Dark Tales From Dandelion

1

The group left the Drake on the black rocks near the lake. He smiled and waved his huge hand as they made their way up the hill of stones to where the path proceeded. Here they found more grass and a narrowing of the path—and an ending of the path. Three mountains all came together here, and in the middle of them sat a giant black hole. If you weren't used to paying close attention to detail, this would have looked like an ordinary cave mouth; to Fiona, who was practiced in wen-shin(sharpness of mind and presence of mind), it looked more like a spinning black pool. The darkness seemed to have sentience.

“This is new,” Quint said dispassionately as if he were commenting on the weather.

“What is?” Fiona asked

“The mountains didn't come together like this last time I was here, and there wasn't an evil black pool on the wall.” Quint scratched his chin then shrugged, handing Fiona’s bag to her, then leaped into the void.

2

Fiona gasped, slinging her bag over her shoulder then jumping in after Quint. Pip looked at Carter and sent him an image of jumping in as well, to which Carter obliged. Pip went in last.

3

Fiona walked into town on a cobblestone road. It looked deserted. There were little houses made with brown brick and white wood. The breeze whispered its secrets through the grass with a hush. Quaint little windows looked toward the road like watchful eyes, and chimneys reached up to the sky as if reporting what the windows saw to invisible gods. Some of these houses had fenced-in side yards where Fiona speculated goats and maybe a bole or two usually lived. She walked past the houses toward the middle of town where there was an Inn and a few shops. At the very end sat a town hall with a large steeple and bell. Fiona walked toward the hall, stepping for a moment around the small well that sat in the middle of the downtown. Was the well full? She did a double-take and saw that it was. She was suddenly aware of an intense thirst—so severe that she felt her throat would start bleeding if she didn't wet the dry cracks that formed from nowhere. She frantically dipped her whole head into the well and drank, but this didn't satisfy—her body now felt like it was on fire and as dry as her throat had been. She jumped into the cool water and was immediately relieved. So hot today, she thought. I don't think I've ever been that hot. She noticed she could breathe under the water, though the Deva-tar-ta mask was gone. There was a blue light at the bottom of the well and she felt the need to get closer. She swam further down. The well grew as she went further into the depths, and it spread out around her as if it were a vast ocean rather than a well.

She needed to get to that soft blue light—that wonderful light. It felt good to think about being near it. She swam with a little more fervor. Have. To. Get. To. The. Light, she thought, now swimming as fast as she could.

The blue light turned to shapes that split off from the main source, still just as brilliant and intoxicating. She had to get there, to them. Suddenly, she felt very cold and knew that getting to these wonderful shining creatures was the only way to be warm again. She shook as she swam, struggling to stay conscious.

I’m coming, she thought. I swear on the Emptiness. I’m coming you pretty things! Don’t leave! She finally made it down to the bottom with the wonderful beings of light. She moved to take off her clothes but realized she didn’t have clothes on. Her dark hair sprawled out around her head, drifting, coiling around her as if with a mind of its own, begging to be tamed.

Light. She was light … floating. And they were everywhere and nowhere. She’d follow a creature’s hand with her eyes, down, down, and then … water. Suddenly there would be no hand, no form. Just a wrapping, a caressing, a braiding of her hair here, a touch there—Voids, what affection … companionship … intimacy; when was the last time she felt any of this with Carter? Carter—a weight. An anchor. The feeling on her chest of needing to lift him off before drawing a breath of her own. Suffocation. Don’t bring him here, Fiona heard the voice in her head, don’t bring such gravity.

She was in and out for what, days? How many? She couldn’t guess. Awake. Asleep. Open. Close. The blurry, fresh place before you stand for the day, the whispy moment before sleep swallows you whole. Then he was there. Carter. She felt it. She felt it like a smack in the face. Fuck. If those caressing creatures were a kind of falling then Carter was the moment you meet the ground, headfirst—a sprawling dead land with no foliage to break a fall. She knew then, Fiona knew her love for Carter was dead. He had become a chore. Her responsibility. There was no love, only duty. Closing her eyes, drifting more, she tried to forget Carter again and surrender to the caresses of these formless beings. She’d brought Carter here with her mind, now she needed to get him out. She sunk back into the depths of the dream, forgetting her duty.

4

Carter, Quint, Vermilion, and Pip all waited on the other side of what Pip and Quint had decided could only be a Loose String, a pathway to another world. Loose, because it was not attached to a hub with other pathways to the many potential realities, but remote.

It was nighttime now, and Carter babbled on like no time had passed. Carter and Quint no longer wore their phase masks.

“Amma-lamma,” Carter said.

