CHAPTER 9
The Memorality Ends
For Etheria, the memorality ended as it had begun, with the feeling of wind in her eyes, and the sense of vertigo. Just like last time, she closed her eyes in response to it and, as she did, she immediately felt solid rock beneath her body. When she opened her eyes, she was back in the familiar environment of the glade.
As far as she could tell, she hadn’t been gone nearly as long as it had felt like. Her tea was still warm in her hands, and tiny wisps of golden steam flitted through the air in the space above the mug. The squire-els were still chattering in the same conversation that they had been in when she faded out, and the bucks were still twitching their heads in irritation. Nobody appeared to think that anything was out of the ordinary. A quick check on the position of the sun in the sky confirmed that, as far as Etheria could tell, she hadn’t been away for more than a minute or two.
It had been a long memorality, and her head seemed to be spinning as much remembering it as it had been when she really was on the top of Conjuring House Rock. It took her a moment (and a few sips of her tea) to fully remember what the current problem was, and how it could be related to what her father had told her in the memorality.
Mom couldn’t realize the magic in Thenken, she thought to herself, and the magic ultimately had no effect on her because she was too rooted to the waking world and the physical reality that it represented. Etheria reasoned that her mother had denied herself the very kind of life that Etheria herself was now living, that of existing in two separate realities and being fully aware of the magic that existed in both.
It took her a moment to realize how this was similar to what the bucks were doing, and when it did, it made her grin openly. She looked over at the deer as they shifted uncomfortably against each other, and then at the squire-els who now looked up at her silently.
It wasn’t just kind of similar to what had happened to her mother, it was pretty much exactly the same thing!
The bucks were so invested in their own quarrel, that they had created a reality where their centuries-old conflict was central to their being. This conflict had twisted and manipulated the magic in their thoughts to create the mess of antlers that now secured them one to the other.
Etheria’s logic had gained a steady momentum as she processed these thoughts. She had been excited at first, but this excitement soon began to waver as she continued her line of thinking, and it watched as her reasoning collapsed in on itself as she neared its logical conclusion.
The sad truth was that the bucks were ignorant to the fact that it was magic at work, and as a result, they wouldn’t be able to realize any form of magic that would ordinarily be able to free them. And, if they were unwilling to realize the magic that Etheria possessed, it would ultimately be powerless against them.
Etheria took a deep breath as the gravity of the situation sunk in, and her grin faded slowly from view. She began to realize soberly that there was a very real possibility that she would be as unable to free the bucks from their conflict as her father had been in keeping her Mother from fading away.
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Continued in:
PRINCESS ETHERIA
and the King's Surprise
About the Author
Watercolour artist and author Dwayne James lives in Peterborough, Ontario where he writes and paints as often as he can, that is when he’s not spending time with his young daughter, toddler twin boys, and his very forgiving wife.
Dwayne has a Masters Degree in archaeology, something he claims is definitive proof that he knows how to write creatively. “Indeed, the most important skill I learned in university,” he posits, “is the ability to pretentiously write about myself in the third person.”
After spending close to a decade as a technical writer at a large multi-national computer company, Dwayne opted to look at their Jan 2009 decision to downsize him as an opportunity to become a stay@home Dad for his newborn twins, and pursue his painting and writing whenever the boys allow him to do so.
It is a decision that continues to make him giggle with wild abandon to this very day.
Visit Dwayne online:
His personal Web page:
https://www.dwaynerjames.com
His virtual art studio and store:
https://www.resteddy.com.
His Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/dwaynerjames
The official Gingers and Wry Web page:
https://www.gingersandwry.com
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