Melpomene's Daughter, part 7

[ravencallscrows]

After a week's layoff, we'll continue the story where we left off. For anyone new to the serialization, all the sections posted before this one are posted here.

Nimuë was correct. The tour was enjoyable, in its own surreal way. The tour visited one of the earliest known flush toilets, conveniently situated on an elevated platform to raise it above sea-level to prevent sewage backflow; listened to anecdotes of the history of the underground, including stories of the rebuilding of the city after the fire of 1889, which resulted in the raising of street level some six to thirty-two feet.

It was during the descent of the stairway from Doc Maynard's, after a fifteen minute historical background of the region, which in turn followed Alexei and Nimuë's romantic interlude; that things started getting interesting.

“You've never resoled your sandals, have you,” Alexei asked while waiting for the rest of the tour group to finish descending the staircase.

“No. I will when I need to. There's enough waste already in the world,” responded Nimuë.

“And you've never needed to. Probably never will, will you? I think I've caught on to your secret, or at least a part of it.”

“And that would be?” Nimuë inquired with a bit of an edge.

“I knew that there was something about your feet, but not quite what until just now.”

“I thought you'd probably notice sooner or later. Hadn't guessed it'd be this quick, though. Do go on, though- let's see if you've got the whole of it.”

“Well, I'm sure that I don't have it all, but that part I just figured out is that your feet don't touch the ground. I'm not sure how that is, or what it means, but I'm pretty sure that you could walk through a dusty room without leaving a footprint.”

“How does that make you feel?”

“Confused, a bit, I guess. Almost like waking up in a fairy tale- and now we're walking down into the Underworld or something. I guess this is sort of like a hollow hill, isn't it?”

“Well, in one sense, it is. There's certainly open space here below the surface, but it's not really Underworldly, is it? How does it feel to you?”

“Well, yeah. It's not as dark as I'd expect it. It's kinda twilight, and surreal. Warm, too; but that might just be from being close to you.”

“Stop flirting for a minute,” Nimuë said. “Do you know anything about how your father's family's traditions- especially going back generations- about the Celts?”

“Not really. Should I?”

“Well, not necessarily. The Celts had a pretty interesting view of the world around them. Part of that involved recognizing that there was more to the world around them than what they necessarily perceived on an every-day basis- the whole concept of the Otherworld. There were special times when it was possible to make a transition between the physical world and the Otherworld- the Land of Shadows, if you will. Some of these ideas still live on today- like the ancient holiday which was called Samhain, but is known as Hallowe'en now.”

Alexei interrupted, “But it's only August. What does this have to do with Hallowe'en?”

“Hush a moment and listen. Samhain was one of the points where samos and giamos- the light and dark halves of the year came together, and it became possible to pass from the physical into the Otherworld or vice versa. There's a reflection of that every time where light gives way to darkness or the other way around- twilight is very significant each day. We should, however, get back to this shortly- you'll enjoy the tour.” She smiled gently at him, and winked. “There'll be time for us to get back to this shortly enough.”

Just a short section this week, but it's the only thing approaching a good logical break for two or three 8½"x11" pages.