Valerine Apple

They called her Valerine Apple with rosy, round cheeks,

Peppered and freckled, a near florid complexion

as she sang sweet songs in the passing weeks,

Swaying in a ring among all thee’s affection.

Sprouted from the hazel green locks

Yet morning Suns burnt her red, 

above sable ravens flying like hawks

a singular brown strand atop her crowned head.

Her sky was not of the azure heavens

Brimming instead with fresh leaves 

The scent of life from the oak’s gum resin

Her kin beside her so one could thieve.

The chirps of the birds pervaded her ears

yet the night offered comfort and shade

And she had no trepidations or fears

for she knew how the red fruit stayed.

 

Siren Song

Hey guys, I wanted to share you an exciting sneak peak at the end of the first chapter of The Mage's Artifice. I hope you enjoy!

    She found her lips moving, not in words and stories, but in song. 

    The Siren Song of Valerine Valencia.

    It poured out of her like a wave in the storm, cursing every man and woman that traipsed aboard the ship. She could feel every heart pulsating beneath their soft flesh, and in her mind, she could take every remnant of their souls as she pleased. She could rip their minds in two and it would be merciful. She shuddered, and they shuddered with her, linked to her like a hand held a hand, like a fist tightly enclosing around them until they were no more. The men had fallen and stopped again by the Song of the Siren, more powerful than Vallyn’s herself, for her first song was filled with ceaseless passion and anger. She could feel her body transforming and she willed herself to do so. There, she found herself standing on the ship among the fallen men, neither alive nor dead, only shells of broken bodies. She saw the young Bard amidst the others. Only then did she place her hands on his skin, icy in the night, and ripped back flesh, revealing the bones and the dark red blood she so eagerly consumed, heart and mind and soul gone from the very beautiful boy that once was alive.

The Curse Part 2

 “It will be impossible. I’ve been cursed, young boy. Cursed with knowledge. Cursed with immortality. Strike me now, and I shall return. Strike me again, and I shall return just as the ravens feast on the dead.”

..................................

Liuk looked down. He was a Raven. He was unsure if the woman’s words were spiteful or not. He was unsure if the woman was real at all.

“I’d assumed you to be a Raven,” Liuk questioned. 

“Not by choice.”

“Was it anyone’s?”

“Oh, yes.” The Oracle stared into his eyes, menacingly. Hers were pure black, just as Liuk’s, and he knew she must’ve been a Raven herself.

“How? I did not choose this fate. I did not choose to be subjected to the terror and violence of the Amovians and their Lumentian Knight-mares.”

The Oracle laughed, a throaty raspy sound that chilled Liuk underneath his skin. “We all choose our own destiny. Even me. By choice, I’ve ended here. On a rock, in the sea, beneath the lands and the sands and the oceans. I’m not here. But I am. Whether you believe me to be true or not.” She stared into his eyes, and he swore he could feel her gaze penetrating into his very bones. “I’m surprised you are not afraid of me, young boy.”

Liuk didn’t know whether he should be afraid or not. He furrowed his brow. Was she telling him something he shouldn’t know? “What do you mean?”

“The monkey chain around your neck,” she pointed with a weathered finger. “Your brother crafted that for you. The monkey is carved from the very shell of your youth.” 

Liuk didn’t know what that meant. Was she speaking in riddles? He did not dare to ask. 

“I’d lost it… as a boy,” Liuk finally said. “I found it today. And how did you know? It is unknown how the jewel came back to me.”

“Yes,” the Oracle said. “Unknown.” 

The Oracle Part 1

The Oracle was an old woman whose age was undeterminable under the wretched clothes she wore on her frail body. Her hair was black as midnight and her eyes devoid of any color, greying and withering. Above her own face, she wore a mask, grey as a wolf’s winter coat with cracks running down the sides until you could almost see the darkness poking from beneath.  

When Liuk arrived at her den, the door was already ajar and golden sunlight found its away inside the dark cabin. He made his way to the front and slowly creaked the wooden slab open until pure light painted itself over every shadow in the room. It was only one room, a storage closet where old pickaxes and torches lay askew, and rotten oak pieces haphazardly thrown in corners. Dust caked every surface of every object, even the Oracle herself. 

“I’ve expected you coming.” The Oracle’s voice was old, but it spoke the truth that no other mortal could give Liuk. He needed her answers.

“You’re awake?” Liuk closed the door behind him, and they were both shrouded in the darkness of the room. Dust and cobwebs floated in the air. 

“Sit and close your eyes with me.”

Liuk knew better than to question the authority of the wise Oracle. He obeyed her command without question, and slowly found an open space on the floor to make room for comfort. The stone floor was icy, and cracks made it so he could feel grass and weeds growing between the crevices. As he traced his fingers against the stony pavement, he was jolted awake by the cold waters of the sea wetting his skin. The room smelled of salt and death.

Valerine's Thoughts

The whisperers of the night had claimed that when a siren resided among the clouds and the blue skies for too long, the orange suns would burn their sable hair and paint it a red like the fiery blazes of heat. Valerine had never been in the twofolk world and she did not believe the tomfoolery of the whisperers. In her youth, her mother, the great siren Vetraya had told her that the men above would do terrible things if she was not careful. Yet the siren had taken the form of a man and with that, she had also taken the man’s pure brute and strength and physical appearance, his strong legs and tanned body all of her own. She would be invincible.

 

Liuk Excerpt...

Liuk dreamt of strange girls, caressing him in the moonlight as they lay atop a sandy beach. Their eyes were lovely, their red lips soft against his own, their touch the lightest of feathers. Some were turned towards him beside his body, and he could feel their honeyed voices silently flowing toward him as the crash of the water burned against his skin. His vision was blurred but he could see through his disillusioned eyes that the girls were no ordinary humans; what should’ve been their legs were replaced with long scaly tails, like a fish’s skin flagging against the sun’s wretched burn. The laughter of these monstrous creatures of the sea drowned his ears… Her voice now corrupted his mind, a sinister melody playing over and over again.

 

Ferina Excerpt...

  It had only been mere minutes before her eyes widened again. But this time, she found herself underwater, fighting to breathe as she inhaled the cold liquid and choked beneath the waves. She closed her eyes again, and the deep pool had shortened, and she found herself beneath water only as high as her ankles. She lifted herself from the wetness, looking around bewildered and shaken. The room was opened to a blood red sky, casting the lights against the waters and reflecting itself into a crimson haze. Her hair was soaked, her silk dress dripping in the moonlight. She stared ahead, columns looming holding the last of the earth above her until she couldn’t see the ends of the skies any longer. As she continued along, her bare feet sloshing against the watery grounds, she came across a strange statue, no taller than her knees. She knelt to peer at the carvings; it was a raven, grey from the stones that created it. It’s wings were spread, beak opened in mid-caw.