by J. M. Wilson
She was incredibly focused and tended to achieve what she set out to gain.
Some in Myton found her to be cold in her pursuits…focused to a point where nothing else mattered.”
With wide eyes, Ruby stared intently at FarFrom, as he told this story.
This explained why her mother had no background?
Why she had told them she was an orphan?
Why she had an unusual accent?
Ruby recognised the description of ‘single-mindedness’, that could be her mother, yet she was also very uncomfortable hearing the words being said.
“Ella, by now in her teens, came to the Highest Council one evening, to a meeting and asked for permission to be seen by a Human.
She was told in no uncertain terms that ‘Humans Do Not See the Manushi’.
She was sixteen and was experiencing her first crush, but it was on a Human boy! ‘Ridiculous notion’ piped the Highest Council.
They laughed and dismissed her.
Not a wise move to dismiss a gifted young mind.
Ella was determined to be seen by this Human, a boy not much older then her.
That is more or less when she turned to Black Science.”
“You mean she turned to you!” Silverton said sternly.
FarFrom looked at him and then continued.
“She knew I pushed boundaries, and she asked for my help.
She wanted to manipulate the Human’s mind so as he would see her.”
He went on to say how they formulated some mind exercises, that she was to practise. FarFrom told how he formulated the initial plans, the exercises.
“She would sit there all day throughout the spring and summer, with this human, practicing the mind extensions.
Could she enter his thoughts?
He was a painter and he painted his parents garden, the meadows and the wildlife.
Then one day, after the many, many days that Ella had practiced, she did it!..
She got there!..She entered his mind!
Without even breaking into a sweat, the girl manipulated his thoughts, as he was drawing.
She got him to see her in his minds eye… and he sketched her!”
The four companions notice how animated FarFrom became, when telling this part of the tale.
He sounded proud and jubilant at this achievement, whereas the three Manushi were horrified.
This was so wrong.
A misuse of the Manushi power?
To one who was not fully informed of the Manushi ways, Ruby was just confused. How had her mum got to be where she was?
Was it something magic about Gran and Granddad’s garden?
FarFrom had dipped into her mind, and so answered her question, for all to hear.
“There is nothing magical about your Gran and Granddads garden Ruby.
At least I do not think there is?
But I believe there was something very special about your mother.
There is no doubt she was gifted. More so than even I had realised.”
FarFrom went on to tell the four, that many months later, maybe a year or so, Elladore confided that she was in love with this fellow and just had to be with him. She was besotted! In her ‘single-minded’ fashion, she pursued her own want to the bitter end. Unbeknown to me at the time, she had begun forming a spell. I should have known!
I should have been more careful! I had borrowed some ancient documents and she must have used them. Yes! Yes! She pursued it to the bitter end!
“For,” he asserted. “It was a bitter end for all those she left behind.”
“How did she do it?” Was the question Silverton simply posed?
FarFrom replied,
“To this day I do not know?” He raised his hands and shrugged his shoulders in a defeated gesture.
“I, of course, became the scapegoat!”
FarFrom began to rant as to how the Highest Council had held him responsible.
She had disappeared, and the whole town were out looking for her?
FarFrom knew where she would be, and went to the garden where she had been watching the Human. There before his eyes she sat, in that garden, as large as life!
As a Human!
The smitten male Human painted her as she sat on the bridge over the pond.
That silly! Selfish! Stupid girl! She did not see me, nor did she care to see me, nor the impending consequences!”
FarFrom had to report back his findings to an Extraordinary Highest Council meeting.
He was told he had been pushing the Human experimentation and research into the ‘Black Science’, too hard, too fast and too far.
Now disaster had struck,
The question was posed. ‘What would such a happening mean for the two races?’
“Even now, I do not believe that there is an answer to it?” Said FarFrom.
“I know Ruby that you were never supposed to be!” FarFrom said looking at her.
“You are an anomaly! A miracle even!”
He stopped.
His face changed, the four companions saw something in FarFrom’s face.
It chilled them.
In a reproachful, angry manner he finished his story.
“All what I had achieved, they didn’t even value.”
He turned to Ruby again.
“Your mother would have known there would be consequences for bringing about a child.”
He carried on saying, that for his part in all of this, the Highest Council wanted no more of Tinzel Wright.
“I was expelled from Myton and their polite society. Banished from working or living within any of the Manushi settlements, for all of my remaining life!”
It was clear however, as they listened to FarFrom, that he did not believe he was to blame. In his mind, ‘It was down to the selfish act of that silly, stupid girl!’
The story FarFrom told was indeed truly unbelievable.
The four had been quite mesmerised.
The room fell silent.
No one knew quite what to say.
Never before had there been such a ‘fairytale’ told like this?
In the silence that followed FarFrom’s bitter revelation, Dena realised she still did not know, what she had to do with all of this information?
She did not feel sorry for him, nor this Elladore woman. She felt for Ruby.
