they chose, and yet there was something oddly familiar about the trees that caught Marlin's attention on this day.
His heart began to beat faster, as the Welsh soldiers began lining themselves up, readying for their assault upon a vastly superior force. A force that would easily crush them lest their Warrior Queen be right about finding their one.
She had proven to the people that she was a force to be reckoned with, but they still had not seen a Warrior Queen.
Half of them had reserved themselves to the fact that within the next hour, they would be carried away into the vast sea in the beaks of the Heron, into their death and the land beyond.
The other half, had seen and known the Warrior Queen, and to them there was only victory. However, it was Boudicca who knew that it was both sides who were the fools, for her people didn't need one or the other. Her people needed everyone to be together.
And so it was that as Boudicca delivered the last speech she'd give as Boudicca, that Marlin of Eire learned of the secret of the Stonehenge.
Thirty minutes later, and an army of the one true Warrior Queen charged down the hill to face the most advanced army in the world in the eighth centurty in Albion.
One year later, and by that time she had conquered all of Albion and the surrounding isles, side by side with her husband: Barris Windsor.
A very different Barris, and one who'd learned the secret of Ponderosus' advice. Of becoming both the cerebellum and the savage.
Something that Queen Boudicca and her husband King Barris Windsor would often discuss with Ponderosus, for he had risen to become their advisor, while Carbus Carnum toiled as a prisoner in their castle at Cardiff.
While Barris had grown as a man by embracing his savage nature, and balancing it with his cerebellum, Carbus Carnum had tamed his own wolves, and had learnt restraint and wisdom in his year as a prisoner.
...
Mila lay naked face down on the bed, her eyes open and looking around the room as she thought about their situation. Barris meanwhile, lay on his side, sleeping soundly after having been quickly satisfied, which was part of Mila's plan, as their earlier situation at the hair stylist had left her feeling anything but wanting to be pleasing to this man.
It was like the illusion had all fallen at once, when he'd initially remarked about her new hairstyle. It was all about him.
Their sex earlier had been fun, in an ever so quaint way as Mila now saw it, but it had not been in any way satisfying for her, but by that moment in time she was alright with it, for she just wanted to get it over with, and so upon their foreplay, which was rather abrupt and awkward, Barris moved quickly to mount her, and she decided that she'd make sure it was over very quickly, so he'd be fast asleep and she could have some time in an uncluttered mind space to think to herself and of her life and what she really wanted.
She lay on her front, her milky white skin nearly glowing to perfection as she looked at the mirror that covered the wall she was facing. With her artist's eyes, she was seeing a world of colours and hues, of light and shades and there she was. She could see it herself. She was truly one to behold, and she did not look with conceit, but rather humble gratitude, and a sense of sadness as she wondered if the man sleeping beside her would ever look at her and see what she just saw.
Would he just get away with wasting her life and time, with his wit, all the while gaining a tire around his waist and becoming ever the less pleasing to her, when compared to the effort she made to take care of herself for him... no... wait... she corrected herself. She took care of herself for herself, and this man didn't take care either for himself or for her.
She could see that time would pass, and she'd age like a fine wine, always having that inner happiness and peace that had preserved her, and that need to know that there was one person in her life that knew her better than anyone else in the world. Her perfections and her flaws alike, and found both just as appetizing about her. Someone who could look at her, her breasts maybe, for she had one ever so slightly smaller than the other. It had been something that Barris had never commented about before, and she knew that he hadn't noticed, and with their recent conflict of appreciation, this bothered her more than ever.
Did he know that she had one smaller breast, and that it was something about her that was his. Something about her that she might see as a flaw, but that he if he truly loved her, would see it as something to love about her. Another thing. Not a disgusting imperfection to hide, but just something that was so close to perfection and yet so far from it, that he couldn't help but love it knowing that it was something only he'd ever know about her. It was something so intimate about her, that it was a treasure, and yet she wondered if the man she'd quickly lulled into orgasm just to have a bit of peace for a moment in a day that had caused her to question everything about him, if he'd even known that about her and just not mentioned it out of shame. As if it was something disgraceful and to be hidden, or something to be treasured and cherished.
These treasures that they shared, these personal secrets about each other, were they entering into a world where even intimate secrets between couples were no longer safe? Where the minds that cloud privacy and swarm the dreams of the mind and its secrets, were now taking away the intimacy of the secrets of couples and their bias for one another.
Was Barris protecting her from something, or did he simply not even value the things she'd shared with no other but him?
To be continued...
I'm Brian Joseph Johns and I'm still very much with my Shhhh! Digital Media colours and won't be pushed from them. Thank you for reading my short stories, novels and checking out our other content!
This content is only produced at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, unless otherwise noted on this website. Once again, there is nobody by the name of Bobby who works on or produces any of this content, and though I think that the guitar is a wonderful instrument, I don't play it myself and have never owned one.
I am also the owner of the fav (dot) inbox (at) gmail.com email address by the way.
Credits and attribution:
Artwork: Amy Wong, Wendy Pusey, Ghastly, Birdman, Brian Joseph Johns, Daz3D, Unreal Engine...Tools: Daz3D, Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, Lightwave 3D, Blender, Stable Diffusion (Easy Diffusion distribution), InstantID, Sadtalker, Google Colaboratory, Microsoft Copilot (Windows 11), Hitfilm, Borderline Obsession...
Extra Special thank you to InstantID by: Wang, Qixun and Bai, Xu and Wang, Haofan and Qin, Zekui and Chen, Anthony. Research Paper Title: InstantID - Zero-shot Identity-Preserving Generation in Seconds.
Extra Special thank you to Adobe, especially their award legendary image editing and compositing application Photoshop, who make much of the artwork on Shhhh! Digital Media possible.
