The Scrawled Drafts of Mari Blacke

[Mari]

[a portrait by Edha is secured with the collection of works:]




Greetings, dreamer. You who read my words. You who gaze in wonder and fear at the world you have conjured about you. How is this so? What does it mean? Come. Seek me. I will lead you to your answers. Do not fear, dreamer. Nothing you imagine here is real...

...yet.

This is your Dream. You alone have the power to make it Real. It can be made Real. I cast no light, but I am the Torch. I do not burn but I Illumine the way. By my blessings and Her power clarity can be granted. The scales shall fall from your eyes. You fears and doubts shall fade.

Look to the stars: they do not shine, but YOU do.

[Mari]

You gaze to the stars, dreamer. You divine from them truths but you do not find -your- Truth. You navigate the world by the light of the stars, but they cannot navigate your heart. With me, you will chart your path through this Dream. You will see with new eyes, behold with new wisdom, stride the horizons with new confidence. You will at last See the world around you and your place at the center of it. You have the power to make of it what you Will, if you will seize it.

Though lightless, I am the Torch. The darkness between the stars that marks the path. Take me in hand. I will illumine the way to your Truth.

The stars do not shine but you do.

The moon does not glow but you do.

The sun does not blaze, but you do.

This is the magic of the Dream. This is your magic. The skies are dark if not for the light you cast. 

[Mari]

The desert is cruel. The wilds merciless. The wastes deadly. But you, dreamer, survived them where others did not. By the pity of the Sun? It has none it is said. By the dispensation of the stars? They are distant it is said. No. It is not by celestial largesse.

It is by the force of your own Dream you endure. Your will made manifest. You grope for the way forward, stumbling a path beset with knives and pitfalls. Serpents beneath the stars. You need not do so blindly. you need not move by instinct. You need not seek alone. I am the guide. Where no light shines, I illumine. I am the Torch. Take me in hand and See. The moment you live in revealed. And in that moment...

...the Dream can be made real.

[Mari]

It is in the moment we exist. In the now. Aswirl in magic, in potential. Cocooned in the moment, the present is the time of change. Of flux. There is danger in this, dreamer. But power, too. The terrors of the now are ever-present, but they need not be greeted alone.

Take me in hand. Abjure the scales of the Dream from your eyes and see the shape of it. Discard fear. Discard doubt. The Sun and Moon shine no light that illumines the path but, unburning, I do. Through the darkness between the stars, I reveal.

[Mari]

It is in the moment that you exist. It is in the perfect moment that you exist perfectly. Eternally. The ascendant immanent. It is through the pursuit of this moment the Dream can be made forever real. Affixed. Triumph unshackled from consequence. From judgement. From loss. The illusions of the Dream shall be abjured and the true face of the divine revealed.

You will GLEAM like the stars!

You will WAX like the Moon!

You will BURN like the Sun!

For an ETERNAL instant you will SHINE eternally in your SHINING world!

[Mari]

The turmoil of your heart is the turmoil of the dream. You give it voice in song. You expel it though ink on page. Paint on canvas. Exhale it through reed. Pluck at it with strings. But, tethered within you, it returns time and again.

The moment is to be experienced, not preserved. Not replicated. The moment is to be sought. For you who seeks, seek me. Walk the path obscured though the light between the stars.

[Mari]

You stride the battlefields of the dream, seeking answers, absolution. You seize victory, but not triumph. You survive, but do not thrive. Can the cacophony of war drown out the the clamour of doubt in your heart? Do you know what your heart desires?

To seek your desires you must know them. To know your desires you must abjure what you have woven about your heart that hides them. That which stymies you. Thwarts you. Limits you.  Seize it. These are your doubts. These are your fears. You are free to do with them as you please. You are free to discard them. Assert control within and, resplendent, see it reflected without.

The stars do not shine. YOU do.

