Sara and the Book: Part II
Nov. 11th, 2009 12:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackThere are genii locorum scattered all across Cambridge. Two thousand years ago the spirit of the forest covered all England, but as the trees were slowly cleared it fractured into thousands of wavering local essences. Many of the most active lingered in Cambridge, as the shrinking island of forest spirit huddled alone in the fens, and when fleeing scholars from Oxford passed through the place they settled their to study and befriend them.
Some became invaluable allies in the study of theology and science, and vast stone seats of learning were erected round them. Others were simpler, quick, hot spots of raw emotion where markets would form and lovers would couple incautiously behind the stalls. Some were dangerous, and the hastily erected buildings served to contain them as much as to house them. One haunted some of the land north of the river, and building projects chased it north and south for centuries, and finally it was hemmed in, but as a binding structure was erected round it, it rose slowly above it, until it was eventually entrapped in a concrete tower hundreds of feet high.
One of the most virulent was surrounded on four sides by King's Hall, later combined with Michaelhouse into Trinity College. It was old and dour, with a nasty streak of humour, but the fellows of King's Hall simply ordered the existing dark underbrush hacked away and perfect green lawns laid, still there to this day.
Hundred of stones were engraved with confining runes and pressed into the ground round the edge of the lawns. College fellows and functionaries were issued personal tokens with the runes. Students and visitors were most strictly enjoined never to walk on the lawns, and porters set to run them off when they tried.
It was never clear what the genius loci thought of its new smart green lawns. On the one hand, centuries later, it still seemed bitter about losing the last remnants of its original dark forest. On the other hand, if it manifested, it seemed to take great glee in taking forms inspired by the short prickly formal grass.
Students would dare each other to run across the grass without a fellow, and a couple of minutes later the spirit would wake, and gaze threateningly at the departing figures. Curious visitors would poke at the stones and take them for mementos. Porters would run from the lodge and stare the humans away and stare the grounds into submission again.
The night I first saw Sara's lioness, the porter's lodge was dark, and one corner of the lawn had been near stripped of stones, and a line of drunken girls were taunting the grasses, when their quiescent spirit began to make a break for freedom. It gathered momentum slowly. A dark shadow began slowly coalescing out of the night air like mist drifting in slow and silent. You could barely see the shape, but it suggested a silhouette rough-cut grass and scarecrows, like a humanoid haystack against a light.
It formed slowly, hunched above the grass, and then strode quickly towards the taunting students, and reached across the weakened barrier. Sparks flew up where the wards were breached, but it pushed and held, and the students screamed and threw themselves backwards. The spirit was weak from centuries of little food, fed on mulch and compost, and no deaths bigger than earthworms since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and first it made a slow grab for the nearest food.
A dark hand swiped at the nearest girl, the grass-silhouettes sticking from the limb sharp as knives and she screamed again, a spatter of dark blood showering against the dark stones. The shape hissed and reached for the blood, which bubbled, and the limb seemed to pulse as it started to absorb the scattered bits of life.
The girls had scrambled backwards out of reach, but it was too late. The figure pressed its whole body against the broken ward, which flickered and broke. It stepped forward onto the path, and more figures began to form behind. A couple of lights flickered on behind windows, and startled faces peered out, and watched hesitantly. The girls fled back into one of the stairways, huddling against the side of the spell-warded stone corridor, except for one, who sprinted for Great Gate and the escape of the street.
I was sure someone one of the scared faces would have phoned for the porters and their protective spells, but I didn't want to see those ghostly figures stalking the college, chasing anyone setting foot outside the walls. I was about to run for the gate myself when I saw Sara standing in the shadows of the wall.
She'd been watching the older girls play, disinclined to join in, but smiling at the camaraderie, but now she looked at the figure stalking slowly out from the lawn and gave a little self satisfied smile. Years later, that smile would be famous. "You think you have me, don't you", it would say. "But you don't. Hah." But I couldn't see it then, except in a slight cast of her figure.
I thought she was frozen, and wondered if I could get her into one of the archways, but there was no need. She was holding up the big book she carried, and letting it fall open at her favourite page, and a moment later the lioness was _there_, standing next to her, and the stalking figure hesitated.
Seconds later, it was all over. The lioness bounded forward, a light streak against the night, and a swipe of her paw perforated the scarecrow's midsection, and what remained stumbled back onto the grass. The lioness sat herself down in the gap in the stones, wrapped her tail round her, and glared, and the other figures faded back into the night.
Ten minutes later the porters arrived with protective wards in their pockets and batons with yew wands hidden inside, but there was nothing to repel. They set up some temporary wards in the gap, and led Sara away for hot chocolate. The lioness faded away as they approached, but enough people had seen no-one could deny something had been there, though no-one but me had seen for sure that it came out of the book.