“I’m beginning to think we should try and go in maybe?” Quint said

“Aum-balamb-indo.”

“I could try and smell for the vibrations of where it took her. I only worry about getting stuck myself,” Pip sent.

“On-vishtu-on-vishtu.”

“She came in after me on the shadow tree island and I didn’t even know her. I’m in agreement with Quint. It’s been four cycles since I went in and I was behind all of you. There has to be something we can do,” Vermilion said. Prudance cooed. Carter stopped babbling. It was completely quiet for a moment, then Carter turned and looked at the black pool on the mountain wall. He walked up to it, and in a much different voice than usual—a very low voice—he said:

“Aum-shanti Ana-ishna.”

The black pool swirled and changed, turning gradually into a dark blue from its original black.

“What the fuck,” Quint said, staring at the wall apprehensively. Soft blue lights appeared in the shape of men and women, and they were all over Fiona, caressing, massaging. Her eyes were closed. Her back arched. She was completely naked. Vermilion immediately looked away, followed by Quint. Pip was a sesnickie so these things didn't bother them in the slightest. Fiona was shouting, but whether it was in pleasure or pain, no one could say.

Carter stepped into the Loose String.

5

Fiona screamed in intense pleasure … or was it pain? and pain at the same time. It was getting … better as it got worse. Carter’s face appeared as Fiona arched her back again. Startled, Fiona swam away from him and the light creatures, frantically looking back and forth between them before fully realizing what had just happened … and who had just witnessed her. She felt immediate guilt—for what she’d been doing, for her thoughts about Carter while she was doing it, for intentionally forgetting him ….

Carter looked at her with a blank expression, then swam over to her and took her hand. The light creatures protested and attempted to pull Fiona back, but it was no use. Carter had a firm grip on Fiona and she was letting him pull her out. He had startled her somewhat awake, and though she was still intoxicated with their song, she waved goodbye to her lights, then brought her free hand to her mouth to chew a fingernail.

Carter pulled Fiona out and she was wearing her clothes again, though her phase mask was gone. She gasped for air and immediately fell to her knees. She breathed the air greedily and looked through her mess of dark hair at everyone around her, then at the stars that were peeking out with Dandelion’s giant moon. Hours had passed. They'd lost so much time. Fiona touched her clothes. Completely dry, she thought in wonder. Then she looked at Carter. That blank expression was still on his face.

“Carter, I—” she started, but Carter started babbling nonsense once again. Something felt strange. He … scared her. Those dead eyes, looking into hers and pulling her away from the light creatures.

How had he come in and saved her—especially in his current condition? These were easy things to think about. They helped her avoid the truth: she wanted to go back. She had felt love for the light creatures, something she hadn't felt for a long time.

In the water, Carter had looked at her like … It was a duty. Could he even think, much less feel something like that? Duty. She was no one’s duty. He was her duty if anything.

The light creatures hadn't felt that. They had sung to her and wanted nothing but to please her in every way. Sure, they may have pleased her to death in the end, but Fiona didn't think this would have been intentional. She had shared minds with them, if you could call them minds. It had been glorious, and she had felt the love coming from them. They got pleasure from her pleasure.

It was the strangest thing Fiona had experienced in her five and a half years of memory, and she knew the event had sunk its hooks so deep inside of her that she was almost surely tainted. Fiona had heard people say things like, “don't smoke Sly Grass and make love from the place of RIGHT UNDERSTANDING or it'll never feel the same.” Fiona thought she knew what they meant now. The light creatures had awakened in her an appetite she didn't know she had. She thought, Nothing kills passion faster than the weight of duty, and nothing hammers the nails into passion’s coffin faster than the brunt force of something new.

6

“So what happened to you guys?” Fiona asked the group, chewing her lip. She hoped in a sick way that they too had fallen prey to the light creatures in the well—that is if there had been a well inside of the … whatever it was they’d all stepped into.

Quint spoke first, “Well, I said fuck that well and gave it a wide berth. I practically ran to the town hall after that. I understand why you would—um—go in though, it was tempting. Once I opened the town hall doors, there was another Loose String standing at the top of the steps from the entry hall.”

“Loose String?” Fiona asked.

“I told you about the Strings, didn’t I?” Quint said.

“Yeah, but you never said anything about loose ones.”

“Right, well. Same concept, if a bit less … reliable,” Quint said, stretching his arms behind his head. Fiona heard a crack as his bones popped. “You could call them unstable. Strings work best as pathways to other worlds when they are tied together in a hub. Loose strings, however, can have a mind of their own when not in check. The Lady of the Strings is the gatekeeper of the Strings on Dandelion. I am unsure where she resides, nor do I have much reason to find out. She watches over the Strings and so ensures their stability as pathways. This String, I presume, the Woman in White watches over, ensuring its consistency.”

