Dark Tales From Dandelion

1.

Fiona passed through the second wall of the third Veil, the mucusy membrane holding onto her as she passed through, then slowly peeling off of her. Carter was here, along with Pip and Quint.

“How’d it go?” She asked, looking from one face to the next.

“I clawed the shit out of those black things,” Pip sent.

“What were they? Shifters?” Fiona said.

“Never found out actually,” said Quint.

Fiona sat down and began oiling her blade. And they sat in silence for a time waiting for the Drake. When he came through, Vermilion looked shaken.

“Are you alright Vermilion?” She asked.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m alright. I, well … I … died,” he replied, and he reached up to touch his face, his eyes like vast empty portals to another world. “I was shot. Right here. Right in my face by a … some sort of shadow version of me. I felt it. Illusions, but it was awful. I can still feel it.”

“Is Prudance ok?”

“She’s fine. Napping now, She sleeps better with movement,” he said as he turned to show Fiona Prudance’s face; she slept in the sling that Fiona had fashioned for Vermilion.

“You’re sure you’re alright Vermilion?” Quint asked.

“Yes I’m fine. I’m just … shook up. The shadow thing … it had a name. ‘Red’ was his name, and we worked together to get through the Veil. I thought maybe that was the test, you know, teamwork or some shit. He was so Voiddamned fast. I was relieved he wasn’t who I was up against. We became friends—as much as you can become friends in that small amount of time anywayl. He had a baby too. We got to the end of the Veil and I was just about to say goodbye when he killed me.”

“That sounds quite intense. I know that the Woman in White has strange ways of finding out certain information that is important to her in this Veil. I would guess she was testing your teamwork capabilities and your gullibility,” Quint said.

“It was intense. I just hope Prudance won’t remember any of it,” Vermilion said.

Fiona looked at Pip who sent her a picture of a smiling sesnickie. Fiona smiled and went over to Pip.

Not mad at me anymore, I take it? Pip sent.

“I can’t stay mad at you, you fuck. I blame Quint,” Fiona said, looking at Quint with a sly smile. Quint gave her a squint of the eyes, but wouldn’t return the smile. “With you, Quint the Squint. And how was your third Veil passage, ye olde nut sack?”

“Y’know … ”

“Quint, I won’t call you a nut sack anymore if you promise to never protect me with a lie again.”

“I … ”

“Quint?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t be a nut sack and promise. Then we can move on from this and maybe the Woman in White can help me not have vibrational black outs.”

“Alright, Fiona I promise. I was just …”

“Nope.”

“ I was …”

“No. I don’t want explanations, I already understand. Thank you for trying to keep me from suffering, I appreciate it, but it led to more suffering in the end. I get it, but you don’t get to now explain it all away. I’m sorry, but not this time. I forgive you, and that’s all.”

Quint raised his hands in a submissive gesture. “Ok Fiona, I see you. Thank you for understanding,”

“Now let’s get on with it. I assume Putnam is probably already waiting at Lack-a-Daisy’s,” Fiona said. “Vermilion, do you want me to hold Prudance a while?”

“No, but thank you, Fiona. I want to hold her for now,” He replied. Fiona didn’t blame him. She didn’t know for sure, but if she had to guess, she’d say that no-one else had been killed in there; Prudance was probably a comfort right now. What an absolute mind fuck, she thought as she looked at Vermilion.

They started walking through the grassy field toward the Endynas City. Fiona could see smoke billows far in the distance. Quint had said the third Veil was the last before the city. Fiona felt a mix of relief and the overwhelming anxiety of almost being somewhere, but not quite.

“That’s the Endynas City, right Quint?” Fiona felt like a child asking Quint, but she didn’t know what else to do with her anxiety; Vermilion was currently traumatized from having died, so any more lessons today were probably out of the question. She chewed a fingernail.

“As long as she hasn’t changed anything else about the geography of the valley, then yes, that is where I remember the city being,” Quint answered. Fiona bit dead skin off the tip of her pointer finger, chewed on it for a bit, then spit it out. She always wondered if anyone could see when she did this last part, and was a little embarrassed at the possibility.

She decided she’d practice attuning while she walked. Apparently, she was some sort of prodigy when she could manage to become completely unconscious, so why not try it while awake. She began.

