1Part Two: The High Priestess and Empress
Dani whipped her head around frantically. Where was she?
"Magician! Magician, where are you? What is this?" As she cried, the heavens cracked open with the sound of thunder, and rain began to pour on her. "MAGICIAN!"
"He can't hear you, girl." A woman's voice rang out over the moor, over the thunder crashing, over the rain splashing.
Dani searched for the voice, high and low. Wandering about aimlessly in circles, she looked for the speaker. "Where are you!? Help me!"
"Use the sword."
Strapped to Dani's waist hung a sword's scabbard. Slowly, she grasped the hilt of the weapon, and drew it warily from its sheath. Even in the pouring rain, the metal gleamed as if one thousand suns' light was reflected upon its surface.
Then, it was as if the sword grabbed control of Dani's arm. It forced her to swing the blade from over her head downward, cutting through the air. Most bizarrely, Dani felt something in the air rip, as if she were cutting through a fabric of sorts, the dark cloth of rain-soaked sky and wet heather.
Suddenly Dani realized how she could reach the voice, and what the sword had done. Scrabbling around, she finally found the edge of the tear in the fabric of reality, and tore at it.
She was in a moonlit clearing. Her clothes and body were apparently dry, as if she had never set foot on the moor, and she was garbed in the clothing she had wore before she'd been whipped out of her world.
"Welcome, Fool. I have been expecting you."
Dani fell to her knees before the apparition in front of her eyes. A most beautiful and mysterious lady sat on a stone throne, betwixt two pillars of black and white marble. A crescent moon shone at her feet, illuminating her blue robes, the silver cross on her chest, and the yellowed parchment in her hands. Behind her, stretched from pillar to pillar, was a veil, and behind the veil…strange whisperings could be heard.
"It's impolite to stare." The lady frowned slightly, crossing her arms carefully over her bosom. Beautiful she was indeed, but a cold beauty, like bare tree branches hung with icicles, or a grandiose iceberg, moving stately through freezing blue waters.
"Who are you?"
"I am High Priestess. A rather primitive and religious title, I know, but there 'tis. And you are Danielle Waite, otherwise known as Dani, or, in this realm, the Fool." The Priestess smiled slightly, and to Dani's eyes, it was as if she were laughing at her and her foolishness.
"Why am I to be made the Fool!? What have I done to be titled this, and who named me such?"
The High Priestess smiled wider, and this time her smile was revealed to be benevolent and only slightly patronizing. "Aren't we all fools at one point or another in our lives? Surely, by undertaking a grand adventure, we embark upon a journey of maturity as well. We all start somewhere, and the beginning is as a good a place as any."
Dani sighed and hung her head. She had jumped to the conclusion that to play the Fool was to act idiotically. In her haste to judge, she had misread the signs. The Fool was a character of naiveté, that was true…but it also was a character of new beginnings and learning from the start. One that in folly undertook a quest, only to later be defined by it.
"Good. You understand, my simple Fool. I can see enlightenment encroaching upon your innocent eyes."
Dani gazed silently at the Priestess for quite some time. The two were happy to drink in the appearance of the other, and revel in the quiet.
After a moment, the High Priestess spoke again.
"I like you, Fool. You are the smartest of the lot. I have come across many like you. Nitwits, all. You have some brain in you, I see." The High Priestess tilted her head to the side. "However, it is what you do with that brain that determines your fate."
"So, what is it that I must do, Wise One?"
The Priestess shook her head. "Never flatter me with such a term, Fool. My wisdom is more intuition than the application of study. I am a guide. I do not teach. Many subtle differences separate me from being truly wise. As to your question…" The High Priestess reached out to Dani, and touched her lightly on the head. "What you do is up to you. Search within yourself for your inner voice. You will find me guiding you, offering you weighty words that will help you decide which path to take."
"And now, fairest Fool, we must be off." A new voice chimed in that was very familiar to Dani's ears.
A cool hand gripped Dani by the collar, yanking her backwards, straight through the rip in reality. As Dani's view of the High Priestess dimmed, the calm voice drifted through her mind one last time.
"We'll meet again...when you're ready to travel the most secret path of all."
Then, she was gone, vanishing back into the folds of the surreal world.
"Did'st thou have a wonderous journey into a land of fancy?" The Magician stood over Dani, scowling quite fiercely.
"I thought I was supposed to talk with her. I was learning from her! Why did you drag me away?!" Confused, and no longer enveloped in the all-blanketing stillness surrounding the Priestess, Dani's temper struck the Magician like a slap.
"You were supposed to talk with her. That's the trouble. She never gives good advice, and just leaves you to puzzle over those little riddles she drops. I don't like her." Sneering, the Magician glared at the now intangible rip in the fabric. "And I don't like where she resides. Gives me the creeps."
"And this moor doesn't?" Dani flung her arms wide to gesture at the wet heather, the broken bracken, and the messy muck that surrounded them.
"At least it's not raining anymore." The Magician grumbled and pulled off his cloak. He gallantly placed it around Dani's shoulders, which were once again wet from the rain and clothed in loud, brightly colored silk. "There. Now you won't catch the flu and die on me."
