The myth of the Grey Witch

my people came from far far away. The journey was arduous and cost many lives. The Founders sailed for many days to find the shores of our home and though many perished to begin a new life in the Greater Depression, hope still survived.

In the early year of ’39 the Founders set foot on the shores of the Greater Depression, wading through the waters of what they called the Sea of Despair, leaving behind them the safety of the Annie Day, the ship which bore them to their new home.

Captain and crew stayed on board and were watched as the ship slipped slowly out of view by the people she had left behind. It would not be the last time they saw her, but that is still another story.

The Founders, our, Founders began the task of settling this new land, of forging a new empire from nothing. They called it gods work, they called it a glorious new hope. They said a great many things, until they realized just how daunting gods work truly is.

There was famine, plague, pestilence and death. Crops never really thrived for them, the new land brought disease and suffering and in the end they began to die faster than they could multiply. The intrepid band could feel the grip of the reaper around their necks when the impossible happened. The predominate native race made themselves known to them. They  were a small breed of almost human beings, their skin was bronze and their eyes were sunken so deeply in their heads, they looked black as night. They had no nose and their lips were thin almost nonexistent, a mere slit above their chins. And their language was strange but rolled out of their mouths like a gentle early year thunder. The Founders called them the Youbangy, because their voices rolled like thunder.

They came to the Founders and taught them how to plant their fields and catch fish. They taught them how to bring the fish and other shells and other food from the sea. They taught the Founders which weeds could heal, which would kill and which had other properties that could make life in the Depression… easier.

During this time the Founders and the Youbangy  became close as  a people. They told the Founders of the other tribes that lived in the Valley. Of the Stone Giants who lived high in the Peaks and the Leprechaun that lived in the woods and scavenged what they could. There were the Asnots they were the keepers of the land. Asnots would swarm across the Depression culling the brush and cleaning the streams so that the entire Depression would not burn in the bright warm days.

They cautioned the Founders about the people who live not in the peaks nor in the valleys of the Greater Depression, but in the middle area of the land. The Youbangy feared and respected the Imagi for they were magicians of great power and terrible resolve should it be needed.

The Founders were a fundamentalist people and although they enjoyed the tales the native people told them, they was considered to0 be fables and nothing more. There could be no talk of magic and creatures there of, not in a True Gods world or a True Gods land.

The settlement grew as it should and in time it thrived. Five men were selected to journey up the Peaks to see what was on the other side. The Founders held a celebration for this endeavor. The Youbangy attended and told their tales, warned of dangers and the safest paths to get them to the edge of the Imagi lands and then they would stop fearing to anger the people and gaining their wrath.

Soon the party was over the five men went upon their journey…

 

The accounts of what happened are mostly lore for the men were never seen again, however the events on the Valley suggest that the story told by one woman are the most realistic. She was a good woman, she was my grandmother.

Five days into their journey the five men came upon the lower borders of the Imagi Nation. One of the men Chamberlyn O’Slaughten had become very ill on the way. The men made camp and prepared  for a funeral the following day, so great was his illness.

When the sun rose Chamberlyn had been healed. He told the others of his dream, how he had been approached in the middle of the night by a most beautiful woman with hair like golden wheat and eyes that were impossibly grey. He had never seen a person of such great beauty in his life and he was in tears when he spoke of her. He admitted to them that he loved this woman and was certain that she was an angel of god sent to him to save his life.

He told them that as he lay at deaths door, she knelt down before him, touched his cheek and spoke a single word. He had no idea what the word was, but then she kissed him, smiled and walked away. When he woke, his illness was gone and he felt vigor and vitality return. She was his miracle.

The other men were aghast and dumbfounded by the story. Having no ability to discount his story, nor the means to substantiate it, they were hard pressed to accept it and so they began to move on in their quest. And so they packed their gear and moved on.

Three days passed before they found themselves on a clear path up the slopes. They walked for two more when they found themselves at the open archway to a small settlement by a clear pool lake of water surrounded by tall pines.

They stood in awe of the perfection they saw, wondering at the beauty and purity of the place. The houses were white, like snow, the lake reflected like glass making it hard to know which was up and which was down. Every aspect of the place was as near perfection as each man could understand. And it was good.

Chamberlyn gasped as he saw the woman from his dream and two other people walking along the path to greet them.  All of the men were staggered to see her and how closely she had fit his description of her. Chamberlyn himself fell to his knees weeping from joy and amazement.

She walked up tom and lay her hand on his shoulder, smiling. He looked up through his tears and saw that she was in fact a real person and began to profess his love for her and his need to be with her for the rest of his days.

She quieted the man, speaking her words and it was soon understood that neither company could understand the other. Awkward silence fell over all until Chamberlyn made gestures with his hands trying to tell her that his encounter left him smitten and grateful to the lass for saving his life and cleansing his heart.

The three strangers pointed to their home and led the men to it. And as far as we know this is where the story ends for four of them. No one, not even Chamberlyn knew what had become of his fellows for he never saw nor heard from them again. They passed into mystery and time gentle and quiet and an early year breeze.

Chamberlyn however, thrived in the Lands of the Imagi for three years. He grew to know enough of their language to speak it clumsily and he knew the name of his savior and undying love, Andrea  and to them the name meant “spirit of the farthest star”.

