#witch of the west/the sword beyond the moon

[the-silver-peahen-residence]

||The God of High School Muse tag dump||

~Yu Mira(The god of High School)

~Han Daewi(The god of High school)

~Jin/Dan Mori(The god of High School)

~Park Ilpyo (The god of High School)

~Dan Ahan (The god of High School)  

[marsdenlee]

AU - THE SPELL FOR THE SEA

featuring @celinecerberus​ as the Kingdom Witch & @marsdenlee​ as the Captured Siren

A castle nestled atop a cliff, overlooking expansive oceans to the west and wide sloping hills and forests to the east. It was picturesque and monumental with high pointed towers and spirals, bricks bleached by the sun and salt air that battered against it on a daily basis, erosion part of the appeal of the ancient building which stood against time and remained a passive yet permanent fixture on the horizon. To those who lived in the towns and cities beyond its walls, it was a source of comfort, a reminder of those in power who strove to make their lives better. To those who lived in the streets and the woods it was a beacon of turmoil and anarchy, a symbol of everything that made their lives difficult, that turned beggars into thieves and punished them for it, forsaken by their government and the peoples in power, not believing their efforts to garner peace within the neighboring kingdoms were satisfactory enough. What about the people in their own cities? What about the people left starving while the gentry paraded around in their fine gowns, hosting tea parties and galas? Where was the care for the people when sickness overcame the lower streets? 

Whispers of war soon followed. Of broken treaties. Of marching orders. Heralds announced at every town and local establishments to prepare themselves, to send every able bodied man or woman capable of carrying a sword to report to the castle. Such whispers spread far across the land but not yet to the sea. Such human affairs like war did not bother the sea whose thoughts were simple and not burdened by such things like border disputes for no one who tried to claim the sea could control it. 

The sea and her creatures were wild things, full of mystic and magic. One such creature of myth were the merfolk, the sirens, known to call to sailors on ships and lure them against sharp rocks to their untimely demise. Many souls have been claimed by the sea and her creatures, they did not care to take sides, all souls were welcomed to her depths. One creature in particular would be swimming somewhere near a cave at the base of the cliff beneath the castle. A small fishing boat loaded with her daily catch would be toppled over by a gust of strong wind, a hard slap of a strong tail and the rise of a wave, sending the captured fish back into the sea and depositing the fishermen into the water without a care for their wellbeing. They would swim to the shoreline, shouting and wailing about cursed sirens while the creatures would feast on the fish for themselves, filling their silver bellies with the newly freed schools of fish before carrying on. The sirens would communicate with each other through odd sounding clicks and groans, more akin to humming vibrations that they felt through their gills and one by one they would leave once they consumed their fill, onto the next objective. A few would linger behind, more curious for the surface folk and their strange inventions, poking at barrels and wooden boxes, tipping them over and releasing the contents, spilling out strange metal contraptions with sharp points and odd circular shapes. Nets and ropes they recognized as objects which needed to be avoided. Sharp spears were equally well known to be avoided. Small half moon wooden vessels and others made of some other hard but natural material were turned over and inspected with webbed fingers and passed between each other, trying to determine its use. 

A siren male picked up the strange vessel and noticing the curved inside, fit it over top of his head; a bowl now placed as a hat for he had seen sailors wear such things in this way. This must be its intended use. Strange. It seemed useless. The siren removed it and let it fall to the ocean floor. 

[maaaddiexo]

Fugitives (The Weeping Monk)

Mainlist | Serieslist

Warnings: cursing, gore

part 2/4 (4 for now; maybe more after second season release)

[part 3]

-

Y/N didn’t see or hear anything from the Weeping Monk for three weeks. Two days after their first official meeting, she saw him leave with Carden and a group of Red Paladins. None of them had returned since.

Boredly, Y/N twirled her fingers and the windchimes she hung in the windows sang in the wind she created. Ever since the Monk’s visit, her days had become even more bland and boring than before. Her dinner tray had been abandoned long ago when the sun was still far above the horizon. Now, not even the moon could shine through the thick blanket of clouds.

Y/N huffed and got up from her spot by the window to the round table in the circular room. As well as boring days, Y/N could no longer sleep. Her dreams were plagued with magical worlds beyond her cage, bright blue eyes filled with tears, and hands dripping in blood.

Art and magic were the only things in Y/N’s life that brought her comfort. Unfortunately, magic drained Y/N’s energy so she often resorted to drawing and painting to calm her forever-frayed nerves. After brewing herself a cup of tea, she lit the candles scattered all around her room and picked up a pencil. Instead of drawing the mysterious man – who she really believed to be much younger than he looked – she reached into the depths of her imagination and let her mind wander. When she opened her eyes, the candles were burning low and she had partially drawn a Fey community in a thick forest and disguised by moss and leaves from time.

Bang! Bang!

“Born in the dawn!” An unfamiliar voice whispered from the other side of the door and slammed their hand against the door again, repeating the Fey phrase.

Still bleary, Y/N stumbled to the door, tripping over her own skirts. With a flick of her wrist, the wooden lock on the outside of the door undid and she opened the door. On the other side of the door, a young boy covered in dirt and blood stood on the other side of the door. He had shaggy blonde hair and light eyes, but one was bruised and swollen shut. “Who are you?”

“Are you Y/N?”

“Do you know another girl locked in a tower?” The boy didn’t find any humour in her words, and if he did, he ignored and repeated his question. “I am. Who are you?”

“I’m Squirrel.” He lifted his hand up from his side and gave her the two measly daisies in his hand. Y/N didn’t know how she’d missed them. “I’m supposed to guve you these.”

“The Monk,” Y/N breathed. “Where is he? Is he alright?”

“In the woods. He left the Red Paladins, but he wanted to say goodbye to you first. But he’s hurt real bad. He can’t walk. So, I’m here instead.”

“You’re leaving with him?”

Squirrel nodded. “Somewhere safe. Where the Red Paladins won’t find us.”

Y/N looked back at her table – at the picture she’d fallen asleep drawing. It was the same one from her dreams. She nibbled her lower lip but then nodded firmly. Most of the Fey were dead anyways. “I’m coming with you. Give me ten minutes. Come in.”

Squirrel sat on the bed as Y/N rushed around the room and packed things into a leather sack. She knew one day she’d leave the wretched tower but not so soon. She packed the necessary herbs and items she needed and crammed a shawl into the sack.

“Ready?”

Y/N hesitated, feeling like she was forgetting something before rushing to her wardrobe and unveiled the secret panel. They’d tear the place apart upon realizing she was gone and she didn’t need them seeing the few things she kept private. She folded them up and slid them into the bursting sack before throwing on her cape. “Ready.”

Y/N couldn’t remember when she’d first climbed the tower and was unused to the dark and narrow staircase that seemed to wind down forever. When Squirrel finally pushed open the door, Y/N got her first real breath of fresh air in over a decade.

“This way,” Squirrel whispered. He ran across the open field as fast as a fox but as quiet as a leopard. Not too deep into the woods, Squirrel slowed down and in a tight cluster of trees, they came across the Weeping Monk slumped against a thick tree. He was caked in blood and dirt and sweat, and he pressed a ripped piece of cloth against his thigh, but his pressure slackened when he saw Y/N.

“What is she doing here? I told you to give her my message.”

“I did. And then she decided she wanted to come with us. Who was I to say no to a witch?”

“Are you scared of witches?”

Squirrel bristled. “My best friend’s a witch. She’s always shown she can take care of herself. I figured you could help us.” He turned to watch the Monk struggle to his feet. “Help him.”

Y/N wanted to ask what exactly it was the boy expected her to do but she knew the answer. They were all fugitives now and needed a place to lay low while the boys – mainly the Monk – healed.  Y/N looked around the woods they were concealed in even though there wasn’t much to see in the dark. “Okay. I know a place. A day’s walking west of Travern.”

“That’s almost two days from here,” the Monk gasped. A two day’s journey wasn’t long, but time they spent in the open was time they could be caught and killed.

“We’ll only travel at night though. We’ll be able to get further knowing Red Paladins won’t be looking for us.”

“Well, what do we do during the day?” Squirrel wondered.

“Sleep. We’ll take turns keeping watch. And as long as we reach Travern by dawn, I doubt the Red Paladins will be much of an issue.”

“What does that mean?”

The Monk turned his head only slightly to face Squirrel. “It means she plans on leading us into the Dark Wood.”

Squirrel stuttered for a moment, baffled by the Monk’s words. He turned to Y/N. “Are you bloody crazy?”

Y/N’s quick wit hasn’t yet run out. “Depends on who you ask.”

“The Dark Wood is full of demons and dark gods!”

“Lies,” the girl replied boredly and moved to help the Monk to his feet and then onto the large black horse. “It’s all rumours to keep the Red Paladins out of the area so that Fey can live there,”

“I’ve never heard of a village there.”

“It’s not your average village,” Y/N explained. “They don’t let just anybody in. You need to meet certain…criteria to be accepted.”

“What kinds of criteria?”

Y/N didn’t answer Squirrel and instead looked up at the Monk. “What do the Red Paladins say about the Dark Wood?”

The man juts his chin at Squirrel. “The same thing he said. They’ll take days out of their missions to avoid journeying  through it. Are you sure we should go there?”

Y/N thought back to her dreams. “I’m sure.” The Dark Wood was the only place Y/N knew they wouldn’t be sought out and the only place they could be safe. “Let’s go.”

The trek was long and uneventful. As the night went on, Y/N found herself tripping over her feet more and more and her eyes became heavy. She was grateful they didn’t run into anybody because she was sure none of them were in good enough shape to fight off Red Paladins – or worse, the Trinity Guard.

The moon and stars are hidden by clouds and the woods were completely quiet until the sky turned from a dark to a pale blue and something snapped in the distance. Squirrel, who had fallen asleep in front of the Monk on the horse, is shaken awake.

Y/N sighed. “I really hope that’s a rabbit.”

“Who’s there?” The deep, masculine voice came from the direction of the snap and Y/N’s head dropped.

“Dammit.”

“I can take him,” the Monk grunted and moved to dismount.

“You’re crazy,” Y/N remarked and instructed them to stay there and told them she’d be back. Having never gone hunting or spent much time in the woods, Y/N was loud as she approached the man, but he continuously called out for her to identify herself and so she knew where he was.

Y/N took a deep breath and steeled herself before stepping into the man’s view. Unsurprisingly, it was a Red Paladin. What was surprising to Y/N was that he was alone.

The man leered at her and showed her a full set of yellow teeth. “It’s dangerous to be alone out in the woods, little girl.”

Y/N’s hands began to tingle and glow. “I could say the same to you.” She focused on the Paladin and whispered, “Rigescunt indutae.”

The Red Paladin froze and Y/N watched his eyes go wide. His hand slackened and the heavy sword dropped to the ground. Y/N felt the energy leave her body as the magic exhausted her but forced herself to hold on a little bit longer. She made two fists and brought them together. As she pulled her fists apart and opened her hands, as if ripping a piece of paper, she yelled, “Scindo!”

Y/N felt the hot blood splatter against her face and neck, but she was falling and couldn’t find the energy to wipe the blood away. Before her eyes rolled to the back of her head, she saw the Red Paladin’s body drop to the ground in two pieces.

He’d been cleaved in half like a piece of wood.

***

The rhythmic bumping of her head against something hard woke Y/N up. She was groggy and her sight was bleary but she could see that she was on the horse.

“Stop.”

“Morning, princess.” The Monk pulled on the reins and the horse came to a halt. Y/N slid off the horse and stumbled, running into Squirrel.

“How long was I out?”

“Thirty minutes or so,” Squirrel replied. “We’re past Travern now. But we can’t stop now. Not after what you did.”

Y/N looked at the woods around them. The trees were tall and looming. Their roots sprawled through the dirt and the branches seemed to reach out, ready to snatch unsuspecting victims. Y/N shook her head. They were just rumours. Still, she didn’t feel safe standing around. She nodded and accepted the Monk’s hand to get back on the horse, this time behind him. “Okay. Let’s go.”

[part 3]

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Guardians of the Creatures; AU! Queen x reader Prologue

*Author’s note*

Hey gang I know this year has been INSANE but I am here to tell you all that I’ve now got my next upcoming Halloween FIC series ready at the helm. Now it’ll be slightly similar to my last Hallowqueen fic series (it being in 2nd person POV after this chapter), with some differences.

Now then I wish to give credit to @kinole009x​ for allowing me to use the same physical appearance that they made for our beloved Deacy in their fabulous series “NEVERMORE” (which you ALL should check out if you haven’t read it. Trust me, you will LOVE IT!!). 

Now Idk when the next chapter will be up cause work is REALLY starting to pile up on me now. But I promise this fic series WILL go on, I won’t abandon it after this. I’ve got plans for this series. Enjoy my lovelies and I hope you all enjoy this new HALLOWQUEEN series :)

Warnings: Blood, dark magic, evil witches and wizards, close-to-death experience.

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things​

@waddles03​

@psychosupernatural​

@ixchel-9275​

@simonedk​

@queensdivas​

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels​

@dancingcoolcat​

@kinole009x​

@queendeakyy​

@geek-and-proud​

@klausidiot​

___________________________________________________________

I……Am the eyes of the world.  I can see the past—and the future.  Chaos, and darkness.  The end of the world, and the rebirth of it.  My people have been around since the beginning of time itself.  But with the birth of so many creatures, my kind couldn’t survive.  Except for me.  Who am I you might ask? It is I—Freddie Mercury, who witnessed the rise of creatures, and men.

I’ve seen the world continuously trying to survive with the rise of each new species of the world.  And it is here that I have seen a darkness of which no one would ever see before.

Look into my eyes—and trust in me.

There are many dangerous creatures that live within our world. For a certain time period there were were-creatures, Elves, faes, goblins, dragons, mer-people, and all those creatures you would believe to be in your fairy tales and mythologies.  But the most dangerous creature of the time wasn’t man.  

But Witches. Warlocks. And Sorcerers.

I’ve seen generations of these creatures slaughtering and imprisoning other creatures.  And breaking the mythical creatures ancient laws.

And then—one fateful night. I saw our world place our hopes into the hands of two people, the like of which—no one would ever suspect.

*3rd Person POV*

Flying through the dark midnight sky was a cloaked figure and in his arms he held a young woman close to his chest.  He dove down as fast as he could to the ground knowing full well that he couldn’t continue flying anymore, not with the woman now starting to cough out blood.  

When he finally reached the ground, he picked up the woman and gently set her down on the ground.

“Lumos.” He softly whispered.  His hand soon made a light, about the size of a star, appear in his hand. His pale skin could only be compared to the white glow of the moon, while his long jet black hair framed his face and his black eyebrows arched with both fear and concerned for the woman that lay beneath him.

As he shined the light upon the young woman he could now see that blood had now stained her once pink lips.  Her sclera was now starting to bleed red and she was coughing out even more blood.

“Serafina. Oh my darling Serafina please hold on.” He pleaded softly as he cupped the side of her cheek.  Piercing through the air was a maniacal female laugh.  Thinking quickly he made the light from his hand vanish and he covered both himself and Serafina with his black cloak.

High above the air riding on their own brooms a swarm of witches were flying over the air.  One of them in particular had curly madded hair (that almost resembled a lion’s mane), she wore a long black dress that was a mix of fabric but also leather that made a corset-like shape around her midriff.  She took the lead alongside five witches and four wizards.  

All of them wearing black and baring a snake tattoo along their necks.

“They’re not here cousin!” hissed a ginger haired witch.

“Keep searching for them. They’re around here somewhere. That spell I gave her will buy us some time to catch up to them. There’s no way he’d leave her behind.” She cackled softly before flying on ahead with the eight other witches and wizards following her.

Once the coast was clear, the young wizard removed his cloak from the two of them and he slowly picked up Serafina.

“We’re gonna have to travel by foot. I’m sorry my love.”

“John.” She croaked out before suddenly coughing out more blood.

“Shh, shh, shh. Save your strength my love.” He soothed her as he rested her head against his shoulder so that he could press his head against hers.  He trudged on through the thick forest, all the while his love continuously coughing out more blood.  

He knew that if he didn’t at least find a way to slow down the curse that had been bestowed upon her, she would continue to bleed out internally until she died.

After walking for god knows how long, he set her down in a decent sized thicket.  He gave her his cloak and lay down some twigs, grass and leaves before muttering out a quick spell to make them into a pillow.  He lay her head on the pillow and stroked her dark hair out of her face.

“I’ll be back my love, I’m going to find some ingredients to slowdown her curse.” He went to stand up but Serafina grabbed his hand and weakly said.

“Don’t…….go……John.” he looked down at her with sympathy and gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“I’ll be careful. I promise.” He covered her up more with his cloak then casted a protection charm around her, in case either the witches or anything else dangerous were to come by.

John raced through the woods hoping to find some familiar herbs that could hopefully be brewed up.  He searched and searched but he wasn’t having any luck, and he could hear every now and then the haunting piercing manically laugh of the head witch leading the hunt for them.

It wasn’t until finally when he arrived by a small creek and he had found the perfect healing herb for his love.  To some it was known as Athelas plant but in the common tongue it was called Kingsfoil.  A weed but it had healing properties.

He took out his wand and shifted it into a small knife and went to cut the root, when he heard a strange sound coming from the creek.  A hypnotic, siren-like song soon began to echo through the air.  John turned towards the creek and was shocked to suddenly see a hand burst out from the water.

Slowly a body began to rise up over the water.  The body was pure water at first until it finally dissolved and morph into an actual human skin.  The man that now stood before John was handsome.  Beyond handsome actually.

Almost as if he had been carved by the Gods himself.  His wild, untamed blonde hair shone under the full moon’s light, and his hypnotic deep blue eyes stared right at John curiously. But when John took a closer look and saw the long claw-like nails, the gills along his neck (that almost looked like deep scars), and the fact that his eyes were inhuman with how they were just pure blue and white, he realized just what this man was.

This was a Nokk.  A water spirit said to be a handsome man that is known to lure women and children to their deaths by either singing or playing a sweet song before drowning them.  They are also known to be shapeshifters going between a handsome man, or a beautiful white horse.  Tempting all that see him in his horse form to ride him before sending them to a watery grave.

Little did he know that while staring at the Nokk, he soon felt a long sword blade slide right down his neck.  Thankfully it wasn’t the actual blade of the sword itself, it lay flat against his neck but it still sent fear through him.

“What do we have here? A wizard caught off his guard?” a soft, honey-like voice spoke with a sternness to it.

“Please, I mean no harm. My Serafina needs help.” At hearing that name, the Nokk’s eyes went from defensive and anger to concern and worry.

“Serafina you said?” the voice behind John spoke.

“Yes. Please I don’t have much time, I need to get this Athelas to her. She’ll die without it!” John then whipped out his wand and turned the sword blade into a stick.

He quickly turned around and held his wand at the attack only to soon find out that his ‘attacker’ wasn’t who he thought it was.

This man had curly hair that resembled an animal of some kind, but unlike the witch they were hiding from, his hair was tamed and well kept. John also took notice of the man’s attire and the ears that stuck out from his hair.  It was then he realized just who this person was.

“You—you’re an Elf.” the Elf closed his eyes and did a faint nod as he hummed, a hum that sounded like the faint wind.

“Brian May. High Elf Lord of the West. We were also told of your arrival by a friend of ours. He can help her.”

“Just who is your friend?”

“I can sense your hesitance.” Brian spoke.

“Of course I’m hesitant! We’re being hunted by our own cult! My love is dying and I’m sitting here in the dark forest with an Elf and a Nokk!” the Nokk lowly growled that’s when Brian lifted his hand and said.

“Quilda Roger, quilda.” The Nokk named Roger softened his growls but continued to glare at John. “As you’ve said we don’t have much time. Please allow us to help you heal her. And take her to our friend who is a healer.”

“I thought Elves were known to be the best healers?” John asked.

“We are. But by the time we would reach my kingdom it’ll be too late to save her. Our friend is the closest for he lives in the Black forest.” Not being given much choice, John agreed and led both Brian and Roger to where his love was.

Serafina continued to wheeze out her breaths and occasionally coughing up more blood.  And either it must’ve been the curse having a side effect, or due to the pressure on her brain, she saw this blinding light coming up towards her.

She turned and there she saw a horse running up towards her and the glowing figure rode on top of the magnificent creature.  Skillfully it unmounted from the horse before walking towards her.  Finally she could see a man who was too ethereal to look upon.

His tall lean frame, the pale skin, and the halo of curls almost made him look like an angel.  His piercing blue eyes stared right down at her, almost as if they were piercing her very soul.  He knelt down before her and whispered with what sounded like the sweetest honey-like voice she had heard (that could only be compared to her love John’s voice).

“Serafina. im Brian. Telin le thaed. Lasto beth nîn, tolo dan nan galad.” After hearing this beautiful language coming out of this man’s mouth, Serafina turned her head back upwards to the sky as she softly began coughing again.

