Things Natures

By C.T. Remchin

A multi-layered, psychedelic experiment - a taster for a unique, vibrant fantasy world.

At once a sequel and an introduction, Things Natures concerns Rentishi, a legendary witch who long ago was confined in a Realm of Storms but has been inadvertently freed from confinement. It comprises a pair of short stories that reflect each other as cause and effect of this reckless event.

One arc follows Suriya and Amadli - young, newly arrived strangers in the Lands commonly known as Marash, both lost and alone, in unfamiliar surroundings. They find their way together at first, but steadily their paths diverge as they are driven by incompatible impulses. Suriya, by a yearning for the sense of belonging she lost when she became exiled from home. Amadli, by the rumour of ancient and forbidden knowledge hidden beyond the distant, cloud-veiled mountains.

Another arc follows Boussa, a Sentinel returning home after a devastating event in a place she calls the Lands Beyond. She carries three voidstones that each hold an echo of Rentishi, which must be returned to the confine in the Realm of Storms. She personally must undertake this, to make amends for assisting and not preventing the release of Rentishi in the first place. She believes she is willing to accept any consequences - but the actual consequences for her are unimaginable.

A third arc punctuates these two. Verses from a legendary epic poem called Things Natures (from where the book takes its name) tell of a merchant driven mad by desire for a rare and precious gem, who commits a murder to get and keep it. He escapes into the wild and travels as a vagrant under some influence he does not understand, to return the cursed stone back from where it was once stolen.

The book as a whole deals with themes of growth and change. At its heart lies a question that must be expressed in various ways. What is self? How can it be known, how can it be expressed, how important is it? It could be said that Things Natures tells the same story three times: each main character faces a loss of self, then through some kind of trial each regains it - or at least, something like it.

While forming a sequel for two books, Things Natures also serves as a good introduction to the world in which all these stories are set. It shows how that world came to be, and why aenimus - so fundamental to the lives of the characters who live there - came to pervade and saturate everything.

All this in just forty thousand words!

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.T. Remchin
• Release date: Oct 19, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005077174

C.T. Remchin

CT Remchin grew up and lives by the sea, and writes to distract from everyday life wiping real and metaphorical bottoms. After half a lifetime of watching the world turn upside down, CT decided it was time to turn it the right way up again, in writing. CT used to write mainly songs and poems but during one particularly stressful period, the escapism of a fantasy world became overwhelmingly appealing. Nowadays this self-indulgent fiction is a kind of compensation for days and nights spent caring for others at home and at work. It is also an interesting way to use characters created over many years for role-playing games.CT Remchin believes in magic, and uses it daily.

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Things Natures

By CT Remchin

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2020 CT Remchin

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favourite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

सो ऽहम्

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[1] After This…

[2] ...Only Void

[3] Fragment 1

[4] Lands Beyond

[5] Realm of Storms

[6] Fragment 2

[7] Wandering

[8] Wondering

[9] Fragment 3

[10] Call to Mind

[11] Fade to Black

[12] Fragment 4

[13] Up and Away

[14] Down and Out

Cover Note

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I need to write somewhere before I disbelieve

Memories of what I know I hear and feel and see.

This is all there is, then. Is this all there is, then?

As usual, more useful as a question than a statement.

More questions than ever conclusions,

Every conclusion prompts new questions:

Why? How? When? Where? Who? What?

More silence than ever answers.

Who is Marathy with a name long forgot,

What is an explorer, a boy then a man, then a –

Who can even say? And it doesn’t even matter:

What matters is the writing, while I still remember.

I remember a name, I don’t think it’s mine,

I think it reminds me of being a child.

Yes – a name, and a face with a long, white beard

Smiling down at me as it tells a story:

Across the Great Flood, over highest of peaks,

A land where the trees walk and animals speak,

As it flows water talks, as it blows the wind shrieks,

Nobody survives there for more than a week!

So that’s where: the place it all happened.

And when: long ago, like a legend.

After that comes how, and how is a lot –

How is most interesting, how can it not?

Know how, and you don’t need when, where or what –

Anyone – anywhere – any time you have got!