Still, there were more questions that needed answers.
She was the one to break the dramatic silence.
“What? FarFrom, does all of this have to do with me?” She asked softly.
“Why was Ruby told to find me, ‘Because I’ll protect her?’” FarFrom looked at Dena in shocked disbelief.
“I doubt you can protect her?” Was the first thing that came out of his mouth.
Then his eyes widened with recognition of something!
“You don’t know who Elladore is, do you?”
“No!” Said Dena. She had never heard of her before all of this.
FarFrom’s mood shifted from his ‘almost normal’ self, to an alarmingly deluded self. He laughed loudly, but there was no humour in his laughter.
“The irony! The irony!” He screamed in his realisation!
He jumped out of his chair holding his arms aloft. Hovering this way and that chanting, repeating, postulating! He was frightening Berty and Ruby.
“How dare they judge?” Everything he said, he repeated, in mad wails of despair, and then cries of laughter.
“How dare they judge me? How dare they!”
Dena needed to know what she didn’t know.
“FarFrom!” This time she shouted, trying to pierce through his wailing and ranting. “What don’t I know?”
FarFrom halted in his verbal sickness and turned to her, wild eyed, the children cowered behind Dena, as Silverton squared up at her side.
The whites of FarFrom’s eyes were on full view.
With his glassy black pupils totally dilated, perched on top of the whites, they looked like black marbles on snow
balls.
FarFrom banged his head against the door.
The door boomed with each self inflicted act of madness.
“What don’t you know? What don’t you know?” He yowled.
The banging of his head on the metal door boomed again!
He turned slowly.
He ran his fingers through his hair, as if to straighten it, and then ran his hands down his face and beard, all the way to the beads.
The movements were controlled and calming. As if he had been sedated, he spoke with a composed voice.
“Of course you have to stay now! You can’t go back!”
He went to open the door.
“FarFrom, what don’t I know?” Shouted Dena, by now desperate for an answer.
In an utterly ‘matter of a fact’ manner, FarFrom turned and answered sweetly, as if suddenly composed.
“Oh! Of course. I’m sorry! Yes! Yes! Elladore is your sister!”
With that he left the room.
CHAPTER 13
THE END WITHOUT CONCLUSION
‘Oh what a tangled web we weave,
when first we practice to deceive!’
(Sir Walter Scott 1771-1832)
With a distinct lack of energy, the four sauntered into Myton, dirty, tired and dishevelled. The few that were left in the settlement greeted them with warmth. They sent message to the search parties that four Manushi had returned.
The journey back from ‘FarFrom’ had not been difficult.
As they’d travelled through that world, Silverton and Dena had figured out how FarFrom had used and manipulated minds to achieve his goals.
He had fed on their negative emotions, their fears, and selfish fulfilments.
He used the ‘banished’ as if they were cannon fodder, disposable and replaceable. He experimented and conducted his research with little regard, or value, for those who shared his world, whom were essentially just like him, exiled as not fit for polite society. The absence of consideration for anyone, especially with these rescuers, was one of FarFrom’s many mistakes. He had lived in this world for so long, unchallenged by other superior minds, that he had grossly underestimated his visitors.
As Pickles Mellowmarsh had said, ‘anyone can leave’, people were there by choice with their hedonistic pursuits, but as Silverton, Dena and Berty were not there for themselves, but for their friend, their pursuits were far from selfish. Therefore, their mindset was totally different to those FarFrom was used to dealing with.
As FarFrom had left the room, so had they.
They left as they arrived.
They looped arms together, whilst sat on the edge of a bed, and thought of home. They arrived at the edge of ‘The Wood,’ scrambled out of the trees and up and out of the surrounding ditch.
There was no drama, just four tired Manushi, making their way back to Myton.
The four now sat before the Highest Council in Myton.
Another Extraordinary General meeting had been called.
The meeting had convened within the hour, as all the Councillors were still in Myton settlement, having been part of the search for Silverton, Dena, and Berty.
Dena and Berty’s parents had been asked to attend this meeting.
They sat in quiet disbelief, as the four companions told their story.
They could never have imagined what was to follow.
The punch to the Perkins was delivered when Dena reported to the Highest Council that Ruby was the daughter of a Manushi.
“Elladore Perkin was my sister?” She said these words as if asking a question and as an accusation, all at the same time.
The Councillors confirmed the fears of the four young Manushi, as they hung their heads in unquestionable shame.
Mr and Mrs Perkin stood in confusion and bewilderment.
What on earth were they talking about?
Poynter Proffer hung his head and rubbed his eyes, they were heavy with guilt and the burden now of having to tell the Perkins the truth, what they, the Highest Council had done all those years ago.
Proffer revealed that after FarFrom had been exiled, the Council was left with the responsibility of handling the situation.
Elladore had done what had never been done before, therefore the Council had no prior experience of this, nor the knowledge of the possible consequences.