John soon came in with a small brewing bowl and was currently stirring up the brew.  Brian knelt down beside Serafina softly calling out her name once again as he touched her head.

“This curse is strong.” John finished stirring up the brew and gently took his love’s head and lifted it up, with Brian’s help, and he gently poured the Athelas brew down her throat.  “She won’t last for much longer. We need to get her to Freddie now.”

John picked her up bridal style and the two of them walked towards Roger as Brian said.

“The five witches are still out there searching for you both further in the woods. The four wizards however, I do not know where they have gone.” John gently placed her on top of Roger’s back and steadied her.

“Thank you for your help. But I can take it from here.”

“Roger and I are the fastest together, I’ll take her.” Brian said.

“No. I won’t leave her!”

“You will take the safest road down the river. Once you reach the end, you will go East and soon you will arrive at our friend’s hut.” Brian explained to John the fastest route he could take.

“But what if they find you? Or worse what if this Nokk betrays you and takes my beloved away? I know of what his kind does to women and children!”

“I understand your concern for her. But she is in the safest of hands John Deacon. Roger will ensure that they can’t reach us.” Roger turned to face John.  His ears bent back slightly and he gave the young wizard a bow of his head.  “A Nokk’s name is powerful. He will not harm her.”

John faces Roger and in his horse form he gave the young wizard a small huff before lightly nodding his head.

“As you wish.” Brian softly smiled and hopped onto Roger’s back, sitting behind Serafina so that she now had support to lie back on. “I’m trusting you both with my heart. Ride hard and run swift. Do not let them catch her.”

“Noro lim mellon, Noro lim!” Brian spoke to Roger in Elvish tongue, soon Roger took off running deeper into the forest.  

As he watched with a heavy heart, John prayed to Merlin above that Serafina would be safe and healed in time.

Running with the speed of mercury, Roger ran across the woods in almost a blur.  Brian holding tightly to his friend’s long white mane while keeping an arm wrapped around Serafina so that she wouldn’t fall out.  But soon he heard a whooshing sound and through the trees and when he turned right he soon saw one of the four male wizards flying just a few feet beside them.

He looked to the left and he saw that a blonde witch was also flying beside them, the two of them flying closer and closer to Roger’s body hoping to pin him so they could claim their prize.  But never doubt the speed of a Nokk in horse form.

Roger ran faster but as he turned into a clear opening in the woods, that’s when the rest of the scouting party descended.

“HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! WE’VE GOT THEM NOW! TEAR THE BEAST DOWN! KILL THE ELVISH FILTH! BUT LEAVE THE GIRL ALIVE. For now. HAHAHAHA!!!” the leading witch cackled manically.  Brian turned to the witches and wizards behind and saw one of them take out their wands and fire an attack.  He shielded Serafina with his body from the blast that sent an excruciating pain all over his body.

His bite his lip to try and hold back his screams that desperately wanted to come out.  He gripped Roger’s mane tighter as his friend ran faster through the woods.  But no matter how hard he tried, no matter how many times he tried to lose them through the trees, the party still kept on their tail.

When they came across an open meadow, the witch party now had them surrounded like wolves taking down their prey.  Brian was almost certain that they were about to die right then and there.  But when he saw the crazed woman extend her arm out towards Serafina, it was then Roger took over.

Using his long whip-like horse tail, he whipped the woman across the face and sent her back several feet right off her broom.  He repeated the technic with the other wizards and witches that were too close for comfort, allowing him to take off even faster than he had ever ran before in his life.

Two of the witches flew back towards their sister witch and helped her up.

“That filthy mongrel. HE COULD’VE KILLED ME!! I’ll get him. I will kill him and wear his skin like a coat!” the woman cried out as she got back on her broom and took off flying with her sisters following behind her.

Roger soon got them into a thicker part of the woods where the trees were lower and more condensed together.  He swiftly turned around every other tree to try and confuse the party that followed behind him and it worked.  For some they had to regroup high above the trees just to get out of the condensed area, and others they ended up flying off their brooms cause of the low hanging branches.

Roger leapt over a log and ran down a hill which led to a small river-like creek.  He ran across the water till he came onto the other side of the creek.  He stopped and turned around to face the witches as he huffed and panted heavily.

“Well done Roger, well done.” Brian praised his friend as he too looked at the incoming party.  However once they came to the shoreline of the creek, they found that they couldn’t cross it.

Almost as if there was higher magic blocking them from coming any closer to their targets.

“Give up the traitors, filthy Elf and mindless brute!” the leading witch snarled.  Roger let out a loud roar as he reared high into the air while Brian revealed his sword and held it in the air.

“If you want her, come and claim her!” he challenged the party. All nine of them soon took out their wands and all together they fired at the forcefield that kept them from getting any closer.  

The forcefield held for as long as it could but it was starting to break.  When they noticed the forcefield beginning to break, the party slowly moved forward across the water.

Unbeknownst to them, Brian’s eyes shifted as he stared at the water while softly began to chant in Elvish a spell that had been put up for only him and Freddie to speak out since they were both ancient creatures of old.

Nîn o Chithaeglir lasto beth daer;

Rimmo nîn Bruinen dan in Kuruni!

Nîn o Chithaeglir lasto beth daer;

Rimmo nîn Bruinen dan in Kuruni!

The water slowly began to rise and once Brian finished the chant, the wizards stopped their attack as they suddenly heard a rush of water. Soon storming down from further up river was a tsunami-like wave.

Fearing for their lives, the witches and wizards hopped on their broomsticks and took off flying, but the rushing water was right on their tail. If you would look closely, you would notice that the shapes that were forming in the water were dozens of snakes, all slithering outward towards the witches.

Just before any of them thought they were in the clear, one by one they were each swallowed by the raging waters and taken downstream.

Brian and Roger stood satisfied over the boulder but that’s when they heard the fain wheezing coming out of Serafina’s mouth.  Brian took Serafina off of Roger’s back and lay her down on the ground.  Her face now almost completely red from bleeding internally, tear streams of blood stained around her eyes, and her eyes were almost devoid of any life.

“Serafina, no! Serafina don’t give in. Not now!” pleaded Brian as he gently shook her.  But with one last croak out of her mouth, she went still.  

Roger threw his head back and whinnied out a desperate neigh for help as Brian held her in his arms.

‘What grace has given me. Let it pass to her, let her be spared. Save her.’ Brian prayed in his head.

“Someone call my name?” a voice echoed through the air. Both Brian and Roger looked around when the voice spoke again, “You two honestly call yourselves the fastest team? Even I have ran across the world at least three times faster than that.”

“Freddie.” Brian said.

“How quaint to see you again Brian. It’s been—what 200 years since we last met?”

“187 actually.”

“And Roger, my big strong, handsome Nokk how’s the clan doing?” Roger huffed softly and a soft chuckle rang through the air. “That’s good. Don’t want those nasty other wannabes to let them reign supreme over you. Other than me of course.”

“Please Freddie, we need your help. She’s dying.”

“I know. Which is why I’ve already brewed up the proper counter curse for her. Give her to me now, her partner is running himself ragged wanting to see her already.” Appearing from the bottom of the boulder was a large snake tail.

Brian picked Serafina up and placed her body down along the snakes coils.  Slowly they wrapped around her until almost her whole body was covered.

“Go now, make sure those nasty witches are dead. I won’t have them interfere any longer.” Then almost as quick as lightning, the snake coils disappeared deep within the forest.  Brian looked towards the forest and prayed.

“By the light of the Valor, please let her be saved.”

“She will be.” A soft, raspy voice spoke to him.  He looked up and saw that Roger was now in back in his human Nokk form. “She has to be. I’ll be dammed if after we ran all the way here just for her to die like this.”

“And you’re sure it’s not because of your feelings for her?”

“It’s not like that and you know it! The first women to not fall for my charm even when so many married women have fallen for me, Serafina she—she’s special.” Roger said. “Now c’mon. You heard the naga, we have to see whether that crazed bitch and her lackies are dead or if they somehow survived the spell.” Brian nodded and soon the two of them took off running downstream.

In a quaint little hut, the snake coils soon lifted Serafina into the hut and they set her down along the floor.

“Serafina. Oh Merlin’s beard she’s—she can’t be…..” John pleaded.

“Not yet John dear, now quiet I need to concentrate on the spell.” Freddie’s voice soon spoke up.  Soon coming down from the ceiling was a man with long pitch black hair, his dark tanned skin glistened amongst the candle light, but what would catch your eyes were the dark green and yellow scales all over his arms, chest, neck and even dotting around his face.

His lower half would be twice as shocking for there wasn’t human legs, no his lower half was pure snake.  Dark green with hidden yellow scales.  He also had deep brown eyes with the traditional snake pupil.

Slowly he lowered himself down before the witch, his snake-like tongue flickering out so he could get a read on her.  She was practically knocking on death’s doorstep.  He soon stood face to face over the young witch. His tongue flicked across her bloodstained lips as he hummed gravely.

“The world still has big plans for you my dear. You and your darling lover.” He then raised his hand and forced her mouth open before hissing out in a language that was unknown to John.  

It sounded pure snake-like and it was terrifying to listen to. It sent a cold shiver up John’s spine. Freddie’s voice turned almost ghostly as he continued to chant out this unknown spell and soon he let out a low, threatening hiss as he opened his mouth wider and wider revealing not only the overbite, but the other rows of snake teeth in his mouth.

At first John thought his love was about to be swallowed alive by this monster, but just before he could grab his wand, a red smoke shot out of his love’s mouth and entered inside Freddie.  The naga was actually swallowing the curse!

John watched with both terror yet fascination as the naga devoured the very curse that had poisoned his love.  Freddie placed his hands beside Serafina’s head as he continued to swallow the curse.  Once the last bit of it was swallowed, Freddie lurched back and with a gasp, Serafina woke up.

“My love?” John asked.

“My heart.” She whispered.  John happily smiled and the two young lovers embraced each other.

“I thought I had lost you.” John whispered in her ear as he stroked his fingers through her hair.

“I thought I was gone too. But you saved me my love.”

“I didn’t do it alone though.” That’s when he turned towards Freddie and once Serafina got a good look at her savior, she jumped back. “It’s alright my love, it’s okay. He won’t hurt us.”

“It’s you.” she whispered in awe.  John looked at Serafina confused.  Freddie hummed with interest at the young witch.

“So you remember me?”

“Remember him? My love what does he mean?”

“All will be explained young John. Just know that you have a special witch by your side.” John leaned his forehead against his love’s and whispered to her.

“I know. I don’t know what I’d do without her.” Their noses gently brushed up against each other’s lovingly.

“Since you recall our first encounter, I’m sure you’ll also remember Serafina that the world needs you. Both of you. Now more than ever.” The young witch and wizard looked at each other perplexed.

“That’s always puzzled me. What do you mean the world needs us?” Serafina asked.  Freddie looked out of his hut and said.

“I have seen the world shift, burn and rebuild itself time and time again. But with what your people are doing, I fear the world may finally burn and not rebuild itself in a peaceful light.”

“We know. That’s why we left. We couldn’t stand along with what they believed in. Now we’re marked for death.” John said grimly as he took his love’s hand in his.  She placed her hand on top of his and the two stared at each other solemnly.

“Which is why I have seen a potential future for all of us. But for that to happen, it needs you two as the star attractions.”

“What do you mean?” asked Serafina.

Thus…….I began to tell them of a future that I had seen.  A world where all creatures and deities large and small alike could be free, equal, and at peace.  But in order for that world to come to pass, we were gonna need one more star.

And that my darlings, is where you come in.

[sir-huffman]

Volume 03: the Founders of Delphi

TL;DR: In the end, it is up to you to decide what is true or not. And if you really don’t want to believe the God of Truth and Prophecy with all his power and knowledge beyond this world is nothing more than an unimportant lowly knight, then who is he to judge? That is not his place, he is just another god in many places representing the truth and foretelling the future for those who wish to hear it.

NOTE: A self indulgent messy headcanon that started because Huffman’s name appears in Vera’s Melancholy.

Volume 01: Vera’s Melancholy - a unanswered love letter

Volume 02: Delphi - the ancient capitol of Khanrie’ah

Volume 03: the Founders of Delphi - Huffman and the Witch of the East

Volume 04: Author’s Notes

the Founders of Delphi

"...Afterward, the great king's first messenger, the brave knight HUFFMAN strode west across two continents, crossing great oceans and rivers. As for the IMPERIAL SAGE, the witch from the east, she passed by her hometown on her road eastward, and then came by the land of the Nether. Thus, they finally met here." - Vera from Vera’s Melancholy, Volume VI

Long ago in ancient times, when humanity was but benighted creatures that roamed the land, the envoys of the gods walked along side them. The heavens would watch from above, sending their messengers one by one to answer the questions of the people. But as time and time went on, humanity found out the answers of the truth of the world.

The first chief priest was but a knight who donned a crown of Irminsul branches looked for the land where they could seek the truth. The imperial sage headed east and they finally crossed paths near the land of the Nether. Together, they built a small village, comprised of just themselves before it grew and fell into antediluvian ruins and long-buried altars of sacrifice upon learning such truths.

They praised the god of truth and prophecy, granting them knowledge the heavens forbade.

the Brave Knight | Huffman (the God of Truth and Prophecy)

“They say that, the line of chief priests have always seen this same sight as their days draw to an end: A mountain of crowns in a secret place, beneath a withered tree - each one hiding a lifetime of secrets kept. Each retiring chief priest offers up their crown of flawless white branches to this world. Every mighty and ancient city, and every austere place of sacrifice must one day return to profundity in the earth.” - Prayers of Springtime

From an ancient kingdom, Huffman was a lowly shepherd before he became a valued knight. As time passed and humanity was beginning to question Celestia, he was given the honor of becoming the first chief priest in search for answers.

Huffman made his way into the deepest places of the world. He fought many monsters, slayed many creatures in order to search for the truth. And eventually, when he reached the center and saw the bough of the white tree...he built the city of Delphi.

He built the sacrificial alters and dedicated himself to the god of prophecy, the one who had graced them with the knowledge and truth of this world. With this knowledge, he decided that such secrets must not make its way to humanity. And as such, upon his death he gave back his laurel of Irminsul and his spirit became one with the god of truth and prophecy.

For he was the first worship him in this world, the God of Truth and Prophecy took his likeness. Not that he mattered as the god resided deep in the depths of the earth. But as he loved his people, he loved the brave knight’s more. He spends his time across the universe, across the planes of space and time, as nothing but a lowly human. A mere mortal who is not important in the world. Pretending that he was a brave knight so that he may show his friend the joys of a better future and maybe...one day...it’ll get brighter.

"I am but an echo of time," Ike said as he began his preparations. "As I've said, the past cannot change the future, for the predetermined rules of equilibrium are slightly more powerful than me. But the future, with its infinite possibilities, could save the world." - Ike from Vera’s Melancholy, Volume X

the Imperial Sage | the Witch of the East (the Oracle of Delphi)

“The confluence between the past and future. The original calamity had been overturned, yet the island in the sky set the earth to burn. Chalk pursues gold, in this time inopportune, the eclipse is swallowed by the crimson moon. The future must atone for bygone mistakes, as the bond familiar falters and breaks— of the same blood, elders and the youth... Such is the cycle of the world, in truth. Dain, what is that strand of blonde hair to you? Someone you must kill? Or the object of your penitence?” - the Self-Proclaimed Prophet to Dainsleif

She was known as the witch of the east, the imperial sage in the ancient kingdom. As the co-founder and mother of the city of Delphi, she became the speaker of the truth. The oracle who spoke the words of the God of Truth and Prophecy to the children and people of their village. And over time, only her spirit will remain, taking the form of a young maiden or an old woman. She is timeless, the oracle who spoke of what was to come.

And now, the Oracle of Delphi looks at the stars and celestial bodies, knowing that they have already crumbled away just as they have done in the past. The eclipse had been swallowed, shaking the roots that held up the roofs of what is now known as Khaenri’ah and the branches that pray to the skies of Celestia. It was be the beginning of the end, Ragnarök, once again. And she will watch as humanity struggles to save itself once again - trying to save it from the fate of the gods.

But humanity was already far too late...the long icy winter had already thawed. And the raging war of the axe, the sword, the wind, and the wolf age have already passed. The sun, moon, and stars have been devoured. And the heavens has once again begun to crumble.

So, humanity, will you defy the gods once again and try to overthrow their rule? Or will you perish once more and have the cycle of rebirth continue again...and again...and again?

All prosperity must someday end. But this does not mean that nothing is eternal.

At the end of a cycle, the earth shall be renewed. Thus eternity is cyclical. The search for truth is a product of prosperity, and not the seed that plants it.

They say that, once upon a time, the people of the land could hear revelations from Celestia directly. The envoys of the gods walked among benighted humanity then. In those days, life was weak, and the earth was blanketed in unending ice. - Prayers of Springtime

[coppercookie]

Every animated movie index part 1

Hey imma try to watch every animated movie in order and write a little bit on each one. This will include TV and direct to video ones but it has to be at least 40 minutes long and has to have animation for 50% of the movie. I won't include live action movies with cgi or live action puppet movies (I love Jim Henson but I have to draw the line somewhere so I don't lose my sanity.) Whatever ones I can't find a copy of will be skipped.

The adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)

The tale of the fox (1930)

The new gulliver (1935)

Academy award review of Walt Disney cartoons (1937)

Snow White and the seven dwarves (1937)

Gulliver's travels (1939)

Top 5 animated movies pre 1940

Pinocchio (1940)

Fantasia (1940)

Princess iron fan (1941)

The reluctant dragon (1941)

Dumbo (1941)

Hoppity goes to town (1941)

Bambi (1942)

Saludos amigos (1942)

Victory through air power (1943)

The three caballeros (1944)

Momotaro's divine sea warriors (1945)

The lost letter (1945)

Make mine music (1946)

Song of the South (1946)

The humpbacked horse (1947)

Fun and fancy free (1947)

Melody time (1948)

The adventures of ichabad and Mr.toad (1949)

The emperor's nightingale (1949)

Top 10 animated movies of the 40s

Cinderella (1950)

Johnny the giant killer (1950)

Alice in wonderland (1951)

The night before Christmas (1951)

Prince Bayaya (1951)

The king and Mr. Mockingbird (1952)

The scarlet flower (1952)

The snow maiden (1952)

Peter Pan (1953)

Hansel and Gretel an opera fantasy (1954)

Animal farm (1954)

Tsarevna the frog (1954)

The enchanted boy (1955)

The great soldier schweik (1955)

Lady and the Tramp (1955)

The twelve months (1956)

Hemo the magnificent (1957)

The snow queen (1957)

Panda and the magic serpent (1958)

Beloved beauty (1958)

Sleeping beauty (1959)

A 1001 Arabian nights (1959)

A midsummer's night dream (1959)

The adventures of Buratino (1959)

Magic boy (1959)

Top 10 animated movies of the 50s

Alakazam the great (1960)

It was I who drew the little man (1960)

One hundred and one dalmatians (1961)

Chipolino (1961)

The key (1961)

Gay Purr-ee (1962)

The wild Swans (1962)

Arabian Nights; Adventures of Sinbad (1962)

The bath (1962)

Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)

The sword in the stone (1963)

Doggie March (1963)

The little Prince and the eight-headed dragon (1963)

Hey there, it's Yogi Bear! (1964)

The incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)

Havoc in heaven (1964)

Of stars and men (1964)

Lefty (1964)

Return to oz (1964)

Rudolph the red nosed reindeer (1964)

The man from Button Willow (1965)

Pinocchio in outer space (1965)

Willy McBean and his magic machine (1965)

West and soda (1965)

Gulliver travels beyond the moon (1965)

Alice in wonderland or what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this? (1966)

Alice in wonderland in Paris (1966)

The daydreamer (1966)

Cyborg 009 (1966)

Ballad of Smokey the bear (1966)

The man called Flintstone (1966)

Go there don't know where (1966)

Band of ninja (1967)

Ruddigore (1967)

Asterix the Gaul (1967)

A story of Hong Gil-Dong (1967)

The wacky world of mother goose (1967)

Hopi and Chadol bawi (1967)

Mad monster party? (1967)

Jack and the witch (1967)

The Jungle book (1967)

Cricket on the hearth (1967)

The world of Hans Christian Anderson (1968)

Asterix and Cleopatra (1968)

Yellow submarine (1968)

Horus, Prince of the sun (1968)

Part 2

[arrivisting]

WIP Project

I’m going to do that meme where you post a little from each of your current WIPs, because mine have been lying dead for months, wholly fossilised, and I can’t seem to breathe the life back into them. Tell me which one I should focus on and I’ll try to obey!

Gil-galad has three daddies ch. 2

It was still enough to slip the hood from his head and reveal his dark braids and his Finwion face to the guards, who were less guards than heralds or informants. Aman was a land without watch-words or interrogation, and they waved him past after a glance, and Fingon rode on through the half-remembered streets to the Great Square.