Till at last we come to the final question:

Why? I don’t think I can answer that one.

Shade of Marathy said the story book

But that’s just words! In time I learned it took

More than poetry, more than knowledge,

More than a dream and more than language.

Words don’t work there – here, I use words!

No other way to observe, and preserve

What I know. You deserve to know what I know

Before it’s gone. And before I go.

1. After This…

''Welcome to the Lands, stranger. I waited for you.''

The stranger whirled around, gasping and instinctively raising her hands in defence. Through the clearing air, nearby woody bushes and scraggy grass tufts loomed and flexed vividly in the stillness.

A woman stood behind her, arms folded, leaning askance with one foot tucked behind the other ankle. Her croaky tones cut the silence harshly, but somehow carried kindness and calm behind. Her speech sounded like a chaotic convocation of animal calls; the stranger blinked as meanings clarified in mind even without any familiar shapes in the sound.

The woman was naked and very hairy, with long black hair hanging down to her knees like a cape. Her dark brown hands wrinkled intricately and her narrow, pointed face smiled into creases. With shimmering green eyes she peered openly at the one she had called Stranger, curious and impressed.

The stranger frowned dubiously back, wiping her dirt-streaked face with both hands. Her grimy, yellow–edged white robe was tied with cords into arms and legs, and around her shoulders hung a stained canvas satchel. Almost like a child she looked exhausted, her dark face crusted and shadows hollowing black eyes that shimmered blue in the sunshine. She glanced about as if at voices here and there – but no noises broke the static afternoon hum. The air felt suffused with a greasy sweetness, warm and cool at once and slick with something beyond physical sensation. Curious iridescent waves lapped at rocks that sparkled surprisingly in the haze. Scattered leafy stems reached eagerly out, moving independently of the lazy breezes and their pungent, colourful scents. The sky above the shoreline glinted brillantly with unfamiliar light, and the horizon all around was hidden by glistening mists.

The stranger blinked, swallowed, and gasped hesitantly, Are – you must be – I mean, you cannot be but – are you the— She paused, shook her head in confusion and raised a hand, vaguely pointing away. "—the bird?"

The older woman grinned large, yellow teeth, and cackled with glee. "I, bird – this makes most sense to you, eh? Ha! May be not such a stranger after all! She took a couple of steps towards the stranger, looking her up and down appraisingly. But who are you? And how did you get here, exactly? No sentinel brought you, this I know—" She seemed to want to say more, and her green eyes flicked darkly towards the waters rippling nearby – but she looked back at the stranger and her mouth instead closed into a smile, tight enough to hold back troublesome thoughts.

The stranger glanced at the lake and slowly shook her head, frowning. I don't – exactly know, she began, "I had a guide, but he has – gone. And I don't know if he was a – a sentinel, or whatever you said!"

The older woman nodded and repeated the sound. "Sentinel, eh right! Whoever – whatever came with you was certainly not one of those. Not even alive – as I believe?"

The stranger gasped in surprise and nodded hesitantly. Undying, yes, she replied, But I followed him here, I did not bring him! The older woman made a throaty chuckle of satisfaction, and tossed her head knowingly. Still, the stranger went on, "He brought me here because he – no, because I— but words failed her; she shook her head and sighed despondently. Finally she added, I could not stay where I was. It would have been death, for me— She broke off again, before murmuring, I'm sorry. I'm just so – lost. Then she glared defensively and growled a heavy sigh, Look, if you want to kill me, just – do it quick! I've nothing, I'm nobody, my home is gone—"

She gasped again and it echoed through her loss into a cry. Tears sprang from her dark eyes as the sob returned again, then again, and again and she sank to the stony ground, clasping her face as if to hide behind her hands.

The older woman frowned at the display of grief, wincing and raising her hands as if finding the explosion not just surprising and uncomfortable, but somehow actually painful. She took a few careful steps closer, hands held out with fingers spread. No, no – not kill you! Help you! You call me Tritwin – please, hmm? She paused, considered this a moment, then went on, "Ech, yes – Tritwin, will do. But what do I call you, this lost forlorn stranger?" She came closer still and finally crouched on the ground next to the weeping woman, regarding her now sympathetically. But she but did not reach out to comfort her by touch.

