Chapter Fifty-Three

What happens to the mind while one sleeps? Does anyone really know? Scientists can tell you what chemicals are reached and the names they’ve given for what they term levels of sleep. Philosophers can tell you what they surmise. While the body lies peacefully relaxed in slumber the eye lids take on a life of their own and behind the closed doors which give entry to the Movie Theatre of the Mind. No one actually knows what the images in the mind truly are, where they come from or what, if anything, they mean.

A short time Calla floated in an endless sea of dark warmth lighter than a feather and sleeping deeper than a sunken stone on the ocean floor. Then the darkness took on a life of its own. It tried to close in upon her and envelope her.  At first she was frightened but then, why then it was like recognizing the face of an old friend that you haven’t seen in many years.  It was familiar almost comforting but then it went away and not quietly either, no, it exploded in on itself. As it did so she fell from what seemed a great height and for a very long time. Falling, falling and falling some more she thought she’d never hit the ground and then thought that would be a good thing. After all it wasn’t the fall that killed people it was the sudden expected stop. Calla fell so far and so long that all fear and panic normally associated with such an event subsided this caused her fall to decreased in speed and when the ground came up to meet her she simply floated to it her bare toes landing upon the warm grit of a cobblestone street.

All around the black disappeared and Calla found that she was surrounded in different shades of blue ranging to near black to the palest of cerulean.  Even the trees and the grass were blue and covered in a fine shimmering mist.  It seemed a magickal place where the faeries would come to dance and sing.  There were no faeries. She was alone here in this glittering place.

“Hello?” Calla called out. Surely someone laid the path that she was standing on. Someone had lit the intricately molded lamps which lined it to aid travelers in the night.  Perhaps if she followed the cobblestone road it would lead her to them. “Hello?” Still no answer.  She noticed that to the left of her was a wide circle of cobblestones and in the middle a bench carved of blue marble, behind it stood a semi-circle stones which very much resembled Stonehenge.  Lamps burned brightly keeping away the coming night and it looked like a fine place to rest and think.

What should she think about?

She didn’t know.

Calla wandered over to the bench looking down at her shapely bare legs and flowing hem of the nearly transparent dress she was wearing.  They were the legs of a young woman. She held her hands up in front of her and beheld the delicate fingers of someone in her 30s and not the gnarled nearly useless digits she’d come to know lately.  The hair around her face was auburn once more.  This was the way it was supposed to be. If only dreams could last forever.  Taking a seat on the bench she found it too tall to let her feet rest on the ground. Like a nervous schoolgirl, she swung them back and forth as she looked around.  No birds. No bugs. Not a single sound other than her own breathing. Not knowing what to do as she sat there and thought about whatever it was she was supposed to be thinking she raised her hand to her throat to play with the necklace she always wore. There wasn’t one necklace there but several and they were all mixed up and intertwined in annoying knots. With some effort and patience she was able to unclasp all of the necklaces and take them off to lay them in her lap so that she could untangle them.

It turned out to be quite a big job! Calla had no idea of how long she’d sat there undoing the most miniscule of knots in the golden chains or how long she’d been following the winding, twisting, turning strands.  No thoughts in her empty head other than where the strand in her hand led to next and how she was going to free these chains.  Though she was a patient woman this seemed a very important task and it was taking forever! A pervasive sense of panic began to rise. She had to get this done.

Didn’t she?

It was important!

Wasn’t it?

“I don’t know.” She sighed to no one and stopped fiddling with the chains to look off down the road.  It was getting chilly and this dress wasn’t much protection. Perhaps there was a town down there? At least a house, barn, something.  Night was falling and she would like to be sheltered when it did.  Yes, it was cold and she was getting hungry. She’d much prefer to be by a roaring fire but she had to work on this.

It was very important!

If that meant she had to be cold for the night then she would suffer with the cold and be all the more grateful for the warming rays of dawn. She wandered if maybe the standing stones behind her wouldn’t offer more shelter from the night and so she looked back. The standing stones were gone. When she looked forward again….