There once – once! – the torches had flamed in the dark, and Fëanor had spoken of the lands to the West, of freedom, of vengeance, of wildness and adventure. There Maedhros had joined hands with his brothers across the square from Fingon and sworn the Oath, and Fingon had been too far away to stop him, too late to do anything but watch. They had all been laughing as they did it, vertiginous with the great daring of defying the Valar. How strange that that was what hurt now: that they had known so very little of what was to come that they had laughed, his seven cousins, who had not been murderers then, who had not then been Damned beyond Return.

Untitled Aegnor/Andreth project

He looks just as he did when she first loved him, when Dorthonion was still green and his profile had been heartbreakingly pure against the blue sky. He still has the springing fair hair, the fine-grained skin as pale as milk. The blue eyes, wide at the sight of her, are the same; so are the parted lips, as if breath and sound together have stilled on his tongue.

But Andreth is not young any longer. Or rather, she is not only young. She is old and young at once, wise and foolish together, her hands spotted like a winter apple one moment and smooth and fresh the next.

 Untitled Fingon/Maedhros cliché banging at Himring project

In the bathhouse, Tarnis said, briskly rubbing at her hair, “You can’t imagine Maedhros Left-Hand is fool enough to drown him in his bath the moment after he arrives.”

“Don’t call him that,” I said, because the Fëanorians in red were as unlikely to be comfortable leaving us unwatched in their halls as we were to be so divided and peeled away from our prince, so quickly after our arrival. “Not even in your head.”

“It’s not the worst thing I could call him.”

“It’s hardly politic.”

“Tulkaranco,” she said, “it’s because he’s Maedhros Left-Hand that you might lower your guard a little. He gave up the crown, after all; if he meant to seize it back, he’d do it much more cleverly than you’re imagining. A fall down one of those twisting stair-cases – an ambush or stray arrow out riding --”

“It’s because he gave up the crown that I trust him not at all,” I said. “At least his brothers are honest. An open nest of snakes! Ambitious, double-dealing, begrudging serpents each.”

She laughed. “Are snakes notable for bearing grudges?”

“Noldor are,” I said, refusing to unpick my tangled metaphor, “and Fëanorions even more so.”

 Untitled marriage of convenience project

Maedhros said, “Why are we speaking of marriage at all?” and Fingon gave him a look that suggested he had left his mind with Irmo overnight.

“Because tomorrow you are leaving for Formenos, and all your family, and Grandfather – for twelve years – and do you think when those twelve years are up that the trouble will be past, and your father will love mine any more dearly?”

He had not been thinking quite that far.

He had been thinking only of those twelve years, and what exile would mean. Twelve years in exile, twelve years far from Tirion and his work and his friends; twelve years with his father and brothers all steeping together in anger and his mother far away. He had been trying to accustom himself somehow to the great unimaginable fracturing about to take place, how his life was about to change, how to survive the twelve years of it stretching unbelievably ahead.

He had not yet begun to imagine how, after that, the fracture might heal itself, how the flying pieces of the House of Finwe would ever fit themselves back together.

 Untitled Fingon/Maedhros banging at the Mereth Aderthad project

“Fingon, no,” Maedhros said, and the refrain was so familiar on his lips that for a moment he felt as though he had, in fact, stepped into the past: the warmer and gentler past, the days spent in endless soft light in a crystal city on a hill, shaded only by tall trees. A past with none of Beleriand’s fire and blood, its pain and loss, without the savage beauty of a red moon framed by the Pass of Aglon and snow-capped mountains, the deep, wound-like gorge of the Gelion.

“If you tell me you brought anything better for a full ceremony of state than your riding leathers, I won’t insist,” Fingon said.

Maedhros gestured vaguely at what he was already wearing, and Fingon said,

“That isn’t even grey, it’s dun. Is it dyed at all?”

 Untitled Nerdanel project

“You will name them what you will name them,” Nerdanel says, and closes her eyes. He always has. It has never seemed to matter that their sons’ father-names fall like thrown daggers, each insistent Finwe, Finwe a claim, a declaration, and now – a chant. He won’t break his pattern for these last. “What I will name them will come to me.”

 ‘LEGXIT’ Gigolas project

“In Durin’s halls,” he said, “we would talk rather more about your sword, and the forging of it, and the manner of its quenching, and other great weapons made by its smith. It would be best if you had forged it yourself, of course. But your bravery would be praised;

The flame of her heart was fierce

And bright and true her sword!

Just as hammers falling

She slew the dark Witch-lord!

“But I am no singer,” Gimli said, clearing his throat after his chanting, and sought shade in the depth of his mead-mug.

 untitled Gigolas in Valinor project

“Well,” said Legolas, and now there was the faintest pink edging to his cheekbones, too. “I don’t speak Quenya.”

“You don’t speak – is there another kind of Elvish? They speak another tongue over there, those fancy High-Elves? One you don’t speak?”

“--Even so.”

“You mean to tell me that when we get there they’ll all be jabbering away like pretty parrots, and not only will I not make out a word, you won’t either? And you’re only mentioning this now, when it’s too late to turn back?”

“I can make out some words,” Legolas said. He shrugged. “We’ll learn swiftly.”

“I have a mind to push you out of this boat!”

[geekprincess26]

The Absence

For @goodqueenalys as part of the May 2018 Jonsa Exchange.  Thank you as always for your patience and kind words, love!  Also, many thanks to the amazing ladies over at @jonsaexchange for making the magic happen!

Summary: Jon Targaryen has returned to his native Britannia and freed his ancestral sword, Dark Sister, from the stone in which his father's death had trapped it. He and Ned Stark, King of Northumbria, must band together to defeat the Saxons and save Britannia, but first Britannia must be united through Jon's marriage to Ned's daughter Sansa. Marriage, however, proves to be much more than just beds and kisses, and Jon and Sansa struggle to adjust to their new life. When disaster strikes and a witch's enchantment takes Sansa from Jon, they must each question their previous beliefs about each other and about how far each will go in the name of love.

“Ned.”

The woman’s face was pale as the moon.  Her red hair spilled about her head on the pallet like waves of blood, like the blood that flowed from her fading heart.

Her husband knelt in front of her, his hand entwined with hers.  He shook his head, and a faint groan passed through his lips.

The woman raised her head a hand’s breadth off the bed, her neck muscles straining with the effort.  Her husband hastened to support her head, but she shook it and held her trembling right hand out toward the little girl standing behind him.  She was no more than eight and her mother in miniature, from the red hair to the pale skin and quaking hands.

“Take it off, Ned,” said the woman, her voice low but hard as the iron of the chain mail her husband wore more and more often these days to beat back the Saxons who had first swept onto Britannia’s shores from the east and south and now were encroaching onto the borders of the Stark family’s kingdom of Northumbria.

“Cat…”  Ned Stark swallowed thickly.  “Cat, she should not have to – ”

His wife, still straining to hold her head off the bed, shook it weakly.  “Father to son and mother to daughter, Ned.   When your time comes, you must do the same for Robb.”  She turned her head a hair’s breadth toward the doorway that led into the chambers of her young son, who had just this morn begun to recover from the same illness that was draining the life out of her.

Ned let out another groan.  It sounded like one of the cattle birthing.  At his side, little Sansa trembled harder and struggled to keep her hands clasped in front of her.

“Ned,” Catelyn Stark pleaded again, desperation seeping into her voice.  “You must.  Please, Ned.  The light must remain.  Please.”

Her husband’s face contorted into a spasm he covered with his hand.  When he had recovered himself, he reached down and pulled off the gold ring encircling his fourth finger.  The sapphire in the middle glowed, lit from within by a pale fire emanating from the heart of the stone.  Ned’s face twisted again as the jewel left his hand.  The light faded, and as soon as the ring had ceased to touch his finger it flickered out, leaving the stone nearly black.  Catelyn nodded once again toward little Sansa, and Ned drew the leather thong out of his hair, strung it through the ring, handed both back to his wife, and put his arm around his daughter’s shoulders.

“Come, love,” murmured Catelyn, and Ned urged his daughter forward until she was within Catelyn’s reach.  Catelyn held out her hand to the little girl, ring and string both resting on it.

“For you, sweetling,” she said, her voice but a whisper now.  “Keep it safe for your husband, yes?”

The little girl’s lips trembled, but she nodded and took the ring from her mother’s hand.

“Good girl,” whispered Catelyn.  “Shall you give your word, then?”

Sansa nodded again.  “I – I give my word as a Stark,” she said, and burst into tears.  Catelyn put a gentle hand to the back of the girl’s head and drew her down to lay her head on the pillow.  Ned reached a hand out to each of their heads and kissed them both in turn.

Catelyn sighed, rested her hand against her husband’s cheek, and took a labored breath.

“Promise me he will be worthy,” she whispered.  “Promise me, Ned.”

One tear left the corner of Ned Stark’s eye, trickling down his cheek and into his wife’s hair.

“I promise, my love,” he choked out, burying his face into her shoulder.  “I promise.”

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“Don’t bother promising me you’ll be back before the sun sets again, Jon Targaryen,” Sansa Targaryen snapped at her husband as she yanked taut the ribbon she had just wound through her hair.

She had tried to be a good and patient wife during the eight moons’ turn of their marriage, but Jon had done the same thing three mornings in a row, and she was irritated beyond the measure of man at the moment.  She wondered for a moment if he was deliberately baiting her, but dismissed the thought at once, for cruelty was not Jon’s way.  No, usually when he angered her it was without even trying.  Judging by the confounded look on his face, he did not see why it should trouble her that he was taking his men out hunting for boar and stags until dusk for the third day in a row, leaving the petitions and the inventories and the smallfolk’s petitions for her to handle alone.

Sansa let out a sigh through her clenched teeth.  Jon’s lower lip was curling out just so again, and that always made it impossible for her to remain utterly angry at him, for she would remember that he was not a cruel or boorish husband, merely a frustrating one.   He had, in fact, been downright kind if a bit uncomfortable when her father had brought her to London for their wedding, not at all what Sansa had been expecting of a man said to have been descended from dragons.  Even her father had seemed pleased with him, and that was saying a good deal, for Ned Stark liked no one easily, and Jon Targaryen had been far from his first choice of a husband for his only daughter.  Quite apart from the rumors about his ancestors having mated with demons, Jon was the son of Rhaegar Targaryen, who had been King of Cornwall and Northumbria’s mortal enemy.  He was said to have slain at least fifty men in every battle he fought and refused to leave the field until he had dipped his famous sword, Dark Sister, in the blood of at least a hundred more.

But then the Saxons had come roaring onto England’s southern shores, and King Rhaegar had received word of their coming too late to summon all of his men.  The Saxons had routed him in battle and slaughtered all of his men but two.  They had tried to take Dark Sister from his body so that his infant son could wield it one day, but according to the account they later gave, Rhaegar with his dying breath had flung the weapon into the air, whispering an incantation after it, and with a mighty jolt, the earth had split open and a stone in the perfect shape of a square had risen out of it and swallowed all but the hilt of the sword.  Terrified, the men had fled just in time to spirit Jon and his young mother, Lyanna Snow, to safety in Brittany.

Over the next twenty years, the Saxons had battered kingdom after kingdom until Northumbria alone had stood against them.  Desperate, Ned Stark, Northumbria’s king, had rallied all Britons he could find, in Northumbria or otherwise, who would fight for his cause.  He had divided his forces and sent his son and heir, Robb Stark, to the east with the larger portion of his men, taking the rest south with him to divert the Saxon army.  But the diversion had failed, and the Saxons had slain Robb and most of his men in battle.  Ned Stark had gotten word of the enemy’s movements too late to save his son – indeed, only just in time to turn west to avoid the surviving Saxons, who were bent on wiping Ned and his men off the face of the earth.

But Ned Stark had beaten them to Britannia’s southern shores, and that on the very same day when Jon Targaryen had returned to the shores of Britannia with five thousand men and drawn Dark Sister out of the stone that encased it.  When they saw him do what thousands of Saxons and Britons alike had been unable to accomplish, his men had proclaimed him the king of all Britannia and urged Ned Stark to bend the knee.  Even many of Ned Stark’s men had thought it a wise plan, for the Saxons had found victory in uniting under Cerdic, their own high king.  But others of Ned’s men, mostly the richest and those who still held territories of their own, were loath to accede to that plan, so they and Jon had struck a bargain.  Sansa, Ned’s sole remaining child, would wed Jon, and their eldest son would rule over Britannia after both men had died.

When he had returned to Winterfell to gather both his forces and his daughter, Sansa had cried for the first time since her mother’s death.  Her family’s priest had always said that God could bring good out of any hardship, but Sansa had seen nothing but her, Robb, and her father’s heartache and loneliness proceed from her mother’s death.  Must God take Robb too, and now her, the only child left to their father?  Unless her being forced to give her life and future to the son of that demonic dragon king could be called good, which Sansa very much doubted, she saw naught but death and darkness.

So did the land around her.  Autumn’s cold winds pummeled the hills and coasts as Sansa, her father, and their men plodded south and west toward Cornwall, where Jon Targaryen had established a base at his birthplace of Tintagel Castle.  Scarcely a day passed when a gust of wind did not force tears out of the corners of Sansa’s eyes and into her hood, and more than half the time the tears came from more than the wind, despite Ned’s kind assurances.

“I have taken the measure of many a man in my day, sweetling, and he is an honest one,” he murmured one night as they huddled around a roaring fire over which the soldiers were roasting three deer and a wild boar for supper.  “I also inquired of his men, and to a man they praise his kindness and his concern for the welfare of all under his care.  And he has no bastard children, whether here or in Brittany.  I believe he will care well for you, daughter.”

Sansa swallowed a scoff and narrowed her eyes at the fire.  Among soldiers, a kind man could simply mean one who would execute his enemies with a clean beheading instead of gutting them like fish.  That same man could inflict all manner of bruises on his wife and still be termed kind and generous, as Sansa had seen with one too many of her father’s men.  Ned Stark himself had loved his wife dearly and treated her as a precious jewel all the days of her life.  He had deserved to wear Catelyn Stark’s marriage ring; but Sansa was not idiot enough to think most men were the same way, and she cringed to think of the jewel her mother had gifted her on her dying day gracing the finger of a man who had the blood of Rhaegar Targaryen, who had been as famous for his brutality as for the rumors that he had gained Lyanna Snow’s hand in marriage by kidnapping her and raping her son into her belly, running through his veins.  

But when she had met Jon Targaryen, he had bowed and addressed her as “Princess” and taken her hand with a warm, gentle grip, and he had not attempted to take his husband’s rights with her before they were wed.  When he had shown her her chambers in the drafty old castle, he had said she should but ask him if she wished for more rushes spread on the floor, or more blankets for her and her ladies’ beds, or more wood for the fire, and actually looked concerned, as if he meant it.  He asked her every day if her rooms contained everything she needed, and the night before their wedding, he had apologized that he had not a ship to spare to send for lemons from Hispania to make a lemon cake for her, but said they would have one upon the year’s anniversary of their wedding.  Sansa, who loved no food better than lemon cake, had let her jaw drop at those words.  When she found her tongue, she had thanked him and protested that of course that was not necessary, but he was very kind.  His dark eyes twinkled again, and she wondered if he thought to make fun of her; but the moment passed, and later she reflected that a jape at her expense would have been far preferable to cruelty in any case.

But Jon showed no cruelty, or indeed anything like it.  Indeed, when Jon’s and Ned’s men had carried them into Sansa’s chambers after the wedding feast, Jon had struck a man whose hand had wandered too close to her chest, and as soon as he too had been deposited on their marriage bed, he had shouted at everyone to leave the room at once.  He had murmured his apologies to Sansa for her treatment, his face reddening as he said it.  Then he had asked if she would like to leave on her shift for the rest of the evening.  Sansa, a maiden who knew little about bedding except what she could glean from her ladies’ gossip, had never thought to have such a choice; but her new husband had honored her wish to retain her shift, and before he had raised its skirt to take her maidenhead, he had kissed her gently on the forehead and cheeks and hands – particularly her left hand, now adorned with the silver filigree ring he had given her as a wedding gift – and then on her trembling mouth, and his lips felt warm and firm and surprisingly lovely against her own.  His hands were even gentler as they lowered to trace the outline of her waist and hips, and he even haltingly asked her permission to pull up her shift and ready her with his fingers.  Their touch discomforted Sansa at first, but did not hurt her; and then he kissed her again, and though there was pain when he took her, his lips eased it very much.  After they were finished, he had whispered his apologies for her pain, but Sansa only shook her head, wondering that he should even mention such a thing.  Perhaps, she thought, God had taken mercy on Jon and given him the blood and nature of his kind, dead mother, and not the demon blood that ran through the veins of Rhaegar and his ancestors before him.

But Sansa had awoken the following morning to find that Jon had already left their chambers to don his armor and train with his men; and she did not see him again until supper.  Their days followed much the same pattern over the next two moons’ turn: Jon would rise before her and spend much of the day preparing his men for their planned strike at Londinium in the heart of the Saxons’ territory.  As the days stretched into weeks, the castle and the land around it became home to all manner of Britons who, hearing of Jon’s arrival in Britannia, streamed into Cornwall for shelter from the Saxons’ brutality, pledging their loyalty and aid in the coming battles.  Ned Stark had been nearly as occupied with his own people, training many of his own men alongside Jon’s and directing some hundred more to return to Winterfell in Northumbria and fortify it against any Saxons who might escape Jon’s attack; and so the feeding and housing of the refugees had largely fallen to Sansa and to Jon’s older advisers, Lords Jeor Mormont and Davos Seaworth.  Both men had treated their new queen with the utmost respect, and their advice had been a great boon when quarrels over land and possessions had broken out and had to be mediated.

By the time the sun set every day, Jon and his men were invariably exhausted and in sore need of bathing, food, and rest.  In fact, the night after the wedding, he looked almost half asleep when he came to Sansa’s chambers.

“A cup of wine to ease your fatigue, my lord?” she had asked, and scolded herself silently for forgetting that Jon had said the previous day that since they were now husband and wife, it was only fitting that she call him by his given name.  He shook his head, and Sansa removed her linen robe and sat down on the bed.  She winced as she did so, her body still sore from the previous night when Jon had taken her maidenhead.  Jon noticed her flinch, and his eyes widened, and he apologized again and said he would not touch her; and despite Sansa’s protests, he left for his own chambers and did not take her again until after her moon blood had come a week later.

Gradually, Sansa’s body accustomed itself to her husband’s evening ministrations, and quickly the pain lessened and vanished, and if she enjoyed it less than he did, judging from the heat of his kisses on her brow and lips and his ecstatic murmurs of her name against her throat and shoulders, still it was neither brutal nor unwelcome; and every now and then Jon’s hands, always wandering and gently stroking her body’s curves, brushed a spot or two that gave her tingles of pleasure.  Usually, he noticed it and touched her over and over until she hummed with delight; and the night before he departed for Londinium with her father, she found herself returning his kisses with a fervor that matched the gentle undulations of his body upon her own.

But as intimately as Jon touched her at night, he was equally short and blunt during the day – not just with his men, but with his wife.  He always asked after her comfort and the state of her rooms and whether she wanted anything, and once or twice, to her great surprise, he had collared a man whom he deemed had been leering at his wife and had thrown him out of the castle to spend the night in a tent in the snow; but other than that he said little to Sansa.  She tried at first to ask him about his training and whether he would like the boar or the venison to be served for dinner; but he gave short answers, and after some time Sansa gave up, supposing that all his energies were taken with the upcoming campaign against the Saxons.

But Jon’s daytime brusqueness always faded on the nights he came to her chambers, and on the morning he left for Londinium, it melted altogether, when to Sansa’s surprise he held her tenderly in bed and kissed her and whispered, “God be with you, my Sansa.”

Her lips were swollen with his kisses by the time she stood in front of the castle watching him gallop away with his men; and she found herself absently touching them throughout the day and wondering if he had left her with child.

He had not, as it turned out; and they would not get the chance to try again to make one for nearly four moons’ turn, until Jon and Ned had met the Saxons in battle and fought for a night and a day, until the blood of the slain men had soaked an acre and more of ground, and Ned had saved Jon from Cerdic’s death blow, suffering a near-fatal wound for his efforts so that his new son-in-law could recover in time to run the man through.

As soon as the battle was over and the remaining Saxons captured or killed, Jon had sent for his wife, who exchanged cold, damp Tintagel Castle for an equally cold albeit less damp and grander castle in Londinium.  She arrived to find that Jon had had her chambers cleaned and lit and well-prepared, and had thanked him sincerely; but he had only nodded in that brusque way of his and said he was glad to hear it, and gone on to greet Lords Davos and Jeor.