“What if Manushi across the globe were to all start taking an interest in the Humans? such interest could be a great risk…a risk not only to an individual, but to the Manushi as a species…to the Human species!
The Council had no knowledge of the consequences. Would it be able to quash fears, should everyone find out? Would there be mass panic!... or more! We just didn’t know.” Proffers tone pleaded for understanding as he told the story.
“We felt that We-Had-No-Choice! So we did what we did!
We used some of the knowledge that had come about through FarFrom’s research… and… we used it! We erased the memory of Elladore from the minds of the Myton people. What Elladore and FarFrom had done, we felt must never be known to the Manushi, nor the Humans. We did what we had forbidden others from doing. We used some of the ‘Black Science.’ We had no choice!”
Except perhaps for Ruby, the seriousness of the situation was understood by all.
Ruby wanted to know when she could go home to her Gran and Granddad.
For now, of course, this would not happen.
Ruby, her family and all contacts would have to undergo mind alteration, and be subjected to the same ‘Black Science’.
The Perkins family and Silverton knew, that again, their memories and those of the Manushi within the Myton settlement, would have to be altered.
Ruby would become a member of the Perkins family, and for all in Myton it would seem as if it had always been so.
As for Ruby’s existence in the Human world, should she get back, they could only hope it would be as if she had never been away.
As is their way, the Manushi Highest Council would once again hold on to this secret, watching and waiting for any further consequences.
In their roles as clerks to the Highest Council, Dena and Silverton witnessed the performing of the ‘Black Science’.
It was a sombre occasion, which elicited no pride on the part of the Councillors.
It was a job that had to be done.
Mr and Mrs Perkin left the Council Chambers with their eleven-year old son, and their ten-year old granddaughter. As they hovered through Myton on their way home, their neighbours greeted them, all with the knowledge that the Perkins’ granddaughter lived with them because of a tragic accident that had taken Ruby’s parents.
It was as if it had always been this way.
After the deed, Dena and Silverton were asked to remain behind for a consultation with the Highest Council.
That evening Dena and Silverton chatted as they slowly walked back through Myton, back to Dena’s parents.
Silverton had been invited to stay over at their home that evening and have supper with them. The sun was setting in the Lincolnshire sky. The colours of purple and lilac shone beautifully in the heavens, setting off all the colours on the ground. The greens of the brackens and grasses looked deeper, brighter and lush.
With supper out of the way and the children in bed, the Perkins talked with Dena and Silverton about their duties of the Highest Council.
Mr Perkin was particularly interested in Silverton’s plans for the future, as it was clear to him, and his wife, that this young man had managed to turn Dena’s head.
The night rolled on with humour and good nature, and all were relaxed and settled as they retired to bed.
There were two beds in Dena’s room. One had always been hers, and the other was a spare, one that her friends had slept in on ‘sleep-overs’.
Tonight it was for a special guest.
Dena looked around her room at her books as she usually did, and thanked her lucky stars for the life she had. The dwelling was silent and dark, and she settled down looki
ng at the dark as it danced around, like small bits in the air. The dwelling was relaxed and silent with the night and, as Dena’s eyelids were just about ready to give in to the weight of the day, this all changed.
Chemical lights crackled into action, illuminating Dena’s room.
Stood over Ruby’s bed in readiness to grab her, was FarFrom and Jellyman, stunned, and as still as statues.
Like rabbits caught in headlights, the two glared as the room filled with members of the Highest Council.
FarFrom turned to grab the figure in the bed, but the figure grabbed him.
Silverton was obviously a lot faster than the old Manushi, he took hold of FarFrom’s wrist.
“I thought you would have sent one of your cronies FarFrom, rather than come yourself. This is a young man’s game.”
Silverton was feeling very glib that FarFrom had been outsmarted, until he saw his Grandpa.
“Grandpa?”
Jellyman hung his head.
This was a real mess.
“I’m so sorry Silverton.” He said.
The children, both asleep in Berty’s room, had slept through the lot.
The Perkins’ nerves were soothed after the ‘Black Science’ had been performed.
The Perkins had not undergone it earlier, as their help was needed to execute the nights task. Poynter Proffer offered them some fermented juice as he left.
Each had a snifter, having been told it was for medicinal purposes of course, and the ‘Black Science’ for them was complete.
In the morning their lives would be as they thought it should be.
Back at the Council Chambers, deep in the cavern, the two scientists were being interrogated.
Silverton could not believe what had happened.
He sadly asked his Grandpa, “Why?”
“I didn’t want you involved Silverton. I tried to put you off.
The more I said bad about FarFrom, the more determined you got!
Even through the illusions, you wouldn’t give up. None of you!” Said Jellyman.
“That doesn’t answer why, Grandpa!” Silverton said angrily.
Jellyman had the good grace to feel shamed.
He looked ashamed.