“Where am I?” She wondered out loud.  While she still sat on the same blue marble bench and the cobblestones were still at her feet, still in that wide circular pattern, the cobblestone roadway was more of a walkway.  She was in a courtyard surrounded by four walls with no ceiling but the night sky. Perhaps it was the courtyard of a carriage house? The blue stone walls were covered with shimmering blue ivy one wall had windows that looked out a cliff beyond. Out in the bay was a lighthouse, a very strange lighthouse sitting in the middle of a very small island. The lighthouse was octagonal and layered with three progressively smaller stories like a wedding cake with the light in place of the bride and groom.  Just past the lighthouse was a long expanse of bridge that she could see the land to which it connected.

Behind her to her left was a building, its large double doors painted a deep blue were closed tight but the windows within, like the one across from her, was clear as crystal with a speck of dirt to block the view. Directly behind her was a blue marble staircase with one long spiral.  It took was covered in shimmering blue ivy while over it fragrant darker blue flowers hung in long tendrils.  On the stairs was a man in a light blue shirt and matching trousers. His back was turned to her as he stood there frozen in time making his way to wherever the stairs led. “Hello?” Calla whispered with hope and fear in her hushed voice.  He looked like Daniel from behind but, the same build, same lovely sandy hair but when he turned his head toward her ever so slowly the man had no face.  “You again.” Calla went back to fiddling with the necklaces in her lap.  Every so often, over the years, she dreamed of a faceless lover.  It was nothing more than a figment of her imagination. Every woman who ever walked on any planet in the universe had such dreams from time to time.  “I don’t have time for you now I have to work on this.”  While she tried very hard to keep her eyes and her mind on her work, Calla felt compelled to turn around and look at him again.  He stood there with his head hung low and half cocked toward her, Calla couldn’t see the rejection he felt but she sensed it and it made her sad.  Without a word he held a hand out to her.  Calla felt guilty but, “I really have to—“ her voice trailed off. The necklaces in her lap were gone and in their place was a sketch pad. She looked to the right to see a full pack of colored pencils next to her and the sketch of the ivy covered window in front of her on the paper.

Have to what? Finish this sketch?  Had she been sketching? No, she’d been doing something else. What was it?

Calla bit down on her bottom lip and tried to remember what she’d been doing just a moment ago but the thought eluded her.  Putting the sketch pad down on the marble bench she got up and went to the bottom of the stairs.

Something. She’d been doing something and it was important!

“Is it….is it important?” She asked the man with no face and watched him nod.

Well then that must be it. That must be what she was about to do and her brain just misfired for a moment.

Calla took hold of his hand and found it cold to the touch.  It was almost squishy as though if she held onto it too hard it might burst like a bubble. “I have something else to do but ok, but just for a moment.” She told him and followed him up the stairs which lazily and very gracefully wound their way around a corner until they ended at a dark blue door which matched the larger ones on the ground floor but was only half their size. Neither of them opened the door they were just suddenly on the other side of it. 

The room in which she was now standing was very large and, except for a smaller room way off to the back which was probably the bathroom, took up the entire second floor of the carriage house.  At her feet the blue cobblestone was gone and in its place were very well-worn boards of a light blue wood.  A kitchen greeted her, clean and well-loved. Beyond that was a sitting area where a fire burned brightly in a blue marble hearth. To the left of that was the bedroom area consisting of a large bed made of a blue metal Calla had never seen before.  Next to it was a night table upon which sat an oil lamp.  

To the right, the windows gave a breath taking view of the bay and the town surrounding it.  All of the buildings huddled close together and were made of stone, almost as though all of them hard been carved of one extremely gigantic slab. Most of them had long archways for doors and windows, most of these were covered in the same blue metal as the bed in spiral swirling patterns.  The town looked very old but well-cared for.  In the harbor, on its little island, the lighthouse went about its business of lighting up the coming night for passing ships. For an unknown reason it reminded her of Italy, perhaps some little town way up north.

Outside it began to rain. Fat drops splattered against the flawless glass while off in the distance blue lightning began to ignite the sky.