Ever since then, Jon had labored day and night alongside his men to rebuild Londinium.  Much as he had done at Tintagel Castle before, he left the two older lords and Sansa to order the housing of the refugees and the running of the castle.  He often worked long into the night, forcing Sansa to have to explain his absences to the folk crowded into the castle’s halls every night for supper and every morning to bring their petitions to their new king and queen.

“He works to repair Londinium and make it a home for any in Britannia who wish to dwell in peace and safety,” she said over and over to knight after knight and to lord after lord.  Most of them accepted her word, especially after it had been repeated by Lords Jeor and Davos; but some grumbled and demanded personal audiences with the king, especially the testier lords who were now regretting promising their lands’ future allegiance to the sons of a Targaryen, even a Targaryen who had helped to save all of Britannia from the Saxons.

So every night, when Jon asked as he always did when they sat in his solar with Jon chewing roughly on his supper and Sansa sewing clothing for those among the smallfolk who needed it most, and when Jon took a moment to ask Sansa or her ladies needed aught, she would tell him which lords had asked for audiences with him.  He always agreed to see them, but his patience grew thinner each time, especially when the lord in question had made repeated requests for more and more of Londinium’s scarce resources to be sent off to his particular land with no regard, as Jon judged, for what the remaining Britons could spare.

“I have done with Lord Arryn’s haranguings,” he grumbled one night.  “He cares more for his coffers than for his own people.”  He yanked off his belt, causing his jerkin to swivel tightly to one side.

Sansa pursed her lips.  “Norfolk is a large territory,” she replied, pulling a string with more vigor than usual through one of the fur pelts Jon gave her every day from whatever wild wolves or bears or foxes he and his men had caught wandering too near to Londinium.  “My father said the Saxons laid particular waste to it.”

Jon shook his head.  “You have seen our ledgers,” he answered.  “I have allotted him as much as we can in proportion to his need.”

“Then hear him and reassure him that if he needs aught more, we shall do what we can to provide for him,” said Sansa, measuring her words carefully.  “A bit of assurance, even flattery, to a difficult one such as Lord Arryn is a small price to pay for his continued allegiance, especially considering he himself commands the allegiance of so many others.”

Jon blew out a sigh of sheer frustration.  “Aye, and what further price must I pay?” he demanded.  “He must understand – they all must – that the suffering of our own people here in Londinium must be relieved as well.  I care less about his ranting than about their lives, and he must see it.”  He pulled out the leather thong binding his wild curls away from his face and sat down abruptly on Sansa’s bed.

“No,” he continued.  “If he demands an audience with me tomorrow, I shall refuse it.  He and all the others must see I cannot be bought or swayed away from the welfare of those who need it most, especially not for the sake of their idiotic politics.”

Sansa rolled her eyes.  “Idiotic politics, if done correctly, can aid a realm more than harm it,” she replied.  “Keeping his favor is crucial, especially now, and merely listening to him without giving your word for further resources, even listening for an hour or two, could do that.  So if you wish to refuse him, do it yourself.  I will not do it for you.”  She lifted her chin and crossed her arms over her chest.

Jon stood up, stalked over to the fireplace, and prodded a log with more force than was necessary.  “Very well,” he sighed; but when he sat down on the bed again, he reached for Sansa much more tentatively than he had for the log rod, and he stroked her hair so tenderly, and his mouth was so gentle on her own that Sansa could not stay irritated at him; and the following morning, he remained abed long enough to kiss her on her forehead and wish her a good morning before he donned his clothing and rose to join his men in another day of toil.

All was well for a few days; but Lord Arryn and a few others remained particularly troublesome in their demands, and every day Jon met with one of them, his temper was shorter when he emerged from the audience, and he and Sansa repeated their bedtime arguments more and more often.

“One would think two demons instead of one spawned me, as they say,” he snapped one night after a particularly long session with Lord Baelish, a nettlesome little man who would not cease begging Jon for the control of a territory in Suffolk which Jon had already promised to his own men.

Sansa scoffed.  “They are grumblings, naught more,” she replied, rubbing her temples; she had had to deal with Lord Baelish and his adversary for two days solid before Jon would agree to hear the matter between them.  “And should you take more time to listen to your lords, they should see it more clearly.”

Jon whirled around, struck the solid stone mantel with both hands, and winced.  “And is not the work I do every day enough?” he cried.  “I tire of politics and petty quarrels.  Every roof my men and I build every day gives shelter to more people who should otherwise die in this winter.  I have not the time to risk their lives on the squabblings of fools!”

“Neither do I,” Sansa snapped back.  “I should rather spend all of my own time sewing more of the clothes I can make to keep those same people warm, but I must listen to the squabblings of fools if you will not, Jon Targaryen; and if you wish to show the rumors false, and yourself a king who will build as well as slaughter, then you must hear them as well!”

Jon’s mouth opened, and then shut, and his jaw tightened, and for a moment he blinked as if he would cry.  Then he whirled again and stalked out of the room.

Sansa sighed heavily and rubbed her temples harder.  She wished she could swallow her words out of the air into which she had spoken them, and she knew she should follow Jon to his chambers and ask his forgiveness for them; but her head hurt, and so did her pride, and she must finish sewing the cloak on which she was working, and Jon must know he was nothing like his father in truth.

But Jon did not bid her good morning the next day, and he stayed out working with his men later than usual that night; and although he asked her as always if any had requested audiences with him, and whether Sansa or her ladies was in want of anything, it was curtly done, and Sansa replied with equal stiffness.  The air between them chilled with the late winter winds every day, and for a time Jon did not ask to spend the night in Sansa’s chambers.  When next he did, she had just had her moon blood, and her body was still aching, and so was Jon’s head, and they argued again before he removed his jerkin and climbed into the bed.  When he reached out to touch her, she shifted and felt the ache again and flinched.  Jon withdrew his hand from her as if she had been an open flame, and pain flashed across his face, and his lower lip trembled by a hair’s breadth; and he left her chambers at once and did not return.

More days and weeks passed, and the winter with them; and one day, when the snows had fully melted to reveal a new Londinium studded with strong new dwellings and granaries, Jon had taken a party of his men off to the forest to hunt, for the castle’s stores had gotten dangerously low.  On her way to meet with the steward, Sansa overheard three of the kitchen maids whispering about how happy the king had looked on his way out of the gates.

“I should be happy to avoid Lord Arryn and Lord Baelish, if I were him,” said one girl.  Another rolled her eyes at her companion.

“Not so unhappy for you,” she retorted, “considering the way you ogle at him.”

The third girl giggled, much to the other’s chagrin.

“He should rather ogle at the queen than at you, Lena,” she rejoined.  “Certainly more than the king, for I have heard he has not visited the queen’s chambers in near a month.”

“Maybe he is happy to be leaving her behind, then,” the first girl said.  “She must have as little talent in the bedchamber as she has much at sewing, if he despises her bed that much.”

Sansa flinched and swept into the next hallway; and, try as she might, she could not quite forget the maids’ words, which sang over and over in her thoughts for the remainder of that day and the next, when Jon departed again to go hunting and did not return until after the moon had risen.

So when he said quietly on the third morning, “I shall return before sunset if you accompany me, my lady,” Sansa’s jaw dropped.

Was he offering her peace?  Had he decided to return to her bedchamber?  Perhaps he, too, had heard the servants’ gossip and meant to head it off by appearing on a public excursion with his wife?  But why would he want her to hunt?  Christ only knew she was no great hand at riding, let alone hunting.

“Not to hunt,” Jon continued, flushing just a bit.  “I thought we could perhaps have a picnic for you and your ladies and some of my men.  We discovered a pretty spot by a stream yesterday, and – ” He shrugged and the tips of his ears went red.  “I only thought you might enjoy it.”

So it was that not two hours later, the royal couple and their attendants galloped off into the forest just west of Londinium.  The sun shone brightly, and as they approached the woods, primroses and gillyflowers and lilies began to appear among the grass and the bushes.  Sansa could not help but smile, and at one point she stopped to pick a handful of the flowers.  When she mounted her horse again, however, Jon, who had been riding abreast of her and Lord Davos, was nowhere to be seen.

Sansa urged her horse to a faster pace, thinking Jon would be just ahead.  Sure enough, there he was, deep in some discussion or another with Davos and Jeor.  When greeted him, he nodded and gave her a brief, “My lady,” and then turned back to Jeor.  He gestured in the direction of a spot off to their right before turning back in his saddle to face Sansa.

“We shall gallop anon, my lady,” he said.  “You and your ladies may keep at your own pace; we wish to ride on ahead and shall not disturb you.”

They galloped off, and Sansa sighed, her shoulders sagging into a most unqueenly posture.  So it must be as she had thought, then; Jon had no care for her, only for the gossip.  Perhaps he would never return to her bedchambers to pepper her with his kisses and caresses, or his arguments, or his armfuls of pelts and new rushes for her floor, and –

“My lady, are you well?”  Lady Jeyne Poole asked at her side.  Sansa swallowed against the lump in her throat and nodded.

“I wish to ride alone for some time,” she said when she could form the words.  “I shall gather what flowers I can to make us crowns for the picnic.  You and the others should do the same, Jeyne, and I shall meet you before the sun reaches mid-morning at the ridge yonder.”

She pointed toward a gentle slope in the ground some hundreds of yards away.  Jeyne opened her mouth, but thought better of whatever she had been about to say and nodded.

So Sansa urged her mount off just a bit further into the woods, where there was no Jeyne or anybody else to see the tears streaming down her cheeks.  Flowers of all colors and sizes now surrounded her; but seeing the blue roses reminded her of Northumbria, which she had left behind.  Seeing the lilies of the valley made her think of the creamy white gown she had worn to wed Jon, and of their first night together, when he had touched her so gently and taken such care to cause her as little pain as he could.  Seeing the primroses reminded her of how Jon’s face flushed when he argued a particularly sore point.  And there was the hillock lace, which resembled Jon’s face with the color drained out of it when she had flung his lineage back into his face and implied he was as bad as his father, and how thoroughly he had ignored her after that, and how stubborn he was, worse than a mule, unyielding as the thousand-year-old oak trees of Northumbria’s great forests and every bit as unfeeling –

So thoroughly was Sansa engrossed in her thoughts that she failed to notice the fallen tree branch blocking the way in front of her.  She only felt her horse give way in front of her, and her hands close on thin air as she reached vainly for its bridle, and the painful thump of her back against the ground just before her head lolled back to meet it, and then she knew no more.

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“My king, I’m sorry, but we can’t find her.”

Jon whirled to face a very apologetic Lord Samwell Tarly, whose face was paler than usual.  Beside him were several of Sansa’s ladies.  All of their faces were whiter than Sam’s, if possible.

“She said she would meet us on yonder ridge at mid-morning,” piped up Lady Jeyne Poole, her voice trembling.  “We came, but she did not, and we found Lord Sam and told him, and he and your men came to our aid, but we cannot find her.”

Jon stared at her as his heart first slowed nearly to a stop, then started racing faster than a horse.  Sansa had not seemed happy about accompanying him, and he could not entirely blame her for it.  After all, he had avoided her much – too much, he admitted to himself – since they had last fought.  It had pained him to no end to think she thought him anything like his father, and he had taken some time to lick his wounds.  When Sam had told him about the rumors being whispered about among the servants, rumors that he shunned his wife and her bed because she was too dull, or nagged at him like a harpy, or demanded too many things for her rooms, or failed to attend to her wifely duties in favor of her sewing and hearing petitions and doing tasks a lady should know to leave to her husband, he felt first crushed, then angry, then determined.  He would show Sansa that he was nothing like his father, if that was what she needed, and he would begin by giving her things she loved; for if lemon cake was out of his reach, her favorite sweetmeats were not, nor now were the spring flowers.  So he and his men spent two days bringing in game the cooks could cure, and then he arranged a picnic, which he and his lords had ridden ahead of Sansa and her ladies to prepare.

But now Sansa was nowhere to be found.

Lady Jeyne had said she had ridden off alone and looked unhappy.  Did she hate the thought of being in his presence so much now?  Had she gone off into the woods alone to be rid of him, and possibly everyone else, so she could weep or gather flowers or do whatever she liked in peace and purposefully ignore him for the rest of the day?  But no; she would not break her word to her ladies, no matter what she felt about him.

A cold knot formed in the pit of Jon’s stomach.  Something must be terribly wrong.

He wanted to leave the whole damned party behind and run through the forest as fast as he could, screaming her name aloud, and not stop until he found her and held her in his arms.  Christ above, he would take assistance from Lord Arryn, even Lord Baelish, if it meant finding her more quickly.  Instead, he took a deep breath to calm the knot in his stomach and enable himself to speak.

“To your horses,” he ordered the men around him.  “Lady Jeyne, you shall come with us and show us exactly where you saw the queen riding last.  Sam, Grenn, Pypar – ” he nodded to three of his youngest lords in turn – “you shall stay here with the provisions and the rest of Sansa’s ladies.  I shall return by sunset, if not sooner.”

He threw himself into his mount’s saddle, took the reins, and wiggled his toes with impatience until the Lady Jeyne and the other lords had mounted their own horses.

“That direction, you say, Lady Jeyne?” he asked, and Lady Jeyne, now wiping tears from her cheeks, nodded.  Jon pivoted his horse and galloped off as though every demon in hell were after him.

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Sansa’s head throbbed in time with the movements of the horse beneath her.  She moaned and tried to turn in the saddle, but instead her face met a cloth-covered wall.  She pushed away, but flopped forward and would have fallen had not someone grabbed her from behind.

“She’s waking, milady,” said a rough voice from directly behind her.  Sansa gasped and tried to open her eyes.  But it was night, and she could barely make out the shapes of a few trees around her and, when she turned, the chest of a tall man whose beard nearly scraped her face.  He was, she saw, the one holding her, and his eyes gleamed almost merrily down at her in the moonlight.

Sansa tried to scream, but only a rasping sigh emerged, and her head nearly burst with the effort.  She tried to push the man away, but he only held her more tightly.

“Sir Beric!”  A woman’s voice, low and throaty, made the man turn in his saddle and Sansa with him.  The horse halted, and a hooded figure walked over to them.  It was a woman, and she reached into her robes, removed a small bottle, uncorked it, and held it up to Sansa’s lips.

“Drink, my lady,” she said.  “For the pain.  And you – ”  Her voice sharpened, and she raised her head to speak to the man behind Sansa.  “Not a hair on her head.”

Sansa felt the man nod behind her.  “Aye, milady,” he said, clearly chastened.

The woman’s eyes gleamed under her hood as she gave him a fierce stare at which Sansa cringed.  Then she turned back to Sansa.

“Drink,” she said again.  Sansa shook her head, but the woman pinched her chin with surprising strength and poured a hot, pungent liquid down Sansa’s throat.  It tasted of mead and earth and how Sansa imagined honey would taste if it rotted, and she moaned in protest before the darkness took her again.

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The next time Sansa awoke, she found herself in an ancient stone courtyard surrounded by equally ancient walls with moss in their cracks.  Someone took her horse’s bridle, and before she knew it, she was being handed off the horse to a stocky, middle-aged knight with thinning sandy hair.  A woman robed all in red swept to his side.

“Can you stand, Your Grace?” she asked, addressing Sansa, and Sansa recognized her voice as that of the woman from the night before.  Sansa felt like collapsing in a heap and perhaps vomiting as well; but her father had taught her and Robb never to let an enemy see one’s weaknesses, and she was not about to begin now.

“I can stand, and I wish to leave,” she said as loudly as she could.  The woman merely smiled.

“The last is not possible,” she said, as if pointing out that the sky was covered with the thick, gray clouds that now obscured the sun.  “We are well hidden here, and here is your purpose.”

“My purpose?” Sansa stared at her and felt the knight who had shared her horse approach her other side.  She scolded herself for not turning and running while she could, but a quick backward glance revealed a heavy set of iron-barred wood gates, which two other knights were now fastening shut.

“The Lord of Light has a purpose for all,” replied the woman, her voice lowering to a singsong lilt.  “His king awaits you inside.”

Each of the knights took one of Sansa’s arms.  That was when the fear struck her harder than her head had struck the ground when she had fallen from her horse; but she lifted her chin, set her jaw, and spoke no words as the men escorted her inside.

The red woman led them through a series of chambers and into a long room with an enormous hearth on each side and a platform at the end.  There, sitting on a stone chair, sat a middle-aged man.  He was garbed all in brown, and his weary face was topped with bushy, severe eyebrows and a gold crown with a ruby in the shape of a heart adorning the center.  When he saw the approaching party, he rose.  The red woman nodded to him, and he to her; but both knights bowed, dragging Sansa to the floor with him.

“Enough.”  The man’s voice was reedy but stern, and the knights stood at once, again pulling Sansa with them.  He made a short motion with one hand, and they released her and stepped back.  Sansa’s legs shook, and for a moment she thought she would fall, until she managed to plant her right foot onto the stone floor and move the left to stand beside it.

“My apologies, Sansa Stark,” said the man.  “I gave orders that you be handled gently.  I trust my men obeyed them.”  He glanced sideways at the red woman, who gave a single nod.

“Welcome to Glastonbury Castle,” the man went on, and Sansa could not stifle a gasp.  Glastonbury Castle was in the heart of Somerset, the home of the Baratheon family, who had fortified themselves behind the crags and swamplands that surrounded their land during the Saxons’ invasions.  They had ridden out neither with nor against the Saxons in favor of barricading themselves in what safety they could find.  The man in front of Sansa could be no other than Lord Stannis Baratheon, last surviving son of King Steffon Baratheon.  King Steffon had been nearly as famous a warrior as Rhaegar Targaryen in his day; but his son had foregone war in favor of forming his own kingdom away from the Saxon incursions.  His wife had died some years previously – due, some rumors said, to the witchcraft that Stannis and his men practiced, red witchcraft from the heathen lands far to the east.  Sansa’s eyes darted to the black filigree necklace adorning the neck of the red woman.  In the middle sat an enormous ruby, lit from within as by fire.  Fire from hell, Sansa remembered the rumors whispering about the source of Stannis Baratheon’s power; and she could not help but shudder.

“You have nothing to fear from us, Your Grace,” said the red woman, and Sansa forced herself to look upward into the woman’s dark eyes.  “Indeed, we offer you the queenship of Somerset in keeping with your birth, and queenship at length of all Britannia.”

Stannis Baratheon cleared his throat.  “The Lady Melisandre means to say,” he said gruffly, “that you will be my wife.  My daughter Shireen has lacked a mother too long; and I mean to have sons to take my throne and the throne of Britannia after I am gone.”

Sansa’s eyes widened.  “My right name,” she said when she could speak again, “is Sansa Targaryen.  I am the wife of King Jon Targaryen, King of Britannia, and therefore I cannot marry you.”

She prided herself on how calm she sounded; but both the lord and lady gave her pitying smiles, as if indulging the fantastical whims of a child.

“You have borne Jon Targaryen no children,” said the Lady Melisandre, “and your marriage can easily be set aside.  And he has not the firm allegiance of all his lords, who can be persuaded easily enough to follow the only king who could defend his own people from the Saxons – especially a king with a beautiful wife and sons.”  She smiled at Sansa, who felt her blood run cold.

“My husband will not allow this,” she said, her voice beginning to shake.  “He is a mighty warrior, and he has more allegiance than you think; and he will not give me up.”

This time, both the lord and the lady laughed.  Sansa pursed her lips together so tightly that she felt the blood drain from them.

“If I am told aright,” said Lord Stannis, “he has not favored your company for some time; and if he has no sons by Ned Stark’s daughter, his agreement with the lords of Britannia is null and void, and he will certainly lose their allegiance.”

“So,” said Lady Melisandre smoothly, “if you will but sign a letter to Jon Targaryen to this effect, and marry King Stannis, he shall negotiate a new agreement with the other lords; and you shall bear him sons, and mother his daughter Shireen, and be queen of all Britannia.”

“You are mad,” Sansa bit out, before remembering that such a flat refusal might anger the king and make him recant his instructions that his men were to cause her no harm.  She bit her lip and took a deep breath.

“Or,” she continued, “perhaps you underestimate my husband’s willingness to win me back.  He might pay a fine ransom for me; and with it you, my l – Your Grace, might win yourself a bride from Brittany or Burgundy, and the allegiance of her house, and prosper your own kingdom through your trade and relations with them.”

The king frowned.  “No,” he said, “it must be you, Sansa Stark; for you are the daughter of Ned Stark, and the North of Britannia will not have peace with us unless I win their alliance through you.”

“You are of the blood of Britannia’s kings,” said the Lady Melisandre, her eyes glowing to match her pendant.  Sansa shrank back.  “Only the blood of those kings can return Glastonbury to its prosperity and power.  Yes, you it must be.” She smiled in a way that made Sansa’s blood run cold.  “And this place is well hidden.  You may rest assured that Jon Targaryen will not find it.”  She nodded to a young man standing next to the king, who drew from his robes two pieces of parchment and a long quill.