Ist-kron-epsitashti

A mantrum for soothing. She repeated the mantrum over and over in her head, picturing the most soothing things she could remember experiencing; white walls with blue embossed wallpaper; laying in soft grass in sunlight, tea in front of fireplaces. She closed her eyes for a moment, intensifying the thrumming, then she pushed it toward Vermilion. The Drake immediately responded to the thrumming, his shoulders slackening a bit, his stride shortening; he turned his head around and looked at Fiona. She didn’t react to him, and he then looked to Quint and then Carter. No-one gave Vermilion the confirmation he was looking for, so he just went about his walking, seeming a bit lighter in his step than before. Even with those two vibration-repellant sesnickie bone grips, she’d been able to impose her thrumming onto him, and relatively easily. She wondered, though … Could she?

She kept the mantrum going in like a river babbling its intention in the back of her mind. She only changed the things she was thinking of slightly, but in a separate part of her mind from the part that was maintaining Vermilion’s thrumming. Fiona filled this new section with soothing memories and feelings that were not as potent as the things she had used with Vermilion; toes on carpet, fingers in hair, and her palm petting Pip’s neck. She was split in three. One part kept the mantrum going, another thrummed into Vermilion, and this last one was pushing its thrumming toward Quint. Will he notice? She wondered nervously as she reached toward him with the vibrations. The results were subtle, but this was a subtle thrumming, so that was what she’d hoped for. Quint started humming to himself and looking at his surroundings a little more wonderingly.

“Y’know, you all have been wonderful traveling companions,” Quint said and then he continued to hum. Fiona stifled a laugh. She split herself again, starting to reach out to Carter, but then stopped herself, remembering her last experience with Carter and the vibrations. This was the first time she had split herself this many times consciously, though, and she knew she could have reached out to Carter as well. She wondered about using the Low Vibrations in the split as well. Could she thrumm a soothing vibration at the same time as a heart-wrenching one? And as she thought this, a mantrum seemed to drift at the edges of her consciousness. What is this? She thought, this has never happened before. It wasn’t fully formed, but she could make out the first sound: ‘fall’. It kept drifting there like a feather, back and forth. She pulled her bag around to her stomach and rifled through it, trying to find one of the books she had grabbed back at the Manor House. She found it, The Art of Mantrum and Vibration by Morrison Hycondecles. Fiona flipped through the beginning parts of the book; the dedication, the part saying how much you’ll be sorry if you steal from the book, the author’s note, the editor’s note, the preface, the fucking second dedication, the preface with some friend of the author raving about the book and how great it is, and finally—the list of chapters. She did all of this while maintaining her thrumming on both Quint and Vermilion, while her mantrum continued repeating in the back. The chapters varied from an introduction to the Inner Vibrations to the different cultural attitudes toward people who could attune the vibrations, and the different names these people were given. For example, in the northwest they were called thrummers, and the act of attuning was called thrumming, while in the northeast they were called trancers and attuning was called trancing. She looked through the chapters(there were a lot), and at the end was the mantrum glossary. She flipped to page 1138 where the section started, and flipped to the F’s. Fab-indindo-confin: High vibration. Trapped happiness, good for explosions, must be used on an object that has enough enclosed space to hold the explosive … no that’s not it. Fab-insidi-shan: Low Vibration. Blockage, stuck in your ways, usually some hatred involved, but basic motivation is fear. Only for use on enemies with intent to kill! Blocking can freeze up someone’s veins, stopping their blood flow, it can also cause an aneurism depending on your intent and intensity of the images used while vibrating with this mantrum. Will be difficult for those without the experience of it or those without the empathy required to imagine such a feeling. Shit. I’ll have to file that one away, but still not there … Fa-ketskt-ma bishdu: the Rakshasa Calling mantrum. This will alert any Rakshasas sworn in with the mantrum and allow them to come to the Rakshasa that used the mantrum regardless of any other thrummings that stand in the way. No …

There was a mantrum to help with healing others that was similar to the soothing mantrum, then she saw it; it fit the mantrum that was elusively floating around her mind perfectly—Fall-maa-sto-ketst: Intense Loneliness. Good for getting someone to do what you want them to do in a subtle way. The subject will think they are the ones making the choice because of their desperate feeling of loneliness, when really you are the one pulling the strings. There it was. She felt so silly that she couldn’t just figure it out on her own, but she supposed that’s why a book like this existed, and why Quint had wanted to bring it with them. She attuned the vibration.