The lioness was the first of her companions, designed to protect and befriend whoever called it forth. I realised later she would last only as long as needed -- that was why she faded in the morning, and when people began to arrive that night. But later, Sara would need her all the time, and she would walk boldly along Trinity Street at Sara's side. Some of the other companions she would call forth would be less tractable, and have much more dangerous and arcane conditions on their service, but after that night, Sara began to bend her researches towards calling forth which ones she could.
Some became invaluable allies in the study of theology and science, and vast stone seats of learning were erected round them. Others were simpler, quick, hot spots of raw emotion where markets would form and lovers would couple incautiously behind the stalls. Some were dangerous, and the hastily erected buildings served to contain them as much as to house them. One haunted some of the land north of the river, and building projects chased it north and south for centuries, and finally it was hemmed in, but as a binding structure was erected round it, it rose slowly above it, until it was eventually entrapped in a concrete tower hundreds of feet high.
One of the most virulent was surrounded on four sides by King's Hall, later combined with Michaelhouse into Trinity College. It was old and dour, with a nasty streak of humour, but the fellows of King's Hall simply ordered the existing dark underbrush hacked away and perfect green lawns laid, still there to this day.
Hundred of stones were engraved with confining runes and pressed into the ground round the edge of the lawns. College fellows and functionaries were issued personal tokens with the runes. Students and visitors were most strictly enjoined never to walk on the lawns, and porters set to run them off when they tried.
It was never clear what the genius loci thought of its new smart green lawns. On the one hand, centuries later, it still seemed bitter about losing the last remnants of its original dark forest. On the other hand, if it manifested, it seemed to take great glee in taking forms inspired by the short prickly formal grass.
Students would dare each other to run across the grass without a fellow, and a couple of minutes later the spirit would wake, and gaze threateningly at the departing figures. Curious visitors would poke at the stones and take them for mementos. Porters would run from the lodge and stare the humans away and stare the grounds into submission again.
The night I first saw Sara's lioness, the porter's lodge was dark, and one corner of the lawn had been near stripped of stones, and a line of drunken girls were taunting the grasses, when their quiescent spirit began to make a break for freedom. It gathered momentum slowly. A dark shadow began slowly coalescing out of the night air like mist drifting in slow and silent. You could barely see the shape, but it suggested a silhouette rough-cut grass and scarecrows, like a humanoid haystack against a light.
It formed slowly, hunched above the grass, and then strode quickly towards the taunting students, and reached across the weakened barrier. Sparks flew up where the wards were breached, but it pushed and held, and the students screamed and threw themselves backwards. The spirit was weak from centuries of little food, fed on mulch and compost, and no deaths bigger than earthworms since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and first it made a slow grab for the nearest food.
A dark hand swiped at the nearest girl, the grass-silhouettes sticking from the limb sharp as knives and she screamed again, a spatter of dark blood showering against the dark stones. The shape hissed and reached for the blood, which bubbled, and the limb seemed to pulse as it started to absorb the scattered bits of life.
The girls had scrambled backwards out of reach, but it was too late. The figure pressed its whole body against the broken ward, which flickered and broke. It stepped forward onto the path, and more figures began to form behind. A couple of lights flickered on behind windows, and startled faces peered out, and watched hesitantly. The girls fled back into one of the stairways, huddling against the side of the spell-warded stone corridor, except for one, who sprinted for Great Gate and the escape of the street.
I was sure someone one of the scared faces would have phoned for the porters and their protective spells, but I didn't want to see those ghostly figures stalking the college, chasing anyone setting foot outside the walls. I was about to run for the gate myself when I saw Sara standing in the shadows of the wall.
She'd been watching the older girls play, disinclined to join in, but smiling at the camaraderie, but now she looked at the figure stalking slowly out from the lawn and gave a little self satisfied smile. Years later, that smile would be famous. "You think you have me, don't you", it would say. "But you don't. Hah." But I couldn't see it then, except in a slight cast of her figure.
I thought she was frozen, and wondered if I could get her into one of the archways, but there was no need. She was holding up the big book she carried, and letting it fall open at her favourite page, and a moment later the lioness was _there_, standing next to her, and the stalking figure hesitated.
Seconds later, it was all over. The lioness bounded forward, a light streak against the night, and a swipe of her paw perforated the scarecrow's midsection, and what remained stumbled back onto the grass. The lioness sat herself down in the gap in the stones, wrapped her tail round her, and glared, and the other figures faded back into the night.
Ten minutes later the porters arrived with protective wards in their pockets and batons with yew wands hidden inside, but there was nothing to repel. They set up some temporary wards in the gap, and led Sara away for hot chocolate. The lioness faded away as they approached, but enough people had seen no-one could deny something had been there, though no-one but me had seen for sure that it came out of the book.
The lioness was the first of her companions, designed to protect and befriend whoever called it forth. I realised later she would last only as long as needed -- that was why she faded in the morning, and when people began to arrive that night. But later, Sara would need her all the time, and she would walk boldly along Trinity Street at Sara's side. Some of the other companions she would call forth would be less tractable, and have much more dangerous and arcane conditions on their service, but after that night, Sara began to bend her researches towards calling forth which ones she could.