A Nascent Kaleidoscope. Novels & Stories

“Not the feeling first—the landscape. Detailed enough for a mason to build it, and an astronomer to chart it.” The word “landscape” brings me back. Not dream, not vision—landscape. Real. I gather the edges in my mind so they won’t slip away. “There was a lake,” I begin slowly. “Black. I couldn’t see stars on it, but deep below something was glowing, like tiny beings of light were moving there. The shore was ash. Not hot, not dirty—more like stone-dust that leaves no print.” I close my eyes a moment to recall the scent. “Scentless. Like when glass has held water for too long and now a hand reaches in.” The tip of my tongue tastes of metal as I say it. “On the shore, stone pillars. Thin. Each

I try to rest as I wait for Darren to return to take me to imaging. As I slept, I begin to dream of things I’d never considered for myself in the future. I am in bed reading a children’s’ book to a tiny human, smiling as I turn the pages and see their excitement and hear the word ‘mommy’ echo as the child looks up at me. A moment passed as I reply ‘yes baby’ with a smile. I continue reading until all of a sudden - it’s dark outside and the darkness engulfs the room. Once the light returns, I’m in a white room. It’s large and empty space making it feel like a cage of white walls. I instinctively pick up pieces of crayons and write on the walls as if in a trance and begin writing my fears on e

And lately, I’ve started dreaming— of the Grail growing larger and larger— until it fills the whole sky. A sky full of silent screaming. I’m beginning to regret this. Did we open something that should never have been opened?

Caleb The sky above us is the most extraordinary thing I have ever seen. Not blue exactly. Not any single color. It shifts between shades that do not have names, moving the way the surface of water moves when light hits it from an angle, and I can look directly at it without it hurting my eyes. That is the strangest part. There is no squinting, no burning, no need to look away. Just this vast brilliant canopy above us that seems to go on forever and somehow feels like it is only for us.

"They care about the status quo. A Zeen is an asset. A Siphon is an apocalypse. Now, get down." "What are you doing?" I asked, watching as a faint, shimmering mist began to rise from the floorboards. "Saving your ungrateful lives," Nyla muttered. She reached into the folds of her cloak and pulled out a tattered, shimmering piece of fabric. It looked like woven moonlight, shifting between silver and deep violet. With a sharp flick of her wrist, she draped it over herself and me. The world didn't disappear, but it became... muffled. Like looking through a sheet of frosted glass. I looked down at my hands and gasped. I couldn't see them. I was a ghost in the room.

The hall erupted in applause. Nathan smiled from the audience, his eyes fixed only on me. The world he gave me was one that would never fade–an endless, brilliant beginning.

“Stay focused. The bloom is not just aware of us. It’s aware of the others.” The horizon trembled, and waves of light surged from the spiral fracture, rippling outward like the wake of a cosmic storm. Each wave carried fragments of memory entire lifetimes compressed into glimmering motes that scattered across the land. Some settled in people’s minds, gifting insight. Others collided, causing confusion, fear, and occasional madness.

Seeing me there, sitting in silence, not even bothering to look back, her face went ashen, her lips quivering. Jack, for his part, was past caring about her cold shoulder. His mind was racing to get her out of there. He wanted to take her back home where he could smoothly talk to her, use my aloofness to snuff out the flicker of love that was lighting up in her heart again.

The shattering of the mirrors did not bring silence; it brought a deafening, harmonic resonance that vibrated through the very marrow of Cattleya”s bones. Each shard of glass, suspended in the air by the force of the energy she had unleashed, began to rotate, spinning like a miniature, razor-edged turbine.

It shimmered in the moonlight, a celestial blend of silver and blue, like crushed stars. "What is that?" "Ground wolf bone. Moonflower petals. And a drop of my own blood." He extended his hand towards me. "Breathe it in. But be cautious. The vision it imparts will reveal your true self. And truth is not always easily perceived." Hesitantly, I leaned forward and inhaled. The world dissolved into a kaleidoscope of color.