Saturday, June 8, 2019

Nandana's Mark

The Illustrator pulled Melia into the next room where high oval tables, cluttered with ink jars and brushes, stood between several long, padded benches. Overfilled bookshelves lined two of the walls, and etchings covered a desk pushed into an alcove. More cats, perched about the room, turned their furred heads. An energetic ginger cat slid across the floor. 
cat love, cat lover
Nandana guided Melia to an altar in the room’s far corner.

Before the half-faerie could stop her, the woman pressed her thumb into a saucer of ink, uttered something unintelligible, and pushed her thumb pad against Melia’s forehead.
fantasy and adventure books, magic and fantasy books
The half-faerie tried to pull away. “What—?”

“He will help you.” Nandana maintained a firm grip on Melia’s hand as her glossy eyes stared into space. “Yes. I feel his presence in the Parallel of Shadows.” Her gaze gradually refocused on Melia. “Like you, he lives in a world where he doesn’t belong. And like you, he comprehends the horror that threatens and searches for answers.” She placed her hand over Melia’s heart. “This mark will call him to you.”

“I don’t understand.”

Nandana pulled Melia closer. “There are reasons you can see what your father calls forth but cannot bear to witness. Trust that.” The prediction did nothing to calm Melia, but it resonated with an inner knowing she could no longer deny. Her father’s obsession with Umbra had breached her inner world.

She had to stop him. — Excerpt from Chapter 3. The Illustrator, Half Faerie

Melia has an odd (even for the enchanted world!) experience with the Illustrator. The half faerie—who has carefully guarded her secret up to now — easily confesses her troubles to the unusual woman. Melia then gets unexpected advice: "don’t assume stopping your visions is the task before you" coupled with a strange mark on her forehead.

From Lost Knowledge of the Imagination by Gary Lachman: After much meditation Descartes decided that there were two fundamental kinds of reality, or in fact two realities, what he called res cogitates and res extends, 'thinking' or 'knowing' things, and 'extended' things. This was the knowing mind and what it knows, or, in our terms here, our inside and the outside, consciousness and the external world ... Descartes believed that the two realities did interact — they had to, as we experienced this in ourselves all the time — and he thought that this happened in a tiny organ in the brain called the pineal gland. This is located behind the third ventricle and strangely, this is also where in an ancient Hindu tradition the 'third eye' is found, the 'opening' of which triggers mystical vision."
half faerie, daughter of light, Melia, half faerie, magic, enchantment
Our inside and the outside, consciousness and the external world: THE INVISIBLE and the visible.

Melia's visit to the Illustrator is a turning point, not only is she encouraged to face her dark visions head on—"don't run away"—her connection with THE INVISIBLE is strengthened by a promise of forthcoming help.

Stand Up by Fireflight:


Stand Up Lyrics:

Look at all the lonely hearts
Shivering out in the dark
Hiding from the truth
Cover up the proof
Demons that I've tried to hide
Imprison me in my own lies
And all that I can do is cover up the proof
Don't be afraid to...

[Chorus:]
Stand up!
Stand up if you're broken
Stand up!
Stand up if you feel ashamed
You are not alone when you hurt this way
Stand up!
Stand up if you need love
Stand up!
This is not judgment day
You don't have to hide
There's no need to run
Everything will be okay

Secrets got me torn apart
Trying to destroy my heart
But I can see the light
It's cutting through the night
Don't run away
(Don't run away)
Don't be afraid to...

[Chorus]

You say You love me
That's all I'll ever need
If You say I'm good enough
That's good enough for me

[Chorus]

Stand up!
Stand up if you're broken
Stand up!
Stand up if you feel ashamed

As a half-faerie, Melia is an outcast in the enchanted world where she lives with her two sisters and full-blood faerie mother. The girls' father has been exiled to the mortal world for breaking his faerie troth. When a tragic accident destroys what's left of Melia's fractured family, her mother is unforgiving. The punishment she metes out will leave her daughter torn between guilt and ecstasy, challenge the bonds between three sisters, and complicate Melia's relationship with a young priest who’s come to the Realm of Faerie on a mission of his own.

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