They came to live together and they had two children. Clyde and Angela were their names and it was good. She would tell him the story of how they had come to be and how they came to be in that place. It would seem that they were n point of fact truly magical. They were commanded by The First Love to stay in that place and be no more than what they were. They were happy and kind and filled with the power of The First Love.

Chamberlyn was content to live his life there, simply being as his hosts had taught him. He became one with them and they with him until the day came that he was not.

Angela would often ask of her father’s home and he would be silent on the matter, since he was no longer a part of those people. And the questions would soon die. There was a day however, when all that would change. The path of many would change as well…

The Imagi would gather at the shores of the lake one day a year and each of them would stare into the still water to see if their reflection would mirror themselves or a need in their souls. If there was need they would rectify it, if not they would continue their lives. It was the way of things and it was good.

On that day Chamberlyn was called to look upon the water and in doing so came the reflection of him homeland. He could see all that he left behind and the sight of it terrified the Imagi. His children looked upon the water and they saw that they too had need to see their fathers home.

It was on that day that something terrible happened. The waters became unsettled and a wind blew over them. There came a light from the center of the lake and the light grew and became a brilliant human form. The form then became  glowing woman who walked upon and yet never touched the water.

She stood before Chamberlyn, Clyde and Angela, smiling and staring in a most serene judgment.

And then she spoke.

“Chamberlyn, not of the Imagi, Clyde and Angel only half my children, I greet you. Hello.

I have been watching you all this time and you have become all that you can here. And that is good. However being that you are not of my light you do bring shadow to my lands and that is not good. I am brought here by your desires for thing that I cannot provide you. Things that do not exist in the world of magic.

“I must ask that your shadow leave my lands and that you prosper on your own in your world.”

Chamberlyn was grief stricken at the thought of leaving his home, his family, all that he desired and still he knew that not all of his needs were met and the lady of light, The First Love was correct.

“What of my Andrea?” he asked.

“She will remain.”

“How can you ask me to leave the center of my love behind?” He begged.

“It is the way of love to gather and part. As much as you have learned here you have not learned this. To love in possession of that which is loved, is not love at all. “She smiled.

“And by taking my children, to I take her love from them as well?”  He asked.

“Love it not a thing that can be given or taken. Love is as the water. It is all around and always present. If your love and the love of your children is complete then there is nothing to take or give over time or space. Love will find you all and bind your souls throughout all time.”

“I don’t understand. How am I to love in absence of the one I love most dear?”

“I am sure you will find a way.” She said with a stern chill in her voice.

“Now go.”

She faded into nothing and was never seen again. Chamberlyn stood staring in disbelief at the woman he loved. The only thing in the world that made him complete, whole and as perfect as a man could feel in the world. Knowing that he must do the one thing that he could never have expected to be asked of him.

Andrea stared back stoic and determined to release him with as little damage as possible. She did not weep nor did she falter.  She was Imagi and Imagi is light and love and bright as magic can be.

“I love you.” Chamberlyn said a single tear running down his face.

“You must not cry here.” She said reaching out to catch the tear.

“Tears shed in this place will contaminate the light and all will fail.”

The single tear that fell from his eye landed in her palm, turned to smoke and disappeared.

“You must go… now”

And so they did. Chamberlyn and his children crossed the open arch and walked away. Back to the place from which he came, never to see his beloved again, or so he thought.

It was in the middle of Latter Year when something strange came over the Valley.  Once green leaves began to change to yellow, gold, red and brown. They fell from the trees and the winds that blew sounded like falling rain.

Chamberlyn stood in awe of this. No one had ever seen anything like it. it was in his mind, magic. He left his home and wandered thought the trees until he came upon a small pond in a thicket. There at the shores he sat and stared to the water remembering his love and hoping for a chance to see her one last time.

He heard footsteps from behind and turned to see a bent, broken woman standing behind him. Her hair was golden brown and it blew brittle in the wind. He looked on her face and saw the impossible grey eyes of his love staring back at him.

“Andrea?” he whispered in surprise.

“Not so much anymore.” He voice was dry and soft.

“How?”

“It was your tear. It was blasphemy to the light and by catching it, it cursed me. I am not set to wander the world of man bringing its despair and changing the world. I cannot linger, I must continue for all time. It is the way of our love.  It is my way of things.” She smiled slightly.

“How can I end this? If I renounce my love, will it set you free? “He asked in pure desperation.

“My love cannot change. And it is my love for you that condemns me. I am in your heart and in your soul and you are in mine for all time. I now burn with a dying light. It is a slow warm fire that I bring to this world, before the cold slumber and rebirth begins. I chose this when I caught your tear, to save two people from and dark fate.” She explained.

“Will you die? Will this end so we can be together again?”

“I am still a part of the first love, so I cannot end, not like you. Our offspring will know long life and they will be a part of the magic that made them, but I will go on. Tell them of me. Tell them, when the leaves change and the air chills that I, The Grey Witch am watching over them and the sadness that they feel when I pass by will end and they will know the light again.”

She smiled softly and touched Chamberlyn cheek, turned and walked away.

For the rest of his life Chamberlyn would go for a walk on a day when the leaves would turn to the colors of fire. He would be gone for entire day only to return with tear stained eyes and a new generation to tell his story to.

Somewhere out there, in the darkness of a grey day, is a woman who loved a man so much that she is doomed to walk in loves great sorrow for all time. And in her wake follows a man doomed to bring the icy death of winter. He is known now as the White Eagle of the North, but that is another story…