“Will you sign the letter?” the woman asked, taking both from the man and holding them out to Sansa.  Sansa stood her ground and shook her head.

“No,” she replied.  “My husband shall come for me.”

She dearly hoped it was the case as the two knights marched her off into the depths of the castle; for what if the Lady Melisandre was indeed a woman of the dark arts and had managed some sorcery to hide Glastonbury Castle?  How long would that sorcery last?  And what – Sansa gulped back tears as one of the knights knocked at a set of doors, which was promptly opened by a young maid dressed in brown and scarlet – what if Jon, after some time of looking for her, decided she was not worth the effort, and he would rather have a wife who did not fight with him so much as she did?

Sansa heard none of the words the flock of maids surrounding her spoke.  She barely recognized it when one of them asked her if she should like a bath; and the moment the water was brought, she ordered them out of the room, climbed into the tub, and wept.

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Every day after that, Sansa rose to let her new maids dress her in a gown in some variation of brown or red.  She had never liked either color; instead, she had preferred green and blue.  Jon had remarked a few times when she wore a particular blue gown back in Londinium or Cornwall that it made her eyes look pretty.  The tips of his ears had reddened each time he had said it; but his eyes had been so wonderfully soft, like his lips when he had kissed her.  Sansa tried to blink back the tears that sprang into her eyes every time she thought of it.

Aside from dressing and undressing, she was allowed only to read and sew.  The day after she arrived at the castle, she met Lord Stannis’s daughter, Shireen, a child of perhaps ten years.  Half of her face was covered in scars; but she was nonetheless a pretty little thing, and very courteous, and when she found that Sansa liked to read, she asked if they could do it together.  So it was that Sansa spent many of her afternoons listening to the child read any number of tales, and one or two of them were favorites of Jon’s, and when Shireen read them Sansa had to face the window so no one would see the tears pouring out of her eyes.  When Shireen left, she would insist on sewing alone; for sewing made her think of the nights she had spent with Jon in front of her chambers’ roaring fires, and how he had entered them carrying furs for her sewing and rushes for her floor, and even more wood for their fires.  Sansa had half-scolded him, telling him one of the men could handle such things; but he had said a husband should take care of his wife, king or no king.

Twice a day, once after she broke her fast and once after supper, she had an audience with Lord Stannis and Lady Melisandre, who asked her if she had changed her mind.  Sansa always gave them her firmest no, and hoped dearly that Jon was near to finding her; for although both lord and lady accepted her answers, and though they ordered no ill-treatment of her, Sansa could not be sure they would not at some point turn to such tactics to get their way.  The uncertainty of it hung over her day and night, and the only time she escaped the gnawing feeling was during the last minutes before she undressed for bed, when she finished her sewing with a stitch of golden thread, so that she could keep count of the days she spent in Glastonbury, and especially so that she could show them to Jon and tell him she had not forgotten him any more than she hoped he had forgotten her.

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“Your Grace, with respect, I agree with Lord Jeor.”  Lord Royce’s commanding voice echoed off the stones of the great hall.  “You have searched thirty acres and more about the place where Queen Sansa disappeared these past ten days, and yet you have found no trace of her.  What makes you think she can be found within forty or fifty?”

Jon rounded on the man, barely restraining a snarl.  “She is my wife and queen,” he replied.  “What good were my vows to protect her if I cannot find her to be protected?”

“Aye,” sounded Lord Pypar’s soft voice near his elbow, “but, Your Grace, what if she does not wish to be found?”

Jon stared at the man, his mouth agape.  Lord Pypar grimaced and said nothing more until Lord Arryn spoke up.

“You have said yourself that you found no trace of her,” he said.  “Often such a thing means that the one who vanished did so of a purpose.  Perhaps she has returned to Northumbria and her father.”

Jon’s eyes crackled with anger.  “You of all should not presume to speak of this to me, my lord,” he spat.  “You imply your queen to be a coward or a turncoat when she is neither.  She fortified and held Tintagel Castle against my return for months before we fought the Saxons, and she has provided for your people and borne your vicious and frivolous complaints with far greater patience than you deserve.”  He gritted his teeth against the heaving of his chest.  “Speak another word of this and you may leave Londinium, to keep my counsel no more.  Nor any others of you.”  He turned in half a circle to spread his glare about the room.  “Lords Tarly, Heathwell, and Horn – ” he inclined his head in turn at Samwell, Pypar, and Grenn – “ride at dawn tomorrow, and as many days after that as we must in order to find my wife.”

“Aye, and what about your people, Your Grace?”  This time it was Jeor Mormont who spoke.  Jon turned to face the man as though the latter had just stuck a knife into his back.

“They need to have their petitions heard and their needs seen to,” Lord Mormont continued, “and a leader in the event of any further attacks.  The kingdom needs its king.  Its king must not lose it.”

His eyes shone with warning and concern; but Jon’s own flashed back with anger.

“Then you and Lord Seaworth may arrange for it, Lord Mormont,” he ground out.  “You have my full permission to do these things as long as it takes me to find Sansa.  The kingdom is no kingdom at all without its queen.”

He turned on his heels and stalked out of the room, realizing only later that he had referred then to Sansa before all the lords by her first name only, as he had always addressed her in private, when they sat together in her chambers or his solar and Sansa sewed and hummed and sometimes even smiled at him, when she allowed him into her bed and let him kiss and caress her heavenly body and bury his head into her shoulder as his body entwined itself with hers over and over and over again.

Jon reached his chambers and yanked on his sword belt so hard that it snapped in two.  He cursed loudly and yanked even harder on his jerkin, ripping it off too.  What if Sansa truly did not want to be found?  What if she had thought him so much like his father that she would deceive him, break her word to her ladies, and run as far away from him as she could go?

Jon’s finger hooked into the leather thong that bound his hair and ripped it free, howling as it caught a vicious snarl in his curls.  He could not think of it any more.  He could not bear it.

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Sansa gazed listlessly out of the window of her chambers.  Autumn was waning over Britannia, and it was nearing a year’s turn since she had married Jon.  She remembered him promising her a lemon cake when the day arrived.  She remembered how she could not help smiling, even though it had been their wedding day and she had been anxious and afraid, before he had taken her to bed so gently and shown her she need never fear him.  She remembered him never failing to ask every day they lived together whether she and her ladies had all they needed, no matter how tired he was or how overwhelmed with other duties.

“Your Grace?”

Sansa turned to see little Shireen standing at the doorway, a book in her hands.

“May I read with you?” the girl asked, and Sansa, not trusting her voice, nodded.  The child’s face brightened at once, and she rushed to seat herself in her customary chair, carefully opened the book, and began to read.  Sansa, however, paid little attention.  She was too busy remembering how Jon smiled when she thanked him for supplying her with more furs, or when he spied the flowers he had whittled for her out of sticks adorning her bedside table, or when she assented to him coming to bed with her; and how gentle his lips and hands were, and how awestruck he looked the first time she removed her shift for him altogether, and –

“Your Grace?”

Little Shireen’s voice pulled Sansa out of her reverie, and she bent to regard the child’s questioning face.

“Yes, Shireen,” she asked.

“My Papa says you shall marry him and become my mother before the spring comes,” said the child.  “Is it true?”

Tears flooded Sansa’s eyes, and she blinked desperately to keep them from rolling down her cheeks.

“We shall see,” was all she could say.

Please, Christ above, defeat this witch’s enchantment, she prayed, sinking to her knees on the floor after the girl and her maids had left the room.  Let Jon find me.  Let me repent to him of my words, even if he does not forgive me for years.

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“Jon, we’ve already been to this place before.”

Jon turned to Lord Samwell Tarly, who was just behind him.  Outside the company of the other lords, Jon, Sam, Pypar, and Grenn had long addressed each other without formality, for they had grown up with him in Brittany since all four were but children.

Jon stared in the direction Sam was pointing.  Three trees stood slightly apart from the others at the bottom of a small hill.  He cursed as he remembered seeing the same sight the prior day.

“I see, Sam,” he barked.  “We shall turn the horses and go opposite to find a different path.”

Grenn sighed.  “We said the same thing yesterday,” he pointed out, “and the day before at the forked oak, and then last week back at the river, and last month – ”

“Aye, Grenn, I know,” Jon interrupted him.  “That doesn’t mean we can’t turn back and try again.”

“Jon.”  Sam’s voice was so low that Jon had to step to his side to hear it.  The young lord gestured toward the brook behind him.

“It’s the same one as we crossed when we first entered the forest more than a moon’s turn ago, do you not think?” he murmured.

Jon stared hard at the stream of muddy water.  His heart sank as he recognized a knot of oak trees near the edge.  He cursed again.

“Aye.”  Sam nodded.  “But the sun is in a completely different place in relation to the brook, Jon.  The brook shouldn’t even be here.”  His brown eyes shone with fear.  “I would say we have been making one large circle this entire time, except that the sun is different.  Jon – ” his voice lowered to a whisper, “the priests say there are no such things, but I’d call this an enchantment.  I doubt if there is a way for us to escape back to Londinium now.”

Jon stared at him in horror.  During his boyhood, he would have agreed with the priests; but as soon as he had pulled Dark Sister out of the stone near the site of his father’s death, he had believed altogether differently.  The air felt suddenly cold around him, and he shivered.

“Get Pyp and Grenn,” he ordered Sam.  “Let us see if any way forward can be found.  Not back to Londinium, Sam – forward.”

Sam sighed heavily and turned to retrieve the other two lords.  Jon leaned his body into his tired horse’s saddle, bent his head to rest flat against the leather, and prayed with all his might that the God his people swore had guided his hand against the Saxons could break the enchantment and, more than that, protect Sansa from whatever evil effects the power behind it was trying to work on her.

Sansa, he murmured over and over again, until he felt Sam shaking his shoulder.  Sansa.

Sansa, he whispered with the wind that brought the first snowflakes of winter swirling around them.  He remembered her telling him how she and her brother would hold their mouths open and catch snowflakes on their tongues as children.  He remembered her smiling when she said it, and laughing when she and her father’s men had tried to teach his bumbling southern lords the Northumbrians’ traditional snowflake dance, a light, whirling number danced in all Northumbrian halls every night from the falling of the first snowflake of the winter to the last melt of spring.  She had even smiled at Lord Arryn and Lord Baelish, who certainly had always regarded him with more favor than they had him.

Perhaps she had been right, he admitted to himself as he drew his cloak about him, or at least more in the right than he.  If he had followed her advice and suffered another few audiences he had not wished to grant, perhaps she would have thought differently of his resemblance to his father.  Perhaps she would not have flinched at his touch when he had gone to her bed that last time.  Perhaps she would have stayed to have a picnic with him that horrible day when everything had gone wrong.  Perhaps she would have seen how much he missed her smiles, and her sewing cloaks for children who had none in front of the fire, and her astonishing memory of how much the castle had in its stores every day and how much game and how many furs he and his men must bring in so the people of Londinium could eat and breathe and live day after day.

Sansa, he whispered at night as he, Sam, Pypar, Grenn, and their growling stomachs huddled shivering in their cloaks around a dying fire.  He thought of her smile again, and the warmth of her beautiful body, and the heat in her eyes as she told him she would not be made a messenger of his disgruntlement to the lords he should be facing like the king he was.

He felt like a king no longer.  He cared about being a king no longer, or at the least very little.

What good, after all, was he or his kingdom without Sansa?

Sansa, he whispered again, and, before he even realized he had spoken the words, Sansa, my love.

He felt a sudden warmth, like the flicker of a candle under his hand, at the base of the fourth finger of his left hand.  Groaning, he pushed his cloak loose enough to look at it.

The sapphire in the middle of the gold ring had begun to glow at the center.  Jon stared at it, shocked, and rose to his feet before he had realized it.  The glow intensified.

“Sam,” rasped Jon, nudging the other man with his foot.  “Pyp!  Grenn!”

It took some time to awaken them all, and more for them to focus their weary eyes on the icy stone glowing on Jon’s hand, and yet more for them to get up and saddle their horses, grumbling all the while.  Jon nudged his own horse this way and that, watching astonished as the sapphire glowed either more or less brightly depending on the direction the animal turned.

Finally, he settled on the direction that brightened the stone the most, and urged his friends on against the freezing wind.

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Sansa woke before dawn.  In her sleep, she had drawn her blankets so tightly around her that for a blissful moment she thought they were Jon’s arms, and sighed in delight.

Jon wanted to return to her bed.  Jon must have forgiven her for her harshness and her ungratefulness.  Jon was holding her again.  Jon –

Sansa felt a sudden burning sensation against the fourth finger of her left hand, still encircled by Jon’s marriage ring.  She wrangled it from the covers and sighed with disappointment once she realized that she was not in Jon’s arms at all, but in her captive bed at Glastonbury Castle.

Then she saw the glowing red stone in the middle of the ring and clapped her hand to her mouth to stifle a scream.

The stone was an ordinary ruby; that much she knew, for Jon had told her about it when he had given it to her at their wedding.  It had belonged to his mother, he had said, and she had told him before she died to give it to the woman he married.  She had occasionally noticed the stone glimmering in the sunlight, but now it was glowing in the dark like a dancing flame.

Jon, she sighed without thinking.  Then her heart leapt.

What if Jon had found her after all?

But when she scrambled out of bed to stare out the window, she only saw the faint light of the stars and the gray of early dawn beginning to creep over the sky.  The torches burned low in the courtyard below her.  There was no sign of Jon, or indeed of anyone else.

Sansa sighed.  It was foolishness to hope Jon had come after all this time.  Perhaps the light emanating from the stone was all a trick of her mind, a bitter echo of her dearest wish.

Jon, she whispered as she sank back down onto her bed and let the tears flow down her cheeks.  Jon, my love.

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The next evening, Lord Stannis and Lady Melisandre did not summon her to her usual audience with them after supper.  Instead, just a bit before sunset, Sansa heard the shuffling of at least a dozen pairs of feet passing her door on their way down the hall.

A stab of terrible hope pierced Sansa’s heart.  She sent her ladies to fetch her a bath.  As soon as they had left her bedchamber, she scurried to the window and stared down at the courtyard.  Two knights rushed across it, carrying torches, and yet two more scuttled after them.  Sansa waited by the window with bated breath for several minutes until the antechamber doors opened to admit Lord Stannis and Lady Melisandre themselves into the courtyard.  When they reached the other end, they huddled together with the lord’s knights and spoke for several moments.  Then Lady Melisandre turned back toward the castle, and Sansa ducked to avoid her keen eyesight, but not before she made out the words Jon Targaryen on the woman’s lips.

Sansa’s heart leaped into her throat just as one of her maids re-entered the room with a jug of water.  It was Rose, her youngest maid, and Rose was exactly what she needed, she realized as she turned to address the girl.

“I am not yet ready for the bath, Rose,” she said.  “The water for my last bath was far too hot when it was first poured, and I am afraid this may be the same.  Do you very much mind trying it out for me?”  She gestured toward the girl’s clothes.  “You may get in all the way if you so wish.  I do not mind.”

Rose looked a bit confused, but curtsied anyway.  “Yes, milady,” she said, and darted into the next room.

Sansa felt a bit guilty for taking advantage of the poor girl’s dullness, but once she had ensured the maid was fully immersed in the bath and facing the room’s other wall, she made sure to leave her own rich clothes behind after the stole the maid’s.  She could at least ensure the girl got to keep them.

The heat Sansa had felt on her skin beneath her ring intensified as she darted into the hallway, and when she looked down, the stone was glowing even more brilliantly than it had done the prior morning.  She stumbled as best she could through the castle’s halls, trying to remember the way she had come in nearly a year ago before she realized that that way would not do anyhow.  She waited in a corner until she saw two kitchen maids approaching, then followed them into the kitchens and scuttled behind yet another maid who was passing out the door into the chicken yard.  Gasping, she hid in the darkened far corner of the yard and waited until the guard had turned away from her before heaving herself up over the wall.  Two of her fingernails caught and broke in the cracks between the bricks as Sansa used them for leverage, and when she dropped off the top of the wall, she landed in a gorse-bush and hummed in pain as its thorns tore holes in her clothes and skin.  But Jon, Jon, Jon was still the highest thought in her head, and to its tune she tore herself painfully free of the thorns and stumbled around the corner of the castle toward the sound of voices.  She emerged into a grove of bushes just to one side of the courtyard and saw four ragged-looking men standing in front of the door, which was open but guarded by four armored men.  Lord Stannis and Lady Melisandre stood just in front of them, regarding the strangers fiercely.

“She can hardly be called your wife if she wishes the marriage annulled, for she has borne you no sons or daughters,” Lord Stannis was saying, and one of the men stepped forward.  The guards crossed their swords to bar his way, and the man growled; and Sansa’s heart leapt as she recognized both the deep timbre of his voice and the curls that sprang in a gnarled mass off his head.

“And what proof have I that she wishes it so?” Jon demanded.  “I will see her now, and hear it from her own lips; and if you have harmed her, Lord Baratheon – ”

“He is ‘Your Grace’ to you, Jon Targaryen,” said Lady Melisandre, and Jon growled again.  “He took no part in the pact the other lords of Britannia made with you, as you well know.  He is the King of Glastonbury, and his sons with the queen will be the king and princes of Britannia; for His Grace’s family has been her since long before you and your father were born, and how long do you think your men will follow a foreigner above a Briton born and raised?”

“I care not if he wishes to be called a king,” Jon replied, and Sansa heard him measure his breaths as he sometimes did when he would as soon shout at a lord as speak to him.  “If a title is what you wish, Stannis Baratheon, then a title you may have; but I have made vows before my God to my wife.  If you release her to me and she has suffered no harm, my men and I will leave you and yours in peace; save only for the witch at your side, for her grievous enchantments have kept us wandering through wood and snow and ice and thorn, away from our kingdom and our families, for the space of a year.  She shall be tried and punished as my justiciars see fit.”

Sansa crept a bit closer, until she could see the profile of Jon’s face in the firelight.  It was smeared with dirt and blood alike, and she saw deep scratches that her fingers ached to bind.  He must have faced far worse thorns than she had.

Then she heard a laugh that made her bones quake; and Lady Melisandre stepped forward until she was close enough to breathe on Jon’s face.  Despite her laughter, Sansa thought the woman looked a bit uncertain; but her voice betrayed no hint of it.

“You may attempt to try and punish me, Jon Targaryen,” she hissed, “but you will fail and you will fall, and your men with you.  You should be grateful I have suffered you to pass this far.”

Jon ignored her and turned back to Stannis Baratheon.

“I say again, my lord,” he said, “that if you have not harmed my wife, release her to me and I will treat with you, for your house and mine have no quarrel, and I would deal and prosper with you now that the Saxons have met their end.  All I ask is for the fair trial, in front of my men and yours, of this woman.”  He gestured to the Lady Melisandre, who grinned at him cruelly.

“You should leave, Jon Targaryen,” she said.  “Your wife is beyond your reach.  You and yours should go before I change my mind.”

“Enough!”  Jon roared.  “Where is Sansa?  If you have harmed her, witch, you shall pay, no matter what else you may do!”

He lunged forward, but one of the guards struck him in the stomach, and he doubled over, wheezing.  Sansa shrieked and ran forward.  Before she could reach his side, however, one of his companions grabbed her by the arm.  It was Lord Samwell Tarly, she realized after a moment of staring through the grime and blood on his face.

“Lord Tarly, unhand me!” she cried.  “I have not been harmed!  Jon!  I am here!”

Jon and his companions turned to face her at once.  Lord Stannis and Lady Melisandre did the same.  Everyone except the red woman looked both shocked and bewildered.  Jon stared at her as he would have done a stranger who had accosted him on the road.

“Who are you, girl?” he asked.  “I do not know you.”

Sansa frantically scrubbed at her face, where she supposed the dirt and blood from the gorse-bush had gathered.

“’Tis me, Jon!” she cried.  “Sansa!  Your wife!”

Jon only shook his head, and so did his companions.  Sansa stared from man to man frantically, willing them to recognize her.  Her eye caught the Lady Melisandre’s face, which was adorned with a foul expression of triumph.

It must be the enchantment, she thought, and two tears scrolled out of her eyes and down her cheeks.  The witch had enchanted not just the woodlands of Glastonbury, but the captive herself; and now Jon did not know her, and could not know how desperately she had waited and hoped for him.  She tried to blink the rest of her tears back, and as she did a red flash caught her eye; and there on Jon’s left hand was the marriage ring she had given him, and the sapphire was shining like a tongue of icy flame.  Sansa threw off her cloak and held out her own hand, lit by the glowing ruby on her own marriage ring, to grasp her husband’s.

“Jon, look at my hand!” she cried.  “You gave me this ring on our wedding day, and it began shining when you came near, and I want no annulment, because I have waited for you, if you will have me – Jon, I am sorry!”

