Tag: Storm

At the Absolute End with Tori Amos

At the absolute end, anything that puts the mind at ease is welcome. Cue music.


The August rain crashed down so hard and loudly that we could barely hear one another indoors. I was propped up against the wall, having given up on life, listening to the waves of sound, soaring and then sinking, outside. The woman, who’d appeared suddenly, informed me that my options were exhausted. But that I should know that strings had been pulled, resulting in this situation, which she called ‘a decent way to go’.
I thought she was joking, so I asked her.

She said that she’d been serious and that the storm had been arranged so that I couldn’t hear it coming. Apparently, things could have fanned out in worse ways. I didn’t doubt her on that.

A new wave of rain, more intense than the previous, came down on the building, as if a solid wall of water had been placed between this little windowless house I was trapped in and everything else.

“They’re all gone,” she said.
“They?”
“Yes, any potential help is gone.”

There was a surging-falling sound – in the storm outside – like objects fighting to climb up into the sky. Multiple objects.

“It’s them”, she said, as she saw where my eyes were. I’d been looking out of the corner of my eyes, craning my neck upwards, following the sound.

“Them?”
“Yes, all the Spirits you’d have thought would show up. They’re leaving.”
“No, I wasn’t expecting any.”
“No?”
“No.”
“Who were you expecting then ?”
“No one. I wasn’t expecting visitors.”
“Not even demons? All your fears – they originate from somewhere you know.
“Figments of my imagination. No more than that.”
“You don’t really believe that.”

I didn’t want to think about my fears. Not then, not at the absolute end. I wished for music instead. Anything to put my mind at ease. Let that come however it will, but please let me go out with good music.

“Tori Amos”, she said suddenly, as if making an offering.

I was surprised. She’d guessed correctly. Did she read my mind ? So, it seems she’s one of those blessed beings. Now I knew.

“Everything that exists at this point will remain, of course. The real question is if you will return.”

The opening chords of Cornflake Girl starting in the background and I couldn’t stop a smile from appearing on my face and staying there. Despite myself, I was feeling happy again.

“When will it happen?” I asked her.
“As always, in good time. When they are ready to receive you.”
“Will I simply be put out. Or fade away? Will I be reborn?”
“You’ve received answers to many such questions by now. In fact, you’ve been asking your whole life, haven’t you?”
That was true. Only, I wasn’t sure if the answers I’d got so far were the truth.
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
“If I come back, will there be a Tori Amos? And her music.”
“Everything that exists at this point will remain, of course. The real question is if you will return.”
“In the future?”
“In the-”. The lights went out. Sounds. Feelings. Consciousness. Everything went out.

Everything.

photo from unsplash.com by Lucy Chian

Fall of the Sky Kingdom

Then the dark days of the hailstorm came. War raged like the sea tides, surging and receding. It went on, solar year after solar year until a new King choose to act differently.

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Prologue

The sky is a different place when you fly through it. Many times, I have sat on a plane and looked out the window and, it seems to be a different world out there than what we see from the limitations of our existence down here on earth. When you fly, the clouds are ahead of you, around you and most interestingly, beneath you. Majestic, mile-high cirrus and cumulus towers loom up, rose-tinted when the sun is low on the horizon. They look exactly like mountains, which in a way, they are.

If you are airborne during the earth’s late evening, a darker hue seeps into the crisp and clear blue dome of sky. The first star comes out – which one is it? And before you know it, a profusion of stars present themselves, forming constellations older than man and his limited knowledge.

Who is to say mountains can only be of the earth? Who is to say there aren’t other worlds or realms up there? I will tell you of the story I heard as a child.

 

1.

Some among us have long known of the fabled existence of cities among the clouds. These were the ancient sky kingdoms where generations thrived and vanished, disappearing completely from humanity’s collective knowledge, save for brief glimpses that remain in the near-forgotten literature of various civilisations. They were not Gods strictly speaking, but a pure race somewhere between humankind and divine beings in the order of creation, blessed with the ability to travel through the skies in their magnificent chariots. They lived, loved and died as did lesser mortals on earth. Only the lifetimes were longer, the carefree days more blissful while darkness, when it arrived, was entirely more crushing.

There came a time when the First Kingdom, blessed with lifetimes of bountiful harvests and benevolent leadership, had passed the zenith of its rule and was threatened with war unless it subjugated itself to the rule of the war-mongering Third Kingdom. Emissaries journeyed between both nations, intent was counter clarified, until it became abundantly clear that the First Kingdom was left with two clear choices – surrender or face annihilation. Continue reading “Fall of the Sky Kingdom”