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Caleb Strange Special user Manchester UK 676 Posts |
A long time ago I offered to write the following story for Doug Byrd and bizarremagick.com. Poor Doug waited and waited...
Doug, I offer you no excuses for my tardiness - only my heartfelt apologies. As you can see, it is finally written. And so, if you don't mind, I would like to dedicate this routine to you Doug, as a token of my thanks for all the tireless (and I suspect sometimes thankless) work you did at bizarremagick.com. It's an alternative presentation for Doug's excellent routine 'Wench and the Beast' - the one with the UV light. And I've called it: Under the blue light of the second sun. It was a small room - bland and bare, save for the one hard chair on which Herbert Lampkin sat. A grubby low-watt light shone in Lampkin’s eyes, and his left arm was getting sore. ‘Look fellows,’ he said, ‘what’s this all about?’ There were two other people in the room. The first (a well-dressed, olive-skinned figure of indeterminate age) slid a slender hand across his pomaded hair. ‘Tell us again about Kael,’ said this first one, flatly. ‘Aw, look! I already told you,’ moaned Lampkin. ‘Everything I know; it’s all in the book.’ ‘Ah yes, the book,’ said the second figure, looking at his copy with not a little distaste; a fanciful pot-boiler with a lurid cover. ‘Your... book.’ ‘I can’t see where the problem is,’ complained Lampkin. ‘It was you guys from Majestic who paid me to write the darn thing.’ Lampkin winced. The pain in his arm was growing sharp and long. ‘Tell us again about Kael.’ Lampkin groaned. ‘Ah Jeez! What difference does it make? You know very well I made it up - 'Herbert Lampkin’s Kingdom of Kael: an abductee’s true story'.’ ‘Tell us again.’ ‘Ah nuts!’ Lampkin shook his head. ‘You know it’s a pile of bull. “Go away and make something up,” Majestic told me. “Disinformation for the UFO fringe,” you said.’ ‘Tell us about Kael,’ said the first figure blankly. Lampkin sighed, and rubbed his arm. ‘Alright, you win. Kael is the most sacred moon in the Ampharj binary system. Will that do? I don't know why you couldn’t read the book, like everyone else...’ ‘And...?’ said the first figure, still smoothing his hair. ‘And,’ said Lampkin wearily, ‘in the month of the second sun, which is as darkly beautiful as it is rare, the priestly caste assemble there (from the home-world) to perform their secret rites.’ ‘Rites? What are these secret rites?’ asked the second figure, looking up. ‘Essentially sacrificial,’ grunted Lampkin. The pain in his arm was knuckling slowly up to his chest. ‘Those acolytes foolish enough to break the caste’s deadly code of silence are taken swiftly to the slaughter-stone. And, once bound, their bodies are systematically eviscerated by the massed minds of the hooded priests - a vicious, entirely psychic assault that rips like a claw through their scattering flesh.’ Lampkin coughed. ‘And how,’ said the second figure, ‘do the priests identify these revealers of secrets?’ ‘Oh,’ said Lampkin brightening a little. ‘That's the clever bit! I wrote that every blasphemer would have the mark of treachery on his hand.’ ‘And how is this mark seen?’ asked the first figure, moving closer. ‘It shines electric bright under the blue light of the second sun,’ said Lampkin. He attempted a smile. Yes, it was one of his better stories; and the boys from Majestic had paid him well. But why were they now interrogating him? They said they would leave him alone. ‘One more question Mr Lampkin,’ said the first man, ‘and then we will go. Tell me, what is the most heinous crime in the kingdom of Kael?’ Lampkin shifted uneasily. The pain was gripping at his belly now. ‘I’ve already told you,’ said Lampkin testily. ‘The most heinous crime in the kingdom of Kael is to betray the sacred secrets of the priestly caste.’ ‘And yet you wrote them down in a book...’ said the second figure. Lampkin looked across at him; there was something hard and silver in his hand. ‘Well... I made it up,’ said Lampkin uneasily. Who were these guys? They sure as heck weren’t from Majestic. ‘Hey, what’s this all about?’ He got to his feet, and there was the faintest click. And the walls of the room dropped away quietly, like snow from a skinny tree. The next thing Lampkin knew, there were hooded priests all about him, and a claw of talon pain flexing and contracting in his guts. He looked about him, and he noticed that the sky above him was not a human sky. And just before he died he saw it, the mark - shining electric bright on his hand... ...under the blue light of the second sun. Many thanks again Doug for all your hard work. Warmest regards, Caleb Strange.
-- QCiC --
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jbohn Regular user Minneapoils, MN 102 Posts |
Caleb,
This is another great one! I attend a couple of science fiction conventions locally, and this is the kind of routine that would kill those guys! Might I borrow this routine, if I promise not to butcher it too badly?? Yours, Jeremiah |
Caleb Strange Special user Manchester UK 676 Posts |
Jeremiah,
I'd be delighted for you to use this story (though you might want to check with Doug about using his UV method). Thanks for asking, and please let us know how it goes! Regards, Caleb Strange.
-- QCiC --
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Anabelle Special user 951 Posts |
Very creative.
Anabelle |
jbohn Regular user Minneapoils, MN 102 Posts |
I'll check with Doug if I get that far...
Right now, it's just an idea spinning in my beady little brain. But, who knows- it may turn into something at some point. For right now, I've got plenty to do just getting some fairly basic sleights and material to the point I would put it in front of other people- I'm still pretty new to the world of magic... Jeremiah |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The spooky, the mysterious...the bizarre! » » Under the blue light of the second sun. (0 Likes) |
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