Dani pulled the cloak close to her. She could feel the warmth of the cloak, even through her ridiculous clothing, and it comforted her to think that his broad shoulders had filled out the cloak before her, his body's heat contributing to the warmth she felt. Funny…had she felt this cold in front of the Priestess? The only heat she felt other than that from the cloth around her shoulders was the heat rising from her cheeks.
"I'm sorry I yelled."
"Yea, well, I'm sorry I overreacted. The High Priestess ain't such a bad gal, once you get to know her…but she and I have a rather unpleasant history." The Magician gave a sheepish half-smile. "I called her a creepy witch, she called me a numbskull, and as a Fool I never heard her cold, rational advice. It hurt me in the long run, and I never really forgave her. Although, in retrospect, I guess it was my fault." In a rather embarrassed manner, the Magician ran a long-fingered hand through his messy head of hair, then sighed deeply.
"So…where to now?"
"Right-o! The journey! You see those lights in the distance?" In the half-light that was twilight, Dani could indeed see an ever-brightening mass of lights, coming from what she assumed to be a small, middle-of-nowhere village in the distance and downhill from where the two of them stood.
"It is there you will find your next guide. I must leave you again. Do steer clear of crazies, will you? Ta!" In a flash, the Magician had snatched the cloak off of Dani's thin shoulders, plucked a hat out of thick air, jammed it cheerfully onto his head, twirled three times counterclockwise, and left the immediate vicinity without so much as a "by your leave".
"Huh. He sure was quick to get out of here. Wonder what situation he dropped me in this time. Hope I don't haveta use the sword again." Dani briefly fingered the hilt of the blade, silently asking for protection, and then began to make her way down the road, down the hill.
After a good period of walking, Dani realized that directly in the way of the lights she saw was a large forest. The trees loomed up high, taller than sycamores, wider than the most ancient of oaks. The leaves and branches rustled in the twilight breeze, seemingly whispering and murmuring to each other in their own sort of language, and generally putting on edge the innocent passer-by. It was almost like a cat arching its back and fluffing its fur in fright.
Dani took a deep breath. She was about two steps into the imposing forestland, when an ominous howl arose, the cry of a wild creature. She jumped back in alarm, almost as if the wild thing had snapped at her. Willing herself to calm down, she took a fresh step into the unknown.
The path before her feet was small and untraveled. Only the natural spaces between trees and their roots defined where she walked. She could barely see, as night was coming on and the thick leaves blocked out what daylight was left in the sky. She stumbled on, gradually learning how to navigate and where she could put her hands. It was almost like she had been in an accident, and was newly blind.
It was many hours later, with the moon rising in the sky and the stars beginning to shine clearly in the dark, that Dani crashed from the undergrowth into a clearing.
In the midst of the clearing was a full-figured, loose robed, beaming faced woman, seated upon a stone that appeared to have sprung from the ground, lavished by cushions, pillows, throw rugs, and velvet plush. Behind her ran a clear stream, and around her was a crop of wheat, cut low enough for Dani to see her face, but lush enough for her to also know that it was still growing, still maturing, still young and fresh, and not quite ripened enough to be harvested. The woman had a regal bearing, and had both a scepter and crown. The scepter was short, but it was gleamingly golden and studded…a ruler for a ruler. The crown seemed to be of laurel leaves, but attached to the wreath were twelve silver and gold stars, stars which outshone the ones above her head full of hair, also a fair golden color, flaxen and flowing down to her shoulders.
"Gooden to you, sweet girl. How fare thee this eve?" The woman smiled softly at Dani, and her very smile glowed in the half-light. She could not help but be courteous and kind to this lady, and even managed to curtsy formally before speaking.
"I'm quite fine, milady. May I ask who you are?"
"Certainly, child. I am The Empress, Regina of the land. And who are you?"
"A simple Fool, your majesty." Dani lowered her gaze respectfully in the face of such royalty. "I was told you'd help me on my journey."
"Certainly, my dear. I will assist in any way possible." The Empress tilted her head to the side, much like a cat. "Incidentally, have you been to see the High Priestess?"
"I have, majesty. I discussed with her many profound things. Yet…"
"Yet?"
"Yet I know she kept certain things to herself." Dani nodded to herself. She still had many questions to ask of her that were still unanswered.
"The Priestess is of an elusive sort. She would rather keep a deadly silence than thrust her thoughts into the world as speech. She does not nurture her conversations to full-term, and often miscarries them." The Empress's features became wryly amused. "I suppose I deliver her true intentions for her." Absently, the Empress laid a hand over her abdomen.
Dani suddenly realized that she was very tired. She had been walking for some time, and her legs felt like they could support her no longer. Gingerly lowering herself to the ground at the Empress's feet, a wave of exhaustion swept over her.
"Sleep, little one. I can see your eyelids sag. Rest, and place your head here on my frame. I will act as your bedding this eve." Softly, the Empress put a hand to Dani's head, and pulled her near. She then began to croon:
Hush, child of the sky
Listen to my lullaby
When you waken you will find
That the world is very kind
So rest with me, and let us drift
Let the mind sort and shift
As we travel to land of sleep
Let the world around us keep.
And so, with little ado, Dani sank into slumber, cradled by the Empress, feeling as secure as a child in the womb.