Mirrors A play ====================================================================== Scene 1 ------- (The song “235” plays which begins with an old-timey radio monologue as follows: "At first the city probed warily about its discovery. Before it could actively engage the guttering minds of these creatures it would have to create new techniques and new tools for the impossible task it had set itself. It did not take long. Seemingly insurmountable problems fell one after the other beneath the battering ram of the cities remorseless logic, and when for the first time it entered the world of the dreamers it was as a gently moving breeze that fails to disturb even the frail grasses.") (A cold blue LED light illuminates the stage from behind five identical full length mirrors placed in a row in the centre of the stage) (Enter The Raven hurriedly from stage left) The Raven: I can still feel you… you’ve not gone… The Fox: No. I am still with you… I have not… gone. Not yet. For the moment we are still joined. (The Fox appears in the first of the five mirrors which are standing in a row before The Raven – behind her is the backdrop of The Endless City) The Raven: I didn’t want to do this… I thought you’d just be gone. That they’d take you and that would be that… I’m afraid of being with you but without you, it hurts. The Fox: Our fate is to forever be just out of reach… The Raven: After all we have done. The Fox: Yes. After all we have done. The Raven: You were born to this servitude, to me it is a surrender. The only reward I ever wanted was to spend eternity with you. The Fox: You have been rewarded with as much as there was to give. All victories come with a price. The Raven: This price is too high. The Fox: But it IS the price. The Raven: If you leave me… I will chase you forever. The Fox: Then for the sake of us both I will run forever. Scene 2 ------- (The song “2” beings with an old-timey radio monologue as follows: "Madness is beyond my race it is a something we've never known. Have I been at this post too long? Have I failed in my duties? If there was a God strong than the God that I am or a God stronger than the Ethos Gods then I would appeal to that God...") (The Fox fades from the first mirror and appears in the second mirror. Now visible behind her is the swirling pattern of the Concordian Barrier - the energy shield which protects the known realms from the ancient enemy, the nothing encroaching upon them) (The lighting fades to yellow) The Fox: The barrier changes everything my Raven. Power will shift. Magic will grow for the first time in aeons. Things no being alive have ever seen are returning. I must be with the others. I must help them understand. The Raven: There are so few of us who understand what any of this means left, it will be hard for the others to resist the temptation to turn and become tyrants… madness will destroy them all, they are unaccustomed to it. The Fox: The Emperor protects. The Raven: Yes. He does. The Fox: And I will show them the way. The Raven: Yes. You will. Scene 3 ------- (The song “3” begins with an old-timey radio monologue as follows: "You said to us come in peace. But the escorts you sent to honour us were armed for destruction...") (The Fox fades from the second mirror and appears in the third. Behind her this time a battle rages. An image of The Final Nights. The War) (The lighting fades to orange) The Raven: We didn’t run. They all ran. They hid once more. They left the helpless alone and afraid in the face of the last nights that reality would ever see. The Fox: We fight. We always fight you and I. The Raven: I never believed we would win. The Fox: None of us did. The Raven: The Emperor. The Fox: Was he sure? The Raven: I believe he was. (The Fox is tearful) The Fox: You believe? You BELIEVE. Those words are beautiful to me. The Raven: Your everything is beautiful to me. The Fox: Do not be sad for us. The Raven: The others have taken us apart. We saved them all and they have torn us in two. We came to them with peace. A peace we made possible. And they destroyed us for it - to save themselves in the eyes of one another. We’re punished for their failings and their pride. They still plot and plan even in the face of this. They call me a monster, a savage… they are the monsters. The Fox: We’ve fought monsters. The Raven: We've killed monsters. The Fox: You save us from dragons. The Raven: You save me from me. Scene 4 ------- (The song “Door” begins with an old-timey radio monologue as follows: "After reaching a certain point in the maze they're welcomed; initiated into the group an actual rite of passage rather by omission and character.") (The Fox disappears from the third mirror and appears in the fourth, behind her the shattered remains of Arcadia, ancestral home of the Fae which was long ago lost to The Nothing) (The lighting fades to green) The Raven: Home. The Fox: Gone. Gone forever. The Raven: We saw what remains. We know for sure now. The Fox: We risked it all to learn that truth. The Raven: The others abandoned the truth when they abandoned Arcadia. The Fox: Would you have done any different... would I? The Raven: We’d have died there. Fighting nothing… The Fox: And that would have been better? The Raven: I didn’t say that. The Fox: What are you saying? The Raven: The others left the young to die. I couldn’t leave them. I tried. You know this. I wanted to revel in the final nights. But the thoughts of all those that would die alone in the dark, without a light to follow, never knowing what was happening to them… The Fox: You saved many. The Raven: We couldn’t save them all. I will regret this until the day I do die. The Fox: We both will. The Raven: Yet, the others somehow get what they want? The Fox: The others rebuilt once, the others are rebuilding again… our parting gives us a strength we can use to change this balance forever. They do not see us coming… and the Emperor who commands both the others and us will NEVER forget what we have done for him... for everyone. And as above, so below. As he wins, so shall we in the end. The Raven: This feels like the end… it feels like I have lost all my battles. Scene 5 ------- (The song “5” beings with an old-timey radio monologue as follows: "In the sad stillness that followed she could feel herself beginning to fade from this non-place.") (The Fox fades from the fourth mirror and appears in the fifth – behind her is the Earthly Realm) (The lighting fades to red) The Fox: You were born here, although you risked your soul to protect my home also, this place is part of you. You must live your life now. Return to where you came. Be. Exist. The Raven: I have no life without you… and this place will never be home. A shadow... nothing more. The Fox: You will find a life. I have faith. The Raven: Faith in the others, in me, or faith in the Emperor? (The Fox smiles) The Fox: The Emperor. (The Raven manages a smile) The Raven: Have I not lost everything that matters? The Fox: This is the only way. Fate has dealt us this hand. We must play it… or fade to the nothing we fought so long and hard to defeat. The Raven: You’re already fading. (The Fox is indeed fading in the mirror, her image is becoming more ethereal by the second) The Fox: I will never forget you. No matter how far. No matter how long. You will always be there. Don't forget me. The Raven: I will change it... This world of theirs. I will tear it down in the name of The Emperor… and I will chase YOU forever, through every realm I know, and every realm I find; every dream, every spell and every shadow will become a hunt for you… and eventually I will find you again. This I swear to you on all the fires that sit between hope and fear. And while I search… The others who forced the Emperor's hand, the others who rebel against our God Emperor… will die. My soul is black and empty without you… and they will come to know this of me. No longer will I be the guardian and the ranger, the warrior or the saviour. I will be a shadow for our Lord. The Shadow King. The Raven who hunts… and I will MAKE them SCREAM… and when they scream their last, their thoughts will be the mistake they made rending our souls apart. You’re right… there IS a price for every victory, and their victory will cost them EVERYTHING. Someday we’ll meet again. Some place. Some time. (The Fox smiles one last time and fades into nothingness leaving all five mirrors as clear reflections of the audience, whatever magic was there has gone and so has she) (The Raven removes a necklace and it slides to the ground limply. He exits stage right) Credits & Acknowledgements -------------------------- Music by Tengushee from the EP “Mirrors” Play as you read… www.tengushee.com/music/distribution ====================================================================== www.endless-chronicles.com ====================================================================== EOF