“You said it wasn’t here before?”

“No, when I last came, this area was clear. No mountains. But I suppose the Woman in White has to be transient if she is to ensure the safety of her valley.”

“I’m not so certain that Loose String would keep depravity out,” Pip said. Fiona grinned at Pip and wondered about the sesnickie’s trip into the Loose String.

“Well maybe it’s a reward for getting through the second Veil! Shit, I don’t know, Pip. The second Veil does garner the most scrutiny from travelers,” Quint said. Pip sniffed, then laid their head down on the fore claws.

“I had the same experience as Quint,” Vermilion said. “Pru was with me though, interestingly enough. Stayed in the sling you helped me make for the entire time.”

Fiona realized something and felt panicked. “What about Putnam? Doesn’t he believe he’ll die if he goes to another reality?”

“Their belief has to do with traveling there by sesnickie. Walking there, one does not rematerialize, they actually, well … walk there, when traveling through the Strings,” Quint said.

Fiona sighed. Regardless of the fear that the phase-shifter inspired within her, she cared deeply for Putnam. He was her sword master, her teacher in the ways of Ken-Phae, and channeling your emotions rather than being a servant to them. She could hardly look him in the eye, but that didn’t change the fact that he was her friend. Then Fiona Thought of a friend she felt no aversion to whatsoever and turned toward the sesnickie.

Pip was silent.

“Pip?” Fiona asked. Pip couldn’t actually smile, their face just didn’t do that, but Pip looked right at Fiona and sent an image of a smiling—almost cartoon-like—sesnickie. Fiona laughed. “I thought I was the only wretched one that fell for it! What a relief. How was it for you?”

Pip sent: “I would have stayed there for the rest of my life and even now I wish to go back. I felt … love, like nothing else. Did yours feel like humans?”

“Yes, thank Emptiness.”

“Ha! Yeah, how strange it would have been if they took the shape of a Jakeereed or something. That would have been something to watch. If I remember correctly, you didn’t become best friends with the little guys?” Pip sent.

“Yeah I’m glad … they weren’t Jakeereeds,” Fiona said, rolling her eyes.

At this point, Quint and Vermilion were staring, mouths agape, at the two that had taken the plunge into the well. Fiona didn’t blame them, but did wish they would at least try to hide their horror. Quint had a door in his Clever marked ‘Peep Show’ for Void’s sake.

It seemed that she and the sesnickie had more in common than Fiona knew and this gave her a certain sense of pride. She had felt a little silly after hearing about Quint and Vermilion both going to the town hall instead of the well. This is one reason Fiona loved Pip; they were always the one that heard her song and sang it back to her when everyone else thought it was too dissonant and progressive to remember, much less enjoy.

“Quint?” Fiona asked. Quint’s mouth was still open. “Your mouth, Quint.”

“What? Oh … oh yes, of course. Sorry.” He closed his mouth and adjusted his blue cardigan, buttoning the top button which had come loose at some point.

“Do you know why the phase masks disappeared?”

Quint sighed. “I’m not certain. If I had to guess, I would say that the creatures of light that you and Pip were … involved with, did something to take them off of you. You and Pip were saying they took on your form?”

“Yeah,” Fiona said, feeling a bit embarrassed now. She could tell Quint was uncomfortable.

“It would seem they needed to take off the masks to match your true forms,” Quint said, exhaling and sitting down on a rock. He coughed a bit into his hand, then tucked the hand away behind him. “I think we should camp here tonight. Phildrious will wait for us at Lack-A-Daisy’s I am sure, if he gets there before us.” He started unpacking some of the food from his bag. He passed out rations of bread, meat, and cheese, then he got out a large water-skin and passed it around. Vermilion also had a water-skin and food that he got out, but Quint said, “Tonight, you share our water and our food, Vermilion.” The Drake looked up, and nodded his head at Quint, then put his things reverently back into his bag. Fiona wondered why Vermilion was here with them now. How much time really passed? Fiona thought. It had felt like days in there. Had it been longer out here? Less time? She looked to Vermilion’s seven-shooters at his hips and her mouth watered again. They called to her and she lusted after them. She wanted to fire them, to hold them, to clean them … snap out of it! she thought. You’ve had plenty of satiated desires for one day—or … days?

“How long was I there?” Fiona said.

“Five cycles,” Quint said thickly through a mouthful of bread. “How long … did you think you were?”

“Days,” she replied.

They ate in silence for a time, then Vermilion looked at Pip and asked between bites: “Have you ever Fished for a Drake before, sesnickie?”

