Time has been murdered, and a child born.

There are storms and eclipses across Courtdom. The sorts of signs and omens thought well known.

∞

Two grieving parents, dark their garb, flee to a world that shares no stars with their own, for their youngest daughter was born with two small tusks jutting from her jaw.

Apparently it is the sign of a shaman; a soul between Nature and Human Nature.

A shaman only if trained well; else a hole or wound in the order of things, if fear leads in wisdom’s place.

∞

Why do they flee? The parents are no strangers to assassination and subterfuge, such is their trade. Their oldest daughter, Shay, whose name once meant ‘Gift’ and-or ‘Tea’ though no longer does, would follow in their footsteps as a Shadow of The Dam’e, in contract killing and thievery adept, in those ages when Falsehood was not yet cold in its grave and Courtdom young in absolute reign over Humanity.

No strangers as has been said - however - the eclipses had brought outer forces beyond their martial skill.

Spiders they caught, trying to sew shut their doors with silk. Letters of ill word arrived, blood-scrawled, lavender-scented. Unsettling meetings proposed and ignored. Papers thrown into fires that will not burn.

∞

How long would their traps against intruders last? The family had to hide the younger girl, Serib her name, ‘Truth’ in a tower-lost language they had a fondness for.

The Dam’e gave the desperate family a name, a location, and that was the road they followed to a world that shared no stars with theirs.

∞

For if Serib was to protect herself, shamanism could not be learned on Humanity’s cobbles, only among Nature’s mountains is it clear, under stars or over oceans. For few humans live as they once did.

Older and ‘in the grace’ may a shaman return to Humanity, a bridge between the Natures. So it is, that young Serib has been left in a master shaman’s care, lest she become a wound in the order of things. Lest Falsehood steal her from herself, and into wizardry weave her.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

∞

Before and on the shadowed journey home, her mother made a hidden wish that Truth could be changed, and from that wish was much begotten.

The sort of wish one sets their soul wholly towards, and so she embarked on an expedition unheard of to a place that we all thought did not exist. In doing so she left Shaw, the girls’ father, alone with Shay.

A strange grief passed from mother to daughters: a grief for the future and a fear of it.

∞

That was long ago.

Timeless Tayl, you read.

Indeed - so what would ‘long ago’ now mean?

∞

I must ask, which societies are you familiar with; what face does Humanity wear in your world?

In mine, Courtdom spread throughout The Universe from 'one lone world an isle of isles', teaching Truthdom. A simple tenet to adhere to Truth, though adhering was not simple for all. When faced with Truths disliked we turn to things-preferred, don’t we?

Truth despite, conquered all Falsehood defeated, for what strength have lies and all their spawn? To turn from Truth is to leave oneself without defence.

And so - Truth prospered without all that once was hindrance veiled as virtue or normalcy.

∞

It is said that world of isles was named Ehl’yiteth, and it cannot be denied the old traditions only there survive, traditions elsewhere as seeds replanted cyclical, for Human Nature cannot help but forget its origins in Nature. Ever they need reminding, to consult the good memories of shamans.

Ehl’yiteth is Courtdom’s name for the planet, the sort of name a Historian may give to a thing honouring someone else, when they know not what else a discovery should be called.

∞

Ehl’yiteth had four Lords. Master Shamans of Earth, Fire, Spacious and Wind. Courtdom named or renamed these forces Justice, Courage, Moderation and Wisdom - it is all the same.

Without these lords, Human Nature cannot find its bridge to the Nature from which it comes. A fable unheeded, and Falsehood rests never truly dead in a grave not far from there.

For each Lord there is an apprentice sought, whose duty is lordship when their master can no longer bridge the divide.

∞

Heirs of Courtdom make pilgrimage to Ehl’yiteth to seek the ancient, unforgotten and unbroken Truth there in the four human seasons, and relearn how all our Human souls are bound to the Nature from which we are. Lest they start turning their back to Truth, and so leave themselves defenceless.

Rarely, the shamanic lords will travel to Courtdom, ‘knowing nothing for all they know’, as pilgrims themselves to see what ‘new’ concerns Progress found, for not since the beginning have there been truly new things under the sun.

The lords are as bridges between The Two Natures, as Serib may well become.

The spiders and the letters spoke of other plans for her.

∞

Let us follow Serib and her master now, having journeyed from Ehl’yiteth to Haven-o’er-Hadaeon: floating city-Courtdom where angels dwell.