Extra Special thank you to Corel for their Painter application, which is a great companion tool when combined with the power of Adobe Photoshop.
Thank you to Cognibuild for their great and very informative YouTube channel.
Sadtalker by: Zhang, Wenxuan and Cun, Xiaodong and Wang, Xuan and Zhang, Yong and Shen, Xi and Guo, Yu and Shan, Ying and Wang, Fei.
Research Paper Title: SadTalker: Learning Realistic 3D Motion Coefficients for Stylized Audio-Driven Single Image Talking Face Animation.
Gratitude: Our Mentors, Senseis, Sifus, Sebomnims, lifetime inspirations, family, friends, the Nomads (ask Stanton about that one), the Music, the Movies, the Theatre, the Arts, ASMR, (both YouTube and Bilibili and the many other creators on those platforms), the Gaming and Developer communities and of course, the audience.
Ask Seki Sensei | Online Katana Lessons! - Study Iaido And Kobudo Online
Martial Arts (in the words of real experts and at least one comedian): https://brucelee.com (home of the real Dragon and an entire family of inspirations), http://iwco.online International Wing Chun Organization (International presence of a very scalable intensity martial art, protected and developed by Shaolin Nun Ng Mui) and the alma mater of Jinn Hua's own specialized variation thereof, https://iogkf.com International Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karatedo Federation (even Hanshi had his teachers), https://itftkd.sport International Taekwondo Federation (Here there be Taegers), https://tangsoodoworld.com Tang Soo Do World (the path of Grandmaster Chuck Norris), https://www.aikido-international.org International Aikido Federation (how else would Navy Chef Steven Seagal liberate a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier from a team of hijackers?), https://www.stqitoronto.com Shaolin Temple Quanfa Institute (The City Of Toronto's own Shaolin Temple), https://www.enterthedojoshow.com Master Ken's Ameri-Te-Do presence (If we can't laugh at ourselves, then we can at least laugh the loudest at others, and other Zen)
Special thanks to Aitrepreneur, Hugging Face and the YouTube educational content producers, including those catering to the AI content production pipeline and of course AlphaSignal.
Thank you to Captain Crunch from 89 Steps.
Special thanks to Fifth Social Club Toronto (appears in Two Butterflies episodes) and The Drake (appears in Dragon Butterfly).
Thank you Epic!
Something to give you perspective: The very first teacher had no formal education, didn't graduate and was self taught, but only because they had no other choice. We do.
Tools: Daz3D, Corel Painter, Adobe Photoshop, Lightwave 3D, Blender, Stable Diffusion (Easy Diffusion distribution), InstantID, Sadtalker, Google Colaboratory, Microsoft Copilot (Windows 11), Hitfilm, Borderline Obsession...
Extra Special thank you to InstantID by: Wang, Qixun and Bai, Xu and Wang, Haofan and Qin, Zekui and Chen, Anthony. Research Paper Title: InstantID - Zero-shot Identity-Preserving Generation in Seconds.
Extra Special thank you to Adobe, especially their award legendary image editing and compositing application Photoshop, who make much of the artwork on Shhhh! Digital Media possible.
Extra Special thank you to Corel for their Painter application, which is a great companion tool when combined with the power of Adobe Photoshop.
Thank you to Cognibuild for their great and very informative YouTube channel.
Sadtalker by: Zhang, Wenxuan and Cun, Xiaodong and Wang, Xuan and Zhang, Yong and Shen, Xi and Guo, Yu and Shan, Ying and Wang, Fei.
Research Paper Title: SadTalker: Learning Realistic 3D Motion Coefficients for Stylized Audio-Driven Single Image Talking Face Animation.
Gratitude: Our Mentors, Senseis, Sifus, Sebomnims, lifetime inspirations, family, friends, the Nomads (ask Stanton about that one), the Music, the Movies, the Theatre, the Arts, ASMR, (both YouTube and Bilibili and the many other creators on those platforms), the Gaming and Developer communities and of course, the audience.
Ask Seki Sensei | Online Katana Lessons! - Study Iaido And Kobudo Online
Martial Arts (in the words of real experts and at least one comedian): https://brucelee.com (home of the real Dragon and an entire family of inspirations), http://iwco.online International Wing Chun Organization (International presence of a very scalable intensity martial art, protected and developed by Shaolin Nun Ng Mui) and the alma mater of Jinn Hua's own specialized variation thereof, https://iogkf.com International Okinawan Goju-Ryu Karatedo Federation (even Hanshi had his teachers), https://itftkd.sport International Taekwondo Federation (Here there be Taegers), https://tangsoodoworld.com Tang Soo Do World (the path of Grandmaster Chuck Norris), https://www.aikido-international.org International Aikido Federation (how else would Navy Chef Steven Seagal liberate a Nimitz Class Aircraft Carrier from a team of hijackers?), https://www.stqitoronto.com Shaolin Temple Quanfa Institute (The City Of Toronto's own Shaolin Temple), https://www.enterthedojoshow.com Master Ken's Ameri-Te-Do presence (If we can't laugh at ourselves, then we can at least laugh the loudest at others, and other Zen)
Special thanks to Aitrepreneur, Hugging Face and the YouTube educational content producers, including those catering to the AI content production pipeline and of course AlphaSignal.
Thank you to Captain Crunch from 89 Steps.
This content is entirely produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at 200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701 under the Shhhh! Digital Media banner. Both photos depicted here are of me and were taken in the last two months.
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Produced at Shhhh! Digital Media
200 Sherbourne Street Suite 701
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Inquiries: brian.joseph.johns@shhhhdigital.com, info@shhhhdigital.com