Image: Ëye Judge by Rosannah Star 2021

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They stood me up.
      “Of your own accord,” said the Queen, in her infinitely calm voice.
     I dared to flick my eyelids and glimpse an amicable smile between her rosy cheeks, but quickly dropped my gaze to the glimmering toes of her boots.
               Her maidens, if you could call them that, dusted my knees and straightened my slovenly tunic. Their plated armor shifted softly like the rustling of thick paper leaves. They bowed courteously and backed away.
               “Grey,” said the Queen, addressing me, “tell us the news of your journey.”
               I tried to swallow, but my tongue stuck resolutely in the hot, dry dome of my mouth. I heard the rustle of armor and felt something being held out to me. My averted eyes slid sideways. An open flask. The Queen’s emblem engraved in the bright metal. I gingerly took it in my shaking hand and tipped it up to my lips.
               Warmth and pungence swirled over my teeth, freed my tongue and flushed my cheeks. I handed the flask back to the maiden and lifted my head. I had been given a magical potion. My vision began to blur and lifted the sunlight out of long shafts that had been pouring in the windows. This golden light moved around the room now, like a lion, fluid muscle standing out from the shadow and consuming incredible space with every bound. The creature circled once, centered herself and shattered into snaking ropes of light with a roar that shook my bowels. The whips of light organized themselves, binding all present. They tied me to the Queen, the Queen to her maidens and maidens back to me. We became the nodes of a golden spider’s web and the cords moved easily with us as we breathed now in unison.
               I looked directly to the Queen, our eyes locking into a four point gaze. Within her I saw the resolution of paradox. She held in inner harmony that which raged apocalyptic in the world from which I had just come. Color ceased to divide itself. The steely-pale blue and iron-hard black of her eyes moved in kaleidoscope. I was wrapped in her vision and began to tell the story of my journey.
               I had been out. I had been away. Far Away. For a long, long time. The craven hell was no less dismal for all the efforts I had made. My youth, my strength, my joy – had all been taken in battle. The countless skewered hearts weighed my sword down, until eventually, it was too heavy to heft and I tossed the thing away into one of the many reeking crevices.
               For all I had conquered and laid to waste, the wasteland then swallowed me up. Every demonic wraith shredded into a fog, swirled around my ankles, ran beneath my cloak and led me, shivering into a dank forest where victory was sapped of life. I earned no acknowledgement. I rescued no freedom. I was simply shuffled onward. Misery was neither abated in me, nor in the churning melee of promise that fed on a steady stream of fresh nescience. Dead things wrapped a bitter prison around my heart. In slaying them all, I enslaved myself to them.
               Fidelity misplaced.
In the golden cord of light binding me to the Queen, a river began to flow. I did not struggle, for finally,  I was home. The heart is no place for a fetid bog. The magic potion pushed through my veins and felt vigor building in my fists. Despair and mayhem beyond the Queen’s borders would rage on and although no amount of heroism could ever fill this abyss, I was not distained for having tried. No existence is without conflict and inevitably, battles would occur within the kingdom as well. My scars would have their uses. My vigor a purpose.

         And I, the Queen, I who wage no demands upon my people, I shone bright in this moment of glory. My greatest warrior returned home. And I, the Queen, I rose from my repose and took up the sword which had been cast away. With respect and delight, on light feet and holding the unbreakable blade across my shinning hands, I approached her.

​Loyalty, the Grey Lion, returned home.

OH, so this is like building a little webpage. I see. I have to paste the blog post here. Well that's fine. Nothing more to read here for today. BYE BYE.