Jon’s eyes widened, and he clutched her hand and stared at her ring; and when he raised his eyes to her own, they were wet and disbelieving and overjoyed.  He seized her in his arms and lifted her off the ground and buried his face into her shoulder, and Sansa breathed in the pine and salt and warmth of him and shut her eyes.  A shriek of horror opened them again promptly, and Jon nearly dropped her; and they both turned just in time to see the ruby in Lady Melisandre’s necklace split down the middle as she clutched at it in vain, and the necklace crumbled to ash.  The witch’s face sprouted wrinkles and lines, and her hair turned white as snow; and her frame shriveled, and her robes fell off it, and she collapsed on the ground, a corpse that looked a thousand years old.  Stannis Baratheon gave a loud wail and collapsed to his knees next to her, weeping; and the guards, stunned, stepped back and allowed Jon to carry his wife into the shelter of the castle’s walls.

-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-

“Will he be fit to resume his duties before we leave, do you think?” Jon asked Sansa once the stricken lord’s attendants had carried him off to his chambers and attended to the witch’s bones.  They were seated in an antechamber eating bread and meat from the kitchens; but Jon would only use one hand to eat, and clung to his wife with the other.  She smiled faintly.

“I do not know,” she answered.  “He has a nephew at Somerset Castle two days’ march west, however; and we can send for him if need be.”

Jon nodded and looked down, as he had been doing so frequently, at Sansa’s left hand.  “When did it begin to shine?” he asked, and Sansa blushed.

“Just a day ago,” she answered, “when I awoke thinking of you and how much I wished to be back with you.”

Jon stared at her in wonder.  “You truly did not wish to leave me?” he asked, his voice down to a whisper.  Sansa shook her head at once.

“I never wanted to leave you, Jon,” she whispered back.  “I only fell off my horse, and she must have taken me while I was asleep from it, and – Jon, do not trouble yourself with what either of them said.  I love you.”  She stroked a curl off his cheek and gave him a trembling smile.  “I think the stone must have begun shining once I realized it.”

Jon held up his own hand.  “So did mine,” he admitted.  “We were out in the middle of the forest, lost, in the winter, or what we thought was the winter in her enchantment, and I wanted nothing more than to have you with me so I could tell you how sorry I was for how ill I showed you I loved you, and…”  He shrugged.  “I felt the warmth of it on my finger, and when I looked it was glowing, and it glowed more brightly the closer I got to you.”

Sansa lightly rubbed his face next to a particularly deep scratch.  “Oh, Jon,” she murmured.  “How many acres of thorns did she force you through before you found me?”

He shrugged again.  “It matters not, my love,” he said, his eyes shining almost as brightly as his ring.  “I would go through them ten times more, if it meant you would come home with me and stay, and let me be a far better husband to you than I was before.”

He still looked unsure, as if she might vanish in front of him; and Sansa shook her head.

“You were always a good husband to me, Jon Targaryen,” she said.  “It was not your own fault that I failed to see it as I do now, my love; and of course I will go home with you.  I even think I shall stay.”

Her lips twisted into a japing grin, and Jon’s face split into the widest smile Sansa had ever seen.

“For true, at your word?” he asked just before his lips descended to take her own.

“For true, at my word,” she murmured, brushing her nose with his as her lips opened eagerly under his.  “For true, and for always.”

Note: This is not a conventional Arthur-Guinevere romance. Rather, I based it on an incident in Caradoc of Llancarfan’s Life of Gildas, in which Melwas, king of the “Summer Country” (possibly meaning Somerset), kidnaps Guinevere. Arthur spends a year searching for her and assembles an army to attack Melwas and free Guinevere. In Caradoc’s account, the British saint Gildas negotiates a truce and facilitates Guinevere’s rescue, but in this story, our lord and lady have built just as much of a wall between themselves as Sansa’s kidnapper has erected between them, so I thought it only fitting that they do the negotiating and rescuing on their own terms.

[mmeaninglessnamee]

Every movie I have seen (as of August 2018)

Here’s every movie I have ever seen, at least the ones I’ve remembered, I know I’m missing some.

Moneyball

Harold Lloyd – Safety last

Marx Brothers:  A night at the Opera

Marx Brothers:  A day at the races

Marx Brothers:  a day at the circus

October Sky

Monty Python’s Holy Grail

Monty Python’s Meaning of Life

Monty Python’s Life of Brian

The Fugitive

Field of dreams

Major league

2001 a space odyssey

Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory

Galaxy Quest

Star Trek The Motion Picture

Star Trek the Wrath of Khan

Star Trek the Search for Spock

Star Trek the Voyage Home

Star Trek the Final Frontier

Star Trek The Final Frontier

Star Trek Generations

Star Trek First Contact

Star Trek Insurrection

Star Trek Nemesis

Star Trek (Reboot)

Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Beyond

Spaceballs

Blazing Saddles

Young Frankenstein

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Invictus

Shrek

The great escape

Big

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Home Alone

Where eagles dare

Rocky

Happy Gilmore

E.T.

War of the worlds (2005)

The Avengers

Captain America

Ed Wood

Plan 9 from Outer Space

The Sidehackers [MST3K]

Manos: the Hands of Fate [MST3K]

Juno

Indiana Jones Raiders of the Lost Arc

Indiana Jones The Temple of Doom

Indiana Jones Last Crusade

Indiana Jones The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (1989)

The Hobbit (animated)

The Lord of the rings pt . 1 (animated)

The Lord of the rings pt . 2 (animated)

The Hobbit 1

The Hobbit 2

The Hobbit 3

TLOTR Fellowship

TLOTR Two Towers

TLOTR ROTK

Star Wars IV

Star Wars V

Star Wars VI

Star Wars I

Star Wars II

Star Wars III

Star Wars VII

Star Wars VIII

Harry Potter 1

Harry Potter 2

Harry Potter 3

Harry Potter 4

Harry Potter 5

Harry Potter 7-1

Harry Potter 7-2

Ben Hur (original)

Ben Hur (1959)

Fantasia

Fantasia 2000

Spy Kids

Spy Kids 2

Spy Kids 3

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirates of the Caribbean 2

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Blues Brothers

Anchorman

The Big Lewbowski

Mad Max Fury Road

Mad Max (Original)

Interstellar

The Martian

Finding Nemo

Toy Story

Toy Story 2

Toy Story 3

Monsters Inc.

Up

A Bug’s Life

The Incredibles

Frozen

Ratatouille

Wall-E

Dunkirk

National Lampoon’s Family Vacation

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

The Santa Clause

The Santa Clause 2

It’s A Wonderful Life

Miracle on 34th Street

Gideon’s Trumpet

V for Vendetta

Napoleon Dynamite

Elf

Olive the Other Reindeer

Superman

Superman 2

Man of Steel

Spiderman 3: Edgelord Peter Chronicles

To Kill a Mockingbird

Ocean’s 11

Men in Black

Men in Black 2

Slumdog Millionaire

My Cousin Vinnie

Transformers

Shawn of the dead

Jurassic Park

The Lost World

Jurassic Park 3

Jurassic World

Mrs Brisbee and the Rats of Nimh

High School Musical

Midnight in Paris

Godzilla vs Mothra or some shit like that, it had GZ and Mothra in it, ok?

(American) Godzilla

Back to the Future

Back to the Future 2

The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight Rises

Tootsie

Alien vs Predator

Casablanca

The Prestige

The Terminal

12 Angry Men

Minority Report

James Bond Live and Let Die

James Bond Casino Royale

James Bond Skyfall

Airplane

Airplane 2

Naked Gun

Naked Gun 2 ½

Naked Gun 33 1/3

Pink Panther

Inception

King Kong (Peter Jackson)

Hotel Rwanda

Groundhog Day

Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters 2

Ghostbusters (female reboot)

Caddyshack

Pan’s Labyrinth

Night at the Museum

The 3 Musketeers

Paul Blart Mall Cop

Cloud Atlas

The Sandlot

Armageddon

The Road to El Dorado

Chicken Run

Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Madagascar

She’s the Man

101 Dalmatians

20,000 leagues under the sea

Zorro (original)

The Absent-minded professor

Mary Poppins

Herbie the Love Bug

Herbie 2

My Side of the Mountain

Race to Witch Mountain

The Wizard of Oz

The Wiz

Honey I shrunk the kids

Honey we shrunk ourselves

Honey I blew up the baby

Cool Runnings

Angels in the Outfield

Field of Dreams

The Lion King 1 ½

The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride

Inspector Gadget

The Princess Bride

Treasure Planet

The Rookie

The Simpsons Movie

Pokemon the first movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back

Pokemon 2000

Pokemon 3 Spell of the Unown

Pokemon 4ever

Pokemon  Heroes

Pokemon Mewtwo Returns (technically a special, not a movie)

Pokemon Jirachi Wish Maker

Pokemon the rise of Darkrai

Pokemon Giratina and the Sky Warrior

Pokemon Arceus and the Jewel of Life

Pokemon Black

Pokemon White (80% the same as Pokemon Black)

Pokemon Kyurem vs the Swords of Justice (and that’s the most recent one I’ve watched)

Ice Age

Ice Age 2

Ice Age 3

Prometheus

Iron Man 1

North by Northwest

Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Captain America

Ratatoulle

Love Live the School Idol Movie

Your Name (Kimi no Na Wa)

The Garden of Words

5 Centimeters per Second

The Place Promised in our Early Days

Voices of a Distant Star

Children who chase Lost Voices/Journey to Agartha (Hoshi o ou kodomo)

Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

Howl’s Moving Castle

Kiki’s Delivery Service

Princess Mononoke

A Silent Voice

Napping Princess [Ancien & the Magic Tablet]

Interstella 5555

Marie and the Witch’s Flower

The Sting

Apollo 13

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Rear Window

The Birds

This is Spinal Tap

The Iron Giant

The Hunger Games

Supersize Me

Africa Screams

Office Space

Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Freaky Friday (remake verson)

National Treasure

National Treasure 2: Sean Bean dies this time

The Da Vinci Code

Angels and Demons

A Christmas carol (old version)

A Christmas carol (the one with Patrick Stewart)

A Christmas Story

Oz the Great and Powerful

The Wizard of Oz 3: Dorothy Goes to Hell (cinemassacre)

Taken

Kung Fu Panda

Super 8

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Talledega Nights

Crocodile Dundee

Crocodile Dundee 2

Romancing the Stone

Like Mike

Space Jam

Looney Toons Back in Action

Scooby Doo Ghoul School

Scooby Doo Reluctant Werewolf

Scooby Doo on Zombie Island

Scooby Doo and the Witch’s Ghost

Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders

School of Rock

The Polar Express

The Bad News Bears (original)

The Dream Team

The Gods must be Crazy

The Gods must be Crazy 2

American Tale

The Dark Crystal

My Friend Martin (Animated MLK jr. history lesson thing)

Jakob the Liar (Holocaust story about a man in a ghetto claiming he has a radio, remake of a 70’s east german version of the same story)

The Devil’s Arithmetic

Man of Marble (1977) (Polish film)

Doctor Strange

Wonder Woman

U2 3D

A Hard Day’s Night

Help!

The Beatles: Eight Days A Week (touring documentary, 2016)

Yellow Submarine

UHF

Stop Making Sense

Mama Mia!

Valerian and the City of 1000 Planets

Il Boom

Lost in Translation

House of Flying Daggers

Edge of Tomorrow

Pacific Rim

The Post

Arrival

Evan Almighty

Bruce Almighty

Ace Ventura Animal Detective

Ace Venture Pet Detective

Despicable Me

Get Smart

Over the Hedge

March of Penguins

The African Queen

Girl, Interrupted

Gandhi

Around the World in 80 Days (Jackie Chan version)

Chicago (the musical)

Hugo

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Osmosis Jones

Cars

Les Miserables (2012)

Singing in the Rain

West Side Story

Mary Poppins

The General (Buster Keaton)

Little Big Man

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

O Brother Where Art Thou

Beowulf (2007)

Crash

The Maltese Falcon

The African Queen

The Rocker

It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

The Same Moon (La Misma Luna)

Airheads

The Secret of Roan Inish

Dave

Charlotte’s Web

Babe

The Three Musketeers

Dr. Doolittle

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [I do not remember this at all]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [I do not remember this at all, either]

101 Dalmatians

Aladdin and the King of thieves

Sweeny Todd

[That bad vampire movie I saw at a party in like 2012]

[That other MST3K sci-fi movie about the bodyswap]

Tekken: Blood Vengence

Jason Borne (2016)

Metropolis (2001, anime)

Pay It Forward

Sister Act 2

(some shitty bullying movie)

The Atomic Brain [MST3K]

Hairspray

Dallas Buyer’s Club

Seven Samurai

Magnificent 7 (1960)

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

Cinderella (Disney)

Ever After: A Cinderella Story (1998)

The Music Man

The King’s Speech

The Great Dictator

Oliver!

Kiss me Kate

Pirate Radio

Wrongfully Accused (Leslie Nielson)

(Huck Finn movie)

Bridesmaids

Modern Times

Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein

Metropolis (1927)

Funny Farm

The Black Stallion

National Velvet

Bionicle: Mask of Light

Arsenic and Old Lace

Unaccompanied Minors

Terminator

Isle of Dogs

A Quiet Place

Akira

Loving Vincent

Tangled

Hoodwinked

How to Train Your Dragon

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Ghost in the Shell (1995)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Samurai Cop (1991) [Rifftrax]

Birdemic: Shock and Terror [Rifftrax]

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Oh Lucy!

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged

The Thief Lord

Breaking Away (1979)

Fright Night (2011)

Sharknado [Rifftrax]

The Incredibles 2

Mongolian Ping Pong

The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)

City Lights (Charlie Chaplin)

City Slickers

(Escape to) Victory (1981)

The Phantom of the Opera

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Fireworks: Should we watch them from the bottom or the side? (2017)

Ed Edd and Eddy’s Big Picture Show

Jaws

The Color of Friendship (2000)

Flatland

The Wolverine (2013)

Codename: Kids Next Door – Operation Z.E.R.O.

Incredibles 2

Shawn the Sheep

Goodachari

Mutiny on the Bounty

Happy Death Day

[fatecaster]

21 Wicca and Pagan Symbols in Everyday Life - Reblog

Find the original blog post at: http://ift.tt/2w9H3Qh

21 Wicca and Pagan Symbols in Everyday Life

As a proud practicing Wicca, I am often faced with misconceptions about my religion and its symbols. The truth is that Wicca and Pagan symbols are already heavily integrated into modern society, but many people are unaware of their deeper meaning. I've compiled this list to give anyone that's curious about Wicca symbols or Pagan symbols a comprehensive guide. Read on for examples of the 21 Wicca and Pagan symbols' usage followed by their greater significance.

A Peaceful History of Wicca and Pagan Traditions

Some people hear "Wicca" or "Pagan" and automatically think "Satanic." Pop culture has long perpetuated this misunderstanding of the peaceable religion of Wicca. While Wicca is a relatively new religion, it is based on a belief system that dates back to the Stone Ages. At the heart of the religion is a pair of gods, commonly called the Moon Goddess or Great Goddess and the Horned God or Great Horned God. 

1. The Horned God Is Not Satan

The Horned God has spurred many comparisons between Wicca and Satanism. Horned gods predate Christianity, and the vilification of them likely started with that religion as it sought to separate early followers from their Pagan roots. You have no doubt seen a lot of horned gods in the fantasy genre (as minotaurs, satyrs, fauns, etc), but these are rarely representative of the Wicca Horned God. Our Horned God is a noble figure. His depiction as part beast and part man represents the unification of nature and humanity.

​​​​​2. The Pentagram in Wicca Culture

The pentagram is another important Wicca symbol that is highly misunderstood. Five-pointed stars are strongly associated with Satanic rituals or with dark witchcraft. While many Wiccas do practice a craft of sorts, it is never with intent to harm. A Pagan pentagram represents the five elements of earth, air, water, fire and spirit. It may be used to channel energy, as demonstrated in the bookstore scene in The Craft. In the 1999 film Sleepy Hollow, Katrina Van Tassel draws a pentagram as a protective measure which is initially misinterpreted.

3. Witches and Cauldrons

Cauldrons have a long association with witches, though of course there was a time when virtually everyone cooked with one. This Wicca symbol is just one of many that J.K. Rowling appropriated for use in the Harry Potter universe. In Wicca culture, a cauldron symbol most often represents elements like fire and/or water. Old-fashioned practitioners may also use a literal cauldron in their preparations.

4. The Wicca Besom/Broom

You know that no witch costume is complete without a broom. The Wicked Witch of the West had one in The Wizard of Oz, and all three Sanderson Sisters had them in Hocus Pocus. Why do we associate witches with brooms? In Roman times, midwives used ceremonial brooms to symbolically clean a home of an evil presence before and after childbirth. As a Wicca symbol, the broom represents your ability to move beyond earthly limitations (or to fly, if you prefer).

​​​​​5. Black Cats - Friends or Foes?

Black cats have gotten a bad rap outside the witching world. They are often used to represent bad luck in popular fiction. Cats represent something else entirely in Wicca culture. Their otherworldly nature makes cats of any color a popular companion. In the movie Constantine, the title character uses a cat to visit Hell.

6. Who Is the Greenman?

The Greenman, or Green Man, is a leafy face often seen in Medieval architecture and later in Victorian-era furniture and hardware. It is widely believed to be derivative of a Celtic Druid-era deity. In Pagan culture, the Greenman has been adopted as a symbol of indomitable nature or male virility.

​​​​​7. Mano Cornuto vs Sign of the Beast

The mano cornuto symbol is also known as the "horned hand." This symbol was commonly used in Italy as a ward against the evil eye. In the 1980s, a variant of it was embraced by heavy metal music fans who copied the gesture from the artist Dio. It was through heavy metal that it came to be called "sign of the beast" or "throwing horns." In Wicca culture, this symbol has no association with Satan. Instead, it may be representative of either the Horned God or the Moon Goddess.

8. Boline vs Sickle

A boline is a small crescent-shaped knife, often mistaken for a sickle. The sickle is associated with Communism, and the related scythe is heavily symbolic of death. In Wicca culture, the boline has no political or spiritual meaning. It is a common tool, and its use during ceremonies is strictly tied to the physical realm.

9. Quoth the Raven

In pop culture, any mention of a raven is sure to be tied to the eponymous poem by Edgar Allen Poe. They are also featured heavily in Game of Thrones, where the seer Bran Stark has come to identify himself as the Three-eyed Raven. The raven is a powerful Wicca symbol because it represents your ability to move between the physical and spiritual realms.

10. More Than One Wand

Depending on your age, your first sight of a magic wand might have been in The Sword in the Stone, or it might (yet again) have been in Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone. In popular fiction, witches and wizards typically have only one wand. In Wicca culture, the "Book of Shadows" by Gerald Gardner identifies many different wands with many different purposes. As an everyday Wicca symbol, it may represent the element of air or transformative power.

11. Binding Spells vs Voodoo Dolls

Binding spells are sometimes mistaken for voodoo dolls. In movies like The Witches of Eastwick, the three witches create an effigy and use it to inflict pain upon Jack Nicholson's villainous character. While ancient binding spells may have some relationship to voodoo dolls, in modern Wicca binding spells are used strictly for protection.

12. The Moon

The moon has many occult associations. You've no doubt seen plenty of it in werewolf and vampire movies, but Wiccas take the moon very seriously. There are few symbols as sacred as the moon. To Wiccas, the moon is symbolic of the Moon Goddess. It is the beginning and end of all life.

​​​​​13. The Meaning of the Candle Illuminated

TV shows like The Vampire Diaries like to romanticize common witches' tools but often get their significance wrong. For example, Wiccas do not draw on candles for power. Small candles represent our connection to the divine while large candles may represent the Moon Goddess. Candles also help us to focus our mind and energy on the desired outcome of a spell.

14. Witches and Crystals

Modern witches of all religions and associations acknowledge the power of crystals. Many New Agers that are otherwise unassociated with Paganism also use crystals. It's common to see a hippie in a movie wearing a big chunk of quartz. Wiccas also acknowledge the power of this mineral and often place it on their alters as a symbol of the element Earth.

​​​​​15. Athames - Not Your Everyday Kitchen Knives

You may not be familiar with the word "athame," but you've no doubt seen this ceremonial knife in movies about witch hunters. The athame is one of the most important Wicca tools, and yet in movies it is more often depicted as a weapon to be used against witches. Usually the knife has a black handle. While it features in many Wicca ceremonies, it is never used to draw blood. In "Book of Shadows," Gardner uses an athame as a symbol of the element Fire, but other Pagan practices may use it as a symbol for the element of Air.

16. Book of Shadows

Now's as good a time as any to address the aforementioned "Book of Shadows." While Wicca traces most of its modern roots to the "Book of Shadows" written by Gerald Gardner, there are as many books of shadows as there are Wiccas. "Book of Shadows" is not one tome but any collection of writings and spells created by a Wicca. Many Wiccas use theirs as a sort of journal. Some people use the term "grimoire" as a synonym for a book of shadows. The show Charmed featured a family Book of Shadows in nearly every episode.