“You can call me Pip, Vermilion, or … we could all just start referring to each other by our race names. I’ll call Fiona ‘human’, you ‘Drake’, and Quint ‘Ye Olde Nutsack’,” Pip sent.

“I meant no offense, Pip,” The Drake said carefully.

“Oh, none taken, I’m afraid my sense of humor can be a bit dry. I lose a lot of friends that way actually, if you couldn’t tell I’m pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel in that department.” Vermilion looked around, not sure how to react, when Fiona snorted and spit out a bit of the sandwich she had made herself.

“Fuck you, Pip. Why am I always a nut sack?” Quint asked, but Pip ignored this.

“I have never Fished for a Drake, no. I’m a little embarrassed to say so, but no. I haven’t,” Pip sent.

“Would you be willing to do a Fishing for me? If you charge, I have some Endynas Worth I’d be willing to part with,” Vermilion said, then took a bite of his sandwich. Pip was eating each piece of food separately, they preferred to eat their least favorite part of the meal first, and their favorite was saved for last; in this case, Pip ate the bread first, cheese second, and meat last. Fiona ate next to Carter, very aware of his close proximity to her and of how uncomfortable that made her now. How had he come into the Loose String after her? How was he able to maintain the lucidity for just long enough to pull her out? He had reverted back as soon as he wasn’t needed any longer. Did he know that she had changed? She was still Fiona in a way, but she was also very much not.

“I’d Fish for you, Vermilion, and I’ll do it for free. Maybe we should wait until we get to Lack-A-Daisy’s tomorrow—that is, if you’ll be traveling with us?” Pip sent.

“I might as well. I’m heading there anyway. Are you sure you won’t take anything as payment?”Vermilion asked.

Pip looked down to the guns Vermilion carried at his waist, then to Fiona. Fiona stared back at Pip, raising her eyebrows. “Blink once if you want to know how to use those 7 shooters, twice if you could care less,” Pip spoke in only Fiona’s mind. Her eyes flicked to the shining silver guns then back to Pip. She blinked once.

“Well, you could show Fiona here how to use one of those things you have at your hips,” Pip sent. Vermilion looked down at his guns.

“I’m really not supposed to show anyone outside of the Roccos how to use them…”

“That’s completely understandable, I’m sorry for asking. We should maybe keep this Fishing to ourselves as well,” Pip sent. “We’re really not supposed to Fish outside of our own personal circle of friends … especially considering the possibility of dire consequences. Fishing the card Elephant Fucks Itself is said to have caused brain damage to one of my order. We should probably just keep our individual skills as the secrets they’re meant to be, eh?” As if to emphasize their cheek, Pip sent the image of a smiling sesnickie into everyone’s brains, and when they did this, it looked like Pip was smiling for a moment.

“You don’t understand, If a Rocco found out I’d trained someone outside of the—”

“Oh, I believe I do understand very well, Vermilion, and I am quite alright with leaving sleeping lilies lie,” Pip did his mind smile again and Vermilion chuckled. Fiona sat silently, listening intently like a shy child who feigns nonchalance while two parents are trying to decide whether the child will be allowed a treat. Inside she felt the electricity of anticipation, and she did her best not to look at the weapons at Vermilion’s hips. The image in her head was calling to her: a sword in one hand and one of those seven shooters in the other. She chanced a look in spite of herself—the guns were probably as long—and as thick—as her forearm. The way he reloaded them with the wax loops on his belt, she thought. So efficient. Once I’m fully trained in the Seven Pillars of Ken-Phae, with those guns in my hands, nothing will be able to hurt me again. She thought of the phase-shifters in the forest of midnight, sucking, ripping and tearing. She shivered. I have to get him to teach me.

“Vermilion,” Fiona said very softly, meeting his eyes. Things seemed to get a bit … darker, and the air seemed to thicken. It was like when Quint shifted from his light-hearted nature to his more serious one—you almost couldn’t cross him when he was like that. “I need those guns. I need to know how to use them. My husband was made an invalid by one of these Rakshasas. They came after us just outside the valley. I need everything I can get my hands on to protect myself and the ones I love. Please, Vermilion. Show me what you can about them while we travel together. This is bigger than your people. We’ve all had pilgrim shit shoved down our throats now; We have to stick together.” Fiona was staring into his eyes with an icy calm that Putnam would have been proud of. She had said everything very evenly, speaking Seru, the hidden language of thrummers. It was fleeting, and even Quint could only access it sometimes, but she had gotten in every word she’d meant to while speaking it. The effects were palpable.

Vermilion broke eye contact first, and she knew she had won.