Nathrangking

The novella is done and submitted to a prestigious magazine! Here's hoping for the best!

#27 

                                                                 Who Laughs?

Gaze around in such wonder as truly everything is inverted. Between laughter and crying is there a difference? What one might think? Up is down is up. Happiness brings tears as does sadness most profound. The gates slam open and the air is saturated with spices that are dancing spirits over an empire so vast. Gold and turquoise glow mournfully in the midst of this haze. There is a spectre who lurks among the laughing and reveling throngs. Fire burns and consumes the right of sovereignty that created this orgy turning into a thick putrid tear inducing smoke. All flee from here as feasting forces legions to bar their doors and beg the earth to swallow them. Armies return to the place of debauchery and reach for the crown plated as the heart of the miser.

 Wisdom conceals one as an emerald among pebbles buried in the earth. This treasure is drawn forth from a sea and casts a light fed from an inexhaustible well. Secrets concealed rise from the depths and settle in the grasp of a savior. Death is cast out into the wilderness, but soon it races across the night and stands with its mouth to the royal ear. From the heart of the sanctum of the king it comes forth and demands that all bend the knee. When one holds firm behind shields of unyielding iron the earth trembles beneath the rawest rage. All must be destroyed and slaughter leaves the carnage to chance. A mocking voice from on high laughs as this would be destroyer finds a day and opens the oceans of wealth at its disposal to destroy everything that the shielded one holds dear. With a ring he calls forth those who have hidden their lust for blood. Haze fills the minds of all as destiny is all but written and cast out for all to see.

Truth is in rags and ash as bitter cries tear free of its trembling form. The walls of the sanctum of the blind and deaf are shaken awake. They call out and learn to look and see. Shouts multiply and the skies are assaulted. She who hid in transparent shadows rises from her tears and ascends to the chamber of fools. Spirits shatter the obstacles that stand in her way. A revel for a fool and a killer appear from the aether. Instead of demanding as fools do she calls for the next day to be celebrated as this first. A murderer leaves and bathes in ire. A pillar formerly alive shall take life, he says. 

In the night terrors roam free shredding the dreams of kings. Fate unfolds before a ruler as his right hand whose image haunts him appears when all sleep. This haunting image falls upon his own tongue and he is bound to honor the condemned man. From the streets he is disgraced and dragged before the sovereigns. The queen casts condemnation which chases the king into the gardens and his anger grows. Upon swift feet he returns to see his love being stricken by the accused. A veil falls upon him and his sightless eyes see his plan vanish.

Glory ascends and gives the resolute one the power to smash the legacy of the lowered one. As a king wisdom brought light to the world. The oppressed arose and struck back against those who thirsted for them.  Ruby rivers rush down the streets and ten rise into the heights. Joy spread to all corners and the fool tempered by wisdom turned back what was lost. The image is made anew and reversed as gentle laughter sounds.

                                                                 Child?

Frothing waters rage at the butchered spirits torn from the realm where Bacchus revels and Diana stalks silently. Neptune roars as he gazes at the corpses of the dead stolen and shaped by mortal hands. Ebony skies burn with silver fire cast out to illuminate the carnage which rises from the heart of the deep. Cries both so real and utterly imagined spin themselves into a shroud upon the loom that damns all flesh to end. Fickle Janus stands tall before those who supplicate the ears that care not. The avenger’s kin cast their power as a net which drags so many into Neptune’s icy and eternal embrace. Minerva comes shield in hand to ward away that which Mors’ claims as his divine right. All of existence do the oceans rise to threaten. Bones of the Earthen Mother are laid bare by the whims of immortal children. Chains bind all who live when the seas make their case to Jupiter and Juno. Humanity is forfeit because such has been decided in a moment of anger. Words by the dwellers of the earth call forth the maelstrom that is turning rivers red with the blood of the slaughtered. Minerva most wise drags every deity from their places at the point of the spear and demands true judgement be done. A council summoned to rule upon that which was ruled upon hovers ar Plutus’s gate. Scales unbalanced and a cosmos rending itself are grabbed by Justicia’s quivering hands. She is surrounded by a fire which freezes in fear the unjust ones where they stand. Stillness takes all as the massacre begins. From Jove on high to Neptune in the depths Justicia leaves those who upset the scales to die. When Aurora comes, darkness descends upon the eagle and a glimmer returns the owl to its slumber.

#25       

                                                            Supplication of Vanity

Swirling winds that are so rabid that mountains cry out and send tremors rushing forth from beneath the blows that punish them blow upon the world. Terra roars as Aeolus gleefully sweeps across the mortal realm. The avenger grins while his sons violently and mercilessly strip the earth of all that it holds dear. Ribs are shattered into razor-like shards and a dancing frantically beating living heart is bared for all to see. Cities of the living burn in pyres birthed by the purest essence of Vulcan’s immortal soul. Screams rend even the deep, penetrating Tarturus to his very core. Plutus wallows in the dust and cowers in the lowest level of his palace. Bacchus laps up the spilled blood and becomes intoxicated by its power. On high even Jove almighty is a dead monolith of frozen and unfeeling stone. Nature shrinks away from the devastation, but it can find no place that it can call a refuge. “Hear me Nemesis” the Earth cries. This supplication is answered by the silencing of kingdoms. In a forest secluded the huntress girds her bow and plots her hunt. She rises and blows her mighty horn to summon the wielder of the spear to aid her. Minerva and Bellona who are girded for war, ascend as furies and stand by her. Upward they fly those mighty three. Together Bellona and the wisest of the deities turn back the vengeful icy breath that sunders the whole of the world. Diana’s arrows fly true over shields, most mighty dropping spirits into the realm of the damned. Gates sealed before them explode into nothing, but dust  before their eyes. Army after army beg as their limbs are torn away and  cast into the void. Soon they drag down the lord of winds to face judgement. A tribunal they form and throw him to his knees. Oceans of spilled lifeblood turn his garments scarlet and gold. Chains lash him to the earth that he sought so hard to slay. Into darkness he descends as dawn arrives to begin an age of healing.

PSA: I have been published again. That is all.