17. The Ubiquitous Evil Eye

The Evil Eye symbol is not limited to Wicca and Pagan symbols. In fact, it is one of the oldest known occult symbols in existence. It traces back to an all-seeing goddess but later became representative of any ill-wishing glare. In pop culture, witchy glares abound, and yet an all-seeing eye symbol is more frequently used in movies referencing Freemasonry and the Illuminati.

18. Why Wiccas Love Stars

Stars are one of the few Pagan symbols that are consistently well-received. You've probably wished on a star before. The act may be more innate than you realized. Wiccas view stars as a promise of their potential to reach divine heights. Five-pointed stars are also used synonymously with the pentagram.

19. The Friendly Spider

Spiders are often associated with witches, but you might be surprised to know that it's not for sinister reasons. Many Pagan religions view the spider as a symbol of creation. In Wicca, the spider also represents re-creation, or a Wicca's ability to redirect energy and even to change fate. 

20. Light as a Feather?

The "light as a feather" chant from The Craft quickly became a cult classic at slumber parties. Does it have any basis in Wicca though? Yes and no. No one is using the symbol of a feather to attempt levitation (outside of the Harry Potter universe, that is). That said, feathers are frequently placed on altars to represent the element of Air. They also represent your ability to fly between realms.

21. Blood Magic

Shows like Supernatural have strengthened the association between witchcraft and blood magic. In truth, the only type of blood used in Wicca rituals is Moon Blood (aka menstrual blood).

Conclusion

Did you recognize some of the pop culture appropriations of Wicca symbols?  I hope this list has been educational. Maybe it's even given you a new appreciation for the depth of Pagan and Wicca culture. 

Please feel free to share your thoughts and feelings below and to pass this along to curious Wicca and non-Wicca friends alike.

But, actually, that's not all! Drop your email address and get the full article with extra 5 symbols in PDF for free!

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[garden-ghoul]

two blogs, part 9

“I haven’t actually checked so I don’t know if it’s part 9 or not. but I swear fellowship was shorter.”

THE FORBIDDEN POOL

Frodo woke to find Faramir bending over him. For a second old fears seized him and he sat up and shrank away.

`There is nothing to fear,' said Faramir.

'Is it morning already? ' said Frodo yawning.

In my head this looks like a really badly acted thing where every time the camera cuts back to Frodo he has an expression totally unrelated to the one he had last time you saw him. Like [shot of Frodo, terrified] “no it’s okay” [shot of Frodo nonchalantly yawning, sitting up again for some reason even though he sat up in the last shot] What I’m saying is that this weird disjointed narration is great. Urgh I did a whole paragraph and we’re four sentences in.

Yeah anyway Faramir just wants to show Frodo how pretty the moon is. And ask him something. Frodo’s dating sim experience is BACK with a vengeance. There’s a bunch of weirdly romantic shots of Frodo and Faramir standing silently next to each other in the moonlight above the secret waterfall, which I want you to imagine rendered in the style of Revolutionary Girl Utena. After that Faramir points down at Gollum and is like “look Frodo who is that guy?”

“Well,” says Frodo, “he’s fishing.”

Nevertheless if he ever tells anyone where the secret base is dudes could die, so Frodo, to stop Gollum from getting shot, goes down to talk to him. Smeagol is singing a cute song about how eating lots of fish will make him strong enough to throttle everyone.

Only one true shot, and Frodo would be rid of the miserable voice for ever. But no, Gollum had a claim on him now. The servant has a claim on the master for service, even service in fear.

Sorry but “the servant has claim on the master” is Really Good and I got gay. This is probably an unethical thing to be gay about, but, like, whatever. Anyway Smeagol doesn’t want to come with, he wants to finish eating his fish even after Frodo tells him he is about to get murdered. Frodo has to threaten him to get him to come ::( And he also understands that Gollum will think he’s being betrayed, and there’s no way around it. But things seem to get mostly sorted out. Gollum has safe passage in Gondor as long as he’s with Frodo. Faramir’s heart breaks for Frodo, though. He wishes, as we all do, that he could spare Frodo this awful errand and his awful travelling companion.

‘Would you have me come to Gondor with this Thing,’ said Frodo, ‘the Thing that drove your brother mad with desire? What spell would it work in Minas Tirith? Shall there be two cities of Minas Morgul, grinning at each other across a dead land filled with rottenness?’

YO. And Faramir’s parting words... “If ever beyond hope you return to the lands of the living and we retell our tales, sitting by a wall in the sun, laughing at old grief, you shall tell me then.” Wargh. He’s so gentle and gay. But now it’s time for Frodo to make the

JOURNEY TO THE CROSSROADS

Faramir gives our hobbits some food and also... enchanted walking sticks?? Cool as hell. “A virtue has been set upon them,” he says, which I assume means they’re enchanted. I didn’t know Gondor still knew magic.

So they go on their way for a couple days and have a rest due west of Minas Morgul. My favorite thing about this passage is that Gollum can smell what time of day it is. We rest in a holly forest for a while, which is just an image I love. But it must be very uncomfortable, because even fallen holly leaves are very sharp. ALSO we see the very last hopeful thing on this journey: a headless (defiled) statue of some Gondorian king... but with flowers growing on the severed head like a crown.

'They cannot conquer for ever!' said Frodo. And then suddenly the brief glimpse was gone. The Sun dipped and vanished, and as if at the shuttering of a lamp, black night fell.

Since that was a short one, I still have time tonight to take you up

THE STAIRS OF CIRITH UNGOL

All was dark about it, earth and sky, but it was lit with light. Not the imprisoned moonlight welling through the marble walls of Minas Ithil long ago, Tower of the Moon, fair and radiant in the hollow of the hills. Paler indeed than the moon ailing in some slow eclipse was the light of it now, wavering and blowing like a noisome exhalation of decay, a corpse-light, a light that illuminated nothing. In the walls and tower windows showed, like countless black holes looking inward into emptiness...

Windows like a thousand eyes turned inward! Doors that hinge on time itself! The fourth tower of Inverness!!! Honestly please reply if you’ve listened to that, it was probably extremely formative for me. I love ZBS it’s so fucking weird. Anyway there’s some more description of how gross Minas Morgul is, and Frodo gets enchanted by the Fourth Tower and has to be pulled away. Then they start up the stairway. Okay so... who made this? No way someone carved a stairway into the mountain to visit Shelob. So what was up there before she was?

Frodo is so tired, so very tired. This is largely the Ring’s doing. It’s trying to stall him out in the open so he’ll be seen by the Nazgul. Indeed, the witch-king rides out of Minas Morgul with an army in response to a hilariously over-the-top five-hundred-foot-high signal, possibly meant for intimidation. I feel like I remember Pippin and Gandalf seeing this from the upper storeys of Minas Tirith and being like “aw fuck.”

'The storm has burst at last,' Frodo thought. `This great array of spears and swords is going to Osgiliath. Will Faramir get across in time? And who can now hold the fords when the King of the Nine Riders comes? And other armies will come. I am too late. All is lost. I tarried on the way. All is lost. Even if my errand is performed, no one will ever know. There will be no one I can tell. It will be in vain.' Overcome with weakness he wept. And still the host of Morgul crossed the bridge.

Sammmmee. Faramir is Going To Die at Osgiliath. AND STILL THE HOST OF MORGUL CROSSED THE BRIDGE. Ugh this imagery is SUPER GOOD. Frodo is strengthened a little once the army passes; he shoves Galadriel’s star-vial under his shirt. C-cute. Now we climb the stairs. Yes, and now more stairs. The path to Minas Morgul, the “wraith-road” glows like a glow-worm. Yesss. The hobbits have what they are secretly thinking of as their Last Meal, just a little before the tunnel. Sam wonders if they’ll be able to find water; orcs drink, don’t they? Frodo replies that what they drink is “not for us.” Implying that the water in Mordor is unsafe and it’s only safe to drink alcohol! And then Sam delivers some superb story-telling meta:

‘The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo, I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting. But that's not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually - their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn't. And if they had, we shouldn't know, because they'd have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on - and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end.’

Hell. Makes me want to write epic quests. Doesn’t that make you want to write epic quests? Sam also notes that the tale of Beren and Luthien continues with them now, as they still have the light with them of the Silmaril she stole. Same story, same light, different darkness. Ain’t that just the way. Also still fuck dark = bad, light = good, that’s bad meta. Sam and Frodo keep talking about the stories people will tell about them. A little protected space in Cirith Ungol. This is the part of the story kids won’t want to hear, says Frodo.

Frodo goes to sleep with his head in Sam’s lap. Smeagol comes back from whatever errand he’s been on and sees them together, and remembers long ago when he had people who would touch him like that. He reaches out to softly touch Frodo’s knee... and Sam wakes up and starts shouting at him. I am so fucking sad, you guys. Sam and Smeagol are the WORST for each other, Frodo needs both of them but together they just.. destroy everything... let Smeagol get hugs... [weeping] please let him hug

[nemesis-nexus]

Second Blue Moon 2018 Sermon AVE NINGIZHEDA! Most glorious Serpent on High, hear us! Spring has officially arrived and all around us we see Mother Earth awakening from her slumber! The snows have given way to rain and the soil is becoming softer, the worms are irrigating it from underneath and we have even seen a few come to the surface! The birds, who oddly enough never went completely South for the Winter, are raising a ruckus as if to tell the trees it’s time for them to start blooming their leaves and the flowers to start blossoming their buds! Tonight is the SECOND Blue Moon in only three months, a rare occurrence to be sure and this Full Moon will also “bleed” into April henceforth connecting the months of January, February, March and April – I attribute this connection as one of the reasons this past Winter lasted as long as it did as the Lunar Cycles directly affect the Oceans (specifically the tides) which in turn affect the jet streams which usher in warm and cold weather. March was by far the most interesting month weather wise, at least in my area, we had FOUR Nor’Easters in 3 weeks! Last time we had significant snowfall was back in 2015 when we got 10.5ft, at least we didn’t get a repeat of THAT, HAIL SATAN! Blessed Lady ISHTAR/INANNA/ININNI we call to you during this transitional period to please keep the Season of Rebirth moving forward so that we may begin the planting of crops and let the animals run free in the fields! So that we may sit by the rivers and streams and listen to their eternal song now that they are no longer in a state of icy suspended animation! To be able to take a walk through the woods without having to wonder where the pitfalls are or any fallen trees or branches because they are covered in snow is also a patiently awaited delight as I don’t know anyone who actually enjoys falling down a hillside or tripping over a broken limb and in turn breaking one of theirs! One thing we can say for the Deity’s Creation is that it is both Beautiful and Deadly in many ways! HAIL SATAN! Glorious Dragon who oversees all we know, there are some things we can control and some things we can’t, even though many of us seem to think we can or should control everything which is how many religions (ie THE CORRUPTIONS THAT CAME AFTER THE ORIGINAL) were created, to control the masses and limit free thought and critical thinking! The reason why Satanism endures is because we understand that we are NOT always in control (I dare ANYONE to stand in the path of any size tornado and COMMAND it to stop, send us a postcard to let us know how well it worked out for you) that Chaos is a constant and a necessity, if energy ceases to move then the system collapses upon itself, however if we move with the energy and don’t get arrogant, then all forms of growth takes place and the world continues to flourish. We also understand that RESPECTING NATURE IS NOT AN OPTION, that is not if one wishes to SURVIVE their time here! We cannot control natural disasters such as tornadoes but we CAN lessen the presence of things such as earthquakes by simply NOT DRILLING AND FRACTURING THE EARTH especially not in the amount and frequency that it is currently being done in and how much MORE they want to do it in! The seismic air gun blasts that they need to use in order to even find the oil deposits offshore and underwater not only harms/kills the marine life in the area, it also increases the potential for tidal waves and the chances of tsunami’s such as the ones that almost took out Sri Lanka and devastated the coast of Fukushima! The idea that a certain someone wants to line up the East and West Coasts with offshore drilling projects is beyond unconscionable especially given the DeepWater Horizon disaster of 2011! The OTHER reason Satanism endures is due to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY! While our Illustrious Father gave us the Free Will to do as we see fit, we also understand that WE are responsible for everything WE do, that it is NO ONE ELSE’S job to come galloping in to save us from ourselves because we alone are at fault for any messes WE make! It endures because we understand that if we want something in life, that just praying for it is not going to manifest it, that just as much physical effort needs to be applied in the process, failure to act on our own behalf is accepting failure at everything we try because half-assed work yields half-assed results and there is NO ONE to blame for that but ourselves, after all WE are the ones who claimed we wanted whatever then failed to provide the work to make it a reality! While things don’t always work out, even with a substantial effort, we don’t just throw in the towel and insist it’s “god’s will”, that’s a cop out and an excuse to give up right away, it’s also blaming the Deity for its not having manifested which is a direct insult! Instead we review the steps we took and try to come up with a new way to reach our goal, if it is determined that it won’t work out no matter what we do then we simply move on accepting that we were unable to do something and there is nothing wrong with that, it’s part of accepting that things don’t always go the way we want and that there is no supernatural force preventing it from happening! Blaming someone else when things don’t work out but trumpeting your success and exalting your Deity when it does is not only arrogant, it demonstrates a lack of personal character and respect for your Deity! Either you had help in the endeavor or you didn’t, you don’t get to blame someone else for your inability to make something happen then praise that same being when you ARE able to make it happen; that’s a good way to get yourself into some SERIOUSLY DEEP SHIT with the Deity or anyone else whose assistance you may have requested! Sometimes it’s even for the best that some things don’t go how we want as the end result may be detrimental for us and anyone else who may be affected by our actions, ESPECIALLY if they are done in haste or out of anger or grief! The biggest reason Satanism endures in my opinion is because we don’t live in denial that there are many different kinds of people and that it is not for us to judge anyone - with the exception of course of pedophiles, rapists, elder abusers, animal abusers, environmental abusers and religious zealots (regardless of religion) – as there is already too much arrogance and self importance in the world and as a result many people have been imprisoned, tortured and KILLED just because they were different and nothing more! We endure because no matter how much other people may have been taught to hate us, we know that 10 out of 10 times their hate is based on deceit so we do what we can to educate them on the truth! No matter how many people accuse us of crimes we are not guilty of, we rise above! No matter how many lies they tell about us in an effort to isolate us and make us the enemy, we counter with truth, logic and rationale! It is because of these things that we were able to move beyond horrific events such as the Salem Witch “Trials” and the Satanic Panic (among several others) when people generally speaking were unjustly accused of crimes they were not guilty of and the public at large just went along with it because they were too terrified of the consequences if they didn’t! We must keep moving forward beyond events such these and we must cull all those who are hell bent on reviving them as well as the violence and hate they caused from our Community! We must do it to protect ourselves, our children, the Community at large but also to defend the Honor of our Deity who guides and guards us by protecting the delicate Balance of the Multiverse and Life manifested as the Caduceus! Our Deity is himself the Manifestation of all things as well as the embodiment of Justice, Truth, Honor and Freedom! HAIL SATAN! “Second Blue Moon Of 2018 Prayer O Father Satan I Ask That You Give Us Wisdom! You are the Flame of Intelligence and because of you we are not blind to the Truth! O Father Satan I Ask That You Give Us Clarity! You lift the veil from our eyes and clear the smoke from the mirror so that we may see! O Father Satan I Ask That You Give Us Peace Of Mind! With steady hands and steady hearts we can accomplish anything no matter how great or small! O Father Satan I Ask That You Give Us The Strength To Carry On! In our most trying times you are our rock and because of that we are able to get past any obstacles! O Father Satan I Ask That You Help Guide Us Through The Storm! When we are stressed to the point where we don’t know which end is up, you are there to help see us through! O Father Satan I Ask That You Embrace And Protect The Most Vulnerable! There are many – young children, the elderly and many animals – that are victimized who need your help to fight off their aggressors! O Father Satan I Ask That You Raise Your Sword And Smite The Wicked! Anyone who abuses a child/elderly person/animal/the Earth in ANY context should be sorted out with EXTREME prejudice! O Father Satan I Ask That You Brandish Your Shield In Protection Of The Innocent! Your love knows no bounds and as much as we may try to help those that we can, we simply cannot do it alone! Father Satan In You All Things Are Possible! Father Satan In You Nothing Is Out Of Reach So Long As We Put In The Effort To Acquire It! Father Satan We Thank You For The Earth That We Call Home! Father Satan We Thank You For The Herds That Sustain Us! Father Satan We Thank You For The Grains That Sustain Them! Father Satan We Thank You For The Waters Of Life – MNI KIN WICONI! Father Satan We Thank You For The Air We Breathe! Father Satan We Thank You For The Fire That Warms Us! Father Satan We Thank You For Guiding Us On Our Path! Father Satan We Thank You For Our Families Both Blood And Spiritual! Father Satan We Thank You For The Friends We Meet Along The Way! Father Satan We Thank You For All The Good Times! Father Satan We Thank You For All The Rough Times! Father Satan We Thank You For Our Ability To Reason! Father Satan We Thank You For Being Patient With Us! Father Satan We Thank You For Enduring The Slings And Arrows Of Corruption So That We May Continue To Evolve! Father Satan We Thank You Most Of All For NOT Giving Up On Us!” ZI ANA KANPA! ZI KIA KANPA! MAY THE DEAD RISE AND SMELL THE INSENCE! Etiamsi MULTA Et Nos UNUM Sumus Nos Sto Validus Ut Nos Sto Una! Semper Veritas, Semper Fideles, In Diabolus Nomen Nos Fides! AVE SATANÍ! (We Are ONE Even Though We Are MANY And We Stand STRONGEST When We Stand TOGETHER! Always TRUTHFUL, Always FAITHFUL, In Satan's Name We Trust! HAIL SATAN!) Ave URURU! Ave ENKI! Ave NINGIZHEDA! Ave AZIMUA! Ave DIMUZI! Ave ININNI! Ave ERESHKIGAL! Ave NERGAL! Ave GILGAMESH! Ave ENKIDU! Ave TIAMAT! Ave ABSU! Ave MARDUK! Ave SARPANITUM! Ave SATANÍ! HAIL SATAN! HPS Meg "Nemesis Nexus" Prentiss

[yessgame]

PlayStation Store: i nuovi sconti

New Post has been published on http://www.yessgame.it/sony/ps4/playsation-store-nuovi-sconti/

PlayStation Store: i nuovi sconti

Siete a casa mentre tutti i vostri amici sono al mare e non sapete come passare il tempo?

Sony vi viene in aiuto!

Sony ha annunciato una serie di nuovi sconti che, siamo sicuri, vi aiuteranno a passare al meglio questi caldi giorni!