Fall-maa-sto-ketst

She had to split herself again for this, but she then combined the split with Vermilion’s soothing vibration. She thought of laying in bed with Carter when he had been obsessed with the vibrations—before she knew that he had been so engrossed in the research for her benefit—because this was a very lonely memory filled with great feeling associations. She pushed it slowly into Vermilion. He reacted instantly with tears. This must be … nostalgia. He’s smiling. Missing something that hurts, but missing it for the comfort of it. Oh fuck. This … this could be quite useful. I could make someone do something that hurts them because they think it will bring them comfort.

“Vermilion, what’s wrong?” Quint asked. Vermilion wiped tears from his eyes, but laughed.

“It was just … a lot back there, but I felt like he was my friend, and it’s the strangest things, but … I miss him,” Vermilion said, sniffling, and Fiona almost laughed at the abrupt outburst of emotion, but knew the vibrations were at work on his emotions. She could probably make what he said—and when he said it—a lot more smooth and natural with more practice.

Four ways! I split four Voiding ways!Quint looked at her. She was smiling. Shit, she thought, but couldn’t just pull the vibrations back now—if she did that, Quint would know for sure. Fiona kept the thrummings in place and allowed Quint to look. If he knew, it really didn’t matter that much; in fact, maybe it would keep him from hiding shit from her. Maybe if she could show him how powerful she was—that she could split four ways … What am I thinking? What am I doing? She thought. The spot beneath both shoulder-blades started to hurt and she grimaced as she itched them. Quint just watched, his glasses reflecting sunlight so she couldn’t see his eyes. He turned his head back to Vermilion, then looked forward toward the smoke billowing in the distance. Fiona pulled her thrummings back and let go of them. She instantly felt relief upon letting the intense loneliness vibration go. Ok, so attuning Low Vibrations turns you into a sociopath if you’re not careful. Noted, she thought. Fiona had not practiced a whole lot with the lower vibrations, at least intentionally. Most of her time had been spent at the Manor House with her wey-shin and the higher vibrations. Except for the blackouts. You use the Low vibrations then without meaning to.

Relieved of the vibrations she had intentionally attuned, shame now filled her. Playing with her friends like puppets … one of whom had just had to literally endure death! What am I thinking? It had felt … good, and that did not feel good. She wanted to explain herself to Quint, but also didn’t want to expose herself to Vermilion or Pip. She was just bored, that was all, and she wanted to practice now that she knew she was just randomly blacking out and pulling the hearts out of strangers’ chests. For today, at least, she decided she was done with ‘practice.’

It took about one and a half cycles to get there, but they arrived at the city’s entrance. The mountains veered even further to either side of the landscape, becoming distant shadows rather than towering behemoths. The city stretched as far as could be seen, and Fiona guessed it touched either side of the valley’s mountains. There was a large wall guarding the entrance to the city, and a river ran beneath the wall to Fiona’s left. As they approached, the giant wooden front doors creaked open, the metal handles clanking against the walls.

“This is the fourth Veil,” Quint said.

“I thought you said the third was the last before the city,” Vermilion stated.

“Well, it’s the last one I really count. This one is connected to the third Veil. This acts as a safety measure against those with ill intent, which should have been found at the third Veil, but we do not have ill intent, so I didn’t think it was worth mentioning,” Quint said.

“Isn’t ‘ill intent’ kind of a subjective thing?” Fiona asked.

“Oh, sure. I know the Woman in White has allowed evil men past this point because that was how it had to be for the greater good to unfold, or because she knew their hearts from the third Veil and understood that she could help them,” Quint replied. “The Mother is very forgiving. She teaches that forgiveness is of the Highest Vibrations.”

They walked through the gateway. Fiona walked a bit across the stone floor before realizing she heard no footsteps behind her.

“Where’s Vermilion?” Fiona asked. They looked amongst themselves, then turned around and saw him stuck outside the closing door, trying and failing to get through some invisible barrier. “No!” Fiona yelled as she ran to the door. She attuned the vibrations. “No! He died! What the fuck are you doing?” Prudance was full on crying now. Fiona tried a few thrummings on the door while Vermilion tried again to get through, but neither had any luck. He rammed it with a shoulder and grunted. He yelled, and Fiona saw the desperation in the tall Drake’s eyes. Mantrums dropped into her mind like molten rock, burning all the way to the front. She didn’t know where they came from or how, but she knew what they were and how to attune them:

Aun-shri- open mind/open space.

Vanitas-fa-ren-bishdu- emptiness/ forgiveness.

