The Dance of Light and Shadow

From Gwyneth:

Still nights were not afforded me. Oh night, I skipped the bitter sleep of queens, and straight to dreaming went as if the cosmos summoned me from somewhere else. How like a sprite. How like a living twinkle of a light. How like a light across a galaxy of light. How like a light. And nowhere was there darkness: nowhere was there any space not lit but to define the bright, no secret-stuffed pockets, no landscape light forgot, no corner overlooked left to decay — and yet the light was not the same bright always; I saw there shadows everywhere for things that thrived in shadow, and the cosmos built itself of light and shadow every new: there was no time; there was no breath; we watchers (there were many) stretched invisibly across the cosmos, seeking nothing and observing all. How calm it was to seek nothing, serene until the forest swallowed me. I do not know about the others; the throng was not my own and not theirs either. I sensed that in a sense we were, our unseen multitude, each all alone, but for what purpose? Darkness then, oblivion and void. I think I slept.

As if from a painting I became a being all again, a being being light and stars surrounded every thought, and feathers held me til I found my arms.

Something was different. Maybe everything. I held my breath and looked upon a path into a clearing, just an autumn clearing: oh, that’s soon, I thought; I must speak to the demis about harvest as we think toward the dance of light and shadow….

Oh.

My foster parents’ cousin lived in Boston (this has a point I promise; bear with me), and when an understanding hit them like a fire bolt, they used to say, “Light dawns on Marble Head,” and I thought this amusing, though they carefully explained it was a place, a pun in Massachusetts, but I remembered and I still today will say it when my uptake’s not as swift as I would like. The Author told me once it took her more than forty years to get a joke. She won’t tell me the joke. (I think I saw it: something with a large flying banana, but that’s all). I shrugged that memory and took in my surroundings: ahead of me there was a little farm, not quite a farm but something like it. I won’t think overmuch on what I saw when I looked back: the painting faded. There was just a wall, seemingly seamless (It’s a good thing I have wings).

Enough about the wall. I turned back forward.

We see them all the time, these pocket worlds, when we Realm trek. Sometimes they are delightful, sometimes dark. Sometimes they’re both, and I think this (predictably) is both. I started with a hobby cosmos, too: A book forest above a larger forest. And then my Realm came — the intricacies of complex intermingling of folk from everywhere (I asked for them), the day to day of ruling not by force but by consensus. Delegation is my friend, but this small Realm needs only one or two to keep it. And they, whoever they were, were not in occupation: they have lives, it’s clear to see that do not merely live here. A quiet spot then; I will leave no footprints unless they’re gifts to help the folk whenever they return into their Autumn.

The house seems bare: perhaps I’ll furnish it, and that will be my gift, since I seem too tired to manifest a gate. Apparently that cosmos watching lark will tax the soul, I thought. The sky here seemed to echo that cacophony of stars.

Now pocket realms are known to be capricious, so when I walked, I was not shocked to see the landscape change. Sometimes realm builders dream things into being: I did, once.

Although it was still dark, the birds reacted to my presence: I love a bit of cooing, but the truth is I was tired. I found a bench and settled down to rest: I’d leave my gift once I had strength to give it. As luck would have it (ha!) there was a bench with pillows just outside the door.

Before I sat down, as I stretched those feathered wings (I’d think about them later), a chime came and everything turned sideways. Prosaic, yes, but that’s just how it seemed. A voice told me to sit, and so I did. Now look again, it said and there it was: the cosmos like a map of light spread out against the autumn realm. Do not forget, it seemed as if it sang, a baritone enchantment in my heart, your moment of ascension. Now, you sleep.

‘ No, wait!’ I said. ‘I have another question.’

Now. You sleep.

And I knew nothing more for hours.

Notes & Credits:

(As always, sponsored items are noted with a “*”)

Featured:

Gwyneth:

Gwyneth’s cosmic dress: zOOm, Floral Whisper* (Get it at Forgotten Forest!)
Gwyneth’s golden nails: Eventyra, Moon Star* (Get it at Forgotten Forest!)
Gwyneth’s luminous hairbase: Miamai, Hairbase 3 (Get it at the Miamai Main Store!)
Gwyneth’s delicate brows: safe for mortals, forest brow (coming soon!)
Gwyneth’s new celestial skin: Velour, Faye Fantasy, in Lunaris. Body skin: Velour, Celestial body skin, in Lunaris.

On the set:

Stone Cottage: Dragon Magick Wares, Willow Cottage* (Get it at Forgotten Forest!)

Acorn Lanterns & Lighted Tree: Raindale, Acornglade Lantern* & Caelwyn Tree (hunt item!) (Get them at Forgotten Forest!)

Dovecotes: Circa Living, Mystic Forest Bird Cote* (Get them at Forgotten Forest!)

There will be more H&G featured in future Forgotten Forest Posts!

Other Fancy Stuff:

Gwyneth:

Bodacious White Feathered Wings: Axis Mundi, Lucifer Wings (These are the small ones, y’all!)
Piercing Blue Eyes: lovelysweet, Spritely Eyes
Leafy Eyeliner: safe for mortals, Leaf Liner (at the safe for mortals main store!)
Green pointe shoes: Aurun, Allure Pointe Shoes
Eyeshadow & Heavy Liner: Maena, Alira Eyeshadow
Silkysilver hair: Magika, Marigold
Tiara: Poison Rouge, Elba Tiara
Jewellery: Sigma, Zephyr earrings and necklace
Glowy hand bits: Quills & Curiosities, Hexing Touch
Gwyneth is styled on a Legacy body and a Lelutka EvoX Billie Mesh Head.