Synopsis for Enchantments, a verse-novel:
Enchantments
is an allegorical tale told in prose and verse.
Our storyteller is E’lienna, daughter
of Lady Claire, a human, and Gle’anden, prince of elves of
E’alowen.
Though born and raised in the elfin
land of E’alowen, E’lienna longs to better understand her
human lineage. She sets out from E’alowen and into human
lands. There, she visits the wizened Mage of Dur, a
long-time friend to her parents. She discovers that the
wizard is secretly working to help bring about a new age
throughout the land of humankind. For he reveals to her that
a babe, born of a king, has been secretly hidden away until
such time when he is grown so that he may fulfill a prophesy
made long ago of a king of men who will grow to rule the
land with justice and mercy.
Through her quest to find out more
about her mother’s past and her own place in the world,
E’lienna discovers that her personal longing for
understanding also threads into a much larger design – how
deeply entwined the worlds of men and elves truly are and
how much they need one another.
The manuscript is approximately 50,300
words, 214 pages.
Enchantments excerpt:
My name is E’lienna. I am daughter to a
human woman and an elfin prince. Both bloods flow within my
veins, the human and the elfish. This very thing it is which
brings up longing deep within me, a longing in my heart and
mind to find my own place in both worlds.
Born into a time of change for elf and
humankind alike, I have always sought out answers far beyond
my elfin kin’s embrace. Many stories tell of how the worlds
of men and elves are weaving. This is my own story. So,
listen if you’ve mind to hear, and I’ll recount my tale to
you in that fashion keeping with the long-held elf
tradition; poetry and prose entwining.
***
While moon shines bright and full, I
ride out from my elfin wood, E’alowen, and under hood and
cloak, I keep myself quite hidden. After I have ridden under
summer’s silken stars for three nights and three days, I
finally come upon the village where the wizard dwells. I’ve
come to visit him.
I reach his cottage just at dusk and
knock upon the door three times. He opens it and clearly is
astonished by my visit.
“E’lienna!” says the sage. “Child, what
brings you here?”
“Good Mage,” say I, “I am no child.
Sixteen years have crowned me. I have come in hope of
finding answers to a mystery which will not be explained to
me by either of my parents. So please, good sage, will you
engage in sharing what you know? For you are wise and friend
to both my father and my mother.”
“Do they know that you are here?” he
asks, and strokes his beard.
“Of course, good mage!” I answer truly.
(Elves don’t lie or trick.) “It was they who told me
you might offer clarity! Now, will you let me in?”
And, so, the wizened Mage of Dur ushers
me inside. His cottage proves a simple hut, yet comfortable and
cozy.
“Sit. Please sit. And have some tea,”
he says, upon my entering.
He serves it on a wooden tray, in two
clay cups, all painted brightly. Then, he sits himself across
the large old wooden table, smiles and cocks his head.
“Now, pray, tell me why you’ve come.”
I pull a locket from the bag which hangs about my waist and open
it to show, inside, two portraits, small as thumbnails.
“Sir,” I say, “I want to know whose
picture this might be.”
On the left, my mother smiles, her
sixteen year-old face all rosy. On the right, another girl
stares out from sullen eyes. Their faces seem so similar. Hair
and eyes, chin and cheek, both share all the same fine features.
Yet, they could not be more different – one a joyous angel,
filled with light and magic, one an angry, brooding creature,
shadowed, bleak and tragic.
I set the locket down before him. Even
before looking, he begins to nod his head then sighs and closes
his dark eyes as if he knows already who the woman must have
been.
“No wonder Claire sent you to me,” he
finally says, “and I agree it was a good thing that she
sent you here. For this tale is a tale of grief – for her and
your poor grandmother. Because you ask this task of me, I’ll
tell you what I can.”
He pauses. I wait. Then he takes a long
and heavy breath.
“How shall I begin? This portrait,
E’lienna, is of your mother’s sister.”
“Mother has no sister!” I exclaim.
“Now, good child,” he says, “you
must allow me to explain. And without interruption! As I
said, I’ll tell you what I’m able. But I warn you, E’lienna,
this is not a fable! This is sorrow. This is pain.
Now, shall I start, again?”
The air hangs still, a silent weight
that seems quite palpable. I swallow back my sudden feeling of
dismay and answer, “Yes, dear mage, continue on, I pray. I will
hold my tongue, I promise. ‘Til the end of it.”
“Alright, alright. Now let me see,” he
begins again. “Eloise, your mother’s sister, born but one year
before she, also had a strong desire to know magic. And this
fire burned within her ever more each year that passed until, at
last, it seemed that Eloise became obsessed.
“Unlike your mother’s love for light,
her sister’s ‘love’ seemed more a fight for wielding power over
others. While your mother meditated, Eloise would scheme and
plot. While your mother humbly waited, Eloise stewed viciously
over all that Claire’d been given, which she had not. She
was a jealous child.
“Your grandparents saw all this unfold
before their very eyes. And, yet, a parent’s love is blinded,
sometimes, by a thin disguise. Eloise played cleverly upon their
sympathy.
“Then one scratchy autumn day, as
Eloise went searching in a nearby wood for funguses and nasty
things she’d planned to use to cast a spell to make herself
invisible, she came upon a traveler – a wicked sorcerer! Well,
that was all it really took. Eloise became his student. Off she
went, away from home, to live with that most wretched thief
within that dank and musty wood!
“He taught her filthy kinds of spells –
spells which, cast upon poor victims, caused disease and pain!
Oh, but she felt powerful! And, then, one night that fraud
divulged, if she would simply bring her sister to the darkest
corner of that wood, he could show her one most potent spell to
rid herself for good of fairer Claire. He promised he would show
her how to cast this ‘wondrous spell.’ It would allow – he did
avow – Eloise eternal life!
“And, so, young Eloise,” the wizard
pauses then looks down at my gold and silver locket, taking it
in hand, “and, so, she tried to capture Claire for this most
evil purpose.”
Sample verse-chapter from
Enchantments:
The Elves
To read the entire manuscript,
Enchantments, click
here.
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