She reached to the bottom of herself to feel the vast emptiness required for the second mantrum. The depth was so that she became nothing—empty. She felt terrible and wonderful at the same time, and knew that this Vanitas-fa-ren-bishdu was of the Highest and the Lowest vibrations. Using both mantrums at once required a split. She pushed the two thrummings in the directions they needed to go—the Aun-shri(open mind/open space) was meant to keep the door open, while the Vanitas-fa-ren-bishdu(emptiness/forgiveness) would pull Vermilion through the barrier that kept him out. The door slowed, but pulled against her thrumming so hard that she struggled with it physically as well as mentally, her muscles tightening with the effort, teeth clenching, and she began to growl low in her throat. You. Already. Killed. Him. You. Fucking. Bitch, she thought with a third part of her mind, separate from the blissful open emptiness and the terrifying void she drifted in. The door struggled against her and finally slammed shut, breaking her thrumming altogether. She was now only thrumming the Vanitas-fa-ren-bishdu into Vermilion, no longer split, so all of her attention was on the one vibration. She mentally wiped herself clean and surrendered to the void, forgiving everything in the universe for that one moment, and as she did, the thrumming seeped into the door as well. She split herself again, adding the mantrum Om shindi-andi-ah which was a growth/shape-shifting thrumming. Everything was quiet. Everything was forgiven. She drifted in the eternity of presence and light.

All grievances gone, Fiona grunted once, then made Vermilion and Prudance vibrate at such a high frequency that they could be pulled through the door, being broken apart at the molecular level and rematerializing on this side, then she collapsed onto the floor, feeling very lightheaded and sick, yet somewhat exultant as well, as though she’d been purified after vomiting for an entire day. Sweat soaked her and everything was heavy. Hunger and fatigue fought for attention, yet she could lie here forever, feeding on the light of this moment and the freshness that it gave as it forgave everyone their trespasses with each new breath.

2

Quint watched Fiona as she collapsed onto the stone entryway inside the city wall. This girl needs to do something about all this collapsing she seems so fond of, he thought. He attuned the Inner Vibrations, using the same soothing mantrum that Fiona had used on him while they were walking. Fool girl, he thought, what is she thinking splitting herself like that without saying anything to me first? Quint remembered his first time experimenting with splitting. He’d only ever been able to handle two vibrations at a time, nothing more, and that was considered quite difficult for a thrummer. Fiona had split herself four ways. FOUR! Void! I should have told her about her blackouts sooner!

Quint pushed the thrumming onto Fiona, who sighed in relief as it took effect. This wouldn’t help her recover any faster, but it would help her feel better as she recovered. He pulled a stick of dried beef out of his bag and handed it to her. She wouldn’t take it. She just lay there on the ground, completely unresponsive, with a look of complete wonder on her face.

A chubby man approached the group; a chubby, angry looking man that Quint guessed worked at the wall doing some sort of frustrating work. His was the kind of chubby that said: ‘I’m comfortable enough in my line of work to stay and be chubby, but not so comfortable that I will stay and become completely overweight’—a lazy chubby, hardly committed in one way or the other. He would probably die there, working at the wall, ever thinking of the one loose brick that needed moving to make his life better, but ever unwilling to move it himself.

“Wert Er ya thinkin’ pullin’ em through like yat? ‘Ee weren’t supersd ta make it past the derr,” said the Lazy Chub. Quint prepared himself to use the accent on the man, but Fiona glanced at the wall attendant and the man’s face went white. “On secon’ thought there were som-at I oughter be lookin’ fer back at me desk.” And the Lazy Chub walked away. Quint assumed it was the intense vibrational currents running through her at the moment. Well ee Wernt be so cozy that ee be immune ter fear, Quint thought in the valley-folk dialect.

Quint vibrated bliss into Fiona—making her body lighter—then picked her up and put her over his shoulder. They walked through the candlelit corridor, past a little room to the left where the Lazy Chub sat at a desk, eyeing them wearily. They came to another set of closed doors. Vermilion tried pulling the circular door handles but both doors were locked. Quint looked around, waiting for someone to come help. They waited there for about two tiks before he shouted out: “HEY! LAZY CHUB! WOULD YOU PLEASE OPEN THIS DOOR FOR US?”

Somehow the man knew Quint was referring to him, and he ran out of the office with a jangle of metal keys. He unlocked the doors, glancing at Fiona nervously, who lay over Quint’s shoulder, smiling absently.