It was good to be in here. Good to be where a fire burned away from the storm.  Feeling the strange warmth of a hand on her elbow Calla followed where she was being led and sat down upon the comfortable couch by the fire.  She looked up at her companion who looked back at her or would have if he’d had a face.  Where eyes and a smile should greet here was nothing but a blackness which seemed to shimmer with a life of its own. There was a smile there a grin of sorts no she couldn’t see it but she could feel it.  Her companion held out a cup of hot coffee and Calla took it without thinking twice instead she curled up on the couch tucking her bare legs below her bottom and snuggling into the corner to sip at the blue mug.  “It’s getting bad out there.”  Her companion nodded but did not speak.  The coffee was strong and hot, it was very tasty and she couldn’t seem to stop drinking it. With heavy eyes she looked at him when the cup was empty and offered it back to him.

A moment later she was asleep again and he carried her over to the bed that awaited her.  “Hello, Grandmother, I’m so delighted you could come and be with me for a while.”  Wolfgar laid her down and covered her with a thick comforter before sitting down next to her and stroking her hair.  It seemed a shame to cover her when she looked so inviting lying there on the bed in her nearly see-through dress. Still there were other things to do and fucking her wasn’t really on his agenda though he might indulge later if he was of a mind.  He was not the faceless lover she’d dreamed about over the course of her life but merely taking on his guise for the time being. Soon her faceless lover would arrive but not just yet. “Now I see what they all see in you.”  He complimented.  Yes, now her appeal was easier to see being trapped in the body of the old hag didn’t do her justice.  It was more than her looks, much, much more than that.  She was Special, Exalted, Not of this World.  Just sitting here watching her sleep was like being lost in the desert for forty years, wandering around in the heat and the sand, every inch of your body burned to a cinder and then unexpectedly coming upon a small oasis; a magickal place where all of your dreams could come true.  Wolfgar took her hand as he leaned in a little closer, “Where shall we begin?” He asked the sleeping woman and thought it best to begin at the beginning. “I am the Lord God, I am the One True God and thou shall not have any gods before me. No lies come from my lips, all that I say is True and all that I say is Law.” He bent toward her a little closer now so that his full lips were lightly touching her ear. “Do you hear me, Grandmother? Do you understand?” Though the motion was not grand she did nod. “Good. Very good.”  Getting up and kicking off his shoes Wolfgar climbed into the bed behind her and brought her in close.  They had to go deeper into the Realm of Dreams so much deeper and it was a very long journey.  It would take days and in those days there would be long periods when he was awake. Hours on end when he wandered around Altair Ain as Randy keeping up appearances while keeping on tentative hold on this illusion.

It would take much concentration along with a tremendous amount of discipline and energy.  Yes, it would be one of the greatest tricks he ever pulled off but, he was certain that together they would make it. In the next day or so, Lady Calla would arrive at Oblivion’s Domain and quietly pass away in her sleep never knowing of the tragic fate of her Children.  Nicholas, Daniel, Ares and poor Jack O’Neill would be forever trapped on Sengul. He would fulfill Bacchus’ bargain and deliver her to Oblivion.  The Decree Colleen made was far from iron-clad. Lady Calla had done many things in her life which might cause her to spend at least a little time in Tartarus and that was all they needed. Once he got her to Tartarus the rest was easy.  Should the Judges decide that she was saved anyway he’d make them understand differently.  “So long he’s searched for you but soon you will be reunited with your One True Love once more, Grandmother.  I hope that makes you happy.”  Tonight they would descend past the second level of sleep he wanted to be able to do this all in one night but it would require more time than that. In a few hours, however, he would have to wake in Nick’s bed in Altair Ain with Nick’s wife at his side. He would slip away for no more than a half hour, take all of the younger Jacksons and then return. Everyone would be very much upset at the sudden disappearance of their precious Prince and Princesses.  He would need to console Annie and work his way into David and Duncan’s good graces, at least temporarily so he could be closer to his Grandmother.  She was most compliant at this physical distance but the trip would be so much more satisfying when he was next to her, touching her, whispering to her.  When Randy had his physical therapy time with her would be when he would be most powerful and she most vulnerable.

End of Chapter Fifty-Three of
Golden Years
by Moon Mistress
a/k/a Lisa Beth Darling
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Chapter Fifty-Four