The stranger sniffed, wiped her eyes and nose, and looked up fearfully. Suriya, is my name. I was born in a place called Jade City— Tritwin's eyes widened in surprise, which made Suriya change tack suddenly to add, Do you know Jade City? Surely it's very far from here?

Tritwin gave a low, thoughtful Hmm, and after a long moment's consideration shook her head. "I cannot say I know the place too well, though its name is known well far and wide. But it is not gone! It is still where it always was – so I have to ask, why proclaim that home is gone?

Suriya shrugged. "It is still where it was, yes – but I can never go there, never again. I – he—" She broke off with a long sigh and another mournful look towards the shimmering waters down the shore where they sat.

Tritwin followed her stare and for a while they both faced out into the haze, till Tritwin asked nonchalantly, "So then, what did he? Tell it quick and plain if a long explanation is too arduous. Just cry it, just yelp it, just—"

Suriya's expression didn't change as she said flatly, He killed the Emperor.

Tritwin broke off and her sharp eyes flicked around to focus on Suriya's face. As no more words followed, she pursed her lips as she considered the statement. "Emperor, she muttered curiously, Yes, I recall there is such in the lands across the ocean. Empire, I have heard it called before. Killed, you say? Then she nodded slowly, her frown deepening quizzically as she added, But you – did not kill? Only he did so?"

Suriya nodded slowly and with a couple of blinks, turned to regard Tritwin through tearful eyes. I did nothing, she whispered, her voice thick and reluctant, But I was there. I watched. There was aenimus, like a shadow. It covered him. Then he was dead. His minister too. I thought we were about to— She squinted, paused and after a deep steadying breath went on, —I thought it would come over me next, me and my colleague – but then this Undying appeared and offered us a chance to get away. She dropped her head and a shadow of shame passed over her face. "I panicked, I didn't want to die, I went with him. Esuin, he called himself. And he brought me here, so I could witness him return the stone he used for his – for what he did. And that's gone now – in there— she flung a hand out towards the lake, and glared dolefully at Tritwin as she finished, —and so is he. But I'm still here, and now I don't— She faltered, and stopped with a long sigh, finally adding in a throaty whisper, —I don't know what to do."

Tritwin's wrinkled face nodded, grave and silently attentive beyond Suriya's final murmur. It was clear the stranger was telling the truth and her distress was genuine. You know, she replied at last, I watched you for many days on your long way here – from mountain's foot to lake's eye. You passed through lands forbidden and forgotten by your kind, through dangers you did not perceive nor even conceive – because the stone your companion carried was more important than custom or law. Do you know what it was, that stone?

Suriya shrugged. "A voidstone, he called it. I saw one once, I held it myself – but he told me the one he carried was another one, the last one. He told me of an old story – a myth, most say – where such stones were stolen from a lake of light. But he said that lake, is this lake here— she flung a hand towards the glinting waters lapping so close by, and Tritwin nodded as Suriya went on, —but stealing the stones brought a curse on the robbers! Hieros was the song, The Voyages of Hieros – and it's no myth, it happened! So by bringing the stone here, Esuin broke that curse— She shook her head in disbelief, and repeated in an awed murmur, —and it wasn't a myth—!"

Tritwin was gazing intently and nodding as she listened. As Suriya's murmur faded, she replied with a smile, This is why he was allowed to pass. You should know – creatures such as he, that call themselves Undying, are normally destroyed without warning. As a companion of such a one, you could have met the same fate— Suriya grimaced nervously and glanced around, but Tritwin gently waved calming hands. No, that danger for you has passed. I am with you now. I promise no harm will come to you while I stay near. You sit here unhurt and whole and will remain so. Sentinels are keeping their distance, out of respect.

Suriya looked about again, eyes widening as she scanned the nearest treelines away from the shore, but Tritwin gave a shrill laugh and went on, "No, not so close – their respect is less for you – more for your Undying companion's sacrifice, to heal our Lands. But mainly, it is for me,"