[Mari]

You chafe at the safety of the Shade. It protects but it bounds. The dream seeks to assert its limits. Know that the wind does not howl but YOU do. The sands do not burn but YOU do. It is YOU that will deliver yourself, not the Shade. It is YOU that will preserve yourself, not the Shade.

In pursuit of your moment, dreamer, you must find what holds you back from doing what must be done to achieve it. Discard the fears, the doubts and the obstacles. When the dream is affixed, made Real, you will be beyond the reach of consequence and judgment. That which was wrong, you can set aright. That which was broken, you will be above.

[Mari]

[a poem is added]

Between the stars

The darkness yawns

And smiles

The night diamond-dusted

The Moon hangs

Reflecting your light

Look not to the stars

They do not shine

But you do

[Mari]

[a eulogy draft is added]

Justin Rosedew was a man of passion and conviction. Faithful to my Lady Between the Stars. He strove. In that final act of courage and sacrifice, did you find your moment, Dreamer? Even in your curse, you were adored. In death, lauded. Loved.

I pray to Her that you charted the path unlit and were affixed. The dream made Real. To shine, forever, in that perfect moment. Beyond judgment. Beyond consequence. Gellema keep you, Justin Rosedew. Dreamer. May she hide you forever from the dream.

[Mari]

The dream cannot survive without its dreamer, but how does a dream die? The waking have left that behind and bear no witness. What psychopomps await the memories within a dying dream?  Remembering each other so as not to be forgotten.

It is said that this City was the dream of the King, once. And the King is gone. Or so they say. The world dies, it is said. But it endures, it struggles. It awaits a new dreamer to make it Real again. This is their dream. And I am the guide. Let us chart the path through the darkness between the stars, dreamer. Dream yourself Real.

[Mari]

They say the stars are the domain of Izdu and it may be so. They say that the Moon is the domain of Kula and it may be so. It is in the hidden places between, though, that My Lady resides. The darkness between the stars yawns wide and, at times, it smiles. She smiles.

What prayers you have to offer, she will take. Your fears you offer, She will take. Your doubts you offer, She will take. The night is vast all that holds you back might be collected and hidden away from the dream within the darkness there. Seek me and I shall show you how. I shed no light, but I illumine the way.

[Mari]

To a dreamer who has learned the truth of the dream, Doubt becomes snare. A mire. Alongside its sibling, Fear, it clutches at the dreamer, seeking to draw you from the lightless, hidden ways. To draw you into a deeper, quiescent slumber.

You know what you want. It is you, after all, who walks this path. It is doubt that screams that you do not. It cries beyond all reason that your ambitions are impossible, unworthy, unseemly. Illusions abjured, cast your doubts into the darkness between the stars for She is vast and will hide the burdens of the faithful. Fear seeks to cage your dream. Doubt seeks to control your dream. But at the heart of this take strength in the revelation couched within:

That this is your dream.

Cast aside all doubts and seize it.

[Mari]

Fear is a cage. It bounds your horizons. Ensnared, you might look between the bars at that which you desire. You might reach through them but so long as you are imprisoned it will remain beyond your grasp. Your fears jail you, but at the heart of this truth there is, too, revelation. For they are *your* fears. You are prisoner and gaoler. You hold in hand the key. Discard your fear. Open the door. Step out.

Fear of consequence. Fear of judgment. These are the tools the dream employs against you. To seize the perfect moment requires drive. Ambition. Audacity. Cast your fears into the darkness between the stars and my Lady shall hide them away. I am Her torch. Take me in hand and though I cast no light, I will illumine the way.

[Mari]

[another eulogy draft inserted]

Babel was a Gnome of vision and passion. Faithful to my Lady Between the Stars. Long in the shadows of others, it was his dream to capture the essence of the dream in story. The perfect, encompassing tale. Did you, in the end, encompass it- a friend to so many?

May you have charted the hidden paths. May you have found your triumph in those final violent moments. Beyond judgment and consequence. Beyond reprisal. Shining. Eternal. Gellema keep you, Babel. Dreamer. May she hide you forever from the dream.