28 days before "The Passing of a King"
"Over Hills and valleys,
Where the Elf and the Dwarf did play,
There were fairies; dragons; the mule and the Oxen,
The warrior and his begotten maid."
It was Deen (which meant "faith" in the common tongue) Burkenshire, brother of Zak A Burkenshire and cousin to Rabbit the Wise, riding on the back of a mule, singing Imparlian folk songs, through the village of Niché. He had long, brown hair - all curly like, matted up in some places, sprouting dreadlocks here and there. He wore a multi-coloured, Kaleidoscope-patterned robe, a hooded tie-dyed jumper with a pointed hood and these big old boots that went clunky-clunk when he walked. And he was old - very old.
His singing was heard by his brother Zak, who sat in his garden smoking what the folk of the time called "shiva herb" from a wooden pipe, bathing in the roaring hot summer sun. Zak looked very much like his brother - only with Auburn hair and a long beard. Both, you see, were wizards of the Seventh Order - they dressed somewhat similarly, in the robes given to them upon initiation in to the Order.
"What news does Deen the Watcher bring from the Outer Earth, I wonder?" Zak called from over his six foot garden fence. The singing stopped and the sound of hooves seized
"Verily my dearest brother, I have indeed travelled to the Outer Earth. But what I have found therein is far greater than what even our own leader, Farhan the Bearded can imagine - I come bearing news from the Gods themselves!" Deen answered. "Come, open your gate and boil the kettle my dear brother, so that we may converse over matters previously unknown to our eyes!"
Zak shot up from his place on the garden grass and swung his gate upon.
"Deen, haven't you been travelling with Rabbit the Wise? Have you been indulging in the Mushrooms of cattle dung too? You know those things have made Rabbit's wisdom bent and warped?" inquired Zak, skeptically. -"They were created for the people of the Outer Earth. Not Imparlian's."
"Yet you smoke the Shiva Herb?" Deen pointed out.
Zak stared intensely in to Deen's eyes for a few moments, as though angry. Then, as if rehearsed, the pair simultaneously broke out in to laughter.
"Come inside, let us reason!" chuckled Zak.
"I would very much prefer under your apple tree. The weather is a blessing this day, let us take advantage of it", replied Deen.
"Come, come. I've a pot of chai tea already boiled!"
And so the pair sat beneath the large apple tree and each stuffed their own pipe full of Shiva Herb and poured themselves a large mug of tea each. They sat silently for a while, puffing and blowing smoke rings, until their eyes became red with the sunset, and they began to speak.
"So tell me, Zak, what news is there of Imparliar? It has been many years since I've come home from the Outer Earth. How is the Man King?" asked Deen.
"The Man King has become gravely ill - I suspect poison. A deep evil is rising throughout the Twelve Lands, I fear. And the Man King, I believe, is its first victim" answered Zak.
"The Man King has reigned for seven decades. Surely it is time for him to grow frail?" said Deen, raising his eyebrows.
"Yes, but his sickness cannot be accounted for. And many of our kinsmen have passed from a similar illness. Last week, both Frederick the Astral, his brother William and Farhan the Bearded passed from their physical bodies, back to the realm of the Seven Goddesses" Zak replied, before taking a large puff of his pipe.
"Yes. This news reached me while in the Outer Earth. Very sad, but I didn't see.it as suspect..."
"What? How? How did you come to know this?"
"The Earth-man, Zak. The Earth man has been creating medicine greater than the magick of Imparliar. He is even able to see the eleven realities with these medicines. Rabbit the wise has taken a liking to them, and persuaded me to join him in a dosing session... It was then that the news of our kinsmen dying reached me, from the other realities!" exclaimed Deen.
"Impossible! We, like the Earth-man, can only observe the third reality! It is a rule of the Gods! It cannot be undone! What is this nonsense you speak of?" Zak retorted with rebuke.
"The Earth-man now has wizards of his own: Shulgin, Hoffman, Leary... They have been modifying the likes of cattle mushrooms, the fungi of bread and chemicals of seeds - they have created magick beyond our comprehension, my brother. They have surpassed the realm of the Twelve Lands in technology..."
"Impossible..." whispered Zak. "Our kinsman are falling... Humankind is excelling the likes of Elves, Dwarves, Wizards and Imparlians... The Old King has - "
"Has sown his seed within the stomach of an Elf Princess," interrupted Deen, "is what you're about to tell me, yes?"
"How did you know that? Only 3 people know that information, Deen."
"Do you not have ears, Zak? The medicines of the Earth-man is extraordinary. I have seen things you cannot imagine, my brother..."
"Explain."
"You ask the impossible, Zak. But very well, I shall at least try...
"The great philosophers, alchemists and wizards of our world have agreed the facts that there is, at the very least, eleven realities, yes? The Earth-man calls them dimensions. Each has its own laws and its own measurements of space and time. You concur, Zak?"
"Yes, yes, continue."
"Well, as you know, higher realities can observe the lower ones - for example, we can observe the second and the first, but not the fourth and upwards. But what if I told you that actually, we of the third reality can indeed observe the fourth at the very least, as well as the infinite worlds and collections of stars and planets across the plane of existence?" Deen said, all eerily.
"I would say you are mad."
"Mad? How was it then that I was to know of the Man King laying with the Elf princess? How did I know that our kind are a dying breed? It was because I have been contacted by both the departed and the soul of the unborn child. They all reside as one, not their individual physical selves we came to know, within the collective pool of consciousness that transcends all of the dimensions and universes - that which we all are and come from. Yes, they have contacted me!"
"The Earth-man has made this magick? Astonishing... Go on. Tell me more of what you think you've uncovered..." said Zak.
"Imagine seeing colours you have not seen before. Imagine knowing of a direction that we of the third reality just cannot observe, describe or practice... Imagine seeing objects that you once believed to be solid vibrate liquid-like so that you can see them for what they truly are: mass energy, billions of tiny little... Things... All vibrating violently to create the illusion of being a 'solid' object... Try and wonder what it be like to grow bored with day-to-day life, as all that is third dimensional looks flat after witnessing other realities.
"What if colour lost its appeal, as you knew that there was more, far brighter and more complicated colours eithin existence. What if you forgot who you were? Your identity faded in to nothingness and you were at one with everything. The trees, the cattle, the grass, the land...
"That is what the Earth-man's magick does to the mind. It is a dangerous thing, brother. But it graced me in revealing the secret that the Man King has bore a child with an Elf. You know what this means, Zak..."
"Yes. The time of prophecy is upon us. When the Man King passes, Imparliar will be flung in to war..."
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