Melpomene's Daughter, Part 9

[ravencallscrows]

Previous sections of the serialization are posted at http://www.avarielelf.com/melpomene.html for your convenience. My apologies that at present this is still a single long page. Hopefully this weekend i'll get to breaking it up into more manageable chunks.

“Is this. . . ?”

“It is indeed.”

“Where am I?”

“That all depends on your perceptions- or perhaps more accurately, how you choose to perceive things. In a sense, you're in a hollow hill- for in one sense, that is all this realm is. In yet another sense, you're in a completely different place and time. Whichever one you choose, you are now in my world, and in as real a way as I was in yours.”

“How did it happen?”

“Remember when I talked about special places, midway between light and darkness- realms of shadow, if you will? Being in the eternal twilight of the Underground Tour was one such place, and there the veil between the worlds is as thin as it ever is at midnight on Samhain.”

“So I'm in the Underworld now? The world of darkness? But things are so bright here- I don't understand.”

“Why do you assume that this is the world of darkness? Therein lies your error. Perhaps it would be significant to tell you that my people are also known as the Shining Ones. There is far more light to my world than you realize, and the soul of ours is nowhere as dark as yours. No one hunts for sport here.”

Alexei looked about and had to admit, although he dared not voice it, that she was right. This was a world which appeared to be in every way as real as the one from which he came. Looking at Nimuë, he noticed that, in addition to her beauty, she was simply radiant, and he wondered why it had taken this long to notice.

“You're gaping,” Nimuë noted. “Haven't you spent enough time staring at me?”

“I don't think so- not if I were to continue to do so throughout the rest of this lifetime.”

“Well, we haven't that long to stand around- there are a few things we must do here- and things you must understand and accept, even if you don't like them. First of all, there's a great deal of this you're going to have to do yourself- you're going to have to trust your own instinct, because I'm not going to be around.”

“Wait just a minute. You drag me into your world, and now you're going to run off and leave me?”

“Trust me, Alexei. If there was any way I could be with you, I would be, but there are things which I must do which you would be unable to do; and things you will have to do which I am unable to. You're not going to be alone, though. An old friend will be around to help guide you, and you'll have a few others around to make certain that things don't get out of hand. Remember that this can be a dangerous place, and keep your wits about you.”

Comments

[ithilien.livejournal.com]

So when we're in Seattle should we take the underground tour? I don't want something like this happening... no offense to the faerie realm, but I'd rather not go there just now :P
Seriously, though, have you been on the tour or do you know anything secondhand about its entertainment value?˙

Re:

[wingedelf.livejournal.com]

The Underground Tour is something i think every visitor to Seattle should take. There are parts of it which are absolutely fascinating. Some of the guides' banter can be a little corny- i've tried to roughly repoduce some of it- but all in all, it's pretty neat. You can probably find some bits and pieces about it by doing a search on it, and it's not too far from where you'll be staying- it's in Pioneer Square, all of about three blocks south of the Market (just in case the concept of distance got lost in the story).