La nuova promozione, valida fino al 6 Settembre, si chiama “Giochi a meno di 20€”

Ecco a Voi l’elenco completo della promozione:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Yooka-Laylee

Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™-Game of the Year Edition

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy

Borderlands: The Handsome Collection

BioShock: The Collection

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare Gold Edition

Call of Duty: Ghosts Gold Edition

Elite Dangerous

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes

Metal Gear Solid V: The Definitive Experience

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Digital Deluxe Edition

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – Season Pass

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – System Rift

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – A Criminal Past

DARK SOULS™ II: Scholar of the First Sin

Sleeping Dogs™ Definitive Edition

Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Wolfenstein: The New Order

Little Nightmares – Digital Edition

Little Nightmares Complete Edition

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Expansion Pass

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Blood and Wine

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Hearts of Stone

ULTIMATE MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3

Street Fighter V

Get Even

AereA

Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor™ Legion Edition

The Elder Scrolls Online: Gold Edition

The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited

Grand Theft Auto III

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

DiRT Rally

DiRT Rally® PLUS PLAYSTATION®VR BUNDLE

Sniper Elite 3

Sniper Elite 3 ULTIMATE EDITION

PAYDAY 2 – CRIMEWAVE EDITION – THE BIG SCORE Game Bundle

PAYDAY 2: CRIMEWAVE EDITION

Farming Simulator 15

Resident Evil

Resident Evil 0

resident evil 4

RESIDENT EVIL 5

Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil Code: Veronica X

Resident Evil: Deluxe Origins Bundle

Thief

Canis Canem Edit

Tropico 5

Tropico 5 – Complete Collection

Alien: Isolation

Alien: Isolation – The Collection

Ultra Street Fighter™ IV

DIVINITY ORIGINAL SIN – ENHANCED EDITION

Assetto Corsa

DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE

Dragon Ball Xenoverse: Time Travel Edition

Dishonored® Definitive Edition

Batman: Return to Arkham

J-Stars Victory VS+ Digital Edition

Zombie Army Trilogy

Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment

Sword Art Online: Lost Song

Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition

DmC Devil May Cry: Definitive Edition

DMC4SE Demon Hunter Bundle

Valkyria Chronicles Remastered

Sherlock Holmes : The Devil’s Daughter

Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

The Walking Dead: A New Frontier – Season Pass

The Walking Dead: Michonne – A Telltale Miniseries

The Walking Dead: Season Two

The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season

Batman – The Telltale Series – Season Pass

Evolve

Evolve Digital Deluxe

Evolve Ultimate Edition

Saints Row IV: Re-Elected

Saints Row IV: Re-Elected & Gat out of Hell

Saints Row Metro Double Pack

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

Deadpool

Lords of the Fallen

Lords of the Fallen Complete Edition

XCOM 2

XCOM 2 Digital Deluxe Edition

XCOM 2 Reinforcement Pack

XCOM 2: Alien Hunters

XCOM 2: Anarchy’s Children

XCOM 2: Shen’s Last Gift

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris & Season Pass

Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris Season Pass

The Wolf Among Us

Tales from the Borderlands – Season Pass

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance Bundle

Prototype Biohazard Bundle

Prototype 2

Prototype

The Warriors

RIDE

MotoGP™15

MotoGP™15 Compact

Worms Anniversary Edition

Worms W.M.D

Worms™ Battlegrounds

Life is Strange Season Pass

Air Conflicts Vietnam Ultimate Edition

Air Conflicts: Double Pack (Vietnam and PC)

Air Conflicts: Pacific Carriers – PlayStation®4 Edition

Air Conflicts: Secret Wars Ultimate Edition

Homefront®: The Revolution

Homefront®: The Revolution ‘Freedom Fighter’ Bundle

DEAD RISING

DEAD RISING 2

DEAD RISING 2 Off The Record

DEAD RISING Triple Bundle Pack

Metro 2033 Redux

Metro Redux

Metro: Last Light Redux

WRC 5 eSports Edition

Tour de France 2016

Broken Sword 5 – the Serpent’s Curse

This War of Mine: The Little Ones

MXGP2 – Special Edition

MXGP2 – The Official Motocross Videogame

MXGP2 – The Official Motocross Videogame Compact

Minecraft: Story Mode – Adventure Pass

Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Pass

Minecraft: Story Mode – Season Pass Deluxe

Destroy All Humans!

Destroy All Humans! 2

Saint Seiya: Soldiers’ Soul

Guilty Gear Xrd -Sign-

Back to the Future: The Game – 30th Anniversary Edition

Valentino Rossi The Game

Valentino Rossi The Game – Digital Deluxe

Valentino Rossi The Game – Special Edition

The Technomancer

MXGP – COMPACT to Full Game UPGRADE

MXGP – The Official Motocross Videogame

MXGP – The Official Motocross Videogame COMPACT

Darksiders Warmastered Edition

Darksiders: Fury’s Collection – War and Death

Carmageddon: Max Damage

Warhammer 40,000: Deathwatch

Warhammer: End Times – Vermintide

Manhunt

Transformers: Devastation

TRANSFORMERS: Fall of Cybertron

Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark Gold Edition

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven

Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Telltale – Season Pass

Umbrella Corps

Umbrella Corps Deluxe Edition

Dungeons 2

Max Payne

Godzilla: Digital Edition

Agatha Christie – The ABC Murders

Professional Farmer 2017

Professional Farmer 2017 – Gold Edition

Micro Machines World Series

Red Dead Revolver

Infinite Air with Mark McMorris

Kung Fu Panda Showdown of Legendary Legends

The Book of Unwritten Tales 2

The Assembly

Firefighters the Simulation

Forestry 2017

Legend of Kay Anniversary

The Dwarves

Adventure Time: Finn and Jake Investigations

Motorcycle Club

The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition

Ghostbusters™

Monster Jam: Crush It!

Mighty No. 9

Industry Giant 2

Silence

Alekhine’s Gun

Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom

Deponia

DUCATI – 90th Anniversary

N.E.R.O.: Nothing Ever Remains Obscure

Flockers

Yesterday Origins

Lichdom: Battlemage

Moto Racer 4

Moto Racer 4 – Deluxe Edition

LUMO

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles

MX vs. ATV 2017 Official Track Edition

EARTHLOCK: Festival of Magic

Super Dungeon Bros

Assault Suit Leynos

Transport Giant

Dead Synchronicity: Tomorrow Comes Today

Worlds of Magic: Planar Conquest

The Town of Light

EARTH’S DAWN

Reus – Deluxe Edition

Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 1

Atari Flashback Classics Vol. 2

Harvest Moon®: Save the Homeland

Ancient Amuletor VR

2Dark

Adam’s Venture: Origins Deluxe Edition

Kromaia Ω

Lock’s Quest

Pineview Drive – Joe’s Diner Horror Bundle

World to the West

Damascus Gear: Operation Tokyo HD Edtion

Tiny Troopers Joint Ops Complete Bundle

Altre offerte

Nex Machina

Firewatch

Firewatch Dynamic Theme Bundle

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour

Furi – Definitive Edition

Layers of Fear: Masterpiece Edition

Wasteland™ 2: Director’s Cut

Mortal Blitz

Broforce

The Golf Club™

Plague Inc: Evolved

Primal Carnage: Extinction

Dead Effect 2

Thea: The Awakening

Gauntlet: Slayer Edition

Sword Coast Legends™

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse

RWBY: Grimm Eclipse – Team JNPR Bundle

Rain World

Troll and I™

Enigmatis 2: The Mists of Ravenwood

Enigmatis: The Ghosts of Maple Creek

The Bunker

Hand of Fate

Hand of Fate Deluxe

Hard Reset Redux

Layers of Fear

Lethal League

Rise & Shine

Invisible, Inc. Console Edition

The Turing Test

Jotun: Valhalla Edition

Furi

Seasons after Fall

Headlander

Old Time Hockey

Teslagrad

Space Hulk

Shift Happens

Black & White Bushido

Chroma Squad

ArmaGallant: Decks of Destiny

Lili: Child of Geos

Lithium: Inmate 39

Perception

Subterrain

Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics

Tumblestone

Wheels of Aurelia

Cannon Brawl

Knee Deep

forma.8

Castle Invasion: Throne Out

Qui invece vi riportiamo l’offerta “LEGO promotion” (valido solo Fino al 30 agosto)

PS4

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM PREMIUM EDITION

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham Season Pass

LEGO CITY Undercover

LEGO Harry Potter Collection

LEGO Jurassic World

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

LEGO Marvel(TM) Super Heroes DLC: Super Pack

LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Deluxe Edition

LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Season Pass

LEGO Marvel’s Avengers

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Deluxe Edition

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Season Pass

LEGO The Hobbit

LEGO Worlds

The LEGO Movie Videogame

PS Vita

LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7

LEGO Jurassic World

LEGO Legends of Chima Laval’s Journey

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

LEGO Marvel’s Avengers

LEGO Ninjago: Nindroids

LEGO Ninjago: Shadow of Ronin

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens

LEGO The Hobbit

LEGO The Lord of the Rings

The LEGO Movie Videogame

PS3

LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

LEGO BATMAN 3: BEYOND GOTHAM PREMIUM EDITION

LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

LEGO Marvel’s Avengers Deluxe Edition

LEGO Marvel’s Avengers

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens Deluxe Edition

LEGO The Hobbit

LEGO The Lord of the Rings

LEGO© Jurassic World

LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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[wavenetinfo]

June brings a slew of new TV shows and films to stream on a number of different platforms.

“Orange Is the New Black” returns to Netflix for its fifth season, while Amazon is debuting several original projects of its own.

Hulu subscribers can stream favorites including “Legally Blonde” and “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective,” as well as the season premiere of “The Carmichael Show,” which is also available on iTunes.

For the complete lists from all four services, see below.

Netflix

June 1

“1 Night”

“13 Going on 30”

“Amor.com (Love.com)”

“Arrow” Season 5

“Burlesque”

“Catfight”

“Catwoman”

“Chingo Bling: They Can’t Deport Us All”

“Days of Grace”

“Devil’s Bride”

“Full Metal Jacket”

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas“

“Intersection”: Season 2

“Kardashian: The Man Who Saved OJ Simpson”

“Little Boxes”

“Mutant Busters”: Season 2

“My Left Foot”

“Off Camera with Sam Jones”: Series 3

“Playing It Cool”

“Rounders”

“Spring” (“Primavera”)

“The 100”: Season 4

“The Ant Bully”

“The Bucket List”

“The Queen”

“The Sixth Sense”

“Vice”

“West Coast Customs”: Season 3

“Yarn”

“Young Frankenstein”

“Zodiac”

June 2

“Comedy Bang! Bang!”: Season 5, Part 2

“Flaked”: Season 2 – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“Inspector Gadget”: Season 3 – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“Los Últimos de Filipinas”

“Lucid Dream” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILM

“Saving Banksy“

“The Homecoming: Collection”

June 3

“Acapulco La vida va“

“Blue Gold: American Jeans”

“Headshot”

“Three”

“Tunnel”

“War on Everyone”

June 4

“TURN: Washington’s Spies”: Season 3

June 5

June 7

June 9

“My Only Love Song”: Season 1 – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“Orange Is the New Black”: Season 5 – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“Shimmer Lake” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILM

June 10

“Black Snow” (“Nieve Negra”)

“Daughters of the Dust”

“Havenhurst”

“Sword Master”

June 13

“Oh, Hello On Broadway” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

June 14

June 15

“Marco Luque: Tamo Junto” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”: Season 4

“Mr. Gaga: A True Story of Love and Dance”

June 16

“Aquarius”: Season 2

“Counterpunch” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“El Chapo”: Season 1

“The Ranch”: Part 3 – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“World of Winx”: Season 2 – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

June 17

“Grey’s Anatomy”: Season 13

“Scandal”: Season 6

“The Stanford Prison Experiment”

June 18

June 20

“Amar Akbar & Tony”

“Moana”

“Rory Scovel Tries Stand-Up For The First Time” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

June 21

“Baby Daddy”: Season 6

“Young & Hungry”: Season 5

June 23

“American Anarchist”

“Free Rein”: Season 1 – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“GLOW”: Season 1 – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“You Get Me” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILM

June 26

June 27

“Chris D’Elia: Man on Fire” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

June 28

“Okja” – NETFLIX ORIGINAL FILM

June 30

“Chef & My Fridge: Collection” (2014)

“Gypsy”: Season 1 – NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“It’s Only the End of the World”

“Little Witch Academia”: Season 1—NETFLIX ORIGINAL

“The Weekend”

Hulu

June 1

“The Carmichael Show”: Season 3 Premiere

“2 Days in the Valley”

“Ace Ventura: Pet Detective”

“Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls”

“Aeon Flux”

“All Over the Guy”

“Apocalypse Now”

“Apocalypse Now Redux”

“Barnyard”

“Black Rain”

“Blow Out”

“Blue Velvet”

“Bolero”

“Boogeyman”

“Boogeyman 2”

“Boogeyman 3”

“Bullwhip”

“Burnt Offerings”

“Chaos”

“Charlotte’s Web”

“Con Air”

“Dances with Wolves“

“The Deep End of the Ocean”

“De-Lovely”

“Desperado”

“Desperate Hours”

“Double Team”

“Dragon Eyes”

“Drunken Arts and Crippled Fist”

“Drunken Monkey, Floating Snake”

“El Gringo”

“The Fatal Flying Guillotine”

“Fighting of Shaolin Monks”

“Fire in the Sky”

“Fled”

“The Freshman”

“Free Willy”

“Gangs of New York”

“Ghost Rider”

“The Glass House”

“Hammett”

“The Hanoi Hilton”

“Harriet the Spy”

“Heartbreakers”

“Henry & Me”

“The Ides of March”

“Ingenious”

“The Invincible Armour”

“In the Line of Fire”

“Invincible Obsessed Fighter”

“It Could Happen to You”

“Joe Dirt”

“Kangaroo Jack”

“Last Action Hero”

“Legally Blonde”

“Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde”

“Legends of the Fall”

“Little Man Tate”

“Lost in America”

“Madeline”

“The Mechanic”

“The Medallion”

“Mo’ Money”

“Money Train”

“Moscow on the Hudson”

“Mr. Mom”

“Muppet Treasure Island”

“Muppets from Space”

“The Muppets Take Manhattan”

“Of Cooks and Kung Fu”

“On the Waterfront”

“The Out-of-Towners”

“Over the Top”

“Peggy Sue Got Married”

“The Philly Kid”

“The Prince of Tides”

“The Queen of Versailles”

“Random Hearts”

“Regarding Henry”

“See No Evil, Hear No Evil”

“Seven Years in Tibet”

“Shivers”

“Silverado”

“Starman”

“Stash House”

“Strategic Air Command”

“Stray Bullets”

“Tracker”

“Transit”

“Underworld”

“Underworld Evolution”

“World’s Greatest Dad”

“World Trade Center”

“XXX: State of the Union”

“Zoom”

June 2

“Black-ish”: Complete Season 3

June 3

“Dumb: The Story of Big Brother Magazine” (Hulu Documentary)

June 4

June 5

“Arbitrage”

“A Case of You”

“North”

June 6

“Rizzoli & Isles”: Complete Season 7

“Tyrant”: Complete Season 3

June 7

June 8

“What Happened Last Night”

June 9

“Girl Most Likely”

“Free the Nipple”

June 11

June 13

“American Ninja Warrior”: Season 9 Premiere

“Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge”: Season 2 Premiere

June 14

“Cocaine Cowboys”

“Control Room”

June 15

“Bayou Maharajah”

“Family Mission: The TJ Labraico Story”

“The Girls in the Band”

“The Hunting of the President”

“Outatime”

June 16

“Cardinal”: Complete Season 1

“The Strain”: Complete Season 3

“Asmodexia

June 17

“Kundo”

“Star Trek: Beyond”

June 18

June 22

“Little Big Shots: Forever Young”: Series Premiere

June 23

“Hollywood Game Night”: Season 5 Premiere

“Manny”

“Song One”

“Tarzan”

June 26

June 29

“Ong Bak”

“Ong Bak 2”

“Ong Bak 3”

June 30

Amazon

Available on Prime

June 1

“2 Days in the Valley”

“Aeon Flux”

“All Over the Guy”

“Apocalypse Now”

“Apocalypse Now Redux”

“Black Rain”

“Blow Out”

“Blue Velvet”

“Bolero”

“Bowling for Columbine”

“Bruce Lee Superstar”

“Bullwhip”

“Burnt Offerings”

“Chaos”

“Chinese Hercules”

“City of Gods” (“Ciudad de Deus”)

“Commando 2: The Black Money Trail”

“De-Lovely”

“Desperate Hours”

“Dragon Eyes”

“Drunken Arts and Crippled Fist”

“Drunken Monkey, Floating Snake”

“El Gringo”

“The Fatal Flying Guillotine”

“Fighting of Shaolin Monks”

“Fire in the Sky”

“Fled”

“Gone Baby Gone”

“Hammett”

“The Hanoi Hilton”

“Heartbreakers”

“Ingenious”

“The Invincible Armour”

“Invincible Obsessed Fighter”

“Lady of Burlesque”

“The Lady Says No”

“Lady Windermere’s Fan”

“Little Man Tate”

“Madame Behave”

“Magnolia”

“The Mandarin Mystery”

“Marihuana”

“The Mechanic”

“The Medicine Man”

“The Memphis Belle”

“Merry-Go-Round”

“Million Dollar Kid”

“Mind Over Murder”

“Miss Polly”

“Mission to Glory”

“The Monster Walks”

“The Most Dangerous Game”

“Mr. Mom”

“Mrs. Scooter”

“Murder at Midnight”

“Murder with Music”

“Night at the Follies”

“Nomads of the North”

“The Old Corral”

“One Exciting Night”

“One from the Heart”

“The Out-of-Towners”

“Outlaws of Sonora”

“Over the Top”

“Palooka”

“The Patchwork Girl of Oz”

“Payoff in the Pacific”

“The Philly Kid”

“Pinto Rustlers”

“The President’s Mystery”

“Prison Break”

“Private Buckaroo”

“The Queen”

“The Racketeer”

“Reaching for the Moon”

“The Red Rope”

“Regarding Henry”

“Revolt of the Zombies”

“Rex the Devil Horse”

“Riders of Destiny”

“Riders of the Whistling Pines”

“The Road to Hollywood”

“Roarin Lead”

“Robin Hood of the Pecos”

“Romola”

“Rough Book”

“Royal Bed, The”

“Saddle Mountain Roundup”

“The Savage Wild”

“The Scarlet Letter”

“Shadows”

“Shaolin Drunk Fighter”

“Shaolin vs. Lama”

“Shivers”

“Silver Blaze”

“Silver Horde”

“Six Gun Trail”

“Slightly Honorable”

“St. Benny the Dip”

“Stash House”

“The Strange Woman”

“Strategic Air Command”

“Submarine Warfare”

“Svengali”

“Swing High, Swing Low”

“Target for Tonight”

“Tarzan and the Green Goddess”

“Tarzan of the Apes”

“The Salesman” – AMAZON ORIGINAL

“The Tank”

“The Thief of Bagdad”

“Those We Love”

“Tomake Chai”

“Tormented”

“Tracker”

“Transit”

“True Heart Susie”

“Tumbleweeds”

“Wanderers of the West”

“War Comes to America”

“Way of the West”

“West of Nevada”

“White Orchid”

“Winterset”

“Within Our Gates”

“The Woman in Green”

“The Woman of the Town”

“World Trade Center”

“Yellowstone”

“Zis Boom Bah”

June 2

“Noor

“So Far

“The Closing of Winterland

“The Grateful Dead Movie

“Truckin’ Up to Buffalo”

June 4

June 5

“20th Century Women”

“Arbitrage”

“Ocean’s Eleven”

“Ocean’s Twelve”

June 7

“Aftershock”

“Brand New Testament”

June 8

“Art of the Steal”

“I Am Not Your Negro”

“Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood: Tiger Family Trip”

June 9

“Girl Most Likely”

“An American Girl Story: Summer Camp, Friends for Life” – AMAZON ORIGINAL

“Le Mans: Racing Is Everything”: Season 1 – AMAZON ORIGINAL

June 11

June 12

June 17

June 22

“Paterson” – AMAZON ORIGINAL

June 29

“David Lynch: The Art Life”

“Arthur: D.W. & the Beastly Birthday”

June 30

“All or Nothing”: Season 2

“Danger & Eggs”: Season 1 – AMAZON ORIGINAL

Streaming on Amazon Video

June 4

“I’m Dying Up Here”: Season 1

June 6

“Beauty and the Beast”

“CHIPS”

June 17

“Turn: Washington’s Spies”

June 18

“American Gods”: Season Finale

June 23

June 25

iTunes

June 1

“The Carmichael Show” (Free Season Premiere)

“The F Word with Gordon Ramsay” (Free Series Premiere)

“MasterChef”: Season 8

“Big Star Little Star”

June 2

“Life”

“Vincent N Roxxy” (in theaters now)

June 5

“Fear the Walking Dead”: Season 3

June 6

“Beauty and the Beast”

“Tickling Giants” (iTunes exclusive)

“CHiPs”

“Land of Mine”

“Stitchers”: Season 3

June 9

“Queen of the South”: Season 2

“King of the Road”: Season 2 (Free Season Premiere)

June 10

“Wynonna Earp”: Season 2

“Dark Matter”: Season 3

June 11

“Orphan Black”: Season 5

“Idiotsitter”: Season 2

June 12

“Claws”

“American Grit”: Season 2

June 13

“Power Rangers”

“Trainspotting 2”

“Belko Experiment”

“John Wick 2”

“Three Generations”

“Superhuman”

June 16

“Wilson”

“Once Upon A Time In Venice” (same day as theaters)

June 17

“The Great British Baking Show”: Season 4

June 18

“TURN: Washington’s Spies”: Season 4

June 19

“Kevin Hart Presents: The Next Level”

“Granchester”: Season 3

June 20

“Smurfs: The Lost Village”

“Kong: Skull Island”

“The Zookeeper’s Wife”

“Table 19”

“Resident Evil: Vendetta”

June 21

“Wrecked”: Season 2

“Queen Sugar”: Season 2

“The Bold Type”(Free Series Premiere)

June 22

June 23

“The Bad Batch” (same day as theaters)

“The Night Shift”: Season 4

“The Mist”

June 24

“Playing House”: Season 3 (Complete Season)

“The Bureau”: Season 3

June 26

June 27

“The Fate of the Furious”

“Personal Shopper”

“Last Men In Aleppo” (iTunes exclusive)

June 29

“Younger”: Season 4

“Cleverman”: Season 2

“Big Brother”

June 30

“Their Finest”

“Inconceivable”

“Who Killed Tupac?”

31 May 2017 | 9:18 pm

Source : ABC News

>>>Click Here To View Original Press Release>>>

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