M is for Map

I’ve tried so hard to live a quiet life. To be human. To be small. What’s inside me keeps coming out. Sometimes it rips through my flesh like my skin was an ill-fitting coat for the true me. Well, I got ride of that me. I left her behind a Door along with the rage that called down the lightning and the fire, burning an empty village. If only that had been its only victim. The same rage once destroyed a lot of people I cared about. Twice that temper got the better of me. There wasn’t going to be a third time. I opened a Door and took a walk along my path. I let my anger go. I found a beautiful child instead. Leiwell, who became my son. He wasn’t the one I was searching for, but he’s the one I found. The two of us opened a Door and crossed its threshold, returning to our cottage, what was left of our Omphalos. I didn’t leave much of it. I decided to make the most of what I had instead of fretting over what I didn’t. The price of power was the empty land around me. I raised Leiwell and the two of us tried to live a quiet, ordinary life. Only my Leiwell was never ordinary. He was as much a part of the Shadow Forest as he ever was my reality. One day he was drawn to a Door, to the birth of his ‘precious lights’. I didn’t know what he was talking about. I wasn’t sure I wanted any part of it. I couldn’t let him go alone. I followed Leiwell beyond the Door back into the Shadow Forest. There I met two people I’d given up hope of ever seeing again and someone I’d hoped never to see again. We were all there for the birth of the lights, hatched for an egg, and born from fiery water in the form of twin babies. It was Leiwell and I who escaped with those beautiful twins, even though two of those present had plans of their own for them. I’m not sure if we truly got away or if we were allowed to. We returned from beyond the Door with Danyel and Tayel, the newest members of our little family. Those children grew up much slower than human children do, showing a unique beauty and physical difference as well. Leiwell and I decided to hide them and ourselves from the rest of the world. As far as the twins are concerned, they’re Leiwell’s little brothers. They’ve become my sons as much as if I’d given birth to them. Who is anyone in the outside world to say otherwise? Leiwell, Danyel, Tayel and I have lived apart from them in our cottage next in the garden in the valley. We’ve stayed safe, as safe as we could. The outside world, however, is starting to take notice of us and the world beyond the Door never took its eyes off us. Leiwell has been drawn back to the man who calls him master and I can’t stop him. I’ve lost the power to do so. No, I deliberately let it go. I can still advise him along with the twins. I can teach all three of them the Dance, the simple moves I learned at the Temple of Seraphix in a life I’ve tried hard to let go of. The Dance has the power to deflect all the aggressive energy of the universe in theory. I’ve still got that much. I’ve got a bad feeling that the rest of my power, the power I cast aside in the Shadow Forest may come looking for me, even if I stay away from Doors. I’ve got an even worse feeling I’m going to need it. For now, I try to keep my head down and ignore anything otherwordly reaching out for me or the boys. I advise them to do the same. I’m not sure if they’ll listen. I’m not sure if it’ll work.